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Friday, Apr 15 2022, 5AM
Happy Birthday to Blu, (Johnson Barnes III), of Blu & Exile, born this day in 1983!
We featured a 2016 song-of-the day from the Chicago rapper - get it here:
www.kexp.org
Live on KEXP: www.youtube.com
New music! Watch Iké's live on KEXP at Home session with DJ Miss Ashley, recorded in 2020, at
www.youtube.com
www.lilaikemusic.com
New music from Omar Apolonio Velasco. omarapollo.com
Jungle performed at KEXP in late October. Watch the performance at www.youtube.com
Fresh expansive electronic rhythms from prolific Phoenix-based electronic producer Kareem Ali: kareemali19.bandcamp.com Check out Kareem Ali's guest DJ mix for Midnight In A Perfect World: www.kexp.org
Co-produced by Ali Shaheed Muhammad!
According to Rolling Stone, this track tackles racial injustice and arrives with video capturing Covid-19's impact on black communities.
"'Shelter' is a spiritual note, a healing frequency," Mensa said in a statement. "It was inspired not by Hollywood or Paris, but by what's going on on the ground - in the real world, with the real people."
Wyclef added: "The journey of this song was so important. It's very crucial we, as musicians, use our voice to represent those who are not so easily able to be heard."
bit.ly
Beautiful video here: youtu.be
"Phife, born Malik Taylor, had died from diabetes-related complications at the age of 45. In the nearly 20 years between The Love Movement and We got it from Here, Phife, dogged by ill health and still frustrated over the dynamics that led to Tribe’s breakup, released little music. Forever, his first posthumous album—assembled by his longtime DJ, Dion Liverpool, from largely unfinished demos—reveals what had become most important to Phife in his post-Tribe years: family and a particular kind of integrity, where teaching a child to read and not fucking up a cypher are interconnected parts of one worldview." - pitchfork.com
London-based duo Blue Lab Beats released "Motherland Journey" as their debut album with Blue Note records.
store.bluenote.com
New music off Motomami, Rosalía’s third album that came out March 18! "Diablo" features vocals from James Blake.
www.vulture.com
BRAND NEW from Jamaican reggae artist Chronixx! From his Instagram:
'This one is for all the young musicians in Jamaica…we have lost so many of our guiding lights here on the physical plane. We are hurting and longing for the word sound of universal truth. Now we have to feel their essence in our creativity and keep the flame alive in the earth. This one is for our elder musicians. You have woven the fiber of who we are…your honor is our honor. We love you. You are our heroes.' -- tinyurl.com
On this day in 1894 - Blues singer Bessie Smith is born in Chattanooga, Tennessee! Nicknamed the "Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s.
check this out for a good read: www.penguinrandomhouse.com
Dubbed the "Mother of the Blues", she bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic expression of southern blues, influencing a generation of blues singers.
Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.
Toronto Soul/R&B powerhouse Tanika Charles’ third studio album - tanikacharles.com
Reginald Omas Mamode IV stands strong in process, sensibility and message; speaking authentically against our collective future and the struggle of the Afro Diaspora people, the enslavement and colonisation of his and many others ancestors. His clear modus operandi focuses on a desire for peace, unity, love and a revised value system to insight a wider societal change.
“Music, it's a beautiful, spiritual and powerful thing" says Reginald. "It transcends boundaries and cultures, brings people together, it can instigate the worst and the best in us." reginaldomasmamodeiv.bandcamp.com
