The Movement Fam @ Concert For Hope

What up folks? My bad for no post happening yesterday, that's the first time in ages. Shan't happen again.

Anyway, the reason for no post is we've been busy putting together our show for a huge bushfire benefit gig that we're playing at this coming Sunday 22nd March. Check the line up below, for those in Victoria, the details to get tickets is all there. Should be huge! Check the info:

Concert of Hope is a dance party/big day out type of event that is organized by the youth and young adults of the local area for those affected by Black Saturday - CFA included! The young people of Melbourne need to be given the opportunity to help, and to build and strengthen our truly Australian qualities of mateship and co-operation. This is that event.

Concert of Hope will hit on Sunday March 22nd, at Kilmore Racecourse. Gates open 12.30pm and the event will wrap up at 9pm. Ages 12 up welcome!

It will include bands such as A Planet in Space, Bushido, Ida Fox, Fading Hour, Rincon, Icarus , Alter Egoz and The Movement Fam. We also have DAVE JOY (Switz), Mr Timothy, Guy Lewis, Paul Zala, Hellraiser, Scott Alert, Jewlez and Dr Willis on the DJ stage. A third stage will also showcase local bands from the fire affected areas. Don’t forget Riders from the Krusty Demons of Dirt, wakeboarding displays, lots of munchies and much more!

Tickets go on sale Wednesday 18th March, through your local Ticketmaster outlet, www.ticketmaster.com.au or call 136 100.

Cost is $47.95 plus booking fee, to which you are helping support fire victims, their communities and the CFA.

Thanks so much for your support!!
www.concertofhope.com.au

Bekah on Neighbours?

Bekah on Neighbours, Thursday March 13th 2009 from The Movement Fam on Vimeo.

That's right, the lady of The Movement Fam is getting her drama queen on. On Thursday 5th March, Bekah appeared as a featured extra on Neighbours (an Australia TV soap opera, based in Melbourne). She plays a nurse, and this was her second appearance on the show. Check the video, there's no audio as I couldn't get it working for some reason.

For those who wanna know, it's Ep 5639 [S 25 - Ep 034].

DJ Grain Ear to the Streets Weekly Hip Hop News Wrap Up - Feb 28th 2009

What it do, folks? I'm back again with another weekly wrap up.

Twista has just signed with EMI/Capitol after a brief stint with Koch Records. He is also hard at work on a new album entitled "Category F5" which is set to be released this June.

Russell Simmons has been ordered to pay US$480,000 a year to ex-wife Kimora Lee. That is messed up - she is pregnant again by another man!

Universal wants to shelf Lil' Wayne's rock n roll album "Rebirth". The execs at the label are cautious of the album after the first single Prom Queen only reached #15 on the U.S. Billboards Hot 100 chart.

DJ Khaled is now the president of Def Jam South, taking over for Scarface.

Cam'Ron has spoken to Jim Jones. For those of y'all that don't know, Cam has been M.I.A. for some years. Freaky Zeekey setup the situation because he felt that two friends should not dissolve a friendship over petty stuff.

Until next week...

DJ Grain.

Kevin Nottingham Presents The Movement Fam Remix Album

It's finally here!!!!!

After maybe 6 months in the making, Kevin Nottingham Presents The Movement Fam Remix Album is in the building.

For those who aren't familiar with this, producers from around the world were able to download 12 acapellas from Notion's World Domi-NoTiOn and Cee & Bekah's The Soul Movement Volume 2 mixtapes, and submit remixes for this project. We had well over 100 remixes submitted, which blew our mind.

We ended up including remixes from producers from all over the planet, including Hungary, Belgium, USA, Denmark and Australia. We worldwide, baby! And if any producers out there wanna remix our songs for the hell of it (a couple cats have hit me up already about it), you can still download the acapellas from the original Kevin Nottingham Movement Fam Remix contest page.

