Media

XV: "SmallVille" prod. J. Cole

2:17 p.m. · January 29, 2011 · by Andrew Martin

The Midwest's hip-hop presence has always been solid*, but it's yet to reach the level of say, New York City, Los Angeles, Houston, or Atlanta. But things are starting to change with some new blood, especially with the presence of blog and critic darlings like Freddie Gibbs, Chip Tha Ripper, and, in the case of this post, XV, of Kansas. The recent Warner Bros-signee just dropped off his latest track, "SmallVille," that finds him collaborating with J. Cole, who here is wearing his production cap and sampling the Smashing Pumpkins. I've never watched Smallville so I'm not exactly sure if the song's lyrics relate to the show at all, but this is a pretty nice offering from XV. Hopefully he keeps this up for The Kid With The Green Backpack, an album that's been in the works since 2008.

Stream "SmallVille" below courtesy of Hypetrak.

*Of course, the Chicago scene is pretty huge, as is the one in Minnesota, just not to the point of those regions I listed.