New AD Single Available Now

The new single "Vibe" from Arrested Development produced by Configa and featuring the one and only Big Daddy Kane is now available on Bandcamp! If you liked the last album--and how could you not?--then you'll love this as well! 

Vibe (feat. Big Daddy Kane, Cleveland P. Jones, Speech, Tasha LaRae & Configa) | Arrested Development (bandcamp.com)

And while we're at it, here's a preview of the new video:

Up Again

I posted this before but managed to screw up the embedded link, so here we go again! Here is "Up" the first single from the new AD album Splash.

New AD Video "Out to the World"

I'm a tad bit late on this, but maybe you are too--so here's the new video from Splash called "Out to the World"! I'm still digesting the new album, which was released briefly last week in a special pre-release promotion, but so far this is probably my favorite song. Really love the background vocals on it.

Fantastic AD Article

Here is a great article on what Arrested Development is currently up to from Rhyme Junkie. Yes, it touches a bit on how they've been out of the mainstream and so forth like most articles about the group, but it doesn't dwell on it and goes much further. I really like this paragraph--I think the phrase "positive rap" is a misnomer for a lot of music labeled as such. A better term might be productive rap rather than "destructive" rap.

They were making songs that sounded upbeat, but didn’t necessarily have upbeat lyrics to go along with it. “Tennessee” is about the death of Speech’s grandmother. “Mr. Wendal” is about a homeless guy. “People Everyday” is about getting into a fight while on a date.

In case you missed it above, here's another link. Enjoy!

The Arrested Development App

I'm not huge on technology, truth be told, but apparently there are these things out there called Apps. You may have heard of them. Well, Arrested Development has one, and it is pretty good as far as I can tell. I really couldn't tell you the difference between a bad one and a good one but this one has all I could want from an app for a music group or artist. There's links to news, social media updates (seen above), and so forth, plus all the hits and more from both the group and Speech. But most exciting is that last I looked they had three new songs posted from the forthcoming album Splash. So if Apps are your thing, I highly recommend getting this one.

For Apple devices, go here.

For Androids, go here. 

New AD Single "Up"

It's here! "Up", the first single from the upcoming Arrested Development album Splash. Check it out at the link below!

http://youtu.be/gN20NYTHlVU

The Harvest is Here

Get it while the getting is good--new song from Arrested Development, presumably from Splash, released today as a New Year's gift to their fans. On that note, Happy New Year's, and enjoy the song!

(Update: As you can see, when they said it was only available for a day, they weren't messing around! I only heard it once before it was taken down...)

AD Honored in Tennessee

The Hip Hop Gods site has the details, but a pretty cool little story here. Arrested Development was honored by the state of Tennessee in honor of their song of the same name. Now my home state of Nebraska can work on honoring Bruce Springsteen for his album Nebraska. . .

New AD Album SPLASH

Not many details yet, but Speech recently took to Twitter to announce a new AD album title Splash, available "when it's ready" according to the man itself. The only details so far are that it will be produced by Khao, Speech, Randy Walker, JJ Boogie, and the Lounge Lizards (who have been working with the group off and on for some time. Needless to say I can't wait!

AD Live at the Kennedy Center (Full Concert)

Pretty cool - here's a link to the full show that Arrested Development performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Can't think of a better way to spend an hour of a summer afternoon than watching and listening to this. ;)

http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/artists/?entity_id=94552&source_type=B

New AD Album "This Moment"

I was working on some other things when I clicked over to Facebook and saw that Speech had announced a new AD album only seconds earlier. Exciting news! Can't wait to hear it. Here is his post:

Speech Thomas

The title for the new Arrested Development album... "This Moment" featuring: Toya, @KhaoMusic, Nana Binghi + more! #HipHop

 

20th Anniversary Tour Diary

Somehow I missed this - a little video put together by AD as a diary for their shows in Australia from last year. Check it out!

Recent AD Links

I wanted to point out some cool links that have popped up recently with "the true blue crew you knew you could cling to" out on tour and making news in city after city.

If you didn't care for my "review" of the recent AD show I attended, or even if you did, here's one from the next show in St. Louis from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

A really nice writeup here from a site called Stash.

And finally, here's a little interview with Speech with a local-to-me newspaper called the Daily Nebraskan.

Check these out if you get a chance- awesome to see them getting good publicity.

AD Concert Thoughts

Three bands and then a dinner menu.

You know, writer's block just isn't much fun.  I'm not the best writer under normal circumstances (though that's not stopping me from trying to write a novel!) but to really find the words to express the concert I saw last Thursday has been nearly impossible.

Well, that's not true- in my drive home from Lincoln, about an hour drive to where I live in Omaha, I had arranged my thoughts and felt like I was on a good track to write something decent.  But, seeing as I needed to go to sleep that night, when I woke up, everything that sounded so good the night before was gone.  Vamoosh!  So on that note, I'm just going to throw out a few things and whatever comes out is what comes out.

First off, the opening band, a little seven-man crew called Funktion.  Really good opening act and there's some definite talent there.  Hope they go far.

Someone forgot their real camera!

Moving on to the show itself.  The venue, called the Bourbon Theater, was perfect, what they call an "intimate gathering" and it truly was not like any other hop hop show I've been to before.  There weren't a bunch of freaks there looking to show out, or guys wearing muscle shirts trying to impress those freaks, or people looking to do anything but have a good time.  It was a good mix of young and old, black and white, hardcores and casual fans.  Just a real chill crowd.

United Front Live on Letterman

You know, blog contributor Christian LeBlanc posted this nearly two years ago and I don't recall ever posting it.  Not sure how I missed it.  Anyway, here's a cool video of the group performing United We Stand on Letterman, so check it out!  And nice work Christian.

We Rad We Doin It Video

I don't believe I've ever posted this video here- "We Rad We Doin It" from the Strong album.  This was one of my favorite songs from the record, great verses from Speech and One Love and strong lead vocals from Tasha LaRae.  Just a really creative and unique song.  The video is a lot of fun too, and is it just me or does One Love look like Jay-Z in some shots?  I've kind of thought that for awhile but it really seems noticeable here.  But maybe it's just me....

I also recently received some cool personal AD news- the group is coming to Nebraska!  They'll be in Lincoln on October 18th and you can imagine that I bought tickets as soon as I heard.  After all these years they'll be an hour away- I can't wait.

   

Two Reviews of Three Years

I noticed that a deluxe version of Sittin' on Chrome by Masta Ace Inc. is dropping in a week or so, which made me want to make sure that I hadn't fallen asleep at the wheel and missed an announcement of a deluxe version of Three Years was coming since seemingly every other release from that time is getting one.  Well, no luck there, but I did stumble upon a fairly recent review on emusic of Three Years that was a nice little read.  Check it out here.

And then I found another cool one from this year, from Liz's 1001 albums.  She finally got around to Three Years on day 710.  No problem.  Check that review out here.

Raga in Coolangatta Video

Timed to coincide with their appearance on Unsung, here's the second video from the free AD album Standing at the Crossroads.  Check it out!

Arrested Development Unsung Episode!

In case you missed it, like me, click here for the episode, and it's completely commercial free.  I'm about to watch it right now.  Enjoy!  I will have more thoughts later.

Couple of Living Remixes

Check them out, a few unsanctioned remixes of "Living":

I dig the vibe of this one. 


Here's another.  Not bad, I like the first one better right now: