Uno de los personajes mas influyentes desde el principio del streetwear y la cultura sneaker ha sido ?uestlove…Ya colaboro con Nike elaborando uno de los mejores pares de AF1 que se recuerdan, ahora se vuelven a unir para diseñar un nuevo par de Air Max 90….

B.
valcone.net

At my old blog address I declared my like of Nneka, the Nigerian-German singer. Nneka is now making a splash in the US among the neo-Soul (?uestlove of The Roots has conferred his blessings). This is the US version of her video for the song, “The Uncomfortable Truth.”

Fela!, Broadway’s latest musical production made headlines after being endorsed by ?uestLove of the Roots. As previously reported, ?uest signed on to be an associate producer for the play and was looking for other industry insiders to join the production realm.

Now his requests have officially been answered in the form of a husband and wife duo and the number one MC in the game. Jay-Z, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith are officially associate producers for Fela!, the story of Nigerian musician Fela Kunti which opens November 23.

?uestLove is especially passionate about the play and expressed that in a blog entry saying,

“It’s uncut. It’s true to the vision. It’s amazing! There is no option. I expect death to be the only reason why you did NOT see this production”

The play is described as “the most original production” on Broadway and tells the story of the musician’s contributions musically and politically. Kunti was a human-rights activist and strived to impact his country before his death in 1997 of HIV complications..

While Jay’s sharpening up his producer chops, he’s also added a new duo to his exclusive Roc Nation team. Jay is  broadening his horizons this time and bringing talent from over the pond in the form of British rock band, The Ting Tings.

The Ting Tings have officially been signed to his emblem and will undoubtedly crank out more hits like their number one singles “That’s Not My Name” and “Shut Up and Let Me Go.”

Expect more information on them in the future.

Q-Tip, DJ Gravy, and Va$htie @ Santos Party House on Fridays

OPEN Hosted By Va$htie Featuring Resident DJ Q-Tip and Special Guests

Q-Tip of the legendary group A Tribe Called Quest, not only a talented MC, but also a DJ and producer. Join Q-Tip and Special Guests Every Friday @ Santos Party House.

Ongoing Every Friday @ 10 p.m.

Tickets – Advanced – Unavailable / Day of Show – $15

General Admission / 21 & Over

VIP Table Reservations – tables@santospartyhouse.com

Featuring Special Guests –

DJ Scratch and Iron Lyon on November 13, 2009

Legendary DJ Grandmaster Flash on November 20, 2009

Hip Hop legend Grandmaster Flash, the first artist to use the turntable as a musical instrument, played a pivotal role in the birth of hip hop during the 1970’s. Grandmaster Flash was also the DJ for the classic group, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, one of the first hip hop groups in history.

Questlove of The Roots on November 27, 2009

Questlove of The Roots – also known as ?uestlove and Questo – this pioneering artist from Philadelphia continues to prove his longevity as drummer for critically acclaimed group, The Roots, whose live performances are among the best in hip hop.

D-Nice on December 4, 2009

Santos Party House
96 Lafayette St.
New York, NY 10013
1.212.584.5492
Santos Party House

@SantosPartyHaus Twitter

Santos MySpace

Getting lazy with the descriptions today, so I’ll just add them only if the flyer is lacking…

Monday, 11,9.09

Tuesday, 11.10.09

(Come see me get my cameo-on in the “Cherry Popper” video! At least I think so… Lyriqs 2 Go said my footage MAY or MAY NOT be used. LOL)

(Same block as Bob’s… no excuses!)

Wednesday, 11.11.09

Thursday, 11.12.09

Attention: NEW PARTY! 90’s jams all night…and the DJ lineup is STUPID! I’d follow these DJ’s anywhere…Did I mention it was free?

Sutra was one of the first spots I was introduced to while starting out in photography. Home to many a legendary night, where celebs mingle and party with us normal folk in a spirit of positivity and good times, it is easily one of my favorite places to party in NYC. Ariel and John always show me so much love, and it was the natural choice come time to celebrate my 30th birthday a few months ago. Come out as Sutra celebrates 5 years on the scene!

