No cigarette smokin’ or alcoholic beverage allowed in Stephen Marley’s room. Stephen grabbed Melanie Fiona for a hot and sweaty PSA.

The green screen helps Nas and Damian Marley realize the African/celestial imagery that was lurking in “Patience.”

British producer Skitz made one video for both singles for his album Sticksman. The real treat is “Born Inna System” which starts at 1:20. Buggsy rips  apart the reggae beat with a demented double time flow. Get the audio here.

via Grindstone

Kingston-native Jovi Rockwell goes in over Smif-n-Wessun’s “Bucktown.” Something tells me Tek and Steele would love this.

Download: Jovi Rockwell – Keep It Real

via RubyHornet

So DJ01 and I went to Artscape for Sunday only. Mostly because neither of us own cars, and public transportation to Baltimore is a crime on the weekends (or anytime for that matter). I was able to borrow a car on Sunday, so we made the trip.

After a stop off at Metal Lungies Radio studios, to pick something up and record DJ01 dropping the best freestyle ever, we arrived at Artscape around 3 pm. We immediately went to the Food Area and consumed epic amounts of ocean product in the form of a crabcake sandwich (pictured above) and a plate of fish and chips.

After stuffing ourselves, we moved over to the nearest stage (the DJ Culture stage) to watch part of a performance by Pimps of Joytime. We only saw a couple of songs, but aside from the one girl using a MPC on stage, I really couldn’t see what their performance had to do with DJ culture. So we moved along.

We moved on to the larger festival and I bought an $8 lemonade only because the dude promised me free refills all day. But when I came back for a refill I watched the dude making the drinks put too much lemonade in my Arnold Palmer, and then pour it back into the pitcher from the cup I had just drank from. Had he done this with other people? Needless to say I was almost disgusted enough to spit out my lemonade and throw out my cup. Almost. That shit was $8. So I got 3 more refills.

Next, on the Main Stage, we saw the reggae group SOJA perform. Their performance was great and at one point they brought out Scottie B (B-More Club Legend) to help out on vocal duties. It was hilarious for 2 reasons:

• Scottie B. was singing in a Jamaican Accent
• Scottie B. was doing Junior Reid better than Junior Reid

They are apparently from D.C. and I’ll probably go see them again.

After SOJA, DJ01 started focusing on getting our interview with the Clipse (the headliners at the DJ Culture stage) secured for that evening. We then headed for the Exotic-Hypnotic stage.

The awesome thing about this stage was that it was inside, it had chairs, and it was air conditioned. We arrived at what I assume was the end of a performance by Jackie Blake. We must have missed the instrumental music part, because all that was happening when we got there was Jackie Blake talking about the distortion of history by different cultures, and some woman (but she might have been a man) singing softly while he was talking. The air conditioning was nice, and Jackie Blake was telling some truths but were were a little confused by the singing, and we wanted to see Wiz Khalifa, so we left.

We went back to the DJ Culture stage, to see Wiz Khalifa, but he never showed up. His DJ kept asking us if we were ready for him, apparently we weren’t. Fortunately the DJ kept spinning the rap songs, and we got to watch some B-Boys, which included my man Joe Cool (of Potomac Basement fame), do some classic breaking.

Last, but not least, on the DJ stage were the Clipse who came out and put on a wild show where they played a short set, but kept it tight with little banter. They even brought out Ab-Liva for a couple of songs. After they finished up we had a wild journey to make to meet them for an interview.

But that is a story for another post…

I mean the Clipse Interview post.

Tonight.

Four twenty is here again, breath easy my friends.  On this holiest of holy days, we pay respect to the fine gentleman who spread the gospel of the buddha day in and day out.  

Nas-Lifes a bitch and then ya die/thats why we get high/cause you never know when ya gonna go. 

Az- Life is a bitch, you do die, and you never know when you’re going to go. So why not get lifted once a week/day/hour or so?

Redman-I can do what the fuck I feel is real/blaze the pook with D don.

Devin the Dude-Twist a Philly, Zig-Zag, brown or wide/I don’t give a fuck just put some killer in side. 

