The Audacity of Dope

I don’t think anyone is spitting harder than Reks right now, other than perhaps Royce.  He’s attacking every beat like his life depended on it, and this DJ Premier track is no different.  If you’re a Sound Session listener, you know we’ve been playing lots of Reks material over the last few years.  If you’re a Hyphen stalker, you know I used to play his old Brick Records 12″s back on my college radio show from 2000 to ’04.  Either way, be happy you’re up on him now.  Reks’ new album, Grey Hairs, drops July 22nd and it’s [M.O.P] FIYAAAAAAAAAA [/M.O.P.].

Here’s the “Say Goodnight” mp3 and a bonus Throwback joint from his 2001 album, Along Came The Chosen, where 8 MC’s represent 4 cities:

Reks – “Say Goodnight”
Reks ft. Esoteric, J-Live, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Pacewon, Young Zee, Danja Mowf, and Lonnie B – “Final Four”

Shout to Statik Selektah and congrats on the engagement man!

In honor of seeing the latest Will Smith flick, Hancock, last night, I thought I’d post up one of my favorite albums of all time.  DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince literally changed my life, since they’re responsible for the first hip-hop I ever heard.  Plus, my entire sense of humor was shaped by their music and the greatest TV show of all time, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”  The first cassette I owned was Rock The House when I was 6 years old (woah…20 years ago), but their second album, He’s The DJ, I’m The Rapper, was the joint that put me over the top.  I must have listened to it a million times, and to this day, I still have every line, adlib, and scratch memorized.  Clearly, part of my affinity for this LP is sentimental, but I think it’s still dope music that stands the test of time.  Peep the title track for example, where Will absolutely blacks out.  Black Thought has said it was his favorite verse growing up, and that rhyme alone is greater than the careers of most contemporary rappers.

If you’ve never heard this album, listening to it for the first time in 2008 clearly won’t mean the same for you as it did for me, but you need to check it out.  If you remember it, but haven’t pulled it out in ages, do so.  Afterall, it’s summer…and that’s officially JJ+FP time.  There are even rumors that we might see some tour dates from Jeff and Will over the next few months (if they come to Seattle, it’s a WRAP).  And go see Hancock…it’s dope.

DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince – He’s The DJ, I’m The Rapper

Bonus: The Smoking Section has the other JJ+FP albums up for download right here.

The official long distance relationship anthem.  Good looooooooord we need new D’Angelo in our lives.  Thankfully, it looks like that might just be happening…finally.  I’ll believe it when I hear it though.  In the meantime, we’ve got joints like this one from Raphael Saadiq’s criminally underrated Instant Vintage album to look back upon.

Raphael Saadiq ft. D’Angelo – “Be Here”

Check the video too.

“See, I got more than just some good d**k and some money…”  Classic.

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*

Every now and then, I think I’m gonna post up some older songs that y’all may have forgotten, or missed altogether. First up for The Throwback is “The Invitation” from Crossrhodes, a really dope soul/funk/R&B/hip-hop hybrid crew spearheaded by Raheem DeVaughn, Wes Felton, and Bilal Salaam back in the early 2000’s. This joint was the title track for their second project, and to this day, it’s still the JAM. Exactly the kind of cut I wish more DJ’s would spin at clubs and lounges. A smooth beat, hilariously blunt sexually charged lyrics, and an ill guest verse from Asheru…what else could you want?

As a little bonus for all the Raheem fans, here’s an exclusive clip of him singing an a capella preview of “Bulletproof” off his album due out later this year. This happened during my interview with him back in February, but the video never really made its way around the net. Now that The Audacity of Dope is up and running, figured I’d drop it:

Download the full interview with Raheem DeVaughn right here.