RAYE | FLOWERS

Raye is a sultry seventeen-year-old singer from South London, and she's not one to fall for basic gestures. On "Flowers," a new track she's premiering today to hold fans over while she gets to work on her debut album, she croons over a warm, burble of R&B: flowers from myself, so why would I want them from you? "[The song] carries for me an important message of independence," she tells FADER. "We are taught by media and movies to be reliant and dependent on love. These depictions of love are found in objects like love hearts and flowers. This song rebels against that—I'm not one for soppy love and I am not one for flowers."

Jeremih ft. Chi Hoover | Big Dawg Shit | Official Music Video

Jeremih ft. Chi Hoover | Big Dawg Shit | Official Music Video



Directed by: Dark Nyte and Shonframes

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeremih
Instagram: http://instagram.com/jeremih

Tink ft. Charlamagne | Around The Clock | Prod. by Timbaland

Timbaland Talks the Aaliyah Movie w/ Ebro in the Morning

Timbaland calls into the the Morning show and tells the crew why he went ham on Instagram.

Jean Grae drops her new EP named "#5" via Bandcamp

"This is #5. I felt like doing something else. So I did. I really enjoy song crafting. The producing, the recording, the writing, the mixing, the everything. It's short, but grown. Love ya." Jean Grae



Released 02 November 2014

Jean Grae did everything.

WILLOW SMITH | FEMALE ENERGY | FREESTYLE

Willow has come a long way since “Whip My Hair.” The free-spirited Smith, who turns 14 on Halloween, floats above the clouds on her vibey freestyle “Female Energy,” which borrows lyrics from Jhené Aiko’s “The Pressure.”

“It’s really out of my control / How you feel is not my problem,” coos Willow.

Her EP 3 hits iTunes on November 10 featuring three new tracks, which she debuted last week at the Fader Fort during the CMJ Festival in Brooklyn.

The Black Opera | Beginning Of The End | Starring Georgia Anne Muldrow

produced by Tall Black Guy
from The Black Opera's new album "The Great Year"



Stream or purchase The Black Opera’s “The Great Year” via Bandcamp:



Trusted with a culture kept under the concrete, the warning has been spread for years. Many assumed their operations were limited to underground societies or secret networks. But, The Black Opera have been among us all along. The time to hide is behind them. There will be no riot; the revolution has already taken place. The Great Year has come.

The newest movement from The Black Opera is truth. After the telling of the three part epic, The Black Op: Era I, TBO has returned without allegory or allusion. The Great Year is a modern story of emergence and art- a resistance to assimilation. It is a story of triumph and camaraderie and a renaissance of new thinking.

The new album’s influences musically are as diverse as they are aesthetically. From tribal rhythms to overdriven synths and from pulsing drums to intimate vocals, The Great Year’s sound is distinctly its own. Taking on a modern day palette, TBO has envisioned a new world, musically. With orchestration from creative minds like Tall Black Guy, Waajeed, yU and Arjun Singh, The Black Opera have assembled a team to help them communicate their message to the world.

Across the world, people put on the mask to reveal their faces. We are The Black Opera.
credits
released 30 September 2014

Producers: Tall Black Guy, Waajeed, yU, Arjun Singh, Jansport J, Slot-A, The Black Opera,
Featuring: Georgia Anne Muldrow

Executive Produced by Michael Tolle
Mello Music Group Copyright 2014

Tink | Sounds Good

Though Tink's Timbaland-produced album is "80 percent done," she told us recently, today's sneak leak comes produced by another, Inglewood's DJ-Wes. With low-key verve, Tink shrugs off an "I love you" that's hard to believe and long past affecting with a devastatingly disinterested brush-off: "Sounds good." One-upping the song's title, "Sounds Good" sounds great. For more teases, check out Timbaland's Instagram previews from a few weeks back, and for more background on one of rap's most versatile vocalists, read our GEN F profile from early this year. *Rewinds one thousand times, apologizes never*

Jhene Aiko Talks Not Selling Sex, Childish Gambino, Drake, Pretty Bird, Nas + More

Exclusive in-depth interview with Jhene Aiko. In part 3 Jhene talks to Nick Huff Barili about why she chose to only have one rap feature in her album as opposed to her ep which featured many rappers. Jhene details that the only rap feature on Souled Out was Common on the albums final track Pretty Bird. After talking about how she made Pretty Bird, Jhene goes on to share her thoughts of Childish Gambino's recent statement that Rap is done. "I just fell like the lines are being blurred. There is no such thing as a rapper any more.

