The New York Guitar Festival has added Grammy-winning guitarist Warren Haynes to the already packed line up for ‘Reverend Gary Davis: In Search of the Harlem Street Singer’. Slated to be a virtually accessible twelve song series, NYGF will release one video performance on their Youtube channel nightly at 4 PM EDT.
Listen to the full collection of audio recordings from Reverend Gary Davis: In Search of the Harlem Street Singer––as debuted yesterday on WNYC’s “New Sounds”––HERE.
While access is free, organizers are asking viewers that can, to make donations to MusiCares. Started by The Recording Academy’s MusicCares COVID-19 Relief Fund, their goal is to help the music communities affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. Listen below to Rosanne Cash & John Leventhal performing ‘Tryin To Get Home’
‘Reverend Gary Davis: In Search of the Harlem Street Singer’ Program Schedule
New York-based folk artist Levi Robin has released his brand new album When Night Meets Day, which takes us on a journey through a powerful collection of songs that Levi spent writing over the course of several years. Much of the album is influenced by Levi’s fascination and dedication to the kabbalistic and Chassidic teachings of Torah, though it may not be conveyed in a way the listener expects or recognizes.
For one, most everything is written in parable. Also one might expect spirituality to come with some sort of detached enlightenment, heavenly contentment and unbounded idealism, and that would be true if the soul was in a heavenly world right now, but in truth we are souls embodied in a material world, facing challenges and concealments, tests and tribulations. Our lives are of extreme paradox with dynamic highs and lows. And so, Where Night Meets Day is Levi’s invitation to you; to enter a purposeful and intentional embrace of life’s dichotomies, night and day, life and death, pain and pleasure, detachment and embrace, transience and eternity…
The album opens up with “No Other,” a carefully picked guitar track that smoothly transcends into an upbeat folk song. This song truly launches the album and sets the mood for the record. Throughout the album are songs like “Alabama” and “Hey Love” that have a pleasant atmospheric, airy tone accompanied with soft vocals, which serve as a blanket for all your potential fears and anxiety. Levi has been hard at work on new material with Grammy-nominated bassist, composer, and producer Stu Brooks and Grammy-nominated producer and engineer Joel Hamilton. Be sure to stay tuned this year for more music and content releases from Levi Robin.
Born out of a local 518 basement, Taco Night is all about good time rock and roll. For the past four years or so, on Friday night, this group of friends has practiced what they love while being inspired and nourished by the tacos they’ve prepared for the evening’s festivities. And boy, do the Taco Night guys know tacos – they even have a few recipes for your Cinco de Mayo dining pleasure!
Taco Night combines blues, classic rock, funk, and soul with their own spicy blend of improvisation. “Cinco,” which debuted three years ago at their first Cinco de Mayo show has a message of fun, positivity and friendship, something we could all use right now. The catchy chorus will have you asking, “Why can’t everyday be Cinco de Mayo?”
Taco Night hopes this video helps everyone have a happy Cinco de Mayo. They’ll be diving into their vast archive of tunes and will be releasing more music as we all wait to see what happens to the local live music scene in the Capital District and beyond. Please support your local establishments however you can and hopefully we can all safely see shows again someday soon.
If you need some taco inspiration or are looking to try something new at home, here are some of Taco Night’s favorites for days like today.
In a statement on Facebook, organizers of the two-day event held within the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival, have announced that the 2020 Tumbledown edition is cancelled, due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
It comes with great sadness that as a result of COVID-19, Tumble Down 2020 is cancelled. This was our Sweet Number 5 and we were so excited to drop an amazing lineup this year. We promise that we are working on something very special that we will be announcing very soon. There isn’t much that hurts us more than canceling our favorite event of the year, in our home town with all of you, but unfortunately we have no choice.
Refunds will be issued automatically to everyone at point of purchase. However there may be some delays, so please be patient. Please contact box@highergroundmusic.com if you have questions or concerns.
We love you, stay safe and healthy and we will get through this together – .
