Wyclef - Fast Car Remix feat. Lupe Fiasco

Remember when remixes were actually remixes? Wyclef takes it back like a champ.

'Clef throws on the "Killing Me Softly" beat for this re-dub, just as he used "C.R.E.A.M." for the "Sweetest Girl" remix. The original version of this track featured Paul Simon, and I can't lie that I miss him on this. But hey, Lupe!

Wyclef Jean feat. Lupe Fiasco - Fast Car (Remix) [click to download]

Hang On Sloopy!

If you don't recognize this song, go home.

The McCoys - Hang On Sloopy (Mta Hai Karate Remix) [click to download]

Marvin Gaye vs. Eric Clapton

Marvin Gaye vs. Eric Clapton - What's Going to Change the World [click to download]

Bb: Mos to play Chuck Berry in Chess film

From Billboard:

Rapper/actor Mos Def will play legendary rock'n'roller Chuck Berry in "Cadillac Records," which is filming in New Jersey. Beyonce is starring as Etta James in the film, which chronicles the rise of legendary label Chess Records.

VIDEO: Lupe Fiasco - Paris, Tokyo (Live)

SPRING BREAK, WOOOOOOOOO!!!

Swedish hip-hop

I don't really know what to make of Swedish dudes trying to MC, but at least the beat is dopes on this track by Afasi & Filthy.
If you can't stand the Scanda-talk, peep the remix below -- much easier on the untrained American ear.

Afasi & Filthy - Glider (Jeansbjorn Remix) [click to download]

The Drought Is (Finally) Over

The final mixtape before the release of Tha Carter III.

The Empire & Lil' Wayne - The Drought Is Over 5 [click to download]

New Mickey Factz

Mickey Factz f/ Nakim - K-1 Attack [click to download]

Dizzee Rascal - AOL 16 Bars

Over the "Fireman" beat. Not too sure this is a "freestyle," but whatever you say, Diz.

MIAMI HORROR

Discobelle posted these two remixes from Miami Horror, who are actually from Australia. Weird.

Shout-out to those down in the 305 this week for Winter Music Conference.

Datarock - Fa Fa Fa (Miami Horror Remix) [click to download]

Dirty Secrets - 5 Feets (Miami Horror Remix) [click to download]

Lil' Wayne - A Milli

It's clean, but it's here.

Lil' Wayne - A Milli (Clean) [click to download]

Free DMB Digital Album...

...for those who buy tickets to their summer tour on Ticketmaster.
Customers will get a barcode that can be redeemed for the digital album on iTunes. The album goes on sale to the general public a month later. Peep more here.

Return of the Dead?

In this Billboard article, Bob Weir says:

"I would be surprised if we don't get around to playing again at some point," he says. "But, really, my hot hand right now is Ratdog, and I think that goes for Phil (Lesh) with his group, and Mickey (Hart) has his project and Billy (Kreutzmann) is sort of happily retired over in Hawaii. But we'll get together again. I'm sure of that."

Down.

New Roots Single feat. WALE

That's right, my boy Wale is making it big-time. Dude's having quite a month -- first he signs with Interscope, now he's featured with Chrisette Michele on a track for the new Roots album, titled "Rising Up." 

I can't link to the track myself, so check it out here on NahRight. 

Jay-Z - Ain't I (No DJ)

Jay-Z's lost Timbo production; this time, without the screaming DJ, etc...

Jay-Z - Ain't I (No DJ) [click to download]

Tonight in San Francisco

Shake yo' ass to these Nintendo sounds

Just listen, then you'll understand.

Kali - Wendy [click to download]

Really Doe

You might remember Really Doe from "We Major," off Kanye's Late Registration album. Anywho, dude's got an album dropping on Yeezy's G.O.O.D. Music label and here's the first single, featuring...guess who?

Really Doe feat. Kanye West - Plastic [click to download]

PREVIOUSLY: Really Doe feat. Jennifer Hudson - Magnetic Power [click to download]

T.I. Press Conference

VIDEO: Blu & Exile - Blu Collar Workers

Hip-hop, pure and simple.

88-Keys: Platinum Dreams mixtape

Producer 88-Keys has a new mixtape. It features the likes of Dilated Peoples, Jurassic 5, The Alchemist, Aceyalone and more.

88-Keys - Platinum Dreams Mixtape [click to download]

Electronic Music does a body good.

