Oh yeah, this is happening. Big Aristotle has returned to rapping. While Shaq was never very good at it, his massive size offering no clear advantage in the studio, that didn't stop his first record from going platinum. Shaq Diesel was followed by Shaq Fu: Da Return in 1994 with contributions from both Method Man and RZA, because the universe is random and unfair. His third release, You Can't Stop the Reign, even featured appearances by Jay-Z and The Notorious B.I.G in a hilarious mockery of established laws and traditions.

Biggie Smalls is dead now, so you get Toronto rapper ShaqIsDope instead. I'm told he's a real person.

Main Attrakionz - "International"



Oakland cloud rap geniuses Squadda B and MondreM.A.N. have a new mixtape set to drop this month, a collaboration with Sacramento producer Tynethys that promises to do something good to your earholes. Main Attrakionz last collaboration with Tynethys ended disastrously when their completed material was lost in a hard drive crash, likely an indicator that one of these dudes looks at weird stuff on the internet. Instead of re-recording the lost tape they decided to write a new one, an inspiring decision shrouded by terrible inefficiency.

At just over two minutes in length, "International" is the fun sized candy bar of rap songs. If you haven't sampled Main Attrakionz yet, now seems like a pretty good time.

James Blake ft. Chance The Rapper - "Life Round Here"

James Blake's use of samples, his warping them and combining them with minimal beats and melodies, continues to be engaging. Blake's sparse music feels haunted, haunted by the ghostly presence of these audio clips, intimating emotions that cannot be quite exorcised. Blake's upcoming album, Overgrown, will be released later this month and tracks are currently trickling in via his tumblr. "Take a Fall For Me," features the legendary RZA (my personal favorite member of the Wu-Tang Member) rapping over one of these ghostly beats and sample. The effect of Blake's haunted melody and RZA's melancholy verses is heart-wrenching, lingering well after the song has ended. 

April always represents a coming-out party of sorts for the independent music industry. The winter months are being phased out, and as the days get longer and warmer, the need for new and invigorating music only grows stronger. With the renewal of Spring comes its accompanying melodies to motivate and captivate us, to get us out of the house and out into the parks and onto the patios, to inspire us, so that we too can get the creative juices flowing and start anew. It's a beautiful thing, folks. This month, even before reckoning with the extensive catalog of stellar Record Store Day releases (April 20!), it's a pretty overwhelming list. After finding about 30 candidates that qualified for the top ten most anticipated April releases, it was difficult to deny mentioning some of these albums that are also worth your time, so I've set aside a few honorable mentions before getting into the main inventory. Hold on to your hats.

So about that collaboration dub step artist James Blake, who according to my co-host Chris on buffaBLOG Radio, is actually not dub-step, did with current indie king Bon Iver.  Well, it turns out that the "Fall Creek Boys Choir" track the two dropped last week will be featured on the British DJ/singer/producer's upcoming release. The Youtube channel that hosted the recording of the song was particularly vague, but the message of "Enough Thunder - Ocotber 2011" apparently was the title and release date of his latest EP, titled (you guessed it) Enough Thunder.  Set for an October 10th release date, the six song EP will include four additional Blake originals, and a cover of Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You".

Last week, British DJ/producer James Blake's twitter feed stated "24th August 2011 - James Blake & Bon Iver 'Fall Creek Boys Choir' ".  Nothing else, nothing more was known except that Fall Creek is the town in Wisconsin where Justin Vernon of Bon Iver does his recordings.  Well, last night on BBC radio, the curious project made it's debut, previewing the track.  What resulted from the collaboration is pure autotuned soul.  Drum machines and samples weave in and out of Vernon's signature falsetto to baritone vocals. According to the Youtube page, the song will be available on iTunes on August 29th.  The only other message on the page states "Enough Thunder - October 2011", which upon further research is the name of a song Blake has been performing live recently.  Whether this collaboration yields further songs or even an album, remains to be seen, but you can be sure we will be paying attention this October.