I tried to start some discussion on this album in the Chicago thread, but it doesn't really seem like much is going on in there anymore. Anyway Mikkey Halsted dropped a pretty nice album this week produced primarily by No ID and Don Cannon, but with a couple of really out of the box contributions from Young Chop as well.

If you haven't check the shit, I strongly recommend it.
http://www.datpiff.com/Mikkey-Halsted-C ... 84206.html


The summer has been pretty slow for me in terms of music I've really liked, but this is definitely one of my favorite projects. I wrote a review: http://hardwoodblacktop.com/2012/08/17/ ... ed-castro/ and also did an interview with Mikkey where we talked about everything from what the Cash Money material would've sounded like, to his song writing process, to working with No ID all these years, to Pusha T, to Killer Mike, and a bunch of other shit: http://hardwoodblacktop.com/2012/08/16/ ... y-halsted/

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B. Ware, is this what the album produced by No I.D. was supposed to be?

Not 100% sure. Mikkey's plans have been kind of constantly developing as he's recorded more and more material with No ID and Traxster. This project has 5 No ID joints, 2 by Young Chop (one co-produced by Don Cannon), and the rest is really produced by Don Cannon (one track by Trakmatik & The Commission). His next project will be 100% produced by the Legendary Traxster and then after that he's doing another Castro album... then he's supposedly he's planning to go back to a major. My guess would be Def Jam in some capacity since No ID is Senior VP there now, but who knows. He says he's got other labels he's talking to.

Either way, he's making his best music yet in my opinion. Not as coffee-shopish as some of his earlier work, but still a good amount of depth, without being preachy or heavy handed. And the production is really serious.

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saw this on Rap Godfathers, too. wanted to peep. thanks for the heads up on it.

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Yeah it's a free album, so you can get it basically anywhere. djbooth.net, sponsored link on datpiff, rapgodfathers, etc

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He had someother stuff out that was pretty good. Didnt he have some joints with 9th Wonder?

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"tim dog! i hope he's scamming bitches in heaven.." - EichTurner

As far as working with 9th, it's certainly possible. He's worked with pretty much everybody over the years. After he got out of his deals with Cash Money and Virgin he did a couple of independent albums a few years back the Photo Album and the Dark Room... Photo album was a free joint I think and Dark Room was sold.

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As good as Castro was, and it was very good for those of you who slept, MMM Season is even better.

http://www.datpiff.com/Mikkey-Halsted-M ... 00160.html

All produced by the Legendary Traxster

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MMM is def better than Castro. He just sounds better over harder beats

Yeah I think some would agree and some would disagree with that (that he sounds better over harder beats), but MMM Season is >>>>>

I think part of it is definitely having the whole album produced by Traxster. If either No ID or Young Chop had produced all of Castro it might be as good production wise, but as it was, he had 4 or 5 producers involved in that thing and even though Chop and No ID did most of the work, it just wasn't quite as cohesive and some of those Cannon beats just didn't belong.

That said, I really think Mikkey is the biggest difference maker on this album vs. Castro. It manages to be more mainstream ready, yet have more depth than Castro at the same time... really excellent shit.

Either way Mikkey is quietly having a great year.

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http://hardwoodblacktop.com/2012/09/26/ ... ey-season/ - I wrote a review on it...

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Dude needs to go back to ghostwriting. Zero appeal.

^ pretty much

I like dude & i don't think there's 'zero appeal' but i def dont see him building much from this stuff. i think his window is probably closed, pop-culture wise. but hes certainly talented enough to create a niche career

I'm not surprised you feel this way, but I guess my question is this. For those who have that Lupe thread heading for a 3 page banger, would you not agree that "Butterfly Effect" and "Obamanomics" are better than anything Lupe has done this year? And wouldn't you rather have a rapper subtly point out the problematic aspects of the drill scene in story form on a track with King L and Durk then watch Lupe battle a 16 year old with some "tough love" via twitter?

He's not Young Thug, Future, 2Chainz, Tony Yayo, or Jim Jones so I get that he's not your cup these days (and I'm not even mad at those guys, because you know I listen to most of that shit too). I just feel like Mikkey's kind of killing shit in his lane right now. Maybe it's not mainstream material - I can get that argument, he's definitely outside of the scope of most of what's popping off on that level these days - but I'm hard pressed to name half a dozen artists who dropped two projects as solid as Castro and MMM Season this year. If the beats weren't as dope as they are would I be feeling those projects like I am? Probably not. But I also wouldn't listen to Future if he didn't have some of the best production in the game.

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