Hitta J3 – Westside YGz [Video]

West Coast hip-hop upstart Hitta J3 pours a cup of dirty Sprite and reminisces about a hard upbringing in the video for his new cut “Westside YGz.” In it, he celebrates his family, the Compton neighborhood where they raised him, and some of the friends he lost along the way. A struggling artist trying to escape the pull of gang violence around the city’s perilous Rosecrans Avenue, Hitta J3 is one of the gaggle of White House lawn crashers depicted on the cover of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly album and, as we learn in Noisey Bompton, a bright young talent Lamar hopes will be able to make it out of Compton like he did.

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J.R. – Today [Video]

“When me and Squat get in the studio, our records always come out crazy,” J.R. told The FADER. “It’s actually Squat singing the the background vocals on the record saying, ‘I live for today.’ He’s up next as far as producers. We knew we had one as soon as I laid the hook down.”

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Horseshoe Gang – Shoe-icide Squad [Audio]

West coast crew Horseshoe Gang are back with a new single, the third taken from their album “Anti-Trap Music” which comes out April 29th on Seven13 Music & Entertainment at digital and physical outlets worldwide. In “Shoe-icide Squad” these lyrical marksmen use rhymes like bullets to address the increased number of young black men killed at the hands of the police. The evident rage in the delivery is understandable where black lives matter, and the neck breaking beat provided by Tabu (Kedrick Lamar, Aftermath) is the perfect backdrop with its classic G-Funk flavor. The album has just been available to pre-order on iTunes.

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