Wes' Weekly Hip Hop News Roundup (June 28, 2007)

DOWNLOAD: Evidence ft Termanology – ‘Low IQ’ (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: an 18:00 interview w/ Pharoahe Monch (MP3)

Pharoahe Monch is fronting a live band this Friday (June 29 – 11:30pm) at Highline Ballroom in NYC. Black Milk, Polyrhythm Addicts, The Cool Kids, and DJ Ready Cee are opening. It’s the official launch party for Pharoahe’s new album Desire, which by the way I LOVE. It’s a very strong effort with excellent, soulful and cohesive production, diverse and intelligent topic matter, innovative song concepts, and it just has a whole lot of heart –> Highly recommended. Check out another review at About.com, and interviews with Pharoahe HERE and HERE. All tour dates at the end of this post

We have a pair of tickets to give away to the NYC show on Friday. Want to win them? E-mail [email protected] (subject: Monch), and let us know who you wish we’d cover more in this weekly post. One winner will be picked Friday at Noon, and notified. If you don’t win, tickets are still on sale.

50 Cent is playing the Hard Rock Cafe in NYC on July 18th. Tickets onsale @ 9am (also the presale password = MTV). Eve is playing the 19th. T.I. is playing that night too.

More Hip Hop below…..

NEWS

• Read a great write up of the Brooklyn Hip Hop Fest here, and of course pics here.
• Lauryn Hill is working on a new solo album. Lets all hold hands and pray it will be as good as her first. She plays a free show in Brooklyn on August 6th.
• Gangstarr affiliate Big Shug speaks on Hip Hop music and his place in the spectrum.
• The 6th Annual Hip Hop Congress Conference will be held in Athens, Ohio at Ohio University, July 4th – 8th, and they announched that the headlining artists will be OneBeLo, Blueprint, Tha Jacka and Invincible.
• Legend LL Cool J still hasn’t gotten over his fall to irrelevance and seeks to blame as many people as he can. It would’ve helped if he wouldn’t have stopped releasing good music over 10 years ago.
• He’s still out there! Read a review of DMX‘s show in Columbus. He plays BB King’s in NYC on July 21st.

MUSIC

• T.I. brings out the best in Jay-Z on Watch What You Say.
• NORE has teamed up with DJ Green Lantern for his Cocaine On Steroids mixtape.
• Big Shug, Talib Kweli and Pharoahe Monch freestyle on DJ Premier‘s ‘Live From HeadQCourterz’ Sirius Satellite radio show. Via Spine Magazine
• Stream (sigh) Talib Kweli‘s ‘Hot Thing’ (produced by Will.i.am) here.

VIDEO

• Prefix Magazine has a video of DJ Premier, Pete Rock and 9th Wonder being interviewed. Two legends and a rookie (in comparison)!
• Prefix also has a bunch of awesome footage from the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, including Ghostface, Capadonna & The Theodore Unit (here), Fat Joe & Consequence (here), Boot Camp Click, Heltah Skeltah, Smif N Wessun and Sean Price (here), and Jeru the Damaja, Skillz & Large Professor (here).
• GorillaVSBear presents us with an opportunity to check out Kanye West‘s new video for the Daft Punk sampling ‘Stronger’
• Roc-a-fella engineer and A&R Young Guru speaks on Jay-Z, Hip Hop in NYC, Kingdom Come, and more
• RealTalk sits down with Pete Rock, who says Hip Hop Radio is trash, not much good music is left, and some other things.

SHOWS
6/29 Pharoahe Monch, Black Milk @ Highline Ballroom, 11.30PM, tix

07/09 MC Hammer, Doug E Fresh, Slick Rick & MC Lyte (Old School Night) @ Wingate Field, Brooklyn, NYC (info)

7/10 Kanye West @ Mohegan Sun Arena (CT), 7pm, tix.

7/14 El-P @ Urban Outfitters (Avenue of the Americas), sponsored by WNHU 88.7 FM & Free Yr Radio, FREE

07/28 & 29 – Rock the Bells w/ Wu Tang and many others @ Randall’s Island

07/29 – “Wild Style 25th Anniversary Reunion” Central Park SummerStage ft Busy Bee, Cold Crush Brothers, DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore & Grand Master Caz

07/18 50 Cent @ Hard Rock Cafe, NYC (tix)

07/19 Eve @ Hard Rock Cafe, NYC (tix)

07/19 T.I. @ Hard Rock Cafe, NYC (tix)

07/19 Arrested Development @ Von King Park (Brooklyn)

07/21 DMX @ BB King’s tix.

07/25 Kurtis Blow/DJ GrandWizzard Theodore/Ralph McDaniel @ Crotona Park (Bronx)

07/31 Whodini @ Queensbridge Park (Manhattan)

08/03 Lyricist Lounge With KRS-One, Ladybug Mecca, and more @ Prospect Park Bandshell. (info)

08/06 Lauryn Hill @ Wingate Field, Brooklyn, NYC (info)

08/08 Biz Markie/DJ Lovebug starski @ Jackie Robinson Park (Manhattan)

08/09 Slick Rick/DJ Red Alert @ Marcus Garvy Park (Manhattan)

PHAROAHE MONCH – Body Baby

PHAROAHE MONCH – 2007 Tour Dates
6/29 New York, NY – Highline Ballroom
7/17 London, England – Scala
7/18 Montreux, Switzerland – Montreux Jazz Festival
7/19 Dublin, Ireland – Tripod
7/20 Galway, Ireland – GPO
7/26 Mansfield, MA – Tweeter Center (Rock the Bells Tour)
7/28 New York, NY – Randall’s Island (Rock the Bells Festival)
7/29 New York, NY – Randall’s Island (Rock the Bells Festival)
8/02 Atlanta, GA – HiFi Buys Amphitheatre (Rock the Bells Tour)
8/03 Charlotte, NC – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre (Rock the Bells Tour)
8/04 Miami, FL – Bayfront Park Amphitheatre (Rock the Bells Tour)

PHAROAHE MONCH – Desire tracklist
1 Intro
2 Free
3 Desire [ft. Showtyme]
4 Push [ft. Showtyme, Mela Machinko & Tower of Power]
5 Welcome to the Terrordome
6 What It Is
7 When the Gun Draws [ft. Mr. Porter]
8 Let’s Go [ft. Mela Machinko]
9 Body Baby
10 Bar Tap [ft. Mela Machinko]
11 Hold On [ft. Erykah Badu]
12 So Good
13 Trilogy (Act I ft. Mr. Porter, Act II ft. Dwele, Act III ft. Tone)

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