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.

I always preferred No Doubt’s ska sound over their pop records, but they’ve generally done an admirable job trying to merge the two.  I’m not mad at this record, but I really wanted to posted the video because Gwen Stefani is 42 years old.  Are you kidding me?  Whatever her, Nas, and Pharrell are doing, it’s downright spooky at this point.

And just for kicks, some of my favorite previous No Doubt videos:

Yuna’s latest visuals are for “Live Your Life,” the excellent Pharrell produced lead single for her upcoming album dropping in April.

This is my favorite song out right now, shout to Rob Stone and the Cornerstone homies for putting me up on this. I may or may not have a crush on Yuna too.  Here’s the original, beyond classic unplugged version from Nirvana, just for good old times sake:

Perhaps it’s just me, but the way Fam-Lay’s rhyming on this doesn’t sound like what I’m used to from him. That’s not a bad thing though, since it’s a dope record. The beat has that typical Neptunes feel, but with a bit of Erick Sermon influenced twist. As for the video, I’m convinced that the Star Trak camp hangs with nothing but the finest females…

Un court-métrage de 2004. Écoutez, je ne sais pas ce que vous dites…mais vous êtes belle.

The OFWGKTA takeover continues but simply put, breaking things and acting crazy doesn’t hold my attention. Dope music, however, does. Thankfully, Pusha and Tyler provide the latter, even if there are elements of the video that seem pretty pointless but I’ll let the kids go ahead and RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE.

Mitch: Here it is folks, the debut solo project from the recent G.O.O.D. Music addition, Pusha T, featuring appearances from Rick Ross, Kanye, 50 Cent & more. Now we just need that new Clipse album and we’re set. Download link below…

1. Intro
2. My God
3. I Still Wanna f. Rick Ross & Ab-Liva
4. Money On My Mind Freestyle
5. Feeling Myself f. Kevin Cossom
6. Blow (Funk Flex Freestyle)
7. Cook It Down Freestyle
8. Open Your Eyes
9. Can I Live Freestyle
10. Raid f. 50 Cent & Pharrell
11. Touch It f. Kanye West
12. Speakers Going Hammer Freestyle
13. Alone in Vegas (Outro)

Pusha T – Fear Of God (Mixtape)

It wouldn’t surprise me if this was real home video of Pharrell…must be a nice life.  Minus points for the blatant Beats By Dre product placement (are we really doing that for EVERY Interscope video for the past 3 years?) and poor audio syncing to the video.  No excuse for that with the production budget.  This is actually one of my least favorite records on Nothing, but it’s cool.  20’s.  50’s.  5’s.  10’s.

This makes no kind of sense whatsoever.  I love tricks like these.