Estelle featuring Nas - Fall In Love

OK, so I wouldn't normally post a video to a track I wasn't feeling, but this one gets a mention because it has two artists I really dig on it. I'm a big fan of Estelle's first album, wasn't such a big fan of the second one but respected the direction she was going in. Now this is just...meh.

Sounds like "American Boy Pt. 2" and Nas just mails his verse in. He seems a bit out of place to me. Still, not going to write either of them off just yet.

Jazmine Sullivan - Holding You Down (video)

Jazmine is amazing. This is her new single, possibly. Or just a leak. Or a mixtape joint seeing as it borrows from Mary J. and Nas. Either way, the broad is the truth. Check it out.

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...

Nas speaks in the UK

NAS | LIVE FROM LONDON @ THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL from Roy Thomas on Vimeo.

Great, yet short, interview with Nas, spotted @ Smoking Section.

I gotta say though, this is the first I've heard of the 'Empire State Of Mind' drama and I actually didn't even think about Nas not featuring on OB4CL2. Someone mentioned a 'Verbal Intercourse 2'??? Goddamn.

Nas & Damian Marley - 'Distant Relatives' tracklist

Spotted @ Nahright, I have no idea if this is the realness but if it is, fucking wow.

Big ups to K'naan for getting on there. Very keen to hear Joss and Stevie, as well as Erykah. Very excited.

01 Intro (Something New) (prod. Damian Marley)
02 As We Enter (prod. Damian Marley)
03 Revolutionary (prod. Damian Marley)
04 Count Your Blessings (prod. Damian & Stephen Marley)
05 Belief is Key (prod. Damian Marley)
06 Africa Must Wake Up f. K’naan (prod. Nas, Damian & Stephen Marley)
07 Black Horizon f. K’naan (prod. Damian Marley)
08 Only the Strong (prod. Damian & Stephen Marley)
09 Our Generation f. Joss Stone & Stevie Wonder (prod. Damian Marley)
10 Empowerment (prod. Stephen Marley)
11 AID (prod. K’naan & Nas)
12 Let’s End It (Poverty) f. K’naan (prod. 9th Wonder & Damian Marley)
13 The Earth f. Bob Marley (prod. Salaam Remix, Damian & Stephen Marley)
14 Black Man’s Paper f. Erykah Badu (prod. Afry) [UK Bonus]
15 Weed On f. Snoop Dogg (prod. Damian Marley) [iTunes Bonus]

Damian Marley interview and performance with Nas

Spotted @ 2 Dope Boyz.

"Reggae Royalty, Damian Marley talks about the Distant Relative album with Nas, Rastafarianism, and the 1st time he visited Ethiopia. We also have Nas rhyming over Ragga beats and Damian rhyming over Primo beats, then they perform songs from the forthcoming album, Distant Relatives."

Nas and Damian Marley @ Rock The Bells, Vancouver

Oh shit. This is too ill for words. Cannot freakin' wait for 'Distant Relatives', the Nas and Damian Marley collab LP. The first vid is the two of them murkin' shit, and the bottom vid is Nas doing his solo thang.

S4H: Nas & Damian Marley Live at Rock The Bells from DP on Vimeo.

S4H: Nas Live at Rock The Bells from DP on Vimeo.

Nas and Maxwell Twitter Party

Check this shit out...Nas and Maxwell got their whore on with some ladies in Turks and Caicos (I'm assuming it's an island or something), and Maxwell decided to Tweet about it. Busted, bro. I think Kelis is finna know about this, somehow.

Big ups to Micnificent for the link!

