Westside Connection was an American gangsta rap supergroup formed by Ice Cube, WC and Mack 10. The group's debut album, Bow Down, reached the number 2 position on the Billboard 200 in 1996, going platinum that year. Collection includes: Bow Down (1996), Terrorist Threats (2003), The Best Of West Side Connection: The Gangsta, The Killa & The Dope Dealer (2007).
Live 1969 is a brand new Elvis Presley 11CD box set that marks the 50th anniversary of his performances at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. Returning to the stage for the first time in eight years, the 1969 Vegas run saw Presley perform 57 sold-out shows and the live debut of ‘Suspicious Minds’. During this residency he was backed by two vocal groups (The Imperials and The Sweet Inspirations), a full orchestra and a band later known as the TCB band. Live 1969 features the release of eleven complete sets from Elvis’ August 1969 engagement at Las Vegas’ International Hotel. Of these performances, four are being released in full for the first time ever – including two Elvis shows that have remained almost completely unheard for fifty years (August 22 and 25).
Sony Legacy will release American Sound 1969 digitally on August 23. The collection features over 90 tracks of rare and unreleased material from Elvis’ 1969 American Sound Studio sessions – which resulted in his "From Elvis In Memphis" record later that year. "From Elvis In Memphis" ranks among Elvis’ most universally beloved records, spawning the iconic hit “In The Ghetto.” The other singles from 1969 include “Don’t Cry Daddy,” “Suspicious Minds,” and “Mama Liked The Roses,” each of which went on to sell over one million copies. “Suspicious Minds” became Elvis’ 18th and final single to top the Billboard 100 - a prime example of his late career renaissance. American Sound 1969 includes alternate versions of each of these classics and more.
Here are the articled funky beats that hip-hop DJs can’t stop diggin’ in the crates for – including rare grooves aplenty. What’s more, there’s soul, jazz and a message or two to go with those killer breaks. As sampled by everyone in rap - including you?
Born in Chicago in 1949, Gil Scott-Heron became one of the inspirators of Rap Music. With very much of a political viewpoint, Gil became a mouthpiece for the Black Person in America during the Seventies and Eighties. Gil was the son of a Jamaican professional soccer player and a college graduate mother who worked as a librarian. His father played for the Scottish football side, Celtic. Both parents divorced whilst Gil was still a child and he was despatched off to his grandmother in Lincoln, Tennessee. His grandmother helped Gil musically, however, early racial tensions at school, in Jackson, led him to relocate again to the Bronx during his adolescent years to live with his mother and he later moved again to the Spanish neighbourhood of Chelsea.
At the age of 13, Gil had already written a book of poetry. Gil attended college in Pennsylvania and then left to concentrate on writing his first novel entitled 'The Vulture' in 1968. It was at college he met Brian Jackson, who was later to be a long time musical collaborator.
He released his debut album, 'New Black Poet: Small Talk at 125th and Lennox', in 1970, the title of which was influenced by a piece of poetry written by his mentor, Bob Thiele. The album contained the powerful 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised', a damning political attack on the media and the treatment of Black People in the U.S.
The 58-track Never My Love: The Anthology, very different from the 61-track French and Japanese release Someday We'll All Be Free (2010), appeals slightly more to fanatics than it does newcomers. Disc one covers Donny Hathaway's singles and albums highlights, from 1969 and 1972 A-sides recorded with June Conquest through 1978's "You Were Meant for Me." There's a lot of familiar ground, all of it representative, but many selections differ from the album counterparts, including the two-part 7" version of "The Ghetto," the promo edit of "Thank You Master (For My Soul)," and single edits of "Giving Up," "A Song for You," and "Come Little Children." The second disc consists of unreleased studio recordings, none of which overlaps with the material unearthed on Someday We'll All Be Free.
Sessions is Union Square Music’s 2CD urban and dance music range. Aimed at both the hardened dance music fan and the impulse purchaser, each Sessions title is packed full of hit singles, big club tracks and a choice selection of forgotten gems and underground classics picked out by our expert crate-digging compilers. Strong generic packaging including an outer slipcase, informative sleeve notes and a low price in the shops have made Sessions one of our most popular labels.