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The Foreign Exchange "House Of Cards "/ "I Wanna Know " video shoot | August 2009

Posted by nicolaymusic on August 18, 2009 at 7:11 AM | Comments

161 photos by

Stephen Stewart

The Foreign Exchange - House Of Cards/I Wanna Know

View full gallery of The Foreign Exchange "House Of Cards "/ "I Wanna Know " video shoot | August 2009

The Foreign Exchange at Athenaeum, Indianapolis | August 15, 2009

Posted by nicolaymusic on August 17, 2009 at 7:21 AM | Comments

Video by

seaniemic

Nuvo: "Foreign Exchange: North Carolina Dutch hip-hop"

Posted by nicolaymusic on August 13, 2009 at 8:27 AM | Comments

Writer

T.J. Reynolds

Publication

Nuvo

Sure, the Internet is killing off multinational conglomerated music Goliaths, but it's also spurring a new era of creativity and collaboration between artists previously separated by genres and geography.

Consider how hip-hop duo The Foreign Exchange came together. North Carolina native Phonte (of the rap group Little Brother) and Dutch producer Nicolay met on the Web site Okayplay.com and began to send tracks and vocals to each other via instant messaging. Those tracks eventually came to constitute the duo's first album under The Foreign Exchange moniker, Connected, which was released to critical acclaim before the artists ever met face to face.

Phonte couldn't quite believe his ears when he first heard Nicolay's rich production. "We had a bunch of conspiracy theories going on, because at the time he was overseas and was kind of like a mysterious figure," Phonte recalls during a recent phone interview. "It wasn't like we could hook up over at his house. We thought, 'What if he's really a girl? What if he's got a whole staff of beatmakers?'"

Continue reading Nuvo: "Foreign Exchange: North Carolina Dutch hip-hop"

Media : Podcasts

Son Of Soul Podcast 66 includes "Lose Your Way"

Posted by nicolaymusic on July 31, 2009 at 10:12 AM | Comments

Something soulful for your player

Here's a nice podcast courtesy of Greg Clifford aka The Son Of Soul. Good looking out on including 'Lose Your Way'!

Playlist:

Root Soul - On & On (Feat. Shea Soul)
Oezlem - I Won't Lose You
Camboso feat. Jocelyn Brown - Love Alibi (Soulpersona Remix)
Chanan Hanspal - It's Only Just A Garden (Kay Suzuki Remix Without Intro)
Sygaire & Defcon - The Latest (feat. Capitol A)
Theophilus London - Want U For Myself (feat. Peter Hadar)
MaSiRah - Find A Way
Domu & Yannah Valdevit - City Madness
Yam Who? - Summertime (NSM Summertime '09 Instrumental Mix)
Sa-Ra Creative Partners - I Swear (feat. Noni Limar)
Shafiq Husayn - Dust & Kisses (feat. Noni Limar)
Marc Mac - Radio Heroes (feat. T.R.A.C)
DJ Spinna - Lights Out (feat. John Robinson)
Shafiq Husayn - Cheeba (feat. Bilal)
Quantic and His Combo Barbaro - The Dreaming Mind Part 1
Robert Glasper - All Matter (feat. Bilal)
Nicolay feat. Carlitta Durand - Lose Your Way

Media : Video

A message from Carlitta Durand

Posted by nicolaymusic on July 29, 2009 at 2:06 PM | Comments

Video by

carlittad

Music : Singles/EPs

Lose Your Way feat. Carlitta Durand

Posted by nicolaymusic on July 28, 2009 at 3:56 PM | Comments

"Lose Your Way", featuring Carlitta Durand, is the first single taken from Nicolay's album release, City Lights Vol. 2: Shibuya | Download for FREE now!

Continue reading Lose Your Way feat. Carlitta Durand

Media : Audio

Nicolay feat. Carlitta Durand - "Lose Your Way" (from City Lights Volume 2: Shibuya)

Posted by nicolaymusic on July 28, 2009 at 2:11 PM | Comments

See me smiling in the city lights...

We proudly present you with the first single taken from the upcoming Nicolay album "City Lights Vol. 2: Shibuya", in stores September 15 on Foreign Exchange Music/HBD. Click on the single cover below for your FREE download!

Music: Nicolay/Lyrics and vocal arrangement: Phonte
All lead and background vocals: Carlitta Durand/All instruments: Nicolay

As always, we encourage you to spread the word and forward this to anyone that you think may like it. We appreciate it!

