We are now offering fresh Madlib Espresso Blend created weekly. To ensure freshest coffee possible, orders will be tallied every Wednesday, coffee roasted on Thursday, and will ship on Friday.
This espresso comes whole-bean and is freshly roasted at Intelligentsia’s East L.A. facilities. It will remain at peak freshness for about 4 weeks and should be stored in an airtight container in a dark, cool place. This espresso can be ground finely and used in any espresso machine or can be ground coarse and brewed as drip coffee in any home coffee maker.
One thing that has been of growing interest to me in relationship to music is the way in which artists can look a bit outside the box to make that cash. The idea of licensing music for TV, video games, movies and products is quickly becoming one of the only ways for an artist to truly earn a living and that paired with a heavy tour schedule is the apparent answer to the slow and eventual death of dollars for albums. This dilemma is rearranging the music world so much so that labels are forcing artists into 360 deals to maintain profit on artists through all of their endeavors, and not just back end on the music.
I don’t know what kind of deal Madlib has setup with Stonesthrow but its safe to say that both he and his label are some of the most inventive when it comes to finding new ways to trade cash for a physical project. When you can’t sell a CD anymore what do you do next? For Madlib, it became to create a niche product that likely has high markup and will be considered a must have for his fan base. Followers of most Stonesthrow artists seem to be the collector type. Those that care as much about buying the vinyl and the t-shirt as they do about downloading. I think they hit a home run here, and although most artists do not have the type of fan base to make this happen at a global level, there is, I believe, I take away here for all artists: Market and brand yourself beyond the normal channels. You never know what just might stick and become a buzzing product, and a buzzing product or idea could be that gateway to getting your music in more ears, and in turn, more dollars into your pocket. As an example of past idea that worked, look only as far as another Stonesthrow artists brilliance in Mayer Hawthorne. The success of his red heart shaped vinyl catapulted him from a DJ doing a two-track side project to a full fledged artists touring the nation and being the it artist for a moment in early 2010. His heart shaped USB drive might not have had the same response, but these are guys taking chances. It’s important to take those chances and continue to evolve the system before it takes you over.
This is the song that made me a Wayne fan. I was late to check out The Carter II, but I remember buying a used copy about 6 months after it came out at Newbury Comics on Cape Cod.
This was a bit before the buzz around Wayne hit true pandemonium with the Drought 3 and Carter 3 bootlegs from The Empire, that made the anticipation for his studio album so big. I remember friends and fellow hip-hop fans making fun of me rocking out to an artist that was down with Cash Money. Eventually those friends came full circle as the buzz grew with songs like “Outstanding” and “I feel like dying” showing up in best of lists for 2007.
Weezy has a big tour and a new rock record set for 2009, but its the Carter II and ‘07 Lil Wayne that showed this young talent in his prime. Lets hope it wasn’t a peak.
Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival
A bit of the footage shot over Saturday in DUMBO, up now at The Volume
This past weekend marked the fifth annual Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, and despite an afternoon of intermittent rainfall, crowds showed up in droves throughout the eight-hour day to support their own. Check out our video for performance clips from Brown-Bag All Stars, Donny Goines and Tanya Morgan, along with more behind-the-scenes action, and read on for a recap.
Off of the free mixtape, Ketchup (download here). I’ve been a fan of this artist since he first came across on 2DopeBoyz over a year ago. The mixtape features a number of standout tracks, another personal favorite is the joint “Quitter.”
This song has a fun loving melody and hook to what is sort of an all too familiar and depressing topic of ‘the friend zone.’ Its a topic that has been covered by many artists and also by another favorite MC, 88-Keys. How is it that these songs always show up on random at the right time?
Nontheless, a great song, and if you can relate, bump it.
Track of the Day - Mos Def “Say You Will” (live cover)
Work today was filled with too much work and the itunes on shuffle. No time to download anything new, but in the process I remembered a few favorites. For todays track I’ve taken a Mos Def live recording from The Blue Note in New York from January 2009, and one I added to a Play Count list earlier this year.
