The Audacity of Dope

Some of our favorite artists, individually and collectively, denitia and sene came through Sunday Night Sound Session recently to chop it up while on tour here in Seattle.  We talked about their backgrounds, how they met at an artist collective, their first impressions of each other, what their creative process is like, breaking barriers between genres, their side fx EP releasing in January 2015, and more.

We’ve been playing their music for a while so it was great to finally meet in person.  Big shout to them for coming through and to Lea with the First Ladies for filming/editing!

It’s about that time again!  Loyal Sound Session fans will likely remember that J. and I hosted Cornerstone Mixtape #115 back in May of 2009 with DJ B-Mello on the 1’s and 2’s (click here to check that out if you missed it!), and now we’re happy to report that we’ve been selected again to head up the long-running, historic mixtape series.  We are presenting May’s tape, marking 4 years to the month since our last go-round, and also celebrating our recent 8 year anniversary of SNSS!

Just like last time, it’s an absolute honor to be selected for this tape.  The team at Cornerstone has always been some of the most knowledgeable, respectable, and coolest cats in the industry and they’ve curated this monthly mixtape series for over a decade with care, skill, and consistency that very few can match.  As soon as I started working at my college radio station, I became a fan of their monthly releases, which always featured the dopest DJ’s from around the world presenting their take on the freshest music of the moment.

To say that in this small way, we can compare ourselves to folks like Jazzy Jeff, Pete Rock, Revolution, the Fantastic Four, Sway & King Tech, the Baka Boyz, Premier, Red Alert, Kid Capri, Stretch Armstrong, Bobbito, J. Period, etc….honestly, it’s still an incredible feeling.  We’re just happy we’ve been able to do what we’ve done over the last 8 years and we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished.  When cats like Rob Stone, Dru Ha, J, Kid Potential, and the rest of the Cornerstone crew recognize and choose to highlight us with their series (twice!), it’s humbling.  We’re just very grateful.  Thank you, fellas.

For this tape, we decided to recreate what we do with Sound Session each week on KUBE 93.3 FM so it plays almost exactly like our live broadcasts, just without the commercials and with the swear words (even better, right?). We selected some of our favorite records of the moment and tried to highlight those that weren’t getting the credit they deserved.

These include great songs from some bigger names like Black Milk, Tyler, Big K.R.I.T., De La Soul, Blu, and Chance The Rapper, and also guys who are steady on the come up like MeLo-X, Young Roddy, the Smash Brovaz, Phil Beaudreau, Johnny Polygon, and more.  Plus, you know we always rep for the Northwest, and with our scene exploding right now, there were plenty of options to choose from.  In the end, we picked songs from John Crown, Nacho Picasso, Avatar Darko, Jake One, and the Physics.  We even tossed in a few world premieres, one from our homey THURZ and the other a dope record from The Game featuring Jadakiss, Styles P, and AR-16 that the world hasn’t heard before.

Above all, it’s 80 minutes of DOPE music.  This is what we do.  And we’re happy to share it with you.

Download/streaming links below.  Enjoy!

01. Homeboy Sandman – Sunday Night Sound Session (Exclusive)
02. Black Milk – Sunday’s Best / Monday’s Worst (Computer Ugly)
03. John Crown – Ben Franklin (Phinisey Music Group)
04. Kris Kasanova ft. Skeme and Jarv Dee – Shut Em Down (Exclusive)
05. Nacho Picasso & Avatar Darko – Black Velvet (Moor Gang / Fang Gang)
06. Tyler, The Creator – 48 (Odd Future)
07. Raz Simone – Formula To Life (Exclusive)
08. Young Roddy – This One (Jet Life)
09. MeLo-X – God Magic (Galax Recordings)
10. Quelle Chris ft. Tanya Morgan, Cavalier & Fresh Daily – Greene Eyes (Mello Music Group)
11. THURZ – ThirdEye (WORLD PREMIERE) (TNS)
12. Amp Live ft. James Melo – D.H.E.A. (Plug Research)
13. denitia and sene – trip. fall. (input)
14. Tuxedo – So Good (Exclusive)
15. The Physics – Take A Win (Exclusive)
16. Chance The Rapper – Acid Rain (Exclusive)
17. The Game ft. Jadakiss, Styles P, and AR-16 – Last Supper (WORLD PREMIERE) (Interscope)
18. Smash Brovaz – Whatever (Exclusive)
19. Big K.R.I.T. – Serve This Royalty (Cinematic Music Group / Def Jam)
20. L’Orange ft. Blu – Alone (Jakarta Records)
21. De La Soul – Get Away (A.O.I. Records)
22. Johnny Polygon – Normal (Exclusive)
23. Phil Beaudreau – Take It High (High Renaissance)

Link to download/stream the mixtape - http://www14.zippyshare.com/v/84334272/file.html
(back up – http://www.solidfiles.com/d/212294eb92/)
(2nd back up – http://linkmixes.com/7eb8nu0rk5my)
(3rd back up - http://www.sendspace.com/file/4ql1yt)

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 radio show we do, just shoot me an email, DJHyphen@gmail.com.

TiRon & Ayomari return with a video for their new record, “No Filter,” which we debuted on SNSS a few weeks ago.  The Jason Madison directed video is another one of those clips that just makes you want to move to SoCal…

But if you happen to be in Seattle, fear not!  TiRon & Ayomari (and Blu as well) will be rocking here on April 17th at Neumos.  Be there.

I know a lot of folks have been weirded out the last few years, but I’m not giving up on Blu. Not when he can still rhyme like this! This is the first single off French producer, L’Orange’s, new project, The Mad Writer.

Quiet as kept, the Recess EP is one of the best projects of the year.  If you’re an avid Sound Session listener, you likely know that already, but for those who have been sleeping, download it here.

Mitch: Back in April we found out by a tweet from Lupe that himself, along with a few other notable emcees, would join forces to create the All City Chess Club, the first “Super Group” since Wu-Tang that has people really talking. Well here we have the first official drop from the group minus/plus a few members. Indulge…

All City Chess Club – Beamin’ Remix

Better late than never, right?  This jawn is a few years old, but still a great record.  I dunno why they leaked the video now, but in any event, Blu’s one of the illest.

Not only is Andy Allo completely freaking gorgeous, but this is a dope record.  On the low, Blu is perfect for these types of records…he seems to murder every guest verse like this.  Wait.  He murders every verse.  Never mind!

When Miguel blows up, we can all tell our friends we used to listen to him sing harmonies on Blu & Exile records before he got his deal…

Oh, and Seattle people: J. Cole is coming to Bumbershoot this year.  As one of the Bumberboard, you’re welcome.

Dope visuals by Punit Dhesi for Fashawn & Blu’s “Samsonite Man” off the instant classic album, Boy Meets World.  Speaking of being a traveling man, Fash will be in Seattle today for 2 shows with Wiz Khalifa.  He’ll also be stopping by the Sound Session studio, so if you have any questions you want me to ask, email me.