News

Jay Electronica X Mos Def in NYC, Roots x TM in T-Dot, 2 DJ Soul Mixtapes, Common Interview, Lupe Spring Break.

• Last night NYC saw their debut performance by the enigmatic Jay Electronica at the Nokia Theater where he opened up for Mos Def. Not ever having heard of Jay performing anywhere else, it may as well have been his debut show period. The place was abuzz with cats trading notes on whatever they knew of Jay in what was maybe the most anticipated NY debut since Amy Winehouse in January ‘07. I am not going to write a review (I’ll leave that up to y’all) but I will say Mos and Jay Elect are two extremely artistic cats (across mediums) who do what they want, how they want, when they want. Jay’s body of work (no matter how obscure and hard to get) speaks for itself and with co-signers Just Blaze (his DJ last night), Nas (who had been rumored to appear), and Erykah Badu (who made a cameo during the set), he has already established himself as an artists artist and achieved cult like status amongst fans in the know. This is just the beginning, so watch closely.

• Let’s not forget about the incredible Mos Def. Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to catch his eclectic sets roughly a dozen times. No matter how long he takes between songs or how many random joints his DJs play, Mos never disappoints with classic material, covers, and plenty of jokes. He performed a few brand new songs (apparently off a new album to come out on Downtown Records called The Ecstatic) including the banger Mos co-produced with Chad Hugo called “Twilight Speedball” and “Auditorium” (which he said features Slick Rick) produced by Madlib. In addition to those, The Ecstatic (Mos’ 4th solo album) is said to feature production by Oh No & Kanye West. No reliable street date is available at this time. A photo gallery from last night’s show is coming later this week (Wednesday at the latest). Congratulations to Mos Def who has been tapped to play the Godfather of Rock N Roll, the legendary Chuck Berry in the upcoming biopic Cadillac Man.

• Last night in Toronto Tanya Morgan opened up for The Roots to an amped up Canadian crowd. After last week’s intense rehearsals and jams The Legendary was ready to bring a bunch of new material to the stage, performing live versions of “I Will Not Apologize,” “Rising Up,” “I Can’t Help It,” “Get Busy,” and “75 Bars.” And oh sweat, they freaked Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up” too! Get ready for Rising Down tour, coming to city near you soon, following their tour with Erykah Badu. Check out the video from the last days of the Jam Session featuring “I Will Not Apologize” as well as words from Candace L on the new Roots blog. The last photo gallery from Sol-Exposure can be seen here.

• DJ Soul is bringing back the “Under The Radar” mixtape series he started over three years ago with this latest 10 track mix of “new music that you’ll (most likely) never hear on Hot 97 or B.E.T.” (thus its title). Vol. 1 features Nas, The Roots, Phonte, Gnarls Barkley, Erykah Badu, Rick Ross, Ghostface, and more. Don’t forget to download his Tanya Morgan project while you’re at it.

Okayplayer would like to once again welcome our newest staffer, shamz!! Get used to seeing his name around these parts. Take it away, sir! -dantana

• Common and Cedric the Entertainer were interviewed for their new movie Street Kings, Common speaks about being cast as the “Bad Guy” in recent movie roles and if he feels like Presidential candidate Barak Obama is Hip-Hop. Obama has voiced his opinion on Hip-Hop, so what do ya’ll think? Speak on it.

• Watch the video of Lupe Fiasco performing his latest single off The Cool “Paris, Tokyo” at MTV Spring Break in Panama City, Fl.

• Dem dudes over at Duck Down stay putting out records and touring. Here’s some footage of Boot Camp Clik in Chile via Nah Right.

• An interesting little article popped up the other day about Estelle and why she feels the British music industry is useless for UK black music, she really goes off in this one it’s a good read though. Also here’s another new joint by Estelle featuring Cee-Lo called “Pretty Please Love Me”, via Tunji.

-shamz