Fine Art Friday: Dario Puggioni

Berlin based painter Dario Puggioni's paintings are masterfully rendered figures mixed with horror movie aesthetics that illustrate emotional hardships and uncomfortable compositions that fits perfectly with this months Halloween-ish artists. Check out more of his work below and learn to appreciate the distortion of the human figure and sculptural quality of paint. #FineArtFridayOnSaturday (apologies for the late post)

Video: ILL Doctrine - "Why is Every Hip Hop Debate So Annoying?"

Jay Smooth of Ill Doctrine always has a funny and intellectual look at various topics in society and more so in the universe of hip hop culture. His latest humorous rant involves asking the question "Why are hip-hop debates so annoying"? Discussing the trend of media conversations and the stagnant topics and relevance of media's constant chatter about hip hop's place in the world. Check it out above and contribute your thoughts at Ill Doctrine's Youtube page and help enliven the conversation's we all have about the advancement of the culture.

Listen: Madlib - Medicine Radio Show Pt. 2

Beat fiends rejoice! As a prelude to the upcoming album from Yesterday's New Quintet, Madlib recently teamed up with Carhartt clothing for the Carhartt Work in Progress / Carhartt Radio release of Madlib's Medicine Show series. Sorting through his endless volumes of audio experiments, crate digging gems, psychedelic oddities and reals of unreleased beats, Madlib brings another mix of brain food for you to vibe with for 47 minutes. Check it out here and look for more surprises from him soon.

Video: 7even Thirty - "Get up"

I am not gonna act like I have been up on 7even Thirty all this time, but I tend to check up on anybody signed to Mello Music Group, as they have a good record of picking quality artists. 7even Thirty is definitely like an Andre 3000 of the underground and embraces the space cadet vibe, but he keeps a good mix of spacey beats, bouncy electro and experimental vibes that match his delivery well. Check out his album on Bandcamp and see if it fits your groove.

This video for "Get Up" is one of the tracks that stuck out to me from the Heaven's Computer album that he just dropped, so I'm glad to see some visuals for it. Glad to see Mello Music making noise with every new album!

Peep the Dilla verse/flow he borrows from "Raise it up", which the whole song kinda sounds like anyway. Paying tribute to the legends is always a win in my book.

Listen: Kankick - The Traditional Heritage

Though this album is not new, after talking with Dharmic X this past weekend about underground artists, I found myself listening to it while working on some late night projects and realized what a gem it was all over again. If you are a fan of Dilla's beat tapes, and early Madlib stuff, then Kankick will please your eardrums. He's just started loading his back catalog on Bandcamp, but everything he touches is ill and deserves more attention.

Kankick is a long time affiliate of the Lootpack and Madlib, so his vibe is grimey soul, samples galore, experimental jazz, and crispy drums and will keep you hypnotized for hours. He is fiercely independent and so much of his contact info is off the grid, but his Bandcamp page has most everything you need to absorb his sounds.

Support quality music and check for more from Kankick in the future.

Video: Brother Ali - "Only Life I Know"

Brother Ali continues to put out quality videos to fit his quality music and the clips for "Only Life I Know" help drive the point home about the hardships of American life and life in general.  Jake One handles the boards for the entire album and helps balance the sound with anthems and mellow, soulful beats that Ali can shine over with his heartfelt stories and personal lyrics.

Check out the whole album on itunes and support quality music from the Rhymesayers crew.

Learn more about the video below

Video: Killer Mike - "Reagan"

Killer Mike returns with a vengeance and an incredible animated video to illustrate his words for the track "Reagan" off his R.A.P. Music album. Listen to the words closely and study the illustrations for subtle and not so subtle clues to the motivation behind the track. I am glad to see Killer Mike get his due recognition and not being afraid to address politics on a larger scale in the vein of Public Enemy or Immortal Technique. Do your reality TV-induced mind a favor and digest this video and the words for a quick history lesson on the state of the world. (via Pitchfork Media)