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Here is something quite innovative from Pokerjunkie.com

For all those hip hop heads who send hours of late nights homing their skills in poker, Pokerjunkie.com have made poker hip hop music, producing a variety of playlists for their tournaments.

Cleverly as you progress each stage of the tournament presents a new playlist of classic hip hop, and before you think this is straight commercial marketing at its worse check the finely selected playlists for yourselves.

Tracks like; The Roots – Stay Cool, Digable Planets – Pacifists, Common – I Used To Love H.E.R, Ice Cube – It Was A Good Day, Dialated Peoples – Worst Comes To Worst, Mos Def – UMI Says, Jazzmatazz – Loungin’, MF Grimm – Scars And Memories, Jay-Z, Beanie Sigel, Scarface – This Can’t Be Life, Notorious B.I.G – Sky’s The Limit, The Pharcyde – Running, Action Bronson – Imported Goods, Nas – One Love (MF Doom Remix) are just the first stage of the tournament.

Wow this looks good for any upcoming musicians and bands.

To celebrate the brand’s endless dedication to music, culture and live performance, Hennessy International
is giving Facebook fans a chance to perform at the Blues Passions festival 2012, and take their music from
online to onstage.

Past artists to grace the stage at Blues Passions include music legends BB King, Ray Charles, Massive Attack, Andreya Triana, and Gil Scott Heron.

Musicians will be able to submit their own video entries via the Hennessy Facebook fanpage to be judged by a panel of music industry experts (Hennessy International, Blues Passions, Clash magazine), and then the public, for a chance to perform live on stage.

Soundwave Festival in Croatia has released their line up. Another ridiculous list of artists and with a larger new home on the sea, it promises to be the best yet.

Get your tickets soon here.

Here’s Little Dragon at Last years Festival:

Jess Mills is easily becoming one of our favourite new solo artists. Her debut has been produced by Breakage and what we have heard so far is nothing but hair tingling.
She is touring in October/November and here are the dates.

A big date to look out for is her London show at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen on November 15, which will be with support from another favourite of ours— Disclosure!

Jess Mills Shows:

13/10 – RBMA @ London Eye – London (w/ DJ Zinc)
29/10 – Digital Soundboy – Bristol (w/ Breakage)
02/11 – The Brighton Centre – Brighton (supporting Hurts)
03/11 – O2 Academy – Glasgow (supporting Hurts)
04/11 – O2 Academy – London (supporting Hurts)
15/11 – Hoxton Bar & Kitchen – London (headline show)
19/11 – The Warehouse Project – Manchester (w/ Breakage)
26/11 – Metropolis – Leeds (w/ Breakage)

As they prepare to drop their debut album, Dream Service, let us tell you about The Bottletop Band.

In 2008 the charity Bottletop devised an interchangeable lineup of leading musicians collaborating on either side of the planet, with the aim of producing a groundbreaking cross-cultural record. All profits from the project go towards Bottletop’s charitable work, which focuses on alleviating poverty, supporting grassroots education projects and empowering young people to take control of their lives around the world.

‘A Message’ is taken from that forth coming album and features Beatnik favourite Yungun alongside Fink, Nina Becker and Sam Duckworth (Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly).

Let us know what you think.

New Major Lazer EP due this April. The release also includes a new M.I.A track! Bap Bap. Are you ready? Check the food for the brain to come:

Tracklist
Sound of Siren (ft MIA and Busy Signal)
Good Enough (ft Colliebudz and Lindi Ortega)
Cant Stop Now (Kicks Like a Mule RMX, ft. Ms. Banks)
Bruk Out – Buraka Som Sistema Mix
Jump Up (Thom Yorke RMX)

Mad Decent

Big news. The legend Rodney P has just signed to Tru Thoughts. From the Tru Thoughts website:

Since his days in the seminal UK hip hop group London Posse, Rodney P has been widely regarded as the Godfather of British hip hop. Inspiring a whole generation of British emcees and producers by being the first to rap in his authentic London accent, he produced a homegrown hip hop/reggae vibe that is distinctly rooted in the UK.
2011 brings a new chapter for Rodney P; including a multiple album deal on Tru Thoughts which will see the release of eagerly-awaited new solo material.

Since his critically acclaimed solo debut The Future we’ve all been eagerly waiting and wondering if he’d ever return with another full solo project. Now it seems your ears can begin to water.

Sometimes we just like to look at the purely beautiful, and this poster for Dam-Funk’s July 1 and 2 gigs in San Francisco and LA, designed by Burlesque of North America, is certainly that:
If you are like us, then you will be tempted to buy yourself one of these for $20 at the Stones Throw online shop.

The Wu Tang Clan have announced plans to reunite for two UK shows later this summer.
A full line up of New York City-based hip-hop group consisting of RZA, GZA, Method Man, , Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa,Mathematics, Cappadonna and Streetlife will return for gigs at Manchester Academy on August 3 and London O2 Academy Brixton the following day.
It might not be quite the same without the the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard, who died of an accidental drug overdose in 2004, but it’s still set to sell out.

