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Mighty Joseph builds “Empire State”
When Vast Aire Kramer began a brief U.S. tour last month, I noted how the Harlem giant had recently disappeared from the national radar. I also mentioned that he and Brooklyn MC Karniege had formed a new group, Mighty Joseph, and would release a new album soon.
Well, how soon is now? The duo has finished its debut album, Empire State, and set a release date of February 26. It will be released by Urchin Studios, the upstart label that issued C-Rayz Walz Collectable Classics trilogy this year.
"Shaped over a 3 yeard period, Empire State unravels a unique perspective, documenting not only much personal change between the two emcees but also the changes in the streets of New York City," reads a press release for the album. "From poverty, to the September 11 attacks, to the abuse of Hip Hop culture in general, Empire State stands strong as a snapshot of the city."
Guests on Empire State include Murs, Poison Pen, and Vordul Mega, Vast Aire’s old partner from Cannibal Ox. Madlib, J-Zone, the Beatminerz and Karniege lend production.
The track listing for Mighty Joseph’s Empire State is below.
Wu-Tang Clan form “8 Diagrams”
For the past several months, bloggers have twittered and gossipped about the mighty Wu-Tang Clan. When Raekwon and Ghostface Killah called out the RZA and said 8 Diagrams is garbage, the Internet went nuts. And when the track listing for 8 Diagrams mysteriously appeared on some foreign retail sites, everyone jumped in and posted the list as if it were the official U.S. version.
It’s become a common occurence: the Internet creates its own reality, and then tries to pass it off as fact. I’m not going to name any names, but it’s the same dudes who posted the wrong track listing for Kanye West’s Graduation before that album came out. But hey, it’s all promotion and marketing when it comes to music, right? All of the buzz, real and fake, only ensures that the mighty Wu will land a top 10 debut when 8 Diagrams hits stores via SRC/Universal on December 11.
Below you’ll find the real track listing for 8 Diagrams that was taken from both Universal Music’s official media site and Amazon.com. You’ll also find an itinerary for the Wu’s upcoming tour, which begins December 15. Be warned, though: Ghostface told Billboard.com that all the members may not appear at every show. You’ve gotta love the drama.
Kidz in the Hall bands with Duck Down for “The In Crowd”
Kidz in the Hall, the Chicago duo that drew acclaim for their 2006 debut, School is My Hustle, announced that they’ve signed a new contract with Duck Down Records. The first product of the deal will be Naledge and Double-O’s new album, The In Crowd. It’s currently scheduled for a March release.
The deal is a surprising one. Kidz in the Hall were a cornerstone of Rawkus Records’ heavily promoted relaunch last year. The duo, then and now, were signed to Major League Entertainment, while Rawkus handled distribution. But the once-mighty home of Black Star and Company Flow touted the group as if it were its own. Meanwhile, this may be the first time Duck Down has reached outside of its close-knit Brooklyn click to sign an artist.
"Kidz in the Hall were previously signed to Rawkus Records and released their debut, School was My Hustle, on the imprint, but felt Duck Down Records would be the home that could help propel them to the next level," reads a press release announcing the deal.
Cadence Weapon produces “Afterparty Babies”
Canadian rap prodigy Cadence Weapon is preparing to release his new album, Afterparty Babies.
Set for release on March 4, Afterparty Babies is the first effort from Cadence Weapon’s new deal with Anti-/Epitaph Records. (The label reissued his 2005 debut, Breaking Kayfabe, last year). "Afterparty Babies explores friends and feelings, crews and club nights, hometowns and heroes, media and fashion. The recognized wordsmith continues to push the theme, surrounded by socially conscious commentary, and personal subject matter while dropping it over punishing electronic dance jams," reads the press release for the album.
While you wait for those "punishing electronic dance jams" to manifest themselves, check out the track listing below.
Nicolay builds “Time:Line”
Nicolay, the Dutch producer best known for his excellent Foreign Exchange collaboration (2004’s Connected) with Phonte Coleman from Little Brother, will release a new album with Houston rapper Kevin "Kay" Jackson (a familiar presence on the Rappersiknow.com site) next year.
