On his new single, “Due West,” Los Angeles/West Covina rapper, Trek Life, explores the history of LA and the black migration to California with the help of up and coming DC producer, Oddisee. “I talked to my family and the parents of my friends to hear the stories,” Trek said in a press release. Trek [...]

Compton rapper, Kendrick Lamar, stirs up 2010 with his latest ‘based on a true story’ clip for Malcolm X sampling “Ignorance is Bliss.” The track will appear on his upcoming mixtape, O.D., due September 15, and clocks in at less than 2 minutes. The kid barely takes a breath. Compton State of Mind. (RR)

2010 got a proverbial smack in the face this morning with Sufjan Stevens‘ All the Delighted People EP, which is, according to Sufjan, an ‘homage to the Apocalypse, existential ennui, and Paul Simon’s “Sounds of Silence.”’ Wow, actually…yeah. That especially sums up the EP’s 5th track, “The Owl and the Tanager”, which I feel ill-equipped [...]

I am a bit late onto the Gangi bandwagon, but the Los Angeles band’s cover of The Cure’s “Fire in Cairo” most definitely falls into the ‘better late than never’ category. I came across their track, “Commonplace Feathers” (from their 2008 debut, A), with a mention of their show last night at Bootleg Theater on [...]

Batida is a Portuguese band made up of team Fazuma, producers of Afro centric radio shows, documentaries, art, and concerts. Sounding like somewhat of a cross between El Guincho and Buraka Som Sistema, the semba/kuduro influenced “Alegria” comes from Batida’s debut album, Dance Mwangolé, available on iTunes.
The video (likely also directed by Fazuma) features some [...]

There is very little information online about unsigned New York City artist, Sali; a conspiracy theory/sample loving dude with many mentions of M.I.A. and the Sri Lanka genocide in his website bio. The Stereogum comments section confirms that M.I.A.’s verse on “Toldya” is from the Arular bonus track, “M.I.A.”. I’d like to offer my own [...]

Phil Ade is from the DMV, which I just learned stands for the D.C. metro area (D.C., Maryland, Virginia, I get it). The young rapper is set to release a new mixtape called The Letterman, presented by Okayplayer and hosted by Philly producer, Don Cannon (50 Cent, Young Jeezy, Fabolous, etc). Above is the tape’s [...]

I debated whether or not I was going to post up Vampire Weekend’s Twilight: Eclipse soundtrack contribution, “Jonathan Low,” on account of the fact that the only way to hear it was via a very low quality BBC 1 radio rip. But, then I realized that it was new Vampire Weekend and it was excellent. [...]

Heads start boppin’ like, “Who’s this?”
Harlem rapper, Vado (via Cam’ron’s new group, The U.N.) is for real serious going to be a big deal. Above is the first official single/video off of his upcoming Slime Flu mixtape. Vado is indeed “Large on the Streets” in this clip shot by FM15 Films over an infectious beat [...]

Holopaw’s recent release, Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness, is not a debut, but it might as well be. The Florida band relocated to Philadelphia after two releases on Sub Pop early in the 2k’s, with singer John Orth (also of Isaac Brock’s Ugly Casanova), and guitarist Jeff Hays reforming the band with new members.
The album (released [...]