So get you’re tickets early, dust off your Wu T’s and start practicing your hand made W’s.
Tickets for the shows go on sale this Friday (June 11) at 9am. To check the availability of Wu-Tang Clan tickets and get all the latest listings, go to NME.COM/TICKETS now, or call 0871 230 1094.

DJ, Hyperdub label owner and dubstep producer Kode9 is a jour with the music scene of the day, to say the least. Always scoping out new talent, his latest contribution comes in the form of his latest compilation DJ Kicks.
Read Pitchfork’s extensive here with Kode9 to get an appreciation for the man and his purpose in music.

Crate diggers Kon & Amir recently sat down with Okayplayer for a lengthy interview which can be found here.

Don’t miss the electric DJ Vadim on tour over the next few months.
Joined this time by his founded super group: Pugs Atomz (Chicagos finest upcoming mc), UK sultry soulstress Sabira Jade, English Jamaican keyboard wizard Lil Ste and Captain Love Bubble herself, Yarah Bravo, seeing the white Russian live is something quite spectacular.

TOUR DATES BELOW are below for tickets and more info hit up DJ Vadim

MAY
8 – soundcrash boat party – london
14 – planetarium – vienna – austria
18 – minimuzikhol -istanbul – turkey
21 – westbury – london – uk
22 – one love fest – goggingen – germany – dj vadim and yarah bravo
28- brixton jamm – brixton – london – uk
29 – mosebacke etablissement – stockholm – sweden

JUNE
4 – bristol – uk – dj vadim
5 – Club Midi – Cluj Napoca – romania – dj vadim
11- grandstar jazz club – LA (CA) – usa dj vadim and yarah bravo
19 – belden – big bounce fest – (CA) – usa

JULY
2 – summerjam – romania – the electric
3 – kelburn garden party – edinburgh – scotland – the electric
9 – old queens head – london
10 – prague – cz republic – dj vadim and yarah bravo
16 – melusina – luxembourg – the electric
17 – Koko – Camden Town – London – UK
18 – Vibe Bar- Brick Lane – London – UK
23 – soundcrash fest croatia
31 – farmfest – uk-the electric

AUGUST
3 – Concarneau – france – the electric
5-7 – shambala – BC – canada
20 – icon – berlin – germany – dj vadim and yarah bravo
29 – soulbrew boat party – temple pier – london – uk

SEPTEMBER
10 – ninja tune 20th anniversary – paris – france – dj vadim & yarah
17 – vauban – france – dj vadim live

Get ready for a proper album.

The Roots‘ new album How I Got Over is dropping soon, and the cover art has us more than excited.
The first single of the album was last summer’s definite jam, bearing the same name as the album: ‘How I Got Over‘.

NYC and Boston crate diggers Kon & Amir have teamed up with Complex Magazine to pick out the 50 greatest hip-hop samples of all time, that is, the best records that have been re-used to make classic hip-hop songs.
Listen to the original and the sample and read as Kon & Amir spill the beans on the history of the music and its place in hip-hop history. The list can be viewed here.

US, UK producers Diplo and Switch have been on a creative binge ever since working on M.I.A.’s first album Arular together.
Last year, the duo created Jamaican fictional character Major Lazer and released their first album Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do, an electronically inspired dancehall offering recorded entirely pon di island.
For 2010, the two hyped producers are up to no good again. Lazers Never Die is due to be released on 20 July.

The EP will feature Collie Buddz on ‘Good Enough‘, M.I.A. on ‘Sound of Siren‘ and none other than Radiohead’s Thom Yorke on ‘Jump Up‘.

The event of the summer is going down in Croatia. Soundwave Croatia is presented by our friends at Soundcrash and New Bohemia.
Set on the beautiful coast outside of Petrcane, there will be both the setting and the music to party all weekend.
The festival boasts a stupidly nice line-up, with The Cinematic Orchestra, Andreya Triana, Dam-Funk, DJ Vadim, Oddisee, Mr. Thing, Zero 7 and many more performing exclusively on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Beatnik are proud to have been invited along to the festival. Our whole team will be present, gathering exclusvie footage and interviews for everybody who was and was not there.

Tickets are £75 and can be bought here. Make sure not to miss out. Join Soundwave Croatia on Facebook or follow them on Twitter to stay up to date.

Marco Polo is set to drop his new album The Stupendous Adventures of Marco Polo
on June 29th on Duck Down Music. A album containing lost and forgotten records we are excited.

Lacing the world with hard-hitting bangers that maintain the head-nodding traditions of that raw East Coast boom bap, Toronto’s Marco Polo is back with another classic release through Duck Down Music.
Throughout his eight-years of relentless recording on critically acclaimed albums Port Authority, Double Barrel and The eXXecution, the numerous unreleased tracks, b-sides and remixes that are as ill as the rest, but never found a home, have been collected and compiled by MP to create The Stupendous Adventures of Marco Polo.

