The Movement Fam LIVE @ Evelyn - Part 2

Aight, so here's the next installment of The Movement Fam show from Saturday night. This time we're rockin' out to Notion's 'Set Me Free' with Bekah from his 'World Domi-NoTiOn' mixtape, along with Cee & Bekah's single 'Ain't No Mountain' and 'See It Through', both off 'The Soul Movement Volume 3: The Final Chapter'.

The Movement Fam LIVE @ Evelyn - Part 1

So this weekend was pretty damn hectic for The Fam. We did our first show in over a year - yeah, I know. Fucked up, right? We much preferred to stay in the studio and work on the 10+ projects we have going, however we realised just how overdue we were coz damn near every other day people kept asking when they could catch us live. So the homie Adam King from You 'n UR Music hit us up to rock at their single launch and it was a wrap!

The show was incredible. I haven't seen the Evelyn that packed in ages, and I was genuinely surprised and grateful for the love we were shown. I think it showed in our performance, as we're all a lot more confident of our music, so even though we were a tad rusty with our stage game, it didn't really seem that way.

So, the homegirl Bianca videoed the gig for us fantastically, and I'ma post a couple videos each day for the rest of the week. Check out the vids below, with the intro, Notion's 'Enter My World' and Cee & Bekah's 'Save Myself' with Tommy Gunnz. Go!

Botanics - What The Deal Is (video)

The new homies Botanics are on some shit.

Check the video for their latest single 'What The Deal Is'. I'm really vibin' off these cats. MCs are tight, band is dope, video is fresh.

Head over to their MySpace to check out upcoming tour dates - Melbourne heads can catch the fellas at Bar Open on Brunswick St, Fitzroy on Saturday May 8th.

Just a few Classics

For my first post on TheMovementFam.com I figured I'd post a few older videos. I'll eventually get to posting some more new music and some interviews but for now just sit back and enjoy the classics!

Drastic- "Been In This Game" (Video)

Cleveland emcee, Drastic, performs his tribute to J Dilla "Been In This Game" off of his album AWHIN Til The End. Drastic is one of the most talented emcees in Cleveland.

Erykah Badu - Window Seat (video)

Here's the official 'Window Seat' video. About to watch it now but apparently she gets her kit off. Curious...

*OK, just watched it. Wow. I need to find the unedited version of this.

Erykah Badu - Window Seat (live on Good Day New York)

I love Erykah. That is all. Buy her new album.

Trailer for every Oscar-winning movie ever

Shouts to Whitey and Gunny for putting me onto this one. This is extra pertinent for myself, who now works for a film distribution company and watches movies and trailers for a living (well, sorta). Love it.

Joell Ortiz ft. Novel "Call Me"

We absolutely love Joell here at themovementfam.com, I found this on a real ill blog "watchmeyuu.com" I stumbled across from @listen2spec's Twitter, and saw this crazy video for a ill story track. Peep this! Highschool puppy love shit at its finest. Peace to Slaughterhouse!

Nosh dog.

What Cee be on...Angus and Julia Stone

So I'm ABOUT folky, acoustic music these days, especially since I started playing guitar again. I only discovered Angus & Julia Stone recently, and these guys are incredible. Check the videos below, which span most of their projects (in chronological order). Bliss N Eso fans might recognise 'Paper Aeroplane', which was sampled on their cut 'Eye Of The Storm'.

Robin Thicke feat Estelle - Rollacoasta (video)

So there's nary a thing that Mr Thicke has done that I haven't loved. This joint isn't entirely my fave yet it's a great choice for a single. Video is pretty cool, great perve for the fellas. Estelle looks fresh to death with a nice cameo spot. Love that English twang among Rob's smooth delivery.

Justin Bieber on Tim Westwood

On the real...it's like everyone wants to spit. Damn, The Movement Fam boys wanna sing! So the kid Bieber got on UK radio and decided to rap. Freestyle, at that. Shit had its moments, however overall it was pretty average, with Justin himself declaring 'I'm just a pop singer'. Interesting watch anyway.

