For My People!

A couple of weeks ago I brought out Ylove and Diwon to play the Detroit JCC Stephen Gottlieb Music Festival and they put on an amazing show. I've been fans of theirs, and the rest of the Shemspeed crew, for ages and they keep getting better and better. While they were out here Diwon played me a bunch of tracks from Ylove's upcoming EP and Ylove played me his new, as then unreleased, video. Both were fantastic. And now they're starting to pop.

Ylove's "For My People!" is a powerful hip-hop protest anthem. This is pop music at its best folks... both catchy and lyrically deep. Ylove's got a vision and a voice and this one's got to be heard. If this one doesn't own the airwaves and downloads, there's something wrong with this country. Oh yeah, there is. Right. Almost forgot.

FOR MY PEOPLE from kasumi on Vimeo.

Here's the official release blurb....

Y-LOVE comes together with Guggenheim Fellowship recipient Kasumi, the revolutionary video artist, on "For My People", the politically charged protest anthem! Watch for their full-frontal social consciousness on their EP scheduled for release in 2012.

Recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, Kasumi is a media artist uniquely blending film and live-performance into dynamic videoart. Known internationally for her innovative work, she employs an arsenal of powerful digital technology to weave vibrant visuals and powerful audio into experiences with poignant cultural-political meaning. Kasumi’s richly expressive and compelling compositions have appeared at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Württembergischen Kunstverein Stuttgart and the Chroma Festival de Arte Audiovisual.

With a passion for collaboration, she has created distinctive media art for a myriad projects and performed alongside the likes of Grandmaster Flash, DJ Spooky, Modeselektor, and the New York Philharmonic. Her newest work, BREAKDOWN, premiered at Carnegie Hall in concert with the American Composers Orchestra. Her video “BREAKDOWN, The Remix” was named the 2010 Vimeo Awards Remix Winner.

Y-LOVE is currently gearing up for the release of "See Me", his pop and club-friendly EP, on May 17th, and is currently on tour promoting his new single, "The Takeover" featuring TJ Di Hitmaker.

FYI...Shemspeed put The Takeover up for free download recently. Go grab it.

One other note...this is a Jewish music blog, right? So I should point out that I love what Ylove is doing in the track. It's not nearly as explicitly about Jewish topics as some of his tracks, but you've got to love a refrain like "for my people...from the shul to the street." I've got visions of pissed of people marching down the street chanting that one. Teruah likes.