The Audacity of Dope

There are few things more rewarding for those of us who really live and breathe this music and culture than seeing talented artists, who are also good people with good teams, break through and get the success they deserve. I couldn’t be happier to see someone like Big K.R.I.T. get shine on a major label and have a hit record on his hands with the “Country Sh*t” remix. Kudos to his whole team and to Def Jam for getting this one right.

Seattle folks: come see K.R.I.T. at our Summer Jam on July 16th at the White River Amphitheater!

I heard this video dropped, but I hadn’t had a chance to peep it yet until the homey Todd Angkasuwan alerted me via Twitter:

Yessir!  If you don’t remember, we had Raheem in studio last year for Sound Session and he blessed us with a little a capella preview of “Bulletproof,” peep game:

Todd definitely did the song justice too.  Great record and great visuals!

Sometimes the industry moves fast, sometimes it moves slow.  We had Raheem DeVaughn on Sound Session in February of last year when he had just released Love Behind The Melody, and at the time, he was planning on dropping the follow up later in 2008.  Plans changed however, but his new single with Ludacris just leaked yesterday and lo and behold, it’s the same song he previewed for us a year and a half ago.

Since we grabbed this footage before TAOD was in existence, I figured I would bring it back for those who may have missed it.  Here’s the studio version of the track with Luda as well, courtesy of 2DopeBoyz:

Raheem DeVaughn ft. Ludacris – “Bulletproof”

If you want to go back and check out the full interview with Raheem, click here or peep our podcast page…although you’ll have to scroll down a bit haha.  Damn, we’ve interviewed hella folks…we might have to dip into the archives and put up all the interviews we did in the first 2 years of Sound Session too, cause those aren’t up there yet.  Rest assured though, as the son of a librarian, I’ve got everything archived offline.

As much as I love all my favorite classic artists, there’s really nothing better than seeing the next generation come up and begin to establish themselves.  I remember when I first heard of B.o.B., I was impressed, but not blown away.  Fast forward to almost 2 years later and now I’m definitely a huge fan of Mr. Bobby Ray.  He killed every verse and hook in 2008 and ’09 will officially be his break out year.

Not only is he insanely talented, but he’s also a real cool dude.  You all saw a glimpse of that in the “Autotune” video, but I got to see it firsthand when B.o.B., Playboy Tre, and their manager B. Rich came through Sound Session to chop it up a while back.  We talked all about their backgrounds, B.o.B.’s upcoming debut album, the lead single (“I’ll Be In The Sky”), their ability to write infectious hooks, why their music has to be genuine, why the industry needs a reality check, and much more.  You can check out the full interview below:

B.o.B. & Playboy Tre on Sound Session – http://www.mediafire.com/?xnlx1wmo0gz
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/54012448089f57ba/ )

Big shout to the whole crew for dropping by and a special shout to TJ Chapman too.  Get ready for the B.o.B./Tre takeover in ’09, for real.

Jay Smooth drops another one of his excellent vlogs, this time commenting on the faux news story regarding Luda’s Obama freestyle a few weeks back.  As always, he’s on point.  It’s annoying to see people with no understanding of our hip-hop culture talking about it on the news, but Jay makes a great point that Luda really should know better.  There have been a bunch of less tactful Obama songs/references too, but none with as high a profile as this one.  I knew it was going to be trouble when the story broke and some agencies were calling him an actor instead of rapper.  That’s when you know you’ve made it to the next tier and your words are going to be given a lot more legitimacy, right or wrong.

As further proof that Obama is the perfect presidential candidate for the hip-hop generation, here’s a clip from earlier this year:

I agree completely, and it’s shocking to see that kind of intelligence and understanding from a politician.  If you’re involved with hip-hop culture and NOT planning on voting for Obama, I’d love to know why.  Not to say it’s not possible, but you better have some substantive policy disagreements…