The Audacity of Dope

I found out about the homey Smooth from my day job helping get music videos into stores, restaurants, clubs, hotels, etc..  I get to see a few dope videos that I wouldn’t otherwise catch every day, and here’s Smooth’s new one for “Hard Tymes.”  Along with it being an ill track, the coloring in this one is real sharp to me.

Well, another year has come and gone and that can mean only one thing: you’re being constantly bombarded with “Best of 2009” lists everywhere you look.  This year, you’re probably also getting hit with “Best of the Decade” lists, which I personally find far more interesting to debate than the standard year-end recaps.  While we didn’t put together any best of the 2000’s (off the top…my favorite albums were “College Dropout,” “Graduation,” “The Blueprint,” “A Piece Of Strange,” “The Listening,” and “Connected,” among MANY others), J. Moore and I did compile our favorite Sound Session records from the past year for you.

Keep in mind, these are not the biggest records of the year…nor the blogosphere favorites…or Twitter picks.  Nah, these are 26 of our favorite songs that we played heavily on SNSS in 2009.  They are not in any sort of countdown or follow any other ranking schema.  We included a few of our favorite records from the town and crossed into other genres as well.  In other words, we followed our normal formula for spinning great music on the radio, but we just supersized it on some Barry Bonds-Roger Clemons-Alex Rodriguez super powered steroid type steez.

I’ve included some extra notes and honorable mentions for my fellow music nerds who want to see behind the curtain a little.  Of course, you can always just download the show and trust the opinions of your friendly neighborhood dope connoisseurs.  It’s unique.  It’s one of a kind.  It’s Sound Session.

Show #239 (12-27-09)
Best of 2009

1. Jay-Z – “D.O.A. (Death Of Autotune)”
2. J. Cole – “Lights Please”
3. Clipse ft. Kanye West – “Kinda Like A Big Deal”
4. Big Boi ft. Too $hort & George Clinton – “For Yo’ Sorrows”
5. Consequence ft. Kanye West & John Legend – “Whatever U Want”
6. The Roots – “How I Got Over”
7. Mayer Hawthorne – “Maybe So, Maybe No”
8. John Legend – “Lay Your Head Down”
9. Drake – “November 18th”
10. The Physics – “I Just Wanna Beat” (Local Music)
11. Outasight – “Brand New Day”
12. Pac Div – “Young Black Male”
13. Jay Electronica – “Exhibit C”
14. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – “Otherside” (Local Music)
15. Mos Def ft. Slick Rick – “Auditorium”
16. U-N-I – “Land Of The Kings”
17. Little Dragon – “Never, Never”
18. Goapele – “Milk & Honey”
19. Mr. Hudson ft. Kanye West – “Supernova”
20. Lupe Fiasco ft. Matthew Santos – “Shining Down”
21. Raekwon ft. Cappadonna & Ghostface Killah – “10 Bricks”
22. Royce Da 5’9” ft. Busta Rhymes – “Dinner Time”
23. Fresh Espresso – “Big Or Small” (Local Music)
24. The Kid Daytona ft. Bun B – “Air Born”
25. Crooked I & DJ Wicked – “Jackin’ For Beats 2009”
26. The Foreign Exchange ft. Darien Brockington – “Take Off The Blues”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?jzwezzjyymy
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/705153199ed07770/)

Notes:

1. The first, best, and most powerful record off Blueprint 3.
2. The 2 best albums this year were mixtapes and J. Cole had one of ’em.
3. “Popular Demand” was up there too, but Khalil & ‘Ye joined Pusha & Malice to make this a lock.
4. Sure, it’s an awesome record. But you wanted to hear Dre on it too, huh?
5. Only problem with this Grammy Family song? It’s too short for all that talent.
6. Is this the only official Roots song they released in 2009? At least they made it count.
7. “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” came out in 2008 (or was it even ’07?), but the Mayer had a few contenders for song of the year.
8. An unreleased record that leaked this year, though it sounded straight out the Motown era.
9. So Far Gone was my mixtape album of the year and you could have picked about 10 Drake records to represent the 2009 Rookie of the Year.
10. My favorite track from Seattle in 2009, the Physics’ ode to keeping the relationship simple was completely too ill. Girls didn’t want to like it, but they had to.
11. OU’s unique style melded with insane production to result in this optimistic anthem.
12. “Pac Div” or “Mayor” were also flawless, but Like, Mibbs, and BeYoung were at their best when slightly more serious.
13. The radio rip caused a furor, the CDQ killed teh internets. The net’s golden child dropped the excellent “Exhibit A” as well.
14. Mack is one of Seattle’s best (no pun – peep “The Town“) and he opened his heart on this one. Killed our phones with every spin too.
15. Madlib on the beat, Mos remembering he can rhyme, and a Ruler verse for good measure? Check please.
16. A few joints off A Love Supreme could have been included but the GLS single helped Thurz & Y-O break through.
17. Our Swedish indie pop/electro/soul/downtempo/whateveryouwanttheygot darlings dropped another classic LP with Machine Dreams.
18. People should know better than to sleep on Goapele. This should have been on everyone’s Best Of list.
19. “Just give [him] a chaaaaaaance.” 808’s & Heartbreaks records from ‘Ye get better with every listen.
20. Biggest missed opportunity of ’09. Could have been huge, but no push, no video, no album. Lu’s on another level though.
21. Could have told me this was on the original Purple Tape and I would have believed you. Even Cappa sounds ill on it. Dilla!
22. Royce murdered mics all year but he rode this Quincy Tones produced banger perfectly.
23. Rik Rude & P-Smoov dropped one of the best albums of the year, but outside the NW, too many haven’t heard it. Wake up.
24. Not the best Bun verse, but Daytona’s ill flow and the mellow beat were intoxicating.
25. Like Royce, Crook beat up beats all year (word to Jersey Shore) but Wicked served up classics for him here.
26. Tay & Nic followed up the 5 Mic Connected by switching up the sound and still got nominated for a Grammy. FTW.

