Audio Absinthe - Music » Talib Kweli

DUB KWELI

Spencer — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 02:23:39 +0000

Max Tannone is the producer behind the JAYDIOHEAD and MOS DUB projects. His latest project is DUB KWELI. Check it out…

Dub Kweli: Produced by Max Tannone (August 2010)

Buzz Aldrin releases “Rocket Experience” with Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli

Spencer — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:35:42 +0000

The second man to ever set foot on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, with help from Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli, released a hip hop single called “Rocket Experience.” It’s clearly a joke but, nonetheless, the song is being sold here on iTunes and all proceeds go to charity. Funny or Die released the video for the behind the scenes footage of the making of the song. Snoop, Talib, and the special guests are hilarious but the whole project still begs the question- how did Buzz Aldrin get involved with this? It’s FunnyOrDie.com, the king of online comedy. The king because of the way they’ve been able to use celebrities to reach the target online audience. As long as celebrities like Snoop and Talib keep making videos for FunnyOrDie with celebrities like Buzz Aldrin, the comedy website will be able to compete for popularity with Youtube. Special thanks to AGM who told me about the video almost a week ago when it was first released. Check it out below.

Still Tryin’ to Stay Alive

AGM — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:59:34 +0000

The Long Road Back for John Forte -Posted by AGM - It has been over ten years since Wyclef Jean introduced John Forte to the world with the unforgettable lyric “ah huh ah huh, John Forte, grab the mic and won’t you sway it this way…” “I’m more than just a rhymer,” Forte proclaims – his distinctive voice smoothly contrasting the remade Bee Gees beat. And that has certainly proven to be true.

Forte is not your average rapper. Born in the notoriously tough Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, the young musician was awarded a violin scholarship to the prestigious Phillips Exeter academy in New Hampshire (fellow alumni range from Gore Vidal to Mark Zuckerberg). At Exeter, Forte rubbed shoulders with New England elite, making friends who would play an important role in his life many years later.

After graduating, he was introduced to Wyclef and the Fugees by Lauryn Hill and garnered a grammy nomination for writing and producing songs on the multi-platinum album The Score. Forte released two solo albums after the Fugees broke up, 1998’s Poly Sci and 2002’s I, John, but neither was well received commercially. It was an incident in 2000 however that threatened to keep the singer/songwriter out of the studio and off the stage for good. In 2000, John Forte was arrested at Newark Airport after accepting a briefcase containing $1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine. The struggling rapper was charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to distribute. He was convicted and sentenced to the mandatory minimum 14 years. Through friends from Exeter, Forte befriended Ben Taylor – the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon. For a stretch in the late 90’s, the two were so close that Forte even lived at Simon’s house in Martha’s Vineyard. After his arrest, Carly Simon put up $250,000 of his $650,000 bail money and began lobbying on his behalf. Teaming up with Senator Orrin Hatch, Simon pushed to repeal the mandatory minimum drug sentence and to pardon Forte. On November 24, 2008, President George W. Bush commuted John Forte’s sentence with a presidential pardon. Four weeks later, the rapper was a free man. I caught Forte onstage with The Roots last Wednesday where he sang four songs and played guitar. The introspective artist crooned about his prison sentence and how it changed him and finished with a cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang, Bang” (video below). It has been a long road for him, but it’s good to see his intelligent songwriting back on stage. He’s working on a new album; first single is below as well as a collab with fellow Brooklyn-native Talib Kweli.

