Thievery Corporation is a Washington, D.C.-based recording artist and DJ duo consisting of Rob Garza, Eric Hilton, and their supporting artists. Their music style mixes elements of dub, acid jazz, reggae, Indian classical, Middle Eastern, and Brazilian (such as bossa nova) with a lounge aesthetic.

Thievery Corporation started out in the summer of 1995 at Washington DC’s Eighteenth Street Lounge. Rob Garza and Lounge co-owner Eric Hilton got together over their mutual love of club life, as well as dub, bossa nova and jazz records. They decided to see what would come of mixing all these in a recording studio, and from this, the duo started their Eighteenth Street Lounge Music record label.

The duo drew attention with their first two 12″ offerings, “Shaolin Satellite” and “2001: a Spliff Odyssey” and with their 1997 debut LP, Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi.

In 2002 they released The Richest Man in Babylon on their ESL label. This fifteen track album is similar in sound and timbre to their earlier 2000 release, The Mirror Conspiracy, and features performances by vocalists Emilíana Torrini, Pam Bricker, and Loulou.

In 2005 they released The Cosmic Game, which has a darker, more psychedelic sound than The Richest Man in Babylon. The album also featured more high-profile guest singers on it, including Perry Farrell, David Byrne, and Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips.

In 2006 the group released Versions, a selection of remixes done by Thievery Corporation for other artists. They toured around the United States, playing at Lollapalooza. The tour was photographed by Rob Myers, Thievery Corporation’s sitar and guitar player, in the Blurb photo book Thievery Corporation 2006.

The group released their fifth studio album, Radio Retaliation, on September 23, 2008. It was nominated for the Grammy for best recording package. Thievery Corporation’s tour started out with 5 consecutive sold out shows at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC.
The language of the group’s lyrics throughout their career include English, Spanish, French, Persian, Portuguese, Romanian and Hindi. This reflects the group’s world music influences.

They were the opening act on August 1, 2009 for Sir Paul McCartney at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland.

Thievery Corporation is probably one of the biggest trip-hop acts that came solely from the United States as opposed to the typical trip-hop group that came from Bristol, England. They’ve been a long lasting group since 1995 and even though they’ve been on quite a hiatus, they’re still amongst one of the greatest sounding trip hop groups out there. They have released 7 albums and a few singles and EPs which is a very long list. Something about Thievery Corporation’s sound is totally undeniable.

Massive Attack’s new album will be coming out next month Feb 8th 2010. The name of the album is called Heligoland. This is the single for the album which has been roaming around YouTube for a couple of months now. I thought it would be good to hype it up a bit since the album release date is very near. So here it is, Massive Attack’s “Paradise Circus” with Hope Sandoval on vocals. Read the rest of this entry »

Before the Grey Hairs, REKS was just a teenager who fell in love with the hip-hop movement. Little did he know, one day he would experience working with the legendary DJ Premier and Large Professor. Born Corey Isaiah Christie in Lawrence, Massachusetts, August 24th, 1977, REKS practically grew up with Hip-Hop. He first embraced the hip-hop culture by becoming a break-dancer with Funk Town Connection (FTC), competing all over the city of Lawrence.

The legendary Rap styles of KRS-One, Slick Rick, and Ice Cube inspired him to pick up the mic and start writing rhymes at a young age. Not too long after that, REKS gained notoriety in his hometown through cipher battles and memorable stage performances. After high school, REKS enrolled into the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. With the Kanye West drive and mentality, REKS decided to drop out of college after one year to pursue his music career full-time. REKS got his career boost in the state’s hip-hop capital, Boston, Mass. He took the underground hip-hop scene by storm and surprised everyone with his first debut album Along Came the Chosen on Landspeed Records in 2001. The album featured his production from his ex-classmates Soul Searchers, Fakts One, and a then 18-year old Statik Selektah. The album also featured Underground Hip Hop’s finest at the time, including Pace-Won & Young Zee of the Outsiderz, 7l & Esoteric, J-Live Shabaam Sahdiq, and MSC group members Lucky Dice and Chi Knox. The critically acclaimed LP was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Album & Artist of the Year at The Boston Music Awards and was featured in the Source, XXL, Vibe, and URBS “Next 100”. The album’s single “Skills 101” reached 45 on the Billboard Singles chart, putting him on shows and tours with The Clipse, Ghostface Killah, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Redman, De La Soul, Method Man, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Boot Camp Click, JR Writer and one of his idols KRS-One.

REKS went on to release the street releases Rekless and Happy Holidays. After several years in the game, REKS, then, was ready to release his highly anticipated sophomore studio album Grey Hairs. He teamed up with his former DJ, longtime friend, and Grey Hairs Executive Producer, Statik Selektah. Appearing on dozens of mixtapes, radio shows, and Statik’s Spell My Name Right: The Album, REKS spent most of 2007-2008 in the air, flying back and forth to studio sessions in New York and his current residence in Hollywood, Florida. The album featured producers DJ Premier, Large Professor, Blaze P, DC The Midi Alien, Soul Theory, DEMOBeatz, 1914 and ten tracks by Statik Selektah. The guestlist includes Consequence, Skyzoo, Krumb Snatcha, Termanology, Jon Hope, Paula Campbell, Big Shug and Lucky Dice. Grey Hairs was released in July 2008 and you guys should probably jump on it ASAP.

I’m super hyped that Cocoa Brovaz and RJD2 is on this weeks podcast. This is all. Is it just me or does it get better each week?. WOW!

I’m just waiting on a few things to happen in order to get my uShare account so you fools won’t hog up my bandwidth every week. BOOM!

