The Audacity of Dope

(L-R: Mic Phenom, Macklemore, iLL Chris, Grynch, & Hyphen. Photo by Nphared)

Special episode of Sunday Night Sound Session this week, as Nphared and I were joined in studio by local underground Seattle rapper turned international superstar, Macklemore.  Mack’s been a friend of SNSS since the very start and despite all his amazing worldwide success, he hasn’t changed as a person one bit.  It’s a testament to his character/personality, and the Seattle hip-hop scene in general, where I’ve always thought our most impressive characteristic has always been our authenticity.  We don’t have a specific “sound” in the Northwest, but instead, the common trait across most of our artists is that they’re pretty much all just genuine, down to earth people.  Mack epitomizes that.  He’s had years of personal growth and success, but at the core, he’s the same smart, talented, gracious, and hilarious kid he’s always been.

It was awesome to sit down with him and talk about all sorts of topics, from his new album (some exclusive info in there for y’all), touring, the odd nature of life as a celebrity, his friends in the industry, raising his daughter, and, of course, his memories of our beloved “Mayor,” J. Moore.  Jon put Mack on his first shows way back in the day and was a close friend throughout the years.  As with many of the successful folks in our scene, J started as a mentor to Mack and their relationship grew as Mack got older and became a peer.  I encourage you to read his tribute to Jon on Instagram if you haven’t already.  Of course we had to discuss the Egyptian musk story too…

Along with our chat, we ran new records from CyHi, J.I.D, Kendrick, GoldLink, Drake, Little Dragon, Amine, Tuxedo, Thundercat, Miguel + Premier, Jidenna, Loyle Carner, and more.  Special 20th anniversary throwback in honor of one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time.

Enjoy the show and as you’ll always hear us say going forward: rest in peace to J. Moore.

Show #588 (3/26/17)
**Co-hosted by DJ Nphared & Macklemore **

1. CyHi The Prynce – “Nu Africa”
2. J.I.D ft. EarthGang – “D/vision”
3. Kendrick Lamar – “The Heart, Pt. 4”
4. Kendrick Lamar – “The Heart, Pt. 1” (Throwback of the Week)
5. GoldLink ft. Jazmine Sullivan & Kaytranada – “Meditation”
6. Drake – “Passionfruit”
7. Little Dragon – “High”
8. Amine – “REDMERCEDES” (Local Music)
9. Tuxedo (Mayer Hawthorne & Jake One) – “Take A Picture” (Local Music)
10. Thundercat – “Friend Zone”
11. Miguel & DJ Premier – “2 Lovin U”
12. Jidenna – “White N****s”
13. Cole (of Brothers From Another) ft. Dave B, Thig Natural (of The Physics), & Otieno Terry – “Santa Monica” (Local Music)
14. Mark Steele ft. Nivam – “Turn Around”
15. Loyle Carner – “Mean It In The Morning”
16. Notorious B.I.G. – “I Got A Story To Tell” (Throwback of the Week)

Download – https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B72U-rgJjvmWWGNoRHU0cDVwT0k

If you’d like to be added to our weekly email list to receive the playlist and stream/download links after every show, just shoot me an email, DJHyphen@gmail.com.

If you’re reading this, either on our email blast or our blog, you’re probably aware that it has been a very difficult few weeks for us here in Seattle’s hip-hop community.  On March 8th, J. Moore passed away from the health issues he had been battling over the last year.  There are no words to express how devastating a loss this is for our city and our scene.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jon’s entire family, especially his sons Upendo and Miles.  If you’ve ever enjoyed an episode of Sound Session or if J impacted your life in any way, I ask you to please consider donating to his legacy fund, which will go towards education costs for his children.

One day, I hope to be in the right place to share how much Jon meant to me, but I’m unable to do so at the moment.  I’m an only child, but Jon’s been my brother since we started working on Sound Session together in 2005.  He meant the world to me and I’ll cherish all the time we got to spend together.  Love you forever J.

In the absence of my extended thoughts, I wrote some words for our KUBE tribute that you can read here.  I also recommend a few pieces in remembrance of Jon from Seattle Weekly (1 | 2), the Stranger, this excellent blog post, KEXP, and his Facebook wall, which is filled with countless amazing stories from some of the people he touched.

