843Shows
26,814Spins
Wednesday, Aug 12 2020, 5AM
Welcome to EARLY with Gabriel Teodros on KEXP!
How about we start the day with a global premiere of Falon Sierra & Luna God's new track!
Last year, Houston talent Tobe Nwigwe delivered the powerful album FOURIGINALS, which saw 14 tracks and appearances from Paul Wall, Madeline Edwards, The New Respects, and — his creative team — his wife Fat and producer LaNell Grant. This week, he follows that with a new offering titled The Pandemic Project, which is led by the infectious singles “Try Jesus” and “I NEED YOU TO,” the latter of which sent a very strong message in under a minute:
“Arrest the killers of Breonna Taylor, all of y’all who think we need more evidence, you goofy, I said, arrest the killers of Breonna Taylor, and Elijah McClain, too
youtu.be
BREIS (breeze) is a dynamic Nigerian rap artist based in the UK. His name stands for Brother Reaching Each Inner Soul. Growing up in both the UK and Nigeria has influenced BREIS’ sound, which is a fusion of Hip Hop, Jazz and Afro-beat.
Nneka Egbuna (born 24 December 1980) is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and actress. She sings in English, Igbo and Nigerian Pidgin.
Noveliss drops a video for his new song "Liquid Snake" which illustrates the battle of opposing Ideology. The lyrics paint Noveliss as "The Witcher," a Monster Hunter, only, the monster is the Ideology of others, so it's invisible. Hints the blindfold. www.youtube.com
Ghostface Killah brings fresh verses to a classic Wu-Tang Clan beat on a new version of Nicole Bus’ “You.” The track utilizes the same soul sample – The Charmels’ “As Long As I Got You” – that served as the foundation of Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers‘ classic “C.R.E.A.M,” which didn’t feature a Ghostface verse
Get this brand new one from L.A.'s Blu and Exile (their first LP in eight years) here: bluandexile.bandcamp.com
The deeply personal song recounts Blu’s own challenges while maintaining hope, faith and the feeling that inspires him to continue to make music and keep fighting…
Listener request!
Check out Gabriel's latest interview with Blimes & Gab on Sound & Vision at KEXP.ORG! www.kexp.org
Gab: I think the album has like a great mix of sh**. It’s really a cohesive album and it has like something for everybody, we even tied it together with skits. So you have like hella different elements. You get to see our personality. You get some comedy and you get some dance cuts, you get some rappity-rap cuts. You have some cuts over singing. There’s a whole lot going on. You’d have to find something in that album that you fuck with, but there’s no way you wouldn’t. uproxx.com
Super fun video: youtu.be
"Like Sugar" was the Queen of Funk’s first track in over a decade. Watch the wonderful dancing in the official video: www.youtube.com
New album from London's SAULT out now, all proceeds will be given to charity: saultglobal.bandcamp.com
“‘Freedom’ was a song I wrote at the end of 2019,” Che told HipHopDX. “It was before the George Floyd murder and before all the protesting and looting started happening in the U.S. It’s a song I feel like my people needed at the time, not even realizing months later I would be witnessing the biggest revolution of my lifetime.” She continues, “‘The art of war, it’s a meaning behind the message/You don’t need a gun or sword if you treat ya mind as the weapon’ is my favorite line in the song. My people have to stay 10 steps ahead mentally in order to fight this battle with the institutional and systemic racism we fight on the daily. Our anger and frustration right now is justified.”
Apollo adds, “This is one of those songs that’s not only completely relevant for today’s climate — but at all times. We made this song without knowing the uprising that would be happening soon thereafter. It’s a great song, and Ché’s expression is all truth. It was only right that we share it with you all at this moment.”
The new album from Apollo Brown & Che’ Noir features Skyzoo, Blakk Soul, Planet Asia, Ty Farris, and Black Thought:
apollobrown360.bandcamp.com
Cover of the Curtis Mayfield song that appears on his 1972 soundtrack for the film "Super Fly."
Watch Fishbone's live performance at KEXP from 2016 here: www.youtube.com
Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? is out this Friday! fantasticnegritomusic.bandcamp.com
Of their collaboration, Fantastic Negrito says in a press statement: "Working with Tank was such a joy. She is a powerful, dynamic artist, and we made a little bit of history together.
Tank adds: "'I'm So Happy I Cry' to me is about being so overjoyed when change finally comes from living a life of constant fear and survival. It's the truest testament in believing not only is change gonna come, but it is here."
The best way to start your day is a cup of coffee with Miguel :)
"I wanted to describe a beautiful blur at night," Miguel explained to Entertainment Weekly. "You're not really sure what you're in for. But your instincts are at their highest level. There's vice, but it's rooted in real connectivity.
