There’s nothing I love more than a collaboration. Hrm, actually, let me rephrase that: a good collaboration.

In my opinion Nas and Damian Marley could not bring us their new album, Distant Relatives, any sooner. Although a release date has not been set, my anticipation is currently taking orbit ever since their collaboration on the song “Road to Zion” on Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley’s album Welcome to Jamrock.

In the Distant Relatives preview, Marley says:

This project is to come together and do some music on behalf of Africa. That is really what the whole thing’s about; to bring awareness.

This album will be heavily focused on the duo’s shared African roots and the hip-hop/reggae sound will be backed with samples from African music.

Review’s coming as soon as we get our anxious little hands on it.

In a short piece written for CelebStoner, stoner patriarch, Tommy Chong relives and rewrites a little Jackson 5 history, as well as offering up some mighty strange nuggets of advice for the now deceased pop-star.

The Chonger jovially reflects on a time when the Jackson 5 opened for Chong’s group, Bobby Taylor and The Vancouvers. As the tale goes, Bobby Taylor initiated the meeting between the Jackson family and Motown record label founder, Berry Gordy. Once offered a contract by Gordy, Joe Jackson brought it back to Chong for an unusually sober perusal. Chong recalls:

When Joe Jackson brought me the contract, there was a window of opportunity where I could have become their manager, but the thought didn’t cross my mind until decades later.

And so a pairing for the ages was missed by just that much. One can only imagine how far little Michael Jackson would have gone in a parallel universe where his raw music talents were guided by the subtle genius of the Up in Smoke star. We may have been blessed with such pop-mega hits as: You Wanna Be Starting Something (Because My Joint is Kicked), The Doob is Mine, and Black or White (Cookies are Groovy When You’ve Got the Munchies).

Leave the weird shit alone. Sing and dance, Michael – that’s all we wanted you to do… Have a safe and interesting journey, Michael. We will see you when you reappear in another body. We will know it’s you when you open your mouth and the “magic” comes out. We will know.

Don’t try to translate that last bit into English. Just blaze one up and absorb.

Amsterdam peoples, Twin Cities’ very own Atmosphere is rocking a show tonight in your town! Catch the duo, Slug and Ant, as part of their When God Gives You Ugly Tour rolls forward.

Tele: (+31) 20 531 8181
Click here for more details on the show. Word.

This year’s event includes 5 stages of music! Check here for the full line up or click through to view it.

You can reserve an Ultimate VIP Cabana package and do it up right. EDC has teamed up with LA’s Giant to offer either the Giant Peristyle (21+), VIP Cabanas (21+) or Ultimate VIP Cabanas (21+), and additional sound is being installed to enhance the overall experience in the VIP areas. Click here to purchase tickets.

For more general information on this year’s EDC, check the official website here. And of course, this is a massive so you can be sure to expect long lines, pricey items, and random person shoulder sweat on you. Have fun and be safe!

Stage: kineticFIELD
Thievery Corporation LIVE
Paul Oakenfold
ATB
Fedde le Grand
Eddie Halliwell
Aly & Fila
Vello Virkhaus

Stage: circuitGROUNDS
STS9 Sound Tribe Sector 9
Pretty Lights
Daedelus
LawGiverz
Manufactured Superstars

Stage: neonGarden
Boys Noize
Shiny Toy Guns
Fake Blood
Shinichi Osawa
Nick Catchdubs
12th Planet // Computer Club // Foamo
Paul Devro // Kry-lon // C-Town

Stage: bassPOD
Monsters of Jungle featuring
Dieselboy
The Upbeats
Evol Intent
Ewun // Infiltrata
Mayhem // Demo // Spktrm
Hazen // Subflo // Deco
MC’s: Messinian, Dino, Question Mark

Stage: kineticFIELD
Paul Van Dyk
David Guetta
Benny Benassi
Kaskade
James Zabiela
Joaquin Bamaca
Vello Virkhaus

Stage: circuitGROUNDS
Infected Mushroom LIVE
The Crystal Method LIVE
Markus Schulz
Sander Van Doorn
Yoji
Cosmic Gate
Kyau & Albert

Stage: cosmicMEADOW
Roger Sanchez
Mark Farina
The Martinez Brothers
Tortured Soul Live
Dennis Ferrer
Andy Caldwell

Stage: neonGarden
Simian Mobile Disco LIVE
Diplo
Major Lazer
DJ AM
Le Castle Vania
Will Bailey presents Bass Weazal
Bird Peterson // Kelevra
Eli Smith // Grum
Sharkslayer
The Captain

Stage: bassPOD
DJ Hype
Andy C
Marky
Friction
LTJ Bukem
Subfocus
Mystical Influence // Sniper // DJ Fury
Hazen
MC’s: GQ, Conrad, Daddy Earl, SP:MC, Dino, Question Mark

Sleep of Oldominion is, by reputation, a quiet, unassuming, family man by day and a hellacious lyric carpet-bomber by night. After releasing the critically acclaimed Riot by Candlelight in 2002, Sleep showcased his versatility in his eclectic autobiographical 2005 album, Christopher.