Blogs : Inside The Producer's Studio

Inside The Producer's Studio: Making "Raw Life" (1/2)

Posted by nicolaymusic on July 24, 2009 at 12:56 PM | Comments

Nicolay breaks down the production and mix of Raw Life by The Foreign Exchange (from Connected).

Music: Nicolay/Lyrics: Phonte, Joe Scudda/All instruments: Nicolay/All vocals: Phonte and Joe Scudda

Dilla's mixer | Uploaded by Nicolay Music.

Backstory:

It should be no secret that the incredible beatwork of the late great J Dilla has been hugely inspirational to me, especially when I was first getting into production. I learned by studying his music, that there is room for musicality and for experimentation, as long as there is a strong and steady foundation going on underneath. Dilla's signature tracks always had that "sweet spot", that chord progression or melody that would tug at your heartstrings, while the drums and the bass would work on your neckmuscles at the same time. As a producer, his drums were eye-opening for me, not only because of his choice of sounds and of ways to process those sounds, but because of his often-imitated "drunken" style of drum programming. Before I got into Dilla's music, I suppose I more or less thought of drum hits as being relatively "fixed". For example, in one bar of four counts, you put a kick hit on the one and the three, a snare hit on the two and four, and hihat hits on every eighth note, with "swing" timing applied (or not, depending on what is called for). Dilla's programming taught me that if you exaggerate this "swing" timing, the drums come alive and feel more "human" and "in the pocket".

Continue reading Inside The Producer's Studio: Making "Raw Life" (1/2)

Blogs : Off The Shelf

Off The Shelf #5: Nicolay & Ugene - "Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)" | FREE DOWNLOAD

Posted by nicolaymusic on July 21, 2009 at 9:21 PM | Comments

Leave off that safety catch!

Today, I am another year older, and what better to commemorate this than with a particularly festive 'Off The Shelf' download, aimed for the dancefloors!

In the previous installment of this series, I broke down the story of how I first met the lovely and talented Moon Baker, many years ago. That story really isn't complete without acknowledging another good friend of mine, the amazingly talented Dutch singer and keyboardist Ugene.

Continue reading Off The Shelf #5: Nicolay & Ugene - "Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)" | FREE DOWNLOAD

Media : Video

Real Frequency x Kevin Nottingham: Indepth w/ The Foreign Exchange

Posted by nicolaymusic on July 16, 2009 at 7:15 AM | Comments

Video by

Real Frequency

Media : Video

KevinNottingham.com: Indepth with The Foreign Exchange Pt. 5

Posted by nicolaymusic on July 15, 2009 at 8:43 AM | Comments

Sean Deez of KevinNottingham.com sat down with Phonte and Nicolay for an interview a little before soundcheck for their sold-out show in Toronto (Part 5)

Video by

Real Frequency

Alright Ladies and Gents. This is the last installment, loaded with great pieces of information. This episode starts off with a conversation with Nicolay regarding his possible pursuits of a Soul Survivor-esque and he delves deep into the "Valleys" one can run into if that album was attempted. Of course, we flip the tables on Phonte and ask him about a possible solo album with a dream team of producers. There is hope that both will eventually drop their own pieces like that. It's crazy because here we hear Phonte say that he's on a Premier track with Royce. WHAT. Speaking of Premier, we talk about him (it's me... why wouldn't we?) and his influence on Nic's production style. Gangstarr came into the discussion and so did Guru's most recent "Fastlane" track. Of course, Phonte and Nic both drop their thoughts on that record...it's pretty funny stuff.

Media : Audio

?uestlove/The Foreign Exchange/Zo!/Carlitta Durand EXCLUSIVE!

Posted by nicolaymusic on July 9, 2009 at 8:51 AM | Comments

I don't care where we go, I don't care what we do...

PURPLE FLIP [right click and save to download MP3 file]

Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson- Drums, Samples
Nicolay- Fender Rhodes, acoustic piano
Zo!- Korg synth, additional rhodes
Phonte and Carlitta Durand- Vocals

This is the first in a series of random goodies that we will be periodically dropping off in your mailboxes. (Who loves ya, baby?)

We recorded this over a month ago specifically for a ?uestlove tribute party dedicated to The Purple One himself. Other than passing it off to a few DJ friends who vowed to keep it on some secret squirrel, "bet you aint up on THIS!" status, no one has ever heard it. In the wake of the incredible loss we suffered on June 25 however, this joint took on somewhat of a deeper meaning.

