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

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

As we continue to show you the things in this world that feeds our brains and souls for our own work, may we present to you the 2nd season premiere of Flight of the Conchords!  Arguably the funniest show on television, Conchords does a great job of weaving music with theatre and comedy, which has given them the ability to translate their show from a celebrated BBC radio series to a highly-accliamed HBO television series to a Grammy-award winning music group to a great live show.  Another great example of cats who are bending not only genres, but also artistic mediums!  Check out their variations of below, first from the HBO series and then from the live show:

Yes, our section Under the Influence is BACK!  Bringing you all the videos we huddle around at the telly rooms while on tour.  Here’s an oldie but goodie, and if you haven’t seen it…brace yourself.  MJ and Prince square off at a 1983 telethon hosted by James Brown!  The comments all over the youtubes heavily side with Jacko, but we might possibly kinda really verymuchso beg to differ.  You decide.

So it seems iLL-Lit has been upgraded to last-minute opening act status here in the Bay, and with the dope artists we’ve been getting stage time with, it’s not a bad place to be.  Tomorrow we’ll be hitting the Independent in San Francisco to kick it off for LA’s Blu and U-N-I! The show is a part of Imeem’s Keys 2 the City, a series documenting musicians like The Roots and Raphael Saadiq and their interactions with their hometowns.

Cop your tix here. And check out Blu and U-N-I’s Keys 2 the City pieces after the jump!
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On the morning of November 4 as we left Washington DC, we flipped on Music is a Weapon, a documentary following Fela Kuti, a musician who once ran for president of Nigeria.  Fela is a huge influence on the music that we have been creating, especially to Dahlak who has recently been dipping his toes in production.

Dubbed as the Father of Afrobeat, Fela was a singer and musician who used his art to influence politics in an unprecidented manner.  Determined to change the direction of his home country of Nigeria, he put himself forward as a presidential candidate in 1979 but was refused and treated like an outlaw.  Fela was immensely prolific, recording more albums than have been accounted for, and at a certain point in his career he held daily jam sessions that lasted all night long, and that people from throughout Africa would drive across several countries to witness.

Fela has influenced musicians across the musical spectrum, from Common to Erykah Badu to Red Hot Chili Peppers.  In the fall of 2008 his life was depicted off-Broadway in the musical Fela!, which received critical acclaim and is set for a Broadway run beginning in 2009.

Check out Music is a Weapon above, and let your life be changed.

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

Pacific Standard Time is very likely the hottest weekly dance party in the Bay.  With the infamous DJ Sake One as the resident, and having featured guest DJs and performers like Q-Tip, Dwele, and Maxwell (yup, Maxwell with the high voice), PST draws the largest crowd of fly people you can fit in one room.  This Tuesday will be even more hotttneessss as they bring in Res, whose debut album How I Do was hooked up by Santi White of Santogold, and is now roaming the stages with Talib Kweli and Graph Nobel as Idle Warship.  Here’s Idle Warship’s new video, “Black Snake Moan.” It takes some getting used to seeing Kweli on a club joint, but Res is the shit.

UPDATE: doy, forgot to put the event details:

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.

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.”

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.

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!!!!