start the day off Right w/Zap Mama, Kweli & Common

Man, my 2 year old daughter LOVES this song Yelling Away by Zap Mama w/Kweli and Common... I noticed her singing along (in broken toddler babble) recently in her baby seat...


A few years ago, me and khalid were tapped to do artwork for DJ Balance's The Re-Mixtape hosted by Posdonus and released by Spitkicker. That didn't work out, but I did get a copy of the record, which was stuffed top to bottom with dope collabos and remixes from the Spitkicker collective, which included such hip hop luminaries as Blackstar, De La Soul, and the mighty MF DOOM. Yelling Away is immediately followed by this Flying High Remix of the Blackstar classic Respiration, which is produced by Pete Rock, and guest stars Black Thought of the Roots. The two songs together soothe my daughter like David when he played the harp!

Anyways, I have listened to Yelling Away a million times, but I had never before heard of Zap Mama, a Belgian group founded and led by Marie Daulne, whose mission is to bring cultures together through music.
"What I would like to do is bring sounds from Africa and bring it to the Western world," says Daulne "because I know that through sound and through beats, that people discover a new culture, a new people, a new world."

"The voice is the original instrument." says Daulne. "- The primary instrument. The most soulful instrument is the human voice."

"I learned from my mother to be strong and to stay positive in any kind of situation; that's the best weapon to survive." says Daulne. "That's what I learned, and this is the main message I pass into my music..."
word. Like I said, I never heard of Zap Mama before today, but I'm definitely a fan now! I think I'm gonna cop Ancestry in Progress, the album she made while she lived in New York between 200-2004. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the music!

holla!

-samax.

ghettoManga.com

comics. hiphop. news. art. culture

Rakim + Black Thought + John Legend + JPeriod = DOWNLOAD THIS

Do I really need to pitch this to you? I mean... REALLY?


This is so funky... it's not even FAIR! anyways, this is off the Wake Up Radio mixtape... a little info below

New York, NY (February 10 , 2011) – In anticipation of an award-winning evening for John Legend & The Roots’ WAKE UP! album (nominated for 5 Grammys at Sunday’s 2011 Grammy Awards), J.Period & Truelements Music are pleased to present WAKE UP! RADIO – a star-studded mixtape collaboration with Columbia Records’ multi-platinum singing sensation, and the hardest working Late Night band on the planet!
Hosted by The Roots’ own Black Thought, WAKE UP! RADIO pays tribute to the legacy of soul music that paved the way for WAKE UP! and imagines a world where mainstream radio transmits music with a message. Employing an all-star cast of musical contemporaries (including John Legend & The Roots themselves), J.Period dissects, remixes and rebuilds the original recording sessions from the WAKE UP! album in an unprecedented manner, defying the conventional wisdom of what a “mixtape” can be—producing a full-fledged remix album in the process. The result is a treasure trove of powerful new music, produced and remixed exclusively by J.Period for WAKE UP! RADIO.
Scheduled for release today, February 10, 2011 , WAKE UP! RADIO will be offered as a FREE DOWNLOAD in celebration of WAKE UP!’s 5 Grammy nominations, and will also be available as a Limited Edition gift-bag giveaway at The Roots’ Grammy Jam on Saturday, February 12 in Los Angeles, CA—consistently one of the hottest tickets on a weekend overflowing with events. J.Period will also be on hand in Los Angeles to perform at The Grammy Jam, DJing to open up for The Roots’ headlining performance.
Adding to the historic nature of this mixtape release, J.Period will also release an exclusive Digital 12” on Tuesday, February 15, featuring a history-making collaboration between John Legend, Black Thought of The Roots, and hip hop luminary, Rakim. The track, entitled “In the Ghetto (Wake Up!)”, produced by J.Period, is an homage to the Eric B. & Rakim classic “In The Ghetto”—which hearkens back to a time when hip hop and social messages went hand in hand.
Additional featured guests on WAKE UP! RADIO include Common, Q-Tip, Late Night host Jimmy Fallon, Nigerian songstress Nneka, Somali sensation K’NAAN, Def Poet Mayda Del Valle and more, in addition to never-before-heard music from Black Thought and John Legend. Also look out for J.Period’s history-making “Our Generation” Remix, reuniting hip hop legends Pete Rock & CL Smooth, which was originally released online in November, and is also featured on WAKE UP! RADIO.
“When this project began, I was excited to explore the legacy of soul music behind the WAKE UP! album,” explains J.Period, “but I had no idea of the level of access and creative freedom I would be granted by John Legend & The Roots to tell that story. The result is not only something that traces musical history lines from artists like Marvin Gaye to contemporaries like John Legend—but something that adds to that history: brand new collaborative tracks as if Marvin & John recorded together. It’s simply unprecedented on a mixtape. And I am particularly proud of the fact that all of it speaks to the true power of music to carry a message, and have a positive impact on society, and on people’s lives.”
“These songs [are] so relevant now,” says John Legend. “On most of them, you wouldn’t change a lyric [from the original version.] The passionate election [in 2008] represented change and hope, and awakened a new generation of activists who had never been inspired before. [Fast forward to today:] the intense brew of possibility [and] poverty, optimism and despair, activism and unrest, global connectedness and intractable global conflicts is the reason WAKE UP! exists.”
Available today, WAKE UP! RADIO celebrates the powerful impact of John Legend & The Roots’ WAKE UP! album (Columbia Records), and calls on listeners who haven’t heard the Grammy-nominated album to do so now. For more information about John Legend and WAKE UP! please visit: http://www.johnlegend.com.

 click here to get a copy of the song, or click the pic below for the whole joint.

All hype aside, this is some uncut dope for your system. Definitely worth the space on your hard drive!

holla!

-samax.

ghettoManga.com
comics. hiphop. news. art. culture

Ghostface + Black Thought = DOWNLOAD THIS!

Do I really need to sell you a free song by Ghostface of the mighty Wu-Tang Clan with Black Thought of the legendary Roots crew?


Ghostface’s new record Apollo Kids (with guest shots from Joell Ortiz, Busta Rhymes, Redman, Method Man, GZA, Raekwon and more) is due out December 21st courtesy of the fine folks at Def Jam. Click here to have it delivered  to you, or look for that joint in stores Tuesday!

holla!

samax.

ghettoManga.com
comics. hiphop. news. art. culture