Part of Killer Mike’s Grindtime crew, Pill has created a national buzz for his 4180 mixtape with DJ Burnone over the past few months. Fans can expect more from the west side MC on Killer Mike’s forthcoming Underground Atlanta project. Mixtape artwork and download link after the jump
Fresh off her appearance on Timbaland’s massive hit “The Way I Are,” Keri Hilson’s debut album was originally slotted for a mid-2008 release. But three videos, massive publicity and multiple delays later, the album still shows no signs of coming out.
Though release-date bumps are common — especially in today’s increasingly hostile sales environment — Hilson’s story is a noteworthy one. Many believed she was poised to be Atlanta’s next R&B superstar. She still could be, but further delays of her CD, In a Perfect World…, could irrevocably damage her career.
“They should have put her album out last year,” says Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, executive editor of influential music magazine the Fader. “It just keeps getting pushed back and pushed back. It’s possible she’ll just get lost.”
Hilson herself grows defensive when asked if she’s concerned about her album’s status.
“Absolutely not, absolutely not,” she said in a late January phone interview. “I’m not worried. Timbaland is completely not worried. Polow’s not worried. It’s not a bad thing. It’s not a bad thing.”
Back in ’06, when NY hip-hop critics began hailing the arrival of Atlanta-based rapper Young Jeezy, it left a lot of southern rap aficionados a little mystified. It wasn’t so much that we weren’t feeling Jeezy’s trap-or-die flow, we just didn’t expect those East Coast hip-hop snobs to jump on the Snowman’s jock so quick.
Well, looks like it’s about to snow again. Another Atlanta trap-rapper OJ da Juiceman (coincidentally affiliated with one-time Jeezy rival, Gucci Mane) has been creating quite a buzz with such mixtapes as Culinary Art School and I Got the Juice. And Fader, for one, has taken notice. The music mag typically favors alternative progressives (Kanye West and No Age cover reversible sides of its December issue — argue amongst yourselves), so the interest in OJ is suspect.
Call me a paranoid Southerner, but their praise of the artist seems like a joke everyone is in on but da Juiceman, himself.
You make the call. Check out the video interview above that Fader filmed over lunch with OJ in NY.
