Thank you Radio K for granting us another visual for our MN’s new indie-baby, Poliça. This one is for the track “Wandering Star” and was shot by Sean Neppl, Jack Buckholz, and Michael Olson and edited by Amanda Reeder. You can listen to Radio K at 770 AM, 100.7 FM and 104.5 FM, as well as online at radiok.org. To see the other video that Poliça recorded in the Radio K studio, click here.
Live on Radio K: Poliça – “Wandering Star” from Radio K on Vimeo.
Photo by Wells Whitaker Travis.
Minneapolis spitter D’Allen White just dropped his newest River Life Media directed video for his song “RAW”. Maybe you assumed from the title, this track showcases braggadocio and wordplay at it’s finest by Mr. White over a banger by GrEEd, with some fancy camera work by Greg Grease, whose been steadily directing dope videos. If you dig, check out D’Allen’s bandcamp page.
-Eamon
Not enough can be said about the work that Chaka has done in our community of Minneapolis. If you do not know, Chaka Mkali is more popularly known as I Self Devine (Rhymesayers) and has been making music for years. But to only credit him for his musical exploits would be forgetting some of his most important efforts, the work he has done at Hope Community Center in the Phillips neighborhood. Eloquently documented in the video below, MN Original takes the viewer on an inside look at the mural project that Mkali founded through Hope. Chaka also heads a Hip-Hop Songwriting and Production class with the accompaniment of Big Quarters. Enjoy the video below and also stay tuned for his upcoming album which will (hopefully) be dropping soon.
*The photo (above) of Chaka was taken by Austin Fassino at the Audio Perm Block Party.
-Jake
Lookin’ like the Rick James* of Minneapolis, Spyder raw dogs this 2% Muck instro. Also featured on the track is Big Zach, switching up from his classic style to match Spyder’s energy. This song is part of a bigger project, Spyder & 2% Muck‘s most recent tape titled “Now That’s What I Call Raw Vol. II: Poornigraphy”. The tape also includes features from La Manchita (get familiar) and a cpl of those Doomtree cats.
Speaking of Doomtree, have you gotten No Kings yet? I copped it at Fifth on Black Friday and have been bangin’ it since (review coming soon).
[bandcamp:track=3655389235 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=venti]
Mr. Wright is back with another thought provoking ballad, “Ode to Maximillian Cohen (π)”.
“Dedication to the lead character in Darren Aronofsky’s 1998 Film “Pi (π).” Maximillian Cohen is a paranoid mathematician searching for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature. Relatable.”
Food for thought, you do the dishes sucka!
P.S. This instro was maestroed by kid fantastic aka Bobby Raps aka Bobby Richardson aka iStandard showcase champ. Toki seems to have quite an ear for young talent (see video with Yakub “Real Live”). His performance of that song with Yakub was one of the highlights of the Audio Perm Block Party.
[bandcamp track=1073022103 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=venti]
-Jake
I think had a class with this dude in like 9th grade (What’s good South High?) and remember him saying he was a rapper, 4 or 5 years later I see this video and dude is putting on for the Southside and straight killing Kendrick beats, good shit. Video is directed by Who Better TV.
-Eamon
My good friend Zach Gruen(hagen) let me know about these dudes a few days back, and I’ve been thankful ever since. BADBADNOTGOOD is a Toronto, Canada Jazz trio made up of Matthew Tavares (Keys, synths), Chester Hansen (Bass, Samples) and Alex Sowinksi (Drums, Samples) who play loose interpretations of both classic (Rza, J Dilla, Pete Rock, Premier, Q-Tip) and new (Tyler, The Creator, Lex Luger) Hip-Hop instrumentals, usually wearing Pig masks. They got to link with Tyler, The Creator last month for a jam session which I posted below as well.
[bandcamp album=3240429081 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=venti]
-Eamon
I had seen this guy’s name around the internets but had not gotten around to checking him out yet, thankfully Brother Ali gave him some twitter love the other day and woke me up from sleeping on the one they call “Chuuwee.”
The Sacramento, CA by way of San Antonio, Texas has a high pitched tongue twisting delivery that sort of reminds me of A-Plus or Opio from Heiroglyphics after the first listen through his newest mixtape “Watching The Throne.” Chuuwee definitely has himself a new fan.
-Eamon
Here comes another Sunday, this one coming on the tail end of Thanksgiving weekend. I hope all of you spent some time with family/friends or just resting yo’ feet and kickin’ back. This week I asked my twitter community which soul track was their favorite right now (or all time). Here are a few responses I got:
Ramp “Everybody Loves The Sunshine”
[Selection by Cory Grindberg of Audio Perm/Art School Girls]
Donny Hathaway “Hey Girl”
[Selection by K.Raydio]
Blue Magic “Born on Halloween”
[Selection by Big Cats! of The Tribe & Big Cats!]
Otis Redding “Got to Get Back”
[Selection by Zach McCormick of Radio K & The Wake]
-Jake
This sunday I want to shed light on one of the unsung heroes of neo-soul and hip hop, member of The Soulquarians collective (Erykah Badu, Bilal, J Dilla, Common, The Roots and others), songwriter and producer James Poyser. Each of the three songs were either written or produced by Mr. Poyser, or both. Enjoy your sunday evening.
Jill Scott: “Try”
Musiq Soulchild: “Real Love”
Erykah Badu: “Sometimes…”
-Eamon
It seems like, (barring a few exceptions) the current crop of female emcees either have to have sex themselves out to get respect or are regarded as somewhat of a novelty that still can’t hang with the dudes. The so called “Boys Club” of Rap is non-existent to Atlanta based femcee Boog Brown, a breath of fresh air for those who desire a female perspective behind dope beats and dope rhymes.
“UPS” is a track from her collaborative album with Apollo Brown “Brown Study” remixed by Mello Music Group labelmate Dunc from DTMD. I included the original song’s video as well as the remix. “The Brown Study Remixes” are due out December 20th.
“UPS” (Dunc remix)
-Eamon