Ayah – The Problem Woman Mixtape (Free Download)

Most of y’all know that I generally don’t like R&B music, and let’s face it: the genre has been stagnant for years now after the death of neo soul and the introduction of pro Tools assisted divas with an absence of talent and class.

However, maybe once a year a voice comes along that makes me do a double take and reintroduces me to the genre that I’ve spurned. In 2008, that voice is Ayah. The Toronto native has been making a name for herself up North. At the age of only 22, she’s already aligned herself with DJ Jazzy Jeff and and a bevy of producers for her debut album which drops sometime this year.

But female voices are a dime a dozen, but its her attitude that carries her through. Her mixtape, based on Marvin Gaye’s 1972 soundtrack to the blackspoltation flick Trouble Man has an ear to the past, but dosen’t harp on it and lets her true sound shine through. With a attitude that Butta from Soul Bounce calls “sweet but street,” Ayah might just reinvent the R&B genre as we know it.

myspace.com/ayahmusic

To be honest, I haven’t talked about my travels in Toronto yet mainly because I’m still trying to come down from the high (literally) that was Montreal. Add to the fact that my boy lived a good 35 minutes from the city center (but still considered in the city of Toronto, go figure) meaning that most of the time spent there was on my ass watching BET (not my choice) and surfing the net. Oh, and there was other drama that went down including me missing my flight (not my fault) and me getting a parking ticket when I was driving my friends care (thanks city of Toronto! Stay classy!). I could have happily skipped out on the T.O. and saved a ton of money in the process.

But it’s all good. Much thanks to o.s.u.m. for connecting with me while I was in town. We rolled out to see Seun Kuti as well as DJ Nana’s birthday party at a spot appropriately named Stone. (Unfortunately, I have pics of neither). Also much thanks to the people in the T.O. who read the site, it makes a brother feel good. A special shout out goes to the “Problem Woman” Ayah who was also at the spot that night and hit me up on MySpace a few weeks before.

T.O. deserves a second chance from me. I’ll try to get back up there real soon.

Again, Dennis, good look on the Montreal hookup.

PHOTO CREDIT: Dennis Malcolm Byron/HeadsOfWool

Rza

Gza

Crowd

This last picture was not taken at the Wu concert. This is the crowd at the main stage of Jazz Fest at Place Des Arts. I added it just to give y’all a perspective of how crazy the whole experience is.

ALL PHOTOS CREDIT: Dennis Malcolm Byron/HeadsOfWool

Arianne Moffatt – Point de Mire

Arianne Moffatt – Follow Me (Remix)

So I know this is probably not your cup of tea, but bear with me.

So on Sunday night in Montreal, I wandered into Metropolis for what the Jazz fest organizers call the nightcap with electronic jam band Jedi Electro. I’m not the biggest fan of traditional electronic music, but I decided to roll through since it was free and I was craving a Johnnie Walker Red and Coke for some reason. After some initial hesitation at the start of the set, I decided to stick around, and I’m glad i did.

Because they killed it.

The shit was live. The setup consisted of beats from a Mac (of course) with live drums, bass guitar, as well as keyboards and Moog synthesizer playing over it, in true jam band style. I didn’ t have my camera so the description doesn’t do the audio justice. But the highlight of the whole night was seeing Montreal singer Arianne Moffatt warped, remixed, and sample her voice on the fly. It ranks as some of the flyest ish that I’ve ever seen. The whole time, our new friend Mike (aka “le redneck de Montréal”) was screaming into my ear…”you know that girl is famous!”

I didn’t know just how famous until I did a Google search a few days later and yeah….she’s a bonafied pop star in French Language circles, and its much deserved. So far she’s dropped 3 albums, which combine everything from rock electro, to reggae/dub, and everything else in between, with a shout out to old school trip-hop that runs through her whole catalog. Most of y’all know that I’ve been on this singer songwriter kick for a while, thanks to such females as Fiest and Lykki Li. Personally, if Ms. Moffatt sung entirely in English her name would be among that crowd.

I’m not advocating she make an English language album though, lest she lose her artistic integrity. Plus French just sounds too damn sexy.

myspace.com/arianemoffattmusique

One of the things best things about Jazz Fest was being able to discover new artists from all over the world and one of the ladies that I was able to check was the beautiful Mayra Andrade.

Ms. Andrade, the Cuban born, Cape Verde raised, Paris living singer is only 23, but has been on the world music scene since she was 16. Even after worldwide acclaim (outside the US, of course) and touring, and even being featured in an AIDS awareness campaign she didn’t get her first record deal until 2005. On that record, titled Navega, is a mix of African music with strong Brazilian influences with a touch of French jazz. As a result of her upbringing, her music sung in three languages (Portugese, French and Kriolu, a Cape Verdian patois) and she effortlessly switches between them all.

After selling out shows in the UK and Europe, Andrade was selected as “Best Newcomer” at the 2008 BBC 3 World Music Awards.

Oh, and did I mention that she is drop dead beautiful? She easily ranks as one of the hottest women I’ve met in person. Beyonce who?? Check out more about Mayra at her MySpace.

http://www.myspace.com/mayraandrade

Mayra Andrade – Felicidade

Pauls Boutique
112 Mount-Royal E.

It was like a live version of VH1 Storytellers with Chuck droppin’ such tidbits how Hank Shocklee at the last minute flipped the ordering of the songs of the cassette and played many songs for the first time live. And yeah, just like De La Soul, PE railed against the 20 minute sets that some hip-hop artists try to pass off as a live performance. Public Enemy went on for over 2 hours.

MORE PHOTOS AT THE FLICKR PHOTOSTREAM

Bonus: Flava Flav on the drums!

Flava Flav Drum Solo from Couch Sessions on Vimeo.

