@Jay Electronica @The Roots Jam

I have been wildly enjoying being on Twitter. It is a fantastic way to get in touch and keep apprised of your favorite musicians -- provided they are ON Twitter.

@Questlove constantly post gems, and one of the latest was this video from The Roots' much lauded (even Frasier Crane was there!) Grammy Week jam session, where the great Jay Electronica (where that album at, dude?) rolled through to do Exhibit C, and was joined by (OKSG doppleganger) the mighty Mos Def.

"History" Mos Def and talib Kweli (Blackstar)

click on pic to see video

So nice to see Blackstar coming back together, if only for one song (from Mos Def's 2009 album The Ecstatic). Something about this pairing works so well, especially for the sake of Talib who I'm reluctant to listen to when not alongside Mos in Blackstar formation.

K'Naan - America (feat Mos Def & another dude)

Gilles Peterson played this track by Somalia-born, Canada-based (but don't hold that against him) artist K'Naan a week or so ago, and I've been bumping it pretty regularly since then. It features Mos Def and one other dude who can't really rap, but nevermind. It bumps and is cool and breezy for summertimez!

Enjoy.

Mos Def on Letterman

Here's the Mighty Mos Def doing Quiet Dog (from new album, COP IT!) on Letterman

True nuff : Mos Def back to form

photo credit

The other day I got a brief email from OKSG telling me that Mos was "back to form", there was a link attached but I didn't get a chance to click it. Skip to a few days later and I am on my second listen-through of Mos Def's new album The Ecstatic and I must concur that Mos is not half-steppin'. His flows are tight and the guests (Slick Rick, Georgianna Muldrow, Talib Kweli) and producers (Madlib, Chad Hugo, Preservation, J DILLA!!!) are top notch.

This album is heat and as much as OKSG hates me turning this blog into "hype of the moment" type blathery, I gotta big up it as already a 2009 classic -- fuck already a HIP HOP classic. It will be on steady BUMP this summer (and many other seasons to come) without doubt.


Stream it! Then cop it!

Gilles Peterson(GP) rundown -07/31/08

Photo credit

If you don't know by now that we here love Gilles Peterson, think of him highly as not only a wicked selekta, but also musical historian and look to him for the next, then....errr, now ya know. Week in and week out, he breaks some heat from all around the world on his BBC Radio 1 show (which you can stream here from when its posted on Thursday for one week ONLY) and we want to kind of recognize that by reviewing our highlights of each weekly show here.

So this show had many many gems. Here were some of my most fave:

John Coltrane Quartet – ‘Lonnie’s Lament’ (Impulse)

Mos Def & Robert Glasper – ‘Stakes Is High’ [Live In Concert] (Test)
This was like a lengthy lengthy hip hop jazz jam of Mos doing his take on De La Soul's Stakes Is High. I gotta find this, ASAP.
Update: Download it here

Dee Dee Bridgewater – ‘Children Go Round’ [King Britt FiveSix Mix] (FiveSix)
King Britt brings it with the tribal riddims here. Mellow enough for chilling but jamming enough if the spirit moves you into an impromptu shake it session. Feeeeeelin.

Luiz Bonfa & Roberto Paiva – ‘Eu E Meu Mulher’ (EMI - REISSUE)
Great samba par-tay music! Nice nice, poppin fresh.

Seu Jorge – ‘Mina Dos Condominio’ (Javali Valente)
I already knew Seu was the dude, but he is DOING IT UP on this track. Gilles highly recommends this album and I am going to do just that!

Roots Manuva – ‘Again And Again’ (Big Dada)
This is the new heat from Roots Manuva. Big dancehall vibes. I was already brainstorming my moves!

Revisited: Mos Def - Black On Both Sides

Image via WikipediaThe other day I was chatting to OKsoundsgood about his Elvis argument and subsequent post on N.E.R.D. and my mind instantly went over to Mos Def's Black Jack Johnson project that never really became all I hoped it would be, and this made me think of Mos Def in general and how Black On Both Sides was THE JAM and how I hadn't listened to it in ages. Right after that a friend of ours mentioned that she was just revisiting "Climb" and I instantly realized all arrows were pointing due MOS. So I am now spending the next few days with this album in heavy rotation. From the first notes of Fear Not Of Men, I instantly slipped into the instant-classic goodness of this album and was a bit surprised to find that I remembered the lyrics to so many of the tracks considering I probably haven't listened to this in, at least, five years. This album is killer from start to end, not merely as a hip hop album but as a spanning the genre solidly good, hitting on all the emotions CLASSIQUE. Come on and take a boogie down memory lane with me.

Here's Umi Says to get you started