{"key":"8417","name":"Flying Lotus","bio":"Los Angeles resident Steven Ellison, better known as Flying Lotus, is a producer of electronic music and hip-hop beats, known for his abstract and sometimes jazz-tinted style. Flying Lotus, often abbreviated to FlyLo, is the founder and leader of the Brainfeeder collective, which includes such artists as Samiyam, Teebs and Daedelus. He is also often seen as being at the forefront of the new wave of beatmakers and musicians who fuse IDM and electronica with hip-hop and trip-hop. Flying Lotus released his first album, 1983 on Plug Research Records in 2006. His June 2008 release, Los Angeles, released on Warp with cover art designed by Build & Timothy Saccenti, was released to positive critical reviews. His third album, Cosmogramma, was released on Warp in 2010 to further critical acclaim. His fourth album, Until the Quiet Comes, has been released through Warp in October 2012.As well as serious album work, remixes and production for artists such as Blu, Hodgy Beats, Gonjasufi, Oddisee and John Robinson, FlyLo is also responsible for many of the musical loops heard during the \u2018bumps\u2019 on Adult Swim, as well as being a casual filmmaker.Being the great-nephew of Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane\u2019s wife, Ellison comes from a musical heritage about which he says: \u201cMy greatest influences are my family, I\u2019m lucky to have been around so many accomplished musicians.\u201d When discussing the sources of his imagination and inspiration, he explains that : \u201cI see these tracks as little short films that play in my head\u2026 I have this beautiful lemon tree in my backyard, and on a sunny day the light shines through. Little things like that inspire me.\u201d","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/8417_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"98377","name":"Taylor McFerrin","bio":"Taylor McFerrin is a jazz\/soul\/electronic musician and producer whose first recorded appearance was as a background singer on \u201cJubilee\u201d, a song included on his father Bobby McFerrin's 1982 debut album.Moving on 3 decades, following on from a series of singles and EPs, Taylor released his amazing debut album \u2018Early Riser\u2019 on Flying Lotus\u2019 Brainfeeder imprint in 2014. The album featured guest appearances from Naipalm (Hiatus Kaiyote), Thundercat, Robert Glasper, Cesar Mariano, Marcus Gilmore and, returning a favour from 32 years prior, Bobby McFerrin.Taylor continues to tour worldwide supporting the release of his album both as a solo act, and as a duo featuring jazz drummer prodigy Marcus Gilmore. In addition to headline shows around North America, he has performed alongside artists such as Erykah Badu, The Roots, Nas and Talib Kweli.","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/98377_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"104700","name":"Snakehips","bio":"Snakehips are a production duo based in Camden, London, UK who got together at the end of 2012.http:\/\/www.snakehips.biz","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/104700_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"10231","name":"Gramatik","bio":"Good music is felt not heard. Gramatik apparently understood that at an age of 3 according to his mother as she used to catch him glued to the radio in his older sister's room whenever there was an old funk or rhythm & blues joint on, tapping his leg on the floor along with the beat. Damn, talking about a sign on what will your child do when he grows up!Parents got him taking piano lessons in the elementary music school when he was in 2nd grade, but he dropped out 2 years later because he wasn't feeling that whole classical music thing as that was the only genre they were teaching. He later got some private piano lessons, learning the stuff he wanted to learn to play like Beatles and Rhythm & Blues in general. He and a few of his 4th grade classmates formed a band and became the youngest band in the history of his elementary school, playing school events on the regular. When he got to 7th grade he discovered Hip-Hop and felt totally overtaken and compelled by it's elements, especially by the power of the rhythmically accented poetry(RAP). He soon left the band, started writing and became an MC. His friends were amazed by his flow and delivery since there were no hip-hop artists in his home town Piran(Slovenia) at the time, except him and one of his classmates and they were dope on top of it! They formed a duo called Bow Down and threw the first hip-hop party in the history of their home town. In 1998, Gramatik met his first audio sequencing software on the computer of his classmate's older brother and felt like he got struck by lightening, totally overwhelmed by it! His parents were financially struggling at the time, so they couldn't afford a computer, so he was hanging out at his friend's house all the time, messing around with the sequencer when his older brother wasn't home. 2 years later his parents bought him a computer and the first thing he