The Audacity of Dope

Wow.  This one is a no-brainer for me.

When I’m out campaigning for Barack, the biggest negative thing anyone mentions to me is that they don’t know much about him.  Sure, I’ve run into a few “he’s a secret muslim!” people…but that’s pretty much codewords for “I’m racist.”  Screw these people.  Besides, isn’t like half the world Muslim?  And why is that a bad thing to begin with?  What an awful state we’re in when you have to defend yourself from an “attack” that isn’t remotely bad at all.  Sigh.

Anyway, let me stop ranting.  For those who aren’t familiar with Obama’s background, you can check out this new joint from Indianapolis’ Alpha and get familiar with the basics of his past.  All the while, Alpha rips it over a dope Willie Hutch sample.  This is my jam right now. Time to spread it around the Obama office here in Seattle…

Alpha – “Obama ’08 (Do The Knowledge)”

Check out Alpha’s MySpace and blog.

Here’s a new version of Nas’ “Cops Keep Firing” featuring a nice little verse from David Banner.  Banner’s dope, but kinda bipolar these days.  He’s clearly talented and makes a lot of ill, socially relevent material.  Then at the same time, he drops generic ish like this.  I guess you have to do both to play ball in this system.  Anyway, peep the remix.  The original appeared on Nas’ n-word tape with Green Lantern…

Nas ft. David Banner – “Cops Keep Firing (Remix)”

Shout to JM

(“must be niiiiiiice” – Lyfe Jennings)

This joint was all over the web today, and it’s easily the hottest track of the week. Two of the best artists in their respective genres collaborating = instant classic.

John Legend ft. Andre3000 – “Green Light”

Absolute flames. Err…no pun :/

(i felt the same way)

This is just sad. One of my favorite singers out there just dropped a new joint. Swiped from 2DopeBoyz:

Musiq – “Radio”

Nothing more disappointing than hearing an artist you really dig make a blatant attempt to fit in with a popular sound. It’s so far from his style, it’s ridiculous. Hopefully this won’t end up being the first single from his next project.

In the second edition of Throwback, I gotta shine some light on one of my favorite MC’s, the often overlooked Catashtrophe of Tha Alkaholiks. If you’re out here on the west coast, you better be a Liks fan…dudes are legends. Tash was always my favorite of the crew, and actually might be my favorite west coast MC ever. He has such a relaxed, but technical, rapid fire flow and to this day, I’ve never heard him spit a wack verse. I highly suggest you track down his solo album that dropped in 1999, Rap Life. If you don’t have it, or forgot about it, here are a few of my favorite joints:

Tash ft. Carl Thomas – “The Game”
Tash – “Nightfall”
Tash – “Fallin’ On”
Tash – “Bermuda Triangle”

I tried to pick just one, but damn…all these tracks are classic to me. “The Game” was especially ill, cause it was a different topic and sound than most of his other stuff. Sidenote: where’s Carl Thomas at these days anyway? And for the sample heads, “Fallin’ On” used David McCallum’s “The Edge” before Dr. Dre (and also Masta Ace, who later flipped a different part of the same sample).

Anyway, moral of the story, Tash was the ish…and he still is (peep the track he did with Torae last year). Last I heard, he’s working on a new album as we speak…can’t wait.

*makes my outroduction*

There’s been a lot of buzz over this kid Asher Roth recently, and from the joints I’ve heard so far, I’ve been impressed. The Em comparisons are the first thing that everyone wants to talk about, but I think that’ll end pretty soon. Click the image above to download his new mixtape, The Greenhouse Effect, with Drama and Cannon.

Shout to the homey Jonathan Master for sending this over.

Being the huge Lupe fan that I am, I had to post this up for y’all to check out. A Chicago producer named Itch13 remixed Lu’s “I Gotcha” off Food & Liquor, and it turned out pretty dope. I still prefer the original, but this is a good one for the collection:

Lupe Fiasco – “I Gotcha (Itch13’s Maceo Parker Funk Mix)”

Swiped from IllRoots.

Chyea, one of the illest producers in the game, 88 Keys just dropped Adam’s Case Files: The Mixtape in preparation of his debut solo album, The Death of Adam. I interviewed Keys a few weeks ago for Sound Session (if you missed that, you can peep it here), and he mentioned the tape would be out there soon for people to download. Well, that time is now. Featuring appearances by Tanya Morgan, Guilty Simpson, Grafh, Big Sean, Mr. Bentley, Serius Jones, Izza Kizza, and Kid Cudi. Back cover (with tracklisting) and download link after the jump.

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(what happened?)

Man, labels are making my job easy. I don’t even have to search for these, they come right to my inbox every day. LL may be a legend, but he manages to fire off multiple wack lines in his new single featuring The Dream, the creatively titled…”Baby.” Sigh. Here’s a sampling:

“Hot sex on a platter, no need to cook/I let her steal my heart like a horny crook”
“My pulp ain’t fiction, it’s an addiction/To see your booty clap on the floor in the kitchen”
“Nasty girl, taught me all the lingo/Mama played bingo/She ride mandingo/She don’t give a damn if I’m married or single/She makes me tingle!”
“She lookin’ for a man that could give her a break/Like Usher or Justin Tim-ber-lake/I’m really not sure if her breasts are fake/Cause with whipped cream on ’em, they taste just like cake”
“Bought her some dessert, give a damn if it’s early/Head spinnin’ around like roller derby”

And in the last verse he breaks out the stale Nelly impression and fires off a depressing string of “surrre/currr/hurrr/everywurrrr” rhymes.

Oh, I can’t forget The Dream on the hook too. In stirring lyrics that evoke the complex emotions of love and heartbreak that only classic soul music can provide, he channels a young Stevie and sings:

“I’m your baby, I’m your baby, I’m your baby, I’m your baby, I’m your baby, your baby, your baby, your baby/I’m your baby, your baby, your baby, your baby, I’m your baby, your baby, yeah, yeaaaah, yeaaaaaah, hell yeaaaaah”

Epic. [Hov] Do you fools listen to music, or do you just skim through it? [/Hov]

Anyway, listen…if…you…dare.

LL Cool J ft. The Dream – “Baby”

In much doper LL related news, Info posted up an ill segment of Tony Toca‘s radio show where Eminem (still alive!?!) prank called Touch and LL. Definitely a much better listen than the single. Wow @ that ish getting 30K downloads in a day. Anything Em touches blows the hell up.

I warned y’all I might post random ish from time to time. But with that picture, I assume you can’t be too mad. I was just listening to Ryan Leslie’s new single, “Addicted,” with Cassie and Fabolous, and I thought I’d post it up for 2 reasons. 1) it’s a cool song. 2) there’s something about the way Cassie sings “I’m addicted to you” that is the ish. Don’t judge me.

Ryan Leslie ft. Cassie & Fabolous – “Addicted”

Damn, I was going to toss up the original version of her “Me & You” video, but apparently it’s been removed from all over the net. WTF! Say it ain’t so…