the stones throw twitter feed has been kind to me today, so i figured i’d share with the rest of you too. yesterday, they shared the super great madlib remix of j dilla’s “the $”. stream and download that below. then, just 20 minutes ago, they tweetered out about a new/unreleased dam-funk track, “beautiful creep”. i clicked over, and even better than the track, i saw that dam-funk will be playing here in seattle at nectar lounge in fremont on december 10th. this event is put on by the homies at reign city and members only, tickets are only $12, and i’ll see you there.

J Dilla – The $ (Madlib Remix) by stonesthrow
Dam-Funk – Beautiful Creep (Unreleased) by stonesthrow

For anyone who was a fan of the early 2000 contemporary soul movement, the name Bilal is hard to escape. He’s collaborated with a slew of popular artist that are commercially and artistically respected (Dr. Dre, Common, Erykah Badu, J-Dilla, and Shafiq Husayn immediately come to mind) in the midst of a career that’s seen its share of peaks and valleys. Bilal, who also happens to be a classically trained jazz singer, recently released his much anticipated second studio album, Airtight’s Revenge, four weeks ago and fans instantly recognized that it had been a resounding nine years since his first proper release. How could such a prolific singer who’s guest appeared on damned near every meaningful urban release of merit over the past decade only be on his second album? The answer is actually a harrowing story and during a recent hour-long interview, Bilal checked in with lastnightsmixtape to chat about new music, what he’s been up to during his assumed “layoff,” his latest inspirations, raising a son with autism, and lot’s more.

And if you didn’t already know, Bilal performs in Seattle this Saturday at Nectar with Xperience, DJ Topsin, and Choklate also supporting the show. Check out the full interview with video and mp3′s spliced in if you’re still trying to figure out if you should go.

You went quite awhile in between studio releases, but I’m sure that doesn’t mean you were unproductive during that stretch. What do most people not know about how you spent that time?

Bilal. A lot of people that haven’t really heard from me in awhile probably didn’t know that I was doing a lot of shows during this lay off. I’ve been with the same band for the past eight years now. We’ve been doing shows off the last major record that got bootlegged a couple of years ago, Love For Sale. So we been gigging in certain markets, but everyone doesn’t know that.
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After grubbing on some crucial Ethiopian food with homie/206 emcee Gabriel Teodros, GT played me this amazing track by Toronto emcee Ian Kamau.

I was pleased to find out Kamau’s obvious love for the T-dot manifests through some amazing youth work with Toronto’s Remix Project, an“arts, cultural and life skills incubator serving vulnerable young people located right in the heart of Toronto”.  It’s dope that dude is so grounded in community, staying level headed even with the co-sign from Canadian heavyweights like K-os and Knaan.

Here’s a video with some beautiful footage of Toronto, off Kamau’s latest mixtape Love and Other Struggles: Volume 3, download the whole thang – and look out for an album from Kamau in the near future.  Over this contemplative banger,  Kamau’s flow evokes jazz horns – smooth, melancholy and urgent – all at the same time.

Since the mixtape is free, think about donating a little scratch toward the Remix Project or your local youth arts programs that are making space for future arts brilliance.

It’s a great day whenever I get to chat it up with longtime Detroit stalwart DJ House Shoes. Although most folks know that Shoes is now located in Los Angeles, he’s still got the D on his back as the ambassador and general of Detroit hip-hop at all times. He’ll be performing in Seattle on Thursday, Sept. 30th at Soul Repair as part of the kick off night for the new hip-hop monthly called Enjoy, so I caught up with him via phone earlier this week. As always, Shoes was ready to talk much shit but also update everyone on his growth since moving to the West Coast, comment on his online popularity, and hit us with some Dilla stories as well.

Let’s talk about the Do-Over. For those that don’t know, what is it? And how did you become a part of it?

House Shoes: I went to the Do-Over the day after I got to Los Angeles, it was the first Sunday in July. I’d never seen anything like that in my life. It’s a day party, and it goes on every Sunday from Memorial Day to Halloween and goes from like 2pm to 10 pm. Sangria all day. Mad good people, and there’s a little bit of water on it now, I’m not going to front. But that’s what happens when you allow regular people into a scene like that. Anyway, they’ll book the best of anybody that’s in town. If Rich [Medina] is in town or Spinna is in town or any of the Djs Djs basically. They come through and rock. They want the best music from the best DJs. Benji B, DJ Scratch, whoever. It’s a great great event. Jamie Strong, Aloe Blacc, and Chris Haycock do a good job of putting it on. They did one in Portland, they did one in Puerto Rico. They’re really just scratching the surface.

