Documentary – Page 6 – Grown Up Rap

Will work for food: Questlove gets animated in a classic story

The aren’t many storytellers in hip-hop better than Questlove. Close to three decades of touring with The Roots and making music with the biggest names in the game have armed Philly’s favorite drummer with a ton of industry stories, and his people at Okayplayer are now animating them for our pleasure.

Watch below as Questo tells the long-running tale of his mission to sample the soul food of legendary singer Patti LaBelle. Chasing the culinary dream to the point of damn near obsession, at one point literally working for food, the messed up situation eventually has Questlove thinking that Patti’s promise of a good feed is nothing but smoke and mirrors. It’s one of the funniest industry stories we’ve heard, delivered personally by one of the nicest guys in hip-hop.

Drool over this new J.Period Limited Edition Box set

We are suckers for a nicely-packaged, Limited Edition box set. When they are done right, they can be beautiful. Expensive, but beautiful.

There have been some great ones on the market this year, including the J Dilla King of the Beats set, which includes music on everything from cassette tapes to floppy discs, all wrapped up in a box that has been made to look just like Dilla’s beloved SP-1200.

Producer and mixtape master J.Period is the latest artist to have his work given the special box set treatment, in celebration of a decade’s worth of mixes that have featured some of the most creative emcees in the game. This one comes with tons of music, plus a portable speaker, glossy booklet and much more, all crafted with care by design studio Good Wood NYC.

We are dribbling with excitement at the prospect of getting our hands on one of the small number that have been made, and we’re secretly hoping that Mr Period might even consider letting us have one (hey, its worth a try). In the meantime, watch the video below for more on how the box set came about.

Watch Oh No sample video games in the latest Rhythm Roulette

The new episode of Mass Appeal’s brilliant Rhythm Roulette series features one of our favorite producers, Oh No. Although sometimes lost under the huge shadow of his brother Madlib, Oh has proved himself to be one of the most consistent beat makers of the past decade, crafting incredible sounds for his own albums, and on classics by Mos Def, Guilty Simpson, Murs, Talib Kweli, MED and many others.

In a twist to the normal process, Oh No visits a video game store to make his three selections, where his hands fall upon Karate Champ, Nascar 99 and NWO/WCW Revenge, all for Nintendo 64 (remember that?).

Back in the lab, Oh No gives each game a play, and seems to have some trouble figuring the controls for the wrestling joint. He then starts working his magic, and before long we have a credible beat, sourcing a loop and various vocal stabs from the games.

Check the video below to hear the end result. All we need now is for his older brother to take up the Rhythm Roulette challenge.

Watch Raiders of the Lost Art, Part III

The latest installment of the PRhyme documentary series Raiders of the Lost Art is out now, with DJ Premier and Royce da 5’9″ inviting us further behind the scenes of their new collaborative project.

What impresses most this time is just how serious both artists are taking the social media and promotion, even going as far as personally setting up meetings with some of the most important companies in the world.

Younger artists know just how important it is to get their shit together across Twitter, Soundcloud and YouTube, but its refreshing to see a vet like Primo at the cutting edge too. Compare that to others from the classic era who seem to think its fine not to have an online presence, and it isn’t hard to figure out why they are fading fast into obscurity, while Premier is as popular as ever. We also get to see highlights from the photo shoot that gave us the dope album cover, again thanks to the perfectionism and entrepreneurial spirit of Primo.

Watch the video below, and buy the PRhyme album from December 9.

Watch Raiders of the Lost Art: Part 2

The second installment of Raiders of the Lost Art is now available. This time the focus is on DJ Premier, with footage of the master at work in the studio. We don’t get to see too much though, as Preem makes it clear he doesnt like to let people know a whole lot about how he works that magic behind the boards.

Adrian Younge also makes an appearance, explaining his involvement with the PRhyme project, and how working with the duo has helped him see his own previous work in a whole new light. See below for the full clip (pun intended).

PRhyme is out next month, and available for pre-order from iTunes in some regions now.

Review: Joey Bada$$ live in London

Lets be really honest for a moment. Most live hip-hop shows are disappointing. Late arrival from the artist, too much crowd hyping and not enough rapping, bad mic quality, short set lengths. We’ve experienced them all, even from some of our favorite acts.

