UNDER G. HH

The "Definition Sickness" album is available now at: http://tinyurl.com/DefinitionSickness 

Stand outs in the indie-rap haven of Minnesota, No Bird Sing combines the talents of emcee Joe Horton, drummer/producer Graham O'Brien, and guitarist/producer Robert Mulrennan. With Definition Sickness, the trio has maintained the integrity of their live-band roots while exploring a more produced sound that ranges from stark minimalism to lush expansiveness. 

The first single, “DON’T THINK”, is a brooding track where Horton shares vocal duties with SFR label head SAGE FRANCIS. Other guests on the album include FIX cohorts Crescent Moon (Kill the Vultures) and Kristoff Krane, as well as Sadistik, Chastity Brown, James Diers (Halloween, Alaska), Aby Wolf, Adam Svec and Molly Dean.

NBS released their eponymous debut to critical acclaim in 2009. Their 2011 follow-up, "Theft of the Commons", along with the US tour dates that followed, served to expand their loyal, burgeoning fanbase across the Midwest and beyond. 

Their SFR debut,  Definition Sickness, offers a meditative commentary on modern life, owing much to leftist political theorists like Howard Zinn as well as Eastern-leaning philosophers like Alan Watts and Lao Tzu. Musically the dark, transcendent instrumentation of the record creates a rich and varied soundscape that will immediately entice fans of multiple genres. Repeat listeners will be rewarded by both the layered lyrical themes and the ear candy that’s provided by the nuanced sonic compositions. 

"If you took away the vocals, you'd never know it was hip hop," admits drummer/producer Graham O'Brien. "We're just investigating the relationship between hip hop and other genres—taking the spoken, rhythmic word and putting it in other places."  

"That's what creativity is," vocalist Horton says. "It's coming to this point where you don't know exactly what you're doing and having to figure out what to do. The second you're not doing that, you're just rehashing old shit."
http://StrangeFamousRecords.com

the FULL ALBUM is HERE

"Don't Think" - NO BIRD SING feat. SAGE FRANCIS

Sage Francis and Buddy Peace came together to create "Needle" for Sage's 2009 mixtape release: Sick of Wasting: http://tinyurl.com/SageSickOfWasting
Not only did Buddy Peace produce the beat but he lays down an amazing scratch sentence at the end of the song. Beast mode. Limited/autographed CDs of "Sick of Wasting" are available at www.StrangeFamous.com

FULL ALBUM HERE

NEEDLE - Sage Francis prod. by Buddy Peace

New single from Cannibal Ox legend Vast Aire.  Taken from the forthcoming album "Ox 2010 : A Street Odyssey" out on Man Bites Dog Records / Fat Beats.  You can see the accompanying video launched on the internet on 12th April at the following link http://youtu.be/sf16J3DGRIY

The album also has guest features from Cappadonna, Raekwon, Guilty Simpson, Vordul Mega & Genesis from LXG. Look out for news of a European tour coming in the autumn 

For full res mp3 or any other UK media enquiries, contact URBANELITE PROMOTIONS on uepmusic@aol.com 

Follow Vast Aire on twitter @vastaireofcanox

URBANELITE PROMOTIONS
www.myspace.com/urbanelitepr
www.twitter.com/urbanelitepr   

Vast Aire - Nomad (clean)

On the 4th sneak peek into Strange Journey Volume Three, Deacon The Villain, Aesop Rock & Sadistik confront their inner demons over an infectious Kno production.  Pre-orders for Strange Journey Volume Three begin March 24th at www.CunninLynguists.com! Photography by lostknightkg.

Castles f. Aesop Rock & Sadistik

From the "Copper Gone" album, available in all formats at Strange Famous Records: http://tinyurl.com/CopperGoneSFR 
Sage Francis tour dates: http://tinyurl.com/SageShows

The music is produced by Strange Famous label-mate, PROLYPHIC (horns by Joshua Trinidad.) Lyric video available here: http://youtu.be/-utMO586HCg
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow on: <a title="Sage Francis on Twitter" href="http://www.twitter.com/sagefrancis" target="_blank">Twitter</a> + <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sagefrancis" target="_blank">Facebook.</a>
www.StrangeFamousRecords.com

BUY ALBUM

"Vonnegut Busy" - Sage Francis [COPPER GONE]

Aesop Rock - Five Fingers

From the album "Hello Cruel World which drops 7/19 on Fakefourinc.  Preorder now for $9.99 @ http://www.circleintosquare.com/item/hello-cruel-world

Sole and the Skyrider Band "Progress Trap" feat. Sage Francis

A new special 2011 mix of Yakuza from Vast Aire featuring Double AB, Access Immortal and the UK's Melanin 9.  This is the clean edit not available anywhere else in the world.  