Every rapper sings now. Every singer raps now. They play the guitar. I think everyone is just experimenting and sort of drawing from all the things that we are exposed to which is everything." While stating that she doesn't find herself in competition with any other artists in particular, Jhene states that she is inspired by male rappers like Drake, Kendrick Lamar and Jay Z more so than R&B artist. "I consider myself a lyricist and so I am definitely inspired by a lot rappers because all they have is their words....

The lyrics are the most important thing to me." When asked about the current state of R&B Jhene states "Specially with female artists it's all about selling sex and selling your body. The emphasis is not on the music or what you are saying." The interview ends with Jhene sharing her experience of touring with Nas and Drake.



Make sure to subscribe to www.youtube.com/hardknocktv for our latest videos, including more with Jhene Aiko. You can also follow us at www.facebook.com/hardknocktv and @Hardknocktv

Shay Lia | prod.by KAYTRANADA | 3 months

website: www.3monthsexperience.com

Bipolar Sunshine Ft. Goldlink | Future | Part 1

Bipolar Sunshine has a growing rep for crafting soulful music with choruses that pound around your head for hours - but his new number sees things slowed down completely. The track features GoldLink - who's recieved love from Andre 3000 (present at the Old Blue Last for GoldLink's show), Kaytranada (produced one of GoldLink's tracks), Lil Simz (performed at GoldLink's OBL show) and Flying Lotus (booked GoldLink for support at XOYO) - and is pretty sleek and smooth.

We're guessing Part 2 will drop sometime during the near "future".

The Weeknd | King Of The Fall | Official Music Video

The Weeknd | King Of The Fall | Official Music Video



For more information, follow The Weeknd on Twitter: http://twitter.com/theweeknd

Doja Cat | Purrr! | EP

Doja Cat Drops Her New EP Purrr!

Doja Cat first caught our ears with “So High,” an eastern-influenced ode to the drug called love. Today, the Los Angeles singer releases her debut EP Purrr!, featuring a new relaxed standout “Control,” a breezy seaside joyride built on slow builds and wavy echoes. The EP features production from MNDSGN, and other aspirational LA beat nerds we’re checking for. Fans of Kali Uchis will dig Doja’s spacey singing style, but its when she dips into straight-laced rap that her project gets particularly ambitious. Stream her new EP below or cop it on iTunes today.

Tink on Love, Loyalty and Loneliness

For two years, Tink has been deftly straddling the rapper/singer divide. The 19-year old Chicago-based artist resembles a grittier, rawer Aaliyah on heart-wrenching ’90s-R&B-style love songs and raps with the kind of witty, takes-no-shit attitude (“What if I told you that you bore me and it’s no longer fun/ And while we’re talking I’ve been texting three niggas at once?”) She’s been releasing consistently impressive mixtapes since her debut project “Winters Diary,” which contained the ride-or-die ballad “Bonnie and Clyde” that first caused ripples online, and 2012′s “Blunts and Ballads.” It’s still the best showcase of her fierce-to-tender talent range, but the widespread critical acclaim she’s received for her latest release, “Winters Diary 2,” seems to be her tipping point to stardom.

It’s about time, too: Tink’s talent is undeniable, and she has an alarming knack for wringing out every emotion on the romantic spectrum, whether it’s lust, heartbreak, frustration or sheer adoration. She’s a sweet-voiced teenager, but she sings with a moody maturity and conviction that makes her sound like an older sister: warning you away from unfaithful, ain’t-shit dudes, yet empathizing with you when you run back to them anyway. I caught up with Tink over the phone to discuss money, loyalty and the dubious aspects of being a “female rapper.”

