The Audacity of Dope

(watch in better quality on HyphenTV)

Anyone who follows TAOD knows that last week marked Seattle’s annual music & arts festival, Bumbershoot.  J. Moore and I have hosted the main stage hip-hop show for the past few years, but this time around, I had the special pleasure of not only being on the “Bumberboard” that helped plan the entire event, but I even got to perform by DJ’ing for the homies U-N-I.

Thurzday and Y-O took to the Fisher Green Stage (alongside artists like Mayer Hawthorne, Janelle Monae, De La Soul, and more) to rock in front of an enthusiastic crowd. We ran through a high energy set including tracks like “Cali Soul,” “Beautiful Day,” “Land Of The Kings,” “Supreme,” “K.R.E.A.M.,” “Hollywood Hiatus,” and more.  Aside from the classicness that occurs at 1:29, the highlight has to be “Supreme.”  The kids were wylin’ out to that one and both Y-O and Thurz got some crowd surfing in.

I had a really good time all weekend, so big shouts to everyone involved: One Reel, the artists, KUBE, the homies, the new folks I met, and [Jay-Z] most importantly, you, the customer [/Hov!].  If I have time, I’ll be posting up some more footage of various Bumbershoot performances here on TAOD.  Stay tuned.

Another excellent clip from Jay Smooth and yet another example of shockingly hypocritical behavior by a Republican.  This is all a joke right?  I feel like Ashton’s going to hop out any second and tell me that America’s been playing me on Punk’d.  These people are crazy.

Oh, and LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL @ Steele looking like Humpty Hump.  How did I never notice that before!?!?!

(“n****s got wait till 2 in the morn’ to hear Tor get on/it’s like that now, it won’t be like that for long” – true words…SNSS can relate)

I swear, when I watched this for the first time, Tor reached through my monitor and slapped the ish out me.  It’s that hard.

Cop Marco & Torae’s excellent Double Barrel project if you haven’t already…though if you haven’t, Tor’s probably slapped you too…and rightly so.

I absolutely love this track off The Kid Daytona’s Come Fly With Me project (download here).  The homey 6th Sense murdered the beat and Tona’s flow is so ill on it.  Shout to Three/21 Media and Derek Pike on the direction for the visuals too.  Great job all around.

Some words from the director Derek Pike:

Last week I shot the “Air Born” video for The Kid Daytona featuring Bun B. The beat which is produced by 6th Sense has this real mellow floaty vibe to it so I knew I wanted to shoot the majority of this video with someone or something floating in midair. Since shooting in outerspace wasn’t in the budget, I had to settle for NYC. Luckily, Daytona knew someone here on earth that could defy gravity for us, EBCstar Africa. We shot the whole video at a little park downtown, no permits. Aside from having to work around screaming kids at camp, and a basketball leagues scheduled game everything went surprisingly smooth. Daytona and Bun B are two of the nicest and most laid back artists I have ever worked with. Shout outs to the Three/21 fam Rik, Nancy and Steve, Jamal, Owen, Jordan at Sneaktip, Dan, Evan, and of course Daytona, Bun B, 6th and Africa.
-Derek Pike

I’m not quite sure how I had a 3-day weekend and yet I’m still scrambling to catch up coming into the work week…hmm.  Oh wait, sure I do.  BUMBERSHOOT.

Long story short, Seattle hosted our annual Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival this weekend and despite the rain sneaking in here and there, it was a smashing success.  Along with countless dope indie rock cats, we saw some great performances from folks like De La Soul, The Knux, Mayer Hawthorne, Janelle Monae, many of our favorite local artists, and more.  Even the Black Eyed Peas rocked it, no lie.

I had the special pleasure of DJ’ing for the homies U-N-I during their set and we’ll be posting up some footage of that soon on the blog.  Shout to Y-O and Thurz for putting on a great performance and also getting some hoops in on their trip.  The last game may or may not have ended with your truly draining a 3 pointer in Thurz’ eye.  I’m not sure.  My memory is a bit fuzzy.  Ask about me.

