What’s up y’all, this is da SoulKidd bringing you more new videos!! First we have the new one from Rahsaan Patterson from his “Wines & Spirits” album. This one is called “Feels Good” and I believe this is actually the first official video for Rahsaan since his ‘Love In Stereo’ album… and its about time! (He has a little less hair, but that voice is still top-notch!!) Snap your fingers to this one. Next up is the newest video from Algebra Blessett, this one is called “Run & Hide” and its a cool video from the slim, ATL soul sista. The song is from her debut album “Purpose”. The Roots are definitely making up for the LACK of support they got from ‘Game Theory’.. where they put out one ‘mega-video’ that couldn’t be played anywhere. This time around the legendary crew is not playing!! Including the video I’m about to introduce, The Roots’ “Rising Down” album has already put out three videos (and one video that was later scratched from the album)… So, they actually have shot four videos in support for the album. This one is called “Get Busy” featuring Dice Raw & Peedi Peedi. Dope video and song!! Lastly, we have one 9th Wonder & Buckshot with their video “Hold It Down” featuring the undeniable Talib Kweli… off the album ‘Formula’ and this one is strictly for the underground.

Check out these videos, and enjoy! Peace!!

by Rob aka R7

Rahsaan Patterson - Feels Good

Algebra - Run & Hide

The Roots - Get Busy ft. Dice Raw & Peedi Peedi

9th Wonder & Buckshot - Hold It Down ft. Talib Kweli

by Ben J. Brown Jr.

With a voice as sweet as a spring shower, Wayna blesses the microphone of your soul with her sophomore effort entitled Higher Ground. Just as in her buzzworthy debut “Moments Of Clarity,” Wayna’s poetic songwriting skills take you on a journey that nods your head and tickles the intellect. Standout soul with Wayna’s bebop-gospel soul style lace a fluid soul program of a dozen sonic candy pieces that’ll have friends begging you to tell them who she is.

Part of the appeal of her first effort was the acid jazz/hip hop flava that many of the tracks lended to her already Billy Holiday/Erykah Badu-esque aura. The electric effort there continues and evolves on this album. Tracks like “A New Scenery” are early proof of this evolution. Taking on a more ambient/soul taste, this track brilliantly marries her soft voice with a playful flute about an acoustic guitar and keys that roll and flow about them both like light waves upon a warm beach. The result is truly intoxicating and is probably one of the best songs to intro someone to Wayna’s style.

As you progress on through the album, you’ll notice that her song choices are leaning more towards how Tamia would sound if she took a couple of hits of Baduizm topped with a bit of Mya’s “whoa!”. Sounding a bit more on the pop side of soul, Wayna manages to retain her artistry and soulful style in midtempo love songs like “My Love”, “Daydream”, and “Not Gonna Go”.

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FROM ROOTS TO BRANCHES:
THE ROOTS KEEP GROWING WITH THEIR NEW ALBUM RISING DOWN.

Interview with Ahmir “Questlove’” Thompson

by Lauren-Aileen Morris

Anyone with access to a radio and full use of their hearing will tell you that the state of hip-hop is in disarray. Every other song you hear on popular radio lately seems to be a T-Pain laced, cringe inducing track that makes you reluctantly turn the dial. For those of you, like me, who have somehow managed to fall out of love with that childhood crush named hip-hop, let me point you to a two-word cure for your heartbreak. The Roots.

The Roots are back again with their 10th attempt at hip-hop resurrection and this one is sure to make a believer out of the skeptics. One of their most politically charged albums to date, Rising Down takes you on a journey through the streets of Philly and back again. All the while serving as a reminder that true hip-hop is not dead…it just retreated underground to hide from all the pop-chart loving wannabes.

I got a chance to sit down with The Roots drummer, producer and mouthpiece Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson to get some perspective. A self described “hip-hop geek,” Questlove had no shortage of words in explaining his thoughts about the new album, the election, and hip-hop music. “The new album is like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I think message wise, we were very careful not to throw people for a loop. We went back to the meat and potato hip-hop that people really weren’t expecting us to give to them. This is probably our most basic hip hop album that we’ve done since “Illadelph Halflife,” but the one thing I have to understand is that the language I speak is a bit past the point of where the average listener comes in.”

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by Ben J. Brown Jr.

Songwriting, production, soul, and variety mark the core of Sy Smith’s third solo effort called CONFLICT. Known for her ability to blend her sweet soulful voice with experimentations of soul with the likes of The Brand New Heavies, Vikter Duplaix, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Sy Smith has taken the reigns of this project to flex her ability to make you think, make you laugh, make you love, and make you dance.

At first listen, what grabs you about Sy is her ability to wrap her honey dipped harmonies around and about each song and beat despite whether it is a Madlib-esque effort like “Overthought”, a bluesy rock Lenny Kravitz-style track on “Star”, or a traditional jazz live effort as in “Would all the people from Compton please leave”! Yes… as you can see, Sy has fun with every song in this 11 track effort and has managed to continue her legacy of providing soul music with extra dimensions. Maybe not quite as experimental as Cee-Lo in his Gnarls Barkley efforts, Sy still manages to provide a more soul and funk oriented delivery that certainly floats in the realm psychedelic. And the vibe of each track is enhanced by Sy’s gift of ‘painting’ with her voice, if you will. Just as great soul artists do, she goes beyond just the lyrics and provides each song with a taste of her playful and silky voice to show that her soul is just as much a musical instrument as the rest of the track.

