India Shawn + James Fauntleroy – Outer Limits

I remember when I first came across India Shawn back in 2012. In fact, my post of her debut project, Origin was on this very website. 12/6/2012 was the date. “Sinking In” and “I’m Alive” are still some of my favorite tracks to date. Fast forward 2 years and here we are today. India Shawn…James Fauntleroy…Outer Limits. What more can we ask for?

India embodies an essence which is somewhat ethereal. Her music is angelic. Her state of mind is deep. She’s curious about life, and she’s super creative in her artistic expression. Listen to “No Saint” and you may understand exactly where I’m coming from! For now, let’s allow her to do what she does best…take us to outer limits. Look out for the EP in March.

Enjoy!

Kali Uchis – Por Vida EP

I woke up this morning, meditated for 10 minutes, and took a look down my soundcloud timeline to see what new releases surfaced during my (undisclosed) time of rest. Uh ohhhhh…I see that Kali Uchis just released her debut EP, Por Vida! How did I miss this last night? I’ve been waiting on her project since I heard a few remixes of her single, “Know What I Want.” The ESTA. remix is fire!

So…what are some of my favorite joints? I’m really diggin’ “Rush”, “Ridin Round”, and “Speed”. “Rush” sounds like it can be one of the lead tracks off of her project in it’s own right. I would love to see visuals! “Ridin Round” offers a nice alternative twist to the fundamentals of trap and “Speed” gives me those breaks that Chad, Pharrell, and Tyler always seem to master so well. It only makes sense that Tyler produced it.

Where can you catch Kali? All over, she’s already blessed many of the major media outlets such as Billboard, The Fader, and Pitchfork just to name a few. I’m looking forward to following her career as she continues to take things to new heights! I would love to see her get in the studio with The Neptunes. I would also be curious to see how she sounds over some of their production. I’m sure that they have a bunch of tracks just laying around. She may be the right artist to make something out of nothing. Plus, it may make for a nice project or even mixtape. Can we make that happen?

Overall, Kali is an artist who definitely has her own aesthetic. She expresses her art, style, thoughts, and vision on her own terms…period! Not only do I have some tunes to take me into the summer, but most likely, this may also be a project to consider for a lot of year end lists come December.

Enjoy!

Childish Gambino – Sober

Ahhh yesss…Childish Gambino recently released his video for “Sober” which is one of my favorite tracks off of his Kauai EP.

What are your thoughts on the video?

NIKOS Band EP

As the first full week of 2015 abruptly comes to an end, I find myself earnestly working on narrowing down the emails and LinkedIn messages that I have yet to get to in 2014. One message that I had to revisit comes from a young man by the name of Jeff Motekaitis.

Jeff is the bass player in a band by the name of NIKOS. After finally getting a chance to sit down and check out their music, I was impressed. Their self-titled debut EP on soundcloud was totally worth the listen. I had it on repeat for about 3-4 cycles while cooking and eating dinner.

I’m always happy to witness the emergence of new artists and bands. I’m even more excited about the potential to work with these new artists and bands in some capacity in the near future.

I hope that you enjoy NIKOS like I do!

Calma Carmona – When I Was Your Girl

Nothing pleases us more than coming across new talent and Calma Carmona is definitely no exception! We came across her recent interview earlier this month via Afropunk.com and thought that it would be worth sharing her work and thoughts with you all…enjoy!

Maxine Ashley – Perpetual Nights

Maxine Ashley dropped this video earlier today and of course it gives off that classic Neptunes vibe that we always love to hear!

Paris Jones Feat. J. Valle – Ashley Brown

Paris Jones presents us with another dope track entitled, “Ashley Brown” which he released this video for last month. Okay, we may be a little late. However, by looking at the traction that this track has yet to gain, it appears that we are still somewhat ahead of the curve.

Some of the best music is so slept on and that’s why we want to share it with you…enjoy!

Kiah Victoria: Home

Such a beautiful record! Listen here.

Tinashe On Hot 97 Morning Show

I initially came across Tinashe upon releasing her first project entitled ‘In Case We Die‘ back in Feb/March of 2012. Come to find out, I knew her Manager from when I used to intern back at Universal Republic in 08’. It’s funny how things tend to come around full circle. To this day, one of my personal favorite tracks of hers is called “That” which is also off of her first project…pretty dope joint!

Check out her interview that she recently did over at Hot 97!