We Are Indigo

Robin Thicke – Slow Down

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download.

Robin Thicke samples one of my favorite Counting Crows songs, Colorblind, on his new track, Slow Down. Even though I can’t say this with entire confidence (since I have never seen Robin Thicke perform life), I don’t know if he could come close to their live performances. I’ve seen the Counting Crows twice in concert, and they always blow me away. Their energy is just so amazing.

Check out the original here…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Counting Crows

KiD CuDi “cudderisback” – Directed by Jason Goldwatch – DatNewCudi.com from DP on Vimeo.

It’s all fun and games in Cudi’s “documentary” for his track, Cudderisback. While on the road in Boston, he decided to shoot a little music video in the hotel. Can you recognize the bouncy melody from somewhere? It’s Vampire Weekend’s “Ottoman.”

Video Breakdown: Cudi displays his lip-syncing skills to his own music as well as his abundance of weed. Way to cut down expenses for the shoot… well, that is depending on how much that weed cost.

Andy Suzuki & The Method take a fresh new take on the lyrics and melody to Drake’s “Best I Ever Had.” I love these guys. Check it out!

My music just keep piling up. Jeesh. My highlight tracks here would have to be J. Cole’s Playground, Statik’s Come Around and Rich Kidd’s So Much More.

Matisyahu ft. Akon – One Day

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Shanell ft. Ne-Yo & Lil Wayne – Other Side

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

J. Cole – Playground

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Lupe Fiasco ft. The Neptunes – Beaming

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Drake – It’s Been A Pleasure

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Jason Derulo – Ridin Solo

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Jason Derulo – Blind

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Rich Kidd ft. Colin Munroe & Saukrates – So Much More

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Statik Selektah ft. Talib Kweli – Come Around

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Usher ft. Nicki Minaj – Lil Freak

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

J. Holiday – Champion

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I was first introduced to the Swedish music scene through Lykke Li, and what a phenomenal introduction that was. Now, this mysterious Swede-pop crew has got me in a trance. The band was originally signed through Sincerely Yours, a label founded by another Swedish pop group, The Tough Alliance. However, just this past December, the band switched over to the record label Secretly Canadian. Their first album, jj n° 2, was released in July 2009. Keep a heads up for their second album, jj n° 3, which hits Sweden and the US March 9, 2010. Their covers are my favorites though!

Just warning you, the song you are about to listen to may tempt you to seek out your most readily available drug dealer. “Guess what drug?” I am assuming if you were to be in a club and listen to Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” while on X, this is exactly what it would sound like… This song flows about as smooth as that purple in Lil Wayne’s cup.

Download  jj’s  n° 2 album here.

It’s the underground world that served as inspiration for Subway Silence, the debut album of Amsterdam based singer Giovanca Ostiana. She observed passengers in the subways of Amsterdam, Paris, and New York. What did she see? That every station brings a new atmosphere, every minute a new emotion, that everything changes constantly, even our perception of ourselves…In one song she places life above love, in the other she begs her lover never to leave her. Contradictory? She prefers calling it realistic. There is always more to what we see and even what we hear. And somewhere in between is the realm in which Giovanca moves.

In her own words: “I was born in the 70s and grew up with the warm sounds of Dionne Warwick and Minnie Riperton, in the 80s supplemented with a solid dose of pop, while in the 90s I completely lost my heart to hip hop.“

I love this girl’s sound. Download Giovanca’s album, Subway Silence, and others now on iTunes.

Check out her MySpace or visit her website.

I like this song and this video a lot. I’ve always appreciated Eminem’s serious side. This is the 3rd official single from his album Relapse. It samples “Reaching Out,” originally written by Rock Therapy (catch the video after the jump). Em began writing the track while he was in rehab and then finished it off when he was sober. This would explain the change in mood in the lyrics, from a state of depression to one of motivation.

Download Eminem – Beautiful here.

An introduction to Nederhop:

Rotterdam, or Roffa in street slang, has always been the hip hop capital of the Netherlands.
When hip-hop culture first crossed the Atlantic from New York, it was in Rotterdam that it found fertile soil. Winne was 18-months-old when his parents moved from the Surinam capital of Paramaribo to the ‘Old West’ neighbourhood in Rotterdam. When he was in primary school, his dad gave him a cassette tape with music by Public Enemy and Ice-T.

To Winne it seemed natural for Rotterdam to embrace hip-hop. The city doesn’t just look like New York; it also resembles it in character, he says. “This is a fast city, where many nationalities live together.” (Link it)

Today’s Teacher: Winnie

Winston Bergwijn, better known as Winne, is a dutch rapper from Rotterdam. He is signed to the Dutch hip-hop label Top Notch. After his EP Onoverwinnelijk he dropped his debut album Winne Zonder Strijd recently (download the EP after the jump). In the summer of 2005, Winnie’s song “Top 3 MC” was released on the Internet by Kapitein Mo and Winne gained a much wider audience.

Link it.

Download Winnie’s EP – Onoverwinnelijk here.

Keep checking back for some more Nederhop talents to come.

Kidz In The Hall – We Gone from Motion Family on Vimeo.

This track is off The Professional Leisure Tour, an EP that Kidz In The Hall dropped a few weeks back. Download the EP here.