"NY-Z" - An ABSOLUT Collaboration with Jay-Z

This is hella cool. Takes me back to seeing 'Fade To Black' when it dropped back in 2004 in Times Square. Check the dealio:

"ABSOLUT Vodka presents "NY-Z", a new 15-minute documentary featuring Jay-Z. The film was directed by Danny Clinch. More exclusive content at Facebook.com/ABSOLUT.

Continuing to collaborate with creative visionaries, ABSOLUT Vodka presents this new 15-minute short film featuring Jay-Z. The documentary, titled NY-Z, was directed by Danny Clinch and paints a rare portrait of the global hip-hop icon. With unprecedented access to Jay-Z the days and moments leading up to, and after, his legendary September 11th benefit concert at Madison Square Garden, Danny Clinch gives us an intimate glimpse into Jay-Z: his childhood, his motivation as an artist, his passion for music, and his muse, New York.

NY-Z kicks off the ABSOLUT Concert Series, a collaborative partnership between ABSOLUT and two New York icons: Jay-Z and Madison Square Garden."

Banana is proof of God?

So y'all might have gathered by now that most of us here at The Movement Fam are fans of shit like this.

I won't even go into it, but this excerpt is from The Atheist Experience talkshow. Take a listen and have a laugh.

Kil Ripkin / Soulspazm Records

The kid Kil Ripkin hit me on the inbox with this killer joint, 'Aftermath Part 1', off the new album 'The Balancing Act', with production from Eric G. Kil hails from the BK, and is part of The Coalescence with Torae, and he's shared mics with cats like Tor, Skyzoo, Kurtis Blow and Chaundon.

Download Aftermath Part 1

Also, check the single 'Mind Free':



Y'all can also hit Kil on Twitter.

La Roux LIVE in Melbourne

So on Friday I told y'all that MissCoca and myself were heading to the La Roux show here in Melbourne, at the sweat box that is known at Festival Hall.

All I can say is 'wow'. The show was incredible from start to finish. The lights, the vibe, the women who like other women...shit was crazy.

We fucking loved it...so check out the video we filmed of the opening track, 'Tigerlily' (which I blogged on Friday, albeit the album version). Don't sleep, folks.

Nas and Damian Marley @ SXSW

Aight, I can't even front like I'm not disgustingly jealous at everyone who are at SXSW this year. I swear, we gonna be there next year.

So this is the type of amazingness we're all missing out on. Nas and Damian Marley rocked a lil set, among about a billion others. I heard Muse were doing some crazy show there too. I don't wanna talk about this any more...

What Cee be on...La Roux

So tonight we're off to see La Roux. Yup, I said it. I actually want to go.

I don't recall ever being bagged for checking out a show in my life. Dudes were saying the broad sounds like a 'cat being strangled', and other assorted insults. But fuck it, I'm on this new musical journey of late and I love it.

So I'm vibed as shit for the gig, and check the video above (not a music video, unfortunately) for my fave joint on the album, Tigerlily.

What Cee be on...George, son

Aight, so I really like the idea of basically hitting y'all with a video of some of the new tunes I've been listening to. 'New' being new to me. See, I've been exploring music like I never have before recently, and it has truly had a profound impact on all aspects of my life. So I can't help but want to share the songs and artists that are moving me.

I gotta shout out MissCoca (check out her blog!) for putting me onto George. Remember them? I barely do. A band from Brisbane who were big in Australia in the '90s, these cats made some serious noise, mainly due to the angelic voice of Katie Noonan (who just dropped an EP, which is INCREDIBLE).

Check the video for this cut - 'Breathe In Now'. I so wish I remember this one when it dropped. It's honestly one of the most beautiful songs I've heard in a while. Shivers every time.

Mantra - I Hereby Stand (video)

So here's the video to the first single of arguably the best MC in Australia - Mantra's 'I Hereby Stand', produced by M-Phazes.

Aight, so yeah, the tech skill is most definitely there, which is expected from the dude. But yo, it's 2010. The video is straight gutter, stock standard Hip Hop stuff, and to me, shit just makes me wanna turn it off. Maybe it's the grassroots angle that they're aiming at with the release, but on the real, Obese have cash behind em so they can invest a lil more in the video that will launch Mantra's solo album.

