VIDEO: Robert Glasper EPK

VIDEO: Robert Glasper EPK

Well, if you could assemble a dream cast of hip hoppers for a music project, who would you invite? That's right, who'd be at the top of your wish list?

Robert Glasper must have closed his eyes and clicked his heels because he asked and they came and this project - "Black Radio" - should be powerful. It's this kind of musicianship that attracts even the non-hip hop believers.

Glasper knows what he's doing: and I mean - he knows jazz AND he knew what he was doing when he invited this incredibly talented posse to be on this project. But they also know that he knows his stuff. And by he, I mean the entire group that is The Robert Glasper Experience.

So just WHO am I referring to in terms of collabos on this project:

• Lupe Fiasco
• Erykah Badu
• Mos Def
• Bilal
• Lalah Hathaway
• Chrisette Michele
• Musiq Soulchild
• ...and more

And this is a Blue Note project; they do know a little something about hip hop and jazz, right?

• Oh, and check out this post on The Robert Glasper Experience on NPR

At the end of the day, we win hip hoppers. Big time. Some of your fav lyricists and singers and good music for all. kfox.

Robert Glasper EPK

Mos Def "The Ecstatic"

I've been meaning to do a review of Mos Def's "The Ecstatic" for the past few months. Let's not be cynical in my lateness to this project. I mean, "The Ecstatic" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album. That spotlight has come and gone ... it is what it is. However, as a result of my inability to get a review posted, many, many others have covered the ground on this one.

So that leaves me to point you in the right direction for information as it relates to "The Ecstatic". What I will say about this project is that I love the diversity. There is a mix of genre's represented here.

• USA Today's Steve Jones write about "The Ecstatic"

• Metacritic summarizes many other reviews of "The Ecstatic"

• Hour long doc on Mos Def in Japan from Current
  

I was attracted to "Roses" right away. Georgia Anne Muldrow's voice is immediately identifiable. She also produced the track. Seems 'The Academy' took notice of "Casa Bey", but unfortunately, Mos lost out to Jay-Z's "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)".

If all else fails hip hoppers, check the vid for "History". That's a collabo w/Talib. Black Star doin it so well. kfox.

REVIEW: "Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme"

So it's 2008 and "Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme" was released in 2000 and I am just now getting around to watching it - my loss, eh? And it would have taken longer for me to see it, but here's what happened:

I had just finished watching "Michael Clayton" and I went to my Netflix queue to rearrange some things - like to move "The Savages" up, rearrange, "There Will Be Blood" as well as add "First Sunday" and "Norbit" (I have to see for myself if they are, indeed, as bad as some say they are) and I need a little comedy in my life.

So ... I've been seeing a button labeled 'play' next to a few of my selections. But one of my selections is "In Cold Blood" which is #60 on my queue and I am/was not in such a hurry to see that. But I did want to sample this "watch movies instantly" feature.

Well, my first glitch was that that feature is not supported in Mozilla's Firefox browser - shameful. However, over on the Internet Explorer browser, after a download of something and an upgrade of something else, the movie worked like a charm.

I thought that the quality of the movie might be mediocre, but no, no ... it's good looking.

So I was intending to just take a peek at "Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme" and then dip out, but since my selection was hip hop related, it grabbed my attention. I was lovin it especially since right in the beginning there is a vintage freestyle segment with my boys Black Thought and ?uestlove! Love that.

It's a nice doc; makes me wish I had seen it sooner, but it's still in my queue, so I can watch it anytime and that is cool. The uncool part is that I could not rewind - and when brothas were spitting rhymes at warp speed, I needed to trackback for a double take.

Some of the legends that make an appearance include:

• Mos Def
• Talib Kweli
• The Last Poets
• Divine Styler
• Boots (from The Coup)
• Supernatural
• Craig G
  

I could go on ... and maybe I will on another post. Meanwhile, you can check out the doc on YouTube. They even break it up into several parts for your viewing pleasure - though the quality is not as good as the Netflix version.

You gotta get your freebies the best way you can hip hoppers. kfox.

