BLITZ The Ambassador & The Bronx Princess

The combination of insomnia and web surfing would typically lead the less morally astute to smut. But noooo, not us! At The Toy Plane we pride ourselves on being home alone on weekends Wiki-ing the history of peanut butter and crusing for action on PBS.org.

Score! Stumbling on the documentary film 'Bronx Princess' was a treat. What this film lacks in complexity it makes up for in heart. With an amazing soundtrack and beautiful backdrop 'Bronx Princess' is worth a view. Relatively short, it's available to watch free online until November 24th.

Synopsis (via pbs.org) Rocky Otoo is the Bronx-bred teenage daughter of Ghanaian parents, and she's no pushover. She is a sassy high-achiever bound for college. With freedom in sight, Rocky rebels against her mother's rules. When their relationship reaches a breaking point, Rocky flees to her father, a chief in Ghana. What follows is captured in Bronx Princess, a tumultuous coming-of-age story set in a homeland both familiar and strange. Her precocious — and very American — ideas of a successful, independent life conflict with her father's traditional African values. Reconciling her dual legacies becomes an unexpected chapter in this unforgettable young woman's education.

We also learned our BK comrade BLITZ The Ambassador composed the musical score for the film...DOPE! BLITZ explains the process and inspiration behind the Highlife sounds he created for the film.  

Blitz the Ambassador on scoring PBS Documentary from MVMT on Vimeo.

P.S. Wow! I've seen him play but I didnt realize he was a "real" musician..dope.boy.fresh. Want to hear more? Blitz's Album on itunes

FEMI KUTI & THE POSTIVE FORCE AT THE AFRO-BEAT FESTIVAL IN NEW YORK CITY

With the rise in popularity of global music stars amongst younger, more adventurous music fans strictly American dominance of the airwaves is slowly fading away. Whether in a genuine search for the next funky sound or just to ‘keep up with the Jones’ more listeners are reaching beyond local borders to discover new and old music.

Any self respecting music lover worth his weight in salt is at least familiar with the music of Femi Kuti, son of the late legendary Afro-Beat King, Fela Kuti. In the 1970 & 80’s Fela -inspired by the sounds of highlife and the funk of folks like James Brown- electrified the contemporary African music scene with a mix of Afro/Pop/Funk/Jazz that would forever solidify Nigeria's place on the world music map.

Femi’s sound has and probably always will hint at his fathers legacy and although that is a great complement, on DAY BY DAY, the first studio album in seven years by the reigning King of Afro-Beat (released in the US by Mercer Street Records) Femi Kuti is more determined than ever to etch his own mark. As Femi reaches back to Nigeria's big band roots with DAY BY DAY he simultaneously pushes his genre forward with new sounds that are pure jazz, pure gospel, pure soul and pure black.

The Toy Plane had the pleasure of catching Femi Kuti backed by his army of fresh young musicians, Positive Force, earlier this month at the Afro-Beat festival in New York City. Femi rocked a solid two hour set full of frantic rhythms packed with a political and sensual energy that for the congregation in assembly was nothing short of a religious experience.

Photos gracefully provided by Kwesi Abbensetts http://www.spaceshipgeorge.blogspot.com/

We Still Heart: Hip Hop

Big thanks to @JONUBIAN who tweeted this clip of two of the best MC'S to ever weave rap tales in this impromptu moment of pure feel good. It's heartwarming to watch Mos Def transform into a fan before the cameras lens. Bypassing the typical ego of fame, hip-hop in particular,  it's clear Mos still loves and listens to the genre of music he's helped define. Watch as he tackles '75 Bars' (one of Black Thoughts numerous masterpieces off The Roots Rising Down Album) with Thought humbly providing back up.

"This is what it's all about!" ~The Spark

clip courtsey of www.frolab.com

I Think I love Henny Floats!

Our fam over at indie music label Foco Moto has got some amazing talent in their midst. Check out our big bro Asen James in the video for his instrumental single 'No Maybes'. The track is so incredibly banger hot I'm thinking of pulling out the ole' marble notebook and scratching down a quick 16... stay tuned!

Oh and before I forget...we've got a link to download James' Henny Float album. thank us later!http://focomoto.com/

No Maybes - Music Video from foco moto on Vimeo.

John Forte

John Forte "Runnin Up That Hill" from The ICU on Vimeo.

This Is How We Live! Fela in Calabar

Grammys Swagger.

