[VIDEO] The Foreign Exchange feat. Muhsinah - "House of Cards"

I love the Foreign Exchange. Their 2 albums are off the richter scale and if they're not in your collection, you're losing. Real music. Life music. If you don't know, now you know. Foreign Exchange = Phonte (vocals) + Nicolay (beats).

One Time For The Sunshine.

Here's a dope new video from Fusion Unltd. called "The Sun" featuring Little Brother, Nickelus F, H.O.F & Skillz. I'm diggin this one. With the spring in full effect, and summer creepin on the come up, this is perfect. It's the definition of feel good music. I mean, come on, the song is about the sun. And everybody loves the sunshine...just ask Roy Ayers.

Evidence - "For Whom The Bell Tolls" Behind the Scenes [Part 2]

This is Part 2 of our behind the scenes look at Evidence's video for his song "For Whom The Bell Tolls." The song features will.i.am, Blu, and Phonte of Little Brother. In this video, Ev and company talk about the meaning behind the song, and how t all came together. The video drops next week, so stay tuned for that, it's gonna look fresh.

Thanks to Ev, Brock, Jason, Will, Phonte, Alma and the whole Decon Records staff!

Evidence - "For Whom The Bell Tolls" Behind the Scenes [Part 1]

Hip Hop Official was on the set of Evidence's latest video shoot for his song "For Whom The Bell Tolls" off the Layover EP. The song features Will.I.Am, Blu, and Phonte from Little Brother. The entire video was shot at a crazy dope graveyard and mausolem in Altadena, CA and provides the perfect backdrop for the vibe of this video. I'm telling you, this place was mad spooky. I swear dead people were climbing out of the walls. I was packing garlic cloves and a wooden spike just in case something popped off. The official video is going to look amazing, but you can get a sneak peak right here.

Check for Part 2 tomorrow...

Evidence - The Layover Mixtape

This outta hold you over until the Layover EP drops. Mixed by DJ Skee, and featuring Dilated Peoples, Defari, Little Brother, U-N-I, Casual, and a ton of other folks. This is wonderful L.A. music.

DOWNLOAD HERE.

1) The Layover
02) Worldwide (Feat. Defari)
03) Free P
04) Tip The Scale
05) Recognize (Feat. Chace Infinate & Fashawn)
06) Beautiful Day (Ft. U-N-I, Big Pooh, Aloe Blacc, Fashawn, Mickey Factz, Theo & Kes Kaos)
07) Beats Like This (ft. Montage One, Mitchy Slick, Big Twin, Diz Gioran, Stylistik Jones, Krondon, Rakaa Iriscience & Crooked I)
08) Let Yourself Go (Remix) (Feat. Phonte)
09) Calmly Smoke (Step Brothers)
10) Hits From The Bong 2008 (Step Brothers)
11) Hush Now
12) One SHot (Feat. Granite State)
13) All Said & Done (Remix) (Feat. Bishop Lamont)
14) For Whatever It's Worth
15) Half Off (Feat. U-N-I)
16) Celeb Reality
17) Bigger Dreams
18) For Whom The Bell Tolls
19) Hot & Code (Remix) (Feat. Casual)
20) The Last Shall Be The First (Dilated Peoples)

Mixtapes.

It's that time again. Check out some of these recently released mixtapes from some of your favorite rappers so you can be hip to to what the streets are talking about. Because you never want to be THAT guy.



Royce The 5'9" - Bar Exam 2

>>DOWNLOAD.





People Under The Stairs - Funner Than Leather

>>DOWNLOAD.





Fashawn - One Shot One Kill

>>DOWNLOAD.





Charles Hamilton & DJ Skee - And Then They Played Dilla

>>DOWNLOAD.





DJ Warrior, Mick Boogie, & Rapper Big Pooh - Rapper's Delight

>>DOWNLOAD.

Artist of the Week: 9th Wonder

Let me give you a little back story on this interview. I was excited to interview 9th, he's one of my favorite producers from the "New Era" (post 1997). Along with cats like Madlib, Just Blaze, and the Alchemist, he's been carrying the torch for the new generation, but Dilla is still #1 from this group. Anyways, I went to meet 9th at the luxurious Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles for the interview. This was supposed to be a 2 camera shoot, however the MAIN camera, the one the we had 9th's mic plugged into had other plans. Unbeknownst to us, the camera -- a Panasonic HVX, which records on P2 memory cards, not tape -- wasn't recording. The red light was on, and the numbers were moving, but the memory card was empty at the end of the day. Fuck.

