He's still hungry

ATL'sDillon Maurer is back at it again. This time he's brought along his friend and ace Paten Locke of Asamov aka the AB's & The Smilerays along for the ride. The project is called "Studies in Hunger" and it soon come. Until then? Get ready to rock with Dilla's Uncle Herm, Senor Kaos, Supa Dave West, Boog Brown, Stacy Epps and the family for some good ole soulful Hip Hop, Atlanta/DUVVVVAAAAAAAAAAAAAL style.

I'ma just say this one time.

If I run across any more fake-arse Dilla Fans in the city that aren't at the Dilla Walk the Lupus Walk Saturday, April 26th (that's tomorrow, people!) at Piedmont Park at 4pm to help raise funds for the Dilla Foundation and research into Lupus, it's going to be consequences and situations. First I'm going to quiz you on the spot about Dilla and his music. If you pass the test, I'm just going to curse you out. If you don't, I'm taking the shirt. Right there on the spot, yes. While we're on the subject of Dilla fans, I might as well note that Atlanta MC Dillon Maurer- a good friend of Dilla's Uncle Herm and a nasty MC and producer in his own right has his own Video Blog counting down to the release of Southern Scramble.


Dillon is a fool... Don't forget to catch fine as wine ATL-Based singer and songwriter Tori Alamaze & Hollyweerd tommorow as well over at Verve. I'm beginning to hate the fact that I work Saturday Nights. :o(
Oh yeah, if you aren't in the mood for that sort of scene you could just walk about 10 feet over to the party next door at Django and check out Legendary Stone's Throw DJ Peanut Butter Wolf who's in town from Cali and Bugz in the Attic Member Daz-i- Que. That is CERTAINLY going to be off the chain. You can't lose Saturday. You start of the day with a nice brisk walk for a good cause and end it at great ATL party of your choice. Life is good, right?

Bad news? Someone spilled beer on my camera

That generous person spilling their beer on my camera of course meant I left A3C early and missed the Del the Funkyhomosapien's set. I won't lie to you. I'm not a huge Del fan anyway, but I do realize how important he is to Hip Hop so I wanted some pics. Good news is when I left A3C last night I ran into Small Eyez, Spree Wilson and a pretty lil Spelman graduate that shall remain unnamed (because I'm bad with names, sorry sista!). I also ran into a friend from Georgia Southern at El Bar who was in town to throw his annual Video game tourney. He's one of the best gamers in the word and it was good to catch up. Spree had new music for me to hear which was FANTASTIC, but I won't bore you all anymore or even mention the dope Visual Artist Lecture I saw yesterday at Spelman from Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons. Y'all want to hear about A3C, don't you? I see you. You can't fool me. Okay, well here goes. Imagine a Hip Hop fanatic's Disney world. Well, this was it. Jeru was hilarious and had a terrific set. Wale carried the crowd even though it was obvious that not many were familiar with his music. He won them over. A live band never hurts in that regard. Little Brother was amazing, as usual. They are funny and put a great deal of energy into their show. Dillon Maurer held it down Solo at Vinyl. Very dope set. All the Dj's did a wonderful job as well. It was incredible seeing all the Hip Hop elite out at the show. I would have LOVED to see any of the Organized noise camp or even second generation Dugeon Family at the show, but I don't think I saw any. Tomorrow will be even BETTER, I'm hearing. The attendance today blew me away. I can't imagine what 3 stages will be like tomorrow night. I'm going to have to wear my track shoes. For all of Day 1's pics prior to the beer incident click on my Flikcr page. Otherwise, here are some of my favorite pics from Thursday night:

I think I need to clear something up...

It turns out that Battery 5 did NOT do the production for the talk of the town/innanets Mixtape from Yelawolf I posted yesterday. Chopped it up with Skape via Myspace, and he went ahead and let me know that the man rsponsible for the production on that project DJ Ideal R-Time from Miami. My bad. I do try to get it right here for my readers, though. Moving on...last night at Sabor was kind of thin. I'm not going to lie to you. I did leave early so there is no telling if it jumped off late. I think I left about 12ish. We know that in Atlanta, the spot don't jump until around 1am. I wanted to get home and check on my wife since she wasn't feeling well, though. We had some oyster shots with some friends at McCormick & Shmick's (who's happy hour is NOT to be played with. Those deals are amazing) over by the CNN center earlier Friday evening. I think the idea of shooting raw oyster was playing with her head.

Back to SaBor, though. It is a very nice spot. I hear it's got some of Atlanta's finest dining, and it's a premium lounge space being right in the heart of Downtown. Plenty of artwork on the wall, nice ambience. I really respect what the Unscene is trying to do in the ATL party scene. They have had some interesting features over the past few months, and if you aren't up on them, I'd check them out. They always seem to have plenty of fly ladies in the spot. It's rare to go to what should be a hip hop spot and see more pretty ladies than fellas. That alone is a reason to go. Plus I THINK the lady running it is a cute chocolate sista. Hey, I'm married, but I aint blind. On the wheels of steel last night were Dj Slim Chance and Dillon Maurer aka Intellekt from his critically acclaimed IDDouble days. We had a nice conversation about his upcoming project "Southern Scramble", a mixtape for his fans fiending for another taste post "Un-cut", the man just doesn't stop. He is on his grind. They played everything ranging from Gil Scott Heron and Brian Jackson's "The Bottle" to choice cuts off Guilty Simpson's new album "Ode to the Ghetto".

