[Album] JAMLA: "JAMLA Is The Squad"
Years ago, while in college and attempting to make an initial name for myself in the writing game, I somehow found myself interviewing 9th Wonder from my tiny apartment bedroom in Iowa City, Iowa. Since then, 9th and his team, JAMLA, his record label/hip-hop team that has made a distinct effort to bring soul and knowledgeable lyricism back to hip-hop. Acting as a sort of sensei for the JAMLA family, 9th has been known to put new artists through what has been described as "hip-hop boot camp," helping rappers and signers work on writing while opening producers minds to new influences and ways of creating different sounds. Last night, 9th Wonder, Rapsody, Khrysis, Halo, Terrence Martin and the new addition of Add-2 come together on JAMLA Is The Squad, a compilation project of tracks from the label. Joining the squad on the release are the likes of Pete Rock, BJ The Chicago Kid, Blu and Talib Kweli who help craft a boom-bap-ish sound that pays attention to what 9th calls the "twenty year loop" in music. Check out the latest from the sample genius and his band of talented artists, streaming here below and check back to RH tomorrow for more from the JAMLA team!
[RH Interview] Conspirator
Conspirator is a band of chance, really. The project came together when The Disco Biscuits' Marc Brownstein and keyboardist Aron Magner as a way to explore the burgeoning and seemingly endless world that was electronic music, back in 2005 after Sam Altman left DB at that time. Allowing for a more free electronic experience, the pair established the side gig as a way to add and remove musicians at a whim to create a range of sounds. The duo has been playing regularly with Chris Michetti of RAQ, and KJ Sawka of Pendulum and last year released the head-thumping EP Unleashed before heading out on a slew of national headlining dates under the banner of "The Dynasty Tour." The crew rolls through Chicago's Concord Music Hall as they continue to roll through the polar vortex as the musical journey they started years ago takes them from coast to coast throughout this year. I recently got to catch up with Brownstein while the band was just getting out on tour, check out or conversation on the later pages.
Cherub Announces North American Tour with ProbCause
Photo by Bobby Reys
Breakthrough dance music duo Cherub made waves last year with a sound that paired '80s aesthetics, modern-day dance music motifs, and some inspired falsetto to create one of the most exciting sounds to come out of last year as they rode the success to several festival dates, including North Coast where I was able to catch up with them. It was during that summer that the pair linked up with eclectic Chicago hip-hop artist ProbCause who joined them on the majority of their headlining tour that ran through the end of last summer and fall. Today, Cherub announced a monster North American tour that kicks off in Nashville on March 1 and runs through May 3 where they wrap things up in Baton Rouge, LA. Jordan Kelley and Jason Huber handpicked ProbCause and Carousel to join them on the massive North American journey as well, so expect these shows to really be poppin'. Full dates available here below.
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Chance The Rapper: "Interlude (That's Love)" Live
Back in November, Chance The Rapper took a few days off of his headlining "Social Experiment" tour to play a pair of sold out shows at The Riviera in his hometown of Chicago. The dates, sandwiched around Thanksgiving were a milestone in the young artist's career, a full year almost to the day since he had first played his first sold out show at The Metro in support of his upcoming Acid Rap tape that eventually launched him into rarified air. The performances at The Riv were a quintessentially hometown experience that oozed Chicago from the get-go with Stunt Taylor opening things up with a run through of his street banger "Fe Fe on the Block" before turning the show over to Chance and his band, made up of Donnie Trumpet, Nate Fox, Greg Landfair and the tour's Music Director Peter CottonTale who re-arranged the tracks from Acid Rap to fit subtly into a live atmosphere. 2013 was the craziest year to date of young Chancelor Bennett's life, and he wrapped it up appropriately, as you can see in the video below, shot by Bryan Lamb (FragDFilms) and myself at the first show. It's a little late, but these days who can get enough Chance?
[Video] RDGLDGRN: "Doing The Most"
RDGLDGRN is a decent band that doesn't like vowels. The Pharrell-backed project dropped a video for their most recent single, "Doing The Most" the other day, getting a little bit caught up in the Grammy hysteria of the weekend. The Washington D.C.-based group first came to national attention with their song and video for "I Love Lamp" that garnered them a heavy online following and caught the ear of the likes of Dave Grohl and Pharrell, who has had his hand in the most recent production to come from the band. "Doing The Most" is off the band's self-titled project released in September of last year, check out the video streaming below.
