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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Bilal‘s first album in 9 years, Airtight’s Revenge, is set for release on September 14th via Plug Research.  Some blogs are saying that this track will not be on the new album, but some blogs are saying that it will be.  At this point, I don’t think it really matters.  Its free and on the internet.  Just enjoy this shit.  It’s smooth.  Props to Nottz for the production.  I’m definitely feeling this more than the Bilal/Shafiq Husayn collabo that Nottz produced for Shafiq’s LP, Shafiq En’ A-Free-Ka.  Just sayin.

Last night while listening to DJ Shannon’s set on KEXP, one of the best songs she played was Quadron’s “Pressure” and it’s been stuck in my head all day.  It’s not often that a Danish music group lands on my music play list but Quadron is the truth. The band’s self-titled album dropped last month here in the U.S. on the increasingly impressive Plug Research label. Check out the video for “Pressure” below. It’s one of the best singles I’ve heard in 2010.

This podcast (mixtape, podcast, it’s all the same) was mixed by Garth Trinidad to promote Shafiq Husayn’s (of Sa-Ra) upcoming album, Shafiq En’ A-Free-Ka, due out soon on the Plug Research label.  The mix includes cuts from:  Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, King Tee, Jurassic, John Legend, Sa-Ra, etc.  It’s nice.