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Ravyn Lenae Announces ‘Crush’ Tour (Links for all tickets below)

February 23, 2018 by I.S. Jones Leave a Comment

On February 9, 2o18, Ravyn Lenae‘s latest EP ‘Crush’ sent the world spinning in a groovy, funky, electric vibe leagues ahead of summer. The EP is executive produced by Steven Lacy of The Internet, who also shares vocals on two of the five tracks. Now, Ravyn Lenae is set to embark on her first solo tour. She previous toured with the likes of NoName for her first album “Telefone”.  The tour begins on March 21st  in Sonia Cambridge, MA, with her doing a show in Brooklyn on April 4th at Rough Trade. Tickets for her April 4th show opened up for pre-sale on February 22 at 10AM. The remaining tour date tickets when on sale today, Friday, February 22  at 10 AM.

All dates, with their respective links, are listed below:

Ravyn Lenae — 2018 Tour Dates
3/21 Sonia Cambridge, MA
3/23 Trocadero Balcony Philadelphia, PA
3/27 The New Parish Oakland, CA
3/28 The Roxy Theatre West Hollywood, MCA
3/30 Constellation Room Santa Ana, CA
4/4 Rough Trade Brooklyn, NY
4/5 Songbyrd Washington, DC
4/9 El Club Detroit, MI
4/10 Lincoln Hall Chicago, IL
4/11 The Firebird Saint Louis, MO
9/14 Venue Vancouver, BC

If haven’t already, please enjoy her latest EP

***

I.S. Jones is a writer living in New York by way of California. Please send her pizza not nudes. She sees a brighter future for herself and you. If you like her work, you can tweet at her here

Filed Under: Articles, News Tagged With: Chicago, Crush EP, Ravyn Lenae

TDE Announces “The Championship Tour”

January 22, 2018 by I.S. Jones Leave a Comment

While I’m still hashing out my personal feelings about Drake, today I woke up to the exciting news that Top Dawg Entertainment has announced tour dates for a mega family outing of the label’s most supreme stars. With CTRL’s one year anniversary on the horizon this summer, it feels good to see her finally swinging with the majors. The Championship Tour features: SiR, SZA, Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, ScHoolBoy Q, and the king Kendrick Lamar

The choice of artists in the marquee is a bit questionable, however. For starters, TDE made the choice to feature Lance Skiiiwalker, one of the more quieter members of the TDE family. As he hasn’t released a project since 2016, I am curious as to what he brings to the table. The Chicago native was officially signed to TDE back in 2016, and even before joining, Skiiwalker appeared in the credits of Rapsody’s “Power“, Kendrick’s “untitled 04 | 08.14.2014“, and ScHoolBoy’s “Know Ya Thing“. Yet, TDE and Lance Skiiiwalker may surprise us with something at the last minute.

Then something I think many of us are wondering: Why isn’t Isaiah Rashad in this line?

Tickets go on sale Friday, January 26

 

***

I.S. Jones is a writer living in New York by way of California. Please send her pizza not nudes. You may also send her ONE of your best tracks (on Twitter only) and she’ll get back to you at her earliest convenience. I.S. is rooting for you. She is trying, just like the rest of us. Tweet at her here

Filed Under: Articles, News Tagged With: ab-soul, Championship Tour, January 26, jay rock, kendrick lamar, Lance Skiiiwalker, schoolboy q, sza, tde

[Feature] How the Internet Allowed a Rapper’s “Window” to Never Completely Close

November 26, 2017 by Dead End Hip Hop Leave a Comment

In 2017, windows that were once previously thought to be shut are never completely closed.

Source: [Feature] How the Internet Allowed a Rapper’s “Window” to Never Completely Close

Filed Under: News

New Cage Song – “Congrats”

October 31, 2017 by Myke Leave a Comment

While we’re waiting for the new album from the ever-mysterious Cage, here’s a new track to tide us over.

Produced and mixed by Jason Mayer.

Cage also has a few live shows coming up soon.

12/21/17 – The Constellation Room – Santa Ana, CA (Tickets on sale 11/3)
12/23/17 – the Roxy – Los Angeles, CA (Tickets on sale 11/3)

The shows will be billed as “Cage vs. Sam Hill.” Cage will be performing oldies, the hits and brand new songs. This will be Sam Hill’s debut performance with a full blown stage production. This will be very special and not to be missed!

 

While you’re here, check out these other Sam Hill songs.