Anyway, check it out, song is dope, real keen for the album.

What Cee be on today...

So while thinking of things to blog about, I thought 'How about I post a video of some new music that I'm into right now, that isn't the standard Hip Hop shit?' So I did. And I will keep doing it, coz I'm here to school y'all.



Aight, so I'm obsessed with Muse right now. These cats are amazing. Musically, they push boundaries. Damn near every song on stadium-status albums are about exposing the truth in what's happening in our society. Fucking incredible.

Check the weird ass (and shit quality) official video for 'Supermassive Black Hole' from their album 'Black Holes and Revelations', which I've had in my head for days. Do some research, these kids could blow your mind.

Capitalism...a rant of sorts

OK, been a minute I since posted and thought this was well overdue. I'm aware I've been lagging on my blog posts. It's something I hope to correct.

So lately I've been catching up on a whole bunch of shit that I've downloaded but never watched and over the next few posts I just wanna touch on something (no homo).

Firstly the latest offering from serial pest as he's is often known, Mr Michael Moore. His new movie Capitalism, and all I can say is Wow, if you haven't watched it-download it. He wont care, in fact I'm pretty sure he's into it (no homo again).

OK so the premise of the film takes the viewer through the rise of the great concept of capitalism, they talk about freedom of choice, free market economies, consumerism, and of course greed and the insatiable appetite that it creates.

Now I should mention that in this movie/documentary that the focus is mainly North America but the same formula could be applied to any modern western economic situation, after all we are capitalists right?
No I'm not going to quote slabs of Karl Marx and the communist manifesto. I like capitalism - well at least some of the concept of it I think. What really incites me is the nonsensical greed that blinds us all, to constantly create must haves and needs out of desires and wants - they are polar opposites.
I digress, however the movie takes us through the sub prime mortgage crises, shows us how this came to be... again greed masked as capitalism, google it if you don't believe me!

Life insurances policies taken out by companies for employees that the worker and their family have no knowledge of, except if they die. Then, the company stands to make a HUGE payout. In Australia we do they same thing- it's something called (traded policies) - it can be bought by you and I.
It's basically like trading a security; you buy someones life policy from them at a premium and when they die you get big money! Many, many, many life insurance companies, when changing a customers policy, will offer to purchase their old policy as part of a rebate for the new life policy or give them cash. They (the life company) never pay the premium on the new policy they acquire and when the person dies the insurance company gets a payout. Subract that from the years of non-payment of premium, channel it through some very effective taxation strategy and BOOM...they are all living in the Wu Tang! C.R.E.A.M. Gnomesayin?.

It's all legal, albeit somewhat macabre and very immoral which then brings me to my next point.

Where does it say that being good at business means you should be a good person? In fact, if you look at every motivating aspect to move a companies profit line further, it almost always will fall into a moral grey area.

So should we question the virtues of capitalism?
I want to have my cake and eat it too!
I want to have a different job than my neighbour or choose to wear different coloured shoes or a shirt, should we rewrite the book to include some form of socialism into what we now embody as modern day capitalism?

I don't have all the answers but I do know we need to ask questions to those who should, also question the motives of those who seek to undermine the disadvantaged to turn a company profit. I mean, what ever happened to corporate social responsibility? Free trade coffee beans and no blood diamonds...

Do we really know what capitalism is or has it deteriorated into a depraved form of greed that we are so blinded by that we can't call it as we see it?

Thanks for tuning into another rant... 'till next time.

Lyricism and Capitalism (Ill Doctrine)

I love this dude (pause). Always insightful, always clever, always a point. I ain't even wanna say too much - listen, watch and learn.

Donny Goines - No Apologies (video)

Donny Goines - No Apologies (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO) from Wealthy Pictures on Vimeo.

Check the first video off Donny Goines' latest EP, 20X, produced by Australia's M-Phazes. It regularly astounds me how prolific Phazes is, and Donny is on his grind something crazy. I gotta be honest - I don't really feel the dude's music all that much, but I respect his hustle and this project is most definitely my favourite Donny.

