Editorials

Who Flipped It Better?: J Dilla: The Look of Love

by Morgan February 10, 2012 Debates

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Yo KN readers! In honor of February being the late great J Dilla month, today’s installment of Who Flipped It Better will examine one of my favorite Jay Dee produced tracks from his expansive catalogue from Slum Village’s classic Fan-Tas-Tic Vol.1. “The Look Of Love” samples Barney Kessel’s great jazz guitar cut of the same [...]

Celebrating Dilla Six Years Later

by Arasia Magnetic February 10, 2012 Editorials

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQIyuH1r4r0

“I’m so excited about his life. It’s such a celebration. How can you cry when you live to brighten the world with what he gave? I think his gift was something to brighten the world. So I’m just so super excited,” Ma Dukes Six years ago today, I remember exactly where I was and what [...]

Forgotten Classics: The Nonce – World Ultimate

by Jeff Leon February 9, 2012 Editorials

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In the early 1990’s, Los Angeles’ rap scene was blowing up, bringing to the national stage the brash, violent, and powerful music known as gangsta rap, and earning the left coast the distinction as the wildest cats around. But Cali was more than guns, women, and chaos. Taking a more subtle approach was a new [...]

Celebrating Big Pun 12 Years Later

by Arasia Magnetic February 7, 2012 Anniversaries

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“Dead in the middle of Little Italy little did we know that we riddled some middleman who didn’t do diddily” I remember the first time I heard Big Pun spit. It was 1997 and I was entering my senior year in high school. My boyfriend, homegirl and I were on our way to school [...]

The Magnetic Mindset: The Dreamers

by Arasia Magnetic February 6, 2012 Editorials

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It started with a dream and became a reality… Five years ago, Kevin had a dream. As a DJ and avid lover of music, he set out to create a destination for those that shared his tastes in music. In addition, he also wanted a place where he could rant (how many of you remember [...]

Ten Canadian Emcees To Watch For In 2012

by Jeff Leon February 6, 2012 Lists

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Hailing from Toronto, I try to keep up with rap released north of the border. While Canada’s had a Hip Hop scene since the early 80’s, it wasn’t until the late 90’s that we really started making noise. And within the past few years, we’ve seen the scene grow and artists and producers become recognized [...]

Vision Behind The Spittin: Phonte

by KN Staff February 2, 2012 Vision Behind The Spittin’

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The latest edition of our Vision Behind The Spittin’ series is special not only because we have Phonte sharing his visions with us, but also because it’s our first audio entry. Unlike our past versions, you’ll get to hear direclty from the Little Brother and Foreign Exchange emcee as he breaks down some of the best tracks in his [...]

Ski Beatz Celebrates the 15th Anniversary of Camp Lo’s Uptown Saturday Night

by Jeremiah January 28, 2012 Anniversaries

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As hard as it may be to believe, Camp Lo’s Uptown Saturday Night turns 15 years old today. I remember listening to this album for the first time like it was yesterday. And being able to take a trip down memory lane with the albums producer, the one and only Ski Beatz, truly made this [...]

Forgotten Classic: Arts The Beatdoctor – Transitions

by Jeff Leon January 26, 2012 Forgotten Classics

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I’m always on the search for Hip Hop from different locales and one scene I keep coming back to is from the Netherlands. Yup, Holland has a dedicated Hip Hop scene, which features artists rhyming both in Dutch and in English, along with some very musical producers, the most notable one on this side of [...]

Visions Behind The Spittin: Boog Brown

by KN Staff January 25, 2012 Vision Behind The Spittin’

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There is nothing like listening to or reading about what went into the making of an artists’ musical catalog. From single songs to full albums, that inside view into the creative process, the meaning behind certain lyrics, studio session stories, and overall perspective is always interesting and nothing shy of fascinating. And our column Visions [...]