*****************************************************************************************

I hear you’re in New York right now, what’s going on there?

I’m doing a lot of interviews and networking, and I’ve been in the studio with Sleigh Bells. I’m working with them on one of their songs they’re about to release.

You’re dropping a lot of new music on your Soundcloud right now. Recently you tweeted, “I can’t stop working. I need a mil by age 21.” Can you tell me a bit about what drives you to work so hard at such a young age?

Yeah, that’s real. I have a point to prove. I want to be able to reach people through the music, and I want it to be bigger than just Chicago; bigger than just America. And of course, with the hard work comes the money, the millions; so I’m chasing it.


Tink, 'Molly Love'
via YouTube

A lot of your music and your Boss Up mixtape in particular is about pursuing money, and in your songs you quite often talk about money being a bigger priority for you than romantic relationships. In a lot of ways, your music is like the female version of “money over bitches.” Can you talk to me about that?

I like to bring messages to the music, and especially with female [rappers], we don’t have a lot of empowerment in the music. So when I’m writing and putting songs together, I always think, “What’s gonna motivate somebody my age?” They listen to me, especially young teenagers and young females. I do talk about money a lot. The guys, though they do the same thing: “money over bitches,” “money over hoes.” In my eyes, it’s the same way. If they’re gonna feel that way about us, well, I’m gonna feel the same way about them. I’m gonna make money my priority as well.

You’re from Chicago and you’re coming up alongside artists like Katie Got Bandz and Sasha Go Hard. What’s it like being female and trying to make it in the rap world? Are there any particular challenges that your male counterparts don’t face?

The females, we have to do so much more to be recognized. It’s crazy, because guys in the music game don’t have to have a specific look, people just accept them the way they are. A guy doesn’t have to do much, but they expect females to have a certain look or dress a certain way; move a certain type of way. And we get stereotyped as far as the music; people expect female raps to be about sex and to be explicit for them to listen. For me, I don’t like staying in that type of lane; I like to talk about real matters. That’s really the biggest thing as a female: getting that respect.

Do you feel a sense of solidarity with the other women in the game right now or is it more of a competitive vibe, or both?

It’s definitely competitive. I think females kind of distance ourselves a lot more than the guys do. Guys will reach out to other male artists and work from there, but with females it’s very competitive. I have nothing but love for every female artist. We stay in our lane, but it’s not like I have a problem with or look down on any other female rapper from Chicago. I wanna see everybody make it.

What do you think of labels like “female rapper” — does it ever get annoying to be defined by the fact that you’re a woman in this industry?

Yeah, sometimes. To me it’s so obvious: People don’t go around saying “Hey, we’ve got a new male rapper on the rise!” It goes back to the thing I said earlier about having to work harder for respect: We don’t even get called “artists,” it’s always “female artist”; you have to start at “female” before you say what I am. It is annoying because at the end of the day it’s females that go harder than some of the guys; for me it needs to be unified.


Tink, 'Treat Me Like Somebody'
via YouTube

Who else do you think is really killing it right now?

I look up to Chance the Rapper so, so much. His takeoff was just so authentic: over the past few years when he was rising, doing everything independent — it’s motivating to see him come from the same place I came from. I really look up to him a lot. He doesn’t follow trends, which I also like. When Chicago was coming up with the drill movement I noticed that he didn’t conform to it, and that’s great to see.

One of the themes that comes up a lot in your music is loyalty, especially within romantic relationships, and that’s a hot topic at the moment now that Chris Brown’s “Loyal” remix is all over the radio. What’s your take on the idea that “these hoes ain’t loyal”?