Set for release on February 12, Nicolay & Kay’s Time:Line is the first full-length album from Nicolay Music Recordings, an imprint the producer formed earlier this year. Groove Attack will distribute the disc. It features guest shots from Oh No, members of the Strange Fruit Project and Chip Fu from the Fu-Schnickens (!), among other talented prospects found in Nicolay’s adopted home of Wilmington, North Carolina. Time:Line is reportedly a concept album, but I’m not sure what the concept is — other than, when it comes to the deeply soulful Nicolay, it will probably involve romantic love.
Time:Line is the first of several projects Nicolay plans for the near future. Others include sequels to his popular mixtape The Dutch Masters and the instrumental City Lights, and a mixtape with DJ Rhettmatic. No word yet, however, on when fans will hear the new Foreign Exchange project, Leave It All Behind, other than to expect it next year.
Before we get ahead ourselves, though, let’s enjoy the new Time:Line album. The track listing is below.
Panacea plans “Reroute”
Freshly empowered by its underground success, Washington, D.C. duo Panacea is working on a remix companion to their enchanting second album The Scenic Route. Better yet, they want all you bedroom producers to get involved, too. Set for sometime next … Continue reading
Tittsworth & Klever pump up Kleavage Tour
I haven’t talked much about the DJ/club scene on PlugOneMag.com. But I know that DJ Klever and Tittsworth are two of its brightest and most promising stars.
DJ Klever is already a known quantity to some: As a member of the now-defunct crew the Allies, the Atlanta DJ dominated turntablist battles in the early 00s, winning sundry awards in the process. He’s since switched his style up — as so many hip-hop DJs and artists have done — into a club-rocking format that mixes electro-house, pop, and classic rock as well as the usual mainstream and club rap. Meanwhile, Tittsworth built his reputation with that format, and helped introduce Baltimore club to discerning hipsters across the land. It’s his sporadic 12-inch singles and EPs for labels like Money Studies, however, that have secured his reputation among music heads.
This month, the two DJs embarked upon the cheekily-titled Kleavage tour. It continues until December in North America, then heads over to Europe next 2008; additionally, more collabo dates are tentatively scheduled for U.S. audiences next year. If you’re one of those kids that can’t stand the club scene, then watch out for Tittsworth’s upcoming album, The Outer Loop. Set for release next spring on NYC dance label Plant Music, it is slated to feature collabos with Pase Rock, Kid Sister, M.O.P., and other cool kids.
The itinerary for the Kleavage tour is below.
Food for Animals climb in the “Belly”
Baltimore, M.D. quartet Food for Animals follows in the tradition of genre-experimentalists — think Shadow Huntaz, Antipop Consortium, and Fat Jon the Ample Soul Physician’s work with Pole — that probably sound just as strange to your average true school backpacker as your traditional thug enthusiast. Mixing found sounds, blurring noise, vintage samples and politicized B-boy lyrics, Food for Animals try to meet their musical ambitions with action.
The group’s forthcoming album, Belly, comes three years after its debut EP, 2004’s Scavenger Class. Set for release on November 27 via Hoss Records, it packs 15 songs into, according their website, "psycho-tropical brutality on one end and absolute freshness on the other."
The track listing is below.
Mike Ladd reissues “Nostalgialator”
Sometimes, when you’re a poet who dabbles in hip-hop, people tend to label you as a hip-hopper and nothing else. Just ask Saul Williams…or Mike Ladd. A poet who earned a master’s degree from Boston University, he has directed films and contributed to academic journals and anthologies. Recently, he assembled a sound installation with jazz pianist Vijay Iyer, Still Life with Commentator, for the Brooklyn Academy of Music. (The two released a similarly-titled album on Savoy Jazz earlier this spring.) Still, all us rap heads want to know is, when is he doing another album?
But Ladd’s been doing music, fool, just not the rap stuff we’re used to from his Infesticons project (including the 2003 chapter Beauty Party). In fact, he has released nearly an album a year for almost a decade. One of his works, Nostalgialator, was released in Europe on !K7 in 2004. The eclectic project, assembled with NYC avant-gardian Scotty Hard, is a typically eccentric affair, ranging from electro-funk to spazzed-out dance-punk.
