Playground magazine

A new selection of records to brighten up your day with good music, without the need for turning your wallet inside out or feeling like Big Brother is watching you. The stream of releases just keeps growing, many of them trying to get us to warm to some of the big official releases of this year. Download and enjoy.

Someday we'll talk about the new rap scene developing on the West Coast, and we'll most likely discuss the great health the present San Diego scene is enjoying right now. One of its main representatives, rapper Casey Veggies, has been establishing his ‘next big thing’ status for about a year now with a series of mixtapes, the third of which came out a few weeks back. Once again, Veggies proves to be better at selecting beats than at MCing, as the sound of “Customized Greatly 3” is this collection's main attraction: a wise mix of weed-rap, funk and some southern elements, camouflaging the flaws in his rhymes and the lyrical content of some of the tracks.

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Gerald Walker has some major virtues: he sounds different, personal, reasonably fresh and new. The secret is his flow, unconventional, slow, relaxed, sometimes even a bit too much. He shies away from any pageantry and instead sounds introspective, ideal for both smokers and die-hard lady-killers (although if you don't feel you're in either category, you won't feel out of place, either). The sophisticated and careful production, and Walker's tone - an even silkier version of Drake - is ideal for any of “those days” when you're feeling out of love.

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OK, N.O.R.E. is quite limited as a rapper. The Queensbridge posse would even say he's second-rate: always going on about the same things, a repetitive flow and a very limited lyrical range. In short: his art won't make the genre's history books. But all those flaws, obvious and manifest even on his best recordings (the abrasive “The War Report”), are compensated with his overwhelming personality. The same personality that is capable of turning “Crack On Steroids”, his new mixtape, in a chaotic mix of street and club beats with as many highs (“My Alias”, “Baby Girl”, “Lehhhgooo”) as lows. A box full of ideas and intentions, in tune with Noreaga's irregular and unpredictable character.

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There was a time when Ras Kass seemed destined to become the best rapper on the West Coast. It was the days of “Soul On Ice”, an underrated and forgotten masterpiece, a major exhibition of skill and lyrical wit. It was the time when this MC started to emerge and the buzz got louder and louder, to which, however, he had no answer. Lost in the minor leagues of underground rap for years now, you could say Kass is rapping for the fun of it. A good example is this magnificent free album he has just recorded with producers Doc Hollywood, who deliver the sonic goods - one of the things this extremely gifted, but unlucky rapper's recordings always lacked, until now.

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Something's not quite right on the new and much awaited mixtape by Stalley, the release date of whose album, possibly one of the most anticipated of the year, is getting ever closer. Maybe it's the excessive sonic linearity of the album, which ends up distracting you; or maybe it's that unhealthy obsession with the contemplative and introspective tempo, which at times confuses the idea of travelling with boredom; or it could be the absence of one or two hits that help to elevate the tone and aspirations of the recording. Or maybe it's all of the above. But when it shines, especially on the first part, “Savage Journey To The American Dream” reaffirms Stalley’s role as the odd one out in Maybach Music circle; a rapper who has enough personality to deliver records that go against the grain.

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