NOW HEAR THIS: JUST PLAIN ANT – WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?
I first met Anthony Gillison, better known as Just Plain Ant, last year during my travels with Just Plain Sounds. For most of 2011 Ant, one of the founders of JPS, was on a bit of a break from live performing and releasing new music. However, during that time, he told me that he was working on a new project for 2012 and I should be on the lookout. Well, the new project is here – it’s titled, “What Did You Expect?” The 12 track album features all of the JPS heavyweights: Joey Ripps, The Honorable Sleaze, Due Justice, James Dangle, Drano and Nyce performing over Ant’s production. It also features New Juice Crew members, BC Music First and Emphasys on the track, “Here We Go,” Barz Blackmon on the track, “Pantina,” and Sunny Harmonic on the smooth track, “Roses.” Of course, both Barz and Sunny of Photosynthesizers fame. Ant also teams up for a 2012 track with Octavion Xcellence, their collaboration mixtape, “No Cool Points for Dying,” killed the mixtape scene earlier this year. The album is out now – below is the track, Sniper featuring, Official Freeze. I’m glad that Ant is back in full grind mode. His beats bring a different element to the RVA hip hop game.
CLICK HERE TO HEAR A PREVIEW AND PURCHASE, WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? FROM JUST PLAIN ANT
Just Plain Ant ft. Official Freeze – Sniper
THE CHEATS MOVEMENT CRUSHES THE SHADROCK MUSIC FESTIVAL!
First and foremost – a huge shout out to Don Harrison, Toni Stevens, Jason Roop, anyone and everyone at Style Weekly for granting The Cheats Movement Blog press access to let me do what I do yesterday at the first ever Shadrock Music Festival. It really gives me a good feeling that my blog (one guy with a camera) can really start to grow something positive in RVA. I can’t put into words how great everything is going for The Cheats Movement Blog this year…
With that – The Shadrock Festival was really dope! Here is what’s going to happen – a few years from now, everyone is going to say they were there for the first Shadrock Music Festival and De La Soul. That’s what’s going to happen but the truth is….poor weather made a significant impact on the attendance. Not just the rain – which it rained really hard in pockets – but it was cold. It was a bad weather day – no way around it but Style Weekly did an amazing job with the bill. The bill was fantastic! And the decision to headline the show with Yo La Tengo and De La Soul was perfect.
Both Yo La Tengo and De La Soul brought completely different sounds and fan bases to the festival but there is something special about RVA that made it work well – it was such a RVA experience last night and it was perfect. 
Also, Shabazz Palaces and Dum Dum Girls both did an amazing job. I first heard of Shabazz Palaces about a week ago from a friend. I downloaded their album “Black Up” and love it. They performed a great live show with some serious improv and just crazy beats and flow. 
Dum Dum Girls, made the biggest impression on me – I can’t deny they are very easy to look at but beyond that – their live show was great. Much better than the albums songs that I heard leading up to the festival. They were so great – they took so many photos after the show (including one with yours truly) and they stood in the crowd to enjoy the rest of the headliners. They were just mad cool rockstars – I loved it. I also got to chat with Plug 1 (Pos) and Plug 2 (Dave) after they tore down the stage. Unfortunately, Maseo couldn’t make the show last night but it didn’t slow down the fast pace show. De La’s music catalog is so amazing – every song they played was a hit (Grind Date, Potholes in my Lawn, Saturday, on and on) and I walked away thinking of so many songs they still could have played. Funny story – after De La got off stage all they were talking about was the Knicks loss to the Heat. They are NYC through and through. Loved it. They were very gracious and glad to be back in RVA. Pos (who’s voice was gone after the show) said they hadn’t been to RVA in about 10 years and loved the vibe. I have so many photos…I will be posting all week.
Last but actually performing first was Cheats Movement Fam, Photosynthesizers…don’t worry – I’m working on something special in regards to their amazing performance.
I’m sure moving forward everyone will have amazing coverage from last night — visit it all – view it all – it’s well worth it but keep checking the Cheats Movement this all this week — I have so much stuff coming. Also – Like the Cheats Movement on Facebook!!!
NEW RVA MUSIC AND VIDS – RVA FAM IS DOING WORK!
I really don’t know how I’m going to keep up this summer. It seems like every day RVA is putting in work – doing things bigger, better and flyer than ever. I certainly can’t keep up with a weekly Cheats Movement Club so I’m just going to start posting RVA music and videos as much as I can. Leading it off I have special video – no secret to anyone – Photosynthesizers, Just Plain Sounds, K&B Music, Dank D, The Shop are all like family to The Cheats Movement Blog. Last Friday my man DJ got this live video: Richmond We Go Hard featuring Official Freeze, James Dangle, Dank D, and Draztiq.
My man Just Plain Ant hit me with a new track from his upcoming album. Sad World features JPS crew member The Night Drive Drano.
Sad World – Just Plain Ant ft. Drano
If you haven’t notice (and there is no way you could not have) Suburban District is making serious moves – check out their latest track Bleachers produced by Conrizzle
Bleachers – Suburban District
The last drop of the day is from my dude Rah Scrilla. He just released a new joint titled Most Underrated – check out the title track
Most Underrated – Rah Scrilla
The Cheats Movement
