The End is Here: Straight No Chaser Final Issue(edited)

September 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Straight No Chaser Final Issue

Well the rumors are true, and the final issue of the great music magazine: Straight No Chaser is out!! We posted about this a while ago, but did’nt want to believe it. Now seeing the cover, says it all. You better cop it, before it goes on ebay.

The issue mentions artists such as Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Soul Rakkas Crew, Yo Majesty, El Michels Affair, and Trackademics.

Who will step up in its place, or can anyone fill these shoes?

Get the some of the back issue while they last.Â And no you can’t have any of mine.

Posted by Tarik | Filed Under Music

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Still Hypnotic

September 18, 2007 | 1 Comment

One of our favorite groups right now is the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. Check out our previous post on these guys. Their last two 10″ records killed it. They also got a blog that journals their music and travels. I just stop by today to see what’s new. I came across a cool video of them performing some new material in New York (NYC what is wrong with you? All that great live music, and majority of New Yorkers just completely ignored it. NYC where is your soul? There were some exceptions.) Anyway, check out the video and they also mention a real cool blog called DJouls.com from France. that wrote a good discography on the group.

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble-Brass In Africa (Bulljun remix)

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - War feat. Freeway & Jay-Z(Catchdubs Remix)

Posted by Tarik | Filed Under Music

Lab Update: September 14th Playlist

September 18, 2007 | 1 Comment

Here is this past weekend’s playlist. ~~The audio will be posted later this week.~~

ListenÂ

First Hour

Nickodemus “Conmigo” (Candela)
Ticklah “Mi Sonsito feat. Mayra Vega” (Easy Star Records)
Iron Belly “Burn Out The Rich”
Spiritual South “Hullabaloo” (Raw Fusion)
Los Mono “Promesas” (Sonic360)
Boys And Girls Club “Summer In The City”
Zap Mama “1000 Ways” (Heads Up International)
Stevie Wonder “All I Do ( U Turn Disco Edit)”
DJ Dennis “Marley’s Dance” (Selekta Recordings)
Ancient Astronauts “36 Hours (Fort Knox Five Remix)” (Switchstance
Recordings)
Adrian Quesada feat. Martin Perna & DJ Chicken George “Overthrowed”
Roy Ayers “Electric Vibes (DJ Spinna Remix)” (Naradajazz)

Second Hour

Kanye West - “Barry Bonds feat. Lil’ Wayne” (Roca Fella)
Baby Elephant - “Turn My teeth Up” (Godforsaken Music)
Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators - “Invisible Man” (Light in the
Attic)
Hundred Strong feat. Ev.On - “What Shall I Rap About (Altered Vibes)
Dudley Perkins & Georgia Anne Muldrow - “One” (Look Records)
Frederico Aubele - “La Esquina” (ESL Music)
Ishfaq feat. Kissey Asplund and The Chef - “Call the Boss” (Scribble
Records)
Recloose - “Mana’s Bounce” (Loop Recordings)
Rosin Murphy - “Night of the Dancing Flames” (Echo)
Juiceboxxx & Dre Skull - “Sweat (DJ Technics Remix)” (Vicious Pop)
DJ Sandrinho - “Berimbau” (Man Recordings)
M.I.A. - “Hussel feat. Afrikan Boy” (Interscope)
Rustie - “Jagz the Smack” (Stuff Records)
Grayskul - “Scarecrow” (Rhymesayers)
Lamb - “B-Line” (UMG Recordings)
Devendra Banhart - “Autumn’s Child (Burntpiano remix)” (cdr)
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - “War”

Posted by Tarik | Filed Under Music, playlists

Mixtape 2.0

September 16, 2007 | 1 Comment

cassette mp3 player Don’t you just love technology? Now a days you can play your mp3s on vinyl with products such as Serato, or Torq. You got the iPod, and 1000’s of other similar devices. But what about the lost and forgotten tape cassette? Remember when people made mix tapes with real tapes and not cd’s? I actually missed the cassette. I still have a cassette deck in my car which still works (the radio doesn’t though).

Well for all you tape fans out there who want to have the best of both worlds. This is your time. There is a new product out there allows to put your mp3s on a cassette (sort of). It is the Cassette MP3 player. Not only you can listen to this player with headphones, you can plug it into any old cassette player as well. It has no internal memory. You will have to use SD Memory cards (which is not bad thing). You can buy your girl this player and make mix tapes all day long with out hurting the environment (Al Gore are you reading this). And it is pretty cheap. About $22.00. You can find more information about it here.

