Dungeon Fam's Aleon Craft

Does anybody else miss the Dungeon Family as a collective? Like that sound you'd hear on Even in Darkness, with plenty of Organized Noize, a healthy serving of soulful hooks by @theladykilla & @sleepybrownatl that glued together verses from the likes of Three Stacks, @bigboi and @mike_bigga. I know I know, we've gotten glimpses of the soulful undertones from the likes Bubba Sparxxx, Knarles Barkley, Cee-Lo and Big Boi, who have represented the click to the fullest (individually), but collectively...I miss tracks like White Gutz below that were so cot damn chalked full of rhythmic drum and bass mixed with ATL soul that it was hard to fully appreciate at the time...

Why does all that matter, because we've got a newcomer to add to the family, @aleoncraft. Below, you'll find a new one off his newest mixtape Mothership Decatur, due out April 7th. Similar to White Gutz above, the track has all the elements that make Trans DF Express run. The epicenter of southern Hip Hop is Atlanta and when I think of the ATL, the members of Dungeon Fam are who come to mind when I think of the catalyst to it becoming what it is now. Aleon fits right into the fam with his otherworldly lyrics and fast paced, enlightened flow. Don't discount the beat either, which was orchestrated by @smka and fits into the Dungeon Fam sound like a size 22 on Shaq.

Heads up in a month when the tape drops, I gotta feelin' between Battlefield LA, Paul and Aleon, this next month is gonna be taken over by the extra terrestrials...

Aleon Craft - Look Twice (prod by SMKA)

|Download

"Blackberry Molasses...One of the Things That Never Change"

Put it like this, in my starting five of the hottest Hip Hop artists out, you've got @drakkardnoir, @WIZARDCUD, @bobatl, @JColeNC, and the latest addition, @realwizkhalifa. When any of those five release a track, mixtape, freestyle, shoot even a demo track, people make a point to listen because there's an expectation of quality they've established through their recently released music. How does this tie into a new @donnisxdonnis track? Maaaaan you can't have a starting five without a sixth man! In other words, I'm looking for big things from dude coming off the bench this year and that'll all begin with his new mixtape Southern Lights.

In fact if you're like me, you've proactively sought out the chance to see what he's got in concert on the Sgt Schlepper's Who Needs Hearts Club Band Tour with @traviemccoy. Now, with Blackberry Molasses, I have another track to add to the setlist wish list as Donnis takes a turn for the soulful on his new track. With rib cage rattling bass we've come to expect from Goodie Mobb and Outkast via the ATL based Organized Noize, the slow, steady 808 bass thumps through the speakers to provide a the heavy backbone for the soul resonating from the choir delivered hook. Sidebar: Hip Hop needs a Dungeon Family comeback collectively, especially now that @theladykilla is a household name with his latest solo project and we've been waiting on that new album from Andre 3000 and Big Boi for like 8 years now (Idlewild was more of a Soundtrack).


Be sure to take notice of @the_real_crada on the beat too, he's starting to pile up a nice portfolio of work. In case you missed it, he was in on Drake & Alicia's - Fireworks, as well as B.O.B. & Lupe's - Past My Shades. In 2010, we saw Hip Hop become even more worldwide with producers like Crada (from Germany) and Stargate (from Norway) producing top notch Hip Hop tracks. Pretty cool to see the world catching on to the genre of music that has become the driving force for pop culture...

Donnis - Blackberry Molasses (prod by Crada & Organized Noize)

|Download