Noyeek’s solo debut “Face Crunch” contains a lot of classic collaborations between the members of The Package and their former group Infinite Loop before The Package came to be. It’s a must have
for any Package fan to complete your collection!

The world was running out of egocentric rap songs, so I decided to help feed the hungry braggadocio fans. With catchy lines like “I fry cowards by the billable hour”, rest assured, the sucka MCs will stay in their place from now on. Ha.

In seriousness, our comrade-in-arms DJ Eurok put up the beat to this song on his Twitter page and asked people to write to it. So, I did. Boom.

Recorded in The House of Theory.

Peace to the peaceful,

Spirit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R234dGg-Qr0

In the video above, The Package jams with Mambo Sauce, one of the leading go-go bands in the city. The two groups have never rocked together and it’s a great meeting between two powerful representatives of the city’s two main urban genres: go-go and hip-hop. The songs rocked are “Final Warning” (off of “Double R: Remixes and Rarities“) and “Lights” (off of Noyeek’s forthcoming second solo album, “Eartertainment”, coming later this year).

It’s beautiful how the band quickly adapts to a song they’ve never rehearsed, with Twink adding some cool drum hits to punctuate the chorus of “Final Warning”.

Attentive listeners will note that The Package is somewhat hilariously introduced by the name of their Twitter account, ThePackageDC.

Awesome to hear someone behind me say “That was one of the dopest…” behind me as the set ends. Ha-ha! Big up to whoever that was, glad you enjoyed the show!

This all went down at the Up and Up Showcase, which hits Liv (2001 11th St NW, 11th and U) every Tuesday night, show starting at 8:30 (happy hour 6-8), put on by the highly underrated superb hip-hop trio Gods’illa. Support those brothers, it’s a great event (they also just put out a very high quality debut album you should peep). Big up to the featured act of the night, NYC band Shinobi Ninja, and the other performers that rocked throughout the night, including Maimouna Youssef (nominated for a Grammy for her vocal work on The Roots’ “Don’t Feel Right”), Komplex a/k/a Kowboy Kom (of Fly Gypsy) and Tamika Jones.

The Package dropped “Double R: Remixes and Rarities” right after Thanksgiving to give thanks to everyone who has supported our movement since “New Golden Era” dropped. Over 1,000 downloads in just over three months later, we’ll be putting the final touches on Dimes’ solo album “SLANGUAGe (a brain cell.e.bration)” this week. So, get ready for a PKG takeover in 2010!

The brothers will performing tomorrow night at the Up and Up Showcase at Liv (2001 11th St NW, WDC), then two weeks later right next door at Bohemian Caverns, on March 23rd (for the Beat Clash/Mic Clash event). That second show at Bohemian is on my birthday, so I hope everyone can make it out!

Peace to the peaceful,

Spirit Equality

http://www.vimeo.com/993998

BLU* is a graf artist who paints pieces that are filmed and turned into stop motion animation pieces. This is crazy ill. Wild style forever…talk about taking the golden era into the future…this is the epitome of that…it’s a new golden era…

Big up to Splash Mag in Germany for featuring this in the middle of an interview with Blu, Exile and Fashawn for me to peep game on it…craziness…

* BLU (all caps) is not to be confused with Blu (capital letter, then little letters). The former is a graf artist, the latter is a dope emcee from Los Angeles whose album with Exile, “Below The Heavens”, should be in your record collection. If it isn’t, buy it NOW.

For those of you who haven’t had a chance to sample Theory’s “Beat Tape Uno” instrumental album release, you can now stream tracks of it at the player above (or at thepackage.bandcamp.com directly). Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFzsvpHaWdE

(Pictured above is the no-budget video for “Outta My Sight” shot and edited by Grizz’s wife…for our more high budget selections, check the video section of the site)

For those who missed out, Noyeek the Grizzly Bear (a/k/a Grizz) had a budding solo career before The Package formed. His solo debut (Face Crunch) came out before The Package’s debut (New Golden Era). You might have slept on Noyeek’s original website, which pre-dates this one and is pretty dope. You should also pick up “Face Crunch” if you haven’t already, it’s full of bangers and includes a few pre-Package collabs between Dimensions, Noyeek and Theory.

“Basement Classics” is a late Valentines Day gift from PKG to everyone who has shown us love these past 12 months. Mixed by Theory, this blend of unreleased songs by Dimes and Noyeek (of The Package) and Spirit Equality should keep your winter warm till spring comes.

