Jay Electronica – Exhibit C, Fashawn – Boy Meets World, Mos Def – Ecstatic…

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Download: “Happy Birthday, Flying Lotus!” Jam Session

L.A. visionary Flying Lotus just had a birthday, and in the true spirit of birthdays, ArtDontSleep delivers a gift in his honor to the world: the “Happy Birthday Flying Lotus!” jam session featuring Lotus, Exile, Shafiq Husayn, Computer Jay and many more. Download or listen above and more info [...]

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Absolutely paralyzing work from photographer Shaun Bloodworth—a year’s worth of portraits of Low End Theory regulars and live gigs. Flying Lotus, Daddy Kev, Exile, Daedelus, Gaslamp Killer, Ras G, Samiyam, Dam-Funk and more. Perfect photos that will arouse your hometown pride! Thanks for the folks at Brainfeeder for the tip!

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blu / gaslamp killer / mainframe
Download: Johnson and Jonson “Radical 2″

(from Johnson and Jonson Instrumentals out Aug. 4 on iTunes)
Rapper Blu and producer Mainframe released their Johnson and Jonson album (also featuring Gaslamp Killer, Exile, Co$$, Gonja Sufi and more) last year and will release the instrumentals—as well as new instrumentals—next week on iTunes. This [...]

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After six weeks on tour, Henry Clay People played a “homecoming show” by dragging their producer and friends onstage to play tambourine and scream along with covers of Operation Ivy “Knowledge” and Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” It was a full-scene affair with members of Happy Hollows, Redd Kross and The Pity Party—all cover alumni—wandering in and out of the 6 hour show. (Chris from HH partied all night!)

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This is the last of our archival re-releases in honor of our first SXSW showcase tonight and it’s appropriate that it goes to Blank Blue, whose founders Nobody and Niki Randa were once both workers at Long Beach record store Fingerprints and who have the kind of collections professors ask permission to photograph. This interview is from Vol. 2 No. 19 and was conducted between Sunken City and the Belmont Brewing Co. by Chris Ziegler.

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This is one of the most ancient interviews actually online here at L.A. RECORD—Busdriver from our 14th issue ever way back in 2005. He was absolutely a good sport at the photo shoot and he will be playing our SXSW showcase tonight at the Independent with Blu, the Henry Clay People, Blank Blue, Castledoor and Very Be Careful. This interview brought in just under deadline by Chris Ziegler.

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We are reposting this interview with the Henry Clay People (from Vol. 2 No. 44 back in December 2007) because they’re also playing our SXSW showcase tomorrow with Blu, Busdriver and more. They were interviewed here by Chris Ziegler between their two full-lengths.

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We’re reposting this interview (from Vol. 3 No. 2) because Blu—now signed to Warner, but interviewed here for the release of C.R.A.C.’s excellent The Piece Talks with Ta’Raach—will be playing the L.A. RECORD showcase tomorrow in Austin. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

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The West Coast has seemingly always been viewed as nothing more then the birthplace of “gangsta rap” and slept on as the hotbed of underground artists that it has been—Freestyle Fellowship, Hieroglyphics and Pharcyde come to mind. With juice from one of the best new underground MCs on the scene—Blu—Co$$ has dropped his new mixtape, 22 tracks that blend some of the best elements of both underground and gangsta—dope dirty beats and raw conscious rhymes.

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