Friday, 11.13.09

I’ve only been to one Art Battles event, and it was epic… this time, four artists will be battling two on two. It will be Leif McIlwaine & Ben Angotti VS Andre Trenier & Marthalicia Matarrita.

While the painting is happening – there will also be a B-Boy vs. Tap battle on the dance floor.

Goodie Mob (especially my boo, Cee-Lo), Scarface AND Slick Rick? Nuff said…

Saturday, 11.14.09

(Lineup includes Hasan Salaam, Division X, Lady Che, YC the cynic, Marcel Cartier, Maximil of Regime Change, and many more!)

Sunday, 11.15.09

If you’re in Jersey or feel like taking that PATH train into Newark, check out this event on Sunday… Newark might be my new chill spot…

As I mentioned before, the Beck performance on that new Nigel Godrich website is pretty rad.  I enjoyed his drummer, but I don’t recognize him.  Anybody know who it is?  My friend Bill thought it might have been ?uestlove, but Beck’s guy is a lefty, and ?uest isn’t.  Thinking about this gives me an opportunity to bring up my thoughts about left-handed players.

To clarify, I don’t want to pick on left-handed people, just guys who play drums in a left-handed way.  There are two main versions of this: 1) setting up the drums in the opposite configuration, and 2) playing “open” – with the left hand on the hihat and right hand on the snare.  These two methods of approaching the drums stem from the belief that left-handed people should play drums in a different way than right-handed people do, much like swinging a golf club or using a writing utensil.  Again, to be clear, I have nothing against left-handed people, but I do have an issue with this belief that drumming is dominant-hand sensitive.

My thesis is this: playing drums instrument should NOT be a right-handed vs. left-handed issue.  I’ve got a few reasons for thinking this, but I’ve narrowed it down to three…

1. Drums are hard for everyone when you start. If you’re a beginner, then trying to learn to play grooves feels weird no matter what.  Familiarity with the instrument grows with time spent practicing, and things that once felt totally awkward eventually become second nature.  If I, as a life-long right-handed player, committed the next 6 months of my life to playing only left-handed kits, I believe the scales would tip and my comfort and preference would change.  So, I’m basically saying that the traditional arrangement of a drum set shouldn’t be thought of as a “right-handed configuration” that needs to be reversed for a left-handed player, because I don’t think the case can be made that playing the hihat with the dominant hand produces any actual advantage.  This leads me to my second point…

2. The piano has always been configured the same way. Right-handed… left-handed… doesn’t matter.  You sit down at the piano and you learn to play it the way that it is: low notes on the left, high notes on the right.  Wind instruments such as saxophones are also this way.  At some point drummers (and guitarists I guess) decided that the set-up of the instrument should be reversed to accommodate for left-handed players, but this only happened because changing the instrument’s configuration is possible.  For the piano, left-handed people just learn it and do it… and they don’t seem to have any trouble.  This is the same with driving a manual-transmission car: you put your left hand on the wheel, right hand on the stick shift, left foot on the clutch, and right foot on the gas/brake.  Nobody gets to select the “left-handed” version transmission, and I don’t hear left-handed people complaining about that.

3.  Left-handed players are setting themselves up for inconvenience. This last reason is a pragmatic one, and probably the most compelling.  The short of it is this: left-handed players spend their entire lives dealing with the headache of switching around right-handed kits to fit your needs.  Professional drummers (and serious hobbyists) are constantly put in the position of needing to play someone else’s kit.  Maybe the gig has a house kit, or all the bands at the club need to use the headliner’s gear, or you’re just sitting in for one song, or whatever.  Taking the time to switch a right-handed configuration around will always be a nuisance, and not only to you.  I’ve heard of left-handed players not getting called for a tour because nobody wants to deal with reversing the drums.  Regardless of how “discriminating” this may seem, it’s reality.  I’ve talked with numerous left-handed professional players over the years, and they ALL lament the fact that they chose to reverse the instrument when they first began learning it.  Their reason is always simply the annoyance of always having to switch everything around.

To reiterate, my answer to the overall issue is to suggest that drums are not dominant-hand sensitive.  I have nothing against the left-handed folks of the world, I just think it’s a mistake to assume that left-handedness requires someone to reverse the way drums are set up.

