During this year's Halloween special, The Simpsons did a parody of AMC's Golden Globe-winnning series, Mad Men. Turns out the music they decided to use was the RJD2 produced "A Beautiful Mine" off his and Aceyalone's Magnificent City album. You may recall that we made these guys OkayArtists and launched a web site for the project, seen here. We gave RJ a call to ask him how it felt to have his music in an episode of the one of the greatest television series ever. "It's really something when music you made in your basement for your own enjoyment ends up in places you never imagined it would. You can tell they recreated the music for the show using orchestration and all live instruments, so that made it even cooler."
Bonus: Video: Aceyalone and RJD2 "Highlights," directed by Jason Goldwatch. After the jump.
The annual CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival has had NYC turned on its head all week. The one event you could have found the Okayplayer logo on this year was Decon's "Never Not Fresh" label showcase and party to celebrate the relaunch of their creative department. Check out the above video for performance clips from 88-Keys and Izza Kizza, then check below for a photo gallery featuring Evidence, Aceyalone, and the Decon dudes. Make sure you visit the last image which depicts one of the severed thumb USB sticks Decon has been sending out to industry trade publications to announce the launch of their new creative agency and the unveiling of their website, deconmedia.com (the password is the name of their CMJ event, all one word).
NYC, tonight Okayplayer is helping to present Decon's "Never Not Fresh" party for CMJ at Sullivan Hall in Manhattan. Not only is this a celebration of Decon's multi-media roots and their brand new creative agency, but there will also be performances from Evidence, Aceyalone, 88-Keys, Izza Kizza, DJ Babu + special guests. Look for video installations, give-aways, and more. It all goes down tonight, 9pm, at Sullivan Hall, 214 Sullivan Street btwn Bleeker and W. 3rd, doors at 8pm, tix $15.
Did you somehow miss Decon's Fresh Rhymes and Videotape Tour when it hit your city this summer? Well if you did, we've got something to let you know all the dopeness you missed out on with the above for "The Fresh Rhymes and Videotape Anthem" featuring The Alchemist, Dilated Peoples, Aceyalone and 88-Keys. The video was directed by our boy Jason Goldwatch and gives you a behind the scenes look at all the stops of the tour. As a bonus in collaboration with Decon, we're selling Fresh Rhymes and Videotape Tour Tees in the OKP store packaged with the upcomingFresh Rhymes & Videotape Vol. 1 CD/DVD. The CD features 5 new collaborative tracks from the artists featured on the tour as well as a DVD with a documentary style short film about life on the road with some of the most well-seasoned performers in the game. Fresh Rhymes & Videotape Vol. 1 will be available October 14th but you can order yours now!
Bonus: large version of the group photo seen on our home page.
On this weeks' G4 Freestyle 101 segment Aceyalone is featured in a "Rock The Vote Special." After Acey introduces himself he spits a new song for us called "Power To The People" off of his upcoming album The Lonely Ones dropping November 25th on Decon. He then goes on to tell people why it's so important to vote and shares who he thinks the most political rappers are and the impact they had on him.
Our good friends at Decon hit us up with this "Anthem" off of their upcoming EP, Decon Explains:
"Fresh Rhymes & Videotape, Vol. 1" is part of a new series of audio/visual centric releases from Decon. The Digital & Physical projects combine 6-10 new tracks with conceptual video integration from some of today's most promising up and coming as well as established artists. Coming October 14th!
Stay tuned for more of these mash-up releases from Decon, including new projects from Evidence, Izza Kizza, Aceyalone and others!
The Good people at Mixcast.tv put together this dope mini documentary of Decon's Fresh Rhymes and Videotape tour. The video includes performance clips and interviews with Dilated Peoples, Alchemist, Aceyalone, and 88-Keys. The final two shows are tonight in Los Angeles at HOB and Sunday in San Diego at Belly Up. If you didn't catch the tour while it was in your area...you lost. Enjoy this video and don't play yourself next time a Decon tour comes to your town.
The Fresh Ryhmes & Videotape tour featuring Dilated Peoples, The Alchemist, Aceyalone, and 88Keys kicked off Monday June 2nd in Seattle Washington. The tour bus is wrapped to look like an MTA Subway car and just might be the craziest wrap of a tour bus ever. Shout out to Decon (what up Yoram!) and 2KSports. I see a few okayplayer tags on there. Good lookin'!
Word from the road is that Kanye West showed up at the show in Portland where he joined 88 for an encore performance of his song "Stay Up! (Viagra)" followed by a quick acapella verse from Ye' (hmmm, I wonder if it was the same one from Summer Jam), and then "This Way" with Dilated.
