The Roots X Luda Take NoLa, El-P’s Blog Warms Up, Kweli Interview Vid, NIN Gives It Away, Kanye Does Kanye, Black Lily Fest Re-Cap, Dilla ft. Bilal.
• Over the weekend The Roots returned to the fairgrounds of the great NOLA Jazz Fest. In addition to their usual high energy set, the crew was joined by Ludacris for a surprise guest spot. The band performed “Stand Up” which was followed by a quick speech from Luda promoting green activism. Today is the last day to get to the store and contribute to those first week numbers for Rising Down. Take a cue from Skillz who is seen here buying out a whole rack (15, to be precise) at his local Best Buy. Lastly, in the fire storm of press and reviews around the record, check out this great piece from the New York Times titled “New Album, New Fears, Same Old Attitude.” It is both accurate and insightful… imagine that.
• In case you haven’t yet peeped the latest addition to Okayplayer’s stable of blogs, El-P’s “Bastard’s Delight” is definitely worth checking. From Philip K. Dick quotes to El’s insightful reflections about his art (complete with the full Alexander Calder story) to Chin Chin’s new album (out on Def Jux now and one of our absolute faves), Monsieur Producto is a blogging machine.
• 247hh.com recently caught up with Talib Kweli for an interview before a show. Check the vid where Kweli talks about the type of music he makes and his group Idle Warship (Kweli and Res). After the interview Kweli rocks a performance of “Get By.”
• It seems Trent Reznor is one-upping Radiohead by giving (yes GIVING) away The Slip (as Reznor states “this one’s on me”). Nine Inch Nails aren’t kidding, they are offering their latest album for FREE in an array of digital formats: MP3, Lossless (FLAC or Apple) or 24-bit, 96 Kbps WAV files (these sound better than a CD could). They are also releasing this record under the Creative Commons “attribution non-commercial share-alike” license, which means they encourage you to remix it, share it, post it, podcast it, etc. Supposedly vinyl and cds will be available for sale in stores in July.
• Time to catch up on the latest in Kanye drama. Apparently Entertainment Weekly gave Kanye a less than favorable (in his eyes) review of his Glow In The Dark Tour grading it a B+. Catching wind of this Kanye gives a F U to the whole entertainment weekly staff in this tirade. He really goes in on them, and let’s them know they are not invited to his future shows and they should “BOW!!” next time they see him. To be fair in his latest blog entry he does admit he may have gone a little too far, and lets us know that he’s been in the studio with T.I. cookin up some heat.
• Couldn’t make it to Philly for this year’s Black Lily Film & Music Fest? OKP’s resident reporter-at-large Candace L. takes you there with her re-cap of the weekend. Read about the big events, including honors and performances by Amanda Diva, Lizz Wright, Toshi Reagon, Slick & Rose, J*Davey, Jaguar Wright, Bahamadia and more!
• Another song has leaked off that upcoming (hopefully) J Dilla Pay Jay album. This one is called “Remember” featuring Bilal and produced by Pete Rock. I hope ya’ll go out and support this album whenever it does drop. link via shake.
-shamz, gingerlynn & dantana