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My good friend Mike, better known to many from Mike and Ike, has finished up medical school and will be moving away from Austin. The only real emcee/MD that I know of, Mike found a way over the last few years to keep making music in between work and school and will now be moving away to DFW to continue doing what he does. He will be celebrating Saturday May 2 at Dirty Bill’s in Austin (511 Rio Grande), Dj Diamond Tip will be spinning some of Mike’s favorite songs, Mike will jump on the mic for a few songs and maybe invite some friends to do a few songs for old times sake.

If you are not familiar with Mike, he just finished up some collaborations with Hero and Rad, Mic Skills and Mike and Ike’s debut album has been made available recently on Bandcamp. Check out the the music and if you know Mike make sure you’re at Dirty Bill’s in Austin this Saturday May 2.

20/20 and Poise – “Fly (Bullets Version)”

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The sun is out the birds are chirpin’ and the warm weather stuntin’ season begins! Rebecca Powe and Arika Haynes have put brought together a group of emerging designers and shops to showcase their latest work, including Carol Chavana, 3rd ID Clothing, Urban Posh and EmaQlate.

Kid Slyce will be rockin the party, b-boy Blitz and Urban Transit Dance Cru will be kickin it and 20/20 and Poise will be performing with Dj Diamond Tip and giving out free copies of  their new mixtape, ”Bullets”.

It all goes down, Friday April 17 at Aces Lounge (222 E 6th St, Austin, TX) I’m sure more information is to come, but mark the date on your calendar now!

Links
RSVP on Facebook

Eclectic Styles of Sumer Performers and Designers

First they did a Nas remix project and know the Inner Loop Records crew are premiering their Reasonable Doubt remix project. From the looks of it, seems like this will be much more than just the typical remix project but much like the Illmatic remix project, more of an homage/recreation. Contributors to the project include X.O., Asheru, Lyriciss and production from Judah, Best Kept Secret, J-Scrilla and Kokayi. It goes down tonight, March 26 at Expo Restaurant & Nightclub , 1928 9th St. NW, Washington, DC (click to see map).

Though many people might be getting their concert fill in the next couple of weeks, come April 11 I’m sure central Texas will be looking for their next hip-hop show fix. Proper Entertainment has you covered and are bringing Hip-hop legend Too Short to the capitol city on April 11. The concert will be at  Mohawk, hosted by Brooks City and will also feature local acts, Traygod, Global, Phranchyze and Tee Double. I don’t have any word yet on ticket prices or buying tickets online, but I’m sure that it will be a pretty large crowd, so keep a look out for that information.

Ticket Information

Austin – Mohawk FrontGate Tickets

$22, Doors Open at 8pm

Houston – Warehouse Live FrontGate Tickets

$20, Doors Open at 8pm

Neither the lineup nor the location have been announced to date…but you know this is going to be a crazy party. Judging form its past popularity, the slots will probably fill up quick, so RSVP ASAP.

Update 3/13/09
The Fader have announced the lineup and the location of the Fort for SXSW 2009. Go over to the Fader site for more details.

This is what is available so far:

Wed. 3/18
1:30 – 1:55 American Princes
2:15 – 2:40 Let’s Wrestle
3:00 – 3:25 The Strange Boys
3:45 – 4:10 Esser
4:30 – 4:55 Post War Years
5:15 – 5:40 Abe Vigoda
6:00 – 6:25 Graham Coxon
6:45 – 7:10 Micachu and the Shapes
7:30 – 7:55 B.o.B.
8:15 – 8:45 Little Boots

DJ sets by DJ Ceeplus Bad Knives, DJ Kayper, Rezound

Thurs. 3/19
1:30 – 1:55 Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head
2:15 – 2:40 Handsome Furs
3:00 – 3:25 Janelle Monae
3:45 – 4:10 Amazing Baby
4:30 – 4:55 The Hot Melts
5:15 – 5:40 Francis & The Lights
6:00 – 6:25 Late of the Pier
6:45 – 7:10 Lissy Trullie
7:30 – 8:10 Tricky
8:30 – 9:00 The Warlocks

DJ’s sets by Disco Shawn and Oro 11 (Bersa Discos), Jokers of the Scene, DJ Diabetic, Egg Foo Young aka Michna

Fri. 3/20
1:00 – 1:20 The Kidz in the Hall
1:40 – 2:05 The Love Language
2:20 – 2:45 Coupleskate
3:05 – 3:30 Solid Gold
3:45 – 4:10 The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
4:30 – 4:55 We Have Band
5:15 – 5:40 Women
6:00 – 6:25 Hatcham Social
6:45 – 7:15 Tinted Windows
7:45 – 8:45 Peter Bjorn & John