Classic Lyrical :: Organized Konfusion - Stray Bullet

Who can forget the brilliant concept track 'Stray Bullet' featured on Organized Konfusion's second album; ' Stress: The Extinction Agenda, released in 94'. Nas may have created his own more polished 'I Gave You The Power' concept a couple years later, however i always felt there was something decidedly more disturbing and sinister about OK's verses.... "I'm coming for you little girl"

Verse One: Pharoahe Monche

Let the trigger finger put the pressure to the mechanism
Which gives a response, for the automatic *bang*
Clip to release projectiles in single
file forcing me to ignite then travel
through the barrel, headed for the light
At the end of a tunnel, with no specific target in sight
Slow the flow like H2O water
Visualize, the scene of a homicide, a slaughter
No remorse for the course I take when you pull it
The result's a stray bullet
Niggaz who knew hit the ground runnin and stay down
Except for the kids who played on the playground
Cause for some little girl she'll never see
more than six years of life, trif-le-ing
When she fell from the seesaw
But umm wait, my course isn't over
Fled out of the other side of her head towards
a red, Range, Rover, then I ricochet
Fast past a brother's ass, oh damn, what that nigga say
'Aww f**k it', next target's Margaret's face *bang*
and I struck it
Now it's a flood of blood in circumfrence to her face
and an abundance of brains all over the street
Shame how we had to meet *bang*
Dashin, buckin, greet by f**kin family
They follow behind me in a orderly fashion
Bashin through flesh I'm wild
Crashin through the doors of projects hallways
to deflect off of the tile
I'm coming for you little girl
Once inside I shatter your world
Swirl, no more dreams no hopes when I spray
You better pray, to the Pope or the Vatican
Before I go rat-tat-a-tat again
I'm mad again brother somebody's mother will be sad again
but, whose blue skies will turn grey
from the attack, of the Mac-11, I'm a stray, bullet

Verse Two: Prince Poetry

Gun balls of fire, I'm travelling at higher speeds
to proceed to penetrate flesh, hitting the splint
after splitting the chest of a Queens fiend
Age of pagers shredded to pieces from the Glock 9
and it's hollow tips, it releases the polices
in back of the ambulance
Blood loss as I shift across your chest
Arrest, rupture, I mess up ya, slasher
shall I bust ya liver, faster, blood pours *bang*
Now it's up to the master, boom, as I crash open the doors
Thank me for spraying the operating room
The body still consumes me, doc had to remove me
Mmm lord, why do they use me? *bang*
I'm takin individual for keeps Hobbes
so peep the cops, in the ghetto bustin shots for props
And when I hit, sh*t *bang bang bang bang*
Soon you forgets-me-not
Cops tried to explain to his pops what I done
I flip up the hollow tipper and I'm not the one
And as a human I'm the surprising one
Prince Po I flow the ripper, either way
you never, ever know how I'm coming
Metamorphasizing, rising in turbulence
Condensed into a bullet, pull it, now I'm making moves
With no sympathizing, uhh, so take a hit nigga, sprint *bang*
Onto the scenario, I'm at a party with O
A lot of honies parlay and the DJ's playin the Fudge Pudge flow
Five niggaz come up in the club for a rub
[Yo O peep it, oh sh*t O duck (oh shit!, oh shit!)
*pop pop pop pop pop* *woman screams*]
Another hit, another struck
Here comes Mr. Stray Bullet
Five, the tip, getting my jollies from the screams of the ripped
in your chest, then I flip
Nip your liver, blood flowin like a river
Money starts to shiver then I give a delivery of burns
Bruises fake shoes is your renaissance
No response your moms is out cold
Figure I'm bigger takin your heart nigga at twenty years old
Stray Bullet

Trav Williams - IllTravis

You know I had to re-post this one.

Following from The Movement Fam remix competition, the homies Trav Williams and Kevin Nottingham got their Trav Williams/Illmatic remix joint crackin', something which Elzhi recently 'bit' lol. So it's all finished and ready for download, and it's a banger!

Peep the links and info after the jump.

"OK, so I caused a bit of a stir last week with that Trav Williams vs. Elzhi
post, but it's all good. IllTravis is officially ready for release.

Download Trav Williams - IllTravis

Check the original post on Kevin Nottingham.com

Over the course of 10 weeks, producers from all across the globe came
together to help create a vision... a vision to recreate a classic; to pay
homage to *Nas*' 1994 debut album *Illmatic*. *Trav Williams* came to me with this idea in the fall of 2008. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to hold a beat contest on the site and get everyone involved. As one of the five judges, I can say that picking the beats wasn't easy, but in the end I
think we all gave Trav some great material to work with. Trav quickly went into the studio and here you have... *IllTravis*.

