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The Big Time

Did anyone see Mos Def this weekend? If so, how was it?

Did anyone go see Stevie Williams and his skate team at Palace 5 on Saturday.

Has anyone been to Ibiza yet?

So this is the excuse reason why the rec center on Georgia Ave has beenc closed for so long. Its dangerous out there with all those kids running wild.

Do you read Supertalk?

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Hip-Hop, R&B

Video: Strange Fruit Project feat. Erykah Badu - Get Live

I haven’t had time to check Waco, TX’s Strange Fruit Project, but I’m really diggin’ this song and it’s good to have Ms. Badu back on some level, even if its just singing hooks. The track is off of their album The Healing which dropped last year.

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Hot Ghetto Mess = The Paris Hilton of Black Outrage

So I don’t tend to get political on this site, but a couple of people have asked my opinion about the new BET show Hot Ghetto Mess and where shocked when I told them I was indifferent to the whole situation.

Why? Here’s the deal. I live in a city that has recorded its 96th murder of the year. Our schools are crumbling and don’t even have textbooks for kids, and over 20% of our children live in poverty. Meanwhile the Black unemployment rate is well over 10% in some cities and let’s not even go over the whole Hurricane Katrina thing.

But I ask….where’s the outrage??

Is Hot Ghetto Mess a disgusting and outrageous show? Probably. But I wouldn’t know because I stopped watching BET years ago and I don’t even know what channel it is on my cable box. But ish like this and Don Imus are distractions from the real outrage that is going on our community, just like cable news outlets use Paris Hilton and Anna Nichole Smith distract us the fact that 3600 US soldiers have died for an illegal war. Real talk.

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Album Preview, Hip-Hop, Mixtapes

Wale/Catchdubs Mixtape Releasing Tonight

myspace.com/wale202

Update: Here’s the Mixtape.

Wale - Payback (streaming Audio from 100 Miles and Running Mixtape)

I just got word this morning that Wale and Nick Catchdubs will be releasing a new mixtape, 100 Miles & Running, at 7:11 PM on Wale’s MySpace page. The mixtape will also be streaming at HipHopGame sometime today and people are already calling this the mixtape of the year. DC STAND UP! If you’re gonna be in NYC tonight, check Wale at Mark Ronson’s Version release party at the Highline Ballroom.

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Get Up Clap Your Hands

From the crates…

Gwen McCraes Funky Sensation is such a banger. Nevermind it was sampled and made a party anthem, enjoy a disco banger for its dopeness.

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Hip-Hop

DC People: Hip-Hop Theater Festival

The DC Leg of the wildly popular Hip-Hop Theater festival invades the town this week. Check out the schedule at their website. All events are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

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Album Preview, Hip-Hop, New Music, R&B

Album Preview: Hezekiah - I Predict a Riot

http://myspace.com/hezekiah3crateofporn

Hezekiah - Looking Up feat. Bilal
Hezekiah - I Predict A Riot feat. Keziah + E. Shon Burgundy

I told y’all that I have more new music this week….

Today’s artist comes from Philly-based artist Hezekiah who is dropping a new album this summer entitled I Predict a Riot. Does the name sound familiar? Okayplayer heads might recognize the name from his first studio album, Hurry Up and Wait that dropped in 2005. Before and after his album dropped, the dude has been on the grind in the underground hip-hop community, supporting acts like Bilal, Jazzyfatnastees and Bahamadia and of course, the legendary Roots crew.

Although I’ve only heard bits and pieces of Hurry Up and Wait, I got to listen to the promo tracks of Riot and I’m really impressed with his latest effort. Hezekiah, who mans the boards on most of the album, finds a way to mix the best of Philly neo-soul, but manages to keep it unpretentious and accessible for the street. Freeway, Bilal, Jaguar Wright, Aaron Livingston, and even DC’s own Muhsinah all contribute to the album but never manage to interrupt or overtake Hezekiah’s flow. As some of y’all know, I’ve been abandoning hip-hop for a while, but an album like this might just be able to put me back into the fold.

