YELLOW DIAMONDS LOOK LIKE PEE PEE!! Yo yo yo people, today we bring you our thoughts on one of the best drops of 2025, as we welcome back one of the greatest rap duos going. Pusha T and Malice team up with Pharrell to get us all nostalgic about hip hop again, and boy does it deliver ❄️ 🚨 Join Our Patreon: patreon.com/crate808 🚨 Help support the show and unlock a whole dungeon of rap goodness: MF DOOM Series 🐐 Our 'Why I Love...' series brings your a track-by-track deep dive into MF DOOM's col...
Jul 18, 2025•1 hr 10 min
Full Episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/thats-that-shit-131902178 Kam digs into Aesop Rock’s RIDICULOUS rhyming in 2025, and asks…are these the best verses of the year so far? Let us know in the comments, on our socials or crate808@gmail.com - your verses, albums, artwork, MVPs, rookies and songs of the year so far. 🚨 Join Our Patreon: patreon.com/crate808 🚨 Help support the show and unlock a whole dungeon of rap goodness: MF DOOM Series 🐐 Our 'Why I Love...' series brings your a track-by...
Jul 05, 2025•29 min
FULL EPISODE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/big-ls-big-album-123159840 Yo yo yo, this month we take it back to the year 2000 in our Rawkus Chronicles series, to revisit Big L’s ‘ The Big Picture ’ record. Joining us is another stacked guest list, with Call Out Culture’s Zilla Rocca, Dead End Hip Hop’s Beezy, and author Ben Pedroche aka Grown Up Rap breaking it all down - some stellar takes in this one! Also, go check out Call Out Culture, Dead End and Ben’s latest book - ‘ Independent As F**: Un...
Jun 23, 2025•51 min
SUUUUUUU! Welcome to another dip into the Wu-Tang Clan chamber. We jump into our Slept-On Wu Bangers Spotify playlist ( https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0iESHJ2ZPR33rhl9mHEmRx ) and pick out a song to break down on the show. Back in 2001, Ghostface Killah was hitting his apex, and one of the best songs to encapsulate this is ‘ The Sun ’. A deep cut that never got the chance to open his album ‘ Bulletproof Wallets’ , thanks to RZA being too high to remember the sample for clearance, this song ma...
May 27, 2025•39 min
Welcome back to our series digging into the greatest three-album runs in hip hop history, and today we bring you some modern classics from one of the best rap duos putting in work - Armand Hammer. We dig into the genius of billy woods and Elucid with rapper PremRock, travelling through 2017’s Rome , 2018’s Paraffin and 2020’s Shrines , looking at why this run is so special, and how it taps into the entire history of rap in just three records. Featuring a ton of amazing guest contributions, from ...
May 13, 2025•2 hr 38 min
SUUUUUUU! Yes, we are back with you, digging into the Wu chamber once more, as we jump into our Slept-On Wu Bangers Spotify Playlist ( https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0iESHJ2ZPR33rhl9mHEmRx ) and pick out a song to break down on the show. This episode we travel back to the year 2000, and Wu’s album ‘ The W’ , where Kam breaks down his love for the abundantly erratic song ‘Careful (Click, Click)’. Show Notes That’s That Shit promo (03:00) Track review (06:10) 🚨 Join Our Patreon: patreon.com/cr...
May 12, 2025•40 min
Stankonia full episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-episode-97658593 The Marshall Mathers LP full episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-episode-lp-97480136 Here’s another sneak peek into what’s going on at our Patreon ( patreon.com/crate808 ), a place where you can support the show and hear tons of bonus episodes talking about the hip hop universe. Coming up, get ready for some elite rap chat from the likes of rapper Brian Ennals, producer Infinity Knives, as well as heads, Dan O ...
Feb 25, 2025•1 hr 35 min
Time to roll a spliff with a bible, and boogie board on a tidal wave, yes it's and another episode of our Digging in the Crates series - The Alchemist edition 🧪 We’ve done ' We Gonna Make It ' and ' Terry ', so now we travel all the way back to 2013 to talk about ' Bible Paper ', Al’s cut with Prodigy from Mobb Deep. And in the hot seat is our man PremRock to break down his love for this cut with us. Show Notes Why Prodigy is a GOAT + great Schott Free story (1:00) Love for Alchemist and this a...
