Who is Nneka?

Toast is the resident logistician for LxNxM and according to the stats y’all are showing us more love – I just want to say we appreciate each one of you. This creative endeavor has brought our crew closer, and our ideas have only start to take root…

Keeping the love going, I have been mesmerized by the next level soulstress Nneka. We mentioned Nneka a few months back vis-à-vis a collaborative mixtape she dropped with tastemaker J.Period titled The Madness (Onye-Ala).

Nneka has experienced a much deserved rise to global status since then.  The Nigerian-German/Nigeria- raised singer has landed a song “Viva Africa” on LISTEN UP! the official FIFA 2010 World Cup soundtrack, she also just joined Nas and Damian Marley on the Distant Relatives tour – making me regret missing their Seattle stop even more.

There is something higher about Nneka’s music. An anthropologist by training, she resonates her human experience to the listener with poetic clarity – in my humble opinion she is definitely channeling something the world needs in her music. Check out Nneka’s official site to cop her first U.S. release, Concrete Jungle and learn more about this visionary artist.

Javelin: No Mas

So last night my weekend told me it wasn’t ready to settle in  just yet, so I said – okay weekend let’s bounce up off this couch.  I landed at the always all ages, Seattle landmark venue Vera Project and ended up peeping out Javelin, a Brooklyn based duo – comprised of funky cousins Tom van Buskirk, 27, and George Langford, 29. Armed with drum pads, mpcs, a dollar store piano guitar, an electric kazoo and slew of other merry noisemaking tools – Javelin proceeded to rock the modest yet giddy crowd.

The set made me feel alot of things, a few I’ll name here: merry go rounds, mexican ice cream trucks, miami sound machine, that movie batteries not included, kisses, a quechua disco, Herbie Hancock, dancing like a kid at a Chuck. E. Cheese animatronic show,  rainbows, Dilla. It was fun. These guys pride themselves on digging for dollar bin gems and transforming them into that new new. Javelin are signed to Luaka Bop the label of eccentric maestro David Byrne.  You can download the very fresh, very free mixtapes World Midi Classics Vol.2 or Andean Ocean Tape below. Still,  do yourself a favor and earn what! u aint up on this? points by copping the recently released, and thoroughly pleasing full length No Mas, here .

Here is vibrationz, a guaranteed summertime jam off of No Mas.

Laws: 4:57 the mixtape

So I first heard about Laws from my former partner-in-rhyme  Taybot. Me and my dude have been known to have divergent angles on hip-hop, but as I sat back and listened to the Laws’s mixtape 4:57 – Laws got it in with ample quotable punchlines and witty-as-hell wordplay over beats undulating between the glitzy and the grimy .

The Brazilian born Florida-based Laws has the emphatic co-sign and beat-patronage of heavyweights like the street-oriented Don Cannon, J.U.S.T.U.S. league, Dj Khalil and even collabs on the brit-electro-tip with Calvin Harris. At best, 4:57 bridges the lyricism of the Rawkus era with contemporary auto-tune sensibilities (yeah I put those two words next to eachother) which is exciting from a bigger picture perch.

Man I’m backin Laws -  in hopes that he rides the buzz out to and finds his spot – do your thing emcee.

Click here to Download 4:57

Clutchy Hopkins – Verbal Headlock (video)

The new Clutchy Hopkins album, The Storyteller, is out.  It sounds real nice.  You should buy it.  However, if you’re not quite convinced and you need to hear some more Clutchy jams before you decide to pull the trigger, you should refer to this previous post and/or join Clutchy’s website and he’ll hook you up with a free exclusive track.

Champion Sound System WMC 2K10 Mix

Although I didn’t get a chance to go down to Miami to attend any of the Winter Music Conference parties this year, my homie Pancho, aka DJ Manuvers, kept me updated via his Facebook.  Gilles Peterson, ?uestlove and Aloe Blacc were among some of the artists  that he saw that made me most jealous.  It looked like a hella good time, and I wish I could have been of a part of it.  Oh well, there’s always next year…

On that note, Manuvers hooked it up with this dope 80-minute Champion Sound mix.  Not quite like being there, but it’s a hell of a consolation prize.

Just in case you don’t already know, Champion Sound is a Miami-based DJ collective that holds a weekly party every Wednesday at the Electric Pickle in Miami.  If you’re a Miami resident, or you’re just stopping through on a Wednesday, you should definitely check out Champion Sound for one of the best weekly hip hop/soul/disco/funk nights in town – held down by DJs A-Train, Manuvers, Sire Esq., and Lumin, and featuring the occasional heavyweight guest DJ.

Check the four-part mix, presented in 20-minute sets from each of the Champion Sound DJs, below.  Peep the Champion Sound blog for the tracklisting.

