Reel People Featuring Speech "I Never Knew"

Great news--despite just releasing the new AD album and having a new Speech album coming in two weeks, there's even more new music to check out--this time with Speech featuring on a new song from the group Reel People. This is an upbeat, happy tune featuring a lot of Speech, along with an official video. Check it out below! And the single includes a longer edit that runs over 5 minutes, so check that out as well on all major streaming and purchase sites.

Full "Becoming" Video Now Available

Just like the title says, the full video for the first single from Don't Fight Your Demons, "Becoming," is available now. Check it out below!

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.

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.

   

Making of I'ma Fight Back Right Now

Saw this on twitter- a little video with some behind the scenes pics of the "I'ma Fight Back Right Now" video shoot.  In case you missed it, this song was released as a single and as part of the new free AD album Standing at the Crossroads. 

Making of Raga in Coolangatta Video

This is an exclusive video on the making of the "Raga in Coolangatta" video that Speech posted on his facebook account, so if you missed it there, check it 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!

Living Bloopers

Here's a short little video of bloopers from the Living video.  Check it out!

Brand New Living Video- With A Making Of Video

Not much more to say- a cool new AD video for Living (no April's Fool Joke here!).  Some of it reminds me of the early, early AD videos, specifically the black and white open, which was a nice touch and likely intentional.  Check it out!  Below that is a Making of video to boot.  Great stuff to check out for all AD fans.  Living has a spring feel to me so great time of year to revisit the song.   

Freedom

I'm not really a flag waving patriot that goes around ringing bells, warning the British that the British are coming, and firing warning shots like Paul Revere (allegedly), but I do still believe in the ultimate ideal of America- that "all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."  That's what the song 'Freedom" ultimately means to me- a tribute to the ongoing struggle that America can live up to that ideal.  So on the anniversary of America's independence, give that song a listen and get a little history lesson to boot.  This song is from the US version of Strong and is one of the better songs in my opinion.

Miracles Radio Edit

I forgot to post this, so for those who missed it, here is the Radio Edit of "Miracles" from the single.  When I think of radio edit, I usually think of a clean version of a song- obviously, that won't be the case with Arrested Development.  I'm going to have to look and see what is exactly different between this and the album version as I don't remember right now.

In other news, Arrested Development recently announced on twitter that they are in the studio and recording new material- so hopefully that means a new album will be out this year!  With all of the bad news that seems to be out there, I personally could really use some new AD music.

And here's the classic "Miracles" video, a nice feel-good video.   

Carole of the Bells by Speech

Time to get in the Christmas spirit with a song from Speech just posted today on the Vagabond Records Youtube page.  This is definitely a unique little mix here- check it out!  Rock the bells, indeed....

On a side note, when do you think the last time was that someone roasted chestnuts on an open fire in their home?  100-150 years ago?  :)

In one of my ultimate geek moments, I actually made a Christmas rap compilation a while back, so I guess I'll have to update it!

Cruisin In My Super Beetle Live

Here's an interesting video of Speech performing "Cruisin In My Super Beetle" live- somewhat.  Speech is live for the first 50 seconds, but the backing music is the instrumental right from the album and at that point, it switches over to the video.  So kind of different, but a different look at a great song. 
 

The Story Behind The Mr. Wendal Video

Here's a great story that I found on gawker with quotes from the director of "Mr. Wendal" talking about shooting of the video.  Looks like this story is made up of quotes the director posted on youtube with the video.

Tony Bingham, a sincere friend, found our location for this video at the last minute - and we were of course elated. But on the shooting day in question, the skies produced rain clouds for miles.
I sat silently, thinking how I'd finally gotten to shoot a music video for this band (I had already directed their EPK and documentary), and now the heavens were not cooperating. Clearly a disaster was abound. I decided to shoot anyway. Maybe two takes in, I'd pretty much given up on the clip having any signature look...everything was drab, muddy and dark.
But within, it seemed, seconds, a wondrous thing happened. I received a call from my steadicam operator who said prior his schedule would not allow for him to be there - now he was asking for directions. My smile began. Once he arrived, the cloud cover peeled back. We had a stretch of about 3 hours of moist sunlight! Outstanding!
After a bit of fertile photography, we packed up and left the farm location, stumbling accidently on a small shack in the middle of nowhere. Funny, when I entered the rickety structure, a visible hole stood out in the middle of the place. I thought out loud, "Quick, let's place the camera down there, and spin it in a circle to catch each band member in a different part of this open house. Worked like a charm!
And when I suggested Speech sit in the window, the sun grew brighter for our two only takes. God...is all one can say.
We traveled back to downtown ATL, where I was favored with the distinct honor of working with famed artist, Radcliffe Bailey. A polished professional. He braved rush hour traffic, and seedy alleyways for us to capture what was pure about his work even then.
We ended our spirited day at the Scoville Hotel, where we finalized our efforts for the remainder of the concept.

 

If It's Positive- Foley featuring Speech

Here's a nice little video from the early years of Arrested Development- "If It's Positive" by Foley featuring Speech and AD member at the time Aerlee Taree.  Foley appeared on Arsenio Hall with Arrested Development around this time as well, and also popped up to work on Speech's debut I believe.  Anyway, check it out! 

AD Live on Arsenio - Part Two

For some reason the person who posted this does not allow embedding- so you'll have to click the link to see it. But here is an awesome version of "United Front" from the Arsenio Hall Show. Great work all around on this one.

And here's a link to their first performance on Arsenio, which was posted here earlier. Good stuff! To the side you can check out one of Arsenio's more bizarre guests- Jason from Friday the 13th fame....

Speech - Universal Music (Remix)

Here's a video I've never seen before:

Speech has worked with DJ Hasebe quite a bit, including having him remix "The World Is Changing" from Strong. Pretty cool video, I think!