This has easily got to be contender for best mixtape of this year – outstanding piece of work.

The main theme of the mixtape is about paying homage to the music of Q Tip and Tribe Called Quest, legends in hip hop. A combination of dope bootlegs and remixes that almost feel like a new Tribe Called Quest album (I wish!) – mixed in with some of the classic Tribe/Q Tip records. But all the way through the mixtape, the flow of beats is addictive and seriously ill, throwing at you some raw soul or jazz flavour that just make for compelling listening. And its complemented by some ill editing and production up between tracks, all the way throughout.

Special favourites are the DJ Scratch remix of Renaissance, Breathe And Stop, mixed with the mellow beat from God Lives Through joint, Consequence and Kid Cudi featuring, and the Excursions joint with the lyric that I only wish were true: “Tribe didn’t break up // they just taking a break”!

One of the main features of the mixtape are the interludes, which are mainly commentary about various joints, how breaks formed the samples for some of the anthems we know, and also Q Tip chatting about his inspirations. For instance, it was a complete shock for me to hear about how the beat for Award Tour, was influenced directly from the old and classic RNB joint Don’t Walk Away from Jade – amazing how good that sounds even though that’s early 90s!

And apparently there’s a volume 2 on the way! I can’t even believe this is for free (50 tracks!), and all real hip hop heads will be seriously missing out if they don’t get round to checking this out soon.

Posted by Broken Soul Boy.  Check the previous post for the download.