That voice. Nothing else sounds quite like it.

‘Like Smoke’ is the first track to come off Amy Winehouse’s posthumous album The Lioness: Hidden Treasures due out on December 5th. The Soulful throwback features Winehouse’s favourite emcee – sir Nas and was produced by long-time collaborator Salaam Remi.

Damn, we miss you girl.

The radio rip version of this dropped yesterday. We don’t roll like that. Neither do you…

I was somewhat disappointed with ‘Blue Sky’, it never grabbed me. But this, this is most certainly working. Produced by No I.D and taken off Lonnie’s upcoming new album The Dreamer/The Believer, ‘Sweet’ is a bravado ridden, cock-sure beast. Someone dun pissed Common off. Haven’t heard him like this in a minute. Need that new album.

Download: Common – ‘Sweet’

Undeniably, Frank Ocean is a fantastic songwriter. A few cuts on his mixtape will silence most naysayers (see: ‘Novacane’, ‘American Wedding’, ‘Swim Good’). But, I still feel he has a lot to prove. I’ve watched the blogs, I’ve listened to the twitterati, even had ‘heated debates’ with some homies  (you know who you are) – but I remain steadfast in my confusion as to why so many have bestowed upon this young man such a ‘messiah-like’ heralding, so early.

… And before you throw the haterade, let it be known – I think Frank Ocean has a lot of potential. His voice and some of his melodies are outstanding and quite innovative. But I’ve found him to be inconsistent – which for a new artist on his first mixtape, is (in my opinion at least) fully understandable. But then that’s not the problem; The problem isn’t him being inconsistent or needing time  to grow – the ‘issue’ is how the hype machine blinded so many into ignoring those developmental irregularities.

Case in point his newest interwebs offering – ‘Back’. Not sure whether this is an official track, a throwaway or a polished demo (written for someone else). But as I haven’t been told otherwise, I can only assume this is in fact a new Frank Ocean track. And if it is, it pretty much disproves the general ‘second-coming’ consensus. Is this not just another R&B-Pop ballad? Chris Brown, Trey Songz or any other mainstream R&B singer could have released this – I don’t hear anything innovative or forward thinking about it. And of course, one could argue that this is just one song of many – but unfortunately this symbolises the majority, as opposed to the minority when reviewing Ocean’s catalogue.

Am I going to burn in bloggers hell? Possibly.

Nonetheless, I maintain – I do hear potential in this dude. And I am genuinely interested to see how he develops. If he progresses the way I hope he does – it should be an interesting journey. I just hope his eyes aren’t too fixed on those charts.

Oi, Robin got his groove back.

‘Love After War’ renewed my interest in Thicke – his last couple albums were disapointing, especially in context of The Evolution of Robin Thicke, which was super junior spesh (recently reloaded said LP – still bumps). This new jam, ‘Pretty Lil’ Thing’ which reunites Robin with Lil’ Wayne has furthered my anticipation for the new album. Thicke is delivering some smooth, swagged out vocal melody – he’s back on his grown man steeze.

Love After War is due out December 6th. So far, so good.

Here it is. Arguably one of the smartest musical collaborations of the year. Win win.

The Weeknd, still fully fresh-faced to the game, has been given the mammoth task of remixing a track by one of the biggest Pop artists in the world. And if anyone could make a Gaga sound introverted, dark, moody and sexy-as-f*ck – it’d have to be this dude. This version will appear on Lady Gaga’s forthcoming Born This Way The Remix album (Nov 21st).

Gaga, dump the toilet-bowl euro-Po(o)p fam. Rock this.

Latest offering from duo The Shining. The duo (Morgan Zarate + Acyde) are keeping their current project under the radar but trust me  – it is coming and when it does, it’s going to pop off. If you missed their recent stint in the Boiler Room (killing the dance), you can get familiar with their steez here, a dope 45′s mix. They both roll musically deep, so I can’t wait to hear more from them. ‘Hey You’ is set to drop later this month

Just got back from the ol’ 9-5 and been wanting to share this all day, Shlohmo’s second set of visuals off the Bad Vibes long player (which the PB team has been heavily down with). This pretty dark vid takes you into a forest… Well, drags you into a forest to be exact, which essentially works with the albums feel. Just watch…

‘Tol’ you so’ archival purposes.

… In a few years. Watch this kid.

Not late on sh*t by the way; this young lyricist lives in our neighbourhood and he dropped his debut tape a few weeks ago so we’re gonna refresh heads for a minute, especially after it’s lead single ‘Slondon’ went on to be played via Giles Peterson’s show – monumental recognition right there.

What I’m hearing in Nate (and recently another affiliated group named Piff Gang) is a re-energized take on how a Brit-Hop underground rap entity walks, talks, self-packages and swags itself out. They appear to represent and are bore of the culturally savvy generation we’ve seen our US counterparts have their Cudi’s, Kendrick’s and Krit’s emerge from. Now slowly but surely, it’s happening on our shores.

Some wonderfully chill records on here, particularly ‘Slondon’ and ‘City Lights’ featuring lovely local Ms. Merrick and across the 17 tracks Nate veers between his smooth sh*t, scene sh*t, roadman sh*t and uni grad sh*t personas. There’s a candidness in the lyricism that’s always undeniably British but at the same time it’s unafraid to digress from the banality of cold, dark council estate-ism that’s often been the snooze-button downfall of UK underground. The tone here is often more forward-thinking and when underpinned with a succession of Jay Dee’esque currents you know it’s made to be more than just sermonic, but actual vibes.

Send that next tape up when it’s ready kid. We’re liking this one.

A nameless homie of mine gave me played me this track a while ago, I have been pretty obsessed with it ever since. It wasn’t online, so I wasn’t able to share with you but now the official video has dropped for all to enjoy. The video is simple, 80′s sci-fi – but the track is where it’s at. Cooly G is the baddest chick out there – don’t forget it.

New video from Joker, who’s debut album The Vision is out now.

A new Common track surfaced today, it’s fiyah. Why haven’t I posted it? The track is too big for a shitty radio rip. We don’t fuxx with that much, neither do should you. But, while we wait for the crispy 320, enjoy this – a quick video from behind the scenes of Lonnie’s photoshoot for his new album The Dreamer… The Believer. Yep, he’s that guy.

A totally politically correct collaboration between the Radiohead dignitaries and the metal face villain. Samples from Greenwood’s score for (my favourite movie) of 2007, There Will Be Blood. Handicap gunfingers.

Released in celebration of the cult Lex Records tenth anniversary. Apparently the label will be dropping a new streamed track every week for the next ten.

Mary J. Blige looking every bit the superstar performed an acoustic version of ‘Need Someone To Love You’ on Later with Jools Holland. It’s not often we get to see Blige by a piano with just a mic – this stripped back, tender version was something I’d love to see more of.

Here goes the second leak off Onra’s forthcoming Chinoiseries Pt.2 album, due out on November 15th. Like everything on the album, the backbone of this track was found during a crate digging mission Onra embarked on in China & Vietnam.

Download: Onra – ‘No Matter What’