Listen: The Story of Q-TIP

90’s hip hop heads should love this interview with BBC’s BenjiB who hosts the story of hip-hop legend Q-Tip - founding member of A TribeCalled Quest. Hear from Q-Tip at length as well as Pharrell, Nas, The Pharcyde and more.

A Tribe Called Quest helped create a new wave of hip-hop in the 90's with their innovative sound, style and message. Q-Tip's production in particular has helped shape hip-hop right through to today, with artists likeKanye and Pharrell citing him as one of their biggest influences. Benji speaks at length with Tip about his musical upbringing in Queens in the 70's, releasing a debut LP as a teenager, his reluctance to fame and the part he played in introducing the late J Dilla to the world.

There is also an exclusive Tribe announcement and Tip gives more details about his forthcoming LP - The Last Zulu, which he describes as 'The Evil twin to Tribe'.

Listen: James Blake – “Voyeur” (Dub)

Some new music from James Blake comes courtesy  of DJ Benji B. “Voyeur” is actually the dub version of a cut that will appear on his new LP, Overgrown, which drops April 8^th. The tune starts with those signature emotive vocal loops and synths but then things quickly go into overdrive in the best way possible, check it below…

Video: H∆SHTAG$ Episode's 3 & 4 - “Don’t Call It Cloud Rap” + “Don’t Call It Beats” Documentary

Two new episodes of Red Bull Music Academy’s fantastic series of mini-documentaries entitled H∆SHTAG that explore the relationship of new music and the web.  The third installment looks at hip-hop, more specifically the micro-genre of Cloud Rap and features some heavy hitters associated with the sound including  MainAttrakionz, SpaceGhostPurrp, Flatbush Zombies and more who speak on their influences and how the internet has mutated a sound that was once determined by ones region. 

Episode 4 comes in strong with an all-star cast focusing on beats music and its origins in LA to the world-wide phenomenon it is today. Featuring interviews with the likes of Flying Lotus, TNGHT, Shlohmo, XXYXX, The Gaslamp Killer, Benji B, and more talking about how location, region and of course the internet has affected their genre and more specifically the opportunity for collaborations between beat makers and rappers living thousands of miles away from each other.  

Video: BBC Radio 1 Special, DJ Benji B & Composer Grant Windsor Reinterpret the best of 2012

DJ Benji B teamed up with writer and composer Grant Windsor for an hour long BBC Radio 1 special in which a 16-piece string ensemble play along side a variety of electronic and hip-hop tracks. Benji B handles the decks while a string section provides new layers to some of 2012′s biggest tunes and more. Check out the full tracklist and video below, let’s hoping an audio rip of this gets released.

Tracklist:
Dwele – A.N.G.E.L
Flying Lotus – Do The Astral Plane
Ossie – Love Crazy
D-Malice – Gabryelle Refix
Bok Bok – Silo Pass
Wiley – Highs n Lows
S-X – Bricks
Timbaland – Ayo Technology (Instrumental)
Africa HiTech – Out in the Street (Snippet)
TNGHT – Higher Ground
Kanye West, Jay-Z & Big Sean – Clique
Drake – Headlines
Jeremih – All The Time
Raphael Saadiq – Skyy Can You Feel Me
James Blake – Love What Happened Here
Radiohead – Everything in its Right Place

BONUS: HERE is another similar performance from a year ago.

Listen: Hudson Mohwake - "Tingle'

Ripped from the BBC Radio 1 Show with Benji B on the 20th September 2012, what we got here is an old, unfinished and unreleased track by Hudson Mohawke entitled "Tingle". Plenty of low end bass surrounding a smorgasburg or percussion that sounds like it was created out of pots and pans. 

Listen: BBC Radio 1’s Benji B Program With Guest DJ Clams Casino.

Clams Casino made a guest appearance on Benji B's BBC Radio 1 program yesterday for an hour and  twenty minutes of delicious tunes. Combined with Benji’s regular quality set Clams follows up with 25-minutes of his own in a mix he calls "The Evolution of Clams Casino". The "exclusive" mix includes some "VERY rare instrumentals" and is up for your listening enjoyment for the next 6 days HERE.