So I made a tumblr of all the music I’m listening to. That’s it. It’s just music. A lot of y’all akks what I listen to because i put various music like such as in all my youtube videos so I decided to make a tumblr so you have quick and easy access to what’s bouncing off my eardrum at any given moment. It’s a lot easier to keep up with than my Youtube Music Playlist Show Thing.
Happy Wednesday! Here’s more sonic goodness to get you through the rest of your week. SBTRKT is London DJ/producer/musician Aaron Jerome who provides the beats and teams up with vocalists to bring you the goods we crave. His most frequent collaborator is my boo Sampha and I’ve seen the duo live, but I wanted to introduce you to Miss Roses Gabor!
Shout out to London! In this song, Roses just be liftin’ a sista up, man. I wanna fly and whatnot. MAMA COME PASS ME MY CAPE. Ok I’m just being silly now — I won’t even talk anymore. Just press play and follow along with the lyrics below.
Boy I need me a gold crown. (x4)
We on a mission. Dust the stars. Light through dark.
Blue. Gold. Shine. Fly.
Seated at the opposite so you can see there is no time.
Breath slow. Be low.
Capacity is unfulfilled take the (take the) lead you will.
Head raised. Un-caged.
More to do there’s more for you.
All I see is you. Stars. Open arms. Pharaohs. God. Golden.
All I see is you. Stars. Open arms. Pharaohs. God. Kings and queens.
Beyond a system shaped with our gold radar.
Fools. Know. Bright. Eyes.
Rested at the opposite when you can really see through minds.
Be slow. Real glow.
Boy don’t seem the fire will. Taste of what you feel.
Head raised. Un-caged.
More to do there’s more for you.
All I see is you. Stars. Open-arms. Pharaohs. God. Golden.
All I see is you. Stars. Open-arms. Pharaohs. God. Kings and queens.
Breath slow. Be low.
Capacity is unfulfilled take the lead you will.
Head raised. Un-caged.
More to do there’s more for you.
I (I) need me a golden crown. (x4)
All I see is you. Stars. Open arms. Pharaohs. God. Golden.
(Wide open. Pharaohs, yeah they guide me.)
All I see is you. Stars. Open arms. Pharaohs. God. Kings and queens.
(Wide open arms with golden…)
All I see is you. Stars. Open arms. Pharaohs. God. Golden
(Wide open. Pharaohs, yeah they guide me.)
All I see is you. Stars. Open arms. Pharaohs. God. Kings and queens.
(Wide open arms with golden…)
We on a…
Go. Shine. Fly.
(lyrics aren’t verified. i did what i could.)
If you follow me on the Twitter Internets, you know that I went to Muhsinah’s show in Dallas last night!
yes i cut my face off. i am horrid in her angelic presence. and no that’s not a real instagram pic. #teamnosmartphone #teamphotoshop
So of course Muhsinah is gon’ be in heavy rotation today! I won’t even waste words tryna put her voice in a genre, but you may have heard her before in Common’s song “Changes“. Or maybe The Foreign Exchange song “House of Cards” or “Daykeeper“, for which they earned a Grammy nod! She creates her music from start to finish: songwriting, recording, playing instruments, producing, making beats, everything. IT’S ALL HER. Muhsinah’s voice is actually unreal. Even though I met her in the flesh, I still can’t believe she’s human. Below is a screen capture of my tumblr post right when I got home last night:
This kid is a problem. Y’all are sleeping so heavy. WAKE UP. #blackgirlsarefromthefuture
“Stop” has a much different sound than her other songs, with a rock feel to it (you can tell idk how to review music. “rock feel”? sheesh.) It’s off her 2012 Gone EP, and the video was made of about 20,000 photographs.
If you need a song to push you through that next deadline, those late nights, those days when you feel like everybody is sleeping on you and your talents, turn this song all the way up. Don’t stop. It’ll happen.
Last bet. Final round. All spent.
I’m struggling.
‘Cause I’ve been trying to win my prize.
