Kanye West – The College Dropout (Original version)

Before what we have as today’s The College Dropout, an advanced addition with material that was intended to be released had been leaked. As a result of this Kanye decided to pull the plug on that version of the album (and rightly so). He also changed his flow and voice in to the voice we know today.  Some of these songs were therefore released via mixtapes years later while in the vault and some were given to other artists. My Way for example, was given to Jay-Z but its certainly interesting to hear Kanye’s take on the song. Keep The Receipt, with Ol’ Dirty Bastard of all people, is certainly a left field inclusion, something that we would probably not hear Kanye do again due to its commercial sound.

Also please note some of these tracks are on various mixtapes released over the years but they haven’t really been complied into a collection of tracks that were genuinely intended for official release.

01 Intro
02 All Falls Down (feat. Lauryn Hill)
03 Jesus Walks (Intro)
04 Jesus Walks
05 Two Words (feat. Mos Def & Floetry)
06 The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (feat. Consequence)
07 The New Workout Plan
08 Keep The Receipt (feat. Dirt McGirt aka Ol’ Dirty Bastard)
09 Heavy Hitters
10 Slow Jamz (feat. Jamie Foxx & Twista)
11 My Way
12 Family Affair
13 Through The Wire
14 Never Let Me Down (feat. Jay-Z & Saul Williams)
15 Home (feat. John Legend)

Once again lets thank the bootleggers for a moment for leaking this otherwise we wouldn’t have had the classic we have today, but it’s definitely an interesting listen I guess…

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DropxLife. – Furthur (Mixtape)

The Weeknd’s resident XO producer drops of a new beat tape.

Also check out his previous release “Pawncho”.

1 – NuerxOld
2 – StillxShots
3 – BexForever

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Clams Casino – Instrumentals (Album) (Mastered)

Clams Casino is a New England producer who’s made beats for the likes of Lil B and Soulja Boy. He’s also released records on UK imprint Tri Angle, and now with the official release of his first mixtape, John Twells’ ambient/experimental institution Type. These might seem like incongruous facts, but one listen to Instrumentals—first released as a free download by the producer himself earlier this year—should put any confusion to rest. Instrumentals is a collection of aching, blown-out paeans to wonder, sadness and profound joy—music that any of the above could fall in love with.

Clams’ production style is distinct, taking sizable chunks from random source material and flattening them out into sheets of grainy, distorted melody. It’s an effect that renders the smallest movements in orchestral grandeur, the aural equivalent of Instagram. Piano chords turn into gauzy splotches (“What You Doin”), vocals are stretched out into savant-opera (“Realist Alive”). You can hear it all come together right from the beginning, in one of the most memorable opening tracks of any album this year: orchestral passages and shrieking synths intertwine between heaving drums in “Motivation” for something that sounds more suited to film credits than Lil B’s druggy drawl.

He isn’t just an awestruck stargazer, however, and some of Instrumentalssuccessfully caters to a more traditional hip-hop vibe. The second half of the album plays with bouncy basslines (“She’s Hot”), dubstep-influenced low-end grind (“Brainwash by London”) and Kanye-style vocal looping (“Cold War”). In short,Instrumentals reveals a budding talent with a signature sound that’s determinedly DIY but unusually mature. His instrumentals are dense enough to survive naked without verses, and belong on legendary avant-garde labels just as much as dodgy-looking hip-hop mixtape websites.

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The Weeknd x Michael Jackson – Dirty Diana (D.D.) (Mashup remix)

The Weeknd x Michael Jackson – Dirty Diana (A JAYBeatz Mashup)

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Smoke DZA – Sweet Baby Kushed God EP (Mixtape)

DZA drops of a festive mixtape to grace our ears this holiday, peep the tracklist below. The Flying Lotus track should be enough to warrant a download…

1. Smokey Klause (Prod. By 183rd & Kenny Beats)
2. Christmas In The Trap (Prod. By 183rd)
3. SWV feat. Domo Genesis & Mookie Jones (Prod. By Lex Luger)
4. What’s Goodie (Prod. By 183rd & Maki)
5. 4 Loko Remix feat. A$AP Rocky, A$AP Twelvy, Danny Brown, Killa Kyleon & Freeway (Prod. By 183rd)
6. Big Bad & Dangerous feat. Action Bronson (Prod. By 183rd)
7. Bout That Life (Prod. By Maki & 183rd)
8. Money Down feat. P-IC (Prod. By A-Foe)
9. Dear Winter (Prod. By Flying Lotus)

I put this gift together for you guys, with no promotion because a gift wouldnt be a good gift if  it wasnt a surprise. download this, light ya christmas tree and enjoy #Rrrright -  DZA

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Frank Ocean – Girlfriend’s Best Friend (OFFICIAL Version)

An un-mastered version of this leaked a couple weeks back but here we are with the official version from the Odd Future singer.

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The Sound Search’s Top 25 Albums of The Year

It’s been a big year for music, where we had massive releases from Lil Wayne, Drake, a joint album between Kanye and Jay-Z and a number of new artists releasing their debuts this year from J. Cole to Kendrick Lamar to Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller.

Funnily enough the best album(s) of the year are free releases and in fact I found my top 25 had a lot of mixtapes so it really shows rappers stepping up their mixtape game this year.

The list will also include my favourite track of the album.

So read more for the full list:

The Weeknd – Host/Initiation (MIX)

Just listen…

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The Weeknd – Echoes of Silence (Chopped & Screwed)

Chopped & Screwed in record time, this is timeless music.

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The Weeknd – Echoes of Silence (Album)

It’s here.

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