December Heatrocks
“It’s Music, its spirituality; they’re really one and the same to me.” -Alice Coltrane In a discussion about rap it was repeated to me that the art form was dead. It's a cop out that has been floating since before Nas decided to decry it with his Def Jam debut but it begs the question what defines the death of an art form? Nas didn't have the answer and neither do I. I do have some hot tracks for you that caught my ear in December . Surprisingly just as the year was coming to a close I was still finding some fresh rap and routinely disproving my own criticisms of the years Hip Hop offerings. The first three tracks here fall into that category. Aarophat & Illustrate have been making noise for years and uniting as Black Noise sounds great. Hip Hop that is jazzy and smoothed out but still thumps. The Dynas come through for a guest verse and it sounds like they have been riding together from day one. Chops grabs an old a cappella from the Drake and Nickelus F sessions and turns...