As for our show, I returned from my work trip to Brazil on Sunday and promptly hopped in the studio with DJ Nphared, DV-One, and Jake One to pick up where we left off.  We played some great new music (including Jake’s new single from Tuxedo) and shared some memories of J.  We even dusted off some of his old Source of Labor records.  It honestly felt like he was in the room with us, which I suspect will always be the case as long as SNSS is on the air.

My only regret is that the last half hour of the recording has some distortion (stuttering/clicking noises), so I apologize for that.  Hopefully you can still enjoy the music and stories.  We’ll adjust the studio equipment next week and aim for better quality.

Enjoy the show and tell all your family & friends that you love them.  We appreciate you and thank you greatly for your support.  Love & Light.

Show #587 (3/19/17)
**Co-hosted by DJ Nphared, DV-One, & Jake One**

1. Source of Labor – “Wetlands” (Local Music) (Throwback of the Week)
2. Brother Ali – “Own Light (What Hearts Are Made For)”
3. Oddisee – “Want To Be”
4. Drake ft. Jorja Smith & Black Coffee – “Get It Together”
5. Tuxedo (Mayer Hawthorne & Jake One) – “2nd Time Around” (Local Music)
6. J.I.D – “Never”
7. Nick Grant – “Luxury Vintage Rap”
8. CyHi The Prynce – “Nu Africa”
9. Will Sessions ft. Elzhi – “Knowledge Of 12th”
10. Sol – “Marathons” (Local Music)
11. Cole (of Brothers From Another) ft. Dave B, Thig Natural (of The Physics), & Otieno Terry – “Santa Monica” (Local Music)
12. Khalid – “8TEEN”
13. Frank Ocean – “Chanel”
14. Little Dragon – “High”
15. THURZ – “Iconic”
16. Jidenna – “White N****s”
17. Smino – “Anita”
18. Source of Labor – “Livication” (Local Music) (Throwback of the Week)

Download – https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B72U-rgJjvmWRVFxejZNX01tV0E

If you’d like to be added to our weekly email list to receive the playlist and stream/download links after every show, just shoot me an email, DJHyphen@gmail.com.

The King of Ballard himself takes us around his neighborhood in the visuals for his Jake One produced “Mr. Rogers.” Fun fact: the director, Griff J, did the first music video a young Hyphen made a cameo in (back…back…back in the day).

Grab Grynch’s Perspective album right here.

Oh goodness.

The King Of Ballard himself, Grynch, just dropped the visuals for his classic “My Volvo” record, complete with the Oreos in the dash.  Doesn’t get any better.

If you’re not up on the man’s music, GetGrynch.com.

I mean…look at all the homies involved.  It’s so dope to be able to call these folks friends and I couldn’t be prouder of what J. Moore and the fellas have built with the Big Tune series. Shout to the homey Budo on a huge win, but also congrats to KT for being an alien with beats human beings are not worthy of rapping over. If you weren’t lucky enough to be in Austin for this, enjoy the video recap…

Thank you Barney.

Bill Maher echoed much of what I’ve been saying for years in a recent blog for the Huffington Post.  Shout to DJ Nphared for sending this over, great stuff.

New Rule: Smart President ≠ Smart Country

New Rule: Just because a country elects a smart president doesn’t make it a smart country. A few weeks ago I was asked by Wolf Blitzer if I thought Sarah Palin could get elected president, and I said I hope not, but I wouldn’t put anything past this stupid country. It was amazing – in the minute or so between my calling America stupid and the end of the Cialis commercial, CNN was flooded with furious emails and the twits hit the fan. And you could tell that these people were really mad because they wrote entirely in CAPITAL LETTERS!!! It’s how they get the blood circulating when the Cialis wears off. Worst of all, Bill O’Reilly refuted my contention that this is a stupid country by calling me a pinhead, which A) proves my point, and B) is really funny coming from a doody-face like him.

Now, the hate mail all seemed to have a running theme: that I may live in a stupid country, but they lived in the greatest country on earth, and that perhaps I should move to another country, like Somalia. Well, the joke’s on them because I happen to have a summer home in Somalia… and no I can’t show you an original copy of my birth certificate because Woody Harrelson spilled bong water on it.

