Q-Tip previews an unheard version of Kanye West‘s incredible, oedipal singalong “Mama’s Boyfriend” during his surprise lecture at Red Bull Music Academy–quite an event in and of itself, seeing as The Abstract’s appearance to close out the recent RBMA sessions here in NYC was not confirmed until the very last minute. The Kanye track was originally debuted as a live verse during Ye’s live appearance at Facebook HQ in 2011, and leaked online soon after. However this sneak peek from G.O.O.D. Music soldier Q-Tip gives us a listen to a different version which prominently features him flipping a sample from Billy Joel‘s classic rock hit “Movin’ Out”–not much need for cratedigging there, to confirm the source just get in your car and drive in any direction while scanning the FM dial and this song will come up within 20 minutes or so.

As Tip explains there have been multiple versions of the track including one produced by Soulja Boy (tell ‘em) so its not 1000 percent which one will be included on Kanye’s new LP Yeezus, set to drop June 18th (for one thing, this Billy Joel version has got to be one hell of a sample clearance). You can get that tidbit at about the 1:37 mark (that’s 1 hour 37 minutes) of the lecture. Goes without saying the Kanye-related bit is just one highlight of a long and highly educational talk from this OG of the Okayplayer movement, who takes us through his whole repertoire as a producer, beginning with pause tapes of “Soul Makossa” and other breaks in the 80s–before he ever thought about being an MC–right up to his work on “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” and other recent projects. For the beat-heads, there’s detailed breakdowns of the interplay of live and programmed elements including chops of some amazing Robert Glasper piano stems. Get an mp3 of the Kanye preview above and then watch the whole 2 hour, 5 minute brain-expander below:

The post Q-Tip Previews Kanye West – “Mama’s Boyfriend” [alt. version] At His RBMA Lecture [Full Video + Audio] appeared first on Okayplayer.

Q-Tip‘s weekly “Offline” party returns to Stage 48 in NYC on Thursday, June 6th just in time for all this great weather we’re having in the Big Apple.  Q-Tip will be joined by guest DJ’s every week, and we’re certain anyone that attends will want to come back again and again!

There will be a strict door policy. No single guys will be admitted unless there are some ladies in your group. Dress To Impress. Management reserves the right to refuse admission.

Tickets are available via TicketWeb or you can enter to win a pair courtesy of Giant Step and Okayplayer below! The ticket give away has ended!

Doors Open At: 10:00 PM
Show Starts At: 10:00 PM
Advanced Price: $15.00

Stage 48
605 W. 48th St. @ 11th Avenue
New York NY, 10036
PH: (212) 957-1800

The post Q-Tip’s “Offline” Party Returns To NYC! Win Tickets From OKP! appeared first on Okayplayer.

“A Little Party Never Killed Nobody” but this song just did a great job of killing the party. Q-Tip and Fergie have teamed for a disjointed and generally unlikely duet that is a little uncomfortable to listen to. Mostly because it really hurts to hear Q-Tip doing cheer squad music. The track produced by GoonRock is slated for The Great Gatsby soundtrack, dropping in May. Here’s hoping this goes away quickly or gets a remix magical enough to distract us all from how dated and unfortunate it sounds. If we’re really desperate to repeat past mistakes, we could always go back to “Who Let The Dogs Out.” That was at least useful for keeping people entertained during time-outs. This cannot possibly be all we got.

Spotted at RS

The post Q-Tip x Fergie – “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody” (All We Got) appeared first on Okayplayer.

Q-Tip is scheduled to speak on the Tribeca Talks Industry: Music + Film panel at the Tribeca Film Festival. The A Tribe Called Quest MC will be speaking with I’m Not There director Todd Haynes about the relationship between filmmakers and musicians. The panel will discuss how the two groups of artists take creative cues from each other. The discussion will run for one hour – from 3:30 to 4:30 PM – at SVA Theatre 1 on April 23rd. Tip’s scheduled appearance follows news that a Tribe reunion may be on the horizon. Check The Abstract at Tribeca and keep your ears peeled for more.

Spotted at Billboard

The post Pass The Popcorn: Q-Tip + Director Todd Haynes On Tribeca Festival Panel appeared first on Okayplayer.

A Tribe Called Quest, who performed a short set for anyone lucky enough to get into Prince‘s SXSW showcase, found time to kick it with Billboard for an interview. They say that their Austin performance was booked with just a weeks’ notice and that right now, they are happy to perform together. Q-Tip says that he is glad that they are still “here” and Jarobi speaks on how he thinks things have changed since they started. Tip also drops some more info on his forthcoming Last Zulu LP, revealing that the album will be out next year. In addition to featuring Busta Rhymes, the record could see a rare appearance from all of ATCQ (?!) welcome and unexpected news which arrives–along with the suprise SXSW show–right on the heels of Ali Shaheed Muhammad’s statement to the effect that they would do no such thing. Labeling the project a ‘concept album,’ Last Zulu Q-Tip went on to say that the LP will feature “traditional zulu beats” with “african drum breaks” (paging Okayafrica). Tip also says that he has recently done production work for Mariah Carey, John Legend, and D’angelo. While we wait patiently for new music to grow from these nuggets of info, check the interview below:

props to BB

The post A Tribe Called Quest Speak On Reuniting + Recording appeared first on Okayplayer.

