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Sy Smith is pure class–perhaps the only vocalist out here who can sing back up for Whitney, front the Boston Symphony Orchestra and still turn out an underground dancefloor with a progressive house jam. Her new LP Fast & Curious–produced entirely by Mark deClive Lowe–does a good job of capturing the various hues and shades that make up the sound-spectrum of “Syberspace”; house, electronic soul and progressive R&B. But don’t take my words for it, stream the entire thing below and get familiar with this powerful talent via our sister-site Revivalist’s in-depth feature on her–and purchase here.

spotted at SC

Taking a page out of Obama’s playbook, Estelle and her BET Music Matters supporting act Luke James hit the crowd in Nashville with a little Al Green Saturday night, but did POTUS one better by threatening to act out the secret to “Love & Happiness” right there on stage, sharing a tumbler of premium brown spirits, setting a little mood lighting and….wait a damn minute. Girl, what the hell? Tell that man to put his clothes back on RIGHT NOW. Don’t you know everybody in here has a camera-phone?

spotted at TIRNB

At 8pm this evening, Okay’s player-president Dantana will be participating in a virtual DJ battle of sorts via the highly-rated online social music experience Turntable FM. If you are familiar with the site, you already know that TTFM gives you the opportunity to select songs for everyone else logged into that particular “room,” earning ratings of Lame or Awesome which determine your chances of getting on the 1s and 0s (<–see what I did there?) again.

This time, however, we play for keeps. Stakes is high: the virtual disc jock who gets the most forwards in this Pepsi and Intel-sponsored DJ Battle room will earn the right to helm the decks at the official Turntable Does SXSW 2012 event. To prevail, Dantana (filling in for myself, Eddie STATS, don’t get it twisted) must face off against some other blog royals representing Huffington Post, Urb magazine and Hype Machine, among other online media outlets. See the full contest details below, find exact times after the jump–& most importantly at 8pm, be sure to pack the “room” at:  http://turntable.fm/intel_dj_battle to support OKP and Dantana!

Turntable, it’s time for you to decide who’ll be DJing at our SXSW Interactive event! We’ve got some great DJs lined up to battle it out for the spot. Rockstars from all over Turntable are going to play the music that they love. There are no genre restrictions, so you should be ready to hear anything! Seriously, it’s going to be insane.

From 6-10pm EST on 3/5 and 3/6 it’s all going down in turntable.fm/intel_dj_battle. Every hour a new group of DJs will take the stage. Whoever in the group gets the most points advances on to the semi finals. The semi final match ups will start at 7pm EST on 3/7. The two DJs that make it through the semi finals will move right on the the final battle at 9pm. The winner will rock the party at SXSW on 3/10!

Now, if that wasn’t enough for you, we’ve invited some guests. We’ve added a music writer to every match-up in the first round. Paul de Revere from Consequence of Sound, Katie Bain from The Huffington Post + Elektro Daily, Daniel Pinchbeck from Reality Sandwich, Jeremiah Alexis from Urban Nomad + OC Weekly, Josh Glazer from URB Magazine, Dev Sherlock from Hype Machine, Eddie “Stats” Houghton Dantana from Okayplayer, and Parker Doty from Hipster Wave will be throwing down tunes with us. We want everyone to hear about the amazing music and the wicked awesome communities that happen on Turntable. You’re going to knock their socks off!

3/5

6pm Patrick Swayze, MindUnquiet, Woo+Hoo!, Josh Glazer

7pm @Qbertplaya, Widow, f’uture, Katie Bain

8pm Mr Rav3n, causeandEffect, Sweet Chayenne $tar$, Daniel Pinchbeck

9pm Bruneaux, .Mnml_Pixels, FredJonathan, Jeremiah Alexis

3/6

6pm Heather Vaughn (WTF), chemiks, Alex Mizell, Paul de Revere

7pm Gotrilla, TIMarbury, d-_-b, Dev Sherlock

8pm @candle_ends, sharedferret, THEdickhatch, Dantana Eddie “Stats” Houghton

9pm David Cole!, EndorphinJonz, Sapient, Parker Doty

3/7

7pm Semi Finals Group 1

8pm Semi Finals Group 2

9pm The Final Showdown!

3/10

9:30-10:00pm The Winner DJs at our SXSW Interactive Event!

All times are in EST.

