The Audacity of Dope

Greatness.

ManifestoTV caught up with Shad for his recent Toronto performance and also shot a quick interview with the dopest MC out right now.  Stop sleepin’!

If you’re like me, you’ve been listening to Drake’s Thank Me Later album quite heavily the past few weeks, so you’ll probably also enjoy this interview with Semtex.  While they don’t break down every song on the album (I would have been particularly interested to hear the story behind “Karaoke”), there’s a lot of good info in here.  I did laugh at the “sounds like your parents played a big role in your life” question though.  Generally speaking, that’s pretty much what they tend to do.

You can also check out footage of Drake murdering our Summer Jam last night over on the KUBE site.  It was impressive to watch, thinking back to when we played him over 3 years ago on Sound Session.  I never would have anticipated his success to be this great, but it’s really ill to have the hottest rapper of the moment actually be dope.  Novel concept, I know.

While on tour with Reflection Eternal (check our interview here) and U-N-I, one of the nicest up and coming MC’s in the game, Laws, stopped by the Sound Session studio to chop it up.  We talked all about his background, linking up with the J.U.S.T.I.CE. League production team, his 4:57 mixtape with Don Cannon, his upcoming Yesterday’s Future project, and more.  Check out the links below for the full interview!

Laws on Sound Session – http://www.mediafire.com/?mz1yu3znh20
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/772049093f61ac06/)

If you haven’t downloaded 4:57 yet, grab it right here.

(Part One in HD on HyphenTV)

As I mentioned in the post with just the audio, Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek came through Sound Session two weeks ago to talk all about their new album.  Here’s the entire in-depth interview with these two legendary hip-hop figures, and more importantly, just two all around good dudes.  Support them by copping Revolutions Per Minute and for the youngins who never bought Train of Thought, you better get that too!

Part 1: “RPM’s,” “City Playgrounds,” and “Back Again.”

(Part Two in HD on HyphenTV)

Part 2: Affion Crockett/Russell Simmons skits, being considered “conscious,” the marketing of “neo soul,” “Strangers” featuring Bun B, “In This World,” sampling Jay-Z’s classic lyric, “Got Work,” and more.

(Part Three in HD on HyphenTV)

Part 3: “Midnight Hour” featuring Estelle, “Lifting Off,” the war on drugs, “In The Red,” and more.

(Part Four in HD on HyphenTV)

Part 4: “Ballad Of The Black Gold,” energy consumption, live instrumentation vs. samples, “Just Begun” with Jay Electronica, J. Cole, and Mos Def, and more.

(Part 5 in HD on HyphenTV)

Part 5: “Long Hot Summer,” working as a group, “Get Loose” with Chester French, “So Good” and the return of MC Hi-Tek, the absence of Dion on the album, and more.

(Part 6 in HD on HyphenTV)

Part 6: “Ends” featuring Bilal, the pursuit of money, music piracy, the autobiographical outro of “My Life,” the future of Reflection Eternal, and more.

Enjoy!

Pardon the delay in archiving the last 2 episodes of Sound Session, but I wanted to make sure I gave you guys every option for checking out our in depth interview with Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek, collectively known as Reflection Eternal.  In celebration of their new album, Revolutions Per Minute, Talib and Tek came through to talk about every song on the project and the inspirations behind them all.  Consider this an “Inside The Rapper’s Studio” style interview, not for the faint of heart.  Oh…and BUY THE ALBUM!!!!

Note – the interview played on air was not the full discussion.  If you’d like to check out the entire interview, please view the videos through the link below.

Show #261 (5-30-10)

1. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 1**
2. Reflection Eternal – “RPM’s”
3. Reflection Eternal – “City Playgrounds”
4. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 2**
5. Reflection Eternal ft. Res – “Back Again”
6. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 3**
7. Reflection Eternal ft. Bun B – “Strangers (Paranoid)”
8. Reflection Eternal – “In This World”
9. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 4**
10. Reflection Eternal – “Got Work”
11. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 5**
12. Reflection Eternal ft. Estelle – “Midnight Hour”
13. Reflection Eternal – “Lifting Off”
14. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 6**
15. Reflection Eternal – “In The Red”
16. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 7**
17. Reflection Eternal – “Ballad Of The Black Gold”
18. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 8**
19. Reflection Eternal ft. Jay Electronica, J. Cole, & Mos Def – “Just Begun”
20. Reflection Eternal – “Long Hot Summer”
21. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 9**
22. Reflection Eternal ft. Chester French – “Get Loose”
23. Reflection Eternal – “So Good”
24. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 10**
25. Reflection Eternal ft. Bilal – “Ends”
26. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 11**
27. Reflection Eternal – “My Life”
28. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 12**

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?yweowynmtqk
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/76743509fd03f5b6/)
(2nd back up – http://usershare.net/bdytv0q0rr07)

Link to download just the interview breaks – http://www.mediafire.com/?l4wommmmwyn
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/7674405781126bf1/)
(2nd back up – http://usershare.net/y65gnbvwms07)

Watch video of the interview – https://www.theaudacityofdope.com/2010/06/08/reflection-eternal-on-sound-session/

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.

On Saturday, May 29th, Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek will be making the Seattle stop on their Revolutions Per Minute Tour at the Showbox Market.  We’ve been giving away tickets on the air through Sound Session, but now we’re extending a special offer to our loyal readers on The Audacity of Dope and KUBE93.com.

We’ll be interviewing the duo at 2pm on Saturday and if you would like to join us to meet and hang out with Reflection Eternal, email me – DJHyphen@gmail.com – these 3 things:

1. Name Talib’s business partner for their label, Blacksmith Music.
2. Name 3 guests from Reflection Eternal’s Train Of Thought album.
3. Name the first video released from their new album, Revolutions Per Minute.

I’ll pick 2 winners and you’ll each be allowed to bring a guest to the interview.  It’s just that simple.  What are you waiting for?  Go!

Contest ends Thursday, May 27th, at 3pm Pacific Time.

Interview coming soon…

(shout to OnSmash with the premiere)

I love that I can follow up a post on design reform geared towards the triple bottom line with a hip-hop video/song that’s hard as f**k.  Such is, TAOD.

Anyway, I think Till The Casket Drops had a few sub-par moments (only for the Clipse’s high standards), but the highlights are 3 of the best tracks of the past year: “Kinda Like A Big Deal,” “Popular Demand,” and now “Freedom.”  Malice’s verse is nice, but Pusha slaughtered it.  He owns you all.

Be sure to check out our last interview with the Clipse as well, right here.

My nerd crush on Ms. Pilloton aside (smart women FTW), this is awesome.

In short, she graduated from Berkeley trained as an architect, but after working a few years in “the real world” making conventional goods, she realized she wanted to do more.  At 26, she founded Project H Design, a non-profit created to put design innovation to better use.  Rather than focus on making money, Project H seeks “the triple bottom line: planet, people, & profit.”

As a post grad that’s been disillusioned with the rat race from time to time myself, I love that she took a chance and put her ideals first.  It’s actually not that different from our mindset with Sound Session…well, in terms of doing work you believe in, rather than “selling out” if you well.  Kudos to Emily and if you’d like to read more or become involved, check out their site.

Here’s a great presentation of hers from last year that explains things a little further:

Seattle people: it looks like they have a chapter here in the 206, so if you’re looking for some direction in life and have extra time on your hands, you know what to do.