Posted by Tarik | Filed Under Music, gadgets

Mad Decent Army’s New Recruit Set to Drop

September 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment

src1 It started with just Diplo, then there was Bonde Do Role, then Blaqstarr, and now the production house of South Rakkas Crew is now enlisted into the Diplo’s Mad Decent Army. Who are the South Rakkas Crew? Put it this way if you listen to Dancehall, then you know South Rakkas Crew even though you may have not heard of their name. Known for creating popular riddims for a variety of dancehall artists.

From their Myspace page:

South Rakkas Crew (SRC) was founded by producer Dennis ‘Dow Jones’ Shaw in late 2002. After managing Riprock n Alex G Entertainment, Orlando’s premier ‘Pop’ production house, Dow Jones teamed up with Alex ‘Alex G’ Greggs creating what is proving to be one of the hottest Dancehall music production teams today. SRC gave the world Riddims like: Clappas, Red Alert, Bionic Ras, Chinkuzi, etc. They have produced Dancehall music’s biggest artists including Beenie Man, Elephant Man, Bounty Killer, Capleton, Lady Saw, Mr. Vegas, Ce’Cile, Mr. Easy, Sizzla, T.O.K., and the list goes on.

Now after producing for other artists, The South Rakkas Crew are set to drop an EP on Diplo’s Mad Decent Label. If any indication of the music that is on their myspace and their own website, This will be some hot sh*t. The crew just dropped an album teaser for download. Check it out and download it here.

Posted by Tarik | Filed Under Music

Mr. West: The Aftermath

September 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Posted by Tarik | Filed Under Music

A J*Davey Fix

September 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment

I needed a J*Davey fix. So I stopped over Miss Jack Davey’s Blog, and found this peformance. I feel a little better now.

Posted by Tarik | Filed Under Music

Don’t Sleep on Milwaukee!!!!

September 13, 2007 | 1 Comment

As some of you may know, The Rhythm Lab is actually being produced in Brookyln and Milwaukee. Some of you may say Milwaukee, what’s going on in Milwaukee besides beer and cheese? Well whole lot more than you think especially in music. Check out the latest Spin Magazine(pgs 146-148). They did a 2 page spread on Milwaukee aka Cream City.

What really made Milwaukee famous? It wasn’t just Happy Days or Laverne & Shirley. It wasn’t Wayne’s World, either, although Alice Cooper did an adequate job of telling people about the city’s Socialist past. The biggest city in America’s Dairyland, home of Pabst Blue Ribbon, Al Jarreau, Violent Femmes….is gaining a reputation for cutting-edge art and an eclectic music scene….

MKE ARtists Spin also features a few artists from Milwaukee that are making a scene. Rhythm Lab approved artists Juiceboxxx, Leo Minor, and Kid Cut Up from No Request Sounds are represented. Juiceboxxx is opening up for Bonde Do Role on part of their tour. He is also on this great Milwaukee label called Vicious Pop.

In addition to those artist and labels, you should check out these other artists from Milwaukee:

Def Harmonic, Black Elephant, The Figureheads, Lotusland Records(great record store also), The Super Noble Brothers (owners of Lotusland Records), Rusty Ps, JTodd, Element, De La Buena, The Glamour, Codebreaker, The LMNtlyst, Old Man Malcolm, Kid Millions, Buffalo, and Terrior Bute to name a few. Don’t forget one of the finest Radio Station in the Country: 88Nine RadioMilwaukee.

Respect the Mil!

The Glamour- Kidz Night

The Figureheads - If

Leo Minor - Don’t Bring Me Down

Juiceboxxx & Dre Skull - Sweat(DJ Technics Remix)

Kid Cut Up @ Scribble Jam

Posted by Tarik | Filed Under Music, announcement

So who’s winning:So who really cares

September 12, 2007 | Leave a Comment

50+kanye

So yesterday begun the big battle between Kanye and 50. Who is winning? I don’t know, and I don’t care anymore. I initially did and wanted Kanye to win, but now I just want to hear some good, original, and fresh music from anyone. Personally, I think the hip hop from over seas is better than anything that the U.S. is putting out. Check out Teki Latex, Wiley, TTC, Tor, Kano, Buraka Som Sistema and others. They all are putting out sh*t that the US can’t compete with. But I give it to Kanye to step up the game. Personally, I think “Graduation” is one of the freshest hip hop releases in the mainstream stateside. He is even matching this with his videos (instead of the typical template for hip hop videos. For his latest video for “Good Life” (I wish T-Pain wasn’t on it). He had Justice’s video director for “D.A.N.C.E.” So Me direct the video.

rhianna so me Even VMA best video winner “WTF” Rhianna is reppin’ the So Me’s Ed Banger T-Shirt(left). Check out Kanye’s new video for the “Good Life.” You got to give Kanye credit. After losing to Justice last year, he has now joined them (in a sense). I guess if you can’t beat them, join them.