About 2 years ago I drove to the House of Blues in Cleveland to see an up and coming MC from Canada.  He had an amazing mixtape and had the blessed ability to rap and sing in tune.  All his songs weren’t about cars, rims, or derogatory terms for women either.  He was a child star on a kids show and embraced it and even grew up in a middle class neighborhood.  No drug dealing past, never been to jail, just a kid who enjoyed entertaining since he was young and wanted to write stories in the form of song.  That artist has grown up to be one of the top Hip Hop  artists out, and he got to the top by picking the road less traveled.  He takes the art form and is not afraid to go outside of the box.  Check out two of his early songs from his mixtape So Far Gone.

Lykke Li – Little Bit feat. Drake

Drake – Houstatlantavegas

Everybody can enjoy this 90’s radio hit.  Blackstreet and Dr. Dre dropped this radio monster back in 1996.  Originally the beat was penned for 2pac, but when Dr. Dre departed Death Row, he instead sold it to Blackstreet.  It reached #1 on Billboard and was even ranked #32 on VH1’s Greatest Songs of the 90’s.  Now being I haven’t posted all day and I just got home, I decided to treat you with a very special bonus.  After you enjoy the original, check out an Australian Electro artist, Chet Faker, and his mellow cover of the popular hit.  You won’t be disappointed.  But wait there is more.  How about if you love 90’s rap, you check the version 2pac finally put out posthumously, under his moniker Makaveli, on the first cd released after his death.  Alright that is all, enjoy!

Blackstreet – No Diggity

Chet Faker – No Diggity

Makaveli – Toss It Up

Man, this one is going way back. I literally had my ipod on shuffle and this song started playing and I thought…why not?  Mighty Souls of Mischief were a hip hop group out of Oakland that got together back in the early 90’s and really took off with their hit “93 till Infinity.”  “Cab Fare” was released back in ’96 and samples the theme song to the hit 70’s show,  Taxi.  On a side note, what an awesome show that was. The cast included Danny Devito, Andy Kaufman, Christopher Lloyd, Judd Hirsch, and of course none other than Tony Danza… and we all know what he’s famous for.

Mighty Souls of Mischief – Cab Fare

Souls of Mishchief – ’93 til Ifinity