Vast's new album Ox 2010 A Street Odyssey is available now on Man Bites Dog Records and features Raekwon, Genesis, Cappadonna, Kenyattah Black, Guilty Simpson, Vordul Mega & Double AB. Production is courtesy of Kount Fif (Killah priest & Nas), Harry Fraud, Thanos, Surock, Ayatollah and Are Why. He drops a special new EP in August. 

Follow the guys on this edit on twitter @vastaireofcanox @accessimmortal @melanin_9 

URBANELITE PROMOTIONS
@urbanelitepr

Vast Aire "Yakuza" ft Double AB, Access Immortal & Melanin 9 (2011 mix) radio edit

Clean edit of Vast Aire's "I Dont Care" featuring Cappadonna produced by Kount Fif. Taken from his album Ox 2010 : A Street Odyssey out now on Man Bites Dog Records

Vast has a current track 'Yakuza' remixed featuring the UK's Melanin 9 as well as Access Immortal and Double AB doing the rounds, with two more special tracks featuring UK MCs due out shortly ahead of his new EP which is due to drop in August

His labelmate Copywrite will release his new album God Save The King in the autumn & features a heavy line up of US & UK artists. He has just released a special remix of PYT featuring Jay Notes & the UK's Loudmouth Melvin & Skillit, again produced by Kount Fif. You can check that out also at http://soundcloud.com/urbanelitepr/copywrite-pyt-uk-remix-ft-jay    

Follow the artists on twitter @VastAireofCanox and @Copywrite

URBANELITE PROMOTIONS
@urbanelitepr 

Vast Aire - I Dont Care ft Cappadonna (clean)

Vast Aire- Thor'sHammer ft. Raekwon& VordulMega

Buy Skelethon from Fifth Element: http://bit.ly/IRjQnX or iTunes: http://bit.ly/LguVzs

http://www.rhymesayers.com/aesoprock
http://aesoprock.com
http://www.twitter.com/aesoprockwins

Lyrics:
Unsigned hype, front line aeronauts flurry, zero dark thirty, zero friends, minotaur-fugly stepchild, evoke lunch jumped over plunging necklines, up, beside tongue-tied hungry enzymes, devolved into mothmen munching textiles, punisher, out past go-time, back 10 fried worms chubbier, brown grass both sides, canned food, manmade tools, Lanacane, band-aids, mandrake root, bindle on a broom stick, pancaked shoes and handshake-proof campaign, can’t lose, can’t gain, smoke out moles like a force of nature, pray fortune return to his favor, swiftly, maybe in the form of a nest egg, maybe in the form of a tesla death ray, or a solid gold scene with something better to celebrate than powder on your face like a flat foot on jelly day, m-m-moral compass all batshit, spinning in the shadows of immoral magnets, are we supporting the artist or enabling the addict, I mean, I guess it matters to me, I wish it mattered to you, how a thousand virtues, kick the same bucket like chinatown turtles

Roving packs of elusive young, become choke-lore writers over boosted drums, in the terrifying face of a future tongue, Down from a huntable surplus to one

(check his own) Breakneck pulse over colors in a drain that emote sugar skulls in the rain, flower-eyes melting, guided by a levy made of bath tiles tilting, quarter up and headed for the kill screen, no corner cut, no build team, only a particularly menacing, angle perpendicular to everything, boys room cherry bomb, boy/goon very much runnin’ with the devil in the mellotron, hello, here’s where a tale of caution, pounds coffin nails to bootlegs of Hawkwind, saw tooth, nevermind straw to gold, spin hearts on sleeves into heads on poles, arm in the maw, fish out pith like a business card from a jar at the mall, A-alike androids dreaming of carbon applause get stuffed with cartoon cigars, cold pack, neti-pot, home to roost, around folk backed into what they most lampoon, shook to the fevered brow and broke ankles, daisy, declawed pound, no thank you, fade me, failed all basic training but I spent a couple groundhogs days with a changeling, silouhette the god last cigarette, anything less would be re-god-damn-diculous

Aesop Rock - Zero Dark Thirty

Buy at Fifth Element: http://bit.ly/IRjQnX 
Buy on iTunes: http://bit.ly/LguVzs
Watch the video: http://bit.ly/MZdOpH

http://aesoprock.com
http://rhymesayers.com/aesoprock
http://facebook.com/aesoprockwins
http://twitter.com/aesoprockwins

Aesop Rock - ZZZ Top

These are all done live on two turntables using an instrumental and an acapella, I scratched the vocal intro on 2 or 3 of them and I had to do some work on the fly to keep them in time particularly with the Shadow/Common blend and the Roots/Pharcyde blend.

