Now I'm Just Big, Ya Dig?

More Big Boi, this time with Vonnegutt on Letterman. A couple notes...

- First off, the hat. Pitchfork liked it and I have to admit, it's pretty awesome. Because of André 3000's eccentricities, people seem to forget that Big Boi is pretty wild in his own right... Also, that DF chain is dope, probably about as classy as bling gets.

- The rapper in Vonnegutt looks like Lance Bass or some other blonde dude. The other guy looks like every other frontman in the past few years. In doing some research, I discovered that Vonnegutt worked on some Purple Ribbon and Dungeon Family stuff, so they've been with Big for a while now. That's pretty cool but it's a little odd because they seem kind of run-of-the-mill. I downloaded a free EP of theirs so I'll see if they show more of their stuff on their own material than they did on the comps and features I've heard.

Power

So there's been a lot of hype leading up to the unveiling of Kanye West's video painting for "Power". It started with his mountain-top performance at the BET Awards show (which was pretty awesome actually), and continued with his SingFest 2010 performance and yesterday's "Power" BTS clip. It seems like everything Kanye does is an event these days.

Forget Teasin'

Mayer Hawthorne's "Your Easy Lovin' Ain't Pleasin' Nothin'"

There's nothing thaaat special about this but single shot videos are still cool. And so are cute ladies in retro-ish bathing suits. The lead dancer is a hottie.

Yeah Ya Know

T.I.'s "Yeah Ya Know" is going to be released on the Takers Soundtrack, as well as his forthcoming album, King Uncaged. Judging by the video and the cast, I'm not expecting a whole lot out of the movie, but I am really looking forward to the album. I don't see anyone topping Big Boi's latest for best of the year in hip hop, but I'm hoping T.I. (and possibly Kanye and KiD CuDi) give it a run for its money.

West Savannah Man

Yikes, Big Boi's "General Patton" is so, so ill. Damn, this boy can rap. Hard.

And in related good news, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty finally has a release date. July 6th! July 6th!

Come Original

Adidas Originals teamed up with a bunch of celebrities to remake the cantina scene from Star Wars, as a World Cup viewing party. I think they should take it one step further and just re-film the entire Star Wars series with Snoop Dogg in place of whiney Luke Skywalker. That would be awesome.

Georgia

Cee-Lo Green's "Georgia" is on point. Gnarls Barkley was great and all, but Lo is the man regardless.

I Never Let You Down

T.I.'s F*ck A Mixtape is out now. It's his first release since he got home and some of it is pretty damn good. Download it.

I'm Purty Clever

In high school, I loved Mo Thugs' "Ghetto Cowboy". I wouldn't say it's aged particularly well, but it's still pretty great. It's just so corny, it's good. The video takes the ghetto cowboy theme and runs with it, but what's most amazing is the censorship in this version. It cuts out "shoot", "barrel of fire", "robbin'" and "life", which by my estimation, makes it the cleanest clean edit in the history of song.

Tip On In

Janelle Monáe's "Tightrope", featuring Big Boi, has to be one of my favorite songs of 2010. Both artists bring their A-games here, rolling out their lyrics over a spastic, horn-and-handclap-driven beat to perfect effect. I'd even venture to say that Monáe outshines Leftfoot with her last verse. It's crazy. And the video doesn't disappoint either. It's fun and weird, and there's just something cool and hypnotic about a bunch of people in tuxes strutting and gliding.

I first heard Janelle Monáe on Big Boi's Got Purp? Vol. 2, and again on OutKast's Idlewild, where she played the typical female R&B singer role, belting out hooks and background vocals in slightly impressive but generic fashion. It's nice to see that since then, she's come into her wild and genre-bending own. She's creative and refreshing and unafraid of carving out her own path. Her Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase) EP was bizarre and ambitious, introducing her audience to a world of androids, Afrofuturism and energy, but most importantly it sounded good. While I haven't fully delved into her follow-up effort, The ArchAndroid (Suites II And III)-- I'm ten tracks in and it's pretty damn solid-- it has been getting great reviews (currently sitting pretty with a 90/100 on Metacritic). I don't expect her to shatter any album sales records or anything like that, but I do hope she sees some commercial success so she can continue doing what's she's doing.

