Friday, February 18, 2005
Sa-Ra So Glorious?
The next sh-t? Image courtesy Ubiquity Records
Two weeks ago, in the spirit of trying to not just blog about the same sh-t everyone else did like I had complained about, I decided I wanted to give a little shine to a group, Sa-Ra Creative Partners, that I was surprised hadn't gotten as much blog love (like this group or this artist) as I would have predicted.
Literally the day I was set to do it, my man Taj threw something up on them on his site. Then a few days later Trouble Crunk did something on them too. Now I was paralyzed, if I did a post on them too, would I just look like a bandwagon jumper? At least I had already charted one of their joints on my "Hot Ish" list in advance of Taj's post but what was the point if I chimed in now?
Well f-ck it, I still think cats need to get up on them and, while the hippest of the hip hop bloggerati is already knowing (or starting to know), maybe some other readers who look to this site for the advance word on what's next might discover these cats.
So if you've seen these cats' name around and were wondering what all the fuss was about, let me put it like this: if you're the type who f-cks with Jay Dilla, Love Below era Outkast, Amp Fiddler and (at a stretch) N*E*R*D, you need to investigate the future-funk of this group. Here's a few links to help you get started:
- Read their biography.
- Peep their EP for ABB Soul featuring "Glorious"
- And the "Double Dutch" EP for Ubiquity.
- Roots Manuva "Too Cold (Sa-Ra Remix)" (via Spine mag)
(And for the record, I really was on this before the bandwagon hit my block.)
Ah man, Amerie's album is not dropping until May 3rd according to her interview on Power 105 this morning. Good news though, despite the rumors, there will be 12"s of "1 Thing" at retail which I got direct from folks who would know at Sony. The video looks redonkolous, who has a link to the full thing yet? (Here's a link to an mp3 of the audio 'cos I know folks are still looking for that too.)
Artists who read this site: do you want to have your next album mixed by a platinum and gold-selling mix enegineer? F-ck with my man Troy Hightower who even makes it easy for you with his Mix by Mail™ service. Check his credits (Redman, Ginuwine, De La Soul, Janet Jackson, Lil Kim, LL Cool J, D'Angelo, Common, Big Pun and more), do you need to know any more?! He even has a blog so get at him. Just cos you got a Pro-Tools rig doesn't mean you know how to make records sound hot. (related: other links for aspiring artists here)
Also industry-related: Vote 4 DJ Chela - she's been supporting my Bathgate record so show her some love.
My Caribbean peoples, stand up. Soca music finally gets respect from the music industry? (related from The Voice: is dancehall being muzzled by the gay activist movement?)
Funkdigital has been on fire recently, go check it.
Travesty - part one
Travesty - part two
Will Smith and his peoples should have been smart enough to know that if they tried to get hip hop blog love, he was gonna get clowned. I still got love for duke as a Black man doing him (no homo) and you gotta respect his gangsta but his new single "Switch" is a waste of a (pretty) good (B-more breaks inspired?) beat. The concept for his album cover is not bad though.
Finally: it's Dre Day and everybody's celebratin' (well, maybe not everyone). Either way, happy birthday Dre. Take the day off and then get back to bangin' out them classics for Detox 'cos we need that. (mp3 of the forever-classic "Dre Day" courtesy cdzlimited.org | related: peep the snippet, that may or may not be on Detox, in the Hot Ish list at #3 in the sidebar menu)
