The Audacity of Dope

The interviewer is ehhh, but the #1 Human Being is entertaining as always.  This will give you a little insight if you’re still confused to what ‘Ye has been doing with Graduation and 808’s & Heartbreak.  Internal swagger is truly off the charts…and 808’s gets better on every listen.  I really like that record and I’m still a proud backpacker.  So there.

I checked out Freedom last weekend and you know it’s a sad day when I’m actually disappointed by an Akon album.  Like…I knew it wouldn’t be good, but wow.  It’s really that bad.  “I’m So Paid” is probably the best track, which is a bit scary.  There was one line on the album that stood out too:

“Flipping pages, now famous/
Thinking back, I ain’t seen you in ages/
Wishing I could make it less painless/
Brings me right back to the same as…”
–Akon, “Birthmark”

Wait a second.  “Less painless”?  So…more painful?

Grammar fail.

(or watch on HyphTube)

The homey Braille has made a few appearances on Sound Session before, but this was the first time he’s been able to make the trek up from Portland to Seattle to kick it with us live in the studio. He brought along his Lightheaded fam too, Othello and Ohmega Watts, so we caught up with them all for a minute and talked about their current projects. Braille allowed us to give a world premiere to “Fill It In,” one of the joints off his upcoming album with S1 (of Strange Fruit Project). Also, before he left, he even dropped a real freestyle (remember those?) off the dome and killed it. You can watch the freestyle above and download the audio of the full interview through either of the links below:

Braille on Sound Session – http://www.mediafire.com/?mmzmmkjwzjq
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/524711662323a585/ )

Northwest people: be sure to check out Braille’s holiday event, “Everybody Say Ho!”, on the 11th in Seattle (see flyer) or the 19th at Berbati’s Pan in Portland. It’s going to be a great time…be there!

Yes y’all, another dope edition of Sunday Night Sound Session for you to enjoy if you weren’t able to catch it live.  Or if you did, and you just want to relive the glorious night, you’re in luck.  Ok ok, perhaps it wasn’t a life changing event, but you know we had to hold you down as always with the best new music of the week.  We played great songs from artists like Black Milk, Evidence, Common, Jay-Z, Kanye West, and more, plus debuted new tracks from Nipsey Hussle, Blaq Poet, and the longtime homies, U-N-I.  Thurz & Y-O were even in town yesterday for a concert, so while they had to rock the stage while SNSS was on air, we did get a chance to record a nice interview that I’ll post up ASAP.

In the meantime, peep this episode for all that music, including a snippet of an interview we did a while back with West Coast legend Murs.  Again, I’ll post the entire interview (and video) soon.  We were also joined in studio by the local group Clockwork and some of Portland’s finest, Braille, Othello, and Ohmega Watts, collectively known as Lightheaded.  Braille even stuck around and dropped a dope (legit) freestyle off the dome to help us close the show.  You can watch it below.  Enjoy!

Show #184 (12-7-08)

1. Black Milk – “Try”
2. Evidence – “The Cold Weather”
3. Keelay & Zaire ft. Blu, Fortilive, & Nino Moschella – “The Times”
4. **INTERVIEW WITH BRAILLE, OTHELLO, & OHMEGA WATTS**
5. Braille – “Fill It In”
6. Common ft. Cee-Lo – “Make My Day”
7. Nipsey Hussle – “Hussle In The House”
8. Jay-Z ft. Santogold – “Brooklyn (We Go Hard)”
9. Grynch ft. Tunji (of Inverse) – “All Right” (Local Artist)
10. **INTERVIEW WITH MURS (SNIPPET)**
11. Murs – “Can It Be”
12. 1982 (Statik Selektah & Termanology) ft. Lil’ Fame (of M.O.P.) – “Thugathon”
13. Blaq Poet – “Ain’t Nuttin’ Changed”
14. The Knux – “Hush”
15. U-N-I – “Hollywood Hiatus”
16. Convinced – “Miss Memory”
17. **INTERVIEW WITH CLOCKWORK**
18. Clockwork – “Hold On” (Local Artist)
19. Fresh Espresso (Rik Rude & P-Smoov) – “Elegant” (Local Artist)
20. Don Cerino ft. Royce The 5’9” – “Missing Element” (WORLD PREMIERE)
21. Kid Cudi – “Dat New New”
22. **BRAILLE – LIVE FREESTYLE**
23. Kanye West – “Street Lights”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?ddyogjhymzi
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/524277280b292ccc/ )

