[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIUcp-6mz04[/youtube]

This summer may very well turn out to the hottest on record, but that hasn’t slowed rising hip-hop star Dee-1’s ascent. Less than 48 hours removed from an Essence Fest set, the young climber turned to SoundCloud to drop his latest track, “Shut Up and Grind (SUAG).”

A few weeks prior, the socially conscious mc released the video for “Ridin’ by Myself,” a collaboration with indie hip-hop heavyweight Murs, a must for every summer playlist, the second single off of his head-turning mixtape I Hope They Hear Me (Vol. 2) and the subject of today’s YouTube du Jour.

“Shut Up and Grind (SUAG)” is Dee-1’s first release delivered via the burgeoning audio distribution platform SoundCloud, which doubled its user-base from five to ten million users worldwide in the year following a tidy investment Ashton Kutcher’s A-Grade venture fund.

Let us know your thoughts:

Is SoundCloud the “new” best place to discover music online?

OR

Is it just MySpace Music with a better method for handling annoying comments?