Homeboy Sandman was recently an interview guest on Shade 45′s Toca Tuesdays. Before Boy Sand left, he dropped off a freestyle over Skyzoo’s “Popularity” (that’s Nottz on the beat). You already know Sand kills it, check it out. You can also tell this is a few weeks old because the Knicks were still relevant haha (good looks on the OKP shout though). Look for Boy Sand’s Chimera EP this April.

Spotted at nah right 

This is some Okayfuture sh*t if I ever saw it. Icelandic muse Björk basically took a fantastic voyage into the DNA of her own cells for the video for “Hollow,” off her Biophilia LP. Kicks off like a bit of an educational film but the real beat (and visual concept) don’t even kick off until about 5 minutes in. As Björk herself explained it:

It’s just the feeling when you start thinking about your ancestors and DNA that the grounds open below you and you can feel your mother and her mother, and her mother, and her mother, and her mother 30,000 years back. So suddenly you’re this kinda tunnel, or trunk of DNA … All these ghosts come up so it ended up begin a Halloween song and quite gothic in a way … It’s like being part of this everlasting necklace when you’re just a bead on a chain and you sort of want to belong and be a part of it and it’s just like a miracle.

In other Okayfuture news, Geoff Barrow of Portishead recently announced his new collaborative LP  with composer Ben Salisbury, which will be released under the collective moniker Drokk. Hear a recent track from a sampled for Barrow’s Invada label after the jump.

spotted at HT

Waajeed of Bling47 breaks down the sample J Dilla flipped on the beat for Q-Tip‘s “Higher” as only someone who knew Dilla personally can. Jeedo, you see, got to hear this classic beat (one of my personal favorites, as anybody who’s heard my 48 Hrs in Transit mixtape with Jamal Ali can tell) before the rest of us–on his answering machine! That’s what you call a hotline. Read what Jeedo said below and then bug out to the video (above).

Needless to say, without Q-Tip’s contributions to Dilla’s career, most people would’ve never heard of him at all. In May of 1999 I got a chance to hang out with Dilla and Tip in New York during a session for Common’s Like Water For Chocolate and D’Angelo’s Voodoo.

“Higher” is one of my favorite Q-Tip tracks on Amplified, partially because I heard a sneak preview of the beat early one morning. Dilla was notorious for calling in the middle of the night, leaving voicemails with beat ideas and demos of songs.

On our weekly record trips, we’d trade notes, exchange ideas and occasionally exchange records. This Roy Haynes album, “Vistalite” is one of those records I wish I’d gotten my hands on first. -Jeedo

props to B47

Always good to hear some new new from Michigan producer 14KT. At the end of last year he released his latest project, A Friendly Game of KT (check the OKP review). Today, he comes through with the visuals to the album’s closing track “Width” featuring Tony Ozier. KT strays from making a typical hip-hop video and gives us a close look at his family life with this vid he shot on his cell phone. Check after the jump for words from KT about the vid. A Friendly Game of KT is out now via Mello Music Group.

“This is a personal piece I wanted to share with you all.  I made it from compiled videos I recorded on my phone.  I made the song dedicated to God, but it’s also a dedication to my family and some of the friends He’s blessed me with.”

“As an artist, you can easily get caught up in an endless menu of distractions in life.  Having to please people, facing criticism on your creativity, pressures of living up to your potential, pleasing others, image, all the things that can create fear in our lives.  However, when you put your thoughts on the things/people you truly love, LOVE will conquer fear.”

At the end of last year, I got put on to the refreshing sounds of 7 member Bay Area band The Seshen. Their electro-pop jam “Oblivion” had me hooked from first listen. Now we’ve got 10 more tracks to add to the mix, as they recently released their self-titled LP. You can stream it after the jump and cop it via their bandcamp. One rotation of the LP and you’re sure to join me in the realm of Seshen fandom.

So if you peeped the LP stream of M-Phazes Coalmine Records LP, Phazed Out, you got to hear 12 fresh bangers from the Australian producer. But, unless you copped the album you didn’t get to hear this bonus track, “Holdin’ It Down” featuring Emilio Rojas and Rich Rivera. Listen below, and cop it on iTunes.

Scarborough, Ontario emcee Tona comes through with a brand new mixtape today, Reform School. Presented by DJ Booth and DJ Wristpect, this tape boasts 17 original tracks with features from Kardinal Offishall, Kim Davis, Adam Bomb, Ayah, Freeway, Dosage, Shad K, and more. Production is held down by Boi-1da, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Rich Kidd, and more. Follow me after the jump for the download link and tracklisting.

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