Tag Archive | "hip-hop"

The Music Link List – 10/06/2011

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The Music Link List - 10/06/2011


Rocky Rivera

♥♥ Videos, videos and more VIDEOS!  M.I.S.S. favorite Rocky Rivera teams up with another San Francisco-based emcee, Davinci, as they pay homage to their respective neighborhoods in “SF City Retrospect.” The jazz-infused tune was produced by Digital Martyrs and is featured on Rocky’s Pop Killer mixtape. Check out the Jordan Ching-directed clip below which  features a side of SF that most don’t get to experience themselves. Be sure to download Rocky’s latest, POP KILLER MXTP, for FREE on BeatrockMusic!

Mayer Hawthorne - How Do You Do

♥♥ The music video for Mayer Hawthorne’s latest single and break-up anthem, “The Walk,” finds the soul singer in his own mini-action flick. Inspired by the motion picture Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the lead single from new album shows Mayer and his better half engaging in a very special showdown! Check out the video below. How Do You Do is out now on digital retailers while physical copies are due out Oct. 11.

Elle Varner - Give It To You

♥♥ MBK/J records’ latest signee Elle Varner releases the 90s inspired music video of her new single, “Only Wanna Give It To You” (feat. J. Cole), taken from her upcoming debut studio album entitled Perfectly Imperfect, which is dropping soon.  Her dress is to die for!

Riff Raff x Kid Sister

♥♥ Kid Sister recently got in the studio with Riff Raff (From G’s to Gents) to jump on a track produced by Sinden and 5kinandbone5 entitled, “Hide N’ Seek.” I’m not too sure about the track, but I am feeling the video which features Kid Sis rocking a fabulous headwrap. Check it out below! Word around the campfire is that Kid Sister has a new EP underway!

Nikki and Rich

♥♥ Pop duo Nikki & Rich have recently released their debut album Greatest Hits featuring the tracks “Rainbow,” “Same Kind Of Man,” “Everything” and many more! Get your copy now on iTunes!

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New DJ Shadow Album Streaming On NPR

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New DJ Shadow Album Streaming On NPR


Quick, quick!  The new DJ Shadow album is streaming on NPR a full week before its slated release on October 4th.  The Less You Know, The Better includes guest vocals from Talib Kweli, Tom Vek and Little Dragon frontwoman Yukimi Nagano.  Your workday soundtrack  just got a huge upgrade.

Stream the Full Album on NPR
@djshadow on Twitter

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We Got The Beat: Big Freedia

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We Got The Beat: Big Freedia


Big Freedia the Queen Diva

Big Freedia is first in line of possible contenders for bringing sissy bounce into the mainstream for the first time in its decade+ existence.

Back it up (no really, more on that in a moment). Sissy bounce? If you’re confused, or from anywhere outside of New Orleans, let’s go to the beginning. It starts with bounce, New Orleans’ original brand of hip-hop. Begat in 1992 with the release of “Where Dey At” - a repetitive call-and-response song that many artists (including Big Freedia) have cited as the song that inspired them to start making bounce tracks themselves - bounce starts with a whole lotta’ sampling of two songs: Derek B.’s “Rock the Beat” and the Showboys’ 1986 “Drag Rap,” popularly known as “Triggerman.” MCs shout instructions and catch phrases to crowd, mostly encouraging everyone to shake their asses as much as possible. Bounce took over the NOLA club scene for years, with only one hit breaking through to the mainstream: Juvenile’s “Back That Ass Up” in 1999.

1999 was also the year a transvestite MC named Katey Red released her first full-length bounce album, and a different strain of the music was born. This era was the beginning for several gay and transgendered rappers in New Orleans who identified as “sissies”; the bounce music they created becoming known as “sissy bounce.” Among the first of these sissy bounce MCs were mainstays Sissy Nobby, Vocka Redu and, of course, Big Freedia.

All that was in the early ’00s - where has sissy bounce been all this time? Well, uh, pretty much the same place it started: in small, packed clubs around New Orleans where dancers of every gender, race and sexual orientation come to shake their derrieres in the air to the serious booty beats. The music is made for this special purpose; the commanding beats and the dance moves embodying them are insanely infectious.

