helsinki 78-82 – cruising

you know i love those synths. more info here (sort of).

shine blockas

EGADZ!

I was blessed enough to catch bay area beat bully egadz about a month back, as he hit up Seattle via the always solid STOP BITING night @ Lo-Fi Lounge. Dude mashed through his set on the mpd with surgical dexterity despite being admittedly sloshed, this video gives you at taste of what homie can do.

His latest and last album is called egadz is dead, and at aforementioned show he said it would be the last night he was performing under said moniker, citing a desire to move on to a new project. So treat your ears,  sample and support egadz music here or here.

Dollar Van Demos: get in the van. do your thing. get out of the van.

“From the Borough of Brooklyn comes Dollar Van Demos: a showcase of talented musicians, rappers and comedians performing inside a dollar van with real passengers. Dollar vans provide a much-needed transportation for neighborhoods under-served by mass transit. Typically operated by West Indian drivers, the ride is cheap, adventurous and now immensely entertaining with the addition of performers singing their hearts out”  – Dollar Van Demos

Besides the genius of the idea- the dope thing there is a range of talent presented- everyone gets a shot to shine… in the van. Some of the more impressive artists/riders being Poison Pen (of Stronghold fame), Khalil Kash,  Raye 6, and the Outabodies- throwin in Dyalect and Crosby (No Bodegas!) for showin lots a heart. On the wacker end of the spectrum Zeps, Mz.Metro, Jarel, and Isaiah.

<—I know our boy Sustainable D would be feelin this one. Anyhoo peep the rest of the 39 Dollar Van Demo videos  here or here …. Light Rail Live anyone?…..

                                  

I swear – Hill B ft/ Khingz and TC Izlam

Some more goodness from those hometown dudes Khingz and Hill B. Plus SEA/FL/NYC fam TC Izlam, righteous MC and son of the one and only Afrika Bambaataa. Talk about a hard shadow to get out from under.

Enjoy.

Shabazz Palaces

Watts is the place, New York was home for a while, but Seattle is where Ish/Butterfly grew up and calls home. Beauteous.

Somebody gonna get pregnant

Ninjasonik – love them or hate them? Next level club bangers or run of the mill hipster hop?

And remixing Major Lazer’s “Hold the Line.”

Your daily Rodigan

Is it weird that he sounds (and looks) like a university lecturer when he’s talking shit on stage? We should all be so lucky.

Oh you pet

More from ye Old Money fellas from the north lands.

Old Money x Young Money x Hannah Montana

A tale in three parts.

Item the first: Old Money Massive, a Vancouver/NYC collective that just popped onto our radar. We never knew Van City could get so damn funky, but all you have to do is listen to their remix of Afrikan Boy’s “Lagos City” and that assumption requires a revisit. Global dancefloor wrecking, with a debt owed to hip hop. Check that myspace.

Item the second: Young money, cash money. Lil’ Wayne, Drake, Gudda Gudda, Jae Millz, Mack Maine and many more. They make the young money musics. And yet they’re no longer the new story. Hip hop in its current mainstream form, encapsulated within itself, and looking inward.

Item the third: Das Racist, Brooklyn-based, Queens-raised… post-hip hop? Definitely postmodern. These gents take the full musical spectrum dividing the above two groups and throw it completely out the window, redefining the young money/hannah montana/tony montana continuum exactly one minute into their certified eyebrow (and roof)-raising single “Chicken and Meat.”

Thoughts and observations only, now for you to discuss.