Metal Lungies

A smooth jam from The Game and hometown hero Wale. I’ve never been the biggest Cool and Dre fan, but this might actually redeem them from the travesty that was Celebration (real Bone Thugs fans feel me on that).

Who is that singing in the background?  Cool or Dre? Some of those ad-libs are borderline humorous.

Can you sample a soul record on a soul record? Doesn’t that mess with the space time continuum? Madlib and Georgia are teaming up for an album dropping March 27. Save the babies.

Download: Georgia Anne Muldrow – Seeds (produced by Madlib)

via Rolling Stone

Knxwledge’s Hexual Sealings LP (think about it… done? OK) starts off with a remix of Musiq Soulchild’s “Be Friends” that isolates the neo-soul elements and butters them up nice. An equally suave Darien Brockington remix follows. Much of the new disc from the Philly beatmaker falls under ‘grown and sexy,’ but it would be a mistake to brand Hexual Sealings as just neo-soul. Knwxledge can’t resist minimalist remixes of Nas’ “Book of Rhymes,” J Dilla’s “Let’s Take It Back,” and Andre 3000’s verse from “The Art of Storytellin’ Part 4.” A remix of “Heart of the City” pointedly cuts Jay off at “Where’s the love?”  The common thread is organic, addictive beats that give each acapella a second life, often a hot and sweaty one.

Amy Winehouse died on Sunday. According to The Sun, a source close to her family said the cause was alcohol withdrawal. As a tribute, Big Boi posted this unreleased remix of “Tears Dry on their Own” by Organized Noize and Dungeon Family. A spokesman for Universal said there are twelve unreleased Amy Winehouse songs.

When Isaac Hayes and Gil Scott-Heron died, it didn’t hit me that hard, because I’m 22 years old and I discovered their music decades after after they made it. It was my parents’ music. But Amy was ours and I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve lost a distant, but cherished family member.

Sleepy Brown of Organized Noize has returned to Atlanta and formed a new label called 13 Black. “Your My Lady” (I know) starts with just a guitar and one-two drums, then adds bass, then an organ, and finally strings. It’s minimal, slow-building soul of the Al Green variety. By the time the electric guitar and whispering femme fatale come on at the end, your woman will have shed most of her clothes.

Download: Sleepy Brown – Your My Lady

via snortthis.com

70s tributes come out every week, but Stone Rollin’ is all about pre-Motown soul. Saadiq has a full band including a harmonica player. This is not for Bruno Mars fans. The only modern element is the sweaty, thick-booty dancer in the video.

“Overwhelmed” is right. Bilal rides down the electro-psych neo-soul rabbit hole with a careening electric guitar, pulsating synths, and dusty attic drums. These two last bumped heads when Daedelus remixed Bilal’s single “Restart” last year.

Bespoke drops April 26. Tour dates after the break.

via RCRD LBL
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Now Flying Lotus has directed videos for Erykah Badu and Bilal. Sounds like Mr. Ellison has the neo-soul bug or maybe even full blown Baduizm. The lack of public nudity might stop this from getting as much attention as the “Window Seat” video, but I like cartoon spaceships just as much publicity stunts disguised as artistic statements.

Black Milk adds some Detroit knock to a track from Bilal’s Airtight’s Revenge.

Download: Bilal – The Dollar (Black Milk Remix)

via The Sound of VTech

Hip-hop took everything from soul. They got the pain from Syl Johnson, the melodies from The Delfonics and The Stylistics, the drums from Melvin Bliss (or rather Bernard Purdie), and the gangster shit from Curtis Mayfield. So it’s about time hip-hop gave something back besides royalties (“I’m sitting in the house now that was built with the Wu-Tang money,” –Syl Johnson).

Wildcookie sentimentalizes the same substances as Pusha T, but instead of summoning fiends with virulent couplets, Anthony Mills recalls his favorite heroin(e)-addicted jazz players with a 1974 falsetto. He’s singing about what the best rappers rap about: drugs. Take into account the incredibly funky beats and you’ve got a soul project that hip-hop heads will be able to appreciate without removing their mean mugs.

A Wildcookie/Ghostface collaboration is at the top of my wish list. The album, Cookie Dough, drops February 21. Here are some select cuts.