Big ups to ALL the producers who submitted remixes, there a lot of fire and it made our job pretty hard! I can't thank Kev enough, though. Dude held us down when it got difficult for a bit there, never gave up, and we got this one over the line. Plus it's a hot ass album!

My apologies to Isbjerg for misspelling your name, homie!! Shit, my bad! And HUGE props to Notion for lacing the artwork! Boom!

Download Kevin Nottingham Presents The Movement Fam Remix Album

Check out the blog post on Kevin Nottingham.com

Check out what WYDU had to say about it

1. Notion - Enter My World (produced by MIDIMarc)
2. Cee & Bekah - Once Again featuring Theory (produced by Remot)
3. Notion - Payback (produced by Kinetic)
4. Cee & Bekah - Feel Your Touch (produced by S.T.T.R.E.S.S.)
5. Notion - We So Fly featuring Tommy Gunnz (produced by Sima)
6. Cee & Bekah - Missing You featuring Luke Vexx (produced by Isjberg)
7. Notion - Cold Steel featuring Cee & Theory (produced by Kinetic)
8. Cee & Bekah - Day Dreaming featuring Notion (produced by S.T.T.R.E.S.S.)
9. Notion - Pedal Push (produced by Kinetic)
10. Cee & Bekah - Anything For You (produced by MIDIMarc)
11. Notion - New Wave featuring Whisper (produced by Tokyo Cigar)
12. Cee & Bekah - Missing You featuring Luke Vexx (produced by MIDIMarc)
13. Notion - Pedal Push (produced by Isjberg)
14. Cee & Bekah - Feel Your Touch (produced by DnM Productions)

Infinite Archetype (Iyea) Beats

Aight, so y'all would have heard of Iyea by now. The Movement Fam representative is a Scotland native, Perth resident, he has produced 'Gone' from Cee & Bekah's 'The Soul Movement Volume 2', as well a couple fresh joints from 'The Soul Movement Volume 3', and will most definitely be appearing on the albums and future projects from the whole Fam.

Iyea's style could best be described as Hip Hop Soul, a slick blend of early Kanye, with Primo and Pete Rock thrown in for good measure. There's even a touch of Just Blaze if you listen carefully.

Check out some of Iyea's work and fresh beats on the Infinite Archetype MySpace page. Holla!

Cee & Bekah Get Inked Up

We is well 'ard, innit?

So Bekah and I headed down to Eternal Instinct tattoo studio in Northcote this weekend for the second time around, to see the lovely Tam and get inked the hell on up.

Peep Bekah getting laced with 'I Got Yours' on her back in script, representing 'I got your back' to her peeps. Love it. Looks so fresh, and such a dope idea!

And I got two big bastards on the inside of my arm, which didn't hurt a bit ;). On my right, 'The Movement Fam' logo (designed by KidEight, interpreted by Tam for the tatt), representing the whole extended Movement Fam. Having it on my arm (or bicep/tricep in particular) is a symbol of strength, that both I give to the crew and they give to me. On my left, the quote 'All I Need Is The Love Of My Crew', from our song 'My Crew'. The Fam is for life, so is the ink.

So big ups to Tam, we're SO pleased with her work. If anyone in Melbourne is after a tattoo, or anyone from overseas is coming to visit and wants some ink (Pink personally goes to Eternal Instinct each time she's here), hit me up for the details. And much love to Nosh and VP who held us down the whole weekend! Gaytime Krushes!

Arte Y Lenguaje - Escalando Posiciones

The homie Arte Y Lenguaje, hailing from Bogota, Colombia, has just released his third studio album, Escalando Posiciones ('Scaling Positions'), on February 21st this year.

The album features two collaborations with Cee & Bekah - 'Violencia Estado Militante' ('Militant State Violence') and 'Drogadiccion' ('Drug Addiction'). Most of the head-nodding, underground Hip Hop tracks have a political theme, reflecting Arte Y Lenguaje's experiences in the often turbulent social state of Colombia.

