De La Soul: 20 Years and Runnin'
De La Soul's 3 Feet High And Rising changed my life when I purchased at a record store in London as a high school student on a class trip. Everyone else was gone, and I went back to my hotel room and digested the music, the skits, the artwork, all of which blew my mind and appeared ahead of it's time still close to ten years since it's release. It's been more than ten years since then, and the album still stands amongst the most innovative. The magic that Plugs 1, 2, and 3 created with Prince Paul was incredible, and seemed unprecedented. That album grew to become the landmark of a movement, and it deserves to be championed as such. Our interview with De La Soul remains one of my favorite moments of the past year, and it too brought on sincere reflection. Hip Hop Official caught up with De La at the L.A. Common and Friends show and put together this nice piece on the group. See it below.
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Eminem Talks Relapse 2, Professes Love For Lamps w/Tony Touch
When not quoting "Anchorman" during his appearance on Tony Touch's 5 years of Shade 45 anniversary show, Eminem was talking about the direction for Relapse 2. The Detroit emcee said that Relapse 2 was done for the most part, with the only thing left to be done being the mixing of the tracks. Em also said that production duties were handled by Just Blaze, and Mr. Porter amongst others and the songs were more emotional and story based. This is a contrast to the '09 release Relapse, which Eminem said was more or less just about spitting. "It's gonna be a lot different than people expect...I went back to the songs that are more emotional driven," he said of the forthcoming album.
Eminem was joined on the show by Alchemist, Paul Rosenberg, and Mr. Porter and also talked about DJ Hero which will feature a deluxe "Renegade" version with goodies from Jay-Z and Eminem, and a few other topics such as getting out on the road. Download and listen to the full clip below, split into three parts. Definitely worth 15 minutes of your morning. Props to YouHeardThatNew.
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RH TV: "Fresh Academy" Video
For the third installment of our Closed Session series, we assembled the team of Chip Tha Ripper, Kidz In The Hall, Mikkey Halsted, and Donnis. The results were outstanding, and what we have is the "Fresh Academy". See how it all went down in the video below.
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Souls of Mischief: Montezuma's Revenge Tracklist/Artwork
Souls of Mischief released the artwork and tracklist for their new studio album, Montezuma's Revenge, which also contains the artistic input of Prince Paul. The group enlisted artist Steven Lopez for a protrait of the group with Paul for the album's front face. The LP is due in stores on December 2nd. Check out the tracklist below.
Anjulie: Personally Speaking
"When you decide to be an artist there is no map of where to go," says Anjulie, the beautiful and beautifully talented singer/songwriter from Toronto. "You're kind of left to fend for yourself, which is a lot of what I still do." So far so good, as the former high school football player (on the boys' team) released her debut-self-titled album in the summer of 2009, and has since had to fend off the accolades coming from critics and fans as well as one of her musical heroes, Nelly Frutado. In fact, Anjulie is often compared to Nelly Frutado because of her style of music, as well as their shared hometown. While some artists hate having such comparisons, Anjulie welcomes them and even enlisted some of Nelly's former musical collaborators to help her craft her own debut.
We caught up with Anjulie while on tour with Shwayze and asked her about Nelly, her football past, the openness of her music and more. She answered all our questions, and you can read the full interview below.
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RATheMC: Trending Topics Mixtape
One of my favorite emcees I encountered while mixing the DJBooth.net mixtape, In The Booth Vol. 2, was RATheMC. Today Z hits us with her mixtape, Trending Topics, which is presented by DJBooth, Mick Boogie and Judah and is mixed by DJ Beat Street. Download it below.
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Royce Da 5'9": "Dinner Time"
Get excited...Busta Rhymes takes on double duty playing mid-verse hype man, although a very selfish hypeman... "We don't share in a recession," Busta tells us...What happened to a friend in need is a friend indeed? Anyway, Busta then spits his own verse, which I'm not even mad at. The song comes off Royce's forthcoming Street Hop LP. Thanks to Mr. Master for sending over.
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Rivers Cuomo Talks Lil' Wayne and Ninja Turtles
In an interview with Pitchfork, Rivers Cuomo talks about Weezer's new album, and does not back down from the Lil' Wayne feature. I can respect a man who sticks to his guns, I just can't respect s***ty music. Again, maybe I am wrong and this song will be the best ever...but I doubt it. Rivers calls the song his favorite on the album and says he first bonded with Wayne over Ninja Turtles:
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