All I have have will not fit in this grave when I’m dead.
Oh no! I’m doing it over and over.
Wondering if I will ever stop.
Desperate. Final hour. Last sprint.
I’m stumbling.
‘Cause I’ve been trying to top my time.
All I have and I ever gave is all there.
Oh no! I’m doing it over and over.
Wondering if I will ever stop.
Not alone. But being lonely is all I’ve known.
Gotta grow in the shadow.
So it’s been stop and go, but I’m oh so close.
And I ask is that it comes to pass at long last.
Oh no! I’m doing it over and over.
Wondering if I will ever stop.
Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.
Wondering if I will ever stop.
This is on repeat lately. Permanently in my “when the Man tries to keep me down” iTunes playlist. Yes, that is the real title of the playlist — it be like that sometimes. Georgia Anne Muldrow is a musician, singer, producer, & mommy from California. Her free form vocals, mantra-like lyricism, and talent for playing pretty much every instrument in her tracks puts her high up on my #blackgirlsarefromthefuture list. Her art form is unreal — she’s definitely coming from a place where I have yet to reside.
Below is the video for her song “Run Away,” and if your spirit isn’t just soaring when the 3 minutes & 16 seconds is up, Ima have to question the presence of your soul. The video uses throwback Jackson 5ive Saturday morning cartoon footage for a nostalgic, innocent vibe. Then Mama Muldrow hits us with the upliftingness (yes I created that word). Please press play.
Woke up and realized I was free to be
Anything
If it was in integrity
With what I dreamed.
I knew I couldn’t be wrong
And would be done
I was born to the Earth’s song
And I feel like I’m running
Not away
But to take off and fly
Using this life as a runway. (x2)
Going to sleep and other worlds I’ve seen
Where my thoughts turn into things
Magical, intangible, and oh my, how fresh we would be
If we took our dreams seriously
‘Cause I-I-I-I-I
Feel like I’m running
Not away
But to take off and fly
Using this life as a runway. (x2)
So if you feel like you’re running
Don’t run away, just take off and fly
Use this lifetime as a runway
You feel like you’re running
Don’t run away, just take off and fly
Use this lifetime as a runway
Whoa, right? This song is from her 2009 Early album, and I’ve been trying to digest it ever since. Thank you, Georgia. Cop her newest album Seeds, here.
No English allowed in this episode!! But since my French and Portuguese is rusty, and my Danish, Swahili, and Spanish is nonexistent, I just did the best I could. There’s so much amazing music the world has to offer, and I hate that I only know one language! But just because you’re monolingual doesn’t mean your iTunes library has to be! So I selected 5 music videos by artists from Denmark, France, Brazil, Kenya, & Colombia to get our Rosetta Stone on. I hope y’all enjoy! But whatever you do…
PLEASE DON’T CALL THIS “WORLD MUSIC”.
*make sure your annotations are on (speech bubble icon on bottom right side of the video)
I should really figure out an official name for this playlist show, shouldn’t I? Welp. Today, I was going through some thangs but felt it necessary to bring you sweet sweet musics & things of this nature. I especially love it when musicians cover songs by other musicians. It can be a way of paying hommage & completely revamping a track, proving that real recognize real.
I wanna wife Shakka so hard, y’all. The thirst is real. #teamBlackguyswithBritishaccents
but the thumbnail that Youtube selects for my videos are always HORRID, so I won’t be wifing anyone with THOSE facial expressions. *smh*
Syd tha Kyd (pictured above) + producer Matt Martians = The Internet, otherwise known as the sensitive side of Odd Future. FYI: OF actually has 5 different projects/teams under the collective that we know as “Odd Future”. Syd is also the only chick in the group.
Basically, The Internet be all in their feelings. Trippy. Pairs well with hallucinogens, not methamphetamine like Tyler, the Creator. But since I don’t do drugs, let’s just take this at face value — the track is a positive anthem for all of us who are goin’ through It right now. Her voice is sad and soothing at the same time, like she’s providing advice she wishes you didn’t need. “I know how easy it is to give up but don’t let people hold you down.”