And we might as well announce this now - Arte Y Lenguaje has teamed up with Cee & Bekah to form an international Hip Hop/Soul/Latin group, Soul de la Tierra. We've recently started work on the as yet untitled album, and it's sounding fresh so far. This is a very unique project, as Ehiyel (Arte Y Lenguaje) speaks zero English, so it's up to me to harness my limited Spanish skills (alongside online translation services) to make it work. We'll keep y'all posted.

Check out the video for the first single from the album, 'Homenaje':

The Movement Fam on The Hip Hop Chronicle UK

Big ups to the homies at The Hip Hop Chronicle UK blog. This is a big ass blog in the UK, and they did a lil feature on The Fam, posting links to the two singles off our recent mixtapes - Notion's 'Enter My World' (produced by Da-Phai, from World Domi-NoTiOn), and Cee & Bekah's 'Anything For You' (produced by Whisper, from The Soul Movement Volume 2). Respect.

Checkout The Movement Fam piece on The Hip Hop Chronicle UK

The Valentine's Day Mixtape Launch

Big ups to everyone that came down to support The Movement Fam as we launched DJ Grain & Notion's Valentine's Day mixtape on Saturday 14th February, at the Blue Tile Lounge in Melbourne.

We had a great turnout, we all looked fresh to death, and Chris from Fading Hour (also the drummer for The Movement Fam band) ripped shit up. This was definitely one of the most fun we've had on stage. Check the pics after the jump. Oh and shouts to Esscay and Thrizz for the photos!

Gunnz, Cee, Esscay, Chris, Micnificent, Theory

The whole Fam

Chris rippin' up the skins

Gunny

Cee going hard

Bekah and Notion

The Fam

Mic stand pimpin'

Smoothin' it out

The Movement Fam Presents: DJ Grain & Notion's Valentine's Day Mixtape

It's finally here!

We've been going on and on about this damn mixtape for weeks now, possibly months. But it's here, it's done, and it's dope.

The idea came about when Bekah, Notion and myself were in Atlanta with DJ Grain. So we got the homie Glen to do the original artwork, Notion made that shit look fresh, we all collaborated on the track selection, and Notion and did an exclusive joint just for this special occasion, 'Brown Skin Lady'. Cee & Bekah also contributed our smooth and soulful 'Feel Your Touch'.

So this mixtape should be the soundtrack to your day. We got everything on there, including Neo Soul classics from D'Angelo, Aaries, Musiq Soulchild and Maxwell, dope Hip Hop from Nicolay & Kay, Method Man & Mary J. Blige, Lupe Fiasco and the homie Jermiside, fresh R&B from Jazmine Sullivan, Raheem DeVaughn and Keyshia Cole, and even some folk rock from Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat.

We'll be officially launching this mixtape in Melbourne on Valentine's Day, Saturday 14th February, at the Blue Tile Lounge (95 Smith St, Fitzroy) at 9pm, complete with live drummer. Boom. Comment us with your thoughts!

To download FREE, either click on the covers or peep the link below:

Download The Movement Fam Presents: DJ Grain & Notion's Valentine's Day Mixtape

Inner White Boy

So being we're a Hip Hop/Soul group, most would assume that's where our taste in music lies. You'd be fairly wrong to say that. Throughout the Fam, our tastes essentially touch damn near every genre of music, bar none. We're an eclectic bunch. :)

So lately, I've sort of unintentionally broadened my musical horizons more than I usually would. I've been reading Marilyn Manson's autobiography (mainly because it was co-written with Neil Strauss, my favourite author right now), and he has inspired me to check out his music. So I copped his whole catalogue and seriously, I'm digging all of it so far. I can't wait to do Manson covers when we set The Movement Fam band up properly.

And at the St Kilda Festival, we caught an acoustic duo who played 'Wonderwall', and even though I was off my face singing along, that stuck in my mind. So I copped Oasis's whole back catalogue too, and goddamn, 'What's The Story, Morning Glory?' is an AMAZING album.

Our drummer, Fading Hour's Chris Ferre, got me onto Tool (no homo), which I'm checking out as we speak. Can't wait.