We decided to share it with our fans not only as a token of appreciation, but also as a way of paying respect to one of our last living musical geniuses.

Let's not wait until tragedy strikes before we show love and gratitude to our heroes, people. Give them their flowers while they live.

This one's for you, Mr. Nelson. You are loved and appreciated.

Enjoy!

One Love,
'Tay and Nic

Media : Audio

Nicolay on the Rickey Smiley Morning Show (97.9 The Beat)

Posted by nicolaymusic on July 2, 2009 at 9:44 AM | Comments

Ooookkkaaayyy!

Nicolay calls in to the nationally syndicated Rickey Smiley Morning Show for a quick interview about The Foreign Exchange. We find out that Rickey is a big Foreign Exchange fan, who plays Leave It All Behind every evening and thinks every track on it is a HIT! Listen to the audio below.

Media : Video

KevinNottingham.com: Indepth with The Foreign Exchange Pt. 4

Posted by nicolaymusic on July 2, 2009 at 9:40 AM | Comments

Sean Deez of KevinNottingham.com sat down with Phonte and Nicolay for an interview a little before soundcheck for their sold-out show in Toronto (Part 4)

Video by

Real Frequency

Once again, we are back with yet another one. With this heat rock, we dig in with one of KevinNottingham.com's most popular posts, Phonte's Top 15 Rap Performances [read here]. We get to dig in on my Phonte overdose for a bit and get to talk to P and Nic about what their favourite Phonte verses are and their opinions on the list. Moreover, we flip the switch and talk to Phonte about what his favourite Nicolay beats are and what Nic's personal favourites are. The best part of the interview comes when it gets noted that Phonte actually had his chance to take on various Nic beats that either ended up on another Nic album or other albums i.e. EMC's "What It Stands For." Phonte on that beat? Damn. Lastly, we talk briefly about Nicolay's creation of "Nautilus," [check out his recreation here] comparing it to the original, the creation of it, and their favourite use of that sample. Enjoy.

Press : Interviews/Features

VIBE.com: 60 Rappers In 60 Days: Phonte

Posted by nicolaymusic on June 29, 2009 at 11:29 AM | Comments

Phonte was singing before your favorite rapper sang!

It's a cliché to say, but in the case of Phonte, the North Carolina MC may just be your favorite rapper's favorite rapper. In a recent interview, Drake, the current "it" boy of hip hop, mentioned Phonte, as one of his favorite MCs. Period.

For those who've followed Phonte Coleman since he burst onto the scene in 2003 with his partner-in-rhyme Big Pooh, and producer 9th Wonder, collectively forming Little Brother, Drizzy's pick came as no surprise. MC and critics alike have given props to Phonte's witty wordplay and Southern-tinged flow since Little Brother's debut, The Listening (ABB). But in 2004, Phonte switched things up and began to amass a new set of fans with The Foreign Exchange, a collaboration with producer Nicolay. Together the two released Connected (BBE, 2004) to critical acclaim. In 2008, they released their sophomore effort, Leave It All Behind (Hall of Justus/ Nicolay), which Phonte is currently promoting on a nationwide tour.

Continue reading VIBE.com: 60 Rappers In 60 Days: Phonte

Media : Video

Phonte discusses Michael Jackson's legacy

Posted by nicolaymusic on June 27, 2009 at 11:32 AM | Comments

Phonte of The Foreign Exchange on WNCN/NBC

Video by

The untimely death of pop superstar Michael Jackson has left a hole in the music community. It has devastated fans both young and old, and musicians from the rock world and way beyond.

The Foreign Exchange and Little Brother emcee Phonte Coleman cites Michael Jackson as the main reason why he is where he is, so Jackson's death has hit him on both an emotional and personal level.

"Being a young kid, being a music fan -- and growing up wanting to do music -- to see somebody like Michael Jackson on the screen and to see him on such a huge level; it was really inspiring for kids like me who had dreams of doing music themselves," Phonte said.

Despite his recent personal troubles and battles with the media, Michael Jackson's influence and legacy will forever live on in the music industry.

"He really pushed the boundaries artistically with his videos," Phonte said. "He really took it and made it an art form ... When he was doing his videos, he was having movie directors do his stuff -- he had John Landis who did 'Thriller,' he had Martin Scorsese who did 'Bad,' he had Spike Lee who did 'They Don't Care About Us' -- so he was really pushing that boundary and making a true art form as far as videos go."