Rock the Bells dates and line-up announced

The line-up for this year's Rock the Bells International Festival is a wow-ser! Love, love, love it.

Headliners

• A Tribe Called Quest
• Nas
• Mos Def
• De La Soul
• Rakim
• The Pharcyde

Also depending on what show you attend, you might get a performance from Spank Rock, Method Man and Redman, Dead Prez, Murs and others. This is a hyper-crazy line-up.

So, you want to know the dates, eh? Because you may be so inclined to sell some of your most personal wares for tix to this joint. The tour doesn't kick off until July - thus giving you a good amount of time to line up your chedda!

Sat 7/19 - Chicago, IL
Sun 7/20 - Toronto, ON
Sat 7/26 - Boston, MA
Sun 7/27 - New York, NY
Sat 8/2 - Miami, FL
Sun 8/3 - Philadelphia, PA
Sat 8/9 - Los Angeles, CA
Sat 8/16 - San Francisco, CA
Sat 8/23 - Denver, CO
Sat 8/30 - Vancouver, BC

I'm leaning toward the Chicago or Miami dates ... where are you gonna be hip hoppers? kfox

Rock the Bells Fest

The Rock the Bells Festival line-up looks stellar! I mean, if you are a true hip hopper, you are 'bout it and are beyond hypie about this showdown. Old schoolers are stoked about Public Enemy and Cypress Hill; but maybe it's the inclusion of the Wu that will get you goin ... then there's Nas, Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch and many others.

They've got 17 dates (and it seems they keep adding them; and the line-up changes a bit from city to city). I have yet to purchase a ticket because my future is so undecided, but maybe I should just live a little and do the damn thing ... who knows if it will go down like this next time, huh?

Their webbie is pretty active ... check that out.

Need more time to listen

Checkin out some new music in my favorite genre ... though I must admit that I have not given some of these a full listen:

Brother Ali "The Undisputed Truth" - I began listening to this one at work, but then I left it at work when I really wanted to listen to it at home ... so the jury is still out on this one.

J Dilla "Ruff Draft" - I've listened to several tracks and it's good (I know that's a cop out, but it'll have to suffice for now).

Stephen Marley "Mind Control" - I love, love, love the title cut; also contains tracks w/Mos Def as well as Damien "Junior Gong" Marley; this one is awesome from front to back; oh, "The Traffic Jam" is crazy cool-great beat!

Other notables:
Gabriel Tedros
El-P
Cadence Weapon
Omni

New disks that I don't have (but if I had them, would I make the time to listen to them ... ? Heck yeah!):
Talib Kweli
KRS-One

Movin forward and ah ain't lookin back, kfox!

A New Month, A New #1

It's been about 30 days since I last posted the WMCO Hip Hop Charts. some folks have staying power ... the charts tend to look drastically different after six weeks. My favs are BusDriver, Ghostface and Wax Tailor.

1
BUSDRIVER
RoadKillOvercoat

2
VARIOUS
Om: Hip Hop Volume 1

3
MACROMANTICS
Moments In Movement

4
GABRIEL TEODROS
Lovework

5
El-P
I'll Sleep When You're Dead

6
VARIOUS
Everything

7
MOS DEF
True Magic

8
SURREAL AND DJ BALANCE
Future Classic

9
GHOSTFACE KILLAH
More Fish

10
WAX TAILOR
Hope and Sorrow


Do what you do hip hoppers, but keep it legal! --kfox

He's got heart!

I've viewed this video blog by ?uestlove a couple of times. His passion is deep for what he and The Roots do ...

... I'm enjoying the holiday season, which is why I've been posting so sporatically (and the end of the semester). I'll have comments on the new Nas (out now) and Mos Def (out on 12.29.06).

Have a nice holiday season hip hoppers ... kfox

And the nominees are ...

... did you notice that the Grammy nominations came out on Thursday? I missed the hype, but caught the 'news' before it was a day old.

