This is an awesome song! Video of a live performance of the Bad Plus performing, “Anthem of the Earnest”, off their 2005 album Suspicious Activity?.
Who is The Bad Plus, you ask? Are they a pop- and rock-influenced jazz trio? Or are they a power trio who like to play jazz? It’s really a bit of both.
What is impressive is that the trio manages to sound contemporary using only piano, bass, and drums, and without resorting to electronic gimmicks. This band is compelling and their albums are great listens featuring interesting cover songs. Pick them all up.
It’s hard to really put much more into it. It’s really an experience to be listened to, not spoken about.
Man, do I love Tanya Morgan. Back in 2006, I saw this video for “We Be” and loved it. Then I picked up Moonlighting. When I first took a listen, I was blown away. Really epitomized what I loved about hip-hop. Now these dudes are pumping out more and more material.
They are HELLA busy in 2009. Four Artists: Tanya Morgan and all the members are releasing a gang of material on the internet. Y’all missin’ out.
I-El "Prelude"
Ilyas has a album out under the moniker I-El called The Prelude. You can download it HERE. Highlight tracks are “Real Hip-Hop Don’t Die (featuring Von Pea & Donwill)”, “Almighty”, “Telepathy”, “One Perfect Moment” and “Let’s Kick It”. The funniest track would have to be “My Autotune Song”, in the vain of “Just ‘Cause I Got Locks” on TM’s Moonlighting. He calls him T-Wayne East on this track. LOL.
Von Pea released The Further Adventures of Von Pea mixtape, remaking tracks produced by Madlib, late last year. Such a good listen. I love Pea’s flow and tone, it’s unique as hell. And on Madlib beats? It’s crazy. Download it HERE. Peep his blog, www.vonpea.com, a dope read.
Donwill is soon to release his solo album, Don Cusack In High Fidelity. It is a remake of the movie High Fidelity, starring John Cusack (You get it?). A dope movie, if I say so myself. I’m guessing the album will parallel stuff in the movie. Peep www.mcdayjob.com for more info.
And finally the group is set to release their solo effort, Brooklynati, on May 12th. Highly anticapated and they’ve blessed us with a track from the album called “So Damn Down”. Damnnnn. Track is so sick! Dope production from Von Pea, sample is crazy. Download the track HERE.
Don’t sleep on Tanya Morgan. Get the previous albums like The Bridge EP & Moonlighting.
The Japan-based Volta Masters is so smooth! The Picked up their album Change a while ago. They use very well-known samples and flip them into dope loungy, jazzy, hip-hop grooves. I could listen to this album for days. Highlights on the album are the above-mentioned “Just In Love” (using a sample that Common used on “Resurrection”), “Chronicle” (using a sample from Slick Rick’s “Da Art of Storytellin’”), “Dream” (using a sample from Debarge’s “Stay With Me”), “Mr. Lawrence” and “I Like It (P.O.H. Remix)”. Pretty much the album is an awesome listen. Highly recommended. I plan to pick up their other stuff.
Diego Bernal is a civil rights attorney by day, beatsmith by night. The San Antonio, Texas beatmaker’s first full-length album, For Corners, is a forty minute mix of beats that is very much an ode to his culture, the era of music he grew up on, and his people. One highlight track, “Diego’s Donut (RIP Dilla)”, feels like something J Dilla would make if he grew up in Texas. The whole album feels much shorter than the forty minutes it actually is, which is a good thing in my mind. You want more, that you can’t help but take another listen or twenty. He reminds me a lot of DJ Shadow, Madlib & J Dilla. Diego is the epitome of what multi-tasking is. Have you ever heard of an attorney/beatmaker? Didn’t think so. At least a dope one.
You can download this album for FREE (Yes, FREE) here. Or purchase it from Exponential Records, a dope independent label based out of San Antonio, Texas.
I’m in love with Yukumi Nagano. Swedish-Japanese. Beautiful. Lead singer of the band Little Dragon. Such a soulful voice.
Guard my heart.
