Erm, excited much?

According to allgigs, one half of the greatest Hip Hop group of all time will be heading to the UK for a mini-tour this November. Performing new material from his Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty and of course, digging into his OutKast discography, the one and only Big Boi will be rocking the HMV Forum in London on November 1st, The Ritz in Manchester on November 2nd & the Academy in Glasgow on November 3rd. Yep.

Get your tickets (£25) via seetickets now.

Thanks Zayns!

Oh SNAP!

Last years (first) RBMA Culture Clash was so epic, I can’t tell you. I’m very glad it’s coming back this year, if you missed it last time round – please, please, please don’t mug yourself again, make sure you attend this one. If you were there last year – you know what to do/see you in there.

Last year DMZ were robbed the Metalheadz won (don’t get Zayns started on that madness lol), this year they’re back and will be fighting for their title once again. The line up this time round looks a little something like this…

• Metalheadz: Andy C, Shy FX, Storm, MC Justyce and MC GQ
• Soul Jazz Records Soundsystem feat Oxman
• Channel One Soundsystem: Mikey Dread, Ras Kayleb & Full Crew
• Skream & Benga presents: Joker, MC Nomad & Artwork

Skream, Benga, Joker, Shy FX…Get the f*ck out? Don’t be stupid, go buy yourself some tickets (£15 early booking, £18 in advance and more on the door) from www.roundhouse.org.uk. October 14th soon come.

It’s on.

P.s Don’t forget to check out our ‘Live in LDN’ round up post for August. And keep an eye our for September’s issue coming soon. While you’re at it, make sure you peep our ‘Carnival Special’ to get the low down as to where to be next weekend.

I’m SO glad I’ll be back from my holiday in time for this!

Two of my favourite emcee’s, Pharoahe Monch & Jean Grae, will be hitting London’s famous Jazz Cafe for a special joint show come September 27th. That’s a massive look for Hip Hop, this type of show doesn’t come around a lot over on this side of the pond, so I’m crazy excited.

The first and only time I ever saw Jean Grae live was in New York City 2 years ago at the Highroom Ballroom – that was a dope night. Looking forward to seeing her again. And of course, Mr Monch will be bringing it as he always does.

Tickets are £20 and are on sale now via ticketmaster.

P.s Don’t forget to check out our ‘Live in LDN’ round up post for August. And keep an eye our for September’s issue coming soon. Oh and while you’re at it, make sure you peep our ‘Carnival Special’ to get the low down as to where to be next weekend.

Stones Throw recording artist Aloe Blacc will return to London on October 19th performing at the legendary Jazz Cafe venue. Tickets are on sale now via the Jazz Cafe website and are priced at £15. I haven’t seen Blacc live yet, so definitely gonna check him out this time round.

Aloe’s new album, Good Times, is release via Stones Throw on September 28th.

Shouts to Danny

**Don’t forget to check out our monthly ‘Live In LDN’ gig round up**

Hello to all my fellow North Londoner’s!

Janelle Monae will be performing at Alexandra Palace on December 3rd with Vampire Weekend!

It seems like Miss Monae can’t stay away from London, having already performed a sold out show this year and gearing for another sold out gig in September at KoKo – she’s back for a third time – this time on a bigger scale. While I can’t say I’m the biggest Vampire Weekend fan, their Contra album was pretty special – undeniably so. But I guess for me, it’s obviously more about seeing Janelle Monae at this historic and beauitful venue. And again, it’s in Norf. Bonus.

Tickets are on sale now via seetickets for £22.50. Go get em’ before they (inevitably) sell out.

Shouts to Danny for the heads up.

London’s Hip Hop community came out in full force last night as Jay Electronica took to the capital’s stage for the second time this year. Trading the Jazz Cafe for Cargo in East London, Electronica performed how he always does – with passion, fury and energy. Peep our snaps up top and below.

Photography by Danny Wood

The legendary ?uestlove will be spinning a mammoth 3 hour set at East Village for Doctors Orders on September 11th 2010. Billed as his only UK PA, he will be backed by Spin Doctor, Eric Lau, Mr Thing and more. Tickets cost £10 in advance, first 200 going for £8 – go get yours.

I’ll be out the country when this is poppin’ off, but believe the rest of the PinBoard crew will be in attendance. Yep.

