It’s Black Friday, y’all.  Did you line up outside of Toys R Us at 6am??  Trample any mothers for a talking Teletubby?  Hope not.

Well, when all your hypershopping in the real world is finished, hop online to LA clothing company GRN Apple Tree’s site and check out these two delicious pieces women’s outerwear designed by Adriel’s own baby sister, Kimberly Luis! My, long gone are the days of fighting over the Super Mario Kart controller.

PS: The white girl isn’t Adriel’s sister.

There’s guy gear too!  Find it all at GRNAppleTree.com

It’s turkey day! Make sure you get all the sweet potatoes, mac&cheese, cornbread, and greens in your system, because you’ll be burning it all off on the dancefloor tonight at Dahlak’s Kanye West Tribute party!  Celebrating the release of Dahlak’s new mixtape Commencement, as well as Yeezy’s 808’s and Heartbreaks, the night is sure to be fiiiiiiiiiiiiyahhhhhhh!  You know everyone at the family party will be knocked out by 10 anyway.

New goodness from our LA brotha Bambu!  Grabbing footage from his nationwide travels, check out the new video for “Like Us,” produced by  Xylophone Films.

All this electro-influenced rap coming out the woodworks isn’t new to Zion I, who had been freaking over drum-n-bass and house beats since their first album, Mind Over Matter, which dropped almost a decade ago.  While the duo waits for everyone to catch up, they pay a visit to the old school, and track their way back into the weird outerspacean cosmos that they’re used to.

Check out one of the tracks, their remix of Santogold’s “Starstruck,” featuring Grouch:

Ready for the best part though? The mixtape’s FREE at the Zion I website. Oooh yeah baby.

We hope, from the depths of our beings, that you don’t have the god-forsaken task of having to handly any responsibilities whatsoever this Friday morning, after you’ve spent an entire evening of stuffing yourself with delicious turkey.  So after you’ve shaken off the itis, recovered from your hangover, and paid tribute to the pilgrims who slaughtered their way into American history, can you think of anything you’d rather do than get down to some Bobby Brown???  Neither can we.

Our iLL-homie DJ Zita will be hosting the monthly old school RnB and hip-hop night Reverse, along with greats like Vinroc and ShredOne.  And for real…you know you’ll need to burn off those calories from the mac and cheese.

Event details after the jump. (more…)

We’re glad we finally got a chance to meet Theophilus London when he came through to rock with us at Crash Mansion NYC.  Besides being one of the few people tall enough to make Ruby look short, the man definitely knows how to work a crowd, and he made many-a-believer that night.  Here’s his new track featuring Jesse Boykins III, who also played with us at the show.  It’s called “Cold Pillow.” Don’t sleep.

[DOWNLOAD Theophilus London ft. Jesse Boykins III - "Cold Pillow" via Trees for Breakfast]

Kanye West is a musician and designer from Chicago, iLLinois.

Click HERE to see Kanye linking Dahlak on Twitter and our late asses not noticing until today…

There are three things that Ruby could possibly be doing with that shovel over there:

1. Posing as the Virgin Mary for a nativity scene–except one where Mary is Filipino, Christmas is in the fall, and Joseph is a farming tool (it’s not blasphemy if you’re talking about the Son of God’s dad…)

2. Reflecting on a date that ended really really really really really badly.

3. APPEARING ON HER FIRST MAGAZINE COVER EVERRRRRRRRR!!!

Sure it’s a local Oakland magazine, but Oakbook is a hella fresh magazine at that, and who knows what other magazine covers this might lead to…Vibe?  Fader? Martha Stewart Living??  The possibilities are endless.

If you’re the O, pick up an issue at one of these fine locations.  Otherwise, wait for Oakland to take over the world, and hopefully one will end up on your doorstep.

The thing about having a name like The Beatards is that you’d better be pretty damned good or else you’re just a bunch of chumps with a politically-incorrect name.  Fortunately for beatarded people everywhere, this trio has been setting it off for some time now, co-founding the monthly NYC dance remix party Mixtape Riot, worked alongside funky individuals like Santogold and Spank Rock, and recently dropped their brand new EP, Big Bad Beat.  Pretty damned good.

A couple of us met the crew a couple days ago in NY, where they politely informed us that they will be catching some of that 80-degree Cali December weather before we will.  Bastards.

