[Mixtape] J. Cole: "The Revenge of the Dreamers"

J. Cole easily made one of the albums of the year in his 2013 release, Born Sinner which brought few accolades but made up for the slight disappointment of his debut studio project, Cole World: The Sideline Story. It seems as though Cole is already back on his grind, as he celebrated his 29th birthday yesterday with the release of a fresh new project, The Revenge of the Nerds. The release of the project also coincided with Cole's announcement of a partnership between his Dreamville imprint and Interscope, which seems to have championed the artist-turned-label-head situation. The release, similar to t9th Wonder's JAMLA Is The Squad project which also dropped last night, is a sort of sampler platter for the artists workign with Cole on Dreamville, including the endlessly talented Omen and Bas.

It's interesting that Cole went the Interscope route, having just had one of the craziest concert experiences last night at Madison Square Garden where Kendrick, fresh off the Grammys, showed up to perform "Forbidden Fruit", "Backseat Freestyle" and "m.A.A.d. City" before turning to the crowd to say, ""[Cole] is one of the first cats to welcome me with open arms in this music business when I ain't know sh-- about it," he said. "So believe that, this is not no regular rapper friendship, this is my f---ing brother right here, J. Cole." Jay Z joined him onstage for "PSA" before handing him his original Roc-A-Fella Jesus piece and performing "FuckwithmeyouknowIgotit". As if that wasn't enough, Cole ended the concert by performing songs off The Revenge of The Dreamers, of which he had just showered the crowd with hard copies. Not a bad birthday, but what's he going to do for the big 3-0?

Full stream/download below with a video of J.Cole's gift from HOV below.

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by Jake Krzeczowski

[Mixtape] Tink: "Winter’s Diary 2: Forever Yours"

It has been cold out here in Chicago as of late. Somewhere in the midst of the sub-zero chill, buckets of snow and freezing rain, south side native Tink managed to drop her latest project, the aptly-named, Winter's Diary 2: Forever Yours. The follow-up to 2012s Winter's Diary is headed by the lead single, "Treat Me Like Somebody" and acts as a collection of diary entry-like meanderings on life stuck indoors praying for Spring. Tink has managed to climb her way up the ever-growing hierarchy in the local Chicago hip-hop scene over the past couple of years and was recently profiled in World Star Hip-Hop's documentary on the Chicago scene, The Field. Check out the latest from Tink, available below for stream or download.

by Jake Krzeczowski

[Mixtape] K.M. Tha Original: "Better Later Than Never"

The latest from Chicago hip-hop artist K.M. Tha Original is a multi-layered intrinsically complete album that comes stocked with a thematic concept, well-thought lyrics and features from around his hometown to match. K.M. does his thing both spitting verses and singing hooks, occasionally dipping into the Drake side of things, crooning in the middle of bars and seamlessly managing both well. If you haven't downloaded anything new from the Windy City, K.M. is definitely worth a couple gigs of memory on your Macbook. Check out Better Late Than Never below:

by Jake Krzeczowski