New Joint from Raekwon and Jadakiss

The Beauty of the interweb. I was doing my thing on Twitter yesterday and low and behold The Chef himself blessed us with this leak. The quality is a little off but the song is dope. Download - Raekwon and Jadakiss

Mos Def's Thoughts on DOOM

Direct quote from Mos. "I'll put a million dollars on Doom against Wayne". It's Funny. I was actually comparing Wayne to Doom on my long drive this morning. On the surface they both seem to spit random nonsense. (Not that I think Wayne's wack) But when you stop and think about a Doom verse 6 months later all of the apparent randomness starts connecting on some other level. The man is a rap God. Don't take my word for it though. Watch Mos Def break down some of Doom's ill ass lines. Doom's latest album "Born Like This" is out now. Cop that ish!

Diva Diva Y'all Episode 4

Amanda Diva on meeting the ever gully Styles P at a juice bar lol, interviewing Slim Thug and chatting with the Uk's DJ Semtex. Props to Karmaloop TV.

4plae.com and Half-Life at SXSW 09

Some of Halifax's finest reppin Canada at SXSW 09. Shout out to DJ IV and 4plae.com for the link.

Can $900 bring Jay and Dame back together?

The guys at ItsTheReal.com have a new video up. How much would you pay for a Jay-Z Dame Dash reunion? Or maybe The Game and 50? 900 Dollars and a Dream from jeff on Vimeo.

Outasight - From There to Here: An Album Prequel

"From There to Here is a collection of new joints, loosies, remixes, and b-sides that is meant to be a warmup to my upcoming album dropping this summer" says the NY based artist. If this is what he considers a warm up consider me a new fan. This is a phenomenal Mick Boogie assisted compilation with hot joints from beginning to end. Check the track list below. Download - Outasight - From There to Here: An Album Prequel

New Music by AbCents

The homey AbCents has been heavy on his grind in 09. Check out his Myspace page to hear some of his latest heaters. And don't forget to download his free album, Cents 1983 at www.beglitterati.com/abcents.html!

Dead Rapper Quilts

Part of me is tired of seeing our dearly departed rappers canonized. Then there's another part of me that's jealous I didn't do this first. Could you imagine having a J Dilla quilt as a kid? Dope. The artist/designer's name is Anne Brenneke. Video translation below.

Visiting Anne Brenneke’s Studio Who is pictured on this quilt? “This is Notorious B.I.G. He always wore these coogi sweaters. Obviously this isn’t an original coogi sweater, nobody can afford that. I always thought the sweaters looked really nice, and I tried to recreate them in my own way.” From what materials do you make your Quilts? “Usually I work with t-shirts, they are my foundation, and I try to develop different things out of them. I mostly just use used t-shirts, I like their aesthetics.” (Talking about the Dilla Quilt) “This is my largest piece. It is the most intricate one. Its a J Dilla album Cover from his album Welcome to Detroit. Parts of it are really thick, here for example there are 7 layers.” Do you create all the Quilts by hand? “Yea that’s all done by hand, completly. These layers are sewn on top of each other by hand. If you look at the back the stitch goes trough a layer of cotton and then into this jersey material.” Whats you first work step? “I take a black & white picture, seperate it into different layers. I assign numbers to each colour I’m using and write the numbers on the picture. Then I just sew according to that layout.” “This is Eazy-E, it was the first quilt I made. It was still relativley simple with the colours, I was still learning how to do it, how to layer it etc. I still used really small stitches back then.” Where does the love for American Hip Hop culture come from? “Tv and everything. It was just all so much cooler than anything that we knew. Looking back on it now you can see it more critical, but back then….”

The Princess and The Frog coming out 2 weeks early

The release date of The Princess and The Frog was moved up to December 11th, 2009 when Disney shareholders reacted positively to an unfinished scene in the animated movie. December 11th can’t come soon enough for the parents and children excited to see a princess of African decent in a Disney film. However, promotion for this movie hasn’t always been this positive. The lead character's name was initally supposed to be Maddy but there was concern that that name sounded too much like a stereotypical slave name. Consequently her name was changed to Tiana. The movie was also once called The Frog Princess which also upset members of the Black community prompting the change to it's current name.

The most recent criticism is that the male lead is not going to be Black. Some critics of the film believe that this will “reinforce prejudice”. With my experience working in media and I’ve seen this before. People are often afraid that a mostly white audience won’t be able to relate to an all or mostly ethnic/black cast so they include one or more key characters that are “more relatable”. From a business perspective I can see why they would make such choices from but from a social perspective I think it’s cowardly. Give your audience some credit and allow them to connect with your characters on a human level and not because they “look relatable”. After all. People of other races have found ways to relate to the mostly white characters on television and in movies for years.