Sam Hill – Excvse The Blood
Sam Hill – The Peucharist

Filed Under: Articles, Blog, Features, Music, Myke C-Town, News

BRZOWSKI- “Leave It All Behind” (Official Music Video)

October 12, 2017 by Myke Leave a Comment

 

The 1st video from BRZOWSKI’s latest avant-rap solo offering ENMITYVILLE, “Leave it All Behind” interprets his screed against the exploitation and alienation inherent in workaday drudgery in literal terms. Feel free to spike your morning coffee with this dose of abject realism from Portland, Maine’s favorite progressive rap curmudgeon.
Leave it All Behind from the album ENMITYVILLE on Milled Pavement Records (MP066)- available now: https://lnk.to/enmityville

For more info on BRZOWSKI and ENMITYVILLE visit:

Bandcamp: https://brzowskimusic.bandcamp.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BRZOWSKImusic
IG: https://www.instagram.com/brzowskimusic/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/BRZOWSKImusic/
Label/Merch:: www.milledpavement.com/artist/brzowski/

Vocals by BRZOWSKI

Produced by 80HRTZ
Post-Production, Mixing and Mastering by C $ Burns
Cello by Mary Weatherbee
Turntables by Mo Niklz
Directed by Jason Knightly at Lucky Hand Studios

Filed Under: Articles, Blog, Features, News, Newsletter

Hip Hop/R&B Surpasses Rock Music As America’s Favorite Genre

July 19, 2017 by B Brusberg Leave a Comment

Kendrick_Lamar_Damn

It’s about that time. According to a recent report by Nielsen, an organization that monitors consumer behavior and rate of consumption, Hip Hop/R&B (which are lumped into one genre) are the most listened-to tunes in 2017. The combined genre accounts for 25.1% of all music consumption in the United States. But how exactly is this measured? According to Billboard, who got it from Nielsen, this 25.1% accounts for physical album sales, album streams, and video streams.

This is the first time Hip Hop/R&B has led the charts in consumption, and 25.1% is the largest percentage ever achieved by Hip Hop/R&B. This is the also the first time Rock music has not been first in this measurement, as this year it rests at 23%. It’s not a competition, but this does speak for the impact these genres have on our market and society. If you’re interested in the numbers, Billboard does a very fine job of outlining some important specifics of the Nielsen report.

The sky’s the limit from here on out. How will music influence us next? Maybe Kendrick Lamar will appear on Game of Thrones.

Filed Under: Blog, News Tagged With: hip-hop, r&b

Sorry Chance, I’m Not Buying It. by @dammitjordanXO

July 15, 2017 by Jordan 24 Comments

Before we continue this article I want to drop a disclaimer…so here it is.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions in this article are mine and not necessarily the opinions of the Dead End Hip Hop staff…or they might be. I don’t know. OH, and before you @ me on Twitter...just know that won’t change my opinions.

Aight boom. Recently I’ve noticed a trend regarding Chicago’s Chance The Rapper. Chance is a very diverse and multi-layered artist that combines the sounds of gospel and really really soft rap with heavy Christian themes. He’s collaborated with Young Thug, Justin Bieber, had a standout verse on Kanye’s “Ultralight Beam” and…wait, why am I giving an introduction, I’m sure you already know him. He’s everywhere. Which is partially why I’m writing this article.

Recently a report came out saying that music platform Soundcloud basically had 50 days to live…and EVERYONE was panicking. “Oh my God, what are we gonna do now?! What about the music?”. But…not even 24 hours later, Chance…Chance, out of all of the people…stated that Soundcloud was here to stay. This seemed a little fishy to me. First of all…if Soundcloud was REALLY in trouble wouldn’t we have heard about it sooner? More importantly…how does ONE rapper with a net worth of 9 million…that isn’t Diddy, Jay-Z, Drake or Kanye…how does one rapper save a platform that big with just a phone call?

That leads to a couple of theories.

  1. Chance has more power than we thought.
  2. The whole thing is a set-up and Soundcloud was NEVER shutting down in the first place.

 

This brings me to another point. There’s really no nice way to say it, but Chance The Rapper is an industry plant. His level of popularity was planned ever since he before he dropped Acid Rap. His dad worked with my President, and his dad grew up with/knows Spike Lee. I knew he would be this big. Look at him. He’s marketable. He smiles. He laughs. He has an adorable daughter. He’s Christian. His music is safe. He wears OVERALLS. Women love him. He won awards while being “independent”. He’s essentially the anti Kanye. And this is exactly why his popularity has skyrocketed.

