Wednesday, August 24, 2011

GTRONICRADIO: Hip Hop In Your Face 24/7 365

Are you craving Real Hip Hop 24/7 365  no commercials, no corny ass dj talking all over the song, no program director preprogrammed playlist. they just go hard in the crates banging all the classics joints from the 80s, 90s, 00s and todays progressive underground hip hop. They also provide you with a playlist of what was just played example (artist name (or group)  a picture of the album cover and the year it dropped)  and they let you know whats cued up next. check it out just click on the link http://www.gtronicradio.com
















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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Rock The Bells 2011 Update




Hip-hop festival Rock The Bells set off its 2011 series of concerts Saturday at the San Manual Amphitheatre in San Bernardino, California to a crowd of nearly 40,000 hip hop fans. This year’s show followed up with last year’s classic album’s theme with acts like Cypress Hill performing their 1993 sophomore album Black Sunday which B-Real, the lead rapper of the group, says were the first to perform an entire album.
“We performed it at Smoke Out 2 years ago which is where Chang pretty much developed the idea of doing full blown albums.” Says B-Real “We were the first to do it and he started doing Rock The Bells like that because people were very receptive to it.” Mos Def and Talib Kweli gave hip hop heads a good dose of rhyme flows from their classic album Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star.
Rapper Common, who hit the stage sporting a classic Isaac Hayes look with bald head and full scruffy beard, juiced up the crowd with cuts from the Be CD. Although a headlining act, Common experienced the event with the heart of a fan.
“This is a show that me as a hip hop fan I love to just experience and to be around and see. You have artists that are my favorite artists and then they are doing albums that are some of the most classic albums you’ve heard in music.”
Despite the main stage presenting some major heavy hitters such as Erykah Badu, a good chunk of the crowd was held captive earlier in the day at the 36 Chambers Stage which was produced by RZA. Performances by the Wu Tang Clan and groups like Black Moon who performed the “Enta Da Stage” album; Souls of Mischief’s ’doing 93 Til Infinity and Mobb Deep reuniting on stage for “Infamous” made it very difficult for fans to decide which of the 3 stages to gravitate toward to see their favorite hip hop act.
It was when Nas hit the main stage that nearly all in attendance gathered in one place to experience “Illmatic” performed in its entirety. Closing the night out was Lauryn Hill who seemed just a bit fixated on her band but none the less intrigue her audience with songs from her award winning classic The Mis-education of Lauryn Hill.

Common Preforming "I Used 2 Love Her" @ Rock The Bells 2011

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Featured DJ Of The Week: Mathematics




Bio


Mathematics (a.k.a. Allah Mathematics) is a member of the Wu-tang Clan family; he is the official DJ for Wu-Tang Clan as well as one of the top in-house producers for Wu-Tang. He is the man the group members turn to when they want that classic Wu-tang sound. Mathematics is also the inventor of the world famous Wu-Tang "W" logo. Born Ronald Bean in South Side Jamaica Queens he was exposed to hip hop at an early age. One of his older brothers would bring home tapes of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Treacherous 3, Cold Crush, The Force M.C.'s and more, he would also stay up till 2 or even 4 in the morning waiting to listen to the "World Famous Supreme Team Show" on WHBI, one of the few places and time that hip-hop could be heard on the radio. Mathematics with his brothers and sisters would put 2 "boom" boxes together to make copies of park jams and live hip-hop performances. The future producer originally thought of himself as an M.C. with the influences of Kool Moe Dee, Spoonie Gee, Mellie Mel and others. Later on the realization came to him that it was the DJ who controlled the tempo and flow of everything in hip-hop and after witnessing one of South Sides finest DJ’s Grandmaster Vic at a park jam he realized that is what he wanted to do. By 1987 Mathematics was throwin' his own park jams with his crew in Baisley Projects home of the notorious "Supreme Team". A few years later one of his brother's would hook him up with future Wu-Tang member and co-founder of Wu-tang the "GZA" then known as "The Genius".

