The Audacity of Dope

Following up on the first classic battle video, here’s the return of Supa Hot…

(don’t watch this yet!  read first, then watch…)

If you know me in real life, you know that as much as I live and breathe music, sports has always been far more important to me.  With my dad’s British upbringing, soccer logically became my first sport and growing up, I must say, I was pretty talented (and equally modest…or not).  As I got older and more immersed in our country’s sports culture, I was drawn to the major US sports and eventually basketball edged out soccer as my top choice. I put the cleats away, laced up the high tops, and ended up playing small college basketball down in Los Angeles.  Nothing glamorous, but it kept me busy and shoot, there aren’t THAT many people who can say they’ve made the NCAA tournament!  *cough* Division III though *cough*

After graduating, I returned to Seattle and while I’ve enjoyed playing in the Puget Sound Basketball League, I’ve had a lot more fun playing for a few soccer clubs up here.  Perhaps it’s a little sad, but the two games I play each week are often highlights that I look forward to when I’m bored with the monotony of my day job and music work.  It’s even at the point now where my basketball games are cool…but I’d rather be on the pitch.

Alongside my own playing, I’ve started following professional leagues around the globe, really buying in completely around the 2006 World Cup.  Not only does it provide the obvious entertainment, but I find something really important in maintaining a regular connection, albeit fairly superficial, to the rest of the world.  It’s sickeningly easy for Americans to forget that societies exist outside our borders (and are comfortably passing us by), so by following leagues in Europe, South America, and Asia, plus the international clubs from the rest of the world, I’m actually exposed to a good bit of culture and news I’d otherwise miss out on.  Plus, it provides a nice escape when the sports media (hi friendly employer!) and all my friends talk about the same stories.  Trust me, I’m up on all the happenings in basketball, football, and baseball, but watching/playing soccer allows me to follow stories that most people I interact with simply haven’t heard.

Naturally, this leads to the awkward existence of the US soccer fan.  There are more of us than ever before.  The MLS and US Men’s & Women’s teams are more popular than at any point in history.  We are a legitimate player in the soccer world, but admittedly, we are nowhere near the top.  Thanks to our size and economy (assuming we still have one in a few years), we have potential to join the top tier, but we have a long fight ahead.  Americans are generally either apathetic to the sport or they foster a strangely antagonistic, and not so subtle jingoistic, disdain for it.  There’s nothing that angers a non-soccer fan more than hearing how it’s the most popular sport in the world.

What does all this rambling have to do with the video posted above?  Well, Francis Coquelin’s excellent performance as a defensive midfielder for Arsenal in their recent loss to Tottenham epitomizes why the average US sports fan doesn’t really like soccer.

Watch the video above.  I’ll wait.

Done?

Ok, so what did you see?

6 minutes of “nothing special,” right?  No thumping headers, athletic bicycle kicks, or Bend It Like Beckham-esque free kicks.  Hell, you didn’t even get a goal!  Instead, just a great deal of industry, grit, ingenuity, vision, agility, strength, speed, finesse, and calmness that displayed almost everything you want from a player in that position on the pitch.  Granted, the youngster made a few poor touches and distributed some loose passes, but overall, it was the lone bright spot in what has become a shockingly poor season for Arsenal.  In all fairness, it was far from what a top defensive midfielder is capable of, but it still underscores my point.

If you can’t appreciate a performance like that, you’ll never truly love the sport.  If your eye can’t spot the subtle adjustments necessary for a positive first touch or the instinctive movement to create the right passing angle, you’re going to be awfully bored while you wait for the goals to come.  If you’ve been brainwashed by our highlight driven society, you’re missing out on the building blocks for those incredible moments in the Top 10 countdown.

I’ll even go one step further, and likely anger some of my soccer loving friends at the same time.  If you haven’t played the sport and tried to do what these guys make look effortless, you don’t fully understand the beauty of soccer.  Yeah, I know…that’s pretty self-righteous, but I feel it’s true.  Fans are quick to jeer when a free kick is ballooned in to the stands, but how many hours have you spent trying to hit the upper 90?  If that number is high, you have a better understanding of what the player has attempted.  Fact.  Trying to curl in kicks from FIFA doesn’t cut it.

I don’t expect this rant to convince any non-soccer fans to give the sport another try and in fact, it may have the opposite result.  That’s fine though.  I view soccer similarly to how I view hip-hop.  Either you’re in it and you live/love/breathe it, or you’re not.

You don’t have to be, but for those of us who are, seeing a young kid like Coquelin deliver such an impressive performance in his 2nd EPL start reminds us of an amateur MC stringing together a few bars brilliantly in the middle of a solid verse.  Not enough to blow you away but just enough where everyone in the room felt it at that moment…like “yeah…that part right there?…that was it.”

