Subsequent to 9/11 nothing really made sense. Two of my friends were dead. I had a bullshit job and I couldn't pay rent. My quest for personal meaning shrunk in the shadows of a broken skyline. On September 18, 2001 "Labor Days" dropped. I stopped by Other Music on East 4th Street, copped it, popped it in and began walking, with discman in hand, the entire 92 blocks to my uptown spot. I was completely captivated, somehow less confused and ultimately comforted that this dude with the wacky vocabulary and tracheotomy voice could make the apocalypse sound so romantic. He made romance sound robotic.

Who the fuck is Aes-Rock? He's that kid that rocked a crooked lid piece when the straight-laced world crumbled to rubble. He's that artist that emerged at the perfect time and place draped in a style undeniably his own. His fan base is obsessive and fiercely loyal. They've followed him into the "Bazooka Tooth" future, traced his "Earthworms" roots and traipsed through his "Appleseed" past. Rumor has it that upon hearing "Float," El-P made him an offer he couldn't refuse. I, for one, am thankful he played the Dre to Aesop's Snoop. I recently got the chance to chat with Bazooka Tooth himself on the topics of beef, pigs, Hyphy and his tightest album to date, None Shall Pass.

If you have the privilege of seeing Ledisi live, or live from your laptop via YouTube, a few things are obvious: confident stage presence, amazing pipes, great audience participation. What you don't get at first glance is the ‘little soul sister that could' has some serious hustle in her. Besides creating and running her own label, LeSun Records, Ledisi keeps herself busy with a constant touring schedule and the occasional show-stopping TV performance. She said it herself, "Never do anything exactly like the cover." Seeing Ledisi pay tribute to Ella Fitzgerald on PBS' Great Performances earlier in 2007 with "Blues in the Night" showed why Ledisi is often called on for her renditions of the classics and yet could never survive in a cover band. She attributes doing things ‘her own kinda way' to her popularity, a common generalization, yet a telling indictment of why no band or label can truly hold her.

Okayplayer send resident writer Mike Gadd to chop it up with DJ/Producer extraordinaire, Mark Ronson.  Here is what he learned:

Spend 15 years doing something and chances are you're going to wind up being pretty damn good at it. Take DJing for instance; quasi-celebrity status or not, (step)son of Foreigner rock God or not, Mark Ronson is good. Really, really good. But not just behind the two steel wheels - behind the boards, behind the drums, and as a creative force behind the scenes. And with so much on his plate, it's surprising he's got the wherewithal to get it done, let alone to get it done so right.

Set up by okayplayer.com, writer M. Steve Hammer talked to Soulive the day before their new LP became the first in decades to be released on Stax Records.

After eight years as one of the funkiest trios in music modern, Soulive has reemerged, vocalist in tow, as a four man crew ready to carry a torch that has been all but extinguished. "No Place Like Soul," the group's 6th studio LP, is the first new album to be released by Stax Records since the iconic label folded in 1975. On the eve of this record's debut, I spoke with drummer Alan Evans and singer Toussaint about their new label, life as a quartet, the recording process, and all the other basics. You know, like the influence of J Dilla, the perils of the internet, the ghost of Otis Redding, and why Wu-Tang needs to cut the bickering.