"A Nostalgialator is the ultimate post-futurist leisure tool," Ladd cryptically told the BBC back in 2004. "With one press of a button you can be back in a perfect past with all your favourite clothes and music. But I wouldn’t recommend getting one because you might actually end up in the reality of that past."
Definitive Jux plans to reissue Nostalgialator for U.S. consumption on January 15. It should satisfy Ladd’s fans — at least those who haven’t already bought it at import prices — until he finishes the third chapter in his Infesticons morality tale, Domesticons, sometime next year.
The track listing for Nostalgialator is below.
Lupe Fiasco blows out “The Cool”
Well, it’s almost the end of November and, despite my initial skepticism, it seems that Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool will indeed be out before the end of the year, reaching stores via Atlantic on December 18. But it almost didn’t happen, thanks to an absurd controversy nicknamed "Fiascogate."
Most online rap geeks are familiar with the contours of the matter, so I won’t get in too deep on it. To be brief: Lupe Fiasco participated in a tribute to A Tribe Called Quest during the "VH-1 Hip-Hop Honors" on October 5. During his performance of "Electric Relaxation" and "Award Tour," Lupe flubbed some of the lyrics. Several bloggers, and many posters on the Okayplayer.com chat boards, criticized Lupe for the error. In response, Lupe noted that he hadn’t been a fan of Tribe when he was growing up, and wasn’t knowledgeable about their music. This led to a huge torrent of criticism, with many Internet heads castigating Lupe for not knowing about one of the best hip-hop groups ever. Adding fuel to the fire, Q-Tip noted that he was aware Lupe didn’t know their music, and only added Lupe to the tribute after his label brokered it. The controversy grew so big that MTV.com felt obliged to weigh in.
In the immediate aftermath, a lot of bloggers claimed that they wouldn’t support Lupe. A month later, who cares? Lupe doesn’t have to be a hip-hop scholar — he’s an artist, not a professor. Leave the studies to the journalists and others who present themselves as "hip-hop experts." All Lupe has to do is achieve his stated goal, which is to make good music. And to all the Internet gangstas that front their knowledge of Tribe, how many of them listened to the Last Poets, Amiri Baraka & Sunny Murray, H. Rap Brown, Bob Kaufman and Allen Ginsburg?
Del tolls “The 11th Hour”
Del the Funky Homosapien’s fifth solo album (counting the cassette-only Future Development) and first in 8 years, The 11th Hour, will finally be released on February 26 via Definitive Jux.
The disc is a long time coming for the Oakland rapper and one of the original members (along with KMD and others) of what would eventually become the alternative/underground scene in the 90s. Though he’s occasionally appeared on projects this decade — his Hieroglyphics’ crew’s 2003 album Full Circle being a prominent example — he hasn’t truly been heard from since the memorable Deltron 3030 project with Dan the Automator and Kid Koala.
As reported earlier, Del chose Definitive Jux over his Hiero Imperium label for The 11th Hour in order to give the album maximum exposure. He produced most of the beats himself, and only included a handful of contributors, including J-Zone, KU, Opio, Casual and Ladybug Mecca. The track listing for The 11th Hour is below.
Cormega asks “Who Am I?”, answers with new album
As one of the brightest exponents of Queensbridge street poetry, Cormega has produced albums startingly memorable in their forthrightness and honesty. His 2001 debut, The Realness, is a certified classic; the 2002 follow-up, The True Meaning, is nearly as good.
Cormega was silent for the past few years until he dropped two new projects this year on his Legal Hustle imprint. The first was merely executive produced by him: Legal Hustle Presents Got Beats? was an instrumental showcase featuring tracks from the Alchemist, DJ Premier, Buckwild, Ayatollah and others. The second, Who Am I? is a DVD documentary that chronicles his life through camcorder-style footage and minimalist music videos. It also includes a "soundtrack," a compilation of new songs with guests such as Styles P, Keak da Sneak, Yukmouth, Tragedy, Hell Rell, Fame from M.O.P., Little Brother and Psycho Realm. A single from it, "Sleep Well" featuring Dwele, has been serviced to enterprising jocks.