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.

Previous: PinBoard Exclusive: Janelle Monae Interview

Shouts to MisterAnd

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.

See you there.

P.s WE NEED AN ALBUM ALREADY!!!

Shouts to James

Written by Tosin Adeniji

California based, European loved clothing brand WeSC opened their 2nd shop in London this summer. To celebrate, they had a midsummer nights launch party in the trendy Covent Garden store, hosted and headlined by hiphop-soulful-dance artist, Joleon Davenue.

Walking through Neal Street at 7.30pm there was clearly a buzz erupting outside the colourful shop. People were drinking and chatting away like it was already the weekend waiting for the night to kick off. Press, photographers and bloggers were in their masses as well.

As the doors opened at 8pm,as many that could fit in the narrow concept store as possible, flooded in.

The night kicked off with the bubbly Shanaz, singing about a typical girls feelings for her crush at 17, among others. Shanaz ended her set with her exclusive sing along track “Pencil me in”. The song seemed apt to most peoples busy life and were whole heartedly singing in synch with her.

In the breaks people stepped outside for more summer air with plenty of free drink in hand or delved downstairs to view the rest of the shop.

To end the night, everyone or as many as physically could, packed themselves back in the store to get some of that “Mood Music” that Joleon does so well. He got the crowd dancing straight away with the Jamquioruai influenced “Love Rain.” Closing with a group of mini vuvuzelas screeching in time with his funk-dance track “Money”, the vibes were on point.

With 5 minutes to closing time, the last of the drink was drunk and the crowd, the band and Joleon jammed celebrating the successful merger of music and fashion. Let’s hope there’s many more of these parties to come.

Pics courtesy of YinnYang and check out their post for video footage.

New Zealand was well and truly in the house last night as Electric Wire Hustle took to the stage at Deviation.

The ambience EWH brought was something quite special, captured perfectly by the crowd in attendance and aesthetics of the venue. Performing tracks such as ‘Waters’,  ‘Perception’ & ‘Again’ off their debut album, they displayed their musicianship in all it’s glory; From Mara’s smooth, yet haunting vocals, Taay’s funk on keyboards and Myele’s impeccable drumming – it’s safe to say: we were all captivated. Their sound truly comes alive on a stage and I have to credit Deviation’s trademark sound system once again for capturing it so brilliantly.

These three guys, who are three of the nicest guys, have such a clear and distinct chemistry between them – it really is ‘electric’ (and believe me, such a pun is not taken lightly). Their love for music is abundantly apparent – clearly inspired by a variety of different musical genres, they bring their sound together so well that it’s almost certainly unique to them.

I could ramble on for hours as to why and how these guys are so great – but I won’t. Instead I will simply implore each and every person reading this review to, if you haven’t already, discover the world of Electric Wire Hustle. I bet you £50* you won’t find a better nu-soul-hip-hop-funk-electro album around. Trust me.

Oh and I have to biggup Joy Orbison who took to the decks just after EWH – dropping ol’ skool garage tunes like it was nothing. My goodness. I wasn’t expecting to rave that ‘aaard. We didn’t get to stay til’ the end of his set but the 45 minutes we heard – Joy Orbison = the future.

Shouts once again to Benji B, Judah, Zainab, Alice & the whole team for another great night. Deviation Part 2 with Bilal & Fatima next week at Fabric. It’s on. Enter to win tickets for that show here!

Stay tuned for something special from Electric Wire Hustle right here on PinBoard soon.

Photography courtesy of Danny Wood

Normal posting resumes below

On the anniversary period of MJ’s passing, our film team hit hometown pavements to capture a vibe in the hectic Central London air and thoughts on the public’s mind as they tell us their perception of a great.

This is not only a tribute to a history-altering, life-changing behemoth- but more importantly a humble tribute to every day fans. Anniversary’s can be a single day, but some memories are everlasting.

Stay locked as this’ll be the first in a series of out-in-the-wild public exposés we’ll be doing all over the ends (London and beyond) in ‘The People’; a mini-program dedicated to giving a topical voice to every day folk on what is most essential to PinBoard: music matters.

Enjoy.

S. P.

P.S. Watch in 720p HD! Why choose anything less?

