The Audacity of Dope

This record will appear on both Nottz’ You Need This Music album and his collaborative project with Asher, Rawth, that drops in a few months.  I just finished listening to Nottz’ LP and it’s crazy.  Dude kills it on the mic and boards for the entire thing.  Cop that.

DEAD.  Didn’t even realize this was James from my college with all the make up on.  Good to see another 5-C alum killin it…lot of talent passed through Claremont at some point hahaha.

Aloe and company perform two records live in Parisian cafes.  While “Hey Brother” was dope, this rendition of “I Need A Dollar” was insane.  I’m still happy I was able to witness this in person too.  I think I need to leak the mp3 of that performance soon…

Speaking of Paris, after watching Robin Hood last night, I officially have a crush on Lea Seydoux:

Yessir!

Dope record off TiRon’s MSTRD project.  I kinda feel like TiRon and J. Pinder need to collab…

Just realized I never posted up this video, my bad.  One of my favorite records off Kush & Orange Juice…crazy beat and overall, just a smooth joint from front to back.

This past weekend, I had a chance to check out the Seattle stop of the Waken Baken tour when it hit the Showbox Sodo.  I’ll be posting up my interview with the opening act, Yelawolf, soon, but I was also able to chop it up with Wiz Khalifa backstage and we recorded this quick interview for y’all.  We discussed the tour, Wiz’ incredible buzz, his experiences in the Pacific Northwest, getting his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers to support “Black and Yellow,” and more.

Shout to Wiz, Will, Artie, and Motti for hooking everything up.  Cop that Kush & Orange Juice if you haven’t already…definitely one of the best projects of the year.  Just wait until the official album drops…

[La Bamba] In the year 2000 [/Conan humor], I started working in radio at KSPC outside Los Angeles and as a college freshman, I was amazed by the freedom the indie broadcasting platform afforded me.  After looking through my personal collection, the music director was impressed and allowed me to play whatever I wanted, rather than being limited to the records in the station’s library.  As a result, my early playlists were filled with music from the Soulquarians, easily my favorite collective of artists back then…and still today.

Of all the classic albums they were involved with, perhaps the record I played the most was Bilal’s 1st Born Second.  Simply put, it’s flawless, front to back, and one of the most underrated pieces of music from the last 25 years.  If you would have told 18 year old Hyphen (who actually had a different, and horribly embarrassing nom de plume at the time) that I’d one day have Bilal co-host my radio show, I would have flipped.  Ok, I would have flipped twice: who knew I’d still be in radio 10 years later?  Shrug.

We’ve interviewed him before (peep it here), but it was a special honor to dedicate the entire episode of Sound Session this week to the genius that is Bilal Oliver.  We played nothing but Bilal records all night, mixing in a sampling of our favorite songs from all 3 of his classic albums, some b-sides, and guest appearances with his colorful and insightful commentary.  He even closed out the show with a live performance of “Levels” off his newest project, Airtight’s Revenge.

I’ll have the accompanying video up as soon as I can, but in the meantime, enjoy the audio.  Shout to Dru, JK, Hawk, Marc, and Chok for helping bring Bilal through the show.  Be sure to cop his albums if you haven’t already!

Show #281 (10-17-10)
**Co-hosted by Bilal**

1. Bilal – “For You”
2. Bilal – “Bring 2”
3. Bilal – “Cake & Eat It Too”
4. 88-Keys ft. Bilal – “M.I.L.F.”
5. Bilal – “Think It Over”
6. Bilal – “Sometimes”
7. Bilal ft. Mos Def & Common – “Reminisce”
8. Guru ft. Jay Dee & Bilal – “Certified”
9. Bilal – “All Matter”
10. Shafiq Husayn ft. Bilal – “Cheeba (Nottz Remix)”
11. Bilal – “Hollywood”
12. Bilal – “It’s Cold”
13. Bilal – “Soul Sista”
14. Bilal – “Funky For You (Interlude)”
15. Talib Kweli ft. Bilal – “Can I Talk To You (Lil’ Darlin’)”
16. Bilal – “Levels (Live On Sound Session)”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?k67xajkkqnupn8b
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/817543606bc77c35/)
(2nd back up – http://usershare.net/e7zxor62i5h0)

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.

Mitch: With performances by Pac Div, SOTA, Logics, Eighty 4 Fly, Spaceman, Wizdom,  & more. If you’re a fan of nice clothes and good music you’ll be there.

Mitch: Back in April we found out by a tweet from Lupe that himself, along with a few other notable emcees, would join forces to create the All City Chess Club, the first “Super Group” since Wu-Tang that has people really talking. Well here we have the first official drop from the group minus/plus a few members. Indulge…

All City Chess Club – Beamin’ Remix

Mitch: I mean lets be real here, these cyphers are the only reason any of us even acknowledge the BET Awards. And hands down the best had to go to Kanye and his G.O.O.D. Music soldiers.