Reflection Redux – Talib Kweli and Hi Tek Reunite

AGM — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:40:02 +0000

- Posted by AGM -

From Dave Chappelle’s opening introduction impersonating Nelson Mandela, Train of Thought, the 2000 debut album from Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek (aka Reflection Eternal), is nothing short of ground-breaking. From the first bass drop, the marriage of Kweli’s Brooklyn metaphors and Hi-Tek’s raucous Midwestern beats hydrated fans in thirst of originality. Nine years after Train’s release, the innovative duo is back in the studio and was back on stage in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village for a four set reunion. Choosing the celebrated Blue Note jazz club – a seated only, wait service style venue – for their long awaited return was undoubtedly a curious choice. But in last Tuesday night’s opening show, Reflection fans were treated to an unplugged encore of epic proportions. The legendary jazz spot, once host to the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Ray Charles, was hardly prepared for the onslaught that Tek, Kweli and their five-piece band unleashed on the small, but well versed crowd – one that included Kweli’s own father. “I don’t know if we can get that aggressive in the Blue Note,” the playful Talib laughed after lifting the table-seated crowd with a bumping rendition of the head banger ‘Move Something.’ After opening the set with a track off their forthcoming album, Reflection brought fans back to the days of Y2K with jams like ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’, ‘Memories Live’ and ‘Eternalists.’ The nine year layoff certainly left the pair fighting off some rust. Kweli excused some botched lyrics by deferring the negative attention to his beat-making counterpart, who “needed to download his own albums on iTunes” in order to prepare for the show. Cobwebs aside, Reflection Eternal hit their stride on the classics before launching into some new jams for the ages. Talib’s self proclaimed “country cousin,” Bun B of UGK, bucked the Yankee crowd with his baritone Texas drawl on ‘Set it Off’, a surefire new single that brought the nostalgic crowd back to ’09. The duo closed with a never before performed song, ‘Back Again,’ featuring Kweli’s Idle Warship collaborator Res – a soulful Philly beauty with Erykah Badu-like vocals and a Rihanna-like bob. Sure to be Reflection’s first single, ‘Back Again’ demonstrated all that the pair has to offer…soulful rhythms, drum banging beats and the thoughtfully robust lyrics that only Kweli can provide. Train of Thought is one of the best Hip-Hop albums of the decade. Though Kweli received more commercial success and popularity with his Kanye produced later albums, true fans will always recognize this revolutionary debut with Hi-Tek for setting the bar so high. It’s good to see the Brooklynatti duo reunited and bringing back sweet memories…

2009 Reflection Eternal featuring Bootsy Collins – Internet Connection

2000 Reflection Eternal – The Blast

I Still Like 90′s Style Hip Hop

Spencer — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:38:20 +0000

I heard Royce Da 5’9’s new, leaked track “Shake This” from his upcoming album due to be released in 2009. The song is produced by DJ Premier who sampled, “Holy Thursday”, my favorite David Axelrod song, in making the beat. And I love the new track. Like a lot of new music, it sounds like it could have been released 10-15 years ago- but it wasn’t, it’s brand new- and I love the track.

I used to think it was disappointing when new music sounded like it could have come out 10-15 years ago. I thought that kind of music wasn’t as valuable or enjoyable as more original, evolved music. But there are a bunch of songs like “Shake This” that I enjoy as much as, if not more than, newer and more up-to-date, even more creative music.

Dela is a Montreal based hip hop producer who is clearly a product of 1990’s hip hop. I first learned about him in October when I came across a Talib Kweli collab called “Long Life”. And I’ve been a fan of his style of jazzy, somewhat abstract hip hop since before he was nearly perfecting it. And I just recently came across his mixtape Atmosphere Airlines Vol. 2. His album is called Changes of Atmosphere and the tracks are pure ‘90’s hip hop. His beats are heavily influenced by jazzy hip hop producers like Shaheed-Muhammed with ATCQ, Large Professor for Nas and Main Source, and Pete Rock with CL Smooth. Not only do the songs sound like they could have been released 10-15 years ago but they also sound a lot like 90’s underground hip hop because the beats are so jazzy and abstract. So even with this is new music sounding like underground hip hop from the 90’s- something that might not seem appealing to those of us who actually loved underground hip hop back in the 90s and don’t think producers could go any further with the style- the music is still great, very enjoyable, and definitely worth more than just a listen or two.