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There’s new music out now from The Roots, Estelle, Angela Johnson, Lyfe Jennings, Portishead, Kissey Asplund, 9th Wonder, Santogold and more.

See what else is new in music

AOL is previewing Lyfe Jennings and Estelle’s entire new albums.
Lyfe Jennings - Lyfe Change
Estelle -Shine

The Roots with Chrisette Michelle and Wale on Letterman

Calvin Richardson returns after five years with his third album When Love Comes. The album is scheduled to be released on Shanachie Records on May 27th. You can listen to three songs from the forthcoming album below.

With When Love Comes Calvin had a vision of embracing the essence of classic soul. To achieve that vision, he wrote and produced all the tracks himself. “I wanted to highlight the vintage soul sound and reconnect with the Curtis Mayfield sound, the Betty Wright sound and put it into a contemporary context,” Calvin explains. “I had done that before but this time I wanted to try to make it a more coherent statement than previously when different producers were bringing me tracks. A lot of the songs were inspired by samples, digging in the crates and listening to old music that put me in the mood to create this album. It helped me to take a sample and build off of that. When I hear that music it speaks to me in a way that just having some musicians sitting around trying ideas does not. It’s sort of a road map back to the way things used to be. I took it to another level.”

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What’s up everybody? Today I got some new videos from some of your favorites. First up, the brand new Alicia Keys video “Teenage Love Affair”, her third video from her album ‘As I Am’. This one co-stars Derek Luke and has a a little “School Daze” theme going. And this song is probably my favorite song off Alicia’s album. Next up is the new Kanye West video featuring Chris Martin called “Homecoming”, his fourth video from his ‘Graduation’ album. A black & white video, which I always like. I’d like to thank KN519 for the giving me a heads up on the next 2 videos…Firstly, the brand new video from Ledisi “In the Morning” from her ‘Lost and Found’ album. And yeah, she did a little of the song in her first video, but this is a whole new version and I’m sure you’ll like, plus the girl can sang so that alone makes it worth while… plus its just a dope video. And also the brand new video from The Roots featuring Chrisette Michele & Wale, the song is called “Rising Up” and it’s from their upcoming album “Rising Down”. This is a dope video, and song… and thanks again KN519 for putting me on!! Lastly keeping on a hip-hop tip, I have the latest video from the legendary producer Pete Rock, this one is from his album ‘NY’s Finest’ and this one is a 2 for 1 video.. first is “Till I Retire” featuring DMC and the second is featuring Redman called “Best Believe”… classic Reggie Noble on that one. So, definitely check out these videos and enjoy!!

by Rob aka R7

Alicia Keys – Teenage Love Affair

Kanye West – Homecoming

Ledisi – In the Morning

The Roots ft. Chrisette Michele & Wale – Rising Up

Pete Rock – Till I Retire/Best Believe ft. Redman

Alice Smith’s debut CD For Lovers, Dreamers & Me earned her a Grammy nomination but not necessarily the recognition the Brooklyn based singer deserves. She recently performed live for AOL/Spinner.com. You can watch her in-studio performance and download it for free.

Alice Smith performs ‘Dream’ live

WATCH THE FULL SET HERE
tracklisting:
Desert Song
Dream
Gary Song
Know That I
Love Endeavor
Interview

Video Podcast Download:
http://aolradio.podcast.aol.com/aolmusic/The_Interface_Alice_Smith.m4v

MP3 Podcast Download:
http://aolradio.podcast.aol.com/aolmusic/The_Interface_Alice_Smith.mp3

STAND and the Genocide Intervention Network are proud to partner with Participant Media in the college tour of the acclaimed documentary, Darfur Now with performances by musical acts Cool Kids, Goapele, Zion 1, Janelle Monae, Anthony David, Wale, Asheru, DJ Drama and more.

Los Angeles, CA, March 28th, 2008 - STAND and Participant Media are proud to sponsor a nationwide tour of the critically acclaimed new documentary, Darfur Now, which will be available on DVD May 27th. Schools around the country, chosen for their outspoken efforts to fight genocide, will host a special screening of Darfur Now and a concert to raise awareness, funds, and send the message that NOW is the time to end genocide in Darfur. Across the country, tens of thousands of students have shown that they will not stand idly by in the face of genocide. From passing legislation to fundraising for relief and protection efforts in Darfur, they have declared that they are the anti-genocide generation. But we can do more…

For more information and ticketing visit http:/www.darfurnowtour.com

For music playlists, videos etc visit http://www.darfurnowtour.imeem.com

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Just a heads up to remind you that some very soulful ladies have new releases out.

Sy Smith follows up “Syberspace Social” with “Conflict”.
Conya Doss keeps it consistently soulful with “Still”.
Wayna returns with her latest “Higher Ground”.

Are you going to add these CD’s to your collection? If you already have them what do you think about the music?

related posts
Sy Smith interview
Conya Doss interview
Wayna interview