If you’re like RefinedHype you talk about yourself in the third person, and spend all day scouring the interwebs for the latest and illest hip-hop. That’s why now, because we love you so much, and want to get you hooked on our product, we’ll be delivering the RefinedHype Daily Re-Up, a collection of the top ten tracks of the day, some which were featured on the site along with some extras, conveniently wrapped in one dope, raw and uncut package. Download now…

I realize I may as well be writing about what I had for breakfast this morning (chicken, weirdly enough), for the level of relevance this all has to hip-hop production thus far, but I had to share. The real reason I’m talking about Hall & Oates’ “She’s Gone”, however, has to do with the DJBooth.net debut of an up-and-coming emcee named Capeech, which bears the same title and, as you may have guessed, is centered around a sample from the soft-rock smash single. See more…

Every year thousands of fans, music journalists and artists converge upon Austin, Texas for the city’s annual drunken orgy music festival South by Southwest (SXSW). In order to help their SXSW show stand out from the crowd Miami-based clothing company Last Rights has teamed up with DJ Razor to put together “The House Fire”, a mixtape showcasing the rappers that will be rocking their stage; rappers whose names include Freddie Gibbs, Pill, Esso, Curren$y, Dom Kennedy and more. Listen and download…

Back in October of ‘09 Mississippi’s most controversial rapper David Banner and beatsmith extraordinaire 9th Wonder announced that their collabo album “Death of a Pop Star” would be coming “very soon”. And then, um, some time went by and while we got little tidibits the push behind the album seemed to disappear. And then today we got hit with their new track “Strange”, a gorgeously produced cut (no surprise there) featuring Banner in his revolutionary rap mode and a guest verse from Big Remo, who I didn’t know but comes through with a solid guest verse. Listen and download…

Considering the wife and I literally conceived our child to his “Love vs. Money” album (too much information?) at first I was devastated by The-Dream’s announcement that he’ll be retiring as a solo artist after he drops his upcoming “Love King” album. “It’s the last album, period,” he told MTV News. Well f**k, that pretty much seals the deal…and then I remembered that Dream is far from the only artist to say he was hanging up the mic only to reverse course and continue making albums. See more…

Back in Jim Jones’ “Ballin” days I couldn’t have imagines myself saying this, but over the last couple of years (specifically after his “Harlem’s American Gangster” album) I’ve slowly grown to actually respect Jones as a rapper…I still can’t believe I just typed that sentence. He easily gets my vote for most improved rapper, which is why I was legitimately stoked to listen to his new cut “Haunted”, an appropriately ethereal produced but by 1.2 that Jones drives home with two legitimately dope verses. Listen and download…

ArtOfficial, the live hip-hop crew that first took us on a tour of their native Miami, is gearing up to drop their new album “The Payback” and what better way to build some well-deserved hype than by dropping the project’s title track? Featuring RefinedHype favorite K. Sparks, who here spits yet another missile precise flow, ‘The Payback” is first and foremost a musical beat; goddamn that bass line is sick. Listen and download…

I know I’m going to get “Why are you posting this? Lady Gaga isn’t hip-hop!” emails after this, so allow me to provide a quick defense of this posting. First, Gaga’s new “Telephone” video is the most atrociously insane video put out by a major artist in…well…ever, and it prominently features Beyonce (a.k.a. Mrs. Sean Carter). It’s over nine minutes, and once you see it there’s no going back, so proceed with caution. 

Another day, another “Raymond vs. Raymond” leak (more on that later), and in honor of the guest artist on today’s leak I’ll be calling its headliner Ursher for the remainder of this article. That’s right, Ludacris has reunited with the former Mr. Tameka Foster for the high energy “She Don’t Know”, a brightly bouncing track about a chick in Ursher’s life playing hard to get (unlikely). After a series of disapoitnment, this may just be one of the best tracks I’ve heard so far off the album. Listen and download…

If you’re like RefinedHype you talk about yourself in the third person, and spend all day scouring the interwebs for the latest and illest hip-hop. That’s why now, because we love you so much, and want to get you hooked on our product, we’ll be delivering the RefinedHype Daily Re-Up, a collection of the top ten tracks of the day, some which were featured on the site along with some extras, conveniently wrapped in one dope, raw and uncut package. Download now…