Guys can say that “these hoes ain’t loyal” but I don’t feel like they really look in the mirror. I’ll be honest: Females react off how we feel; a female can be loyal, but you can’t expect her to be if you’re not loyal yourself. It’s only so much that a female is gonna take! It’s just sad that the guys can point the finger, but they can’t admit to what they do. Nowadays guys think it’s OK for them to do whatever they want and the females can’t. They expect the females to stay loyal — you can’t do what you want, or talk to whoever — but I’m gonna talk to these other chicks and that’s OK ’cause I’m a guy. I think it’s a bunch of BS; it’s unfair.

One thing that’s so compelling about your music is its emotional depth, and you touch on every romantic feeling — from being deeply in love with a guy to being heartbroken to not giving a fuck about dudes at all. On “Don’t Tell Nobody” you say, “Fuck that love shit, I don’t feel none of that.” Can you explain that? Is that where you’re at right now?

We all have our moments where, even if we are in love, we just don’t really feel it. It can get to a point with a guy where you can be in love and you’re in a relationship, but when he acts up and doesn’t treat you the way you should be treated, you just feel like this can’t be love, you know? I don’t feel love right now, this isn’t how love should feel. So that line is a “moment” type statement, when you’re mad and you’re like “fuck love, I don’t feel that.” One of those argument statements that you make!



Tink, 'Don't Tell Nobody'
via YouTube

You have a project in the works with Timbaland right now. Can you tell me about that? What else is coming up for you?

Yeah, we’ve been in the studio working; working hard. I don’t have a due date or a release date or even a time for it yet, because I really want this project to make sense; I can’t rush it. I have to take my time with it, but it’s going to be soon; you’ll start to hear the production. Me and Sleigh Bells have a joint together and we’re going to shoot a visual for it. This summer and going into the fall I have so much planned, and I really want to start collab’ing with people outside of my genre and push myself to tap into different sounds. Just expect a lot of different things from me.

That’s exciting. Finally, is there anything you’d like to say to your haters?

My message would honestly be that you can’t stop shit, simple as that. You can do whatever you want, you can hate all day, but you can’t stop shit.

By Madeleine Holden Contributor/Wondering Sound

Sojuju Mix | Vunzige Deuntjes Festival DJ Contest

DOPE | Bedford Box Office | Wax Poetics | Side C

DOPE by Bedford Box Office (Side C)

Hosted by Bedford Box Office & Wax Poetics

Riding high off the recent issue of Side B, Bedford Box Office keeps up the summertime momentum flowing with the anticipated release of Side C.

Taking on fresh perspectives of the hybrid genre of hip-hop/R&B—as well as classic soul—this tape is an exciting and futuristic mesh that celebrates a new standard for popular music.

Here's a toast to this promising class of newcomers. Enjoy.



DOPE by Bedford Box Office (Side C)

Tracklist:

"DSYLM (Don't Say You Love Me)" Rubee Rayne
"Love" Lauriana Mae
"Black Jaguar" Camille Safiya (Produced by Frankie P.)
"Smoke Pot" Dreamshow
"Bernal Heights" Duckwrth
"Guillotine" Ophelia Cache

Blended by DJ Crystalena

For more information on DOPE and upcoming concerts, please visit www.bedfordboxoffice.com


Free download

DOPE by Bedford Box Office (Side A)

DOPE by Bedford Box Office (Side B)

PARTYNEXTDOOR Announces New LP | Debuts Drake-Assisted Song

by Chris Thomas/HipHopWired



Unlike last year, summer 2014 is pretty wide open as far as album releases are concerned. Because the music game is chess, not checkers, OVO Sound all but saw July for the taking.

Following news of Majid Jordan’s upcoming A Place Like This EP, PARTYNEXTDOOR returns with the announcement of PARTYNEXTDOOR TWO, the proper follow-up to his 2013 debut. The Mississauga-bred singer-songwriter and producer is a pretty elusive figure compared to OVO founder Drake. But the ambiguity has left fans to latch onto his music and nothing else, so expect them to clamor for PARTY’s new body of work.

