I was on Facebook last week and put Joe Budden on my list for top 5 favorite MCs for one of those Living Social surveys. I knew I was going to get called out on that pick, but I was ready to defend it by specifically citing “Dumb Out” as the best mixtape track of all time. Any MC that can keep me captivated with every bar for over 7 minutes (or 15 on WHO), is top 5 in my book.

I saw Joe perform “Dumb Out” live a few years back at an Allhiphop Week event and have the same gripe with this performance; he doesn’t have the breath control to rock the entire track over a beat. I’m not knocking the dude because it’s a long track, has no hook and he doesn’t use a hype man. I just wish he could do it.

Try the patch Joey! It works!

Regardless, both of these videos are hot and “Dumb Out” is such a lyrical masterpiece that it sounds great acapella.

Hit the jump for Part 2

Props to Nah Right and OKP

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Willy Northpole is on my list of artist’s I expect to be making big moves in 2009. He’s got a vicious flow and you may recognize him as the anchor on the “Call Up the Homies” record with Ludacris & The Game.

He’s also probably got the coolest name in the hip-hop game.

Here’s a freestyle video I spotted over at H-I-F. Enjoy!

Anybody that can listen to this freestyle from Lil Wayne’s new mixtape and still keep talking about what a great lyricist he is needs to stop listening to hip-hop. I’ve tried to give the dude a chance to convince me that I’m just missing something within his lyrics, but I’ve got to call this like I see it and Wayne is just a rapper with a harmonic flow that sounds good when its matched with the right production. When put with the wrong production his records sound like a DJ who has train-wrecked and has two records playing at different speeds. Hopefully no more Lil Wayne and Soulja Boy collaborations are in the works.

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This is a hot performance by Lupe, despite the sub-par video quality. The audio is what’s really good and you can get that by clicking right here.

Talented MC’s Freestyling + Live Band Playing Classic Beats= Xplosive’s Favorite Live Show

Spotted at 2DB:

For some strange reason, this week just about every hip-hop site I’ve visited has included a post featuring a god-awful Youtube video titled, “It’s So Cold in the D”. I kind of feel bad for the cats that made the track, albeit the song is really bad, but there’s plenty of garbage out there so I don’t think the track deserved as much public ridicule as it’s received.

I did a search on Youtube to find the track, having already seen it on various sites, I was curious to find out how much traffic this thing was actually pulling.

Instead I stumbled on another video titled “It’s So Cold in the D”, but this one was a far cry from the joint that we’ve all come to know and love. The video was by another Detroit artist named K.Crump. I’m not sure if his video ironically shared the same title as it’s much-discussed counterpart or if K.Crump just retitled his video to catch traffic. Either way, it worked because I’m thoroughly impressed. If I had to describe the sound, I’d have to say it’s early-Biggie meets M.O.P., which is pretty good company to be in.

So here’s some free promotion for K.Crump for proving that not everyone is cold in the D.

K. Crump

YOUTUBE LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7l25ayMLeY