In Christopher, Sleep dials up the RPMs right out of the gate with some intense micro-machines-man-like verse loosing. What follows is a full-spectrum of sound ranging from traditional “Chicarone” style tracks, to techno-fueled raps, to more subdued instrumental ballads.

In Sleep’s own words:

There are some big differences between Riot and Christopher. Riot was an experimental project for me… Christopher is a more structured record and is mostly about the last two years of my life and also my past.

While the album’s final track, “Love it to Death” is nominally a cover of George Michael’s “Never Gonna Dance Again,” it unfolds as Sleep’s testimony to life as a hard-working, under the radar, working artist who can’t shake the bittersweet nature of his quest to be heard and appreciated. It actually seems to be more of an homage to Paul Simon’s “Have a Good Time” including a nearly identical closing saxophone solo.

One favored track is the penultimate “Dirt Interlude,” an old radio-serial style suspense bit in which some Sleep fans dupe Sleep and crew to the parking lot behind a performance to smoke some chronic. Amidst the puffing, the fans break out into an acapella cypher freestyle rap. Sleep knows he’s been duped again into listening to amateurs. That is something that listeners of Christopher should have no worries of. The old underground master has the tools and he has the talent.

Note: Sleep’s new album entitled Hesitation Wounds is scheduled to drop on June 30th under Sage Francis’ record label, Strange Famous.

After the jump, scope the official Hesitation Wounds intro trailer. It’s just enough to wet that salacious hip hop appetite of yours.

If you can’t make the THC Expo 2009, this weekend, then tune into the television network Fuse for some music entertainment.

For all you Phish fans, Fuse will be airing a special called Phish: Live from the Clifford Ball on Saturday, June 13th @ 4pm ET and then again on Monday, June 15th @ 7pm ET.

Fuse is also counting down to the Bonnaroo 2009 highlights show on June 20th, by launching Tweetaroo — “Mashing Twitter and Music since 2009!” This feature allows you to follow tweets from all of the artists playing Bonnaroo this year including Beastie Boys, Snoop Dogg and many more.

Fuse can be found on DirecTV channel 339 and DISH network channel 158.

Have a good weekend. Go Lakers. Peace!

[Thanks, Aaron!]

The first concert to the summer tour of the the band Phish kicked off at Boston’s Fenway Park and was greatly enhanced thanks to a newly decriminalized Massachusetts law.

The law fines a person $100 if they are caught with less than an ounce of marijuana. If you happen to be a minor, you still have to pay the fine but you also have to do community service and attend a drug-awareness program.

Obviously people would have still brought weed with them to the concert even if the laws hadn’t have been decriminalized. Culture has dictated that this dangerous gateway drug is approved by the community at large to be used recreationally as well as medicinally. Studies upon studies have been released, debunking the neanderthal thinking of typical drug dinosaurs. Rawwwr!

Note: One of the most recent Phish concerts in Hampton, VA was in the news about how almost 200 people were arrested, mostly for narcotics related charges, and $1.2M worth of drugs were recovered. Mugshots of those arrested even made the internet, via the Smoking Gun.

Relapse isn’t just a word Eminem used for the title of his new album, it’s something that he’s recently experienced. In an interview, Eminem confessed that while he was away from the scene, he became addicted to pills like: Vicodin, Ambien, and Valium. He first sought rehab in 2005.

It’s no secret I had a drug problem. [...] in a recent interview. “If I was to give you a number of Vicodin I would actually take in a day? Anywhere between 10 to 20. Valium, Ambien… the numbers got so high I don’t even know what I was taking.

After a stay in rehab, Eminem had a near fatal overdose of an unidentified (at the time) blue pill called methadone.

My doctor told me the amount of methadone I’d taken was equivalent to shooting up four bags of heroin. [...] I probably wouldn’t have taken it. But as bad as I was back then, I can’t even say 100 percent for sure.

After that, Eminem managed to detox but after a painful knee surgery he was on the edge of another relapse and because of his past drug abuse history doctors wouldn’t prescribe him anything.

I started looking around my house to see if I had a stash box of Vicodin. [...] I’m ransacking my house, finally find something in the basement, in a little napkin, seven and a half Vicodin — the big extra strength ones — and a few Valium.

These days he realizes he was an addict:

It never once hit me that drug addiction runs in my family. Now that I understand that I’m an addict, I definitely have compassion for my mother. I get it.

He’s been clean for over a year now. He feels he slipped away when he left the limelight, because the music wasn’t bringing him that same feeling he had back in the days when he was addicted to music.

Rap was my drug. It used to get me high and then it stopped getting me high. Then I had to resort to other things to make me feel that.

Em’s new album, Relapse, drops May 19th and another album is scheduled to be released later this year.