Clocking in at 12 cuts, including the previously released songs, “Her Way” and “Muse.” PARTYNEXTDOOR TWO, due July 29, is available for pre-order via iTunes. Fans who do so will receive “Her Way” and a cut featuring Drizzy called “Recognize.”

Stream the song below. Find the artwork and tracklist there as well.



1. East Liberty
2. SLS
3. Sex on the Beach
4. Her Way
5. Belong to the City
6. Grown Woman
7. FWU
8. Recognize (Feat. Drake)
9. Options
10. Thirsty
11. Bout It
12. Muse

Georgia Anne Muldrow Releases “Ms. One” with MonoNeon

MonoNeon, a lefty known for playing a right-handed bass upside down, has brought his style to Georgia Anne Muldrow’s rap/experimental EP, Ms. One.

Muldrow, the daughter of musicians — her late father invented instruments for Eddie Harris — has put together a rap collection that still harkens back to a love of 70s jazz/soul/funk sounds. It’s the first full rap record for Muldrow, a multi-instrumentalist and free-form singer who has been putting out jazz/funk/R&B







Purchase the the first full rap Ep by Georgia Anne Muldrow here: www.someothaship.bandcamp.com/album/ms-one-rap-ep

Maxi Priest | Loving You Is Easy

Easy To Love is a fine representation of lovers' rock, an effortless blend of reggae, R&B and dancehall with universal appeal. The sophistication he brings to these tracks is the mark of true quality. His delivery and phrasing are impeccable, and his choice of material and collaborators are strategic and brilliant.

The title track was a No. 1 hit on reggae charts last summer, evidence that Maxi Priest has a gift for staying fresh. The song features the legendary Jamaican drum and bass duo Sly & Robbie, who've played on some of Maxi's biggest hits, including "Wild World," "Some Guys Have All The Luck," "Close To You," and "Housecall" (featuring Shabba Ranks) as well as the new album track "Every Little Thing." WATCH "Easy To Love" video.

Maxi's been tugging on women's heartstrings ever since the mid-80′s. New and long-term fans alike will relish hearing irresistible tributes of enduring affection like "Loving You Is Easy," "Holiday," "Still In Love," and "Gravity." The soulful "Without A Woman" features Jamaican legend Beres Hammond and even echoes the themes and intensity of James Brown's "It's A Man's Man's Man's World."

There are many more highlights on Easy To Love. While "Hearts Across The World" is a song for our times and pleas for people of all races to love one another, other tracks like "Fire In The Skies" simply defy categorization and are living proof of Maxi Priest's musical versatility. The delicate, aching need of "Angel Wings" also demonstrates just how far reggae has evolved in the new era.

FKA twigs | Two Weeks

The London-based R&B aesthete FKA twigs has been slowly churning out atmospheric, breathy beat-pop since the release of EP1 back in December of 2012. After the release of her daring and distended EP2, one of SPIN's Best R&B Albums of 2013, she's finally gearing up for the release of her debut full-length, appropriately titled LP1. "Two Weeks," the first track from that record, premiered yesterday on Ellie Goulding's BBC Radio 1 takeover, and now today it has an official video.

In the clip, Twigs herself takes a seat on a throne to star as a goddess who can shoot water from the tip of her finger. The intensely choreographed video mirrors the disjointed otherworldliness of the track itself, marrying its digital percussion rumbles and shimmering synth lines to the swooning movements of a couple of background dancers.

This visual is directed by Nabil, who's also handled videos for Nicki Minaj and Arctic Monkeys, in addition to shooting SPIN's Frank Ocean cover story.

LP1 is due out August 12 on Young Turks. The "Two Weeks" video is above, and below are the album's cover and track list.



Taken from the new album, LP1. http://po.st/FKAtwigsLP1

LP1 track list:
1. "Preface"
2. "Lights On"
3. "Two Weeks"
4. "Hours"
5. "Pendulum"
6. "Video Girl"
7. "Numbers"
8. "Closer"
9. "Give Up"
10. "Kicks"