Jermiside & Danny Diggs: Afraid (feat Maverick Sabre) (video)

The homie Jermiside has been at it for a minute. Part of the Lessondary crew with Tanya Morgan, the ATL resident (via Cincinatti) has been putting in major work, and now he's about to drop his album with Irish producer Danny Diggs, 'Middle Classic', on HiPNOTT Records.

Check the press release:

"Afraid", featuring Irish singer Maverick Sabre, is presented visually in this stunning video that was written, directed, and edited by Ilyas (of Tanya Morgan). The song itself is an excellent example of the type of feel good hip hop Middle Classic represents as a whole.

The Movement Fam Presents The Valentine's Day Mixtape Vol 2: Second Time Sweeter‏

It's here!

Friday February 12th, sees the FREE release of the latest instalment of The Movement Fam's Valentine's Day Mixtape, entitled Second Time Sweeter.

This year, we've hit y'all with the same smooth blend of tunes to soundtrack your day, ranging from neo-soul, to reggae, soulful Hip Hop, acoustic rock and everything in between. Y'all also get TWO exclusive songs this year; one from The Movement Fam's own Cee & Bekah ('Something You Forgot'), and another from The Lessondary Crew's Jermiside ('Time Flies').

We really think y'all feel this one. It's just a whole bunch of damn good music. Hit us with any feedback and enjoy!

Download The Movement Fam Presents The Valentine's Day Mixtape Volume 2: Second Time Sweeter mixed by DJ Grain

Jermiside - Time Flies from The Movement Fam Presents The Valentine's Day Mixtape Vol 2: Second Time Sweeter‏

Oh yes, it's damn near here! The second volume of The Movement Fam's now annual project, The Valentine's Day Mixtape, drops this Friday 12th February and today we're leaking the exclusive joint from the homie Jermiside, 'Time Flies'.

Hit us with your thoughts and stay tuned for the drop on Friday!

Download Jermiside - Time Flies

Movin' Up From Down Under Loud.com Blog #6

Week #6: Getting Busy

So the decision was made; we’re going overseas. Awesome. Just saying it out loud made me excited as all hell. I didn’t wanna come home when we lived in Toronto and travelled for 12 months, so since then I’ve always been jealous of folks saying ‘Yeah, I’m going overseas next month’. Shit killed me. Now I was that annoying prick going on a holiday. Boom. Happy campers, we were.

But this wasn’t just a regular holiday. When the haze of excitement eventually passed, I realised how much work it would be to actually put this together. Not only did we need to arrange the logistics, but we had appointments to arrange. Where the fuck do we even start? That was the first thing that came to mind. So I thought logically. We were only going to visit cities where we had contacts; like I said, this wasn’t no umbrella-in-your-drink vacation. So we knew we had folks in Miami, Toronto, Atlanta (DJ Grain, now part of The Movement Fam, is in the A-Town) and New York that would be worth visiting. That’s a good starting point.

Emailing time. This is where my networking skills (or lack thereof) would really come into play. I hit up damn never everyone I knew to get them to put me in touch with damn near everyone they knew. Now, being that this is the music business and I was dealing with artists, producers and the like, I knew this could take a long ass time. Lucky it was like May and we didn’t plan to leave until September. This was a useful exercise, as it really showed who my friends were. I know that if I had some folks overseas who were coming out here, I’d do my best to put them in touch with everyone possible, so I was hoping for the same.

I gotta shout out Eternia, who probably spent a good hour or two of her precious time (the girl is busy!) putting together a list of damn near everyone she knew in Toronto and New York. That list was one of the most useful tools that I had at my disposal in planning this trip, and I can’t thank her enough. She’s a true friend, big ups! Also, my dudes Kevin Nottingham and Travis Glave (Wake Your Daughter Up! Blog) were invaluable, as they worked real hard to put us in touch with a gang of folks that came through the goods in the end.

So already, after talking with three main friends in the business in the US and Canada, I had things moving. Wow, this wasn’t looking to be so difficult after all. Or so it seemed. I would estimate that in total, I probably hit up around 100-150 individuals in all sectors of the music industry, all over Canada and the US (including Hawaii). I must have spent a week staying up til midnight after work every night sending emails like a crazy person. Not only to the folks I had been put in contact with, but hitting up random radio stations in cities all over the place (which I got a list of from Wikipedia, of all places). Once I had contacted everyone on my lists, all there was to do was wait.

