Mayer Hawthorne – Maybe So Maybe No (Video)

Nicolay – Shibuya: City Lights Vol. 2

Nicolay’s Shibuya: City Lights Vol. 2 dropped digitally today. Download it here.

Download: Lose Your Way feat. Carlitta Durand (First single off of Shibuya: City Lights Vol. 2)

Click here to read where the inspiration for the album came from.

Pharoahe Monch Live @ The Jazz Cafe, London

Here’s some footage of Pharoahe Monch performing at the Jazz Cafe in London, August 4th over some Black Milk beats. Monch’s next LP, WAR, is coming soon.

Oh No – Ethiopium [Snippets]

Download/Stream Here
To follow up Dr. No’s Oxperiment (Turkish & Lebanese Psyche samples) he’s dropping Ethiopium, an album built entirely around Ethiopian samples. The project will be available exclusively on StonesThrow in a few weeks.

Brother Ali – Us (Video)

The new album by Brother Ali is available worldwide September 22nd.

Madlib Interview in The Wire

This is an excerpt from Wire’s cover story on Madlib from their Aug. 2009 issue, which is available now. Check out thewire.co.uk for information about this issue, an MP3 exclusive of Madlib’s Summer Suite, or a digital edition of the magazine at exacteditions.com

Prepare for a new yesterday, advises Madlib the former Lootpack MC who digs deep into his mental record crate to produce the wayward hip-hop of Quasimoto and the sample-libraries of Beat Konducta. Lisa Blanning hears about virtual one-man jazz bands, collaborations with J Dilla and Melvin Van Peebles, and his attempts to curate the past for music lovers of tomorrow. Photography by Jeremy & Claire Weiss

“My computer?” echoes Madlib incredulously. “I never use a computer. It’s too easy. It’s not easy to sound like Dilla, but you can make beats like Dilla with your computer, so that’s why everybody sounds like Dilla.” Madlib is in the middle of a European tour giving a rare interview – his first, in fact, since 2006. As we sit in his East London hotel room, I’m reminded that I’m talking to a man who doesn’t use the internet or email. “You gotta look me in the eye,” he explains. “That’s why people start arguing. You can be bold while you’re typing…”

To keep reading this interview click here.

Madlib – Summer Suite

Summer Suite is a 40-minute jazz fusion piece produced and arranged by Madlib, under the name The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble. This suite is a single track comprised of four major sections and several different themes, altogether feeling similar to, more more cohesive, than one of Madlib’s jazz mixtapes. “Electro-acoustic space jazz” itself is a fitting description. To listen to a sample and purchase click HERE.

Reflection Eternal – Back Again (Video)

Clipse – Kinda Like A Big Deal (Video)

This is the official music video for Clipse’s “Kinda Like A Big Deal” featuring Kanye West. “Kinda Like A Big Deal” is the first single from Clipse’s upcoming album “Til The Casket Drops” which is scheduled to be released on September 8th.

Mos Def – Quiet Dog (Live on Letterman)