New Black Star Line Joint!

Coptic

Prepare to get schooled young blaggers and blaggettes. Got your notepads out? I'm just playing. For real though, Coptic's new leak just landed in theblagg's e-mail and you know we had to share.

You guys all know Coptic, right? I'll be honest, I didn't either until this week. Sorta. Thing is, we all know his music, just not the man behind the beats. Coptic - a Ghanaian-born and raised American producer - is responsible for giving us Biggie's If I Should Die Before I Wake and I Need A Girl by Diddy. I know you're singing along right now...

Cool, so Coptic saw that there's a gap in the success rate of African hip hop artists in the American market. Not everyone can be K'Naan you know. So he decided to be the change he wants to see. Enter Black Star Line: Close To My Roots. Insert Hallelujah here. This has nothing to do with the Mos and Kweli classic. Lemme let African Hip Hop (where we jacked the above pic from) tell it:

‘Black Star Line: Close to my roots’ is an effort to unite American and African emcees on one album over Coptic’s beats. Opting to work with only seasoned and respected names in American hip hop, such as M1 (Dead Prez), Smif n Wessun, Black Rob, Havoc (Mobb Deep), Sheek Louch (The Lox), Buckshot and Memphis Bleek, the project seems assured of the deserved attention when it drops. African artists on the album include Zimbabwe Legit, Abbas Abbas, Gibril da African and jazz legend Hugh Masekela.

Smif-n-Wessun

Prince Eddie Atlas

And here, ladies and gentlemen is the second single off the album. Brought to you exclusively by theblagg. Huge shout out to Nabunya! The joint is called Live By Da Gun and it features Brooklynites Smif-n-Wessun as well as Prince Eddie Atlas from Uganda. Atlas spits on how his dad lost his life at the hands of Idi Amin. Music video soon come. Play this loud!

Live By Da Gun (Clean) by theblagg