The Audacity of Dope

Hahahahah…shout to the homey Tone for sending this over. Classic.

Deacon The Villain, Kno, and Natti are back with new visuals off their latest release, Strange Journey Volume Two.  Produced by J-Zone (that beat is banoodles) and directed by Kno and Matt Hobbs, this video came out great.  And as we all know:

Dope video from CL’s performance at the 2009 QN5 Megashow from NYC a few weeks back.  Deacon, Natti, and Kno performed their entire A Piece of Strange album (which is a certified hip-hop classic) with Club Dub backing them up.

Unfortunately, I don’t believe the band will be joining them on their upcoming tour, but regardless, you won’t want to miss this show when it rolls through your town.

Seattle folks: you can catch CL performing with Looptroop Rockers, the homey Tunji, and some of our hometown heroes, Grieves & Budo, on November 25th at Neumos.  Be there.

Ahahahahahaha, greatness.  Though to be fair, range is generally not our problem.  It’s every other skill set on the highest level, but we have jumpers for days.

Via the new and improved QN5.com.

This joint follows that last post nicely.

So as I was saying, people who run around complaining that NYC has fallen off have no idea what they’re talking about, plain and simple.  Regardless of what superstars are dominating the mainstream hip-hop coverage, New York artists like PackFM and Domingo have been releasing quality music for years.  So remember all those years where you saw nothing but shiny suits and XXXXXXXXXXL white tee’s and you pined for “real” hip-hop?

It’s been there the whole time.  Stop sleeping.  PackFM & Domingo’s I F*cking Hate Rappers drops soon…

I hate them for reasons to numerous to even begin to list, but PackFM, Masta Ace, Sadat X, Poison Pen, Skyzoo, Stimuli, Peter Rosenberg, Iron Solomon, B-Real, and more do a good job giving their opinions.  For me, the biggest problem is that everyone’s a rapper.  Most folks just need to stop.

Thumbs down @ the shot to Lupe though.  I suppose his public persona puts a lot of people off, but seeing as how he raps better than 99% of the MC’s in the game, I’m fine with him classifying himself as an “artist” rather than a “rapper.”  I’d actually agree with that.  Anybody can be a rapper these days.  Few rappers can be artists.  Just my 2 cents.

Still sick, so the commentary is at a minimum, but I had to post up the new video from the homey Stan before I crash.  To be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of this hook, but the verses are so on point and the beat is ill.  These new visuals from Matt Hobbs (same dude who helped with the CunninLynguists’ “Never Come Down” clip) add a fresh touch too.

Despite knowing absolutely nothing about the subject matter, the lead joint (no pun) from the CunninLynguists’ upcoming Strange Journey, Vol. One, is one of my favorite tracks out right now.  They just dropped the visuals for it and, as expected, they came out fresh.

Head on over to QN5.com for more info and also to download the track.

Is it strange that I’m a hip-hop dude who has never smoked (anything) once in my life?  Just never had any interest…[Full House moment] I get high on life [/moment].

The homey Pack is linking up with Domingo to drop the most truthfully titled EP ever, I F*cking Hate Rappers, and he spit one of the verses acapella at a recent show in Boston.  Seriously, every line in this verse is on some real ish and there’s a good chance he’s talking to many of you reading this very blog.  I’m not trying to diss anyone who enjoys TAOD, but if you listen to this and the shoe fits, sorry dude.

Like the folks over at 206proof like to talk about, don’t be a hobby rapper.  If you do this for real, have some talent and some respect for yourself, your listeners, and the culture in general.  Pack’s been doing this for like 15+ years and he’s the definition of a real MC.  Don’t wait until the EP drops to realize he’s calling you out.

For more, hit up the homies on the official QN5 blog.

(watch in HD on HyphenTV here)

A few weeks ago, I posted up the video of Tunji (of Inverse) freestyling – and killing it – on Sound Session, but now I’ve got a longer clip of the interview for y’all.  Peep the video above (or in HD on the HyphenTV Vimeo page) to hear Tunji and Toby break down their backgrounds, their So Far and So True projects, how the internet and blog explosion has affected their careers as independent artists, and more.  You can also see some footage of their performance at Chop Suey from the night before.

Since there was one break that we didn’t include in the video, I’ve got the audio of the full interview here for all y’all Inverse fanatics:

Inverse on SNSS – http://www.mediafire.com/?mmmzy1oy5kd
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/549871929f867551/)

Be sure to hit up the homies on their MySpace and blog, and download their 2 free projects ASAP if you haven’t already.