The live performance brings something special to the song, feeding in more emotion than the polished studio/auto-tune version from Kanye. Mos adds in verses from a track “U R The one” and with an extended instrumental mix, this track lasts for a melodic 12 minutes.
After listening to this it reminded me of some other Mos Def live track I had and after sifting through my itunes I decided to take 7 rare and/or live Mos tracks and share them here. In todays maxi-track of the day:
01. “Say You Will” (live cover)
.02. “Jay Electronica” (live tribute) Recorded from a live show at Carnegie Hall in June of 2008. I had a chance to see Jay open for the Mighty Mos at Nokia Theatre back in March of ‘08, and since then, I’ve heard very little from Jay. I can’t believe that show was over a year ago.
.03 “Auditorium” (live) Easily my favorite track off the new Ecstatic album. This is a live Slick Rick-less version recorded at Kennedy Center in Washinton D.C. back in September of 08.
.04 Kanye West - “Good Night” (Plain Pat Remix)
.05 J Dilla - “Saturday Night” (remix ft. Brand New Heavies & Mos Def) Off of the Jay Dee - The Delicious Vinyl Years
.06 Omer Saar - Travelin’ man (ft. Mos Def & Money Green)
.07. Mos Def freestyle From an old rip posted up by Cipha Sounds on his blog back in 08.
An old favorite, featured on Kanye’s The Essentials mixtape. This mix came out right before The College Dropout and is still one I overplay. “My Way” features the original Kanye soul sample sound, and personally, I like it more than Jay-z’s “My Way” from the Blueprint 2.
The mixtape documents the begging of what has turned into one of the biggest Pop Stars of today. Other highlights include the original version of “Self Conscious” with the Lauren Hill, “Wanna Ride” ft Common and Ye’s remix of Dwele’s “Hold On.”
For any fans out there, I’ve zipped up the mixtape. Download here.
Check out a previous mixtape post from the same era:
Last night I uploaded this album to my itunes along with a few other choice classics (in my eyes). I added the Lox first album Money, Power & Respect, Dwele’s Subject, Zo & Tigallo Sing the 80’s! and 9th Wonders take on the Black Album, Black is Back.
None of thee would be major albums, but to me they are classics. Besides the more recent 80’s album, the others were all albums I bumped consistently in my Jeep back in college. The forced listening of what ever albums I had on hand made certain ones favorites out of repeat play, and nothing beats physically owning a record. I love having so much digital music, but as I was flipping through one of my large CD binders, holding almost 300 hip-hop albums from 1997-2004, I was walking back through my past with each page turn. 8 Jay-z albums, all pre Kingdom Come, on 2 pages? Awesome. Something about it sure beats scrolling through itunes.
I figured I should pick a TOD that matches up so I went with a very meta track, produced by Ghost himself. On the track the ‘production’ is minimal, if Ghost did anything at all, rapping directly over the original track. Its one of two track on Pretty Tony Ghost built himself, the other “Save Me Dear” is a faster tempo, but has the exact same appeal with its simplicty.
I’ve zipped the two together for your downloading enjoyment, but really, go buy the album for 99 cents in a bin somewhere.
Yeah…so a week ago I promised to get back to old form and update whizhouse more. What can I say, I lied. The worst part is I have tabs open of things I want to post, but I hate not getting to write about everything I put up here.
Until I have more time, here is this weeks playlist, posted over at The Volume.
Mixtape Street Album of the Week: S.O.U.L. Purpose City Permits
Street ‘album’ may be pushing it a bit as this has a number of interludes from a Mick Boogie interview with Mazzi of S.O.U.L. Purpose, but nonetheless, a number of standout tracks make this an enjoyable listen. Highlights include the classic Statik Selektah produced ‘Talkin’ bout You,’ remixed with a feature from New York Nick along with ‘Keep Movin remix’ featuring a verse from Fresh Daily. The mixtape also has a joint produced for Peter Rosenberg’s Real Late on Hot 97. Presented by Mick Boogie and Terry Urban, who’s stamp of approval is often worth the download alone.
