The Coup has "The Soundtrack to Sorry To Bother You" (which is different than the 2012 album of the same name) dropping very soon. All new songs.
It features collaborations w @JanelleMonae, @KillerMike, @E40, @tuneyards, @lakeithlakeith, and @JolieHolland.
— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) July 1, 2018
video premiere: expand your mind with the afrofuturist visuals of hip-hop group marlowe’s “things we summon”
It’s rare for a video to so perfectly capture the vibe of a song that it becomes hard to tell where the short film ends and the video begins. The newest video from Marlowe (a collaboration between producer L’Orange and vocalist Solemn Brigham), is a spaced out Afrofuturist mind-fuck of the highest order. There’s something simultaneously retro and futuristic about both the track, with it’s golden era production and the visuals, which pay tribute to the lo-fi effects of classic sci-fi. Over a beat that’s at once driving and chill, Solemn’s vocals are hypnotic blurring the line between outer space and inner thought. This is one of those videos you’re gonna want to watch a few times.
“Things we summon is one of the smoothest cuts on Marlowe,” Solemn tells us, “It’s a contrast to some of the quicker tracks and brings a calm but still urgent pace to reflect to. Working with Alex Thompson was great. I think the video perfectly matches the tone of the song and creates an eerie atmosphere to keep you floating. Shout to Mello for seeing the record through. Don’t be consumed by the things you summon”
Check out the full album here: https://lorange360.bandcamp.com/album/marlowe
the internet released the sensual soundtrack to your summer with new album ‘hive mind’
In this time of uncertainty, long Summer days can feel never-ending. Luckily for us, The Internet came through and gifted us with the sensual, funky soul album of the Summer with their latest release, ‘Hive Mind’.
When the band went on to pursue solo projects after releasing ‘Ego Death’ back in 2015, vocalist Syd, guitarist Steve Lacy, producer Matt Martians, drummer Christopher Smith and bassist Patrick Paige II came back and combined all their individual growth to create a cohesive “slow burn” masterpiece that can easily provide the perfect soundtrack to our memorable Summer moments.
The band will be bringing their sensual funk and smooth vocals to AFROPUNK BROOKLYN and ATLANTA so I hope yall copped your tickets!
‘sorry to bother you’ soundtrack features janelle monáe, the coup, lakeith stanfield and many more…
‘Sorry To Bother You” opened on Friday the 13th to an electrifying response form audiences, and now writer and director Boots Riley’s band ‘The Coup’ just released the first single off the film soundtrack. The song is titled ‘OYAHYTT” and features ‘Sorry To Bother You’ star Lakeith Stanfield, who drops a verse in the second half.
‘The Coup’ will be releasing the soundtrack for Riley’s directorial debut, featuring the likes of Janelle Monáe, Killer Mike, E40 and more. ‘Sorry To Bother You’ also happens to be the name of the band’s 6th studio album.
Sorry To Bother You is out in theatres nationwide.
premiere: jam out to the effortless acid jazz realness, courtesy of dizz1 ft. georgia anne muldrow and blu
We comin live from Los Angeles
Ain’t no place on the planet more activist
LA-based label Strange Neighbor’s brewing up a new collaborative EP, bringing together artists from across the underground hip-hop world. We’re psyched to premiere the latest from them, a chilled out jam featuring Blu and the immortal Georgia Anne Muldrow. Over a spacey, almost acid jazz beat from producer Dizz1, Blu and Muldrow bounce off each other effortlessly. They make it look easy. But from Blu’s sharp verses to Muldrow’s jazzy hook, there’s nothing but skill on display. As Blu tells us, “it’s always an honor to work with artists who know how to bring the right elements together.”
smashing boy band cheesy codes, alt rapper jpegmafia turns backstreet boys song upside down
When R&B/Hip Hop unseated Rock and Roll as the most listened-to genre in the US at the end of 2017, the dominance and influence of Rap/Hip-Hop could no longer be ignored. Like many dominant cultures, there are artists who reside on the fringes, subverting trends and keeping to the underdog tradition of questioning the established status quo. U.S. Air Force Veteran turned Alt-rapper and producer JPEGMAFIA brings the center to the fringes with his tone-shifting flow and psychedelic subversion of traditional beats and beloved classics.