I Predict a Riot drops on September 18th 2007 on Rawkus Records. Tracklisting after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Couch Sessions Appoved Artist, Hip-Hop, Negroclash!, Pop, R&B

New Music: After the Smoke

www.myspace.com/afterthesmoke

After the Smoke - Love Abduction
After the Smoke - Dial Tone

Good lawd, it’s been a long time, but after months of searching, I can finally bring you the first Couch Sessions Approved Artist of 2007.

After the Smoke is a group that grabbed me from the first 30 seconds of the first song I heard with their mix of hip-hop, electronica, rock, and R&B. The Tallahassee, Florida (yes, I said right) based group started out being experimental from the get-go, forgoing the crunk madness that we usually associate the South for and going completely left field, bringing it all with a sense of individuality and uniqueness that is missing in popular music. What results is what seems like a smorgasbord of Black music, moving from synthed-out experimental R&B to old-skool hip-hop, to disco-influenced pop, and back again.

If you feel the need to compare these cats, the only thing I can say is that they sound like Sa-Ra crossed with the Fugees, laced with some Dungeon Family production.

After the Smoke is slowly being recognized on the Internet and OKP circles and the group dropped two mixtapes which can be purchased from their MySpace page. And as always, I want feedback on this artist. What do y’all think??

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Music News

Random Ish: Monday, July 9, 2007

Please give me a reason, as a grown man who is turning 27 next month, not to buy this.

And the Transformers movie is hands down the best movie I’ve seen all summer. If you’re an 80’s baby you owe it to yourself to go and see it.

Hope everybody had a good 4th of July cause I know I did, although it did involve biking back home at 1:00 AM tired and slightly intoxicated, but that’s a story for another day.

Wow. Pharoahe Monch only sold 12,000 copies of his album Desire. I shouldn’t be surprised I guess.

And more bad news for lovers of “real” music: Straight No Chaser is shutting its doors. The last issue will be printed in August.

But rap isn’t dead. Word is, T.I. sold 500,000 copies of T.I. vs. T.I.P. I heard the album was wack and the lead single wasn’t getting radio support, but I can’t really hate if the rumor is true.

DJ’s are you finding it harder and harder to break new tracks? Is the top 40 Force to strong to be rekon’d with??

After that Washington City Paper article, it seems everbody’s been talkin’ about the whole “cat call” phenomenon, but Jimi for his part has the best “male response” that you’re ever gonna read.

Did anyone see the Live Earth concerts this weekend? Seriously, is anybody going to start recycling just because the Black Eyed Peas told you to? And don’t look at me, I’ve been using mass transportation and those compact fluorescent light bulbs for 5 years now.

BYT has an interview with my homegirl, the Vagina Lady Alexyss Taylor.

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Banned In DC

So I’ve been approached by a couple of people this past week to start promoting music in the DC area again. At first, I declined, because promoting music in this town is tricky at best. You get no love from this city if you do something other than what’s heard on WPGC or Hot 99.5. I’ve been in countless situations where there were more people on stage that in the audience, and we all know that that is not a good look. The Banned In DC Shows got some excellent response, even though people didn’t show up like I wanted. I’ve had inquires for performers to come as far away as South Africa and the UK, but I’m not going to put a show in place until I know I have a good infrastructure, and right now DC has nothing in the way of promoting new and original music.

However, not all is doom and gloom. There is so much hope in this city this year its insane. In addition to the new parties that have been springing up like mad, there are new venues and DC people are even getting love from the industry in New York. But still, it seems like the Top 40 “Buy U A Drank” Club movement (err, H20 and <strike>Dream</strike> Love) has this city on lockdown. If I do this promotion thing, it will only be on some new and different tip, mixing music with visual arts, combining hip-hop and rock, etc. Sounds nice. But if you build it, will they come?

DC/MD/VA people, please hit me up and let me know if this would be something that you would be interested in.

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