It’s always good to see some music,
that was a little bit ahead of its time,
get its just due later on.
Such is the case w/ Maryland producer,
DJ RODDYROD (of the group Maspyke & the Low Budget Crew)
& his much underrated & still largely unheard
instrumental opus, Oakwood Grain.
Originally released in 2005 through Jazzy Sport -
the album was only released in Japan
& never officially distributed much outside of the country,
but it still remains one of the best offerings
in the instrumental hip-hop genre
that came out before the current “post-Donuts” beat CD craze.

And now, six years later -
not only is the album seeing a proper US release
thanks to Nature Sounds,
but its also coming packaged along with an all new follow-up album,
simply titled Oakwood Grain II.
Although the double CD is not due for to drop until February 28th of 2012,
RODDY decided to release it digitally this week for the fans,
as he explained:

“Everyone’s been hitting me up, asking when it’s coming… [so] I wanted to give them something for the holidays.”

The digital version, dubbed the Solid English Oak Edition,
contains 10 mostly new & unheard joints,
as well as a few unreleased classics, i.e. the instrumental to
Maspyke’s “Lightly Anxious” from their underappreciated Static 2005 album.
The album also one features one new vocal track,
which Rod had given FRSH SLCTS an exclusive free download.

“Keep Transit” features three guest talents,
all of which we’ve heard from all too rarely this year -
the seldom heard & often missed Detroit veteran Finale returns to the raps,
while both Muhsinah and Bilal Salaam share vocal duties -
all coming together to bring us that classic Midwest hip-hop meets DMV soul sound
that we’ve all missed this past few years.

Also, included below, as a bonus video
is Roddy’s interview/behind-the-scenes clip for the The Ghostface Beat Tape -
an upcoming beat compilation from Digital Hustle/Digital Fresh TV
that featuring some of the DMV’s best producers
paying tribute to the production tastes of the Wallabee Champ himself.
In the clip, you get to see Rod live in his studio
chopping up some tracks from both Buju Banton and D’Angelo
(as he did on the Vudu.For.U EP),
& also discussing his favorite Ghostface tracks
& talks of a possible Maspyke reunion + other upcoming projects.

You can check that,
stream the whole digital version of OWGII
+ watch an exclusive clip of RODDY digging in South Africa
w/ his buddy J-Live -
all before getting your free single of “Free Transit”
or copping the album below.

Always one to keep his loyal following’s appetites well fed, Daru is back with yet another exclusive promo download. This time its a sampler he’s calling Rusic Leaks – made up of different odds & ends including unreleased remixes, collaborations & demos. Along with his different duo counterparts (Ab, Reggie B and Rena), the collection also features new works with Muhsinah, Joy Jones, Reign Star w/ Tony Ozier, Byron The Aquarius, and more.

Rusic Leaks serves as a preview of things to come, as Daru will be dropping the 2009 edition of his Spirit & Soul Sampler series later on this year. Its almost meant to hold fans over while Daru is on tour in Europe all summer – first with Idle Warship (Talib Kweli, Res & Graph Nobel) and then later with Black Milk. So be sure to check his page to see if he’ll be playing in your area.

You can preview three highlights before downloading the full set below. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

As promised last week, here’s a more in-depth listen to the upcoming project from Finale, T.I.M.E.. The album will be released in the coming months through Japanese label, River City Media as well as sold at upcoming Finale shows on tour. To go along with the previous links, included in the post cast below are the majority of the rest of the album tracks, as well as some added collaborations thrown in for good measure.

All of this is meant to serve as a reminder that Finale’s debut solo album, A Pipe Dream And A Promise, is in stores today. The album features production from Dilla, Waajeed, Black Milk, Flying Lotus, TaRaach, Nottz, Oddisee, Kev Brown, Khrysis, M-Phazes, Apollo Brown, Slimkat78, Dimlite, and Vaughan T (Lab Techs), as well as appearances from Invincible and MonicaBlaire. In my personal opinion, A Pipe Dream is one of the most well thought-out and consistent rap albums to come out for a minute – so be sure to support that.

You can check the podcast tracklisting below, before either downloading or streaming it at the bottom of the post. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Photo courtesy of Erik V. Stephens for Crush Media Group, LLC.

