Digital Crates: Amerigo Gazaway

Mar 24, 2014 |

I have wanted to do a Digital Crates post on Amerigo Gazaway for a while. I first came across him in 2012 when he was still involved with Gummy Soul Record Company. The Pharcyde’s Labcabincalifornia continues to be one of my all time favourite hip hop albums while A Tribe Called Quest have served as a critical soundtrack for significant parts of my life so when Amerigo created a musical journey, which he called Bizarre Tribe: A Quest To The Pharcyde, that blended these two groups, I was hooked. Bizarre Tribe was described as follows: “Utilizing the original Jazz, Soul and Funk recordings...

read more

Has It Come To This? (CP)

Apr 3, 2011 |

We seem to celebrate mediocrity and this has carried over into much of what the mass media pushes as great music. To find great, classic music, one has to look beyond what is thrown at us and seek out the gems outside mainstream.

read more

Kobi Onyame’s Inner City Lights

Oct 11, 2010 |

Ghanaian / UK-based hip hop producer and artist Kobi Onyame was the first artist I profiled (He Said, She Said - June 2009) when I started my Wordpress blog. Part of what I wanted to do with this space was to share some of the music I came across, whether mainstream or not, and Kobi led the way. It has been over a year. He has continued to build, and so have I. In the time since I profiled him, he has, amongst other things, recorded a He Said, She Said remix with Sway (Sway Dcyphas Life - April 2010), performed at Glastonbury Festival, shared a bill with artists like De La Soul, Kanye West,...

read more

Special Kind Of Fool, An Album From TY

Feb 15, 2010 |

For too long, hip hop that originates from outside the US has existed in the shadows, despite the opinion (mine) that a lot of the music that is true to the spirit of hip hop is from everywhere else.  A couple of years ago, my brother-in-law started schooling me on UK hip hop and it resonated in a way that is different from what I continue to enjoy from the US. The first artist I got into was Roots Manuva and he continues to be one of my favourite, but I was also fortunate to randomly come across the work of Ben Chijioke, known to UK hip hop fans as Ty. In addition to the beauty of his...

read more