We still had high hopes for the Joey Bada$$ tour, and on the whole it didn’t disappoint when we caught one of the shows in London. The set-up was classic no frills hip-hop: Joey on the mic, with a deejay out back. No more flash or flair required. For a rapper like Bada$$, still just 19 but making the kind of hip-hop that throws back to the classic era, its an environment that suits him well. When the deejay also happens to be Statik Selektah, its even better.

It turns out Joey knows how to rock a crowd too. Full of energy but without the unnecessary and over-the-top swagger of other acts, he lets his music do the talking, giving us proper versions of his biggest tracks.

Obvious standouts included Waves, truthfully one of the finest hip-hop tracks of all time (yeah, we said it), and the DJ Premier produced Unorthodox. There was also the obligatory heartfelt tribute to fallen Pro Era member Capital Steez, reminding us all just how tragic it is to lose a talented rapper at only 19 years of age.

With a decent live show, teaser trailers and documentaries, the hype over Joey’s debut album B4.Da.$$ just keeps on getting stronger. It drops January 20, 2015.

Go behind the scenes with Joey Bada$$ on tour

It’s been a good week for Joey Bada$$ fans. First up was a new cryptic teaser trailer that finally gave us a solid release date for B4.DA.$$. The highly anticipated debut album will drop January 20, 2015, and although full details are yet to be released, its expected to include singles Big Dusty and Christ Conscious, and feature production from DJ Premier, J Dilla and Statik Selektah amongst others.

A new video has also now emerged, documenting Joey as he travels around Europe on the latest leg of his tour. He talks about why he loves performing more than being in the studio, how to give the fans what they want, and the inspiration he’s taken from seeing Jay-Z and other major artists on stage.

We’ve been itching to hear B4.DA.$$ for months and months, and its nice to hear the young Mr Badas$$ stay humble and grounded as he prepares for what will surely at last be his breakout year.

Watch the mini documentary below, and the album teaser further down.

Watch DJ Premier and Royce Da 5’9″ documentary Raiders of the Lost Art

Raiders of the Lost Art is a documentary about Royce Da 5’9″ and DJ Premier’s new group PRhyme, and its pretty damn good. Short but sweet, Part 1 gives us an interview with Primo, talking about how he first got noticed in NYC all those years ago with Guru, and about how he’ll never stop making that boom bap sound, no matter what the younger generation is doing.

Hearing that alone is worth it for us Preem fiends. But even more special are the parts with Royce. He opens up about his alcohol abuse and the effects it had on his kids, including a scene where his shows how his car won’t even start until he’s taken a breath test.

Its a rare insight into the real life of a rapper, far from the fake lifestyle we’ve come to know from so many flashy videos. We see Royce spending precious time with his wife and kids, making sure he doesnt pull into his driveway too fast, and telling his young daughter to go back inside to get a jacket. There’s no posturing and no ego, just a man who works hard to give his children a life that he never had.

Of course, the flick is also part of the promotion trail for the upcoming PRhyme album, which hits stores next month. It’s safe to say we are excited as fuck, and you should be too. Watch Part 1 of Raiders of the Lost Art below, and keep them eyes peeled for the next installment coming soon.

Watch Pyramid Vritra on Rhythm Roulette

Rhythm Roulette is one of the best hip-hop video series we’ve ever seen, and we can’t get enough of the rush of new episodes that have arrived in the past few weeks. The latest producer to don the bandana and try their luck is Pyramid Vritra (aka Hal Williams, one half of Odd Future affiliates The Jet Age of Tomorrow), who’s impressive debut album Indra dropped on Stones Throw Records earlier this year.

As always, the trip to the record store throws some curve balls, but Pyramid just about manages to make it work. Watch below to find out how it turned out.

Pyramid Vritra’s Indra is out now.

Listen to a Time is Illmatic mix from Pete Rock

Time is Illmatic is showing in cinemas around the world right now, and to celebrate, Pete Rock has blessed up with a new Nas mixtape.

As the producer of one of the classic album’s finest tracks (The World is Yours), there’s few people more qualified than Pete, and he does a fine job reminding us of just how groundbreaking Illmatic was. Not that we’d forgotten of course.

Check below for the full stream, and see here for our review of the Time is Illmatic documentary.

Visit the Time is Illmatic website to find out if the film is showing in your town. It is also available from iTunes in some regions.