They Reminisce Over You – Robin Gibb (The Bee Gees)

 Robin Gibb 
[co-founder of the Brothers Gibb (or Bee Gees)]
(12/22/49 – 05/20/12)

Dang, three days later after Donna‘s passing, Robin received his wings. From the reports I’ve been reading online all morning, he’s suffered something close to mirroring his twin brother’s demise (well, at least the symptoms anyways). Te tragic news has just sent shockwaves all over the world, especially in Europe and here in the states. I remember hearing the Bee Gees when my mother used to play them on the oldies radio (1110AM KRLA), but got more familiar with the group growing up, especially on Saturday Night Fever (w/John Travolta).

Dang, this is a devastating loss for devotees of music in our heyday. Shoutout to the Bee Gees for giving us that refreshing feel of outstanding music…

They Reminisce Over You: Donna Summer (MURAL by SERVE ONE)

LaDonna Adrian Gaines
‘Donna Summer‘
(12/31/48 – 05/17/12)

A couple of days ago, the Disco Queen has received her wings. She unfortunately lost her battle to cancer, which has been a very rough battle in the past two weeks for her and her fans. Hearing about the news the same day through a friend via text, South Bronx’s legendary graffiti artist/DJ SERVE (known as SERVE ONE) immediately paid homage to the ‘Last Dance‘ artist by curating her 1978 double-LP cover Live and More. Serve One went to respond to his friends on his facebook page on how this came about..

….when I came to Tuff City today, I never knew about her death at all. My friend text me telling me that Diana Ross was dead at first. So when I Googled it up, that’s when I found out it was Donna that died. So I grabbed some cans and blazed this for all of you that loved her.

They Reminisce Over You – Dick Clark

Richard Wagstaff ‘Dick’ Clark 
[11/30/1929 - 04/18/12]

‘For now, Dick Clark… so long.”  

I haven’t made a tribute post like this in a long time. There were so many folks that passed away last year that unfortunately I got lazy to write about. But this particular one holds a huge significance, since I’ve grown up watching American Bandstand. To me, he was the Don Cornelius of that particular show that never ‘aged’ (hence his ‘nickname‘). In all honesty, Dick’s death really surprised me because I thought he would lived to see at least 100; I knew about his previous health issues, but he seems like he would be the ideal person who will free himself from those illnesses (I guess that happened now).

Rest In Power, Mr. Clark.  Check out my memories of the legend below.

They Reminisce Over You – Sylvia Robinson

Sylvia Robinson
‘The Mother Of Hiphop’
[March 6, 1936 – September 29, 2011]

Why is she the ‘Mother Of Hiphop’?

After her long career as a singer, she and her husband founded Sugar Hill Records (1979), the home of the legends, Sugar Hill Gang. She helped put out two landmark singles: Sugar Hill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight, and signed Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, who put out The Message in 1982. The iconic song (which was made purposely for the listener to focus more on the lyrics than the slow beat), went on to become the first hiphop record to be added to the United States National Recording Registry.

Look at that, females have been contributing to hiphop since its inception. Rest In Power.

side note: Personally, I’ve always wanted to know who was Jay-Z addressing when he put out Izzo (H.O.V.A.) . Thank goodness the answer was revealed through XXL:

Robinson, a pioneering female producer, wasn’t without her faults, however, when contributing to hip-hop. “Rapper’s Delight” included rhymes originally penned by the Cold Crush Brothers, particularly from Grandmaster Caz’s notebook. The song’s release went onto to become a milestone moment in hip-hop history, launching the culture out of Bronx clubs and into public consciousness. Caz, though, was never properly compensated and became a symbol of industry greed. Jay-Z shouted out Caz and company on “Izzo (H.O.V.A.): “Industry shady; it need to be taken over/ Label owners hate me; I’m raising the status quo up/ I’m overchargin’ niggas for what they did to the Cold Crush/ Pay us like you owe us for all the years that you hoe’d us.”

