Another new series I want to present to the KevinNottingham.com readers. In the simplest of ways to explain it: I get a hell of a lot of music. On a weekly basis, I get about 2 cds a day; physical hard copies. Hey, I love having them, but not all of what I get is tight. With that said, I do try to listen to just about every single piece of music I get, even the digital copies. While everyone here and there asks for a review and whatever, I can’t always give that. Finding the time to review something is hard (it would be different if we were a site that listens to the music for a day and writes about it the next, but no, I stress long listening times and thorough investigations of the music to give a comprehensive review). But, I want to still give shine to those who deserve it. Frankly, The Inbox was really for anyone and everyone who sent something in, with this right here, I’m not picking more than three albums/artists per segment to spotlight. With that said, here’s the first installment featuring D-Sisive’s Let The Children Die, Robert Glasper, and Miles Jones.
D-Sisive: Let The Children Die
While I would love to do a review for this album, I don’t think any review would do it justice. It’s not that it’s a perfect 100/100, because no album is, but it is so loaded with darkness, passion, meaning, and backstory, that to get the essence of it would be difficult if you weren’t D himself. Evidently loaded with personal references to devastating events that have gone on in his life, D refers constantly to a dark point in his life, but he grabs all the emotion from those past events and deciphers them with script.Production is marvelous, with the mood-fulfilling sounds of the title track and “Questions,” to the soulful strings of “Nobody with a Notepad,” to the head knockers “Like This” featuring Guilty Simpson, “Riot I Caused” featuring Classified, and “High School Cool” featuring Conscience and Kyprios of Sweatshop Union. D even goes accapella-ish on “Mr. Daydream” and everything just remains slightly haunting throughout. Is it good music? Hell yeah. In fact, it’s great music. Few albums leave me speechless where I can’t say too much about it, but this album just leaves me in awe with how conceptually tight it [probably] is. It’s a very cohesive sound and a very Being John Malkovich like approach to hip hop, and I love it. Check it out
ORDER @ AMAZON.COM
Robert Glasper: Double Booked
The request for jazz on this website has been overwhelming. With jazz being such an integral part to hip hop, it would be foolish to ignore one of the main elements involved with the development of hip hop’s sound. No stranger to some heavyweights in the hip hop world, Robert Glasper- a jazz pianist- has worked with Jay-Z, Q-Tip, Common, Dilla and Slum Village, Erykah Badu, etc. The list goes on. On Double Booked, he even gets a helping hand from Mos Def (not a verse or anything, but some adlibs at a live performance), and Bilal. Twelve tracks deep, the entire project just remains a joy to the ear drums and if all else fails, it provides to be some of the most mentally relaxing musical assemblies of 2009. The album is set to be in stores August 25th, but consider this your heads up. It’s great for not only jazz lovers, but music lovers to just have near by when the stresses and disappointments of the typical day to day music becomes overwhelming. This is like heaven to anyone’s sweet tooth.
ORDER @ AMAZON.COM
Miles Jones: Runaway Jones
Already an Ontario Independent Music Award winner in 2008, Miles Jones is becoming one of those “hear him now” type of artists. Miles has already taken the step to performing on international stages and has even opened for the likes of KRS One and Raekwon. His resume continues to build as the first single from his latest project, Runaway Jones (out August 18th), is “Never Too Late,” which features production from the consistent heat maker, Black Milk. Showing signs that he will only get better, Miles is certainly an educated hip hop head that loves hip hop music and will only strive to better his craft with every song.
BUY LINK NOT YET AVAILABLE
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s nice to know that someone is actually putting in time and giving an album a solid listen before putting out their opinion on it. Hopefully this is more of the norm rather than the exception.
was at the runaway jones cd release party, something heavy is happening here, never seen a crowd like that at a concert. Music was live, girls were live, place was sold out 1 hour before the show began…..
do your thing….were watching