Tumbledown 2020 has been a staple of Burlington summers since 2016, with Vermont’s own Twiddle headlining both days of the festival. The event grew into the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival in 2017 with shows bookending Tumbledown for a four-day event that drew thousands to the Lake Champlain waterfront from around the Northeast. Check out our coverage from 2019 here.
In these uncertain times, we’re seeing an influx in live streams and album releases as bands try to find ways to entertain their fans and make the most of this strange situation. Cycles, a psychedelic-rock-fusion power-trio from Denver, released their new EP, Summer Dress, on March 27th and also joined the nugs.net family that week, a move that ensures they’ll find plenty of new fans despite having to postpone their Spring Tour for safety reasons. These five tracks are the bands first release in three years and were all produced by Josh Fairman of SunSquabi, who helped encapsulate the tremendous skill that all three band members share into a record with a great live sound.
The opening track starts with a peek at Colin O’Brien’s incredible drum work before the lyrics offer a well-timed reminder that just because we may be stuck at home doesn’t mean we have to be stuck staring at the countless screens around us. Tucker McClung’s flittering bass plays wonderfully underneath Patrick Harvey’s guitar licks and jam at the end of “Robot’s Breath” put an instant smile on my face.
Next up is “The Key,” an instrumental that really highlights what this band is capable of. The first half of this gem is a composed masterpiece that each member shines on before they all let loose in the funkier, psychedelic second half. Patrick’s soaring guitar is what grabs your attention during the first listen of this track, but the intricate bass playing and the intense drums will be all that you focus on when you relisten to it.
The title track, “Summer Dress,” start with a twisting, airy introduction and after a stratospheric guitar solo, gets punched up in a blast of funk. After another jam that is sure to be incredible live, it ends in a flowing send off with Tucker’s bass powering through to the very end. This band has such a fresh sound and are able to bring new and unique takes to each of these tracks.
“The Clock” starts off like a sports car and Colin’s drumming takes a front seat during this offering. This track has so many levels to it and it’s an exciting ride. The first jam has a psychedelic Deep Purple vibe which makes it way into a slower, blissful jam a third of the way though the song. This transitions into a grimey groove that morphs into a rocket ship of a guitar solo. Each member really shows what they’re made of before this one finishes up.
Cycles‘ EP finishes with “Sunrise,” a beautiful piece that musically showcases that specific time each morning. Starting off with a dreamy first half, it boils up into a sendoff as joyful as the rising sun. Summer Dress can be found on all streaming services and you can also find more information about the band and their current streaming plans on their Facebook page.
Legendary New York folk music icon, Pete Seeger, was born on this day, May 3, in 1919. Hailing from the small town of Beacon, Pete Seeger is remembered for his contributions to American folk music and activism. Armed with a banjo that read “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender,” Seeger performed to numerous audiences from his first years active in the late 1930s up until his passing in January of 2014.
Seeger, the lifelong resident of New York, started playing folk music at a young age, learning from his father, Charles Seeger. Seeger went on to inspire several generations of musicians including Bob Dylan and Tom Morello who have both cited his work as an inspiration. His musical impact is far reaching no doubt, but Seeger is also remembered as an activist, often calling for social change, and as a teacher. Seeger lived his life passing down knowledge and teaching music with the upmost promising and reassuring outlook; encouraging people to do the right thing and to take a stand for what they believe in.
Seeger never showed signs of slowing down. Even one of his last performances, the 2013 Farm Aid benefit at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Seeger remained hopeful of social change. During his performance of “This Land is Your Land” Seeger added in a new verse singing, “New York is my home, New York is your home. From the Upstate mountains to the ocean foam. With all kinds of people, yes, we’re poly-grown, New York was meant to be frack free”. Not afraid to mix music with politics, Seeger always made a point to stand up for what he believed in.
Seeger will always be remembered. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the recipient of several awards including the honorable Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award along with nine other Grammy Awards for a total of 13 nominations. Last year, in 2019, Seeger’s 100th birthday was remembered and celebrated with the Pete Seeger Centennial at The Egg in Albany, NY. With performances by Arlo Guthrie, son of bluegrass legend Woody Guthrie, and several other artists, it’s clear that the flame that Seeger ignited and the torch that he bore will continue to be carried on by generations to come.
