R & B/Funk music put to Hip Hop & Spoken Word

7 MP3 Songs
HIP HOP/RAP: Alternative Hip Hop, SPOKEN WORD: With Music



Details:
On June 27, 2006, Oakland, Ca. indie True Vibe Records released âParadise Presents: Jazz Funk Hip HoPoetryâ nationwide. Produced by composer/musician Bill Jackson in collaboration with Bay Area slam poetry icon Richard Moore BKA (better known as) Paradise, these two artists team up to introduce a new hybrid of Spoken Word/Rap. âJazz Funk Hip HoPoetryâ represents the shape of all great spoken word music to come.

The genesis of âJazz Funk Hip HoPoetryâ was Bill Jacksonâs pilgrimage to Senegalâs Goree Island (a United Nations historical site). Visiting the holding pens for African captives during the slave trade there brought on a âspiritual awakening," which inspired him to produce this album."

Paradise and Jackson showcase seven electrified spoken word pieces woven intriguingly through dramatic jazz-funk/hip-hop arrangements that float and punctuate Paradiseâs rich, deep vocals and thought-provoking lyrics. As the perfect opener, âHow to Be a Black Man in Americaâ sets the stage for the conscious-raising spoken words delivered by Paradise and his crew of talented guest rappers, vocalist Rufus Wonder and background singers over tight, muscular funk beatsâgetting quickly to the point that âA king wears his bling on the inside!â âEqual Opportunity Loverâ features warmly humorous braggadocio over a heavy beat while the relentlessly funky âKeepers of the Flameâ pays tribute to great cultural heroes who led by example to elevate the African-American experience. âCocoa Venusâ is an intoxicating, sultry Afro-Latin groove that moves like the beautiful women of color it exalts. âItâs OK to Be a Black Girlâ and âAinât Yoâ Mama Blackâ are soul-stirring celebrations of Black womanhood and Africa, the Universal mother; respectively.

The albumâs tour de force is âTwo-Minute Warning,â which is actually two different songs. The first, âI Love Everything About You But You,â is a folk song/rap/poem, and the second, âTwo-Minute Warning,â is a protest about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Paradise, a Xavier University English/Creative Writing major (who was admitted on an athletic scholarship to play basketball--he also played professional basketball in Argentina) and prolific poet laureate, has been an active proponent of the Slam Poetry performance art movement. He is credited with organizing the Bay Area Black Poetry Movement with the Best in the West Gran Slam Poetry Contest and the World's First Poetry & Poetry Film Festival at the Parkway Theater in Oakland. He also helped organize Slam Poetry Workshops at the Famous Poets Convention in Orlando, Florida in 2004, Reno, Nevada in 2005, and he is a former member of the 2001 Berkeley Slam Team.

âParadise Presents: Jazz Funk Hip HoPoetryâ defiantly picks up the torch once held by the African-American Godfathers of conscious-raising music: Gil Scott Heron, the Last Poets, and the Watts Poets.

For more information, go to the website www.trueviberecords.com.