Rub-A-Grub @ Do or Dine feat. Rich Medina // Labor Day 2012, Brooklyn from Sound Liberation Front on Vimeo.

For those who missed Sound Liberation Front‘s Labor Day party at Do or Dine with Rich Medina and Queen Majesty, peep the video recap above. (And if you can avoid blinking, you might even catch a glimpse of yours truly in there).

Radio Galaxy – “Edward” from ill Mannered Media on Vimeo.

Here’s a special Halloween treat, the lastest single (and an eerie, but beautiful one at that) courtesy of Radio Galaxy, one of my favorite groups on the planet right now. (And I’m not saying that just because they hail from Houston, my hometown. These cats are seriously dope).

Art direction by the homie FWMJ and video direction by Ill Mannered Media aka the homie D (of the K-Otix). Enjoy.

UPDATE: The full version of the tune is available on their Daaarkness Everybody … EP, which they just released on their bandcamp page today. FOR FREE. So, you know, grab that shit. Like, now.

Dub-Stuy Launch Video Recap // Brooklyn Sound System Culture from Dub-Stuy Records on Vimeo.

Now that Hurricane Sandy has passed (and I have exhausted the very last of my excuses), it’s time to play a bit of catch up on the blog. For those who aren’t yet aware, the homie Q Mastah spent the better part of the last year building, from scratch, this magnificent sonic beauty of a sound system he calls the Tower of Sound. Last month, I got to play music through this thing during it’s public test run at the Greene Hill Food Co-Op, and I’m still feeling all tingly from the experience. It’s really the most sublime sound system I’ve ever had the pleasure of spinning on.

About a week later, while I was cavorting about in Neder-Neder-land, Q and my peoples at the Sound Liberation Front hosted their official public debut of the sound system in Brooklyn at the launch party of their new record label, Dub-Stuy Records. You can check out how that went down, and get a sneak peak at the Tower of Sound in the video above.

And just in case you’re wondering, it sounds (and looks) a million times better in person. The next time you get a chance to attend an event where this bad boy is present, I encourage you not to miss it.

You can read more about Q‘s journey to bring the Tower of Sound into existence in this nice little feature over at Vice.

As for what they’ve got cooking up at the record label, here’s a taste of a track with the legend MC Brother Culture.

Stay tuned for much more from Sound Liberation Front, Dub-Stuy Records, and the Tower of Sound.

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965.

More videos here.

Saw this yesterday on the Strut and can’t stop watching it. Love all the beat changes in this. Edan is on some other shit.

Been on a Chico Mann kick lately.

Here’s a little promo project from Wax Poetics and Rockstar Games featuring Chico using the Beaterator game on a PSP to create a beat. The video features some live footage of Chico Mann‘s performance at this past Saturday’s Booty Crisis party in Brooklyn, where the band put on a great show.

… and believe me, when it comes to rhyme, it doesn’t happen to often. Now where is my Mysterme tape …

Since I still got a little Halloween spirit left in the tank, here’s a special little treat from the dudes DJ Day and Exile:

We love Rakim. Rakim has provided us with many hours of entertainment and prolly paid a few bills for the dj’s amongst us. Nothing but love for the cat who said suburbanites can rap aka It ain’t where you from (Long Island) but where ya at!

So when Nas did his “Unauthorized Biography,” we were feeling it:

*Shout to Shaun Boothe, who has a nice little series … hope he don’t get Mad Skillz‘d though*

But it don’t seem like the R is too happy with it:

BBB…BBBBUT wait it gets worse.

*hits rewind on tape*

What did Rakim say about it back in 2006?

MTV: Rakim, Nas paid you the ultimate compliment in 2004 by recording “U.B.R. (Unauthorized Biography of Rakim)” [on Street’s Disciple]. What was it like when you heard that song breaking down your whole life?

Rakim: That kind of puts things in perspective. You got this far and somebody that you respect, somebody that’s on a high plateau, took time and showed you love. And to hear a lot of it, I was like, “Where did he get that from? How did he know that?” He does put things in perspective, man. He kind of opened my eyes, like, “OK, people’s watching. People really know about Rakim.” It kind of let me know where I was in the world.

Nas: Thanks, man. I always wanted to know how you felt about that, ’cause if somebody made a song talking about me and stuff like that, I wouldn’t know how to react. I just had to make a song about Ra ’cause if we in there making songs in the studio, let’s make songs about things that are important. The dude is important right now, so I made a song about how he inspired [people] a great deal. I used to look at Ra like, “This dude’s an alien. He’s an alien. He’s not from here.”

*pours out some more decaf for another fallen hero*
**shout out to them boys @ The Lesson**