The Audacity of Dope

While in Seattle for the 2012 Capitol Hill Block Party, Malaysian-born singer Yuna visited SNSS for an interview and live performance.  We discussed her transition from Asia, the role MySpace, Indie Pop, and FADER played in her success, meeting and working with Pharrell, her creative process, her growing collection of cover records, life on tour, her self-titled US debut album, her next project, and more. Additionally, she performed two acoustic songs live in studio: “Live Your Life” (5:40) and “Decorate” (16:08).

Yuna is a true talent.  Catch up if you’ve been sleeping and keep an eye out for her to make some big waves in the near future.

Shout out to the Cornerstone, Detooz Films, and Le Fresh Perspective homies for helping make this happen.

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…

The homies at Fortune Sound Club in Vancouver, BC wanted to make sure our Seattle readers know that MPC wizard and all around dope beatsmith AraabMuzik will be performing on Thursday, September 22nd.  If you’re in the area or can make the trip, it should be a dope show.  Here’s one of my favorite tracks off his newly released instrumental album, Electronic Dream.

A few weeks ago, Shad performed at the Capitol Hill Block Party here in Seattle and his super talented DJ, T-Lo, sadly wasn’t able to make the trip. I was honored to step behind the tables and help keep the show moving in his absence, though I don’t think I’ll ever get used to being on stage. Just not for me.

Shad, on the other hand, is a natural. Above is a quick clip of him performing “Compromise,” a great record off his classic The Old Prince album.  If you missed the official video for the track, peep it here.

It’s so dope to see the homey Shad blowing up all over the world these days.  Right after Yeezy, SK is my second favorite artist out these days, and above all, him and his team are just good, cool folks.  Peep the video above to see clips from his recent performance in Cologne plus some interesting interview excerpts.

Sound Session listeners will remember that about a month ago, we co-hosted the show with the legendary Bilal.  Loyal listeners will remember our first interview with him from last year, but this time around, we dedicated the whole episode to his music.  We played nothing but Bilal records all night, mixing a sampling of our favorite songs from all 3 of his classic albums, some b-sides, and guest appearances with his colorful and insightful commentary.  He even closed out the show with a live performance of “Levels” off his newest project, Airtight’s Revenge.

I posted the audio of the entire show previously (download here), but now I’ve got the accompanying video up for y’all if you’re so inclined.  Be sure to check out part three, where he performed “Levels” live on the air to close out the show.

Cop Bilal’s latest album, Airtight’s Revenge, if you haven’t already.  Another classic!

[La Bamba] In the year 2000 [/Conan humor], I started working in radio at KSPC outside Los Angeles and as a college freshman, I was amazed by the freedom the indie broadcasting platform afforded me.  After looking through my personal collection, the music director was impressed and allowed me to play whatever I wanted, rather than being limited to the records in the station’s library.  As a result, my early playlists were filled with music from the Soulquarians, easily my favorite collective of artists back then…and still today.

Of all the classic albums they were involved with, perhaps the record I played the most was Bilal’s 1st Born Second.  Simply put, it’s flawless, front to back, and one of the most underrated pieces of music from the last 25 years.  If you would have told 18 year old Hyphen (who actually had a different, and horribly embarrassing nom de plume at the time) that I’d one day have Bilal co-host my radio show, I would have flipped.  Ok, I would have flipped twice: who knew I’d still be in radio 10 years later?  Shrug.

We’ve interviewed him before (peep it here), but it was a special honor to dedicate the entire episode of Sound Session this week to the genius that is Bilal Oliver.  We played nothing but Bilal records all night, mixing in a sampling of our favorite songs from all 3 of his classic albums, some b-sides, and guest appearances with his colorful and insightful commentary.  He even closed out the show with a live performance of “Levels” off his newest project, Airtight’s Revenge.

I’ll have the accompanying video up as soon as I can, but in the meantime, enjoy the audio.  Shout to Dru, JK, Hawk, Marc, and Chok for helping bring Bilal through the show.  Be sure to cop his albums if you haven’t already!

Show #281 (10-17-10)
**Co-hosted by Bilal**

1. Bilal – “For You”
2. Bilal – “Bring 2”
3. Bilal – “Cake & Eat It Too”
4. 88-Keys ft. Bilal – “M.I.L.F.”
5. Bilal – “Think It Over”
6. Bilal – “Sometimes”
7. Bilal ft. Mos Def & Common – “Reminisce”
8. Guru ft. Jay Dee & Bilal – “Certified”
9. Bilal – “All Matter”
10. Shafiq Husayn ft. Bilal – “Cheeba (Nottz Remix)”
11. Bilal – “Hollywood”
12. Bilal – “It’s Cold”
13. Bilal – “Soul Sista”
14. Bilal – “Funky For You (Interlude)”
15. Talib Kweli ft. Bilal – “Can I Talk To You (Lil’ Darlin’)”
16. Bilal – “Levels (Live On Sound Session)”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?k67xajkkqnupn8b
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/817543606bc77c35/)
(2nd back up – http://usershare.net/e7zxor62i5h0)

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.

Almost forgot that I grabbed this footage of Jay Electronica performing “Exhibit A” and “Exhibit C” at Bumbershoot a few weeks back.  I’ve heard people were split on his performance: some thought he got the pit area hype, while others were disappointed by how often his DJ cut out the beat and how many acapella verses he spit.  One thing’s for sure…if there’s any beat you should let play in its entirety, it’s “Exhibit C.”  Hearing that bang through the speakers was definitely a highlight of the festival (as was J. Cole’s performance).

After coming through the Sound Session studios for the web chat with fans that I posted a few days ago, J. Cole took to the main stage at the Bumbershoot Festival to perform alongside Drake and Mary J. Blige.  J. Moore and I hosted the show, so I grabbed some footage from the stage as Cole battled the rain and performed songs like “Blow Up,” “Who Dat,” “Lights Please,” “Grown Simba,” “A Star Is Born,” and more.

I’ll be posting up the interview we did soon as well, but enjoy the live show for now.  You gotta love the girls in the front row going crazy for Cole and also how hard the crowd rocked when “Grown Simba” dropped (at 8:27).  “Bitch, I’m about to blow up!”

New visuals by Gil Green for the lead single from John Legend and the Roots’ collaborative project covering classic soul records.  The old school shots in this one look great…as does Melanie Fiona, but you already knew that.