Free Album: Poetic Republic- The Blackest Man Alive

With an inbox full of free albums, mix tapes, EPs, beat tapes, single song downloads, press releases, and bandcamp URLs, it's easy to feel suffocated with new music. When those submissions contain clichés, played out ideas, and flavorless flows, it's even easier to feel hopeless.

Groups like Cleveland, Ohio's Poetic Republic gives a drowning blogger hope.

Ahp Qwes, King Rem, Asante, Angelo Vagas, DJ Ceven, Theron Brown, and Yosh Benjamin turned me into an optimist when they sent over their 2008 LP, The Natural Progression of Things-- a poetic paragon of post-Native Tongue hip hop and one of my favorite releases of the past few years. Ahp and Rem's seamless flows mixed with the band's organic sampling and crisp live instrumentation gave me flashbacks of early Roots records, but for the first time ever, I heard a hip hop band blazing their own path rather than stomping in their forefathers footsteps.

Fast forward to present day Brooklyn, New York. With their instruments strapped to their back and bright future burning in their chests, the group recently crossed Pennsylvania into the core of NYC. After two flawless albums (The Indigenous Philosophies of the Gentiles & The Natural Progression of Things) and their latest mix tape/street album, The Blackest Man Alive, Poetic Republic hopes that hip hop fans won't judge them as another transient act trying to squeeze the juice out of The Mecca, but by the fruits they bear.

The free download for their latest release, The Blackest Man Alive, is below and features live recordings and studio cuts hosted by DJ K-Nyce. I also upped a couple of sample tracks from the album and their 2008 LP.

Download Album: Poetic Republic- The Blackest Man Alive
Download: Poetic Republic- The Media

Download: Poetic Republic- The Natural Progression of Things (2008)
Download: Poetic Republic- Third
Download: Poetic Republic- Pale Horse

Track listing for The Blackest Man Alive on the flip side.

1. The Media

2. The Blackest Man Alive

3. For the Heads

4. Snow Boots

5. Cleveland

6. Live & Direct

7. Yea

8. Black Man Supreme

9. Fool for Lust

10. Paper Chasin'

11. Fantastic

12. Zombie Rock

13. We Do It