The Wu-Tang Clan is one of the most celebrated and impactful musical groups in history. In our era of transparency, it is only fitting that a biopic of sorts would materialize itself. Telling the complete story of a group as large as the Clan isn’t feasible (not to mention any adjacent characters) in 90 minutes (the pre-requisite for big-screen biopics). Therefore, enter Wu-Tang: An American Saga.
In 2019, the Emmy-nominated Hulu original series rehashed the rise of the legendary hip-hop group. Written by Alex Tse and RZA and executive produced by Tse, RZA, Method Man, Brian Grazer, Michael Rosenberg and Francie Calfo, the series debuted on Wednesday, September 4 with three episodes and followed with an ensuing episode each week, in honor of #WuTang Wednesday.
https://youtu.be/kBy9umOnhZw
Inspired by RZA’s guide to the clan, The Wu-Tang Manual and its follow-up, Toa of Wu, the series is set in the early in 1990s Staten Island, New York during the peak of the crack epidemic. It follows the formation of the clan through the lens of RZA. Bobby Diggs’ (RZA) love for music and producing gives him hope for making it out of the inner-cities of Staten Island. His ambitions also include formulating a super-group highlighting the borough’s talent, hoping to harness their untapped potential. What stands in their way are the allures of the street life, the drug trade and vices that have ruined many a dream for young minorities.
The series format resembles that of The Get Down— a Netflix original series that gave a fictionalized chronology of hip hop’s birth — yet, Wu-Tang: An American Saga has intensity and realism (felt from the opening scene and onward) that outpaces the former. While the screenplay is captivating on its own (who doesn’t want to have some semblance of an idea of how the most unique rap group ever was formed?), the acting makes it that much more enjoyable. Rappers Dave East and Joey Badass each embody their respective roles. Dave East, who had the challenge of portraying the Clan’s most mainstream member in Method Man and in his first real acting gig, does an honorable job of representing the hip hop legend. Moonlight actor Ashton Sanders’ portrayal of RZA is award-worthy, from his speech to his mannerisms; the production value is very high.
Although based in the 1990s, issues tackled are those that are still prevalent in present-day black inner-cities. Obstacles such as poverty, crime, the inner workings of the drug trade as well as the corruption that follows, are all issues the main characters have to bypass on their way to success.
In that same vein of realism, characters are also seen hitting rock-bottom and having to reinvent themselves to ascend to greater heights. Young black males are forced to be the man of the house at young ages (seen with RZA’s brother Divine, who was the family’s main provider through his drug dealings). With illegal affairs such a big part of the series, the consequences of the street life and the dangers that it invites are also highlighted. The inevitable run-ins with the law, prison sentences, prison life, the pain of a mother losing a son and the gut-wrenching feeling of wanting to change your environment and the helplessness one feels in those moments are all captivating themes that the series explores. The destitution of the “hood” leads many of the Clan members to follow the five percent teachings and philosophies they’ve gone on to (along with many other notable hip hop acts) popularize in their music.
Even though many of the accounts have been dramatized/fictionalized, it is still really fun to get insight on the influences that made the Clan unique. For example, RZA’s creativity and genius comes from his quick thinking and ability to solve problems and applying those abilities into his production. We also get an idea as to how he became the group’s de facto leader, as he was playing peacemaker between members long before platinum records.
Wu-Tang: An American Saga is must-watch television. Not only is it informative, the cast – which ranges from Shameik Moore, Ashton Sanders, to Dave East and Joey Badass. do an exemplary job of portraying each respective pioneer of the Clan. With no big-screen release date to rush storylines, writers can take ample time to figure out the best cross between dramatic/entertaining television and re-counting the tales of some of the most important figures in rap history.