In the end I don't know why Disney made the decision they made and by no means am I accusing them of this practice. To be fair it’s 2009. Who cares if Tiana's prince is Latin, White, or East Indian for that matter? Isn’t exercising her right to chose someone outside of her race a positive demonstration of how far Black people have come? Does anyone agree with me? Disagree? Im interested to know how people feel about this.

Charles Hamilton, Video for "Loser"

The boy in Pink drops a a new video. I'm feeling it. Sometimes as we get older the way we're perceived by others changes when in the end we're really the same person from back in the day. This song hits on that.

Diva Speak Episode 45

My girl Amanda Diva with a new episode of Diva Speak. Some of the topics include Whitney Houston, Russell Simmons, Famous black recording artists abusing women and Barbie. If you haven't downloaded her latest mixtape, "Spandex, Rhymes & Soul". Please get on it people cause it's dope.

Big Daddy Kane Documentary

This Anthony Marshall produced film is short but it's good to see Kane get some attention for his contribution to hip hop. He's a true legend in the game. Peep the Jay-Z cameo at around 3:24.

GFC New York Artist, Ronin

Original photo

Ronin's interpretation

Like most people, I've seen promotional photography for Kanye West's 808's & Heartbreak album. So when I stumbled across this Kanye illustration by GFC New York artist Ronin I knew that I had seen that image before. However, my gut reaction despite knowing where I originally saw it was: This is Fresh! I like that he took something familiar and gave it a new face. With that said, I can't help but think about the controversy that resulted when Shepard Fairey interpreted a photograph of Barack Obama in his "Hope" poster. How far can we as artists and designers take appropriation without crossing the line? On the other side. How far should we go to make sure that others don't profit off of our work? I'm not sure that I have an answer for that. What do you think?

Asia and Nu Gruv Perform in Sydney (Photos and Video)

In February I visited Sydney to attend a Gala celebrating Black History Month. When the meal was done and Nu Gruv hit the stage it was gettin' down time! If you're ever in Nova Scotia and have a chance to see these guys I highly recommend it.

Heltah Skeltah Freestyle

Jesus Price and da Rockness monster demonstrating why they will go down in history as one of the greatest rap duos of all time. Their chemistry is amazing but spitting over a Jake One beat doesn't hurt their cause either. Rock and Ruck (Sean Price) epitomize that raw gutter hip hop that came out of the 90's. Props to Okayplayer.com.

Kid Cudi - Super Boo Video

Cudi gets right to the point with this one. He's talkin' about his "Super Boo" so he don't need to be in the video right? No complaints here. By the way. The song is fire too. If you aren't that familiar with Cudi click the link below to get the Super Dope mixtape he released last year. Kid Cudi - A Kid Named Cudi

Universal Soul Featuring Craig Mercer of JSB- Where's The Rock in That

Universal Soul is at it again. This time they brought in Craig Mercer of The Jimmy Swift Band to help them out. The song was produced by Fresh Kils with video direction by Shannon Spurrell. Props to Dave for the link!

Drake - So Far Gone Mixtape

A lot of people wish that they could rap, sing or act. This Toronto native and Young Money signee can do all three. If you're Canadian and think this dude looks familiar it's because you probably recognize him from the hit show Degrassi. With slick lines for days and a co-sign from Lil' Weezy this dude is headed for the stars. Artists featured on the mixtape are, Lil' Wayne, Trey Songz, Peter Bjorn & John, Lloyd, Lykke Li, Santo Gold, Bun B and Omarion.

Get Drake - So Far Gone right here

Hip Hop's John Mayer is... John Mayer?

Not bad Johnny not bad...

Wale - Nike Boots Video

This is kinda old but what the hay? The Nike Boots Remix was featured on Wale's "Wale A Mixtape About Nothing" Mixtape. Gotta love this mans energy. Definitely one to watch in 09.
Wale "Nike Boots" video (Directed by Chris Robinson) from Elitaste on Vimeo.

Mickey Makin Power Moves

One of my favorite rappers right now is doing it big with Honda. Looks like he might be their new spokesman. Who knew you could be independent and generate that much buzz? By the way Here's the song "Sensibility" that's featured in the video below. Your welcome.

Is It - Prof AC Featuring Nova

Prof AC's lyrical ability and work ethic never cease to amaze me. I've seen Prof grow from a dude than can kick an ill free style to an artist than can write emotional and relatable songs without coming off as "soft". If Prof stays on his grind you can expect to see big things from him in the Future.

AbCents - Cents 1983 Mixtape (Free Download)

Welcome to my first post on Be Glitterati Music. I believe in keeping an open mind and that great artistry and inspiration for that artistry can come from anywhere. What I mean by that is... TURN YOUR RADIOS OFF AND DO SOME RESEARCH PEOPLE! So on that note. Here's a dope instrumental mixtape from my boy AbCents. Enjoy.