Badu #2, ?uesto’s Baby, Rising Down Guests, Black Thought Breaks It Down, Roots Tour Dates, New Del Video.
I know it may sound crazy
It has been one week since the ever-so-dope New Amerykah PT. 1; 4th World War arrived in stores and stereos everywhere. We keep it spinning at the office and needless to say, this is an album you must physically own. According to early reports, Erykah is on track to debut at #2 on the Billboard charts after Janet Jackson’s Discipline.
Please believe there is much more Badu to come even while we start to shift gears and begin ramping up The Roots‘ 10th release Rising Down on April 29th. With less than two months to go, the hype is already starting to build. While the man might be a bit (just a little) biased, ?uestlove is going on record saying that he has never been more proud and that Rising Down is officially his “favorite baby.” We’ve heard the album at least a half dozen times and can understand why.
?uesto also notes the quality of the guest contributions which include Mos Def, Styles P, Talib Kweli, Wale, Common, Chrisette Michelle, Saigon and more. Founding Roots member Malik B is back with his best deliveries since Things Fall Apart appearing on two songs. Roots / Raw Life / Black Ink Crew member P.O.R.N., who was introduced to many of us on the hook of Game Theory’s “In The Music,” is going to make A LOT of heads turn with his 3 guest spots. Truck North gets in on the fun with a chilling acapella (over music but no drums) that will surely have you rewinding.
Even Black Thought makes a rare appearance on the boards to confirm that he did in fact spit all 75 bars of err um “75 Bars” in one take (the first one at that) with no punch-ins and from the control room sofa??!!?!. He also responds to any questions about the meaning behind the video saying:
“Thats all it is. its dope. its hip hop. its new , yet classic. theres nothing else to be read into the equation. i could go on and on about how that dude represents every record company exec that ever looked at me wrong or every critic that ever underestimated my caliber … but he doesnt. he’s just “some dude” who did “some shit” and now he regrets it. the rest, we leave up to u to interpret. 75 bars is raw, drum driven, in your face emceeing. period. yes its a little nostalgic and reminiscent of 1987 but hey, thats when we started this thing of ours that has become the roots/ okp brand and when, in my opinion, hip hop was a lot more real so, every now and then i like to revisit that. long story short, we had no idea what race the hostage would be before the shoot and didnt really care if dude was white, black, asian, latino or martian, he was gonna get it either way. our concern was a visual that compliments the music. i think we have that. the only other concern was to get yall blogaholics to chirping and creating an awareness of the upcoming album. i think we’ve done that too. everything else is cake. …. and we’re not a bunch of vegetarians but why do u care?” - Black Thought
Meanwhile, The Roots‘ tour dates for March and April have just been posted with more to follow.
You’ve seen the banner ads, now watch the first video, “Workin’ It,” from Del The Funky Homosapien off his new album 11th Hour, dropping next week on 3/11.
LA’s Crash Mansion was overflowing with the dopest talent on Saturday night, and our boy Sweeney was on hand to give us the scoop. The good folks at ArtDontSleep assembled a top-notch set of artists as part of their Soul Exploration series, inviting Blu and Exile, Tiombe Lockhart, and Platinum Pied Pipers to bless the stage. From the looks of it, the show was amazing. Check out Sweeney’s stellar review and bonus pics.
- dantana