Big Freedia - Azz Everywhere

But then somewhere in the past couple years, that started to change.  Big Freedia began to travel around the country, hitting the festival circuits, appearing on The Late Show With Carson Daly and getting written up in New York Times Magazine. The production value on Freedia’s music videos went from nil (as with most other bounce artists, a la Mr. Ghetto’s “Walmart”) to the sleek finish you’ll find in “Y’all Get Back Now” (if you only watch one video in this post, make it this one):

Big Freedia - Y’all Get Back Now

The hip-hop community hasn’t been entirely welcoming of the gay MC scene, a part of the reason sissy bounce has remained underground for so long. At shows, there will be legions of girls shakin’ what they momma gave ‘em right alongside the guys (Big Freedia herself being an absolute master of ass shaking, truly giving any number of girls or guys a run for their money), which not everyone has been ready to accept. For some, it is a welcome and essential counter to the often womanizing, homophobic lyrics and behavior of most mainstream hip-hop. Others argue over the validity of the movement; whether it is empowering or actually hurtful to women. Big Freedia and other bounce artists, along with probably everyone who has ever gotten up at a show and had the time of their life shakin’ it, will definitely tell you that this is about empowerment - taking their sex- and body-positive messages to anyone and everyone willing to listen and to, of course, get down.

Although I’d be wrong to tell you that Sissy Bounce has been completely underground since its birth. Peep big-time artists such as Beyoncé bitin’ on bounce in tracks like “Get Me Bodied,” not to mention countless signature dance moves. Before Beyoncé fans blow up the comments, she’s said so herself:  Beyoncé introduced the song at the New Orleans Essence Music Festival in 2007 by saying, “I stole this from y’all.”

Beyoncé - Get Me Bodied (Timbaland Remix)

While on tour, Big Freedia holds classes with dancer Altercation in how to best dance to bounce music (it involves a lot of bending over and shaking it, if you hadn’t guessed). Classes include a lecture/group discussion portion that focuses on race, class, gender and sexuality. Big Freedia herself has become an academic subject of sorts, with term papers and theses being written solely on the culture of sissy bounce and sexual identity in hip-hop.

While still outside of the mainstream, Big Freedia and sissy bounce are taking big steps: note her latest collab with Spank Rock, a track titled “Nasty.” The two acts are slated to tour together this fall as a part of the Check Yo Ponytail set.  Tour starts October 20 - I’ll be at their October 21st show in San Francisco!

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The Music Link List – 09/15/2011

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The Music Link List - 09/15/2011


Hopie Spitshard

♥♥ Just one day after releasing her 4th project entitled Raw Gems, Cali emcee Hopie Spitshard is back with another awesome visual to accompany one of her tracks. “Like Love” was directed and edited by Aris Jerome and shows the joys of falling in and out of love. Check out the video below and be sure to cop Hopie’s newest album, Raw Gems, which is available now!

Toro Y Moi - Freaking Out

♥♥ Toro Y Moi’s newest five-song EP entitled Freaking Out is delightful, funky and chillwave at its finest! This new EP comes just 7 months after Toro Y Moi released their successful Underneath The Pine album. Check out the remake of Cherrelle and Alexander O’Neal’s track “Saturday Love,” which is featured on the EP below.

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TiRon and Ayomari - A Sucker For Pumps

♥♥ West coast duo TiRon & Ayomari have finally released their highly anticipated collaborative album, A Sucker For Pumps. The album features Thundercat along with acts such as B.J. The Chicago Kid & Yummy Bingman. Watch the album’s EPK below and head to iTunes or Bandcamp to cop the album! You won’t be disappointed!

Das Racist - Just Relax

♥♥ Das Racist dropped the video for “Michael Jackson,” which is the lead single from their first official album, Relax. Check it out below! You can stream the album on Spotify.

Wax Poetics No. 48

♥♥ The unconquerable Nina Simone graces the magazine cover of Wax Poetics No. 48. This is only the third time that a woman musician has graced a cover. Rapper Theophilus London graces the flipside! Be sure to get your copy now!

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MISS NYFW:  Tyler, the Creator Performs at Alexander Wang’s After Party

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MISS NYFW: Tyler, the Creator Performs at Alexander Wang’s After Party


tyler the creator alexander wang
After his spring-summer 2011 runway show, Alexander Wang hosted a frat party-themed after party.  Tyler, the Creator performed and in true form, here’s how he introduced himself…

If I happen to come in the crowd and just go wild, and you spill your drink on your expensive-ass shirt that’s probably ugly-as-f-k, don’t be mad at me cause I warned you…

Image & Info: WWD

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