Say what you want about the man, but the dude is living life to the fullest. I ran into Flav twice in Montreal and he’s keeps it real—he’s the same person that you see on TV, no matter if he’s in the bar, in the elevator, or at a press conference. Chuck D, on the other hand is the exact polar opposite of Flav. Yes, we know that already, but to see these two side by side only heightens their differences.

Chuck and Flav are like brothers, with Flav being his loud and rambunctious self going off topic more than once and giving off the wall answers for seemingly straight-forward questions, and Chuck being quiet and collective and overtly political. Even though there was reported tension when Flav started taping his Flavor of Love series on VH1. In 2006 when the series debuted, Chuck criticized Flav’s choice of action in 2006, but there is nothing but love on stage, with Chuck defending Flav and noting the fact that he invented his role as a hype man, as well as pointing out the diversity of the Public Enemy lineup.

However, the younger generation will never really know the social impact of Public Enemy. Questions like “how does Delicious taste?” and “how can I be a cameraman on Flavor of Love?” seem to be the norm now at Public Enemy pressers. Chuck, for his part, steered the conversation back to politics.

With Public Enemy being North of the Border, Chuck focused on Canadian issues. “United States, is the new Mexico,” Chuck declares as he rails on government border policies, and the difficulty that now exists to cross into Canada. In fact, Professor Griff couldn’t make it across the border to Montreal. Chuck also remarked that Canada might become the next superpower because of its large oil, natural gas, and water reserves in relevance to its sparse population.

Of course, with the possibility of the first Black president in our nations history, the media was anxious to hear Chuck D’s take on the election, and it was predictably dire: “You’re gonna see some shit that you ain’t never seen before. You’re gonna see some shit that you ain’t never heard before…sit back, pull up a chair and watch the greatest reality show in the world.” Flav lightened the mood though by talking about how Obama recalled to a journalist that he can never be as Black as Flava Flav. “The fact that I occupy space in that man’s brain is a blessing to me.”

Chuck is also sour on the current state of hip-hop. According to Chuck, the current generation of hip-hop has lost its focus by trying to get rich quick rather than developing the skill of MCing and DJing. He did big up Canadian artists such as K-OS and Kardinal Offishall as well as Much Music and Musique Plus (Canadian Music Video Channels), for promoting hip-hop artists who wouldn’t be given a chance on MTV.

Public Enemy is the self declared “Rolling Stone of hip-hop,” dropping 12 albums over their 25plus year career, and performing in over 67 countries. But do they fit today’s notion of popularity? Chuck got testy when a journalist called Public Enemy popular. “Popular? That’s news to me. I drove my 1997 Acura up here.”

Popular or not, Public Enemy are legends who should not be missed when they come through your town.

Having that said, the teens in that building could tell a certain 17 year old what real hip-hop is.

Starting off for De La was Montreal DJ Ghislain Poirier. Other than a few remixes he did, I wasn’t really up on his original music. To be honest, his set sounded real repetitive and bass heavy, and for a while I was going to give up and go to the bar. However, the party livened up, first when two MCs showed up, then when his dancers entered the stage and tried to one up each other in a booty shake contest.

Nothing gets a crowd hype like booty!

De La Soul

Let’s be honest, most hip-hop shows are wack. They show up late, play a 20 minute set, and fill the stage with every cousin and weed carrier known to man. But not De La. They ROCK the show.

De La Soul – Stakes Is High from Couch Sessions on Vimeo.

It’s hard to believe that De La has been in the game for 20 years, and even though these cats are “old” by hip-hop standards, they had more energy and fire than people half their age. Their longevity is rightly deserved, and they put every bit of energy they had into their performance, which lasted so long that they ran out of songs. And the crowd was one of the livest that I ever seen. Seriously, these dudes have been in business longer than most of these kids have lived, but there was such an appreciation for REAL HIP-HOP in the building that I almost shed a tear.

De La’s set skewed heavily toward their sorely unappreciated album The Grind Date which is one of the best hip-hop albums of 2004. Of course they did the hits, “Me Myself and I,” “Saturday,” and “Stakes is High”, but their hustle for an album that’s almost 4 years old shows their dedication to the game and their resistance to becoming just another washed up hip-hop hit parade.

FULL SET AT THE FLICKR PHOTOSTREAM

To be honest, Stephanie McKay was off my radar for the longest time. I remember her from that track that “Take Me Over” off her first album, which was solid. And I still keep confusing her with Alice Smith.

But that’s all under the bridge. Ms. McKay has taken me over. She really needs to be in the conversation when it comes this new generation of soul singers, because she has a voice and an attitude that rivals anybody that is out today.

I’m not going to front, I only know one of her songs, but she has managed to win over the me and the crowd with ease. McKay’s music is soulful and personal, and the songs from her new album, Tell It Like It Is has a political agenda and social consciousness that is lacking, because many soul artists are basically just trying write a song based off of a catchy hook.

McKay’s blend of soul, jazz, and even a little broken beat might be a tough sell for some, and her dive club feel could have fell flat in such a large venue. But in the end, Ms. McKay won over the crowd of 20,000 easily and effortlessly. Her performance gained her new fans, including yours truly.

Check Stephanie McKay out at her MySpace.

So I’ve made slight modifications to my Canada trip, extending it by three days, thereby contributing more of my slowly dwindling funds to y’all Canadian economy. One of my good friends moved to Toronto a few weeks ago, so I figured I would hit him up while I’m “in the neighbourhood,” so to speak. Here’s the agenda:

Montreal: June 27th – July 1st
Toronto: July 1st – July 4th

I’ll be checking the Alice Russell, Public Enemy, and De La Soul shows in Montreal, and gettin’ up with my homeboy Dennis for some debauchery. Anyway, hit me up if you’re in one of the cities above, and we can share some beers and terrorist fist bumps.