Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Artist to Watch: Tom McKinney

My father had a friend named Tom McKinney. I have no idea how they met but I just remember this black guy , in his mid-twenies early thirty's , came over to my house in the middle of the summer one afternoon. He seemed nice but he wasn't like the other adults that my dad was friends with...My Dad was a hustler so I was used to 1970's gangster types, street guys,...Tom wasn't that.He was soft spoken and detailed oriented and creative. Anyways, he came to my house and took snap shots of my sister, my brother , my mom and I and just left. When I later asked who he was, my Mom said "Oh that's Tom McKinney, your father's friend who painted most of the painting in our house!"
He was the first artist I ever met! My house had over 100 paintings in it. Some paintings were hung up some just stacked up around the house on the floor.
They were of black children playing, old men sitting on a porch playing checkers,one painting was of Ghandi and also he painted a portrait of my father!
Looking back on things I realized that although my parents weren't highly educated , they were my first teachers beyond teaching me manners and morals but they exposed me to art, black art.They exposed me to music too! I basically grew up in a museum. My father passed away February 10,2008 and he left all those paintings that were hung or lying around my house as a kid to me and my brother and sister.Some of them hang in my brothers house and my mom's but most are still in storage until I own my own home.
You should take the time to google Tom McKinney, he is still alive and doing well!
A few months ago I went to spend time with Hill Harper at his Los Angeles home and notice that he owns a painting of Tom's. Its a small world.
Pictured above is his artwork. Enjoy!

IDLE WARSHIP HAS LANDED!

Idle Warship will be coasting into NYC on October 15th for an EXPLOSIVE Performance at Ella in L.E.S.
East Village, 9 Ave A NY, NY
Mick Boogie will be DJing the nite as well the Idle Warship performace!!!
Make sure you don't miss this event... Come Early this event will fill to capacity!

RES Double Header OCTOBER 24th Malibu & The Roxy LA

Come check out an intimate acoustic RES performance in beautiful Malibu at The Malibu Country Mart
3835 Cross Creek Rd Malibu, CA 90265 @ 6pm
then @ 11pm RES performs with a full band, at The Roxy in Los Angeles on Sunset Blvd!

RES New Music: B.G.R + more!!!

Many of you have been asking about new music,well here it is... sort of. While i was signed to Geffen Records, i recorded a few
songs and they never got released. I've decided to just let you have them! You've waited long enough!
My favorite songs on the album are So What Am I aka Sun Nite Res, For Who You Are, There's No Way and Not A Pretender!!!
I was lucky enough to team up with a great company called FONIK to produce some really FRESH artwork for this album...Its all on this site available for download. We put alot of hardwork into it for you to enjoy...so please download yourself a copy on your home printer NOW!!!
Also don't be afraid to download and put your friends on to Res music. Word of mouth is POWERFUL!
I am working on new music all the time, with so many talented people and this is going to be my outlet to get it out to YOU!
Coming up next, will be a HOT NEW Mixtape with all original songs by RES blended by DJ Ni**Sky!!!!
And a FRESH Mixtape by my new group IDLE WARSHIP(Res, Talib Kweli, Graph Nobel)...
Thank you to all the great producers who worked on this project with me, I couldn't have done it without you!
And to the fans, the music is always for you, so enjoy this new site!

Friday, October 9, 2009

The1Res.com

Welcome to The1Res.com!

New album: Black.Girls.Rock! Now available for direct download from the site. Also be sure to have a look at the free Digital Booklet for lyrics and track listings.

Check back to get live blog updates from Res.

Sending you love and peace xo