At this point it’s worth asking why I’m posting about this topic.  I mean, I’m right-handed, so I don’t have anything to worry about.  If the left-handed players want to reverse the way they play the instrument, why not just let them?  I guess I’m bringing this whole thing up mostly on a philosophical level.  As I teach my private lessons, I always tell my left-handed students that they should really consider switching to a right-handed approach, because of the whole inconvenience thing.  I spell out my reasons like I did above, and they usually just respond with “well, I want to do it my way.”  That’s totally fine, but as a philosopher, I’m not satisfied with that answer.

I’m basically just hoping that someone here can give me a good reason for turning a guitar upside down like Hendrix did, or playing the drum set in a reversed configuration like Beck’s current drummer.

So… challenge extended.

The Roots Present the Jam @ Highline Ballroom in New York

The Roots Present the Jam @ Highline Ballroom 2009

Tickets – Advance: $10 / Day of Show: $12

Doors To Open @ 11:00 p.m.
Show To Start @ 11:30 p.m.

Upcoming Shows

(1) Tuesday, November 10, 2009 @ 11:00 p.m. – Buy Tickets

(2) Tuesday, November 17, 2009 @ 11:00 p.m. – Buy Tickets

Highline Ballroom
431 W. 16th St.
New York, NY 10011
1.212.414.5994
www.highlineballroom.com

For More Information

D'Angelo

When neo soul pioneer D’Angelo gave birth to his acclaimed album Voodoo at the beginning of the millennium, he strove to forge a dramatically divergent path from that of the high-gloss, streamlined, studio-perfected sounds that marked popular music of the day. He turned instead to a bygone age of black music, embracing the gritty, loose and colorful sounds of jazz, soul and funk artists from decades ago.

The result is an album with a decidedly vintage feel that embraces qualities reaching across the spectrum of black music and bears the mark of tropes established as far back as the ring shout traditions of early African-American culture. Chicken Grease (named for a supposedly Prince-coined term that refers to strumming chords in a distinct 16th note pattern [1] ) is a subdued, funky track featuring muffled, overdubbed vocals that sits quietly in the center of Voodoo. However, in a live setting, the tune becomes an animated stomp, building to a dramatic finale, complete with a fiery call-and-response exchange between D’Angelo and his backup singers Angie Stone and Anthony Hamilton.

Timbral distortions abound as D’Angelo moves effortlessly between steady rhythms in the chest register to falsetto shouts. The late Chalmers “Spanky” Alford repeats the simple harmonic figures of the song throughout, alternating stabs and strums of angular triads. The core of song is established via Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson’s syncopated drumming. He is complimented by bassist Pino Palladino, who outlines the harmony by remaining generally “in the pocket,” veering from the groove occasionally to insert tastefully off-beat melodic phrases laced with blue notes.

While Chicken Grease carries no discernable spiritual elements as the ancestral ring shout did, the tropes as they exist in this modern context work to establish a similar sort of communication between participants. Here the audience becomes part of the performance, immersing themselves in the incessant groove, seemingly compelled to stomp and shout in tandem with the musicians. This nearly involuntary reaction to the music suggests that the listeners recognize these tropes on perhaps a subconscious level, driven to reciprocate attributes of the performance because of socially conditioned behavior. Like in ring shout, D’Angelo’s Chicken Grease gives rise to a communal activity, a marriage of song and dance, and here, a frenetic celebration of a shared love of music.

D’Angelo – Chicken Grease (Live at The Chris Rock Show)

[1] To see Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson’s Review of Voodoo click here.

Michael Howard

New Single… Official Music Video

I made it a conscious effort not make a Hip Hop blog with downloads and video clips and whatever else everyone else has poppin on their blogs. Not saying I’m not for it because the ones I frequent keep my spirits up that real Hip Hop is still in rotation somewhere.

 So I was checking out Diggers  Union Local 1200 one night and saw they had a post from the T.R.O.Y blog, went there and really don’t want that download  after all. I decided to check the spot out and came across this Questlove mix dirt_dog posted.  Now I am not big on sample mixes or really too many things that have to do with exposing what was used to make classic shit, even if I’m curious to know. But I have to say I like this for one reason   ?uesto is actually cutting in this mix. It’s not some lame ass one song after the other, it’s really has some thought to it. So if you are into the sample mixes and want to hear some Hip Hop classics  original samples this is what you need in your life click here.

