Music Reviews In A Minute: J. Cole - Cole World, The Sideline Story

Well, rumor had it –  that a man from The Ville (Fayetteville, North Carolina to be exact), caused a Cole World to emerge out in these streets; but the release of J.Cole's "Cole World: The Sideline Story" hastily reset this rumor to a truth.

Music Reviews In A Minute (Retro Review): A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders

Music Reviews In A Minute is back to recommence. Please forgive me for the extended hiatus, folks. I know I have a lot of catching up to do. So, because I burdened you with that crazy hiatus, it’s only fair that I treat you to a journey back to hip-hop’s Golden Era with a review of an album from A Tribe Called Quest’s discography. Can’t think of a better way to return to Music Reviews In A Minute than discussing the reminiscent, collective sounds of Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, and Ali Shaheed Muhammed.  With that said, I went crate digging, pulled out the Midnight Marauders album, grabbed my sidekick 8thlight, and we took an enriched trip back down memory lane - to which I’m requesting that you join us.

While artists like Beastie Boys, Jungle Brothers, and De La Soul, among many, were making their legendary mark in the Golden Era, A Tribe Called Quest was alongside them respectfully. So much that they even inspired actor Michael Rapaport to make his directorial debut with a documentary about the group.

Music Reviews In A Minute: Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday [Deluxe Edition]

Nicki Minaj reminds me a lot of Eminem, whether it's the different voices and inflections that she utilizes, the energy or the funny punchlines.  Sadly, she's a little too much like Eminem with her first project.  Pink Friday is an incredibily ordinary album from an extraordinary talent.  Nicki's debut suffers from trying too hard to be pop.  She's built enough of a buzz before the album ever dropped so to try so hard for mainstream success is a bit of a mystery as well as crippled the album.

Music Reviews In A Minute: Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye West is his name (filed under Innovative arguably and/or respectfully by many). My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is his album; and in addition to the rest of the world, 8thlight and I are now here to chime in on the present conversation regarding this album, in today's Music Reviews In A Minute.

Music Reviews In A Minute: Retro Review: Dr. Dre - The Chronic

In this newest installment of Music Reviews In A Minute Dayrell and I take a look at Dr. Dre's west coast classic, The Chronic. The album's most noted for the debut of one, Snoop Dogg.  As always, Dayrell's scores are in red and mine are in black.

Music Reviews In A Minute: Skyzoo & !llmind - Live From The Tape Deck

On Friday, 8thlight and I gave you another review from our retro album review series of Music Reviews In A Minute with Nas' Illmatic; but today, we are flipping the script to bring you a review of a current album release. In continuation of our current album review series, this time, we chose to review Skyzoo & !llmind's Live From The Tape Deck. I was particularly looking forward to reviewing this album with 8thlight because, initially, when I heard that these two artists were in preparation of completing an album together, I was eager to hear how it would sound in the longrun. I'm sure 8thlight will agree. Nevertheless, on to the review.

Music Reviews In A Minute: Retro Review : Nas - Illmatic

Dayrell and I are back again with another, Music Review In A Minute.  This time we are doing another one of our retro reviews.  Earlier we took a look at (MF) DOOM's Born Like This.  This time we decided to go a little further back into the archives and rate Nas' magnum opus, Illmatic.

Music Reviews In A Minute: Retro Review : DOOM - Born Like This

This time we have our first retro review.  During these reviews we will be taking a look at great albums from the recent and not so recent past to help establish that baseline that we talked about in our original Music Review In A Minute.  Think of it as a way to measure newer releases against albums that are widely considered great or classics.  Hell, maybe they are just considered classics by us.  First up is DOOM's Born Like This:

Music Reviews In A Minute: The Roots - How I Got Over

This week, 8thlight introduced Music Reviews In A Minute as our new feature to the blog and now we are back with another installment. This time, we are reviewing The Roots’ How I Got Over.

Again, to keep you familiar with the process, we rated each song on the album on a scale of one to five stars to come up with the final score (as we will do with all other album reviews from here on out, for both current and classic albums). Furthermore - in fairness, album intros, outros, interludes, and skits are not included in the ratings.

The set of red stars are my ratings and the set of black stars are 8thlight’s.

