Archives: June 2020

What happens when you go back to a place you thought was your home, only to find it profoundly different? That’s the subject explored in Puerto Rican indie pop duo Buscabulla‘s debut Regresa.

Buscabulla is made up of husband and wife Luis Alfredo Del Valle and Raquel Berrios, two Puerto Rico-born musicians who were based in New York until 2017. When their birthplace was devastated by Hurricanes Maria and Irma that year, they decided to leave New York and go back to where they were born. It was an emotional journey, one that inspired the songs of Regresa and which they chronicled for an upcoming mini-documentary.

Buscabulla, the duo of Raquel Berrios and Luis Alfredo del Valle, have been together since 2011, when they met at a house show in New York and became romantically involved. Since then, they’ve released two impressive EPs (the first of which, 2014’s EP 1, was produced by Dev Hynes after the duo won a Guitar Center competition), welcomed a daughter into their lives and moved back to Puerto Rico — honing their sensuous, alternative Latin pop all the while. Now, almost a decade on from their first meeting, their debut album, Regresa, is now via Ribbon Music. – READ + HEAR MORE via NPR

Private Playlist is a listening session with Southern California’s most notable musical figures in their private creative environments. Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad were already superstar producers and musicians in their own right before teaming up as The Midnight Hour. Now they’re in demand as film and TV composers after their breakout score for Netflix’s Luke Cage in 2016. Younge and Muhammad also moonlight as part of the creative team behind the local performance series, and now record label Jazz is Dead. 

In this special edition of Private Playlist, Younge and Muhammad reflect on the music that’s currently giving them communion, inspiration, and release amidst the uprisings. – READ MORE HERE

If you want protest music for the uprising of the American consciousness, then look no further. Sa-Roc (born Assata Perkins) is an emcee from southeast Washington, D.C., and the second woman signed to Minneapolis-based hip-hop label Rhymesayers Entertainment, home to Atmosphere and Brother Ali among many others. In this Tiny Desk (home) concert, she debuted two exclusives, “Deliverance” and “r(E)volution,” both from her upcoming album, The Sharecropper’s Daughter, which is produced by her partner in life, Sol Messiah, and scheduled for release this fall.

Sa-Roc bears her heart and soul here, weaving together influential threads from her upbringing; Pan-Africanism, the hardship of her father’s experience as a sharecropper in Virginia and her own childhood in Congress Heights, D.C., an area ravaged by violence and the crack epidemic in the 1980s. On “r(E)volution” she spits bars: “Embedded in the home of the brave, the darkest of interiors. / Saw street scholars and soldiers defect cuz they post-traumatic stressed from the American experience.”

“Music I was exposed to, as well as their ideology, was all politically minded and African centered,” she expressed to me on the phone. “The culture of DC go-go, Gil Scott Heron, and The Last Poets shaped me.” 

Sa-Roc is a modern day griot whose aura radiates calm in a world of chaos. This Tiny Desk (home) concert is as close as it gets to required viewing.- NPR

Run The Jewels, the duo of Killer Mike and El-P, have just released their new album RTJ4 two days ahead of its planned release date as a free download and across all digital platforms. The album features collaborations with & contributions from Pharrell Williams, Zack de la Rocha, Mavis Staples, 2 Chainz, Josh Homme, DJ Premier, & more.

Stream/Download Run the Jewels 4: runthejewels.com/

State the duo: “Fuck it, why wait? The world is infested with bullshit so here’s something raw to listen to while you deal with it all. We hope it brings you some joy. Stay safe and hopeful out there and thank you for giving 2 friends the chance to be heard and do what they love.  

With sincere love and gratitude, Jaime and Mike.”

For fans looking to do some good through donation, Run The Jewels have provided a list of organizations on their website that are fighting for justice, change, and equity in America, including their longtime allies the National Lawyers Guild which, amongst other things, provides legal representation for lawful protesters. You can find the full list of organizations here: runthejewels.com/pages/donate