So yeah its been a minute since ive posted on here but i recently had the opportunity to visit the land of cheesesteaks and freeway look a likes….yup you guessed it Philly. The occasion, the highly anticipated Roots Picnic. The setting, a scorching 102 degree day at the Festival Pier. The artists, The Roots, Gnarls Barkley, Sharon Jones & Dap Kings, J Davey, Cool Kids, Esperanza Spalding, Jazzy Jeff and the sounds of Diplo. Aside from the blistering heat and occasional issues with the mics (Sharon Jones), there were some standout performances.

The opener, Esperanza Spalding is the absolute truth! She’s an extremely talented singer that plays a variety of instruments. J Davey followed with a blazing set, accompanied by Questlove on the drums doing tracks off their mixtape, a cover of the classic Police track “S.O.S.” and the newest Questlove produced track “Turn the lights out”.

A barefoot Sharon Jones took the stage shortly after with the Dap Kings and stole the show in usual fashion by doing traditional west african dances, calling fans onstage and performing with an incredible level of intensity. The Cool Kids had a respectable performance and Diplo kept the crowd hype in the side tent. Gnarls Barkley was stellar even though the fans were not familiar with some of the newer songs off the album prompting Cee-Lo to ask, “damn do y’all have the album?? “.

The best part of the night came towards the end of the show when Black Thought brought Leonard Hubbard on stage and did the classic “Proceed”. Cehck the video above! Seeing the Roots perform is always good but seeing them perform tracks off Do You Want More?? IN PHILLY?? Classic. Best concert of the year up until now, well see how the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival and Rock the Bells compare. Shouts to my DC Empress crew!

Not too long ago there was a special performance that went down at PS14, during the weekly party that is known as MURK’d. The night was held down by Madame TURK and DJ Sharpsound providing the quality tunes for people to jam out to.

It was a pretty good turnout, with a variety of people showing up. The crowd was definitely thick enough when performance time came around, which included Parable and The LeftOuts. Both artists had nice lengthy sets, and the crowd was definitely feeling the vibes, no homo.

Parable came strong and delivered a bunch ofnice tracks with Madame TURK behind the decks. The DJ kept flipping beats on Parable every now and then, but he didn’t seem to skip a beat.

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Closing off the night, The LeftOuts (Wrekonize + DJ Sharpsound) delivered a strong performance. Sharpsound was keeping the crowd hype by cutting and scratching in between verse. Wrek even got to chime in at one point, and surprised the crowd with his cuts.

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Good times. Don’t miss the next one!

Last Tuesday I hit up the Estelle show with John legend hosting at Culture Room. It was a great night! I definitely wasn’t expecting such a big turnout, but the venue was packed top to bottom. For the people who couldn’t make it inside, a big projection screen was set up outside with live video feed.

Estelle did a pretty long set, approaching almost an hour, or maybe even more. She performed most of the songs off her new album which is out today, and also performed some songs off her first album as well. Estelle came off as a really down to earth girl, and told a many stories on stage while explaining songs she was about to sing. John Legend was in the building to help support, and did a fine job. He performed about 3 different songs with her—one towards the middle, and a couple more at the end.

Here are two videos taken from different parts of the show. The first was right around the beginning when she just came on. The second video was the closing song. Obviously, the video does not capture the whole atmosphere. So next time, don’t miss it!

Performing “No Substitute Love” and “Magnificent”.

Performing “So Much Out The Way” with John Legend.

For those that watched the Super Bowl last night, you already know. This was the craziest play of the game! I literally jumped out my chair and started screaming after seeing this. I almost jumped on my dog. Shit was so intense.

With only one minute left in the game, this play kept the drive going forward, and ultimately led to the game winning touchdown.

And for the Dolphin fans out there, the legacy continues. Still the only perfect season, with a Super Bowl ring.

Fresh Basil familia DJ I-Dee recently sat down with DJ Qbert for an interview. Qbert was down in Miami last month for a performance at Studio A, where I-Dee opened up for him.

Anyways, this video is pretty ridiculous. I-Dee is always posting up some funny ass stuff, and he got Qbert to play along in this one. Too funny.

Bass Sessions last Wednesday was classic! If you missed it, you missed an epic day. Everyone on the bill straight up killed it, and overall the night was mad fun.

First up to bat was Tittsworth. It was the first time I had seem him live, and I believe it was also the first time he came to Miami. He did a great Bmore set, and was spinning for what seemed like an hour and half. Many classics were dropped, as well as many songs I heard for the first time. Although Tittsworth was creating a dope vibe and kept flipping records quickly, the Bmore sound got annoying after about 30 minutes. But there were many times when he just straight flipped it and dropped some booty shit.

