Tune Yards – Music Hall of Williamsburg, NYC

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New York City gets a much deserved rep for being a terrible city to watch live music. However, any type of jadedness was not present at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. The vivacious crowd surprised even Ms. Garbus and she trated us with not one, but three encores. The only reason she stopped is because she ran out of songs.

Q-Tip, Busta Rhymes, and Kanye West, Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, NYC

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I’ve seen Kanye crash a few parties, but the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival? Aloung with a spirited session by Q-Tip and another surprise guest Busta Rhymes, Kanye’s crowd pleasing experience not only rocked the crowd, but showed that ‘Ye would not only rock Madison Square Garden but your own backyard as well.

TV On The Radio – The Mohawk, Austin, TX

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Maybe it’s because we bogarted our way into this over capacity show? Maybe it’s because the Mohawk patio is such an ultra small venue? Who cares, TV On The Radio brought it, and proved to be the higlight of a packed 2011 SXSW Schedule.

Death, Afropunk CMJ Show, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, CMJ

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This decade’s Internet success story, Death, make sure that they brought it during thier CMJ/Afropunk show. The crew were so tight, you wouldn’t think that the songs they were playing were over 35 years old. As 18 year olds moshed in front of them, the trio were more than happy to be on stage. And that’s the real meaning of music.

Katy B, The Studio at Webster Hall, NYC

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New York surprises me sometimes. What I thought would be just another industry show turned out to be a stunner. The pint-sized UK songstress confidently fronted an amazing live band, blurring through her debut album with a more than appreciative crowd being down all of the way. I stood in the middle of this show thinking I would be the only one jumping up and down to her music, but boy was I wrong.

Runners Up

Heineken GOOD Music Event with Kanye West, Kid Cudi, Pusha T, etc
SBTRKT at Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Elle Varner, SOBs, NYC
Toro Y Moi, Klub Krucial, SXSW
Miles Bonny, DROM, CMJ
Quadron, The Malverde, SXSW

Busta Rhymes is back, this time with Estelle on the club track “World Go Round.” Hip-hop purists might scoff at Rhyme’s new dancefloor persona, but I think this track is a perfect summer tune and can even bring the hipsters AND the hoods together. I’m loving that nod to Sweet Dreams here too.

World Go Round is the fourth single from last year’s eighth studio album Back on My B.S. Unfortunately, it seems this video and track is not made for US consumption, with Universal seeming to target France and the UK instead of us Yanks. It makes sense, however, since most hip-hop fans are allergic to anything over 90bpm, however club DJs should get on this remix ASAP.

What do y’all think?

Various Artists
Dillanthology Vol 1

Is this a money grab?

That’s the only thing I could think of when I saw this Dillanthology CD arrive in my mailbox. Unlike most Dilla projects, which focus on rare and unreleased material, this latest Dilla compilation deals with tracks we already know, in a sort of “greatest hits” fashion. With all the controversy surrounding Jay Dee’s estate, especially with Ma Dukes who now has lupus, the same deadly disease that claimed her son.

Of course, any Dilla is better than no Dilla at all, and the tracks here are more than familiar to any hip-hop head. Tracks like the Pharcydes’ “Runnin’,” and “Drop,” are already in my collection multiple times, as well as Erykah Badu’s “Didn’t ya Know, and De La’s “Stakes Is High.” Even if I througly enjoyed hearing these songs again for the umpteenth time, and there are is one new (to me) track — the A.G./Aloe Blacc joint “Hip-Hop Quoatable,” there just isn’t enough here for me to justify a purchace.

But I have a feeling that ultimately this CD isn’t for me. It’s for people like my sister, who is familliar with most of the songs on the disc, but still asks me, “who’s Dilla?” It’s for people like my brother, who during a streak of sanity puts down his Soulja Boy CD and wants to listen to classic hip-hop. My only thought is with this CD, people will listen, realize that this is some of the finest hip-hop ever produced, google Dilla, and eventially donate to help Ma Dukes.

Tracklisting

1. The Pharcyde-Runnin’
2. Slum Village-Fall In Love
3. Common-The Light
4. Erykah Badu-Didn’t Cha Know
5. De La Soul-Stakes Is High
6. Busta Rhymes-Show Me What You Got
7. The Roots-Dynamite
8. A.G. feat. Aloe Blacc-Hip Hop Quotable
9. The Pharcyde-Drop
10. Amp Fiddler-I Believe In You
11. Steve Spacek-Dollar

Grandmaster Flash
The Bridge

Let’s face it, hip-hop dosen’t age well. While rockers like the Rolling Stones can sell out arenas well into their 80s, and people like Paul McCartney can release albums well past his prime and still get acclaim, hip-hop’s originators have a hard time releasing new material and get respect by the masses.

Why is that? Let’s face it, hip-hop is a young man’s game. It revolves too much aroud pop culture, and the current hip-hop tracks have been too commoditized to have any long-lasting value.

But these barriers did not stop Grandmaster Flash from releasing The Bridge in 2009, and let’s be glad it didn’t.

Flash, one of hip-hop pioneers (and one of hip-hop’s first victims of Industry rule #4080), looks forward rather than backward on his latest project, The Bridge. Instead of reminiscing about the good old days, and how we can never get back to them, Flash lied up a super crew of hip-hop’s finest (Q-Tip, KRS-One, Big Daddy Kane, and Busta among others) to create an album that combines a little of the past with a lot of the future.

This album has bangers. It starts with cuts like “Shine All Day,” featuring Q-Tip, which sounds like it came off of his last album The Renaissance (this is not a bad thing), to the instrumental “Here Comes The DJ, and round out with “Can I Take You Higher,” to the innovative scratch track “”Zuka The Sound.” Flash even has a dope tribute to the early NYC b-boy crews with “Tribute to the Breakdancer,” the best track on the album, hands down.

But even with such a solid slate of songs, some of the project comes off pretty mixed. Tracks like “Grown and Sexy,” and “Swagger,” and “Those Chix,” are a half-hearted attempt to cater to the older crowd, but production and the subject matter come off as archaic. Removing these songs would make a more concise and succinct album.

All in all, The Bridge isn’t a bad look for your CD collection. Grandmaster Flash has created a template for classic hip-hop comeback efforts, and hopefully it will encourage other old heads to get back into the game.

The first single off of their new Patches from the Quilt EP (out now) and The Quilt LP which drops on September 9th and features Busta, Estelle, and the dude from Hall and Oates.

In Contrast the concept for Don’t Touch Me might fly over the heads of you kids out there. It’s definitely inspired by Busta’s previous off the wall videos like “Woo Hah,” and “Gimmie Some More.” The unique video style is created by shooting the video in slow motion and speeding it up in post production.

This sh-t is KILLING NYC right now!

Busta Rhymes – Don’t Touch Me