The Audacity of Dope

Another week in the books and another reminder why as maddening as this industry can be, there are still so many dope people involved and so many good reasons why we can’t give it up.  On Wednesday, J. Moore and I checked out one of our favorite groups (and my fellow Swedish brethren), Little Dragon, for their third performance at Nectar in Seattle.  Since we’ve been supporting the group for a bit (peep one of our older interviews & their new music video right here), they’re the homies these days and it’s always fun to catch up with them.  The band is blowing up so in between touring with the Gorillaz and lead singer Yukimi recording for Raphael Saadiq’s upcoming album, you need to go check them out when they’re in your town.  Has Sound Session ever steered you wrong about an artist?

If you answered, “yes, remember Kevin Michael?”…you win.  But that wasn’t our fault!  He had all the tools to be a dope artist and perhaps one day we’ll see that fulfilled.  That said, I’m still struggling to see how you go from this…to this?  Ruh roh.  Even Lauryn told him to reel it in a notch.

Anyway, we followed up Little Dragon by chopping it up with close friend of the show, Lupe Fiasco, on Friday.  We ran a contest allowing 20 listeners to win a meet and greet by submitting their favorite Lupe verse and, quite simply, the responses floored me.  We had about 200 entrants in less than 2 days and almost every verse was different.  It was amazing to see how many people Lu has inspired with his music and also to such degrees.  There were stanzas in his verses that literally changed peoples’ lives.  Pretty cool.

After the meet and greet, we broadcast a live interview with Lu over the net and followed that up with a web chat firing listener questions at him.  You can see both archived as one video right here and while we may produce some snazzier looking video in the coming week(s) for the blogs, there’s a TON of great Lupe info in there for you right now.  We discussed everything from his upcoming album…to food…to his surprisingly balleriffic car collection.  And on that note, Lu wanted to make sure everyone saw his endorsement of the Corvette ZHZ he rented from Hertz while in town, so we grabbed some footage on the iPhone just cause.  Laughs here.

So yeah…after yet another week filled with #inboxmadness, sometimes you need these little reminders as to why we do what we do.  Above all, it’s just the music…but it’s vital to interact with other music lovers, not listeners, every now and then.  We’re a dying breed…

Show #294 (1-16-11)

1. J. Cole – “Too Deep For The Intro”
2. Outasight – “Losing My Mind”
3. Thee Tom Hardy ft. GQ – “So Outrageous”
4. Slaughterhouse ft. The Lox – “Put Some Money On It (Remix)”
5. Roc Marciano ft. Sean Price – “Snow (Remix)”
6. Saigon ft. Faith Evans – “Clap”
7. Killer Mike – “Burn”
8. Ghostface Killah ft. Killah Priest & GZA – “Purified Thoughts”
9. ChillxWill – “Systems” (Local Music)
10. Kanye West & Jay-Z – “H.A.M.”
11. Kanye West – “Hell Of A Life”
12. U-N-I – “Donkey Kong”
13. TiRon & Ayomari – “Good Food”
14. Brothers From Another ft. Sol & JusMoni – “New Easy Lift” (Local Music)
15. Asher Roth & Nottz ft. Colin Munroe – “Dontcha Wanna Be (My Neighbor)”
16. Talib Kweli – “I’m On One”
17. Fortilive ft. Skyzoo – “Jim Kelly”
18. John Crown – “Be’s That Way” (Local Music)
19. Big Sean – “Final Hour”
20. Lupe Fiasco – “The Show Goes On”
21. Black Star – “Brown Skin Lady” (Throwback of the Week)
22. JR & PH7 ft. Shawn Jackson – “She Loves Me”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?5p6t9y1laqc9f8z
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/853878561c5d77c7/)
(2nd back up – http://usershare.net/zn3tx071hb1x)

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.