“Where MC Ren, Ice Cube, and Eazy-E mixed their politics with language that stoked the post-Reagan moral panic, JPEG-fluent in internet-native irony and bad-faith arguments-wields those tactics to serious, sometimes disarmingly earnest ends…. Entirely self-produced, Veteran is a remarkable exercise in sound and texture.” – PITCHFORK
JPEG was born in New York to Jamaican parents and currently resides in Los Angeles while building a name for himself in Baltimore/Maryland. Even with his Baltimore acclaim, he doesn’t prescribe to the growing Baltimore sound because his writing and delivery shift and adapt and breakneck speeds. In his latest offering ‘Millennium’, JPEG takes on Backstreet Boys’ classic, ‘I Want It That Way’, delivering half remix/half cover with smooth lyricism and an eclectic production. The song introduces itself as “easy listening” because of its mellow style but the add-libs and humor-laced critique speak to JPEG’s eccentric and multi-faceted approach to production.
JPEG will embark on The Reverse Christopher Columbus Tour this Fall in support of his fourth studio album Veteran. The 22-date tour will kick off on August 29th in Vancouver after he takes the stage at AFROPUNK BROOKLYN on August 25th.
this masked and mysterious trap/hip hop/rock group throw tradition out the window and challenging the status quo
Don’t let right wing pundits convince you that the voice of the artist isn’t crucial in times of political turmoil. Art is a renowned tool of resistance and Trap/Rock/Rap group Monsters On The Horizon are joining the age-old tradition of using music to challenge the status quo. This group is creating an alternative lane for ‘Art x Music x Connection’ by subverting traditions in music relating to production and marketing. Taking a page from the likes of Daft Punk and The Gorillaz, the group wear masks to conceal their identities in our current age of social media and over-exposure. The mystery surrounding the group adds to an existing allure built on a reputation of releasing albums on Halloween and Friday the 13th.
“We, as Monsters On The Horizon, are here to challenge the status quo and encourage a new perspective. We believe in music and art as a vehicle to awaken ideas and desires in others and promote introspection and observation of the world around us. Mr. Scary is a culmination of that belief, specifically in creating a dialogue with respect to the many issues plaguing society today”
Their newest single ‘Mr. Scary’ drops tomorrow on Friday the 13th, bringing with it a blend of Trip-Hop, Trap as well as Urban and Rock and Roll vocals, delivering a soundscape that exudes a sense of power and even resistance. Most bands have to build their name touring the NYC bars/club circuit but Monsters on the Horizon keeps to their ‘tradition’ of throwing tradition out the window by having a monthly ritual event that started with 13 friends and now hosts hundreds and features other underground musicians.
Monsters On The Horizon are AFROPUNK Battle of the Bands contenders and have shows on Tuesday July 17th at Coney Island Baby 169 Avenue A, New York, NY 10009 w/ Beauty in The Machine. Saturday August 4th for the Get Carried Away Music Festival which will be on a Yacht departing from Brooklyn Army Terminal 140 58th St, Brooklyn, NY, and and a mini tour for the Salem Horror Movie Festival October 10th – the 14th in Salem Massachusetts.
Bring your masks.
shatter those eardrums, courtesy of punk/hip-hop pioneers game rebellion’s ferocious ‘a decade of disaster (2002 – 2012)’
When Game Rebellion burst onto the scene in 2002, they were a necessary antidote to the tedium of nu metal. By the time they parted ways in 2012, they were still frustratingly ahead of their time. Over the past 6 years since their split though, something happened: music caught up.
