"and at the end of it all, its you"

In case you forgot, The Renaissance was possibly the best rap album of last year. Here's a couple reminders to check it out if you haven't yet, plus some extra random tracks.

Q-Tip - Official [zshare]

Q-Tip - You [zshare]

Both these songs are great, as expected Q-Tip holds it down lyrically but where this album really stands out is the production. Every beat on this album is absolutely incredible, and there's really no better music to just throw on and relax, or to put on the iPod when you're walking around on these sunny spring days.

Q-Tip - Gettin' Up Megamix [zshare]

A Tribe Called Quest - Scenario (original demo unreleased) [zshare]

A couple bonus tracks, a very dope remix of Gettin' Up and a true gem in the original demo of ATCQ's hit Scenario, not great sound quality but the pure joy of listening to the rough draft of a hip-hop classic like this should be enough for you.

QuESt - Sky Might Fall remix ft. Nero [zshare]

As I've pointed out before, QuESt is dope, and Nero is pretty solid too. This definitely gives the leaked CuDi version a run for its money.

Del Tha Funkee Homosapien - And they thought that was hell [zshare]

From Del's recently released album Funk Man available for free on the internets, this song is definitely nice.

Aceyalone - Mr. Outsider [zshare]

Aceyalone - Anywhere You Go [zshare]

Aceyalone - Deep and Wide [zshare]

Three great songs from Aceyalone's classic album All Balls Don't Bounce, probably one of my top 5 hip-hop albums ever. I remember playing NFL 2K5 with my friend Jim back in 2004/2005 and they had "Deep and Wide" on their jukebox thing, and you could customize soundtracks so we made a soundtrack that was just "Deep and Wide" and it would repeat for hours while we played.

Mr. Lif - Pull Out Your Cut [zshare]

RJD2 - Clean Living [zshare]

These two songs were the only others on the NFL 2K5 soundtrack that got any play. 2K5 has a special spot in my heart as not only the greatest football video game ever, but also for having the best game soundtrack ever, and introducing me to some classic underground hip-hop, thank you 2K Sports. Sadly, it was so good that Madden had to buy exclusive rights to the NFL and video game football has sucked ever since. It actually took me a long time to eventually hunt down all three of those songs from the game, so I hope you appreciate what I'm doing for you.