I am officially starting to get more music through my email than blogs…and I go to a lot of blogs. Perhaps the most talented people I know are just on my contacts list…but either way. When John Dew emailed me this track from fellow Houstonian Tim Ned’s upcoming project entitled SkyHigh 2-I had to share this with my fam. The track Bandit is like a Houston version of Marley Marl Symphony or a down south version of Buddy. Which makes me feel that 7 days is just too long to wait for John Dew’s mixtape STJv1.9 (Summertime Johnny version 1.9) dropping March 1, 2011. This is the second installment of this Series of Summertime Johnny Albums.Which will be feauturing notable Houston talent including J Relentlist, Nya, HasHBrown, Hollywood Floss, Kidd the Great, Rob Jay, The Boy Illinois, Moriam Lawrence, and Mic Skills as well as production from Jett I. Masstyr, DJ Don, Tim Ned, Chris Rockaway, and Beast Master. (seriously how did I not think of this name first!)As a part of the infamous T.H.E.M. Crew John Dew is no stranger to the stage having opened up for Raekwon in the past and set to open up for Blu and J Davey at Groundhall March 15, 2011.

Written by: Nibu Abraham

If a wikipedia page opens up for Cilla K the introductory paragraph will describe her as a vocalist, beat maker and songwriter based in New York. Her sound combines jazz, soul and hip hop and R&B that comes across as a mix of massive attack meets floetry. After taking a good listen to this French-West Indian’s first full album Fine Line(released April 2, 2010),you can expect a little bit of everything-which could be a good or bad thing depending on your taste. Her back story is as eclectic as her music.

Born in the French West Indies (Guadeloupe), Cilla was accepted by Sarah Lawrence College where she was a History major and also doubling as a model in New York. On her way to a casting call, she ran into David Pattillo, a producer/writer in NYC, and a great collaboration was born. The two have been working together over the past year and have since brought on board such collaborators as Julius Bervine (Floetry, D’Angelo, Common), Clay Sears (Jill Scott, Vivian Green), Danny P. (Joss Stone, Robbie Williams), and Mr. Khaliyl (Da Bush Babees, Talib Kweli). So we have a History major, model, singer, and she produced 7 out of the 15 tracks on her album-if you are reading this MARRY ME.

Honestly I had to take a couple of listens to really get into the album. I am not a fan of people who do everything on their album. I like my gravy with my mashed potatoes, but then again some people like Chinese food with fried chicken. Go figure. but there were some promising tracks like “Future” and if the track tells us anything about the future of cilla K we will be hearing more from her in the future.

Suggested Reading:
Fine Line Review by Terrence Lathan