Dam-Funk brings the funk to a few needy souls. But will the white kids listen? Look out for a cameo by Nite Jewel.

Directed by Henry DeMaio. From Toeachizown, in stores now.

Here is a speculative list of ten 2009 hip-hop albums. All of these titles are scheduled to drop sometime during the next 12 months. I omitted some perennial “coming soon” titles (Madvillainy 2, 9th Wonder’s The Wonder Years, Ghost & Doom’s Swift and Changeable, Big Boi’s Sir Luscious Left Foot and others). Not to say that they’ll never come out, but we’re moving on now.

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Next year, Stones Throw promises to offer its most exciting slate of artists since 2006. Like that groundbreaking season, which brought classic recordings from Oh No, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Aloe Blacc and the late J Dilla, 2009 will find the L.A. label mixing forward-thinking hip-hop with ecletic, genre-bending sounds. So far, Stones Throw’s upcoming projects include albums from Omar Rodriguez Lopez, Savath y Savalas, Mayer Hawthorne & The County and Dam-Funk.

First up will be Omar Rodriguez Lopez’s Old Money. A few years ago, the lead guitarist for the Mars Volta might have issued this album on his now-defunct label, Gold Standard Laboratories (GSL). Instead, Old Money is coming out on Stones Throw. The label issued a digital version on November 10; the CD and vinyl version will reach stores on January 27.

Here’s a description from the press release:

The album fits comfortably between the guitarist’s monumental work with The Mars Volta, and his prior rock-based solo releases such as 2007’s The Apocalypse Inside Of An Orange. Loosely based on the concept of exploitative industrialists and, well, their old money, the album presents a 10-track collection of concise rock compositions, which range from progressive to psychedelic to downright funky. Many of these sounds could easily be at home on a Volta record proper had they meshed with Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s vocals; Rodriguez Lopez has hinted that this record was a potential follow up to the 2006 Volta release Amputechture until he changed his musical direction.

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