The Audacity of Dope

While it’s been a minute since our last update, it’s been a pretty busy holiday season for the Sound Session crew.  We’ll save you all the individual details and give you a few key updates:

#1) The playlist for our last episode, Show #545 from January 17th, is below, but due to technical changes in the studio, we weren’t able to record it for the archive.  Apologies for that, as we featured some dope tracks you definitely need to peep from artists like Kanye, D.I.T.C., Anderson Paak, Curren$y, Majid Jordan, dvsn, PREP, Torae, Ryan Caraveo, Golden Rules, and more.

#2) As you may have heard, iHeartMedia has adjusted our station cluster in Seattle and KUBE has moved from 93.3 FM up the dial to 104.9 FM.  The end of the “KUBE 93” era means more to me than I would be able to put into words, but thankfully for us and Seattle, the brand lives on and the station is continuing to operate on 104.9 FM.  It’s an opportunity to start something new and write the next chapter for a legendary Seattle radio institution.  Change is never easy though, and we’d like to thank two people who helped Jon and I every step of the way with Sound Session over the last decade, but are now no longer with the company: Eric Powers and Karen Wild.  Thanks to both of you for everything and we’re excited to see your next moves.  You’ll always be a part of SNSS!

As for the show, we are off air this week in light of the changes but hope to be back on very soon.  We’ll keep everyone updated on the status and when you can hear us next.

Talk soon…

Show #545 (1/17/16)

1. Pusha T – “FIFA”
2. PRhyme (Royce Da 5’9” & DJ Premier) ft. MF Doom & Phonte – “Highs and Lows”
3. Chance The Rapper ft. Jeremih & R. Kelly – “Somewhere In Paradise”
4. Mic Phenom ft. King Leez & Dice – “No More” (Local Music)
5. Rapper Big Pooh & Nottz – “Fries”
6. Torae – “Get Down”
7. Puff Daddy & The Family ft. Jadakiss & Styles P – “Old Man Wildin’”
8. Logic ft. Lucy Rose – “Innermission”
9. Ryan Caraveo – “Like We Own This Place” (Local Music)
10. Fabolous ft. Dave East – “Summertime Sadness”
11. Kanye West ft. Ty Dolla Sign – “Real Friends”
12. D.I.T.C. – “Make Em So Proud (Hold Up)”
13. Rick Ross – “Crocodile Python”
14. DJ Quik – “Born and Raised In Compton” (Throwback of the Week)
15. Pearl Gates ft. Masta Ace & Ali De Leon – “The Ritual”
16. Anderson Paak – “Heart Don’t Stand A Chance”
17. Lute – “Still Slummin’”
18. Erykah Badu – “Phone Down”
19. Malice & Mario Sweet – “Got U” (Local Music)
20. Currensy ft. K Camp – “What’s Up”
21. Russ – “Moonlight In Atlanta”
22. Majid Jordan – “King City”
23. Adrian Younge ft. Loren Oden – “Sittin’ By The Radio”
24. Illa J – “Cannonball”
25. dvsn – “Too Deep”
26. Golden Rules (Eric Biddines & Paul White) – “It’s Over”
27. Omen ft. Donnie Trumpet – “48 Laws”
28. Brent Faiyaz – “Allure (Atu Remix)”
29. Kwabs ft. Zak Abel – “Cheating On Me (Tom Misch Refix)”
30. PREP – “Cheapest Flight (AlunaGeorge Remix)”

No archive available due to technical issues.

If you’d like to be added to our weekly email list to receive the playlist and stream/download links after every show, just shoot me an email, DJHyphen@gmail.com.

For all you up and coming musicians out there, if you’re a fan of Daniel Merriweather like I am, you may want to look into this.  Daniel and his team are giving you the chance to remix his “Change” single with Wale and get some great exposure for it.  For more information, click here.

And if you missed it when it first dropped, the video for “Change”:

Shout to my folks down under in AU.

