Posted on: October 31st, 2011 by bescenempls 33 Comments
Heres a track that arrived in the inbox from a Minneapolis based group I had not heard of before “925ve.”
925ve is a Minneapolis based group consisting of Prizm, Iggz, Tigre Cole, & Brando. This beat crafting, emceeing crew comes together to share their experiences through the art of hip-hop to highlight struggles we all go through. They each bring a different perspective to the album from various life experiences with the common thread of music.
The track is titled “Respect” and features fellow Minneapolis emcee Rich Garvey and is produced by Big Iggz.
925ve’s latest single will be featured on their upcoming release Three Numbers, Two Letters due spring 2012. “Respect” is a fiery track that embodies a cinematic fight scene tone. The beat lands between a march and a riot while each emcee drops lyrics that cut sharply through the “bullshit”. Listen, enjoy, and please spread the word by posting, reviewing, or tweeting this digital release. Thank you for showing us support as we strive to make good music. Three Numbers, Two Letters.
Posted on: October 30th, 2011 by bescenempls 6 Comments
The second installment of the Re:generation project brings us a a New Orleans Jazz inspired track arranged and composed by British DJ Mark Ronson. He gets some very able assistance for his melting pot with the queen of Neo-Soul, New Orleans own Trombone Shorty and Zigaboo Modeliste (founding member, drummer for The Meters), the artists formerly known as Mos Def, and the Dap Kings.
Posted on: October 30th, 2011 by bescenempls 54 Comments
For the second Sunday in a row, I decided to do something different. Then again, this is only the ninth edition of Sunday Soul Food so I guess we’re really just makin’ it up as we go. My idea for this Sunday was to choose my favorite gospel song, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, and find my three favorite covers.
Swing Low was first recorded back in 1909, at Fisk University, by the Fisk University Jubilee Quartet* (pictured above). The song was actually written in 1862 by an enslaved man named Wallis Willis. He said he was inspired by the Red River – which reminded him of the Jordan River – and of the prophet Elijah’s being taken to heaven by a chariot. The song has been re-done many times since then including covers by: Willie Nelson, Duke Ellington, Johnny Cash, The Grateful Dead, Nina Simone, and many more. One of the most famous performances of it was Joan Baez at Woodstock.
Here are my three favorites but to be honest, no one is touchin’ Beyonce!
Beyonce “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”
The Caravans “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”
Sam Cooke “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”
*The Fisk University Jubilee Quartet “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” (1909)
-Jake
This sunday I decided to shed some light on a man responsible for laying the groundwork for many of my favorite hip hop songs and one of the overall most soulful guys to ever do it, Willie Hutch. Because I love sample flipping, my choices display a Mr. 9th Wonder’s beautiful musical relationship with Mr. Hutch.
Posted on: October 29th, 2011 by bescenempls 57 Comments
With the explosion of hip hop on the internet it can be hard to know who to really mess with and who to not dedicate precious time and hard drive space to (we try to help that here).
In between his EP in one day with Freddie Gibbs and his upcoming full length LP with Action Bronson Statik Selektah drops “Population Control” and shows us who he his messing with in this new school of rappers and includes some of his in house talent (Termanology, Reks) and some more familiar names (Talib Kweli, Sean Price, Bun B, Styles P) to prove themselves over his crispy beats.
The album doesn’t achieve a cohesiveness that other producer’s solo albums have had in the past, and don’t agree with all of Statik’s “selektions” but that doesn’t mean theres not plenty of bangers. Don’t we all wish we had the ability to handpick combinations like Statik and other producers do? I included a few of my favorite tracks below.
Big K.R.I.T & Freddie Gibbs: “Play The Game”
Jon Connor, XV and Kid Daytona: “Sam Jack”
Action Bronson, Bun B & Termanology: “Never A Dull Moment”
Posted on: October 29th, 2011 by bescenempls 37 Comments
Here is a smooth cut from Jet Lifer emcee/producer Nesby Phips, with a video shot completely on an Iphone camera featuring Nesby through his day to day life.
