Mark Steele is a solo rap artist from Durham, NC. Currently residing in New York City, his sound imbues a gritty, fervid sound that has been long lost since the late 90’s, early 2000’s. Bred into the culture since the tender age of 15, he has already worked with some of the industry’s best. Topping the list includes his mentor and former college professor, super producer 9th Wonder, and YMCMB artist Cory Gunz. Formerly of the NC based rap duo Mic&Rep, well respected publications such as The Source Magazine’s “Unsigned Hype” have highlighted Steele’s potential, as well as a slew of the top online blog sites.
Yesterday Mark released his new mixtape, ‘Empty Auditorium’ which you can get here….
THURZ performs Punky Brewster with Christian Rich exclusively for Hard Knock TV. To celebrate hitting 100K Youtube Subcribers Hard Knock TV invited some of its friends to come perform in front of their Red Camera. Thurz’ Blood on the Canvas coming soon!
Tune in this week and next to HARDKNOCKTV for more exclusive performance including a freestyle from Thurz.
Dope new track from UK emcee Big Cakes featuring Street Souls that he recently uploaded to his soundcloud page. ‘Mic Check (London To Rio)’ is produced by the UK’s Chairman Maf.
Stream the track here
If you slept on Big Cakes Dope album ‘Its All Love, Produced by Geo, you can cop it here
The Trillest OG of them all, Bun B, swung by Sway in the Morning and opened up about his new album The Epilogue, schooled us on his views of rap, and caps it all off with a genuine freestyle off the top of his head.
The Epilogue hit stores today, containing recording sessions that are over 3 years old, and features from the late-great Pimp C, Raekwon, Royce Da 5’9, Redman and more.
“It’s so lyrical,” Sway comments, “these are songs that you typically might not expect southern artists to collab with, but now is the right time.”
Along with being a natural leader and teacher, Mr. B also lectures a class at Rice University in Houston. Serving as a sneak peak into his class, Bun says…
“A lot that we see in rap music, is being described in hip hop, everything that is rap music is not hip hop,” says Bun. “An MC can be a rapper, a rapper can’t be an MC.”
We couldn’t let this Southern artist leave without blessing us with some bars though. Watch below as Heather B encourages his flow by freestyling on her own.
The Epilogue is in stores now, along with the Bun B’s Rap Coloring Book.