BluRoc held their label showcase at The Gramercy earlier this week, which featured their roster of artists including Curren$y, Ski Beatz, The London Souls and more.  BluRoc is the vision of Dame Dash and the creativity thats been going on at DD172 (aka The Dojo).  Ski Beatz performed with a small band (featuring Brady Watts on bass and Daru Jones on drums) and brought out a few guests from his upcoming 24 Hour Karate School project including Tabi Bonney, Rugz D Bewler and Stalley.  While the set was very brief, Stalley stole the show with his song “S.T.A.LL.E.Y.” that Ski produced.  24H Karate School drops March 30th.

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One of the best shows I attended last year was Tanya Morgan @ SOB’s backed by the live band featuring members of The Cypher, led by Daru Jones on drums (he’s a beast if you’re sleeping).  Hearing cuts from Brooklynatti get the live band treatment was truly special and there’s no musicians for the job than the band assembled.  Tanya Morgan really stepped into their own last year and earned a slot in our Top 10 of 2009.  Here’s our exclusive live audio of “Alleye Need”, “On Our Way” and “So Damn Down” live from the SOB’s show.

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One of the best shows I saw in 2009 was Reflection Eternal at The Blue Note jazz club in NYC backed by a live band led by Daru Jones on drums.  One of the highlights of the night was Memories Live, which we exclusively presented earlier this year, and now we’re proud to unleash this live version of the first single off Revolutions Per Minute, “Back Again” (available now on iTunes).  This 12 min, jammed out version of the record features amazing solos from the band and the vocals of the wonderfully talented, Res.

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Earlier this week, Talib Kweli became the latest hip-hop icon to be celebrated at Peter Rosenberg’s interview/concert series, Noisemakers.  Previous featured Noisemakers guests include DJ Premier, Questlove, Q-Tip and Raekwon.  If you’re not familiar with the event by now, Rosenberg accurately describes it as the hip-hop Inside The Actor’s Studio, featuring an in-depth interview and live sets by Daru Jones and The Noise performing impeccable live interpretations of Kweli’s vast catalog.  What makes Noisemakers so enthralling is that this is not just any standard interview, but rather an engaging hip-hop conversation.  Kweli shared tons of stories ranging from his childhood up through the current day including his first encounters with Dilla, Kanye West, Hi Tek, Corey Smith, Common and many other central figures in hip-hop.  He also told some hilarious stories about Kanye West and also there’s a brief cameo by Q-Tip.  Check after the jump for audio of the entire evening, including the complete interview and live performance sets, plus a few videos.

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Q-Tip was the featured guest at the third installment of Noisemakers, a bimonthly series hosted by Peter Rosenberg which, as he puts it, is a hip-hop version of Inside The Actor’s Studio.  Q-Tip shed insight into his acclaimed career, revealing stories never publically told before including recalling his first experience listening to J-Dilla, the origins of A Tribe Called Quest and the Native Tongues movement, his hilarious encounter with Miles Davis, Busta Rhymes nearly becoming a member of Tribe, and many more (the whole event is well over 2 hours long).  Questlove was in the building and joined in the discussions towards the end of the interview.  Also included for your listening pleasure is The Cypher’s tribute sets to Q-Tip and A Tribe Called Quest.  The 5-piece band, anchored by Daru Jones on drums, absolutely nailed the interpretations of the songs and their sets were amazing.  Questlove even hopped on twitter to say “The Cypher might be the illest hip-hop band.  It would behoove any emcee already established to scoop em now… their attention to sample detail is to a level and standard that I don’t even set!” Those are pretty strong words coming from the mighty afro considering its unanimously viewed that The Roots are top dog in that space. Fans of hip-hop, or music in general…. you need to hear this.

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