And before I go about demonstrating how, sadly, easy it is to prove the dumbness dragging down our country, let me just say that ignorance has life and death consequences. On the eve of the Iraq War, 69% of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11. Four years later, 34% still did. Or take the health care debate we’re presently having: members of Congress have recessed now so they can go home and “listen to their constituents.” An urge they should resist because their constituents don’t know anything. At a recent town-hall meeting in South Carolina, a man stood up and told his Congressman to “keep your government hands off my Medicare,” which is kind of like driving cross country to protest highways.

I’m the bad guy for saying it’s a stupid country, yet polls show that a majority of Americans cannot name a single branch of government, or explain what the Bill of Rights is. 24% could not name the country America fought in the Revolutionary War. More than two-thirds of Americans don’t know what’s in Roe v. Wade. Two-thirds don’t know what the Food and Drug Administration does. Some of this stuff you should be able to pick up simply by being alive. You know, like the way the Slumdog kid knew about cricket.

Not here. Nearly half of Americans don’t know that states have two senators and more than half can’t name their congressman. And among Republican governors, only 30% got their wife’s name right on the first try.

Sarah Palin says she would never apologize for America. Even though a Gallup poll says 18% of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth. No, they’re not stupid. They’re interplanetary mavericks. A third of Republicans believe Obama is not a citizen, and a third of Democrats believe that George Bush had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, which is an absurd sentence because it contains the words “Bush” and “knowledge.”

People bitch and moan about taxes and spending, but they have no idea what their government spends money on. The average voter thinks foreign aid consumes 24% of our federal budget. It’s actually less than 1%. And don’t even ask about cabinet members: seven in ten think Napolitano is a kind of three-flavored ice cream. And last election, a full one-third of voters forgot why they were in the booth, handed out their pants, and asked, “Do you have these in a relaxed-fit?”

And I haven’t even brought up America’s religious beliefs. But here’s one fun fact you can take away: did you know only about half of Americans are aware that Judaism is an older religion than Christianity? That’s right, half of America looks at books called the Old Testament and the New Testament and cannot figure out which one came first.

And these are the idiots we want to weigh in on the minutia of health care policy? Please, this country is like a college chick after two Long Island Iced Teas: we can be talked into anything, like wars, and we can be talked out of anything, like health care. We should forget town halls, and replace them with study halls. There’s a lot of populist anger directed towards Washington, but you know who concerned citizens should be most angry at? Their fellow citizens. “Inside the beltway” thinking may be wrong, but at least it’s thinking, which is more than you can say for what’s going on outside the beltway.

And if you want to call me an elitist for this, I say thank you. Yes, I want decisions made by an elite group of people who know what they’re talking about. That means Obama budget director Peter Orszag, not Sarah Palin.

Which is the way our founding fathers wanted it. James Madison wrote that “pure democracy” doesn’t work because “there is nothing to check… an obnoxious individual.” Then, in the margins, he doodled a picture of Joe the Plumber.

Until we admit there are things we don’t know, we can’t even start asking the questions to find out. Until we admit that America can make a mistake, we can’t stop the next one. A smart guy named Chesterton once said: “My country, right or wrong is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying… It is like saying ‘My mother, drunk or sober.'” To which most Americans would respond: “Are you calling my mother a drunk?”

If you don’t strive to be elite and hold others to the same standard, I’d prefer not to interact with you.  Sorry.  Peep the definition of “elitism” per Wikipedia:

Elitism is the belief or attitude that those individuals who are considered members of the elite—a select group of people with outstanding personal abilities, intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes—are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most weight or those who view their own views as so; whose views and/or actions are most likely to be constructive to society as a whole; or whose extraordinary skills, abilities or wisdom render them especially fit to govern.

Annnnnnnd, this is a bad thing?  Harder, better, faster, stronger.  Get right or get left.

The #1 problem in this country is our educational system and it’s downright criminal that we let so many people fall through the cracks.  These morons not only hinder our progression in every aspect of society, but they also send me their rap music on a daily basis.  Shots fired.  Just playin…kinda.

Super busy tonight, but y’all know the drill…be sure to peep the full interview with Melanie Fiona!

