News

88 x Kanye + Viagra, Roots Picnic Ecard, Block Party II in Dubai?, Cory Gunz Killz, KITH X TRL, El-P “DDTB” Remix, Sharpton Update, Marvin Gaye X PBS, New Kardi Video ft Akon.

• You are going to be hearing a lot from us about 88-Keys in the coming months between the Fresh Rhymes & Videotape Tour (kicking off in Seattle on June 2nd) and his upcoming debut (concept) album The Death Of Adam due out in September. Check out this video teaser from 88’s DJ Syncity shot this past Monday at the Knitting Factory NYC where 88 held his debut performance opening up for Brand Nubian. The video features the song “Stay Up (Viagra)” starring Kanye West. Shout out to Glogower Power.

• One month until the first annual Roots Picnic! It all goes down in Philadelphia at Festival Pier on Saturday June 7th. Check out the brand new animated e-card and take advantage of the special “Picnic Pack” offer of 4 tickets for $158. That’s 9 hours of music featuring: The Roots, Gnarls Barkley, Sharon Jones, Santogold, Deerhoof, J*Davey, Diplo, The Cool Kids, & Esperanza Spalding for less than $40!

• ?uesto spilled the beans about a potential Block Party II to happen in, of all places, Dubai. We’ve heard chatter about this before but shrugged it off as, well, kinda crazy sounding. Seems to defeat the purpose of bringing “the people” together, as Dave Chappelle and company so successfully did with the original (I mean Dubai is one of the wealthiest nations out there… don’t think “the people” can afford the airfare). If you are going to take such an epic event anywhere outside the US, might we suggest Africa? Doesn’t Dave have people there? Anywho, the idea of a sequel is definitely exciting regardless of where it happens so let’s hope it does. Shout out to missinfo and fwmj.

• Beta-Jawn Update: Hey, thanks for making it this far in our Beta-Jawn experiment. We are still operating at about 20% with the all additions we have in the works. In the mean time, we have updated the OkayPlaylist inside the media player on the home page with 17 new joints we are feeling, in addition to the original 15 we started with. We are also currently working on a solution to bring these updates back to the main site, RSS, all new photo galleries, and much much more. Stay tuned, it’s going to be a great summer.

• Cory Gunz has been killin’ it with his freestyles for years, but he really dumbs out on this one. This vid is of him on DJ Green Lantern’s Invasion Radio blazin beat after beat during the “On Da Spot Freestyle” segment. This young boy’s a problem, I know ya’ll heard him body Lil Wayne on his own song (see Millie, A).

• Just when you thought it got no better than “Driving Down The Block”, Kidz In The Hall just hit us with a new joint called “The Pledge.” The Song features their Duck Down label mates Sean Price and Buckshot. In other KITH news Double O hit up the boards to let us know that their album, The In Crowd is available via itunes today. In celebration of Kidz’ “Driving” reaching #6 on MTVs TRL, El-P gives us his remix in his Okayplayer Blog “Bastard’s Delight.” After you listen, make sure to peep his other entries. The quotes of the day are priceless!

• If you’re in NYC, join Reverend Al Sharpton in peaceful protest against the Sean Bell verdict today. Sharpton’s National Action Network is calling for “pray ins” at strategic locations, intended to create a citywide “slowdown.” Be warned, Sharpton is calling on all protesters to be prepared to go to jail for their peaceful civil disobedience. “If you are not going to lock up the guilty in this town, then I guess you’ll have to lock up the innocent,” Sharpton told supporters.

• Here at OKP we don’t like to encourage excessive amount of TV watching (unless, of course, it’s The Daily Show & The Colbert Report), however tonight we advise you to tune in as American Masters presents Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On on PBS. Before you watch, read the in-depth story by David Ritz about working on the Marvin Gaye story (Ritz co-wrote “Sexual Healing” and authored Divided Soul: The Life Of Marvin Gaye, listen to some choice selections, and even peep the timeline of Gaye’s life.

• We’ve got a new video from Kardi and Akon. T-Dot reppa Kardinal Offishall’s video for his song “Dangerous.” You’ll probably have to watch the video at least twice, the first time to stare at the leading lady and subsequent views to enjoy the song.

-dantana, shamz & gingerlynn