DJ Mel Boogie ft. Eternia "GIANTS" / "The L.I.F.E. Project"

This year marked DJ Mel Boogie's 25th anniversary in the Canadian music landscape, making her not only a veteran, but also a trailblazer. For the past two years, MelBoogie has been working on an album representative of some of the most talented rappers in Toronto, accumulating into her compilation album, DJ Mel Boogie Presents the L.I.F.E. Project. On the L.I.F.E. Project, Mel Boogie has enlisted just female lyricists to flesh out her album: Eternia and pHoenix Pagliacci go head-to-head in a bar-for-bar battle on "Giants," Rah Digga shines on the posse cut "Blazin'" and LolaBunz and Keysha Freshh paint the most vivid imagery on "You're All I Need." In addition, the album includes JellyTooFly, Haviah Almighty, Lex Leosis, Ashley Jenelle, and more for a total of 14 sharp tracks. Producers who collaborated on this album include DJ Mercilless, Tone Mason, Big Sproxx, and more. Mel Boogie adds that she partnered with Sproxx to bring her project to fruition, which "has made me have even more respect for artists who pursue their passion while balancing work, school, children, and the day-to-day challenges of LIFE itself." Props to Exclaim for their review to include with this post, another integral part of the Canadian music scene. Salute Del F. Cowie & Erin Lowers.

Rah Digga "Everything Is A Story" (Unreleased Album)

Last year a fan remastered Rah Digga's leaked vocals from her unreleased album, Everything Is A Story. Rah Digga allegedly owns those masters, and called the remastered version a "bootleg of a bootleg," but still proclaimed that she was here for it ... lol. Rah Digga released her debut album Dirty Harriet in 2000, then returned in 2010 for a collaborative album with Nottz titled Classic. I was in the studio with Rah Digga in 2009 for a track with Eternia ("The BBQ"), what some fans don't know is that while she was in the studio that night, her house burned to the ground and all she had left was her laptop with her music. That scenario somehow unlocked a chamber within her to get back to music, thus eventually releasing Classic the following year. Anyhow, back to her unreleased album Everything Is A Story, which she'd originally recorded in 2004... the album was released in pieces over the years, but is now available on her Bandcamp and features production from J Dilla, Just Blaze, Hi-Tek, Large Professor, DJ Scratch, No I.D., Scott Stortch, Jake One and guests like Ghostface Killah, Mobb Deep, Fabolous, Snoop Dogg, Lloyd Banks, Joe Budden and more! Exhale ... that's a lot to leave on a shelf. J Records absorbed Flipmode Ent when Busta was crossing over to work with Aftermath and the album was delayed to the point of being shelved. Listen to it below...

Rah Digga 'Dirty Harriet' (Vibe Album Review, 2000)

Digga Digga / First name Rashia / Rock the mic crazy! Rah Digga came with a dope debut on ‘Dirty Harriet' in 2000. Most known for her time with the Flipmode Squad, her career goes further back to the Outsidaz and a crew called Twice The Flavor. Her harsh tone and inflection, mixed with witty wordplay caught everyone’s attention, and to this day, you don’t wanna send shots in her direction. I had the honor of being a fly on the wall for a studio session back in 2009, when she was featured on my artist, Eternia’s joint ‘The BBQ’ (also featuring Lady of Rage). She wrote on the spot, edited her own pro-tools sessions and had her own cameraman in the spot; I liked her immediately! At the time, I believe she was studying video editing or directing and seemed real passionate about it. Soon after, she released her project with Nottz and has stayed consistent ever since. The version of the 12" I owned off the album had the DJ Premier-produced ‘Lessons of Today’ on the A-side, with the Pete Rock-produced ‘What They Call Me’ on Side B. It was a SureShot DJ Promo. Another 12” had ‘Lessons of Today,’ but the Rockwilder joint ‘Break Fool’ was on the A-Side. You can’t really miss with either 12” and that’s kinda how I feel about the entire album, which had additional production from Nottz, DJ Scratch, Mr. Walt, etc. 17yrs later, it’s still dope; she blazed a trail for lyrical hip-hop and only a few can stand with her. Read the full album review in Vibe up above...