The Good Musician » hip-hop http://www.thegoodmusician.com Be a successful musician, one note at a time. Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:11:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Nas keeps on getting it right http://www.thegoodmusician.com/2008/07/nas-keeps-on-getting-it-right/ http://www.thegoodmusician.com/2008/07/nas-keeps-on-getting-it-right/#comments Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:50:18 +0000 http://www.thegoodmusician.com/nas-keeps-on-getting-it-right/ Post from: The Good Musician

]]> Power 105.1's Powerhouse 2005: Operation Takeover
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“Sly Fox” is old news by now. Nas nails it with class. This young hip-hop artist is right on the money with his rhythms and rhymes, his telling it like it is without resorting to cliches or puerile gesturing. Nas is wide awake and doing better journalism than the MSM.

He may be selling out somewhere, but not in his music. This Good Musician has a social conscience, incisive raps, wrapped up in compelling harmonies and precise, grooving beats.

Mr. Nasir Jones gets loads of love from AlterNet, one of my favorite internet news sites. Take the time to watch “Sly Fox” and Black President.

Then unplug, get out there, and make a difference.

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]]> http://www.thegoodmusician.com/2008/07/nas-keeps-on-getting-it-right/feed/ 0 Cornell West and Talib Kweli http://www.thegoodmusician.com/2008/04/cornell-west-and-talib-kweli/ http://www.thegoodmusician.com/2008/04/cornell-west-and-talib-kweli/#comments Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:28:44 +0000 http://www.thegoodmusician.com/cornell-west-and-talib-kweli/ Post from: The Good Musician

]]> Here is a cool track by Cornell West and Talib Kweli–Bushonomics.

The sampling is compelling, and the music is gorgeous, no matter the politics. Nothing wrong with socially-conscious music. Hip-hop is the new folk-protest music. In the 50’s and 60’s we got the Weavers, Peter, Paul and Mary, and now we have Cornell and Talib.

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]]> http://www.thegoodmusician.com/2008/04/cornell-west-and-talib-kweli/feed/ 0 Music and politics in the streets–from beat to hip-hop http://www.thegoodmusician.com/2008/04/music-and-politics-in-the-streets-from-beat-to-hip-hop/ http://www.thegoodmusician.com/2008/04/music-and-politics-in-the-streets-from-beat-to-hip-hop/#comments Thu, 17 Apr 2008 05:27:50 +0000 http://www.thegoodmusician.com/music-and-politics-in-the-streets-from-beat-to-hip-hop/ Post from: The Good Musician

]]> Live 8 London - Stage
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Just got a 411 from an associate. Introduced me to Joell Ortiz. The song is A Letter to Obama. An authentic, reasoned plea to the next president, whomever that may be, to listen to the people and address the very real social issue of the survival of a good portion of our population.

Not to put too fine a point on it, there are more voters, and voting musicians this election than ever before. Just as the politics of this time will be remarkable, so will the music. It reminds me a bit of the beats, not because there’s a Kerouac exhibit at the Ransom Center, but the smoky, funky tenor sax, bongos, and impassioned rhetoric as art. Music as soundtrack for cataclysmic change.

Enough of that. I dig hip-hop, it’s a classical form, turned on it’s head. It reminds me of an ancient electronic music class in which I tangled with a Buchla Box. The box won.

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