The Audacity of Dope

This guy has made my favorite music of the past two years and can pretty much do no wrong right now. Wow.

Honestly, the verse was ill, but Mack rocking that jacket on BET is all you need in life.  And for all my label homies that hit me up about Mack pretty much every week, check the rhyme starting at 1:42.  That should answer your questions…

While I don’t think anyone is capable of improving on Frank Ocean’s flawless original, I was happy to see Yuna cover “Thinkin’ Bout You.”  She came with a unique twist on it and it turned out dope.  There’s a rumor that a certain Seattle based radio show might be linking up with Yuna in a few days for an interview and exclusive acoustic performance…

New School Noise is the brainchild of my guy DJ Same and Le Fresh Perspective, who hope that the event can shine light on some of the younger MC’s in the Seattle area.  The idea is pretty straightforward: fans will vote from a list of MC’s to decide who will perform at the showcase, which goes down August 19th at Neumos.  In the build up, they’ll be releasing a few of these teaser videos showing cyphers with some of the artists looking for votes.

Up above, you can see Dave B, Sean Brooks, Rebel, and J’Von, while down below, you’ve got Warm Gun, TayWill, Key Nyata, A-Rawlo, and Antbeezy.

Since Same has been helping out with Sound Session, we’re helping out with this program and co-signing it.  I think I may be hosting the event at Neumos too, but we’ll have more official news released on Le Fresh’s site, Neumos’ site, and TAOD as we get closer.

Yukimi, Fred, Erik, and Hakan answer a few questions in this interview and then perform two unreleased, never heard before songs: “Sunshine” and a cover of the Eurythmics’ “Here Comes The Rain Again.”  Easily one of my favorite bands in music these days…

I was already planning on posting this video of Dee-1’s SXSW adventures and then I saw footage of myself guarding him in the HoopxHang Tournament hahaha.  Let the records show that Team Hardknock dispatched Team Nola in that first round game, but on the real, chopping it up with one of my favorite new MC’s was a blast.  Much respect to Dee for his music and movement.  You’re gonna hear a lot from this dude in the near future…

I was pretty apprehensive when I heard this was a “live” video, but I actually like what they’ve done here. Mixing in live footage with what appears to be staged model shots (or I suppose that really could be the LA crowd…they’re winning with the females down there) and alternating between live and studio audio was a nice touch. Plus, as long as you aren’t prone to epileptic seizures (no, seriously…heed the warning at the beginning), the effects are great. Kanye even gets directorial credit on this one. Yeezy taught you.

Speaking of Shad, here’s a great mini-documentary about a recent trip to his family’s homeland, Rwanda. As I always tell MC’s, and really any young people in general, think global, not local.

This clip of Shad talking to kids at a middle school in Surrey, BC exemplifies why he’s one of my favorite MC’s.  It’s one thing to be an incredibly talented rapper and musician, but when combined with intelligence and the realization that you have an obligation to help make the world a better place, it takes it to the next level.  I wish more MC’s were as forward thinking and intelligent as Shad, so they could speak to our youth as well.  As it stands now, there are probably less than 20 MC’s around that I’d encourage they go speak to kids.  And that’s horrifying.

I’ve been meaning to post this up since last week, but I’ve been caught up in the post-Thanksgiving madness.  Florence kills this version of Drake and Rihanna’s soon to be smash in this live performance for BBC Radio 1.  As I’ve mentioned on Twitter, I can’t tell whether I live it and then Drake puts it in to song, or he writes about it and then it happens to me.  Either way, I’m pretty sure he owes me royalties on my life right now.