Jay-Z isn’t just a businessman, he’s a business..maaan! Satire aside, the Swedish tech company, Aspiro, (and it’s shareholders) has accepted Mr. Carter’s whopping $56 million bid. The streaming services include streamable/downloadable music, as well as intuitive playlists and other exclusive content. While Aspiro has a significant chunk of the European market and 580,000 paying users already, (according to theverge.com) HOV’s savvy business acumen can only help generate more interest and innovation, which of course will amount to more dollar signs for Jigga and family.

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El-P and Killer Mike play by their own rules. While the album was going to be a free download (as well as an iTunes release) on Tuesday, they decided to drop it in the early hours of the morning. The album is chocked full of left-field, jarring production and intricate rhyme schemes, making this easily one of the best releases of the year. You can listen below, but if you like what you hear, make sure to show your support here.

RUN THE JEWELS 2 DROPS NOW!!!! #runthejewels @killermikegto http://bit.ly/1thM7Ok

A video posted by thereallyrealelp (@thereallyrealelp) on Oct 10, 2014 at 10:31pm PDT

The post El-P and Killer Mike Released Run the Jewels 2 Early Because Why Not appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

In the same vein as De La Soul, G-Eazy was in the giving mood. The Bay Area rapper has released his entire body of work for free, in conjunction with BitTorrent. Fans will get both his Endless Summer andMust Be Nice projects, as well as mixtape tracks, art, and a sampler of These Things Happen. Watch an interview in which G-Eazy explains his reasoning for he move, and check out the bundle below.

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In a unique move, Long Island natives De La Soul are offering up their entire catalog for free starting today. All seven of the group’s albums can be downloaded through their website until tomorrow afternoon. “It’s about allowing our fans who have been looking and trying to get a hold of our music to have access to it,” Posdnuos told Rolling Stone. “It’s been too long where our fans haven’t had access to everything. This is our way of showing them how much we love them.”

For fans who may not have enough free cash flow to cop all the albums and may have too much of a conscious to access them illegally, this is quite the gift. This may also be a new path for older groups to get discovered by the younger generation. You can head over to their website to grab all the LPs guilt free.

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2Chainz surprised his audience Sunday at Summer Jam XX when he premiered his new single “Feds Watching” featuring Pharrell. He now gives us the studio version of his new track which will be featured in his untitled sophomore LP, set to be released September 10th. You can stream it below or purchase on iTunes.

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The new movement of hip-hop is moving towards the wittier and nerdier rap and XV is riding along on swiftly with the release of his mixtape Popular Culture. As the artwork suggests, the mixtape delves into modern popular culture references and acts as an archive for TV shows and movies that have been  long gone.  The track list features pop culture references from Breaking Bad to Andy Warhol. Something unique about the mixtape is how XV has different soundbites of popular shows and movies like Full House or Willy Wonka at the end of every song. XV has put out some decent work in the past but Popular Culture definitely deserves a listen and Vizzy just might wow you.

The post Mixtape Review: XV — <em>Popular Culture</em> appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Common and producer No I.D. have gotten together to put out this jam off Cocaine 80s‘ The Pursuit EP.  Cocaine 80s is a group consisting of Common, No I.D., Steve Wyreman, Rob Kinelski and many more, nevertheless Common is front and center on this track.

Download the track HERE

Read more about Cocaine 80’s and their upcoming EP HERE

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