Image result for chance the rapper shrug

All of those things I mentioned are precisely why I don’t buy this corny good guy image that he’s forcing. Every time he does something he’s making sure you know. Whether it be “saving” Soundcloud, donating to a school or something like that. He apologized to the labels he dissed. He apologized for liking a picture on Instagram (???). Whatever he does (mostly positive) is immediately broadcasted and eaten up. It’s like he’s some super hero……..so like I said, the anti Kanye. I’m not a fan of him being put on a pedestal for stuff like this, his false independence, his safe good guy image that’s completely fake. If other rappers can do good for people in silence, why is he so different. Why are people subject to having to deal with watching his every move?

Nobody else thinks it’s weird that Chance was EVERYWHERE on the blogs in 2012 despite barely anyone ever hearing of him? He wasn’t independent then because he was signed with Creative Arts Agency (Home to George Clooney, Will Smith, David Beckham among others). Chance wasn’t independent then. Chance is not independent now. You can’t sit here and tell me that anyone backed by Apple (a company worth 700 BILLION) is an independent artist just because they aren’t signed to a label. Chance The Rapper’s album Coloring Book was streamed on Apple Music for 2 weeks before it was “free”. That’s not independent. If you’re being backed by the biggest tech company in the world, how can you expect not to sell a ton of records and win awards. He isn’t a trailblazer or example for other independent rappers, but he is a marketing GENIUS.

Image result for chance the rapper super mario

I was a Chance fan for a long time. But I’m even more a fan of the culture. I understand artist development, because Chance hasn’t always made music like this, music with strong Christian themes, but I understand. Music is all about branding, how you market yourself. Chance has shown that he’s soft spoken, friendly, a nice guy. He’s a rapper who won’t push the envelope. you can listen to him in the car with your parents, even the unclean versions. He’s what Childish Gambino was supposed to be. He’s what Drake was in 2008. And after he got the Kanye push and co-sign, it was over. Chance was catapulted past hip-hop and into pop cultural stardom.

I know what you’re thinking. “He does all this good stuff for people, he saved Soundcloud, why should we care? Go get some money, hating ass nigga!”. Yeah, f*ck me, right? I’m not hating on Chance. I still enjoy his old music. I believe he’s overhyped and his false, independent savior image is a detriment to the culture. This has been set up since the beginning. To me what sets him apart from rappers like Kendrick (let’s just use him) is that Kendrick pushes the envelope while giving you 100% raw raps hit your soul and throughout his career he has unapologetically dropped music for the culture without sacrificing his image. One of my issues with Chance is that he’s done a complete 180 musically, which I understand and a complete 180 with his image. He also got off drugs, and I’m happy for him but you can’t tell me that him being sober is gonna turn him into this complete cornball…something is up.

In the words of Joe Budden: ” You can’t fool a real nigga, you can fool all of them who aren’t paying attention, but you can’t fool me.”

………Y’all know this is just my opinion, right?

Filed Under: Articles, Blog, News, WatchDEHH Tagged With: chance, chance the rapper

Amidst Rumors Of Soundcloud’s Demise, Chance The Rapper Takes Action

July 14, 2017 by B Brusberg Leave a Comment

SoundCloud_logo,_orange_color,_plain.svg

In case you haven’t heard, one of the most prominent places for people to hear things may be dying. To give you some background, Soundcloud, the online audio sharing platform/rapper nexus that has bred many artists, both popular and otherwise, might be going through some major financial turbulence. According to a report from TechCrunch that contained inaccuracies, Soundcloud has just enough money to last until the end of the fourth quarter, which was said to begin in about 50 days, but is actually in around 80 days. Soundcloud co-founders Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss pointed out these inaccuracies and said they will make it through the fourth quarter just fine, so get off their case, Dad.

However, Soundcloud did fire 40% of their employees last week, and will also close down their London and San Francisco offices in an effort to prevail. No matter what Soundcloud says, it sounds like something fishy is going on here. Many people are speculating the death of Soundcloud based on these drastic business maneuvers, including Chance The Rapper, who mysteriously tweeted that he’ll save the day.

I'm working on the SoundCloud thing

— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) July 13, 2017

And today, Chance tweeted that whatever final countdown we were expecting is no longer an issue:

Just had a very fruitful call with Alex Ljung. @SoundCloud is here to stay.

— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) July 14, 2017

It’s no secret that Soundcloud has been losing the streaming war with Spotify and Apple Music for some time, but I hope they can at least tread water. I’ve found some great artists on SC, so it’s comforting for me and my friends who use it. As of right now, it looks like artists don’t need to worry about backing up all their work. Yet.