So if anyone has any suggestions in the rock/hard rock/metal/alternative category that you suggest I should check out, throw us a comment. I always assumed this stuff was really soul-less and just screaming bullshit, but I was wrong. I've always dug Nirvana and Metallica since I played guitar as a kid, but I never really followed it up. Seems I'm discovering my inner white boy. :)

Valentine's Day Special

Alright, folks. Have we got a big day this Saturday. And the fact that it's Valentine's Day is just a bonus.

For all the Melbourne heads, we have a gig on Saturday, once again at the Blue Tile Lounge in Fitzroy (95 Smith St). We're on at 9pm and will be featuring Chris Ferre, drummer from Fading Hour (who is also a member of The Movement Fam band - coming soon).

We'll be playing love-themed tunes from all four Movement Fam releases, as well as two new tracks from The Soul Movement Volume 3, and Bekah will even belt out a couple surprise covers that y'all should dig. So come on down, bring your date, check out the early set then go home to do what you do. :)

Also, check in on Friday night at 10pm, when we'll post DJ Grain and Notion's Valentine's Day mixtape. It'll also be available via www.KevinNottingham.com and Wake Your Daughter Up!. I won't say too much more about it, except that it's the perfect soundtrack to your day/evening.

The Movement Fam @ St Kilda Festival - A Pictorial

For all the Melbourne heads, this needs no explanation. For the folks on the other side of the planet, the St Kilda Festival, as outlined in the post on Sunday, is essentially a street festival in the bayside suburb of St Kilda, which really spans for like 8 or 9 days but the actual huge day is the last Sunday, which is generally the second weekend in February.

It's not unlike any other festival I've been to around the world - they close all the major roads and side streets in the area and fill it up with food stalls, vendors, and the like; it's got like 10 live music stages (I could be exaggerating here), and there's more hippies than you can poke a stick at. The two main streets - Acland St and Fitzroy St - are chock full of restaurants and bars anyway, so there's no shortage of spots to hit. The whole Fam ventured out for the day, and here's some of the less incriminating photos. Holla.

Vicki and Bekah

Tommy Gunnz and Cee

Notion and his stable of broads

St Kilda scenery

Father of the year - safety first!

Esscay, Theory and Cee

Luna Park at Sunset

St Kilda Sunset

The homegirl Joys performing with People's Opinion Afro Orchestra

St Kilda at nightfall

St Kilda Festival 2009

Just a quick post to start the day. The Fam is heading down to the St Kilda Festival in Melbourne today, where like half a million folks descend onto the beachside suburb to eat, drink, watch, drink, party, do drugs and just plain have fun.

Expect photos in the next day or two, whenever we recover.

DJ Grain Ear to the Streets Weekly Hip Hop News Wrap Up - January 31st 2009

2009 has been off to a great start so far. All this beef has to end, there is so much right now you could stock McDonald's for five years. Everybody around the world has been suffering from the bad economic times and even folks in the music industry have been hit hard by the scams and scandals.

DMX has been sentenced to 90 Days in an Arizona jail. He received the sentence as a result of his long list of convictions that include theft, drug possession and cruelty to animals.

50 Cent has released a Rick Ross diss track after Rick dissed him on a track untitled "Mafia Music". I will keep you all tuned into any updates on this situation.

Violator's own Chris Lighty was a victim in Bernie Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Up to now, there have even been rumors that said that 50 Cent, one of his clients had lost millions to Madoff. Nothing has been confirmed so I will leave that as a rumour. Lighty would not elaborate on any details of his dealing with Madoff.

Upcoming rapper Charles Hamilton has been going at a lot of rappers as of late. He went at label mate Soulja Boy, Serius Jones, and more recently Rhymefest. Rhymefest struck back hard with the track 'SuperSonic' and well, you all need to do is listen to it. Why he is attacking all these rappers, nobody knows.

Well, 'til next week...take care and I got more news next week.

