Summer is finally underway in the northern hemisphere, and while new releases may be slowing down,
youtube.com/music is getting busy. Neo-soul songstress Jill Scott graced us with
a playlist of her inspirations over the weekend, the ever-charming Alicia Keys celebrates the ten-year anniversary of Songs In A Minor with
an invitation to the YouTube community and the music world mourned
the loss of Clarence Clemons, the gentle giant who played saxophone with Bruce Springsteen for more than thirty years. Meanwhile, everybody from
Bon Iver to
Pitbull are releasing new albums today. Later this week we’ll feature a contest, another video premiere and some very special coverage from England’s Glastonbury music festival; be sure to check out
youtube.com/music over the weekend for updates.
When we started inviting independent record stores to curate playlists of their favorite music, we had no idea that so many of you would be watching. More than 500k views later,
Amoeba Music’s playlist is still turning people on to good music, so this month we head to the East Coast to see what’s popping at Other Music, the New York record store known as a home to all things indie, experimental and adventurous. They came up with a creative collection of videos which we’re featuring on the homepage today.
One of YouTube’s early music stars, Terra Naomi set the template for many who followed. Her song
“Say It’s Possible” featured one of the first crowdsourced music videos; five years later, she’s releasing a new album and a new crowdsourced video, which she’s premiering with us today. The video is directed by Alex Albrecht and made in conjunction with iPhone app Hipstamatic and pulls images from over 10,000 entries from around the world. She also shares a playlist of some of her favorite cover songs of all time.
Smif-n-Wessun (later known as
Cocoa Brovaz after a legal dispute over their name) helped define hardcore hip-hop lyricism with a string of successful, critically-lauded albums back in the 1990s.
Pete Rock has been in the game just as long, an emcee and producer who helped define jazz-hop alongside acts like
A Tribe Called Quest. He went on to become one of the Wu-Tang Clan’s go-to producers, crafting tracks for everyone from Raekwon to Ghostface Killah. Monumental proves the duo’s tag-team rap style is still on lock, while Pete Rock’s production never misses the mark — and often recalls his late, great colleague, the venerated
J Dilla. Check it out now, one week before release date.