Soundcloud was instrumental in propelling Chance to his current status, so it makes sense for him to reach out in their time of need. He also appears to be a nice fellow with a lot of love. Some would argue too much love. Not I, but some. It’s still unclear what exactly is going on with SC, and also whatever Chance did or talked with Ljung about is unclear, but it appears the fate of SC might be in the hands of a person named Chance. How do you feel about The Cloud (no one calls it this)? I would be sad to see it go, but a few of my pals wouldn’t mind if it collapsed so a better service could take over.

Filed Under: Blog, News Tagged With: chance the rapper, soundcloud

Open Mike Eagle Announces The Tour Of The Robert Taylor Homes Tour

July 12, 2017 by B Brusberg Leave a Comment

open mike eagle

On Wednesday, Open Mike Eagle announced a new tour with a great name scheduled to run from September 2017 to October 2017. Do you ever feel excitement when an artist announces a tour knowing that you yourself most likely won’t be able to participate? That’s kind of how I’m feeling right now, but I’m going to clear my calendar and jog to a show if I have to. The below tweet describes the Autumn tour dates and a seriously great lineup of the featured artists, Sammus, Scallops Hotel, and Billy Woods. I’m personally super excited for Sammus.

announcing the tour of the robert taylor homes tour with @sammusmusic @scallopshotel and @BackwoodzHipHop on sale 7/14 pic.twitter.com/szUTQ09cFo

— Open Mike Eagle (@Mike_Eagle) July 12, 2017

In addition to the very informative tweet, a YouTube video featuring the Cam Pebbleman was released to promote the tour. You can watch it below. I don’t know if Mike plans on releasing any new music before the tour, but if we really believe, maybe it will happen.

Filed Under: Blog, News Tagged With: billy woods, open mike eagle, sammus, scallops hotel

Get To Know “FLIPS,” Baltimore’s Hip Hop Hot Seat

July 6, 2017 by B Brusberg Leave a Comment

flips

I live close to Baltimore, but in comparison to other cities it’s not exactly known far and wide for its musical prowess. If only someone could help enlighten me and the rest of the world to the talent I know must be out there? Enter FLIPS, a YouTube series showcasing the quick resourcefulness of beat makers and producers in the Baltimore area. The short analysis of an average episode is artists pick a random genre of music out of a black box, pick some records from a record store of that genre, and make a beat in 30 minutes utilizing those records. I had the honor to meet with some of the gentlemen behind FLIPS and see what they’re all about. Derick Little (@DlowICON) did most of the talking.

Note: This interview was conducted face-to-face and recorded on June 28th, 2017, but it has been transcribed for clarity.


 

Dead End Hip Hop: Tell me about yourself.

Derick: Well, first I’m an artist, a producer second, and filmer third. Been filming for awhile. I’ve been filming since probably 2011-2012. Around the time I started picking up the camera and making music videos and stuff. I’m a local artist in Baltimore (East Baltimore), Maryland. I just started coming up with the idea like “Hey I should like, get a lot of producers known in Baltimore so I could do FLIPS.”

DEHH: That brings me to my next question, how exactly would you describe FLIPS?

Derick: FLIPS is a real good platform for beat makers that’s in [the] Baltimore City area. So like, I made this platform so a lot producers could get heard in Baltimore City, and so that pretty much they can be seen and know that we’re getting overlooked; make that fact known all around the world. So this is definitely like a local thing for other people all around to see what we’re doing and see what Baltimore has to offer as far as beat makers.

DEHH: Who’s involved with FLIPS? Who’s the team?

Derick: It’s me, it’s my boy Vlad (Vladimir Barnett, @Macvlad_), and it’s my boy Darian (Darian Jones, @_JonesAvenue_) on the social media posting, y’know everything relevant, keeping everything up to date with FLIPS, and up to date with social media and pop culture.

DEHH: When was the idea for FLIPS conceived?

Derick: It [FLIPS] was conceived probably about a half a year ago [2016ish-2017ish at the time of this interview]. I had the idea planned I just never went through with it. But now this year I said I’m gonna go through with it and make it happen so a lot of people can hear these producers that’s all around the surrounding Baltimore area.

DEHH: That’s a good goal. How does shooting a typical episode go? Like, is it all planned out or do you just kind of call someone?

Derick: Well essentially I go by a template. Pretty much I go and talk to the artist and let the artist know that “Hey, you gotta pick out of this black box of genres, from R&B, Jazz, Soul, Classical, Electronica, etc.” Those genres are the ones that they’ll be able to pick out, and once they pick that genre out, they pick 2-7 records. Physical copy, doesn’t necessarily need to be an album as far as a vinyl. It could be an 8-track, tape, CD, whatever’s a physical copy of an album. After they pick up their albums they go to their home, in their environment or studio. I give them time to listen, and after they’re done listening they get 30 minutes to cook up beats.