KN Certified: Boog Brown

by Arasia Magnetic January 23, 2012 Editorials

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The first time I met Boog Brown was last year in Atlanta at A3C. She had been on my radar for a while, but after hearing Brown Study, she put a chokehold on my attention, Buff Bagwell style. I immersed myself in the album from the stellar production, to the amazing stories that Boog told. [...]

Who Spit It Better: T.W.D.Y. vs. Twista

by Morgan January 20, 2012 Debates

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Legendary vocalist Bill Wither’s uplifting song, “Lovely Day” plays the foundation for the tracks in today’s feature of Who Spit It Better. We’ll look at the rhymes of T.W.D.Y., a bay area group consisting of Ant Banks, Rappin 4-Tay, and Captain Save-Em, on their Ant Banks produced track, “Players Holiday,” featuring Mac Mall, Too Short, [...]

Who Flipped It Better?: 9th Wonder vs. Slimkat78

by Morgan January 16, 2012 Debates

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Happy New Year to our readers and welcome to this year’s first installment of KN’s, Who Flipped It Better. Beginning with the sample of choice for the entry, “Let Me Ride,” we’re looking at an impeccably soulful song courtesy of 1970’s Chi-Sound Records band, Windy City. This song was flipped to create the two instrumentals [...]

Great Debate: Who Will 2012 Belong To?

by Alex Edelstein January 13, 2012 Debates

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Now that I can definitively look back at 2011 from the objectively removed scope of 2012, the year in Hip Hop still feels as collectively chaotic now as it did during. Trying to single out an individual who ruled 2011, at this stage in the music industry, is nearly impossible. With so much week-to-week variation [...]

Forgotten Classic: P.O.S – Never Better

by Jeff Leon January 12, 2012 Forgotten Classics

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I have a thing for unpredictable albums, listens, which can shock and amaze in their sounds and moods, and artists that always keeps you guessing with their every step, and P.O.S. is quite good at that. Coming out of the Minnesota cold, the artist born Stefon Alexander originally got his start in punk rock acts [...]

Top 10 Artists That Are Heavy On My Radar

by Arasia Magnetic January 8, 2012 Lists

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I am known for my love [and borderline obsession] with Hip Hop however music [in general] lives in my heart. I check for it all: soul, electronica, dub, whatever. And there were a lot of artists [last year] that pulled me from my beloved Hip Hop, who span a wide range of genres that at [...]

Top Soul Artists To Watch For in 2012

by Duane Powell January 8, 2012 Lists

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http://youtu.be/yohGkr8pMaU

Happy New Year soul people! This year will definitely be one of the most exciting and best years for soulful music with the much anticipated return of soul’s prodigal son D’Angelo, as well as new releases from Erykah Badu, Maxwell, Robert Glasper Experiment (with a catastrophic guest feature list), Esperanza Spalding, Jose James, and many more. We also [...]

Top 10 On The Jazzy Side: 2011

by Duane Powell January 8, 2012 Lists

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You can’t deny that the Native Tongue Era and the genre known as boom bap helped introduce a whole new audience to this sound called Jazz. Although we may have heard it before, something about the marriage between Hip Hop and Jazz was just righteous. However, for so long after, many Jazz purists tried to [...]

Top 10 Soulful Albums & EPs: 2011

by Duane Powell January 8, 2012 Lists

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This year was quite an eventful one in the arena of indie and global/electro soul. So good, that we had to divide albums and EP’s. Thanks to social networking, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and the blogosphere, we saw a plethora of super talented producers and singers. And although it was EXTREMELY hard to narrow it down to [...]

Most Anticipated Hip Hop Albums of 2012

by Kevin January 7, 2012 Coming Soon

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WokfJUK0nAk”

2011 is behind us and it’s time to anticipate the future. Since the first quarter (January – March) is normally very quiet for music releases, there hasn’t been too many albums that have officially been announced for release and those that have be announced are more than likely to have their release dates pushed back [...]

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