The Audacity of Dope

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I love studio footage, especially when it involves Kanye To The.  Paparazzi squabbles aside, ‘Ye’s life must be great.  He literally flies all around the world with his best friends, making dope music in amazing studios.  Sounds pretty good to me.  In related news, if you haven’t heard yet, 808’s and Heartbreak has been unofficially pushed up to November by Kanye himself.  We’ll see if Def Jam acquiesces.

Swiped from 2DopeBoyz, who also have the individual musical elements of Kanye’s “Love Lockdown” if you’re interested in remixing the track…

In case you haven’t heard, in light of the recent economic crisis, John McCain has decided to suspend his campaign to try to help solve the problem.  Sane people will look at this maneuver and realize it’s a fairly desperate attempt to avoid pwnage in Friday’s debate, but McCain clearly hopes that his campaign can spin it positively.  Expect to hear a million surrogates talking up the idea that “McCain is showing he’ll put his country ahead of his campaign.”  That sounds nice, but unfortunately, it’s patently false.

McCain’s inability to get any sort of grasp on economic issues (remember: this man has admitted multiple times that he doesn’t understand how the economy works) has lead to an awful performance on the campaign trail the past 2 weeks.  With the Palin bounce fading quickly, and even beginning to negatively affect the ticket, they were increasingly desperate.  The idea that if McCain returns to Washington to sit in on some meetings and provide his voice, this $700 billion bailout will be hammered through is absolutely laughable.  Whether it happens or not, it will not be because of John McCain.

So why did he insist upon suspending the campaign and ducking the first debate on Friday?  Simple: he’s getting hammered on the economy.  As I’ve blogged about before, anytime an actual important issue or policy is talked about, the Republicans lose.  That’s why they want you to worry about flag pin lapels or pigs with lipstick.  Once the economy became the main focus, McCain’s campaign went down quicker than his plane dur– no…wait…I’m better than that.  Anyway, he’s losing ground all over the place and in order to stop the hemmorraging, he pulled this stunt.  It’s akin to calling a timeout when the other team is racking up points, only in this case, you were already out of timeouts.  Shouldn’t this be a technical foul?  Where’s Chris Webber?

This is not a legitimate reason to suspend your campaign and try to postpone the beatdown you’re going to receive at the first debate.  Now, Barack handled this as professionally and stately as possible.  He knows exactly what McCain is doing and his remarks above could not have been better.  Thankfully, I’m not running for office, so I’ll say it:

For a “war hero,” where is your vaunted courage Senator McCain?  Take your beating like a man and go to the first debate on Friday.  You’re running scared, but it’s understandable.  Barack has Ali-like swag right now, and you’re about to be on the receiving end.

“Give me the mic and I’ll rock like a f*cking fossil”
–Lil’ Wayne, “I’m Raw”

Best you could do?  Really?

New heat from Thurz & Y-O, off the Dub Frequency mixtape available for streaming here.  These guys just make great tracks, time after time.  Be on the lookout for the long awaited “SoulHop” video debuting soon on a huge network!

U-N-I – “Yesterday”

(look at Grynch gettin’ his cameo on…well done sir!)

Brand new video from some of the finest local talent here in Seattle, RA Scion & Sabzi, collectively known as Common Market.  I’ll let them describe the visuals:

”Trouble Is” tells the story of a vagrant farmer’s hardship in a town where the locals call into question his intentions and work ethic. The video captures this tension with unmistakably rustin and southern imagery as the first scene opens with a fiery sermon delivered from the pulpit of a dusty Baptist church.  The farmer, played by the emcee RA Scion, is aggressively pursued by a town mob, first driven out of town over distrust and distaste, then back again for the purpose of assimilation by force.  The video takes a curious turn in the final scene, ultimately leaving the viewer in the position of the town-folk to question the farmer’s motivation.

Shout to Zia Mohajerjasbi, who continues to direct excellent pieces.  If you missed RA on Sound Session a few weeks ago, peep it here.

Seattle people: catch CM along with People Under The Stairs and Shawn Jackson on Sunday at King Cobra.  And cop that Tobacco Road asap’ers.

Video courtesy of OnSmash.  **UPDATE** – Added the full video.  Thanks to reader Shale for the heads up.

The homies Phonte and Nicolay called in to Toronto’s Real Frequency to talk with Arcee about their upcoming album, Leave It All Behind.  It’s rare that people get to interview both at the same time, so this was dope to hear.  Along with LIAB, they talked about the other projects they’ve released recently and what’s next on tap.

Check out the discussion on the Real Frequency blog right here and make sure you stay up to date with everything FE on the official site.  Oh, and if you haven’t peeped the sampler, what are you waiting for?

I don’t usually post single songs, nor electro/dance joints, but I’m making an exception for this.  I already stated that I’m digging the original, and this mix takes it to a crazy new level.  Club banger.

Kanye West – “Love Lockdown (Hatchmatik Remix)”

Spotted over at WDIR.  Canada stand up.

I’m breaking this out at the next opportunity, no question.

Swiped from HHU.

Smart people > dumb people.  When you continually vote for “the guy you want to have a beer with,” this is what happens.  Be a lame or be a leader.  Which side are you on?

Swiped from Jay Smooth.