The video is simple yet extremely effective, and I think this EP should make some serious noise for the dude.

Joell Ortiz - The B-Side Show Freestyle (video)

Joell = beast.

Young Artists for Haiti – Wavin’ Flag w/ K’naan, Mike Waxx, Drake, Kardinal Offishall, etc

K'NAAN "Waving Flag" -Celebration mix- Dir: NABIL from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

I'm let the artists tell it...

K’naan’s “Wavin’ Flag” is one of the standout tracks from his Troubadour album and has become something of a phenomenon thanks to its timely message of strength and solidarity. Now famed producer Bob Ezrin has brought together top Canadian performers for Young Artists for Haiti, and the group’s rendition of the song takes it to new heights. Performers include K’naan, Nikki Yanofsky, Justin Bieber, Jim Cuddy, Emily Haines, Hedley, The Arkells, Drake, Justin Bieber, Avril Lavigne, Jully Black, Sam Roberts, Kardinal Offishall, and more.

Apple, the labels, and the artists are donating their share of the proceeds to the Free The Children, World Vision, and War Child charities.

DOWNLOAD: Young Artists for Haiti – Wavin’ Flag

Jon LaJoie - I Kill People

Dude is a genius. If you haven't seen his other videos, get to YouTubin'.

The Movement Fam 'Seasons Change' Studio Session

In case y'all missed this video when we posted the HiPNOTT Records 2010 Takeover Mixtape Vol. 2, check the video of The Movement Fam (Cee & Bekah, Tommy Gunnz and Notion) recording their joint @ Wiseguy Studios for the tape, 'Seasons Change', over a soulful ass beat courtesy of the homie G.C.

Steve Rifkind Interview (video)

Shouts to Tek for this one.

Check the videos for a great, candid, honest interview from Loud/SRC Records captain Steve Rifkind, where he talks on wanting to sign Jay, Wu, Tupac and even Melanie Fiona.

Reflection Eternal - In This World (video)

Check the new video from Kweli and Hi-Tek (Reflection Eternal), 'In This World'. Dopesauce.

Lil Wayne x Eminem - Drop The World (video)

And here's the full version of the 'Drop The World' video...still dope.

Movin' Up From Down Under Loud.com Blog #8

Aaaaaand here's the final blog I wrote in the Movin' Up From Down Under series...



Week #8: The Mix

There’s nothing better than the feeling of ‘accomplishment’. Well, maybe there are ‘better’ feelings but it’s pretty damn good, you gotta admit. We were starting to feel like we’d accomplished something just by booking flights for the trip and locking in a bunch of meetings, radio spots and other various musical activities. But in reality, we’d barely started.

So the flights were booked. Accommodation was in the process of being booked. We’d locked in radio spots and stuff. Sweet. This sorta thing would be easy from now on, as it’s just more of a maintenance process, constantly adding to the framework that we’d set up – more meetings, more radio, more everything. Now that we have our dates, we’re good to go.

The one thing that this trip was based on, though, was to promote our latest mixtapes – Notion’s ‘World Domi-NoTiOn’ and Cee & Bekah’s ‘The Soul Movement Volume 2’ – and the fact that The Movement Fam was officially a crew. It was like our ‘coming out’ party. Pause. So around the time we decided to do this whole trip thing, we had both mixtapes in various states of completion. None of the tracks were mixed, we had no DJ’s confirmed to blend the songs, no artwork, Notion had no logo, and we still had a bunch of songs that needed finishing. For folks that work full time, and are trying to plan a trip, that is a huge amount of work to get through in the space of a few months.

Notion is the engineer of the crew. He doesn’t even really like that term much just yet, as he’s still technically only learning. He’s killin’ it, but. At the time of arranging the trip, he was working nightshift four nights a week. This in itself was insane, as generally nightshifts are split up so as not to make you go crazy. He was originally doing five nights a week but cut back, which was a great move. So he’d work Sunday night through Wednesday night, with Thursday, Friday and Saturday off. The catch was he had to convert back to day time hours in those three days, then get back to staying up all night by Sunday. Definitely not good for the body.

