Metal Lungies

Jabari talks to Wale after his epic (or so we hear) show on Tuesday at the Highline.

Fascinating story behind this beautiful animated interview with John Lennon, courtesy of Current.

In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview. This was in the midst of Lennon’s “bed-in” phase, during which John and Yoko were staying in hotel beds in an effort to promote peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon’s every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries traditional pen sketches by James Braithwaite with digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit, and timeless message.

It’s incredible to me that Lennon spoke to this 14-year old kid without an ounce of condescension. John treats him like an interviewer on network TV.

As of yesterday, Lennon’s been gone for 28 years.

ML homie/video interview extraordinaire Jabari talks to 1/2 of The Clipse Pusha T at the Play Cloths & The Road to Till The Casket Drops launch yesterday at Commonwealth DC. If you may recall we got the heads up about Play Cloths over the summer.

Since Jabari is a robot and we can’t keep up with his video interviews here are some other interviews he’s done that you may have missed:

Willy Northpole

Ace Hood

Maino

Keri Hilson

Wale & Young Chris

How did I miss this? An incredible interview with Big Daddy Kane on Cipha Sounds and Peter Rosenberg’s Juan Epstein podcast.

Download: Juan Epstein ft. Big Daddy Kane

Bonus: The music video for Paul Simon’s “Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard”, featuring Biz Markie and Kane freestyling. BDK talks about this video in the interview.

You know we mess with Nardwaur, so its pretty much a must we throw up Nardwuar’s latest encounter.  He meets up with Common in Vancouver and knowledge on everything from early Chicago rap to Mongolian BBQ with Dilla is discussed, check it out. Spotted at 2DB.

Via Von Pea’s blog

Von Pea from Tanya Morgan does original, dope tracks over Madlib’s beats from the 2nd Quasimoto album, The Further Adventures of Lord Quas. You need this in your life. Hey, and it’s Von’s birthday today so go wish the man.

Did I mention how much I love that album cover?

Check out our interview with Tanya Morgan if you haven’t already! Oh, one more thing: Grand Vonye is a classic. You need to listen to that. “Progress Report” is my jam.

Von Pea – The Further Adventures of Von Pea

Dj01 Edit: Happy Birthday to Von as well!!

(amazing T La Rock photo via earfuzz)

G at GRANDGOOD unearthed a 1996 article in the New York Times about T La Rock’s time spent in a Jewish nursing home. After receiving brain damage while trying to break up a fight in the Bronx, he moved to the Haym Salomon Home for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. The article covers his time there, and it’s fascinating:

The home observes kosher dietary rules, so T misses his southern-style breakfasts with sausage, bacon, cheese and eggs. Sometimes he goes out to eat with a staff member or on community walks. He is not allowed to go out unsupervised; his short-term memory is too unreliable.

Visible from his window is the parachute jump in Coney Island. Two tables are covered with dozens of cassettes including ones by the Wu Tang Clan and King Just. An envelope on the wall next to his bed holds instructions for eight exercises. He has a couple of stuffed animals.

MORE than 30 photos of staff members and residents, family and friends — many of them rappers and deejays — are taped to the peach-colored wall. ”After looking at them every day, every day I started remembering who they were,” T said. ”It took months.” Some of them included members of the Zulu Nation, Grand Puba and Greg Nice and Smooth B of Nice ‘N Smooth.

Read the full article here.

Oh, also: If you haven’t read Robbie’s interview with T, you’re slipping.

Download: T La Rock – Breaking Bells (12′ Version)

Hey, I forgot to mention this happened:

I went to see Nardwuar’s band, the Evaporators, earlier this month and I got a chance to meet the man. Nardwuar is very friendly and a seriously cool guy.

It’s a bit late for a full review but I will tell you two things about the show.

1) The show was fucking awesome.

2) Nardwuar dressed as Canadian superhero Guardian on stage. (for people who don’t know who that is and are too lazy to click the link: he wore a skintight latex suit with the Canadian flag branded on it while on stage.

If you want to know what it looks like…

Bonus: Nardwuar interviews Flava Flav:

We posted their video for “Mirando” back in July. My friend Jesse recently interviewed Mike and Evan of Ratatat for his radio show and podcast, the Sound of Young America. I’ve featured the show a few times before on the site, and his interviews are always worth a listen.

Stream the interview here or download it at the TSOYA website.

Previously: Ratatat Presents Remixes Vol. 1/Vol.2

Our guy Jabari just wrapped up his exhaustive interview series with Charles Hamilton. In the 4 part series he talks to Charles about his deal, other artists, his background, his music making, shit pretty much everything. Plus catch up other Jabari features you may have missed after the jump.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Read the rest of this entry »