The GZA was on the Cold Chillin'/Warner Bro.'s label and was in search of a DJ, but this was only the beginning of the Mathematics-Wu-Tang association. One day GZA invited Mathematics to a video shoot that his cousin was doing out in Queens, to Mathematics surprise GZA’s cousin was actually someone he had already known... the RZA then known as Prince Rakeem, the video was "Ooh We Love You Rakeem", at that time the RZA was on the Tommy Boy label. When Wu-Tang was formed Mathematics was called upon to create the Wu-Tang logo because of his graffiti skills, he also became Wu-Tang Clans official DJ, he would later go on to create the GZA’s logo and design the GZA’s"Liquid Swords" album cover.

Mathematics would begin producing in 1996 learning a bit of production skills from the RZA, but the main lesson that he would receive from the RZA would be to "do your own thing", so he did meshing together the sped-up soul samples, chopping them up into tiny pieces then reconstructing them to create his own soulful loops, a style which has since been imitated but never quite duplicated. With his technique he pushed out Wu-Tang classics such as "Cobra Clutch", "Wu-Banga 101" & "Mighty Healthy" off Ghostface Killah's "Supreme Clientele" album, as well as "Publicity" & countless other songs for the GZA to RZA’s "Must Be Bobby”. His catalog runs extensive within the Wu-Tang family providing songs like "That’s That Sh*t" & "Fire In The Hole" for the Method Man, Redman "Blackout" album to a string of Wu-Tang hits and classics from Wu-Tang Clan albums such as songs like "Thing Things", "Handclap", & "Rules" among many.

In 2003 Mathematics would release his 1st full-length album "Love, Hell, or Right" Independently on his own Quewisha label in conjunction with High Times (magazine). All songs on this album were produced, arranged, & mixed by Mathematics himself. In 2004 he would write the theme as well as do the entire score for Fox Television's comedy show "Wanda at Large" staring Wanda Sykes. In 2005 he would follow up his critically acclaimed album with another critically acclaimed album "The Problem" which featured the entire Wu-Tang Clan including O.D.B. on the Quewisha Recordings/Nature sounds label. 2006 left Mathematics touring vigorously with a "Wu-tang Reunion Tour" for O.D.B. & a number of Method Man tours, but he still managed to put out his 1st full-length instrumental album "Soul of a Man", as well as 2 tracks on the Method Man "4:21 The Day After" LP. One of the songs was called "Everything" featured Inspectah Deck And Streetlife, the other song "Dirty Mef" was co-produced with veteran producer Eric Sermon and featured the late great O.D.B. himself.

2007 starts the year off with Mathematics releasing his 1st full-length documentary movie "The Beat Kings", where he is a producer went out and interviewed other producers. The DVD boasts an all-star cast of producers such as The RZA, Marley Marl, Pete Rock, DJ Premier, Kanye West, Just Blaze, Swizz Beats, Trackmasters, Havoc of Mobb Deep... just to name a few. Mathematics has also earned a spot on the highly anticipated Raekwon's "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx PT2" due out September 8th 2009.

 You can also catch up with Mathematics on the Footprints in Hip Hop Tour, DJ'n of course for MethodMan & Redman.






Mathematics' first real exposure to the nuts and bolts of production came late one night when he attended a session where he witnessed RZA construct a beat from nothing. The track would eventually develop into "Ice Cream" from Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. RZA inspired Math to follow the Wu-Tang, giving him advice on the nuances of hip hop production over the coming months and years. In 1996, Mathematics dove head first into production, at home, in between heavily scheduled tour dates and rigorous road travelling.
His first track, "Fast Life" featuring Ghostface Killah & football star Andre Rison, made it on to the NFL Jams compilation. Though this track faded into obscurity somewhat, it would lead to several more collaborations between Mathematics and Ghostface; Math also began to produce for many other Wu-Tang members and affiliates, including several tracks on GZA's second album Beneath The Surface as well asMethod Man's Tical 2000: Judgement Day, Inspectah Deck's Uncontrolled Substance and Method Man & Redman's Blackout!. Eventually he was to produce for the Clan as a group, with "Do You Really (Thang, Thang)." This was the only track on their 2000 album The W not to be produced by RZA, and then on 2001's Iron Flag he contributed "Rules".
In 2003, Math made the jump into the TV world, as he produced the main theme and all original music for the short lived show "Wanda At Large," which starred Wanda Sykes and aired on the Fox Network. During this time and in between continuous touring, Math would start work on his first solo full length project Love, Hell Or Right. Completely mixed, arranged and produced by Mathematics himself, Love Hell or Right was ultimately released in fall of 2003 on his own Quewisha Records label in conjunction with High Times Records, and it went on to scan 30,000 units.
As well as featuring rappers from Math's home borough of Queens, Eyes-Low and Buddah Bless, Love Hell Or Right featured appearances from all the Wu-Tang Clan members except GZA and the then-incarcerated Ol' Dirty Bastard. Mathematics soon signed to the popular independent hip hop label Nature Sounds (home to Wu-Tang colleague Masta Killa as well as MF DOOM) and released his second albumThe Problem in 2005. This time, the entire Wu-Tang Clan appeared, including a posthumous appearance from Ol' Dirty Bastard. As well as working on his solo albums, Mathematics has continued to contribute beats to many Wu-Tang releases, including the debut albums from Masta Killa and Streetlife.
 video clip of Mathematics going in on the 1s & 2s

