The Audacity of Dope

As I mentioned last week, I was supposed to miss this edition of SNSS but my trip out east was postponed thanks to Hurricane Irene.  God hit me on Twitter later and said he had to do it.  He’s been listening since day one and just didn’t think it’d be right if I wasn’t there.  Thanks big homey.

Thanks to DJ Descry as well, who allowed us to world premiere his new record with TiRon, Outasight, and Theo Martins.  Dope stuff.

Enjoy the rest of the show and if you’re in the Northwest, I hope to see you at Seattle’s Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival this weekend.  Here are a few snapshots of some of the hip-hop related artists performing for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.  J. Moore and I will be running around the festival all weekend, but you can catch us hosting the mainstage for Kendrick Lamar and Big Boi on Monday for sure.  Also, you’ll be vibing to my music picks during that show and the Macklemore/Wiz Khaifa performance.  It’ll be like listening to SNSS with 10,000 of your closest friends.  With beer spilled on you.

See you there!

Show #326 (8-28-11)

1. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Ray Dalton – “Can’t Hold Us” (Local Music)
2. Kendrick Lamar – “Hol’ Up”
3. Game ft. Drake – “Good Girls Go Bad”
4. Trackademicks ft. Freddie Gibbs, Phonte, & 1-O.A.K. – “Chill”
5. Phonte ft. Elzhi – “Not Here Anymore”
6. KJ – “Just Sometimes”
7. Jay-Z & Kanye West ft. Elly Jackson – “That’s My B*tch”
8. Little Dragon – “Ritual Union”
9. SBTRKT ft. Little Dragon & Shabazz Palaces – “Wildfire (Drumma Boy Remix)”
10. Dom Kennedy & Curren$y – “Hennessey Beach”
11. DTMD – “You”
12. Slum Village – “Players” (Throwback of the Week)
13. The Physics – “Love Is A Business” (Local Music)
14. Asher Roth – “Ampersand”
15. Maffew Ragazino ft. Action Bronson – “Jordan vs. Bird”
16. Danny Brown – “Radio Song”
17. Lil Wayne ft. Tech N9ne & Andre 3000 – “Tha Carter IV Interlude”
18. **Descry ft. TiRon, Outasight, & Theo Martins – “Money Won’t”** (World Premiere)
19. DJ Jazzy Jeff & Ayah ft. Kardinal Offishall, Skillz, & Shad – “Notorious (Remix)”
20. JayKin – “V.A.N. II” (Local Music)
21. The Weeknd – “Lonely Star”
22. STS ft. Count Justice – “WWW”
23. Union ft. Elzhi – “Wings”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?ns91jgodi71fsfk
(back up / streaming link – http://hulkshare.com/an11olixfqkc)
(2nd back up – http://www.zshare.net/audio/94250171a66430c2/)

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.

While I don’t anticipate ever being able to play this on Sound Session since a clean version would essentially turn in to an instrumental, this joint is dope. One of the reasons why we should be rooting for Kendrick to continue to blow up is that unlike many of the other new artists, K-Dot seems to take more chances with his music.  There’s a lot of talented cats killing it right now, but not too many seem to have the ability to make a 5 mic hip-hop classic.  Kendrick does.  We’ll see if he’s able to reach that potential, but with the release of Section.80, he continues his ascent.

As the hip-hop community, and all who love music, reel from the loss of the legendary Gil Scott-Heron, I thought to myself about the messages in his records.  Do today’s artists have the desire and ability to make music that elevates to the levels Gil effortlessly resided in? 

While mass media would certainly tell you otherwise, I think they can.  We certainly need music that offers us escape, but it’s vitally important that we continue to create good music with real purpose.

Shout to Kendrick for doing just that with one of the best songs of 2011 so far.

My strategy is to keep the circle to a minimum.  That way, I never even have to worry about cutting you off.  But in case you get too close and I need theme music, Kendrick provides it nicely.

Dope record from 2 of my favorite MC’s out right now, and Schoolboy Q is impressing me the more I hear from him.  Top Dawg has a nice stable of artists, I ain’t mad one bit.  Directed by Fredo Tovar and Scott Fleishman for APlusFilmz.

This joint gooooooooooes.  Kendrick is easily the 2010 Rookie Of The Year.

Don’t wowwy!

You probably already know that I’m obsessed with anything related to flashing lights and night time cityscapes.  If not, now you do.

This has been the jam for the past few weeks and I’m glad to see the Top Dawg crew turned it into a video.  Smooth, mellow beat, plus dope MC’s…what else do you need?

Kendrick is a cot damn beast, btw.

And the winner of “best artist to come out of nowhere and immediately become one of Hyphen’s favorites” is…

This kid Kendrick Lamar really came out of nowhere in the past year to become one of my favorite new MC’s.  He spazzed on this joint something crazy.  Shout to Dave for sending it through.