the dope report

They may be dirtbags when it comes to international labor laws, but damned if Nike can’t put together a great commercial. This current ad celebrates Kobe Bryant’s fifth run at an NBA title with a montage of career highlights set to Andre 3000’s cover of the Beatles’ “All Together Now.” The ATLien takes one of the Beatles’ trippiest songs from Yellow Submarine and adds a little taste of funk to it. Add that to a Kobe highlight reel that succinctly captures a legendary 14 year career spanning three NBA eras in just one minute.

TDR supports Kobe, cognac drinker Ron Artest, cannabis enthusiast Lamar Odom and the rest of the Los Angeles Lakers in this year’s finals against the detested Boston Celtics. [Nike Basketball]

Note the album art by Shepard Fairey, above. A-Trak is no longer just “Kanye West’s DJ”. The Montreal-born turntablist is a full-on tastemaker through label Fool’s Gold and his web site code is on another level, compared to other attempts. Check the ‘Dirty South Dance 2’ tracklist, stream the album, or download it after the jump.

Los Angeles producer Flying Lotus’ stellar new album Cosmogramma, out today on Warp Records, is the Entroducing of 2010. It’s the future of music sent back through time – a definitive statement from the 29-year-old artist, who is saying: “Your boundaries bore me. Kirk, out.”

Hot tip: back in the ‘70s disco secretly escaped to Nigeria, where it thrived in African discotechs, blissfully unaware of what was happening back in the states. Sleeper hit of the Spring, Lagos Disco Inferno charts the continuation of disco on the dark continent: 12 tracks of hits and obscurities from all throughout the 70s. Look at these superb liner notes from Dean Disi, music journalist and formerly Director of Lagos-based label TYC Records:

Lagos by the 1970s was a huge metropolitan city. Due to the oil boom, there was money to made with music and nightlife and big international record labels like EMI, Decca and Philips had set up their recording studios that for a big part got equipped with vintage hardware handed down for their European franchises. So as the sound of the late 70s and early 80s in Europe and in the US got more and more modern and from today’s point of view just plain shitty, overloaded with ugly sounding Roland keyboards, the sound of Lagos was dominated by powerful horn sections, heavy drums, and percussion instruments. There’s plenty of early Moog synthesizers but no synth-generated strings or fake horns.

Expertly crate-dug by Frank Gossner of Voodoofunk.com. Check track “Don’t Put Me Down” for this brazen fusion of disco and highlife that just makes us want to get shitty and take our clothes off.

[Dosh – “Airlift” from anticon. on Vimeo.]

It’s Martin Dosh’s fifth album for Anticon, and Tommy – released April 13 – is among his best. Forget minimalist, this is maximalist. After the video, download track Number 41 (feat. Andrew Bird). Tour dates, post-jump.

Mike Relm’s brilliant audio and video mashups have been a TDR favorite for years, and everyone will soon know why. The native San Francisco DJ recently cut his own version of the latest Iron Man 2 trailer so impressive that director and all-around awesome dude Jon Favreau recommended him to Paramount Pictures marketing team. Favreau confirmed today on his Twitter account that Relm now gets to cut an official Iron Man 2 spot for television:

@Jon_Favreau: Paramount hired DJ @mikerelm to cut together an IM2 TV spot after I showed them his trailer remix. Very cool.

Check out Relm’s IM2 remix above. Check back in for Relm’s official TV spot as soon it it’s released. [Mike Relm]

We lost one of the most talented and gifted emcees to ever bless the mic. Bang your head to “Code of the Streets” and pour one out for Gang Starr’s Keith Elam, better known as Guru, who passed away yesterday after a yearlong bout with cancer. Guru’s legacy will live on through decades of vital hip-hop recordings. [MTV]

TDR fave Deer Tick shares the first MP3 from The Black Dirt Sessions, track “20 Miles”.

Recorded late last year at Black Dirt Studios in upstate New York, lead vocalist and songwriter John McCauley proves all you need is a couple chords, a trashed voice and more heart than the next guy. Called the country-rock breakthroughs of 2009, Deer Tick live is a boozey, swaggering affair – like the dude from The Hurt Locker started a band; an especially apt comparison given that the Providence, RI act has performed for Pentagon TV several times, and hence become a huge favorite for military men and women. A documentary film about the band, City of Sin should come out this year 2010. Tour dates and June 8 album release details after the jump.