Big K.R.I.T. Feature In RESPECT. Magazine

Ain't no stoppin' Big K.R.I.T. as he takes aim on the hip hop media world, this time as feature in RESPECT. Magazine's June 2011 edition.

T.I.: Rolling Stone Magazine 'King Uncaged' Feature

T.I. is setting the bar high for his post-prison album, King Uncaged, comparing it to Tupac’s 1996 classic All Eyez on Me, which was released months after ‘Pac got out of prison. “This is the most significant return from incarceration that the game has had since then,” T.I. says. “Just given the enormous success of that project, everyone’s expecting the same results. I just want to meet the expectations, if not surpass them.”

The Atlanta MC says he didn’t get much work done while serving 10 months in Federal penitentiary in Arkansas on weapons charges (”I didn’t have a lot of time by myself just to think,” he says), but he got cracking on the day he was released to a halfway house in January, recording the defiant single, “I’m Back.”

He’s been on a creative tear since, recording more than 60 songs for the album, due out in August, working with the producers who have crafted his biggest hits, including Jim Jonsin, who made the beat for Paper Trail Number One hit “Whatever You Like,” Danja (”No Matter What”), and DJ Toomp (”What You Know”).

“Some songs talk about my time in prison — how I was affected by that, the way I’ve grown from that, things I see now that I may have not seen then,” says T.I. “Sometimes I talk about love, some songs I talk about life, some songs I talk about me being the shit on every level.”

No songs will talk about T.I. carrying a gun. “Regardless of what may happen, what circumstances may present themselves, how extreme they may be, I will not be the one carrying firearms,” says the MC, who was arrested in 2007 for trying to buy a small arsenal of weapons, including machine guns. He has said he was buying guns in a misguided attempt to protect himself after his best friend Philant Johnson was killed.

T.I. considers the new album the last chapter in a trilogy that began with 2007’s T.I. vs. T.I.P. and continued with Paper Trail, which was the eighth best-selling album of 2008. “If it was a film, the opening act would be the night that Phil got shot, and all the emotions and the sentiments that led to T.I. Vs. T.I.P.,” he says. ”From there, the schizophrenia of it all led to an unfortunate chain of events that left me incarcerated with federal weapons charges, which inspired Paper Trail, and now, people are waiting to hear the end of the story.” (source)

K'NAAN Vanity Fair Artist Feature Profile Regarding World Cup, Somali & Music

(main photo by & courtesy of Piet Suess)

On adolescent life in Mogadishu. It had its positives. The physical nature of the country, it’s a really beautiful place. All the people, the culture and your own language and your family—the valuable things. Eventually, it was the war. Of course, like war does, it ruins those things. We lived in a time of turmoil. We lost people. Eventually, we were fortunate to get out on one of the last commercial flights to leave the country, and we came to New York City.

How his years in Mogadishu shaped his music. I wrote a lot about those experiences as a form of therapy. They were the kinds of songs that I had to get out. Not the kinds of songs that you had to create and search for.

On what “Wavin’ Flag” says to him about Somalia and Africa as a whole. When I sing “Born to a throne/stronger than Rome/but Violent prone/poor people zone,” it says a lot about the state of the continent in general. The former glory that everyone attributes to Africa, its accomplishments, its enlightenments, and ancient traditions—that is great, but where are we now? It’s all that we’ve been, so what are we now?

On Africa’s first-ever World Cup and what it means to South Africa and the continent. It’s a huge matter of African pride. To a lot of people on the continent, it's a moment of recognition and solidarity between them. The world gets to experience African people on their own continent, which is a really nice moment for South Africa.

On his first trip back to Somalia since he left. It was everything Somalia is: Complicated, beautiful, amazing, and dangerous all at the same time. (source)

K'NAAN |MTV Music

Sade: Hip Hop Chimes In About Sade's Greatness

via New York Magazine

Missy Elliott
Watching her sing "Smooth Operator" live! One of my favorite songs. She always sounds just like the record! I'm excited she's has a new album — that's my favorite moment, when I heard she was blessing us with her sound again!

Talib Kweli
My favorite Sade memory is watching her perform Love Deluxe in its entirety at Madison Square Garden. The band (Sweetback) was so tight, and even though she left her spot at the mike only a couple of times, when she did she was so sexy it was magical. I learned a lot about precision that night. There was not a note or move out of place.

Rakim
I grew up on soul music, but when my pops introduced me to Sade just before Diamond Life hit, it was a revelation. That voice and her style just took out even the hardest hood at the knees. "Smooth Operator" may have been a smash for everyone worldwide, but that was my track, and you can catch me referencing what she was trying to get across from Paid in Full up to my new album. Being in the biz for about the same amount of time, I respect and try to emulate how she floats above the industry ... one of the few that can do things on her own terms, knowing her fans will watch out for her. To this day, she's one of the artists I can listen to with 100 percent admiration. I can't wait to get my hands on this album and congratulate her for continuing to build her already iconic place in the world.

Tajai, Souls of Mischief
When I was young, her record was one of the few my mom would play that I would enjoy, too. As a kid, I’d want her to turn off her music so I could hear LL Cool J or someone like that, but Sade and Luther Vandross were two records I dug, too. Sade transcends the age gap. I’ve never seen her live though I’ve always wanted to. I also remember hearing rumors that (famous drug dealer) Felix Mitchell would fly out to Paris to see her shows.

Joell Ortiz
I always think of the song "Ordinary Love" whenever someone brings up Sade, because that song came out around the time my dad bounced. After he left, my mom used to sit in her room, getting high while listening to "Ordinary Love" over and over again for weeks. That was saddest time of my young life. Whenever I hear that song, I well up with tears."

Keri Hilson
My Dad would whistle Sade melodies randomly all the time. As a kid, I used to try to whistle along to "Cherish the Day" or "Sweetest Taboo." He was a real Sade fan and made me one, too! We couldn't be in his car even for five minutes without hearing her voice!

Kanye West
"THIS IS WHY I STILL HAVE A BLOG. TO BE A PART OF MOMENTS LIKE THIS ... NEW SADE ... HOW MUCH BETTER THIS THAN THAN EVERYTHING ELSE"

Read the full article here:
NY Mag: Vulture - Missy Elliott, Rakim, Talib Kweli, and More Talk to Vulture About the Greatness of Sade

Dam-Funk: Rolling Stone Magazine Breaking Artist Feature

Who: Los Angeles funk connoisseur Dam-Funk, a one-man wrecking crew of thumping beats, smooth bass and iced-out synths. After honing his craft as a session musician for rappers like Ice Cube, remixing acts like Animal Collective and becoming an MVP on the DJ circuit, Dam-Funk’s debut album Toeachizown has everyone from Southern Cali to Seoul to Tel Aviv hitting the dance floor, literally ruling one giant nation of funk fans under the groove.

Sounds Like: Dam-Funk’s aural odysseys travel from P-Funk to G-Funk through Cybotron and Prince with an undercurrent of the prog-rock that Dam worshipped in his adolescence. On his mammoth debut album Toeachizown, comprised of five EPs he released on Stones Throw in 2009, Dam breaks out something for everyone, from intergalactic dance-funk epics like “Searchin’ 4 Funk’s Future” and “Could I Be Losing Another Lover” to infectious Paisley Park gems like “One Less Day” and “I Wanna Thank U (4 Steppin’ Into My Life).” “I look at Toeachizown as the album I always wanted to hear. Even my friends tell me this, ‘We grew up wanting to hear something like this record,’ ” Dam tells Rolling Stone.

Read the full article here:
Rolling Stone - Breaking: Dam-Funk