More true words from Jay Smooth.  Like I said in my last post, we have to “be the change” we want to see.  That means we have to get to work and take pride in what everything do.

I’m making 2009 a huge year for myself and I hope y’all do the same.  Live better in every aspect of your life and get things moving in the right direction.  Do your best to really experience life.  Remember what Jimmy V said?

To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.

In spite of this picture, the most important thing to remember today is that Obama is not alone. We cannot expect him to solve all our problems and make the world a better place without buying into his vision ourselves. As he’s mentioned numerous times, “be the change you want to see in the world.”

If you want things to be better in your life, in your family, in your neighborhood, in your country, or in the world, you have to take responsibility. Be smart. Be positive. Be caring and be there for other people. We can do this, but we have to pull together and demand the best from ourselves and each other.

Let’s go.

(Pardon the language, but I never did get the chance to use one of my favorite pics of the year)

Alright, there are two things that are slightly bugging me right now, at least enough that I felt the urge to blog ’em.  Welcome to the rant.

Issue #1: The buzz around the net about the new Common album is off the charts.  Unfortunately, I’m seeing damn near nothing but negative reviews.  What album are y’all listening to?  You really wanted him to make a 3rd album in a row that sounded pretty much the same?  Eff y’all, Universal Mind Control is heat.  My dude Dru suggested I do some reviews every now and then, but working 2.5 jobs kinda kills that.  Here’s my track by track faux review:

1. “Universal Mind Control” – you’ve heard this.  Either you like it or you hate it.  If you’re fun, you like it, it’s your jam when you hear it in public, and you can’t let it finish without attempting some horrible popping and locking.  If you don’t like it, your Jansport might be too tight.
2. “Punch Drunk Love” – Dope.  Kanye + Skateboard + Com?  Say no more.  “Am I crazy”?
3. “Make My Day” – Love this record.  So bouncy, so melodic.  [Thugnificent] stop hatin’, get money [/Boondocks].
4. “Sex 4 Sugar” – Fair enough, swing and a miss.
5. “Announcement” – Nice ode to Biggie and P kills his verse.  Nobody at Geffen/Interscope will tell me why they pulled the video down, so I’ll have to ask Com on the 13th.  The animation was dope.
6. “Gladiator” – FLAMES.  Hard ass beat, crazy horn sample, classic Com battle rhymes.  Absolutely insane in concert too.  “Are you not entertained?”
7. “Changes” – Good positive joint inspired by the late stages of Barack’s candidacy.  Would fit right in on Be or Finding Forever.
8. “Inhale” – Smooth.  Crazy synth and percussion.  Ill record.
9. “What A World” – Com kills it with the old school flow and them Chester French boys add some Freddie Mercury-esque swag.  All that’s missing from the beat is Pharrell’s “sexy breath” style adlib in between the hook and verses.  Could easily be a Kenna song…and that’s a good thing.
10. “Everywhere” – Reminds me of the new Foreign Exchange record.  Great way to end it, but I would have let this one ride out for like 8 minutes and let the beat/melodies go crazy.

So look.  9/10 songs are good and one isn’t.  That’s 90%…that’s a A-.  You messageboarders, bloggers, and Debbie Downers in general need to calm down.  If you want to hear Resurrection again, go put in your CD.

*bangs gavel*

Issue #2: The political pundits (worth about as much as hip-hop pundits) are getting all worked up because Barack has been hiring people associated with both the Clinton and Bush administrations, and they’re wondering what happened to “change.”  First off, the people he’s picking are very qualified and are all excellent choices.  Secondly, these people are respected across party lines, which was a huge theme of Barack’s campaign.  When I worked for them, the official mantra was “respect, empower, include.”  You can’t change things for the better when you alienate half the people in the country.  This is the beginning of a new way of politics, perhaps not ‘post-partisan’, but moving towards that.  And it’s certainly a HUGE ‘change’ from Dubya’s (mis)management style.