Remember when I put music on here? Me, too!
Finally, some good shit. Thank you, Discobelle.

45 King (feat. Pase Rock) - The 900 Number (Eli Escobar 2008 Remix) [click to download]

Hijack - Out There [click to download]

Yung Berg - Do That There (Bird Peterson Remix) [click to download]

Madonna - 4 Minutes (DJ Illo's Stutter Mix) [click to download]

Erykah turned her crib into a school

From PR-Inside:

Soul star ERYKAH BADU turned her home into an after-hours school during her recent break from the music industry.
The 37-year-old's new album New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War) is the singer's first new music in five years.
And while the mother-of-two was out of the spotlight, she transformed her Texas home into a supplementary school where young students could learn outside of normal school hours.
Badu says, "I started a school in my home based on home-school principles.
The school has seven children."

Another Big D resident (and Booker T. HS alum) repping like a champ.

Guess who's hosting the ESPYs...

That guy.
Eek. I don't like when my music and sports worlds collide.
Details here.

UPDATE: Green Apple Festival on 4/20

Bands have been announced for the free Earth Day shows across the country. Since I know at least a few of y'all in each of these towns, here's the report:

Washington, D.C. @ The National Mall
(The Roots & Friends, Gov't Mule, Toots & the Maytals, Thievery Corporation, Umphrey's McGee)

New York @ Central Park - Rumsey Playfield
(Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Big Head Todd and the Monsters)


Miami @ Bicentennial Park
(Menudo, Arrested Development)

Chicago @ Lincoln Park Zoo
(Derek Trucks Band, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Meshell Ndegeocello; Event MC Kyle Orton)

Denver @ City Park
(The Neville Brothers, The Benevento/Russo Duo)

Dallas @ Fair Park
(Los Lonely Boys, Martin Sexon, Junior Brown, Cas Haley, The Steps, George Stanford)

Los Angeles @ Santa Monica Pier
(Taj Mahal, Ziggy Marley solo acoustic, Juliette and the Licks)

San Francisco @ Golden Gate Park
(Mickey Hart & Friends, Yonder Mountain String Band, Brett Dennen)

Go celebrate "Earth Day," haha, with some free music.

PREVIOUSLY: Green Apple Music Festival

Tip's gonna plead guilty

According to an AP report, T.I. will likely only spend a year in prison and do a bunch of community service as part of his sentence for felony weapons charges.

Here's MTV News' report.

L.A. Times apologizes for bogus 2Pac story

Puff wasn't lying: the Los Angeles Times has rescinded its report that Diddy and Biggie knew about 2Pac's 1994 shooting before it happened. Turns out dude had quite a faulty source in his reports.

See the full apology here.

Lupe freestyle

Backstage with Chris Brown. Yo Breezy, stick to singing.

VIDEO: Mash Me Amadeus

Falco ("Rock Me Amadeus)"
vs.
Nelly (#1)
vs.
Luniz ("I Got 5 On It").

AUDIO: DJ Schmolli - Mash Me Amadeus [click to download]

VIDEO: The Raconteurs - "Salute Your Solution"

Album in stores now. Band playing at Bimbo's 4/23.

Rappers steal M.IA. beat

ia Culture Bully.

Muja Messiah & M.anifest - Paper Planes [click to download]

VIDEO: Pete Rock Interview

Via 247HH. If you haven't already, go cop Rock's new album.

Rapper samples song from Apple ad

Peep this! Rapper AC took the loop and chorus from Yael Naim's "New Soul," that track from the Macbook Air spot, and turned it into a hip-hop song. Always down.

(Warning: zShare's acting a bit finicky today and you might not be able to preview this one, but give it a download and check it out...)

AC - New Soul [click to download]

No Bitch-ass-ness!

Dr. Pepper challenges Axl Rose

This is hilariously amazing. From Billboard:

Many have tried, but so far nobody has been able to pry the decade-in-the-works Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" from the hands of lone remaining original member Axl Rose.

Now, Dr. Pepper thinks it's up to the challenge. The soft drink company says it will give a free can of Dr Pepper to "everyone in America" (excluding ex-GNR members Slash and Buckethead) if "Chinese Democracy" arrives anytime during the calendar year 2008.

There is more great stuff on this article. Read the rest here.