1. Finale – Mr. Cooper (prod. Knxwledge)
2. Finale – Saturday (prod. Slimkat78)
3. Finale – No More Mr. Nice Guy (prod. House Shoes)
4. Ghost – It’s All Love (Remix) (feat. Finale)
5. Finale – Bad Newz (prod. Knxwledge)
6. Finale – Patience (prod. Knxwledge)
7. Finale – Bang Bang (prod. Apollo Brown)
8. Finale feat. Donwill & Hassaan Mackey – Pick Up The Pieces (prod. Muhsinah)
9. Donwill feat. Finale, Fresh Daily & Che Grand – Life’s Pie (prod. Oddisee)
10. Finale – Life Goes On (prod. Djimon)
11. Mosel feat. Quelle & Finale – Late Night Shift (prod. Mosel)
12. Finale feat. Asylum 7 & Magestik Legend – Stress (prod. Dela)

New music from Muhsinah off of her upcoming album, The Oscillations: Triangle, dropping this April. The song, “From Here,” shows Muhsinah continuing to come into her own sound with a track that has a little bit more knock to it than you might be expecting from her.

To go along with it, I’ve also got a bonus download of “In Need Of,” her collaboration with Finnish producer, Marks, from the Red Bull Music Academy‘s Various Assets – Not For Sale: Toronto 2007 compilation.

You can find free downloads of both tracks below. Also, be sure to check out her MySpace page for her upcoming tour dates in both the U.S. & Europe.

UPDATE: Just added a stream of “That Day,” produced by Oddisee, which is also from Triangle. Peace to both MOOVMNT and Brown Sugar for that one.

Artwork by Anna-Lina Balke

Today marks the debut of my new podcast, simply titled Fresh Selects Radio. Even though this is the first episode, it feels like the second in a way, because its more or less a follow-up to the Loose Joints mixtape I put together last fall. Just like that, its a collection showcasing both new and unreleased tracks from some of my favorite artists, some projects I’ll be working on in the near future, artists you should be on the lookout for, and more. I’ve also thrown in a few tracks that have been previously been posted on the site that you might’ve missed. But unlike the Loose Joints .zip, this podcast is one single track, which freed me up and allowed me to include some super-exclusives that I know I couldn’t post as individual downloads.

Originally, I was going to host the podcast like a radio show – but instead I decided to let the music speak for itself. If you feel like it sounds unfinished, I left the instrumental interludes I was going to talk over in the mix, so feel free to fill in the blanks yourself. However, if people get on some bullshit and rip some of the exclusives from the mix and re-post them as downloads on other sites, then next time out I’ll have to talk all over all the good shit – so just behave yourselves & act right and I’ll be able to keep bringing you the latest & greatest without any problems.

I might still write up some liner notes to go along with the tracks, but it might be a while. We’ll see what the feedback & response is like first (*cough*leaveacomment!*cough) and then take it from there. So yeah, lemme know what you think. In the meantime, the tracklisting with the artists’ MySpace links is listed here and then you can download or stream the mix below.


1. DaveNotti – FSR Intro (Thrilla Music Group)
2. Blu – Say Say (CD-R)
3. Finale feat. Invincible – The Waiting Game (prod. Khrysis) (iM/Universal)
4. Waajeed – Fat Bottom Girls (Bling47)
5. Konphlict – Socialize (prod. TaRaach) (Lovelution)
6. M64 (Ragen Fykes & Ohmega Watts) - Helium (prod. Ohmega Watts) (TBA)
7. Hi-Res – Yahhhhh (Pt. 2) (Thrilla Music Group)
8. G&D feat. MED & Rapper Big Pooh – Endure (prod. Georgia Anne Muldrow) (Mello Music Group)
9. MAGr (DistantStarr & Al Mighty) – Butterfly (prod. Hudson Mohawke) (TBA)
10. Ras_G & The Afrikan Space Program – Been A Min… (Brainfeeder)
11. Cubic Zirconia (Tiombe, Nick & Todd) – I Wanna Freebase You (TBA)
12. PPP feat. Coultrain & Karma Stewart – Rocket Science (prod. Waajeed) (Ubiquity)
13. Hawthorne Headhunters (Black Spade, I, CED & Proh Mic) feat. JimiJames & Coultrain – She Wanna (HVW8)
14. Exile feat. Muhsinah – Stay Tuned (Stay Here) (Vocal Remix) (Plug Research)
15. TaRaach vs. Tiombe Lockhart – Kalifornia (Instrumental) (Lovelution)
16. DJ Cadik feat. Invincible & Finale – Don’t Look Back (All Soundz)
17. Devon - Shoes (Thrilla Music Group)
18. SA-RA Creative Partners - High Moon Lust (Rawkus)
19. Luck-One – The Coolax (prod. Dekk) (Architect Ent.)
20. Johnson&Jonson feat. Miguel (Jontel) - Stadium (CD-R)

Artwork courtesy of Lyle Owerko.

If you don’t already know, Fresh Kept Secret vet, Daru has really been doing his thing lately. From both drumming for live acts such as Slum Village, Black Milk, and Kweli’s Idle Warship, as well as producing & remixing acts like Kissey Asplund, Tableek of Maspyke, Reggie B & others – Daru has been working like crazy these last couple of years. Today we’ve got free downloads of three of the latest products of that labor.

Starting it off, we have the newly leaked track from Daru’s collaboration album with soul singer, AB, entitled “On Deck” and features a guest verse from Black Milk. I first heard the track when Ab posted the YouTube link on my newest addiction, Twitter, and I had been planning on debuting the download on here ever since – but I gotta give credit to both Eighty81 and Rhymehouse for beating me to the punch. The track will appear on Ab & Daru’s upcoming album which should hopefully be dropping in ’09.

Following that up is Daru’s (as yet) unreleased, official remix of Muhsinah‘s track, “Once Again.” On this one, Daru takes the semi-smoothed out vibe of the original track from her Oscillations: Sine album and adds his signature chopped-up groove to it, while also supplying it with a lil’ more bang than it originally had.

Closing the set out is another remix, this time for well-known broken beat singer, Joy Jones, from her latest 12″ single, “The Joy.” This is the only track of the three that’s already been released, so big up to Recordbreakin for allowing me to include it. I have to say… this remix is definitely one of Daru’s craziest works to date and it kind of took me by surprise at first. It has a dope broken/afro beat vibe to it that I really like, but leave a comment and let me know what you think of it.

You can preview & stream all three tracks before you download the free .zip containing all of them below.

(For Part 1 of the exclusive Fresh Selects x Exile – Radio preview, click here)

For the second leak off of producer, Exile‘s forthcoming LP, Radio, I have a preview of the album’s first single, including 2 non-album remixes. On the A side, we have “Stay Tuned (Stay Here)” which features Muhsinah adding vocals to one of the album’s instrumental highlights. Whereas the album version was a sound collage made up of a flurry of static, glitches and talk radio, Muhsinah’s vocals manage to breath new life into the track and adds a romantic touch to the otherworldly, “Stay Tuned.” The song was first debuted on CDRADIO a few weeks ago, and was recently included in Exile’s I Got The Radio mix for Red Bull Music Academy Radio, but I’ve got the exclusive, CDQ free download of the song for you guys.

I’ve also got your first listen to the single’s B side, an exclusive remix of “It’s Coming Down by Shafiq Husayn of SA-RA Creative Partners. While it contains some samples in common with Exile’s album version, it seems like Shafiq basically re-imagined his version from scratch, giving it a much more avant garde, stream of consciousness feel, which serves as a good balance to the more straightforward Muhsinah track on the flip.

And as usual, I’ve added some bonus tracks after the jump – this time with the focus being on Muhsinah rarities. Included is “Soso,” from the original, self-released version of her current EP, Oscillations – which oddly enough, didn’t make the cut on the new version. Also, we have her producing for & appearing with Stacy Epps from Stacy’s self-released Ruff Drafts CD-R, as well as a bonus free download of her collaboration with Seattle producer, Jake One, made at the Red Bull Music Academy in Toronto last year. Also, stay tuned (pun intended) for an upcoming Fresh Selects exclusive from Muhsinah, featuring a remix by one of the Fresh Kept Secrets alumni.

You can stream the Shafiq remix here, cop the “Stay Tuned” download below, & check the bonus Muhsinah tracks “after the jump.”

Muhsinah “Soso”
from The Oscillations EP (CD-R, 2006)

Stacy Epps “222 (Hit Me)” (feat/prod. Muhsinah)
from Ruff Drafts Volume 1 (JapaNUBIA Musik, 2006)

Muhsinah “You” (prod. Jake One)
from Various Assets – Not For Sale: Red Bull Music Academy Toronto 2007 (RBMA, 2008)

Brand new sneak preview to the follow-up to Connected, the geography-defying debut from Phonte & Nicolay as The Foreign Exchange. Connected, as misunderstood by certain hip-hop heads as it was, has always been a personal favorite of mine – so I have high expectations for their new album, Leave It All Behind.

I’ll reserve judgement until I can hear the album as a whole, since the first album’s strongsuit were its sonic cohesion and its completeness as an album rather than a collection of hot songs. But with that said… this sampler sounds pretty damn promising. The subject matter is painfully relevant and the quality of songwriting and musicianship is so necessary in this day and age. A break-up album for the digital area with an organic-leaning sound – now that’s whats up.