THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE: ALL SMOOVED OUT

I recently discovered the song Come Around by The Foreign Exchange while fishing around iTunes, and was immediately hooked. I still can't stop repeat-playing this masterpiece of spaced out melody and hip hop beats accompanied by plaintive, yet soulfully sure vocals and tight bassline which sent my head into non-stop rythmic nodding. This is true ear candy for the grown and sexy set, ya heard? And if you're tired of the Top 40 auto-tuned hip-pop template currently in heavy rotation, here's a much-needed break. As I gleaned the info on their Wiki page, I was surprised to find out that the group is actually a duo, American rapper Phonte Coleman and Dutch producer Nicolay, who decided to collaborate after meeting on the message boards on Okayplayer.com , and thus began to swap music without ever having met in person(!), resulting in two albums of superior music in the vein of The Roots, Dwele and D'Angelo. I was also surprised to learn that the song was from their first album, Connected which was released in 2004! How did this gem get by me? Or by the masses, for that matter? This just further confirms the sorry state of radio today, and the garbage they rotate on an infinite loop that's supposed to pass for "true Hip Hop", and crammed down the throats of young urban audiences who, at this point, are probably inured to anything resembling quality when it comes to music nowadays. It's akin to a bird eating a worm and regurgitating it to feed its young. I mean, at the very least, is it too much to ask for some modicum of variety?

The good news is that they released another album, Leave It All Behind, in 2008. Click here to download the album sampler which includes the tracks, Take Off The Blues, All Or Nothing, Something To Behold, If This Is Love, and If She Breaks Your Heart.


PHOTO SOURCE: The Foreign Exchance Main Website


COME AROUND from CONNECTED


RAW LIFE from CONNECTED


SINCERE from CONNECTED


DAYKEEPER featuring MUHSINAH from LEAVE IT ALL BEHIND

COMING ATTRACTION: GIVE 'EM HELL, MALONE

Bloody. Cheesy dialogue. Crashing cars. Thomas Jane. Ving Rhames. I likes. This one should be hitting the theaters any minute now.

TAKE YOUR FINGER OUT OF THERE, PUT THIS MIX ON IN THE BACKGROUND AND CLEAN YOUR DAMN HOUSE OR SOMETHING

Enjoy this Soulrific Episode 46. It's for your nerves.


TRACKLIST:
1. Blah! (K-Murdock Remix) - Bilal Salaam ft. Luke Brown
2. I’ll Be Alright - Slakah The Beatchild & Ebrahim
3. The Lineup - Zo! & Asylum 7 ft. Metasyons, Finalé & Buff1
4. Yeah - Havana
5. Listening - J-Live w/Roy Ayers
6. Classifieds - Donnie
7. Destiny - Kenny Lattimore
8. Sweet Sun - Zanya Laurence
9. Spend The Night - Rahsaan Patterson
10. Undercover - Adriana Evans
11. Beautiful - Nate Krooks
12. Wishful Thinking


From ODEO

JAMIE FOXX BRINGS THE HOUSE: I DON'T NEED IT

MUSIC THROWBACK: JANET JACKSON - RUNAWAY

BEEZO DON'T WANNA GROW UP

THE BEATLES


THE JACKSON FIVE


THE BANANA SPLITS


SNUFFY SMITH


KIMBA, THE WHITE LION


GIGANTOR


THE DICK TRACY SHOW


SPIDER MAN

KANYE WEST IS TIGHT WITH CLEVELAND

Kanye West, along with Taraji P. Henson and Saana Lathan, will be doing guest spots on The Cleveland Show, a spin-off of Family Guy, the Illest Cartoon Ever.

I'm down with this.