I sat back with my San Pellegrino with lemon and talked with Kid Kaos, Uncle Herb (Dilla's Uncle, who is ALSO on his grind), and fellow CAU student Atypik. Listen, if you haven't peeped Atypik you are losing. It was a chill enviornment, and I had fun like I always do at events thrown by the Unscene. I'm not lost on the fact that everytime I've been to her shows I've seen an underground up and comer or a celeb like Dj Brainchild from NYC, Phonte of Little Brother and up and comer in the ATL scene Soupy Jones. Last night Rockmost of Red Reign Entertainment was in the house. They are building something there. If you don't have the Sean Faylon/Soupy Jones mixtape? Beg, borrow or steal to find that.

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Now playing: Fred Wesley & The JB's - Step Child

Friday's = No Doze/New Music

Wow. I got some dope shit for y'all this Friday, yo. It's EARLY here. I just got back from the Collective Efforts/Floyd Da Locsmif/Supatition/Kaze/Audubon Society show over at the Earl earlier this morning...I missed the show :0(.

What can I say? Working nights sucks, man. Especially for weekday shows, but I love what I do, and I love the time shift I do it in so, fuck it.

I did have a chance to run into H20 (Of Mass influence, and Y'all so stupid...never heard of them? Get up on your ATL Hip hop history. Cats like these folks and Parental Advisory, Kilo, etc? They made it all possible).

I also met J Dilla's Uncle. How cool is THAT!?! I hear he's working with Dillon and H20 on some stuff. Well be still my fucking heart. I can't wait to see what they got in store for us.

OKAY. Enough about my night. Let's talk about that new-new. This week we gonna talk about Nerdkween who isn't really a new artist, but dammit I'm pretty sure she's new to you...We got Dillon, Neslee, and more...


I thik we'll start off like we did last week- with the sole out-of-towner: The Smile Rays. Hailing out of North Florida, The Smile Rays are comprised of Bat Sauce on the beats, Therapy of the AB's (formerly known as Asamov), and singer Daisey. Quite frankly this shit is ill. There is just no other way around it. As usual I'm not going to TELL you how to feel about the music. Judge for yourself. Big up to their being signed to Rawkus 50, btw. Do the damned thing.

"Toast"


Now that we got the formalities out of the way, let's talk about ATLANTA. Tori Alamaze (pronounced Al-lah-mah-zay) is flames, family.




You've heard from this Radiculture signed artist- or at least her hit song "Don't Cha" before. The only problem is that you heard the Pussy Cat Dolls singing it. Cee-lo sold the rights to the song to the long legged vixens but Tori made the song sing, shawty.

In case you haven't heard, Cee-lo has a new label called Radiculture based here out of Atlanta, and she is just one of Radiculture's new artists that we will be profiling in the coming weeks. She's fine, she's talented...she's originally from Detroit, but we'll forgive her for carpetbagging. Oh yeah, and she's into...

"Freaky Boys"



Next up? This cat...Lmao. This cat is RAW. Neslee is just raw. I could go on and on, and speak on the brother but why? I'll let him speak for him self since he does it so-so well.



"Downstairs"


Back to Soul music, tho. I'm sure you've heard of Keri Hilson or maybe you haven't.



This Atlanta based singer is doing some really big things. I mean, she was on Diddy's Press Play album. She was featured on Timbaland's Shock Value (which might be a good or bad thing depending on which way the wind is blowing) morever, she's just damn fine. This is becoming a recurring theme with ATL's sultry sirens, they gorgeous. I mean what do you want me to do? LIE? Ignore it? This is a BLOG, son. I'm fittna be real as shit. She is damn beautiful. I honestly don't know what kind of radio spins she is getting beacuse I don't listen to the radio (I'll give you my WCLK rant later) But in any case check her music. This song is featuring Snoop Dog...

"Happy Juice"


DILLON. (DY-LAWN) lol. Wow. This cat is good peoples. I mean, his energy is just like pure artistry. You have GOT to love Dillon.




Dillon is one half of the critically acclaimed Intellekt & Dirty Digits. These Florida Transplants were doing their thing last year getting artist of the week nods at SPIN MAGAZINE, and even finding love on Okayplayer.com getting 4 afros (which is a feat itself). Well, the group has dissolved and we are left with just good ole Dillon.



He's blessed ATL already with a mixtape called Un-Cut. You can pick this up at his shows which are frequent or on his myspace. In fact, the next show is THIS UPCOMING SATURDAY over At Apache Cafe He'll be playing with Euguene IV, Buff1 and Aloe Blacc What has to be appreciated about this mixtape is that Dillon did MOST of the production, scratching and nearly all of the MCing himself. It's a great peice of work that includes earlier works with Therapy of Asamov/The Smilerays and The Audubon Society as well as Collective Efforts, etc....

It's just a great flavor of music, check this choice cut-

"Me, You, and a Bottle of Merlot"

Man, Nerdkween aint really new, yo. This sista has been doing her thing in the A for a minute.


But aside from my Low-fi and Electronica heads, she's new to nearly everyone I talk to so I decided to include her here. This jawn is a live recording. It speaks for itself.

"If"



Lastly, I'ma speak on Supreeme. Remember I mentioned them Last Friday as part of that art scene movement? Well, these cats have a more street sound than many of the artists in that scene. Shit is aiight, tho.

Check this jawn they got off last year's album...

"Supply and Demand"

In point of fact, you can download their entire last album on their Website HERE.How kind of them!
And with that? I'ma holla at ya'll later this evening, God willing. I got the weekend off this week so I can catch the Buff1, Aloe Blacc, Eugene IV, Dillon show.
I hope to see y'all there this upcoming saturday. Later today we gotta talk about how John Blaze this Pharoah Monch is, and talk about some more ATL music. I also want to delve into some stuff I seen in the news that is on my mind...

Peace.