Joell Ortiz’s verrrrrry long-awaited Free Agent LP is finally out today… Well, maybe not, apparently. But Mixtapekings is telling me it’s now shipping the record, and even though I haven’t heard it, I feel comfortable advising you to pay money for it, as I’m about to do when I finish this post.

Talib Kweli was the last rapper who as expertly combined complex and vivid lyricism with an unsentimental-but-bottomless love for hip hop as a genre. (Coincidence that both are Brooklynites? I’m just noticing.) His Covers The Classics mixtape was one of my favorite records last year, and it suggests that he can’t believe that old heroes like the Lox, Raekwon and M.O.P. — seriously, listen to Ortiz’s verses over the “Verbal Intercourse” and “Recognize” beats — now guest on his own album. (As does Talib Kweli, according to the MTK-provided track listing.) Joell Ortiz is the type of artist you root for.

Update: New release date is February 22, 2011. So it goes.