Production Credits
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Friday, August 19, 2011

Got Listed In This Weeks Party & Bullsh*t via Nashville Scene

Party & Bullsh*t: This Week in Nashville Hip-Hop [Openmic]

POSTED BY SEAN MALONEY ON FRI, AUG 19, 2011 AT 11:53 AM


* All right, before I bounce, there's a shit-ton of shows coming up. This Saturday nite we've gotDroppin Science, DJ Ghost Dogg's new residency/open-mic night over at Cafe Coco starts@9pm-1am open mic (cipher) 12am-1am



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Thursday, August 18, 2011

Featured Producer Of The Week : Madlib





Otis Jackson Jr. (born October 24, 1973) in Oxnard, California, known professionally as Madlib, is a Los Angeles-based DJ, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, andmusic producer. Known under a plethora of pseudonyms, he is one of the most prolific and critically acclaimed hip hop producers of the 2000s and has collaborated with myriad hip hop artists, including The Alkaholiks, Mos Def, De La Soul, Ghostface Killah, Talib Kweli, A.G., MF DOOM (as Madvillain), and the late J Dilla (as Jaylib). Madlib has described himself as a "DJ first, producer second, and MC last,and he has done several projects as a DJ, mixer, or remixer. Madlib has been an influence on an upcoming generation of producers and musicians, many of whom prefer Madlib's abstract styles.

Madlib's first release under the guise of Quasimoto, titled The Unseen, was in 2000. The album was met with critical acclaim and named by Spin Magazine as one of the top albums of the year. Madlib (as Quasimoto) was also named as Hip Hop Connection's Newcomer of the Year in its annual readers poll for 2000. The distinctive high-pitched voice of Lord Quas is attained by playing the original beat at a slow speed, recording the vocals over that slow speed, then speeding the vocals along with the original beat back up to its original tempo. Furthermore, some of the samples that are sped up and slowed down include Madlib's own voice (primarily) and Melvin Van Peebles recordings.
Madlib was born in Oxnard, California to musician parents Otis Jackson, Sr. and Dora Sinesca Jackson. He was raised in Oxnard, and currently works in Los Angeles. He began making music with the rap group Lootpack in the early 1990s. After his father started an independent label Crate Diggas Palace (CDP) Records in 1996 to promote Madlib and his CDP crew, including younger sibling Oh No and released an EP "Ill Psyche Move," Lootpack caught the attention ofPeanut Butter Wolf, founder of the Stones Throw Records label. They released two singles and a full-length album on the Stones Throw imprint in 1999. Madlib also worked with rap group Tha Alkaholiks for several albums.




