The Audacity of Dope

New Little Dragon! Nabuma Rubberband will be released May 13th.  Enough said.

Actually, one more thing: the illustrious NABIL handled Creative Director duties on this one.  Dude is a beast.

Even with the product placement (which I’m ok with if it provides more support & exposure for the band), Little Dragon can do no wrong.  Pretty much in love with the band and Yukimi at this point.  #NoShame

Yukimi, Fred, Erik, and Hakan answer a few questions in this interview and then perform two unreleased, never heard before songs: “Sunshine” and a cover of the Eurythmics’ “Here Comes The Rain Again.”  Easily one of my favorite bands in music these days…

No Yukimi in the video = no bueno, but it’s still a cool, quirky clip and one of the best records of the year. Just the thought of memorizing a full deck of playing cards gives me an aneurysm though…

Take chances and come closer to me babe // I’m falling out…now

This past week, J. Moore and I were joined in studio by the legendary Raphael Saadiq. While we thoroughly enjoy breaking new artists and conducting interviews with up and coming musicians, there’s always something special about chopping it up with someone of Saadiq’s stature. The man has been one of the brightest starts in R&B for over 20 years and yet couldn’t be a nicer, more down to earth dude.

In the first part of the interview above, we spoke about his new Stone Rollin’ album, the “neo” & “retro” soul tags heaped on his recent work, his creative process, his collaboration with Little Dragon, and more.

In the second half of the interview, Saadiq spoke about his fondest memories of the Tony! Toni! Toné! and Lucy Pearl days, his proudest moment in music, his advice for young artists, and even playing basketball with Prince.

If you prefer to listen to the audio instead, you can grab it below:

Raphael Saadiq on Sound Session – http://www.mediafire.com/?97cxf19frx4o7r7
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/891679810db2ee03/)

During our discussion, I mistakenly stated that Stone Rollin’ was in stores now (mp3’s have sadly rendered release dates somewhat moot…for listeners at least), when in actuality, the album will be released May 10th.  My bad.  Go support it when it drops!

Another week in the books and another reminder why as maddening as this industry can be, there are still so many dope people involved and so many good reasons why we can’t give it up.  On Wednesday, J. Moore and I checked out one of our favorite groups (and my fellow Swedish brethren), Little Dragon, for their third performance at Nectar in Seattle.  Since we’ve been supporting the group for a bit (peep one of our older interviews & their new music video right here), they’re the homies these days and it’s always fun to catch up with them.  The band is blowing up so in between touring with the Gorillaz and lead singer Yukimi recording for Raphael Saadiq’s upcoming album, you need to go check them out when they’re in your town.  Has Sound Session ever steered you wrong about an artist?

If you answered, “yes, remember Kevin Michael?”…you win.  But that wasn’t our fault!  He had all the tools to be a dope artist and perhaps one day we’ll see that fulfilled.  That said, I’m still struggling to see how you go from this…to this?  Ruh roh.  Even Lauryn told him to reel it in a notch.

Anyway, we followed up Little Dragon by chopping it up with close friend of the show, Lupe Fiasco, on Friday.  We ran a contest allowing 20 listeners to win a meet and greet by submitting their favorite Lupe verse and, quite simply, the responses floored me.  We had about 200 entrants in less than 2 days and almost every verse was different.  It was amazing to see how many people Lu has inspired with his music and also to such degrees.  There were stanzas in his verses that literally changed peoples’ lives.  Pretty cool.

After the meet and greet, we broadcast a live interview with Lu over the net and followed that up with a web chat firing listener questions at him.  You can see both archived as one video right here and while we may produce some snazzier looking video in the coming week(s) for the blogs, there’s a TON of great Lupe info in there for you right now.  We discussed everything from his upcoming album…to food…to his surprisingly balleriffic car collection.  And on that note, Lu wanted to make sure everyone saw his endorsement of the Corvette ZHZ he rented from Hertz while in town, so we grabbed some footage on the iPhone just cause.  Laughs here.

So yeah…after yet another week filled with #inboxmadness, sometimes you need these little reminders as to why we do what we do.  Above all, it’s just the music…but it’s vital to interact with other music lovers, not listeners, every now and then.  We’re a dying breed…

Show #294 (1-16-11)

1. J. Cole – “Too Deep For The Intro”
2. Outasight – “Losing My Mind”
3. Thee Tom Hardy ft. GQ – “So Outrageous”
4. Slaughterhouse ft. The Lox – “Put Some Money On It (Remix)”
5. Roc Marciano ft. Sean Price – “Snow (Remix)”
6. Saigon ft. Faith Evans – “Clap”
7. Killer Mike – “Burn”
8. Ghostface Killah ft. Killah Priest & GZA – “Purified Thoughts”
9. ChillxWill – “Systems” (Local Music)
10. Kanye West & Jay-Z – “H.A.M.”
11. Kanye West – “Hell Of A Life”
12. U-N-I – “Donkey Kong”
13. TiRon & Ayomari – “Good Food”
14. Brothers From Another ft. Sol & JusMoni – “New Easy Lift” (Local Music)
15. Asher Roth & Nottz ft. Colin Munroe – “Dontcha Wanna Be (My Neighbor)”
16. Talib Kweli – “I’m On One”
17. Fortilive ft. Skyzoo – “Jim Kelly”
18. John Crown – “Be’s That Way” (Local Music)
19. Big Sean – “Final Hour”
20. Lupe Fiasco – “The Show Goes On”
21. Black Star – “Brown Skin Lady” (Throwback of the Week)
22. JR & PH7 ft. Shawn Jackson – “She Loves Me”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?5p6t9y1laqc9f8z
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/853878561c5d77c7/)
(2nd back up – http://usershare.net/zn3tx071hb1x)

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.