Imagine you’re an aspiring 11-year-old musician and your father tells you, “Devon plays music next door.” Then, that Devon turns out to be Devon Allman, son of Allman Brothers founding member Gregg Allman, and co-founder of the Allman Betts Band. If I was that kid, I would have to change my underwear. But for singer/songwriter Jackson Stokes, it is one of several galvanizing moments in this up and coming rocker’s venture into music.
At the ripe old age of 27, Tyler Jackson Stokes pursuit of music has been dotted with you can’t make this shit up moments, joined by those of honesty, passion, and respect, that has helped to subsidize his development. I spoke with Stokes by phone from his home in St. Louis, MO at the latter end of a self-imposed quarantine after returning from a west coast tour, because, as he puts it, “I shook a lot of hands on the west coast.”
Over the last few years, Jackson has been fortifying his road chops as a member of The Devon Allman Band, The Devon Allman Project, and in 2020, opening for the Allman Betts Band in support of his debut release, Jackson Stokes, out on Create Records, Devon Allman’s new record label.
Knowing how his association with Devon Allman has turned out, I wanted to go back to the beginning when Jackson found out who his next-door neighbor was. I imagined that he started playing his guitar in the garage, door open, amp up to 11, hoping, praying, that Devon would hear it and say, “Who is that? I’ve got to go play with him!” Sharing my hypothesis with Stokes, knowing full well it wasn’t true, he joyously took the moment to set the record straight. “Well that’s not what happened. But, it’s not far from it.”
“It was very organic. My dad, I call him a talk to the neighbor’s guy. Older fashion, knows everyone, help’s everyone out kind of thing, and I was learning and already playing guitar and really passionate about it. My dad has seven Allman Brothers vinyls, and had been an Allman Brother’s fan, but doesn’t get caught up in celebrities. He said, ‘Devon plays music next door. You should go talk to him.’ So, I walked over there. I just had an acoustic guitar and knocked on his door. He opened up and he was like ‘Hello?’ and I was like ‘Hey, I’m Tyler, I’m from next door. I play guitar.’ I remember him saying ‘well play a little bit.’ I played a little bit for him, and he could tell I wasn’t just a kid, I was passionate. He said, ‘that was cool, kid next door plays guitar, I play guitar.’ “
“But the real defining moment; I was playing with my friends and I heard the music coming from their house. I left my friends and said ‘guys, I have to go check this out.’ So I left my friends, and I knocked on their door and Devon opened. ‘Excuse me, Mr. Allman, you mind if I just come watch your rehearsal?’ It was beautiful. You’re 11 and you just don’t really know about social norms. It’s blissful ignorance. He said ‘okay, sit in the corner and shut up.’ So, I sat in the corner. I believe they practiced every Wednesday. From 7 – 9 or 6 – 8. So, I would come home from school, do my homework really quickly, and I would just go over there and watch them work. Watch them rehearse. Watch them talk. Then afterward I would ask questions and Devon and I just became friends.“
“We kept up for five or six years and I finally came up with some songs. I had written songs before and he would say, ‘You’re a promising writer.’ I finally wrote some that were good enough and he was like ‘Hey, I’d love to produce an EP.’ Then from the EP, we did this little five song in Memphis with my old band (Delta Sol Revival) and it went really well. So, he was like ‘I’d like to do a solo record for you and an LP.’ When we started doing it, a job opened up in his band and he said, ‘I’m already producing your record, why don’t you come on the road for 2 years, tour with me, kind of build up a little fan base. Get some sea legs underneath you. Then we’ll release it and you can go back on your own.’ So that’s somehow, exactly how it worked.”
With that, Jackson’s voice takes on a tone of reflection. “When in a big journey, you forget the little steps, and all the things that had to just keep going right. So lately, I have been taking a lot of gratitude inventory. This is an amazing story. I never thought of it that way. It is very unique, and it’s crazy that the universe would catch both of these careers riding it and working alongside each other. I hope that I’ve been able to help Devon’s career, but obviously he has helped my career way more than I’ll know.”
