Posts Tagged ‘Amoeba Music
09
May
14
Iamsu Sincerely Yours autograph signing and performance at Dimples Records and Amoeba Records
Join Bay Area rapper IamSu! in celebration of the release of his debut studio album Sincerely Yours (out May 13th on HBK). Sincerely Yours establishes IamSu! as one the best, most innovative rapper-singers making music. He’ll perform 2 songs then sign copies of Sincerely Yours for fans. Purchase your copy at Amoeba, Berkeley to meet him and get your copy signed!
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Amoeba San Francisco – September 14th @ 2:00pm
Brooklyn-based rapper Talib Kweli earned his stripes as one of the most lyrically-gifted, socially aware, and politically insightful rappers to emerge in the last 20 years. His travels around the globe as one of rap’s most in-demand performers combined with his conversations with political activists and his genre-straddling work with Idle Warship and others caused Kweli to realize that he was limited in a sense, a prisoner of sorts of his own success as one of the world’s best rappers with something significant to say.
“My music has been associated with those types of causes, with positivity, spirituality, intelligence and being thought-provoking and such,” he says. “I think sometimes people get caught up in that part of me as an artist and don’t necessarily understand the musicality or fully appreciate the music and the entertainment value behind what I do. I tried to stretch my wings a little bit and bring something that was less beholden to the world of hip-hop and more existing in the world in general.”
The result of this artistic growth and exploration arrives with Kweli’s dynamic Prisoner Of Conscious (available on CD & LP), an artistic tour de force that signals the start of the next chapter of Kweli’s remarkable career. He spent more time working on Prisoner Of Conscious than any of his other albums, a three-year journey that found him exploring new vibes, joining in some unlikely collaborations, and going to foreign lands.
Prisoner Of Conscious arrives as an artistic triumph, a collection that embodies Talib Kweli’s robust creative vision. “I wanted to put out an album that really can support the artist that I’ve become,” he says. “I’m a touring artist. I’m an artist that’s internationally known. I’m not just a local artist at this point in my career. I’m cognizant of the fact that what I do is beyond where it started. I’m trying to reach the apex of where I am now, but without turning my back on or dismissing what I’ve done before.”
Catch Talib Kweli later that day at Rock the Bells Hip Hop Music Festival!
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Myron & E
Amoeba Berkeley – August 27th @ 5:00pm
The vocal duo is something of a rarity. There have been countless solo stars, trios, quartets and quintets, but the pairing of equally talented singers isn’t nearly as common. Sam and Dave, Ashford and Simpson, the Righteous Brothers and the Everly Brothers comprise a short list of standouts. Enter Myron & E.
Myron (Myron Glasper) was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. He sang in choirs and played piano growing up, and was a star athlete in football and track, but found his calling as a dancer. Working with Rosie Perez landed him on the early-’90’s sketch comedy show In Living Color. During those years, however, the streets of South Central were no place to foster creativity, so Myron moved to the Bay and began touring as a backup singer, which is where he met E (Eric “E da Boss” Cooke).
E, a native of Newark, New Jersey, got his first taste of music by playing records during family card games and fish frys. As a teen, he began collecting records of his own and DJing, hanging at the Music Factory and Rock and Soul in New York City. After relocating to southwest Virginia, he graduated high school and began DJing parties, which allowed him to invest in an Ensoniq ASR-10 keyboard, two Technics turntables, and an eight-track recorder.
The two began working together while on the road with the Bay Area’s Blackalicious, and shortly after, E released an independent record as E da Boss. While touring in Finland behind his solo project, E found himself in an impromptu jam session with members of The Soul Investigators, whose work with singer Nicole Willis helped define them as one of Europe’s foremost retro-soul bands.
Investigators producer Didier Selin was impressed enough to leave E with several unfinished tracks. Back in the U.S., E recruited Myron as a singing and songwriting partner, and Myron & E was born.
Myron & E and the Soul Investigators released a string of excellent funk 45s on the Timmion label—starting with 2008’s “Cold Game”/”I Can’t Let You Get Away”—before signing with Stones Throw last year.
Myron & E’s debut album, Broadway, is out now on Stones Throw!
Also catch Myron & E later that night at The New Parish as part of the Stones Throw Soul Tour!
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28
Feb
13
Watsky at Amoeba San Francisco
Watsky
Amoeba San Francisco – March 12th @ 6:00pm
Join rapper, writer, and performer George Watsky for the release of his latest album Cardboard Castles at Amoeba San Francisco on March 12th!
George Watsky is a rapper, writer, and performer from San Francisco now living in Los Angeles. A versatile lyricist who switches between silly and serious, technically complex and simply heartfelt, George won the Brave New Voices National Poetry Slam in 2006. Immediate after, George appeared on the final season of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry in 2007 while a himself college Freshman. He subsequently performed at over 150 universities across the country.
Rapping all the while under the name Watsky, George self-released the barely-heard jazz-hip hop record Invisible Inc in 2007 and the self-titled Watsky in 2010. In January of 2011, George’s fast rapping went viral and led to two appearances on the Ellen Show, a slot on Last Call with Carson Daly, and an exploding online profile. George has performed at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, the NAACP Image Awards on FOX, three times at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and has been featured in XXL, Billboard Magazine, the New York Times Magazine.
Viva La Hip Hop 