Blu & Exile opened for Wale at SOB’s in NYC last summer and as you can imagine, it was one hell of a concert.  I believe this was their first ever show in NYC, and the talented young duo more than impressed.  ATWL and 5846 Films were in the building as usual, and we are proud to exclusively present the complete audio AND video of their set.  Exile’s MPC freestyle beat and ridiculous solo have to be seen to be believed (yes its that crazy).  The audio download comes from yours truly source, while the video work was handled by 5846.

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Fresh off their legendary performance at The Roots Picnic (see here), P.E. was at it again, this time rockin the crowd down in Tennessee for Bonnaroo.  Public Enemy always brings a great live show, and this is no exception.  Here we present the entire set, once again courtesy of  Sydney Live.

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Whenever Mos Def performs with The RCDC Experiment, its always a mesmerizing, incredible experience.  This was no exception as Mos Def took the stage at the illustrious Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. last year, backed not only by The RCDC Experiment, but also a 9 piece horns section and a 10 piece orchestra, collectively The Amino Alkaline Orchestra and Watermelon Syndicate.  The show was phenomenal, but my personal highlight was a performance of an unreleased song, “M.D. (Doctor)” played to the music of David Axelrod’s groovy “Holy Thursday” (one of my favorite songs and also sampled on Lil Wayne’s “Dr. Carter”).  Keeping the doctor theme, Mos’ lyrics expose the shady aspects of the medical world and questions the ethics of the industry… its powerful stuff.  Here we have an exclusive recording of the song being performed at The Kennedy Center from September 22nd, 2008 as well as audio and video of another rendition of the song from the Cape Town Jazz Festival from this past April courtesy of the good folks over at Frolab.

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Mos Def did six intimate shows at The Blue Note last month backed by The RCDC Experiment (Robert Glasper, Chris Dave, Casey Benjamin & Derrick Hodge).  As you might imagine, the shows were incredible and personally, its going to be hard for another concert to top these for me this year- the bar has been raised.  Here is their rendition of “Fantastic” from the first of the six shows.

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An oldie but a goodie today… Bilal performed with his band at SOB’s in NYC and brought out Mos Def for “Reminisce”.  Classic material right here.

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K’Naan may not be a household name just yet, but the young emcee out of Somalia made a splash on the hip hop scene when he released The Dusty Foot Philosopher back in 2005.  Its been a long wait, but he’s finally back with the release of Troubadour next week.  K’Naan has been performing one song on the album, “Waving Flag”, for many years and I was glad to see it finally find an official release on the new record.  However, I was a bit surprised to see that the album version has been drastically changed, with new lyrics and a very differnet tone.  I’m not quite sure how I feel about that, and the live version will always be way more powerful to me.  So, as many of you havent heard this alternate version, here’s your chance to give it a listen/download.  He starts performing all the lyrics acapella so you can focus more closely on the story, then goes into the rendition with his band.  Definitely dont miss this one, and if you havent heard either of his albums yet, you’re missing out on some incredible international hip-hop music.

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