Team Green - Hostage, Volume 1 (Hosted by DNA)

Team Green is a group put together by Akira The Great, the MC/producer from Beat Game Industries, who did the beats for the non-freestyle tracks on here and some dope beats for other artists. The other MCs in the group are Cato The Prankster, Bandana P, and Midas. Midas is definitely the rising star of the group and if you've been to Style Warz in the past few months, you know why. He was the champ in December, and then was the runner-up in January, and then the runner-up again at Super Style Warz last month, and this month he's coming back as a featured performer. In December I saw the first few battles he was in but ducked out before the end to hit another show, but I wasn't surprised when I heard later that he won, he really stood out. He's this this chubby dude with mad charisma, he gets his dance on while he's rhyming and has some sick punchlines, but he also comes off real humble and cool. I'm definitely looking forward to the solo mixtape he's dropping soon. The other dudes get in plenty of verses, and there's also appearances from Woodz, Don Brody, Choppa aka Young City, and Lil Nikki. If you check the link to Team Green's MySpace page above you should be able to get in touch with them to get a copy. Akira talks some real funny shit on the outro, like "I would take a Speak-N-Spell, just a Speak-N-Spell, and make the hottest shit you ever heard in your life, hotter than your whole albums."

Midas - "6 Million Dollar Man" (mp3)
This is probably my favorite Midas solo track on the mixtape, "Essential" is good, too, though.

Lil Nikki - "Girl Named Nikki" (mp3)
Akira chops a hot sample on this, and I'm all about the classic Prince shit. Actually, the craziest sample on this mixtape is the R.E.M. "Losing My Religion" flip on Choppa's "The Corner." I'm not sure who Lil Nikki is, I think they say she's from Richmond, VA?

Labels: DNA, Midas, mixtape/album review, mp3