Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Life: My Interview with Atmosphere: All In The Family: Left-Overs


Photo Courtesy of R*ch*l W*ckh*m (censored for security purposes)

So last month Atmosphere was in Cleveland and I had planned on attending the show. But being a budding journalist, I decided to ask Okayplayer if they would be interested in a feature story on Atmosphere. They gave me the "okay" and after weeks of waiting for Atmosphere's press people to get back to me, I finally got the interview of a lifetime.

15 mintues (which actually ended up being about 26 minutes, but who's counting) with Sean Daley, my idol. After having a minor panic attack, asking every employee of the House of Blues where Slug was, I was taken back stage. And there he was...

We had met once before (at a concert two years ago, there's an embarrassing picture on facebook as the proof), so him being a little taller than I had expected didn't throw me off, but how down to earth definitely did. First off all he greeted my girlfriend and I by name (because we had been tweeting Atmosphere all day), and instantly I became less nervous (as this was easily the biggest interview I have ever done in my young journalistic career) and more excited to have a pretty candid interview with one of my favorite artists of all time.

After writing the interview, I had a few good quotes and anecdotes that didn't quite fit into my story so I thought I would share them with the world:

More on how Slug and Atmosphere write albums:

When you throw that much mud at a wall, we make probably anywhere from 60-80 songs, some of them start to fall and some of them stay stuck to the wall, and at the end you look at what’s left over and then you go ‘okay, what kind of big story can I tell with what I have?’ And then it might help prompt you to go ‘okay I want to write a song like this cause that would sound good in between this one and this one.

More on the lack of samples on Lemons:
There was no sampling on Lemons but there were certain songs, for… For a song like “Glass House,” there’s no samples, but there’s a synth line that’s mimicking a saxophone line from an old record.


OKP: On the lemons record, you got Tom Waits to do a beat box, I was wondering how you were able to get him to do that?

S: I asked him to play guitar, and got back a beatbox (laughs). We sent him the song and I asked him to put guitar on it and he was like, “yeah.” Then I went on tour, and when I got home from the tour, he returned it. And I opened it, and played it and there was no guitar, there was beatboxing. I was like, ‘this is cool too actually,’ and we just had Nate (Collis) play guitar.


Click HERE to read the whole story.

Rhymes: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - "Make The Money"


Finally!!!! After years of watching (and listening to a Youtube rip on my iPod) the video above, my favorite Macklemore song has been released.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO SONG, EMBEDDING NOT WORKING


The piano driven track plays more like a mission statement than a song. And Macklemore is as personal and honest as ever, and Ryan Lewis adds a brilliant instrument-based beat. I'm assuming this along with "Can't Hold Us" "Wings" and hopefully "My Oh My" will appear on the duo's upcoming album, which they hope will be released before the year's end. Obviously it will be one of the best albums of 2011 if it does get a Q4 release.

Macklemore & Ryan recently announced a new tour and again they will be hitting up The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor once again. The last time Macklemore was in Ann Arbor, he put on the most incredible show I've ever seen, without a DJ because RyLew was in Ireland.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Rhymes: Evidence - "You" (Music Video)


Evidence drops off his first single off his upcoming Rhymesayers debut, Cats & Dogs. This one is laced by the legendary DJ Premier, and is one of his best tracks he's released in a while. Cats & Dogs will be released on September 27.

Pre-order your copy here.

Rhymes: Tonedeff - "What Part of Forever (Cee-Lo Cover)"


Fresh off of the QN5 Megashow and the Chico & the Man release date announcement (12/13/11), Tonedeff drops a video of his cover of Cee-Lo's Twilight soundtrack single. The cover is a lot slower than Cee-Lo's original, but it's equally as dope. This track is off of his Cold.Killed.Collected compilation, Tone released earlier this year.

You can download the track here.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Rhymes: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - "Otherside (Remix)" Music Video


The Otherside Remix Music Video was filmed in various locations for about a year and a half throughout 2010-2011. It is the duo's second video collaboration with long time friend and director Jason Koenig (My Oh My).

One of BRL's favorite emcees/producer combos are back, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis riding their wave of success from their recent "Can't Hold Us" single and "Wings" music video. Off of their VS EP redux that come out last November.

Rhymes: Blak Roc 2 (Trailer)


I dont usually post Trailer videos, cuz they're usually annoying and pointless, but hey it's The Black Key. This time the Akron duo is back with their Blak Roc project (with Dame Dash), which was my introduction to the group back in 2009 when they collaborated with RZA and Mos Def. The second installment will feature BRL favorites Jay Electronica, Talib Kweli, Curren$y, Sean P, and more.