May 16, 2012
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Video: El-P Live On David Letterman

Imagining El-P perfom on The Late Show With David Letterman in his Company Flow days is not the easiest of tasks. But El has certainly come a along way from his somewhat eremitic backpack-hero days, regularly sharing his twitter wisdom, raking up accolades from across the music press board for his work on Killer Mike‘s new album and recording songs with members of Interpol and Islands. Speaking of which, Islands frontman Nick Diamonds joins El Producto on stage for this performance of “Stay Down,” a cut you will also find on the much anticipated Cancer 4 Cure record, out this coming Tuesday.

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Pass The Popcorn: Michael K. Williams Speaks on Portraying O.D.B.

We ran into Michael K. Williams (or as he will forever be known in the hood: “Omar from the HBO program The Wire“) on the streets of Brooklyn yesterday, which is how we know he has wrapped shooting on his black cowboy epic with Idris Elba, Erykah Badu and Jeymes Samuel (at least for the moment) and is back in a N.Y. State of mind. Or maybe that should be “Brooklyn Zoo” state of mind, because MKW stopped by Power 105′s Breakfast Club show this morning to chop it up about his forthcoming portrayal of Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Williams does not hesitate to go deep, explaining how the ‘dark state of mind’ necessary to do the character of Omar justice spilled over into personal life, including a lot of “drinkin’ and druggin’.” Although he obviously has some regrets, he says the experience gave him the tools to play O.D.B. without “going too far.” Of course there’s a lot more details about the film, which is titled Dirty White Boy and focuses on the last two years of the rapper’s life, his struggle with mental illness and his relationship with his manager Jared Weisfeld–and the reaction of some of the other Wu members. Watch the full 20-minute interview above.

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Suzi Analogue – (R)ose (A)lways (W)ins [Instrumental EP]

Suzi Analgue

As we wait for Suzi Analogue and TOKiMONSTA‘s collabo mixtape to drop, Suzi drops this RAW new EP to hold y’all down. With (R)ose (A)lways (W)ins, Suzi puts the mic duties on hold and hits us with 6 new beats. As is often the case with Suzi’s music, this EP is not easily assigned a genre, so go ahead and listen for yourself and put it in whatever box you choose (I’d just call it dope).

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MaLLy & The Sundance Kid – The Last Great… [Free LP]

MaLLy The Last Great...

I’m a day late with this, but as promised, Minneapolis emcee MaLLy dropped his free LP yesterday (via Complex), The Last Great… The project was entirely produced by The Sundance Kid and is comprised of  12 original tracks with features from Brother Ali, Truth be Told, K.Raydio, and Claire De Lune. I only got put on to MaLLy at the top of the year, but the Twin Cities emcee is quickly making it clear he’s one to check for. Download/Stream The Last Great… after the jump (purchase physicals via Fifth Element).


Audio: Ryan Leslie x Fabolous “Beautiful Lie” (Remix)

After teasing us with in-studios, making-ofs, and behind-the-scenes (above) one-man bandman Ryan Leslie and dapper dan-man Fabolous dropped the audio for their collaborative joint “Beautiful Lie” (Remix) yesterday. I’ma be honest, I found Fab’s verses a bit underwhelming but his style is still such a good balance to Les More’s that I still see supergroup potential.

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Video: Murs x DJ Quik Interview Backstage At Paid Dues

Hip-hop artist/mogul Murs takes the opportunity to sit backstage with rap legend DJ Quik backstage at the Paid Dues festival and chop it up about L.A. living, drugs and haircare tips, among deeper subjects. Never one to suppress his own devilish streak Murs cuts straight to the chase with “ever did acid?” in the first few seconds and the conversation just gets funnier from there. I could give more synopsis but I don’t want to ruin the

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Video: Jay-Z Speaks On New Jay Electronica LP

After putting his stamp on same-sex marriage and the 1%, Jay-Z went ahead and waded into the other great intractable controversy of the last few years–the status of the semi-mythical Jay Electronica album tentatively titled Act II: Patents of Nobility. Confirming what ?uesto, Young Guruand others have hinted, Jay states that he does indeed have the finished record in his hot little hands–and he saw that it was good. In fact:

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Quelle Chris – Jock Sin Six [Beat Tape]

cover art for Quelle Chris' Jock Sin Six beat tape

As promised, the new beat tape from 10th wonder Quelle Chris, streaming on bandcamp in all its beathead glory. If you could smoke these beats, your eyes would bleed purple. Seriously–good, sonic envelope-pushing sh*t and as with much innovative music, sometimes the tags speak for themselves: United States, electronic, minimal, hip-hop,  synthwave, rap. Listen below and throw 8 dollars at sun’s bandcamp to own it.

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Video: Flying Lotus Debuts Tracks From New LP Live In Saõ Paulo, Brazil

Flying Lotus was in Brazil over the weekend, performing at Saõ Paulo’s Sonar electronic music festival and just to make sure he gave the fans their money’s worth, opened up his set with previews of at least two new tracks (at about :30 and 5:00) from his forthcoming LP Until The Quiet Comes (between the Southern hemisphere and the seat next to porn starlet-turned performance artist Sasha Grey, seems like wherever Flying Lotus is previewing new music is the steamiest place to be on any given day). Knowing, probably, that I would be posting and writing about this sh*t on okayplayer, FlyLo even cuts the music about 4 minutes to say “wait a second, y’all…f+ck that,” before identifying the new tracks and letting us know that the LP is slated to drop in October (“…or some shit.”) So there you have it: new FlyLo and a tentative release date. Watch the full 28-minute set above.

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Philly: The Roots Unveil Roots Mural Project At Wall Ball 2012 [5/31]

The Roots perform live at Wall Ball 2012 for Philadelphia's MuralArts Program, May 31st

On Thursday May 31st–roughly two weeks from today–The Legendary Roots Crew will be honored by Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program at a little thing called Wall Ball 2012. In addition to raising funds for the city’s educational programs the evening will introduce the Roots Mural Project:

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Audio: J Dilla X J Rocc “F*ck The Police” [Edit/Snippet]

12" cover art, "Fuck The Police" - Jay Dee AKA J Dilla

Black Star DJ and all around master of records J Rocc treats us to a minute and 1/3 of an edit he is working on for Jay Dee‘s “F*ck The Police”–one of my all-time personal Dilla joints, no Serpico. Transforming the hard-scrabble drum-and-horn attack of the original into a mellower but still menacing groove, J Rocc arrives at a Fela-esque anthem that zombies, dictators and made-a-mistake cops can all fear equally. It’s up on J Rocc’s soundcloud so listen or download below. Don’t say damn, just say whoah. And watch out for the full length..

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Oddisee – Odd Renditions [EP]

Oddisee

Though it caught us a little off guard, DMV emcee/producer Oddisee pleasantly surprised us with his re-imagining of Marvin Gaye‘s “Ain’t That Peculiar,” last week. Little did we know, that clip was part of a full EP, Odd Renditions, which dropped today for free download. Along with the Marvin remix, the EP has three other tracks with his takes on music from Bon Iver, Metronomy, and k-os. Oddisee flexes his creativity venturing past hip-hop and soul and dabbling in folk and indie pop as well with this release – stream/download it after the jump. Enjoy this warm up, and be on the look out for his full-length LP, People Hear What They See, which drops June 12th via Mello Music Group (pre-order).

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