Ok, I just discovered Melanie Fiona, Universal Motown’s latest Pop/Soul diva (she’s also Asher Roth’s labelmate at SRC Records but we won’t hold that against her!!!), via everyone’s favorite new way to communicate, Twitter. She must’ve had a showcase last night or something and a couple people were tweeting off about her. I’ve actually found out about alot of new stuff from Twitter, I can’t front, so I keep my ears to the tweets. Anyway, I checked out her new single on Youtube this morning, and I instantly understood what all the buzz was about. She has a hit!!! It’s called “Give It To Me Right”…
I admit, I’m a sucker for girls who can sing soul. I’m a huge Amy Winehouse fan first and foremost though, she’s the illest, even if she is a total mess. Still, I wanted to give Melanie Fiona some shine here on Westcheddar, especially after I saw this video of her…here’s some dope raw backyard footage of her singing “Somebody Come Get Me”, a song she had on the 2008 Reggae Gold album…
So yeah, she’s from Toronto, Canada, and has roots in the West Indies, has an album coming out called THE BRIDGE, and she’s already opened up for Kanye West on tour overseas. Check out this EPK video about her upcoming album, and definitely watch for her in 2009.
Tabi Bonney is dope. It’s fitting that DOPE is the title of his new album, and it just so happens to be the title of my favorite song off his last album, the buzzworthy A FLY GUY’S THEME. I first heard of Tabi when I saw his video on the internet for a track titled “Cool and Fly”, which is actually off this 3 song release he put out in between his two albums called DOPE MEETS FRESH…FRESH MEETS SUPERSTAR. The video is shot where he was born, in Lome, Republic of Togo-West Africa (his father is a famous musician out there), but he is very much a Washington D.C. dude. The beat immediately struck me for this song, as did his unique voice, and it made me want to go check out the rest of his catalog. Indulge…
Bonney’s first album is definitely FLY. It’s got a bunch of nice tracks on there, flooded with D.C. slang that I am familiar with due to my 7 years spent living in the area, like “bammas” and “syce” and “crucial”, and calling people “young” and “joe”. I like it, and the production is pretty ill. It has that east coast knock to it. As a rap artist myself, I was impressed by Bonney. Though his buddy Wale, a fellow D.C. rapper, seems to be getting most of the shine, Bonney definitely deserves praise too and is one to watch for, especially with his hometown getting so much Obama related spotlight.
Well now Tabi Bonney’s back with DOPE, which just dropped this week, and I’m feeling his new single off the album “Rich Kids”. For an artist on an independent label, he’s getting good looks on MTV2 this week so keep your eyes open for him, and supposedly his video for “Rich Kids” is on the way, which I’ll throw up here whenever it drops. For now, watch this great interview with Bonney (who also has is own clothing line by the way) to find out a little more about him, and hit up his myspace page to hear “Rich Kids” and also for more of his music and videos…
Cop that album!!! And support your local artists, wherever you’re from. Don’t be a bamma, young.
Paste Magazine has a cool website online where you can make your own Obama icon style picture. It’s very easy to use and fun, and you can upload your own picture and change it like I did or take one of yourself on the website using your webcam. Try it! It’s fun and easy to use, and there’s a deep gallery of other people’s Obamizations (that’s a word!) on the site that you can add on too as well…here’s the link…
Biggie has always been everyone’s favorite rapper around my way. My friends and I spent a good majority of our high school years with his music bumping out of our cars. We constantly were going into the Bronx to find new Biggie songs on mixtapes. It was serious bragging rights to find a Biggie song that no one heard before. For me personally, when “Unbelievable” came out, that was the song that sealed the deal and made him instantly my favorite rapper. Of course, I loved Nas, Q-Tip, Grand Puba, and a bunch of others, but there was something different about Biggie. Something special. It’s about time they made a movie about the G.O.A.T.
There’s been alot of press revolving around NOTORIOUS, and the trailer looks pretty good. I’ve heard mixed reviews, but I’m still amped to check it out. Gravy, the BK rapper who plays the part of Biggie, supposedly does a tremendous job in his first on screen role. Here’s a couple classic B.I.G. clips to hold you over until you see the movie yourself. First is of a young Biggie rapping on Fulton Street…
And here’s an ill video of Biggie in the studio hanging out during the making of “Suicidal Thoughts” off his first album Ready to Die (you can hear the drums in the background and the song’s producer Lord Finesse makes a couple cameos)…Biggie is seen smoking and talking shit with his boys…check it out…
Check out NOTORIOUS, it opens in theaters this Friday, January 16th, and the soundtrack is in stores and features a few unreleased Biggie demos….