Hit the jump to check out their Cali dates, then go nuts to their video, “Make the Bed.” (more…)

Oyy, we’re finally getting around to digging up the footage from our recent Natural Electricity Tour!  Here’s the intro to our set, a new song written by Ruby, called “The Rebooty Shake.” The sound in the video’s a bit wacky but we really really liked the lights at this show.  More to come soon!

There are three initial reactions to Dahlak being on the “Helly Hyphy Hour” hosted by DJ Matt Werner on the UK’s FreshAir:

1. They go dumb in London???

2. Dahlak’s not really that hyphy…but maybe you have to at least have a bit of hyphy-ness in you to pull off a 40-minute phone interview by yourself.

3. One thing that’s definitely gonna be hyphy–that phone bill for the 40-minute call from London.  Yeeee!

Definitely it out though…the first interview with any of the iLL-Lit members after the Natural Electricity Tour…D talks about his mixtape, the future of iLL-Literacy, and how Q-Tip be picking ideas right out his head.

Born and raised in Harlem, James Baldwin is one of the most influential writers in 20th Century American literature.  Known for his keen talent in writing imagery and willingness to push the borders of social commentary, Baldwin was a pioneer for black and queer literature, and their intersections.

**So, can we note that during this time where Prop 8 is stripping people of rights, largely based on the fear of “gay literature in our childrens’ curriculums,” that would include Mr. Baldwin as well as, um, William Shakespeare??

Baldwin was good friends with poet Langston Hughes (Not Without Laughter) and playright Lorraine Hansberry (A Raisin in the Sun), and together are credited for introducing the philosophy of the Civil Rights Movement to none other than the legendary singer Nina Simone.  How’s that for a dope ass crew??

Baldwin is the writer of several classics, including Go Tell It On a Mountain and Giovanni’s Room, but if you’re just getting started, we recommend his short story, “Sonny’s Blues.”

Above is an excerpt of his interview with social scientist Kenneth B. Clark (conductor of the black doll experiment that helped win Brown v. Board of Education), where he shares his thoughts on Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, and the future of America.

BLACK GENIUSES is a new section of the iLL-Literacy blog inspired by Dahlak’s song “Black Genius.”

From:

11.12.08:

Crash Mansion::NYC, Featuring Theophilius London and iLL-Literacy

Photos Courtesy of Lukas Brekke-Miesner and Niema Jordan

Hey hey hey! Hello from New York, New York! Now that the Natural Electricity tour has unplugged, Drizzle and I are chillin on the Upper West Side, trading in the funk for Christmas songs. (Yes, we’re feeling quite Merry.) Christmas is here! (I’m big on Christmas.) What does Christmas have to do with anything? Nothing, except that I have a present for you: I stayed up til 4 AM blogging these pictures. Now that’s love. Toodles.
Love, Ruby

Check out Lukas’ blog here, and check the concert review from Niema on Venus Zine!

pictures after the jump: (more…)

As a nod to Dahlak’s new song and video “Black Genius,” we present the similarly titled new section of the iLL-Blog, where we show you some of the videos, interviews, and articles from the prominent black voices of yesterday, today, and tomorrow…mostly comprised of the type of stuff we geek out to during rehearsal breaks and in the hotel rooms on tour.

First is this incredible conversation between professor and activist Cornell West (author of Race Matters), and legendary writer Toni Morrison (Beloved, Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, Sula, Jazz…and hella other books that make us feel inadequate as writers).

Taking place on March 24, 2004, it’s interesting to see how far we’ve advanced, as well as how stagnant we’ve remained, since this period rounding the end of Bush’s first term.  A conversation that moves from war to queer rights to artistic inspiration, here’s 60 minutes of your life well spent.

Click here to watch via Free Speech TV.

The Natural Electricity Tour is over!!!  And being that we did a horrible job keeping you updated while we were on the road, you can expect this site to be a wasteland for a bunch of footage, photos, rants, and west coast vs. east coast beefs for the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime though, check out Venus Zine’s review of our Crash Mansion show:

VENUS ZINE: iLL-Literacy’s Natural Electricity Tour is Bigger than Poetry in NYC

by Niema Jordan.  Thanks Coolhand Luke for the pic!