Benz and a Backpack

Ricky Shabazz & the Boom Bap Boys and Juan Deuce present No Sweat. After the major success of his collaborative tape with Falside for The Mechanics EP, Juan recruited a team of slick producers to craft the music on No Sweat: Falside, J57 and Audible Doctor (of The Brown Bag All-Stars), The Doppelgangaz, Fonzi Wells, pJAYd, Fakts One (The Perceptionists), and ACB. Juan flexes over the diverse production, showcasing his growing lyrical muscles with a little help from fellow New Englanders Jon Hope, Romen Rok, and Dj Emoh Betta. Stream, download, share and enjoy! Note: Physical copies of No Sweat and Sweat Band Bundles will be available for purchase via Strange Famous Records later this month.

Tracklist after the skip!
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The Providence-based emcee finally has some visuals for this track off the Something Kind of Wonderful EP.

Jon Hope on Myspace.

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Shouts to clutchone and andyd who are currently on their way to Cuba (yup, you read that correctly). We’re hoping President Obama can continue on the road he inched down earlier this year and dismantle the embargo, because frankly it’s ineffective and extraterritorial (and we want to visit Havana for some Sinatra-style partying).

Top to bottom, every track is good. Let’s kick off the week correctly:

J. Cole – Back To The Topic Freestyle
Filling out his buzz, J. Cole captures the tension that behind realizing when you succumb to hip hop’s evils, but allowing it to happen nonetheless. His production is always on point, and lyrically he’s always relevant.

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Trek Life – As The World Turns (prod. 9th Wonder) [unofficial]
Off Transmitting Live Volume 1 (cop the whole mixtape at PotHolesInMyBlog), Trek Life goes in over some classic 9th Wonder production.

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Raekwon ft. Ghostface Killah and Cappadonna – 10 Bricks
Raekwon continues to hype up Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II, this time with the immortal Ghostdini.

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Sene – PaperPlanePushers (prod. Blu a.k.a. GODleeBarnes)
The production on this track is from Blu, who recently dropped an EP of the instrumentals from his upcoming project No Sleep For A Day. Again, a dope track from Transmitting Live Volume 1.

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Drake ft. Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Eminem – Forever
You can bet Drake’s Forever is gonna be a HIT despite the lackluster performance by Wayne. Kanye was up to par, while Drake was better and Em was the best.

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Element – Cruise Control
Another high-quality track from Toronto-bred emcee Element.

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A relative oldie from the Rhode Island-based emcee Jon Hope and producer Taktix. The duo did well with this one.

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