Link to download just the parts with Braille – http://www.mediafire.com/?mmzmmkjwzjq
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/524711662323a585/ )

Braille’s freestyle:

If there are any problems with the links or 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.

Kardi hinted at this video at the end of the clip for “Numba 1,” and now the visuals for “Nina” are here.  When you have a song as good as this one, you don’t really need anything fancy for the video to turn out dope.  Plus, I’m not mad at that girl in the car at all.

Swiped from OnSmash.

Damn, the homey Ryan Lewis is insanely talented.  Not only does he take incredible photographs and make dope beats, but apparently he remixes and does video production too?  Here’s a little class project he recently created, mashing together some Franz Ferdinand and 2Pac.

If you’re looking for any sort of dope artistry, definitely holler at him.  Peep his new website here.  Oh, and he designed his own page as well…obviously. Leave some talent for the rest of us dude.

Hahahaha classic.  I’m not a gamer at all (still only have an old X-Box), but G4 is my new favorite network.  This one came from their X-Play show. That show is dope, but Attack of the Show is where it’s at.  Completely hilarious, plus I’m in love with Olivia Munn.  Talk about wifey material.

(word to the Gorillaz poster in the studio)

Hahahahahahahah.

Bobby Ray just ethered half the industry with this one, Wayne especially.  I’m sure he’ll have to be PC and downplay any controversy as just jokes, but remember: [Ms. Fischer] behind every joke is a little bit of truth [3rd grade teacher].  Glad someone dope in the industry isn’t afraid to say it…

Look out for B.o.B., Playboy Tre, and B-Rich on Sound Session soon.

B.o.B. – “Autotune”

Mp3 courtesy of Eskay.

(Pardon the language, but I never did get the chance to use one of my favorite pics of the year)

Alright, there are two things that are slightly bugging me right now, at least enough that I felt the urge to blog ’em.  Welcome to the rant.

Issue #1: The buzz around the net about the new Common album is off the charts.  Unfortunately, I’m seeing damn near nothing but negative reviews.  What album are y’all listening to?  You really wanted him to make a 3rd album in a row that sounded pretty much the same?  Eff y’all, Universal Mind Control is heat.  My dude Dru suggested I do some reviews every now and then, but working 2.5 jobs kinda kills that.  Here’s my track by track faux review:

1. “Universal Mind Control” – you’ve heard this.  Either you like it or you hate it.  If you’re fun, you like it, it’s your jam when you hear it in public, and you can’t let it finish without attempting some horrible popping and locking.  If you don’t like it, your Jansport might be too tight.
2. “Punch Drunk Love” – Dope.  Kanye + Skateboard + Com?  Say no more.  “Am I crazy”?
3. “Make My Day” – Love this record.  So bouncy, so melodic.  [Thugnificent] stop hatin’, get money [/Boondocks].
4. “Sex 4 Sugar” – Fair enough, swing and a miss.
5. “Announcement” – Nice ode to Biggie and P kills his verse.  Nobody at Geffen/Interscope will tell me why they pulled the video down, so I’ll have to ask Com on the 13th.  The animation was dope.
6. “Gladiator” – FLAMES.  Hard ass beat, crazy horn sample, classic Com battle rhymes.  Absolutely insane in concert too.  “Are you not entertained?”
7. “Changes” – Good positive joint inspired by the late stages of Barack’s candidacy.  Would fit right in on Be or Finding Forever.
8. “Inhale” – Smooth.  Crazy synth and percussion.  Ill record.
9. “What A World” – Com kills it with the old school flow and them Chester French boys add some Freddie Mercury-esque swag.  All that’s missing from the beat is Pharrell’s “sexy breath” style adlib in between the hook and verses.  Could easily be a Kenna song…and that’s a good thing.
10. “Everywhere” – Reminds me of the new Foreign Exchange record.  Great way to end it, but I would have let this one ride out for like 8 minutes and let the beat/melodies go crazy.

