Sara's tracklist

from the DIAMONDS & ICE 12-inch EP, to be released August 27 on Pay Jay. 
http://www.rappcats.com/jdilla-diamonds-ice/

Get the record

J Dilla - Diamonds (The Shining Pt. 1)

ITunes

Earl Sweatshirt feat. RZA - "Molasses" (Produced By Christian Rich)

Sean-Toure' "In the Heat of the Night"  ft. yU of Diamond District

 Produced by Oddisee. From the upcoming return of Diamond District "March On Washington" October 14th.  Diamond District is yU, Oddisee, and Uptown XO. 

When Diamond District dropped In the Ruff on Mello Music Group in 2009, the gritty drums and grimy raps combined as elementally as hydrogen and oxygen. The D.C. Voltron of Oddisee, yU, and X.O. dusted off and revitalized a sound once consigned to the catacombs.

Hailed as an instance classic, its impact reverberated throughout the underground and mainstream. The Washington D.C. City Paper called it the city’s best album in many years. During an era when lyricism was deemed too intellectual and samples too dated,Diamond District overturned conventional logic. They preserved the raw and made it righteous.

A half-decade later, the holy trinity has returned with March on Washington. The truths remain timeless. Wisdom over rhythm. Slang turned into testament.

Diamond District - First Step | (prod. Oddisee)

Black Milk remixes Diamond District "Ain't Over" from the newest Diamond District record "March on Washington."

Pre-Order on iTunes now! https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/march-on-washington-redux/id945512212

Diamond District - "Ain't Over (Black Milk Remix)"

Purchase LP, Digital, 7" or CD --> https://potatoheadpeople.bandcamp.com/album/big-luxury
Download Single: https://potatoheadpeople.bandcamp.com/album/explosives-feat-illa-j-moka-only-blue-charms

Production duo Potatohead People are back to light a fuse for their upcoming album Big Luxury with a double A-side single featuring Illa-J and Moka Only. The Canadian beatsmiths (aka Vancouver’s AstroLogical and Montreal’s Nick Wisdom) return to join forces with Brooklyn-based label Bastard Jazz, following the success of 2013's Kosmichemusik EP and cult hit 7-inch, as well as an onslaught of internet shaking remixes. 

"Explosives" is a smoothed out Slum Village-esque hip-hop joint featuring J-Dilla's younger brother and Yancey Boys member Illa-J trading rhymes and harmonies with Vancouver mainstay Moka Only, while "Blue Charms" shows a synthier, instrumental side of the duo with it's Prog-ish bassline, soaring vibes, and heavy drums. 

BIG LUXURY ALBUM: 

Working on opposite sides of the landmass we call Canada, Vancouver/Montreal duo Potatohead People (producers Nick Wisdom & AstroLogical) have been making waves for quite some time with their signature jazzy boom-bap meets boogie inside the bassbin vibes. Called a “formidable tandem” by OkayPlayer, their sounds have been championed early on by the likes of Kaytranada, Soulection, Nightmares on Wax, Pomo, Exmag, Big Boi, and Phife Dawg. After a few early releases on Vancouver based netlabel Jellyfish Recordings, Brooklyn’s Bastard Jazz reissued their 2012 landmark Kosmichemusik EP and pressed a 7” which quickly became a collector’s item. The association landed their song “Back To My Sh*t” (featuring Frank Nitty of Frank’n’Dank) on a Powerade produced LeBron James documentary and Nick and Astro began working on a debut LP for Bastard Jazz, presented here.

Big Luxury draws from influences disparate as classic jazz, prog rock, disco, 90’s hip-hop, DJ Shadow-Era downtempo beats, alongside modern influences like the Brainfeeder crew and new electronic movements coming out of Nick Wisdom’s adopted hometown of Montreal.  What’s resulted is a finely honed, extra buttery album that effortly glides between tempos, but never loses the mood.  The album also features a whole host of guest vocalists -  J Dilla’s younger brother Illa J, legendary Canadian MC Moka Only, New Zealand’s Sorceress, and Amalia all provide contributions to the sounds within.  The album will set the tone for the duo’s big moves this year, including forthcoming collaborations with Illa J and Pomo as well as tour dates in North America and beyond. 

Big Luxury is a velvety ride through vibes and a magnificent debut for these talented young Canadians. 

bastardjazz.com

Buy LP, Digi or CD

Potatohead People - Explosives feat. Illa J & Moka Only

Earl Sweatshirt - Dat Ass

from the upcoming album Oddisee "The Good Fight" (5/5)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-good-fight/id969829649

In a landscape overrun with abstract indulgence and shallow trend-chasers, the Prince George’s County, Maryland artist Oddisee has created 'The Good Fight', a record that reminds you that it’s music before it’s hip-hop. Due May 5th on Mello Music Group, it’s for the fans and for himself. It finds the musical heavyweight balancing between craft, career, and successfully growing into the world around him. Stream the first single, "That's Love".

