Connie Price & The Keystones

Connie Price & the Keystones could be called a hip-hop band, as they feature and back rappers -- from Big Daddy Kane and Slick Rick to Percee P and Rapsody -- and have the wide vision of a beatmaker, drawing from not just soul, funk, and jazz, but also vintage film scores, cross-continental rhythms, and psychedelia. Led by Dan Ubick, aka Connie Price, they debuted in 2002 with a single split between tough-grooving soul-jazz and loping reggae, and in 2004 delivered their primarily instrumental first album, Wildflowers. Tell Me Something, issued fours years later, saw them collaborate with a rotating cast of MCs and singers. They've continued to work in that mode with 2019's Lucas High and 2025's Uptown Rulers: The NOLA Breaks Singles. The players on Keystones recordings number in the dozens with links to a greater number of Los Angeles-based bands, including the Ubick-related Breakestra, the Lions, Night Owls, and the Mad Geezers.