“My crew and I, which includes Shylow and DJ Linx, put a lot of work into this music and just because something is older and has never been released doesn’t mean it’s scrap — we want people to hear it,” explains MP.
“there are a lot of tracks on here that were never available on CD before, or even iTunes.”
Rhyming heavyweights on the project include: Large Professor, Skoob of Das EFX, Grand Daddy IU, Royce da 5’9”, Elzhi, Torae, Skyzoo, Ruste Juxx, and Diamond District to name a few. The album also features MC’s like Red Clay, Shylow, Saga, Promise, Surreal, D-Story, Bad Seed and Arcee.

“This album was an opportunity for me to introduce people that my fans may have never heard of before — guys like Shylow, Red Clay and Saga,” MP continues,
“I want people to know that when they see my name attached to something, they’re getting quality and consistency. This album is for the hardcore MP fans out there that just wanna have something to rock while I’m working on Port Authority 2. I’m locking myself in the lab on some caveman status for that one.”

Track List:
D-Stroy & Bad Seed – Buggin Out
Large Professor – The Radar Remix
Promise – The Bridge
Red Clay – Official
Ruste Juxx – Bomb Sh*t
Shylow – Whylin Out
Saga – Think of You Now
Torae – Combat Drills
DJ K.O. – Best To Do It ft Royce Da 5’9,” Elzhi & Supastition (Marco Polo Remix)
Skyzoo – Block Sh*t
Diamond District – Who I Be (Marco Polo Remix)
Skoob of Das Efx – How I Get Down (Marco Polo Remix)
Surreal – So Basic
Grand Daddy I.U. – The Veteran
Arcee – Ambition
Exile – Radio ft Ruste Juxx & Torae (Marco Polo Remix)

Blunted California beatmaker Madlib enters the fifth month of the year with release number five for 2010; Medicine Show No. 5 – History of the Loop Digga.
This time around, Madlib allows his listeners to enter the world of his beat tapes, shopped around hip-hop labels during the 1990’s before Madlib had become a household name. Madlib’s alter ego Quasimoto will share vocal duties with the producer on recordings from the 1990’s.
Download ‘Static Invasion‘ here (right click and save as) or ‘Episode XVI‘ here (same deal). Via Stones Throw.

Stones Throw Records are giving away a bonus 45 inch record ‘Friends Only‘exclusively with every CD or LP purchase of Guilty Simpson’s new album OJ Simpson.  ’Friends Only’ also uses the same beat as Erykah Badu’s ‘Umm Hmm‘ from her ‘New Amerykah Part Two (Return Of The Ankh).

‘Friends Only’ is mad hot, you can download it for free  - but getting the exclusive 45 for all those collectors is a must!
Download ‘Friends Only’ and Buy OJ Simpson with the bonus 45 inch all at Stones Throw.

One of our best loved beat makers here on Beatnik, we are excited to shout about the release of a new project from Ghost – The Exit Strategy.
Having come together in 2002, Ghost, Kashmere and Verb T have amassed an impressive back catalogue of quality releases worldwide.
Ghost’s past  two albums Seldom Seen Often Heard and Freedom of Thought along with his remix projects have always featured heavily appearances from Kashmere, Verb T along with other UK Hip Hop legends like Asaviour. An though Ghost’s bravery to venture new sounds, dabbling in Electronic, Trip Hop and Grime, he has always produced exciting unconventional Hip Hop that serves as the best platform for Kashmere and Verb T’s characteristic rhyming styles.

Now after a 2 week binge ‘on LSD and Lemsip Max strength’ Invisible Inc was conceived and the first love child The Exist Strategy is open to the world.
Ghost comments on the release:
‘This project is based on a true story, the names have been changed to protect the innocent, and we couldn’t remember them all.’

‘Taking an electronic perspective on Hip Hop without losing our integrity or aiming for a ‘commercial’ ‘dumbed down’ body of work was the goal. We put our heart and soul into every track, you’ll hear that as you listen. Influences ranging from Dubstep, Grime, Wonky, Hip Hop, Electro all helped shape the album. We hope you enjoy, this album is dedicated to the fans, this is Hip Hop in 2010, and this is Invisible Inc.’

It’s an intriguing project that keeps Hip Hop at its core, but brings a contemporary electronic sound to the proceedings – for the most part it works without sounding basic or cumbersome.
And although this isn’t the greatest offering Ghost has built and doesn’t touch his previous albums, it does signal some interesting ideas swirling in this highly talented producers head.
Stand out tracks include opener ‘Keys of Life‘ rhythmic clap clap and chilled ‘Paradise‘ with Asaviour (see below), and gritty dark ‘Built to Last‘.

The download starts at a cheap £3.50 so no accuses really. Download Here.
Ghost Myspace