Whatever you’re faced with right now – you hate your job, you don’t have a job, no one’s supporting your bold move to New York – the track reminds us that the struggle makes the reward that much sweeter.
“Just think if things were perfect would it be worth it, if even at all. So don’t act like you can’t take it — We were built to be greatness. You can weather the storm.”
Who cares what “they” say, right? If their words are meant to harm & not help, keep it moving.
Say that, Syd! Say. That.
disparate: utterly different or distinct in kind
youth: you and me
Yo. Santigold is that chick. Always has been. Even though she’s been under wraps for a minute — four years to be exact — she’s back and ready to release her sophomore album Master of My Make Believe (how’s THAT for an empowering title?!?!?). Please get familiar! Check out the album’s second single Disparate Youth.
In an interview, she said the song, like the overall message of the album, is about being in control of your world. “There are so many riots and rebellions going on. It seems like a truth is coming out. Like, ‘Disparate Youth’ is about the youth creating their own world and not having to take this broken shit that’s handed to them.”
For every young generation ready to chase their dreams and change the world, there’s an older generation ready to say “yeah right.” It’s one thing to have “haters” that are your peers, but imagine when you’re fighting a legacy? Imagine the struggle of fighting history? All I’m saying is if you need an anthem right now, here it is. It’s a song about moving upward and onward. If you don’t like your situation, you have the power to change it. Or at least try like hell. Don’t let discouragement force you into complacency.
I honestly can’t just pick one sentence to quote, so here are the lyrics (as I understand them, at least):
Don’t look ahead, there’s stormy weather
Another roadblock in our way
But if we go, we go together
Our hands are tied here if we stay
Oh, we set our dreams to carry us
And if they don’t fly we will run
Now we push right past to find out
Oh how to win what they have lost
Oh ah, oh ah
We know now we want more
Oh ah, oh ah
A life worth fighting for
So let them say we can’t do better
Lay out the rules that we can’t break
They wanna sit and watch you wither
Their legacy’s too hard to take
Oh, we set our dreams to carry us
And if they don’t fly we will run
Now we push right past to find out
Oh how to win what they have lost
Oh ah, oh ah
We know now we want more
Oh ah, oh ah
A life worth fighting for
In their heads, hedging their bets
In their eyes it shows
When the beacon breaks well then,
You ask and they don’t know
Oh tell me that
I turned my back while the odds all stand beneath me
And they all said I was misled
But now the odds all stand beneath me
Oh ah, oh ah
Frozen to the core
Oh ah, oh ah
A life worth fighting for
Oh, we set our dreams to carry us
And if they don’t fly we will run
Now we push right past to find out
Oh how to win what they have lost
Oh ah, oh ah
We know now we want more
Oh ah, oh ah
A life worth fighting for
Here’s the music video. We won’t get into that now. Just enjoy her words. If it’s not your cup of tea…don’t tell me. Let me have my moment! Don’t keep me down! I’M A DISPARATE YOUTH *runs away to freedom* *collapses*
North Texas was on tornado watch today, so of course that means I should record a new episode of my music playlist show while i take shelter in my bathroom. My family is safe though, so no worries. This show features 3 musicians: Liam Bailey, Lianne La Havas, and Melo-X.
Photo credits go to their respective press kits/websites and some instagram/google images stalking! Click “start playlist” when i tell you to, and it should open a new window to start the show. Make sure your annotations are ON (the little speech bubble icon in the lower right corner of the video should be red). If for whatever reason the button doesn’t work, click this for the direct link.
TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!
If you didn’t even know I had a playlist show, check out the first one here.
I always black out from excitement every time Jesse Boykins III releases a new video. This time was no different. After I woke up, I pressed play and was stuck on my couch captivated. Entranced, if you will. MY BOO THANG has me spellbound, y’all!! His voice is otherworldly, and Dr. Woo always cooks up the visuals to match. Continue reading
