If It's Too Loud...

Saigon and Fredro have the upcoming The Jordan Era project, which is a love letter to hip hop during 1986 to 1996. For their latest single, "Get Loose," they enlisted hip hop legend Pete Rock. Pete Rock doesn't do many verses these days, so any time he shows up on a song it is automatically a huge deal. Plus, "Get Loose" sounds like it was released in the early 90's. It's going to remind you of classic artists like A Tribe Called Quest and Eric B & Rakim. It's nostalgic for my personal favorite period of hip hop, and they even teamed with one of the most celebrated (yet still somehow underrated) MCs of the period. Saigon says of the new single: “I’ve always thought Pete was a dope rapper since 'The Creator,' so I took the opportunity to get him to step away from behind the boards; where he is most comfortable, and 'Get Loose' with me. With all of the negativity in Hip-Hop, and the world, I just wanted to create something fun with ...

The latest single from the collaborative album from Skyzoo and Pete Rock might be the most satisfying throwback of all time. It's a brand new song, but it just feels like 1990. "Eastern Conference All-Stars" is the ultimate laid back posse cut. It obviously features Skyzoo, but also verses by Westside Gunn, Conway, Benny The Butcher, and Elzhi. These kind of songs dominated most of the hip hop I listened to in high school, and "Eastern Conference All-Stars" pushes my nostalgia button perfectly. Skyzoo says about the song: “When putting together Retropolitan, one of the first ideas I had was to put together the ultimate posse cut, with everyone who’s on the record being who I always had in mind.  Something in the vein of DMX’s ‘Ni**az Done Started Something, JAY-Z’s Reservoir Dogs, LL's 4,3,2,1, etc.  I broke the idea down to Pete, and he immediately played this beat. Pete knew exactly what would work for us to go bar crazy. When you put five top-tier lyr...

While younger artists working with their musical heroes has been common in the past decade or so for rock and folk artists, there hasn't been much in the world of hip hop. Skyzoo is changing that by working with the legendary Pete Rock on a collaborative album. I'm not that familiar with Skyzoo, but Pete Rock's work with C.L. Smooth helped soundtrack my teenage years. Their first single together is out, and "It's All Good" is, quite simply, great. It doesn't hurt that the beat for "It's All Good" comes from Rock's secret stash and is from around the time (1994) that Rock was working on Nas's beyond classic Illmatic.  Skyzoo has this to say about the album: “The idea for  Retropolitan  came from a feeling of necessity. The album is both a love letter and a wake up call to the city of New York. In an age where hype dominates reality, FOMO supersedes integrity and gentrification has supplanted tradition, this album is screaming for...