The Audacity of Dope

Our good friend Lupe made another appearance on Sound Session recently, though this one was in the form of our “Studio 93” series, where we interview an artist in front of a large group of winners.  We talked about his upcoming Tetsuo & Youth album, including details about his creative process and a discussion about how responsible complex MC’s are in ensuring listeners understand the messages they put in their verses.  We also discussed how he collaborates with other artists and how he’s often turned down for these projects because of his past controversial statements, before moving on to topics like his relationship with Rick Ross and how the music industry has changed as technology has improved over the years.

It’s always fun to chop it up with Lu, who really is one of the most gifted individuals we have in hip-hop.  He’s an innovative thinker that likes to challenge the status quo, which is always necessary, plus him and Shad are the 2 best writers in the game, imo. Hope you guys enjoy the conversation.  Shout to the Marsupial Empire for recording and editing.

FNF up!

Just because I like to share my technological frustrations with the world, here’s a quick update of the issues that have dominated my life the past 2 weeks:

• PC: data saved (clutch!), hard drive reformatted, rebuilding slowly but up and running.
• Mac: optical drive fixed, new studio monitors arrived and sounding great.
• Blog: resolved issues, saved the whole database of past entries (double clutch!), slightly revised the look. “All black everything” – Jay-Z
• Car battery: replaced.

See, even my car is bowing to the peer pressure and trying to fit in.  The way things are going, I’m surprised lights still turn on when I flip switches.  But anyway, looking positively and moving forward (“strikes and gutters dude“), I think we’re close to being back to normal.  Besides, as long as the episodes of SNSS aren’t affected, we’re all good right?

Peep this week’s show for new music from people like Wale, J. Cole, Pill, Freddie Gibbs, Clipse, AZ, Laws, Theophilus London, Nneka, Mos Def, Robin Thicke, the one and only Sade, and more.  Plus, we played a snippet of our recent interview with Nipsey Hussle.  While I work to post up the full version, you can always check our first conversation with him from a few months ago right here.  Enjoy!

Show #237 (12-13-09)

1. Wale ft. J. Cole & Melanie Fiona – “Beautiful Bliss”
2. Pill ft. Freddie Gibbs – “Run Up To Me”
3. Clipse – “Freedom”
4. Vinnie Paz ft. Clipse – “Street Wars”
5. AZ – “I’m Ill”
6. KRS-One & Buckshot ft. Talib Kweli & Geologic (of the Blue Scholars) – “Oh Really (Remix)”
7. Laws ft. Jay Rock – “Number One”
8. Budo & Krukid – “HalfPastHell” (Local Music)
9. Theophilus London – “Humdrum Town”
10. Kardinal Offishall – “We Gon’ Go”
11. Brasco ft. Serani – “Money Train”
12. Nneka ft. Jay Electronica – “Walking (J. Period Remix)”
13. Sade – “Soldier Of Love”
14. Mos Def – “Supermagic”
15. **INTERVIEW WITH NIPSEY HUSSLE #02 (SNIPPET)**
16. Drake ft. Nipsey Hussle – “Killer”
17. Freeway & Jake One – “Know What I Mean” (Local Music)
18. CunninLynguists ft. Grieves, Geologic, & Macklemore – “Close Your Eyes” (Local Music)
19. The Game – “Turn Off The Lights”
20. Lupe Fiasco – “Popular Demand Freestyle”
21. Robin Thicke ft. Jazmine Sullivan – “Million Dolla Baby”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?0n3mnwdo0nm
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/699163698458fa3a/ )

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.