Im pretty sure that when that song came out, that ‘Cold Crush’ line went over a lot people’s heads. Yet, many folks who knew the song word-for-word never got curious about what happened to the Cold Crush! Craaaaazy!

They Reminisce Over You – Jeffrey ‘KASE 2′ Brown (Style Wars)

Jeffrey ‘KING KASE 2′ Brown
received his wings: 08/14/11
#TFP #StyleWars

Damn, close to two weeks ago when my cable got cut off, I was watching Style Wars on repeat at least like 3 or 4 times, and during the time I was wondering about whatever happened to the cats that were documented. We all know DEZ turned out to be DJ Kay Slay (some of  you new heads dont know that), but the rest of the crew like Skeme, SEEN, Trap, Mare, and the others.. we havent really caught up to see what they were doing, well, except for tonight I found out that SEEN is rolling with the soon-to-become-legend Banksy nowadays.

Now, we have lost one of the most innovative graffiti artists to the battle with cancer. It’s such a hurtful notion to accept when a person has done so much to create and inspire people through the art of graffiti. I mean, with ONE ARM, he created an army of recruits who has been inspired by the “King Of Style” himself.

Rest In Power. I know you’re creating some dope ass art for God now.

They Reminisce Over You – Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes

Lisa Nicole Lopes
(May 27, 1971 – April 25, 2002)

Download Mister Cee’s Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes Tribute Mix (via theFADER) 

Although she had a flamboyant attitude, no one can say that she didnt keep it true to the core. No one can EVER touch her in this business. EVER. She was a rider, a down-to-earth chick, and a great friend to those involved in her life. She was a humanitarian, which says alot for those who are currently in the industry. ol’ fake fucks. There will never be another like her.

Keith ‘Guru’ Elam (RIP): One Year Later…

It’s been a year since the late Keith Elam has passed, and most of the hiphop community is still trying to digest this hard pill. Seeing that ‘you know who’ has disappeared out of thin air, you can bet your bottom dollar that he was entirely responsible for this unfortunate situation. DJ Premier, his nephew Justin, and the whole GANGSTARR foundation have been holdin’ him down all across the country, at award shows, and at many of the Red Bull events that calls for DJ Premier’s presence. He held him down hard over at the El Rey Theatre earlier this year, and you can still see the hurt and the pain he still feels when talking about him during his DJ executions.

They Reminisce Over You – Freaky Tah

Raymond Rogers
aka ‘Freaky Tah’ (Lost Boyz)
[May 14, 1971 – March 28, 1999]

Soundlessons Presents: “Still Shining”: The 6th Annual J Dilla Tribute [02/25]!

The J Dilla tributes provided to you by Soundlessons over the years have always been a unique experience to be a part of. There’s always screen prints of t-shirts done by the Hit+Run crew, J-Logic and the crew provided the sounds w/Aloe Blacc as the host, and various locations of the party. They added photographers Wendy Le and Antonio Sureshot to help bring this tribute to life! Be sure you make it out to El Cid in a little over a week from now…

Full flyer down below.

All I need in my life is…

is YOU.

Click the picture above to see video. Download the track [here].

As of right now, the track Nothing Like This has been on repeat for the twentieth time since I got home from The Factory and browse twitter. For some reason, this track is really affecting me in an emotional way. Something about hearing the phrases ‘Ive never felt quite like this‘ or ‘there is nothing quite like this’, or ‘all I need in my life is..’ in a redundant manner, along with the melodic instrumental that Dilla put together has made this a powerful song, and has made me reflect on my personal life. Although the song is very short, it has enough soul in it to have me produce some tears. I havent heard a song that can touch your soul in a long time, and that’s one of the reasons why I honestly believe that Dilla has touched a lot of people with his music, even though most people found out about his genius after his death. There will never be another like him, and producers dont make music like this anymore. I thank Dilla for embedding soul into music.

We Reminisce Over You
James Dewitt Yancey
[February 7, 1974 – February 10, 2006]