What I'm Watching: Diamond District (yU, Oddisee, Uptown XO) - "First Step"

Diamond District is back with the visuals to their first and dope out the gate single to the album "March On Washington". This album is going to be bananas.

DC's Holy Trinity is back with their first visuals from the new album "March On Washington." yU, Oddisee & Uptown XO enlist director Jay Brown for the visual narrative on "First Step." Starting with XO we see the DC emcee light up the opening verse putting spirit back in the music before passing the torch on to his brethren. yU then spits cold bars with the linguistic dexterity of a seasoned veteran, all the while casually grinding an African chew stick. Meanwhile, the video lays out the metaphor of three emcees on separate paths coming together to form one group. In the last scene the track's producer and final lyricist, Oddisee, takes the helm of his ship: "Man, it's just the way it go, if I want it, say it so." Get ready for the new album coming October 14th.

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Diamond District (yU, Oddisee, Uptown XO) - "Lost Cause"

The latest heat from "March On Washington", releasing on October 14th. Maaaaaaaaaaan, I can't wait.



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Diamond District - "First Step"

Finally! Diamond District is back. Oddisee, yU, and Uptown XO come out swinging on this hard hitting track off "March On Washington". Can't say enough great things about the production Oddisee brings to the table. Add XO and yU to the mix and you get an explosive sound that reverberates from the states to overseas. Nothing short of dope on this single. Check it.

From the upcoming return of Diamond District "March On Washington" October 14th. Diamond District is yU, Oddisee, and Uptown XO. Produced by Oddisee.

When Diamond District dropped In the Ruff on Mello Music Group in 2009, the gritty drums and grimy raps combined as elementally as hydrogen and oxygen. The D.C. Voltron of Oddisee, yU, and X.O. dusted off and revitalized a sound once consigned to the catacombs.

Hailed as an instance classic, its impact reverberated throughout the underground and mainstream. The Washington D.C. City Paper called it the city’s best album in many years. During an era when lyricism was deemed too intellectual and samples too dated,Diamond District overturned conventional logic. They preserved the raw and made it righteous.

A half-decade later, the holy trinity has returned with March on Washington. The truths remain timeless. Wisdom over rhythm. Slang turned into testament.



Preorder: Diamond District - "March On Washington"

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What I'm Watching: Uptown XO "Good Vibes"

Another dope joint from Uptown XO (of Diamond District), as he preps his The Color Grey project due out October 1st. You definitely catch a good vibe listening to well ... Good Vibes. Enjoy the music. Chea!

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What I'm Watching: Uptown XO (of Diamond District) "Errybody"

From his The Color Gray mixtape due out in October, XO of Diamond District drops the visuals for the AB The Pro produced banger Errbody. The Color Gray comes ahead of his album Colour de Grey due out in January. XO is also working with Oddisee and yU for their sophomore Diamond District project. Big things coming. In the meantime, enjoy this vid. Chea!

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Mello Muve (Exclusive) - "Right Now" feat. Oddisee, Gensu Dean, Apollo Brown, & yU

"Right Now" is dope on all levels and Mello Music Group is doing a great job putting out fire. Here they add fuel to the fire with the assistance of Oddisee, yU, Gensu Dean, and Apollo Brown.



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yU "Time Machine" Feat. Bilal Salaam & Danedra Rowell

I remember watching an interview with yU where he was talking about this track and how he basically used old photos as his inspiration for pulling the cut together. I thought that was dope. Imagine the story you could write based on the memories you recall from old photo albums. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and in this case, it's worth a solid track. Enjoy the latest single off of the DMV emcee's new project, The Earn. Chea!



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What I'm Watching: An Interview with Diamond District

Another Diamond District album in the works from Oddisee, X.O., and yU. I can not wait. Check out the interview to find out more.

After their performance at The Black Cat in D.C., the hip-hop powerhouse known as Diamond District sat down with us to talk about where they've been, what they've been up to, and what you can expect from their next album, "March on Washington".

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What I'm Watching - Uptown XO - "Tol' You So" featuring Diamond District + Download "Uptown XO - Monumental 2" (Free)

What happens when you get these same cats together flowing over beats like this?! You should already know the answer to that, that's what you get. This track met the repeat button about 5 times as I was posting this. Come to find out, XO released the album with this track a few days ago for FREE?!?! Yeah. I jumped on that. So do yourself a favor and get it. Now!!! Haha.

