Under Sound Music

Friend of Under Sound and my sometimes collaborator (i.e. this and ummm… this) Hezekiah, is preparing to release his new album Conscious Porn on Soul Spazm.  As you can see from the above flyer, it’s got some amazing contributors including some bona fide heavy weights.  Two of those heavy weights are  another Philly based MC,  Bahamadia and the legendary Talib Kweli, who are featured on the aptly named “Fired Up.”  Simply put, this song goes HARD.

On Conscious Porn Hez is taking a decidedly more raw approach to his signature soulful sound.  One of the best things about Hezekiah as and artists is that he explores the contradictions that exist in so many of us and he continues that exploration with this album.

I’m listening to “Fired Up” as I type this and it’s hard not to stop typing because I feel compelled to listen.  The track has a sense of urgency to it and each MC, even Bahamadia who usually has a voice that blends with the track, commands your attention.  Hezekiah kicks it off with lines like “Got a line about rhymes and a line about crime, so which one do ya’ll want worse?” which illustrates how artists have so many sides to them but we’re not sure what our audience wants sometimes.

This might be the most I’ve written about a single on this site but that’s because this song really caught me from the first time I heard it.  And trust me the entire album is full of songs that are just as compelling.  So give a listen to “Fired Up” and let us know what YOU think.

~E Major

 

 Hezekiah - "Fired Up" feat. Talib Kweli and Bahamadia: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Our homie from Better Than Yours, Jerome Baker III just dropped this mix, YESSIR: The Best of Snoop Dogg and The Neptunes.  Download now here and follow Jerome on Twitter.

And be on the lookout for our partnership with Better Than Yours as we present “E Major is… Better Than Yours.”

~E Major

Wale moving the crowd

Impulse and E Major

Here are a few photos we got at Artscape over the weekend.  Artscape always seems to be on the hottest day of the year.  We did our best to add to the heat.  Impulse spun some great records and I did what I could to hold him down on the mic.  All around though it was a lot of fun.

~E Major

Impulse with the legendary J Rawls of Lone Catalyst

This is a great story about the new business models being presented by upstart and boutique labels (like Under Sound Music for example). Here’s an excerpt that mentions us. Thanks to the City Paper for their continued support of our movement.

The converse to that, but still very much a boutique, might be the MC E Major’s recently launched Under Sound label (“Kinda Like Something Big,” Music, Feb. 3). It’s released music by other artists, sure, but Under Sound’s three partners also agree that it’s very much a label and brand revolving around E Major. And these days, it is entirely possible to have a label centered on one artist, particularly in something as personality driven as hip-hop.

Part of that is making it something more than a label, as Under Sound has done. The trio emphasizes that Under Sound is also a well-read music blog, a clothing store and, right now, an outlet for art prints. “We discovered early on that, nowadays, you’re not going to make money with a record label selling albums,” E Major (Ian Mattingly to the government) told this writer last winter.

“We definitely don’t want to get into anything where we’re in contract with artists or anything” he added. “We want to work with people we know or like. The way it works now is we’ve bartered for so much stuff, like, ‘Hey, give me a beat, I’ll rap on your song’ kind of thing. It works out really nicely that way.”

(Click here to read the full story)

This was an amazing event as it is every year.  I’m just very grateful to be a part of keeping Dilla’s legacy alive.  There are many more photos but here are a few I grabbed.

Ardamus and E Major

Talib Kweli

Grap Luv and Kev Brown

Baltimore’s Tislam the Great

Ma Dukes and band leader J Laine of The Players