Diamond District, Trek Life & DJ Quartermaine Euro Tour: Innsbruck, Austria

What up folks! After a 12 hour drive from Paris, France to Innsbruck, Austria, we arrived to rock a last minute show that was booked the week before. The venue was small but the crowd was extra large! Check out some behind the scenes footage of our journey, performance, sight seeing & accommodations, peace!

Diamond District & Trek Life European Tour: Paris

Day six of the Diamond District, Trek Life & DJ Quartermaine European tour. We've made our way from Cologne, Germany to Paris, France to do Last nights show. On the bill for the show was Diamond District, Trek Life, DJ Quartermain, Fashawn, Blu & Exile. The crowd was all the way live. Performing in Paris is always an amazing experience. Check out the video of our performance in Paris!









Trek Life, Oddisee, Fashawn, DJ Babu, yU, X.O

DJ Babu, DJ Quartermaine

Carvinal In Cologne

Day four on the Diamond District, Trek Life European tour with DJ Quartermaine. Today was an off day for us and we decided to spend it in Cologne, Germany. When planning a tour I do my best to make time to see the cities we perform in. We hit the streets of cologne to witness the entire city celebrating the last day of Carnival. People hit the streets wearing costumes of all sorts and drink till they can't drink anymore... and then some. Enjoy the video & Photos. Next stop, Paris.














Bonus: Love Locks Of Cologne

The love locks first started appearing in the summer of 2008. There are now more than 1,000 locks from couples around the world hanging on a fence along the bridge’s pedestrian path. Some scratch their initials in the metal locks, while others have gone as far as having them professionally engraved to honour anniversaries and weddings. Couples close the locks and then toss the key into the Rhine river to signify their enduring love.

Diamond District + Trek Life Euro Tour: Brussels & Munster

Am I really writing a post about this Diamond District & Trek Life Tour? Since X.O., yU, DJ Quartermaine & Trek Life's flights were delayed I thought this day would never come! My flight from London arrived late, Trek's flight arrived late and the rest of Diamond District never arrived at all. The snow storms in DC and in Frankfurt, Germany caused my homies to miss the first two shows. Trek & I held it down in Mainz and Brussels and the crowds loved it. I just felt I couldn't make the first post until the rest of my crew arrived and performed. So here goes, enjoy the video and photo's, peace.

Trek Life

DJ Quartermaine

From L to R: XO, Oddisee, yU together make the Diamond District

From L to R: Exile, Oddisee, DJ Quartermaine

From L to R: Trek Life, Blu

yU

From L to R: Blu, Oddisee

From L to R: Oddisee, yU, X.O

yU Traveling

I recently released a 24 track instrumental album titled "Traveling man". Each song was produced in the city the track was named after. My idea was to produce based of the influence I got from each city.

My homie yU (1/3rd of the Diamond District) kicked an ill 16 bars over the "New York City" instrumental.

You can listen to the entire album on my bandcamp page and also download yU's "yU Traveling" as a free bonus.

While you're at it, preview the entire "Traveling Man" album before you buy it!

Washington City Paper on "Odd Winter"

One Track Mind: OddiseeWorkaholic hip-hop producer had a blizzard of a year, sans snowballs

By Jonathan L. Fischer
Posted: February 3, 2010

Odd Winter

Oddisee

Standout Track: No. 13, “Blizzard of 09,” a brassy, sultry instrumental that producer Oddisee builds around jazzy, Madlib-esque drum breaks and a wiry, acid-caked guitar line that recalls Shuggie Otis. Sourcing the song’s components is tricky, though, especially the striking yet subdued horn fanfare. “Oh wow,” Oddisee says, laughing. “That beat is really old. I have no clue.”

Musical Motivation: “Blizzard of 09” is the last track on Odd Winter, the third installment of Oddisee’s series of short, seasonally themed albums that fans can download for free. It’s also, he says, a fitting coda to a year in which he dropped several solo releases and the debut of his group Diamond District, and made beats for X.O., Tranquill, and others. “It embodies both the weather we got and the onslaught of music I put out in ’09,” he says. While much of Oddisee’s work is for-hire, his solo records are where he shows off. “If it was just the tracks I do for MCs, my versatility would be very limited,” he says. Projects like Odd Winter “allow me to break out of the box that collaborations sometimes put me in.”