A Director and Photographer from New York, Timothy Saccenti, works worldwide, bringing his unique blend of art, video and photography to the contemporary art scene.

His visuals are awe inspiring and sometimes humorous, as he mixes the familiar and otherworldly into his work. With his keen art direction, Saccenti uses intense color and palatial lighting in a style described recently as:

Baroque futurism, with a precise-horror attitude.

His most recent music videos with; Battles, Animal Collective, and Jamie Lidell have garnered him much respect and provided him an entry into festivals throughout the world, including the BUG in London, the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Los Angles Film Festival.

For my two cents, Timothy Saccenti is gifted beyond words, his artwork in form of videos and photography is mind blowing at times. I can only imagine what feature films would look like, with this true visionary at the helm.

AlterNet.org, listed the top 5 Broadway shows that has marijuana wrapped around the plot:

• 9 to 5 – Co-workers plot against a sexist and egotistical boss
• Hair – A group of Hippies give birth to a cultural movement in the 60’s
• Next to Normal – A contemporary musical about how one family copes with a crisis
• August: Osage County – Another one about a dysfunctional family in crisis
• Jersey Boys – The story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons

It’s Britney, bitch.

It’s not enough that her fans are still in support after the ridiculous amount of crap she’s pulled over the past few years or what a horrible example she’s set to her younger audience, but now they have to listen to her preach about what not to do. Pulling the most controversial stunts out of any celebrity in recent memory, is she really in any place to tell people to not smoke weed?

A word of advice to Ms. Spears: Don’t drive away the people who, (for whatever reason,) still pay to watch you lip-synch and waddle on stage. It’s possible they’re smoking weed because it’s one of the few things that will actually help them enjoy your show. You said that shit in Canada no less!

The President of Funk himself, Del the Funky Homosapien, founder of Hieroglyphics back in the 90s (for all those non-cookie cutter underground rap/hip-hop listeners) has a plan and a proposal for you!

In a time of funk stripped out of mainstream hip-hop, Del comes at us with a 13-point stimulus plan to bring back the funk! Dropping today is his FREE album, Funk Man with 13 funkadelic tracks. Those that never listened before might learn something from his sometimes crazy, sometimes profound, lyrical flow and become quick fans of the funky and sometimes jazzy beats. (See: Deltron 3030)

Getting the album is easy. When you go to download Funk Man, it will ask for your e-mail address. This does add you to Del’s mailing list but you can cancel at anytime. They also say that they do not give out third party information, which is always a good thing. After that you receive an e-mail giving you a link to download the free album. Click the link, and it will send you back to the album page and begin downloading a zip file. Unzip it, enjoy. (No, not that, the album.)

Chosen as MTV’s one of the emcees to watch in ‘09, Asher Roth may be compared to Eminem but really he’s just a typical dude from the burbs of Penn State, with far less baggage and the same (if not better) lyrical flow. Already a hot commodity after the mtvU Spring Break and SXSW, Asher held a listening party for his debut album, Asleep in the Bread Aisle — dropping April 20th (4/20).

Trying to bring about change through music, Asher seems to be a man of the people, despite his partying, frat-boy image. With artists like Busta Rhymes, Lil’ Wayne and Cee-Lo contributing to his new album, it just might become one of 2009s best hip-hop albums.

All real hip hop fans listen up.

The promotional group responsible for Cypress Hill’s Smoke Out and Rock the Bells is putting together a music festival Saturday, March 28 called Paid Dues in San Bernardino, CA.

The line-up is stacked with talent, headliners at The NOS Events Center are B-Real (who’s releasing a new album this spring), Atmosphere, Tech N9ne, Living Legends and Brother Ali. Other performers include Grouch & Eligh, Eyedea (one of the sickest freestylers ever) & Abilities, The Bayliens, and the whole shindig is hosted by 2Mex.

Paid Dues is in its fourth year and already has a solid reputation for bringing around quality hip hop, and past artists have included two of my favorites, Murs and Aesop Rock, who are part of Guerrilla Union.

The Atmosphere track that’s on the website right now is definitely worth a listen too.

Maybe I’m amazed by the way he still books such huge gigs at his age. Maybe I’m amazed at the reasons why people still listen to Amy Winehouse. Regardless, they’ll both be at Coachella.

I was just talking to some friends who are making the drive to Indio just to see Sir McCartney, who’s headlining the first day of the three-day music fair from April 17-19, 2009.

At first, I thought it was a bit of a surprise choice considering Rage Against The Machine and Talib Kweli were past headliners. But there will be several others acts worth checking out besides the former Beatles star.

Franz Ferdinand will be playing Thursday, in addition to Leonard Cohen, Crystal Method and about two dozen others. The Killers and Winehouse are headlining Friday and then Saturday, it’s The Cure, My Bloody Valentine and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

And on Sunday Monday, it’s 4/20…