Jan 28, 2025•1 hr 6 min
Continuing our two-part special episode, we bring you our final takes on this stellar year in rap, as well as more incredible guest contributions Show Notes Roc Marciano - Marciology (01:14) Cavalier - Different Type Time (06:14) NAHReally + The Expert (13:30) Dan O + Ken B. Inge (29:50) Estee Nack - Stone Temple Pyrex + Systematically We Were Never Free (50:56) Max Bell + The Rap Music Plug Podcast (57:30) MAVI - Shadowbox (1:07:30) Ginger Slim + Dobson (1:22:50) Ransom + Harry Fraud - Lavish M...
Dec 23, 2024•2 hr 59 min
Our end of year special is here, and as always it is STACKED. This is a two-part special, and over the next 5+ hours, Kam, Ray and SonRaw bring you an epic Ka tribute, our Top 5 albums of the year, and all our fave verses, songs and MVP shouts. Featuring some truly incredible contributions from the rap scene, we have a huge guest list, including… Yoh Phillips NAHreally The Expert Professor Skye Elsie not Elise Uncommon Nasa Gary Suarez (Cabbages) Max Bell Ken B. Inge (Dead End Hip Hop) Zilla Roc...
Dec 23, 2024•2 hr 39 min
Yo yo yo, welcome to another episode of our Digging in the Crates Series - the Roc Marciano edition 💎 And today we travel back to one of his best opening cuts of all time, ‘ Tek to a Mack ’ from his 2012 classic ‘ Reloaded ’. And to discuss the genius of Roc, we have a guy who’s personally worked with the underground icon (as well as constantly dropping fire himself), rapper MidaZ the Beast is in the house 🔥 Show Notes Getting into Roc Marciano (02:20) Hearing Marcberg before it dropped (16:20...
Dec 10, 2024•1 hr 40 min
FULL EPISODE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/company-flows-w-103477086 Today we’re keeping it independent as fuck, rugged like Rwanda and hardcore like Kool G Rap music made for concert piano!! Yes, we are opening up our Rawkus Records Chronicles, to talk about their first major rap release - 1997’s Funcrusher Plus from Company Flow. This here is a clip of what's happening over at our Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/crate808) where we've been building a hell of a dip back into the world of 90s ...
Nov 12, 2024•1 hr 39 min
BREAK OUT THE HEAD CHEESE PEOPLE! Yes, it’s our final episode of Hip Hop Heads Talk Horror series for this Halloween, and we go out with a bang - celebrating FIFTY years of one of the best films ever made, 1974’s ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ 🪚 And joining in the fun, their families have always been into meat…Myke C-Town, Alaska Atoms and Thomas Hobbs break down the genius of TCM, while adding some dope hip hop flavour on top. In addition, we have an incredible set of special guests contributi...
Oct 29, 2024•2 hr 23 min
One, two, Crate 808 is coming for you. Three, four, better lock your door. Five, six, here’s your hip hop fix! Today we hope to keep your Halloweens spooky by continuing our Hip Hop Heads Talk Horror series, and this one is big. We sit down to celebrate 40 years of an iconic, genre-shifting, pop culture behemoth - Wes Craven’s classic ‘ A Nightmare on Elm Street’ from 1984. Joining in the fun, we have Myke C-Town and Alaska Atoms, with dope contributions from hip hop heads Simon Ward and Tom Com...
Oct 15, 2024•1 hr 48 min
We kick off our Halloween season with more Hip Hop Heads Talking Horror, celebrating a titanic film from 1984 - James Cameron’s ‘ The Terminator’ . Joining in the fun is Call Out Culture’s Alaska Atoms and Curly Castro, as well as dope contributions from other hip hop heads like writers SonRaw and Simon Ward. Lock in for the hip hop x horror crossover you need for spooky season! Show Notes Why this film has lasted (00:00) Why everyone wants to see the apocalypse (13:40) Simon Ward contribution (...
