A new demo tape featuring rare and unreleased productions from Kanye West dating as far back as 2001 has surfaced online. Unofficially titled The Prerequisite the 15-track tape features demo versions of classic songs like ‘All Falls Down’ & ‘Bring Me Down’, as well as previously unreleased material – some of the which pre-date West’s landscape shifting, Grammy Award winning debut The College Dropout. Download below.

Download: Kanye West – The Prerequisite

via Potholes

Raider Klan’s Chris Travis quietly released a new 11-track EP this week called Side Effects. The tape is a sprawling journey through some of the haziest, trippiest beats courtesy of the likes of grandmaster SpaceGhostPurrp, AraabMuzik, Eric Dingus and SavaageBeatz, over which Travis laces some codine-induced verses (some coherent, others not so). SGP’s atmospheric aesthetic on ‘Diamonds Pt 2′ epitomises the ideology of what this movement is all about – if lean had a sound this would be it. Viiiiibesy.

‘Diamonds Pt 2′ is definitely the standout track on Side Effects but cop it below (free), there’s more on there to sip to.

Download: Chris Travis – Side Effects EP

New York rapper Le1f has returned with a new 13-track mixtape entitled Fly Zone featuring guest appearances from the likes of Haleek Maul and Kitty (Pryde). Fly Zone features the type of cut-throat fierceness we’ve come to expect from Le1f and as such sees him expressing his thoughts and opinions no holds barred. Listen / download below.

Following the release of Full Crate’s critically acclaimed Golden Glasses and Mar’s celebrated Seeing Her Naked project, the pair have reunited and are preparing to release the long-awaited follow up to their now cult-classic Conversations With Her EP. Having both successfully explored new musical grounds with their solo works they’ve (naturally) returned with a new energy and direction. Moving away from the soulful sound that first introduced us to them on their debut, producer Full Crate extends his electronic influences (see: Golden Glasses) but this time moulds it perfectly around Mar’s distinctive vocals (albeit pitched-down). Enjoy the weekend…

Jillian Hervey and Lucas Goodman are together known as Lion Babe, an emerging NYC outfit who recently released their debut single ‘Treat Me Like Fire’. The single offers a dark, scratchy production and provides a good space for lead single Jillian to express herself. She seems inspired by Erykah Badu’s New Amerykah: Part 1 (in my opinion, at least) and while vocally I do still need some convincing, I think the juncture she’s arrived at here could be pretty interesting moving forward.

Having released one of our favourite albums of 2012 singer Rochelle Jordan starts the new year with a new and typically stellar record. Covering Lil’ Wayne & Drake’s ‘She Will’, now re-titled ’Impossible’, Jordan applies an intuitive melody and transforms the original into a sensual new structure.

… For our U.S readers, make sure you check Rochelle Jordan on tour with our homegirl Jessie Ware – see dates here.

Most bands get non-members to remix their work, but when Jamie Smith is in your group – i guess the rules kind of change. To celebrate the birth of the new year The xx gift the world with a free remix of ‘Sunset’ taken off their #1 selling album Co-exist. Smith never seems to struggle when breathing new life into an already existing song and of course this new version of ‘Sunset’ is no exception. Download available for the next 72 hours via iTunes.

Bago’s ‘Dr. Lock’ made quite the first impression; It allowed us (for the first time in a long time) to imagine the possibilities of a legitimate Neo-Soul resurrection. Granted that may sound a little far fetched but listen to the way she layers her harmonies, constructs her melodies and digitises her adlibs, that sh*t is traceable to Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun (see: ‘Penitentiary Philosophy’). Her sharp edged voice and songwriting style also recalls a little Frank-era Amy Winehouse, which here spills into trip-hoppier Jazz and Blues. Plus the Alexander Spit production that’s mused over blends the cultured ethos of her generation (the same way neoteric Soul catalysts did back in the 90′s). It’s been a long time since someone approached this sector of music with such attitude, expression and foresight, but Bago’s mindset seems genuinely inspired – she’s found an absorbing way to incorporate formative influences with dark and cloudy, spatially aware production.

Download: Bago – Sunday’s Best (Mixtape)

(Premiered via Complex)

A broody, almost Portishead-vibing slow jam from producer Warren Xclnce, featuring fellow Brit singer/songwriter Etta Bond – herself no stranger to making trippy erotica – we pretty much fired off our first 22Tracks earlier this year with ‘Come Over’ in the final list. Here the North London producer’s guitar swirls as frozen chords stab the dark over anesthetized boom claps, crossing the divide between jazzy Dilla-off-shoot swing, Geoff Barrow noir and narcotic R&B. Bond’s songwriting I always find quite commanding; she fans herself under Xclnce’s ventilated production with a spidery melody, that creeps and crawls across the beat spinning a web of inviting rhetoric. If this track was a cloud of second-hand smoke, it would be exiting a gun. Great record, psychological, sensual and a bit dangerous.

‘Examine Me’ is from a forthcoming Warren Xclnce EP of other druggy joints like the Jill Scott interpolating ‘Freedom’, as Etta Bond’s Emergency Room LP with Raf Riley that bore sensationalist fun ‘Boring Bitches’ is out now to download free here.

After our introduction of Azekel back in March, it appears he’s making headway by fine tuning his experimental approach to post-modernised classic R&B (bar that odd dubstep-pop misstep). Nearly as enticing as his first single ‘Stuck’, ‘That Feeling’ shifts gear but doesn’t reinvent the wheel, nor does it need to in being a simple, sweet ditty. Whereas someone like a Frankie O, for example, may utter “and the peaches and the mangoes, you could sell for me”, East London-bred Azekel asks “can I have another portion of you with medium fries?” It would come across as anything but ham-fisted were it not for the saving grace of British cheek, schoolboy charm and a dulcet hook.