According to Alec Wilkinson of the New Yorker:

Gil Scott-Heron, who died late Friday at the age of sixty-two, was among the very first musicians to understand the power of declamatory singing, of holding forth above a line of percussion and blending words into the rhythmic peaks and recessive contours of beats. He did not discover this, he heard the Last Poets do it, but he used their form to his own purposes and produced singular and scornfully brilliant observations such as “Whitey on the Moon,” and “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” which sound as vital and scornfully brilliant now as they did when he recorded them nearly forty years ago. The more cerebral rap and hip-hop artists knew his work the way British blues aspirants such as Eric Clapton and Keith Richards and Mick Jagger knew the work of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.

Read the full article here

Watch the video for “Me and the Devil” from Heron’s 2010 album I’m New Here

Below we’ve embedded the first part of a Gil Scott-Heron documentary entitled The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. The film was directed by Don Letts in 1996 for BBC television and features commentaries from Chuck D, Mos Def, Richie Havens, Clive Davis and more. Links to the other three parts are below the video.

Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

Illustrator, animator, and and now video director Steve Smith recently put together a short animation for the Stones Throw video contest. Choosing  ”Geekdown” from J Dilla’s (RIP) now classic album Donuts, which never had a video before, already made Smith a winner to me.  The fact Smith’s lively animation work is reminiscent of Mike Judge, Bill Plympton and The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine means he has good chance of winning more than just my heart.

BTW for those interested the contest ends July 1. Semi-finalists will get a $200 credit to be used on stonesthrow.com and the winner will get a $1000 check and a chance to direct an upcoming video for the label. Deets

The visual component of the first single off the trio’s eighth album Hot Sauce Committee Part Two is actually a five-minute snippet from their Sundance-screened short Fight For Your Right Revisited, starring everybody and their mothers. Fight For Your Right Revisited will have its television debut tonight at midnight on VH1, followed by an airing of the uncensored version on Comedy Central at 3AM (all times EST).

Read more at MTV

Spike Jonze films LA dancer Lil Buck improvising to Yo-Yo Ma’s performance of Mikhail Fokine’s “The Dying Swan” at an event to bring the arts back into schools.

via Opening Ceremony

DatPiff is a website that calls itself “The Authority in Free Mixtapes” – and they’re not lying.  I first stumbled onto this little gem of a site looking for Yelawolf’s “Trunk Muzik” mixtape, and it’s become a frequent online music stop ever since.  They’ve got everything from that new hot mixtape folks are chatting about like Pusha T’s “Fear Of God” to my cousin Mike Schpitz’s “Mike Murder” release.

The site is easy to use, just register and you get five free mixtape downloads a day. If you don’t feel like registering, or if you want to give something a listen, you can stream the mixtapes instead of downloading. There are also “sponsored” releases, which basically means they can be downloaded by folks who have not registered, and don’t count toward your five album per day download limit. The designated “Official” mixtapes are releases straight from the artist and/or their record companies, but there are people out there remixing and mixing stuff up all over the place as well.  The site has a fairly handy search system that will get you the specific artist you want. And you can also search by words, for instance my search for “Club Bangers” brought up around 20 different albums, all of them free. Sure, there’s some crap on here, but they’ve got a pretty handy rating and comments system, so you don’t get bad stuff unless you want it – and admit it, sometimes you want it – Gucci Mane chopped and screwed anyone?!

Treasures Of The Five Boroughs is TightFace’s tribute to New York rap, matching his electric funk and soulful strut to vocals from the likes of Ghostface, Nas, Talib Kweli, Busta Rhymes, Biggie, and many more. It’s also the perfect showcase for one of the most promising beatmakers around.

One of the most distinct voices of the G-funk era in hip-hop, rapper Nate Dogg, passed away yesterday, March 15th, the rapper’s family confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter.

Nate Dogg contributed to over 40 chart-topping singles in his brief lifetime.

In 1979, Gary Weis, known for his short films on Saturday Night Live, directed a documentary about South Bronx street gangs called 80 Blocks From Tiffany’s featuring the Savage Nomads and the Savage Skulls. NBC never aired the 67 minute documentary so 80 Blocks remained shelved until 1985 when it received a very limited release as an educational VHS. In the time since, 80 Blocks has become an underground sensation, especially with hip hop fans looking for the beginnings of the culture and documentary film buffs who respect Weis’ bold choices as a filmmaker.

Thanks to the internet you can watch 80 Blocks From Tiffany’s in its entirety below.

But before you do, read the following excerpt from Billy Jam’s article “A South Bronx Tale” to gain some context:

It was Koch-era New York when the South Bronx, one of the poorest areas in the nation, was such a rundown destitute place that both Presidents Carter and Reagan traveled there for photo ops to exemplify the most striking symbol they could find of urban decay in America. It was also the time and place when the subways were covered in graffiti and when a new music and culture called hip-hop was taking root in the “Boogie Down” Bronx.

80 Blocks, which Weis based on a 1977 Esquire article by Jon Bradshaw, offers a rare, intimate inside-look at the Savage Nomads and the Savage Skulls, two gangs that resided in the notorious 41st Precinct and ruled their ’hoods decked out in cutoff denim jackets with gang names proudly embroidered on their backs. “They think they’re outlaws. I think they’re bums,” Detective Bob Werner of NYPD’s Youth Gang Task Force says in the film’s opening. Along with the many colorful Skulls and Nomads members, community activists and other locals, Werner is a recurring figure in this character-driven time capsule that’s been recently recovered and fully restored for DVD release Nov 23, 2010.

Read more about the film here

Purchase the DVD with plenty of extras here

French beat box phenomenon Ekilps explores the history of hip hop in a single mpressive take.

In the first minute alone Ekilps’ agile mouth takes you through Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rappers Delight”, Grandmaster Flash’s “White Lines”, Afrika Bambaata’s “Planet Rock”, Slick Rick and Doug E Fresh’s “La Di Da Di”, Eric B and Rakim’s “Paid In Full”, Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock’s “I Wanna Rock”, Public Enemy’s “Show Em What You Got” and Cypress Hill’s “Insane In The Membrane”.

Remember when we introduced you to P-Nut (now Lil’ P-Nut) awhile back, the freshest 7-year-old rapper in Memphis the world? Well the pint-sized emcee who looks like a kid version of Eazy-E is back spitting hard truths about school, like-liking girls and Tonka Trucks in his first official music video for the surprisingly catchy single “You Might Be The One.”

Best verse:
You can be my study buddy
teach me about social studies
and when we get through workin’
we can go outside to get money
so do you like me circle yes or no
cause the only thing I know for sure
You might be the one for me