Before ever getting his hands on 6 strings, air guitar was his instrument. Taking center stage in his room for an audience of siblings, he would exhibit his talents via Lynyrd Skynyrd ‘s “Gimme Three Steps,” for them. “I really got into Skynyrd,” he proudly boasts. “My parents took me to a Lynyrd Skynyrd show. It was great. It was like anyone’s first show. I had seen shows, but this was my first show where I was really invested in theband! I knew every song, I was prepared, I was ready to go. Obviously, that experience for anyone’s first invested concert is changing for most of us music people. I came home, and the next day I picked up a guitar.“
With Stokes pursuit of music now in full force, his musical palate matured over his formidable years. He breaks down his genre discoveries by age ranges, similar to pencil marks on a wall, showing how you’ve grown. From ten to thirteen, it was, as he describes it, classic rock. Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin. Being a mid-westerner, Styx, Super Tramp, & Foreigner are in that mix in for good measure. Blues is the next notch on the wall. Barely a teenager, he could already discern the sacredness of the Blues, while looking to the masters: Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, B.B. King & Albert King (a St. Louis native) to help guide him through his apprenticeship. Mid high school found Jackson taking a deep dive into jazz. Bebop to Big Band and everything in-between. Add sojourns into Soul and Latin music, and you get the depth of Jackson’s musical awareness which has served as architect to his musical evolution.
I hope that I’ve been able to help Devon’s career, but obviously he has helped my career way more than I’ll know.
Jackson Stokes
Post high school, Stokes attended Drury University where he obtained a degree in musical therapy. Not exactly the career path that one takes if the studio and road are to be your life’s calling. I asked about this decision and how he uses it today. While praising the profession, Stokes offered up a disclaimer; “I am a certified music therapist, but I do not practice music therapy. I am not doing music therapy by playing music.”
His time studying music therapy took him down a path that varies from a typical music major. “I worked a lot in Hospice, a lot with kids with autism. A lot of that is patient preferred music. I was playing a lot of music that the people loved. In Hospice, I played a lot of old jazz standards, because there were older people. That really helped me grow in the sense of just playing different styles of music and working with people. The college degree thing was essentially a backup. All my family is creative. My brother is a journalist, my other brother is a filmmaker. My parents were just hoping to God that one of them would go to college to get a back-up career. I did that, and I am blessed I haven’t had to use it.
But let’s not think that school didn’t produce its own rewards. “I didn’t have a normal music school thing,” he asserts. “I got to experience a lot of heavier life things, which I think inspired my life and writing a lot. I wasn’t just sitting in a practice room and going to frat parties. I was working in hospitals or in hospice wards, helping people in harder situations. I feel like it almost escalated some life experiences for me or sped it up. “
Ben Bicklein, Jackson Stokes
“It really helps me with gauging an audience in performing, because you have to adapt very, very quickly when you are a music therapist. You never know what’s going to happen. You’re working with kids with autism, or people with mental disabilities, or people that have triggers. You’ve got to be very cognizant of how their reacting. What I’ve learned specifically is there is a thing called the ISO PRINCIPLE, which means you meet someone where they are and take them where they want to be. If someone has terminal restlessness and they are going crazy at the end of life, they’re cussing and yelling and throwing things, because obviously it’s a lot of stress, you don’t play a soft song to calm them down. You play a loud song to match their mood. Then you slowly, in about 30 minutes, slowly, slow it down, and soon they are sleeping. That taught me a lot about gauging a room. In a theater, people are going to be sitting down, so it’s not like a club atmosphere. So, you come out, you want to hit them, but playing that slow song grabs them in a different way and you could bring them up from there. Or vice a versa, you’re in a club and it’s rocking and rolling and you play that slow song, you’re going to poop the bed. I know. I have done it.”
With a life fully consumed by music, I wondered if there was there a truly defining moment that solidified his commitment or had it always been there, and he just had to enable it? Taking a moment to ponder, “A little column A, a little column B,” Jackson responds. “I went to go see Robert Randolph, mid-high school. I had already been playing, so serious about music. You know, you’re a sophomore in high school, you kind of got things figured out, but also, the world’s your oyster. I went to go see Robert Randolph and he used to bring up people on stage out of the audience. He would suggest, ‘Who plays guitar?’ and someone would come up. If they could really play, great. If they could kind of play, they would make it work. Or jam around it.”
