Exactly a year ago we reported that Vodka brand Smirnoff was teaming up with Hip-Hop cats and remixing classic joints, essentially pairing up the songs original MC and teaming them up with some of this generations dopest producers. The first one that dropped was the KRS-One  & DJ Premier track “Criminal Minded ‘08″, that was followed up with Common & Just Blaze “The Light ‘08″ and the third and final installment of the series for 2008 was the  Q-Tip & Cool & Dre joint “Midnight ‘08″.

Well the series is BACK for the ‘09, except this years version is different than the last. Instead teaming up MC with producer, they’ve teamed them up with another vocalist. The first track has Nas doing “If I Ruled The World ‘09″ except this version features Marsha Ambrosius. The follow up to this will be Buckshot and Canada’s own Kardinal Offishall redoing “I Got Cha Opin ‘09″ and the third in the series will be Nice & Smooth with Pac Div doing “Funky For You ‘09″. Should be an interesting set of remixes this time around. For more information hit up http://smirnoffsignaturemixseries.com

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Nas with Marsha Ambrosius “If I Ruled The World ‘09″

On Saturday February 21st, Canada’s very own Kardinal Offishall rolled into town with opening MC Shaun Boothe, also a fellow Canadian. We were fortunate enough to be invited by Live Nation to attend the event. The night started off a slightly delayed, but the venue was definitely getting packed in and there was a semi-Caribbean vibe to it all.

Shaun Boothe kicked things off by welcoming everybody with his rendition of the Canadian National Anthem, which starts off in the manner that we’re all familiar with but quickly changes to a hip-hop version with bangin’ beats. For those not familiar with Shaun Boothe, he’s best known as a dope freestyler, as well he’s known for his “Unauthorized Biography” series, which not only Killahbeez, but thousands of hip-hop blogs out there have given love to as it is one of the most creative things out there, if you’ve never seen it, then check it here. On this night we were treated to him doing the “Unauthorized biography of Bob Marley”, which is the second one in the series. He also dropped his joint “The Reporter” on all the heads out there, check out the music video for the song. His set would end on that note.

Moments went by, when the lights dimmed and the heads in the house knew that Kardinal was about to hit the stage. For all of you that don’t know or have never seen Kardinal Offishall live, well then, let me just tell you this ain’t your average hip-hop concert, as Kardi is known to get live and keep the energy up throughout the whole show. Tonight was no different. He came out hitting folks from all sorts of angles with his energy and quickly going through his rhymes only to switch it up briefly to M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes”, and members of the Black Jays, Ro Dolla and Solitaire, joining him on stage as his hypemen. From there they went into CLASSIC Kardi joints such as “Money Jane”, which the original track featured Sean Paul, and doing his chorus on the hood anthem by the Clipse “Grindin’”.

From there he would hit the crowd with tracks from his current album Not 4 Sale. Pretty much getting the crowd wildin’ as he dropped “Burnt” and “Numba 1″. He would honestly keep the crowd live all night, as he once again changed it up and had his DJ change up the pace and play a medley of hip-hop joints such as DMX’s “Party Up”, Bell Biv Devo’s “Poison”, Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” and a few other tracks.

There was no doubt fans of Kardi were leaving the concert satisfied this evening, because like always he brought an energy that is generally lacking at live hip-hop shows. As usual Live Nation does a great job in producing the concert so be sure to hit up www.livenation.com for a list of upcoming shows in your city. Check out some of the songs that were referenced below.

Pictures can all be found on our flickr page.

Kardinal Offishall ft. Keri Hilson “Numba 1″

Shaun Boothe “The Reporter”

New video from Canada’s own Kardinal Offishall for the song “Numba 1 (Tide Is High)”, which also features the beautiful Keri Hilson. The video is directed by Gil Green who also directed Lil’ Wayne’s “Lollipop”, Young Jeezy’s “Put On” and Kardi’s first video from this album “Dangerous”. The song is a cover version of The Paragons’ 1967 reggae song “The Tide Is High”. The version that appears on Kardi’s album Not 4 Sale is the latest version of the “Tide Is High”, which only features Rihanna.

What’s happening loyal and new readers. It’s been a moment since we brought you all a contest of some sort and well that drought is over. Thanks to Spectrum Events, www.spectrum-events.com, we have three Kardinal Offishall prizes to give out. Grand prize is a CD as well as a “Not 4 Sale” t-shirt which he wore on the Jay Leno show, 2nd and 3nd prizes is the CD. Pretty good win either way.

So how do you enter you ask. Sign-up for Spectrum Event’s newsletter, found here (right at the top), and then sign-up for the Killahbeez newsletter here. If you have already signed up for both then you’re automatically entered.

Stay tuned for more giveaways. Deadline for entries: Oct 27th.

A couple of new tracks here, while the rest are remixes that I thought were dope or interesting enough to post up on the site. First up is Diddy, okay so by now you’ve probably heard T.I.’s “Swagger Like Us”, well, Diddy took it a step further and did a track called “Swagger Like Puff”. The thing is the brotha comes off hard on this track, opening the track up by saying “Ayo P gimme my gun”. Huh, Diddy, I know you were cleared of gun charges, but not a good look to bring in a line like that. Next is Lady Gaga, all I’ve heard about this girl is that she’s huge in Canada, #1 hit, knocked off Katy Perry’s joint, please don’t judge our country based on the music charts. Anyways she shows love to Canada by enlisting Kardinal Offishall to spice the track up and I have to say I quite like it, definitely can say my homegirl Moore would love this track too. Via Missing Toof are two electro tracks, first being Heartsrevolution with their thumping track “Switchblade” and next is a remix of The Ting Tings “Shut Up and Let Me Go” remixed by LAZRtag, about 20 – 25 seconds into the track I was sold.