It can be whatever you want it to be.  Just don’t try to tell me what it is to me.

It seems like my Twitter timeline and most of my homies love to clown Drake and I suppose he’s a fairly easy target, but basically, aside from Yeezy, he’s probably my favorite artist around these days.  I’m excited to hear what Take Care sounds like on the 24th (or the week before with the bootleggery) and I have a feeling that as we move in to the heart of cuffing season with a long winter and no NBA, we’re all gonna be listening to a lot of Drake & The Weeknd these next few months.  Don’t fight it.

Mac takes a lot of heat from hip-hop heads, mainly because his fan base is heavily comprised of young white kids. However, as his hype continues to build, he’s been winning over more and more cats, which is sure to continue when his upcoming mixtape with Jazzy Jeff drops.  Plus, if he keeps making appearances like this, spitting a better, legitimate, off the dome freestyle at 2:25 than a TON of these underground lyrical miracle cats I know, he’ll be in great shape.

Go head Mac, killin’ em.

Just when I thought it wasn’t possible for me to like Sour Patch Kids more, they go and link up with Method Man for this video. On one hand, a rapper many looked up to as one of the grimiest MC’s in the game has just recorded an ode to delicious children’s sour candy. On the other hand, Mef probably needs that C.R.E.A.M. to avoid eating solely said candy. Plus, it’s still about 2312039210x doper than any sell out maneuver Ice Cube’s pulled over the past decade.

On the real though, I’m a SPK connoisseur. If you know me, you already know.

Another busy week, so nothing really to say other than enjoy the show!  You’ll also find some re-uploaded links below for episodes that labels decided to kill, since their legal departments generally have NO idea what their promo/marketing staff is doing…ah, the music industry.

Show #330 (10-2-11)

1. T.I. ft. Big K.R.I.T. – “I’m Flexin’”
2. David Banner – “Swag”
3. Childish Gambino – “Bonfire”
4. Jay-Z & Kanye West – “Murder To Excellence”
5. Fly.Union – “Long Run”
6. Nitty Scott, MC – “Auntie Maria’s Crib”
7. The Gooneez & The Fratelleez ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Too Strong”
8. Big K.R.I.T. ft. 2 Chainz, 8Ball, & MJG – “Money On The Floor”
9. Wale ft. Rick Ross – “Tats On My Arm”
10. Neako ft. Wiz Khalifa – “Scanners”
11. The Weeknd – “The Party & The After Party (Kastle Remix)”
12. Yonas Michael – “House Full Of Women”
13. GMK – “Up Up Down Down Left Left” (Local Music)
14. TiRon & Ayomari – “If I Had You”
15. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – “Make The Money” (Local Music)
16. Evidence – “It Wasn’t Me”
17. Game ft. Tyler, The Creator – “Martians vs. Goblins”
18. Tabernacle MCz – “Silly”
19. Phonte – “Ball and Chain”
20. Sonny Bonoho ft. Playboy Tre & Rudi Deville – “Super Cool” (Local Music)
21. J. Cole ft. Missy Elliott – “Nobody’s Perfect”
22. Mary J. Blige ft. Black Star – “Beautiful (Remix)” (Throwback of the Week)
23. DJ Shadow ft. Little Dragon – “Scale It Back”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?ek8j776v46b20j4
(back up / streaming link – http://hulkshare.com/2a3ztnxvj65r)
(2nd back up – http://www.zshare.net/audio/94724842ef1254b7/)

Recent re-uploaded episodes:

• Show #325 – http://www.mediafire.com/?q54yn1jkhcfhn4i
• Show #326 – http://www.mediafire.com/?ns91jgodi71fsfk
• Show #327 – http://www.mediafire.com/?6a78mkohthee7vr
• Show #328 – http://www.mediafire.com/?ci87h9koz7iqc43
• Show #329 – http://www.mediafire.com/?4pwqw7hoa9yc0o7

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.

As a kid who grew up on Sesame Street (well, didn’t we all?), this looks awesome.  Starts in Seattle on November 4th, other dates here.

Via HappyPlace:

This Sunday, we finally bid farewell to Andy Rooney, one of America’s most iconic curmudgeons. A man who has never not looked 92, and who seems to have a bone to pick with everything, probably even bones. A man who stayed on TV so long that he got too old for 60 Minutes. What better way to say goodbye than with this glorious mash-up of his most nonsensical non-sequiturs. Goodnight, sweet rambling, out-of-touch, terrifyingly eyebrowed prince.

Reminds me of this Twitter account I just started following…