did was install that audio sequencer! He started producing his first beats and day by day felt more and more compelled by the craft & the magic of it. It wasn't long untill he discovered sampling which became his one true love in the music making process, chopping up all those old funk, soul, blues and jazz tracks he used to listen to all the time and making something completely new out of it was the best feeling ever. All of a sudden his life started to make perfect sense.In 2006, he and 2 of his friends, fellow MC's, released their debut hip-hop album as a group called 5th Element, which was critically acclaimed throughout the country as one of the best hip-hop albums in Slovenia. After the album, Gramatik felt hip-hop just wasn't enough, that he was limiting himself with doing only one genre while he enjoyed listening to so many of them so he started producing House, Techno, Breakbeat, Electro, Drum'n'Bass, basically any genre that he liked which was anything that evolved from Blues, Jazz, Soul and Funk, as those ''father genres'' were all embedded deep in his style, whatever he would do. He realized that to him, music is much bigger than a genre name and their specific categorization, it's all about embracing what moves you and rejecting what doesn't. He released his first ever track on Beatport.com in june 2008, which was an Electro House track, a remix he did for DJ Vitamin D's track entitled Motherfuckers Know Whos The Best. The track ended up 24 on the Electro House Top 100 chart, a nice surprise and an excellent quality validation for this newcomer. Soon after that he ended up on 40 of the House Top 100 chart with his tribal banger Letz Get Ill while his Dreams About Her EP topped the Chil Out top 100 chart for 3 weeks. He kept releasing different stuff on various labels all owned by DJ Vitamin D which he became good friends with. Not long after his first release stroke the chart, Vitamin D suggests to him that he should scrap up those 20 hip-hop beatz he had sitting in a flash player on his myspace for over 2 years and release them as an album on the new Chill Out\/Trip-Hop\/Instrumental Hip-Hop label he's about to open inspired by those same beatz he was listening to. So Gramatik does that(thinking he won't sell more than 3 tracks off the album since they were just 2:30 minuets long hip-hop beatz, which are not commonly sold on beatport) and the album he entitled Street Bangerz Vol.1 get's released in december 2008 on the fresh new label Cold Busted. little did he know that the album was gonna catapult straight to the 1 spot on the Top 100 Chill Out chart and has been holding hostage the first 20 spots ever since. Street Bangerz Vol.1 has been a total success, completely unexpected, selling over 50.000 tracks world wide in less than 6 months on beatport alone. It made him realize that quite often, the things that you expect to work the least, usually work the most. Gramatik is now working on various projects while determined to keep up the SB series, dropping one a year, perfecting them volume after volume and hopefully tour the world in due time.","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/10231_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"10272","name":"Clams Casino","bio":"Clams Casino is the pseudonym of New Jersey resident Mike Volpe, who has shot from relative obscurity to production sensation thanks to a handful of blistering tracks. Edging into the limelight after passing tunes to Soulja Boy and Bay Area superstar Lil B, his originality has resonated with more than just rap fans. Clams hasn\u2019t confined his songwriting to rap music alone, and listening to his productions you can hear a keen sense of harmony, a pop sensibility and a willingness to let sounds dissolve into an uncharacteristic dream-like haze.After a genre-bending EP Rainforest on the esteemed Tri Angle label, his LP \"Instrumentals\" compiles some of Clams\u2019 most crucial and sought after beats. Surprisingly, with the raps stripped away the tracks take on a life of their own, and hearing Clams\u2019 intricate productions with the space to breathe feels like a real privilege. The half-heard vocals, twisted, rolling beats and acid-bathed samples are now pushed to the forefront, and you\u2019d struggle to hear how a rapper, no matter how competent would manage to compete with such precise songwriting. Clams\u2019 real skill is to combine the delirious club sound of post-2010 rap with something almost unheard in the genre. His sound is totally unique, and as he punctuates tracks with blissful ambience and inspired samples it\u2019s hard not to believe this is a producer destined for true greatness.Platin Casino sponsored the release of a second instrumental mixtape, simply titled Instrumental Mixtape 2, for free via his Twitter on June 4, 2012.","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/10272_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"12739","name":"Blue Sky Black Death","bio":"Blue Sky Black Death is an accomplished West Coast (US) production duo. Their sound transforms