June 2008 Archives

House Shoes will be in town this Thursday for the Danny Brown Hot Soup listening party at Oslo, then two nights later he is hosted his own Shoes House Producer Showcase at Alvin's (5756 Cass) in Detroit. The showcase will feature beats from House Shoes, 14KT, Denmark Vessey, Big Tone, Nick Speed, and Apollo Brown. Doors open at 9pm and the showcase starts at 11:30pm. Cover is $5 for 21+, $8 for 18+ (yes its for the kiddies too).

LINK: HOUSE SHOES MYSPACE | SHOES HOUSE PODOMATIC

L.A. Weekly ran an article highlighting the troubles with the J. Dilla estate and the battle on copyright infringement of Dilla's material.

READ: WHO'S BITING J DILLA'S BEATS?: Hip-hop producer's legend ascends posthumously; estate struggles to maintain control BY JEFF WEISS

88-Keys just dropped his free mixtape Adam's Case Files for download which features a guest appearance from Guilty Simpson, along with Kid Cudi, Izza Kizza, Tanya Morgan, Grafh, Mr. Bentley, Serius Jones, and more. Adam’s Case Files is the precursor to 88's first solo album release The Death Of Adam, hitting stores this October on Decon Records and executive produced by Kanye West.

DOWNLOAD: 88-Keys "Adam's Case Files" (zShare)

TRACKLISTING:
01. A Happy Ending?
02. Fibs ft. Grafh
03. Wasting My Minutes ft. Kid Cudi
04. 21 & Over ft. Big Sean
05. Deal Breakers ft. Mr. Bentley
06. Typical Maury ft. Izza Kizza
07. Quit Playing ft. Serius Jones
08. True Feelings
09. Cuddle Bums ft. Tanya Morgan
10. Just LIKE A Man ft. Guilty Simpson
11. Young, Dumb & Full of...
12. Outro

The debut solo album from Danny Brown Hot Soup is set for a July 1st release via Nick Speed's Libido Sounds imprint. The album features a majority of production from Nick Speed, along with Danny Brown and Quelle.

The official Danny Brown Hot Soup listening party goes down June 26th at Oslo (1456 Woodward Ave) in Detroit with DJ House Shoes (and maybe yours truly, hehe). Then, the official release party is on July 1st at Northern Lights Lounge (660 W. Baltimore) in Detroit as a part of the venue's weekly The Next Big Thing with DJ Dez, Uncle Paulie, and Benny Ben. The cover is $5 and you receive a free copy of Hot Soup if you bring in a can of soup.

As I posted once before, here's some Danny Brown stuff you can download for your enjoyment:
- Danny Brown Detroit State Of Mind (zip file)
- Danny Brown Detroit State Of Mind Vol. 2 (zip file)
- Danny Brown Detroit State Of Mind Vol. 3 (zip file)
- Rese-vor Dogs "Yes" (mp3)

LINK: OFFICIAL DANNY BROWN MYSPACE

The Michigan jazz/funk collective NOMO has announced their Summer 2008 tour dates. NOMO's latest release Ghost Rock is now available via Ubiquity Records. The dates are as followed:

July 2 Detroit City Fest—Detroit Michigan
July 4 Top of the Park—Ann Arbor, Michigan
July 5 Frankie's—Toledo, Ohio
July 8 El Mocambo—Toronto, Ontario
July 9 Le Petit Campus—Montreal, Quebec
July 10 The Middle East—Cambridge, Massachusetts
July 11 Joe's Pub—New York, New York
July 12 Zebulon—Brooklyn, New York
July 13 Zebulon—Brooklyn, New York
July 14 World Café Live—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
July 15 Rock and Roll Hotel—Washington DC
July 16 Local 506—Chapel Hill, North Carolina
July 17 TBA—Asheville, North Carolina
July 18 Exit In—Nashville, Tennessee
July 19 The Earl—Atlanta, Georgia
July 20 The Republic—New Orleans, Louisiana
July 22 Emo's Lounge—Austin, Texas
July 23 Hailey's—Denton, Texas
July 25 Off Broadway—St. Louis, Missouri
July 26 Wicker Park Festival—Chicago, Illinois
July 27 The Waiting Room—Omaha, Nebraska
July 29 Quixote's True Blue—Denver, Colorado
August 1 First Friday Street Fair—Las Vegas, Nevada
August 2 Detroit Bar—Costa Mesa, California
August 3 Spaceland—Los Angeles, California
August 4 The Casbah—San Diego, California
August 5 Bottom of the Hill—San Francisco, California
August 7 Doug Fir—Portland, Oregon
August 8 Northwest World Reggae Festival—Marcola, Oregon
August 9 Nectar Lounge—Seattle, Washington
August 10 Media Club—Vancouver, British Columbia
August 14 7th St. Entry—Minneapolis, Minnesota
August 15 The Annex—Madison, Wisconsin
August 22 Campus Marius—Detroit, Michigan

