Our guest mixtape series continues with a standout collection from a music taste-maker friend who’s been sending me year-end mixes for over 10 years, the one and only Whitney…

Listen in the player below or on Spotify here.

You can get updates by following us on Facebook or Twitter, or if you want to receive an email any time a new playlist is posted, just send us a note to blackraptorsubscribe@gmail.com.

Only about half of these tracks are in Spotify’s library, so I recommend listening in the player above. You can listen to an abbreviated version on Spotify here.

You can get updates by following us on Facebook or Twitter, or if you want to receive an email any time a new playlist is posted, just send us a note to blackraptorsubscribe@gmail.com.

Ricky Rozay has released his latest mixtape effort, Rich Forever, featuring guest appearances from Nas, Pharrell, John Legend, Diddy, Wale, 2 Chainz and more. Most of the material was written while on a trip to South Africa and DJ Khaled was heavily involved prior to his untimely passing.  The tape is a pre-cursor for Ross’ upcoming full-length, God Forgives, I Don’t.  You can download the free mixtape here.  NOTE: At that link, wait until the timer counts down underneath the Twitter and Facebook icons, then fill in the download code and click download.

Over the past couple of years, artists like Drake, The Weeknd and Frank Ocean have continued to push r&b back to the forefront of mainstream awareness.  Besides R. Kelly, no other artist has been responsible for their template than The-Dream.  He’s been working on his latest album, The Love IV (Diary of a Mad Man), for quite awhile and today he dropped the first single, ROC.  This track doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s nice to know we’ve got a full album of late-night slow jams coming soon.  Rumor has it that Kells, Lil’ Wayne and Kanye will all make guest appearances.  Stream ROC below…

From the traffic clogged streets of Jakarta, MIXTAPE 39 brings you a few more tracks that are eligible for the BEST OF moniker. While some tracks are worthy of top tiered designations others play the role of BEST OF B-sides. Unlike last week’s selection, there is no particular order to this MIXTAPE other than an attempt at flow. True to BearKlaw form, the terrestrial beginning goes to the astral plane before descending back to Earth. While some of the tracks are very new, others might be a bit overplayed (to this listener) but still merit inclusion as they defined weeks or months of this glorious year, 2011. We hope you enjoy, pass around, and as always comments are welcome.  You can also listen on Spotify.

The Weeknd, aka Abel Tesfaye, might be the most important artist to emerge in 2011.  When I first heard “High for This” and “Morning” off his debut mixtape House of Balloons back in March, I was hooked on the blown out beats, late-night falsetto and over-the-top lyrics.  He followed that up with a second installation, Thursday, which, as a whole, didn’t quite reach the bar set by House of Balloons, but tracks like “The Birds Part 1″ and “The Zone” still became favorites.  Two months later, he popped up again as a major influence on Drake’s masterpiece, Take Care, co-writing on 4 tracks and adding vocals to the excellent “Crew Love.”

Earlier tonight, he released the third part of his mixtape trilogy, Echoes of Silence.  He opens with a cover of Michael Jackson’s “Dirty Diana” (stream below) and then continues his bass-heavy r&b brilliance throughout.  All this without an official release or any touring.  It will be interesting to see what 2012 brings.  Download all three mixtapes below.

The Weeknd: “D.D.”

Download: Echoes of Silence

You can download House of Balloons and Thursday here (just scroll to the right at that site).

These are what I consider to the best 50 tracks of 2011, in order.

For variety’s sake, I didn’t use any artists more than once.  That said, there were some artists deserving of more than one spot, namely Drake, M83, Bon Iver, Cut Copy, Fleet Foxes and The Weeknd.  You can also listen to this mixtape on Spotify.

Our guest mixtape series continues with an excellent electronic collection from our friend Stephan…

“This mixtape was born out of a moment that I’m sure everyone’s experienced.  You’ve got your iPod on shuffle and then out of nowhere, bam, a song that you had totally forgotten about comes on.  This time, it was the song that opens the playlist.  And it got me thinking about other electronic or electronic influenced songs that I’ve dug recently and in the past.  So I ran through my music library and pulled out some of my favorites.  Some are new…some are old…some were popular…some were obscure.  But they’re all awesome.”  –Stephan

You can listen in the player above or on Spotify. You can get updates by following us on Facebook or Twitter, or if you want to receive an email any time a new playlist is posted, just send us a note to blackraptorsubscribe@gmail.com.

This is simply a collection of the 25 best tracks I’ve listened to over the past few weeks.  While heavy on new songs, there are a few antique beats thrown in, including a 30-year old Stevie Nicks classic that is still ahead of its time.  You can listen in the player below or on Spotify.  You can get updates by following us on Facebook or Twitter, or if you want to receive an email any time a new playlist is posted, just send us a note to blackraptorsubscribe@gmail.com.  Enjoy…

As part of our ongoing guest mixtape series, Mr. Echo compiled a world music playlist via Spotify…

When making this international playlist for Blackraptor, I wanted to find songs that were different but still had elements familiar to U.S. music fans.  It’s interesting how influences travel, and I find that good music is good music, whether Blues from the deserts of East Africa like Tinariwen, or American punk-influenced pop written by 20 year-old Swedish girls, like Razika. I hope you hear something that you haven’t heard before on this playlist, and that you enjoy it.  –Mr. Echo

This playlist is available for streaming on Spotify only.  Check it out here.