Raashan Ahmad always comes with a nice, jazzy hip-hop vibe and a thought-provoking message. This video for “Peace”, taken from his recent album The Push is well-executed with a combination of live action interacting with animation. Here’s the official blurb from Om Records’ main hip-hop dude Jonathan McDonald:

“I couldn’t be more juiced to announce that Raashan Ahmad’s new video for his track ‘Peace’ (produced by Stro of the Procussions) has finally dropped and is ready and waiting to be consumed by the hip-hop loving public. Throughout his new album, “The Push,” Raashan echoes the themes and sounds of the roots of hip-hop music, intertwining social and political trials and tribulations with personal struggles and discovery. The ‘Peace’ video’s vintage vibe runs smoothly together with Raashan Ahmad’s thoughtful lyrics and classic beats. With the world in a current state of panic, Raashan is preaching peace on an individual and a global level. Combining the creative forces of director Eric A. Leppo and the passion behind Raashan’s lyrics leads to the creation of this dope video. When describing the collaboration process Leppo has said, “We realized we were both independently trying to get some similar messages across so it made a lot sense to combine forces through this project. To do justice to the topic of peace in our war- filled times, I could see from the start this would need to be a dense four minutes of animation visually and ideologically. After listening to the song and talking with Raashan about it, I came to see the song as an appeal for peace to the world, and at the same time as also a huge thought provoker, doing everything from prodding us to think about why someone might say “Peace!” instead of “bye,” to making us consider the general concepts of peace and conflict in and among different countries, classes, religions, time periods, races, species and beliefs.” There is no doubt that the song and video do the message of ‘Peace’  justice!”

Raashan Ahmad ‘Peace’ Video from Om Records on Vimeo.

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I love me some Zion I so today was a double-whammy day for me. New video in the email Inbox, and a promo of the new album The Takeover in my real-life mailbox. Haven’t had a chance to check that out yet, but in the meanwhile you can take a look at the first single from it below.

For more info, check out:
http://www.myspace.com/zioni
http://www.golddust-media.com

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Two of my faves, Ohmega Watts and Jneiro Jarel team up for this video “Eyes and Ears” taken from the former’s album Watts Happening. The album came out last year on Ubiquity, but this is just now being released as a digital single, which features an additional mix from Clutchy Hopkins. You can get a wee taste of that mix on Ubiquity’s site.

Ohmega Watts Feat. Jneiro Jarel - Eyes And Ears from Ubiquity Records on Vimeo.

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The new Foreign Exchange album Leave It All Behind dropped last week, and it is definitely a must-have. The video for the first single “Daykeeper” featuring Muhsinah just debuted on Okayplayer, and here it is for your enjoyment…

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The very dope Muhsinah has just dropped a digital release The Oscillations: Sine which looks like it will be followed by The Oscillations: Triangle. According to the discography on her site she released an EP called The Oscillations back in 2005 so I’m not sure if this is 100% new material, or perhaps an extension of that previous work. In any case it’s now available on iTunes, Emusic and the like so go checkit. Here’s a little taste - check out the video below for “Construction”.

www.muhsinah.com

Construction from Rxlngr on Vimeo.

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The wonderful Jazzanova are set to release a new album on October 21st - Of All The Things on Verve. It’s set to be a hot one, featuring collaborations with Phonte, Ben Westbeech and more. Check the tracklist below. Props to Soulbounce’s Butta who was amongst the first to get the word about this on Twitter.  No props whatsoever to Verve for their absolute lack of promotion on this release.

01. Look What You’re Doin’ To Me (feat. Phonte)
02. Let Me Show Ya (feat. Paul Randolph)
03. I Can See (feat. Ben Westbeech)
04. Lie (feat. Thief)
05. Little Bird (feat. José James)
06. Rockin’ You Eternally (feat. Leon Ware & Dwele)
07. So Far From Home (feat. Phonte)
08. What Do You Want? (feat. Joe Dukie)
09. Lucky Girl (feat. Paul Randolph)
10. Gafiera (feat. Azymuth & Pedro Martins)
11. Morning Scapes (feat. Bembe Segue)
12. Dial A Cliché (feat. Paul Randolph)

Get a taste of what’s in store in this EPK:
JAZZANOVA “Of All The Things” EPK 2008

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[credit to TreesForBreakfast, cos that's where I found this.]

This is a Nike-sponsored video of Kissey Asplund’s “Silverlake” track - note the prominent shots of the Nike Air Max 90. According to Mr. Dee Phunk, this vid is part of a series where Nike profiles select European musicians. Anyway the song is pretty cool and the vid gives you a little glimpse into the life of Kissey. And if you ever get to see her perform live, you should absolutely check her out. She did a brief set at Strictly Social back in April and was totally captivating.

And here’s the mp3: http://www.zshare.net/audio/199005176e336b21/

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I’m a big Conya Doss fan. I think she’s one of soul music’s most overlooked talents. She puts out consistently great, classy and authentic soul music. Still is her most recent album (I believe her fourth) and this is the new single from it, “What I’d Do.” Check the video below, and then head over to ConyaDoss.com to scoop up copies of her CDs.

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Adult-oriented animated programming from Adult Swim can be found late night on the Cartoon Network. They have teamed up with Chicago’s Chocolate Industries to provide a pretty dope free digital album featuring hip-hop and electronic beats provided by the likes of Cool Kids, Diverse, Via Tania, Proton, Push Button Objects and more. You can find all the info, download link etc here.

Listen to the tracks in the player below.

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These guys are doing an amazing thing….check the video, ’nuff said.

peaceacademyinc.com

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