Side note: I keep telling heads how ill Oddisee is but some still ain't listening. "Had the bank tellers looking like strippers / countin' 500 in 5s so yeah I had to tip her..."



Get the whole album for free!



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When She Speaks, You Listen: @ladyblogga at the Diamond District/Cypress Hill show

Just when I lost my faith in Hip-Hop, Spring sprung and it has been restored. Thursday night I found myself at the Diamond District/Cypress Hill show at the legendary SOB’s. Now I remember seeing Cypress Hill at SOB’s when they first came to NYC … Damn … I just dated myself. But I had to sneak in. It was easier to sneak into venues back then.

Anyway...

Diamond District blessed the stage first. The DC trio has been all over our site from early on. They are bringing the music back to where it needs to be and I hope they keep bringin’ it. Real Hip-Hop seems to be making a comeback and we need to support it 110%. No more of this bullshit Hip Slop people call Hip-Hop. We have to stay true to the game.

Cypress Hill murdered the stage. They went from their first album to their upcoming album, titled “Rise Up” due out on April, 20. They ran through “How I Could Just Kill A Man”, “Hits From the Bong”, “Armada Latina”, “Latin Lingo”, and “I Wanna Get High” amongst other hits. Their stage show had live drums and congos played by Eric Bo-Bo, who is the son of Willie BoBo which added an extra flair to the show. I am beginning to have a real appreciation for shows with live music, Roots inspired of course. The show was crazzzyyyy!!! Let’s not even talk about the smoke filled venue. You know when Cypress Hill is in the house, so is the cannibus.

There is a Cypress Hill mixtape set to be floating around in a few days. The link will be posted here as it is a MUST HAVE on your iPOD (or music playing device). Hosted by Hot 97’s Peter Rosenberg (interview coming sooner than soon), it promises to be a banger. With original songs and covers by Asher Roth, Yelawolf, Jim Jones and a host of other artists.

Check the Cypress Hill live footage from SOB’s below.

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Check It ... Diamond District "Hologram"

I caught this Diamond District track over at www.thisisrealmusic.com. This track Hologram is dope and is suppose to be on the upcoming project from the crew out of the DMV. Check it ...



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Tha Lady Blogga Asks...Where's Hip Hop?

Given the recent events in the music industry, we can't help but realize that the hip-hop culture is on a rapid downward spiral. We lost the King of Pop, Vibe magazine folded, XXL featured a cover full of shiny suit rappers. What the hell is going on with hip-hop? It needs to be revived and quickly. We have been bombarded with parties and bullshit, bling and swag, titties and asses (thanks, Drake), but no talent. Where did it all go?

Pandora Internet radio has become a necessity in my Blackberry. While mainstream radio caters to the artists that pay the most for spins per day, Pandora gives you a mix of stuff you want to hear. I can't stand listening to mainstream radio anymore. Every hour, the line-up is the same...and it's a shitty line-up at that.

So, here I am jammin' to my Pandora "Nas" station, listening to Nas, Jay-Z, Tupac and then it plays Ma$e? WTF is this? Ma$e? Where did this come from? How does he fit in here? He doesn't and that's the problem. I can't deal with the shiny suit rapper. I can't do it. So then I got to thinking, where did hip-hop go wrong? When did we lose it to talentless gimmick promoters with expensive cars? First I thought it was Puffy and his shiny suit movement. But then what about Hammer? And who the hell gave Vanilla Ice a record deal?

The new age of rappers is coming equipped with everything but talent. I mean, it's one thing to have a sales pitch or a certain image but you have to have talent to back it up. I am not even knocking the use of auto-tune. I was rocking to "Computer Love" and it was all good. If artists were saying something worth listening to, it wouldn't matter if it was auto-tuned or not. Having to listen to the likes of Soulja Boy, Hurricane Chris, New Boyz and other talentless "Hip-Hop" acts makes it difficult for the real Hip-Hop acts to shine through. In my opinion, their music isn't considered "Hip-Hop", it's just noise. Soulja Boy will never live down the fact that he lyrically compared himself to Nas! Nas is a rapper, Soulja Boy is not. So for him to compare himself to a lyricist such as Nas, he deserves to be smacked.

