If you missed Janelle Monae while she was in London last month, don’t worry – she’s coming back! According to gigsandtours.com, this time she’ll be headlining KOKO (one of my favourite venues in the city) in Camden Town on September 8th. This will, without doubt, be a very special night. Tickets go on sale on August 30th – make sure you buy yours FAST because if her last gig was anything to go buy – these will sell out QUICK TIME!
PinBoard will undoubtedly be in the house for this one.
Zo’s much anticipated, much needed new album SunStorm is officially released today (July 27th). I’ve wasted NO time whatsoever in downloading it via iTunes (and if you don’t believe me, check it) – I recommend you do the same thing. This is one of the albums I’ve been waiting to get my hands on for a while now – I’m so excited to listen to it (it’s downloading as I type). SunStorm features apprences from YahZarah, Jesse Boykins III, Phonte, Sy Smith, Eric Roberson and more.
As I said, you can purchase it via iTunes OR buy a physical copy (plus free download) over at +FE website. You know we don’t lie to you over here, you can trust us – this is an album essential to your collection.
We’ve renamed our ‘Classic Moment’ feature. It’s now simply: ‘Rewind’.
This is one of my favourite Beyonce performances, this rendition of ‘Me, Myself & I’ (an underrated Bey classic) is superb and her vocals? Ah, jeeeeeze her vocals here are so pure and so clear. Her riffs are ridiculous. Can’t nobody do what Bey does. Sorry. She’s wearing that dress too. Yeeesh.
She really does need to get back to singing R&B though.
Beatmaker Knxwledge recently dropped the third instalment of his Skr∆wberries.Funr∆isrs series via his bandcamp. Featuring 22 awesome tracks, this is the type of album you will continuously play until your brain fully processes how great what you are listening to really is.
If you like silky beats, smooth grooves and influences of the golden era of Hip Hop – this is your album right here. It’s mad soulful too, with touches of Jazz and Funk. Oooohwee! I’ve been listening to this non-stop for a few days now and I’m only just grasping at how beautiful some of the compositions are. Massive fan of Knxwledge as it is – even more so now. Advisable to listen to this through very good speakers or headphones (sounds like butter through my Dre’s).
Listen to the album in full via the bandcamp player below and then purchase it. $10 for 22 heavy tracks? You know what to do.
My anticipation for Aloe Blacc’s new album Good Things continues to grow, this isn’t helped with this delicious rendition of ‘Loving You Is Killing Me’, a song he recorded for his aforementioned LP out via Stones Throw on September 28th. Really love this.
Jesse Boykins III covers Corinne Bailey Rae’s ‘Closer’, a track taken off her new album The Sea. While admitedly I’ve never really been a fan of Rae’s (sorry), I must admit I do like this song a lot. I like Jesse’s version too – I like that this dude has his own style.
Rik Cordero’s direction always impresses me. The cinematography here was also very cool. Glad to see the Roots with a sizeable video budget. ‘The Fire’ is one of my favourite tracks off How I Got Over (out now!) and what’s great, it’s just one of many brilliant songs off the LP. This album is in heavy, heavy rotation for me right now.
Can’t watch this right now, but according to Y2KDaily producer Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins talks about working with the late, great King of Pop, what he learnt during their recording sessions and about releasing some previously unheard MJ material.
…While I respect Darkchild as a producer (the man has produced some monster tracks – I am eternally grateful for everything on Brandy’s Never Say Never album), I really felt he failed on Michael’s Invincible album. Not saying it’s his fault totally – I can only imagine the control freak MJ was – but the beats he made for the King of Pop sounded dated (even back then) and over produced.
The album as a whole wasn’t bad. A couple tracks on there were great (‘Rock My World’, ‘Butterflies’, ‘Whatever Happens’ etc), but generally – it should have been a lot better. I always wonder what it would have been like if The Neptunes got their way and produced Jacksons’ last album. All the songs for Justin Timberlake’s albums were reportedly written and produced for Michael Jackson. Image that. Jeeze. Michael singing ‘Like I Love You’ or ‘Senorita’. Word.
But again – I really respect Rodney as a producer, just didn’t feel in this instance he got it ‘right’. That’s not to take away from what he’s achieved over the years. And hey, this is just my opinino.
Would be great to hear that unreleased music still though haha.
You must know by now that this is yet another (doooooope) video produced by Mikeal Columbu – he’s the dude behind all these great videos of Bilal that have been dropping. We all need to thank him. This time he captures the moment Bilal performed ‘Robots’, a track off Airtight’s Revenge, live in Belgium at the Dour Festival. Pure magic.
While you’re at it, you need to listen to Bilal’s 2 hour set recorded by RBMA Radio during his gig in Paris. It’s been on repeat since yesterday – SOUL!
He’s been in London for a minute now but hasn’t done a headline show. Well, come August 10th – that’s all set to change. Jay Electronica will be headlining his own show at London’s Cargo next month. Tickets are on sale now for £20 (which is a bit steep in my opinion, considering he hasn’t even got an album out) and will most likely sell out quite quickly – so cop them now.
Thanks to RBMA Radio, we can enjoy Bilal’s full set during his gig in Paris at La Bellevilloise. I‘m not sure what songs he performs yet as Check the tracklist (thanks lovethebeat.com) after the jump – I’m just about to press play now myself, if this is anything like the set he did at Deviation a few weeks back – you’re really going to want to listen to this. 2 hours of live music from Bilal – what a Sunday!
Listen to part 2 after the jump…
Been loving how much dopeness has been dropping from Bilal recently – it’s been too long. All roads lead to September 14th – the release of his much needed album Airtight’s Revenge. Thanks to the guys over at Moovmnt for the heads up on this.
New? Unreleased? Whatever the case, this is something we haven’t heard from Lauryn Hill before today and so, I’m VERY happy as you should be. Oh and you want to know what else is great? This tune is so, so, so dope!!! It actually sounds like something that could have been recorded for The Miseducation but could very well be new (if this is the case, things are suddenly looking a lot better for her future projects. Damn). This on repeat = #SundayMovements.
‘I See U’ is the new track from Raphael Saadiq’s new group Tha Boogie. I hadn’t heard of this guys til’ tonight (well, I think I had as they featured on a couple tracks which I know of but am still very new to them) but members Lejin, K.ORUS & NUSCHOOL seem to pretty cool. They blend elements of Funk, Pop, Hip Hop & Soul and come up ‘Tha Boogie’. I’d really need to hear more of their material before casting full judgement – a lot of these bands come and go – but I like this tune so, on that alone, I’m interested.
I’m interested in what YOU guys think too – drop me your thoughts in the C-Secion…
I liked the sound of this track when I first heard it on Eric Benet’s album EPK, which we posted up last week. And on hearing the full version – I wasn’t wrong. It’s a really beautiful track and I think a good first single. It’s brutal honesty, combined with Benet’s (stronger than ever) vocals – solid. The song, like the album, was inspired by the Soul/R&B movement of the 70′s – if the rest of Lost In Time sounds anything like this – I’ll be happy. Sometimes ya just need some good R&B in your life.
While prepping for Trek Life’s new album Everything Changed Nothing (July 27th), Oddisee put together a ‘West Coast’ inspired beat-tape…
“I’ve always been inspired by funk, when it comes to funk inspired Hip Hop, nobody does it like the West. While I was on the west producing Trek Life’s album that inspiration went further than being a fan. I don’t know if it was the palm trees, beaches, or burgers but this is what I was making in LA. Listen, Download, Enjoy & purchase “Everything Changed Nothing”