Grammy Night 2009 had a bit less swagger this year than usual. Something was missing and I'm not talking about Ri-Ri & Chris Brown's Swagger. They don't interest us. Sorry.
(We did however, find the conversations of two Trini girls on the 4 train debating the scandal quite hilarious . " But Cleo, de girl nahsti, i can tell, she nahstie!" )

Anyway, as far as I can tell, M.I.A, Jay-Z, Kanye West, T.I & Wayne had the only swaggy performance of the night.

Swag on People. Swag On...




P.S. I have not hated a word more than I hate the word "SWAGGER" in a very long time.
One of theses day I'll draft you guys a whole list of words or phrases that annoy the shit out of me. It'll be fun.

XOXO

Another Hot Joint.

and another dope marketing piece done by yours truly!

Turn It Up!

What if we told you that this Friday you could, listen to music of, for, and about the legendary J-Dilla, party with some of the freshest women in NYC & raise money for Lupus research? All for cheap cheap, you'd wanna be down right...yeah I know!
So Join LADIES LOVE Dilla this Friday at Deity!


P.S. Our firm designed the flyer (CLICK ON IT to see it in all its glory).... and in the words of our dear friend St. Yacque...Its Ca Ute!

xoxo

Not My Space Leads to Feel Good Music.

Racking up a million friends on Myspace is not such a huge achievement anymore. You no longer have to be a cute Asian girl with a bisexual persuasion, have a witty blog or even a decent profile picture. All you have to do is alter your settings to allow any Joe Schmo with an email account to add you. And they will come! As a test we changed the privacy settings on our personal page and poof! Within 3 days we had 87 new friend request ( I maybe, kinda think, I might have actually known ONE of the requesters). Anywho, sadly Myspace has become web wasteland. No longer can start up brands or bands claim a web presence based on a purported "million friends" following. I personally cant find anything even interesting on Myspace (to think I almost got canned a few years ago for my Myspace addiction!). For many formerly loyal users, Myspace has turned into a loud, glaring commercial with everybody and their mama selling some thing, some band, some idea or some party!
So we hardly visit our Myspace page anymore. It seems the once indestructible power it once held is no more. Even for declared Internet junkies that thing has gotten just a bit to impersonal.


A part of what made Myspace so appealing was its ability to connect real people to one another. Connecting with old friends or making new friends kind of made you feel like an insider, someone in the know with direct access to the personal (sort of) lives of the individuals in your que. I wont get all nostalgic on you ( who has the time these days) but, to scratch our social networking itch we've switched over to Facebook with a promise to be extremely selective about who we let get down with our get -least we have to start another page under our OTHER alias, like some less than A list celebrity.

Anyway all of the above is just a long ass way of telling a short ass story about this band who despite our very selective approach to adding only people we know and sort of know - somehow found its way on our Facebook friends list and sent us a very random link to their music.

We liked it. So here it goes.





Who knew South Africa had so much Detroit Back Packer-esque swagger?

We Still Heart: Tricky - Is it Ska,Trip Hop, Punk, Shit MAYBE It's R&B? I (don't) KNOWle West Boy!!!

I don't know what I'm hearing but it bangs hard.

and thats good.

Dude, tour already!



http://www.knowlewestboy.com/




P.S. we are going 1/2 on a baby.

Mama Afrika Rest In Uhuru!

Ayo, while your at it, Put this film in your que. Mama got Style & Grace. Style & Grace.

In the Que: Pio Pio

Cuba. 

The tiny island nation represents so many different things to different folks. In this rhythm packed docu-comedy tale, anyone with a beating heart will fall for Maestro Pio Levia, an 80+ year old Cuban musical legend( who's voice in it's heyday helped make many a baby)! 

MUSICA CUBANA serves as a kind of spin off to the Buena Vista Social Club, that is both heartwarming and informative. See it!

Get it in on your good foot?

Almost A Celebrity Death Match Single of the Moment.

Automatic - Mickey Factz ft. Curtis Santiago.

VS.

Mad Again - 77KASH feat. Johnny Osbourne

A Music Review Named "Life is Real"

Believe it or not, I'm not a member of the "music is healing, music is God, music makes the world spin on its axis, I can’t live without my radio" cult.

