lands on planet earth august 21st

saw this young lady, janelle monae, perform last night. she's a walking broadway show stuffed into a pair of saddle shoes!

hip hop is alive and kicking...outside the u.s.

"you best respect canada in this musical famine/so here's some manna you can examine..."
k-os "aquacityboy"

canadian mc/singer/musician k-os has delivered the best hip hop album you've never heard. atlantis: hymns for disco is the latest proof that american hip hop is leaving a lot to be desired. k-os and other incredible hip hop artists from outside the states like shystie, dizzee rascal and m.i.a. are light years ahead of the club-song monotony going on in the u.s. right now.

americans tend to take the art forms they invented for granted, while non-americans are hard at work studying the history of those forms, re-working old formulas and coming up with some of the most original sounds ever heard.

that's exactly what k-os does. his first two albums, exit and joyful rebellion were his search for his own planet of sounds. he appears to be the only one manning the spaceship on this voyage, with 45's, eight tracks, cassettes and cd's strewn about the cockpit. it took him two albums to build up the courage to bust through restrictive categorization and, sadly, he's one of the few musicians doing so.

exit was mostly caribbean and hip hop influenced with the beautifully haunting "superstarr pt. 2" that was perhaps a preview of the musical growth he would explore on joyful rebellion.

rebellion's "dirty water" and "man i used to be" set the standard for the musical planet that is atlantis: hymns for disco. atlantis is an overstuffed brown paper lunch bag with huge grease spots from the fried chicken, brownies and fritos inside. in an hour's time, k-os covers the forgotten roots of gospel, blues, soul, bluegrass, rockabilly, punk, pop and hip hop. it's music that will be played on the first car ride to the moon.