According to my iTunes, I’ve listened to this song 20 times since I got the album in February of this year. I’ve easily listened to it another 200 times on my iPod. Great tune, AWESOME album, refreshingly innovative concept (watch the making of the Blakroc album here). I know I don’t get out much, but, to me, this is the best album to have come out in a long time. Came across the video. Lovely.

Blakroc: Ain’t Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo) Ft. Mos Def and Jim Jones from Jonah Schwartz on Vimeo.

Long considered one of the best reggae mix tapes of all time, the NYC Reggae Party Mega-Mix continues to be in heavy rotation on my personal playlist after first getting it over 8 years ago. The track listing is after the jump and you can buy it here.

1.       New York Intro
2.       Freaks – Little Vicious/Doug E. Fresh
3.       No Diggity (Smooth  Remix) – Blackstreet
4.       Murder She Wrote – Chacka Demus/Pliers
5.       Bam Bam – Pliers
6.       Them A Bleach – Nardo Ranks
7.       Who She Me Done – Cutty Ranks
8.       Rich Girl – Louchie Lou/Michie One
9.       Limb By Limb – Cutty Ranks
10.   Hot This Year – Dirtsman
11.   Pose Off – Red Fox/Screechie Dan
12.   Twice My Age – Shabba Ranks/Kristal
13.   Real Love – Makeda
14.   I Like It (Smooth Remix) – El Debarge
15.   Big Up – Shaggy/Ravon
16.   Skin Out – Screechy Dan
17.   Big Bills – Baja Jedd/Screechy Dan
18.   Dem Bow – Shabba
19.   Donna – Singing Sweet
20.   Ghetto Red Hot – Super Cat
21.   Big Tings A Gwan – Daddy Screw/Donovan Steel
22.   Number Two – Terror Fabulous
23.   Things A Gwan – Spragga Benz
24.   Action – Nadine Sutherland/Terror Fabulous
25.   Wicked Dickie – Nadine Sutherland
26.   Burrup – Nardo Ranks
27.   Teves Buena – El General
28.   Pu Tun Tun – El General
29.   Tour – Capleton
30.   One Blood – Junior Reid
31.   Sorry (Baby Can I Hold You) – Foxy Brown
32.   Cassandra – Frankie Paul
33.   Saddest Day – Wayne Wonder

This album is awesome. Has to be one of the best hip hop releases since the 90′s. THis tune is my fave.

Catchy tune from  Kenyan group Just a Band.

Cute…

Check it out at Codeorgan

Never was I a Joe Cocker fan…until I ran across this.

I really like this.  Blakroc is a album combining the alt/blues/grunge rockers The Black Keys with a who’s who list of hip-hop icons – Raekwon, RZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Jim Jones, NOE, Mos Def, Nicole Wray, Pharoahe Monch, Ludacris, Billy Danze, and Q-Tip. Damon Dash was the organizer and grand maestro who put the project together. There are some stoney beats and (mostly) chilled out rhyming.

It was released in late 2009 so I’m a little late to the party, but a quick Google search yielded news results intimating that there are other (and more legitimate) news sources who are just now reviewing the album. I’m not sure of the official release date, but I’m imagining it was a part ‘planned’ leak and part soft launch. I first found out about Blakroc through their website and was immediately hooked through the first-person videos. Was very cool watching the whole creative process develop and seeing how so many artists collaborated so well. After watching (all 11)  videos, I got the album. I must admit that if I hadn’t watched the videos first, I probably wouldn’t have liked the album as much as I do. But I love it except for the first track – Coochie (feat. Ludacris & Ol’ Dirty Bastard). Aside from that it’s pretty strong. My 2 faves off the album are – Hard Times (feat. NOE) and Why Can’t I Forget Him (feat. Nicole Wray)

Everyone’s abuzz about Die Antwoord. I guess VICE was there first, now boingboing, again and again. I’m probably that last one to hear about them (they have nearly 20,000 Facebook fans). Who are they? They appear to be these ‘other side of the tracks’ hipster/rappers/ravers from South Africa but their super slick website and glossy, well produced HD videos and interview paint a different picture. There’s a debate raging as to whether they’re authentic or an Ali G/Sasha Baron Cohen media gag. Though sometimes vulgar, I find their beats catchy and have the same, searching, investigative kind of curiosity about them that I did when trying to find out where to get a left-handed smoke shifter at Boy Scout camp. They re holding my attention more than I’d like to admit. At the end of the day, they’re entertainers and they are entertaining quite well.

It Might Get Loud

Only complaint is that it didn’t go deep anywhere on diversity (Vernon Reid, Cody ChesnuTT, Santana, Buddy Guy, Ben Harper, Robert Cray, etc.)

But a very, very nice flick with none of the ‘self-indulgent artist talking about their craft’ crap.