We missed each individual drops but here’s the long-play version of their trilogy.

Three weeks after introducing the first of their groundbreaking Messengers tributes, J.Period & K’NAAN present their final offering: The Messengers (Deluxe Edition), a long-play version of their epic trilogy, including previously unreleased bonus tracks and selected 12” singles. Taking hip hop fans on an unprecedented journey into the legacies of Fela Kuti, Bob Marley and Bob Dylan, J.Period & K’NAAN’s The Messengers has racked up over 85,000 downloads/plays in only a few short weeks online, making this mixtape a bonafide phenomenon, as well. Remixing and re-imagining the classic work of these legendary artists, The Messengers is already being called “one of the year’s best albums or mixtapes” by top hip hop journalists, including HipHopDX.com.

Download: J. Period & K’Naan – The Messengers (Deluxe Edition)

Co$$ – Judgement Day (prod. The Sound Academy)

Bonus: Daniel Joseph – Mission Possible EP

Shouts to Jonathan Kim

4th Quarter is looking real nice…

Joell Ortiz – 50 For The People (prod. Frequency)

Yaowa! New Joell track called “50 For The People” off of his new mixtape he is currently working on entitled Road Kill. The entire mixtape will be cut on the bus while on the Tech Nine tour. Check after the jump for the tour dates.

- OnSMASH

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Q-Tip explains how the Kamaal The Abstract album came about, regrets, rule # 4080 and more.

Previously: Kamaal The Abstract Webisode #3 & 4

On September 28, my fellow MTV News Hip-Hop Brain Trust members and I will start to release our — keyword being “our” — list of the Hottest MCs in the Game. Number 10 will be announced on the 28th, nine on the 29th, etc. through October 2. Then, on October 4 during “P. Diddy’s Starmaker,” we will reveal numbers five through one. Numero uno, the number-one spot.

You know the drilly by now, right? I mean, this is the third year we’ve done it. Well, in case you forgot or just didn’t know, a group of my MTV News colleagues and I sit down at a roundtable and discuss who we think are the 10 hottest cats in the game right now. Each year the audience is very vocal with comments, and some people even come up to us on the street to tell us how much they agree or disagree with our list. We love it.

This year, there were over 1.2 million votes in our fan poll. The cumulative votes will be factored into the Brain Trust’s rankings. But keep in mind, this is still the Brain Trust’s list. Personally, I like having the fans’ votes factored in. We’re all in this together. I love the debate, and as anxious as you are to see who we picked, I’m even more interested to tell you guys. The Miss Cleo in me says that this is going to be our most controversial list ever. Just remember to have fun with it. That’s right — have fun, enjoy it. You’ll get excited. You might — almost definitely at some point — get upset. But this is hip-hop. This is the music and culture we love.

Ransom – Mighty Healthy | Ransom – All By Design [via Mr. X]

Previously: Ransom – Uncut (prod. The Alchemist)

Dre Random Throwback: Before the multiple falling outs…

Fabolous, Joe Budden, Paul Cain, A-Team – Desert Storm Freestyle
(DJ Clue’s 2004 Cherry Lounge mixtape; over Green Lantern’s Oh My God Remix)

I had the pleasure of catching up with Cool & Dre in their Miami studios this past weekend after the Florida Music Conference. We spoke for about 2 hours on everything hip-hop and I got the exclusive tour of their new studio which is more like a private oasis.

Here is a short snippet of them talking about the experience of working with The Game on his upcoming R.E.D. album.

- Jessie Maguire

De La Soul’s Posdonous speaks with Davey D at Rock The Bells.  “Tracklisting” below.

01 Intro
02 Life N’ Longevity
03 Tracks Twice Blessed
04 Independence to Grammy Love
05 Ultimate Battle (De La vs The Roots)
06 Mos Def Interlude
07 Industry vs. Incense
08 Hyphy Collabo???
09 Vacancy
10 Co-Signin’
11 Outro

Mr. Peter Parker interviews Brother Ali at the midnight release of “Us” in stores now. Brother Ali talks about what this album means to him. He also talks about the feature on bk-one album “Radio do Canibal” in stores 10/6/09

Us is in stores now, cop that.

Previously: Brother Ali ft. Freeway & Joell Ortiz – Best At It

Hit the jump for a bonus clip of Mr. Peter Parker speaking to Evidence at Ali’s release event.

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Tony Moxberg ft. Styles P & Tony Sunshine – Came Too Far

Props to Splash

Previously: Styles P feat. Jadakiss & Junior Reid – Invasion