DJ sets by Round Table Knights, The GrooveLayers, Holy Ghost!, Flosstradamus

Sat. 3/2
1:30 – 1:55 Blank Dogs
2:15 – 2:40 Wavves
3:00 – 3:25 Theophilus London
3:45 – 4:10 Maluca
4:30 – 4:55 Popo
5:15 – 5:40 Major Lazer
6:00 – 6:25 Rick Ross
6:45 – 7:10 Jadakiss
8:30 – 11:00 Good Music with Kid Cudi, Big Sean, GLC, Consequence, Really Doe, Tony Williams, Mr. Hudson and special guests

DJ sets by Brick Bandits / Ghetto Division, Nick Catchdubs, Paul Devro (Mad Decent), WE MAKE IT GOOD with Pretty Titty, Chris Devlin, XXXChange and Blaqstarr, Green Lantern

Links
RSVP For Fader/Levis Fort at SXSW 2009

Hero & Rad ft. Mike & Ike – Smoothness, Coolness

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Houston based hip-hop duo Hero & Rad will be premiering their new album, Resilience, this Friday March 6 at Mission Control. Mission Control is a hip hop event that H-town resident Mic Skills has been putting on for quite some time and always promotes some solid independent Texas hip hop music. The venue is The Backroom, its 21+, its free and you get to check out some fresh off the press Texas hip hop.

Links
Hero
Rad
Mission Control

Longtime Austin residents and indie rock stars …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead will be playing at The Rock and Roll Hotel in Washington DC on February 26. Doors open at 8pm and tickets are $18. They are promoting their recently released album, “Century of Self”, their sixth studio album and their first since leaving Interscope. The album dropped on February 17 and was produced Chris Coady (TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and features backing vocal contributions from members of Yeasayer and Dragons Of Zynth.

From a recent Billboard Interview:

“On the last two albums, we were really meticulous recording to click-tracks and doing overdubs…This time, we threw all that out. We learned the songs and all tracked live.”

The cover artwork was done by frontman Conrad Keely and you can check out some full track by track insight from the band themselves over at The Skinny.

Dj Nick Nack and Gigacrate never disappoint with their SXSW showcases…not just because they happen to be $Free.99, but because they always bring in high quality talent that knows how to rock a party. On top of that….NO WRISTBAND REQUIRED! All you have to do is RSVP on Gigacrate…and you get to see such acts as:

Wednesday March 18th

1-2: Tittsworth
11:30-1: The Rub (Ayres, Cosmo, Eleven)
11-11:30: Bird Peterson
10-11: Xman and Tate La Rock
9-10: Bersa Discos

Thursday March 19th

1-2: DJ Fashen
12-1: Enfoe and NickNack
11-12: Klever and Craze
10:30-11: Mvsclz
9:45-10:30: Mexicans with Guns
9-9:45: Teeko, Platurn and GoldenChyld

This is major!  Nick even mentions some visuals being provided by Totally Wreck!

PS Nice flyers Nick.

Links
RSVP For Gigacrate Shows

Somali hip-hop artist K’NAAN, who’s buzz seems to keep growing steadily ,will be performing a free show in DC at the Kennedy’s Center‘s Millennium Stage on February 27, 2009, just a few days after the February 24 release of his latest album, Troubador.

From the Kennedy Center site:

Hailing from war-torn Mogadishu, Somalia, hip hop artist K’NAAN grew up during the Somali civil war. Despite speaking no English, he taught himself hip hop and rap diction. Critics have said K’NAAN has “a sound that fuses Bob Marley, conscious American hip hop, and brilliant protest poetry.” Part of ARABESQUE: Arts of the Arab World

I’m usually not one for politically charged raps, mostly just because it is usually pretty pretentious and overall not good music, but from the few songs I’ve heard from K’NAAN, he’s most definitely the real deal.

Links
K’NAAN on Ning
Purchase Troubador from Amazon.com

Matt Sonzala of AustinSurreal has posted the latest Hip Hop Showcase for this year’s SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas.  As he say’s it is not everything and more than likely subject to change. Just scanning the list quickly, there are some pretty big names from the indie scene, including some we have featured on Medium in the past. A searchable list of all the showcases has also popped up on the official SXSW site.

Check out Matt’s hip hop showcase list after jump (more…)