I got this for twenty bucks yesterday!!!! Best bargain I ever got. With this box set, I got all five Simon and Garfunkel albums on CD, digitally remastered, and all the liner notes, plus each CD has unreleased bonus tracks. I’ve been wanting to get my hands on all their albums for a while, and now I’ve got them all. This is some serious shit. Possibly the best duo to ever record music together. And guess where I got it? WALMART!!! Ha Ha, sick! I grew up on this type of music, it’s in my blood. Here’s one of my favorite S & G songs off their first album, “The Sun is Burning”…
When new music gets boring, it’s always good to go back in time and find inspiration elsewhere….peace…
I met hip hop producer Oddisee back in my College Park days. At the time, we were all just getting started, vibing as young college students. He was all about making beats. Now, he’s fairly well known on the underground circuit for his production. Recently, Peter Rosenberg posted a video of Oddisee RAPPING!!! WOW!!! He has dope rhymes, I had no idea…Check him basically spit an unrecorded song into the camera over his own beat, complete with his idea for the chorus and everything. Dope.
Keep your eye out for Oddisee in 2009. And shout out to Rosenberg for playing “Wifey Material” on his Hot 97 Real Late show this past Sunday night. Check the link to stream and download, it’s the first song…
The Clipse are a very underrated rap group. Produced by the Neptunes, the Bronx born Virginia Beach bred brothers (Pusha T and Malice) rap with smooth flows detailing a fly street lifestyle of drug peddling and all that comes along with it. Though it sounds cliche to rap about drugs and guns and women (it is!), they do it way better than the average, and have two classic albums under their belt, Lord Willin’ and Hell Hath No Fury. It is debatable as to which is better. Both are lyrically solid, though production wise Hell Hath No Fury may be stronger overall.
Now The Clipse have new music being released without The Neptunes (which is a shame), and they also have a brand new clothing line, Play Cloths. Rappers with a clothing line? Another hip hop cliche? You bet. But again, it looks like they’ve managed to put something together way better than the average. It also looks like they were taking design notes from Pharrell’s Billionare Boys Club Ice Cream line (as seen in the top picture above)….check out their winter hats, they’re sick, and perfect for shoveling snow, pun intended…
Look at these guys. They’re not flashy, or sexy, or even cool. But they are my favorite band. The Shins. Most people first heard them in Garden State, the now famous scene where Natalie Portman hands her headphones to Zach Braff and says “this song will change your life”. She was right. I had a similar moment when an old girlfriend of mine played me The Shins for the first time. It instantly changed my outlook on music, and turned me into a major indie guy. I remembered them from the movie vaguely, but I needed to have my own Shins moment, in my own zone, to really become a fan. Peep the video for “Saint Simon”, the first Shins song I ever fell in love with…
Slowly but surely, I got into Chutes Too Narrow, their second album, which “Saint Simon” is on, and now I can say with complete confidence that “Saint Simon” is not even in my top three songs on that album! Check out a couple of my favorites. First, the video for “Pink Bullets”, which is weird but in a good way…then watch this acoustic live from someone’s basement version of “Gone for Good”, another banger from Chutes Too Narrow…
After fully absorbing Chutes Too Narrow, I began to dig deeper into their catalog. “New Slang”, one of the two songs featured in Garden State (the song Portman plays for Braff), is off their first album, Oh, Inverted World. Other than “New Slang”, it’s kind of a heavier album, more upbeat. I prefer slower, “acousticky” sounding songs. This one stood out though, “The Past and Pending”. Peep the video, it’s dope…
There had to be more though, right? Something? A B-Side? A single that was never released on the album? Some weird version of something? Aha!!!! I found it. My favorite Shins song, and it’s not even on any of their albums. It was a single off the Wicker Park soundtrack, but this alternate version I found online is amazing…My favorite song from my favorite band, The Shins “When I Goosestep”, the acoustic version…pardon the weird fan made video, it’s actually kind of fun…
In January 2007, their third album came out, Wincing the Night Away (I had it in November 2006, don’t sleep I get indie rock albums early too). It’s a sick album, though I still say Chutes Too Narrow is my favorite, it’s great. Lyrically, it’s incredible. The lead singer James Mercer writes very poetic lyrics, some of which I have a hard time figuring out, but I kind of like that. It’s smart music. Here’s two of my favorite cuts from the album. First, “Red Rabbits”, and then the more upbeat “Split Needles”…
If I haven’t convinced you yet about The Shins, well then maybe they’re not for you. Or maybe you like more uptempo happy songs, which they actually have a bunch of, well maybe not happy, but upbeat. In fact, I saw them live in NYC last year and they played more of their upbeat stuff which was kind of disappointing, but I still had a blast at the show. Thank you Shins, for opening me up to a world of indie rock and acoustic folk SUBPOP music (Band of Horses, Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes, etc), and also for coincidentally inspiring me to write some of my best rap song lyrics. Though hip hop is still my first love, I have made room for another genre to occupy my heart.
I know everyone has seen the footage by now of Bush getting a pair of shoes thrown at him during his latest visit to Iraq, but have you played this game yet? It’s inspired by the incident, and you try to hit Bush with a shoe as many times as you can in 30 seconds. Check it out, it’s mad fun. The highest score I’ve seen anyone get is lucky number 13. Beat that or beat it…
Andy Samberg and the SNL Digital Short crew have done it again. This is awesomely clever. There’s nothing else I can say about it, just watch it…”Jizz in my Pants”….
If you missed my Andy Samberg post from a couple months ago, check it out HERE
Westcheddar 