While You Were Sleeping: Top 6 Underground Hip-Hop Albums From January 2013

January was a slow month for Hip-Hop releases in general but it will pick up again in February when this new Hip-Hop Wired feature “While You Were Sleeping” goes bi-weekly instead of just monthly. Over the past couple of weeks, six notable independent releases hit both digital music marketplaces and store shelves with little fanfare or promotion. That’s where I come in, here’s what you may have missed, while you were sleeping…

KON Sci (of MindsOne) And Beyond 1.22.2013 (SoulSpazm)

KON Sci of the highly regarded DMV area group MindsOne embarked on his own to a release And Beyond on indie juggernaut SoulSpazm Records. The self produced project is loaded to the gills with quality beats and rhymes so if you’re looking for either you can procure yourself a copy from iTunes, Amazon or preview it and purchase it via Bandcamp.

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Photo: Kash Roc

Moe Pope x Rain Let The Right Ones In 1.22.2013 (Brick)

Moe Pope x Rain’s follow up to their critically acclaimed 2011 collaborative LP Life After God was released two Tuesdays ago on Boston based indie powerhouse label Brick Records. Let The Right Ones In is a versatile and diverse album full of intricate worplay and top notch production handled by Rain, The Arcitype and Headnodic. We can count on seeing Let The Right Ones In included in many Best Of 2013 lists 11 months from now. You can purchase it from iTunes, Amazon, Fat Beats, UGHH or preview it and purchase it from Bandcamp.

Jesse Abraham I Am Water 1.29.2013 (Fat Beats)

2011 UMA Lyricist Of The Year Jesse Abraham, whom we last heard on his 2011 UMA Album Of The Year nominated project One Day teamed with Fat Beats and DJBooth.net to release his new concept album I Am Water this past Tuesday. All proceeds from I Am Water will be donated to Charity Water, an organization committed to funding & organizing fresh water projects in developing countries worldwide. Every two copies sold will provide one person with fresh water that previously didn’t have access to it. The project will be available to purchase on Fat Beats, UGHH, iTunes & Amazon in the near future but for now you can stream and cop I Am Water from DJBooth.net & Bandcamp.

Uptown XO Colour de Grey 1.29.2013 (Mello Music Group)

Uptown XO is one of most well regarded emcees in the DMV (D.C./Maryland/Virginia) area and is also 1/3 of the supergroup Diamond District with Oddisee and yU. Following a string of excellent well received mixtapes & solo projects (Realmatic, Monumental, One. One. Ten., Monumental 2 & The Color Grey) Uptown XO teamed with his frequent collaborator AB The Pro to release his first proper solo project on Mello Music Group, Colour de Grey. This 13 track Hip-Hop tour de force is sure to be regarded as one of the best efforts of the year. You can purchase Colour de Grey from iTunes, Amazon, Fat Beats, UGHH or you can stream it and purchase it from Bandcamp.

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Oh No Disrupted Ads 1.29.2013 (Kash Roc Entertainment)

Oh No had a banner year in 2012 following the release of his collaborative LP with The Alchemist Gangrene’s Vodka & Ayahuasca, his Ohnomite project and his instrumental release Dr. No’s Kali Tornado Funk. This past Tuesday he dropped a brand new production album chock full of blunted beats on Roc C’s Kash Roc Entertainment titled Disrupted Ads. You can purchase this project from iTunes, Amazon, Fat Beats and UGHH.

K-Os BLack On BLonde 1.29.2013 (Crown Loyalist Recordings)

The main theme of this new Hip-Hop Wired feature While You Were Sleeping is mainly to shed light on independent Hip-Hop releases that slipped under the radar. No release on this list fits those criterion more than BLack On BLonde does. Canadian producer/emcee K-Os’ last commercial release was the critically acclaimed 2009 LP YES.

In recent years, K-Os has said on numerous occasions that he wasn’t going to be making any more albums, just one off digital singles and things of that nature. On Wednesday afternoon, Rich Kidd tweeted that people should go and support K-Os’ new album that dropped yesterday. Huh? What!

It turns out that K-Os’ BLack On BLonde is a double album, one containing Hip-Hop (BLack) and the other half containing Rock (BLonde). The fact it’s an independent Canadian release makes it, well…SUPER independent. I have my ear to the street and I had no clue whatsoever it came out and I’m a K-Os fan. You can cop BLack On BLonde from iTunes, Amazon or eMusic.

Look for the next edition of While You Were Sleeping to hit Hip-Hop Wired in a couple of weeks

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