There aren’t too many acts that I’m not personally eager to check out. For the locals, RTB will be going down in Los Angeles, CA, Saturday August 21, 2010 @ the NOS Events Center. Tickets are available at Ticketfly.com. Peep the rest of the venue lineup after the jump. Well, if you don’t live in Frisco, NYC or D.C., don’t bother. By the way, the inclusion of Lauryn Hill on this tour is genius, and it’s making my ears salivate.
Remember when Nas was famous a few years ago, not for dropping his umpteenth album, but for his desire to proclaim the genre of hip hop as proverbially “dead”? Of course, it was also the title of his album, and he marketed the living shit out of the whole statement, it was a bit of a fiasco really. I recall a plethora of rappers across the country coming out and either ridiculing or empathizing with Nas, “hip hop ain’t dead, it’s just NYC rap is dead”, bla bla bla…
Well, he has since come off of his pedestal, dropped another album, and is about to drop and then tour for the album Distant Relatives with Jr. Gong, aka Damian Marley. And guess what, he has another announcement to couple his new project, wait for it….
It died several times, but I do believe in the heartbeat of it right now. There are a lot of new artists, and artists that have been around, who are kicking a– right now. I just wanted to give a boost to people and to myself, to push people to go harder. It’s a different world now. – Nas, recently speaking with the Wall Street Journal
Well of course it is Nasir, that was a whole FOUR YEARS ago! So much has changed, you are so right! I am so sardonic and sick. Fuck it, peep Nas and Damian at this year’s UCLA Jazz Reggae Festival at the end of the month, regardless if you like cornflakes, the show will be bomb.
As most of you know, we’re in the business of hitting up music festivals out here in Cali. One of my personal favorites is right up the street from me, the infamous UCLA Jazz Reggae Festival! We’ve been fortunate to have been given access these past few years to get the money shots and do the right interviews. Press passes have been secured once again this year, many thanks to our connects at UCLA. Right now, they’ve only announced the headliners, and boy are they big. Nas and Damian Marley will headline Reggae Day, whilst, Raphael Saadiq will be holding the torch on Jam Day. Discounted pre-sale tickets are available for another 48 hours, and then it’s full price. Cop your grassy spot here.
4-5 years ago, the concept of giving away one’s album to the masses for free didn’t exist. We still acquired a large part of our music libraries without the distribution of money, but it meant that some of us felt a little guilty about steeling a whole lot of quality product. Personally, when I first got to college, I milked that high-speed connection for around 6 CD’s a day. On the other hand, the need to steal music in 2010 is a lot less strong due to the fact that so many dope artists have started to distribute full projects at no cost for the fans. I don’t know who started the trend, although some one or some geographical region is guaranteed to take credit for it, but I do know that this is one trend in hip-hop that I am actually very grateful for. It’s moving my attention away from established names, and focusing it on newer and hungrier MC’s. Even in my home of The Bay, where artists put out what appears to be a minimum of 3-4 projects a year, which they expect their fans to cough up cash for, the idea of giving away a project for free has started to take hold, and pay off. A few weeks ago Mista F.A.B. gave away his latest effort, Prince Of The Coast, and received a lot of positive press about it, and this week, DaVinci, a relative newcomer to the Bay Area music scene, has done the same.
With his new, FREE, street album, The Day The Turf Stood Still, DaVinci has already done what most Bay Area rappers continuously fail to do: gain the attention of hip-hop fans beyond the state of California. I’ve seen quite a few writers from across the country write about their surprise in hearing a well thought out and produced album from The Bay that touches on more than just bitches, blunts, burners, and broken jaws. Yet at the same time, as you can probably tell from the title, this ain’t no esoteric hippy shit either. DaVinci tells the usual hustler’s tale, but does it in a way that is self-reflective, above average in intelligence, and at times pretty creative. Mixed with some solid sample based production, that is also not the norm for Bay Area music, The Day The Turf Stood Still is mos def worth the space on your hard drive.