Posted on: October 28th, 2011 by bescenempls 207 Comments
To celebrate the one year anniversary of his last project, The Commencement, D’Allen White is droppin’ a new track for free download. “On and On” was produced by Medium Zach of Big Quarters and you can download it for free here.
Please introduce the members of your band, names and roles.
Hi. Black Blondie is composed of: Samahra Daly on vocals, Liz Draper
on upright and electric bass, Tasha Baron on keyboards. The three of
us write drums parts but we do perform with live drums and have a few
different drummers that we work with. One of whom is Nate Babbs who is
absolutely awesome!
Your music is very unique, how would you describe the genre/sound of
Black Blondie?
We all come from diverse backgrounds so we are a total mix of that.
For instance, I (Liz) grew up with a dad who played jazz drums, but I
listened to a lot of hip hop, punk, and underground music. Tasha grew
up with a fascination for experimental jazz and 20th century classical
music before she even hit puberty! Samahra was a singer from day one
and grew up listening to tons of old soul and 80s rock. So, our sound
is a culmination of all these influences, but one thing we all
developed an equal love for is hip hop. I would say we are sort of
“alternative R&B” but are similar to hip hop in the sense that we may
write one part that sounds like a reggae sample, but throw a afro-beat
melody over the top, and have a metal beat underneath… Samahra
definitely has a very bad-ass diva voice and both Liz and Tasha went
to music conservatory so that definitely plays into our sound and
performance as well.
-BeScene recently did an album review on Sarah White’s new album. She
used to be a member of Black Blondie, correct? Tell us about her
involvement and what her move to New York did for the band.
Sarah was a vocalist with Black Blondie a number of years ago. After
she left we were really able to nail down the sound we were going for
and it gave Samahra a lot more freedom to make her lyrics wayyyy more
personal. I’d say that having a smaller number of members also made us
a lot tighter, not only musically but also as friends. We’ve spent
COUNTLESS hours together and love each other deeply! Being in a band
is like being married, especially after all these years. We’ve had a
lot of opportunities to grow as friends and musicians.
-In 2007, you girls were picked as #2 in the “Picked to Click” series
(City Pages). What sort of opportunities did that open up for your
group?
That was awesome! I think it helped make a name for us around
Minneapolis; especially with folks who perhaps don’t get a chance to
go out to a lot of shows.
World Won’t Rest
Tell me about your work with local emcee, Muja Messiah.
Muja and Maria Isa are both friends of ours, so it seemed natural to
have him on the album. Samahra is also on a bunch of his tracks, and
we’ve all done shows together. We wanted to have a rap verse on the
song “Dirty Ashes” and his attack seemed perfect for it.
“All I wanna do is listen to Black Blondie” (a lyric from the song
Cool J Planets off of Big Zach’s solo record “White Jesus”) was
actually the first time I had ever heard your name. Tell me about
your involvement with Big Zach and Kanser as a whole.
When we first started playing out as a band, the hip hop
scene/community, especially at the Dinkytowner
(Stinkytowner…Donkeytowner… RIP), was VERY supportive… Big Zach,
Unicus, everyone from Interlock, Chuck U, Prof and Rahzwell, Ernie
Rhodes, Muja Messiah, …one of our earliest shows was actually with I
Self Devine at the Triple Rock! Dessa (Doomtree) has also been a
great supporter and friend throughout the years since the very
beginning. We’ve always had a hip hop flare to our sound, so we fit in
well with hip hop bills.. One year we even hosted Dre Day at the
Triple Rock, -and YES Samahra did rap that night. Another great show
was the Hip Hop and Harmony Festival where we shared the stage with Sage Francis, and of course Kanser.
Kanser “Music” ft. Samahra of Black Blondie
Tasha you used to be a member of Heiruspecs. Tell me one of your fondest memories playing with that group.
