AK-69 Releases new album "The Cartel From Streets"

AK-69 - The Cartel From Streets

Japanese hip hop artist AK-69 (a.k.a. Kalassy Nikoff) has an album out now called The Cartel From Streets which was released on September 2nd. The Cartel From Streets debuted at #8 on the Oricon charts. One thing you guys should know about AK-69 that he is not signed to any major label. That's right, AK-69 is an independent artist that had an independently released hip hop album debut in the top ten on the Oricon charts. That is quite an amazing feat for an independent hip hop artist because in Japan the Oricon charts are heavily dominated by artists from major labels such as Sony and Avrex.

AK-69 already has two music videos out from his The Cartel From Streets album. One of them is for Only God Can Judge Me and another is for And I Love You So. Me personally, I'm really diggin' the song Only God Can Judge Me. I like AK-69's energy and delivery in the song and I totally dig the synthesized MIDI trumpet sounds. The MIDI trumpet sounds gives me a sense of nostalgia because it really reminds me of the BGM from the old skool SNES Beat 'em up games or the SNES sidescrollers I used to play.

Only God Can Judge Me:



And I Love You So:



Track Listing:

01. The Cartel From Streets
02. Only God Can Judge Me
03. FXXk Off
04. HIP HOP 4 Life feat. HOKT, Kayzabro, BIG RON
05. Around My Hood
06. WAYA
07. A to Z feat. ZANG HAOZI
08. They Don’t Know
09. 雨音 feat. LA BONO
10. CROWZ feat. Phobia Of Thug (Mr.OZ / Ganxta Cue), Lil’J
11. C・H・A・B・A・N
12. ダッチ
13. Skit ～追憶の夜～
14. And I Love You So
15. Sun Rise
16. Lookin’ In My Eyez
17. The Last Song ～My Love Epilogue～ feat. ARIA
18. 69 Party feat. DJ MOTO a.k.a. DON GRANDE