It’s a far way from Jesus Walks, but worth a look all the same.

Here’s some never before seen footage of Yeezy and a then partner in rhyme Phenom rocking in Chi-Town at the legendary Double Door spot. As you can see Kanye’s energy and voice is relatively the same all these years later, the video captures a teenage Ye, approximately 18 or 19 since this was recorded circa 1996. Take a look and listen to the rhymes he was kicking, very ATCQ influenced (in my ear’s opinion)..the hook on the first song takes a line off ODB’s “Brooklyn Zoo”. At the end of his set (2:10), a very winded and confident Mr. West proclaims “Kanye represent the sexy niggas, fly niggas”..yeah that’s the Kanye we know, alright.

Check it out.

All courtesy of Blackstarhub

This is not mostly hip hop, but you’ll love it anyways.  It’s a list of NME’s top 100 bands to watch out for in 2012, and they’ve linked to soundcloud so you can hear a track from each of them.  This will keep you busy for DAYS.

The only one I recognize off the top of my head is 212 by Azealia Banks.  Vulgar, but still blowing up the charts.

Questlove gave a nice long interview to the Globe and Mail.  It’s a fascinating insight into the evolution of the Roots and into the production of Undun, and is well worth the read.

Questlove, on the narrative theme and structure of Undun, a song-cycle that comments on the often short, tragic lives of African Americans, some who die from bullets and some from bad diets. The album begins with the sound of a cardiac flat-line, chronologically working its way back in reverse: “There’s age 23, and there’s 48. Violence is the hooded stranger of death that’s around the corner that you have to avoid. And then there’s your heart. High cholesterol is that same monster waiting for you at age 48. We wanted to tell a story, not personalizing it where the listener would have pity. We didn’t want the protagonist to be a villain or a hero. We thought it would be more interesting to do the album as the voice inside of his head. Also, it was a challenge to tell a story backward in reverse linear fashion, and to tell it in a short manner. Most of our albums are sprawling 78-minute magnum opuses of sound and rhyme. We wanted to cut it by half, but to have the same impact.”

No mention of the Redford Stephens character that the album is supposedly designed for, but there is a little hint at an album that could have been with the late Amy Winehouse.  He says “She wanted to do an artistic jazz record, with the two of us and Mos Def and Raphael Saadiq.”  That would have been amazing.

Serious

Extra Serious

Here’s France’s very own The Funk League, with one of the nicest videos I’ve seen in a long time.

Props: Nah Right

Mos Def and Talib Kweli have launched blackstarhub.com, a pretty basic Tumblr blog.  It’s going to be your source for some free tunes and hopefully the launch of the Black Star Aretha Franklin mixtape.  Check out the latest track You already knew. 

Black Star "You Already Knew" by 3DDistro

A new track from Common off of his upcoming album, The Dreamer/The Believer.  I’m excited.

In today’s unpredictable collaboration news, Drake and Phonte (of Little Brother fame) were supposed to team up for a track last year that never materialized. 

You’ve talked a lot about your admiration for Phonte. How come another collaboration with him still hasn’t happened?

With me and Tay, I kinda dropped the ball on a feature he needed me to do, just being 100% honest. I really wanted to do a record with him, and we actually did do a record for my album, and then something happened with the producer and the beat, and it started getting funny so I had to scrap the record. And then he was like, "Well, can you do this feature for me," and at the time I was trying to find my sound and trying to figure out what this album was going to be about, and I kind of let it slip through the cracks. That was my fault, and I do apologize to Phonte for that. But I still want to make it happen; I talked to 9th Wonder about trying to make it happen, we’ll get it eventually. He knows he’s one of the biggest influences on my career.

I guess I’m behind the times, but I had no idea Drizzy loved Phonte that much.  Clearly I’m a huge Tay fan (and yes, I love Rapper Big Pooh too).  It’s big of Drake to admit that he messed up on this one, but hopefully he can find some time to make it up to Phonte. 

[Village Voice via HipHopDX]

Plus, props for a Tim Hortons reference.