Just days before traveling to Los Angeles for the band’s first Grammy Week, where they were among the nominees for Best New Artist, Ball, her bandmates and over two dozen of their creative friends and family gathered in their hometown of New Orleans at Marigny Studios. The occasion was to record a cover of Burt Bacharach’s “What the World Needs Now”
“We cried so much constantly,” Ball recalls. “We didn’t even know why we were crying in these moments of silence and togetherness. It was honestly extremely surreal, it really was.”
"If This World Were Mine" is a 1967 song by soul music duo Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell from their album United. Fifteen years after the original recording, Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lynn re-recorded it for her album Instant Love.
The concept for Dinner Party was born when Martin and Glasper were touring with Glasper’s R+R=NOW project, with Martin later reaching out to 9th Wonder and long-time friend Washington to join the group.
Drawing on soul, jazz and hip-hop, the album features Martin and Washington on sax, Glasper on keys, and 9th Wonder on production, plus contributions from Chicago singer Phoelix.
It follows Washington’s 2018 LP Heaven And Earth, as well as Glasper’s 2019 LP Fuck Yo Feelings.
“Wouldn’t that be a beautiful thing if it rained love everywhere and everybody got wet?” Fields asks. “That would be a beautiful place to live in, where everyone has compassion, everyone is drenched with love. Of course, that’s a dream world. But I can dream, can’t I?”
Lee Fields & The Expressions performing live in the KEXP studio. Recorded December 6, 2016. www.youtube.com
Rapper Oddisee calls his new EP "Odd Cure," "A record I didn't want to write but needed to." The tracks were written over the span of eight weeks while the rapper was in self isolation in his studio in Bed-Stuy. bit.ly
Listener request!
“I feel like [our dependence on personal devices and social media is] a very dangerous path that we’ve taken and a choice that we’ve taken as human beings to rely so heavily on these devices and let them permeate our world and give them to our children. These are products that are meant to prey on idle-minded people that just need something simple and titillating to do and spend a whole bunch of unnecessary time on so it’s kind of like a dumbed down newness of technology.” http://bit.ly/2kGURRl | Watch SB play a sensational set here in KEXP's Live Room: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT0Yxq22Dho
https://shabazzpalaces.bandcamp.com/
Solange wrote "Cranes in the Sky" eight years before the album's release, in the aftermath of her break-up with the father of her child–whom she had been with for five years, since age seventeen. In 2008, producer and singer Raphael Saadiq handed Solange a CD with a few instrumentals on it. One consisted simply of drums, strings, and bass. Two months later, Solange wrote "Cranes in the Sky" while listening to the instrumentals in a Miami hotel. In 2016, when she had finished writing and creating A Seat at the Table in New Iberia, Louisiana, Solange revisited "Cranes in the Sky"—shortly after which she called Raphael and asked if he would help produce a few other songs on the album. Lyrically, the song explores the idea of attempting to avoid the elephant in the room. It describes a person looking to distract themselves in various ways from an unaddressed sadness.
Request from listener Andrea in Canada who says "The song that I always go to when I need a little inspiration is Move on Up by Curtis Mayfield. You see, I was in a serious motorbike crash years ago, and because of my injuries, I had to learn how to walk again. I would put this song on, and motor around the care facility where I was recuperating with my walker, a big grin, and a sense of determination, thanks to Mr. Mayfield."
Beyonce's new visual album 'Black Is King,' just released on the Disney+ network. Proceeds from the sale of this recent single will support Black-owned small businesses in need, through the singer's BeyGOOD initiative: www.beyonce.com
Keleketla! is an expansive collaborative project, reaching outward from Johannesburg to London, Lagos, L.A. and West Papua, “Keleketla!” started as a musical meeting ground between Ninja Tune cofounders Coldcut and a cadre of South African musicians (introduced by the charity In Place Of War), including the raw, South African-accented jazz styles of Sibusile Xaba, and rapper Yugen Blakrok (Black Panther OST). From those initial sessions, the record grew to encompass a wider web of musical luminaries, including Afrobeat architects, the late pioneer Tony Allen and Dele Sosimi, legendary L.A. spoken word pioneers The Watts Prophets, and West Papuan activist Benny Wenda. Get this LP here: keleketla.bandcamp.com
Listener request!
Bongeziwe Mabandla's subtly powerful Xhosa language songs thread together the traditional sounds of his Eastern Cape background with urban grooves and contemporary folk, with his acoustic guitar playing and plaintive yet soulful voice carrying individual stories of the search for freedom, love and identity.