Early life and career

In 2001, Madlib took a turn away from traditional hip hop music, releasing his first Yesterdays New Quintet LP, Angles Without Edges. Yesterdays New Quintet is a Jazz-based, hip hop and electronic-influenced quintet made up of four alter egos or fictional musicians played by Madlib: Ahmad Miller, Monk Hughes, Malik Flavors and Joe McDuphrey; as well as Madlib under his real name, Otis Jackson Jr. Madlib has continued to record other albums under the different guises of Yesterdays New Quintet members, including 2002's tribute to Stevie Wonder, Stevie; as well as "solo" albums by the various members, such as Monk Hughes' 2004's tribute to Weldon Irvine, A Tribute to Brother Weldon, Joe McDuphrey Experience. He also created the pseudonym Sound Directions to create the YNQ-like band's "debut" album The Funky Side of Life.
The first album under the name Madlib, released in 2002, was a collection of old dub reggae tracks from Trojan Records, and was titled Blunted in the Bomb Shelter. The second, Shades of Blue was released in 2003 and is a remix of Blue Note Records.[3] This album features original Blue Note recordings, some remixed and resampled, and some replayed by Madlib, as well as rapping by M.E.D. aka Medaphoar.

Popular collaborations


His first collection of original (previously unused) hip-hop instrumentals Beat Konducta Vol 1-2: Movie Scenes was released in March 2006, and on New Year's Eve, a digital release Liberation with Talib Kweli was made public for free download for the first week of 2007. In August 2007, Beat Konducta Vol 3-4: Beat Konducta in India was released, an instrumental hip hop album containing songs sampling the music of India.The 2005 Quasimoto album, The Further Adventures of Lord Quas was accepted well and continued the Quasimoto tradition of using vocal samples from Melvin Van Peebles. This was followed by a YNQ album called Sound Directions: The Funky Side of Life, marking his first collaboration with session musicians.
Yesterdays Universe completed the cycle of releases by Yesterdays New Quintet and introduces a new collection of artist names created by Madlib: The Jazzistics, The Young Jazz Rebels, Suntouch, The Jahari Massamba Unit, Kamala Walker & The Soul Tribe, The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble, The Yesterdays Universe All-Stars, The Otis Jackson Jr. Trio, and The Eddie Prince Fusion Band. This album also would mark the first collaboration between Madlib and Brazilian jazz artist Ivan "Mamao" Conti under the band name Jackson Conti.
Percee P's first album, Perseverance, entirely produced by Madlib, was out in September 2007. Some other records are supposed to come out such as the Supreme Team album (with Karriem Riggins), as well as a solo album on BBE Records. It has been reported that Erykah Badu made some new songs over Madlib's instrumentals, and that he would work on a project with Sa-Ra. For years, rumours of Madvillainy 2 andJaylib 2 have circulated, but no information has surfaced, besides one new Madvillain song on the Stones Throw Records compilation Chrome Children in 2006.
On October 29, 2007, Madlib made a rare public appearance on BET's Rap City, alongside collaborator Talib Kweli.[6]
Madlib produced Erykah Badu's second single from her New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) album, "The Healer". The song formally debuted on Gilles Peterson's BBC Radio show in January 2008.
In May 2008, Conti and Madlib released a full album of Jackson Conti material, entitled Sujinho.
In September 2008, Stones Throw released a limited box set called Madvillainy 2: The Box, containing the long awaited Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix. It has remixes of the first Madvillainy album and the songMonkey Suite, originally on the Chrome Children compilation, a One Beer (Drunk Version) 7"-single, the Madvillain demo cassette, a T-shirt and a comic book.
Madlib's BBE "Beat Generation" Album WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip was released in September 2008.[7]
Madlib's third two-volume Beat Konducta album was released in early 2009. Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6: A Tribute to... is a 42-track piece dedicated to the late J Dilla.
In 2009, he produced "In Search of Stoney Jackson", a whole album for the Los Angeles band Strong Arm Steady, which was out physically in the beginning of the following year. At the end of that year, it was said that he would start an imprit called "Madlib Medicine Show", half based on unreleased original material, half based on mixes. This project consists of one record being dropped every month for the whole year 2010, making it 12 differents records, including 6 original albums and 6 mixes.
In 2010, a collaboration with Detroit rapper Guilty Simpson, called OJ Simpson, as well as a disc of original tracks and remixes being the first volume of the Madlib Medicine Show series, was out.
The beginning of this year also saw 2 other releases of his jazz imprint Yesterdays Universe, as 2 new projects, one being the band Last Electro Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble (which already dropped the Summer Suite and the Fall Suite before) with the record "Miles Away", and Young Jazz Rebels with the record "Slave Riot".
He also collaborated on two tracks on Erykah Badu's "New Amerykah part 2 : Return of the Ankh".
It is believed that he is currently working on the 3rd Quasimoto album, the 2nd Madvillain album with MF Doom, a project with Karriem Riggins in a Jaylib type of collaboration called Supreme Team, as well as other jazz records from the Yesterdays Universe imprit, following by his collaboration with his younger brother and fellow producer/mc Oh No forming the super duo "The Professionals"