Oct 07, 2024•2 hr 7 min
MF DOOM FANS REJOICE - we bring you a sneak peek of some stellar Supervillain chat, with what we’ve got going on at our Patreon…check it… MF DOOM Series 🐐 Our 'Why I Love...' series brings your a track-by-track deep dive into MF DOOM's collection 📲 https://www.patreon.com/collection/96548 In this series of clips we hit up Dead End Hip Hop’s Beezy, rapper PremRock and hip hop producer Ol’ Burger Beats to talk on a whole host of topics surrounding the legend. As well as digging into what makes R...
Sep 03, 2024•1 hr 49 min
Yo yo yo, we bring you another episode of our Digging in the Crates series - the billy woods edition ✨ And today we’ve got Norwegian producer Ol’ Burger Beats in the house, talking on the amazing cut ‘Soundcheck’ by billy woods (featuring Quelle Chris) on 2023’s ‘Maps’ 🔥 Show Notes Least hip hop thing (00:00) How he fell in love with woods’ music (03:00) Why ‘Soundcheck’ is amazing (15:30) Digging into billy woods on ‘Black Sabbath’ + working with Quelle Chris (38:00) Sampling and its code of c...
Aug 06, 2024•1 hr 21 min
YO YO YO!! We are back with a SEVEN-HOUR rap extravaganza for all you heads out there, summing up hip hop in 2024 so far. And boy did we dig in, as writers and podcasters Dylan Green and SonRaw join in the fun. Get set for our Top 5 albums of the year so far, verses of the year, songs of the year and MVP shouts...and a lot of Kendrick Lamar talk. Featuring incredible contributions from the underground rap scene: Yoh Phillips Ken and Beezy (Dead End Hip Hop) PremRock Defcee Tokyo Cigar Rob Kheul ...
Jul 21, 2024•7 hr 1 min
Yo yo yo, today we dig into another GOAT 3-Album Run, discussing the man who has Lamborghini dreams and Nissan nightmares…Roc Marciano 🔥 On board we have returning guest, contributing editor of Pitchfork, podcaster, writer and journalist - Dylan Green aka Cine Masai! And the album run we're talking on included ' Marcberg ' (2010), ' Reloaded ' (2012), a dip into ' The Pimpire Strikes Back ' (2013) and ' Marci Beaucoup ' (2013). Featuring contributions from producer Nicholas Craven, rapper MidaZ...
Jun 18, 2024•2 hr 53 min
Yo yo yo, welcome to Crate 808, and another 3-Album Run episode speaking on one of the biggest rap groups of all time - Cypress Hill 💨 Yes, we welcome on writer, DJ and co-founder of the Closed Sessions label, DJ RTC aka Alexander Fruchter, to speak on ‘Cypress Hill’ (1991), ‘Black Sunday’ (1993) and ‘Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom ’ (1995) 🔥 Featuring special contributions from Nate LeBlanc (Dad Bod Rap Pod), Dart Adams, Robert Kuehl (The Next Movement Podcast), Dan O (Freemusic Empire) an...
Jun 05, 2024•2 hr 23 min
Yo yo yo, welcome to another episode of Hip Hop Heads Talking Horror, and this time round we celebrate 45 years of 1979’s sci-fi horror film monument - ‘ Alien ’ 🛸 Join Kam, Thomas Hobbs, Alaska Atoms and Myke-C Town for their takes on this classic, as well contributions from Shotgun the Aux’s Tom Comey and Atoms Family member, Cryptic One. Show Notes How we fell in love with the film (00:00) Why has this film’s allure held up (13:20) 5-Mic Moments: Chest-burster scene (23:30) Alien poster, tra...
May 30, 2024•1 hr 53 min
Today we bring you a deep dive into Kdot’s monumental three-album run, talking ‘Good Kid, M.A.A.D City’ (2012), ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ (2015), ‘Untitled Unmastered’ (2016) and ‘DAMN’ (2017). And in the hot seat we have award-winning music journalist, contributing editor with Bandcamp Daily and author of ‘ The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America ’ - Marcus J. Moore! Featuring special contributions from Nate LeBlanc (Dad Bod Rap Pod), Rohan (The Rap Music Plug Pod...
