Tag: KRS One

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Belated 60th Birthday, KRS One!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates KRS One’s 60th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Black History Month: KRS One

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month — and pays tribute to KRS One.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy (Belated) 55th Birthday, Layne Staley!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates the 55th anniversary of Layne Staley’s birth.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy (Belated) 53rd Birthday, Nate Dogg!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates the 53rd anniversary of the birth of Nate Dogg.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Baltimore’s Native Sunz Release a Cinematic New Single

Baltimore-based production, engineering, licensing and sonic branding agency and collective Native Sunz — Frank “R.E.I.G.N.” Reed (songwriting, production, engineering and graphic design), STIXX (production), Lipp J. Allen (writer/artist) Jimmy “Jimmy Proton” a.k.a. “Astronomix” Cardo (writer, artist) — sources suitable tracks for a wide variety of contexts, including film, television, advertising campaigns, websites and more. While they work with a select group of composers and songwriters to create a unique (and growing) catalog of material with a decided focus on hip-hop.

With the release of the hypnotic, Frank Reed-penned “Ride 4 You,” the Charm City-based collective began to receive attention outside of their hometown. The track received video play on over 70 different regional outlets including Las Vegas‘ The Pulse Network, Rochester, NY‘s Video Hits — and The Bowling Network has aired the video at their 500 alleys across North America. They’ve also had their work played in rotation at MGM Grand Hotels and Casinos, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, and Caesar Palace Hotels and Casinos. Building up on a growing profile, the act opened for the legendary KRS One at Baltimore’s Ram’s Head Live back in 2016.

Earlier this year, Native Sunz released an incredibly cinematic 16 track mixtape/soundtrack L’appel du Vide and the album’s latest single is the stunningly gorgeous “The Alliance.” Centered around a brooding string section and old school, tweeter and woofer boom bap beats, “The Alliance” sonically speaking is one part The Godfather, one part American Gangster and one part J. Dilla’s Donuts.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Baltimore’s Native Sunz Releases an Atmospheric and Menacing New Single

    Native Sunz is a Baltimore-based production, engineering, licensing and sonic branding agency featuring Frank “R.E.I.G.N.” Reed (songwriting, production, engineering and graphic design), STIXX (production), Lipp J. Allen (writer/artist) Jimmy “Jimmy Proton” a.k.a. “Astronomix” […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

Video Review: MC Eiht and DJ Premier Team Up on Some Inspired and Gritty Street Hip-Hop

Aaron Tyler is an Augusta, GA-born, Compton, CA-based emcee, best known as MC Eiht, a name which he has publicly claimed was partially inspired by KRS-One and its link to the hood culture of his hometown — in particular Olde English 800 (sometimes referred to as 8 Ball) and to .38 caliber firearms. And although he’s known as the de facto frontman of Compton’s Most Wanted, which featured Boom Bam, Tha Chill, DJ Mike T, DJ Slip and Ant Capone, he’s arguably much better known as a solo artist and actor, who starred in 1993’s Menace II Society and contributed “Streiht Up Menace” to its soundtrack, a single that’s the Compton-based emcee’s most commercially successful and best known.  Now, i have to admit as a hip-hop head I’ve had periods where I’ve been primarily NYC and East Coast-ceneterd and sadly, I kind of forgot about MC Eiht; however, to his credit, he’s been extraordinarily prolific over the course of a nearly 25 year solo career, releasing 12 full-length albums, with his 13th full length effort Which Way Iz West slated for release some this year. 

As it turns out, Which Way Iz West’s latest single “Compton Zoo” is both what we should expect from the Compton-based emcee, a song focusing on Eiht’s life and times growing up in Compton with a gritty “I’ve done real shit and seen real shit out there and survived it all” honesty, over a DJ Premier production consisting of a swaggering yet soulful production featuring twinkling keys, looped horns and boom-bap beats. And while being something of an older statesman of hip-hop Eiht, who turned 50 late last month sounds driven and inspired in a way that would be a lot of younger emcees to shame. 

Directed by Jae Smyth, the recently released video employs a relatively simple concept — it follows Eiht and crew as they stroll around their hometown, with frequent footage of them on a rooftop with the city stretching out beneath them; but it also shows a gritty town full of tough people, who are surviving as best as they could. And of course, there’s footage of the great DJ Premier rocking the turntables, too. 

Summer Festivals by William Ruben Helms

Preview: SummerStage 2017

Back in 1986, the City Parks Foundation created SummerStage in the spirt of Central Park’s original purpose — to serve as a free, public resource to help culturally enrich the lives of New Yorkers through live concerts, dance performances, and other cultural events.  And the festival’s first few years revealed relatively humble beginnings as its first few years of live programming were at Central Park’s Naumberg Bandshell; however, with artists such as Sun Ra Arkestra and legendary South African vocal act Ladysmith Black Mambazo and an impressive list of others playing those first few years, Summerstage, SummerStage quickly developed a reputation for presenting one of the most diverse array of artists across a variety of cultures, genres and styles — and they’ve continued to do so throughout its 30 plus year history. Over the past handful of years, SummerStage’s organizers have expanded the festival beyond Manhattan with shows hosted in parks, bandshells and and makeshift stages across the city’s other five boroughs, and from covering the festival throughout most of the history of site, it’s a wonderful afternoon or evening with your friends and neighbors; plus, there’s nothing like catching acts that keep you in touch with your inner child.

2017’s SummerStage season will begin in earnest on June 3rd with the legendary and imitable Mavis Staples, a national fucking treasure if you ask me, with contemporary blues artist Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely Good Music to round out a night of soul, gospel and blues at Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield. And the rest of the lineup for his year continues an incredible run of must-see acts. Some other highlights will include:

And of course, there are a handful of benefit shows presented by The Bowery Presents at Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield to help support City Parks Foundation’s continuing efforts to present free arts programming to New Yorkers and that lineup is equally impressive.

SummerStage will also be expanding its family-friendly pre-show workshop offerings this year to include dance classes, beatboxing lessons and introductions to DJing and Latin percussion. These interactive workshops will take place prior to elect SummerStage shows throughout the summer and all ages are encouraged to come out to your local park to participate. This year, the pre-show workshops will being with a DJ lesson from Scratch DJ Academy and a beatboxing tutorial with beatboxer Exacto before Digable Planets’ Coffey Park show — and other workshops will include salsa dance lessons in St. Mary’s Park and a poetry class in Marcus Garvey Park.

For more information and schedules check out SummerStage here: http://www.cityparksfoundation.org/summerstage/
Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: A Day in the Life of Vice Souletric

If you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the last year or two you’d like come across a couple of posts about Ohio-based emcee producer Vice Souletric, who has worked with the likes of Awkword, KRS One, Brimstone 127 and Dug Infinite on […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

if you were born in the US or immigrated here, you were often told that America was a place of equality and justice for all; where all are created equal and born with certain inalienable […]