Ciph Boogie - "Solemnly"

There are so many "would be" stars out there when it comes to music. If you let them tell it, the "haters" are the only thing stopping them from doing Michael Jackson numbers. In actuality, even those with incredible talent, they just don't know what they are doing when it comes to the business of music. At all. Especially when it comes to marketing and promotion.

There are so many finer points that are missed and one of the most prominent of those is how to properly work a record/album. Most of these "would be" stars just find a place to record, make music, load it to Site X and hope that people find it.

Ciph Boogie is an artist that understands more of those finer points. I know for a fact how long he's been working this record. I won't tell you because it doesn't matter. What matters is that he knows to keep working it! The result? It got picked up by ESPN's Friday Night Fights as a theme song and landed him a video interview on the network as well. That's WORK!

Check out the free stream of "Solemnly" below and the video interview as well. Ciph is a capable artist and the track is dope.

Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival 2012

"Busta Rhymes up in the place. True indeed."

The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival was thrown into overdrive last year. The show was already a large success but when headliner Q-Tip brought Kanye West to the stage, it was immediately thrown into a new level of popularity. For 2012, the venue was moved to the more open and BEAUTIFUL Pier 3 and the masses came out for a hot day of music, dance, art and food.

If you happened to catch last years Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival main day, then you also witnessed Busta Rhymes' surprise performance during Q-Tip's set. You will also know that while Busta was as dope as ever, he was not in the best shape. He was winded and not as energetic as we all know he can be. He performed his verse from "Look At Me Now" and couldn't keep up with himself. This year as headliner himself, Busta showed why none of these new acts can hold a candle to him.

Busta was in incredible shape this time, well rehearsed and ON FIRE! He calmly walked out to front and center stage and only asked one question: "DON'T THIS $#!T MAKE MY PEOPLE WANNA....!?" Mayhem ensued and the mood was set. The show was supercharged energy from start to the event planners and NYPD shutting his mic off.

He went through hit, after hit, after hit in snippets and the crowd was crammed on top of each other trying to be as close as possible to the energy on stage. It was amazing to watch! If I wasn't so busy trying to capture photos and video for y'all, I would have cut a damn fool out there. If Busta's energy alone was not enough, he brought special guests, Smif N Wessun, Buckshot, J-Doe, Reek Da Villain, Phife Dawg, Q-Tip, the legendary Slick Rick (which was epic) and believe it or not....

After almost 19 years of doing his own thing.... Leaders of the New School!


While my video work sucks in unbelievable ways, I captured the moment for those of you who did not or could not make it. Brooklyn Bodega and the BK Hip-Hop Festival facilitated one of the greatest moments in Hip-Hop history! I'm so thankful that I was there to witness it first hand.

Check the video below (start with your volume low) and a few select photos from the day. Can't wait to see how this all plays out next year!

Acrylic Painting of Biggie on Canvas 

Artist @DanielleBKNYC live painting Jay-Z 

General Steele (l.) and friends. 

Busta Rhymes and Spliff Star interview with XXL. 

Buckshot  

Leaders of the New School. Charlie Brown (lc.), Dinco D (r.) 

BONUS: The next generation.

Ciph Boogie - "Never Waste Your Time" Music Video

It will be one year exactly on the 29th since the first time I heard Ciph Boogie. I still have the original e-mail somewhere with the 3 tracks he sent me; "Solemnly", "Rush" and "It's On". Fast forward 363 days and he's now teamed up with Brooklyn Bodega and just released this video for "Never Waste Your Time" featuring singer Phil Geston.

This is definitive old school meets new school. Ciph lays down some words of self motivation over a smooth David E. Beats track and Phil ties it together on the hook. Click. Enjoy.


Ciph Boogie | Never Waste Your Time f/Phil Geston from Noisemaker Media on Vimeo.

Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival Show & Prove

Despite the outrageous heat yesterday, I made my way to Brooklyn Bowl for the Show and Prove segment of the BK Hip-Hop Festival.  6 artists/bands were competing for 2 slots as openers for De La Soul this Saturday at the festivals culmination.  Each performer had to bring his/her A game to excite the crowd and impress the judges.

After some great performances and some not so great, the judges took 15 minutes to decide on the two winners.  I was in 100% agreement with their choices of The Crowd and the incredible Kalae All Day.  I was especially impressed with Kalae.

I first saw Kalae at SOB's last wednesday.  She was tagging along with YC the Cynic in support of his performance that evening.  She dropped a few bars for hiphopworld.com's camera and I was left with my jaw on the floor.  I haven't heard a girl JUST rap in ages.  Far too often for my tastes, female MCs get too wrapped up in the machismo aspect of rapping or have a bad case of Foxxy Brown's disease and only rap about how ill their "nana" is.

Kalae is nothing like those types of female rappers.  She's just incredibly gifted with words.  She would definitely put you in the mind of Lauryn Hill as she does sing and rap, but she isn't trying to duplicate The Miseducation of...  Kalae All Day is doing her own thing and doing it extremely well.  Definitely check out her website and blog to keep up with what she's doing.  Mark my words, this girl is going to be big!

The Crowd was also a very interesting band.  Most members have dual roles during their performances.  The guitarist beatboxes.  The bassist sings.  The drummer raps.  It's a beautiful blend of Neo-Soul and Hip-Hop with a touch of Jazz influence.  They really kept the audience engaged as those who had not seen them before were wondering what was going to happen next.  It was a great set to watch and they were strong throughout.

Here are a few shots of the winners:

 The Crowd

Kalae All Day

Be sure to catch both acts this Saturday, July 10th, 2010!  Details below: