Just finished recording a couple of CE drops for SoulCall radio show in Spain. Jonay and Julio Perez host the show, and play some really dope hip-hop and soul music. We were honored when Jonay hit us up and asked for a drop. He told us they were playing Collective Efforts and their listeners were loving it! We sent him a couple drops and some CE tracks with SoulCall shouts at the beginning. We are sending out a package this week with stickers, the full catalog of music in mp3 form, and a copy of the new record. I can't express enough how much I would like to travel to Spain to rock a show, even if had to come out of pocket...at this point, it would still be a dream come true just to be there. Anyway, enough rambling, I was checking out their last podcasts - available HERE - and noticed that in addition to non-stop dope music, all of the other drops were from artists I respect (and some that I know personally). I definitely recommend checking them out, as their podcast put me on to some shit I was sleeping on from last year, Jet Audio, and the track "Stand Alone" from the album Stand Alone Complex. Check it out below, and support the artists.
I found the whole album HERE, haven't peeped it yet...plan to soon.
[Revision: I did get the chance to check the full album out, and although there are some good tracks on it, some of the MCs lyrics are little suspect to me (corny). That's just a personal taste issue, but on a purely sonic level it is overall a great project. There's a few skippers, but I'm feeling Che Grand's joint, "Bookmark the Style" and of course the title track.]
Once again, thanks to my homies Jonay and Julio Perez at SoulCall for supporting independent artists! Please support these brothers and click the logo below to check their podcasts. Peace and respect...
I had to get one more quick course in before the year closed.
My favorite hip-hop duo from Spain, Solo Los Solo, consisted of Juan Solo on the mic and the legendary Griffi on production and cuts. To my disappointment, they are no longer working together as a group, but fortunately each are independently producing new material. Here was their last big video, "Todo El Mundo Lo Sabe":
And here's one of my favorites from the album Quimera, called "Brujos":
So I'm sitting over at Root's working on filling up the new CE word-press site (which should be ready by the end of the week), and in the background this horrible movie was on starring Omarion as this kid living in Puerto Rico trying to bridge the gap between rap and reggaeton. It was so corny, I needed to cleanse my ears with some real Puerto Rican representation, so I leave you with two of my favorite artists from that region.
[REVISION: After posting this, then reading more about Tego Calderon on the wikipedia page about him, I learned that he actually turned down a role in that movie I mentioned earlier ("Feel The Noise") and chose instead to appear in John Singleton's "Illegal Tender" out of respect for the director.]
So I have been getting back into the Spanish hip-hop lately, and have decided to document my favorites for quick future reference. The guy I have been checking all afternoon I first heard back the early 2000s, as guest MC on some of my favorite albums of that era. His name is Tremendo, or Tremendo Menda, and he reminds me of the Guru of Spain. He is from Terrassa (about 30 km from Barcelona)...
...runs with the dope hip-hop collective Funkomuna, and cites Dilla as his major influence. So far he has released one full-length record called Vidalogia with the label DelPalo. This great label is also the home of Spanish hip-hop group Sólo Los Solo, so naturally DJ Griffi (the producer / DJ extraordinaire of that group) does a lot of the production. If you speak Spanish, you can learn more about him on Wikipedia or you can check his Myspace page for more current updates and tracks. For now, I will let some of his tracks speak for themselves…
