Every bad day I’ve had in New York, I sing to myself, “We live in Brooklyn, baby. We gonna make it, baby”. The music and words of Roy Ayers have been a form of meditation to me since Chinaka Hodge clowned me about not knowing “Everybody Loves The Sunshine” by heart. Check out this preview of a new documentary based on his Japan Tour in 2009. Let us open next time, Roy!

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This new old track from the ever-missing-in-action D’Angelo has brought me back in a trance with his music.  Although he only dropped two albums, their surfacing during my middle/high school years ushered me into the funky smooth sound that is present in all of my favorite artists.  We’ve been promised a new album for years, and hopefully James River truly does drop this summer.  In the meantime, here’s “1000 Deaths” as well as some other rare gems for your weekend.

D’Angelo “1000 Deaths”

Roy Hargrove ft. D’Angelo “I’ll Stay”

D’Angelo “Everybody Loves the Sunshine”

D’Angelo “Aint It Funky Now (feat. The Soultronics)”

D’Angelo ft. Ft. Femi Kuti, Macy Gray, Nile Rodgers, Roy Hargrove & Soultronics “Water No Get Enemy”

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IT’S OFFICIAL!!!! Last night we signed our lease for the new iLL-house, a dope 2-story apartment nestled in between Prospect Heights and Crown Heights.  Just 2 blocks from the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Public Library, and hella parks.  We have no excuse to not be inspired.

Today we fly back to Oakland and over the next two weeks we pack up all our stuff, kiss our mamas goodbye, jet to Seattle to rock Bumbershoot, and fly straight into NYC for the official move-in on September 15.

Speaking of Bumbershoot, we’re hella excited to be a part of the festival but I’m kinda bummed that our Sept. 6 slot is at the same time as one of my all-time favorite jazz musicians, Roy Ayers.  We’ll just have to have this on constant rotation.

We live in Brooklyn, baby.

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Um, you’re going to learn that my attention span is all depleted on long ass funk songs.  

For this week’s Friday Funk, I’m following last week’s half-hour long P-Funk song with this half-hour long record collabo between godfather of Afrobeat Fela Kuti and jazz/funk legend Roy Ayers (who shares the lineup with us at Bumbershoot!).  Released in 1986, Music of Many Colours contains two tracks that were featured on previous solo releases, but these are the full extended versions.  ”Africa – Centre Of The World” is more of a Fela track, with the song building up in the loose and chill way that they normally do, and Fela ripping up the vocals in the second half:

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[Fela Kuti x Roy Ayers "Africa - Centre Of The World"]

The second track is Ayers’ “2000 Black Got to be Free,” another song title that I feel more comfortable blogging about than shouting in the middle of a large crowd.  Roy takes on the vocals with this, but the Fela band in the background creates a dope blend:

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[Fela Kuti x Roy Ayers "2000 Blacks Got To Be Free"]

Nab them up before I get my cease and desist!!

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