Diddy “Swagga Like Puff”

Lady Gaga ft. Kardinal Offishall “Just Dance” (Remix)

Heartsrevolution “Switchblade”

The Ting Tings “Shut Up and Let Me Go” (LAZRtag Remix)

Robin Thicke ft. Mary J Blige & Wale “Magic” (Mark Ronson Remix)

Quite a few new songs this week and some remixes. This’ll be my last post til I hit Virgin Fest out in Toronto, more on that story itself later. So this week Stones Throw released the Arabian Prince Anthology, with tons of classic jams and ones that I ain’t never heard before. This dude was a real ass innovator back in the day so definitely check out the song below and go cop this album. Next up is Kardi, his release date is this upcoming Tuesday the 9th, I believe, anyways song is a collab with UK’s RnB songstress Estelle. From there we have a mix of songs. The first one being from a Canadian band, from Montreal to be exact, called Duchess Says with their song called “Black Flag”, can Montreal do any wrong on the music scene, like for serious. Following that is another “Paper Planes” remix featuring 50 cent and crew, Montreal’s own Grandtheft (meant to post this awhile ago) remixing Chromeo (also from Montreal) and then there’s Niam from the BK, with a nice track of his own.

Arabian Prince “Innovative Life”

Kardinal Offishall ft. Estelle “Due Me A Favour”

Duchess Says “Black Flag”

M.I.A. ft. 50 Cent “Paper Planes”

Chromeo “Fancy Footwork” (Remixed by Grandtheft)

Niam “Brooklyn Bitch”

Some new tracks for all of you to preview and bang. First up we have Keri Hilson’s new track “Slow Dance”, which is produced by The Royal Court (dudes work closely with Timbaland and did the Omarion “Ice Box” track). The track is definitely a nice slow jam to listen to for the ladies or better yet, with the ladies.

We also have three new tracks from T.I., which I’m definitely anticipating the release of the album. “Swagger Like Us”, Killahbeez’s own AJK sent through to me and all we really could say was 1. drums are nice and 2. T.I. lyrically killed it, other than then neither of us are feelin’ the “Paper Planes” sample that Kanye used for this track. Of all the tracks here, “Let My Beat Pound” is my favorite. But give all three a listen and let us know what you think.

Also included here are new tracks from 88-Keys featuring Kanye West and new Kardinal Offishal featuring The Dream.

Keri Hilson “Slow Dance” (Produced by The Royal Court)

T.I. ft. Kanye West, Jay-Z & Lil’ Wayne “Swagger Like Us”

T.I. “Let My Beat Pound”

T.I. ft. Usher “My Life, Your Entertainment” (Produced by Drumma Boy)

88-Keys ft. Kanye West “Stay Up! (Viagra)”

Kardinal Offishall ft. The Dream “Gimme Some”

Sooooo much new music here. My inbox has been flooded that I had to create two separate posts, one for hiphop and the other for electro submissions.

New joint from Young Jeezy featuring Nas with Dj Toomp on the production. The beat is so epic. Next up is Styles P with his latest release ” I Don’t Wanna Be Right”, the drums on this track and mad thumpy. The sampled vocal is hot as well. Also included in the bunch is the “Dangerous” remix from Kardinal Offishall with Akon and Sean Paul and then the new joint from Stat Quo, “Dear Summer Pt.1″, which borrows the same beat that Jay-Z used for his song also named “Dear Summer”.

Young Jeezy ft. Nas “My President”

Styles P “I Don’t Wanna Be Right”

Pitbull ft. Lil Jon “Krazy”

Stat Quo “Dear Summer Pt.1″

Kardinal Offishall ft. Akon & Sean Paul “Dangerous” Remix

More new music from three albums that I’m most looking forward to for this year. For those keeping track that would be T.I.’s Paper Trail, Kardinal Offishall’s Not 4 Sale and The Game’s LAX. LAX is expected to drop on August 26, while both Not 4 Sale and Paper Trail are expected to come out in September. Check out the tracks below.

T.I. Ft. The Dream “Like I Do”

Kardinal Offishall “Lighter”

The Game “Superman” (Produced by Just Blaze)

Canada’s best and most consistent MC, Kardinal Offishall, has dropped his latest single and video for “Set It Off” which also features one of my favourite hiphop duos, The Clipse. This single as well as the previous single, “Dangerous” featuring Akon, are both set to appear on the upcoming fourth studio LP, Not 4 Sale. The video is directed by Matt Alonzo, who recently did the Lil’ Wayne “Lollipop” video. This video, “Set It Off”, has Kardi and The Clipse doing their thing up in a club. Check out the vid and let us know what you think.

A grip of new music for you folks to check out. Two new joints from Busta Rhymes off of the upcoming album Blessed. New tracks as well from Obie Trice, Jadakiss, Bishop Lamont and a track from Canadian artist Kardinal Offishall.

Busta Rhymes ft. Lil’ Wayne & Ludacris “Throw It Up” (Produced by Cool N Dre)

Busta Rhymes “I Got Bass” (Produced by Bangladesh)

Obie Trice “So Much Drama”

Bishop Lamont “Grow Up” (Produced by Dr. Dre)

Kardinal Offishall ft. Clipse “Set It Off”

Jadakiss “Don’t Start Nothin’”

Estelle’s new album Shine will drop on April 29th. The singles out so far have been “Wait a Minute” followed up by the current smash single featuring Kanye West “American Boy”. Below are some more leaked tracks that will be on the new album. All three tracks are bangers. Check out the videos for the first two singles after the jump.

Estelle “Come Over”

Estelle “Magnificent” Featuring Kardinal Offishall

Estelle “Shine” Produced by Swizz Beatz

Estelle “Wait a Minute”

Estelle Featuring Kanye West “American Boy”