Rap dudes! Especially rap dudes who are old enough to remember when Eminem was an underground artist and Pharoahe Monch was that guy from Organized Konfusion (and grown and sexy rap mamis, we do not discriminate) your attention please! Tomorrow night in New York City the world-famous, career-making, golden-era-establishing event series known as Lyricist Lounge will be celebrating it’s 20-year reunion at Le Poisson Rouge. Headlining the event will be the one Tariq Trotter AKA Black Thought of the Legendary Roots Crew, backed by the homie J. Period on the wheels of steel. Thought will be joined by the Bush Babees, Homeboy Sandman, Kid Capri, Doug E. Fresh, Rich Medina and DJ Apakalepse, among other good-ass rappers and superstar DJs. Find full details after the jump and get your tickets while supplies last!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Danny Castro, Anthony Marshall & family cordially invite you to

LYRICIST LOUNGE 20 YEAR REUNION PARTY

Hosted & Special Performance by BLACK THOUGHT (The Roots) featuring DJ J. PERIOD

Exclusive Allstar Open Mic mixed by KID CAPRI! & hosted by Doug E Fresh

Also performances by HOMEBOY SANDMAN, BUSH BABIES & special surprise guests!

Music by RICH MEDINA & AKALEPSE

@ Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleeker Street (Between Sullivan & Thompson)

Doors @ 10pm

Get your advance tickets here.

A next episode of Absolut’s Encore Sessions dropped yesterday, featuring okayplayer musical bffs Little Dragon. In between updating us on their touring and other activities in the chit-chat segment of the 13+ minute session, the Dragon debut not one but TWO unreleased, never-before-heard jams live  at le Baron in Chinatown, NYC. One: the original tune “Sunshine” (which will apparently released as part of an Absolut-sponsored project) and Two: “Here Comes The Rain Again” (their take on the Eurythmics’ synthpop classic). See what they did there? Conceptual. Now if only they had completed the trifecta by closing with a cover of Rob Base‘s “Joy & Pain” my life would be complete.

spotted at NB

As a number of outlets have reported, Lupe Fiasco addressed  his use of the beat from Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth‘s 90s rap classic “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)” on his brand new single “Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free)” during an industry conference call moderated by DJ Whoo Kid today. Pete Rock expressed his hurt over the use of the beat, which he created to commemorate the passing of his friend of Trouble T-Roy of Heavy D & The Boyz–even going so far as to point out that he received the blessing of Tom Scott, whose song “Today” provided the sax and bass loop at the heart of the beat. Read his twitter stream for context but the substance of his remarks can be found below:

“No disrespect to Lupe Fiasco and i like him alot but TROY should be left alone. Feel so violated,the beat is next to my heart and was made outta anguish and pain. When it’s like that it should not be touched by no one! It’s so hard for folks to make original music, I possess that, but these dudes are scared of that and this is supposed to be HIP HOP? Man I’m a lupe fan and everything but TROY was my homie man. I think about him and Hev every fucking day!!!! Smh. Who ever Re-created that didn’t do a good job @ all. #nohate. …Yo hev and t-Roy I love and miss da shit outta y’all. U guys have been violated with no Vaseline. So fucked up this business smmfh!!! And I don’t care who got something to say about it, kiss my…I’m not flattered @ all. Dat shit is wack, and the producer should be ashamed of his fuckin self. That record is dear to me…I think lupe is a great artist, I’m that angry with him but it’s a major label idea. I can feel it. And y’all need to stop the childish games, I’m a fan of lupe and he is a great artist and a great person. And let me be clear cuz a lot of y’all don’t know this. But Tom Scott himself gave me an approval for TROY, told me I did a great job!!”

Although Lupe apparently did not address the comments directly, he did provide insight on his use of the beat (after the jump):

“All the credit goes to my partner and manager Chill, he just felt like it was time to bring back a joint… Go back and take one of the iconic records of Hip Hop and put a new spin on it and put it back out there. I spit on it a couple times before, some mixtape stuff back in the day, Chill felt it needed a bigger look than that.”

And of considerably more interest to Lupe fans, he spoke at length about what can be expected from the new LP Food & Liquor 2, the themes it addresses and how the single encapsulates them:

“The album is meant to be my interpretation of America. Politics, society, religion, class, race, food, all across the board. It was only right that we had to have a song that was a collage of that, so people got it from the door that all these different things, topics, that make up America, that make us Americans, the things that influence us and the things that we influence. You needed that first record to be the embodiment of that whole piece, the whole direction that we’re going in. This record is a collage, but it’s a more like an introduction. As you get into the album, as we release new records, and hopefully we’ll release the album in a few months, you’ll see that we focus on particular issues on particular songs. We will expand on something that may have came up in the second verse of “Freedom Ain’t Free”. There will be a whole song that speaks about this particular relationship in American society, or this particular phenomenon in American society, so people can get a good direction of where the album is going. You get it all in the first joint. But it’s not necessarily angry. The whole record’s not angry. It’s not coming from an angry place, it’s coming from a serious place.”

He also gave a rough timefram for the LP’s release, which will apparently come in two parts:

“It’s Food & Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album Part I. Part I, which “Freedom Ain’t Free” is the single off of, is coming in the next few months. It really ain’t got no features on there. It got a few people on the hooks and stuff like that, but no other real features other than myself. But that’s part one. It’s a double album. We’re probably 80% finished with part 2, which is going to come out a little later. It’s not finalized. You don’t know who’s going to be on it… Part 1 is done and there ain’t gonna be any features on there, but part 2, it maybe somebody coming at the last inning to drop a verse. We’ll see.”

spotted at HT

Here in NYC, Funk Flex dropped a bomb on the opening of his drive-time set last night over a haunting orientalist wail followed by a huge dancehall riddim. The sound was the building-flattening introductory bars of Busta Rhymes and Vybz Kartel‘s “Wine & Go Down” (listen below) a summer smash in the making if there ever was one. Of course by that time our bashment specialists at LargeUp had already buss the record wide open and in the spirit of Top 10 Tuesdays followed up this afternoon with a rundown of Busta’s biggest musical nods to his Jamaican Roots. Watch this live performance of Busta’s take on “Rastaman Chant” with Julian Marley filling in for Bob to get the flavor, then hit the link at bottom for the full Top 10.