Bone Thugs- We havin a celebration to stay high.  

People Under the Stairs-Locate a shady spot so we can circulate the stress/Mary Jane invades my brain now I can’t complain/ I’m sayin what else is there to do besides relax/ Let the problems in your mind become ancient artifacts.  

People tell me smoking makes you dumb.  I say most people are dumb to begin with; you decide what you make of your life, pothead or not.  But really with all the fear/violence/hate/lil wayne/selfishness in the world, passing a doobie to da left hand side may be the most productive thing any of us can do.  Stay up.

Devin the Dude-Doobie Ashtray

Bob Marley-Easy Skanking   

K-Salaam & Beatnick are a production duo and this song is the single off their upcoming album, Whose World Is This. It seems like they’re going for a kinda hip-hop/reggae fusion album.

The new album features all original and exclusive songs over Beatnick & K-Salaam’s production, from hip-hop stars such as: Trey Songz, Young Buck, Talib Kweli, Dead Prez, Papoose, Outlawz, Saigon, Kardinal Offishall, & Rakaa from Dilated Peoples. As well as Reggae Legends: Buju Banton, Sizzla, Luciano, Capleton, Anthony B, and up and comers Busy Signal & Jamelody. The album also features HBO Def Poets Suheir Hammad and Black Ice, & much more.

Download: K-Salaam & Beatnick: – “StreetLife” ft.Buju Banton & Trey Songz.

Here’s a video for the track:

You can see some videos of the track being recorded at K-Salaam & Beatnick’s YouTube channel.

A little something from Stones Throw to warm your hearth in this cold season. Badd Santa is a dope compilation of really bizarre and great Christmas (and a little Kwanzaa) music, from reggae to Miami bass.

Here’s a sweet little promo ST made for the album.

You can check it out here. There’s a nice mix of the Badd Santa songs available through the Stones Throw Podcast too, mixed by label head Peanut Butter Wolf.

For all my fellow Heebs celebrating the last night of Channukah tonight: Fatlace Magazine hipped me to Shady Records head Paul Rosenberg’s annual Hannukah Radio show on Shade 45 on Sirius Satellite Radio, with special guests DJ AM, actor Jonah Hill (Superbad kicks ass) & Marky Ramone of the Ramones! Takes a while to load but it’s worth it.

There’s a second set of shows available at Rosenberg’s blog, Paul Rosenberg.For those celebrating Kwanzaa, I think you already know.

Bonus mix for the season: A DJ Yoda exclusive mini-mix from Fatlace Magazine (who are killing shit right now). Act like you know.

Though I wish dude the best of luck, it’s worth pointing that introducing one’s self to the masses with a weed anthem of such epic proportions as “Come Around” can be equivalent to digging one’s self a hole for self-burial. Sometimes, artists pigeonhole themselves by coming out with a weed-anthem-first-single, so when their next single strays from the topic, people are like, “What gives?” Other times, these artists are true-to-form as being weedheads, and pretty much have no memory and/or work ethic for putting out a quality second single (I’d consider Afroman a prime candidate for that). Peep the following examples of artists who have made classic songs about weed, and not much else. And, unless you’re just mean like that, let’s hope that Collie doesn’t follow in their footsteps.

Download: Afroman – “Because I Got High”

Download: Channel Live – “Mad Izm” featuring KRS-One

Download: The Luniz – “I Got 5 On It”

Download: The Luniz – “I Got 5 On It (Remix)” featuring Dru Down, Richie Rich, E-40, Shock G & Spice 1

[At least The Luniz had the foresight to make a massive remix to their hit. Collie Buddz is off to a good start in that regard, with a "Come Around" remix featuring Young Buck and Tony Yayo, and another remix featuring Paul Wall, B-Real, Shaggy, Aztec and Ray Cash.]

Download: Mista Grimm – “Indo Smoke”

Download: RBL Posse – “Don’t Give Me No Bammer Weed”

[And while we're on the topic of forgotten rappers and marijuana -- hold your head, Paperboy. Before there was ever a Diddy, there was the Ditty.]