Show #214 (7-5-09)

1. Bishop Lamont ft. Xzibit – “Hallelujah”
2. The Kid Daytona ft. Bun B – “Air Born”
3. Royce The 5’9” – “Gun Harmonizing”
4. Slaughterhouse – “The One”
5. J. Cole – “Grown Simba”
6. Fashawn – “Life As A Shorty”
7. **INTERVIEW WITH GRYNCH, PT. 1**
8. Grynch ft. One Be Lo – “Chemistry” (Local Music)
9. Wu-Tang Clan ft. Ghostface Killah & Tre Williams – “I Wish You Were Here”
10. B.o.B – “Do You Have The Stamina”
11. The Physics – “I Just Wanna Beat” (Local Music)
12. **INTERVIEW WITH GRYNCH, PT. 2**
13. Major Lazer ft. Mr. Vegas & Jovi Rockwell – “Can’t Stop Now”
14. Mayer Hawthorne – “When I Said Goodbye”
15. **INTERVIEW WITH MELANIE FIONA (SNIPPET)**
16. Melanie Fiona – “You Stop My Heart”
17. **INTERVIEW WITH GRYNCH, PT. 3**
18. Mycle Wastman – “As Long As I’m With You” (Local Music)
19. Consequence ft. Kanye West & John Legend – “Whatever U Want”
20. Alchemist ft. Eminem – “Chemical Warfare”
21. Chali 2Na ft. Elzhi – “When Will I See You Again”
22. The Freshmen ft. Nio Tha Gift – “Hello There”
23. K’Naan – “Wavin’ Flag”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?0dmtmztji0i
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/62326051304d4363/)

Link to download the full interview with Melanie Fiona – http://www.mediafire.com/?2m4glq2znej
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/62326399c6288270/)

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.

If you’ve been following along, we’ve hit some nice milestones recently, namely Show #200 a few weeks ago.  It doesn’t take a math major to realize that 200 shows = 200 weeks and give or take a few Sundays off, that’s adding up to about 4 years.  Well this past week, we officially celebrated 4 full years of Sunday Night Sound Session on KUBE 93.

While we have a lot of fun on SNSS and don’t take ourselves very seriously at all, broadcasting a show like ours on a 100K-watt Clear Channel station in a top market for 4 years is actually a pretty special accomplishment.  As a media studies major from back in my college days, I’ve always been cognizant of the effects of media consolidation and the danger it brings.  To combat that, it’s been a pleasure using the airwaves and the website to provide a powerful, consistent voice for alternative and independent artists from around the world.  It’s a responsibility we take seriously and we work hard every week to create a quality program for listeners to enjoy.  All the while, our number one goal is to be true to our beliefs and represent the hip-hop culture with the respect it deserves.

To four…and hopefully many more…years of SNSS – “raise your glasses to the sky”

Show #207 (5-17-09)

1. Raekwon ft. Method Man & Ghostface Killah – “New Wu”
2. Elzhi – “Deep”
3. Cory Gunz ft. Willie The Kid & MarVo – “A New Day”
4. Drake ft. Bun B – “Uptown”
5. Mos Def – “Casa Bey”
6. Donny Goines ft. Outasight & Peter Hadar – “Sublime”
7. Scribes – “Roll My Way” (Local Artist)
8. Chester French – “Time To Unwind”
9. Eminem – “My Mom”
10. Asher Roth – “La Di Da”
11. Bruce Leroy – “Million Dollar Dream” (Local Artist)
12. Busta Rhymes – “Shoot For The Moon”
13. Izza Kizza ft. Colin Munroe – “Connect The Dots”
14. Colin Munroe ft. Joell Ortiz – “Piano Lessons”
15. The Kid Daytona – “The Engine”
16. **INTERVIEW WITH BLUE SCHOLARS, GRYNCH, & DV-ONE**
17. Toni Hill – “This Thing Called Love” (Local Artist)
18. Slakah The BeatChild ft. Drake – “Enjoy Ya Self (Remix)”
19. Julian Marley ft. Damian Marley – “Violence In The Streets”
20. J Dilla ft. Black Thought – “Reality TV”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?zuuymgqmjjz
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/60217878c91f946b/ )

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’m glad this video is dope, because otherwise I’d almost feel contractually obligated to post it.  Let’s see…

• It features a ton of my good friends.
• It bigs up the 206.
• The Red Bull Big Tune was created by the other half of Sound Session, J. Moore, along with the homies Jake One, Vitamin D, and Marcus.
• I was in the building.
• It’s a great event.
• Budo is hilarious.

I could go on, but the video is pretty self explanatory.  Congrats to Brainstorm and Rising Son for advancing to the finals in NYC.  Let’s hope we get back to back Seattle champions…