Most of us in the world have jobs and can't experience the musical migration that is SXSW. But don't smash your iPod in anger just yet, ADP is bringing you some music from some standouts who will be performing this year at South By. So chill out and check out performers:
The Foreign Exchange is a family, each with something special to ofer to the landscape of R&B and soul music. Muhsinah always does her thing, singer Darien Brockington recently released a steller project, now it's time for the sexy songstress YahZarah to branch out on her own. YahZarah's first single from her highly-anticipated The Ballad of Purple Saint James. "Why Dontcha Call Me No More" is an uptempo new soul wave jam from an ex girl looking @ the next girl and reflecting.
Lastly... "Damn." In regards to the photo at the top, who wouldn't call her back?
What do you get when you mix operatic segments, sea urchins, the flying mountains of Pandora, black people, and MGMT's Electric Feel together? The Hudson Mohawke's Joy Fantastic music video.
This is definitely one of those songs where you don’t need to know exactly what singer Olivier Daysoul is saying in order for you to dance. In fact, the artist's lyrical imagination drastically overpowers the producers' imagination for the video. I don’t know if this is the final version of the video, but this is a perfect demo to help the producers of the video figure out what kind of fantasy land the artist is trying to paint.
Jay Smooth gets inspirtation from Waka Flacka Flame's recent statements about lyricism and goes in on what it means to be lyrical and make money in hip-hop.
Inspirational, aspirational, & autobiographical all with a laid back voice that reminds all those who lived in any hood in the sunshine state (like me) of home? Inglewood's Dom Kennedy has been a resident of my iPod for the year and some change, but I think I just crossed over from listener to being a real fan. By fan I mean a person willing to put 10-20$ down for music from this guy; which is more than notion considering the state of the music industry. Luckily he has 3 mixtapes worth of material to check out and a new and final free release on the way.
Watch Dom @ his listening party in LA explaining his upcoming release, From the Westside with Love.
& also peep his performance of "Locals Only" a track off the new project.
San Francisco's rising star Roach Gigz drops another Aris Jerome directed music video for Roach's song "Respect It". This impromptu "day in the life" video was shot on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California during the March 4th march and protest against budget cuts for education. March for education? Nope. Roachy Balboa would rather get a new tattoo while slapping his own music. You gotta respect it!
Mark Linkous worked with Danger Mouse, Daniel Johnston, Tom Waits, and even Radiohead. He produced records and sang songs that touched people all over the world. In a time where music has been devalued so, it is especially important to acknowledge someone who created it on such a high level. If you haven't heard this mans work watch him perform live in Paris.
Music duo All Out aka Doughy Joey & The Predicament aka the real life Prestige Worldwide bring you the video for "Lights Out", the lead single off there EP, The Get Down available on iTunes (not a joke).
Jacking the drums from Grindin' and throwing in a Pimp C vocal chop really did my heart good. LOL. That is, until I realized that these goobers may have made the next one hit wonder! Because if its not heavy handed jock jams production that're selling, then it's auto-tuned tom-foolery or wonder bread rap.
"The only hood I got is straight courtesy of Hanes/& we're from New England so you know we make it rain" you said it guys...
Speaking of the Oakland city, The Source Magazine has a dope article examining the love affair with that tree within the Hip Hop where they shout out to our neighbors at Oaksterdam University an institution whom Brick City rap legend Redman is a proud graduate.
D-Sharp is currently on the road with Lyrics Born tearing up Colorado, so the latest episode of Sharp State of Mind may be a little late this week. But we got you covered with this exclusive video from D-Sharp’s interview with LB's beautiful wife, singer/songwriter Joyo Velarde.