Still one of the best indie hip hop labels going. I have alerts set for Bandcamp to let me know when new projects are dropping, but even then things still get by me due to the sheer volume of music dropping.
First two singles dropped the last few weeks (both streamable at the link above) Joell Ortiz, Namir Blade, Stalley & Solemn Brigham - Black Rock Oddisee - No Trouble
1. "I will definitely check out that album" In response to Reply # 0
they have some pretty good artists on their roster.
shout out to their store too. i ordered two albums last november. i reached out for updates in january with no response. i opened a ticket with paypal and mello refunded me but still sent out the albums. they said they had sold out and were waiting on restocks. i got them a couple weeks ago. i do wish they had responded before i reached out to paypal. i would have just waited but its still cool that they sent out the records. it makes me more likely to reorder and i will be more patient next time if needed lol
2. "RE: 2020s Mello Music Group Post" In response to Reply # 0
...great label, have supported them from virtually day one. That said, they are starting to slip quality wise. Don't think I have purchased anything from them since the INCREDIBLE Pete Rock/Skyzoo joint. They set a high bar with all those great Oddisee releases. More him, being more picky about their releases/artistic signings, and I'm sure they can bring it back...
3. "RE: 2020s Mello Music Group Post" In response to Reply # 2
>That said, they are starting to slip quality wise. Don't >think I have purchased anything from them since the INCREDIBLE >Pete Rock/Skyzoo joint. They set a high bar with all those >great Oddisee releases.
I mean... Retropolitan's only a year and a half old and their major releases since then include:
Quelle Chris - Innocent Country 2 Marlowe - Marlowe 2 Apollo Brown and Che Noir - As God Intended Apollo Brown - Sincerely, Detroit Homeboy Sandman - Dusty L'Orange and Jeremiah Jae - Complicate Your Life with Violence Joell Ortiz & KXNG Crooked - H.A.R.D.
(I'm sure I'm missing some)
Plus branching out into some new more r&b-ish terrain with: Seba Kaapstad - Konke Namir Blade - Aphelion's Traveling Circus
None of those are bad to my ears and a few are really good to great. I'd say that's a pretty good track record.
4. "Need to give that Elucid album another go" In response to Reply # 0
The beats seemed too much like generic electronic dub on first listen, but maybe it's just because I'm used to Elucid over stuff that's rougher around the edges.
---- I check for: Serengeti, Zeroh, Open Mike Eagle, Jeremiah Jae, Moka Only.
11. "Bushido/Oddisee's No Trouble" In response to Reply # 0
I'm thinking they could have either left this one on the shelf or trimmed it by half -- there's some straight filler here and a few songs that might be cool the first time but feel more like novelties than anything (Turnt Garveyite -- I hope Murs and GAM work together again soon, though).
The number of tracks that stand on their own is ... on the smaller side.
Or maybe it just needs some resequencing -- or maybe some of these tracks just don't go well together.
BUT
Oddisee's No Trouble is *great* and both verses are top-notch, probably marking a few of my favorite verses so far this year. That second verse especially has a couple lines that just hit right.
The other Oddisee tracks and the Open Mike Eagle, Skyzoo, and Marlowe tracks are great, too. And I like Iron Steel Samurai (Quelle Chris/Alchemist) but it does feel a bit out of place here. (Again, sequencing.)
13. "definitely excited for this one" In response to Reply # 12
he had mentioned about a year ago he was basically done with it. he even played a snippet of a song from it back then which sounded dope.
it seems this is one he feels he has put more into than his previous albums. pretty much all his previous albums have been dope too. his two EPs last year were among the best music released last year.
17. "lol i dont blame you" In response to Reply # 16
there are some songs that are completely ridiculous others only have a couple of lines.
it did give me a late 90s vibe. i think recent R&B has had the ladies being very explicit and vulgar. i dont know if anymore than the guys are but i think that wasn't a common thing before. id say this album is further out than most typical current R&B albums but not by a lot.
we'll see if the lyrics end up killing the replay value for me.
I was a big R&B fan in the 90s/early 00s, but I was also a kid/college student so the growing lyrical absurdity that you’d get from some of the artists didn’t bother me.
These days I basically only listen to Foreign Exchange when it comes to R&B related music, so I really don’t know what’s out there anymore.