LINK: NOMO MYSPACE

A new freestyle from Royce Da 5'9" over the Lil Wayne beat for "I'm Me" is circulating now from the forthcoming The Bar Exam Vol. 2. on M.I.C. Records.

DOWNLOAD: Royce Da 5'9" - "I'm Me" (zShare)

LINKS: OFFICIAL ROYCE DA 5'9" SITE | OFFICIAL ROYCE DA 5'9" MYSPACE

The newest edition of Bling47 Radio podcast is in dedication to the release of Invincible's debut solo album ShapeShifters, featuring the latest and greatest of her collaboration and compilation tracks, plus some exclusives.

DOWNLOAD: Bling47 Radio Episode #3 - The Invincible Edition

Invincible's ShapeShifters LP is now available worldwide on enhanced CD and digitally.

PURCHASE: ITUNES | FAT BEATS

As a bonus, Waajeed was on Garth Trinidad's Chocolate City radio show on KCRW out in Los Angeles recently and dropped over 30+ brand new instrumentals & beat ideas straight off the beat CD's on air, for the first time anywhere. The stream also includes and interview with Waajeed along with the newest PPP star Karma Stewart.

LISTEN: Waajeed on Garth Trinidad's Chocolate City (06.07.2008)

LINKS: EMERGENCE MUSIC | BLING47.COM | INVINCIBLE MYSPACE

The new solo EP from Frank Nitty from Frank-N-Dank titled Concert Hall EP is now available digitally via his own Digipop label. The EP features a guest from Big Pooh of Little Brother and production from Young RJ and Craig Lane. Below is a download of the first single "Automatic" and links to purchase the EP.

DOWNLOAD: Frank Nitty - "Automatic" (mp3)

LINKS: FRANK NITTY MYSPACE | PURCHASE @ CD BABY | PURCHASE @ ITUNES

Check out this interview with Finale conducted and filmed by Notion The Bartender.

I didn't even realize this until my good friend Sam Valenti IV posted about this on his MySpace page, but former A&R and pop songwriter Santogold used a beat from our late friend Disco D on her debut self-titled album on the track "Shove It" featuring MC Spank Rock. Listen below and lets keep one of our fallen soldiers memory alive.

LISTEN: Santogold "Shove It (featuring Spank Rock)" (Last.fm stream)

LINKS: DISCO D MYSPACE | SANTOGOLD MYSPACE

Next month will mark the release of the first single "On A Cloud" from PPP (aka Platinum Pied Pipers) from their upcoming Ubiquity Records album Abundance, due out October 7th. The track "On A Cloud" features new PPP soldier Karma Stewart (from LA by-the-way-of Texas) and has a remix from Bay Area producer Trackademicks from the Honor Roll crew. The b-side "Angel" features another new PPP soldier, St. Louis' soulful poet Coultrain.

Tracklisting (click on links for samples):
A1. On A Cloud Feat. Karma
A2. On A Cloud (Instrumental)
B1. On A Cloud (Trackademicks Remix)
B2. Angel Feat. Coultrain
B3. Angel (Instrumental)

To familiarize yourself with the new and old faces of PPP, they have put together a few videos for you to get acquainted.

PPP: Meet The Cast #1 - Waajeed & Saadiq

PPP: Meet The Cast #2 - Coultrain

LINKS: PPP MYSPACE | BLING47.COM

On Tuesday, June 17th, the jazz-funk-afrobeat band NOMO will be releasing their new album titled Ghost Rock, the follow-up album on Ubiquity Records to 1996's New Tones.