So while we were all spending every spare moment writing and recording and finalising all the songs for the pool to select from, Notion had to fit in the mixing of every damn song. In total, he mixed well over fifty songs (which took on average three hours per song initially, and then the changes would average an hour or so per song) in the space of two months. I had us on a tight schedule – as I knew we had so many other things to arrange, we couldn’t afford for the music not to be ready. Dude was sitting on like four hours sleep a night for a while there. Poor bastard.

The mixtape stuff turned out great in the end, but damn it was close. Australia’s only platinum DJ, Nino Brown, kept his agreement with us from the year before to still mix our mixtape, which was a blessing as he did a great job and it was dope to attach his name to our project. The kid DJ Crusador, a DMC finalist, came through in the clutch to mix Notion’s project, and he killed it. The artwork was the problem. The homie who does our artwork is in the UK (haha we worldwide, baby!), so that was difficult to arrange. We had many a long night on MSN finalising every small detail of the cover art and logo, which got changed a gang of times.

Because we pushed it right to the last minute, we weren’t able to press up a full run of mixtapes for the trip – we ended up doing 100 of each with an ‘Exclusive International Edition’ stamp on them to make ‘em something special just for this trip. That worked out pretty dope. But the stress was constant from June until September. Something always went wrong. People always bailed on us. It was a headfuck. Sometimes we felt it would all fall apart. But I think we’re the kind of folks who push things to the last minute and end up coming through with the goods.

The whole preparation stage was an amazing learning experience. I can only imagine what it would be like arranging a huge tour. Fuck that lol. But what came out of it was I solidified my networking skills and am now confident that I know what I’m doing. I know that the Fam can work to deadlines, and that I can rely on the people in my crew to make things happen – they’re as hungry for this as I am, which is one of the most reassuring feelings you can have in this business.

Next up, the trip…

Plug of the week: Gotta shout out our blog, www.TheMovementFam.com. It only really got started in early December, and already it’s killing the Cee & Bekah blog, which we never really pushed but utilised as an information source for The Fam since 2007. It’s got a bit of everything – stuff about The Fam, music in general, comedy, videos, fashion, sport, models…whatever you want!

So until next time, listen to Jazmine Sullivan. One of my Top 10 albums of 2008 (check the ‘Best of 2008’ post on www.TheMovementFam.com blog). It’ll change your life.

Blessings,
Cee.
The Movement Fam.

Movin' Up From Down Under Loud.com Blog #7

We took a bit of a pause from the Loud blogs lately...bringing it back...second last one I wrote too...

Week #7: Locking It In

Things were looking pretty good. We’d heard back from most folks that our contacts put us in touch with by mid to late June, and already we’d locked in a mainstream radio spot in Seattle; College radio, hair braiding session and a photo shoot in Toronto; a podcast and recording session in Oakland; a session with a bass player and an MC (Jermiside from the Lessondary Crew) in Atlanta; possible radio and shows in Denver; possible shows and studio sessions in Minneapolis; possible shows in Jacksonville; and a meeting with Eternia and an influential gentleman in New York (who happened to get us this very blog). We were vibed.

Now that we had enough information to start booking the trip, we skedaddled off to the travel agent to lock this bitch down. We knew that the earlier we booked our flights, the cheaper it would be, but it was hard because we didn’t know where we were going until we had confirmation from enough folks – and even then, some of the confirmations were sketchy at best.

So we rocked up to the travel agent all excited. Here’s how it went down (dramatic license, of course, has been taken):

Travel Agent: So, where do you guys wanna go?
Cee: Um, pretty much San Francisco, LA, Toronto, New York, Atlanta, Seattle, maybe Denver, maybe Jacksonville, maybe Miami. I think.
Travel Agent: Ooookay. Do you know how long you need to be in each city and the dates you want to go there?
Cee: Not really.
Travel Agent: Riiiight.

