The beat cruise

After meeting on okayplayer.com’s message board back in ’03, MCs Donwill, Ilyas and MC/producer Von Pea came together to form the group Tanya Morgan and soon released their first album, Moonlighting, a dope throwback record full of Native Tongues-reminiscent attitude and sound. Friday night, they’ll be at le Belmont alongside Vancouver’s latest jewel Masia One, who’s been making a lot of good noise on her side, to perform some cuts off their upcoming album Brooklynati, dropping May 12. After the show, you should join me at Blizzarts where I’ll be cooling out to the tunes of DJs Lexis and Sevdee at my new favourite weekly, the Bridge. This week, they’ll be joined by local producer Kenlo, who’s murdering the beats with his Craqnuques releases, and V-Looper in the house too. Next Friday will be a special one on the producer tip as well as French transplant and Fat Beats signee Dela hops on the tables for a smooth set. Check out his release “Changes of Atmosphere” on Fat Beats.

Saturday night also looks promising with the arrival of Stones Throw artists at les Saints. The line-up includes label founder and big daddy Peanut Butter Wolf, who’ll surely dish out some hidden gems and classic breaks, and label-mates James Pants, soulful singer/songwriter Mayer Hawthorne and L.A.’s “Ambassador of Boogie Funk” Dam-Funk. Check out Dam-Funk’s mix for Stussy, Hawthorne’s new single “Maybe So, Maybe No” and Pants’s mix for Carhartt, all of which you can find on the label’s Web site to get a better idea of what to expect at the show. Shout-out to CJLO for hooking it up and DJ Solespin for showing me a great time on his show Eclectricity, where he and I ping-ponged a sample set of strictly classic material. You can soon find the podcast for it at eclectricity.podomatic.com.

Saturday night will also be the time to go peep feisty little bird Lady Sovereign at Club Soda, where she’ll be making the second stop on her North American tour for her new album, Jigsaw, which I haven’t heard and probably won’t listen to. On the real…

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