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Grading The 2014 Grammy Winners
So, back in December, around the time the Grammy nominations were officially announced, I wrote a post titled "Grading The Grammys" where I gave my two cents on what I thought of the nominees, who I thought should win and who I thought actually would win. The music industry equivalent to filling out an NCAA tournament bracket in March, I watched yesterday as my picks were scuttled fairly quickly. Using the mentality that it is better to recognize many rather than few and spread an award rather than smother one artist with them, my choices for Grammy winners was a bit different from what actually went down last night in LA. Read on to see who I thought would win, who actually did and how that makes me feel, here below.
Record of The Year
Nominees:
- "Get Lucky" - Daft Punk & Pharrell Williams
- "Radioactive" - Imagine Dragons
- "Royals" - Lorde
- "Locked Out Of Heaven" - Bruno Mars
- "Blurred Lines" - Robin Thicke Featuring T.I. & Pharrell
Actual Winner: "Get Lucky" - Daft Punk & Pharrell Williams
My Prediction: “Royals” – Lorde
Breakdown: I read somewhere in the lead up to this year's Grammys that the award show could very quickly devolve into a sort of Lifetime Achievement Award for Daft Punk, who did have arguably the song of the year in "Get Lucky" which seemed to be on an endless loop throughout the Summer. "Royals" certainly had its own run, but looking back it was somewhat ridiculous to think she could overtake Daft Punk.
[Video] 2014 Grammy Awards Performance Recap
While the awards may have left some excitement on the table, the performances of the 2014 Grammy Awards certainly did not disappoint. Jay-Z and Beyonce started things off with a rousing performance of their track "Drunk in Love" from her recent release that got the energy going in the Staples Center. Lorde performed her 2013 seminal track "Royals" to a certain degree of minimalism, sporting a darker new look and Pharrell and Daft Punk teamed up with none other than Stevie Wonder for a rendition of "Get Lucky" which went on to win record of the year and Kendrick Lamar linked up with Imagine Dragons for an inspired performance than skipped across songs, opening with "m.A.A.d City" which had at least two in the front row out of their seats. Alas, all the showmanship was thus in vain to the almighty Macklemore & Ryan Louis whose Teflon-esque evening continued into their live performance as they trumped the rest of the field by hosting 33 gay marriages onstage with Madonna. There's a lot you can do to create entertainment, but I have to say there's not much more than that. We rounded up the whole lot of Grammy performances and have them streaming here below for your viewing pleasure. Check them out and stay tuned to RH for continuing Grammy coverage.
Beyonce & Jay Z: "Drunk In Love"
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Imagine Dragons & Kendrick Lamar: "Radioactive"
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Lorde: "Royals"
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Pharrell, Stevie Wonder & Daft Punk:
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Katy Perry & Juicy J: "Dark Horse"
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Taylor Swift: "All Too Well"
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Keith Urban & Gary Clark Jr. "Cop Car"
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Pink: "Try"
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Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Mary Lambert & Madonna 'Same Love"
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[Video] Chance The Rapper & Jeremih Debut New Song
Photo by FragDFilms
Last night in Chicago, Chance The Rapper held a secret show for students of DePaul University at Lincoln Hall in the city. A sort of off-the-cuff decision to do the show, Chance and crew were on a whole other level, taking things to a sort of unplugged feel as Chance was joined onstage by "The Social Experiment," the name for his backing band of Peter CottonTale, Nate Fox, Nico Segal and Greg Landfair, as well as Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart, who performed songs from Acid Rap and 10 Day with ease. Chance, whose manager is a graduate of DePaul, brought Jeremih out not once, but twice, to unveil songs that have yet to properly hit the 'net. In the video below, the pair perform the upcoming single. Live, Jeremih sounded so clear you would have thought he was being mixed and mastered on the spot. Jeremih and Chance also teamed up for the yet-unreleased track, unveiled at The Riviera in November as well. Check out the latest song from two Chicago natives, below.
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