Camp Lo are finally about to release a new project, including beat work from their long-time collaborator Ski Beatz. Ragtime Hightimes will hit stores on May 19 courtesy of Nature Sounds, and today we’ve been gifted first single Bright Lights. Watch below, and let us know what you think.
MF Doom announces ‘Mask of the North Star’ with Flying Lotus
UPDATE: So it looks like the whole thing was a hilarious April Fool’s joke. Thanks for playing with our hearts, fuckers. Part of us STILL thinks it might be real though. Stranger things have happened.
Its no secret that we wet our pants anytime there’s new music from MF DOOM, and so its safe to say the news about an upcoming album with Flying Lotus has us very excited. The collaborative Mask of the North Star album will drop May 5 on Lex Recordings, with a host of guest appearances. Incredibly, the list includes El-P, and Quasimoto, which is surely a good sign for that long-awaited new Madvillain project. The coming together of Fly Lo and DOOM also explains why they are set to share the stage together in London on May 5, a show which we are happy to say we’ll be at. In the meantime, he’s the only bit of music from the new album we’ve had so far; Masquatch.
Watch Ad-Rock Give Love Advice to the Kids
Beastie Boy Ad-Rock is the latest rapper to be asked to drop relationship science for the Ask a Grown Man series. Watch the hilarity below. Its for the kids, yo.
<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/123755720″>Ask a Grown Man: Adam Horovitz</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user8507443″>Rookie</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
Bars in the Booth with Ras Kass
The latest episode of the DJ Premier series Bars in the Booth features Ras Kass, and the Cali vet is on absolute fire. Watch the drama below, and go get that Ras Kass/Apollo Brown album out now.
Lil Dap – ‘Code of Silence’
Those classic Gang Starr Foundation days may be long gone, buy Group Home member Lil Dap is still making music, and returns here with a dope new track produced by Lewis Parker. Watch the video for Code of Silence below, and keep an eye out for more from Dap coming soon.
Masta Killa – ‘The Return of the Masta Killa’ feat Capadonna
Wu-Tang members Masta Killa and Capadonna have joined forces for new track The Return of the Masta Killa, and its a banger. The beat is by the always-reliable PF Cuttin, and you can listen below.
Ruste Juxx & Kyo Itachi – ‘Fuck Ruste Juxx’
Ruste Juxx has worked with some of the hardest rappers in the game, releasing boom bap head-nodders for years. He’s back with more, this time hooking up with Kyo Itachi for a collaborative project named Hardbodie Hip-Hop, and you can watch the video for album track Fuck Ruste Juxx below.
Diamond D – ‘Ace of Diamonds’ feat. Masta Ace
If you haven’t checked out Diam Piece from Diggin’ in the Crates legend Diamond D yet, stop sleeping. He’s now graced us with a video for the track Ace of Diamonds, which happens to feature another stone-cold legend, Masta Ace (see what they did there, with the name of the track? Nice). Watch below, and go buy that album.
Thoughts on the De La Soul Kickstarter
The recent news that De La Soul have launched a Kickstarter campaign to get their new album out is part awesome, part sad.
Its awesome for obvious reasons. De La are one of the greatest hip-hop groups of all time, and have never released a bad album. No matter how it ends up making its way to us, there’s little doubt that the new album will likewise be worth it.
Its also for obvious reasons why its sad. The group has been on a noble anti-record label crusade for years, which has earned them respect for way more than just their music. But in all honesty, when a group as stellar as De La cannot get a budget for a new album, the music business has really become a fucked-up place.
It’s true that Kickstarter is one of the many new ways that music now gets to market, and its a process that is incredibly liberating and empowering for both the artist and the fan. As listeners, we get to be part of something we love, and are even rewarded for taking part.
It’s this community spirit that De La are pushing with their campaign, highlighting how this is a collaborative project between them and us fans, with some impressive items for those that pledge anything from $5 up to an eye-popping $10,000 (too late if you were thinking of splashing out that ten grand – its already gone).
For the artist, a successful campaign means getting their music out, usually in the hope of getting noticed on a wider scale, or in De La’s case, re-noticed. The sense of fan empowerment and of sticking a middle finger up at the industry only holds so much weight though, and it would be perhaps naive to think De La would likely have chosen this route had a label been willing to give them the cash.
In the campaign trailer the group looks genuinely passionate about this being a fan project, and they have certainly been the champions of new innovation and doing whatever they can to get music to us, from long legal battles, to recently giving away their entire back catalog for free download.
But despite all of the above, its hard to shake the feeling that we shouldn’t have got to this point at all.
We’ve already donated to the project, and as we write this, the funding target looks to be comfortably in sight. We encourage you to pledge money too, and support these three legends of hip-hop.
Click here to read more about the project, watch the video, check out the rewards, and pony up your cash.
UPDATE: De La Soul managed to smash the funding target in a matter of just hours. Congratulations to the group. We can’t wait to hear it, and get our copy on vinyl.
Pete Rock – ‘One, Two, A Few More’
The legendary Pete Rock will soon be dropping PeteStrumentals 2; the follow-up to his classic 2001 beat tape album. It’s set to be released on the insatiable Mellow Music Group label, and you can listen to a taste of what we can expect with new track One, Two, A Few More.