Nearly three years ago Lesson Six opened its doors as a collective of music lovers striving for something more from Hip-Hop. We found it. 1,000 posts, 82 features, 51 reviews, 2 live shows and 1 print magazine worth. We’ve loved every second listening to great music and sharing it with you, the readers.

But, a new year brings change. We spent the latter half of 2012 talking to the fellow hip-hop enthusiasts at The Find Mag. Originally looking into the possibility of better referencing cross-posts between the two blogs, it soon became obvious that a closer relationship made much more sense.

So here’s the deal. Lesson Six and The Find are now one.

Starting from today Lesson Six will no longer exist in it’s current form. The team over here will continue bringing Cliché-Free Hip-Hop to your ears but now from our new home over at The Find Mag.

We’ve long been a fan of the work Danny and his team does over at The Find and we couldn’t think of a more natural fit for us. We’ve got big plans for 2013 as a unified outlet, the first of which includes a shiny new website to support the higher quantity of content we’ll be outputting. We hope you’ll be coming along with us for the ride.

If you have any questions or concerns we’ll be happy to answer them in the comments below. But from everyone here at Lesson Six, we’re incredibly excited to start working as part of a bigger site and looking forward to the next step in our mission to find the best progressive and alternative hip-hop around.

Cocaine 80′s, the r&b/hip-hop outfit dropped a new EP this weekend. I’ve been a big fan since I first heard of them about a year and a half back with their combination of production from No I.D and verses from Common. James Fauntleroy, is the lead man and he leads very well on this EP. Download it for free here.

1 Kuro To Shiro

About a week late on this, but it’s never too late to share especially since this is an ongoing series. Australian Producer Ta-Ku is paying homage to Nujabes releasing 25 tracks, once every night starting last week. So far, each night has had a slightly different sound, but they all sound impressive.

*This post will be updated each night with the new track

Fresh off working with Open Mike Eagle on 4NML HSPTL, probably Mike’s most accomplished and focused album to date, UK producer Awkward has rounded out 2012 another project. VLACHI_PRO is another transatlantic collaboration. This time between him and LA spoken-word artist, Matt Gamin. Anyone who listened to 4NML HSPTL will instantly hear a similar, if not more expressive and commanding, sounding Awkward. It’s available on Pay-what-you-want deal through Awkward’s Bandcamp.

Rapper ex-rapper, Muneshine has quickly followed up December’s announcement with a free remixed version of There Is Only Today. It feels like a much more laid-back version of his 2012 album with most producers dialling down the original’s triumphant sound that’s definitely worth picking up.

Apparently, at the end or start of a year, producers are meant share tracks from their archive. Exile, one not to break with tradition, has dug up tracks from 1996 to 2009 and given them the light of day. Featuring demo versions from his solo debut 4TRK MIND as well as Blu & Exile and Emanon excerpts. Download it here.

Old Shit! Aesop Rock and Blockhead do the equivalent of dusting off to an mp3 file and share “Hall of Game.” An old track from ‘sometime around the year 2000′ that never made the light of day.

Producer Vanilla released a collection of beats earlier this week, and it is really good. There are a lot of recognizable samples on this jazzy hip-hop beat tape. You can download it for free here or on band camp

At the end of last year Spin Magazine compiled a fairly comprehensive video of video game samples in hip-hop. It started to make a few of us at Lesson Six think how many were actually about video games rather than just sounding like them. The result, a list of our top six tracks about video games…

1. “Gaming On Ya” by People Under The Stairs

Let’s start with the track that probably has the most video game reference and samples. People Under The Stairs don’t take video game tracks lightly.

2. “Boss Fight” by Open Mike Eagle & Milo

While in between annual album releases, Open Mike Eagle some how finds the time to crank out EPs filled with tracks like this. This track marks the start of Milo and Open Mike Eagle working together – with Milo now with Hellfyre Club – and doesn’t disappoint.

3. “Yabosayo” by Wordburglar

Just like a kid on your 360 game, Wordburglar keeps his wordplay count high over this Fresh Kils beat.

4. “Pixelated” by Junk Science

We’re currently in between full Junk Science LPs but they kept my interest in 2011 with the release of their video game inspired Phoenix Down. Here Scott Thorough and Snafu create a retro video game soundtrack that went above and beyond the then current chiptune craze.

5. “Put Your Quarter Up” by Molemen ft. Slug, Aesop Rock & MF DOOM

I love the fact that Molemen must have called in all their favours to compile a guestlist that reads like a underground hip-hop fan’s wet dream. Combine those artists and let them pay respects to the great American tradition that is an Arcade, and you’re onto a winner.

6. “Protoculture” by Del The Funky Homosapien

Well, we would have been doing something wrong if we didn’t include this track.

The Good Sin released this jazzy track produced by DJ Phinisey a couple days ago, and it sounds great. Don’t Give Up features an all Seattle cast, most notably Thig Nat of The Physics. This track combines a little bit of jazz, some soulful singing and of course some dope rhymes.