June was definitely a monumental month for hip-hop. With album releases from the likes of Kanye West, J. Cole, Wale, and even more, it’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed from the wide influx of new music. While we were all preoccupied with the heavy hitters, it may have been easy to sleep on some of the other hustlers out there trying to push the music game forward. I admit I fell behind myself, hence why this edition of the Hip-Hop Dojo has been sitting in my drafts for weeks now. Lucky for you guys though, we here at The Music Ninja are here to fill you in on what you might’ve missed over the last month or so.

As I mentioned earlier, this post is long overdue, which is exactly why it’s bursting at the seams with 40+(!) new tracks for a hearty heaping helping of hip-hop goodness (try saying that 5 times fast). I’ve been on my grind over the last couple of days to finally get this playlist in your hands, and there’s a reason why I carefully selected this date to finally unleash it to the world. Today just so happens to be my birthday (yes, this is a shameless attempt at getting more birthday wishes), so as my present to all of you loyal ninjas, I bequeath unto you the thirteenth edition of The Hip-Hop Dojo. Now I’m not quite crazy enough to do a summary of all the songs on this list, so this time around I’ll just give you a rundown of my favorites. Although picking out of a list of roughly 45 songs is no easy task, I’d probably have to say my favorites are (in no particular order): Curren$y’s “Killer$,” Vic Mensa‘s “Hollywood LA,” Fabolous‘ “Young OG,” MeLo-X‘s “The Truth,” Jon Connor‘s “When I Was Young,” Dillon Cooper‘s “Kung Fu” Action Bronson‘s “Heel Toe,” Produktive‘s “Show Me Love,” and finally the knxwledge remix of Denitia & Sene‘s “Casanova.” With that being said, I’d like to think each and every song in this collection brings something unique to the table. Given the length of the playlist, I suggest taking the weekend to sift through it all. Maybe you could even give it a go during your Independence Day cookouts.

We hope you guys enjoyed our thirteenth edition of The Hip-Hop Dojo as much as we did! As always, you can send all submissions/suggestions to baseer@themusicninja.com.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ALL THE FREE TRACKS (ALT. LINK)

P.S. As an added bonus, I’ve included some of the best material from those stellar June releases I alluded to earlier as another “mini-playlist” after the jump. Definitely check them out if you haven’t gotten a chance to get through all the albums yet.

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• Hip-Hop Dojo
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