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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Here are two Brother Ali verses that are a prime example of why he’s consistently been one of the best on the mic for over a decade.  The first is an unreleased song which he performed at Highline Ballroom in NYC at the CMJ Showcase with Evidence and Little Brother joining him on the bill.  I have also included a video of another acapella performance of this song with additional verses from a couple weeks ago.  Next up is Brother Ali’s verse from “2nd Time Around”, a song he did with Wale which can be found on DJ Benzi’s The New Deal Mixtape.  This rendition is a hundred times more powerful live and is also backed by the live band, The Rhythm Roots All-Stars.

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Noisemakers is basically the hip hop version of Inside The Actors Studio, according to Peter Rosenberg, who hosts the series.  ?uestlove of The Legendary Roots Crew was the honoree at this particular showcase.  ?uest gave insight into his childhood and playing in his father’s band, the lifespan of The Roots and a whole lot more with some hilarious and engaging stories never before told to the public.  He also showed off his talent on the drums throughout the interview to add more flavor to his tales, which was a great touch.  Here is my near complete, exclusive recording of the interview (missing last 30 minutes or so unfortunately, but its still 2 hours in length).

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