Father Shaheed, the DJ/producer of the pro-Black conscious hip-hop group Poor Righteous Teachers, died yesterday after being involved in a motorcycle accident. The news was broken by Allhiphop. Details of what happened to Shaheed are still unclear at the moment, but several hip-hop luminaries including Public Enemy have taken to social media to remember the mixmaster. Formed in Trenton, NJ in the ’80s, Poor Righteous Teachers earned a legion of fans in the ’90s for street savvy songs like “Rock Dis Funky Joint” that were embedded with political messages. The group released its fourth and final album, The New World Order, in 1996. The LP featured guest appearances by The Fugees, KRS-One, Nine, Brother J of X-Clan and Junior Reid.
New York-based producer FaltyDL (a.k.a. Drew Lustman) has announced the upcoming release of his latest full-length, In the Wild, out via Ninja Tune on August 12. He’s also collaborated with British artist Chris Shen to flesh out the album’s concept about releasing his music “into the wild.” The first track off the album is “Do Me,” a crafty sample jam based around a highly insistent vocal snippet. An accompanying video for the track features NYC dance crew W.A.F.F.L.E. — who are known for consistently disrupting any semblance of peace a subway rider can wish to have when the board a train — dancing to “Do Me” on the subway in New York City. FaltyDL will support the release by kicking off his summer/fall tour in June and will play select dates with Bonobo. He has penned a poem in honor of his upcoming album. So grab a cup of tea and take it in.
“In The Wild”
Upon a mountaintop in Port Lligat I found my true love.
We wrapped each other Uptight,
never will I forget so much regret.
Never apologize.
Do Me is truth is progress is death is pain is boredom is sex is dance is silence is void.
Nine is eternal stream is people is family is anger is fight is father is not all.
Heart & Soul is female is more anger is ignorance is blisters on sun soaked lips.
Greater Antilles is two parts masculine one part crystalline structures.
Ahead the Ship Sleeps in Danger is Grief resolved through Rolling in New Haven.
Dos Gardenias para ti.
Frontin.
Never apologize.
Post-stroke vernacular, insult to salt intake fake injury to resume sideline spectatorship.
Strained precision, illegal decision and fat masterbatorial visions.
Vapid vaper-what never signed up, tell a lie, till the day I die.
Never apologize.
After stepping out together publicly in a big way at Coachella in April, Diplo and Katy Perry’s relationship has apparently come to an end.
A moment of silence, please.
According to In Touch Weekly, the booty-obsessed Diplo, 35, put the kibosh on the one-month courtship with Perry, who is reportedly 29. “Diplo broke up with her because she does not want to be in a serious relationship. She’s doing OK and not too sad about it. They wanted different things,” a friend of Katy’s tells the mag. “She freaked out when he wanted to introduce her to his parents. She doesn’t want to get married again — at least not anytime soon. She wants to date and he wanted something much more serious. It was too much, too soon.”
An “insider” told the gossip publication that Perry “was really into him,” but with both of them working so much, the producer thought it wasn’t a “fair” situation.
Where do they go from here? Well, Perry is currently touring her Prism album to sold-out shows and Diplo is keeping busy DJing and helming Mad Decent’s block parties this summer. And today he posted this awesome image on Instagram:
Comedian Andy Samberg set his sights on EDM and the cult of superstar DJs this past weekend on the Saturday Night Live Digital Short When Will The Bass Drop? Portraying a DJ called Davvincii, Samburg’s character fries eggs, plays video games on his laptop and manicures a rock garden while a dance floor packed with rabid fans chomp at the bit for the bass to drop. As Davvinci teases and taunts the crowd (yes, he has an actual bass button positioned next to his pair of CDJs), a parade of security guards deliver sacks of money to the DJ booth, fans throw cash and jewelry at him and he even swipes credit cards from clubbers as his track plays. We won’t spoil what happens when the bass actually does drop, but let’s just say it’s straight out of Canadian science-fiction director David Cronenberg’s 1981 cult classic Scanners. Spoiler alert: be on the lookout for a prominent cameo from Lil Jon. Yeaaahh!
