Life is too short to listen to bad music. So…let Ambrosia For Heads sift through it for you and only supply you with that great stuff. Despite the reports, Hip-Hop is alive and well and, in many ways, it’s better than it’s ever been. Not only can we go back and listen to all of our favorites at the click of a button, but there is also a ton of great music still being made by artists, young and veteran alike…if you know where to look. To help with that task, we’ve created a playlist with recently released music. We update it regularly, so subscribe to follow us on Spotify if you like what you hear.

Less than a week ago, Black Thought and Danger Mouse partnered to release Cheat Codes. One of the best Hip-Hop albums of late, the LP finds the Gnarls Barkley/Broken Bells/DangerDOOM/Pelican City producer returning to his Hip-Hop roots alongside one of the best to ever do it. The BMG Records release features a second collaboration between Thought and the late MF DOOM, as well as Run The Jewels, Joey Bada$$, A$AP Rocky, Russ, and Conway The Machine. However, it also features a top-shelf reunion between Tariq Trotter and Raekwon da Chef.

An Argument For Why Black Thought Is The Greatest MC Of All Time (Video)

Two MCs who each debuted in 1993 (with Organix and Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), respectively), Black Thought and Raekwon sound incredible together on “The Darkest Part.” “I’m like Thelonious at the underground piano / Dressed in camo, the grenades, guns, and ammo / Death to ‘Sambo,’ send him a bouquet and a candle / I came to take back that other two-fifths of a man, so / From a silhouette standin’ in the aperture / To a figurehead standin’ in the path of a killer / Young gorilla just scramblin’ for Africa / Crept and will accept nothing but a massacre / Premonition of intuition is a b*tch / Got a message from the heavens, all it said is to be this / Keep it brief like an elevator pitch / Or delegate’ll switch ’cause the spirit is a snitch / In America, the rich love to wear it on they wrist / They call the shots, they don’t wear it on they lip / Jinglin’ of the chains, I can still hear it on the ship / One hand loads the clip, feel the rubber on the grip / Me and my reflection sendin’ one another on a trip / I’m under 21 and bent, now you know what punishment, listen / It ain’t an easy odyssey for you to follow me / We do kinesiology with no apology,” raps Thought in the first of two verses. His opening image is a direct description of Thelonious Monk’s 1968 Underground album artwork.

Kid Sister, who made a 2008 buzzing track in the Kanye West-assisted “Pro Nails,” makes a great return with the chorus. Thought’s second verse is as potent as the first, with lyrics including, “The deeper the breath, the louder the scream / I cower between the two monsters out of my dream / A Cadillac, a limousine, an anti-ni**a machine / And if I wake up alive, I bet they won’t come clean / Umpteen times, the warning signs went unseen / To me, they done something, they tried to clip my wings / But not before I understood how any caged bird sings.” Wu-Tang Clan’s Shallah takes the third verse. He references a DOOM lyric in his approach, perhaps as a nod to The Mouse & The Mask, which featured Ghostface Killah. “Hardest and the sharpest / Merge like three-bedroom apartments / Pick one room, they all boom, let me start this / My art retarded, kids, the arsonist and ostrich / The moon is the part, we been partners, sh*t / Say no other, we the Jungle Brothers out in Kenya / How we did in December, loadin’ them cartridges / The lines is like nines, PA between babies / Word to mama, poor llamas, paper we seein’ crazy / Louis Rich, he the drummer / Thoughts from the Black boy, boy, mama call ya / See, the numbers stay maxin’ and relaxin’ / Chump jewelry and 2020 seven Hummers, we saw / I seen your stunters gettin’ busy on the bridge /Headed out fleein’, you’re top tier, stop wasting time, take some shine.” Danger Mouse supplies the perfect piano riff that pairs perfectly with Kid Sis’ vocal.

Statik Selektah – “Bird’s Eye View” featuring Raekwon, Joey Bada$$ & Black Thought (Audio)

Previously, Black Thought guested on “Masters Of Our Fate” from Rae’s 2011 Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang LP. These MCs joined Joey Bada$$ for Statik Selektah’s 2013 Extended Play single “Bird’s Eye View.”

The AFH playlist also features many other new and recent Black Thought & Danger Mouse songs, as well as other tracks by Method Man, Royce 5’9″, Nas, Slick Rick, Your Old Droog, and more.

Raekwon Critiques Every Album In His Catalog, Noting The Good & The Bad (Video)

#BonusBeat: A recent episode of Ambrosia For Heads’ What’s The Headline podcast that analyzes more than 30 “Top 5 MCs” lists from some of the best to do it. Black Thought is included: