The Audacity of Dope

In the time it just took you to read this, Usain Bolt just ran 100m faster than anyone in history.  Wow.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who looks forward to every Saturday and Sunday for all the sporting events and this past weekend was another great one.  We had some important baseball games down the stretch, preseason NFL action, Usain dominating in Berlin, and…*drumroll*…the return of the English Premier League.  Perhaps it’s due in part to my British pops, but I definitely look forward to this time of year where the temperature begins to drop and the European clubs take the pitch.  Props to Arsenal for dropping 6 on Everton (wow) and the homey Didier Drogba for scoring a double in Chelsea’s win.  Season’s just getting started!

On the music tip, we had Slaughterhouse, Slum Village, Supernatural, Pete Rock, and Reflection Eternal in town for an abridged version of Rock The Bells on Friday, and we were joined by local artists Yirim Seck and Larue in the studio on Sunday night.  Lookout for our Slaughterhouse interview coming soon, but in the meantime, we ran a snippet of an interview we taped with Asher Roth a few weeks ago.  Even in the brief clip we aired, Asher dropped some serious knowledge.  Full interview & video will be up soon (sooner if we get a SNSS intern in the works…).

Show #220 (8-16-09)

1. Slaughterhouse ft. Fatman Scoop – “Onslaught 2”
2. Lushlife ft. Camp Lo – “Another Word For Paradise”
3. Rashid Hadee – “The Wrong Thangs”
4. Saukrates ft. Rich Kidd – “Salt N Pepper”
5. A.R.M. ft. Supastition – “I Shine”
6. Blue Scholars – “HI-808” (Local Music)
7. Wale – “Pretty Girls”
8. **INTERVIEW WITH YIRIM SECK & LARUE**
9. Mr. Hudson ft. Kanye West – “Supernova”
10. Matt & Kim ft. De La Soul – “Daylight (Remix)”
11. Fresh Espresso – “Vader Rap” (Local Music)
12. Raekwon ft. Inspectah Deck, Method Man, & Ghostface Killah – “House Of Flying Daggers”
13. **INTERVIEW WITH ASHER ROTH #02 (SNIPPET)**
14. Asher Roth – “Fallin’”
15. Pac Div – “Young Black Male”
16. Co$$ & Fonetik Simbol ft. Shawn Jackson – “L.A.’s Best”
17. Kev Brown – “The Random Joint”
18. Khingz – “Ponyboy” (Local Music)
19. Mayer Hawthorne – “A Strange Arrangement”
20. Little Dragon – “Never Never”
21. Drake – “Sooner Or Later”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?1wbadnvminm
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/64281029a06fce99/)

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.

Ok, honestly…it’s about 10pm and still damn near 90 degrees here in Seattle.  I like summer weather, but in a city that only has AC in office buildings and stores, we’re just not built for this.  J and I always disagree, but I’d rather be too cold over too hot any day.  If it’s freezing, at least you can turn on the heat or put on more clothes.  If it’s 80+ degrees in the dead of night, there’s only so many Otter Pops you can devour.

Unfortunately for the town, we didn’t help the cause by playing [Dylan] hot fiya [/Chappelle] this week on SNSS.  With new joints from the Roots, Goapele, Saukrates, Killer Mike, Jay-Z, Pac Div, Mr. Hudson, and more, this was a great show from start to finish.  Shout to our homey Larry Mizell Jr. (aka Gatsby from Cancer Rising) for coming through to celebrate his inheritance of Street Sounds, one of the longest running radio programs here in Seattle.  Be sure to check him out every Sunday on 90.3 KEXP (www.kexp.org) from 6-9pm to hear more great hip-hop on the airwaves.  Sunday nights are oh so official in Seattle.

Lastly, peep the footage we just posted of Asher Roth performing at our Summer Jam in front of 15K people last weekend right here.  For more Summer Jam footage featuring artists like the New Boyz, Asher, Kid Cudi, The-Dream, Pitbull, Flo Rida, Sean Paul, Akon, and Ludacris, keep your eyes on this page all week.  We’ll have more live clips and our interviews with Cudi and Asher coming soon as well.

Show #217 (7-26-09)

1. The Roots – “How I Got Over”
2. U-N-I – “Land Of The Kings”
3. Goapele – “Milk & Honey”
4. Consequence ft. Kanye West & John Legend – “Whatever U Want”
5. Saukrates ft. Rich Kidd – “Salt N Pepper”
6. Rakim – “Holy Are You”
7. Trife Diesel – “Wanna Be A Rapper”
8. Killer Mike – “In My City”
9. **INTERVIEW WITH LARRY MIZELL, JR.**
10. Grynch ft. RA Scion (of Common Market) – “You Know Me” (Local Music)
11. J. Cole – “Dream Girl”
12. Jay-Z ft. Kanye West & Rihanna – “Run This Town”
13. Freeway & Jake One – “Bloggers” (Local Music)
14. Pac Div – “Back”
15. Asher Roth ft. Chester French – “As I Em”
16. Slaughterhouse – “Cuckoo”
17. Drake – “The Winner”
18. The Physics ft. Language Arts – “Back Track” (Local Music)
19. Punchlyne & Fokis – “We Came To Rock”
20. Mr. Hudson ft. Kid Cudi – “Everything Is Broken”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?yzlynmwemnc
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/632634413588b8b0/)

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.

Those of you in Washington (or stalking my Twitter) probably heard that we had our annual Summer Jam concert yesterday at White River Amphitheater with performances by the New Boyz, Asher Roth, Kid Cudi, The-Dream, Pitbull, Flo Rida, Sean Paul, Akon, and Ludacris.  Usually, I have nightmares of these days because it’s a fun event for the audience, but generally really hectic to work.  Last year was a painful double dose as I spent the entire day registering voters  for the Obama campaign (we put onnnnn) and then running around backstage interviewing cats.  This year was a lot more relaxing as I spent the majority of the time chilling with my two favorite acts on the bill, Asher and Cudi, and their folks.

We’ll have interviews coming soon with those two, but in the meantime, I grabbed some footage of Asher’s performance for y’all.  Peep the video above to see him, Brain, and Wreckineyez run through a few joints from Asleep In The Bread Aisle, including “She Don’t Wanna Man,” “Be By Myself,” and of course, “I Love College.”  For more Summer Jam footage hitting the net all week, keep your eyes on this page.

I highly recommend checking out the Great Hangover Tour with Asher, Cudi, Pac Div, and B.o.B if it hasn’t hit your town yet.  I’m slightly salty that we didn’t get the full lineup here in Seattle, but SJ with 1/2 of it was dope too.  Anyway, peep it…you won’t be disappointed.

You know, I’m pretty tired of the corny discussions going on all over the place about Asher.  Seeing people get all worked up about every little thing reminds me of when I used to post on messageboards in my high school/college days.  I’m too old and busy for all this pseudo drama.

Here’s what I know.  Asher is a cool dude, works with great people, and makes dope music more often than not.  This song is my ish and the video is ill.  If you want to write blog after blog attacking him or complaining about the system that helped him achieve his success, go for it.  I ain’t gonna read it though.  Way more important things in the world right now.

LOL @ comparisons between Em and Asher right now.  Asher’s actually making songs.  Em’s making the same joke of a single for the 6th time.  Shrug.

This is the next single by the way, featuring Cee-Lo if you couldn’t tell.  Footage shot by the homey Tunji and the alley oop from GregTheDude.

Fresh off last week’s 200th edition of SNSS, we’re hitting you over the head with another dope show, this time, packed full of exclusive joints that I believe we world premiered Sunday on KUBE.  In today’s internet age, the traditional idea of ‘exclusives’ has pretty much gone out the window, and regardless, I’ve never even been that big a fan of the whole notion anyway.  Simply because a DJ plays something first, doesn’t make it worthwhile (“NEW SOULJA BOY!!!!”).

Instead, this past week, we ran some great songs that the general public just hasn’t heard yet, but everyone will probably have soon.  Some of them will be included on our upcoming Cornerstone Mixtape (with some other exclusives), but who knows if they’ll leak before that drops in May.  Speaking of which, DJ B-Mello, J. Moore, and I finished up the mixtape last night (shout to Taybot and L for the engineering assistance!) and it sounds fresh.  Looking forward to y’all hearing it, but for now, peep the show and some world premieres from Fashawn (prod. Exile), Roddy Rod ft. Phonte & Carlitta Durand, Asher Roth, and Tanya Morgan ft. Blu.  [Kanye] Good music definitely in the building! [/Yeezy]

Show #201 (4-5-09)

1. Donnis – “Party Works”
2. CunninLynguists ft. Khujo Goodie & Killer Mike – “Georgia (Remix)”
3. Drake – “November 18th”
4. Kid Cudi – “Rollin’ Freestyle”
5. Kid Cudi ft. Kanye West, Common, & A-Trak – “I Poke Her Face”
6. Melanie Fiona ft. Talib Kweli – “Give It To Me Right (Remix)”
7. J. Pinder ft. Shawn Starr – “Havin’ Problems” (Local Artist)
8. Crooked I & DJ Wicked – “Jackin’ For Beats 2009”
9. Bishop Lamont – “Friends”
10. Method Man & Redman – “Mrs. International”
11. Fashawn – “The Outer City” (WORLD PREMIERE)
12. Outasight ft. The Kid Daytona & Donny Goines – “Fame & Fortune (Remix)”
13. Shad – “Exile”
14. Illa J ft. Grynch – “Showtime (Remix)” (Local Artist)
15. Roddy Rod ft. Phonte (of Little Brother) & Carlitta Durand – “This Time Around” (WORLD PREMIERE)
16. U-N-I & Ro Blvd – “Lauren London”
17. Pac Div – “Shut Up”
18. Common Market – “Escaping Arkham” (Local Artist)
19. Scratch ft. Musiq – “Tonite”
20. Asher Roth – “La Di Da” (WORLD PREMIERE)
21. Keelay & Zaire ft. Supastition & Slo Mo (of Fortilive) – “Trapped”
22. Tanya Morgan ft. Blu – “Morgan Blu” (WORLD PREMIERE)
23. Mayer Hawthorne – “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?mxjmgntmwmy
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/58302299c213a043/)

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.

Big shout to Peter Parker at B96 in Minneapolis (one of the few DJ’s at a big station riding out for good music like we do on Sound Session) for shooting this over and for shouting out the site during the interview.  Glad you enjoy the bloggy blogg homey!

I hope everyone is ready for a month full of seeing Asher everywhere.  With Asleep In The Bread Aisle dropping on 4-20, he’s going to get a lot of press in the coming weeks and it’s really all deserved.  Dude is a dope MC and a cool ass dude, so those with the unnecessary hate can [Jay-Z] go thaaaaataway [/Hov].  Be sure to head on over to MrPeterParker.com on Tuesday the 7th to cop an exclusive mixtape from Asher and Peter, and if you missed his appearance on SNSS a few weeks ago, click here.

Across all genres, there might not be an artist with more buzz right now than Asher Roth.  Sadly, it seems like most people, industry or not, are stuck on the smash single, “I Love College,” and the image that track represents.  In reality, Asher is much more than a one hit wonder responsible for the new frat boy anthem.  Instead, he’s a really dope MC, a thoughtful businessman, and an all around cool ass dude.

He took a minute from his busy schedule last week to call into Sound Session right before we all headed down to SXSW.  In the interview, we talked all about his upcoming Asleep In The Bread Aisle debut, the misrepresentation that “I Love College” brings, his producer and secret weapon, Oren Yorel, why being a white rapper is like being the Highlander, and much more.  Plus, we ran his new “Lark On My Go Kart” track and reminisced about everyone’s favorite Saved By The Bell moment.  You can check it out right here:

Asher Roth on Sound Session – http://www.mediafire.com/?yiw2fzdilyo
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/578401220336b51f/)

If you’re still hating on Asher, I hope you can peep Asleep In The Bread Aisle with a clear mind, because the music and talent are there in bunches.  Don’t get it twisted.

People have been clamoring for the US version of Cudi’s “Day N Nite” to drop for a minute and it couldn’t happen at a better time.  The UK version with the Crookers remix has him buzzing like crazy overseas, and last time I checked, he was at #53 on the Billboard Hot 100 stateside.  I played the record on the last SNSS and immediately got about 10 calls asking what it was.  Perhaps it’s not as much of a lock as Asher and “I Love College,” but Cudi is next up this year.

(^^ah…college)

As I sit here in disbelief watching this standoff between the LAPD and some dude who looks an awful like DJ Khaled driving a Bentley, I’m pretty shocked.  Granted, Khaled is the punchline of every hip-hop head’s jokes, but this obviously isn’t something you’d wish on anyone.  Wow.

In a completely unrelated matter, here’s the new video for Asher’s uber-smash-in-the-making, “I Love College.”  I heard this on the rock station here in Seattle when I was getting a haircut earlier tonight and the buzz is really starting to take off.  I give it one more month before it’s a certified hit and Asher’s a star.  And for the record, I like this song…plus dude is dope.  He’s working with a lot of talented people on his album too, so I think it should eliminate a lot of the Em-parisons.

Now…Khaled…get out of the car and end this peacefully….please.