So it has clearly been a tumultuous week thus far for Rhymefest, but if nothing else some good music has been released in the midst of the fuckery. For a brief recap of what's been going on, some herb "fan" claims to have stolen Fest's iPod (which has his upcoming album El Che on it). Dude says that to help Fest become a better artist he's going to pressure him and the label by releasing a song off the album every week until a single or video is released for El Che. The dudes letter is so "Stanned" out that you can hear Dido singing in the background as you read it. Hit up Fake Shore Drive to see the letter and Rhymefest's response and clarification on the situation. For those of you thinking this is just an industry PR move, we just spoke to Fest and he seemed pretty pissed off at the whole situation...so we doubt it. Though it's unfortunate we had to hear them in this way, here are the two songs that were leaked, "Bring It Back" produced by DJ Jazzy Jeff and "RNQ" produced by DJ Premier. No word on whether these songs will still be on El Che.
Okayplayer and Mel D. Cole were on hand for last night's sold-out concert at SOB's. Wale and the UCB band were the headliners and it was considered Blu & Exile's first full show in NYC. Skillz came through for a guest slot and was joined by DJ Jazzy Jeff on the 1s and 2s. Kweli popped on stage to perform his verse on the new Skillz single "So Far So Good." The highlight for us was definitely a chance to finally catch the Cali based Blu & Exile. Blu had the crowd in the palm of his hand and Exile's mpc solo had heads blown. Check out the photo gallery from VillageSlum after the click and stay tuned for imminent youtubery, especially of that Exile solo.
Here are the final two sets of photos from VillageSlum and Okayplayer's Mel D. Cole. The first gallery consists of performance photos of The Roots only while the second stars Gnarls Barkley, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Deerhoof, The Cool Kids, and J*Davey. Once again, stay tuned for what will be an amazing gallery of portraits shot by Trevor Paulhus as well as video from okayplayerTV.
We've got some new music that was sent to us from Strong Arm Steady gang (peace to Krondon), Peter Hadar featuring Mickey Factz (shout out to Charles and Shayna), and Phil Nash produced by DJ Jazzy Jeff (Hallway Jay, what up). Check them out then leave a comment and say what you think.
Talib Kweli presents Strong Arm Steady "The Gang (Freestyle)"
