Check the Rhime Violin (and happy new year)

Paul Dateh and DJ inka one will perform at LA's Concrete Frequency

Happy New Year.

I'll be back in a day or two. And while there may be some unwritten bloggers code prohibiting such indulgence after December 31st, I'm gonna post up my obligatory, but belated, year-end list tomorrow or Thursday. Just wasn't able to get to it mid-late December before the holidays like the past two years (when these things are really supposed to be posted).

In the meantime, here's a New Years present from the "how cool is that?!" department. It's Paul Dateh on violin and DJ inka one on the ones and twos. Perhaps some of you have already seen this. Dateh posted it on You Tube about six months ago, but I just recently noticed it courtesy of Wasteland Drifter (who upped it on Peace, Prosperity and Paper in August).

You may be saying to yourself "hip hop violin, oh sure, but he ain't no Miri Ben-Ari." Well, sure. But check the video before you're so damn sure:



You can download an mp3 of the suite for violin and two hip hop turntables from the above video (which kicks-off with Paul and inka's take on A Tribe Called Quest's "Check the Rhime," draws off the Roots and Ghostface, gets "Crazy," and ends in a disco soul flourish) on Dateh's myspace page. Paul has a band called The Live Movement. He's working on a debut album. More info on Paul's blog and forthcoming website. Also check out inka one's myspace page.

And get this, Paul Dateh and inka one are performing this week at the kick-off event for the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Concrete Frequency, "a multi-disciplinary, two week festival examin[ing] and celebrat[ing] the elements that define a city, and how those elements are affected by – and reflected in – music and art." Once again, how cool is that?


p.s. Speaking of Miri Ben-Ari, here's the great hip hop violinist performing with (los amigos favorite) DJ Logic from Logic's album The Anomaly. And speaking of favorites, A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory is not only a favorite, but undeniably one of the best hip hop albums of all time. Here's "Check the Rhime" which kicks-off Dateh and inca's video:

Soul-Kissing -- DJ Logic feat. Miri Ben-Ari: The Anomaly (2001)

Check the Rhime -- A Tribe Called Quest: The Low End Theory (1991)

peace and prospero Año Nuevo. Cheers.

p.p.s. "You on point Phife?" "All the time, Tip."
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