The Audacity of Dope

We’re back from SXSW and as usual, a good time was had by all.  It would be impossible to list out everyone we ran into, but big shout to all the artists, managers, promoters, record labels, corporate sponsors, etc. that we hung out with.  It’s always fun to catch up and trade stories from the past year, even if the event as a whole certainly jumped the shark this time with all the major artists and companies getting involved.

Special shouts to Hardknock TV and The Smoking Section for organizing the 2nd Annual HoopxHang 3 on 3 basketball tournament.  Just like last year, they invited a bunch of industry cats to play some ball and this time around, I ran with Team Hardknock.  My teammates, Carl Chery from XXL and Nick Huff from Hardknock TV, and I pulled off some March Madness of our own and won the championship…plus bragging rights for the next year.  Good times and a great event overall.

Here’s this week’s SNSS, featuring music from some of the artists we saw at SXSW, including The Kid Daytona, Boldy James, Wiz Khalifa, Schoolboy Q, ASAP Rocky, Jhene Aiko, Miguel, Big K.R.I.T., BJ The Chicago Kid, Polyester, Dee-1, 50 Cent, Nas, and Raekwon.  Enjoy!

Show #353 (3-18-12)

1. The Kid Daytona ft. Jadakiss – “Low (Remix)”
2. Boldy James – “Jimbo”
3. Wiz Khalifa ft. Juicy J – “My Favorite Song”
4. Schoolboy Q ft. ASAP Rocky – “Hands On The Wheel”
5. DJ Phinisey ft. John Crown – “Attention!” (Local Music)
6. Jhene Aiko – “Higher”
7. Miguel – “Adorn”
8. Big K.R.I.T. – “Insomnia”
9. BJ The Chicago Kid – “Aiight”
10. Polyester – “Show Me”
11. Dee-1 – “The Garden Of Eden”
12. SOTA – “Unfazed” (Local Music)
13. Roc Marciano – “Poltergeist”
14. 50 Cent ft. The Madd Rapper – “How To Rob” (Throwback of the Week)
15. Nas – “The Don”
16. Quakers ft. Jonwayne – “Smoke”
17. Planet Asia ft. Raekwon – “No Apologies”
18. Co$$ – “Love Is”
19. Rittz ft. Yelawolf – “Sleep At Night”
20. Dave B ft. Royce The Choice & Yola – “She’s Al’right” (Local Music)
21. Frank Ocean – “Whip Appeal”
22. Azealia Banks ft. Lazy Jay – “212”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?4qcg6kbm5z17mg0
(back up / streaming link – http://www.sharebeast.com/35x5hgouqbe6)
(2nd back up – http://linkmixes.com/jvap46ux5cq8)

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.

(hint: floating left is when I like to pull the most)

As I’ve mentioned on the blog and Twitter, I traveled down to Austin last week for SXSW.  In addition to all the incredible shows I saw and artists I chopped it up with, I had the privilege to play in the first annual HoopxHang 3 on 3 tournament.  John Gotty of the Smoking Section (my personal favorite blog because of the care they put in their write ups and their excellent musical taste), Nick Huff of Hard Knock TV, and Nike Basketball organized the event and invited about 50 artists, DJ’s, managers, bloggers, record label reps, and other industry folks to take their talents to Doris Miller Auditorium.

Anyone who knows me personally knows that as much as I live and breathe music, sports has always been 329318239128x the passion in my life.  I’ll go play any game, anytime, anywhere, so I was just excited to get a little run in during the trip.  Also, every time these rappers come through Sound Session, you should hear them go on and on about their skills on the court.  After all that talk, I finally got to play with a few of the homies!  Topping it all off, Nike came through with free gear from head to toe.  #winning!

Special shout to my two teammates:  Kenny, a friend of The Smoking Section’s John Gotty, and Chris (pictured below) from Hollyweerd.  We didn’t know what squad we would be on before we began, but we meshed pretty nicely.