Of course, this wasn’t just a once off activity. This was a constant thing from May until right up to when we left, and even while we were on the trip we were still trying to arrange meetings and stuff. I reckon I probably got a 5-10% response rate, which is probably better than most direct mail campaigns. So I was happy with that. Plus, you can’t really expect random folks to really wanna help out unknown artists from Australia on a whim (or an email); although that was how it panned out at times.

So with the contacting industry heads side of things underway, we had to get the logistics issues sorted (which we couldn’t do much with until meetings, radio spots, etc were locked in), and of course, finalising two mixtapes in the space of two to three months, all the while working full time. Goddamn.

Plug of the week: The homie DJ Hyphen in Seattle has a dope ass blog, The Audacity of Dope, and he featured both our mixtapes after we appeared on his show:

Notion – World Domi-NoTiOn (http://www.theaudacityofdope.com/2008/09/16/notion-world-domi-notion-mixtape/)
Cee & Bekah – The Soul Movement Volume 2 (http://www.theaudacityofdope.com/2008/09/17/cee-bekah-the-soul-movement-vol-2/)

So until next time, listen to Raheem DeVaughn. I am right now. He’s soothing. Pause.

Blessings,
Cee.
The Movement Fam.

KevinNottingham.com Presents: G.C. on the Beats, Volume 1

The big homie G.C. done came with a special gift for y'all to lead in the new year with...G.C. on the Beats, Volume 1. This is a really solid collection of a bunch of his favourite joints from the various artists he's worked with. Cee & Bekah's 'Ven Aqui' makes an appearance here in full, the only place you can get it for now (until The Soul Movement Originals drops next year)...

From Kev:

"We have one more exclusive mixtape that we are dropping today and this one is a personal fav as it is from the sole producer that I manage.

2009 has been a very productive year for G.C., who we first heard of in our weekly remix contests at KevinNottingham.com. Since then, he has worked with quite a handful of artists, such as MaG, K. Sparks, Trav Williams, Jermiside, and Punchlyne & Fokis. We decided to put together a collection of some of G.C.’s best work thus far. This is G.C. on the Beats, Volume 1!

Any support is greatly appreciated!"

DOWNLOAD G.C. on the Beats, Volume 1

Jermiside - Die Jerm Die mixed by DJ Low Key

So the homie Jermiside been dropped his long awaited mixtape, Die Jerm Die, with DJ Low Key on deck. Shit is a heater, Jerm is a beast on the mic so he doesn't disappoint. Another quality release from the Lessondary crew. Look out for more of Jerm on upcoming Movement Fam releases!

DOWNLOAD - Jermiside - Die Jerm Die (tracked version)
DOWNLOAD - Jermiside - Die Jerm Die (untracked/podcast version)

Shad ft. Jermiside & Destruments – The Calling (video)

Shad - The Calling from 360 To Nowhere on Vimeo.

Spotted @ The Audacity of Dope.

The homie Jermiside is murkin' it. Seriously. This is the unofficial video from Shad's joint off the Danny Diggs EP, dopeness.

Danny Diggs: Introducing EP

Now this shit is finna be heat. The homie Jermiside put us onto Danny Diggs when we were in Atlanta with him last year, and dude been had heat. And most definitely, look out for myself, Bekah and Notion who did a joint with Jermiside for the collab album with Danny, so hopefully we make the cut!

"Irish producer Danny Diggs drops this free EP entitled Introducing featuring guests Jermiside, Shad, Akrobatik, SoulStice & more. Diggs & Jermiside have a project together called Middle Class coming soon as well. Tracklist & link after the jump."



Spotted over at Kevin Nottingham.

Download Danny Diggs: Introducing EP

Die Jerm Die Remix Competition

No, this ain't got nothing to do with murdering innocent mispelled germs.

Just wanted to let the folks know about another dope remix competition the homies over at www.KevinNottingham.com are running at the moment. Fresh off of The Movement Fam and Trav Williams remix competitions, the next one for budding producers out there is for the homie Jermiside, for his upcoming Die Jerm Die mixtape, mixed by DJ Low Key.

There's two joints to remix for Die Jerm Die volumes 1 and 2 - 'Never Seen A Thing' and 'Crisis Times'. The former will feature on Vol 1 and the latter on Vol 2. So you have two chances to make the cut. This should be interesting...click the image to get the info.

