Ludacris - I Do It for Hip Hop

With all apologies to my wedding, I can say that some of the best moments of my life have involved The Roots’ live shows, so when I heard Philly’s finest hip-hop crew had but out a collection of some of their best collaborations from Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (where they’re the house band) I jumped on the mixtape like Tiger Woods on a porn star. Sure enough the project’s packed with goodness, but almost no track hit me harder than their collaboration with Ludacris on I Do It for Hip-Hop. Originally off his Theater of the Mind album, here the original Wyldfyer production has been replaced with almost shockingly live instrumentation (a tuba’s never sounded doper) that largely holds true to the original but isn’t afraid to improvise. The result?  A new school instant classic. You can download the mixtape below, and keep an eye out for The Roots new album How I Got Over, due to drop this February.