Who Am I? drops tomorrow (November 20), but it’s hopefully just an appetizer to Cormega’s new album, which is scheduled for release sometime next year. Check out the track listing and a video trailer for the former below.
DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist trumpet “The Hard Sell”
Crate diggers and true school fans have something to look forward at the beginning of 2008: A new project by DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist.
The two acclaimed turntablists previewed their new project, "The Hard Sell," during a handful of shows last summer. "The Hard Sell" is the latest in a series of tag-team collaborations that date back to 1999, when the two paired for a legendary gig in San Francisco. The set, which appeared on a limited-edition CD under the title Brainfreeze, subsequently influenced a generation of rare groove DJs.
A CD/DVD version of The Hard Sell, which will document DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist’s performance at the Hollywood Bowl, is scheduled for early next year on their Pillage Road Show imprint. Before that, they’ll roam across the country for a series of concerts. Find out if your city is included on the itinerary below.
Akrobatik brings “Absolute Value”
After over a year in delays, Akrobatik’s second album will finally see the light of day early next year. Absolute Value, the Boston rapper’s first solo endeavor since 2003’s Balance, and originally scheduled for release in the fall of 2006, drops February 19 on Fat Beats Records.
Guests on Absolute Value include Little Brother, B-Real, Chuck D., Bumpy Knuckles (a.k.a. Freddie Foxxx) and Mr. Lif, Akrobatik’s partner in the Perceptionists. Beat contributors include Illmind, 9th Wonder, the Beatminer, Perceptionists’ producer Fakts One, J-Zone and Hezekiah.
Vast Aire works the angles
Remember Vast Aire Kramer?
As a member of the late, lamented Atomz Family, he immediately stood out from the pack with "Adversity Strikes," a track on the groundbreaking compilation The Persecution of Hip-Hop. Then he teamed up with Vordul Megilah to form Cannibal Ox and, with El-P on the boards, dropped the classic The Cold Vein in 2001. Unfortunately, fans of the cosmic-oriented Can Ox weren’t sympathetic when he flipped his style to thugged-out and dropped the 2004 album Look Ma, No Hands.
Vast Aire has been on the grind ever since, dropping mixtapes, and forming a new group with homie Karniege (Mighty Joseph) and a new crew (LXG – The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). But heads outside of New York haven’t been aware of his movements. So he’s heading out on a tour, which kicked off in NYC yesterday (November 14), to spread the new gospel. The shows lay the groundwork for a new album, Deuces Wild, that should drop next year.
The dates are listed below.
Ghostface Killah reveals “Big Doe Rehab,” new book
As previously announced, Ghostface Killah’s The Big Doe Rehab is on the way, and hits stores December 4 via Def Jam.
Ghostface Killah has been on the road for most of the fall, touring with the Rhythm Roots Allstars and a sundry of opening acts. According to the track listing for The Big Doe Rehab, which hit the Internet last week, he returns the favor by collaborating with the LA funk combo on "!" (Perhaps he’s taking a page from the Brooklyn band !!!) Other guests on the disc include Raekwon, Method Man, Beanie Sigel, Styles P, and Chrissette Michelle. The first single, "We Celebrate," features mixtape pioneer Kid Capri and is percolating on mix shows nationwide.
The Big Doe Rehab is part of Ghost’s winter attack. In addition to the upcoming Wu-Tang Clan album 8 Diagrams (more on that in a minute), Ghost Dini is finally dropping that book he talked up last year. The World According to Pretty Toney, co-written with J. Brightly and published by MTV Books, comes out on January 8. According to the press release, "Pretty Toney offers nuggets of street wisdom on the key elements to becoming your own personal success story: livin’, hustlin’, lovin’, eatin’, and the all-encompassing Toneology. Coupled with vibrant 4-color photos by renowned photographer Dave Hill that illustrate each pearl of wisdom, these are indispensable life lessons that will become hustler hallmarks for playas everywhere to live by."
