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Hip-Hop

Video: People Under the Stairs - The Wiz

The LA Duo, People Under the Stairs, go to Australia to shoot their first video for their album Fun DMC which drops today.

www.myspace.com/peopleunderthestairs

Tags: People Under the Stairs

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Hip-Hop

New Music: Dom Kennedy

Dom Kennedy - Tell Her

Dom Kennedy is the a combination of the laid back West Coast records of the early 90s with A Tribe Called Quest. I’m not saying that Kennedy is on the same level as Tribe, but the similarities are undoubtedly there, whether it was intentional or not. The Southern California MC is yet another rapper from the Left Coast who should be making waves this year. The vibe that this dude brings makes me wish that summer wasn’t already over.

Kennedy was recently featured on the iMeem Creme de la Creme “mixtape,” along with Kid Cudi, Hollywood Holt, Mickey Factz, Pacific Division, and Kidz In The Hall. (via Discobelle)

Look for more on Dom Kennedy in the near future…

myspace.com/domkennedy

Dom Kennedy - Watermelon Sundae

DOM KENNEDY Watermelon Sundae from Jason Madison on Vimeo.

Tags: Dom Kennedy

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Hip-Hop

New Music: Madlib feat. Talib Kweli - What It Do

Madlib  feat. Talib Kweli - What It Do

Madlib is one of my favorite producers of all time, and this is a sold track from his upcoming release
WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip which drops on September 29th. Now, I still need to get that Madvillainy 2!

Tags: Madlib, Talib Kweli

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Hip-Hop

Review: Mos Def at the Kennedy Center

Mos Def is one of hip-hop’s most preeminent artists, and quite frankly, one of the few artists from the genre that could command the stage at the world renowned Kennedy Center. Last Sunday, he took the stage, fronting a 22 piece orchestra in a new project called Amino Alkaline–The Watermelon Syndicate.

Let’s get the negatives out of the way first–the sound was terrible. I was actually surprised that a concert hall as illustrious as the Kennedy Center would have such bad acoustics. During the whole show, I thought that I was the only one who couldn’t hear a word that Mos was saying, but as I found out during conversation on the Metro with some concert goers after the whow, the general consensus was that the sound was bad–everywhere.

Secondly, the whole show had no focus. What was billed as a Mos Def tribute to jazz and hip-hop ended up being Mos running through songs in a random order with no real cohesion or center. The night consisted of Mos running through songs with some non-specific rambling in the middle–or maybe he did try to tie the songs together? I couldn’t hear him anyways.

The negatives, however, could not bring down what was an incredible performance. The band, fronted by keyboardist Robert Glasper, with horns by Marcus Strickland, and a string quartet of young women known as the NYC Woman’s String Ensemble, is one of the most diverse hip-hop outfits ever envisioned. Even if the playlist was as random as my iPod, it did not disappoint–Mos and his band went through a variety of songs, including Bel Biv Devoe’s “Poison,” Issac Hayes’s “Walk On By,” Chris Dave’s “Saturday Night Dance” and a new song–the Madlib produced “Auditorium,” from Mos Def’s upcoming album The Ecstatic.

Being that this was DC, the evening started off with Petey Green’s “How to eat a Watermelon” video, as well as a rendition of the go-go joint “Sardines” juxtaposed with the Star Spangled Banner. The latter track featured Mos simply repeated the lines “And the bombs bursting in air” over and over again in a fashion that played well to the audience–but would look like the ramblings of a mental patient if he wasn’t on stage.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Kennedy Center, Mos Def

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Hip-Hop

Photos: Puma Store Show with Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow + Afterparty

I heard this was off the chain. I was too busy sending Justin to the other side (batchelor party), but Julian and Juan were there to take shots. Check the pictures below.

Puma Store Event (photos by Julian)

After Party pictures after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow

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Hip-Hop, Rock/Alternative

Travis Barker, DJ AM Still In Critical Condition

Travis Barker and DJ AM, who perform as TRV$DJ-AM were the lone survivors of a jet incident which killed 4 people over the weekend in South Carolina. Right now, they’re both suffering from second and third degree burns, but are lucky to be alive. A full recovery is expected for both artists.