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Tracklisting:
1. Blu – Simply Amazin’
2. RJD2 – here’s What’s Left
3. A Tribe Called Quest – Lyrics To Go
4. Ruff Ridaz – Recognize
5. Joe Budden – State of You
6. Jay Electronica – Retro Electro
7. Notorious BIG – Unbelievable
8. NAS – Black Republican
9. Cocoa Brovaz – Bucktown USA
10. Chaundon – 3 Kings
11. Black Milk – Action
12. De La Soul – The Hustle (ft. The Beatminerz)
13. Common – The Questions
14. Big L – Furious Anger

Wale joins The Roots at a performance at a club I am DYING to attend, 9:30 Club, in DC. Thinking back to when I first heard about Wale. all he would talk about was his love for BlackThought and The Roots. Must be pretty intense joining them on stage, constantly. Big ups to one of the dopest cats doing it right now.

88-Keys speaks on his memories with J Dilla. He met Dilla through Q-Tip and instantly knew dude would revolutionize everything. I need to here this dudes collection of Dilla beats. Per what I have read up on, I have EVERYTHING Dilla has ever done. (Well, if ever released by anyone else).

Today on Trip-Hop Thursdays we have Zero 7, which is a Grammy Award-nominated Trip-hop, downtempo, shoegaze, ambient, and acid jazz duo comprising of Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker from the United Kingdom. They also included several other singers, which at this point have their very own solo albums. Contributing artists include vocals from Mozez, Sia Furler, Tina Dico, Sophie Barker, and Jose Gonzalez. Read the rest of this entry »

Skillz was born in Detroit, Michigan, but at a young age made Richmond, Virginia his home. He first made a name for himself by finishing in second place (Losing to Mc Supernatural) in a national freestyle competition in 1992, which resulted in a recording contract with Atlantic Records. Skillz’ Atlantic debut, From Where???, and its single, “The Nod Factor”, were released in 1996, but sank without a trace. In the late-1990s, he allied himself with fellow Virginia natives Missy Elliott, Timbaland, and The Neptunes. He made appearances on Timbaland’s albums Tim’s Bio in 1998, and Indecent Proposal in 2001; Timbaland made plans to sign Skillz to the Blackhand label he was developing; however, the label failed to materialize. He along with Danja Mowf, Lonnie B and Kalonji, members of Skillz’ Supafriendz collective, also appeared on a remix of Aaliyah’s hit single “Are You That Somebody” in 1998. Dude, is a serious freestyle artist. He’s very known for his freestyle with Q-Tip known as “the best freestyle ever”.

More recently (2000) Skillz is known for his tell all single “Ghostwriter”. Within this single, he names (but edits) artists for which he has written hit singles. It has alluding lines such as ‘I’m a ghostwriter, I’m the cat that you don’t see/I write hits for rappers you like and charge ‘em a fee’. Un-edited versions of the track have not surfaced but Skillz is known to do a live performance in which he includes the names. In one live performance he mentions P. Diddy, Foxy Brown, Mase, Will Smith and Jermaine Dupri. One artist who openly admits Skillz has written hits for him is P. Diddy. Skillz has also made a remix with Southern Texas rapper Lil’ Flip for the song “Dem Boyz” which has also been “Screwed and Chopped”.

Skillz eventually got a deal with Rawkus, where he recorded his 2002 LP I Ain’t Mad No More, the title of which commemorated the official change of his MC moniker from “Mad Skillz” to just “Skillz”. The afore mentioned LP was never officially released in the U.S., however, during the Sprite Liquid Mix Tour in 2003 he sold some bootleg versions of this CD. The CD was re-packaged without several tracks as “Confessions Of A Ghostwriter” in 2005. A Supafriends LP, Supavision, and another solo LP. A client for the Mama’s Boys management company which also includes Musiq, Skillz has been a featured artist at okayplayer.com, run by Questlove of The Roots. Since the year 2002 Skillz has done a year end “Rap-Up” song that encapsulates the events of the prior 12 months. These have been well-received among fans.

This next video is a personal fav of mine. Check out Skillz and Blackthought just being as natural as they can be and still ripping it up.

This weeks tracklisting is pretty god damned serious, kiddies. Mr. Anonymous is hitting us hard with this weeks podcast. Take a gander at the list down below and after, take advantage of our bandwidth and download the FUCK outta this podcast.

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Tracklisting:
1. Jedi Mind Tricks – The Philosophy of Horror
2. GZA – 4th Chamber
3. Goodie Mob – Beautiful Skin
4. Black Moon – How Many MC’s
5. Heltah Skeltah – I Ain’t Having That
6. Nas – Death Anniversary
7. De La Soul – Breakadawn
8. EPMD – Headbanger
9. Common – The Game
10. Gangstarr – Above the Clouds
11. A Tribe Called Quest – Sucka Nigga
12. Foreign Exchange – Raw Life
13. Jay-Z – Dope Man
14. AZ – Uncut Raw
15. 9th Wonder & Buckshot – Food For Thought
16. Outkast – Git Up, Git Out

Hooverphonic may very well be known as a trip-hop group for the most part, however like many other trip-hop groups out there now, they’ve expanded in many many many genres.

This Belgian group has become more or a less considered a rock/pop group but in many faces to early fans they’ve always remained one way or another in the genre of trip-hop. Read the rest of this entry »

Thats right!. In this interview with StrictlyFitted.com he talks about his upcoming SOLO mixtape and project with Dangermouse. I don’t know about y’all but I am EFFING stocked!

Great interview with one of the first dude signed to Jay-Z’s newest label, Roc Nation, along with Wale and Melanie Fiona. In this video he’s lounging at the studio working on a track for his upcoming album, with No I.D., the producer responsible for Jay-Z’s D.O.A. and Kanye’s Heartless. Dude has a nice future ahead of him.