That was until DJ Laz came on and rocked the house! Being from Miami, I feel ashamed that I have never seen him spin. There were lots of opportunities when I was a young’n, but I guess I wasn’t into that whole Hot Wheels scene, haha. At Bass Sessions though, my god!!! Classic after classic, DJ Laz just kept killing the crowd with Miami Bass shit. I recorded a big portion of his set, but the audio came out kind of distorted. As you can expect, the bass just killed the camcorder mic, and also my ears.

What proceeded after Laz is what you see in the video above (and below). DJ Craze came on, and brought out world famous beatboxer Killa Kela. Celebrating his first “Thanksgiving” in the States, Killa Kella came on with his heavy British accent and did many routines that left the crowd in awe. The dopest part for me was seeing Kela doing his thing while DJ Craze chimed in and was cutting up Kanye’s “Stronger”. Craze then dropped the Rocky Theme song while Kela followed his lead and everybody went nuts!

Topping off this incredible night was DJ Klever. There’s not much else I can say about this guy. I’ve posted about him many times before. Klever is simply one of the best DJ’s in the world. The energy this guy brings to a party is incredible. My hero, pause.

This past Friday, Prefuse 73 rocked a show at Studio A. We were able to catch up with him at an after party at PS14, where Loop Fridays is hosted by my homie Jake Jefferson.

Prefuse let us know whats up with his new album “Preparations”, and what you can expect from his current tour. Short and sweet. So if you already know P73, then you know the deal. His album is not to be slept on. Same quality material as always. Here is a sample track for those who haven’t peeped the album yet.

Prefuse 73 - Girlfriend/Boyfriend

The video also features local celebrities you can catch at Loop Fridays at PS14. Good times were had, and many more good times are to come.

In what has been a hectic two weeks for the Crew, I’m finally back with some videos. Here is a video covering what went down at Nikon’s Four To The Floor event.

Gookie previously posted her accounts, but now we got some video. It was a fun night, with free food, good music, and complimentary cameras!! Thanks Allison! It will now be 1,000,000 times easier taking flicks at events with our slick new cameras, the CoolPix S51c.

In the video, we show Pancho getting some scratching lessons from Scratch Academy expert DJ K-Razor. But little did K-Razor know, Pancho (aka, DJ Manuvers) is a world DMC champion. Not really. But he wasn’t an average joe on the decks. We also show Karen Briggs who was killing it on the violin alongside DJ Joe Maz.

Until next time…..

I’m sure I don’t have to explain this one for most Miami sneaker heads, but if you missed Sneaker Pimps this past Saturday, you’re an idiot. It was a crazy night, with lots of special guest appearances, and exclusive kicks. But I’ll wait and let the real Fresh Basil sneakerheads drop the knowledge later on. For now, peep the video I was shooting throughout the night.

One thing for sure though, it was hot as fuck! Like damn, I had some Ethiopian brother next to me and he was sweating bullets. Imagine me! I had to break out halfway between Slick Rick’s set because fresh air was definitely needed. Besides the heat, there was lots of heat on the floor. Everyone came out with their illest kicks, and some even came with a few pairs to get autographs. Stash was in the building, as well as Fat Joe, Butta Verses, Mi Gente Clothing, and many more.

Good music was provided by DJ Contra for most of the night. He killed it as usual. Shout out to all the Fresh Basil familia in the building as well, including Deelah, Gookie, Mari Paz, Stella Hernandez, Canibus, Bates, and a few others I can’t remember right now. Pictures coming soon!

Kid Sister performing her single “Damn Girl” with hypeman/brother J2K.

I must say, while watching her perform, I was totally unprepared for her chongalicious moves. Straight up Hialeah shit, and she isn’t even Cuban! Was real dope though; you can tell she’s having fun while performing.

Thanks to Fresh Basil fam DJ Anonyms for the video! Check out his show on w305.com.

I got to attend a video shoot for the Budos Band this past Sunday. I was pretty hype about it cause I missed one of their shows a few nights earlier in New York because it was sold out. If you don’t know about the Budos Band yet, they’re on the Daptones label, and share some of the same members as the Dap Kings (backing band for Sharon Jones and Amy Winehouse). The Budos Band is made up of eleven members from Staten Island (kinda like the funk/afro-beat version of Wu-Tang).

The video shoot was at a small bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn called the Lucky Cat. The flyer for the shoot said they needed 50 people to be in the video. I was disappointed because only about 20 people showed up for the shoot (besides the band and the camera crew). I don’t know what song they were shooting the video for, but they played about a 20 minute set. Backed by a layered rhythm section, most of the band took a backseat for the horns and organ player to shine.

Check out their myspace page or Daptone Records. They just dropped a new album called Budos Band II so act like you know.