Released last week, A Decade of Disaster is less a greatest hits album than it is an introductory course. The band opens with “Trapped,” about as clear a distillation of their sound as possible. It’s fiery, ferocious, and tight as fuck. They launch immediately into the Beethoven-riffing “Lights Out.” It grows from haunting to a little goofy to eardrum-shattering in seconds. This was a band that took genre-smashing to its most logical extremes years before the trend took over.
Game Rebellion goes for maximum variety on A Decade of Disaster, mixing in R&B “Laydown,” dub nods “Maria,” and even a little dubstep bass wobble on “GTFO.” Their best cuts close out the album. “Save Me” and “Sun” finds the band firing on all cylinders. “Save Me”‘s mix of classic punk and heavy social criticism could have been released last week (I guess technically it was).
It’s a sad aftershock of how quickly things can change in the age of the internet, that few of the albums Game Rebellion pulls from on A Decade of Disaster are easily available. Luckily the band is clear to mark it as “Part I.” Stay tuned for Part II. And in the meantime, check out this classic blistering video of them performing “Sun” back at the 2008 AFROPUNK Fest.
fuck la migra! the latest afropunk mixtape is a declaration of immigrant rights
The truth is that immigration law has always been about white supremacy. From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 on down to the founding of ICE in 2003, these are explicitly racist laws designed to preserve a racist power structure, and they were always headed here: internment camps to imprison immigrant children and punish families for seeking a better life. We stand with refugees and immigrants the world over to demand an end to racist immigration laws. Close the camps. Reunite the families. Fuck la migra.
01. Intro: Abolish ICE (June 2018)
02. Samurai Shotgun – The Blast
03. Ebony Bones – No Black In The Union Jack
04. Fantastic Negrito – Plastic Hamburgers
05. Denzel Himself – Thrasher
06. Interlude: Rep. Maxine Waters (June 2018)
07. Mereba – Black Truck
08. G Matthews – Choices!
09. Emicida & Ibeyi – Hacia El Amor
10. Harville – Spill
11. Curtis Harding – It’s Not Over
12. Rest Ashore – Concussion
13. Interlude: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (June 2018)
14. Deathgrips – Black Paint
15. Joji Abot – Gods Among Men
16. Interude: Leah, 12 Year-Old Speech (June 2018)
17. Marci Phonix – Liberties
funk and hip-hop trio free dystopia got the groove to lift you out of dystopia on ‘trial & error’
I’m not sure if there’s a better band name for this moment in time than Free Dystopia. Despite the name though, the band is anything but dystopian. Their latest EP Trial & Error, is a collection of funk, hip-hop, indie rock, and a little jazz for good measure that has the power to lift you out of the darkest despair. Led by singer / bassist ARTLOVETRAP, the trio has an easy chemistry that comes off in the interplay on opener “Panties.” The interplay between the members is highlighted in the instrumental jam “The Flood,” which builds from DEMIGODQ’s simple guitar riff into a heavy crashing beat courtesy of drummer RONDON before washing away to nothing. The closing songs “Last Year” and “Liability” features ARTLOVETRAP’s best lyrics, balancing introspective musings and pleas for strength. Check out the whole EP below along with the video for “The Flood.”
indulge your punk sensibility with south london mc/producer mc denzel himself’s game-changing catalogue
“I think about death every day.”
Over the past year, South London MC and producer Denzel Himself has released a string of singles and EPs that demand attention. The avowed punk cut his teeth on ‘Trash Talk’ and punctuates spaced-out beats with hardcore screams, filling in the margins with distorted guitars and bass. Songs like “Thrasher” and “State Ya Claim” showcase an inventive drive; Denzel Himself produces everything, well, himself. The results are tracks that are totally unique.
His latest EP, Baphomet James, is a more introspective affair. The beats are sparser, the verses stretch out. The standout cuts like “Navy” find the MC musing on mortality and the pressure of trying to make it in a world that stacks the decks against you. “Melty” pairs Denzel Himself up with KEYAH/BLU for a hazed out hookup ballad. Conflicted, unresolved, and totally unique. Like the best of Denzel Himself’s cuts, just when you think you’ve pinned him down, he changes the game.