The Audacity of Dope

This record is so ill…

1997 was a great year too.  I was 15 and life really couldn’t have been better.  Well, maybe it was the best around 17 or 18, but you catch my drift.  Not to say that life goes downhill after high school or college, but for all the benefits of growing older and wiser, there are certainly some things that you’ll never get back.  Such is life, and it’s always fun to use joints like this to reminisce.

I’ve been meeting cats in the industry for a decade now and I don’t think there’s anyone funnier than the homey Phonte.  His 90’s reggae impression is on poooooooint.

Strictly for the grown and sexy…

I still love that Zo! officially spells his name with an exclamation point at the end.  The Audacity! of dope.

ManifestoTV caught up with Shad for his recent Toronto performance and also shot a quick interview with the dopest MC out right now.  Stop sleepin’!

I’ll be honest…I’m spending my day off eating waffles, watching the end of Spike’s Star Wars marathon (greatest movie series ever?), and getting some work done for the day job, so I’ll keep this brief.  Just more good music on a rainy and cloudy 4th of July episode of SNSS this week (wtf is a “summer?”).  Oh, also, happy Tactical Retreat Day to all my British folks.  Ahhh, memories.

Show #266 (7-4-10)

1. Drake ft. Alicia Keys – “Fireworks”
2. Rick Ross ft. Kanye West – “Live Fast, Die Young”
3. Kendrick Lamar ft. U-N-I, Skeme, & Brown – “I Do This (Remix)”
4. Cool Nutz – “Monster Up” (Local Music)
5. Freddie Gibbs – “National Anthem (FTW)”
6. Nappy Roots – “Welcome To The Show”
7. The Roots ft. Jim James – “Dear God 2.0”
8. Big Boi ft. Sam Chris – “The Train, Pt. 2 (Sir Lucious Left Foot Saves The Day)”
9. Shad ft. Relic – “We Are The Ones (Reservoir Party)”
10. The Kid Daytona – “On The Hill”
11. Phil Ade – “Always There”
12. The Physics – “My Place” (Local Music)
13. Raphael Saadiq – “It’s A Shame”
14. Jazmine Sullivan – “Holding You Down (Goin’ In Circles)”
15. Dwele ft. DJ Quik – “I Wanna”
16. Black Milk – “How Dare You”
17. Goodie Mob – “Night Train”
18. Nas – “What Goes Around” (Throwback of the Week)
19. SOTA ft. Champagne Champagne – “What You Asked For” (Local Music)
20. Mark Ronson & The Business Intl ft. Q-Tip – “Bang Bang Bang”
21. Aloe Blacc ft. The Grand Scheme – “Billie Jean”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?mb2nygzm2mz
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/780058030a045658/)
(2nd back up – http://usershare.net/4cee65bhkfzx)

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.

Seeing this clip of Kanye and John Legend Stephens performing in Amsterdam around the release of The College Dropout reminds me of my 2nd semester of senior year down in Cali.  The homey Tunji and I had been steadily following ‘Ye’s burgeoning rap career, ever since we heard the first couple of freestyles that he put on the net, and we were lucky enough to see him perform 2 shows in LA around the NBA All-Star Weekend in ’04 (right around my birthday too).  Shout to DJ Off Beat, aka Don C, for hooking it up.  Kanye even filmed the “All Falls Down” video at our local airport in Ontario, CA that week too…if only we had known Stacey Dash was in our neighborhood…

Anyway, I’ll never forget chopping it up with ‘Ye in the back of House Of Blues Anaheim and him being so happy that random dudes like Tunj and I knew all his freestyles.  He was so geeked that he started rhyming new verses a capella to a couple of college kids, just to prove that the best was yet to come.  Hanging out with one of my best friends while Kanye excitedly rapped what would become a verse on “Gold Digger” (“18 YEARS…18 YEARS!”) is one of my favorite music memories ever.

The College Dropout changed my life, real talk.

Murdoc narrates the story of Plastic Beach, the new project from the Gorillaz.  Obviously, ill…everything about this band has been since day one.

Not only did Ms. Monae hook up a dope remix to her “Tightrope” record, but she also got the crew together for a quick video.  Just for the record, has anyone seen her guitar player, Kellindo, and Andre3000 in the same room at the same time?

Fice and Erik Soderquist team up for this ode to Tacoma, our friendly neighbors just south of Seattle.  I’m digging the record and the video, though I will say, one of my rules in life is to never answer an unknown number from the 253.  Life lesson.