The artists formerly known as Santogold was one of the featured artists at The Roots’ Pre-Picnic Hors D’Ourves Jam Session @ The TLA in Philly last summer.  Her eclectic set had the crowd dancin all night, myself included, and her back-up singers busted out some dope moves as well.  Hit the jump for the live audio of  Santogold Santigold performing “Creator”, “You’ll Find A Way” as well as her performance of “Shove It” on Jimmy Fallon with Spank Rock.

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Another gem from Erykah’s Vortex Tour last summer, here is the Madlib produced, “The Healer” from The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Also threw in the video of this from her VH1 Soulstage performance as well as Pharoahe Monch’s remix.

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Fat Freddy’s Drop are my 2nd favorite band out there (The Roots being the other) as they bring a sound that is truly unique and incredible.  They present a new spin to reggae-dub, combining elements of hip-hop, rock, funk, blues, electronica all under a reggae umbrella and headlined by the smooth soulful voice of lead singer, Joe Dukie.  FFD gained intial acclaim when Gilles Peterson discovered their talents and praised them whenever possible on his BBC Radio program.  They hail from New Zealand and to date have only toured in their native country, Australia and parts of Europe, but their live show is astounding and is not to be missed.  I strongly urge you to check out their first release, Based On A True Story, and they are putting the finishing touches on their follow up record, due out this summer.  Here is an electrifying rendition of “Roady” from a gig they had in Paris, as well as high quality video of a live performance of their new single, “The Camel” live from London last December (be sure to hit the “HD” button option).

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In anticipation of seeing Reflection Eternal, reunited, with a live band at The Blue Note this week, I’m bringing it back to 2001.  Kweli has made many appearances at Soulive’s NYC area shows over the years, and of course he rips it backed by the amazing band.  Here is Kweli, Krasno and company doing an all live rendition of “The Blast”.  New Reflection Eternal album in 2009, maybe this really is the year of the Blacksmith?

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Talib Kweli brought his Idle Warship crew (Res and Graph Nobel) at the Hip Hop Live Tour NYC date to test out “Black Snake Moan” with the crowd.  It went over very well and they ended up filming the video for it a week later.  Backed by the Rhythm Roots All-Stars, this is a dope performance.

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Revive Da Live put on what will go down as one of the best concerts of the year when they presented their latest installment of their Flagship Series at Le Poisson Rouge, titled “Hip Hop 1942″.  The premise of the show being was to perform jazz standards and seamlessly blend them into classic hip-hop songs that sampled the original.  It was a beautiful night of music from some of the best underground jazz musicians in the NYC area and the emcee duties were handled by John Robison, Raydar Ellis and Phonte (of Little Brother / The Foreign Exchange).  Here is their Dilla tribute, which included “The Official”,  “Fall In Love” and “Diana In The Autumn Wind”, with the trio of emcees freesyling, creating a jazzy hip-hop bliss.  If you live in NYC, you need to start checking out Revive Da Live’s concerts- you will not be disappointed.

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