Posted on 11/19/2009
It is hard to imagine a diverse, African-inflected dance record like Warm Heart of Africa gaining international notoriety (read: in the West) in the pre-MP3 era, since the Internet was not available then. And so, here in the late 2000’s we have The Very Best, a partnership between Malawian-born vocalist Esau Mwamwaya and London DJ/producer tandem Radioclit (Johan Karlberg and Etienne Tron), generating far and wide an Internet buzz with...

Posted on 11/19/2009
On any average day, I hear gripes about how there’s no good music left. Whether it be from my mother, who misses what she considers the golden age, or my older brother who refers to Rakim as the god emcee, everyone complains about a lack of good music. I beg to differ. It’s not that there isn’t any good music. In fact, I think there is good music everywhere. But,...

Posted on 11/19/2009
By definition, the word “parallel” is used to describe the similarities of two items. In music, a song is considered parallel when voices or melodies mirror each other. That definition holds true on Parallel Uni-Verses, a quirky, yet charming hip-hop offering from Del The Funky Homosapien and Tame One. Both emcees seem united by their disdain for commercial hip-hop and this album is a call for rappers to dig deeper....

Posted on 11/19/2009
College radio sensation and big man on campus, Bekay, has dropped his newest release Hunger Pains. Unfortunately, consciously or not, the college radio heads seem to be the demographic he’s aiming for. What does that mean? Basically solid but vaguely generic boom bap and typical retread underground/backpacker lyrics that have been around since the tail end of the shiny suit era. On one track...

Posted on 11/19/2009
The album artwork is unassuming: Three blood brothers sit side-by-side, two of them peering intently into a camera lens as a picture of the iconic Duke Ellington looms above their heads. Both Godallah Truth and Acem gaze at you with a confident stare, while their brother, Powerful, sits in the middle with hands clasped, looking away in apparent deep thought. The three men — known collectively as Gods’Illa — look...

Posted on 11/19/2009
Let me just say this off the top: if this mix tape was mixed differently, my final rating would have been closer to the upper 70's. Before I get into the nightmare of the sound quality, let me at least bring you in to tell you what does make this work.