Kenny Dope and Little Louie Vegas aka Masters At Work are like the Outkast of house music. Very different personalities, but the one thing they share in common is their love for making and playing music.

I got a chance to meet Masters At Work during the Red Bulll Music Academy activities in San Fran. I caught a picture with both Kenny Dope and Little Louie Vega but it near impossible to get a pic with both of them in it.

Anyway check out the pics as well as listen to audio for their party at 103 Harriet via Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

Their name says it all – Masters At Work. ‘Little’ Louie Vega and Kenny ‘Dope’ Gonzalez celebrate 20 years together, channeling dance music down new paths with their inventive production style and imaginative feel for different musical forms. The two native New Yorkers have amassed an overwhelming body of work including hundreds of original productions and defiantly mix everything they can find – house, hip hop, funk, disco, Latin, African and jazz – into a universal groove. XLR8R’s Shawn Reynaldo sits down with them on the couch during Red Bull Music Academy’s ‘New York City to SF Bay’ lecture series in San Francisco to discuss the start of their careers and dissolving the barriers between genres.

Lecture: Masters at Work (San Francisco, 2012) from Red Bull Music Academy on Vimeo.

Masters At Work Live In San Fran Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

This past Friday night (Jan 6th), me, 4-ize and the Bodega Brovas trooped out to Birmingham, Alabama for a live performance at the Bottle Tree Cafe. Shouts to the good folks at Lobotomix for holding us down and making sure things were straight. The Bottle Tree is a real nice venue that serves as restaurant int the day / venue at night. As far as the food goes the sweet potato french fries were jamming. As far as the venue goes the space is nice and the sound was crispy!

Me and 4-Ize performed a special Ultra Beast set which we rocked for about 40 minutes. I ran thru some of the records from “The Kaos Effect” and he ran through some joints from his latest project “Attack Of The Sea Monkeys,” before we linked later in the set to knock out collab records. Shouts to all the ladies who came out, and to the two young ladies who kept buying us shots of Jaegermeister like they were trying to get us pregnant. HA.

(Backstory): A couple songs into the set 4-Ize announced on the mic “I need somebody to bring me some Jaegermeister!” Like 3 minutes later we were being handed two shots, and I thought that was it. 5 minutes later the young ladies come back with more shots, 10 minutes go buy and more shots! HAHAHA! I told 4-ize these girls are either trying to kidnap us or get us pregnant… or both! Lol.

Haven’t seen any video footage surface from the show, but here’s a couple pics. Shouts to A.D and DJ Rahdu (BamaLoveSoul) for coming through and rocking with us.

Shouts to KevinNottingham.com for always supporting my music over the past few years. When I first saw this post, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. In one way it’s very correct, I feel my album “The Kaos Effect” was VERY slept on by the press, blogs, etc. I’m very fortunate though for the fans who purchased it the first week it was released, were waiting on it, and had positive things to say about it. Guess I’ve reached the point where I’m tired of being “slept on,” discounted, looked over, forgot about, etc. (Sam Cooke Voice:) “I know a change gone come!”… It has too!!! Check out the write up HERE.

I’m SUPER late with posting this video as it dropped at the beginning of November. At a hour a half in length, I watched the interview, then I think I fell asleep and never got a chance to go back and post this. DOOM sits down with Chairman Mao at the 2011 Red Bull Music Academy session in Madrid, Spain.

I worked as a rep for the Red Bull Music Academy this year, and was excited to hear an artist (Slide20XL) from my area was going to be attending the Academy this year for the first time in about 5 years. It’s truly an experience and you never know who you will see or bump into… Anyway enough typing, if you got some time to spare check this out.

Exclusive interview with DJ Premier. Premo stars off the interview by talking to Nick Huff Barili about the Re:Generation project, working with Slick Rick and confirming that he is still collaborating on an album with Nas (Yes its true!!!). In the second part of the interview, Premier says that he has not talked to Solar before or after Guru’s passing and he regrets the way controversy surrounded Guru’s passing. Premo ends the interview by sharing Gangstarr memories.

Spotted at Hark Knock TV

Check out this interview I did with I Heart Dilla.com

On December 6th The Legendary Roots Crew release their 10th studio album entitled “Undun” via Def Jam. As a treat, you can stream the whole album today via NPR. After one full listen, I can say The Roots still have that organix sound that leaves you wanting more. Things are not showing any signs of falling apart for the crew who have mastered the game theory of releasing LP’s. This new album could be a tipping point for the crew as they come live with fresh sounds for the brains phrenology. Releasing albums consistently since the mid 90′s it seems as if I’ve been rocking with Illadelf’s finest for half my life.

Salute to The Roots for achieving success over all these years while still making music on their own terms and testing the bounds of their creativity.

The Roots – Undun Track List:

01. The Un
02. Sleep
03. Make My (feat. Big K.R.I.T.)
04. One Time (feat. Phonte & Dice Raw)
05. Kool On (feat. P.O.R.N.)
06. The Other Side
07. Stomp feat. (P.O.R.N.)
08. Lighthouse
09. I Remember
10. Tip The Scale
11. Redford (For Yia Yia & Pappou)
12. Possibility
13. Will To Power
14. Finality

This album is also a concept album… I’ll let them tell you the story, check it.

Shouts to the good people at Runaway Owl Society.