Rakim is returning to the spotlight with the release of a concert DVD and a tour with a new album to follow. Sounds like he’s ready to make amends for 8 years of near silence! First up is the tour which is in progress right now - with Ghostface Killah, Brother Ali and Rhythm Roots Allstars. The concert DVD will be released very soon but the new album will be out early next year. ([More →])

Some artists survive on air and art alone. They do not require food or sleep, and if they do partake in such things it’s just for show. That’s the only explanation I can come up with for how they continue to produce quantities of high-calibre artwork. These are the people you wonder about every time they release something new, like “When did they have the time to do X, Y and Z while releasing A, B and C?!!” This is how I feel about 9th Wonder. The hip hop beat-meister is in the midst of releasing his first solo album because he’s usually too busy making the music tracks for the likes of Nas, Jean Grae, Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, and Little Brother to name just a few. But just the other day I stumbled across another album that he is simultaneously producing beats for - an album with Buckshot of Duck Down Records, who also just signed KRS-One. ([More →])

Dr. Cornel West will be releasing a new cd on June 19th. Dr. West has been previously famous as the author of two important books - Race Matters and Democracy Matters as well as another cd which came out in 2001 - Sketches of My Culture. According to his bio on Hidden Beach :

The grandson of a preacher, West marched as a young man in civil rights demonstrations and organized protests demanding black studies courses at his high school. West later wrote that, in his youth, he admired “the sincere black militancy of Malcolm X, the defiant rage of the Black Panther Party [...] and the livid black theology of James Cone”.

He is currently important to his students at Princeton University where he teaches religion. With this background, many are looking forward to his latest cd, which features KRS-One, Prince, Talib Kweli, Andre 3000, Black Thought (of Roots), M-1 (of Dead Prez), and Rah Digga. The new cd is called Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations, and is on a new imprint of Hidden Beach, called Hidden Beach Forum. Hidden Beach Forum claims to be “a label designed to prompt discussion, debate, and evaluation of the human condition.” Dr. West’s new cd is the first release on the new label.

Tracklist For Never Forget: A Journey Of Revelations

01 Bushanomics [ft. Talib Kweli]
02 America [ft. Black Thought, Rah Digga, Iriz & Lucky Witherspoon]
03 Still Here
04 Dear Mr. Man [ft. Prince]
05 911
06 N Word [ft. Tavis Smiley & Michael Eric Dyson]
07 Welcome to Chi [ft. Rhymefest, Neo-Abassy & Malik Yusef]
08 Mr. President [ft. KRS-One & M-1]
09 Keep It PI [ft. Killer Mike, Doey, Roc & Lucky Witherspoon]
10 Chronometrophobia [ft. Andre 3000]
11 Gonne Be Alright [ft. Dave Hollister & Chuckii Booker]
12 Matter Of [ft. Lenny Williams]
13 Soul Sista [ft. Daryl Moore]
14 The Man’s Gonna Getcha [ft. Gerald Levert]

TOUR

06/07/07 100 Black Men Conference Las Vegas, NV
Dr. Cornel West
06/13/07 WNBA All Star Week Washington DC, DC

LINKS

my$pazz - drcornelwest4bmwmb
Dr. Cornel West’s artist page on Hidden Beach includes lots of info, audio, and video….

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