>>>Hear the Full Top 10 (via LargeUp)

The Very Best take on the Malawian government in their latest video for “Yoshua Alikuti” (watch below). In our exclusive interview with Johan Hugo and Esau Mwamwaya, they describe how the late president’s policies devastated the livlihoods of many Malawians. When Esau and Johan couldn’t get fuel for their car during the recording of their forthcoming album in Lilongwe, Esau decided it was time to, as Fela would say, use music as his weapon. In this behind-the-scenes look, we watch the band strut the streets of one of Nairobi’s most dangerous slums – entertaining the local population and making friends with goats.

What has The Very Best been up to lately?
Johan: Well! We’re suuupeerrr excited to have “Yoshua Alikuti” out finally. Even though we had the Super Mom Mixtape last year, that felt more like something we put out to buy more time to finish the album, and it was the right choice. What came out of the Malawi sessions last September really changed and solidified the new album’s sound. We’ve been very lucky to meet Village Beat who directed the first 3 videos for us in Kenya which was an amazing experience. That 1 week felt like 1 year. Most intense week of my life I think. We also brought Seye Adelekan with us cause he’s on the next single, and he co-wrote and played guitar on parts of the new album. It’s been amazing working with him on his record too. It’s just been really nice to see the ball rolling again and to see the amazing feedback on “Yoshua Alikuti.” I really didn’t know what people would make of it, but it seems people like it so that’s great news!

Last time you spoke with Okayplayer’s Eddie Stats, you talked about finding the ‘new sound’ of TVB. How has your sound changed on the new records—and do you think “Yoshua Alikuti” exemplifies that new sound?
Johan: Maybe it’s still a little bit early to reveal too much about the new album =) , but I guess “Yoshua Alikuti” is a good starting point. There’s so many different vibes on the new album I hope it will feel like a journey listening to it. It’s true what I said in last Ghetto Palms interview about it being a bit more dancey and darker, I think you can hear that from Yoshua already… some of the people we worked with are probably not expected either. I know its official about Amadou & Mariam, Baaba Maal, K’naan, Seye Adelekan, etc. Some of the co-writers of album are more surprising… but I can’t say who they are yet hahaha!

>>>HEAD TO OKAYAFRICA FOR BEHIND THE SCENES VIDEO, PICTURES AND THE FULL INTERVIEW

The homie J57 of Brown bag AllStars fame dropped not one, but two EPs today that you need to check for. You can stream/purchase 2057 and The Ports EP, respectively, after the jump. In celebration of the dual release, J57 teamed with his BBAS brethren to release a video for The Ports EP track “Days Still Turn To Night” also featuring Andrew Thomas (Recess/TheClubhouse). Video directed by Pace Rivers.

In anticipation of the release of his debut LP, Let It Go, House Shoes just dropped a new EP, The Time. The EP features some album tracks as well as exclusive instrumentals limited to the EP. Today, we get the Danny Brown assisted song “Sweet” which appears on both the EP and the LP. The Time is out now via Tres Records. Let It Go has features from Black Milk, Danny Brown, Alchemist, Oh No, MED, Roc Marciano, Quelle Chris, Shafiq Husayn, and many others. It’s entirely produced by Shoes and will be out June 19th.

>>>Download 

Like the proverbial moonshot, okayplayer artists-to-watch Sonnymoon blasted out a stream of their new LP this morning and as the first song warns you, it is a wild rumpus from start to finish. Love to see them getting a little more noisy and experimental with their sound, while still keeping the underlying musicality and atmosphere. It’s kind of like they are trying to bu un-musical but they can’t because their so damn musical. Hit the link below to see what I mean and then order your copy on iTunes. (And find live dates after the jump–Sonnymoon is in yo’ town!)

>>>Stream (via AOL)

Upcoming Tour Dates:
June 14th – Portland, OR – Crown Room w/ Knxwledge
June 15th – Seattle, WA – Vermillion w/ Knxwledge
June 16th – Vancouver, BC – The Waldorf Hotel w/ Knxwledge
June 19th – San Francisco, CA – Public Works w/ Devonwho, B. Lewis
June 20th – San Jose, CA – The Pagoda at Fairmont Hotel w/ Devonwho, B. Lewis
June 21st – Fresno, CA – Fulton 55 w/ Devonwho, B. Lewis
June 22nd – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo w/ Mndsgn + Special Guests TBA
June 23rd – San Diego, CA – Kava Lounge w/ Mndsgn

You may have peeped this one a few weeks ago when it sprung an early leak. But today, Coalmine Records formally released this new single from Blu “Kiss The Sky” featuring Mela Machinko on the hook and M-Phazes on the beat (DJ Dutchmaster on the cuts). I’m not sure when this was recorded, but the sound is definitely more Below The Heavens than N O Y O R K. Stream it below, and cop it on iTunes. Also, check out this new interview with Blu on Coalmine’s blog Takin’ Mines.

Props to Mass Appeal on the premiere

Tab-One (of Kooley High) and producer Sunshine J come through with the latest set of visuals off their upcoming collabo project, Madflowridiculous. Watch the video for the piano laden track “Caught Up” featuring DJ Gonzo on the cuts. Video directed by Barrett Phillips. Madflowridiculous drops May 29th.