The japanese beatmaker wizard, Nujabes passed away in early 2010 in a car accident.

At first i decided not to write about it, even when one of my best friends, who had taken on the same path, told me about him and asked me if i knew Nujabes. It was a keeper, not something to put on a website, but more and more synchronicities reappeared throughout the past year and especially in recent times and i changed my mind, so i thought i might share it with the hive. There are no more secrets.

He used to work in a record store in Japan, that was ordering records from the same distributor, that was handling my releases at that time, as well as his very own. Though i never directly talked to him, i remember the guy who was handling the distribution (Harry) telling me how much he (Nujabes) liked what i was doing/releasing and was ordering good stacks of it, and it was no different with me and his records, so it was going back and forth through a third party. I particularly remember going crazy for a 12″ he did with Funky DL which had none of the common MPC sounds of these days, while i had a half acoustic release with a underground rap group called Tryflyn which he was going mental for, and we were loving each others material. He tried to make a different sound, even at that time (which was like at least 10 year ago). There is a lot of good stuff i remember about him and there were even more connections. We never met face to face but it seems that even then i knew that there were similarities.

Now after his death, i see more and more people worshipping his legacy and the spiritual path he had taken on, after there were no more treasures in the outside world for him to find. He dug deep and his music reveals his (or everyones) inner self. Peace

Here is to you, my close but distant friend!

Nujabes – Horizon (The full album is called Modal Soul is from 2005)

Nujabes – Spiritual State (featuring Uyama Hiroto) (title tune from his post mortum album Spiritual State).

Maybe not as technically advanced as today’s beat makers but his music takes its time, comes in grace, it is music for your inner self and it emanates peace. Thank you

I don’t know where to buy his many releases online (cds, albums, soundtracks, 12″s, 7″s etc) except a few on amazon. So, look Nujabes up on youtube and enjoy what you will discover.

ps there is even a documentary coming out about his life & work called “Eternal Soul“

This 18years young fella is totally flying under the radar and on a good way. In my opinion, 2012 will be his year if he’s steady growing like this. He starts his new year with this sweet little song:

Tayyib Ali – Tomorrow

California Love Video (2011)

Download his mixtape "Keystone State of Mind" over here

Hey folks, always wanted to post something from Slovenia born, now from New York artist Gramatik. So here it goes: Heavy hip hop drums laced over nice synth sounds. For “Dungeon Sound” Gramatik samples “After Loughter (Comes Tears)” by Wendy Rene.  As a bonus comes a brilliant mashup by DJ Topcat with Gang Starr’s “Discipline” feat.Total. Enjoy.

Dungeon Sound original

Dungeon Discipline

Mac Miller – Of The Soul from Ian Rex Arrow Wolfson on Vimeo.

G-Eazy is back with another sweet musical gem that makes my day

G-Eazy – Lost In Translation

more on chromemusic

Just found Sols newest song in the blogosphere and hope you enjoy it as much as i do.

Stage Dive by Solzilla

Sol – Stage Dive

brandnew Common tune

Common – Celebrate

B.o.B. ft. Andre 3000 – Play The Guitar

Ok the original tune was huge. Now make sure to get your free download of this nice edit by Andhim.

Wine and Chocolates (andhim edit) by andhim

Watch the original video. Party & Bullshit, but still – it’s fun.

Chiddy Bang just released the first song of their upcoming debut album “Breakfast” called “Ray Charles”. It’s a nice catchy tune sampling a pretty well known Ray Charles hook.
So listen, enjoy and get it on iTunes.

Ray Charles by ChiddyBang

the Album has been pushed back and is now going to be released in the US on February 28th.