Kickmag Urban music and culture. Questions for Tamara Harris? blakcitrus@gmail.com

Janelle Monae performed “Tightrope” a few nights ago at a fundraiser for Barack Obama at the University of Chicago and the president enjoyed her show.

Smokey Lane is an R&B singer from Compton, CA making his way through the underground. “Stay With Me” is the first single from his upcoming release Make Out Music 2.0. The album is a collection of remixes from his debut Make Out Music that came out last year. You can get Make Out Music 2.0 [...]

Koncept has a video for the title track of Soulspazm release that you can get on iTunes.

De La Soul’s Plug 1 and Plug 2 are following up their Goon Mixtape and releasing an album for their First Serve project in April with a self-titled official debut. The Queens, New York natives have used their experiences in Plug 2′s mother’s basement as inspiration. They even made a skit to illustrate those times. [...]

Odd Future Records announces March 20th as the release date for The OF Tape Vol. 2 LP featuring all new music from Tyler, the Creator, Hodgy Beats, Frank Ocean, Leftbrain, Domo Genesis, Mike G, Syd the Kyd and The Internet. The group will soon announce a 10 city national tour for the month of March [...]

Los Angeles – The Little Miss African American Scholarship Pageant celebrates Black History Month 2012 with this year’s event slated for be held Sunday, February 12, 2012, 4:00 p.m. at the Wishire Ebell Theater, 4401 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles. The longest running pageant for little African American misses, the scholarship event has a history [...]

Funk saxophonist Jimmy Castor died yesterday at the age of 64 of unknown causes in Las Vegas. Castor is famous for his 1972 hit singles “Troglodyte (Caveman)” and “It’s Just Begun.” The New Yorker started out as a doo-wop singer in the late ’50′s and would replace Frankie Lymon in The Teenagers. He released 13 [...]