The Very Good Agency

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

Open the Magic Doors

Have you been looking for an interesting musical video? One that challenges your perceptions of art and music? Well have I got great news for you. Portishead, that talented bunch of folks from Bristol, have just released online the new video for the track ‘Magic Doors’, the third single off their latest album which is coincidentally called ‘Third’. the song has quite a bold, catchy, jazzy beat, which is used as a musical canvas for Beth Gibbons’ haunting vocals. The video itself has a fluid but glitchy almost D.I.Y feel to it which suits the song well, open for interpretation and speculation.

If you have already seen and liked the other singles Machine Gun and The Rip, then you should also dig this. But if you haven’t seen them and don’t mind a slightly confrontational sounds, then best you go check them out too. Especially ‘The Rip’ which has a very odd and surreal animated video, not quite like anything I’ve seen before. Very interesting and experimental if nothing else. Glad to see the Portishead team back in the game after their long tea-break/hiatus between 1999-2005ish.

Portishead – Magic Doors

“Through the glory of life
I will scatter on the floor
Disappointed and sore
And in my thoughts I have bled
For the riddles I’ve been fed
Another lie moves over”

(The Rip – Portishead)

there is no other place…Yossarian

Tags: Music video, Trip Hop

Reggie Watts – God Bless Youtube

If you like like chilling out on youtube looking for interesting loop based performers, crossover artists, or just creative randomness, then your going to like Reggie Watts. spending a little time playing on youtube with some of the artists that we work with exposes me to some amazing talents, whether they be in their bedroom or onstage, and youtube even helps for the transition of some of these artists from their bedroom to the stages. Video’s can be altered to change reality, but there’s no trickery behind Reggie Watts, it’s seems to be the product of many nights alone in the bedroom potentially for long periods of time… and man I think it’s worth it:

Reggie Watts – Out of control

So you look a little further and find that Watts not only makes improvisational music, but also comedy. Winner of the ‘Annual Andy Kaufman award’, now awarded by Andy’s father and long time manager George Shapiro, following much recognition from the ‘Edinburgh Fringe Festival’, he now plays regular club and festival gigs around his hometown Brooklyn and America rolling his talents into a completely random and soulful comedic musical set.

If your short for time while your reading this, skip to 5min 24 seconds in this video for a taste of the funniest and tightest rap I have seen in comedy… Damn!

You can check out more of Reggie Watts at:

www.reggiewatts.com

www.myspace.com/reggiewatts

…bs

Tags: Comedy, Funk, gigs, Gospel, hip hop, Soul