DOWNLOAD: Suit Up! – Spekulation

Click album cover to download.

Suit Up! is a shiny new collection of beats by Spekulation. Normally heavy on live instrumentation and emotive MC’ing, this one is all drum machine, samples and synth. A prelude to the next album by the musically inclined Spek.

Downloads

DOWNLOAD: Spekulation – Spekulation

Click album cover to D/L.

This brief 5-track self-titled EP from Spekulation is sneaky-good. The compositions are the mark of an MC and collaborator (Nate Omdal) not content on building simple boom-bap just for the sake of delivering bars, but an honest attempt at combining unexpected musical constituents.

The previously-released single, “Something is Happening Here,” successfully combines a Bob Dylan sample (“Ballad of a Thin Man”) with driving hip-hop rhythm, and “Inception” finds Spek rhyming like his life depends on it over a Celtic-inspired backing track. Get the EP for free below or throw some cash the artists’ way, too.

Downloads

DOWNLOAD: “Something is Happening Here” – Spekulation

Click image to D/L.

There actually is something going on here. It’s a remarkable alchemy between the rugged flow of area MC Spekulation and legendary folk-ster Bob Dylan. Here, Spek interpolates Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man” into rapped commentary on today’s multimedia-consumed culture. I think Robert himself would be please with the results.

Spekulation showed us his knack for crafty mash-ups (actually, call them “virtual collaborations”) on the previously released Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em (get it here), a reworking of Jay-Z vocal tracks with new, original backing by The Jason Parker Quartet.

Watch for Spek’s self-titled EP dropping on 1.10.12.

Downloads

DOWNLOAD: Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em – Jay-Z feat. Spekulation & The Jason Parker Quartet

#LatePass. I overlooked this drop admittedly because it appeared to be yet another Jay-Z mash-up. But after some light email prodding by Spekulation (the homie responsible) and after reading a couple other local writers’ opinions (which I hold in high esteem), I finally listened last night.

Can’t say much that hasn’t already been said, so I’ll just relay the same: Spek’s production value and attention to detail are on point, right down to the album’s intro that samples Hov joking with the crowd on his Unplugged album. And now the local jazz musicians responsible for the sonic backdrop, The Jason Parker Quartet, have a nice hip-hop feather in their cap.

If you’re on the fence about downloading this, I’ll make the decision  easy for you: do it.

Downloads

206UP.COM’s The TrackMeet (1.28.11)

You know what it is. Click. Listen. Vote. Easy.

Congratulations to last week’s TrackMeet winner, A Day And A Wakeup, with their track “Lock It Down, Sew it Up.” The voting process was a tad dubious to say the least. If this were 2000, cats might be suing for fraud. (“Hanging Cookies,” anyone?) Oh well, all’s fair in love and hip-hop, right?

This week’s distinguished candidates:

LANE 1: “Last MC” – Swift Tongues f/Mind Block

Press Play to listen to “Last MC” by Swift Tongues feat. Mind Block. Here’s the D/L.

LANE 2: “What Do You Do?” – Spekulation f/Michele Khazak

Press Play to listen to “What Do You Do?” by Spekulation f/Michele Khazak. Click here to get Spekulation’s free EP, The Depression Era.

LANE 3: “Got It Like That” – 88.206 f/JDiGs

Press Play to hear “Got It Like That” by 88.206 f/JDiGs. Click here to download 88’s Young Hearts: The Lifestyle mixtape.

Downloads The TrackMeet