Producer Spotlight - Danny Diggs (Ireland)

It is truly amazing that Hip Hop has hit every continent and folks are producing good music. The Irishman Danny Diggs: producer, beatmaker, and maestro of sound has taken some time out of his busy schedule working for a brief insight into his world. I hope you all enjoy.



DJ Grain: Being from Ireland, what was the first Hip Hop music you heard?

Danny Diggs: It was an NWA - Striaght outta Compton casstete tape that I got as a present, back when NWA were no longer a group and cassettes were the last thing a young teenager wanted. It took me a long time before I found out there were actually Irish Hip Hop acts, but the first time I heard the Irish stuff, it blew my mind.

DJ Grain: When did you start making beats?

Danny Diggs: I started messing about rapping, then quickly moved onto making beats at about age 14 or 15.

DJ Grain: What artists have you worked with?

Danny Diggs: A bunch of different artists. I did my first album work on Canadian rapper Mello Black's debut album "At the Speed of Motion", I did 3 tracks on that. I just did a track ('Reflections') on the Killah Priest & Cheif Kamachi - Beatiful Minds LP.

Right now I'm working with an ATL based emcee named Jermiside on what will be my first album, I'm really looking forward to people hearing this. I think its going to be a solid record. On this side of the ocean, I'm doing a lot of work with rapper/singer/producer Maverick Sabre, he probably DJ's too. I'm doing a few tracks for his first official mixtape coming in the new year, and I've done random tracks with Shad K, Akrobatik, Nucentz, DJ Mayhem and others.



DJ Grain: What was the first song your produced?

Danny Diggs: Ah I don't know, probably some shite i was rapping over myself, but the first song that people are actually going to hear, I would be the Mello Black stuff.

DJ Grain: Thus far in your career, who has been your favorite artist to work with?

Danny Diggs: Bit early for this kind of talk. So far its a toss up between Jermiside and Maverick Sabre, I think both of them are great, both have crazy focus!



DJ Grain: What instruments or equipment do you use to make beats?

Danny Diggs: My set up is PC based. I run Ableton and Acid Pro (I've tried 'em all and these are the ones that suit me) controlled by a bunch of MIDI controllers (Korg pad Kontrol, Novation Le keyboard, Mackie controller), Krk monitors,bass guitar, some old Gemini turntables and lots of records.

DJ Grain: What project(s) are you currently working on?

Danny Diggs: Jermside/Danny Diggs album, and the Maverick Sabre Mixtape. I think I'm gonna put out a little MySpace EP type download with various rappers over my beats.

DJ Grain: Could you describe the Hip Hop scene in Ireland?

Danny Diggs: I would say it's good. Living on the West Coast, I'm a ways away from the Irish Hip Hop "scene" that centers around Dublin, but we have got some really good acts like Rob Kelly, Maverick Sabre, MJEX, Nucentz and Rawsoul, Scary Eire, Flithy Rich, DJ Flip, Scooby...there's too many to name. We have talent out the ying yang, hit MySpace, do a search and see we are about to invade.

DJ Grain: Who are some of your favorite producers?

Danny Diggs: Pete Rock is the man, Primo, J-Dilla, Black Milk, Ohmega watts, RJD2, and 9th Wonder just to name a few that I really like.

DJ Grain: Do you have any words of wisdom for young producers?

Danny Diggs: Ha, I'm too young to give words of wisdom, but for anybody starting out, do your own thing - don't go onto a fucking website forum and listen to a bunch of talentless cunts talk about how to make good Hip Hop. If you enjoy what you're making then it's good Hip Hop. Such and such software or a particular piece of gear isn't going to make you better, make do with what you have and learn.



Check out Danny Diggs at the following sites:
Danny Diggs on MySpace
Danny Diggs on YouTube

Aeon Got Beats Vol.1

Dope beat tape from producer Aeon that has worked with the likes of Tanya Morgan, Che Grand, Jermiside and many other dope MC's. Watch for him in '09'


Download link:
Aeon Got Beats Vol.1

Tanya Morgan/Ilwil ish - Beat Thieves Vol 2

For those of you that don't know, Tanya Morgan is a rap group, and recently they won a MySpace contest that highlighted new artists. Make sure you pick up their entire music collection (Moonlighting, The Bridge and dropping early next year Brooklynati). Make sure you download this classic. Shouts to Jermiside who has the verse of the year on the track "Easy". I have a treat for all the fans that think hip hop is dead.

Download link:
Il Wil/Tanya Morgan Presents - Beat Thieves Vol 2