I had a ton of great experiences playing with Heiruspecs… Our month
long tour with Oddjobs, Mac Lethal & Joe Goode, and for part of the
tour, POS was CRAZY.. It was routed so that we made it all the way
from MPLS to Montreal to NYC to Denver to Texas.. lots of driving and
lots of listening to Cannibal Ox on repeat…! Also, backing up Atmosphere for a sold out show at the Metro in Chicago on my birthday
was another highlight. I also learned a TON from Sean McPherson aka
Twinkie Jiggles, about booking shows…promoting shows..how to run an
indie band in general. Those lessons have been invaluable to my
experiences with Black Blondie.
Bye, Polar Bear
New album in the works?
Yes. We have a number of new songs that we’ve been performing for a
while now, but finally just got back in the studio.
When are the next few dates in which people can catch you live?
+October 29th 9PM Bethany Larson & BK//Black Blondie//Taj Raj at the Amsterdam Bar and Hall.
+Nov. 5th 9pm Sexcat, Lovecat and Black Blondie at the Kitty Cat Klub
+Nov. 11th 7-10pm A LOUD HEART Guante & Claire CD RELEASE w/ Black
Blondie & Kristoff Krane at the kitty cat klub
+Nov. 23rd “Drinksgiving”. 9pm. with Black Blondie , Useless Wooden
Toys & Dj Asylum Sound System at Memory Lanes.
Posted on: October 27th, 2011 by bescenempls 160 Comments
Ever since I heard about this project I’ve been waiting patiently for the finished product. “Re:Generation” is a documentary film that follows 5 modern music producers (Preemo, Mark Ronson, Skrillex, Pretty Lights and The Crystal Method) as they recreate and regenerate more traditional genres.
This marks one of the first collaborations between NaS and Premier in I don’t know how long, hopefully it’s a sign of more things to come. Also be on the lookout for Mark Ronson’s installment of “Regeneration” recreating a New Orleans jazz track with Erykah Badu, members of the Dap Kings and Trombone Shorty.
I found the story of DJ Premier’s Regeneration track at Vibe.
DJ Premier was given Classical and began his immersion into the genre with Bruce Adolphe, a former classical music professor at Juilliard. They met at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music not far from DJ Premier’s home in NY. After learning about classical music theory, the inspirations of some of the genre’s most profound composers and how traditional pieces are structured, DJ Premier went out and bought tons of classical symphonies on vinyl to mash up his own creation. We then took that mash-up and orchestrated it for sheet music. In the first step of the actual recording process, DJ Premier partnered with Stephen Webber, a professor and conductor at the Berklee College of Music. Steven taught Premier how to conduct and helped him in studio with the 58-piece Berklee Symphony Orchestra you hear on the track. Of all the takes, the one you hear is the “wild” version (which means they recorded it without the metronome in their headphones) DJ Premier conducted himself. Then DJ Premier brought that instrumental track back home to NY and Nas laid down his rhyme on top of it.
“Regeneration” feat. NaS & The Berklee Symphony Orchestra
Posted on: October 27th, 2011 by bescenempls 4 Comments
Here is the latest single from Philadelphia producer/emcee Has-Lo from his forthcoming album “Conversation B” coming out November 15th on Mello Music Group. “Never Was Yours” features a laid-back self examining flow from Has-Lo over a distorted guitar flip by Kev Brown.
Posted on: October 26th, 2011 by bescenempls 13 Comments
If your even faintly familiar with “underground” hip hop you probably heard about Immortal Technique, some love his passionate righteousness and how no line goes wasted and no social issue sugarcoated. Others take issue with his violent imagery and seemingly dark negative music.
I’ve found out the more I learn about the way the world works and has worked throughout history, and actually listen to what he says in his interviews, the more I start to wish there were more Immortal Techniques.
Tech has not released a project since 2008, but is planning on dropping a free project entitled “The Martyr” tomorrow October 27, 2011, and it’s shaping up to be pretty special judging from the two cuts below. On Civil War, Tech partners up with one of the fathers of socio-politically inspired hip hop in Chuck D, and two of the realest emcees out right now in Killer Mike and Brother Ali. Toast to the dead is a somber solo song saluting the fallen Martyrs of the past, over one of the more darker Dilla beats I’ve heard.
