The Audacity of Dope

Next up from Chi-town, FNF representative Gemstones, just got a nice little feature on VIMBY. He takes you through Chicago, talking about his style, his inspirations, and his upcoming album, all the while displaying some of his personal growth as an artist. He also got really in depth about his evolution when we had him on Sound Session a few months back. If you missed that interview, you can download it right here ( or through the back up / streaming link available here).

Be on the lookout for Gemstones’ Testimony of Gemstones mixtape dropping very soon…for real this time!

Shout to KayCee for the video

Well, The Carter III was finally released today and every person with awful taste has run up on me calling it a classic (even Diddy felt the need to proclaim greatness). More people than ever are buying into this “greatest rapper alive” nonsense, so I figured I would use Weezy for today’s WLotD. He’s definitely the G.O.A.T. in that category, hands down. There’s about 8 wack lyrics in the first song alone, but this is the one I’m rolling with for today:

“Abracadabra, I’m up like Viagra”
–Lil’ Wayne, “3 Peat”

Wow.

It also gives me an excuse to post this article on Roger Clemens and his penchant for Viagra.  Ahh, how the mighty have fallen hahah.

Yes y’all, Seeing Sounds drops today and I highly recommend you cop it. Pharrell, Chad, and Shae did a great job and there are some instant classics on the album. It’s pretty much had a monopoly on my stereo this past week, so apologies to any artists that sent me music recently. I’ll check y’all out as soon as I’m done spazzing.

A few bonus tracks hit the net yesterday, so I thought I’d use this reminder post to toss up all the stuff that’s online that didn’t make the US album.

N.E.R.D. ft. Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and Pusha T – “Everyone Nose (Remix)”

N.E.R.D. – “Everyone Nose (DJ Ice Freeze’s Baltimore Style Mix)”

N.E.R.D. – “Everyone Nose (Live In NYC, 5-13-08)”

N.E.R.D. – “Spaz (DJ Freakii’s I’m Right Herre Mix)”

N.E.R.D. – “Spaz (Live at SXSW)”

N.E.R.D. – “Laser Gun Carrying”

N.E.R.D. ft. Santogold and Julian Casablancas – “My Drive Thru”

Res – “You Know What (Demo Reference Track)”

That last one is Res singing one of the best songs off the album, apparently as a demo reference track for Pharrell to finish later. Props to 2DopeBoyz for digging that one up.

Speaking of joints that made the final cut, one of my favorites is “Yeah You.” It chronicles an overzealous relationship Pharrell got himself into, and – *shifts into Concrete Loop/Miss Info gossip mode* – it turns out it’s all true. When N.E.R.D. came through Sound Session last month, he mentioned he had a stalker off the air. Later on, we were talking to his assistant and she told us the full scoop.

Apparently P met a super wealthy Japanese girl who went to college in Boston backstage at one of his shows. She had a rep for being crazy (“Niiiiiigo told me don’t do it”), but he figured she could be that night’s jumpoff. Little did he know that she was completely psycho, and afterwards, she ended up calling/emailing/texting him literally a hundred times a day…for months. The assistant stepped in, thinking she could handle the situation (“my friend asked me for your email address, she said she’d take it from here”), but the girl just moved on and is now stalking her. As of a month ago, they were still getting annoyed by the girl. I’m not sure writing “Yeah You” about her will help though, but at least it makes for an interesting story. Just like in the song, she’ll just hit pause and give him a call.

And since I can’t end this entry on some completely worthless gossip ish, check out this great article about Seeing Sounds, written by the homegirl Phayde. She was there with us when N.E.R.D. came through and got some real interesting info on the creation of the album out of the fellas. Here’s a part where Pharrell talked about “Anti Matter”:

Anti Matter
Pharrell: “That’s where we found the subject of ADD and ADHD. A lot of kids become discouraged because it’s a fairly new concept in elementary schools. All they want to do is give you Ritalin but they don’t really want to talk about it. It’s funny, because when a kid has the right parental environment, and the parents are on them quick, that kid with ADD that nobody wants on any sports team usually becomes one of the most successful chairmen of corporations … or a super incredible multi-tasker. The beat is kind of metaphorical for the way those kids perceive things. You’ll see that the beat is very simple in the beginning but then it transforms into this fast-paced thing because that’s the way they hear things.”

You can read the full article in the upcoming issue of Pound Magazine, or online right now…right here.

I’ve been having friendly debates with people recently about this upcoming monumental election, and the better ones have evolved into discussions about why you believe what you believe. I’ve found that a disappointingly large number of people will blindly support a candidate, either due to image or party affiliation. I’ve always fallen squarely on the ‘Democrat’ side of things, but that’s because the general beliefs of their party line up with mine most of the time. If you believe in the same things I do, and see the world the same way, chances are I’ll vote for you…regardless what party you schlep around in.

So with this election coming up, the most fundamental thing you can do is educate yourself. Find out what the candidates believe in, what their policies are, and what they want to do with this country. Then make your choice accordingly. Granted, you may believe that you’re choosing between “the lesser of two evils,” but that’s still an incredibly important decision…especially this time around.

?uestlove put up this little PSA to talk about a few of the reasons why he is voting for Barack Obama, and I encourage y’all to check it out. The topics he mentions are almost never discussed on any of the ‘talking heads’ news programs, but they’re all very important.

