Our friend-in-soul Norman Mayers of NuSoul Magazine published an interview with the fantastic King Britt, where he talks about the Philly scene, his process, his favorites, his new project and more.

Nu-Soul: What artists are you digging right now?
King Britt: Quadron, Ras G, Afta 1, Flying Lotus, Soul Litchfield, Zaphrin Follicle, Knxwldge, Mnd Dsgn and King Sunny Ade!

Nu-Soul: Who would you like to work with but haven’t yet?
King Britt: Bjork, Tracy Thorn, China Moses, Jamiroquai, Herbie Hancock and Grace Jones!

Check the full interview by Matt Bauer here.

This is the highly anticipated second mixtape, Don’t Mention It, from the Southern Cali trio Pac Div.

Tracklisting and full mixtape download after the jump. And the first track has one of our favorite men in the business on it…

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Sometime around their non-Cali debut in Austin for SXSW, Rehes sat down with another Bay Area group on the rise: Grillade and even brought us an album sampler for download.

Grillade [gree-YAHD] presents the very delicious mixture of Bay Area based rhythm section The Park, San Francisco dwelling producer Keelay, and Portland bred songbird Ragen Fykes.  Some of my favorite artists from the west coast have joined and I just about can’t hold it together any longer.

The group blends soul, hip-hop, and funk with The Park’s trade live band groove that leaves you yearning for more.  And more, and more, and…yeah.

Talent abounds.  Ragen’s voice, while sweet and soothing, still carries a control that lets you know she can be bad as she wanna be.  The Park approaches music with a very natural and communal ideology, making you feel like it’s everyone on stage having a party.  Keelay’s humble genius provides the backbone with tight production that just makes you want to clap your hands, even if it’s Wednesday.

Also, just in knowing these folks as down to Earth as hell and extremely eager to create and grow, I already see the beginnings of an incredible chemistry brewing.

This same chemistry left Ragen feeling herself and raging at one SXSW performance so hard that she might have forgotten who she was for a little second.  Or a long second.  We forgot who we were too – shit.  Homegirl got it in.  I haven’t seen The Park or Keelay get lost in the music like that before either – and I’ve seen those fools hella times.  Explosive.

So how’d these folkers get started anyway?  Like, who?  What?  Where in the frick did they come from and how do they even EXIST?

Answers and MP3 After the Jump

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This week on GPWW, Gilles starts off with Majestik & Steve before he gets into The Head Hunters, Sun Ra, a Grace Jones remix by Mala, Calibre, Benga, Madlib, plus a fantastic live “Poem,” read by Steve Reid at the 2008 WW Awards. Later Kyle Hall, an 18-year old producer from Detroit whose tracks also appear on some recent GPWW tracklists, provides the mix for end of this week’s show.

myspace.com/kylehalldetroit

Part 1
 

Part 2
 

Listen in Jukebox

More Info & Tracklist

2 years ago, Gilles Peterson visited Cuba for the first time on a reconnaissance mission to check out the new generation of Havana-based artists.  The fruits of his labor culminated in the album he presented, Havana Cultura, which was recently released, but now his Brownswood Recordings imprint is preparing the release of Havana Cultura Remixed out on June 7th, enlisting remixes from the likes of Louie Vega, Carl Cox, Seiji, Marc Mac of 4Hero, and many more.  The 2 disc album also features a bonus DJ mix courtesy of Gilles Peterson himself that neatly weaves together the disparate threads that make up a typical Peterson DJ Set.  From the stirring percussion and meandering groove of Louie Vega’s marathon Latin workout to the hi-octane Bengua-esque skank delivered by Carl Cox and the lazy ebb and flow of Michel Cleis‘ magnificent shuffling houser, this is Gilles in his element.

havana-cultura.com

Award winning DJ, remixer and producer, Kaskade follows up the massively successful Strobelite Seduction full-length with his sixth album, Dynasty. The first single, aptly titled “Dynasty,” has a gritty production, smoothed out by the vocals of Haley, known as the ethereal singer of “I Remember” and “Move For Me.” There’s also “Only You,” which features production work from none other than Tiėsto. The result is a blend of Tiėsto’s signature pace of trance and Kaskade’s soulful swagger — organic California underground meets big floor Euro. “Fire In Your New Shoes,” featuring Dragonette’s Martina, delivers a rock-riffed, downtown cool, electro-pop sound sure to resonate all summer.

Dynasty is available digitally now [iTunes] and in stores on CD May 11.

To support the album, Kaskade’s extensive worldwide tour will span the remainder of 2010.

Kaskade feat. Haley – “Dynasty”
 

More Streaming Tracks, Tour Dates & Tracklist

Theophilus London has a new mixtape coming soon [UPDATE: out now, via Complex Mag], titled I Want You [usershare] for the legendary Marvin Gaye song he covers. He also covers Tweet & Missy’s “Oops (Oh My!)”.

Theophilus London – “I Want You” [MP3] (from I Want You)
[Mixtape Download: usershare | sendspace ]
 

Theophilus London – “Oops!” [MP3]
 

Theophilus delivered a message with “I Want You,” [thanks to hypetrak.com] and we will not compromise his vision by correcting meaningless syntax or spelling errors:

“This track sparked the whole mixtape!
I bought every single Marvin Gaye record i could fine.. and spent an entire 2 months listening while working on my album in LA. I then bought the separate parts from the original song I WANT YOU by Marvin Gaye and
recorded my verse and singing in LONDON. I put all the different instruments together for the new wave version

It was a pleasure Covering this song! I really Want my Listeners! and this is my way of telling them!!
I am very Excited for people to hear my new desires and I just want Girls to wake up and put this on! eat their breakfast smoke their brains out and enjoy I WANT YOU”

myspace.com/theophiluslondon
twitter.com/THEOPHILUSL

Our friends at Knitting Factory Records and Fela.net have announced the second set of Fela Kuti reissues, Na Poi:

These 7 CDs, which include 14 albums released primarily in the mid-70s, contain some of the most powerful music of Fela’s career, representing Fela and Africa ‘70 in their prime. In this collection, Fela’s political and social commentary begins to reach a boiling point with songs such as “Alagbon Close”, “Icy Blindness”, and “Expensive Shit.” “Na Poi” was banned from the radio for explicit sexual references, and in “Yellow Fever” Fela urges people to shake loose the colonial mentality. Fela’s more poetic and metaphysical inclinations are also represented in this collection, with masterpieces such as “Water No Get Enemy.”

Diplo + Sia = Sweet Remix. Sia’s full-length album, We Are Born, drops June 22nd. Her current tour dates (The We Meaning You Tour) can be found here, along with more streaming music from the new album.

Sia – “Clap Your Hands (Diplo Remix)” [MP3]
 

Be Warned: This video contains graphic, violent imagery.

M.I.A. is the latest artist to send the internet into a full-blown frenzy with a video. The short film by French director Romain Garvas, which has been pulled from YouTube and labeled as NSFW elsewhere, is set to the music of M.I.A.’s “Born Free.”
miauk.com
neetrecordings.com