Experimental Jet Set: While for some, “Blizzard of 09” may evoke thoughts of snowball fights gone south and slick, slushy streets, Oddisee actually spent Dec. 19 on an airplane, flying to London. The producer, whose government name is Amir Mohamed, is based in D.C., but he’s been kicking it across the pond for more than a month—producing and prepping for a European tour with Diamond District. Oddisee’s no stranger to world travel, it turns out: His other new release, Traveling Man, sports 24 instrumentals produced in 24 different cities. Unsurprisingly, the record’s most upbeat track is “Sao Paulo.” Its most depressing? “Detroit.”

If you don't already have "Odd Winter" please click the photo for a free download.

Hip Hop’s Cool Again » (The Mixtape) featuring Fashawn, Blu, Exile, Diamond District (Oddisee+yU+XO) & Trek Life

In preparation for our gig in Paris together on February 16th, this mix-tape was put together.

matic « Le Hip Hop Sur Ecoute » présente:

01. Frequency Modulation (prod. Exile)
02. Diamond District - Who I Be (prod. Oddisee)
03. Fashawn – Ecology (prod. Exile)
04. Trek Life – Big Picture (Remix) (prod. Oddisee)
05. Blu – Dancing In The Rain (prod. Exile)
06. Oddisee – Hip Hop’s Cool Again (prod. Oddisee)
07. yU – Thought About It (prod. yU)
08. XO – Blah Blah (prod. Oddisee)
09. Do It (prod. Blu)
10. Trek Life – Hard Work (Remix) (prod. Oddisee)
11. Fashawn feat. Exile – Bo Jackson (prod. Exile)
12. Diamond District – The District (prod. Oddisee)
13. No Mine (prod. Blu)
14. XO – Fast Life (prod. Oddissee)
15. Blu – My World Is (prod. Exile)
16. yU – Lunchin (prod. Oddisee)
17. Fashawn feat. Blu – Samsonite Man (prod. Exile)
18. Trek Life – Cold For That (prod. Oddisee)
19. The Sound Is God (prod. Exile)

Fashawn, Blu, Exile, Diamond District (Oddisee+yU+XO) & Trek Life
>> « Hip Hop’s Cool Again » (The Mixtape) Download <<
(Autres liens: RapidShare – MegaUpload)

hiphopdx.com reviews traveling man

ALBUM REVIEWS

Oddisee - Traveling Man

February 03, 2010 03:02:00 PM CST | By William E. Ketchum III

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It's been a long time since Oddisee made his debut on Jazzy Jeff's The Magnificent and started working with the likes of Talib Kweli, Little Brother, and his Low Budget crew. With compilations, seasonal EPs and the critically-acclaimed In The Ruff album from his group Diamond District, he's quietly proven himself as one of the hardest-working producers in the indie Hip Hop circuit. The dedication seems to have paid off in the Washington D.C. producer/emcee’s frequent flyer miles, as he’s kept a consistent stream of shows, recording, and visits around the world. Oddisee’s new instrumental disc Traveling Man is a concept project of sorts, as each of its 24 songs is a beat made in the city of its title. Thankfully, this project is more of the Oddisee that Hip Hop fans have grown to appreciate.

Traveling Man balances cohesion and versatility: each instrumental showcases a different feel for its city, but it’s still the same producer in each area. Many of the instrumentals here flawlessly capture the essence of the city in question: “NYC” embodies the bustle and motion of the Big Apple with its shuffling percussion, and “Long Beach” soothes with its plodding, Cali-friendly synths and bassline. Overseas locales get the business too, as “Paris” truly sounds like the city of love with its breezy woodwinds and female vocal loops. The concept probably helps the idea as much as the music, but a listen to the disc from top to bottom can actually simulate traveling from place to place, by taking on so many varied rhythms and moods.

Another highlight is how Oddisee maintains his own sound while adapting the sounds of other areas. The stomps, chants and synths of “Atlanta” wouldn’t sound out of place alongside productions by the likes of DJ Toomp or Shawty Redd, and the G-Funk sound captured in “South Central” successfully channels inspiration from older, c-walk-ready Dr. Dre records. Meanwhile, “Miami” would fit a Rick Ross project with its ominous horns. While some instrumental albums are filled with beats that would be difficult for emcees to rhyme over, the tracks here aren’t so left-field that a capable emcee couldn’t handle them. It would be interesting if Oddisee made another version of Traveling Man that featured emcees from each respective city rhyming over the beats to drive the homeliness of the instrumentals home.

Oddisee has shown his ability to make a cohesive album with his beats, and he’s shown a penchant for topical lyrics on his songs. Here, he showcases a combination of the two with beats that are equally conceptual and harmonious with each other. If Traveling Man is any indication, Oddisee’s going places in 2010.