Santogold Diplo Plastic Little A-Trak Kid Cudi Musical pace-setters weave electro-pop, hip hop, ghettotech, thrash, baile funk, and grime to give a glimpse of where music is heading. Santogold is the name of the project fronted by Santi White, a songwriter, master of improvisation, and a group unto herself. Her eerily intelligent tunes, speckled with a DJ’s wizardry, are already receiving airplay in Afghanistan and Beirut. Her first single is “Switch and Graeme Remix” and her newest album is due out soon. Philadelphian DJ Diplo is characterized by his eclectic, often 80s-oriented mashups, mixtapes, and live sets. On his full-length solo effort, Florida, his sound achieves a cinematic tone. Born in Mississippi, Diplo picked up various styles such as dirty south, crunk and Miami bass, which often appear deep in his mix. Plastic Little is a group of rappers that don’t give a ****!. Little Jayson Musson, Kurt Hunte, Jon Folmar and beatmaker, Michael Stern are bringing back the days when hip hop was completely irreverent, made in the basement, and not for the lame. Untamed, they use a myriad of influences including a hearty sample from The Cure on “Get Close.” Plastic Little has released two albums, She’s Mature, and Little Plastic, which is an import only. A-Trak is a Montreal-based DJ and turntablist best known for his work with Kanye West. He won the DMCs World DJ Championship in 1997 at the age of 15, the youngest recipient of the award ever. A-Trak also runs his own label, "Fool's Gold," and the label’s first signing is Kid Sister, who is playing SummerStage on June 14. Out of the blue a kid from Cleveland who comes to Brooklyn is the new “it Kid.” Kid Cudi, (better known as Man on the Moon) is a minimalist rapper with otherworldly inspirations. His unique hooks and unorthodox sentiments beg for categorization of which there will be none. Call it “alternative rap” to make it easy, but coming out of the Fool’s Gold camp (Kanye West/A-Track) with enough of an early buzz to start a fire, the first single, Day ‘N Night is as different as night is from day. --- this calendar is brought to you by BrooklynVegan Rating: 0/5 (0 votes cast)