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it’s been a minute since i did one of these, so i’m going to give you two for the price of one, which fits nicely with the theme of funky tracks about money-induced stress. first up is the billy paul classic “let the dollar circulate,” from 1975, another period of economic calamity. a couple observations: first, this video really doesn’t flow with the song. yes, the hook is “let the dollar circulate,” but c’mon. if you’re going to use 80s movies about making money (scarface, wall street, goodfellas), don’t leave out trading places! second, you might recognize this track because it’s been sampled so much, most notably by j dilla on the steve spacek track, “dollar.” less notably, young jeezy sampled it on a track called “circulate.”

next up, gwen guthrie’s great track “ain’t nothin’ goin’ on but the rent” gets a chrissy murderbot re-edit. the title pretty much says it all. stream it below, and then right click for the high quality download, courtesy of mr. murderbot himself.

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gwen guthrie: ain’t nothin’ goin’ on but the rent (chrissy murderbot re-edit) – download

So last night my weekend told me it wasn’t ready to settle in  just yet, so I said – okay weekend let’s bounce up off this couch.  I landed at the always all ages, Seattle landmark venue Vera Project and ended up peeping out Javelin, a Brooklyn based duo – comprised of funky cousins Tom van Buskirk, 27, and George Langford, 29. Armed with drum pads, mpcs, a dollar store piano guitar, an electric kazoo and slew of other merry noisemaking tools – Javelin proceeded to rock the modest yet giddy crowd.

The set made me feel alot of things, a few I’ll name here: merry go rounds, mexican ice cream trucks, miami sound machine, that movie batteries not included, kisses, a quechua disco, Herbie Hancock, dancing like a kid at a Chuck. E. Cheese animatronic show,  rainbows, Dilla. It was fun. These guys pride themselves on digging for dollar bin gems and transforming them into that new new. Javelin are signed to Luaka Bop the label of eccentric maestro David Byrne.  You can download the very fresh, very free mixtapes World Midi Classics Vol.2 or Andean Ocean Tape below. Still,  do yourself a favor and earn what! u aint up on this? points by copping the recently released, and thoroughly pleasing full length No Mas, here .

Here is vibrationz, a guaranteed summertime jam off of No Mas.

I either jumped the gun or its very serendipitous that Shake just posted this over at 2dopeboyz at about the same time I was hitting the publish button on the previous post.  Damn it 2db, you’re always staying one step ahead of me!

Anyway.  Y’all already know how I feel about the The Roots’ Dilla tribute, and I’m tired, so I’m gonna keep it short and sweet.  Remember Dice Raw from the good ol’ Illadelph Halflife and Things Fall Apart days?  Yeah that’s him.  And he’s rapping over Dilla Joints.  It’s not the same as the first time they got together, but it’s good to hear Dice Raw rhyming with  The Roots again (sorta).  

Dice, Dilla, Pregunta also features Charles P Bailey, Rick Friedrich, and Yameen Allworld.  Free download link and tracklist after the jump.

I know that this came out back in February, but the blogs were too busy with Dilla tributes around that time for this album to shine properly.  I also realize that a bunch of better-known music blogs reposted this album not too long ago, so if you already downloaded this or saw this elsewhere, my bad – give a brother a late pass.  But if you’re a Dilla or Roots fan (if you’re not a fan of both, close this window and don’t ever read my posts again) and you haven’t listened to this totally free and awesome tribute album yet, you need to do yourself a favor and download this now.

14 Dilla tribute tracks performed by the Roots.  I believe this is what they mean when they say ”unfuckwithable.”  
tracklist

This is one of the chronically slept on Slum Village tracks that more ppl need to know about. “Don’t Fall in Love” is an ill cut all by itself. But the remix version of this track is where it’s at. It’s arguably better than the album version and I damn sure wish more DJs would play it.