DEHH: For me it sounds like Chopped for beat makers. Just gotta go in, do it, whatever happens, happens.

Derick: Exactly.

DEHH: FLIPS is pretty young at the moment. Do you have any development plans down the road for it?

Derick: Yeah, this is pretty much the Beta season. This is just like a pilot to everything that FLIPS is going to have to offer. My major goal is to have this on a bigger platform, like a channel. It could be Fader, Viceland, but I really want it to be on Netflix since Netflix is a real good app where people want to go watch movies and shows or whatever sort. They could watch it anytime on Netflix so I think I would definitely love it if it could be on Netflix, and that’s my major goal for FLIPS.

DEHH: I think Netflix is definitely like, killing television. Netflix is probably the pinnacle. That’d be sweet if FLIPS could get up there. It might be like the first of its kind. You said this was to expose Baltimore producers and musicians and stuff, do you think any other cities are doing anything like this?

Derick: It’s a possibility. I for sure don’t look at it being like an idea that’s never been made. Mind you, my inspiration was from Rhythm Roulette from Mass Appeal. Like, I wanted to do it in my own way in order for Baltimore to get recognized because this is something that Mass Appeal doesn’t own, as far as doing beat compilations, beat challenges. And not to throw any shade to Mass Appeal or Rhythm Roulette, this is just something that needs to be done here in Baltimore. I don’t think a lot of, or any artists from Baltimore are on Rhythm Roulette. Like I said, it’s so a lot of producers in Baltimore could get recognized, and Baltimore producers won’t get overlooked. It’s definitely a good cause for producers and beat makers to get recognized and known. Everyone else that sees the music, the beat making, the whole idea of sitting at home, using what you got just to make your whole masterpiece.

DEHH: Undoubtedly. Because I don’t really get out to listening to as much music as I should be listening to, and I really don’t know many Baltimore artists, but I can name them if their from Chicago, New York, or Atlanta. Just not Baltimore. So I think it’s really good that you’re giving Baltimore a chance with this.

Derick: Defnitely. It not only gives an opening for producers and beat makers, it also gives a chance for other people to browse to sprout out and get out of that box and pretty much start to make beats. It gives people an uplifting feeling when they’re like “Hey, I wanna try to get into beat making. I wanna try to be able to be better than this producer, or be better than this producer, or this beat maker. I wanna think outside the box.” You know what I mean? It gives people the idea to go out there and do what you wanna do, do what you would love to do. And you can definitely make it happen. It definitely gives a lot of people hope, a lot of the younger crowd hope in doing this and to keep hip hop alive for beat makers to actually adventure out and have that time to go and look for beats instead of YouTubing samples and different sounds. Not saying those different sounds are not good to make a beat, but it gives you that real comfortable feeling like “Hey I actually went out and searched for this album, and chopped this up and made this.” You definitely have more appreciation to what you do.

DEHH: The actual process.

Derick: Yeah.

DEHH: And that’s something that you don’t really get to see unless you really dig for it. But it’s nice, it feels really homegrown. Natural.

Derick: Yeah, exactly.

DEHH: I’m just curious. Who are some of your favorite artists or artists who inspired you?

Derick: I would say a lot of artists like Q-Tip, Busta Rhymes. Those are like my two people that are down to earth and old-school that I looked up to when I was younger and still to this day. I listen to them every day. As far as now, I do get into Kid Cudi and Travis Scott, it’s not just the whole boom bap scene or jazz/soul/funk stuff. I’m also into some trap, not into all trap. It has to actually sound right. It has to give me that feeling like I want to listen to it on a daily basis. You know what I mean?

DEHH: Yeah. I think that’s about all I have, do you have any final thoughts?

Derick: I hope that people actually read this or listen to this and I can change some people into becoming beat makers or  doing whatever they want to do in life. Giving people hope, because that’s the whole main idea of this platform for FLIPS. We’ll definitely be coming out with merch soon, t-shirts, hats, coming out with some stickers as well. So be on the lookout for that.


 

I’m not a hat person, but I would get one for FLIPS. So that’s the long and short of FLIPS at the moment, but the best way to understand is to watch the show on YouTube. I recommend you keep an eye on them. And to you Baltimore area cats, hit em up! Relevant links are below.

FLIPS YouTube

FLIPS Twitter

Filed Under: Blog, News Tagged With: baltimore, FLIPS

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