Metal Lungies

You know you are major when not only do you get a cameo, but you get to perform on a kids show. The Roots did just that appearing on the Nickelodeon show Yo Gabba Gabba.

Check the performance of Lovely, Love My Family below:

If I had kids you better believe they’d be rocking with this over the Sean Kingston X Kidz Bop.

In other pertinent Roots news, according to a few sites (and mysteriously disappearing videos), The Roots maybe going on a touring hiatus come March in order to become the house band for Jimmy Fallon’s takeover of Conan’s Late Night show. If this turns out true (all signs are pointing to it, it was even hinted to in that OKP ?uestlove Famous People thread), I need to catch The Roots one more time live before this (as do you!), because they are one of the best live acts, ever.

Now that’s a show. I usually don’t like when there are so many people on the bill, but there are some dope acts on this lineup: Grafh, Red Cafe, Joell Ortiz, Charles Hamilton, Torae, The League, Mr. Mecca, Rain, Esso, St. Laz, Jon Hope, Blitz The Ambassador, Mr. Crisis.

Buy tickets here.

And is it me or is the name Breeding Ground a little pause-worthy in this instance?

The poster is wrong, but I couldn’t find the updated poster. Joe Budden and Classified filled in for Obie Trice after he couldn’t get into Canada.

Spoiler: I didn’t stay to watch an Eminem-deficient D12 perform. So this is really a review of the openers.

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Via Eskay by way of Rafi

The duo perform “The Matrix”, followed by Pharaohe performing “Let’s Go”. The energy level here is crazy, and the live band is tight. I gotta see them live, seriously.

Speaking of which, Black has a few live shows this month posted to his MySpace:

Nov. 6 – @ Revival, Toronto, Ontario – with DJ House Shoes & Elzhi

Nov. 8 – @ Sonar, Baltimore, Maryland

Nov. 15 – @ The Knitting Factory, L.A., California

Nov. 18 – @venue TBA, Atlanta, Georgia

If you haven’t already, check out our Alchemist Beat Drop, featuring picks by DJ Premier (!) and Black himself.

I didn’t make it to a lot of shows during CMJ, so this was one of the only actual performances I saw. Thes One and Double K came through and rocked Fat Beats retarded. They did like four or five songs; three off the new album and then two requests, finishing with "Acid Raindrops." Thes also did an off-the-top freestyle using the names of records a dude was handing him. He’s a really energetic performer and the two work well together. Their new album Fun DMC is one of my favorites this year. daddyL knows what I’m talking about.

I hope the horrible weather didn’t deter anyone from their show that night.

Q-Tip is going on tour with a full band as well as DJ Scratch, The Cool Kids, The Knux and on some dates Pacific Division. Before Tribe’s set at Rock The Bells, Q-Tip rocked it solo for a minute and it was amazing. Dates/info:

Date	City/State	Venue	Info/Opener
11/05/08	Chicago, IL	House Of Blues	also feat. The Knux
11/07/08	Aspen, CO	Belly Up	also feat. The Knux
11/08/08	Denver, CO	Cervantes Ballroom	also feat. The Knux
11/11/08	Seattle, WA	Showbox Sodo	also feat. The Knux
11/13/08	San Francisco, CA	Mezzanine	also feat. The Knux & Pacific Division
11/15/08	Los Angeles, CA	House Of Blues	also feat. The Knux & Pacific Division
11/16/08	Las Vegas, NV	House Of Blues	also feat. The Knux
11/17/08	Phoenix, AZ	Marquee	also feat. The Knux
11/19/08	Dallas, TX	House Of Blues	also feat. The Knux
11/20/08	Austin, TX	Stubbs	also feat. The Knux
11/21/08	Houston, TX	Warehouse Live	also feat. The Knux
11/22/08	New Orleans, LA	House Of Blues	also feat. The Knux
11/24/08	Atlanta, GA	Centerstage	also feat. The Knux & Janelle Monae
11/26/08	Ft. Lauderdale, FL	Revolution	also feat. The Knux
11/28/08	Orlando, FL	House Of Blues	also feat. The Knux
11/29/08	Charlotte, NC	Amos’ Southend	also feat. The Knux
11/30/08	Washington, DC	Nightclub 9:30	also feat. The Knux & Pacific Division
12/02/08	New York, NY	Nokia Times Square	also feat. The Knux & Pacific Division
12/03/08	Philadelphia, PA	Trocadero	also feat. The Knux & Pacific Division

(image source)

Is the Wu out of weed money again?  They’ve just announced a national tour starting November 29th in Portland. Historically, Wu-Tang tours have always been very iffy, with dissent among the group being a constant issue. Still, seeing the entire Clan live (minus the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard) sounds like a life changing experience. Dates:

November 2008
29 – Portland, OR – Roseland Ballroom
30 – Boise, ID – Knitting Factory
December 2008
1 – Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
3 – San Francisco, CA – The Grand Ballroom at the Regency Center
4 – West Hollywood, CA – House of Blues
5 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues
6 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
7 – Tempe, AZ – Marquee
8 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre
10 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
14 – Chicago, IL – House of Blues
15 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
17 – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
18 – Rochester, NY – Main Street Armory
19 – Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero
20 – New Haven, CT – Toad’s Place
21 – Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom
23 – New York, NY – Hammerstein Ballroom
January 2009
1 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
2 – Providence, RI – Lupo’s
4 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
7 – Norfolk, VA – The Norva
8 – Richmond, VA – Toad’s Place
9 – Greensboro, NC – N Club
10 – Charleston, SC – Music Farm
11 – Charlotte, NC – Amos’ Southend
12 – Raleigh, NC – Lincoln Theatre
13 – Columbia, SC – LEVEL
14 – Atlanta, GA – venue to be announced

The groundbreaking rap group continues to support last year’s “8 Diagrams.”

I don’t think they’ve ever performed any songs off 8 Diagrams and only RZA and GZA showed up for the video.

via LiveDaily

I missed Johnson & Jonson’s CMJ show tonight because of my bullshit school obligations, but I’m definitely going to make my presence felt tomorrow at Fat Beats.  Technically not a CMJ show, but a byproduct of the avalanche of awesome shit going down this week. Check out all the events going on this week at Fat Beats here.

CMJ (College Music Journal) puts on an annual festival in New York that consists of a ton of concerts at a bunch of different venues over the course of about a week . The list of artists performing is a tad overwhelming, so I sorted through the madness and picked out some of the shows that I would (and might) attend. There are some pretty incredible looking shows. Check it out and buy me tickets after the jump.

Update: More going on than I thought.

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In you’re planning on being in one of the select cities listed below in the next week or so, it would be to your benefit to check out Nick Catchdubs and other acts from his label, Fool’s Gold Records, as they’re putting on a free tour sponsored by Scion. Scion’s latest sampler is a double-CD featuring music from Fool’s Gold artists like Kid Cudi and Kid Sister. Check the tracklist here.

You may remember Nick from his having hosted Wale’s 100 Miles And Running mix (still available for D/L at Nick’s blog), which was my introduction to the D-M-V’s future star, who I’ve been a fan of ever since. For that reason, Nick will always hold a special place in memory bank… in addition to the fact that he’ll be contributing to our next Beat Drop — a revisiting of a previous Beat Drop honoree’s catalog — which should be up on ML early next week.

• Tuesday, October 21 — Miami, FL

• Wednesday, October 22 — Atlanta, GA

• Thursday, October 28 — Philadelphia, PA

• Wednesday, October 29 — Baltimore, MD

RSVP for these shows here. And, as you might’ve guessed, Fool’s Gold will also be part of the massive CMJ Music Marathon taking over New York City this week.