This is kind of a combo post part Maybe You Missed It part Free Album Friday. Nouveau Riche was a band that was part hiphop, part rock and part pop. They formed in 06 and broke up in 08. The band had co lead singers Dice Raw and Nikki Jean plus other band members Khari Mateen (bass), Dominic Angelella (guitar) and Joe Baldacci (drums).

Dice Raw is the most well known name out of them thanks to being a part of The Roots at one time. He eventually left to do his solo album Reclaiming the Dead but he still gets on a Roots song here and there. Nikki Jean is a singer/songwriter in 09 she sung on Lupe Fiasco’s album The Cool on the single “Hip Hop Saved My Life” and also “Little Weapon”. Khair Mateen has some producing credits on The Roots album Game Theory among others.

I’m not sure what the reason was for the break up maybe it was because Nikki Jean was starting to find more success. After doing those Lupe Songs she was invited to tour with Kanye’s Glow in the Dark Tour that also featured Lupe. So maybe she was like forget these Philly dudes I’m going to get mine. But honestly i have no idea why the group broke up.

Nouveau Riche – “Sugar Snacks”

you need flash to play the song

They put out two EPs The Long Tail and Free Money both they gave away on their Myspace (which is now gone). While they did some songs that weren’t that bad they did one song that I really like called “Sugar Snacks”. If they could have put out an album that got the hybrid sound as well as they did on “Sugar Snacks” I would be a bigger fan. “Sugar Snacks” is intense but also breezy at times it mixes rapping, screaming and singing really well. It gets things right and doesn’t seem forced or phony. I wish Nouveau Riche spent a little more time together and got more time to try to figure things out I think it could have led to a really good album.

Since the break up Dominic Angelella and Joe Baldacci formed a new band called Dragonzord. Nikki Jean is working on an album in the singer/songwriter style not sure what Dice Raw & Khari Mateen are up to. If you want to keep up with Nikki Jean she does regular video blogs on her youtube.

As i said i feel” Suger Snacks” is their highlight and their other songs never quite reached it but if you want to check the others out you can download both albums here.

Links

• Nikki Jean Myspace / Twitter / Youtube
• Dice Raw Myspace
• Khari Mateen Blog / Myspace
• Dominic Angelella Twitter
• Joe Baldacci Myspace / Twitter

Tags: Dice Raw, Dominic Angelella, Dragonzord, Free Album Friday, Free Money, Game Theory, Glow in the Dark Tour, Joe Baldacci, Kanye, Khari Mateen, Lupe Fiasco, maybe you missed it, Nouveau Riche, The Cool, The Long Tail, The Roots
Categories: Music

This entry was posted on Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 10:41 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.