The Audacity of Dope

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.

Yes y’all, the time has finally come for the release of the newest Cornerstone Mixtape, presented by J. Moore, DJ B-Mello, and yours truly.  For those of you who aren’t familiar, Cornerstone is one of the preeminent marketing companies in the music industry and they’ve been releasing a monthly mixtape for years.  The hosts of each edition are hand selected by the Cornerstone staff and to be picked is considered a pretty high honor within hip-hop, one we’re thankful and proud to receive.  Some of the past participants  include  legends like DJ Premier, Pete Rock, DJ Jazzy Jeff, the Fantastic Four (from Friday Night Flavas), DJ Revolution, and countless others.  J and I are excited to be able to join those ranks and represent Seattle alongside our longtime friend and fellow DJ, the original West Coast Tapemaster, DJ B-Mello.

To be honest, it’s a bit surreal to see myself plastered on one of these covers since I’ve been collecting the tapes for years.  To go from a kid bumming copies from my industry friends each month, to being added to the Cornerstone ship list (what up TNT!), to now helping host a tape myself…I can’t front, it’s a really cool feeling.  Big shout to the entire 1200 Squad, particularly Blaze Wong, J, Dru Ha, and Rob Stone, for working with me throughout my college radio years and now at KUBE with Sunday Night Sound Session.  They truly respect and live this culture, and they recognize folks who are helping keep it alive like J, Mello, and myself.  Much appreciated fellas.

Alright, enough sentimentality.  If you’re interested, peep the tracklisting for our mix and download it through one of the links below.  We finished this up back in April, so a few of the songs are a little old right now.  That said, I think we did a pretty damn good job keeping it current and we even managed to hang on to a couple exclusives…no small feat in this day and age.  As always, our goal was to provide you with some great music and perhaps expose you to an artist you might not be familiar with.

Please feel free to repost and share around the net to all your people.  Most importantly, just like on my old Beats, Rhymes, and Life mixtapes, remember to support the artists if you’re feeling their music!

Download Cornerstone Mixtape #115 – http://sharebee.com/9c9bde51
(back up link #1 – http://www.mediafire.com/?ejzak2y2itz)
(back up link #2 – http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7IHDF1P6)

Enjoy!

That’s riiiiiiight!  More info coming soon.