Melanie Fiona is a boss b*tch!
This is the first time I’ve seen her video for “It Kills Me“, with a guest appearance from Adam Rodriguez. I think that she and the song is amazing! I’ve really appreciated her talent from the start and she’s keeping me interested time after time. So go on girl, keep on amazing us! Something you should definitely watch is this “Subway Series (NYC)” (link to OnSmash) she did with New York based street performers, really cool. Her album “The Bridge” comes out November 10th, GET IT!

Under the cut you can enjoy Melanie’s version of Kanye’s “Heartless” together in the studio with the one and only ?uestlove! + one extra…

Somebody come get me, before I kill this man!

I’m back from hiatus y’all! There’s a lot of good music coming out, and I think what the world needs now… is another blog. And a disorganized disjointed one, with sentence fragments and copy-n-pasted press releases. Quick summary of the current playlists on my ipod: N’Dambi Pink Elephant; Robert Glasper Double Booked; Big Boi ft George Clinton & Too $hort “Fo Yo Sorrows”; Dr. No’s Ethiopium; Oddisee Mental Liberation; Stefon Harris/Blackout Urbanus; a little Ghostdini; a little Raekwon; Kid Sister “Right Hand Hi” and various remixes, waiting for her album; Jon Brion “Little Person” when I’m sad; Basement Jaxx Scars when I’m hyper; Fresh Daily Tomorrow is Today - I like his mixtape more than the album. It happens.

Big Boi ft George Clinton & Too $hort- “Fo Yo Sorrows” from the allegedly upcoming Sir Lucious Left Foot

Oh No - “Concentrate/ The Funk” from Dr No’s Ethiopium – available from Stones Throw Digi Store

Little Dragon – “After the Rain” from Little Dragon

I’ve also been into Melanie Fiona of course; that song “Give it to me Right” is an obvious hit. But my personal favorite is this reggae style song she did with ?uestlove- a version of “Somebody Come Get Me”.
Melanie Fiona- “Somebody Come Get Me” live with ?uestlove

Stefon Harris & Blackout: This video for the song “Gone” is part of a video remix contest- you download elements of this video, based on the CD artwork, then upload your personal mix to Youtube for a chance to win. Is it just me or are remix contests the new thing, supposedly saving the music industry? Who cares about these? Anyone? I like this one, I just don’t have any graphic design inclination whatsoever, so I’m gonna sit back and see what the others submit. Regardless, the album by Stefon Harris (vibraphonist/composer) and Blackout, Urbanus, is dope! Highly recommended.

This is all just a sliver of what I wanted to post, but hey look, I started blogging again. That means I’ll have more for you soon…
Jon Brion – Little Person (from the Soundtrack of Synechdoche, NY)

In celebration of Def Jam’s quarter century in the music business, XXL has selected a handful of the label’s roster, past and present, to grace the cover of the November issue.

XXL’s new issue will include memorable tales from the MCs about the famed label, along with a complete discography of Def Jam releases and a comprehensive timeline of the brand’s biggest moments. Behind the scenes masterminds, Russell Simmons, Lyor Cohen and Kevin Liles sit for the first time to share their memories and Rick Rubin also takes a look back at the legacy of Def Jam.

Other features in the issue include stories on Clipse, Kid Cudi, Birdman, Juvenile and B.G.

XXL’s November issue hits stand on October 27.

In celebration of Def Jam’s quarter century in the music business, XXL has selected a handful of the label’s roster, past and present, to grace the cover of the November issue. Props to XXL.

Just thought I’d share this cause of how much i like it (and i support their music)…

It’s the Roots’ first single called How I Got Over.
I feel like the images present a message like, whatever their struggle is, all these people relate in that they struggle “in these streets.” They all have to find ways to get over, to stay strong.
Simple, but the song is too. It’s raw, mature, gives the audience the message. I think it’s really shot well too.

Peace, and get over love.