Not for nothing, I think Drake is lyrically inclined and has potential to be something special, but he is allowing himself to be pushed in that bullshit artist direction and that isn't a good move. He is going to lose a lot of fans because of that. He really needs to think about staying true to himself and his talent and not following behind the likes of Kanye West. Honestly I think Kanye just wanted to kill his competition a little bit so he created that video to put Drake on hold for a second. Drake created a buzz without tits, ass and jewels. He can continue to make moves sans that crap in his act.

We have always had underground rappers. The underground movement in the Hip-Hop culture was real serious at one time but now all the real Hip-Hop artists are being pushed into that category. We need to start moving in a direction to bring back Hip-Hop as we knew it. Supporting bullshit music is a problem. We have to start supporting real music and stop helping these "lucky" mediocre artists who knew the right people get ahead. We have new rappers emerging with ridiculous talent and they deserve to be heard on a mainstream level. How awesome would it be to turn on the radio and hear tracks from Diamond District, or Tanya Morgan, some Marco Polo & Torae, or how about "Queens' Anthem"? That would be a revitalizing breath of fresh air. I wouldn't have to cringe every time I turned on the radio or kill my Blackberry battery listening to my Pandora Internet radio.

We need to bring it back and it's going to take a lot of work, but...it can be done.

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What I'm Listening To...Diamond District - In The Ruff

I've had this album on repeat and actually still do. I really do hope you so called music lovers, especially hip hop lovers got this in your system. Every time I hear Oddisee's music more and more, I admire and get addicted more and more. That's definitely my kind of music. In this album, he's recruited X.O. and Y.U. to hold the fort down as well. I can't get sick of the album. It's so ill. So I decided to post two of my favorite tracks on here just in case some of you who don't have the album DIAMOND DISTRICT - IN THE RUFF, you can hear for yourself what you might be missing. Check it out.



Diamond District - In The Ruff



Diamond District - Make It Clear




Click here to check out the previous post about Diamond District and for the free album download: DIAMOND DISTRICT - IN THE RUFF





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Diamond District - In The Ruff

I happened to catch "phontigallo"s Twitter update as he writes (tweets) "Shame on you if you ain't bumpin the Diamond District album right now. Rawest hip-hop shit I heard in ages. http://diamonddistrictdmv.com/".



According to the group's MySpace page, Oddisee (producer/MC from Prince George’s county, Maryland) formed this group with solo artist, XO and YU. The idea was to create a mid-90’s boom-bap themed record for the DC, Maryland & Virginia metropolitan area. XO, (born & raised in North West DC) defines what it is to be a black male raised in the district, with lyrics that have a way of philosophizing that street life.

“In The Ruff” is the DMV’s soundtrack. its street savvy, politically conscious lyrics and grimy beats depict life in and around our nations capitol.

I've heard some tracks previously and wasn't disappointed. Couldn't pass it up and I don't think you should. Enjoy.





Diamond District - In The Ruff
00 Intro
01 Streets Wont Let Me Chill
02 Who I Be
03 Back To Basics
04 I Mean Business
05 Get In Line
06 In The Ruff
07 The Shining (Produced by Dunc)
08 The District
09 Make It Clear
10 Off The Late Night (Produced by Slim kat 78)
11 Let Me Explain
12 First Time

DOWNLOAD “IN THE RUFF” HERE!

http://www.zshare.net/download/58639724e3cf086e/
http://www.divshare.com/download/7100534-bf0

In The Ruff is the highly anticipated debut album from new DC hip hop group “The Diamond District”, created by state veterans Oddisee, X.O. & YU. In The Ruff is the answer for any lover of hip hop who asks the question - “Where did that grimy East coast sound go?”

The group was founded by rapper/ producer Oddisee, who has a long list of production & collaboration credits with the likes of Freeway, Talib Kweli, Siagon, Little Brother, Trek Life, Charles Hamilton, Jazzy Jeff, Buck Shot, Royce the 5′9”, Nikki jean, Muhsinah, J-live, Lil Fame of MOP, Skyzoo and many more. Oddisee’s soulful, haunting samples over bass-heavy beat breaks create the perfect instrumentals for him, XO & YU to match with their street savvy, politically conscious lyrics.

“The ware wolves wear wool suits, be ware of them…” -YU

In The Ruff is a raw mid-90’s Boom-Bap themed album for the DC state of mind, destined to appeal to all lovers of hip hop’s golden era, managing to travel back in time and push the boundaries of DC Hip-Hop simultaneously.

Diamond District DMV
Diamond District on MySpace
Oddisee on MySpace

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