Hump Day Hip-Hop

This week we’re celebrating Nujabes, the man, the myth, the legend himself. Nujabes was a brotha that was taken from the musical world far too early. The guy just had that raw talent, and that innate ability to craft soundscapes that you could vibe out to for days. Its always a shame when the good die young, but it makes it even worse knowing that we’ll never be able to hear anything new from someone who was so talented.

Nujabes worked with a variety of different underground emcees throughout his career, and was characterized by his ability to fuse jazz elements with those classic, old-school hip-hop vibes. Nujabes provided the perfect laid back and mellow soundscapes, with an atmospheric and almost nostalgic tinge to them, that in turn allowed talented wordsmiths like Shing02, Substantial, and Cise Starr spit intelligent verses over them. So if you’re into just all around good hip-hop lyricism and production, and want to just vibe out and groove to some smooth jams, go ahead and light up some herb, and give these tracks a listen.

“Lady Brown (Feat. Cise Starr)”

“Think Different (Feat. Substantial)”

“Luv (sic.) pt3 (Feat. Shing02)”

“Eclipse (Feat. Substantial)”

“Ordinary Joe (Feat. Terry Callier)”

“The Sign (Feat. Pase Rock)”

“Next View (Feat. Uyama Hiroto)”

I could have easily gone on forever posting tracks, but I feel like seven is already borderline too much for one post, so I’ll stop (If you haven’t noticed already, brevity isn’t one of my strengths). I tried to provide a nice range of tracks, but needless to say, if you dig these jams as much as I do, you should definitely check out the rest of his work.