Nice video, BS boys.  We still love our Cali winters though.

There are few people who get a shorter end of the stick than those born the day after Christmas.  Besides probably getting a massive amount of regifts and “this is for your birthday aaaand Christmas” presents, it must be difficult and confusing to follow Jesus’ unbirthday.  However, if you’re Bay Area super producer/emcee/sweater vest wearer/iLL-homie Trackademicks, you simply brush it off and make a slappin’-ass joint for yourself and throw it up on YouTube.  And with all the work he’s done for Phonte, J*Davey, and Lyrics Born, a whole video dedicated to yourself is well deserved.  Happy birfday homie!

Check out more fre$h coast livin at Tracka’s blog.

Oy, and if you’re in the Bay on Tuesday, come to PST to celebrate!

BONUS: His mixtape that you’ve hopefully already had since April

Bambu’s long-awaited video for his new single “Crooks & Rooks” is out!!!  Check it out at his OkayPlayer feature and show some love!

Normally when someone uses the word “eclectic” to describe something, you expect it to involve things along the lines of raw beet sandwiches and knitted boxer shorts.  However, anything that involves our iLL-homie Dandiggity is automatically fresh, which overrides all.

He’s been holding it down for the past few months as a writer for the superdope blog Blind I, and earlier this week he dropped Eclecticuts Vol 4., probably the best collection of hip-hop, soul, and house that you’ll hear for the rest of the year. Ooooooooooooh it’s so bangin!

Click here to download, and click here for the tracklisting.  HOt diggity!

2009 will be all about making green, in all ways imaginable.  As we here at iLL-Lit go deeper into exploring the concept of Natural Electricity, we’ll be showing y’all the best ways to keep the planet and yourselves extra fly.  So even though our UC Berkeley homies at Maganda Magazine are coming kinda intense with their logo of an earth wrapped in roots sprouding a clockworking battery that blossoms a flower with a fist in the middle (see?  intense.) we’re all about it!

They’re accepting literary, audio, visual, and film submissions for their upcoming issue entitled GENERATE.  And just to show how much they’re all about saving energy, their December 19, 2008 submission deadline really means January 20, 2009.  That’s right, act like the future is now!  Or now is the future?  How about you just click the jump to get submission details and to see that intense-ass battery-fist-flower-power thing.
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Last year we participated in The Hybrid Project at Intersection for the Arts, a theatre series aimed at expanding the scope of spoken word through the implementation of music, dance, and theatre.  This year, the tradition continues with a hottttttttttt lineup!  This coming weekend, our iLL-homies Jose Vadi and Jason Mateo will be presenting brand new pieces.  We’ll be there Thursday…come through and kiiiiiick it!

The Hybrid Project
@Intersection for the Arts
446 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA
Buy Tickets

Yo, our iLL-homie 5th Ave has been pumping out music like Lauryn Hill pumps out babies, who pumps out babies like Lil Wayne pumps out music.  This month he’ll be dropping the Bright City Lights EP, and WE have the official leak!  We can’t shoot you the whole thing quite yet, but here’s the very very fresh opening track, “Let the Moon Shine Dawg.”  Still sounds good during the daytime.

[DOWNLOAD 5th Ave's "Let the Moon Shine Dawg"]

The perpetually fly line Mama Clothing has just released their Winter 08 line, “La Vida Loca” which we think means déjà vu in Cantonese.  But you know what thing that has no language barriers?  Good fashion.

Via the consistently hot people at M.I.S.S. Crew.

This past weekend a couple of us met Oakland legends Fiyawata, a hip-hop duo that has been holding it down over here for some time now.  From the small 33 Degrees of Love & Sound house parties we used to throw, to the big stage with the likes of Mos Def and dead prez, Fiyawata brings that…well, they bring that fiya.  Check out their single, “Do You Know My Name,” and then cop their latest project, This is a Journey into Sound.

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

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’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]

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…)

Well, we’re approaching the end of the Natural Electricity Tour, and like always, we’ve been doing a horrible job of keeping y’all updated on our excursions.  The good news is that we’ve got loads of photos and footage both on and offstage, and we’ll be sure to put you on game as soon as we get some time to go through it all.

In the meantime, here’s some footage of an impromptu jam session that broke out in the Boston basement of our iLL-homies Invisible Inc., who rocked with us at our Boston College show on the 10th.  Definitely one of the highlights of the tour, members of iLL-Literacy, the Hi-Lifes, and Invisible Inc. all falling into a cypher that listed until the wee hours of the morning.  This is part one, and we’ve got some mo fo yo ass in the near future.  Keep it locked!!!!