The Audacity of Dope

Okaaaaaay, you can blame it all on me tonight.

Real music.

Wow.  An excellent video from Phonte, Nicolay, Muhsinah, and Matt Koza for an excellent song off FE’s Leave It All Behind opus.  I hope you younger cats are feeling Foreign Exchange, cause their music is so necessary for when you’re feeling grown like I do these days.

Seattle people: Phonte, Nicolay, Yahzarah, Carlitta Durand, Darien Brockington, and Zo! will be performing at Nectar on September 15th and it’s sure to be an incredible show.  Even the opener, The Physics, will be great, so everyone 21+ needs to be there.  We’ll be giving away tickets each week on Sound Session leading up to the show and we’ll also be holding a contest here on TAOD to sit in on our interview with them.  Stay tuned and make sure to be there!  More info right here.

Just when I’m all caught up in the Drake buzz and can’t stop listening to So Far Gone, the “Take Off The Blues” video drops and I’m reminded there’s another dope MC with some excellent singing chops.  Phonte, Nicolay, and D-Brock linked up with Matt Koza for this clip, which shows the ups and downs of a relationship by starting with those harmless glances across the room and ending with visuals for “Valediction.”  Two of my favorite tracks off Leave It All Behind?  You can’t go wrong.

One of my favorite songs of the year, Phonte & Nicolay’s “Daykeeper,” finally has some excellent visuals to go along with it.  If you missed my interview with Tay a few weeks ago, we talked a lot about how part of the beauty of Leave It All Behind is that it’s so open to interpretation.  I think the same can be said for this video.  One thing’s for sure though, it’s wild how a song like this can really change your mood everytime you hear it.  Definitely a “night song” and I always tend to get very reflective when I hear it.  Great stuff.

Peep that interview with Phonte right here and be sure to stay up to date with everything FE on their site.

In stores now, complete with an extra bonus CD full of the instrumentals.  Copped!

The homies Phonte and Nicolay called in to Toronto’s Real Frequency to talk with Arcee about their upcoming album, Leave It All Behind.  It’s rare that people get to interview both at the same time, so this was dope to hear.  Along with LIAB, they talked about the other projects they’ve released recently and what’s next on tap.

Check out the discussion on the Real Frequency blog right here and make sure you stay up to date with everything FE on the official site.  Oh, and if you haven’t peeped the sampler, what are you waiting for?

(I told y’all FE’s artwork is always incredible.)

Tay and Nic blasted out the sampler for their upcoming Leave It All Behind project, so you can finally hear a little of what all the fuss is about.  Believe me though, these teasers don’t do the album justice.  Check out the sampler for now and cop the entire thing on October 7th (digitally) or the 14th (physical copies…with instrumentals!).

Foreign Exchange – Leave It All Behind (sampler)

a. Take Off The Blues
b. All or Nothing
c. Something To Behold (this is my jaaaaam)
d. If This Is Love
e. If She Breaks Your Heart

Remember to peep the official FE blog to stay up to date on everything they’re doing.

Between a few solo appearances and some Little Brother interviews, Phonte has now been on Sound Session five times.  I think that pulls him ahead of a few other artists for our all time most interviewed guest.  This time, I caught up with the big homey backstage at the Washington stop of Rock The Bells last weekend.  Originally, we were gonna grab Big Pooh as well, but I think he got caught up watching Nas tear it down.  It was truly a great day out at the Gorge (especially now that it’s over…I’m not a big fan of festivals…or driving 2.5 hours to get there) and I’m still planning on putting together some footage from it soon.

In the meantime, check out this interview with Phonte.  He played me the entire upcoming Foreign Exchange album (what up Nic!), Leave It All Behind, and it blew me away.  I’m not sure the world is ready for this project.  Instead of giving you my review, peep the interview to hear Tay talk about how it differs from their classic Connected debut, how their creative process worked this time around, and how his music has evolved over the years.  We also discussed his Gordon Gartrell Radio podcast series, the potential sequel to Zo! and Tigallo Love The 80’s, the early plans for the next Little Brother record, and if we’ll see Tay Pain take over the hook game in 2009.  Enjoy.

Phonte on Sound Session – http://www.mediafire.com/?oteqnscax2t
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/187456482714ebd1/ )

Remember to cop Leave It All Behind digitally on October 7th or on CD on the 14th.  The CD comes complete with instrumentals (and incredible artwork), so you already know which one I’m getting.  Stay up to date at their official site, TheForeignExchangeMusic.com.

Anyone who reads TAOD knows how excited I am for the upcoming Foreign Exchange album, Leave It All Behind.  Well this weekend at Rock The Bells, the big homey Phonte was kind enough to play the album for me and I was floored.  It picks up where Connected left off and takes it to the next level -  musically (Nic KILLED this album), lyrically, and emotionally.  I’ll have an interview with Tay about the album (and his other projects) coming later this week, but in the meantime, they just leaked the first single, “Daykeeper” with Muhsinah.

Download it at the new Foreign Exchange site right here and be sure to subscribe to their blog as well!

(click the image)

By the looks of the newest webisode, it seems like Foreign Exchange’s upcoming Leave It All Behind album is pretty much ready to go. To further that point, Nic & Tay shot out the tracklisting and some info:

Tracklisting:

01. Daykeeper
02. Take Off The Blues
03. All Or Nothing/Coming Home To You
04. I Wanna Know
05. House Of Cards
06. Sweeter Than You
07. Valediction
08. If She Breaks Your Heart
09. If This Is Love
10. Something To Behold
11. Leave It All Behind

DIGITAL ALBUM

-Available 10/7/2008 at iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, Rhapsody and wherever digital music is sold

PHYSICAL ALBUM

-Available 10/14/2008 (US), 10/10/2008 (EUROPE)

-Contains 2CD digipak with the album on disc one and the full instrumental version of the album on disc two*.

*instrumentals limited to physical version only

LIMITED EDITION DOUBLE VINYL

-limited to 1000 individually numbered pieces with gatefold artwork

-includes two bonus remixes not available anywhere else

-streetdate TBA

I’m copping that CD with the instrumentals.  Can’t wait.