Love their debut self-titled album, which came out in 2007. Get it if you haven’t yet. It’s been awhile since I got to listen to this but I received a tweet from a friend about them and it re-opened my love for this trip-hop, downtempo band. Like a past love you thought was gone and out of your life but you see them again on the street somewhere and it just brings back memories of that relationship. That’s how it is for me right now, though I never lost the love. I just forgot amongst all the music I’ve come to hear the past year and a half.
Mannn, I’ve been sleeping on this dude for a minute.
Shadrach Kabango AKA Shad is a rapper based out of Canada. He is one of Canada’s bright, young Hip-Hop talents. Too bad for us Americans, we have yet to hear any real buzz about him. Ahh, thank God for modern technology. I found out about this dude via YouTube. Just searching around and stumbled upon the video for “I Don’t Really Like To” off his 2007 album, The Old Prince. His wordplay is impeccable. Forget the New Kanye, I need REAL rappers like this.
“Cats say you the illest, I’m like naw B…naw B…/ naw B….well okay probably/ but that’s just only ‘cuz i rap like its my hobby/not a jobby job, all sloppy and off key/ ya’ll mad as March tryin’ to knock off the top seed”
Hopefully this dude gets some well-deserved recognition from outside Canada. Don’t sleep on this dude. You got fan here in Hawaii, Shad.
New self titled album on Tres Records coming out September 23. Get it.
This is what keeps me comin’ back to the music. For every thousand Soulja Boys that are around, there’s a few MC’s like this. I listen for that minority with dope beats and lyrics.
Blu rips this beat up! Go get the album on the 23rd. And check more of their music on their MySpace.
Red Bull Big Tune 2007 – Houston Finals: The Are vs. S1
The Are
I shouldn’t even need to explain this.
If you sleepin’ on The Are, just download these joints. Puh-lease. This Raphael Saadiq joint and this beat CD are just starting to circulate around the internet.
If this is pretty much your introduction to this dude, download the rest of the stuff he has out on the internet. One of the best beatmakers, period. No joke.
Check out his MySpace or his blog for more info and to check out more music.
Nola Darling is a new female Hip-Hop/R&B/Reggae duo from New York. They came out with the world’s first ever “Mini-Mixtape,” a new format in which to release music.
Too many original songs to be classified an EP… Not enough sampled tracks to be labeled a mixtape…. Too random to be considered a concept album…Not miscellaneous enough to be categorized a compilation… too soon to be the greatest hits…too late to be a single… too dope to be dubbed anything but a “Mini-Mixtape.”
Some really good original songs, remakes, and remixes. Check it out. A Dope female duo. i think you’ll be hearing the names around soon enough, when they come out with a full length project.
Click on the download link to listen. Enjoy. Blessings.
Ed OG dropped knowledge and didn’t care. Pretty much overlooked by a lot of dudes. Their first album, Life of a Kid In the Ghetto, is a classic. But I really like their second disc, Roxbury 02119. Back when I was living in Minnesota in 1994, my friend’s older brother would listen to this. Pretty much got me into Golden Age Hip-Hop. I think he was the only dude that was listening to this stuff still, when everyone was getting into the West Coast sound. I mean a white dude taught me about Hip-Hop, from the third degree. Haha. He got me into Ed OG, Pete Rock & CL, Leaders of the New School, etc.
This song, “I Got to Have It”, is so dopeeee. Never knew they even had a video for this, off the classic Life of a Kid In the Ghetto.
“You’re not a father just because you got a son/ unless you takin’ care of ‘um.” Classic.
FYI: I loved Diamond D’s production on their albums. Another dope beatmaker during that time. Check into his production.
Love their debut self-titled album, which came out in 2007. Get it if you haven’t yet. It’s been awhile since I got to listen to this but I received a tweet from a friend about them and it re-opened my love for this trip-hop, downtempo band. Like a past love you thought was gone and out of your life but you see them again on the street somewhere and it just brings back memories of that relationship. That’s how it is for me right now, though I never lost the love. I just forgot amongst all the music I’ve come to hear the past year and a half.