Q-Tip, Black Thought and Talib Kweli stretch out on a live rendition of “Electric Relaxation” with a little help from The Roots in one of our favorite segments from the Okayplayer Holiday Jam (ok we had a lot of favorite segments but this was a ill one. Watch the full recap video here). These are exactly the type of family-reunion moments which inspire us elves here in ?uesto’s workshop to painstakingly assemble a Holiday jam in the first place. For real, Tip getting mesmer-ized, Tariq and Kweli trading bars on Phife‘s verses with The Legendary in the back, recreating Ronnie Foster‘s “Mystic Brew” as only they can? This type of stuff refreshes the parts of your soul that other jams just can’t reach. Watch below and find credits after the jump.

Video Producer & Editor: Allison Swank
Producer: Emmai Alaquiva
Videographers: Jay Sprogell, Rob Lee, Chinisha Scott, Alex Gaylon, Loren Hicks
Sound: Greg Scott

The post Okayplayer TV: The Roots x Q-Tip x Talib Kweli – “Electric Relaxation” Live At The OKP Holiday Jam appeared first on Okayplayer.

The 6th Annual Okayplayer Holiday Jam was yet another wildly diverse evening of live music, dancing, and fun. We have already given you the written and photo recap of the night. Now watch the video below, highlighting many (but not all) of the performances. Shout out to King Errisson (Incredible Bongo Band-Apache, Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye) who flew out from Vegas, and Kids These Days and Wild Belle who both came out from Chicago.

None of this would have been possible without our sponsors and friends at: Heineken, Flavorpill, Brooklyn Bowl, Okayafrica, Large Up, and Revive Music.  Also props to our gift bag partners Heineken, FLUD watches, LRG, Vice Magazine, and yummy Justin’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Video Producer & Editor: Allison Swank. Producer: Emmai Alaquiva. Videographers: Jay Sprogell, Rob Lee, Chinisha Scott, Alex Gaylon, Loren Hicks. Sound: Greg Scott. Motion Graphics: Hectah. Subscribe to Okayplayer Youtube.

The post Okayplayer TV: 6th Annual Holiday Jam Recap Video appeared first on Okayplayer.

As part of the newest mixtape from The Conglomerate, titled Catastrophic, Busta Rhymes and Q-Tip freestyle on Kendrick Lamar’s “Poetic Justice” beat. The track is a sort of love song not-so-subtly dedicated to Janet Jackson and Busta makes reference to Tip’s appearance alongside Janet in the 1993 John Singleton film (which provided K. Dot with the title for the track, which samples Jackson’s “Any Time, Any Place”). As you may recall, Q-Tip played Justice’s boyfriend Markell, and gets some romantic face time with Ms. Jackson before his character is bumped off to make way for Tupac Shakur to step in. In his adlib/setup for Q-Tip’s appearance, Busta puts it like this:

“I’m a little jealous, Tip/ Your tongue went in her mouth in that Poetic Justice movie, from what I can account.”

Q-Tip also makes explicit reference to his onscreen (and maybe offscreen?) relationship with Jackson, rapping:

“A captivating lady, I used to be her baby/ Good times, they never fading/ Look back and celebrate, poetic justice.”

Not sure how this ight effect Kendrick’s efforts to get Janet in the video for the original song off his Okayplayer album-of-year good kid m.A.A.d city–which so far have not gotten a response. Stream below via soundcloud:

spotted at HHNM

The post Audio: Busta Rhymes x Q-Tip – “Poetic Justice” Freestyle + Catastrophic Mixtape appeared first on Okayplayer.

Thursday night Okayplayer, The Roots, Heineken and several hundred of our closest friends and fam rang in the holidays (all of them– Diwali, Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Years and Mayan Apocalypse) with so much goodwill towards men (and the ladies, the ladies!) that some of us are just now waking up on Saturday evening. It was our 6th Annual Okayplayer Holiday Jam and our 2nd year at Brooklyn Bowl, home of Questlove‘s legendary Bowl Train residency on Thursday nights (not to mention the all-around favorite fried chicken, bowling and live music spot for many of the staff on Friday-Wednesday nights). The evening was hosted by Michael K. Williams AKA Omar from the HBO program The Wire AKA our favorite black cowboy AKA Ol’ Dirty Bastard in the forthcoming ODB biopic Dirty White Boy (more on that in a second). After getting warmed up with DJ sets from our own resident music experts DJ Brainchild & Eddie STATS plus LargeUp boss DJ Gravy the mood was set by a series of opening acts that represent some of the hottest up and coming artists to step on the scene in 2012.