The Dimensions (a/k/a Dimes) songs are from his upcoming solo debut, “Slanguage (Brain Cell.a.Bration)” and the Noyeek the Grizzly Bear (a/k/a Grizz) songs are from his upcoming sophomore solo album “Eartertainment”, both dropping sooner than you expect (weather alert: spring and summer will be warmer than usual this year…LOL)

Find the mispronounced word on this mix for a special prize. Email guesses to spiritequality@gmail.com

Songs are as follows:

1. “Here I Am” Dimensions (of The Package) feat. Kokayi
2. “Hunger Pains” Dimensions (of The Package)
3. “Gunshots” Noyeek the Grizzly Bear (of The Package) feat. Blahz
4. “Forward March” Noyeek the Grizzly Bear (of The Package) feat. Dimensions and Blahz
5. “Dee Dot (Young Raven remix)” Dimensions (of The Package)
6. “Strangelove” Dimensions (of The Package)
7. “Sesame Street” Noyeek the Grizzly Bear (of The Package) feat. Head-Roc
8. “Salute” Spirit Equality (original version, originally recorded for a collabo with Emperess, then written as a full song, then re-worked as a collabo song with The Package)
9. “The Liberators” Spirit Equality (unreleased verse from The Liberators project)

Download and enjoy!

ps: Massive respect to Rule 4080 for spotlighting Basement Classics as well as “Chardonnay”, the first song off of Dimes’ upcoming solo album that we hit the public with! Massive respect also goes to DC Mumbo Sauce for spotlighting Basement Classics as well. Big up!

pps: If you ever wondered what the Infinite Loop sounded like and haven’t gotten around to downloading “First Contact” off of iTunes, a little over half of the core members of the Loop are represented on this project (Dimensions (f/k/a One2), Noyeek, Head-Roc, Blahz and Theory).

The Liberators At The 2009 ECBACC Convention from CrazyAlCayne on Vimeo.

I just uncovered the video interview above (from the annual East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC) in Philly, in 2009) where I discuss the comic book I created, The Liberators. Of course, I was repping our comrade DJ Eurok’s Upset The Setup movement with the classic shirt that even Dilla’s mom Ma Dukes rocks (cop yours from Eurok). Crazy Al asks some good questions and uncovers how poorly I remembered my biology lessons (LOL). I did manage to shout out New Golden Era at the end.

For the folks who aren’t up on The Liberators, the comic explores the real life ramifications of four young folk from the hood teaming up to shoot it out with the crooked cops, dirty politicians and drug importers who have ruined their city, in short.

The good folks at NYC-based arts and culture mag, The Liberator Magazine, were also kind enough to interview me about The Liberators as well, after we discovered we were similarly influenced by older progressive publications with that title (in my case, dating back to William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper). Great minds think alike.

The New Golden Era movement hits you in sound, in color, in black and white, from all directions!

Click here to purchase a copy of The Liberators.

Feel free to become a fan of The Liberators’ Facebook group page if you dig what you hear or read in the interviews above.

A larger image of the cover to issue 3 of The Liberators can be found here and a lo-res version is below for those that can’t make out the beautiful artwork by Aniekan Udofia in the video at the top of this post.

side note: Big up to Global Grind for re-posting the Crazy Al Cayne video interview, getting it few more views (that’s the site where I found it).

Peace to the peaceful,

Spirit Equality

You might have seen Phonte and Foreign Exchange live onstage backed by a band called The El’s, but did you know that the guitarist from The El’s is also a dope producer in his own right? If not, allow me to present to you the sounds of Omar Retnuh a/k/a Mr. HU*. Omar produced this incredible new Dimensions solo track, “Chardonnay” off of his upcoming solo album, “Slanguage (Brain Cell.a.bration)”. We leaked this track late last year, but here it is for download! Album dropping sooner than you expect!

About the track: Dimes presents a somewhat humorous ode to veteran artists who have resorted to making more complaints than music, their sour grapes aging into not-so-fine wine (LOL).

Produced by Mr. HU (a/k/a Omar Retnuh)
Recorded and Mixed by Theory

* Astute music lovers should already be familiar with the sounds of Omar Retnuh, since he produced the Urban Ave 31 mixtapes that garnered DMV soul singer Raheim DeVaughn much of his early buzz. Prior to that, Omar held it down as the key producer and a key emcee in the crew The Remainz, alongside yU (now part of critically acclaimed trio Diamond District) and Omun.

Peace to the peaceful,

Spirit Equality