Son Little has returned once more with a brand new single that pushes his artistry to even greater heights. The Philadelphia soul artist has already logged collaborations with The Roots and RJD2, but the vocalist-guitarist can by all means stand on his own merits, and with the politically-minded new single “O Mother” he doesn’t just stand tall, but marches against injustice. In step with Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, “O Mother” blends a sunlit, upbeat soul sound with lyrics that beckon at the very core of injustices. Little’s pleas “Why do they treat me like I’m not a man…
OKP Premiere: Raphael Saadiq, Lee Fields & BJ The Chicago Kid Dig Even Deeper Into The Meaning Of Soul With E&J
Yesterday the world got a little glimpse at Raphael Saadiq, BJ The Chicago Kid and Lee Fields in E&J Brandy‘s new Generations of Soul series. Now the first full episode has arrived and Okayplayer is proud to present its premiere. In the two minute clip, the soul triumvirate sit together at a booth and dig into one vital question: “What is soul?” All three have more than earned their right to take on such a question. Saadiq, of course, has been a vital source of songwriting and show-stopping performance in the modern R&B movement, dating back to his connections to Q-Tip and J Dilla in The Ummah collective, while Fields currently fronts The Expressions band and has been performing…
Watch Attorney General Eric Holder Detail The Department Of Justice’s “Searing” Report On Racist Policing In Ferguson
The city of Ferguson, Missouri has been found to be “a community deeply polarized. A community where deep distrust and hostility often characterize interactions between police and area residents,” said Attorney General Eric Holder at a press conference held earlier this afternoon in Washington. Holder’s 24 minute speech came after the release of the U.S. Justice Department’s 87 page report on the findings of its investigations of alleged racial bias and injustice amongst police officers and officials in Ferguson, the city where last summer unarmed teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by local officer Darren Wilson. “Of course, violence is never justified. But seen in this context, amidst a highly toxic environment defined by mistrust and…
Blurred Lines: Unexpected Twists As The Case of Robin Thicke v. Marvin Gaye Estate Unfolds In Court
Legal proceedings finally got underway this week in what’s become one of the most contentious lawsuits in modern pop music. On Tuesday both Robin Thicke and Pharrell appeared in a Los Angeles court room, preparing testimony to rebut the allegation that their 2013 mega-hit “Blurred Lines” blatantly plagiarizes Marvin Gaye‘s 1977 classic “Got To Give It Up” [spoiler alert: Thicke already copped to Marvin’s influence in interviews]. My News LA reports that the late Motown singer’s daughter, Jannis Gaye, was expected to take the stand and testify against Thicke and Pharrell. “Blurred Lines,” the Gaye family asserts, goes beyond…
Rising Producer Afromaniac Approaches Perfection On New ‘Twenty(4)Seven’ Mixtape
Out of the wildly creative streets of Berlin comes Afromaniac, a producer whose blend of jazzy tones and rattling post-Dilla beats makes for some of the smoothest new music we’ve heard in quite a while. The producer has just released a lush 12 track mixtape entitled Twenty(4)Seven, a beautiful piece of work that rides along tight, abrupt bass lines and keenly deliberate kick patterns, making evident at all turns just how serious Afromaniac takes his beatmkaing. Fans of Flying Lotus will find much to cherish in Afromaniac’s use of flittering hi-hats and twisted bass drums that sound like they’re skipping as they’re played backwards bust still somehow…
Watch Rapper Big Pooh & Apollo Brown In A New Clip For “Augmentation”
It’s been a while since we’ve heard such an intelligently smooth bit of modern hip-hop. Rapper Big Pooh and producer extraordinaire Apollo Brown have linked for the thumping new cut “Augmentation,” an early single off of Pooh’s upcoming (and aptly-titled) Words Paint Pictures LP. “Augmentation” packs one of the classic piano-and-soul-vocals sample flips that Brown has made his calling card, and Pooh good hard in the mile-wide cut. By the time the second verse hits and the NC MC suggests his rivals hang himself, it’s clear that the new single is an iron hand in a velvet glove, cold at its core…
LargeUp Premiere: Hear Electric Punanny + Chi Ching Ching Flip Nicki Minaj On “Hot Gyal”
The week’s hottest release isn’t the new Kanye West, that buzzy Jaden Smith joint, or even Raury‘s cinematic social commentary. It is, in fact, a brand new Nicki Minaj flip, handled by New York DJs Electric Punanny and premiered by the good heads at LargeUp earlier today. With the help of dancehall entertainer Chi Ching Ching, Puanny has gone and flipped Minaj’s “Trini Dem Girls,” seizing on its existing rude dancehall qualities and pumping it up a certified basement banger, which they’ve dubbed “Hot Gyal.” Allow LargeUp to explain: The remix comes after Chi Ching Ching and Electric Punanny joined forces for an unplanned session at Webster Hall’s House Party weekly, during the deejay’s visit to New…
Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River” Gets A Synth-Heavy Redux From Chvrches
It’s been over twelve years since Justin Timberlake released his debut solo LP Justified, (re)introducing himself to the world as a powerful solo artist who could ignite five-alarm funk fires and nail a brokenhearted ballad. “Cry Me A River,” though, always sat somewhere between those two extremes–a breakup song full of barbed-wire jabs at a soon-to-be ex, the song is both wildly groovy (thanks, Timbaland) and cripplingly sad. Over the years it’s become a pillar of Timberlake’s career–in recent live shows the song has swelled into a massive set closer loaded with horns and guitar solos…
Willow Smith Won’t Let Up, Drops 3 New Surprise Tracks In Collaboration with dylAn
We’re going to chalk this all up to boundless youthful energy. Willow Smith–who not but two days ago dropped off a spacey R&B number entitled “Rta”–has once again delivered unto us some brand new music. The 14 year-old vocalist/hair-whipper collaborated with the producer dylAn on three cuts that were posted to Soundcloud earlier this week. “Moon In My Room,” “Bike” and “11:30pm” all feature vocals coming from both dylAn and Smith, and while their tempos and timbres vary to a fair degree, the entire trio of songs only reasserts the mid-tempo breezy R&B sound that Willow has made her main meal ticket time and time again. All three songs have been tagged with…
Your Old Droog Drops Off The Complete Instrumentals To His Brilliant Debut LP
When his Your Old Droog‘s debut LP finally hit the presses and put to rest any suspicion that he might, in fact, be Nas, the world could finally stop sleuthing and just focus on the music. Your Old Droog offered a brief return to vintage-era production sounds and bonafide lyrical acrobatics–a pairing that isn’t completely missing from today’s hip-hop landscape per se, but is seemingly ever more difficult to find. Now, three months since the drop of Droog’s full-length debut, the instrumentals to the album–all 18 of its tracks–have been put up for streaming on Soundcloud by the …
Big Sean & Kanye West Link Once More On New Single “All Your Fault”
The steady downpour of new Big Sean cuts continues on. The GOOD Music MC has yet again dropped a new track off his upcoming 3rd LP Dark Sky Paradise, a ceiling-shaking joint that seems to have it all–monstrous bass, rattling trap hi-hats, moody choral lines and, yes a Kanye West feature. “All Your Fault” found its way online earlier today and carries the dark, maximalist aesthetic that has come to define the GOOD sound at almost every sonic juncture. The raps? They’re big boast-fests. The hook? It’s a pining love confession. Are there ample one line zingers? Absolutely; who else…