The Very Good Agency

Pataphysics joins Very Good

Melbourne based artist Pataphysics has recently joined The Very Good Agency. Check out the artists page for an introduction to his jazzy, hip hop, funk, reggae crossover style for those who are not already familiar. You can check back anytime to hear about Pataphysics upcoming tours, collaborations and album dropping in ’09…

cool

…bs

Tags: Australian Artists, hip hop

Common – new album

Common, the artist formerly known as Common Sense, has released his eighth studio album ‘Universal Mind Control’ opening the album with the title track advising, “This is the new [stuff] and it don’t feel the same.” so it will be interesting to see which way he has gone with this album. Produced mostly by Neptunes super producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, it’s surprising Common has time to continue to pump albums out at the rate he does with his Hollywood career seeing him in a long line of successful and not so successful films over the last few years.

Common – Universal Mind Control on the Jimmy Kimmel show

Electro beats appear to be the thing this year with Common and some of his friends like Kanye West adding a robotic sound and breakbeat edge to their beats, something that may not go down so well with old school aficionados, but at the same time could open up their appeal to a whole new market of dance music fans. Another massive change in his lyrics stand out too going from an advocate of equality and respect for women to a kind of horny school boy (again much like Kanye). After enjoying Common’s music for so long, usually with a down to earth twist on hip hop rapping about the realities, struggles, and beauty faced by everyday people, it’s hard to adjust to a more glamorous, party boy theme that he seems to have going lately, kinda begging the question also if his transition is for musical exploration or mass appeal.

An artist like Common, who has given so much to the art and culture of hip hop deserves the chance to branch out, and i’m going to listen to ‘Universal Mind Control’ a few times before passing final judgement on it, but there is one thing that he and I can agree on for sure…

“This is the new [stuff] and it don’t feel the same.”

Common feat. Lauryn Hill – Retrospect for Life

You can check out more of Common at:

www.common-music.com

www.myspace.com/common

…bs

Tags: Collaborations, hip hop

Raashan Ahmad – check this dude out

Community – The Very Good website is a place for artists and appreciators of those art forms to relax, connect, and check out what is going on in our community in Australia and New Zealand as well as the wider world, so it’s always a pleasure when we hear from artists who have seen our site and taken a moment to say what’s up. This week we heard from Oakland based emcee Raashan Ahmad, and we’re sure that there are some people out there in our community who would like to hear what he has to offer as we did.

Checking out his video for ‘Peace’ (below), one of the comments left summed it up for me… “why isn’t he better known”, well I have a feeling it’s not long until he is. First hitting the scene in 1999 in hip hop group Mission, Raashan has more recently released his debut solo album ‘Push’ showing his own style of feel good upbeats that manage to go a little deeper then your average cat, without taking himself too seriously.

Raashan Ahmad – Peace

It’s always a surprise to come across a talent like this you haven’t seen before, especially when you look a little further and learn he has been collaborating and touring with some of the other fine emcees around like Thes one (People under the stairs), Gift of Gab (Blackalicious), The Mighty Underdogs, and Giant Panda. Either way, sweet as, I have a new emcee to bump this summer and i’m sure I won’t be alone in that.

You can check out more from Raashan Ahmad at:

www.myspace.com/raashanahmad
www.crowncityrockers.com

…bs

Tags: hip hop

K-OS – Yes! remix competition

Woah!!!!!!!

I have seen a few interesting remix competitions over the years and I am usually not too surprised or interested when I hear about them nowadays, but I think this one has the potential to be truly awesome. There are not many artists on the scene today who grab me like K-OS (a.k.a. Knowledge of Self) I like the way he sings, I like the way he raps, I like the way he innovates instead of reproducing other peoples ideas, and now I like the way he has decided to get his community involved in his upcoming album ‘Yes!’ by releasing a bonus cd with 11 remixes from fans who decide to download the audio from his website and arrange them to their own liking.

The 11 remixes will be judged by K-os and two label representatives from ‘Universal’ and ‘Indaba music’ and released as a bonus album to ‘YES!’ which is due in the Canadian Spring of 2009. This competition is sure to bring some fresh talents out of the woodwork which I am really looking forward to hearing, if you want to get involved and submit a remix of your own, ten of the eleven tracks are ready to download at this address

So get into it, and have some fun!

and if you haven’t yet heard K-os check out the following track for a taste of his genius…

K-os – The Love Song

and you can check out more of K-os at:

www.myspace.com/kos

…bs

Tags: Blues, Funk, hip hop, Soul

Droppin’ Science Fiction

Time for a quick opinion poll: Hands up who likes free stuff? Okay well we know almost everybody does, especially if that free stuff happens to be a brand spanking new hip hop track by The Mighty Underdogs. I just found out about this today through myspace and I thought I would pass on the info to the Very Good massive. It’s a new song called ‘War Walk’ from the boys. Just to recap, The Mighty Underdogs crew is made up of Lateef the Truthspeaker, Headnodic and the legendary Gift of Gab, the smooth-as-silk voice behind Blackalicious.

The new track (which you can go get now) also features the gargantuan talents of Chali 2na (from J5), Raashan Ahmad, Tash (from the Alkaholiks) and Zion. Now I personally don’t think it would be possible for me to hear a Gift of Gab or Charli 2na song I didn’t like, so the combination of the two is almost orgasmic. This track sounds nice and the vocals are bursting out all over the place in the best way possible. It has a positive message, encouraging you to keep on keeping on. I guess they are using war as a metaphor for life and the everyday battles we go through to survive.  If we are going to be successful we have to have the right attitude and so forth. So if this sounds like something you want to hear, then go for it:

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Click Here To Download the Track

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The song is off the new Album Droppin Science Fiction, which was just released in October.

Walk like a warrior …Yossarian

Tags: Collaborations, hip hop