After an introduction to Dice Raw‘s protége, Rone,the crowd was spellbound by sets from Sonnymoon, OKP records newest artist Jennah Bell, (Jennah killed em’ softly throughout but her wild jazzy cover of Notorious B.I.G.‘s “Big Poppa” was an evening highlight) and Kids These Days (this may in fact be the first time non-Roots bands have touched the holiday jam stage so that tells you right there how highly we rate these rising stars).

Photo set by Corren Conway, forever12.com

Then it was time to get busy. Once The Roots took control of the evening in their inimitable style the jam proper kicked off with an historic cameo from William Hart, lead singer of Philly soul legends The Delphonics doing “La La La Means I Love You” and “Ready Or Not” with The Roots on the backup. Once people had collected themselves the rappity rap segment with Black Thought and Talib Kweli trading bars over Okayplayer classics old and new plus a sneak peak of new music (sampling Rotary Connection‘s Black Gold of the Sun”) from Kweli’s artist Cory Mo. Then Q-Tip popped up from behind a speaker box to join in the mayhem and kept he cipher going before launched into a full live version of “Electric Relaxation.” Other rappity-rap highlights included the amazing human beatbox Rahzel astonishing with his trademark mastery of the arts of vocal noise–right before A$ap Rocky stepped on the stage as The Roots reprised their live arrangement of “Goldie” from the harlem rookie’s infamous appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

Then it was time for the reggae jam with original dancehall singer (literally, like he was the very first) Johnny Osbourne, followed closely by Red Fox and Screechy Dan who got some of the biggest forwards of the night with their renditions of “Pum Pum Shorts” and “Bashment Party.” Not to be outdone by the LargeUp crew, Okayafrica repped hard in the form of Angolan dance crew Os Kuduristas who conducted an insane dance-battle while Eddie STATS got (ahem) a little carried away with the kuduro selections in the background. If this sounds like a lot was going on at this point it was really just the beginning. At some point it got a little blurry for me personally but I can clearly remember Tunde Adebimpe from TV On The Radio doing Clarence Carter‘s “Backdoor Santa” in full funkdafied costume, Michael K. Williams doing “Brooklyn Zoo” in character as ODB, Bilal jamming out with Robert Glasper,  Vernon Reid and legendary “Apache” drummer King Errisson, and buzzworthy Wild Belle doing “My Favorite Things.”

The crew of friends and family in attendance was just about as packed with musical luminaries as the stage and if you were bowling that night you were probably rubbing shoulders or sharing lane-time with Sean Price, Ali Shaheed Muhammed, Stanley Clark, Amber from the Dirty Projectors, YahZarah (who got her dreamgirls on earlier to sing back-up for William Hart), Bajah of Dry-Eye Crew fame, or OKP recording artist Danny! with Von Pea (collectively known as PeaSwain).

Photo set by Terrence Jennings, terrencejennings.photoshelter.com

There was also plenty of reindeer games like the ‘stop & frisk’ mistletoe station and the ill photo booth provided by Heineken. In the spirit of the season, we also encouraged everyone to give something back to Occupy Sandy in their efforts to help re-build NYC

We have to say thanks and beaucoups respects to our sponsors Heineken and Flavorpill as well as congrats to all 25 OKP contest winners who were in the house (sign up for our emails to enter amazing contests like this in the future).

The post Recapped: Okayplayer’s 6th Annual Holiday Jam (Photo Galleries) appeared first on Okayplayer.

The Bling47 series continues with House Shoes‘ breakdown of J Dilla‘s “Fever” – produced for Q-Tip‘s Open The Mixtape: Abstract Innovations. According to Shoes, this cut of Barry Blue‘s “One Way Ticket (To the Blues) is “Top 5. Yeah, Top 5.” And he’s definitely on point with that. “When the drums drop on that bitch and the bassline goes,” if your head is not bumpin’  then you need to check your head. Shoes breaks his feelings about the track down even further, comparing Dilla’s use of the sample to a painter: ”It’s like an artist; your brush strokes is perfect, your tones is perfect, like everything. The frame you put it in is perfect, know what I’m saying? The grade of glass that you put in that motherfucker to keep all the elements away from it is fucking perfect.” The loop itself is dope but that’s not what makes “Fever” a perfectly produced Dilla joint. Like shoes says, its the total package. The beat, the numerical calculations that go behind everything, and eventually even The Abstract’s verses, make this a Top 5, perfect Dilla beat. Check the breakdown below.

The post Video: House Shoes Breaks Down J Dilla x Q-Tip – “Fever” appeared first on Okayplayer.