Cannibal Ox vs MF Doom

Off of the "Personal Journals" album. Signed copies on CD &amp; vinyl at: www.tinyurl.com/PersonalJournals 
The digital version is available there as well. Or on iTunes/Amazon/Bancamp/Etc. 
This is the 10 year anniversary of Personal Journals!  The beat for Smoke &amp; Mirrors was produced by Jel.

www.Facebook.com/SageFrancis 
www.Twitter.com/SageFrancis 
www.StrangeFamousRecords.com

Personal Journals LP

"Smoke and Mirrors" by Sage Francis

All Sage Francis merch available at: https://store.strangefamousrecords.com/collections/sage-francis
digital version of this album is on iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/human-the-death-dance/id262482467
Label: http://StrangeFamousRecords
Facebook: http://facebook.com/SageFrancis
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SageFrancis

LYRICS:
If I'm alive by the time you find this, it's a miracle.
What else can be said? A vision quest with infrared.
I'm at a dead end. I bled slow,
From my chest, held my breath and did my best to never let go.
I've lived a good life for never haven compromised a thing,
And if I couldn't write I'd think of other ways to optimize my living.
No wife, no kids, no anchors.
Hand over fist, I withhold this info from the bankers.
Don't know my neighbors. It didn't take a village to raise me.
Small-town mentality types think that I'm crazy.
I ain't as weird as they paint me...off color.
I'm more gutter-punk than ritzy. More glitz and glamour than others.
Motherfuckers left me lonely in this designated corner.
Had a couple walls that build upon, it made me a performer.
Now shade me from the warmer weather, save me from the slaughterhouse,
The crease between the pages where I try to hide my awful mouth.
Speak discretely to the sheets that seem to be hollow.
Punched a ladder full of holes just for my swollen feet to follow.
Support me all you want, don't let me drop a feel the land.
I'm not going to stop until God is my ceiling fan.
Spare the lamb. Save me from my former-self.
That crease between the pages is the line I crossed and lost myself.
Now this is my box. These are my walls.
This is when time stops and I'm all that there ever was.
I'm all there ever is. I'm all that there ever will be,
A freeze frame pine box soliloquy. Call me FRANCOIS!

Take what you can. Leave what you must.
'Cause you're coming with us (motherfucker, you're coming with us.)
Fill your bags with the rags that you wear and bare necessities,
Along with the dog-tags and family recipes.
Rest in peace if you arrest the pace. Move in haste.
Godspeed you black empress, get dressed...we're late!
She painted my head orange, carved my face with her tongue,
Emptied out my insides and lit the candle behind my eyes.
At the strike of twelve the midnight winter queen,
Left with my life-rival in a white limousine.
When he made her dress twirl it looked like a mushroom cloud,
Everybody ducked down except for me. That's my destiny.
He used a broken condom as a corsage.
I watched him push the rusty pin through her prom dress into her heart.
Oh, kill me already. fill me with confetti,
Crush me up and sprinkle me over their wedding and her pregnant belly.
I wasn't ready to suppress these memories,
Undress the mammaries,
Forget the family,
Streamline the enemy,
Design the penalty,
Cruel and unusual,
Commit the felony,
Unfit for prison duty,
No man's an Island...except for Island man; he's a rock star.
No man's an Island...except for Island man; he's a rock. CALL MY FANCOIS!
http://tinyurl.com/HumanTheDeathDance 

"Call Me Francois" by Sage Francis (2007)

From the "Human The Death Dance" album, available on CD & VINYL (signed) at: 
http://tinyurl.com/HumanTheDeathDance 
Also available on iTunes at:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/human-the-death-dance/id262482467
Beat produced by KURTIS SP! http://tinyurl.com/KurtisSP
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/SageFrancis
FACEBOOK: http://facebook.com/SageFrancis 
LABEL: http://StrangeFamousRecords.com
--"Hell of a Year" LYRICS--
------------------------------------- 
It's been a hell of a year but I'm mentally prepared
to do a dance around the next couple medical scares.
I'm Fred Astaire with the metal wearing quickly off my tap shoes,
so I step quietly the way that cat's move.
But I'm bear-like. My head trapped in dear lights.
You can call me John, I'm writing letters to the dark side of the moon tonight.
My lovely Jane, you went away but the pain stayed,
so I'm sending you a package to the address where you traded names.
I made no claims on the identity theft.
I'm more concerned about the home with no amenities left.
It's already a mess. The dust piles like your junk mail,
so I eat away depression and crush the scale.
You find yourself on the opposite side of the spectrum...
emaciated on a strict diet of bed crumbs.
Me? I choose to wallow. I'll just swim in my fat.
You refuse to swallow so I see ribs from the back.
This isn't an attack--it's an admission of guilt.
I'm living in the past, kissing your ass, sipping your milk.
But it's all bone and curdle. I saw stones in a circle.
I stood in the middle, told myself riddles in a robe that's purple.
The murder weapon was an icicle.
Is that the reason why I'm standing in this puddle with my eyes so full?
I fight feelings like a war on drugs.
I'm a chemist with a test tube addiction, born through coffee mugs.
Our baby now is "all growed up."
Your car is still dead in my driveway while I wait for the tow truck.
And you know what? I know I drove you away.
I still don't think it was wrong so I don't know what to say.
It's been a tough year. You say that life ain't fair?
Guess what, baby...life ain't. Thems the breaks.
You say that life ain't worth it. But it is. You've gotta' work it.
Nobody's life is perfect

