Just done working with Jay-Z as executive music consultant for The Great Gatsby soundtrack (pictured left) The Bullitts (aka producer Jeymes Samuel) now collaborates with a cast of high profile names for the brand new urban-western video above for "They Die By Dawn." Featuring Erykah Badu, Michael K. Williams, Isaiah Washington, Jesse Williams, and Rosario Dawson, and set to an Ennio Morricone inspired spaghetti western hook the glossy new video, that is both written and produced by The Bullitts, and culled from the producer's film: They Die By Dawn  The Bullitts single features Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def), Jay Electronica, and Lucy Liu and is taken from the forthcoming album: They Die By Dawn & Other Short Stories that is due to drop this summer. Watching this new cowboy themed hip-hop video reminded a previous era western starring some hip-hoppers turned actors: the Mario Van Peebles directed Posse from 20 years ago about  the story of a posse of African-American soldiers and one ostracized white soldier that starred rappers Big Daddy Kane and Tone Loc alongside such others as Peebles (who had directed New Jack City two years earlier), Stephen Baldwin, Blair Underwood, and Billy Zane. With hip-hop and other music the musically diverse accompanying soundtrack (produced by Peebles) for the 1993 film featured such artists as Sounds of Blackness, Tone Loc, Neville Brothers, Melvin Van Peebles, and Top Choice Clique. Below is a trailer for that movie.

photo © Kevin Estrada / kevinestrada.com

I had the amazing good fortune to be among the audience at the Hollywood Palladium last night to witness Justin Timberlake's return to the stage after a far-too-long absence from music (it's been nearly six and a half years since his sophomore solo album, Futuresex/Love Sounds [RCA, 2006]). But nothing in his set, his performance or his voice, gave any indication of just how long it had been since he'd put on a show like that. 

Starting just after 11:30pm, he opened with "Like I Love You" and continued to play songs from his two previous albums, as well as a handful of new ones from the forthcoming album, The 20/20 Experience (due out March 19 on RCA, but available as a pre-order now on Amoeba.com in both CD and LP formats). He even worked in two cover songs, most surprisingly "I Need You Tonight" by INXS. I never would have thought of that song choice for him, but he pulled it off and made it his own. Given his background in soul music, his other cover, "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" by The Jacksons was the type of song I would have expected him to perform. I don't intend that to disparage the choice - far from it - but rather to highlight the pleasantly surprising INXS pick. It would be amazing to hear a recorded version of that cover (hint, hint Mr. Timberlake!).

 
1) Kendrick Lamar Good Kid M.A.A.D City  (Aftermath)

2) Paul Wall No Sleep Til Houston SMC Recordings

3) P.O.S. We Don't Even Live Here (Rhymesayers)

4) Lupe Fiasco Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 (Atlantic)

5) MellowHype Numbers (Columbia/3 Ent)

There was a lot of celebration in hip-hop circles this week since the man known to many as "the first hip-hop president" got re-elected on Tuesday. Among those celebrating the loudest was longtime Obama supporter emcee/mogul Jay-Z who had performed at the president's Ohio rally (along with Bruce Springsteen) on the eve of the election. During his set Hova did his ever-popular "99 Problems" song (off 2004's The Black Album) but when he got to the line “I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one" he replaced the word B word with “Mitt." And when he go the line "I got 99 problems and Mitt ain't one" the packed Democratic audience roared in loud approval. Throughout social networking sites this past week the support for both parties was accelerated to an unprecedented level with hip-hoppers (almost) unanimously showing support for the candidate dubbed "the first hip-hop president" four years when he won the first time. Loose knit Obama supporters included "DJs for Obama" who shared the photo below on social networking sites over the week leading up the election day.

Compared to this time last week when the New York State of Mind Post-Hurricane Sandy Blues was posted to the Amoeblog in the devastating couple of days following the unprecedented impact of the storm that hit the region with a vengeance and brought the city that never sleeps to a standstill, things are looking a lot better in New York City (albeit far from back-to-normal in all places, most notably in the hard hit Staten Island and the Rockaways section of Queens).

Now the majority of power has been restored in most parts of NYC and a large percentage of public transit service (about 85%) is back up and running. In most places, NYC is getting back on track as fast as it can. However, the fallout of Sandy will still be felt here for a quite some time, especially in places that need to rebuild and/or tackle the daunting task of major flood damage repair. Plus, there's the nor'easter / second storm coming this week. Despite all of this, New Yorkers have worked together and around the fallout of Sandy to get things running despite the obstacles presented to them.