I think she wasn’t too pleased to have our custom that day. But I gotta shout her out, she was great. It came down to this: in order to get cheaper flights, we had to lock something in soon. And if we went to too many cities, the trip would be stupid rushed and the internal flights would cost a fortune. Plus, we only had five weeks in total, instead of the original six, as Bekah’s work were being assholes and refused to give her the extra time off. So we had to make a call. We ended up cutting Denver as it would have taken a lot more work to arrange shows; we cut Jacksonville as the city is so small, we’d be smarter to concentrate our energy elsewhere; same deal with Minneapolis; and we hadn’t hooked anything up in Miami as yet so that one was reluctantly let go.

Even though it was tough, we now had a basic itinerary. Boom. As long as we had tentative dates locked in, we were good. So long story short, after a bit of shuffling around and triple and quadruple confirmations, we managed to book all the flights. The only thing was if we were going to change a single flight, it would cost us hundreds of dollars. So if shit fell through, we were going anyway. Such is the wonderful ways of the international – and US domestic - airline restrictions. And I realised after that the flight from ATL to NY was on a small ass plane – I don’t fucks with small planes. We wanted to change it; we couldn’t without paying. I said we’d get a Delta flight instead and just miss the original flight, but if we did that, the rest of the onward flights would be cancelled as it was part of the package. Goddamnit.

But once we had the tickets in our hands, we were truly excited. This was real; it was actually happening. It felt like a dream, as I had literally had dreams of being in Canada quite often since being back in Melbourne, and going back overseas – this time, strictly for music – was a sign that we’d been working hard enough to get to this level. And not only were we doing this, we were doing it all off our own back. One hundred percent independent. Man, we were proud as hell.

Bekah and I spent the next couple months slowly booking accommodation whenever we were bored at work and wanted to handle biz (I don’t work where I did at the time of planning the trip so I can say it lol), with the assistance of DJ Grain in the ATL sector. So things were looking good…

Plug of the week: The kid Steve Duck at GroundUpHipHop.com has supported The Fam since the jump, lacing the artwork for ‘The Soul Movement Volume 1’ and even doing the Cee & Bekah logo. He hooked us up with a lil download section on GroundUp for our latest projects:

Notion – World Domi-NoTiOn (http://www.grounduphiphop.com/2008/09/14/notion-world-domi-notion-mixtape/)
Cee & Bekah – The Soul Movement Volume 2 (http://www.planeturban.com.au/download_mixtapes/cee_and_bekah_soul_movement_vol_2)

So until next time, listen to Esthero. She’s a trip. It’s like Portishead, Stephanie McKay and Jill Scott had a lovechild that was reared on Nine Inch Nails and copious amounts of marijuana. It’s good.

Blessings,
Cee.
The Movement Fam.

Sean Price's Baby Shower (video)

So I caught the email from Duck Down about this one...Sean P was holding the world's first Hip Hop Baby Shower in New York to celebrate the birth of his first daughter, Shaun Price (who is still in the womb).

On the real, this is one the funniest and cleverest ideas for a live show I've heard in a minute, and ONLY Sean P could pull that off (pause). Peep the video from the night, looked classic.

Lil Wayne x Eminem - Drop The World video preview

Gotta say, this is Wayne's dopest joint in a minute. Clip looks epic, vibed to catch that one.

Closed Sessions with Rhymefest and Skyzoo (video)

Big Sky and 'Fest feature in this Ruby Hornet TV special detailing their recent collab 'Crack The Code'. Dopeness, as always from these cats.

Mayer Hawthorne - I Wish It Would Rain (video)

The latest video from Mayer Hawthorne, this time for the classic 'I Wish It Would Rain'. Love it.

Tony Williams talks on the Finding Dakota Grey Mixtape

The homie Tony Williams, first cousins with Kanye West, is about to drop a mixtape entitled 'Finding Dakota Williams'. Y'all may know Tony from Kanye's recent tours, plus he's been the main voice behind the majority of 'Ye's tracks over the years. Plus, y'all might even know him from the recent collaboration with Cee & Bekah on the remix of his single 'Dreaming Of Your Love'. Can't wait for this one!