Yeah, you've been dealt a bad hand, placed against a stacked deck.
Been through all the cat scans and bad checks.
But I slashed your debt…not your wrists.
I couldn't help with anything else that became cancerous.
Halfway people with a full baby to bury
took a flame to the papier-mache sanctuary.
When the smoke clears, try not to stare directly in the light.
Also, don't stay in the dark as if that's what life is like.
It's just a series of unfortunate events,
but the messages we get are more important than death.
What's the rush?
I've got a shortness of breath.
What's the rush?
Running from you running from me.
It's the rush. The crush. The lust. The love-trust.
So what's the trouble? The busted bubble? The unjust?
That's just the way the cookie crumbles. It does suck.
Suck it up. We're all looking, but nothing's enough.
We used each other as a crutch. The clutch. The shift switches.
You couldn't just adjust, you combusted and ripped pictures.
This is why I'm not considered a saint?
Well, guess what? I ain't.

It's been a hell of a year...
You said that I ain't there, I ain't care, and life ain't fair.
It's been a hell of a trip...
You say my mind's unfit, I've been flip, and I ain't shit.
It's been a hell of a life...
You say that I ain't like the way I write and that ain't right.
It's been a hell of an attempt...
You say that I ain't meant for promises unkept
Well, guess what, darlin'…I'm a keep keep callin'.
Guess what, darlin'…I'm a keep keep callin'.
http://SageFrancis.net

The Full Album is Here

Sage Francis - "Hell of a Year" (with lyrics)

Download this song at: http://tinyurl.com/SageFrancisUbuntu
Name your own price. Proceeds will go toward helping the children who are addressed in this song. 
VIDEO: http://youtu.be/rIH0EnsnADo
LYRICS AND MORE AT: http://tinyurl.com/SageFrancisUbuntu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
BACKGROUND STORY:
As it is World AIDS Days and I have thought about these children every single day since being acquainted with them almost two years ago, I decided that I can no longer sit on this song. In January of 2011 I visited Durban, South Africa to help mentor and provide care for HIV-infected children. For me, it was a crash course education on their situation, culture, history, and various forms of treatment (or lack there of.) With a reported 5.6 million people living with HIV, South Africa has the highest HIV infection rate in the world. That is mainly due to misinformation propagated by the government as well as the people's lack of access to education and proper medical care. With so many people dying of AIDS in this area, many children are often left to fend for themselves in overcrowded "orphanages", many of which have no electricity or running water according to what I witnessed. 

My trip to Durban and the surrounding rural areas was organized by people who were filming a documentary on a community of people who were receiving alternative treatment along with their normal ARV (anti-retroviral) treatment. I joined a group of national and international poets whose task it was to make a connection with the children and communicate their story to the world. Toward the end of my stay I wrote a song called UBUNTU (Water Into Wine) which I was initially hoping to release as a companion piece to the film. The documentary will probably do a much better job of explaining the vast array of emotions we all went through, but as it still isn't completed I figured it might be best to just release the song now. 

The artwork for UBUNTU is a portrait of Nonoti, one of the younger girls who made a deep and everlasting impression on everyone she met. We lost Nonoti to HIV-related complications earlier this year, so along with the children I name in this song, and all the great people I met during my stay in Durban, a special dedication goes out to her (R.I.P.) 
If you're ever given the opportunity to visit Africa and provide a helping hand, I highly recommend it. You will learn more than you could ever imagine about yourself, humanity and the world in general. You can view pictures of my trip to South Africa and the children this song is about here:  http://tinyurl.com/SageSouthAfrica2011

Much love and many thanks to everyone involved!
-Sage Francis
http://SageFrancis.net
http://StrangeFamousRecords.com
FB: http://facebook.com/SageFrancis
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/SageFrancis

DOWNLOAD THE SONG HERE

*NEW* Sage Francis - UBUNTU (Water Into Wine)

CJ Fly - The Error (Prod. Cookin Soul)

Produced by Madlib | Album: Yessir Whatever

Album comes with peel-off cover sticker revealing Quasimoto's guts. 
http://stonesthrow.com/news/2013/04/quasimoto-yessir-whatever

Yessir, Whatever

Buy Album

Quasimoto - Planned Attack

from Quasimoto's FURTHER INSTRUMENTALS
http://stonesthrow.com/news/2013/06/quasimoto-further-instrumentals

UNDER G. HH

Treepowder