Honorable mentions from artists not otherwise represented:

• B.o.B – “Generation Lost”
• Brother Ali – “Fresh Air”
• Buggs Tha Rocka ft. Little Brother – “Get Away”
• D. Black ft. Marissa – “Yesterday” (Local Music)
• DJ Spinna ft. Phonte & Yahzarah – “Guaranteed”
• Dyme Def ft. Saigon – “Pick Up Ya Flow”
• Elzhi – “Deep”
• GLC ft. Kanye West & T-Pain – “Flight School”
• Grynch – “My Volvo” (Local Music)
• Kev Brown ft. Kenn Starr, Wayna, Raheem DeVaughn, & Eric Roberson – “The Hennessy Joint”
• K’Naan ft. Chubb Rock – “ABC’s”
• Lushlife – “Until The Sun Dies”
• M64 (Ragen Fykes & Ohmega Watts) – “In The Pocket” (Local Music)
• Marco Polo & Torae ft. Saukrates & S-Roc – “Crashing Down”
• Mike Posner ft. Big Sean & Freddie Gibbs – “Bring Me Down”
• Nas ft. Choklate – “Film”
• Nipsey Hussle – “Hussle In The House”
• Rashid Hadee – “The Wrong Thangs”
• Reflection Eternal ft. Res – “Back Again”
• Saukrates ft. Rich Kidd – “Salt N Pepper”
• Scribes – “Roll My Way” (Local Music)
• Slakah The BeatChild ft. Drake – “Enjoy Ya Self (Remix)”
• Stepbrothers (Evidence & Alchemist) – “It’s Coming Down”
• The Knux – “Fire”
• Timbaland ft. Drake & Lupe Fiasco – “Say Something (DJ Hyphen Edit)”
• TiRon ft. Ayomari – “3 Drink Minimum”
• Wale – “Pretty Girls”
• Yoshi ft. Buff1 & Darien Brockington – “Magnetic”
• Zion I ft. K. Flay – “Coastin'”

Special shout to the homey Shad as well.  America just started to catch on to his incredible The Old Prince album in 2009, but technically, the music had been released a few years ago in Canada.  Either way, he supplied us with a lot of great records to play this past year.

Again, far from comprehensive, but hopefully some of these songs resonated with you as much as they did with us in 2009.  Send any and all feedback this way.  I need something to occupy my time while the whole industry is closed up until the 4th.  See you all in 2010, peace and happiness to you and yours.

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.

I don’t know the back story behind it, but this is crazy.  “Comprised using chords, bass notes, and vocal samples” from one of the best films of ’09, Up.

Sidenote, just saw Up In The Air, which was fantastic as well.  Next up is Avatar, but I need to wait until the furor around the 3D IMAX shows dies down a bit…

I’ll readily admit that I know nothing about good fashion or what brands are popular — I’m not even sure I knew Supreme was a brand…ok, I think I did — but anyway, I do know good music.  I wish the Niceguys did a full video for this track, which is one of my favorite joints of the past few months.  Download the full jawn here.

Even though I was just on “vacation” for a week, I can’t seem to relax at all.  Anyone ever have that same feeling?  Perhaps I need to take up yoga or meditation.

In the meantime, I’m thankful for a track like this from the lovely Paola Jean.  Music always soothes the soul…

The homies Cee & Bekah traveled all the way from Australia to link up with Mick Boogie & Terry Urban and drop the latest edition of their Soul Movement mixtape series.  This one picks up right where Vol. 2 left off with an ill mix of dope rhymes and ill melodies.  Great beat selection too.  Cop this with the quickness and if you’ve been sleeping, you can actually download all 3 volumes off the Bandcamp link below.

Download here.

The homey M-Dot dropped this video recently and I kept meaning to post it up.  Better late than never…and for the record, you can’t go wrong with that O’Jays sample, especially with M-Dot spitting some fire over it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, time to go have some holiday dinner with the fam-a-lam.  Hope y’all are doing the same.

The long awaited video for Macklemore’s ode to Seattle and our hip-hop community is finally here, and as expected, Mack and director Zia Mohajerjasbi knocked it out the park.  Shout to everyone involved in the song, video, and our scene.  It was an honor to make a quick cameo in a clip that’s sure to be a town classic and I hope y’all enjoy it as much as I do.

“I know, it’s not the same, it never will be/
But my-my-my-my city’s filthy”

Yessir!  It’s getting closer and closer to the release of DRG Films’ documentary on U-N-I & Ro Blvd.’s A Love Supreme project.

*cough* narrated by yours truly *cough*

Also, Y-O and Thurzday leaked a new track off the upcoming re-release of the album, due out February 23rd.

U-N-I – “Supreme 2.0”

Enjoy!