Tunde Olaniran’s Second Transgression is the sophomoric offering in a five part series of his afro-futurist dance music. The EP opens up immediately with Olaniran’s heated appeal for personal transformation via “2.0.” Punchy cymbals, a Dilla-like synthesizer and a mini cacophony of electro sounds guided by his hip-hop, punk and avant-garde aesthetic promises a new [...]
M.O.P.’s club exclusive hip-hop is an uber-masculine hybrid of the mosh pit and the streets. For 19 years Lil’ Fame and Billy Danze have made music that could hype any sporting event and excuses itself from commercial aspirations despite “Ante Up’s” brief with dalliance with MTV’s audience. Sparta maintains the ground they have always stood [...]
Black Up is Shabazz Palaces’ third installment of Afrofuturist dissonance that started two years ago when Ishmael Butler reinvented himself as the emcee Palaceer Lazaro. Looking something like Dr. Funkenstein’s son, an Afrika Bambaataa devotee or a Rammelzee offshoot, Lazaro defends his pro-Black stance with his longstanding jazz influences shaped into hip-hop effusions. By song [...]
Avery Sunshine’s unmitigated soul music is part working class memoir, spiritual know-how and the universal fancy with love. The Chester, Pennsylvania native who makes Atlanta her home base quickly draws up comparisons to Jill Scott because of their use of jazzy R&B formations and mundane language poetically elevated by the emotional nuances of their voices. [...]
Sa-Ra’s world of trippy and transcendental R&B seduces the brain with pages from funk’s historical past footnoted with global audio-memories. Om Mas Keith, Taz Arnold and Shafiq Husayn are a singular voice fixated on an axis of cosmic funk, jazz and R&B that makes them mavericks among the scene of dogmatic soulsters. Disparate experiences with [...]
Jean Grae’s terse expressions supplemented by 9th Wonder’s narcotizing beats is the blissfully compatible pairing that is Jeanius. After vexed threats of retirement, previous leaks of the album on the net and obstacles getting samples cleared Jeanius finally received an official release. Grae’s Blacksmith label owner Talib Kweli did what the west coast has done [...]
