Ok so track 2 ‘You Know You Did’ is a classic, late 80’s Hip-Hop style track. Laced with funk – in fact the only apparent difference is the looped nature of it all. I’ll hand it to these guys, they’ve got me interested at this point. Very, very fresh. Not too long or overbearing, i’m really rather chilled at this point. I get the feeling that some serious homework has been done by these guys, that 70’s flavour that we can usually enjoy from a Nas track is all there. My Funk/Groove knowledge isn’t encyclopedic (so I can’t say either way) but if this isn’t a collection of looped samples then it’s an extremely well executed shot at authenticity. Kudos.

Roll on tracks 3 and 4, ‘Baby Love’ and ‘This Is Love’ and you can see the same. A punchy kick, a looped Soul vocal and/or bassline, massively compressed drum sequence and we’ve still got good, solid music. Very basic, quite bare, but seriously good! Hip-Hop runs in these guys veins, I’m wondering if the purpose of these mixtapes is to provide budding MC’s to get recording? Or maybe just for DJ’s to mix it up? Tasty Beatz seems to be free, and it would explain the brazen use of sampling – so if you’re intending of spitting over these tracks yourself, it may well be you that gets the lawsuit. We need to look into this… They’re boasting this as an ‘Instrumental Album’ and it certainly is that.

‘I Agree’ is pure butter. Yep, butter. Tasty, melting, and I’d happily get a dose of it with anything. Mos Def could do worse than use this, or Rakim, Jurassic 5, Erykah Badu, any of them. Sexy sax on here, in fact I can easily imagine Jazzy Jeff passing this one on to the Fresh Prince. Summer Summer Summertime, we just sit back and unwind. ‘Act Like That’ could be an instant success with even the least talented singer/MC over it, it carries itself! Again very basic, very dependable, in fact are these guys serious? Are these actually just stolen archive instrumentals from Rawkus Records HQ? I honestly can’t believe what I’m hearing.

If indeed I’m hearing entirely sampled music then DJ King Flow and DJ PLK have been crafty, I dont recognise a single riff – and I’m wondering what I’ve been missing out on from the world of 60/70/80’s Blaxploitation. I need to speak to these guys, I’m genuinely intrigued. ‘Gangster Music’ is a touch of a let down, merely because it’s not as catchy as the rest – that’s it.

I’m speechless. If I had a bad thing to say then I may have made a more entertaining read – but I dont. With a mission to make 1st class Hip-Hop instrumentals, these guys have done it – and then some. I’m just blown away. I may download this. In fact, yeah, I’m going to download this. 5 stars guys, 5 huge stars!

This article was reprinted from thecreativeuncommons.com

Still teenagers, the two have released dozens of mixtapes since the age of 14. “I’m 16 and PLK is 17 and we’re both from the city of Orleans. We’ve been friends since we were 14 years old so, it was only natural that we’d come together to do a project”, states Flow.

The releases will be available for free download under the Creative Commons license from the Universal Indie Website.

Reprinted from Track Elements.com

If you’re interested submitting to this project, please send an email with the the following information:

1. Track Name
2. Producer Name
3. Ascap of BMI Publishing Company Name (optional)
4. Email address
5. Phone number you can be reached at.
6. Send only ONE TRACK PER EMAIL

To hoodgrown.productions@gmail.com with “PRODUCER SUBMISSION” as the subject line.

The artists who are involved in this project will be responsible for choosing the tracks and those whose tracks are used will be notified upon completion of the recording process and emailed a copy of the song.

Insanity? High expectations? An impossibility? Maybe, but King Flow & PLK along with their label Universal Indie Records are planning to drop an instrumental album every 2 weeks in 2010 for what could be an epic effort if they rise to the occasion.

The 16- and 17-year olds, respectively, cut the first in their new series dubbed Tasty Beatz Vol 2 (where’s Vol 1 at? Hmmm..) this weekend, available for a recession-friendly free.99. Though I was skeptical before I listened, these young’ns are pretty decent behind the boards as they craft some soulful, quality jazz-hop.

I’m intrigued to see how they progress with this concept, so I’ll be keeping an eye on my inbox each and every fortnight (yes, it’s a word Einstein). I’ll be sure to share, so please feel free to leave some feedback on how you feel about these jawns.

Check the link below to download. Big thanks to Jenny at Universal Indie for the heads up, Enjoy!

Reprinted from oldTheThrone.com

“I’m 16 and PLK is 17. We’re both from the city Orleans and we’ve been friends since we were 14 years old so it was only natural that we’d came together to do a project.” states Flow. “We’re doing jazzy/soulful instrumentals. PLK has more of a feeling to his instrumentals and mines are more like Madlib or MF Doom.”

The “Tasty Beatz” series is available as a free download under the Creative Commons license from the Universal Indie website.

http://universalindie.com/

Reprinted from Kevin Nottingham.com

“I’m 16 and PLK is 17. We’re both from the city Orleans and we’ve been friends since we were 14 years old so it was only natural that we’d came together to do a project.” states Flow. “We’re doing jazzy/soulful instrumentals. PLK has more of a feeling to his instrumentals and mines are more like Madlib or MF Doom.”

The “Tasty Beatz” series is available as a free download under the Creative Commons license from the Universal Indie website.

http://universalindie.com/

As you can see, once again the Universal Indie website has been redesigned coinciding with a total restructuring of the label as whole.

Originally, this label was created as a way of showcasing the music that I (Cartel) felt was missing in the majority of what’s released today. My roots are firmly entrenched in that 90’s sound and most of our previous releases reflected that.

Recently though, I’ve come to a crossroads of sorts. Do I want Universal Indie to be known for releasing good 90s style music or do I want it to be known for releasing good music PERIOD. I’m leaning towards the later. While I love the 90s sound and will continue to release music that vein, as a label I feel that it’s a must that I also grab talent that reflects what’s going on today with no compromise in lyrical content or beat selection.

In the next couple of months we will be distributing some releases by our distributed labels as well as some mixtape projects, the third Cartel album in the series and an album by the NEW Full Fam family. We’re also opening the doors to a host of new producers as well.

Stay tuned…..

Click here for more information!

Cartel sees the possibilities in this format a mainly from a marketing perspective. By giving the iTunes LP away for free, one can introduce an artist to listeners and enable them to engage with the music in a more interactive way. The key is to develop a more personalised relation through the increased functionality in this format. If this listener then really “feels” the artist they will hopefully pay to download their album, which they can then put on their MP3 player or burn to an album.

We commend Cartel on his innovative spirit and eagerness to use the developments of new technology, hitherto largely restricted for independents, to further the independent cause.

You can download the iTunes LP for “Tha Throwback Album” here. You will also find the album on most online music stores and streaming services, such as iTunes, Spotify, Deezer.

Article Reprinted from the Record Union Blog