The new song from Bun B really does seem, as the venerable MC says at the outset, to have been "a long time coming." It was produced by Gangstarr's DJ Premier, and so brings together two of hip-hop's very most revered practitioners. Bun and Premier are both from Texas, too, though Premier made his name after moving to Brooklyn in the late '80s. What's most interesting about the song to me today, besides the mesmerizing beat and the jaw-dropping rhymes ("When I get to gladiatin' on haters like Leonidas/Niggas just gonna have to admit that he the tightest..." Triple exclamation points) is how old these guys are. Premier is 44, Bun is, at the very, very least 37 or 38. (He was recently quoted talking about having children aged 24 and 25.) READ MORE

If you told me last year that I would be purchasing a new album by the veritably ancient Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D in 2010, I would have said something about eating my Kangol. But today, after being so very pleasantly surprised by the single "I Just Can't Help Myself" a couple months ago, and then being reminded by Gucci Mane's new Swizz-Beatz-produced track, "It's Gucci Time!" (which is not a cover of Schoolly's 1985 jam) and then being again surprised by another great new Schoolly song, above, (which is not a cover of Sly and the Family Stone, nor Mary J. Blige), well, I am about to plunk down the cash. Schoolly D, International Supersport, here I come!