As summer turns to fall, No Smoking resumes its series of NYC live music curations with a hip-hop showcase at Crown Heights bar and music venue Friends and Lovers. Luckily for you, dear reader, this event will be free of entry cost – we only ask that you swing by promptly at 8 PM to witness the amazingness that is the beginning of Amani’s set. The rest of the event will be amazing as well, but if you show up at 10, you will regrettably have missed more than half of it. Read on to see what we’ve got in store for you!
Richie Quake
Richie Quake is a singer, producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Brooklyn, NY. Drawing influence from contemporary R&B as well as hip hop, jazz, and experimental electronic music, Quake’s sound has been called an eclectic melting pot of genres. In Richie Quake’s music there is a clear inclination towards the nostalgic and the sensual. As he puts it, “Richie Quake is meant to be felt.”
After the release of Richie Quake’s most recent EP, “Visions”, he has been very busy, opening for the likes of Crosses (†††), Ava Luna, Nick Hakim, DJ Smokey, and many more. He was also the featured musician at the NYCxDesign Convention launch party in Industry City. Quake’s music has been featured in Comedy Central’s “Broad City”, VICE, Pigeons and Planes, Hilly Dilly and in several other places. In addition to his own music, Richie Quake has produced for other artists such as Earthgang, Gabe ‘Nandez and Heiress.
Tamara Renee
Tamara Renée effortlessly blurs the boundaries between soul, hip hop, jazz, psychedelic, funk, and electronic music. Tamara has the uncanny ability to perform and exude a multitude of musical genres and experiences. Tamara was born and bred in Harlem, NYC with roots in Jamaica and Cuba. A vocalist, mc, and guitarist Tamara has released two EP’s to date, The Moon Goddess and Ultra Violet. Both EPs were premiered on afropunk.com.
Tamara is set to release her debut full length live LP, Conjur Woman, in 2016. Tamara Renée and her band recorded Conjur Woman with engineer, multi instrumentalist, and producer Devonne Harris aka DJ Harrison. DJ Harrison has produced albums for artists such as Nicholas Payton. Listening to Tamara Renée you can hear influences from artists such as Billie Holiday, Outkast, Lauryn Hill, Robert Glasper, Aretha Franklin, Prince, Erykah Badu, Bjork, and Georgia Anne Muldrow.
The Pluto Moons
We are The Pluto Moons. We believe progress lies in making connections between noise and pop, between hip hop and drone, between reggae and musique concréte. Once any of these sounds become commodified and copied endlessly, they lose the subversiveness and individuality that once made them so politically charged and innovative. So we ask ourselves: Can the bass replace a guitar? Can autotune exist in a punk rock setting? Would your Bushwick-ass noise band feel comfortable playing a set at an East Flatbush dancehall? Can we bridge a gap?
Amani Fela
Amani Fela is a NYC-based rapper, member of the Budo Kiba Collective, and all-around thoughtful dude who sometimes goons it up at Bushwick venue Palisades. He played in our last hip-hop showcase at Nola, Darling, and this time around he actually helped select all of the other artists playing this Friday – this makes him a skilled curator as well as performer.
