Come to the Vans Warped Tour 2011 in Ventura and check out the Bring It Back stage to catch Apex, Exostential, Luckyiam, Sirah, Soul Khan and more! At the Ventura County Fairground at Seaside Park on July 3rd. Go to www.bringitbacktour.com for more info.
Change the way you discover and buy music with the new, limited Purple edition of the Rollin Rockers – Bang!Bang! Pill USB Drives. Instead of just downloading songs or buying a CD to later use as a frisbee or coaster, pick up an album that you can remember and keep forever. The pre-loaded drives include the classic 10-song Rollin Rockers album Bang!Bang!, plus videos, lyrics and bonus Ever Ready Records content not included on the original versions of the Pill. Pick one up quick, the Purple Pill is limited to 100 units. And catch Rollin Rockers on their France Summer tour with Chinese Man Records. Click here for Tour dates.
By: Stephanie Nicole Jones
Epic Western tale continues to unfold, at Ever Ready Records artist showcase
As exemplified by the adventures in the classic taleOdysseus, the hero’s journey is defined as an ongoing, beginning to end, voyage that requires various trials, encounters with colorful characters, and lessons to learn and share. It occurs within different chapters of one’s adventure, of one’s life. Any person is qualified to fit their own journey into the hero’s outline and on Saturday June 11th, two particular hiphop heroes, duo entertainer/entrepreneur Lush One and raw hiphop vet, Courtesy Of fit this mold in a very impressive manner. They’ll both be adding yet another gripping chapter to the uprising hiphop movement created under West Los Angeles indie label, Ever Ready Records(ERR). At Club Trip in Santa Monica, fans, friends, and lovers alike will have the opportunity to say both hello and goodbye…
The showcase will be a joint event celebrating the release of the gifted hiphop renegade Courtesy Of’s second album, “Epic Proportions” (Ever Ready Records), which drops Tuesday June 7th. Saturday is also a goodbye/good luck party for the pioneering entrepreneur Lush One before he embarks on a journey through France, for a month-long tour under the French electronic music conglomerate, Chinese Man Records.
The ‘hello’s’ come before the ’goodbye’, thus the red carpet will be firmly laid for Courtesy Of and the great things to follow the release of Epic Proportions. The album will give listeners and hiphop enthusiasts multiple hits of whateverybody has been hungry for: TRUTH. More specifically,Lush One prescribes the tales of Epic Proportions and the stories amongst the tracks as, “a realistic and uncensored glimpse into the everyday struggle of the street life in West LA, through the eyes of a wise hustler with a pure heart”.Courtesy Of’s stories are his to tell and will be nothing short of necessary “food for the soul”. With special appearances by Ever Ready co-founder Apex of MK, Mix 62, Lush himself, and others, the album’s powerful authenticity ups the ante, no doubt. And more, the album is co-produced by the multifaceted, static hit-maker and co-founder of ERR, Afinnity. Check out the stories already told, plus cover art and more of ‘The Word’ here!
Following the welcoming of Epic Proportions, the ‘goodbye’ will be more of a celebratory ‘see ya later’ to Nick ‘Lush One’ Carletti Hyams, whose assorted talents in the music world range from being a well-respected and stylistically original hiphop emcee to co-CEO of the world’s largest hiphop battle league, “Grind Time Now” to co-CEO ofCoconuts Entertainment, the Bay Area-based event and promotions firm. His impressionist music aligns with both Ever Ready Records and the LA artist collective Machina Muerte, both of which are considered hefty torch-bearers of The Word, or, the truth of the underground hiphop scene.
Nevertheless, the encounters Lush will make on tour will add to the lessons of credibility that shine through his spit-fire lyrics and flamboyant delivery of such truthful words. And the aftermath? International fuel added to the fire ignited by the underground hiphop movement booming out of West LA. In the remainder of 2011, the West will continue to burst into flames, delivering more of a musical wholeness within hiphop followers and listers. All of which is torch-led by those of the above, those of Ever Ready Records.
A hero ought to light the way and share from experience the important lessons to be learned. Every hiphop cat underneath Ever Ready holds passion for those eager to watch, learn, and listen. Once again you have the opportunity to be a part of something magnificent and real as can be at Club Trip, Saturday June 11th, 2101 Lincoln Blvd in Santa Monica. Not only will the-one-and-only Ever Ready DJ Mix 62 be on the 1’s and 2’s, but there will also be a Grind Time Now official MC battle. Of course, this greatness is all aside from the live sets of Lush One and Courtesy Of. This is THE truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god(s) if you decide not to come…Until then, you ought to digest all the nitty gritty rawness on the album before the showcase!
Here’s some footage I shot of The Alumni’s Phantom Tollbooth 2 on Friday, May 13th in Downtown LA. The track is “Bit Cliche” by Exostential.
Subterranean L.A hiphop scene circulates Truth at Urban Underground event
Have you ever wondered what its like to be a part of a movement so alluring, with pivotal power and momentous meaning? It’s finally reincarnated and it’s that raw, truthful hiphop we’ve been yearning for. The place is Los Angeles and the hiphop scene is The Movement, dragging you towards a handful of underground emcees and crews who are stupefying the masses with their music. There’s a time and place for everything, and on Friday May 27th at The Airliner, The Movement is tastefully organized into the hiphop event, Urban Underground.
Those noteworthy crews that will pave the way include main-stage headliners Typical Cats, self-proclaimed hiphop “torchbearers” The Alumni, and up-and-coming underground revolutionaries Two Blunts & a Gent, who will be “extra-underground” on the downstairs stage. That’s right, there will be two stages full of hiphop renegades throughout the night, including Illiterate, Radioactive Demons, and more upstairs, and downstairs Bet1, Humanbeings, Sine the Last Signal, plus some, hosted by Bet1 himself.
Typical Cats headline the event and lay down building blocks for broadcasting raw music to the masses and showing how to articulate the underground truth. With a well-established following of listeners already, their performance most definitely reiterates the overall message of realness.
Although all artists will represent what The West defines as real hiphop, The Alumni and associate crew Two Blunts & a Gent are fresh scientists of sound who also represent the all-around musical genius emerging from Ever Ready Records. The Alumni’s performance preludes the release of their first-ever mixtape, “The Sampler” (Ever Ready Records) and Two Blunt’s performance follows the release of their first mixtape, “Carmix”. The hiphop/rap/jazz fusion heard on “Carmix” evokes an honest lyrical sound and a positive, chill Westcoast vibe that undoubtedly mirrors the performance skill of Two Blunts. That’s not all! “The Sampler” will include guest-appearances by Lush One and Tash of The Alkaholiks, and moreso, it will be a portable version of the raw truth created by all ten members of The Alumni, so you can take The Word with you wherever you please!
It is imperative you catch these sets, Two Blunts at 10pm and downstairs headliners The Alumni at 12am.The performances and talents Friday night are anything but typical, and everything top-notch. Whether the experience is live or through the wire, all of the above represent what Alumni leader Spliff articulates as a most important hiphop truth of unity: “We are the same because of our differences…we become the same through teaching each other of our differences.”
If you’re on board with The Truth and the need for heady beats and genuine rhymes to get by, Urban Underground is the perfect dose for a fix of real hiphop. However, if you have your doubts about The Movement, The Word, or the West, I assure you it exists; It’s happening and you can come too, Friday 5/27 at The Airliner, 18+, $10 presale and $15 at the door. Doors open at 8pm–Be there by 10pm to be a part of something extraordinary!
