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For each year Foreign Exchange albums came out (there's two albums), they were the best albums that came out in each respective year, in my opinion. What makes it's so great is the story of Foreign Exchange. It just so happens that I explained it to a friend of mine through email (trying to get her into good music) and I can copy and paste it here
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It all starts with the infamous Roots crew. Yes, The Roots...the greatest hip hop collaborative effort...ever basically. Out of The Roots have come the likes of Black Thought (of course), but also Erykah Badu and Jill Scott. So if you're an up and coming artist and you open for The Roots, it's a big deal.
Seven years ago a group from North Carolina called Little Brother opened for The Roots. Little Brother consist of three members. Two hip hop artists - Phonte and Big Pooh, and the producer 9th Wonder. With their first album alone they arguably placed themselves within the category of top 5 hip hop groups of all time...ALL time.
So...one day Phonte (pronounced "Fon-tay" btw) was on a hip hop site called okayplayer.com in the blog section and began talking to this producer named Nicolay (Nick-o-lay). Just a regular guy who produces music, but he's not from North Carolina, South Carolina, or even America. He's from and resides in the Netherlands. Phonte heard his work and was completely blown away. After a while he was like, "man...we've got do something..."
Nicolay would send Phonte tracks and Phonte would lay vocals over them, and creating an album in the process. What makes the story so interesting and beautiful is that they never met each other ONCE during this entire period. Never once even spoke on the phone. Everything was done over Instant Messenger. Nicolay would send Phonte a track, Phonte would record over it and then send it back to him. The barriers that were crossed...the love involved...it was something amazing.
That is pretty much how they got their name - The Foreign Exchange. The title of the first album was just as poetic - "Connected". The way it was done wasn't just a bunch of songs, but it sounded like one cohesive piece. I would never say that Nicolay "makes beats." Nicolay creates soundscapes. The album cover gives a good visual.
The music they make together is more soulful than one would think when they think hip hop, but they are an extremely refreshing change in the hip hop world. Totally different. Both albums they created so far have a more soul/jazz vibe above anything.
and Dwele...just get ALL of his stuff right now.10-28-09 12:13 AM
