sound travels. i like to follow.

Norf Cackalack Your favorite young old head rapper is back and switching up flows over a Minnie Flip. Remember what I said about Minnie Flips? Can't go wrong!

Los Angeles.

WOOOO!

NYC

Born and Raised, now signed to Stones Throw.

Montreal (via Haiti) x NOLA (via Houston)

You mix that Negro with that Creole with that Kreyol and you get magic.

For some reason I can’t embed the soundcloud so let’s see how long this stays up.

Last week, I put this album on after having a random conversation about it with a friend. I became amazed all over again, especially at how well it has aged***. A quick google search revealed that the 10 year anniversary of its release on Ubiquity Records was soon coming, and apparently, today is the day: October 10th.

2006 was a pretty good time for music overall; Sa-Ra was still together and blowing our collective minds, Jay Dee, though mourned, left us with Donuts, and a catalog that was still in everyone's regular rotation, lots of domestic acts were putting out good work, and we were still getting imports of good soulful music as we have been, mostly from the UK, as was the norm. Typically when artists are imported to our market, they vocalize in English and who is really thinking anywhere but the UK would an artist emerge to make the crossover to the US market? So many dope soul artists came to us directly across the pond: Omar, Lewis Taylor, Soul II Soul, Loose Ends. No aritsts were really being pushed from other countries.

This year of 2006, to me anyway (which is why this is posted up on this platform rather than an actual publication), was the year that Scandinavia really came on the soul scene and the US took notice.

First, there was Up Hygh, from Sweden, who dropped the Venus album in March of that year. My small circle of music sharing geeks were really hype off the production, featuring vocal appearances by familiar  faces like Planet Asia and Little Brother. Pure P and his partner Rick Skizzo put out a few more projects and since then, P has become a pretty amazing DJ whose remix/re-edit arsenal will destroy your party in the most beautiful of ways.

Then Living with Owusu and Hannibal dropped. According to their Red Bull Music Academy talk from 2007, it seems like they were just two guys who got together to collaborate on this one project pulling together all of their influences and creating layers of sound throughout. The Intro and Outro were intentionally done in Danish but the rest of the album is in English, ranging from topics of racism and immigration to deciding whether or not to holler at a young lady. There's so many influences - from Prince to the Beach Boys and a nice nod to J Dilla (whose voice they sampled on "A Million Babies") mixed in with newer sounds that my group of friends were eating up here (Sa-Ra, Spacek, etc).

In the RBMA chat, they disclosed the album really was intended to be a one-off and no live performances would result from it and that's pretty much what happened as they had their own individual projects. Boom Clap Bachelors, a production collective Robin Hannibal was a member of, released music in 2008 (one track, “Tiden Flyver“, was sampled by Kendrick Lamar for “Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe”), then Quadron's debut (consisting of Hannibal and vocalist Coco O) came out in 2009 to a warm audience in the US. Hannibal also dropped the Bobby EP in 2010 and linked with Canadian vocalist Mike Milosh to form the group Rhye, which was a Pitchfork favorite in 2013. Coco O. and Hannibal also did work with the Odd Future crew, lending their talents to The Internet's Purple Naked Ladies and Tyler, the Creator’s Wolf.

Philip Owusu reappeared on the global scene in 2013 by teasing us with his Goodnight track, which is truly incredible. Apparently he had a lot of new music which I hope sees release in the near future.

When I think about everything that came from this album, it really doesn't get enough props. I have been playing this album non-stop all week just in awe and appreciation. It's the first time I learned about soul music outside of the typical markets and other artists have emerged from the same reason putting forth some really innovating stuff - from Little Dragon to Fatima. All my interest in "international soul" and creating a tumblr like this and creating a mix like Wander.lust stemmed from this album and I am truly grateful. I play tracks off this album quite a bit (”Le Fox”. “What’s it About”, and “Lonnie’s Secret” in particular) so it’s never buried too deep in my music collection. If you haven’t heard it, definitely add it to yours.

***a true sign of a classic people. stop calling shit that dropped recently "classic". time reveals whether or not a piece of music is classic.

London

Rapper/Producer. The vibe is strong with this one.

Even better: this EP can be yours for Free.99! Hurry up and download!

Cali x Jersey

I have called this song “the song at the end of the Suede” video for several months now.

I’ve wanted it and now, I shall have it on the FULL LENGTH NxWorries album dropping next month.

There is nothing like a dope beat with some lusty lyrics. Add it to your cuffin season soundtrack.

Chicago.

Just do yourself a favor and download the entire album here. It’s free.

I will be DJing tomorrow night at the New Museum for Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter. I might just play this on repeat all night.

Just uploaded Tara's Live Set at The Refresh: 8/22/16 to Mixcloud. Listen now!

Brooklyn.

Brian Marc aka Sene.

I kinda was fooled for a second. I thought this was Benny Sings. Shouts to Kieran Meadows of The Refresh radio show. He spun this during the episode I did a guest set on this past Monday. You can check the whole show here.

This song is a cut off a larger project, The Extraordinary Pleasure of Being Someone Else. I’m enjoying it so far.

London x Atlanta

Grime and Trap are those wild ass cousins that get together to f*ck stuff up and get you in trouble but you end up having the time of your life in the process

The track sounds like an ice cream truck jingle which automatically makes it a “Song of the Summer” contender for me.

DETROIT.

Stay true and rep where you come from.

Perth.

I could listen to this on repeat forever.

Washington, DC

Good to see some things don’t change. Like Ameri(i)e + Rich Harrison = DOPE SONG.

New York.

I love @francisandthelights. Shouts to his feature on @chancetherapperr‘s latest. Easily my favorite song on the mixtape.

Boston.

I have been a fan of Anna Wise since the debut of Sonnymoon. I loved their cover of “Houstatlantavegas”, a rare instance where the cover >>> original (just my opinion!)

I loved their first EP Golden Age. “Bungee” was my favorite. Her voice is strong and soft at the same time. That’s a rarity. Their whole steez is paradoxical. Strong and soft vocals, tracks that are spacey but grounded (drums!). 

They’ve steady been making music since that 2009 release and Anna Wise has been featured on the last two Kendrick Lamar albums, earning a Grammy this past year for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “These Walls”.

She just dropped her own EP The Feminine Act I a few weeks ago. This is one of the standout tracks. I love it. I’ve got plans for this one.

London.

Singer/Producer duo. That’s all I know.

I do love that they sampled Boom Clap Bachelor’s “Løb Stop Stå “ featuring Coco O. from Quadron (Robin Hannibal, also of Quadron, is a part of the Boom Clap Bachelor Crew). It was the lead track to my Wander.lust mix that set off this whole tumblr page, which just happened to turn 4 years old this past weekend.

Happy Birthday!