Never Know Who You're Gonna Meet...

It sucks that I can no longer post while I'm work, so I'll have to try a little harder to be proactive since I'll sort of be a day behind. But anyway...

As much as I gripe about living in NYC there are great benefits to living here that just cannot be ignored; and considering my love for music, few places can do it better than the good ole Concrete Jungle. I must admit that growing up in Youngstown, Ohio, you could count on traveling to Cleveland, Pittsburgh or some other faraway metropolitan area to catch your favorite recording artist while they're on tour. And don't even think about catching one of them at a local club or lounge (translation = bar) because they were just passing through the city. Or what about finding the latest Foreign Exchange album I politely asked Spanish Harlem to get me for Christmas? Doubt it. I'm not knocking my hometown per se, but it is what it is. Living in NYC, I get to experience its great musical cultural without searching long and wide. I can easily find good music everywhere I go (and most nights right in my living room). But perhaps the best part for me is that as mainstream music becomes less tolerable with each passing day, the phenomenal underground music scene that exists here in the city is like finding a new diamond in the rough every week.

Thanks to the PR internship I had over the past several months with a very cool music, art & fashion collective in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, I constantly met those diamonds--interesting folks who I would later discover were very talented. And what was really refreshing to me was instead of coming off as annoying and "Look at me, look what I do," I met and networked with down-to-earth people, who may have had something to prove but didn't shove it in my face. I DIG it.

So, when I recently shook hands with MeLo-X at the gallery opening for the extremely gifted artist, Lichiban, it was a few days later before I found out MeLo-X was a really dope hip-hop artist (I'm late, I know). In fact just last week I was into my daily routine of reading SoulBounce.com, when I came across a posting reviewing his latest mix-tape, Mustafa's Renaissance. I had no idea! Not only did the review give the release much praise for

"not only repping hard for Brooklyn, but for bringing the realness back to music in general,"

but I also listened to the two tracks tagged in the post and liked them—immediately. For me this is saying a lot, because I rarely like new music on the first listen, even sometimes when it's my favorite artists. And not just on SoulBounce, but numerous blogs have been showing Mustafa's Renaissance much love, so take this post as further confirmation that it's worth checking out. Featuring Print, Theophilus London, Jesse Boykins III, Mickey Factz (who are all dope and have been creating quite a buzz in their own respect) amongst others, this is talent well worth your funds—BUT—Merry Christmas, the mix-tape can be downloaded online for free. And where I come from, diamonds are never free, so jump on it!

The night MeLo-X and I met, it was a brief encounter, but should we meet again I'll be happy to give him props for sharing the kind of hip-hop that I wouldn't have minded spending my few dollars during this doggone recession to cop. Today's lesson: Always put your best foot forward, you never know who you're going to meet. So go ahead and follow me to the link to download Mustafa's Renaissance, and check out the promo video below!

Shout out to the folks at YUME!