The Audacity of Dope

I’ve been talking to folks a lot lately about K.R.I.T. and how incredibly dope he is and I still think he’s highly underrated.  In my opinion, the 4 artists making the best rap music today are Kanye, Drake, Kendrick, and K.R.I.T..  Cadillactica is more of the same.  The album drops Tuesday, cop that!

Souled Out drops Tuesday and I’m really interested to see how it performs.  I’d love to see an artist like Jhene breakthrough on the mainstream level and with the success of “The Worst,” a lot of folks are checking for her right now.  This album will likely determine if she can get up to that star level, but either way, the music continues to be dope…and that’s the most important thing.

Along with Kendrick Lamar, we sat down with another one of our favorite artists at KUBE’s Summer Jam last week, the one and only Big K.R.I.T..  We’ve had Young Krizzle on the show a few times before and he never disappoints.

This time, he spoke about his upcoming Cadillactica album, the criticism he received for Live From The Underground, and the differences in his creative process between mixtapes and albums.  K.R.I.T. also revealed he’ll be working with other producers on Cadillactica and gave us some insight on the tips they shared with him in the studio.  Among other topics, he ended by discussing the motivation behind his “Mt. Olympus” track, the South’s ongoing battle for lyrical respect, and the feeling of when fans connect with his music and support it on a deeper level.

Shout to K.R.I.T. and Dutch for the love, as always, and the First Ladies for filming/editing!

Jhene and Gambino’s “Bed Peace” video is essentially an homage to John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s classic photograph and their general “peace & love” mentality.  Jhene’s vocals are nice and catchy, plus the overall message is one I definitely support and will try to remember with the ongoing battle between work and life.  Good to hear a more serious Gambino verse too, which may or may not hold some factual connection to his recent friendship with Jhene, if you’re into that tabloid stuff.

Now if I can just convince the label to make a clean edit for the airwaves…

One of the realest records of the year. I’m not sure Live From The Underground lived up to the immense expectations everyone had for it, but K.R.I.T. still delivered a good project and he’s clearly one of the best artists we have in hip-hop right now.

When news spread last week that Trinidad James signed a $2 million dollar record deal with Def Jam, many involved in the industry took to Twitter to give our two cents.  My mini-rant got picked up and spread around the net a bit (read most of it here), and we planned on discussing some of the issues on the air for this week’s SNSS.

However, that topic and the debates it sparked were rendered completely meaningless by the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut last Friday.  Our thoughts are with all those affected, which really should be everyone reading this.  Even if you weren’t directly touched by this event, you’ve undoubtedly been affected by gun violence and/or mental health issues at some point in your life.  Both are far too pervasive in our society and while both have been debated for years, it looks like this might have finally been a tipping point to move in the right direction, at least in terms of gun control regulations.  The debate can rage on for years (and has), it seems we might finally be able to close the “gun show loophole” and perhaps even accomplish a ban on assault weapons.  I haven’t heard one reasonable argument against either of those goals and they seem like the least we can do.  Between Newtown, Columbine, Blacksburg, and the day to day violence we see in places like Chicago and Detroit, we simply must do better.  An intelligent conversation and plan for moving forward is not too much to ask.

We touched on this topic a little during this week’s show, but the focus, as always, was on the music.  We played new records from artists like Game, J. Cole, JMSN, Talib Kweli, Jamall Bufford, John Legend, the Delfonics, Snoop Lion, Wais P, Big Boi, Little Dragon, and more.  Plus we were joined in studio by one of our favorite artists in Seattle, Dice.  Her debut album, Reflections In Broken Glass, comes out Tuesday!

Enjoy the show and be safe out there folks.

Show #392 (12-16-12)

1. Game ft. J. Cole & JMSN – “Pray”
2. Talib Kweli – “Fly Away (Apollo Brown Remix)”
3. Jamall Bufford – “10,000”
4. DJ Phinisey ft. Grynch & Hyphen8d – “This Road” (Local Music)
5. **INTERVIEW WITH DICE, PT. 1**
6. John Legend – “Who Did That To You”
7. Adrian Younge Presents The Delfonics – “Stop and Look (And You Have Found Love)”
8. Charlie Red – “Norah Jones”
9. **INTERVIEW WITH DICE, PT. 2**
10. Dice – “Celebration” (Local Music)
11. Kendrick Lamar ft. Drake – “Poetic Justice”
12. **INTERVIEW WITH DICE, PT. 3**
13. Snoop Lion ft. Mavado & Popcaan – “Lighters Up”
14. Truck North ft. Black Thought & Asher Roth – “Capital Crime”
15. Apollo Brown & Guilty Simpson ft. Planet Asia – “Nasty”
16. Wais P ft. Action Bronson – “Staten Island Ferry”
17. Big Sant – “Live”
18. Geto Boys – “Six Feet Deep” (Throwback of the Week)
19. Choklate – “Wide Open” (Local Music)
20. Big Boi ft. Little Dragon – “Descending”

Link to download/stream the mp3 of the show – http://www70.zippyshare.com/v/12311818/file.html
(back up link – http://linkmixes.com/6f7vv1e8woch)
(2nd back up – http://www.sharebeast.com/02vtchpmg33p)

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.

Chances are, if I post a preview of your video, I’m going to end up posting the full version when it drops. You already know what it is with Jhene.

Teaser from Frank and Nabil featuring his new “Cleopatra” record.  Frank will be performing at Showbox Market on July 13th here in Seattle and you won’t want to miss it.

SXSW had a lot of highlights, but seeing Jhene perform in person was definitely one of them. She sounded great too, which is pretty hard to do at a festival where horrible acoustics and inept soundboard operators are the norm. Impressive.

Here’s a quick preview of her lead single, “3:16am,” off her upcoming Def Jam debut. Fisticuffs on the beat.

The yin to my last post’s yang, I LOVE this record, but the video is too creepy for me.  I almost feel like if they just put Nabil’s “Swim Good” visuals to this track, it might turn out real dope.  Eh well, I’ll cope.

Bridget Kelly, on the other hand, must feel a little sideways about this song getting visuals after Frank supposedly wrote it for her Roc Nation project…