From Trav:
Before anything and above all I got to thank all the winning producers for
thier hard work and effort and all the producers that submitted for even
trying, you are appreciated. G.C., S.2, DJ Qvali, Tokyo Cigar, JLH,
Digivillanous, EvolveAudio & Natown Legend, you are respected.

Now...let me say this; this project ain't about "blowing up" off *Illmatic*; this project ain't about who don't like it; this project ain't about controversy; this project, just like all my shit, ain't about money; this project is something that I been wanting to do since my *Illmatic* tape popped on the school bus on a hot ass day many Mays ago. Realistically, I got a bucket list and this was on it. So I did it and before I grow up too much I hope to check a few more things off the list.

Needless to say, I hope y'all dig it. But I make music for people that want
to hear what I want to hear, so if you don't dig it, then you ain't one of
them people. But if you dig it, dig it; good look.

Tracklist:

1. The Exodus
2. Meditation [prod by G.C.]
3. Life's The Shit (feat. Pee Duble) [prod by Tokyo Cigar]
4. Mechanics [prod by G.C.]
5. Quarterlife Crisis [prod by Digivillainous]
6. Claustrophobia [prod by JLH]
7. Light it Up [prod by EvolveAudio]
8. Dedicated [prod by DJ Qvali]
9. Bootleg Cable [prod by S.2]
10. Super Ill [prod by S.2]
11. BONUS - Walk Wit Me [prod by Skidmatik]
12. BONUS - Something New [prod by 20 Keys]
13. BONUS - Zoom [prod by Keenan]
14. BONUS - Victory Lap [prod by Keenan]
15. BONUS - Clockwork [prod by G.C.]
16. BONUS - You Gets Done (feat. Pee Duble)
17. BONUS - Nobody Knows Me (feat. K Hill) [prod by Keenan]

Damian Marley and Nas project?

Nas x Damian Marley (Video) from 2dopeboyz.com on Vimeo.

First up, peep the video of Nas and Damian Marley performing at a recent press conference. My man Micnificent tells me that Nas and Damian have recorded an album together and are about to release it. Why the fuck didn't I know about this? I just did a little wee in excitement. More news as it comes to hand.

Jadakiss Updates...

Apparently Jadakiss' album got pushed back to April 7 and Jada says he went back to the studio to record more songs and collabos. Dope!



"I just went back in," 'Kiss told MTV. "I did two joints with Swizz [Beatz]. I got one from [DJ] Khaled by [producers] the Inkredibles [Rick Ross' 'Mafia Music,' Young Jeezy's 'Vacation,' Fat Joe's 'One']. I got Mary [J. Blige] on it. I got another Pharrell joint. You know what it is. As long as they make me keep working and push the date back, I'm going in the studio making more music for the people. Whatever don't go on the album, you definitely gonna get it on the mixtape."



Jada also talked about other singles:
“I told you I got that joint from Khaled that has Mary on it,” Jada said. “I think it’s a big, huge record. [I think it's called] ‘Grind Hard.’ … Then I have ‘What If?’ with Nas. That’s like an uppercut.” ‘Kiss said the theme of the Nas featured record is self-explanatory. “Just a bunch of ‘what ifs’ ” Jada said. “Bunch of realistic, current events and past things. I just asked, ‘What if?’ I reached out to Esco, and he nailed it. When I say he nailed it, he nailed it!”

If that dont get ya excited... you aint real. Period.

Nosh dog.

8-bit Hip Hop Medley

Ever wondered what Hip Hop would have sounded like if it were used as the soundtrack to a NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) video game?

Me neither, but damn this is cool! Basically what some of Jay-Z, Kanye, T.I. and some other rappers beats would have sounded like on a video game in the 80's. Classic.



Now I'm waiting on some new-school rapper to flip the script (did I really just use that term?) and start sampling some old-school video game music.

It's not like it hasn't been done before.

