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It's summertime and the livin' is easy.  Picking up where the last volume left off, here is more music for hot days and warm nights.



SUMMER Vol. 2
Take 2 Blue - Bitter:Sweet
How you like me now - The Heavy
Tighten Up - Archie Bell & The Drells
Funky Nassau - Orgone
I learned the hard way - Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
You should be dancin' - The Bee Gees
Instrumentalude - Blitz the Ambassador
A River Dry (Girl from the South) Remix - Fantastic Plastic Machine
Shutterbug - Big Boi
Bumper 2 Bumper - Wande Coal
Crosstown Traffic - Jimi Hendrix
Gbono Fele - D'banj
We Fight/We Love Remix - Consequence ft. Q-Tip & Kanye West
The Prelude - Jay-Z
Crystal Blue Persuasion - Tommy James & The Shondells
Lawn Boy - Phish
Lala lala - Tony Williams
Temptation Sensation - Henry Kiessling
Double Back on this Love - Tony Williams

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There's a wood carving on the wall of a log cabin somewhere in Maine that says, "he that has the ability to see nature never grows old."  Spring has sprung ladies and gents.  You know, what some call like to sweatshirt season. So in light of that, here's the first in a series of season inspired tracks.  Out of too many conversations about the emotional rollercoaster that is winter emerged this particular mix.  So these are carefully selected to help you thaw out of hibernation. Just hit play and you're set. Better yet, just add it to your library and take them with you everywhere. Stay tuned for the next season...

         

Officially the most BADASS animated - and arguably real-life progressive hip hop group: GORILLAZ.

Their new single music video, Stylo, features none other than BRUCE WILLIS! Can you get anymore badass than that!?

Cop their new album Plastic Beach (info under the video)

Piggy-backing on the previous viral marketing commercial, nothing will become more viral than a parody of an already-highly-buzzed topic. And for the past month or so that topic is: "iPad".

Props to Doritos (and their creative marketing agency) for this a quite impressive Doritos microsite and this briliant Spoof:




And if you haven't yet checked out the actual iPad, you should.

Viral marketing is all the buzz - no pun intended. And it's an art. Most viral content happens by accident. Though if you are are social media marketing pro, a strategic viral marketing campaign is a science. Check out this video done right for Grasshopper.com that went viral just recently. A prime example of calculated success.

 The New Dork | Entrepreneur State of Mind (Jay-Z ft Alicia Keys Spoof)

Adam Gibbons (Uhuru Afrika) put me on to a really awesome website recently, called AwesomeTapesfromAfrica (ATfA).  Literally an awesome collection of tapes made and found all over Africa, and compiled on to one website for your listening pleasure.  On there I came across Snr. Eddie Donkor's Eye Banker, which the author describes as "Perfect Ghanaian highlife from a legendary guitarist-bandleader. This is the best highlife album in my life right now. Synths and brotherly advice about money, women and gossip. Exactly."  You'll find the whole album and more on ATfA, but you can get started with the first two tracks from the album here.  Enjoy.

 Snr Eddie Donkor - Eye Banker
Snr Eddie Donkor - Kwaku Anase

Are you sitting comfortably?  Now let's begin.  Or more so, close out 2009.  It's seems that everyone is really eager to throw out 2009 with the bath water.  I personally beg to differ.  A common malady of our current web 2.0 generation is ridiculously short memory spans, and if some of us were to actually consider the entirety of '09 we'd find something to cheer about.  So here's my thanks to 09.  The year that connected all of us much closer than we are even yet to realize; giving way to the rise of social media, unreal NYC all night dance parties, the disco ball at Santos party House, pastel colored sunglasses, the most ridiculous Bonnaroo ever, Pretty Lights, Phish coming back, the most amazing concert i've ever been to with The Roots and Antibalas @ the Red Bull Soundclash, rocking out underneath the McGrath Bridge, free Chester French and Wale concert in Harvard Square, Jesse Dee, The Bodega Girls, Show Dem Camp, Blackjoy, Shepard Fairey at the ICA, dance parties at the ICA... i could keep going but it'd take too long.  So if you're of the opinion that this year wasn't that great, you probably weren't trying hard enough. 





As we proceed into the new year, the Highlife crew would like to thank you all for your support.  This enterprise has been a leap of faith from the beginning, and it wouldn't be possible without all of you out there.  The scary thing about leaps of faith is that you don't how or if you'll land.  But you have to jump anyway.  That said, our resolution for 2010 is to make the impossible possible.  Keep watching this space.

Jumpoff On Point 2009


Happy New Year!!!

ENTER: BLAKROC

What a crew. What a project. What an incredible collaboration of some of the most talented, artistic and visionary hip hop artists of our time. Eye-up this line up:

MOS DEF
RAEKWON
Q-TIP
RZA
JIM JONES
NOE
PHAROAHE MONCH
BILLY DANZE
NICOLE WRAY
And samples of ODB




And the short vid



For more about this project, gaze the Black Keys  BLAKROC Artists site
Check the BLAKROC Webisodes here
Or tune into BLAKROC Radio 

Happy Friday people!  I've been in a great mood all day and it seemed like a good idea to share some of the goodness.  I put up a few On Point posts last week about Dimitri from Paris and Fantastic Plastic Machine, that if you peeped will be a perfect segue into this contents of this post.   There have been a few new releases in the past few months that have got me pretty excited about life.  Mos Def's The Ecstatic, Brother Ali's US, Gossip's Music for Men, the second half of Jay-Z's Blueprint 3, and Ghostface Killah's Ghostdini, Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City, to name a few.   So for those who haven't been on top of their music game lately, here's a refresher course in what you've been missing.  Plus a few other gems from Saint Etienne, Syreeta, The Disco Biscuits, Ugly Duckling, and Pharcyde.  It's music to handle bidness to.   Welcome to The Jumpoff!

Business Related Affairs


That's all today.  Rock it out this weekend, or at least try to be creative.  Until next time, be easy.
-Afolabi

This is just classic - Eddie Murphy AND Rick James - the video is just priceless.