New Music Tuesday #31

Kendrick Lamar, The Foreign Exchange & Catpack

Welcome to your weekly serving of music and related links.

Aside from Twitch on Wednesday from 2-4p I don’t really have any shows coming up so let’s just get straight to down to business shall we?

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MUSIC NEWS

We live inside the beef now.

This past week Kendrick Lamar hosted a Juneteenth Concert series called The Pop Out: Ken & Friends and it was a pretty fun watch.

I didn’t know what to expect from Kendrick’s show but I definitely didn’t expect him to open the show with Euphoria and proceed to pepper the other diss tracks into his set. I mean I knew he was gonna do Not Like Us but 6:16 In LA too?

He did Not Like Us about 5-6 times and on the second pass just let the audience sing along and that was probably the most vicious moment for me. And not just that record either, they also sang along to Euphoria word for word as well.

Aside from that the show was about Kendrick unifying the some of the gang sets of Compton and he was pretty emotional at the notion that these dudes stopped fighting long enough to pop out with him.

One very underrated part of the show was that early on there was a dance battle hosted by Tommy The Clown. Tommy is the guy who originated Krumping/Clowing and if you want to know what the importance of that is you can listen to the DJ R-Tistic episode of The Almanac of Rap or just take my word for it. Spoiler Alert: it’s about peace and unification.

People are speculating a new album being on the horizon as well which means that there are leaks and theories. Here is a video that breaks those leaks down along with a few links to the leaks should you want to listen to them.

Abortion Money
I’m Better
I’m Somebody
No Face

Another fun fact that I learned during the show is that once upon a time Fabolous had the beat that ended up being Alright by Kendrick Lamar. Fab and the Neptunes have a long history so this isn’t at all shocking. Fab did end up dropping a Kendrick inspired freestyle over the demo beat that he had for the track which is kinda cool to hear.

Man I’m so glad Kenny beat Fab to the punch.

VIDEOS

Chance is not fucking around at all with this latest offering of songs. He’s been on an absolute tear and I love to see it.

This is a fun song with an equally fun video.

And speaking of dance music did you know that Deon Cole was a really good DJ? I’ve seen him spin both online and in person and it is valid. It’s also mostly house so if you ain’t into house that’s your loss but he got a jam with Terry Hunter that’s worth your attention.

This is not a new video or song but somebody reminded me that it exists and now I’m reminding you. DV Alias Khrist was ahead of his time.

Rakim is putting out a self produced project where he handles the cuts as well and this is the first song from it.

ALBUMS

Droog got a lil more vulnerable on this go round. It’s good.

Kaelin is one of my favorites so I was pretty excited about this.

Amber Navran (of Moonchild), Jacob Mann and Phil Beaudreau are all dope on their own so them as a group is a no brainer.

If you like hybrid jazz and hip hop you’ll love this album.

I haven’t really got to listen to this but I already know it’s gonna be a good listen cus Da Beatminerz are legends.

Kehlani is always good for a jam or two.

James Fauntleroy & No ID aka Cocaine 80s rereleased some previously released tunes. I haven’t had time to figure out what makes this different but I am happy I was reminded about their music.

Just found out about this so I haven’t had a chance to listen to it but DJ Harrison will forever be posted.

SINGLES

Foreign Exchanged a surprise 12” to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Connected. They also pressed up 300 copies and you can pick one up here.

DROP. THE. DAMN. ALBUM.

Tiron, Ayomari, Yummy and Homeboy Sandman? YES

I like Hit-Boy as a rapper so I like this.

Blu and Evidence got an album coming and this song has some really cool merch that goes along with it.

BONUS

My homie Joel Leon not only dropped an album but he also got a book for sale called Everything and Nothing at Once. You can get it here.

Mero might be the hardest working digital content nigga alive. He already hosts a show with Melo and another podcast called Victory Light and now he is doing a new series called According to the Kid. Like, Subscribe, Comment!

My homie Likwuid is throwing her first ever Banjee Boombox  Music festival this year. It’s gonna be at the Sultan Room in Brooklyn  on August 3, 2024 5P-11P. The lineup is still being announced but trust me it’s gonna be dope. Tickets are on sale now at the website that I just linked above or right here.

ADDENDUM

I realize the sheer volume of Spotify & Youtube links that I’m peddling but you also gotta realize that this is just me curating things I have listened to/found via places I look for things. I know that nobody is complaining about this but I think about it every time I send one of these things lol.

Like sometimes I think I should make playlists for each newsletter then realize that I’d need to do that for every platform and I don’t even have Apple Music or Tidal so I just remove the thought. But maybe one day I will.

What yall think?