Call me an old soul, who only get moved by, well what actually moves me. Make me dance or cry, get me angry or horny, spark the mosh pit and make me two-step till I sweat. Or don’t even bother.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’d love to chase good music but it’s just to tiring. Somehow it still finds me though. Every once in a while I hear something that makes the earth move under my feet.

So it’s circa 2007 and out of the cosmos comes a girl named Ayo with an album wackly titled JOYFUL.

Aside from the album title, this Nigerian-German songbird deserved all praises due. But if singing in a language not your own, producing and arranging your own music isn't enough to convince the hardcore; then lyrically she deads all ill noise. Emotional and heartfelt her delicately nuanced verbs and nouns never came off as pink or gushy nor were we left ever feeling embarrassed for her.

Let me try and break it down like this.

Remember the first time you heard that MJB joint -you pick the one- where you got all caught up in the moment and got a little misty around the eye region? And although nothing even remotely like a Hailey brother beat down might have actually happened in your world - you still felt the shit out of Mary’s pain. And after the song was done you felt like you’d dropped a burden from your shoulders -realizing how much you probably needed that cry.

Cliché? Well yes - but Ayo’s sound was kind of like that. She made music that actually hurt to listen to; but didn't hurt to listen to. Not predictably optimistic or becoming slit your wrist music; JOYFUL managed a harmony rarely found in its genre.

While the strength of her talent was clearly rooted in the ability to make grown men weep, she had a few toe tappers (and a few joints just itching for deep house remixes) thrown in for good measure. Midway through JOYFUL Mami got all flirty-like on the Abbey Lincoln remake of “Supposed to Be Love”( For some reason we feel Lilly Allen should be somewhere taking notes). With JOYFUL Ayo did some cool stuff, and she did it all pretty damn well.

Anyway, yeah it’s an “old” album, but we just came across these videos for the first time today and it reminded us of how much we dig this girl.

Well made and built to last. Kind of like your daddies Chevy.

We H(ART) BLK JKS

If you were lucky enough to be there, kudos to you! If not,here it is. "Mzabalazo" performed live at Harriet's Alter Ego.

Toyi Toyi with us... and be sure to get dem knees up!





What a classic day!
(and lovely guys to boot!)



p.s. LAKESIDE is our official theme song. Find it, love it, buy it.

Who is HEAVy?

Ok so, I admit it. I was way late to class.

A little over 42 hours ago, I was asking that very question.
But I'm a quick learner.
and know I know.

So here's the scenario. It's Saturday afternoon and Harriet's BackYard Couture is heating up nicely. Folks are having a good time, the punch is flowing and all is gravy. But 2 hours and 20 gallons of rum punch later, folks are standing around me scowling & pointing like I'm wearing a scarlet letter...

The blue jugs are EMPTY!

So I gather the troops and we're off in search of the biggest bottle of Captain Morgans we can find. ..Too bad cause the sidewalk show is about to start...oh well!

We are on our way back with bags of ice, gallons of rum, juices, and all kinds of other extras and I hear the two oldest instruments know to man. The voice and the drum....and damn it's LOUD!!

I'm tight. Mad. Upset. Now I'm rushing back to find out what the hell is going on, and where is Ngozi and why is she not stopping this madness! Cause whoever this HEAVy is, they are gonna get our shit shut down! (I'm three blocks away on loud ass, busy ass, Flatbush avenue and I can hear them clear as day)

By block 2 I've stopped cursing and started nodding my head.

By the time I get to the corner it's a wrap.

The musics got me trapped.

Liquor, ice, juice, hamburger buns, change... everything gets dropped ,right there on the sidewalk and it's on... MASH UP THE PLACE!

That's heavy.

Now Meet HEAVy.

BLOG MYSPACE

P.S. Check out these amazing photos of HEAVy @ BackYard Couture by Richard Louissaint

XOXO

Backyard Couture

One more reason ...

Yeah, I think we're in Philly this weekend.

100

xoxo

The HipSTERS Head to Philly this SUNDAY!

Diplo -our 100% certified official blonde B(ase)boy- , the human beat behind Santo Gold, M.I.A. and a host of "cooler than the other side of your pillow" noise makers give the kente cloth set a run for their money with the MAD DECENT block party in Philly this Sunday. Buy an Arab scarf, get hit by a grown ass man on a skate board and meet a really cute chick in florescent leggings.

ONCE AGAIN: p.s. We've got the drop on a $6.00 (yes SIX dollars) bus -leaving from NYC)-to get you there and back ...holla!