Video: "J. Dilla: Still Shining" Documentary

The anticipation for this has been building up the last few weeks after Brian "B. Kyle" Atkins announced that he was releasing this project.

"J Dilla: Still Shining" is a project that, according to B. Kyle's Vimeo page, was:

Created in 2006, this remembrance piece is created as a tribute to the memory and legacy of James "J.Dilla" Yancey. This is a piece designed for his fans and supporters who knew of his accomplishments before February 2006 and those that have grown to appreciate his genius. Here, we gain a greater insight and understanding about our musical icon.

If you got an hour to spare (even if you don't make an hour to spare) and check this out.

History - Mos Def feat. Talib Kweli

 Detroit, tonight renowned hip-hop journalist, dream hampton, will be screening her documentary, Black August: A Hip-Hop Benefit Concert at the grand opening of the N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art.

Time: 8:30 p.m. and Midnight
                                Location: N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art 
                    52 East Forest Avenue
               Detroit, MI 48201

The documentary brings awareness to and interviews political prisoners, including one with Assata Shakur who not only has political asylum in Cuba but a $1 million bounty placed on her head by the United States government.

Since 1998, Black August,  has been using hip-hop as a way to raise global political awareness having benefit shows in Cuba, Venezuela, South Africa, Brazil and New York City.

Check out the trailer below and make sure if you're in the city and available, check out the screening tonight.

Last Donut of the Night - J Dilla

I don't know how I missed posting this. Can't tell you what I was doing or going through last month, but Stussy released a 3-part-documentary on J Dilla's life during his last few years—From Detroit to LA to Donuts. The documentary features the likes of DJ Houseshoes, Peanut Butter Wolf, J. Rocc, Frank Nitty and  quite a few others. Stussy and Stones Throw Records have also partnered on a J Dilla tribute t-shirt.

And I knew about everything I'm posting, for some reason I never posted it (Oops). Stones Throw Records, Serato Records, and the J Dilla Estate collaborated on the special edition vinyl release of Donut Shop. This is the description that is on Stones Throw's site:

Serato and Stones Throw have teamed with the J Dilla Estate for the official J Dilla Serato release, Donut Shop. This is 2 discs with six J Dilla tracks, 2 sides with Serato Control Tone (for use with Serato Scratch Live DJ software), and 2 donut slipmats in a package designed by Studio No.1. This will be released May 10th (the day after Mother's day--what's up Ma Dukes?). Pre-order is available now.

The J Dilla tracks consist of three previously unreleased instrumentals selected by J.Rocc from the Dilla archives – “Safety Dance”, “Sycamore”, “Bars & Twists” – and three unreleased instrumental versions of Dilla's production for Mos Def, Q-Tip and Busta Rhymes, each remastered by Elysian Masters who mixed and mastered J Dilla's Donuts, The Shining and Ruff Draft albums.

It's available for pre-order now and will be released on May 10. One of the tracks: "Safety Dance" has been released for free download already. Peep it:

Download "Safety Dance" Here

I think I've gotten everything else out of the way, now for your feature presentation, J Dilla Documentary presented by Stussy.

Love of My Life - Erykah Badu

Hola, I'm back (for serious this time).

It's been about two months since my last post, but I decided to resurrect Tha 'A' Side, new posts, new layout same me.
Lots of things have happened since my last post, but we will get to all that soon.

I was having trouble deciding what I wanted my first post to be...an interview, a leak, a video blog (just me rambling) but I decided to post this documentary done by one of my high school classmatesMidori about a year or so ago.

The documentary was done for a class project of hers and discusses the gender and racial politics of hip-hop (deep stuff right?) You'll see some of your favorites in the half-hour long documentary including, Ro Spit, Big Sean, and The Cool Kids.

Hustler Musik - Lil' Wayne

VH1 brought back it's Behind the Music series (I must say I THINK I'm happy about this). Their first show was Lil' Wayne, no matter how much I may think he's gone off the deep end his story is an interesting one. It goes into detail about his 11-year-old sex and drug life, him shooting himself, his admitted drug use and of course his music career. Now when VH1 did Behind the Music in the past, they never (to my remembrance) actually spoke to the artist (often anyway) and usually was told from the accounts of others close to them. However this time, Lil' Wayne pretty much tells his own story. IDK if it is because he IS so open about his past or not. I know the Steelers game was on as well as the Real Housewives of Atlanta, so if you missed it, it's ok check it below.