Leor Galil, Reader staff writer
ILoveMakonnen featuring Drake, “Tuesday” I’ve been listening to Drake’s remix of the breakout hit from oddball Atlanta singer-rapper ILoveMakonnen since it came out in August, and I haven’t gotten sick of it yet. It still slays me when Drake breaks out a fragile, suave falsetto and sings: “Always workin’ OT overtime and outta town.”
J. Johari Palacio, thought catalyst at Perpetual Rebel
Portishead, Portishead Being the Los Angeles-based “Wu-Tang Stan” that I was back in the mid-to-late 90s (thanks to KXLU’s We Came From Beyond, hosted by Mike Nardone), I was knee-deep into RZA’s first album, Bobby Digital in Stereo. Several records on the album resonated with me, in particular “Kiss of a Black Widow,” featuring the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard. The winter of 1998 had me visiting my mother in New York City, and on our little mall excursion I dip off into the Sam Goody to explore some new tunes. Portishead’s “Over” (which RZA sampled for “Black Widow”) comes on over the store’s speaker system and I sprint to the first person I see in the black polo, grab her arm, and started pointing at the speaker. She started to go on about their first album, Dummy, at which I vigorously shake my head “no,” make my purchase [of the band’s second album], and discovered some sonic magic that changed my adult life.
Daniel Crawford LA-based pianist has made big fans out of the likes of DJ Jazzy Jeff and tastemaker Gilles Peterson with his latest album, The Awakening. This album of 21st-century jazz fusion with a mix of ancestral rhythms stopped me in my tracks. Check out the single “Home” that features singer Cleveland Jones and you’ll be hooked. There’s also a tribute to the late George Duke and daring covers of Fela Kuti and Prince.