There's Benefit's joint Warp To World 6-9 which uses the classic Super Mario Bros. sample.

Smif-n-Wessun (then Cocoa Brovaz) also flipped the Mario sample for Super Brooklyn. Ill shit.

Sampling Mario Bros. is almost too easy though. How about Extended F@mm's Line Drop, where they borrow the famous Tetris music and use it to great effect on the concept track. In the game, the music speeds up after dropping (and clearing) a number of lines. In the track, the beat/sample speeds up after each punchline dropped by the crew. Ridiculous.

Can I get a Jigga joint over some Metroid music?

How about a little Nas on a banging Ninja Gaiden (aka Shadow Warriors) beat?

Make it happen. Please.

Oh and if anyone is after MP3's of any of the tracks I linked, get at me via comments and I'll hook you up.

Hip Hop Ain't Dead

Yup. It sure as hell ain't.



The Kanye West Glow in the Dark Tour (which shouldn't really have been billed as such; that's what it was called last year and this was a totally different show) most definitely brought it back, or at least Nas did. We got there a bit late and missed openers Kid Cudi and Consequence, which I was pretty disappointed about. Scribe did his thing; he was never much of a performer but he has some anthems that always go down well, plus he held it down in what could be his first arena show.



Nas is probably the last of my Hip Hop idols that I have yet to see live; until last night that is. And dude didn't disappoint. 'Illmatic' is my fave album of all time, and he did a medley of 'New York State of Mind', 'It Ain't Hard To Tell', 'Represent', 'One Love' and 'Life's A Bitch' before getting into standout tracks from damn near all of his back catalogue.



Nas also isn't renowned as a quality live performer but just his presence was enough; the band was dope and it seemed like there was a lot of happy Hip Hop heads in the mostly white, suburban, teenage girl, pop-friendly crowd.



So, to 'Yeezy. This is the fourth time I've seen dude live, and every time, if nothing else, it's entertaining as hell. The production value was at a similar level to his set at Good Vibrations earlier in the year, with a massive lit up backdrop and stage pulsating with the music.



Contrary to popular belief, and Kanye's recent interview with extraHit mag, dude actually rocked half the '808s & Heartbreak' album, opening with 'Paranoid', and throwing in 'Welcome To Heartbreak', 'Amazing', 'Love Lockdown' and 'Heartless', all of which went down incredibly well, even with the autotuned mic.



The obligatory slew of hits was performed, as is necessary with a radio-friendly crowd, most of whom probably didn't own any of his albums (or at least not 'College Dropout'). The old Kanye blended well with the new Kanye, as he often utilised the autotune when performing his back catalogue of hits; most of the time, it worked well.



Some dick in the crowd threw a glow stick at 'Ye at one point, and he went off at them, in rhyme, using the autotune. 'What if it hit me in my pretty ass face?' he screamed, half serious. 'Do you wanna fuck this up for everyone? Make yourself known, come up here and I'll smack you in your fuckin' face'. Gold.

The only criticism would be his lengthy interludes at the end of tracks, where he improvised and just kept on singing. If I was sitting down and didn't have sweaty tools pushing me, it'd be aight, but since we'd been standing for a hot minute, it got a bit frustrating.

All up, an amazing show from both Nas and 'Ye. Worth every cent of the $140. Click on the images to check out Nas' MySpace and Kanye's blog.

This is Louie Vuitton Don night...

Yes sir! Tonight, finally, 'Ye's 'Glow In The Dark' tour is coming to Melbourne city! The whole Movement Fam will be in attendance. And not only is Kanye doing his thing, his cousin Tony Williams will be singing backup (more on Tony later), PLUS Nas is opening! Goddamn, about time he came Down Under. Also, Scribe, Kid Cudi and Consequence are rockin' lil sets.

Should be an amazing night; we got gold floor tickets right up the front so hopefully we'll have some dope flicks. There'll no doubt be a report online tomorrow.

Oh and in the mean time, click the image to read the review of the European leg of the tour on my man Kev's blog.

Aight man, holla then...