In the first of what I hope will be many future collaborations with the fellas at Universatile Music, we are bringing to Phoenix a mighty hip-hop triumvirate packed into one night, Feb. 18 at the Hidden House: Nocando, Open Mike Eagle and 5 O’Clock Shadowboxers (featuring Zilla Rocca and Curly Castro).

All three dropped releases in 2010 – Nocando’s Jimmy the Lock; Open Mike Eagle’s Unapologetic Art Rap; and 5 O’Clock Shadowboxers’ Broken Clocks EP – and I suspect they have more in store for 2011.

This show marks a return to Arizona for all three: Nocando opened for Murs in Tempe in June; Open Mike Eagle played Phoenix twice in November (and at least once more earlier in the year); and the Shadowboxers rocked a show in September, also at Hidden House, that I helped put on.

I spent a considerable portion of my 2010 listening – and blogging – on these guys, so to help bring ’em all under one roof for one show is quite an honor.

I’ll have more on each in the coming days, but in the meantime, go ahead and mark your calendar for Feb. 18.

• Nocando | Hurry Up and Wait
• Open Mike Eagle | I Rock
• 5 O’Clock Shadowboxers | No Resolution

RELATED:
Nocando: Look What U Done (unreleased)
Open Mike Eagle: Haircut (video)
Open Mike Eagle: I Rock (video)
5 O’Clock Shadowboxers: Bottomfeeders (Small Pro Remix) + No Resolution, live in PHX
Q&A with Zilla Rocca
Curly Castro and Zilla Rocca: Str8 Westcoastin’ Mix
I Used to Love H.E.R.: Curly Castro
5 O’Clock Shadowboxers: No Resolution 2 (video)

In an effort to reach 15,000 followers on Twitter, turntable maestro Cut Chemist teased to a new mix or two he would release if he hit the mark by the end of the year.

It didn’t happen – 13,000-plus followers ain’t too shabby anyway – but Cut still promised to come through with some goods, and he did on New Year’s Eve, offering up a pair of mixes on a newly created Soundcloud page: “Hip Hop Lives (1985-1996)” and “Disco is Dead (1973-1979).”

Says Cut: “I chose these mixes because they are two eras of music that I love and have a strong history with. I want people to remember that my roots lie deep in these genres when I go off into ‘outer space’ on future mixes.”

Both mixes have handy annotations from Cut Chemist.

Maybe the title alone sent his hard drive crashing. Whatever the case, a corrupted file kept El-P from including Lab Rat Bravely Escapes on Hovercraft Only to Crash Directly Outside of Gates – we’ll call it Lab Rat in the interest of brevity – on his 2010 instrumental release, Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3.

But what technology taketh, it can sometimes giveth back. Lab Rat was salvaged and El-P has made it available for public consumption. The pounding drums and eerie synths leave little doubt this track was meant for the album.

• El-P | Lab Rat Bravely Escapes on Hovercraft Only to Crash Directly Outside of Gates

RELATED:
El-P: Time Won’t Tell (video)
El-P: Meanstreak (In 3 Parts)
Definitive Jux to reissue Funcrusher Plus

I don’t get terribly excited about Christmas/holiday tunes, but when it’s the first bit of new music from Blackalicious in five years, I’ll take what I can get.

Toy Jackpot comes from The Christmas Gig, a holiday soundtrack released by Target (no commissions here) that features Crystal Antlers, Bishop Allen, Coconut Records and more.

The best part about Toy Jackpot is that it doesn’t really sound like a Christmas song. Gift of Gab (and a guest MC?) rap from the perspective of an eager child ready to rip into some gifts on Christmas morning.

I can live without the encouragement of Christmas consumerism, but it is great to hear Gift of Gab and Chief Xcel making music together again.

• Blackalicious | Toy Jackpot

A proper full-length follow-up to 2008’s Afterparty Babies is apparently in the works, but until then, Edmonton rapper/poet laureate Cadence Weapon is tiding us over with a new mixtape he dropped on Tuesday, Tron Legacy.

Like his Separation Anxiety mixtape from early 2009, Tron Legacy is available at Cadence’s website on a pay-what-you-want scale for high-quality 320 kbps MP3s.

His cultural references and wit sharp as ever, Cadence Weapon tears through an eclectic collection of beats, from Oh No’s Heavy to The Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs. Or maybe you prefer E-40. Or Sleigh Bells. They get the Cadence Weapon treatment, too.

Exclaim has more on Tron Legacy, which Cadence Weapon says was intended as a “parody of your typical rap mixtape.” It’s certainly worth however much you want to pay – and then some.

• Cadence Weapon | Holla I’m Good

Los Angeles art-rap purveyor Open Mike Eagle has been through Phoenix at least twice (that I know of) in 2010, and it looks like he’s gonna be here two more times before the year is up.

I was already aware of the Nov. 12 show at the Hidden House in Phoenix – brought to you by Universatile Music – with a couple of the guys from his Swim Team fam, VerBS and Sahtyre. But according to Mike Eagle’s own site, he’s also playing the Sole & the Skyrider Band show on Nov. 11 at Chasers in Scottsdale (a UM and Psyko Steve production).

Mike Eagle was previously discussed a few months back after his excellent debut, Unapologetic Art Rap, came out. But if you want a feel for the raw talent, you gotta check this freestyle video with members of Swim Team (including Eagle rockin’ the captain’s hat). Dumbfounded just slams the friggin’ door at the end: “We do this on the daily, you just do this at award shows.”

Mike Eagle is also posting remixes of tracks from his album over at his site. Unapologetic, which features Nocando, is one of my favorites, and here it gets remixed by Awkward, also the producer of the original.

• Open Mike Eagle feat. Nocando | Unapologetic (Awkward Haunted Hand Remix)

Making good on a promise to unleash some unreleased material from his Jimmy the Lock sessions, Nocando gives us the first of a group of tracks he says will make up a tour CD for his trip to Asia.

On Look What U Done, the Los Angeles-bred Nocando shows his battle-rap roots, flowing ferociously over production by Subtitle. You should probably follow Nocan on Twitter to keep tabs on what he’ll give us next.

• Nocando | Look What U Done