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ProHipHop Launches Hip Hop Business News Blog
ProHipHop (www.prohiphop.com) launches as the first hip hop business news blog tracking developments across industry sectors. Hip hop business involves a wide range of products and markets that go far beyond urban music and fashions. Clyde Smith gathers hip hop related business news from such industries and subsectors as music, movies, apparel, mobile content, automotive,…
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Why isn’t KanKick as big as Madlib?
Kankick Traditional Heritage (Smoggy Day) I don’t know why KanKick isn’t on his way to being a super producer of Madlib or J.Dilla –esque proportions. He emerged out of the same Oxnard camp as Madlib, Lootpack etc and some beats on Traditional Heritage reflect this musical commonality – manifested in the dustiest of crate digging,…
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Jneiro Jarel Bio
THE HISTORY OF THE MAN THEY CALL JNEIROLive and direct out of the Brooklyn borough on down to Philly, JNEIRO JAREL has slowly been digging his way up through the hip-hop underground for 15 years. At the age of 5, JNEIRO JAREL’S family moved out of the Brownsville section of Brooklyn . His mother was…
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What’s Wrong With People?
Going against the grain of this music-oriented blog, the events of yesterday are deeply significant enough to warrant a small break from regularly scheduled blogging. I’ll keep it short – What’s wrong with people? and more specifically, Americans? In a heinous case of short-sighted, small-minded, right-wing ignorance, Americans decided to vote for Bush. Something is…
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Five Corners Quintet Bio
It may be of no surprise that a band should release a few vinyl singles that filter to key tastemakers to critical acclaim. That they should receive praise from an ever-increasing underground scene, and that the hype surrounding them escalates beyond a core. Indeed, that sales of those singles should quickly reach over 12,000. But…
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Troubleman "Time Out of Mind" (Far Out Recordings)
For those not already familiar with the work of Mark Pritchard, AKA Troubleman, the album artwork for Time Out of Mind might suggest a disc of campy lounge music with a ’70s feel. All yellow and turquoise linear patterns and bubble-esque writing, it might be trying to suggest a futuristic vision, but comes off a…
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Jennifer Johns Is Fire!!!!
Hailing from the Bay Area’s hotbed of new soul and hip hop talent, Jennifer Johns is a new talent of immense potential. I think her Bay Area compatriot Goapele was the last new singer I heard that was this exciting. And I think Johns has potential for the same kind of grass roots-driven success that…
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McNeal & Niles – "Thrust"
Cratediggers don’t sleep on this…”Thrust” from McNeal & Niles is a re-issue from Chocolate Industries. Orginally released in 1979, it’s a collection of warm, funky, jazzy tracks that have to be heard. The vinyl sounds sweet……It’ll also serve as a reminder as to where a lot of downtempo producers these days are culling their influences…
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Benji B – 1Xtra
Anyone catch Benji B’s “Deviation” show last week on the UK’s BBC Radio 1Xtra? It was pure fire with Wajeed from Platinum Pied Pipers/Bling 47 being interviewed and playing exclusive PPP tracks from the forthcoming album – due out in Feb ’05 on Ubiquity. Shame they don’t seem to archive the tracklistings on the site.…
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Colossus Bio
BACKGROUND TO AN URBAN JAZZ MASTERPIECE It all started after Charlie (6’ 8”) Tate graduated from the London School of Furniture. Approached by the infamous Paris based Big Cheese Records to form a funk band, and Big Cheese All Stars was born! 2 singles, an album and several extensive stints of touring and supporting the…