Music Reviews In A Minute: Black Milk - Album Of The Year

I have been kicking around the idea of reviewing music on this site for a while now.  I just was looking for another way to do it than your typical write up with flowery language or overuse of street slang.  I also wanted to do reviews in a way that would be more than just me telling you what I love, but to also give you my perspective along with that of another.  I have certain artists that I love and may give a very bias opinion on, but I want to hopefully counteract that with alternative point of view or at the very least, another point of view.  A Cali girl and a PA guy should be varied enough in points of view, right?

The plan is to review current as well as classic albums in a quick and concise fashion.  I look at the classic albums as a baseline for our tastes in a matter of speaking.  We will be getting to the classic albums soon enough, but first up Dayrell and I will be reviewing Black Milk's Album Of The Year.

A Moment With: AFTA-1 (Part 1)

I love it when things kinda just come together.  That's kinda what produced this blog entry.  You see, Ms. Melinda James of About Her Films happened to see Dayrell's entry in regards to AFTA-1's most recent release.  It turns out that Melinda recently had the chance to spend some time with AFTA-1 and passed along her footage.  Here's part one of her two part visit with the artist.

This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to hang out with a producer by the name of AFTA-1. I’ve been following his music for the past few months and when I heard that he was going to be doing a set at SOM in San Francisco, I was beyond ecstatic. I wrote him an e-mail the night before, explaining that I was a fan of his work and if he would be interested in allowing me to shoot him and document the events before, during and after his set. The next morning I received an e-mail from him saying he was up for the idea. I met him a couple of hours beforehand, where we chatted for a bit, then I filmed his set and a few quick words after.

AFTA-1 - FORM

If there is one man who is not afraid to deliberately express the essential, artistic freedoms of music, it is AFTA-1.

The burning anticipation we built in waiting, is now over. AFTA-1's release of FORM is finally here. Being that I’m a huge fan and have been following his music for quite sometime, I was more than excited to get my hands on this release to experience the eargasms for myself. Furthermore, to know that he puts out such good music without any major backing or label support, is truly amazing in my book. You can purchase the release in either digital or cassette tape form (yes folks, I said cassette tape). Congrats to AFTA-1 on the completion of this project, from the dope sounds to the hand painted artwork on the cover(s). He is definitely on my list of good artists, respectfully. Look forward to hearing more projects from him in the future.

Click Here To Preview and/or Purchase Limited Edition Cassette Package

or
Click Here To Preview and/or Purchase Digital Download

01. Prelude To MeMeaningWE

02. Infinite Ways

03. Become Still

04. Trust

05. Early Ideas

06. Rain

07. Horas Largas

08. Por Detras

09. The Time In Between Suite

10. Brooklyn Sunset

11. Amor Es

Santigold, Upcoming Tour Dates

May 21 2009 San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield

May 22 2009 Sacramento, CA @ Empire

May 24 2009 Eugene, OR @ Cuthbert Amphitheatre

May 25 2009 George, WA @ Sasquatch! Festival, The Gorge

May 28 2009 Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue

May 29 2009 Des Moines, Iowa @ Peoples Court

May 31 2009 Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head

Jun 1 2009 Boston, MA @ House of Blues

Jun 3 2009 Toronto, Ontario @ Phoenix Concert Theatre

Jun 4 2009 Montreal, Quebec @ Metropolis

Jun 6 2009 Philadelphia, PA @ The Roots Picnic, Festival Pier

Jun 7 2009 Norfolk, VA @ The Norva

Jun 9 2009 New York, NY @ Terminal 5

Jun 10 2009 Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club

Jun 12 2009 Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival

Jun 13 2009 St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant

Jun 15 2009 Austin, TX @ Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheater

Jun 17 2009 Houston, TX @ House of Blues

Jun 18 2009 Dallas, TX @ House of Blues

Jun 20 2009 Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theater

Jun 21 2009 Hollywood, CA @ Hollywood Bowl

Aug 8 2009 Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza

To see the full list of tour dates, visit Santigold via Myspace.

Brittany Bosco, Live In Los Angeles.

For more info on the show, hit up Ms. Android & Ms. Sticky Flower over at PositiveSoulMovement.


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Flying Lotus - Tea Leaf Dancers (Promo)

This is one of my favorite Flying Lotus beats among many. And now there is a video to go along with it. I'm loving this. Much respect to Flying Lotus for all the great music he makes and for, currently, being one of the dopest indie producers/beatmakers in the game.

DOWNLOAD: Flying Lotus - Tea Leaf Dancers

Donwill - Laura's Song.

Donwill going hip-hop Lionel Richie on us. But, in a good way. lol