Looking at the image of the crashed plane, all I gotta say is…DAMN. Its surprising that anyone  got out of that alive.

Thoughts and prayers go out to the families…

TRV$DJ-AM at the Roxy, LA

Tags: DJ AM, Travis Barker

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Hip-Hop

Album Preview: Foreign Exchange - Leave It All Behind

Foreign Exchange - Leave It All Behind (Album Sampler)

I’ve been listening to this album sampler for a day now and I’m hooked. I will leave my final judgements for when the official copy slides my way, but so far, Leave It All Behind is making me excited for music again. From first listen, Leave It All Behind carries Nicolay’s already smoothed out beats further into the downtempo territory, and so far Phonte’s move from MC to vocalist is proving more than surprising.

For more information, check out the Foreign Exchange site.

Tags: Foreign Exchange, Little Brother, Phonte

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Hip-Hop

FREE: Adam Tensta

Adam Tensta’s people just shot an email over with some of tracks from his album Its a Tensta Thing, which will hopefully see the light of day in the United States soon. This is an MP3 Dump of one of the best album of this year (and last year) so download the tracks and hear for yourself.

myspace.com/AdamTensta

Buy Its A Tensta Thing from Amazon.

Adam Tensta ft. Sophia Somajo - Before U Know It (Clean)

http://www.zshare.net/audio/1206743333b47462/

Adam Tensta - They Wanna Know (Main)

http://www.zshare.net/audio/1145131999fdd02e/

Adam Tensta - They Wanna Know (Instrumental)

http://www.zshare.net/audio/13446284477f054c/

Adam Tensta - Bangin On The System

http://www.zshare.net/audio/11452988135b220b/

Adam Tensta ft. Eboi - Up And Coming

http://www.zshare.net/audio/114525591e973a60/

Adam Tensta - My Cool (Main)

http://www.zshare.net/audio/12009217e9298666/

Adam Tensta - My Cool (Instrumental)

http://www.zshare.net/audio/1344651597441c67/

Tags: Adam Tensta

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Hip-Hop

Album Preview: People Under the Stairs - Fun DMC

People Under the Stairs - Anotha BBQ

If you’ve ever been to a BBQ in LA, you will be a fan of underground duo People Under the Stairs’ latest effort, FUN DMC. The mission of the album was to bring the summer vibes of Southern California to the people. Of course, everybody and their mother tries to do that (err Shwazye?) but the duo of Thes One and Double K take it to another level. For the album they go outside of the studio, recording half of the tracks outside at real cookouts in the streets of Compton and East LA. There is more texture and life to the songs, and it heightens the BBQ idea feeling further.

As the title states, this album is all about the party, and does spark that old school hip-hop vibe, however it doesn’t try to ape any fad like the Cool Kids. PUTS has been around for much longer to follow any trend (it’s their 6th album, if anybody is counting).

I’m getting my hands on the full album soon. I’ve been really digging the press preview that I got in the mail the other day and this has the makings to be a 4 star (or higher) album. What do y’all think?

myspace.com/peopleunderthestairs

Tags: People Under the Stairs

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Hip-Hop

Album Preview: The Foreign Exchange - Leave it All Behind

Nicolay and Phonte’s Foreign Exchange might be one of backpack hip-hop’s most favorite duos. The origin of the duo–the story of two producers meeting on Okayplayer and creating an album without even meeting each other–is the stuff of modern hip-hop legend. However, their new collaboration, Leave it all Behind is supposedly stepping further away from the hip-hop realm, and its supposedly going to showcase Phonte’s vocal abilities over his mic skills.

The webisodes on their site give a glimpse of what is to come from this album, which promises to be a far darker and introspective album than the last. Even though I get tired of Nicolay’s beats a little too quickly, I’m still excited to see what they can cook up.

And yes, DC is well represented on this album, with Muhsinah, Zo!, and Yahzarah making contributions.

Tracklisting:

01. Daykeeper
02. Take Off The Blues
03. All Or Nothing/Coming Home To You
04. I Wanna Know
05. House Of Cards
06. Sweeter Than You
07. Valediction
08. If She Breaks Your Heart
09. If This Is Love
10. Something To Behold
11. Leave It All Behind

The Foreign Exchange

Tags: The Foreign Exchange

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