Q-Tip took the stage at the Oustide Lands Festival in San Francisco yesterday afternoon and gave what was definitely one of the better performances of the festival.  Tip always has a ton of energy when he performs, and when you have the entire Tribe catalog at your disposal, its guaranteed to be a dope show.  Phife Dawg also made a surprise appearance during “Award Tour”.  As usual, his extended live version of “Electric Relaxation” is always one of the highlights of the set.  Full setlist and MP3/FLAC downloads after the jump.

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Order in the court!  “Indictment” is easily my favorite Antibalas song, and this is the best live version of it I have heard.  Stu Boogie goes bonkers and eventually stage dives into the crowd, all while special guest DJ Rich Medina is choppin it up on the 1s and 2s.  Check out more from this amazing night of The Roots vs. Antibalas as we previously posted here.

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Mos Def recently took the stage at the Newport Jazz Festival, backed by his usual supporting cast of Chris “Daddy” Dave, Robert Glasper, Casey Benjamin, Derrick Hodge, a 5-piece strings section and a trio of horns, collectively, The Watermelon Syndicate.  I was thrilled to see a hip-hop artist close out the first day of the prestigious jazz festival, really goes to show just how far hip-hop/jazz fusion has come.  Mos and his band did a nice mix of his own songs (Casa Bey, Life in Marvelous Times, Umi Says) and covers from a variety of artists such as De La Soul, Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane.  What really stood out was his cover of the late Michael Jackson’s Human Nature.  It sounded beautiful with the strings, but wasnt a straight up cover as Mos sang different lyrics.  Check it out after the jump, as well as his performance of Life In Marvelous Times.

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I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again… The Roots’ jam sessions at Highline Ballroom in NYC are a music lovers wet dream.  If you aren’t in NYC, you probably have heard about some of the big name guests that come through the sessions to rock out with The Legendary.  However, what gets unjustly overshadowed are the talented musicians who craft incredible jams on the fly, completely adlibbed.  The jam sessions are just as much about the music as it is the special guests.  Here’s a prime example from one of the jam sessions last month as we have an amazing line-up of musicians creating a lush backdrop for Black Thought to tear through new verses over… oh yeah, did I mention this jam is 15 min long?

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Its time to bust out the tie dye shirts and bring back the hi-top fades.  While it may be hard to believe, Three Feet High & Rising turned 20 years old this year.  To celebrate the anniversary of what many consider to be one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all-time, De La Soul hit the road with the 10 piece band, The Rhythm Roots All-Stars, to celebrate their longevity in hip-hop music.  If you’ve seen De La Soul before, you know their shows are one big party, but with the addition of the live band, the funky vibes are taken to a whole new level.  The show was so good that it was hard to pick what songs to share, so fuck it… here’s SIX songs from their amazing set for your listening pleasure.

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This weekened I headed up to Newport to catch the Newport Jazz Festival, which featured some amazing sets from the cream of the crop in the jazz realm.  One of the standout performances from the Vijay Iyer Trio’s set was their rendition of Ronnie Foster’s “Mystic Brew”, which many of you likely know as its the original sample for A Tribe Called Quest’s “Electric Relaxation”.  The Trio definitely did the song justice, in fact, Vijay’s playing here is eerily close to Robert Glasper’s style, who was also one of the artists featured at the Festival.

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