Thirdly, Barack has been set up for these attacks since day one.  Regardless of what he does, people will try to criticize him because they are, rightly so, fed up with government.  However, let’s not forget how we got here and who was at the helm.  We’re at the lowest point in American history since the Great Depression.  Literally every day for the past 2 weeks I’ve heard of either personal friends losing their jobs or seen large business make massive cuts.  Finally, at the first of the month, CNN sent out the hilariously titled “breaking news” that we were in a recession since last December.  Thanks for the update fellas.

If Barack picked a team of brand new faces, he would be ridiculed for selecting unknown commodities when we’re in such dire straits.  When he picks a balanced and diverse group of accomplished and, gasp, intelligent appointees, people flip because they aren’t “change-y” enough.  Miss me with that, please.  Anyone want to let these people actually get in office for…I dunno…a week…before trying to tear them down?  Barack’s not going to be able to fix things completely in 4 full years and you already want him solving the world’s economic crisis 2 months before he’s sworn in?  Wow.  We really do live in an “instant gratification” culture.  Speaking of which…

*pops dinner in microwave*

Ok, I should wrap up this rant.  Before I do though, I need all you conservatives, particularly the bombastic, comically dimwitted talking heads on the “news” to do one thing.  Shut.  the hell.  up.

Really now, these people shouldn’t even be allowed to speak about issues.  You lost your rights when you voted for George Bush.  TWICE!  This is like getting driving erratically and crashing your car, only to tell the ambulance driver to be more careful as he’s taking you to the hospital.  No.  You can’t say anything right now.  Just sit in the back and let the adults try to fix the problems you created.

If your beliefs and policies have brought America to its knees, I refuse to sit there and let you talk about what ANYONE should be doing.  Do you let Shaq coach your free throw technique?  Do you let Soulja Boy help you with your bars?  Do you let Chris Webber handle your clock management down the stretch in a NCAA Championship game (still bitter)?  NO! So why listen to former Bush sycophants whine about what we should do to fix any of the myriad of problems they helped create.  Like George himself said:

Don’t get fooled.  These people have no ground to stand on.

And now back to your regularly scheduled blog…

Hahahahah @ T-Pain, Akon, Diddy, and Mary J. Blige singing about how to make the world a better place.  You just knew something dumb was gonna be said:

“I’d turn every bullet into a Hershey’s Kiss and we could eat away our fears”
–Akon, “Change”

Even though this song is about 2 years old (I even put it on Vol. 6 of my old mixtapes, download it!), it’s just as relevant on the day of the final presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain.  What it all boils down to is ridiculously simple.

The policies and beliefs that George Bush and the Republicans put forth the last 8 years have brought this country to its lowest point in any of our lifetimes.  We’re fighting 2 unwinnable wars, witnessing an economic meltdown, feeling the effects of environmental destruction, adding an extra digit on to the National Debt Clock, and leaving millions of children behind in our educational system.  LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL @ anyone who voted for Bush.  I hope you’re proud of what you helped accomplish.  Can anyone honestly take pride in voting for the worst president of all-time?

Don’t make the same mistake again.  John McCain wants to continue Bush’s work, but it’s time for a change.  Watch the debate this evening and vote Obama on November 4th.  “For our kids’ kids.”

Yesterday, Barack and Hillary finally made their first campaign appearance together to help unite the party.  In the aptly named town of Unity, New Hampshire, they talked about the importance of coming together to make sure that Barack gets in the White House.  This election is simply too important to let any petty differences get between us.  It’s good to see that Clinton’s supporters are rallying behind Obama, and with everyone on the same page, we’re going to dominate come November.

Today is the day for those “Unite For Change” house parties I told y’all about last week.  Hopefully you’re attending one in your area (last minute Seattle people can email me to find one ASAP), but if not, you can still get involved.  We have about 4 months left and every little bit you can do helps immensely.  Even if that’s just talking to your friends and family to make sure everyone is informed and registered to vote, that’s great.  Let’s do this.