Digital Crates: What The F#@k Is A Jay Electronica?

Sep 15, 2014 |

Jay Electronica is probably one of the most fascinating characters to enter the realm of hip hop. The trajectory of any artist is to put their music out there, build a sustainable career (although with some of these people out here, one does wonder), and go from there. But, the New Orleans native, who was born Timothy Elpadaro Thedford, has had hip hop fans anxiously waiting for an album for over half a decade now, especially after the tracks Exhibit A and Exhibit C, both produced by Just Blaze, were released in 2009. The closest we’ve come to an album is the compilation What The F#@k Is A...

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Digital Crates: Jay-Z – The African Way

Jan 13, 2014 |

It's been a while since I shared some of the things I come across when digging crates digitally for music, mixtapes and the like. One that is in high rotation in my world right now is the audio documentary/ remix project by SA DJ, producer, creative director and consultant Papercutt (Thabang Moloto) has put together called Jay Z: The African Way.  Drawing from Jay Z's American Gangster work in accapella, he has created a mashup with iconic South African and Lesotho music from artists like Sankomota, Miriam Makeba, Sipho Hotstix Mabuse, Caiphus Semenya, Letta Mbuli, Jonas Gwangwa and even...

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Digital Crates: All Brooklyn Everything

Nov 19, 2012 |

I write every day. I have the kind of job that forces me to, in those moments when I don’t really want to. I have this blog. It also needs to be maintained. I play on social media on the daily, using it to engage, get ideas and share thoughts. I’m not always sure what it is all for … well, writing for Destiny Man, I am clear on purpose … it’s the blogs and social media and stuff that I lose my way with every now and then - often more now than then. Anyway, with the blog, the new strategy is to create consistency by blogging regularly under specific headings, such as the newly introduced...

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A View Of Frank Ocean’s Channel ORANGE

Sep 13, 2012 |

Until a few months ago, when Frank Ocean alluded to being, at least, bisexual with an open letter on his blog, I, for some reason, had not really registered him. I had heard the name every now and then and knew he was involved in music, but he wasn’t really on my radar. I had heard that he was on Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch The Throne album but, to be honest, I’ve never really submerged myself in that album. I like some songs but its impact on my musical listening was nowhere near regular enough for me to register Frank Ocean or a lot of the album. I heard that he had written songs for...

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Onslaught on Watch The Throne

Apr 7, 2012 | ,

It has been interesting watching the reactions to Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch The Throne. Album has been out for a minute and, with the release of the first single Otis, everyone and their mother did a remix across the world, from Busta Rhymes, DMX and Justin Bieber through to South Africa's Slikour and Kwesta. The one that stood out for me was Chuck D's Notice which focuses on the unique position that Jay-Z and West are in to influence the global discourse and shift attention away from the seemingly prevalent materialism to the true challenges Americans - and the world - are facing with...

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