The Audacity of Dope

For all the Eastern Washington heads…

The long awaited video for Macklemore’s ode to Seattle and our hip-hop community is finally here, and as expected, Mack and director Zia Mohajerjasbi knocked it out the park.  Shout to everyone involved in the song, video, and our scene.  It was an honor to make a quick cameo in a clip that’s sure to be a town classic and I hope y’all enjoy it as much as I do.

“I know, it’s not the same, it never will be/
But my-my-my-my city’s filthy”

The homies Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are not only two of my favorite artists from the town, but they are also two of my favorite people in the Seattle music scene.  They’re just really cool dudes who love making art and take it pride in everything they do.  When you mix in their incredible talent on top of that (need proof?), it’s mandatory to check for everything they’re involved in.

Here’s their long awaited collaboration, The Vs. EP, where they sampled some contemporary bands and combined rock with hip-hop.  Don’t get it twisted though, this isn’t some half-assed, corny mash up project.  Instead, it’s an excellent piece of work where Ryan’s lush soundscapes are complimented perfectly by Mack’s heartfelt and sobering (quite literally) rhymes.  I can’t recommend this highly enough.

Download here.

As I was saying, the talent in the 206 is immense right now.  I meant to put this on TAOD when Ryan first sent it to me, but I failed.  Thankfully, 2DopeBoyz posted it up and reminded me about it.

In Ryan’s own words:

All summer I’ve been working on my thesis project to graduate from the UW. It’s another still-image motion picture like the 2Pac Vs. Franz Ferdinand mash-up I made last year. It features Macklemore and a few other people you may know (list below). Take in mind this is version one. Between limited access, finances, etc I couldn’t really pursue a lot of the ideas I originally envisioned in efforts to make it epic. I feel like the music got there more than the storyline. However, we may do an improved remix of it for the VS. (Macklemore/RyanLewis) EP featuring Mack rapping and a revised production more like a music video, shot with actual video.

It was shot entirely with regular still-image cameras (Canon 5D, Canon 5D Mark II, Nikon D300 and a Nikon D3), batch-edited in Photoshop and produced in Final Cut Pro. The music was probably the biggest Pro-Tools session I’ve ever ran. Although it samples the original Fake Empire’s piano and backing vocals, everything else was recorded live over numerous sessions.

Thanks a ton to everyone who helped:

The National – Fake Empire (Sample)
JkoePhoto.com (Jason Koenig) – Photographer
MazagranPhoto.com (Johnny Valencia) – Photographer
Myspace.com/Macklemore (Ben Haggerty) – Main Actor
Tricia Davis – Actor
Kevin Veatch – Electric Guitar, Electric Bass, Engineer
Andrew Joslyn – Violins and plucking
Zach Fleury – Main Drums, Percussion
Jonah Peters – Percussion
Ryan Lewis – Music Production, Photography, Film Production, Drums, Key Strings, Organ

We shot 100 + strangers portraits who choose a sticker that pertained to an organization/company that has either consumed them or acted as an alternative means of communication to operate with society.

Group Vocals –

P Smoov (Mad Rad)
Rosanna Veatch
Zach Fleury
Sol
Xperience
Macklemore
Anna Clausen
Isabella Du Graf
and more.

Also, Ryan has been working with a dope MC/vocalist named Symmetry for about 3 years now and I believe they’re just about to drop their full project for the masses.  Here’s a taste:

Symmetry / Ryan Lewis – “Fireflies”

For those who aren’t aware, the talent in Seattle is crazy right now.  One of my favorite releases of the year, local or national, was Fresh Espresso‘s Glamour, and Rik Rude & P-Smoov just enlisted Grynch, Macklemore, and Gatsby for the remix.  Video by Stephan Gray.  Bananas.

Fresh Espresso ft. Grynch, Macklemore, & Gatsby – “Something New (Remix)”

Here’s some footage shot by the legendary JKim at the Seattle release party for Exile’s Radio at Nectar Lounge.  This was a dope night all around – DJ Day and Ex killed their set, and I judged the Qualified Beat Battle.  Congrats again to the winner, Ohmega Watts, and shout to all those involved with putting on a great night.

Be on the lookout for Exile’s appearance on SNSS soon…more homies who were down at SXSW!

What up, what up?  I know it’s been a minute since I’ve posted anything up, but your boy has been mad busy.  After heading down to Oregon last weekend for a basketball tournament with my 6th grade select team that I coach, I promptly caught a crazy cold that has me stuck in bed.  I fought it all last week and seemed to be doing pretty well, but when you have a nagging cold and don’t eat or sleep well all week, it usually catches up to you.  Running around from 9am – midnight every day for weeks at a time definitely got to me.  And someone please tell me why it’s still snowing in March in Seattle…wtfffff.

Anyway, I hope to be blogging more again soon.  Here’s this week’s Sound Session to get things started.  Darn good show if I say so myself…

Show #197 (3-8-09)

1. Buggs Tha Rocka ft. Little Brother – “Get Away”
2. Reflection Eternal ft. Bootsy Collins – “Internet Connection”
3. Focus ft. Big Pooh, Sha Stimuli, & Kurupt – “Homage To Pete Rock”
4. DJ Babu ft. MF Doom & Sean Price – “The Unexpected”
5. **INTERVIEW WITH MACKLEMORE & CASSIUS**
6. Blame One ft. Sean Price – “Disturbed”
7. Nottz ft. Kardinal Offishall & Cory Gunz – “Can’t Hide The Truth”
8. Braille & S1 – “For Life” (Local Artist)
9. John Legend – “Lay Your Head Down”
10. Mayer Hawthorne – “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out”
11. Zion I ft. K. Flay – “Coastin’”
12. LaRue – “Rise Up” (Local Artist)
13. Kid Cudi – “Sky Might Fall”
14. TiRon ft. Ayomari – “3 Drink Minimum”
15. Ms. One ft. Black Milk & Big Pooh – “2 MC’s”
16. Drake – “Lust For Life”
17. Saigon & Statik Selektah – “The Rules”
18. Ripynt ft. Jazz Digga – “Can’t Take It” (Local Artist)
19. Pacific Division – “Mayor”
20. Slaughterhouse (Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Royce The 5’9”, & Crooked I) – “Fight Club”
21. Method Man & Redman – “A Yo”

Link to download the mp3 – http://www.mediafire.com/?ododhcoedzi
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/56841816dcd6056c/)

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.

I’ll be there…possibly telling you how your beats sound.