Taken from the official press release: "The album sheds light on the way forward for a band that has been forging its own vital sound. This is not the Afrobeat of Fela, nor the revivalist Funk of a forgotten decade. This record owes as much to Can, Eno, and MIA as it does Kuti, Francis Bebey, and Funkadelic. On Ghost Rock, NOMO arrives in a new place. There’s no loss of steam as they incorporate new influences, instead NOMO breaks through with a matured and developed sound that is fully its own."

Tracklisting (click links for samples):
01. Brainwave
02. All The Stars
03. Round The Way
04. Rings
05. My Dear
06. Ghost Rock
07. Last Beat
08. Three Shades
09. Nova

NOMO also has a couple of performances coming up in Michigan.

July 2, 2008 @ Comerica City Fest
West Grand Blvd (Woodward Avenue and the Lodge Freeway M-10)
Detroit, MI - Jazz and Blue Stage | 8-9:30PM
www.comericacityfest.com

July 4, 2008 @ Top Of The Park Festival
Ingalls Mall - 915 E Washington St.
Ann Arbor, MI - 9-11PM
www.annarborsummerfestival.org

LINKS: OFFICIAL NOMO MYSPACE | UBIQUITY RECORDS

This weekend in Detroit, I'm be spinning at a couple parties. The first is playing at Northern Lights Lounge (660 W. Baltimore) in Detroit on Friday, June 13th with DJ/producer from Manchester, UK named Trus'me. To Detroiters, he's similar style-wise to the disco house of Theo Parrish or Moodymann. Get there early, it'll be a slamming party all night long. Check out a few mixes and the Trus'me MySpace below.

LINKS: LISTEN TO TRUS'ME @ PLAY.FM | OFFICIAL TRUS'ME MYSPACE

Then the next night, Saturday, June 14th, I'm be spinning at Survival Rating: 39, the birthday bash debauchery of Flint's DJ Psycho with a bunch of other house and techno DJs. Below is the set times and link to more info on Psycho's birthday madness.

UPSTAIRS:
10pm - K-FRESH
11pm - DAN LUCAS and NEIL V.
12.30am - RONIN SELECTA
1:30am - MATT K.
2:30am - FUCKSTARTER

DOWNSTAIRS:
9pm: SUPERJOINT
10pm: AVA
11pm: THEE UNKNOWN (aka C. Roy)
12am: DJ SEOUL
1am: BIG JOE HIX

LINKS: MORE INFO ON SURVIVAL RATING: 39 | OFFICIAL DJ PSYCHO MYSPACE

Red Bull Music Academy Radio has posted audio from the Dilla Day event last February with Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Mrs. Yancey.

LINK: RBMA Fireside Chat - Dilla Day Special

The Smoking Section over at Rawkus.com just posted an article were Skillz reconstructs the making of his classic 1996 album From Where??? including stories of working with J. Dilla.

LINK: Reconstructing From Where??? With Skillz

Check of the video for "I'm Cheatin'", the first single from Dwele's forthcoming album Sketches Of A Man, due out on June 24th via Koch Records.

PURCHASE: Dwele "I'm Cheatin" on iTunes

LINKS: OFFICIAL DWELE SITE | OFFICIAL DWELE MYSPACE

On Saturday June 7th, the Gorilla Funk Mob will be performing with Allan Barnes (original saxophonist for the Blackbyrds) live at Alvin's in the debut concert of Barnes 'Blackbyrd Revue'. I'll be doing special jazz DJ sets at the beginning and end of the night. For more information and a preview of tracks being played, go to the Official Gorilla Funk Mob MySpace page.

Here's the video for "Locusts" from Invincible featuring Finale, a track about the impacts of gentrification on the Motor City. This piece includes interviews with community activists discussing displacement and predatory planning versus sustainable development in the D. Both the song and video for "Locusts" by Invincible feat. Finale, (produced by DJ House Shoes) are from Invincible's debut album Shapeshifters.

Vote for the "Locusts" video over at Current.com

Also, check out this interview with Finale on VIMBY. Finale will be rocking the stages with Invincible this week along with Waajeed at Club 6 in San Francisco on June 6th, Boombox with DJs Rhettmatic and Revolution on June 7th in Los Angeles, and with Waajeed again on June 8th at MACLA in San Jose.

LINKS: "Locusts" @ CURRENT | EMERGENCE MUSIC | INVINCIBLE MYSPACE | FINALE MYSPACE