Rainy day anthem. There are like 20 different mixes to this track, and even though I’m not used to this one yet, Lykke kills it as usual. Seattle folks, I’ll see you at Lykke’s show next month.
Swiped from Stereogum, via Herfection.
(if you prefer YouTube, go here. Part 2 will be up in a few days)
Here’s the footage of T.I.’s Bumbershoot performance that I grabbed from the stage a few weeks back. The festival’s “Hip-Hop 101” main stage at Memorial Stadium is always one of my favorite events of the year. We’ve been lucky enough to introduce people like Lupe, Wu-Tang, Kanye, Atmosphere, Pharcyde, Common, Talib, and A Tribe Called Quest and watch these artists deliver incredible shows from just a few feet away. It’s really dope to watch ’em rock a huge venue like this and although T.I.’s crowd was a bit smaller than past years, this was another great experience. I’m not a huge Tip fan, but he killed it.
My favorite moment was definitely at 18:40, when he talked to the crowd about voting and then, with phenomenal swag, told Drama to drop “What You Know.” That might be my favorite T.I. record, [Kanye] Toomp killed that ish [/Kanye].
(if you prefer Vimeo, click here)
I’ve been meaning to post up the footage I grabbed from our Bumbershoot Festival here in Seattle a few weeks ago, but I’ve been slacking. Once I saw Eskay toss up my T.I. video, I figured I should get on it haha. Here’s the first clip, where Keyshia Cole runs through some hits from her catalog on the main stage at Memorial Stadium. I can’t say I’m a huge Keyshia fan, but she has some joints I really dig (namely “(I Just Want It) To Be Over” and her hook on Diddy’s “Last Night”).
I’ll make a separate post with the T.I. footage, which is better quality and far more interesting, imo.
As mentioned previously, Little Brother rocked the Key Club in Los Angeles last week and the homegirl Mariko recorded some dope clips of their performance. Above is the insta-classic, “Step My Game Up” (complete with a hilarious intro from Phonte), and videos of “Lovin’ It,” “Nobody Like Me,” “Extrahard,” and “Sirens” can be found here. I can’t wait to see LB at Rock The Bells this weekend…
We’ve seen Nas perform this before, so I wasn’t going to post it up until Tunj pointed out that dude kept the CBS diss in, despite rocking on Letterman. “I watch CBS and I see BS.” That’s gangster and I approve. Plus, it sounds better with a live band.
There’s a good chance I’ll spazz out to this song when he drops it for Rock The Bells at the Gorge.
John’s been slowly starting to unleash music from Evolver, first “Good Morning” at the end of the “Green Light” video, and now a live performance of “If You’re Out There” at the Democratic National Convention that kicked off today in Denver. When I spoke to John last month for Sound Session, he talked extensively about this song and the reasons why he wrote it. If you missed that interview, you can peep it here.
Between John’s performance, Edward Kennedy’s inspirational appearance, and Michelle Obama’s excellent speech, the Convention is off to a great start. Kanye, N.E.R.D., and Wyclef are supposed to be doing something out there this week, so hopefully video of those performances will hit the net too.
gObama.
As much as we all complain about D’Angelo’s disappearance, at least he’s popped up on a few dope collaborations over the years (“So Far To Go” & “Imagine” come to mind). Maxwell, on the other hand, has laid reeeeeally low. I spotted this recent live performance of his classic “This Woman’s Work” over at the Smoking Section, and had to post it up. If for some reason you don’t have the song, download it ASAP:
Hint: play this song for any girl born in the 80’s who played basketball growing up and watch what happens.
A little snippet of Kardinal, Solitair, and Lindo P performing “Dangerous” at a Pepsi DJ Division event in NYC a few days back. Seeing these dudes rock live is a sight to behold. In the interview with Kardi that I’ll post up tonight, he discusses the importance of his live show, how being raised by Jamaican parents in Toronto helped spark that energy, and a million other topics. Get ready, this interview is a long one. A couple more of these and I’m changing the show to Inside The Rappers Studio.
Shout to Info for the footage.
Some nice live footage of Dwele performing at the Temple Bar in LA about a month ago courtesy of my favorite titled blog, NerdWithSwag. Although, as a fellow nerd, and one with ample swag, I’m afraid I gotta call an Inigo Montoya on their usage of “complacent” in the description: “I do not think it means what you think it means.” Definitely has negative connotations.
Um, but yeah, *ends nerd rant*. Andwele Gardner runs through “Flapjacks” and “I Think I Love You” in apparently stifling heat. Of all the people in the industry, Dwele might be the only artist I haven’t seen live yet that I really want to.
Aside from Kanye’s “Glow In The Dark Tour,” I’ve never seen anyone do a better live performance than the Roots. Seeing as how I’ve caught them about 15 times vs. 4 for ‘Ye, I think the overall edge has to go to Legendary. In this clip from OKP TV, there’s some dope performance footage and ?uestlove and Black Thought talk about their live show strategy. Plus, Greg The Dude broke out the fisheye. I love the fisheye.
The homey Tunji also helped put this together (as you can partly see in the mirror while Tariq is talking), and he has additional clips over at his site…peep ’em.