“I was that kid for that night. So, he pulled me up. There was probably about 3,000 people, under the Arch of St. Louis, and I played. They kept me on stage for two long jams, so at least ten to fifteen minutes. He was ‘Wow, he can really play.’ When I got off stage you could feel that energy, and that was the moment. I was just like, that’s what I want to do! “
“If we want to get incredibly full circle, I was at the Beacon (NYC) for the last (Allman Family) Revival show. The last one was where I was doing more of my thing. The first two I kind of helped with. But then the last one at the Beacon, Devon wanted me to play a lot. I ended up doing “The March” with Robert Randolph onstage. We finish and he was so nice, and he said, ‘You sounded great.’ I said you want to hear a funny story? What is even weirder, you know who was on keyboards that night in St. Louis? John Ginty (Allman Betts Band)! So, I played, when I was 15, with John and Robert. We played together again this year and it was great. You can’t make that up.”
Being on the road this year opening for John Ginty and the rest of the Allman Betts Band, Jackson has used the opportunity to present his solo debut to both east and west coasts. Recorded over 3 years in Memphis, St. Louis, & Stewart, FL, Jackson Stokes is a well-crafted recording, that flows gracefully up and down throughout. For the sessions, Jackson called on some of St. Louis’s best along with being graced with special appearances by Johnny Stachela (ABB) on a slide for “Sins are Forgiven” and Shannon McNally lending her vocals to tracks recorded in Memphis.
The songs offer an unfiltered view of life, empathizing with those impacted, and trying to communicate their experiences. Some light and fun, some taking darker paths. The song “You and Your Partner,” is a melancholy number that shares the story of lost love and the pain of seeing their dalliances splashed in front of you on social media. The age-old story of amour gone awry, modernized for the here and now. Not only is this my personal favorite on the album, but before a word is sung, the music paints a somber hue across the horizon setting the stage for what is to come.
Smack dab in the middle of the album is a Talking Heads cover. What? Talking Heads? Mid-west bluesy funk rock sort of guy? Stokes explains it this way, “I believe in a cover. A cover is something that you don’t expect an artist to play, but it makes perfect sense. That’s when a cover is great.” Going into the project with the idea of including a cover, Jackson and crew struggled to find one that fit the bill. Nate Gilbert, sound guy in St. Louis, having listened to the recorded tracks, suggested the Talking Heads. “I’m a high singing white guy. So what is that? That’s the Talking Heads,” he jokes. Surveying the Head’s catalog, they choose “Life After War Time,” using the logic, “You don’t want to do the most famous, but you don’t want to do one no one knows.”
“Take Me Home” sits at the end of the recording. It conjures up a sense of innocence, playing with your dog out back, or your mother giving you a big hug before you head out the door. “I’m big about home, I’m big about roots, and I’m big about where you’re from. An album should take you on a journey, but at the end of it, your right back home,” Jackson asserts. “I have to give credit to Devon for putting that song last. That was his call.”
With touring on hold for now, Jackson is taking to his Facebook page, two to three times a week, performing for all to hear. Just a man and his guitar (and an occasional guest,) going on musical excursions, emanating from his amassed library of influences. Each show taking on its own flavor to keep it fresh. As for living next to Devon Allman, that ended a few years back, but with both still living in St, Louis, when Jackson visits the Allman house, he is not require to sit in the corner anymore.
Hit records celebrating a city are supposed to bring people together. Take Ja Rule’s 2004 smash single “New York,” for instance. Featuring hip-hop heavyweights Fat Joe and Jadakiss, the song was released as the second single from his 2004 studio album R.U.L.E. and peaked at number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100. Having caught on with the masses as a major hit, it should have also served as reminder amongst New York emcees of the bond they share as the proprietors of hip hop. Here you have a global record with an infectious chorus – What native New Yorker doesn’t enjoy chanting “I’m from New York?” – Yet, it served as the fulcrum for the ensuing turmoil between the city’s rap juggernauts.
