The Audacity of Dope

It’s 3am here in London and I’ve been listening to Joey Badass and Lupe’s new albums all night, which are completely reinvigorating my feelings towards contemporary hip-hop. Honestly, outside of some of the best, I feel like hip-hop’s been a bit stale the past few years. Well both of these projects and both of these artists are absolutely KILLING it right now and restoring my faith. This legit, off the top freestyle from Lupe is a great example of what I’m talking about. Cop Tetsuo & Youth in stores now and enjoy!

Logic murders the “5 Fingers of Death” on Sway In The Morning, first with a crazy written verse and then switching in to a fun, off the top freestyle.
Seattle people: We’ll be giving out tickets for Logic’s 6/10 show at the Neptune on tonight’s SNSS.  Tune in!

Supa came through the world famous Wake Up Show with Keelay & Zaire and blessed the mic with some verses.  Great stuff, but did Tech really not know who he was?  Yeesh.  Bad form from a legendary hip-hop dude, but at least Supa made sure he’ll remember him from now on.

Shout to the Myx Music fam who was in the building as well.

Here’s Kanye’s performance from one of the inaugural balls last night in DC.  ‘Ye kinda killed it, mullet and all.  This was the same ball that after Barack and Michelle shared the dance, he told the crowd…”we call that ‘old school’.”

Coolest. President. Ever.

I’m so mad at myself for blogging the trailer to this special last week and then missing most of it when it aired tonight.  I guess if it’s not in the Blackberry, I just forget to do it.  Damn.

Anyway, here’s one segement where Kanye and Sway met up with Lorenzo Zarate, a veteran from the war in Iraq.  Not only did Lorenzo come home with post traumatic stress disorder, but he recently lost his job, his wife is pregnant, and they’re about to be short on their rent.  Luckily, Mr. West, Sway, and MTV stepped in to help him out…big time.  I especially liked that they set him up with a mentor-ship at the hip-hop station in Austin, because honestly, there’s waaaaay too many people out there putting everything they have towards rapping.  Just because technology has afforded you the option, doesn’t mean you should pick up that mic.  Hopefully Lorenzo gets his health in order and his family can have the future they deserve.

I spotted this clip at Eskay‘s so I haven’t searched the MTV site to see if the rest of the show is up there, but it better be.  I caught the last segment live, then searched the schedule trying to DVR the replay.  To my horror, MTV would rather show 21012910219 episodes of From G’s To Gents and America’s Best Dance Crew over something with a purpose and actual substance.  Wack.  At least they commissioned it in the first place though.

Trailer for an upcoming special airing Monday at 10 PM on MTV.  Kanye teamed up with Choose or Lose to help right the wrongs our government has put our soldiers through over the past few years.  I’m interested to see what exactly they’re doing to help, because a meet and greet with ‘Ye doesn’t quite pay the rent.  Should be dope though, peep it on Monday night.

Preview swiped from Eskay.