So, I tried to investigate a bit to bring you more than what you get in the typical saturated headlines. Here is what I discovered:

<- - Gnarls Barkley got some attention (not just for Record AND Album of the Year; 5 nominations total), but also for:

• Alternative
• Urban/Alternative Performance

<- - Danger Mouse, one half of the Gnarls Barkley due also received props as Producer of the Year for the group's debut project. Wil.i.am made that category as well for "Mas Que Nada" ...

<- - Meanhile, Sergio Mendes' "Timeless" only got two nods ... The category being Urban/Alternative Performance.

<- - Did you know that there is a Grammy award for Rock or Rap Gospel Album?

<- - Lupe Fiasco got a nod for Rap Solo Performance, but Mos Def is right there with him; Lupe is also up for Rap Song AND Rap Album ...

<- - The Roots are in there for two categories:

• Rap Duo or Group
• Rap Album

<- - Matisyahu is nominated in the Reggae category ...

yo ... I'm done w/this for now. My most searing Grammy nomination comments are being reserved for a different blog; it's non-hip hop related.

Oh, the Grammy Awards take place on Sunday, February 11, 2007 @ 8 p.m. ESDT.

stay true ... kfox

It's NOT an eclipse, is it?

Well, well, well ... I have waited patiently for packages to arrive that might include some new and highly anticipated releases and ... I remain waiting; why is that?

I am eager to get my hands on the new joints from:

• Talib Kweli
• Mos Def
• Nas (December 19th release date)

But while I salivated through a nice pile of music mail today, I was pleasantly surprised to get a copy of the new joint from the Clipse - and a clean copy to boot ... Apparently, this duo has been experiencing some record label woes - the situation has been chronicled in Vibe, CMJ and many others (so someone's working the publicity angle ...).

Most folks remember the Clipse from "Grindin" a while back; four years ago, I believe. Well, the Virginia Beach crew is back in the spotlight and I do mean the Virginia Beach crew - the Clipse has hooked up w/their high profile homies, the Neptunes.

I am all about the Clipse's "Hell Hath No Fury"; and I'd like to fill in the blank on that cliche ... I've only checked out the first four tracks, but track one has a really nasty beat, real funky (I can just see the folks doin some A-T-L style dance to it up in the club); it is sort of Neptune like, but somewhat of a departure from the Neptune's more commercial clientele.

Brothers Malice and Pusha have a real grimey delivery; they definitely have an edge and probably good reason too ... They don't pack the disk w/too many guests (except for the Diddy-like Pharrell) because they get the job done. Their mixtape cred is all over this project - at least what I've heard so far.

I'd love to go on and on, but I'm on a mission to get my hands on the aforementioned goodies .... and to seek out some mistletoe, schmooches hip hoppers ... kfox

Your wish list ... it oughta be!

I've been riflin around some message boards of late ... like I have nothing else to do with my time (trust me, these posts are about to get shorter and shorter. I still listen to a great deal of music, but I don't think I will have the disposable time that I've had of late).

That said, I still have some down time and the message boards keep me in the know. I've been diggin the Okayplayer message board for some time now, but I finally signed up. I saw a post from Tony Washington and his signature had the following cd releases - good stuff so I thought I'd share.

• The Roots // Game Theory // Aug 29
• Lupe Fiasco // Food and Liquor // Sept 19
• Mos Def // Tru3 Magic // Sept 19
• Talib Kweli // EarDrum // Oct 10

I was hip to the first two. But I can't say for sure that I knew about Mos and Talib. I mean, didn't Talib just drop "Right About Now"? Makes me no difference though - keep it coming. There is always room for more good music. But if is crap ... well, you know where crap should go ...

One more to add to the list though is:

• Nas // Hip Hop Is Dead //Sept

Oh, and the review on J Dilla's "The Shining" is on the way. I've listened to it multiple times and my only complaint is that it is too short - length wise. But who's not gluttonous when it comes to Dilla?

And in the spirit of stylin and profilin, it's not too early to cop some fly ass boots - get the deals while they're still happenin - ya know, back to school time.

Stay true, kfox