The year is 2004, 50 Cent – on the heels of his incredibly successful debut studio album Get Rich or Die Tryin’— is the biggest rapper in the world, oh and he happens to hate Ja Rule’s guts and subsequently, anyone who associates themselves with him. Their beef stems from 50 feeling slighted because their big homie Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff, chose to back Ja Rule’s music over him. That along with many other incidents – that have been covered in magazines and documentaries – have led to the two Queens rappers loathing each other for the better part of 20 years. They’ve gone back and forth with numerous diss records and even had an altercation at the world-famous Hit Factory studios in New York City, which resulted in a brawl between each other’s entourages and 50 Cent being stabbed.
While 50 Cent’s contempt for Ja Rule drove his actions, it’s also important to note that although the latter reached fame and notoriety a few years before his adversary, in 2004, 50 Cent had a ton of pull as the most in-demand and popular rap act of the time. Which means, he acted without any regards for what his contemporaries thought, and since he was backed by Dr. Dre and Eminem (the highest selling rapper of all-time), he didn’t need to maintain relationships with his New York counterparts. So, what began as a dispute between 50 Cent and Ja Rule quickly transformed and saw the “Many Men” rapper taking shots at Fat Joe and Jadakiss on his sophomore album The Massacre. On the diss-record “Piggy Bank” – which he also attacked Nas, Nas’ then-wife Kelis, The Game and Lil’ Kim on – he slams Fat Joe, “that fat n**** thought Lean Back was in the club/ my sh*t sold 11 mil, his sh*t was a dud. He then proceeds to go after Jadakiss on the very next line, “Jada’ don’t f**k with me, if you wanna eat/Cause I’ll do yo’ little ass like Jay did Mobb Deep/Yeah, homey, in New York n**** like your vocals, But that’s only New York dawg, yo’ ass is local.”
With that began a division between 50 Cent and two more prominent New York rappers (add them to the list), and since 50 Cent had beef with Ja Rule, Fat Joe and Jadakiss, so did everyone associated with him; including his entire G-Unit crew (because that’s how 50 rolls and who wants to piss off the biggest rapper in the world?).
While New York consistently delivered rappers with hard-hitting lyrics along with plenty of big hits, the division amongst them wasn’t easy to overcome (It wasn’t all on 50 Cent as other rappers like Cam’ron also had the propensity to verbally assault their contemporaries). Nonetheless, as the South grew stronger, major acts like Outkast, Ludacris, Lil Wayne, UGK, T.I. and Young Jeezy were all delivering a stellar product and it was much easier to find cohesion among their power players, eventually paving the way for the south to become the “it” region in hip hop.
50 Cent and Fat Joe have since settled their differences in 2012 when their mutual friend and business associate Chris Lighty passed away, while Jadakiss and 50 have also found common ground. As for Ja Rule and 50 Cent? Well they still can’t stand each other. Yet, the two hip hop legends have given us plenty of hit songs and iconic moments to discuss for years to come and “New York” serves as just a small part of their long and complicated history.
Brooklyn-based Folk duo, Gawain & The Green Knight, are delighted to share their new single “Doctor”. The song continues the two’s exploration of universal aches as told by history’s ghosts- a path first started down on their debut EP, Ghosties.
Written by Alexia Antoniou and arranged by Mike O’Malley, the song considers the strangeness of one’s anxieties manifesting physically in the body and expresses it through a doctor struggling to locate their own particular pain. Featuring the duo’s usual latticework of guitar, bouzouki, and close harmony, the song is worked into a grand panic by a cinematic string section.
The group has been playing across the city at prominent NYC venues, and even in the midst of global chaos, the two folk architects are bringing their music right to your computer with their live streams every Monday at 3pm on their Facebook page. Stay tuned into their social media for news and music updates.
