Elaquent "Love Story Promo"

I find myself up at all hours of the night more and more now-a-days, working on everything from videos to graphics to all kinds of stuff. So every now and again I take time out to just search the web with no real goal in mine. While randomly searching you can come across some pretty crazy stuff and some pretty good stuff such as the video below. I've had to have listened to this track at least 15 times this morning, it's ill, that's all I can say. It has this slow jam smooth vibe, with a nice kick of funk when you hear the boards chime in. Ok I'm going to stop before I begin to ramble, but random accidental finds are AMAZING! lol enjoy...

Cry While Driving Because of Mommy (I wish I could make that rhyme)

Yesterday, I was cruising down the street lanes in my whip (ha!) listening to Late Registration (my FAVE Kanye album). Usually I sing-a-long to every song because I actually know the words to most of it and singing-a-long makes the trip to your destination much shorter. Somehow, I got into the zone around track 16 which is titled "Hey Mama". Instead of singing along, I truly took the time out of my safe-traveling experience to truly enjoy the meaning to the song. Of course, Kanye is speaking of his relationship with his mother (by the way, this song means a lot because he wrote this song BEFORE his mom passed away...alive and well...always the best time to show your love for someone), but a LOT of it relates to me and how I feel about my mother. And guess what my a$$ started to do??...........I started crying!!! WTF!!??!! I haven't cried on a song since '91 (true story....I used to cry to some sappy Christmas song at the age of 4. I was weird). After I realized I was crying, I started to laugh at myself for being a sappy bum. I think I must have embarrassed myself (the people in the cars next to me probably thought that I was having an emotional breakdown...menopause at the age of 22...break downs and ish). but ANYwhooo...after I stopped thinking that i was a rah-tard, I realized that I had a reason to at least drop a small tear (I only had like 2 tears throughout this process). The reason is:

I FREAKING LOVE MY MOMMY!!!

I am one lucky mamma jamma. BELEE DAT! My mommy is goofy just like me, funny, weird (a good weird), has nice jewelery (random quality but who cares), helps with funds, gets on my nerves at times (but that just proves we are normal and our souls are not possessed or nuthin' like that), has a crush on Mos Def and Common (at least i think so), laughs at things in church that are not supposed to be funny, does not try to be cool and wear Air Force 1s, looks younger than her age, still will wrestle me, gets manis/pedis every week, drives a Jeep Commander, likes to go bowling and has her own bowling shoes and 2 balls even though she is not a professional, has 3 weirdos for kids, knows how to work the Wii, plays Bingo at home for money, cheats when playing Scrabble (you are not supposed to look at the dictionary if you want to be a legit winner in Scrabble...it's just not fair), drinks Malibu rum with pineapple juice, says "easy greasy" as a salutation when we get off the phone, lets me eat in the living room with the cream carpet, takes pictures with crackheads because the crackhead's sign is funny (click HERE for proof!!), and there's so much more but I would take over the Made Monarchs blog with my antics alone and I love my fellow Monarchs so I will not go thus far. Just know i looooveee my mama.

I have decided to end this post awkwardly...

soooo.....the end.

Stussy x J DILLA Tribute & Documentary

As some have already seen and heard, clothing brand Stussy recently did a tribute on the late J DILLA that included a shirt release and a mini documentary. J DILLA aka JAY DEE is probably one of, if not the most influential producer in hip hop's history. His ability and talent were way before his time and his work continues to influence various people worldwide (including myself) to this day.

Here's a look at the shirt drop Stussy did....

And here is the documentary in it's entirety, Stussy did a great job of showcasing his talent and impact he had on the music industry.

So Good Saturday: Lupe Fiasco

Hung out wit the homies Kevin & Dani from Work/Play last night. Good times. Rode with them in the car...laughed at "the key situation" (inside joke you wouldn't know about because you're not as cool)...and listened to good, QUALITY music. "Lupe the Killer" from one of my favorite mixtapes Revenge of the Nerds came up and brought me back to GOOD SHIZNIT! I forgot how much I frikkin' LOVE this song!

Enjoy it for yourselves:

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Foreign Exhange Speaking About Their Grammy Nominations

The Foreign Exchange's Grammy nomination video from The Foreign Exchange on Vimeo.

Mike Posner "Drug Dealer Girl"

NEEDLES is having a NAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON

PEOPLE IF YALL SAY AIN'T ISH TO DO DURING THE MONTH OF DECEMBER HERE ARE 2 EVENTS YOU DON'T WANNA MISS OUT ON.

SUNDAY 12/20 BLACK LABEL 758 S. 4TH ST (DOWNTOWN STL)

Doors open at 9, sound start at 10

SUNDAY 12/27 BLACK LABEL 758 S. 4TH ST (DOWNTOWN STL)

Doors open at 9, sound start at 10

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If You Ain't on BJ (The Chicago Kid), You Probably Ain't on Shit...

mark my words, BJ The Chicago Kid is what R&B has been waiting for... as a long-time r&b fan, i can't help but be excited about what this cat brings to the table. His music has that soulful sound like d'angelo, raphael saadiq, the "confessions" usher (not usher's new shit that's kind of commercial), and maxwell. it's that music that will make you play the cd until it skips... download his mixtape "The New Beginning" here to find out for yourself!

here is a video sample of what this cat is capable of:

BJ The Chicago Kid: Change Your Life from Decatur Dan on Vimeo.

you can also follow him on twitter @listentobjcom, he is one of the few artists that actually replies to his fans... fuck with him!

Freddie Joachim -instrumental mastery

In our modern day music industry there are numerous rappers and producers claiming to be the next big thing. But occasionally you come across music that makes sit back and say "who is that...I need that in my rotation!" Freddie Joachim is one of those guys...his combination of jazz/soul sample and mixtures of actual instruments creates musical bliss that keeps you head nodding. He's got two pretty recent projects FREE! at that, that you need to have in your iTunes collection. listen....enjoy...and check him out at www.FreddieJoachim.com also check out the video at the bottom of him making a beat from scracth DOPENESS!


[DOWNLOAD HERE]


[DOWNLOAD HERE]

Dumb Sh*t Sells Because Most People are Stupid

I was talking to my dudes @DragonflyJonez and @Mademonarch_O (Octavius) about how Oj da Juiceman (pronounced JEW-man) and Gucci may be the dumbest beings to ever be birthed by a human female... after nearly dying from laughter at two seperate occasions, i started wondering how the hell are they so rich? i mean, they have made millions of dollars by saying shit like aye, okay, hghchuuuuncghh (pronounced hghchuuuuncghh, *refer here if you have no clue what the hell i am talking about*), and "might don't make it". if you go to world star hip hop all their videos have millions of views, but artists that create music that has content are barely in the thousands, it makes NO sense... then i started thinking about the people that buy this shit, and it came to me, dumb shit sells because m*hf*ckas is stupid!!! most people can't relate to it because there are way more gucci's in this world than lupe's or even kanye's. (with the school systems as bad as they are, i can't even blame them though.) seriously, if it wasn't for music, oj da juiceman and gucci would be sweepin barbershop floors for loose change. so, i am not mad at them. i am more infuriated by the government that doesn't invest enough in education to prevent cats like them from entering the work force so ill prepared.

Anyway, here is an example of some good ass music, that probably won't get the love it deserves until something is done about the lack of knowledge in our communities...

Thieves in the Night - Talib Kweli feat Mos Def

...i have been playing this song for the last 5 hours, true story!