Written by Ash ‘Remedy is Music’ Roye

All year long The Poejazzi team have spent 2010 hosting a range of amazing events all over London showing off the wealth of wonderful spoken word geniuses that can found all over the UK. Rammed out shows at The Roundhouse, Days of Decadence and The Royal Festival Hallto name a few have helped strengthen their that this is the “Year of The Poet”.

Next week for the 2nd year in a row they will be taking over the E4 Udderbelly on the Southbank for the night and what a night it promises to be. On the Bill will be internationally acclaimed wordsmith Yungun. He’s supported Slum Village and De La Soul  over the years as well as Mark Ronson and Zane Low feeling what the lyricist has to say. Also the awesome Benin City will be rocking the stage with their Afrobeat Spokenword Funk masterpiece that the peoples at XFM and BBC 6 Music are loving! Fresh from finishing a 10 date sellout stint at the National Theatre with his one man show The Thirteenth Tale Inua Ellams will also be on the stage. Hosted by Exceptional new Singer Songwriter Lail Arad this promises to be a great night out on the Southbank.

Go here for tickets before this one sell out!

Love Soul music? You’ll love this…

PinBoard is giving away TWO pairs of tickets to see Soul sensation YahZarah & UK songstress Terri Walker live in London on July 1st.

YahZarah (Foreign Exchange), who just released her stunning album The Ballad of Purple St. James will be performing in London Town for the very first time, along side UK Soul veteran Terri Walker who is currently readying her new album on Roc-A-Fella records. This show is going to be something quite special, something you really won’t want to miss and something you probably won’t see again any time soon.

All you need to do to be in with a chance to win is email competition@pinboardblog.com, with the subject title ‘YahZarah & Terri Walker Competition’ with your name, number and full postal address.

The show is in London, so please only enter if you can be at the gig on July 1st at Vibe Bar.

Competition ends Tuesday 29th June – Winners will be contacted via email.

P.s Next week we have a competition for the Hip Hop heads. Hol’ tight.

Written by Tosin Adeniji

Entering the Rhythm Factory just after sunset last Thursday, it was clear there was an anticipation for the long awaited Remedy Night. As old friends and twitter friends mingled and got chatting, it felt like a family was reunited. The pressure was on but as expected the Remedy team delivered and then some.

Kicking off with soulful charmer Wilson with his powerhouse vocals, he immediately captured the crowd. His Anthony Hamilton-esque sound got the mood going and his ode to his mother was nothing less than sweet. Yep, he got the ladies with that one!

Beginner in the game, Sharika Medla really held her own and is a great addition to the Remedy family. I am sure we are going to see more of her on the scene soon.

The multi talented, multi shocking, word smith Dean Atta, pushed the crowd with edgy lyrics. The cool beat of the band backing him also gave his spoken words that something extra, providing a few gasps and laughs throughout.

Paving the way for the giant that is XO Man. One of my personal favourites of the night, got everyone jumping and on their feet. His punchy lyrics and crispness of the beat made it almost feel like the middle of a festival, rather than late at night in the heart of East London.

Remedy veteran, Kaana Ellie ripped the stage and gave us that power we so love. Totally under rated in my opinion but any doubters left in the venue, she definitely won them over last night. Her performance of ‘Traffic’ live, turns most to convert straightaway.

Lastly, the man of the moment, Ed Sheeran took to the stage for the first (and possibly last time) with a live band. After years of riding solo with a loop pedal in hand, who better to take to the stage with, than The Remedies. Seeing Ed Sheeran perform before, I was apprehensive as to how he would deliver with a band. Any queries were crushed. The band added to the magic and reworked with reggae drum beats and saxophone additions, taking the well loved tracks to new heights. His heartwarming cover executed with such conviction and soul once again assured me this guy is going far and quickly. Highlight of the night was the free for all (literally) for MCs in the crowd to add their verse to a 20 minute long version of his underground hit ‘You Need Me’. The night ended in the same family vibe we began the night with, as Ed jumped off the stage, sang his last piece with no mic, no band, in the middle of the crowd.

The night was left with just the music and us.

Watch:

PinBoard Presents: Remedy Rehearsal Rooms w/ Kaana Ellie

PinBoard Presents: Remedy Rehearsal Rooms w/ Ed Sheeran

Note: Tosin (our newest contributor) wrote this review last weekend, I messed up and only just now posted it. My bad.