Peep this week’s show for all sorts of great music, plus a snippet of our interview with Kid Cudi.  The full interview will be posted up soon, but if you’re dying for Cudi Content, chew on this.  We also had A. Uno of Steelo come through to give away tickets for the Sneaker Pimps show on Thursday (performances by the Clipse, Slick Rick, Steelo, They Live, GMK, Fresh Espresso, future ABDC champs the Massive Monkees, and more!) plus Nightclubber Lang (aka Karim of Myx Music) dropped in as well for some updates on the burgeoning hip-hop empire that is Myx.  What a weekend…

Show #223 (9-6-09)

1. Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys – “Empire State Of Mind”
2. Dynas ft. DJ Jazzy Jeff – “The Future”
3. A.R.M. ft. Brother Ali – “Heaven Only Knows”
4. D. Black ft. Marissa – “Yesterday” (Local Music)
5. **INTERVIEW WITH NIGHTCLUBBER LANG (KARIM OF MYX MUSIC), PT. 1**
6. Jern Eye ft. Mistah F.A.B. & Zion I – “Get Right”
7. Rashid Hadee – “Set In Stone”
8. Fresh Daily – “Video Gaming”
9. **INTERVIEW WITH NIGHTCLUBBER LANG (KARIM OF MYX MUSIC), PT. 2**
10. Mayer Hawthorne – “The Ills”
11. **INTERVIEW WITH KID CUDI (SNIPPET)**
12. Kid Cudi – “Soundtrack 2 My Life”
13. Drake – “Fear”
14. Sean Price ft. Skyzoo & Torae – “Duck Down”
15. KRS-One & Buckshot ft. Mary J. Blige – “The Way I Live”
16. **INTERVIEW WITH A. UNO (OF STEELO)**
17. Pac Div – “Whiplash”
18. Blue Scholars ft. Shad – “Dawn’s Song” (Local Music)
19. Macklemore – “The Town” (Local Music)
20. Raekwon ft. Lyfe Jennings – “Catalina”
21. BK-One ft. Phonte, Brother Ali, & The Grouch – “Here I Am”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?hcyt25ngjmz
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/65294337ab35170c/ )

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.

Brand new visuals for one of the best records of the past year.  Sai-giddy’s Warning Shots 2 drops on the 29th on Amalgam Digital and while we still don’t know when that Atlantic project will ever be released, at least we’ll continue to get some good music in the meantime.

Oh, and if you don’t know, Red 5ive is Just Blaze’s alter ego when he decides to sing hooks.  The name is derived from Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing jet in Star Wars:

“It’s a trap!”

(Thurzday, me, & Y-O at last year’s DunkXChange)

Yes y’all, Bumbershoot Festival is finally here and it’s all set up to be a big weekend at the Seattle Center.  Come through the Fisher Green Stage (the big one right in the middle near the fountain) at 5:45pm on Saturday to see U-N-I, featuring yours truly on the 1’s and 2’s, though I’d recommend getting there early at 4pm to see Mayer Hawthorne too.  De La Soul will be on that same stage at 9:30pm as well.

I’ll also be helping introduce the homies the Knux and the Black Eyed Peas on the main stage Monday, but to check out the full line up, click here.

Dubs in the air.

D. Black and the Sport’n Life crew came through Sound Session recently to talk all about D’s upcoming Ali’Yah album that drops on the 15th.  Always a pleasure to open the SNSS studio up to dope artists, but it’s especially fun to chill with good people.  Download the whole audio of the show right here.

D.Black, a Seattle-based rising hip-hop artist, took some time out to visit the good folks J. Moore and DJ Hyphen over at KUBE 93 for Sunday Night Sessions to speak about his newest release Ali’Yah. While talking about Ali’Yah, D.Black made special note of the increase in maturity and artistic development since his last album. That maturity is evident on such songs as the recently released “Yesterday,” the first single off Ali’Yah, and when asked about the song D.Black explained the concept saying, “All of us have had situations in our past that if we look back at it, we breathe life back into it. So it’s better to leave yesterday behind and look forward to tomorrow.” The positive vibe was reflected back by the fans as well as D.Black spoke with a few folks who called. D.Black also spoke on the opportunity he had to work with so many talented artists while crafting Ali’Yah, noting the contributions of fellow artists Jake One, Vitamin D, B. Brown, Melissa, Choklate, Spaceman, Kuddie Mak and many others. Be on the lookout for D.Black’s newest album Ali’Yah available September 15th via Sport’n Life Records/MYX Music Label.

Damn, when we first played this song on Sound Session a while ago, apparently it wasn’t finished.  I had know idea the homies Budo, Krukid, and M.anifest were getting Ali on there too!  This is a big tune…

A.R.M. ft. Brother Ali – “Heaven Only Knows”

Check out their site and stay up to date with one of my favorite up and coming crews out there.