While you chew on those nuggets, check out the track listing for The Big Doe Rehab below.
Hi-Tek compiles “Hi-Teknology 3”
It’s been over a decade since Tony "Hi-Tek" Cottrell first set the indie world aflame with his classic productions for Reflection Eternal, Mood and Common. Since then, he’s had something of a journeyman’s career. He’s landed beats on a few big albums for artists like Snoop Dogg, G-Unit and the Game, and is now a staff producer for Dr. Dre’s vaunted Aftermath Entertainment. However, unlike the Alchemist, another producer unafraid to navigate between the indie and mainstream world, Hi-Tek has yet to score a major hit, or build a truly compelling body of work.
Some might take that criticism as a dis. But take it with a grain of salt, as Hi-Tek is undoubtedly a talented producer working towards achieving his potential. The next step is Hi-Teknology 3, the latest chapter in a solo compilation series that has, according to his publicists, moved over 600,000 units to date. Set for release via Babygrande on December 11, it features guest shots from Estelle, Young Buck, Kurupt, M-1, Little Brother, Talib Kweli and many others. The first single is "My Piano" with Raekwon & Ghost.
The track listing for Hi-Teknology 3 is below.
Ohmega Watts rocks spot dates
Ohmega Watts’ first album in three years, Watts Happening, dropped last month. However, he’s mostly spent his time promoting it in Europe, not the U.S. Overseas, it seems, audiences follow a wider range of hip-hop music, not just the mainstream/snap-trap variety. Why should he waste time performing here to crowds of a dozen people or less (as was the case at an Atlanta show last year)?
Maybe that’s why, instead of launching a full-fledged tour, the Northwest MC/producer is simply cranking out a few spot dates before traveling out of the country again to Australia. He’ll do just around a dozen dates this month, including one with fellow Lightheaded crew member Othello. Be lucky that he’s doing them at all.
The tour dates are below.
Eyedea & Abilities regroup for Appetite for Distraction tour
It’s been three years since Eyedea & Abilities dropped their last album, 2004’s underrated E&A. Since then, both have been relatively quiet. Last year, Eyedea helmed the all-freestyle rap band Face Candy’s This is Where We Were. And DJ Abilities, well…like I said, both dudes seemingly disappeared from the scene.
Last August, the Minneapolis duo performed their first show together in three years, and announced that they were working on a new album. Select audiences around the country will get a taste of the new material when they head out on Appetite for Distraction, a monthlong tour. Supporting acts include Twin Cities prospects Abzorbr and Sector7g.
The tour dates for Eyedea & Abilities’ Appetite for Distraction tour is below.
Saul Williams joins Trent Reznor for “Niggy Tardust”
Last week, Saul Williams made a surprise announcement when he declared that he would release his next album on Halloween. Produced by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! is the spoken-word legend’s third album, and first since his 2004 self-titled disc.
"The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! is the lovechild of Trent and me," says Williams in a press release. "The Niggytardust concept sets me free to do more on stage with costume, etc. than one might expect from a regular Saul Williams show. It allows me to put my theatre training to use. I’ve also thought long and hard about all the discussion surrounding racial epithets etc. and chose this title as a means of furthering the dialogue while also showing how creativity will outlive and outshine hatred of any kind."
Williams will take a page from the Radiohead playbook and sell his album for free or for a $5 donation. But unlike Radiohead — which angered fans by selling a low-quality 160kb version of In Rainbows — Williams will offer high-quality formats such as 192kb, 320kb, and FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec). The 320kb and FLAC formats are only available to those that make the $5 donation. NiggyTardust is on sale at www.saulwilliams.com.
The press coverage surrounding Niggytardust has focused on Reznor’s involvement and its digital sales gimmick, but it may also turn out to be a significant artistic statement, too. Despite his storied history as a sometime actor, published poet, musician and philosopher, Williams has yet to make a full-length album that mirrors his ambitions. With Niggytardust, the third attempt may be the charm.