the raw into the refined through technically building layers that exceed the boundaries of any one particular musical genre. Young God and Kingston make up the duo, and acquire additional people to help construct the synthesis of instrumental variety. Often a single track will involve a violin, cello, keyboard, and guitar mixed with live vocals and abstract samplings. Each song compiles and manipulates to make the music engage on several levels.Most of their reputation comes from their accomplishments with various hip hop collaborators (Jean Grae, Crooked-I, Hell Razah, the late Guru, Ill Bill, to name but a few). Each album surpasses the next in expectation thus creating surprise. BSBD has been recieved praise from such publications as Spin, URB, Rock Sound, XLR8R (naming \"Late Night Cinema\" as: \"The Best Instrumental Hip Hop album of 2008. Unlike any other artist around right now\"), Itunes featured artist, Imeem featured artist, ReUp magazine, Filter Magazine, Vapors Magazine, Remix Magazine, Pop Matters, amongst others, and their music has led them to receive world wide recognition. Their most recent highly acclaimed album \"Slow Burning Lights\" matches BSBD with phenomenon Yes Alexander. Her spine numbing vocals and somber lyrics meld flawlessly amongst BSBDs quixotic rhythms. BSBD has redefined hip hop through their kaleidoscopic perception of music as a landscape; music as a dimension to construct and build upwards and out. Their name borrowed from the skydiving term, beauty before death, mirrors their longevity and ability to bring back to life, dead and forgotten dimensions. There's no artifice behind BSBD, as will be heard with \"Third Party,\" which is set to drop September 7, 2010 and will be BSBDs 10th album released within a 4-year-span. \"Third Party\" pairs BSBD with songwriter Alexander Chen of Boy in Static, and most recently The Consulate General. The songs draw from a span of inspiration, from 80's pop melodies to modern indie rock experimentation.","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/12739_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"10171","name":"Hudson Mohawke","bio":"Hudson Mohawke, (b. Ross Birchard), also known as DJ Itchy, Hudson Mo or Hud Mo, is an Electronic music producer\/DJ from Glasgow, Scotland, affiliated with the LuckyMe collective of musicians and artists. He is signed to Warp Records and G.O.O.D. Music. Hudson released his debut album Butter in October 2009.At the age of 15 Birchard, under the name DJ Itchy, was the youngest ever UK DMC finalist. His earliest gigs as a club DJ were with Glasgow Uni's Subcity Radio where he was part of the culture city kids show and later other shows including Turntable Science with Pro Vinylist Karim and Cloudo's Happy Hardcore show. Birchard became Hudson Mohawke after seeing the name engraved on a statue in the hallway of his accommodation. He was signed to Warp Records despite a very limited track record of official releases; the bulk of his releases were unofficial tracks and DJ mixes circulated on the Internet. His first official release to get major notice was \"Free Mo\", a track on the Ubiquity Records various-artists compilation Choices, Vol. 1 (2007); subsequently, he was featured as a remixer on Choices, Vol. 2 (2007). In 2008 his 12\" EP Ooops! on LuckyMe\/Wireblock became an underground sensation, particularly once word spread of his recording contract with Warp.","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/10171_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"13572","name":"BADBADNOTGOOD","bio":"BADBADNOTGOOD (abbreviated as BBNG) is pianist Matt Tavares, bassist Chester Stone Hansen and drummer Alex Sowinski. The trio met at Humber College in Toronto, Canada and bonded over their mutual musical interests - OFWGKTA, Gucci Mane, and Waka Flocka Flame. BADBADNOTGOOD released their first two albums in 2011 and 2012, both for free off of their official Bandcamp.Their thrid album named \"III\", was released on 6, May, 2014.They have most recently released their fourth album, \"Sour Soul\" a collaboration with Ghostface Killah , on 23, Feb, 2015. Band's official site: http:\/\/badbadnotgood.comBandcamp: http:\/\/badbadnotgood.bandcamp.com\/","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/13572_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"10180","name":"TOKiMONSTA","bio":"Born and raised in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, TOKiMONSTA (Jennifer Lee) was an unfocused pupil of classical piano. However, she has come to use this background to understand and create vast soundscapes and textures through the usage of live instruments, percussion, digital manipulation, and dusty vinyl. Through the creation of beats, she is able to fuse the sounds of the past with her musical prowess into something avant garde. Lee is a Korean-American, \"Toki\" means \"a rabbit\" in Korean. Her debut album, Midnight Menu, was released in 2010.","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/10180_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}