Peace,

Grain.

Lupe Fiasco @ Palace, Melbourne on Tues 27th January 2009

It's been a hot minute since Lupe was in town. Probably around a year, maybe more. We caught his show last time around, and shit was off the chain. He's a very energetic performer and knows how to work the crowd.

This time around, Lupe was in Australia for the Big Day Out festival, possibly the biggest festival in the country. So of course, dude hooked up a little side show while he's in town.

Melbourne is currently having a bit of a heat wave, with temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celsius all this week. And with the Lupe show going down the day after Australia Day, shit was bound to be hectic. Pez opened up the show, with a dope set alongside DJ Matik, 360 and Hailey Cramer (from Blue King Brown, one of my fave local roots bands). Dude is killin' shit right now, big ups, Perry.

Muph & Plutonic came up after Pez, and I've never been a fan of these dudes but I gotta say, although Muph is one of the most chilled MC's I've ever heard, his live presence is great. And the set with Plutonic on the drums and DJ Bonez on the decks really worked. They stayed on for too long, though.

So then it was Lupe time. Dude exploded onto the stage (no homo) with a full live band, and the sound man done fucked up, so he had to adjust levels and come back out again.

'Kick Push' started off proceedings, and even in the sweat box that is the Palace, the crowd went spastic.

Lupe ran through all the faves, including single 'Superstar', 'Sunshine', 'Hip Hop Saved My Life', 'Day Dreaming', 'American Terrorist', 'Go Go Gadget Flow' (which went OFF!), 'Paris Tokyo', 'Hi-Definition', 'Streets On Fire', 'Dumb It Down' and possibly more I forgot about. And when he came out for the encore in a politically inspired tee spouting 'Free Gaza', the crowd went insane.

Definitely set a new standard for live shows, in The Fam's eyes. Not since Common have we seen such a hyped performance. And after reading the homegirl Kate Jean's blog on her Lupe experience, it's fairly clear the dude is loopy as fuck. Either way, he puts on a mean live show. Big ups.

Daily Domi-NoTiOn produced by Isjberg (Denmark)

The homie outta Denmark, Isjberg, is crazy on the boards. And after hearing Notion's acapella's for the Kevin Nottingham Remix competition, dude decided to do his own remix project, by combining Notion's vocals with samples from Gangstarr's classic 'Daily Operation' album to create 'Daily Domi-NoTiOn'.

Download 'Daily Domi-NoTiOn'

Check out Isjberg's blog post on 'Daily Domi-NoTiOn'

And here's the tracklisting while we're at it:

1. Introduction [Daily Operation]
2. My Mic [Flip the Script]
3. Enter My World [Soliloquy of Chaos]
4. My Crew [I'm the Man]
5. 25-8-366 [24 7 365]
6. We So Fly [No Shame in My Game]
7. It’s Nuffin [2 Deep]
8. Set me Free [Conspiracy]
9. Cold Steel [Illest Brother]
10. Push Pedal [Hardcore Composer]
11. Talkin Shit [BYS]
12. The New Wave [Take Two and Pass]

Cee & Bekah - Best Of Me featuring Notion LEAK!

Yes indeed...another week, another leak. That rhymed. Hence why I'm a rap singer.

So the homie Kev Nottingham has posted the first leak from Cee & Bekah's 'The Soul Movement Volume 3' mixtape, due in a few months time.

The song is called 'Best Of Me' and features Notion. The soul is more than evident here and is totally indicative of the direction of the new release.

Click the image or link below and get the free tune and holla back with some comments!

Download Cee & Bekah - Best Of Me' featuring Notion

The Movement Fam.com blog video intro...

Filmed on Monday, January 26th 2009, (Australia Day), at St. Kilda Sea Baths.

Oh, and we set up a Vimeo account too...peep that whenever you check the YouTube!

The Movement Fam.com video intro from The Movement Fam on Vimeo.

Beached As - Auto Tuned

Some retarded shit. 'Nuff said.