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Love from DaWh@t Collaborators,
Ben, Raph & Anu
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Monday, August 10, 2009
HOW FLY!
As I mentioned in earlier posts #5 to Watch For Curren$y and #3 to Watch For Wiz Khalifa were working on a mixtape and it finally dropped! It actually was out yesterday but I was at Rock The Bells! His the jump for tracklist and download link.
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Ryan Leslie Makes a Hit
My homie Chris Barajas turned me to this guy named Ryan Leslie. He went to Harvard at the age of 15 and after graduating went to Julliard to pursue his music career. Above is a video of him making his song, Addiction starting with drums ending with vocals. Then after the jump is the official music video of that same song. He is extremely talented and I look forward to hearing more music from him.
Rashid Hadee - 808s and Hadee
Unfortunately I do not know a ton about this guy other than he produces and raps on all his own stuff. I got a mixtape for yall where he redid the beats from Kanye's Latest album, 808s and Heartbreak, and then raps over his new stuff. I really like it and think you should check it out, much more to come today so stay tuned!.
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Thursday, August 6, 2009
Emmanuel Jal
Emmanuel Jal is a former child soldier and current musician from Sudan. Jal became a soldier for the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) after his father joined the SPLA and his mother was killed by government soldiers. He was liberated from his SPLA days by Emma McCune, who adopted him and took him to Kenya. While in Nairobi he found music and used it as a way to release all the suffering he had seen and experienced.
He listened to a lot of American Hip Hop, but ended up creating music that was completely his own. His sound is unquestionably African and his lyrics don't compete with the lyrically word play we see from the other (mostly American) artists we typically feature on DaWh@t. Yet, there's still something really powerful about Jal's music and his story.
Jal has a recently released documentary about him called War Child and is working to create a school for children in Sudan to be called Emma Academy, in honor of the late McCune. His latest album, also called War Child, was released last year and features this song titled 50 Cent. The track goes along with Jal's disappointment in American Hip Hop, which he feels glamorizes issues that hurt children, rather than help them rise above them. In particular, it is a criticism of 50 Cent's 2005 video game 50 Cent: Bulletproof which featured him and the G-Unit possee out to seek vengence against those who tried to murder him.
The chorus tells Curtis, "50 Cent, I aint hatin' on ya" though the whole song is clearly a major jab at his principles. Didn't stop Curtis though, who released a sequel to the game last February entitled 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand.
Like I said, his sound is so unique and so African that I doubt he will ever really catch on any American Hip Hop scene--be it mainstream or underground--but he is definitely talented, and an amazing story. While you may have never heard of him he has gotten a good amount of attention on the world music scene. He's also clearly an activist, and a speaker for the Make Poverty History campaign.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Rafael Casal - The Grinch's Lesson in Bay Area Slang
Rafael Casal (a.k.a. Mr.Getback) is a Bay Area artist all over the arts world. He's mostly known for his slam poetry, being a two time BNV Poetry Slam Champion and a three time cast member of Def Poetry. He was recently featured in Bill Ayers' Handbook of Social Justice in Education and co-wrote a Hip Hop theatre piece. It's pretty clear that this is not your average emcee.
His first LP, As Good As Your Word, came out last year, and the newest one, Monster, drops on halloween. All three DaWh@t writers are Bay Area natives, so I just had to post this. It's quality though, so take a listen. Baydestrians, enjoy! Everyone else, think of this as an educational moment. Props to Chase for sending this on to me!
Saturday, August 1, 2009
61xt6en & Townez
These are two rappers from Newport News (aka Bad News) VA. Imma do a more in depth type post later on but in the mean time, here is some real good listening. Hosted by the famous Tapemasters Inc (worked with Kanye, Andre 3000 as well as others) and production from Best Kept Secret (works with Wale among other rappers). Download link and tracklist after the cut.
Sidenote: Really sick cover art!
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