Following on from last year's treatment of Paul's Boutique (by DJ Food, Cheeba and Moneyshot), United States of Audio does the same with De La Soul's groundbreaking album 3 Feet High and Rising. It's not just a mix, but more like an audio documentary about an album that is also about to celebrate it's 25th anniversary.

In his own words; 'Several years in the making and including around 100 tracks, this is my personal tribute to De La Soul's '3 Feet High and Rising'. Using original sample sources, album tracks, interviews and rarities, "How High's The Water Mama" tells the story of one of hip hop's most influential albums. When De La Soul's debut album dropped in 1989 I was ten years old.

Yet, by some stroke of amazing good fortune a cassette copy of 3 Feet High and Rising found its way into my hands thanks to my best mate's older brother (though I'm pretty sure said brother had no idea of this fact!). The music was a revelation and had a significant influence in shaping my musical tastes - in fact I can't think of any other album that has had such a profound effect on me as this one. Thus 3 Feet High and Rising holds a special place in my musical affections. Now, some twenty-five years after its original release, it's time to pay my respect to Pos, Dove, Mase, and Prince Paul...'

DK follows in Hour 2 with some more recent hip hop from The Underachievers on Brainfeeder, the return of Quasimoto on Stones Throw, Paul White featuring Danny Brown and Ty with "Let's start", plus vintage Jeru the Damaja with the classic "Come clean". Omar is still delivering quality soul, followed by reissued tracks from Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou and Terry Garthwaite on the joint If Music and Ninja Tune compilation, before closing with King Midas Sound.

The mighty Ghostbeard returns with another fine reggae selection, this time from Japan. With music from Ken2-D Special, Fly-T, Dry & Heavy and Sly Mongoose, it sounds like they grew up on On U Sound classics. All this plus extra vocals dropped over the mix by Yellow Mouse (aka Kiki Hitomi from King Midas Sound).

One of the questions we get asked most at Ninja is, "when will Ma Fleur be repressed?".

One of our best loved albums, the 2007 opus from Jason Swinscoe and The Cinematic Orchestra was packaged in a lavish, special edition boxset, which came with eight beautiful large-format print cards, alongside two pieces of 180g vinyl.

We are very happy to say Ma Fleur was soon picked up by vinyl kick-starter project Beat Delete who heard the calls, and set the wheels in motion to get this classic album repressed. This week we hit out target on Beat Delete and orders are still open for you to purchase your copy of the 2LP boxset here!

BRTSH Knights have just premiered "If I Was To" over on Abeano, a track taken from their forthcoming release of the same name, which will be released on Technicolour on 10 June.

If I Was To features B side "Hazed" plus remixes from garage originator El-B and Brainfeeder mainstay Mono/Poly. If I Was To is available for pre-order now from the Big Dada shop, iTunes & Amazon.

Emika will head out for a short jaunt across North America this month performing a brand new live show in New York, Austin, Los Angeles and MUTEK Montreal to celebrate the release of her sophomore album DVA out on 06/11. The North American debut of her new solo live show is set to showcase her unique beat production as well as her prowess as a vocalist in a live setting. All dates and ticket info below. 

May 24 - New York, NY @ The Standard High Line - INFO                       

May 26 - Austin, TX @ Amoda Protus Festival - TICKETS

May 27 - Los Angeles, CA @ School Night - INFO

May 29 - Los Angeles, CA @ Low End Theory - INFO

June 1 - Montreal, QC, CA @ MUTEK - TICKETS