After winning our first two games (yours truly with the game winners in each…#humblebrag), we were ousted in the semi-finals against the eventual champions…these guys:

That would be Push Montana (who turned into Khalid El-Amin against us), Brock (Diamond Supply), and Dutch (Smokers Club).  They had a solid mix of skill, size, and intensity that proved too much for the competition as they knocked off the Pac Div homies (below) in the Championship.

Despite what had to be a logistical nightmare, the event went off without a hitch and everyone had a great time.  Hats off to everyone who organized and participated and thanks again to Gotty and Nick for the invitation.  Looking forward to it being bigger and better next year…perhaps we could we see a little 5 on 5 action?  We need to get these rappers in shape!

Be sure to check out the official recap with more pictures and stories over at The Smoking Section.

Honestly, I never really know how to wrap up SXSW.  For those of you who went, you already know how ridiculous it is.  For those who haven’t been to one, it’s everything you read about…but louder.

I’ve been to the last three, but I admit that 2010 was a bit of a bust for me.  I over-planned and tried to hit every event I was interested in, plus I met up with a TON of industry folks and had way too many meetings.  It resulted in an exhausting experience (even more than an average SXSW trip) and I wasn’t really looking forward to going back.  With that on my mind, I treated this year more like a vacation and took things 100x slower.  I still met with lots of people and enjoyed countless performances, but without a doubt, the highlight was just hanging out with friends old and new…and enjoying the 80 degree weather.  I’ll post up some footage on the blog soon.

Shout to everyone we ran into and especially all the other Seattle people that made the trek.  Special thanks to John Gotty from The Smoking Section for organizing the incredibly dope “HoopxHang” basketball tournament (your boy Hyph knocked down a few game winners but we were ousted in the semis to the eventual champions) and also my lodging pals, Shad, T-Lo, and G…the coolest homies you could ask for.  Also, thanks to JJ at Foundation, Jessica at Co-Sign, Jasmin at Cashmere, Ter’rece at MTV, and everyone at Decon, all of whom showed extra hospitality to a Hyphey.  Oh…and Zoe Kravitz…for the hug.  Second year in a row son, WHAT!

Show #303 (3-20-11)

1. Eminem ft. Slaughterhouse & Yelawolf – “2.0 Boys”
2. Thurzday – “Rodney King”
3. Fashawn ft. J. Cole – “Nothin’ For The Radio”
4. Pusha T ft. 50 Cent & Pharrell – “Raid”
5. XV ft. Pusha T – “Awesome (Remix)”
6. Grynch – “So Long” (Local Music)
7. Jean Grae – “You Don’t Like It (So What)”
8. Travis Barker ft. Lupe Fiasco & Pharrell – “If You Want To”
9. Nate Dogg ft. Warren G – “Nobody Does It Better” (Throwback of the Week)
10. Dom Kennedy – “Can’t Let Go”
11. The Weeknd – “What You Need”
12. Frank Ocean – “Novacane”
13. Childish Gambino – “Be Alone”
14. State Of The Artist – “I Think I Love You” (Local Music)
15. The Physics – “Fix You” (Local Music)
16. Big K.R.I.T. – “American Rapstar”
17. 80 Blocks From Tiffany’s (Camp Lo & Pete Rock) – “Mic Check”
18. Add-2 – “Chicago Blues”
19. Nitty Scott, MC – “Work (Grustlin’) (J. Period Remix)”
20. David Dallas – “Big Time”
21. Shad – “Rock 2.0 It”
22. CunninLynguists ft. Freddie Gibbs – “Hard As They Come (Act I)”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?kod4ow0z9zp0d0w
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/88099630dd4b8e93/)
(2nd back up – http://www.usershare.net/58x63g316frr/DJ Hyphen and J. Moore – Sunday Night Sound Session, Show 303, 3-20-11.mp3)

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 pretty sure I walked right by this as it was winding down and I was hustling in to the Nah Right & Smoking Section Showcase in Austin.  These kind of impromptu cyphers were breaking out all over the city just cause the vibe was like this all weekend.  Shout to Sandman, P. Casso, Low Key, and the Hip-Hop Official folks, all of whom I met for the first time down there (the shout to Tanya Morgan goes without saying!).