(SOURCE)

THE RETURN OF J-TO-THE-L-O

Damn, I've been wondering what's been up with the Boogie-Down Bronx's favorite daughter Jennifer Lopez. Seems she's back as Anita in a Vanity Fair spread inspired by the movie classic, West Side Story. I remember as a kid watching this movie every year when CBS used to run it as an event, along with The Wizard of Oz. Both movies used to scare the hell out of me, although for different reasons. I used to freak out on Oz when they showed the legs of the Wicked Witch's sister sticking out from beneath Dorothy's house, and I always thought the violence in WSS was too real. Man, talk about times a-changing................

Still, I got a kick out of "Cool" (Boy, boy, crazy boy, stay cooool boy......gotta rocket, in my pocket, stay coolsy coool, boy), and all dat dancing and choreographed cutting up. I even cried at some parts. Yeah, so what??!! It was the early 70's, and for those of us who grew up back then, there was still some innocence to youth, you know, without the internets and For the Love of Ray J around to fuck up our minds. We still came home after school, busted open a bag of chips and watched Magilla Gorilla, Popeye, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Munsters, Courageous Cat, Bugs Bunny, Felix the Cat and The Flintstones while attempting to get some homework done. A special shout for my nephew Greg, a choreophapher in his own right, who played Chino in a regional production in Albany, New York.

So, yo J, thanks for taking me back. And you still got that back action on lock.

A special shout out for my nephew Greg Marsh, a choreographer in his own right, who played Chino in a regional production in Albany, New York.



Anita (JLo) breaks it down for the Shark crew,
and Chris Evans gets the First Cut as Riff

SO.......WHAT'S NEW? NOTHING! WELL, MAYBE A LITTLE SUMTHIN' SUMTHIN'

There just hasn't been anything happening lately that has compelled me to post, save for the cancellation of D.L. Hughley's show on CNN, allegedly due to his comparing the RNC to Nazi Germany, the on-going Chris Brown/Rihanna Saga and Rush Limbaugh, who speaking of which, was called a coward by a Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman for not accepting his challenge to debate.

Which left more time for me to browse the n-ternets for interesting things to read. I was not disappointed, as I discovered a couple of blogs that I've taken an instant liking to, such as The Black Snob which true to its name, sated my appetite for smart snark on the chocolate side. Another blog I discovered by way of Racialicious is Honky Talk, which claims under its banner that

"This is an anti-racism blog with a message geared to white folks. The mission of Honky Talk is to facilitate a discussion of racism between white folks and people of color in a safe space. The goal of Honky Talk is to end racism in our minds, our community, our state, our nation and our world through the education and unification of all oppressed people."

Yeah, pretty heady, but interesting. I'll be checking on it. HONORABLE MENTION: Afro Nerd

Other than that, I've also been juicing up my iTunes library and generally obsessing over Traxsource, which seems to have a never-ending supply of house tracks to download and buy. So for now, I'll just enjoy the silence and nice weather we've been having here in NYC.


Oh, and the picture is a snapshot I took of a reworked ad for Watchmen in the Clinton/Washington station on the G line, here in BK.

ALICIA KEYS, CHANEL IMAN, AMERICA FERRARA & PAULA PATTON DO ICONS FOR GLAMOUR

The current issue of Glamour Magazine showcases a few familiar faces in an homage to female American Icons. Nice.


Alicia Keys as First Lady Michelle Obama
























Chanel Iman as Althea Gibson
























Paula Patton as Billie Holliday


















America Ferrara as Dolores Huerta

MUSIC THROWBACK: IT COULD BE SWEET - PORTISHEAD (1994)

WEDNESDAY HOUSE GROOVE: IN THE MOOD - WAYNE GARDINER (2009)

MORE WEDNESDAY GROOVE: SoBeautiful - Musiqsoulchild

Musiq Soulchild - "sobeautiful"

WEDNESDAY JUMP OFF: SMOOTH - LINA

Of Race And Sex.................

I came across this one over at copyranter via Gawker. A German ad agency is promoting race-conscious clay dioramas in the spirit of awareness (KKKlay-doh! Get it?!), but I dunno. It sure seems like a Klansman is tryna woo a gay dude. Hmmm.... I smell a set-up. Discuss, if you must.