Shopping for music at one of the best music stores in the country, Amoeba Music, Questlove of The Roots shares some of his purchases. After seeing the video of an orchestra paying tribute to the Kanye West song All of The Lights, it’s great to see a full orchestra pay tribute to one of the best producers to ever do it, Dilla. A clip of the orchestra playing Dilla is also below.
A clip from the dvd orchestra tribute to Dilla called Timeless – Suite For Ma Dukes
Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek, last of a dying breed of great MC/DJ duos, release another video from the upcoming album “Revolutions Per Minute”. The video is conceptual and brings out the underlying message in the soulful song. Hi-Tek chops in the Jay-z sample where he acknowledges Kweli as a great MC.
The video features a drummer, a harpist and Hi-Tek in the background on the MPC reproducing the music in the video. The harpist is Brandee Younger, a real working harpist, NOT an actress which you may see in other videos. Just goes to show you that Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek support real musicians.
As stated on the official website Yearoftheblacksmith.com the album Revolutions Per Minute will be released on April 6th.
After a 15 year hiatus, Gil Scott-Heron, the legendary poet and musician returns with a new album entitled “I’m New Here”. The album is entirely produced by Richard Russell, founder of the pioneering XL Recordings record label. The label has been home to host of forward thinking artists such as The White Stripes, Thom Yorke of Radiohead, Dizzee Rascal and also the label that released the debut album by M.I.A. - Arular. Gil will join the rank with I’m New Here also being released on the independent label.
Judging from the song “Me and The Devil” the album seems to have a dark tone to it, with heavy influences from various forms of electronic music the label is known for. An interesting direction Gil has taken, a sonic departure from his last album Spirits which featured production by Ali Shaheed Muhammed of A Tribe Called Quest.
The song “Me and The Devil” is actually Gil’s take on a blues song by the pioneering blues singer and guitarist Robert Johnson. The song also includes a passage where Gil recites one of his own masterpieces “The Vulture”, which is features in his book of poems “Now and Then“.
This is a short film/music video I wrote and filmed for the song “Here The Tame Go By” a song from Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s first solo project “A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack, Volume One”. The album from which the song appeared is actually the soundtrack to a film that Omar never recorded. This is my attempt to create a visual to accompany the music.