May 21, 2024•3 hr 7 min
2024 witnessed possibly the biggest rap beef of the century…and perhaps ever. Kendrick Lamar’s deep history with Drake erupted into a toxic battle with an unprecedented pace and instant-classic diss tracks…and we’re here to break it all down. Joining us for this behemoth episode, we have writers Dylan Green and Kia Turner on the round table, and special guest contributions from the likes of Justin Hunte, Rohan from The Rap Music Plug Podcast, journalist Thomas Hobbs and YouTuber Dobson. This wen...
May 12, 2024•3 hr 5 min
Welcome to another dope sneak peak into what’s happening over at our Patreon - including rap reviews from the naughties, voted for by the patrons themselves! So we bring you some clips from our review of Common’s breakthrough album from 2000. Joining us are two dope guests, with E (The Next Movement Podcast) and Defcee (rapper, educator) in the hot seats - and this one got deep 💥🧠 Full episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-episode-93212905 And then we dip into the supergroup of rapper D...
May 08, 2024•57 min
Yes people, today we dip into another GOAT’s catalogue, and this one is all about Scarface 🐐 The rap mogul's outstanding catalogue to name our top choice cuts...as well as decide which Scarface song from the 90's would you play to an alien to teach it hip hop! And joining us is a stellar cast: Rapper Defcee and Dead End Hip Hop's very own Beezy and Ken 🔥 Show Notes Why Face is the GOAT (00:00) Honourable mentions (31:00) What artists have blown up going solo? (36:00) Top 3 Scarface songs (1:11...
Apr 30, 2024•2 hr 16 min
Welcome to another Digging in the Crates episode - the Roc Marciano Edition 😎 We travel back to 2013, and Roc’s ‘ The Pimpire Strikes Back ’ mixtape, to talk about his souled-out cut ‘ Doesn’t Last ’ with hip hop artist and musician - AJ Suede! 🔥 Show Notes History with Roc Marci (00:00) What makes Roc Marciano different (11:27) Track review (25:00) DITC categories (50:57) Help support the show and unlock a whole dungeon of rap goodness: MF DOOM Series 🐐 Our 'Why I Love...' series brings your...
Mar 26, 2024•1 hr 1 min
COCK IT!! Yes, Hip Hop Heads Talking Horror returns with a celebration of 2004’s zombie film classic, ‘ Shaun of the Dead ’ 🧟♂️ Joining us for this horror special are Call Out Culture’s Alaska Atoms and Zilla Rocca, as well as contributions from writers Thomas Hobbs and Tim Fish, as well as podcaster Tom Comey from Shotgun the Aux. Find our other Hip Hop Heads Talking Horror episodes right here: https://www.crate808.com/horror Show Notes Love for this British classic (00:20) How Ed is like Nec...
Mar 12, 2024•1 hr 55 min
Full Stillmatic episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-episode-88128592 Full The Ecstatic episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-episode-86935654 Today we’re bringing you look behind the curtain of what’s happening at our Patreon, where we have hours and HOURS worth of bonus material for all you fellow rap nerds. These right here are some highlights from our naughties rap album reviews, specifically Nas’ 2001 record, Stillmatic, followed by Mos Def’s The Ecstatic from 2009. Both incr...
Mar 05, 2024•1 hr 50 min
Who’s ready to get Digging in the Crates in our first Mach-Hommy edition? 🙋♂️ Yes, we speak to hip hop artist AJ Suede on the magic of Mach-Hommy, and why he loves ‘ Thank God ’, from 2016’s ‘ HBO’ (‘ Haitian Body Odor’ ) on Griselda Records. Produced by August Fanon, this track is sublime - find out why we think so 📲 Go check out Suede’s incredible output, from 2024’s ‘ Opta Mystic ’, or his work with Televangel with ‘ Metatron’s Cube ’ and ‘ Parthian Shots ’ (not to forget his Small Profess...
Feb 27, 2024•1 hr 16 min
Welcome to another episode of our Digging in the Crates series - the billy woods edition 👑 And in the hot seat we welcome a legend whose work spans more than two decades. A prolific producer and probably the best social media follow in hip hop - Blockhead is in the house! And he explains why he loves ' The Eucharist ' by Armand Hammer (which is really a billy woods solo song), from 2020’s ' Shrines', produced by Messiah Musik. Show Notes Least hip hop thing (01:00) The Eucharist and genius of w...
Feb 13, 2024•1 hr 38 min