Album Description:
Oddisee makes music that rattles in your bone marrow. It’s imbued with love, honesty, and selflessness. It’s virtuosic in its musicality, direct in its language, and infinitely relatable.
 
In a landscape overrun with abstract indulgence and shallowtrend-chasers, the Prince George’s County, Maryland artist has created “The Good Fight,” a record that reminds you that it’s music before it’s hip-hop. Released on Mello Music Group, it’s for the fans and for himself. It finds the musical heavyweight balancing between craft, career, and successfully growing into the world around him.
 
For Oddisee, “The Good Fight” is about living fully as a musician without succumbing to the traps of hedonism, avarice, and materialism. It’s about not selling out and shilling for a paycheck, while still being aware that this is a business requiring compromise and collaboration.
 
It’s music that yields an intangible feeling: the sacral sound of an organ whine, brass horns, or a cymbal crash. It’s not necessarily the syllables, but rather what they evoke. A song like “That’s Love” is more than a declaration; it’s a meditation on our capacity to love and the bonds binding us together. Ambition and greed war with our sense of propriety. “Contradiction’s Maze” offers a list of paradoxes we all face (“I want to tell the truth when it hurts/but when it comes to me, I want the blow softened.”)
 
Oddisee’s production simmers in its own orchestral gumbo. You sense he’s really a jazzman in different form, inhabiting the spirit of Roy Ayers and other past greats.  The Fader’s compared him to a musical MC Escher, calling hailing his “grandiose and symphonic sound” and “relevant relatable messages.” Pitchfork praised his “eclectic soulful boom-bap.”
 
“The Good Fight” acknowledges the stacked odds, but refuses to submit.
 
It’s both universal and personal. The child of a Sudanese immigrant highlights the rigors of his own upbringing: his pregnant mother working the register until she was about to burst, his pops’ shuttered diner that couldn’t survive Reaganomics—the one that Oddisee drives past every time he returns home, just to remind him how quickly the world can turn bad.
 
It’s these minor details that add into something major. It’s testament to the indelible nature of art: when you can turn what you love into something that lasts.


Oddisee - That's Love

Album available on iTunes -> https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/id1034961898
DL & order 7" single @ https://bastardjazz.bandcamp.com/album/strippers-single

Illa J's new single "Strippers" produced by Potatohead People and Kaytranada, from his forthcoming self-titled solo album (dropping Fall 2015 on Bastard Jazz Recordings). 

https://soundcloud.com/realillaj X https://soundcloud.com/potatohead-people X https://soundcloud.com/kaytranada

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/strippers-feat.-potatohead/id979472114
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/29bryl31BRc9q7ZstcNhb9

iTunes / AppleMusic

Illa J - Strippers (prod. Potatohead People & Kaytranada)

Flowers by Joey Badass

These are 50 of my favorite songs for 2011, in no particular order what-so-ever.  If you like the selection or a specific song let me know!!  I might remix/blend a song for anyone who has a good suggestion.

MF Doom and RZA - Books of War

Masta Ace - Beautiful

In 2004 I met both RZA and Dreddy Kruger. It was these separate meetings that led to the formation of Think Differently Music Group and my involvement. During the years I lived in California where I attended Law School and in the Summers I lived in New York. I remember the day we got the rough draft from RZA and how all over the place the beat sounded. Definitely wasnt a fan upon first impression. After RZA laid his verses and MF Doom did his thing the track was an obvious lead off single for what would become the 2nd highest selling independent album of the year in 2005, Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture. 

Think Differently feat. RZA & MF Doom -Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture (2005)

“They say you have your whole life to make your first album/ guess I’ve been busy living so the first outcome/ was worth hearing...” - Oddisee “Ready To Rock” 

Rappers are generally in the business of storytelling, but whether those stories are true or not is often a sidenote. “People Hear What They See” is Oddisee’s debut full length album, and its key concern is honesty - honesty with yourself, with what you tell the world, and the relationships people have with each other. The title came from a feeling that most of the time we’re content not to look or listen beneath the surface for the truths which lie beneath. 

Out now on Mello Music Group 
iTunes: http://bit.ly/NeMnYU
Compact Disc: http://bit.ly/Nfig4K
Gatefold Vinyl: http://bit.ly/MBriCx
Deluxe Edition Haze Vinyl + Bonus 7": http://bit.ly/L5g8dh

01 Ready to Rock

from the album Piñata http://rappcats.com/pinata
THE VIDEO: http://youtube.com/watch?v=OwC5ePDNkp0 

Sara's tracklist

Sara M Seiltz