If I had to chose a hip hop album from the past 5 years that stands apart from the crowd and breaks new boundaries, it would be 2004's Connected by The Foreign Exchange. MC Phonte of Little Brother met the Dutch beat master Nicolay through the OkayPlayer chat board. They sent tracks back and forth from North Carolina to the Netherlands and carved out a wonderful range of hip hop, soul, trip hop, electronica....label it whatever. It's a masterpiece.
Nicolay made his cameo appearance in Philadelphia last night as part of the first Foreign Exchange show in the city. In the spirit of The Roots, Phonte and Nicolay took the stage with keys, bass, drums and the wonderful voices of Yazarah and Darien Brockington. Nic's Groove was performed with the same lush sounds as the vinyl cut and Phonte waxed poetic on relationships. His statement of the night "There's one word that can save a marriage people. One word: OhhhhhKaaayyy"
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