So look.  9/10 songs are good and one isn’t.  That’s 90%…that’s a A-.  You messageboarders, bloggers, and Debbie Downers in general need to calm down.  If you want to hear Resurrection again, go put in your CD.

*bangs gavel*

Issue #2: The political pundits (worth about as much as hip-hop pundits) are getting all worked up because Barack has been hiring people associated with both the Clinton and Bush administrations, and they’re wondering what happened to “change.”  First off, the people he’s picking are very qualified and are all excellent choices.  Secondly, these people are respected across party lines, which was a huge theme of Barack’s campaign.  When I worked for them, the official mantra was “respect, empower, include.”  You can’t change things for the better when you alienate half the people in the country.  This is the beginning of a new way of politics, perhaps not ‘post-partisan’, but moving towards that.  And it’s certainly a HUGE ‘change’ from Dubya’s (mis)management style.

Thirdly, Barack has been set up for these attacks since day one.  Regardless of what he does, people will try to criticize him because they are, rightly so, fed up with government.  However, let’s not forget how we got here and who was at the helm.  We’re at the lowest point in American history since the Great Depression.  Literally every day for the past 2 weeks I’ve heard of either personal friends losing their jobs or seen large business make massive cuts.  Finally, at the first of the month, CNN sent out the hilariously titled “breaking news” that we were in a recession since last December.  Thanks for the update fellas.

If Barack picked a team of brand new faces, he would be ridiculed for selecting unknown commodities when we’re in such dire straits.  When he picks a balanced and diverse group of accomplished and, gasp, intelligent appointees, people flip because they aren’t “change-y” enough.  Miss me with that, please.  Anyone want to let these people actually get in office for…I dunno…a week…before trying to tear them down?  Barack’s not going to be able to fix things completely in 4 full years and you already want him solving the world’s economic crisis 2 months before he’s sworn in?  Wow.  We really do live in an “instant gratification” culture.  Speaking of which…

*pops dinner in microwave*

Ok, I should wrap up this rant.  Before I do though, I need all you conservatives, particularly the bombastic, comically dimwitted talking heads on the “news” to do one thing.  Shut.  the hell.  up.

Really now, these people shouldn’t even be allowed to speak about issues.  You lost your rights when you voted for George Bush.  TWICE!  This is like getting driving erratically and crashing your car, only to tell the ambulance driver to be more careful as he’s taking you to the hospital.  No.  You can’t say anything right now.  Just sit in the back and let the adults try to fix the problems you created.

If your beliefs and policies have brought America to its knees, I refuse to sit there and let you talk about what ANYONE should be doing.  Do you let Shaq coach your free throw technique?  Do you let Soulja Boy help you with your bars?  Do you let Chris Webber handle your clock management down the stretch in a NCAA Championship game (still bitter)?  NO! So why listen to former Bush sycophants whine about what we should do to fix any of the myriad of problems they helped create.  Like George himself said:

Don’t get fooled.  These people have no ground to stand on.

And now back to your regularly scheduled blog…

Ha, word to my first post.  But yeah, Invincible Summer Universal Mind Control is finally here and set to hit stores a week from today on the 9th.  Fresh.  If you’re on top of things, you can even cop it from Zune for 99 cents on release day.

If you missed my last interview with Common from Sound Session in September, peep game.  Also, we’re going to have a special event with Com down at KUBE on the 13th.  If you’re in Seattle and want a chance to attend the listening party for this album, click here for info on how to win.

We’ll also be interviewing him again during the party, so if you have something you want me to ask, drop a comment and I’ll see what I can do.