I'll Be Home Tonight

Excellent new song and video from Kweli & Hi-Tek, with some help from Estelle. While I like a lot of Kweli's music, I think he's a little predictable and over-rated. He's just really hit or miss for me, so it's no surprise that here I think Tek's beat and Estelle's contributions easily outmatch Kweli's verses. Still good though.

From James.

Take Me Home

This fantastic song is LCD Soundsystem's "All I Want" from the upcoming album, This Is Happening. Here, as with "All My Friends", James Murphy shows that he is a master at capturing a feeling in 7 minutes of soaring pop magnificence.

Boi Stop!

Wow, Big Boi's "Shutterbugg" is fire! When, oh when, will this damn album see the light of day?!?!?!?!? I'd call all these delays the "OutKast curse" but it seems to happen to every rap album that I look forward to hearing.

Also, Pitchfork mentions an interesting piece of info about the vocoder and talkbox in their review of the song.

City By The Bay

I've come to really enjoy Mayer Hawthorne despite how he reveals his vocal deficiencies at times (all jokes aside his music, with the exception of a couple songs, is really good). Here, he teamed up with Huf and Freegums to release some goodies in honor of the final night of his U.S. tour, which happens to be next Thursday in SF. Ignoring the music for sec, I noticed that in this video, Keith Hufnagel of Huf (the guy in gray) might be wearing his yet-to-be released new shoe. It only caught my eye because after having lost track (and interest) of the sneaker scene and shoe culture, I randomly checked in on a couple blogs recently to find a pretty clean-looking shoe about to be released by Huf. I've been meaning to get a pair of nice, classy gray sneakers and I think these fit the bill.

Would You Share Yo' Dollar With Me?

I like the video for Aloe Blacc's "I Need A Dollar" but I think I prefer the How To Make It In America intro credits, which provide a hopeful, uplifting feeling to contrast the stark lyrics.

Well Alright

Like most fans of indie music and indie films, guys and girls alike, I have an innocent crush on Zooey Deschanel. I like most of the movies she's been in, and I find her clear, almost-smokey voice is perfect for M. Ward's pop-folk tunes (and it sounds especially great when fronting Ward's raspy backing vocals). Here she is doing a little song-and-dance number for She & Him's "In The Sun", which reminds me, I still need to pick up the new album.

Smiling From Ear To Ear

Here's Big Boi featuring George Clinton and Too $hort. I had completely forgotten about this song but that happens when other album leaks/singles include "Royal Flush" and "Shine Blockas". This song is dope though. Big raps with purpose as he speeds up and slows down his flow and $hort Dog sounds great rapping over this thick beat-- his voice always seems to go well with dense, Southern beats. So, another good release from Big Boi, which begs the question: when is the album dropping?

From Pitchfork.

I'll Be Good

Take a look at another video for KiD CuDi's "Pursuit of Happiness", which just so happens to be one of my favorite songs of the past couple months. This one is a little more abstract than the first one and it has some cool, Gondry-like trickery that is pretty impressive. Not a bad video, but I think the original, with it's slo-mo party scenes (see below) captures the vibe of the song a bit better. You be the judge.

I'm Back

Today, T.I. released a new single! I've only listened to it a couple times so far and it hasn't made a strong impression on me, good or bad. I guess I'm glad he isn't being lazy here and he always sounds pretty good when he raps in that gruff voice. The beat is rather ho-hum but it's still good to hear new Tip. I know it's not the greatest song-- it's no "What You Know" or "Rubber Band Man"-- but hopefully it'll be a grower. If nothing else, it's a step in the right direction for when he drops his album this summer.

Download "I'm Back" at 2dopeboyz.

Smiling Down, On You And Me