Associateprofessionally as Madlib, is a Los Angeles-based DJ, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, andmusic producer. Known under a plethora of pseudonyms, he is one of the most prolific and critically acclaimed hip hop producers of the 2000s and has collaborated with myriad hip hop artists, including The Alkaholiks, Mos Def, De La Soul, Ghostface Killah, Talib Kweli, A.G., MF DOOM (as Madvillain), and the late J Dilla (as Jaylib). Madlib has described himself as a "DJ first, producer second, and MC last, and he has done several projects as a DJ, mixer, or remixer. Madlib has been an influence on an upcoming generation of producers and musicians, many of whom prefer Madlib's abstract style










This was around the time when Yesterdays New Quintet came out. For yallz that don’t know, the man is a genius. He is every fictitious player in that quintet. He is also both the high voice and low voice rappers in his band, Quasimoto and he is everything in all his other projects too. Dude is more prolific than Prince.
1. How does the music of others affect your own?
sometimes i hear great music, sometimes i hear wack music. the great music influences me in subconscious ways – i might pick up a piano style from steve kuhn and not even know it. the wack music pushes me away and leads me to create music that doesn’t sound anything like it.
2. What current producers do you consider the most influential? The most innovative?
i dig jay dee, he’s real dope. his sound is everywhere now, he’s both
influential and innovative. of course, i check for dj premier. he’s one of the all time greats.
3. Do you feel people read too much into your music?
sometimes, especially with the quasimoto album. i read so many crazy
reviews of that record – but for real, i was just trying out some weird ass idea.
4. What artforms go best with “beats” (music videos, live dance
performance, etc.) hmm, that’s a tough one. i tend to think “smoking trees,” an artform that people rarely see as such.
5. I realize that the names of the individuals that are attributed to each instrument on the album are fictitious, and it’s really all just you….so here goes.
a. Do you record any of the instruments live and if so, do you cut pieces of a live performance and loop it to sound like a sample?

all of the instruments, besides the drums, were played live by me.
b. What do you do to the instruments to get your own sound (i.e. what effects proccessors do you
use and how important are they in your recording proccess)?
well, the drums are sampled (i assume you’re talking about ynq here), i
chop them into small pieces and tap them out live. but as to the rest of the instruments, i just try to eq them as well as possible in my digital board.
6. What programs do you use for mix down?
i do everything straight into my roland 1680.
7. Do you put more energy in any one of your alter egos, more so then any others? Secondly, do you have a favorite alias?
hard to say – the quintet takes a lot of my energy and quas has been
getting jealous. i gotta watch my back. my favorite alias is probably lord such – that’s one ill ass nigga.
8. Trane or Miles and why?
miles ’cause he was around long enough to try his hand in almost all the
jazz eras – and he was ill in all of them.
9. How did you get started making the kind of music that you do?
really, i think the music started me.
10. Do you know who you are…or just who you can be?
when i wake up in the morning, and i start recording, it’s like a moment
of clarity. my day begins and ends with music. everything that i am, or can be, is tied up in the process.

Madlibs Body Of Work







Madlib is definitely one of the most interesting figures in Hip Hop! His creativity is amazing, whether as producer/beatsmith/remixer/emcee/dj. He linked up with so many projects of many different genres. There is the jazz colaboration with Blue Note, the result is the absolutly ingenious 'Shades Of Blue'. The 'Blunted In The Bomb Shelter' project, where he selected old tracks from the Trojan Records catalouge. The collaborations with MF Doom and J Dilla also awesome results of Madlib's creativity! His creative spectrum goes from Electronic over Jazz, Funk/Soul and Reggae to Hip Hop. He's open minded for any kind of good music........DJ Ghost Dogg
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