Our friends from Sweden just killed it at Nectar last week…again…and I stumbled across their new video for “My Step,” one of my favorite records off 2009’s Machine Dreams.  Be on the lookout for the new album soon!

If you missed it, peep our last interview with the band here:

Just another weekend here at SNSS…you know: Halloween night, having Maseo from the legendary De La Soul co-host with us, playing crazy dope records, etc..  The usual really.

But in all seriousness, this was a really fun episode for us.  Maseo and J. Moore go way back, so it was great to have him come through and talk ish while we spun joints from folks like Lupe, Nottz, Kid Cudi, Aloe Blacc, Mayer Hawthorne, J-Live, Kanye, and more.  We got the low down on the incredible Gorillaz/N.E.R.D./De La Soul/Little Dragon tour that’s shutting down stadiums all over the country, plus heard an update on De La’s next album.  All sorts of fun.  Tune in and enjoy!  RIP Granma Hyphen and Gregory Isaacs too…

Show #283 (10-31-10)
**Co-hosted by Maseo (of De La Soul)**

1. Young Buck ft. Lupe Fiasco – “AM/FM”
2. Lupe Fiasco – “The Show Goes On”
3. Rashid Hadee – “Someday”
4. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Xperience – “Crew Cuts (Jake One Remix)” (Local Music)
5. De La Soul – “The Return Of D.S.T.”
6. Nottz ft. Dwele – “You Need This Music”
7. Kanye West ft. Jay-Z, Pete Rock, Kid Cudi, & Charlie Wilson – “The Joy”
8. Kid Cudi ft. Mary J. Blige – “These Worries”
9. Wiz Khalifa – “Mezmerized”
10. State Of The Artist – “Chief Seattle” (Local Music)
11. The Kid Daytona – “Fly Lullaby”
12. J-Live – “Home Or Away”
13. Candidt ft. Maya Jenkins – “Imaginary Stereo” (Local Music)
14. N.E.R.D. ft. T.I. – “Party People”
15. Gregory Isaacs – “Night Nurse” (Throwback of the Week)
16. Aloe Blacc – “I Need A Dollar”
17. Slakah The Beatchild – “B-Boy Beef V2”
18. Mayer Hawthorne – “No Strings”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?44ad4p1wa452bw5
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/8224655563edbab0/)
(2nd back up – http://usershare.net/d6amsy4qk6wh)

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.

Another fun episode of SNSS this week and another great weekend full of dope shows here in Seattle.  Not only did Freeway and Jake One cap off the weekend with an epic performance at the Stimulus Package release party on Sunday night, but one of our favorite groups out there, Little Dragon, made their second appearance in the town on Friday.  J. Moore and I recorded a quick interview with our Swedish friends aboard their tour bus, so be sure to peep that video if you haven’t already.

Other than that…enjoy the dopeness:

Show #254 (4-11-10)

1. Joell Ortiz ft. Novel – “Call Me (Statik Selektah Remix)”
2. Gil Scott-Heron ft. Nas – “New York Is Killing Me (1200 Squad Remix)”
3. Opio – “Aggression”
4. Erykah Badu ft. Kirsten Agnesta – “Incense”
5. Cook ft. Tunji & Deacon The Villain – “Towards The Future”
6. Pac Div ft. Ty$ – “Rollin’”
7. Asheru ft. Raheem DeVaughn – “Boondocks”
8. Miguel ft. J. Cole – “All I Want Is You”
9. Sonny Bonoho – “Dark Everyday” (Local Music)
10. Little Brother – “Tigallo For Dolo”
11. Danny Brown – “Gametime”
12. Delorean – “Dear Langston”
13. Roc Marciano – “Raw Deal”
14. Brother Ali & Fashawn – “Breakin’ Dawn Boys”
15. Big Boi – “Shutterbug”
16. After The Smoke – “Typical Weekend”
17. Yahzarah – “Why Dontcha Call Me No More”
18. Gorillaz ft. Little Dragon – “Empire Ants”
19. D.I.T.C. – “Day One” (Throwback of the Week)
20. Vitamin D ft. The Note – “Who Dat????” (Local Music)
21. J. Pinder – “Three Words” (Local Music)

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?mtkocmzjj2o
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/7490820659841040/)
(2nd back up – http://usershare.net/dndc13h74r2q)

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 in town last night for a show at Nectar, J. Moore and I got a chance to hang out with one of our favorite groups, Little Dragon, aboard their tour bus.  Yukimi, Erik, Fredrik, and Håkan talked about their current US tour, their record label situation, the success of the band so far, how their collaboration with the Gorillaz came about, their early plans for the next album, and more.

If you haven’t checked out both their self titled debut and last year’s Machine Dreams, I really can’t recommend Little Dragon enough.  They can flip pretty much any style, they’re supremely talented, and above all, they’re good people.  Additionally, when you see them perform live, you can just tell that they love music.  It may sound silly, but not a lot of artists seem to share Little Dragon’s passion for creating and enjoying the music they make.  It really comes through on record and in their live performances.  They’re destined for big things…