Wake Up To John Legend & The roots

I am of course a big fan of The Roots. They turned me on to hip-hop and a whole load of new stuff - D'Angelo, Jill Scott, J Dilla, Erykah Badu and Robert Glasper among others.

And of course they guided me towards the best of hip-hop - ATCQ, Public Enemy, Gang Starr and Pete Rock and CL Smooth.

?uestlove has become a drumming hero of mine - effortlessly funky but capable of so much more.

John Legend however was someone on the outskirts of my musical knowledge and when I heard The Roots were doing something were doing something with him my interest picked up.

Wake Up is their collaboration and anyone who loves soul music should go out and buy a copy.

The Roots are in their element and lend an authentic backdrop to Legend's gospel tinged vocals on what is 99% a an album of excellent covers from Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, Harold Melvin and Bill Withers. The stand out and rightly heavy 'I Can't Write Lefthanded' deserves to be a classic in its own right, while Shine and Hard Times press all the right commercial buttons.


A Grammy beckons we hope.

Wake Up - John Legend & The Roots

1.

Hard Times (Feat. Black Thought)

2.

Compared To What

3.

Wake Up Everybody (Feat. Common & Melanie Fiona)

4.

Our Generation (The Hope Of The World) [Feat. CL Smooth]

5.

Little Ghetto Boy (Prelude) [Feat. Malik Yusef]

6.

Little Ghetto Boy (Feat. Black Thought)

7.

Hang On In There

8.

Humanity (Love The Way It Should Be)

9.

Wholy Holy

10.

I Can’t Write Left Handed

11.I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free

12. Shine

What a month for albums

A great month for albums

First up is Wake Up from John Legend and The Roots. Then we have the Station to Station reissue

Go and buy


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Location:Bristol,United Kingdom

Erykah Badu in Brixton

It's been sometime, bout I finally got around to seeing Erykah Badu last week. I wasn't disappointed. Backed by an extremely good 10 piece band, she pulled martial from the whole of her catalogue to good effect.

Her latest material from the New Amerykah albums easily stood up againt the classics from Mama's Gun and Baduizm.

She mixed the best aspects of jazz, soul, funk and hip-hop into an intimate cocktail of sounds that seemed as though Edith Piaf had been planted into the 21st century.

The musicianship on show was of the highest quality, but even that was overshadowed by the way the Texan star used her voice

Check out : Mama's Gun

The Roots How I Got Over - Full Tracklisting

Here you go fans of The Legendary - this appeared on Twitpic

A Book for Beatmakers

I just couldn't find a good book that studies the art of making hip-hop beats until I found "Making Beats - the art of sample based hip-hop" by Joseph G Schloss.

The chapters cover crate digging, ethics, style and composition as well covering some of the history. For anyone who wants to discover more about beat making, you should get this.

Next five favourite hip-hop tunes

6. Bring It On - Jay Z - Reasonable Doubt

7. Can't Knock The Hustle - Jay Z, Beyonce and The Illadelphonics - Live@RCMH (b-side)

8. Check The Rhime - A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory

9. Diamonds from Sierra Leone - Kanye West - Late Registration

10. Don't Believe The Hype - Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions.........

The next five tomorrow

Sunday Sunday

Ok here's the deal - I am trying to pick out my favourite jawns for a Hip-Hop playlist - here's the first 5 in alpha order

1. Atonement - The Roots Game Theory

2. Award Tour - A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders

3. Bagpipes from Baghdad - Eminem - Relapse

4. Beyond Comprehension - Gang Starr - Step In The Arena

5. Bonita Applebum - A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels.....

Also heard that The Roots new album - How I Got Over is out on June 8th according to Questlove's Twitter

A Brief First Blog

Another day and more snow but hey Wallis my cat ventured out in it this morning for the first time ever.

Also trying to track down a couple of albums - a new release by someone called Dr oKtopUs and a new compilation by the Wondermints (aka Brian Wilson's backing band) - tried iTunes and other download sites buy may have to go hard copy.

My drumming task today is to continue with the 4-Way Coordination Book by Marvin Dahlgren and Elliott Fine.

I am finding it really tricky so far and I am only half way down page one. Still the only way is up as they say.

Music today is all about Madlib and his Shades of Blue album. Its stunning really.