Decide what issues are most important to you in this election and then find out where the candidates stand on them. Hopefully, we’re all progressive people here and supporting Obama, but if not, it’s all good. We just disagree. But make sure we’re really disagreeing on issues and policies, not because your parents have always voted Republican…

I’ve always been a sample fiend. Not for any deep reason, I just think it’s dope to hear how producers flip music from various genres into hot hip-hop beats. Plus, much of the music that gets sampled has about 34290823942839342x the soul and emotion that contemporary music has (I’m looking at you T-Pain). Right now, my comp has a few thousand original samples on it, so I figured I’d share some every now and then. Nothing necessarily super rare, just some good ish. Between these entries and sites like Kevin Nottingham‘s excellent blog & Meka’s “Soul Mix Show” posts over at the Dopehouse, the internet is a sample fiend’s paradise.

Conversely, it’s a producer’s nightmare. So rather than put beatmakers on blast (“you’re VIOLATIN’, straight up and down” – Premier) and help lazy lawyers using Google to track down uncleared samples, I won’t exactly name names. You should know ’em all anyway. If not, you must learn. First up:

Rene Costy – “Scrabble”

You heard us, SPD.

(was it commonplace to have a shirtless dude line you up back then?)

Man, just like T3’s unfortunate bar last week, this pains me to do. This time we’re dealing with a legend, but even Big Daddy Kane isn’t immune to the WLotD. It’s [Hov] so mean & vicious [/Hov]

“Better bring witcha ya fire extinguisher/Listen, I love static, and I’m ready to cling to ya”
–Big Daddy Kane, “Don’t Touch Me (Throw Da Water On ‘Em) (Remix)”

And like I’ve mentioned before, one wack lyric doesn’t mean the song is bad. This remix to Busta’s single is one of the hottest joints out…even the gremlin kinda kills it.

Here’s the playlist and download links for last night’s edition of Sunday Night Sound Session. The music was crazy, if I do say so myself. There’s so much great music out right now, it’s a privilege to play these joints over the airwaves. Check it out if you missed it:

Show #159 (6-8-08)

1. The Roots ft. Mos Def & Styles P – “Rising Down”
2. Nas ft. Johnny Polygon – “Black President”
3. Nappy Roots – “No Static”
4. Common Market – “Bonanza” (Local Artist)
5. Freddie Joachim ft. Othello – “Wake Up”
6. Dwele ft. Slum Village – “I’m Cheatin’ (Remix)”
7. Elzhi (of Slum Village) – “The Know”
8. Reks – “Say Goodnight”
9. N.E.R.D. – “Yeah You”
10. Robin Thicke – “Magic”
11. Kidz In The Hall ft. Estelle – “Love Hangover”
12. El Prez ft. U-N-I & Dale Danja – “UAintUpOnThis!”
13. Blu – “The Classy Man”
14. Tanya Morgan – “We Doin’ Our…”
15. Grieves & Type – “Dame Dreamin’” (Local Artist)
16. Saigon ft. Red 5ive – “Believe It”
17. Joker The Bailbondsman – “She Was Like” (Local Artist)
18. Busta Rhymes ft. Reek Da Villain, Spliff Star, The Game, Lil’ Wayne, Nas, & Big Daddy Kane – “Don’t Touch Me (Throw Da Water On ‘Em) (Remix)”
19. Giant Panda – “Speakers Funk”
20. Common ft. Pharrell – “U.M.C. (Universal Mind Control)”
21. Big L – “Unexpected Flava”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WN593WXZ

If you’d like to be added to our weekly email list to receive the playlist and download links after every show, just shoot me an email, DJHyphen@gmail.com.

The Roots and Erykah Badu came to Seattle last Thursday to perform at Marymoor Park. While there, J. Moore and I had a chance to hop aboard the Roots’ (dope as hell) tour bus and talk to their drummer/ringleader, the legendary ?uestlove. We recorded the whole interview (shout to Caitlin on the Flip Cam) for y’all to check out. It’s 5 parts on YouTube, but the conversation was so dope and extensive, I didn’t want to just put up clips.

?uest spoke about all sorts of topics, including their new Rising Down project, the lost Roots album, volunteering for Barack Obama’s campaign, working on albums from Al Green and Marvin Gaye, why Black Thought is continually underrated, the rumor of a sequel to Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, and more!

Check out the first video here, and the rest after the jump.

Part 1 of 5

Also, if you can’t watch the videos and just want to peep the audio, you can do that right here (ZShare link available here). Warning: the audio only quality is a bit janky…the Flip Cam’s microphone + a running tour bus = an audiophile’s nightmare.  I suggest watching the videos if you can.

Read more »

As I mentioned a few days ago in the post with U-N-I’s live performance of “Beautiful Day” on my radio show, I DJ’d for their set at the Seattle stop of the DunkXChange last Saturday (yes, that’s my ill Kanye t-shirt in the background). It took me a minute, but I got a video medley of joints from the performance up for y’all to check out.

Remember to set your YouTube accounts to play high quality videos. Click on “account”, then “video playback quality”, and then select “I have a fast connection. Always play higher-quality video when it’s available.” It makes a huge difference, especially with Flip Cam stuff. Unfortunately, if you embed high quality YouTube videos, you can’t fast forward them and there’s all sorts of extra html code. So if you want to peep the better quality, watch it at YouTube here.

In other U-N-I news, check them out in a new interview at Okayplayer and in the July issue of The Source (w/Game on the cover). Told you the homies were doing big things! Go befriend them on their MySpace.

more ?uesto coming soon