Happy Birthday to Two Hip-Hop Greats

Today is a big day for hip-hop: it’s the birthday of both André 3000 and RJD2. Born just one year apart, they both have had an indelible influence on the genre – and in very different ways.

André 3000 is one half of Outkast, whose 2004 double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below took home three Grammys, including one for the incredibly infectious (and still-catchy-after-all-these-years) single “Hey Ya!”. RJD2’S albums are largely instrumental and a little more under the radar, but they feature some of the best and catchiest beats to hit the underground scene this decade.  He has also produced tracks for talented MCs like MF Doom and Aceyalone and released an album The Colossus earlier this year.

Though both are known for their collaborations with other artists, the two have never worked together.  Luckily, someone else had the good idea that they should.  So, in honor of their birthdays, we present this great mash-up of Outkast’s “ATLiens” and RJD2’s “Ghostwriter.” (Heads-up: mash-up master HueJue1 blended the two songs without bleeping out the naughty words.)

[YOUTUBE=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbj7dLVHSbI]

- Becky Sullivan

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The Return of the ArchAndroid

Janelle Monaé may look like a petite, pompadoured doo-wop singer straight out of early Motown.  But when she hits the stage, she bursts into something light years beyond that. Possessed by a beat too funky to be from the 20^th century, she nearly dances right out of her saddle shoes.

Yesterday, Monaé released her new album The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III of IV).  The tracks make up the latest chapters in the sci-fi adventure epic starring her alter-ego: Cindi Mayweather, an android from the 28^th century on the run from cyborgs who want to imprison her for falling in love with a human.  I know, it sounds weird – but ground-breaking work usually does, no?

The video for the single “Tightrope” (featuring Outkast’s Big Boi) is so damn fun, I dare you not to groove in your desk chair:

Monaé rocked Studio 360 earlier this year.  Watch her perform “Sincerely Jane” (off of Metropolis Suite I of IV: The Chase) in WNYC’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space:

Every superhero has an origin story – and Cindi Mayweather’s got a great one.  Listen to Monaé (or is it Mayweather?) spin the tale for Kurt:

Earthlings, prepare to boogie down.

- Jenny Lawton

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