The Chuckness

I love shit like this. With the exception of Kanye, Jay and co. sitting around the dining room table sharing absurdly priced jewelry, it’s always enticing to see a little behind the scenes footage. I’m always fascinated with how people find inspiration; in this case, by locking themselves in a mansion on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. Shout out to Russel Crowe. Watch The Throne due out August 1st, but you already knew that. Tweet

The Yonkers, NY native, Outasight, just hit 10,000 likes on Facebook and sent over a new track to celebrate. After really getting into his most recent mixtape Figure 8, I’ve been looking forward to some new material from the guy. On “Setting Sun”, he sticks to the formula that’s working for him; walking the fine line of easy-listening hip-hop. According to the man himself, his album under Warner Bros. is soon to be a wrap, so keep your eyes open for that down the line. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download: Outasight – Setting Sun Tweet

This is the kind of thing that has led to Mac Miller’s unbelievably huge following. The creativity behind this video is second to none, and it’s awesome to see people still putting thought into the visuals of their music. You really can’t go wrong with the home video route. On top of that, it fits perfectly with arguably my favorite track off of his last mixtape. Tweet

Forgot to share this one with you last night. Skizzy Mars takes Foster The People’s engaging “Houdini”, and adds in a couple fireflame verses on top. Not really sure why this one works out so well; because by all logic it shouldn’t; but I’m really into this. Apparently the kid is only 17 too. I posted Skizzy Mars’ “Profound” a few weeks back; which completely took over my iTunes at the time. If you’re not up on Skizzy Mars, get involved. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download: Skizzy Mars – Houdini [via Pigeons & Planes] Tweet

Hoodie Allen exploded onto the scene last year when he released “I Am Not A Robot”, flipping a Marina & The Diamonds sample. He quit his job at Google, stopped working for The Man, and is paving his own path in the hip-hop genre. I feel like Hoodie is consistently overlooked and grouped into the “white kid frat rapper” realm, when really he’s a legitimate artist. College dudes everywhere are recording shitty verses from their dorm room, and it’s diluting some of the real, existing talent out there. Give this one listen, and you’ll understand that Hoodie doesnt’ belong in … Continue reading →

Every week RefinedHype will bring to light one song that was brilliant, but was sadly Overlooked. For our inaugural edition let’s dive into a little celebrity crush hip-hop. Rashida Jones has to be your dream girl, right? And I don’t mean dream in the Rosa Acosta/fantasy sense, I mean dream in the “it’d be next to impossible, but it could still theoretically happen” sense. Rashida’s beautiful but she’s no supermodel, she’s legitimately funny and she’s…Quincy Jones’ motherfucking daughter! When she was a kid she’d be like, “Oh hey Tupac, I’m doing this English paper. Can you help me?” and Pac would be like, … Continue reading →

The second taste we have from the highly anticipated Jay-Z and Kanye collaboration Watch The Throne comes in the form of “Otis”, featuring a soulful Kanye sample a la The College Dropout. There’s no question that this album is going to be huge, and arguably the biggest release of the year –the question is whether or not it will live up to the hype. I have high hopes. Pre-order the album here, due out online August 1st. Shout out to Life & Times for the CDQ. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Tweet

Xaphoon and Chiddy show off their hometown and affinity for breakfast in their most recent music video. Debut album, conveniently titled Breakfast, should be coming soon. In the meantime, pick up their single “Mind Your Manners” from iTunes. Tweet

Great to see a guy you’ve been following for a while break through on national television. Ever since I first heard “Humdrum Town”, I knew that Theophilus had a unique X-factor which could take him places. He consistently put out material that was his own style, never was influenced by what other rappers were doing at the time, and he’s slowly but surely managed to pave his own lane in the genre. If you haven’t already, pick up his debut album Timez Are Weird These Days. An undeniably great listen from start to finish. Tweet

Never thought I’d be posting up so much Seattle hip-hop. In fact, until about a year ago, I had no idea that anyone out there was into the genre. Arguably the leaders of the movement are these two right here, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Lewis is the man behind the beats, and Macklemore is the Irish dude who goes in on it. I’ve posted a bunch of their material before, and honestly, all of it is worth checking out. Apparently for this video, they asked the fans to raise some money to help bring their vision to fruition, and they … Continue reading →