Needless to say, this turned into a one camera shoot, and the audio is being picked up from the on-board camera mic, rather than the snazzy lav mic we place on 9th jacket to pick up the clean audio. Oh well, long story long, we still got the interview. Besides, this is the internet. You guys don't care about quality, you'll watch footage of Britney's va-jay jay on a shaky camera phone.

Peep the interview below. Hip-Hop's favorite producer 9th Wonder shines bright in the spotlight this week as talks about his time with Little Brother and working with Jay-Z. The North Cak-A-Laka beat maker has a new album on the way as well called The Wonder Years. So be sure to check for that...

Phonte Loves the 80's.

Phonte of Little Brother is teaming up with producer Zo! to release an album of slammin 80's covers titled, Zo! and Tigallo Love the 80's. And really, who doesn't?

"It just started with me and Zo doing covers for fun, but then we kept recording and decided to release it," Phonte says. "It's our way of paying homage to the stuff we grew up listening to."

Many LB fans are familiar with Phonte's singing capabilities through his hilarious comedic alter-ego Percy Miracles, don't expect to get many laughs from this upcoming project:

"We had fun recording the record, but its not a 'joke' album at all," says Phonte. "We were very serious with everything, from the vocal side, to the production side, to the final mixing and mastering...it was a real painstaking process to recreate it all.

The Zo! and Tigallo Love the 80's EP will be available in early July as a limited edition CD. Only 2,500 copies will be pressed, all individually numbered. "No iTunes, Amazon, or other any digital spots will have it; once we sell out, its gone forever," Phonte warns.

I heard the first one they did a whiiiiiile back on Little Brother's MySpace, it was a cover of "Africa" by Toto. And they recently covered "Take on Me" by AHA.

UPDATE: I the got downloadable audio, courtesy of Shake at 2dopeboyz.com:

Zo! and Tigallo - "Take on Me"

Zo! and Tigallo - '"Steppin Out"

New Releases: June 3rd

Here's what's dropping today...for those folks who still buy music, these are available in stores today. For those of you who pirate music, someone you know is probably buying these albums soon, so get your burned copy.

The Cool Kids - Bale Sale EP

First up, Chuck Inglish and Mikey Rocks, aka the Cool Kids drop their highly anticipated Bake Sale EP. It's 10 tracks of that throw back 80s hip hop from kids who aren't old enough to remember '88. All you tight pant wearing kids are gonna wanna cop that.



Little Brother - And Justus For All

Next up, the North Cak-a-laka duo, Little Brother are officially releasing And Justice For All. You might remember this as a free mixtape with Mick Boogie last year, but it's been released as an album complete with full length songs and CD quality tracks. You might remember the mixtape had some heaters on it, but the quality was weak and it had sound effects and drops on it. This doesn't. Guest apperanances from Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Rhymefest, Kardinal Offishall, and Cormega. A little FYI...9th Wonder handles some of the production.



Ashanti - The Declaration

And on the R&B smoothed out tip, Ashanti is back with her fourth album The Declaration. i wonder if she's declaring that she still knows how to sing after almost 4 years. As most of you know, she's taken some time to focus on her blossoming acting career (Coach Carter, John Tucker Must Die, Resident Evil: Extinction), but returns with this powerful and soulful record and an album cover that looks like it was stolen from Beyonce and Mariah. THe album features Robin Thicke, Akon and her rumored boyfriend, Nelly. That's a random as couple...

[NEW] Little Brother - "Black Light Special" (Prod. by 9th Wonder)

It's good to hear Phonte and Pooh spitting over a 9th Wonder track again. Those three dudes outta North Carolina made some of the freshest music together circa 2002 - 2005. This is one of the bonus tracks off their mixtape with Mick Boogie, And Justus For All, that Little Brother is re-releasing on June 10.

Little Brother - "Black Light Special" (Prod. by 9th Wonder)