Billy speaks out about Pumpkins suit

Mr. Corgan offers some sound bytes about his lawsuit against Virgin with this article. Yada, yada, yada. I don't really care, but this part of the article offers some unrelated good news:

"Potentially in the pipeline are ultra-rare early Smashing Pumpkins shows, studio tracks that have never seen the light of day or alternate versions of songs from sessions that spawned classic albums like Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness."

That's right, Billy. Take it back to the good ol' days. Besides, it's just like you told us: desite all your rage, you are still just a rat in a cage...right??

PREVIOUSLY: Pumpkins sue label

Bun B is the new XLR8R cover boy

Read (most of) the article here.

The Roots nix Fall Out Boy track

From Okayplayer:

"We told you a few weeks ago that "Birthday Girl" could easily get dropped off of Rising Down. We received word over the weekend that the song is now the International Single and will be an iTunes exclusive. It will not appear on the North American release."

Thank God. I'm all for branching out and doing your thing, but I think we can all agree that was a step in the wrong direction.

Release Date Alert

Lil' Wayne - Tha Carter III - May 13

The Game - L.A.X. - June 24

And if ya don't know...

The Knux - Cappuccino (Remix)

It's a slow music day, so rather than put this on the right side I'll put it right here.

The Knux - Cappuccino (Remix) [click to download]

Study: Just thinking about Apple boosts creativity

Forget actually buying a Mac to unleash your creativity. A new study from researchers at Duke University and the University of Waterloo found that merely thinking about Apple can make you more creative -- at least with bricks.

After researchers flashed the company's logo in front of test subjects for an imperceptible 30 milliseconds, they discovered that people actually started behaving in ways associated with Apple's brand image, thinking differently, and apparently, more creatively.

During their study, researchers used both the Apple and IBM logos to see how people would react to the brands subconsciously. In the end, they concluded that brands resonated in pretty much that same way except in two specific areas: creativity and competence (IBM's strong suit). When asked to describe as many uses for a brick as they could, the Apple subjects averaged 30 percent more brick ideas than their IBM counterparts, according to researchers. An independent set of reviewers also deemed these ideas to be more creative.

IBM-primed subjects, one the other hand, all had strikingly similar answers. While one of the Duke professors involved in the study hesitates to directly link creativity to the use of Apple products, he does conclude that powerful brands can and do affect people's unconscious behavior.

The study will be published in the April issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.

[Via today's WSJ Print Edition]

XM-Sirius Merger Approved

Go get your music stock on and buy some shit. Check out the details here.

Pumpkins sue label

From this Billboard article:

The Smashing Pumpkins are suing Virgin Records, saying the record label has illegally used their name and music in promotional deals that hurt the band's credibility with fans.

Credibility? Don't Billy and them know they sold out ages ago? They haven't even put out a half-decent album this century. What a putz.

Behind the scenes of new N.E.R.D. album

"We didn't care about genres; we're not doing this for the money," Pharrell Williams said at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. "We're doing this for people who pledge allegiance to our movement."

Peep the rest of the article here. Album drops in June.

Rick Ross on Jimmy Kimmel

New Girl Talk album on the way...

...this coming fall. More info here.

VIDEO: Def Jam's Secrets to Success

Def Jam's Secrets To Success! from jeff on Vimeo.

Hilarious and spot-on.

Maroon 5 / Counting Crows Tour Dates

Buy the M5 EP or the Crows LP on iTunes this week and get tickets before they go on sale to the public...

