Bay Area’s sayknowledge just released his “Vibe Called Quest” album today. To celebrate this release he shares the track “HEEM!” (produced by Mars Today) with the world in the form of a free download. The album is available on iTunes so go give it a spin..

Sauce81 aka Sauce Eighty Wonder scored some serious points last year with his tremendously nice remix for Julien Dyne. Nobu is without a doubt one of our favorite producers hailing from Tokyo Japan! His debut “Fade Away” EP is available as of today on Wonderful Noise, but there is also talk of a debut solo album dropping later this year Disque Corde. The 12″ is now available at HHV.

Growing up in South London, singer/songwriter Sean J. Rankine started learning the drums and percussion, playing in a choir alongside bassist Micheal Olatuja (Olatuja Project) and guitarist Femi Temowo (Femitone). Last year Sean dove into music even deeper, teaming up with producer Justin Atherley, with the release of “(Love Is) Here Now” a single (available as a ‘name your price’ download) from his forthcoming EP. You won’t find phrases such as ‘world domination’ or ‘household name’ in Sean’s master plan. In fact there is no plan. He simply wants to learn, evolve and create art he can be proud of.

A long time ago, when Hip Hop was a lot different then it is now, there was a producer named Shawn J Period. He had produced for Mos Def, 4 Hero, Artifacts, Mad Skillz and Bush Babees in the nineties. Later in his carreer (2007) he released his “The Come Back” EP which contained “Journey’s Process”. For some reason I always loved instrumental and it’s time to share this as a Slept on Sundays joint.

Thank you Damon for sharing “Private Planet” with the world. Such a nice way to glyde into a FUNK-filled 2013. The homey DaM-FunK was nice enough to make this one available as a free download for everyone, so slyde on thru to his Soundcloud page and get some of that good stuff. Previously unreleased 13-minutes of pure DF right here.

Seems like these end of the year staff picks are getting a little bit easier each year. Firstly because the amount of posts has gone down and secondly because we’ve become even more picky concerning the content of the site. A lot of you might be wondering what happened to the whole beats thing. Well, let’s just call it an evolving taste in music and let’s face it…there have only been a handful of cats that made something really worth mentioning. Credit to whomever credit is due!

Here’s our ‘best of 2012′ list and we wish you all a fantastic 2013..

Best Album 2012
1. Robert Glasper – Black Radio
2. Darryl Reeves – Mercury
3. Grooveman Spot – Paradox
4. Erimaj – Conflict of A Man
5. Bennetrhodes – Sun Ya

Best EP 2012
1. fLako – Eclosure EP
2. AD Bourke – Raw Ivy EP
3. Sweatson Klank – Elevate Me EP
4. Christoph El Truento – EP01
5. B. Bravo & Teeko – The Starship Connection EP

Best Loosies 2012
1. Andrew Ashong – Flowers
2. Seravince – U Love
3. Jean Grae – U & ME & Everyone, We Know (prod. by M-phazes)
4. Leon Ware – Orchids For The Sun Ft. Quadron
5. Jonny Sass – The Right Way (prod. by Mez)

Best Freebie 2012
Moodymann – Picture This

Best Videos 2012
1. Flying Lotus – Until The Quiet Comes (short film)
2. Karriem Riggins – Round The Outside
3. Inkswel – Tu Machito Ft. Chico Mann

Best Remixes 2012
1. Julien Dyne – Who Are You (Sauce81 Remix)
2. Jose James – It’s All Over Your Body (Oddisee Remix)
3. Monkey_sequence.19 – Pretend Ft. Mar (Kan Sano Remix)
4. Maylee Todd – Hieroglyphics (Tall Black Guy Remix)
5. Quadron – Average Fruit (IAMNOBODI Remix)

Best New Musical Talents Spotted 2012
1. Darryl Reeves
2. Hiatus Kaiyote
3. Mez

Best Collaboration 2012
1. Funkinevil
2. Gagle X Ovall
3. Funkommunity

Best Record Labels 2012
1. Jazzy Sport
2. Blue Note
3. Wonderful Noise

Most Slept On Artist 2012
Christoph El Truento

Ones to watch in 2013
1. Shafiq Husayn
2. Sauce81
3. Seravince

So homeboy Häzel has this new project/band called New Brazilian Orchestra and together they created another version of the song “Should I”, from Canada’s duo Keishaleisha. This version can only be described as ice cold icecream on a blazing hot summers days…yum! Hurry up, cuz there’s only 100 limited downloads available right HERE..