Joe Budden

This is some lispy bruva Jersey City type summer fun flava coming from not a half bad rapper with a solid strong voice. The record reminds me of summer in NY, blasting hot 97 from Coney Island to Coney Island High, banging the hottest joints. In the future Pump It Up will identify the summer of ’03 and #1 with the BDP sample is righteous romanticism of a day not so long ago and praise of Buddens rap heroes and the culture. (Def Jam)

Keith Murray has been away for what felt like a long time. Like most of our old favorites, Keith did not drop a “I’m here to make dolla out of 15 cents and let my balls hang like I‘m on a toilet taking a ....”, but Keith did make a really solid return on this. Yeah Yeah U Know It let’s you really enjoy Keith Murray and his style and the truly missed Def Squad. The Jamie Foxx skits get a little much and y’all have to hit KeithMurray.com; it’s ghetto goofy. Keith still has flow and his voice is a staple. Badunkadunk! (Def Jam)

Comp

Forest of Impaled, Lunatics on Parole, From the Depths , Self Inflicted, Sarcophagus, Nihilist, Defiled, Avulsion, Cromlech – fucking gross! (Nightfall/Terrorizer Records)

First Demo Tape

The demos were the best in my book no matter whom we’re talking about. Inside it mentions how this demo was scratched for unknown reasons, whatever the case I have heard the Minor Threat record how many thousands of times and it would be blasphemous to say I am sick of it, but.... the First Demo recording is a fresh experience; the 8 songs that started this thing, totally different recording. (Dischord)