July 25: Virginia Beach, Va. (Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre)
July 26: Scranton, Pa. (Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain)
July 28: Charlotte, N.C. (Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre)
July 29: Raleigh, N.C. (Walnut Creek)
July 31: Wantagh, N.Y. (Jones Beach)
Aug. 2: Boston (Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts)
Aug. 5: Hershey, Pa. (Hersheypark Stadium & Star Pavilion)
Aug. 7: Holmdel, N.J. (PNC Bank Arts Center)
Aug. 9: Camden, N.J. (Susquehanna Bank Center)
Aug. 12: Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (Saratoga Performing Arts Center)
Aug. 13: Bethel, N.Y. (Bethel Woods Center for The Arts)
Aug. 15: Hartford, Conn. (New England Dodge Music Center)
Aug. 16: Bristow, Va. (Nissan Pavilion)
Aug. 18: Buffalo, N.Y. (Darien Lake Performing Arts Center)
Aug. 19: Toronto (Molson Amphitheatre)
Aug. 21: Burgettstown, Pa. (Post-Gazette Pavilion)
Aug. 22: Chicago (First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre)
Aug. 23: Milwaukee (Marcus Amphitheater)
Aug. 26: Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio (Blossom Music Center)
Aug. 28: Noblesville, Ind. (Verizon Wireless Music Center Indianapolis)
Aug. 29: Clarkston, Mich. (DTE Energy Music Theatre)
Aug. 30: Cincinnati (Riverbend Music Center)
Sept. 5: Houston (Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion)
Sept. 6: Dallas (Superpages.com Center)
Sept. 9: Albuquerque, N.M. (Journal Pavilion)
Sept. 10: Phoenix (Cricket Wireless Pavilion)
Sept. 12: Irvine, Calif. (Verizon Wireless Amphitheater)
Sept. 13: San Diego (Coors Amphitheatre)
Sept. 17: Mountain View, Calif. (Shoreline Amphitheatre)
Sept. 18: Concord, Calif. (Sleep Train Pavilion)
Sept. 20: Ridgefield, Wash. (Amphitheater at Clark County)
Sept. 21: Seattle (White River Amphitheatre)
Sept. 24: Denver (Coors Amphitheatre at Fiddler's Green)
Sept. 26: Kansas City, Mo. (Starlight Theatre)
Sept. 27: St. Louis (Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre)
Sept. 30: Birmingham, Ala. (Verizon Wireless Music Center)
Oct. 1: Atlanta (Lakewood Amphitheatre)
Oct. 3: Tampa, Fla. (Ford Amphitheatre)
Oct. 4: West Palm Beach, Fla. (Cruzan Amphitheatre)

More bands announced for Outside Lands

In addition to headliners Radiohead, Tom Petty and Jack Johnson, this Billboard article reports more performers to the Outside Lands Festival, including:

Beck, Wilco, Widespread Panic, Primus, Manu Chao, Ben Harper, Steve Winwood, Broken Social Scene, Galactic, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Black Mountain, Drive-By Truckers, Cafe Tacuba Devendra Banhart, Regina Spektor, Cold War Kids, Lyrics Born, Andrew Bird, Steel Pulse, M. Ward, Dredg, the Cool Kids, Grace Potter, Nellie McKay, the Coup, Bon Iver.

Festival is in San Fran, Aug. 22-24.

Rhymefest vs. Michael Jackson

I know this has been out for a long minute, but MTV's feature vid inspired me to give this some more PR. Mixtape features guest spots from Kweli, Ghostface, Wale and more. Link to the download below...

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

Rhymefest - Man in the Mirror Mixtape [click here to download]

Flosstradamus Remix

One more Discobelle theft today (sue me). If you didn't catch Flosstradamus at SxSW in Austin, in their native Chicago, or in SF at Treasure Island Fest (above) like me, check this remix:

Heartsrevolution - (Flosstradamus Remix) [click to listen]

12-Year-Old tries to take down Soulja Boy

Looks like this kid from Bloomington, Ill., and I feel the same way about the Ringtone R-Tard:

There was one arrest at the latest Soulja Boy concert at U.S. Cellular Coliseum. A 12 year-old boy was taken into custody Wednesday night for throwing a rock through the windshield of Soulja Boy's bus. Why? The kid told arresting officers, "I hate Soulja Boy."
Bloomington police used a supervisor and five officers on overtime to provide security for the hip hop concert.

New B.O.B.

B.O.B. feat. Lil' Boosie & DG Yola - Fuck You [click to download]

PREVIOUSLY: B.O.B. feat. Amy Winehouse - Grip Your Body

Old Money

If you like Cool Kids, you will love Old money. 'Nuff said.

Props to Discobelle for the scoop.

Old Money - Steve Harvey [click to listen]

Chemical Brothers & Spank Rock (Heroes Soundtrack)

I love Heroes for three reasons. The first two are in that photo (mainly the left side), but the third is because they always feature great tunes.
Fortunately for us, the Heroes soundtrack is available now while we wait for the writers to come up with new episodes. The album features The New Pornographers, Wilco, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and Death Cab for Cutie, just to name a few. Oh yeah, it also has this banger:

The Chemical Brothers - Keeping My Composure (feat. Spank Rock) [click to download]

Philly, mark your calendars...