If you have a description on your website that states:

Rap Hip Hop Samples – Free hip hop drums loops kits, beats, instrumentals, original samples, breaks, samplers, crate digging, Reason, Fruity Loops

… Then every music lover’s attention is drawn.

I received note from the owner of cratekings.com : DJ Semantik (my apologies for the late mention!) and I must say that this online resource of hiphop goodies is a pleasure for eye, ear and soul!

For me this site gives splendid insight in what happens behind the curtain at some very hot producers’ studios.
Watching and reading how certain beats and loops are being created generates a lot of extra appreciation for what these people do.

Example of a nice post is “J Dilla Interview: Beats, MC’ing & Style“, where J Dilla (R.I.P., you were a genius Jay and your death is a terrible loss) teaches some nice lessons. Or the post were Kanye West shows what happens in the studio.

See for yourself: Visit CRATEKINGS and show some love!

While clicking around looking for interesting music sites about half a year ago, I came across the site of Todd Kelley. Drawn by his taste of music, I frequented his site more regularly, as well as his area at myspace.

Thought it nice to share this wonderful gathering of great music and artists with you.

Todd has splendid taste and produces sweet podcasts that are real ear-openers. Besides that, he has a collection of radio.blogs that simply make my day. He creates beat, loops, music with impact and stays humble about his results… impressive.
His view on music is something I can totally comply with:

Music is my life. It consumes me… nourishes me… keeps me grounded during the good and the bad times…

Check his sites and show him some love:
ToddKelley.net | Big La vs. Todd

Hot news this morning in the radioshow of Giel: Llewy [front-man of Dutch hiphop-formation RELAX] announced that yesterday, Relax recorded a track with Brittish jazz-piano-maestro Jamie Cullum! As he explained the two had met a few years ago and kept contact. Now there was time and place for a joint recording…
The track will be released as collabo (Relax WITH Jamie Cullum) early in 2006.

Really curious what this will sound like: Relax has proven to be quite diverse, as can be heard on their latest album “Odeur de Clochard” and Jamie Cullum seems to be able to handle any genre…

The Roots drop a double greatest hits album “Home Grown! The Beginner’s Guide To Understanding The Roots Volume One And Two” on November 15th.

To summarize the album, some comment by ?uestlove: “This is a love letter to our Okayplayers and an introduction to the fans that have yet to dive in to see what the madness has been about for the last 13 years,” he says. “This should prepare them for the next 13.”

With guestappearances by Eve, Common, Beanie Sigel, Jaguar Wright, Jill Scott, Raphael Saadiq, Roy Ayers, Dice Raw, D’Angelo, Mos Def and others, this will surely be some massive introduction to newcomers, and pure pleasure to those familiar with The Roots.

Special features on this double disc are a radio performance of “Sacrifice”, the unreleased cut “Quicksand Millennium” and a remix of “Don’t Say Nuthin’ “. Extensive backgroundreading can be found in the enclosed booklet.

Tracklisting as known:

Volume 1:

01 – Proceed 2 (featuring Roy Ayers)
02 – Distortion to Static
03 – What They Do (featuring Raphael Saadiq)
04 – The Next Movement
05 – Good Music
06 – The Lesson Pt 1 (featuring Dice Raw)
07 – Star
08 – The Hypnotic (featuring D’Angelo)
09 – Silent Treatment
10 – You Got Me (featuring Jill Scott and Eve)
11 – Clones (featuring MARS and Dice Raw)
12 – What You Want (featuring Jaguar Wright)
13 – Act Too: Love of My Life (featuring Common)
14 – Do You Want More?!!??!?!
15 – It’s Coming (live 1993)
16 – Double Trouble (featuring Mos Def)

Volume 2:

17 – Sacrifice (live on BBC Radio One)
18 – No Alibi
19 – Essaywhuman?!?!?!?!
20 – Break You Off (live 2003)
21 – Quicksand Millennium
22 – Pass the Popcorn (Revisited)
23 – Dont Say Nothin’ (Remix)
24 – Adrenaline, (featuring Beanie Siegel and Dice Raw)
25 – The Lesson Pt 3 (featuring Jag and Dice Raw)
26 – Y’all Know Who (Ruff Mix)
27 – Thought@Work
28 – BOOM!
29 – The Seed/Melting Pot/Web (live on BBC Radio One)
30 – Din Da Da

And yet again: R Kelly on fire with lawsuit against Jay-Z.

In the small setting of RoTown – Rotterdam, I will attend Jaguar Wright‘s gig November 17th.

Maybe an impossible list, but for sure interesting to see who you feel most right now… Think Soul, NeoSoul, HipHop, Underground and Mainstream.

To make a start:
- Slum Village
- Floetry
- Little Brother
- Eric Roberson
- Raheem DeVaughn
- Kem
- Common
- Lathun
- Trey Songz
- Dwele
- Kindred Spirit
- Teedra Moses
- Raphael Saadiq
- KanYe West
- Rahsaan Patterson
- Talib Kweli
- John Legend
- Lina
- Glenn Lewis
- Goapele
- Martin Luther

Please comment with your additions to this list… I will make sure that as soon as possible links to all artists are added. (url’s welcome)

Wow! Little Brother’s “The Minstrel Show” is definitely a show worth seeing!

In short: The Beef is over: Jay-Z AND Nas is the beginning of a new era… more on sohh.

Seems that the rumours are getting stronger and stronger…

- Jay-Z might announce a new album where he teams up with Nas
- kanYe West would be the executive producer
- This might even be the hot rumoured come-back album for Jay-Z

Rumours, rumours… what can we say? let us wait and see…

Any additional gossip on this?