Pitchfork runs down its version of J Dilla’s musical legacy complete compete with timeslines and musical examples. This inevitably brings us to a skeptical question: Why Dilla? Yancey’s death during a peak period of creativity has led to a lot of attempts to extend a relatively slept-on legacy– an ironic development for an artist whose … Read more
Black Milk walks out of his car, up the stairs, and shows off some fancy studio trackboard automation. Look out for Album of The Year when it drops on September 14th.
My condolences to the Bliss family as a great musical legend has passed away. Immense respect and honor goes out to Melvin Bliss and for shaping not only my life, but the lives of many other hip-hop and overall music fans. It’s a shame that very little is known about the man behind one of … Read more
Instrumental fans take not. Ayatollah soon to be released multidisc album entitled Live From The MPC 60 is almost here. The 3 Disc collection features 66 tracks of original instrumentals spun from Ayatollah’s own Akai MPC 60. I’ve been sitting on a lot of material. I wanted to get it out at all costs. — … Read more
During and appearance on Grind Music Radio with Sean C & LV, DJ Premier gives his take on the practice of sampling in hip-hop and lists his personal heroes of DJ’ing, and the role that they played in inspiring his signature melodic scratching. Just what’s your whole take on the climate with sampling and sampling producers … Read more
It seems as though Crate Kings has a fan or two over at XXL Magazine since we’ve made its list of The 100 Best Hip-Hop Web Sites, appearing in the December/January print issue. Many thanks to folks over at XXL for the acknowledgement and, most importantly, all Crate Kings readers for your continued support. Also, huge congratulations … Read more
Brandon Allday offers a quick breakdown of a track from the upcoming Big Quarters album Zip Disks Break, which feature 25 handcrafted instrumentals. Hit up the release party featuring live beatmaking and performances. All attendees of the Zip Disks Break release party will receive a free copy of the album. Zip Disks Break 2009 Saturday, … Read more
Some will have you believe that music retail is dead, but crate diggers, thorough music lovers, and Crate Kings readers know better and are always looking for an excuse to add something new to their collections. For those that absolutely can’t wait for August’s Vinyl Record Day, a slightly more general version, Record Store Day … Read more
Exile and DJ Day join forces during a live performance at the Seattle release party for "Radio".
First there was Movie Scenes… then came Beat Konducta In India… next, available February 10th, there will be Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6: A Tribute… As a complete tribute the master J Dilla, Madlib’s latest installment consisting of 42 tracks promises to be one of the best producer related releases of 2009! See the Stones Throw … Read more