Vitamin D: The born day EP

Vitamin D: emerald city beatsmith and patron of fine opera

Hey Vita! happy belated b-day from the not so tall homies @ LxNxM ! Vitamin D humbly presides in the upper echelon of Seattle producers and hip hop culture in general. Smoothly riding the currents of the Seattle “waves of hip hop ( see Mudede’s timeline/wave theory of Seattle Hip Hop)“, Vita has expanded outside of the 206 with notable collabos with Abstract Rude, Gift of Gab, and various Rhymesayer heads.  On the local tip – Vita ever remains the accessible tall homey,  laying down clever verses all over the place and supplying enduring beats that seem to tailor fit local emcees and singers.

Alright, so the word on the Born day EP is that Vitamin D recorded all these tracks on his b-day! source- local emcee ispire of Canary Sing. Not surprisingly the EP knocks, but it also entertains in way that will put a gleam in the eye of any true hip hop head. Vita gets it in throughout the nine tracks – exploring topics from wack birthdays, the limitations of playahood in the age of social media, and identity politics of Seattle Hip Hop.   Download the  Born Day EP here for free and whip test immediately thereafter.

Erykah Badu – Turn Me Away (Get MuNNy)

The new Erykah tracks just keep on coming, and I’m not complaining. This one sounds like a classic Erykah joint mashed up with Junior M.A.F.I.A.’s “Get Money,” only Erykah sings the Get Money part too.  Hence, “Get MuNNY.”

Erykah Badu – Turn Me Away (Get MuNNY) (via Nah Right)

Cop Erykah’s newest full-length project, New Amerykah Pt. 2: Return of the Ankh, on March 30th.  Or else…

Who is Clutchy Hopkins?

Am I Clutchy Hopkins?

I have no idea, but this mystery has been plaguing the internet and fans of good music since 2006.

Over the last four years Clutchy Hopkins has put out five albums (two with Shawn Lee and one with Lord Kenjamin) and an EP with MF Doom acapellas over his instrumentals.  He also has an upcoming album on Ubiquity records, the Story Teller, set to drop April 16th.  Call me late to the party, but I just got hip to this whole “Who is Clutchy Hopkins?” thing and I must admit that I’m very intrigued.  Is he some crazy looking old dude like the guy pictured on the left, or like the guy they describe in the video below?  Is Clutchy Hopkins just one person?  Is “he” really a bunch of people?  Is he actually a well known DJ or producer like DJ Shadow, Madlib, MF Doom or Shawn Lee?   I don’t know!

What I do know is that all of Clutchy’s music that I’ve heard so far is instaclassic material.  It’s mellowed out, soulful, instrumental magic.  I haven’t heard one song of Clutchy’s that I was not feeling yet.  Seriously.  Who is making this music?!?!

   So you’re probably wondering what all this fuss is about.  Check the videos and links below and let me know what you think.  I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.  And if you have any clues, holler at your boy.

Dego (2000Black, 4Hero) – BTS Radio Selector Set

I know your neck must still be hurting from that WD4D mixclusive Toast dropped on you yesterday, but I just found this BTS Radio mix and had to share.  This time it’s a selector set by London’s own Dego, who, according to BTS, is pretty much the fucking man:

A founding member of 4Hero, Dego is a true original and living legend. A chameleon with it comes to production, Dego has taken hand in influencing and spearheading new styles and movements ranging from Jungle, Drum & Bass, Broken Beat, Hip-Hop and Soul. With aliases and projects like Tek 9, Jacob’s Optical Stairway, DKD and Silhouette Brown among countless others, he’s solidified his place as a master of music.

I’m warning you now, don’t hurt yourself!  Nod your head at your own risk.

Dego BTS Radio Selector Set (right click, save as).  Sorry, kids. No tracklist for this one.

For more on Dego visit:
www.2000black.com
www.twitter.com/2000black
www.myspace.com/2000black

Palms Out Remix Sundays – not the whack

Hola! What a beautiful Sunday ’twas in the 206! You know what puts the sugar in my Sunday coffee? Palms Out Sounds dope blog – that’s what.  Honestly I love visiting this site. It feels like these folks keep a finely tuned ear to all that’s good and forward-thinking in the intermingling worlds of house, techno, dubstep, dancehall, electro-hop etc. etc.

Each Sunday Palms Out also posts up a new “Remix Sunday” compilation/mix that’s guaranteed get it percolating. Tasteful selectahs transform cuts from artists as diverse as Busy Signal, Cherish, Prodigy, Massive Attack to Bill Withers, Blaqstarr, Debruit, Band of Horses, Udachi and yes -Jefferson Airplane.

Step your electronic game up with some grown folks techno – download these mixes and hit up the site – Peace.

Download Remix Sunday-Feb 21,2010 #143

image: Jelle Martens

Download Djuna – “Hippie not Hippie_3 – the heroin edition” Tracklisting after the jump

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