Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Mil's German reggae twin...

Once again, thanks to Tommy for this great find! His name is Gentleman and he is a reggae artist from Germany who bears a striking resemblance to J-Mil. You can see for yourself below...






Here's a great interview piece, if you speak German...






Man, he looks a lot like Mil, it's kind of scary. I think even more so than Prince Abdullah...

Here he is shootin' the shit with Obama...straight clownin'! Just playin', Mil.



Friday, June 19, 2009

Real feel good music...

Many thanks to TK for putting me on to this Canadian producer, Dela, who is working with some incredible artists like J-Live, Blu, Talib Kweli, etc. Very smooth golden era hip-hop influenced beats, with great sample selection. Here is a song he did with Talib called "Life Long" from his album, Changes of Atmosphere, which according to his Myspace page, comes out today.

[Heads up: This song sounds better on his Myspace page...]



And another one featuring the incredible J-Live:

The Georgia Theatre...ablaze?!!!

Noooo!! Woke up this morning to Ruthie telling me some horrible news! God, I hope they can save that place...it doesn't sound good. My condolences to the owner, all the people that lost their jobs, all of the musicians and bands who depended on that place, and the whole Athens scene in general. What a huge loss, what an historical building...

Fire engulfs landmark Georgia Theatre in Athens





R.E.M. wrote about it on their page, and they have some great links to other stories and pictures:

Check it out here

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Collective Efforts and Diamond D...

We just put up a sample of the new track featuring Diamond D on production. Check it out HERE or click the picture below...



Peace, fam.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Black Spade is the truth...

Producer, rapper, and singer Black Spade is from St. Louis and makes meaningful laid back hip-hop soul music. Here are a couple tunes from his debut album To Serve With Love.





On a related note, upcoming hipster-rapper Charles Hamilton stole a beat from him and got caught. Check out the two songs in question below...

First the version that Black Spade produced on his MPC (he had it available on his Myspace page and Chuck stole it...producers beware, artists will take your shit, we've seen it happen to people we know):



Then Charles Hamilton's "Shinin":


It's pretty obvious, and it's so sad that when Black Spade asked him about it on the humble when he saw him perform it at a show, he denied it!



Thus, I repeat...Black Spade is the truth, and Charles Hamilton is a lame...

As requested by Jay Smooth, I have sworn to ignore everything that Charles Hamilton says from here on out, not that I had really listened to him, or really even heard of him for that matter. So, on that note, peace.

The majority of this content/info was leeched from the following excellent, informative blog-sites:

www.illdoctrine.com
www.complex.com
www.freshselects.net
www.rockthedub.com

Friday, June 12, 2009

Much respect Ras Shiloh...

I just had the chance to meet and record Ras Shiloh at the CE studio. He was in town visiting family, and Scott Tester of Trilogy Sound Crew talked him into blessing him with some personalized vocals that he could use for some soundclash/reggae battle type thing. They just needed a place to record it. Being that tomorrow is Jay Murph's wedding (last night was the bachelor party, more to come on that...) and tonight was the only night I had to work on CE stuff this weekend, I was reluctant when Bam called and told me the situation. But since Tester is the one that hooks up the CE shirts, I figured I could spare an hour or so for him. Well, it was worth it! Man, this guy was so professional, he gave me the tracks he was going to do, went to the booth, and knocked out three song-length freestyles, one take each. His voice was so rich and authentic, I had to find some of his music when they left. Here are a few tunes from the tube, but check him out on Myspace when you get a second. Very cool guy, much respect due...



Obama is Cliff Huxtable...

Brilliant...

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Barack Obama Is Cliff Huxtable
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorNewt Gingrich Unedited Interview

Quote of the day...

"Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons."

-- Bertrand Russell


Sunday, June 7, 2009

Productive Saturday...

Had a really productive day yesterday, we were in the studio from noon - midnight. For the first 6 hours I laid a couple new verses and some additional vocal layers on a few songs...then around 7ish, Richard Jones came over and laid down some dope percussion elements (he is such a talented dude!) on a few tracks that needed a little thickening. I am very happy with the direction the album is taking. We only have a few weekends left until our deadline, so we have to utilize every free moment - and on that note...

It's early Sunday morning and I am going to go listen to everything we did...cut, chop, paste, and play around until it's right...maybe even finish some more vocal ideas. I'll leave you with some Cyne, out of Gainesville, Florida. Some laid back hip-hop for your Lazy Sunday.

(there's a skip towards the end of this rip, but it sounds better than the other version I saw on the tube)



Wednesday, June 3, 2009

But I was so close...

"Have no fear of perfection. You'll never reach it."

-- Salvador Dalí



Oh, well...

"Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without."

-- Confucius

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

28 Days Later...

Okay, fam, the deadline has been set:

By June 30th, 2009, we plan to have all recording complete for the new Collective Efforts album, Freezing World. All verses, all cuts, all instruments...everything! The album will be narrowed to a solid 13-15 tracks, mixed, mastered, and prepared to present to the world. Wish us luck as we enter the final stages of the creative process.

The Cluttered Mind...

"More important than learning how to recall things is finding ways to forget things that are cluttering the mind."

-- Eric Butterworth

Monday, June 1, 2009

CE's new website is up!

For the longest time we have had an outdated "coming soon" banner on our website that directed you to our Myspace page. Just in time for the month of June, I am proud to announce the opening of the new Collective Efforts website! Check it out, tell your friends, feel free to comment and participate. Since it is essentially a fancy wordpress site, I am going to have to split my time between this and the CE site, but hopefully that will just mean fewer and more interesting posts in both places...we shall see.

www.cecrew.com

Find out what motivates, captivates and rejuvenates me on my never-ending quest for knowledge and art.
Peace, fam, thanks for checkin' in...