The Audacity of Dope

I never thought I’d ever utter the words, “I’m on the cover of a magazine,” but thanks to Thomas and the good folks over at Jenesis, I can cross that off the bucket list!  If you aren’t familiar with Jenesis, it’s a really dope online mag that everyone who frequents this site should enjoy.  They routinely profile great artists and show love to pretty much everyone that we support via TAOD and Sound Session.  Be sure to download this month’s article to check out the feature on yours truly, along with some dope pieces that round out the “DJ’s vs. Bloggers Issue.”

Download here – January 2010 Jenesis Magazine

Much like the article in the Seattle P.I. highlighting J. Moore, SNSS, and myself, I’m flattered and very appreciative of the support Jenesis is giving with this piece.  Many thanks to the owner Thomas Agnew and the writer Mike Wilson.  Thanks fellas!

You might recall that Slaughterhouse recently dropped by the Sound Session studio, but soon after, Royce Da 5′9″ returned for another show in Seattle and came through solo.  We covered a ton of topics in the 3 part conversation so I decided to put the full video online for y’all to enjoy.

Shout to Royce, easily one of the most down to earth and talented artists that we’ve had on the show.  When I was a high school kid losing my mind to all his verses in the late 90’s, I never would have thought I’d have the opportunity to kick it with him a few times.  Craziness.  Go cop Street Hop immediately and peep below for the interview.

Part 1:

(watch on HyphenTV)

• Reception of the Slaughterhouse project
• Familial relationship of the group
• Future of Slaughterhouse
• Earliest memories of Eminem

Part 2:

(watch on HyphenTV)

• Working with Eminem as part of Bad Meets Evil
• Learning recording techniques from Em
• His favorite MC’s
• Detroit’s knack for producing dope rappers
• His thoughts on J. Cole

Part 3:

(watch on HyphenTV)

• The Charles Hamilton/J Dilla fiasco
• His current relationship with Dr. Dre
• His new Street Hop album
• What he has left to prove in the game
• Future Bar Exam mixtapes

If you would prefer to just listen to the discussion and toss it on your mp3 player, here’s the audio of the full interview:

Royce Da 5′9″ on Sound Session – http://www.mediafire.com/?mkjzymhzzj1
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/690590078f4fcc91/)

Enjoy!

A few weeks back on Sound Session, we had the pleasure of chopping it up with one of hip-hop’s rising stars, J. Cole, during his first trip to Seattle.  I’ll admit that I wasn’t up on J back when The Come Up dropped, but a few homies recommended it shortly after the release, and I once I checked it out, I was hooked.  Now that The Warm Up has solidified his “got next” status and he’s on tour with Jay-Z, it’s only a matter of time before he becomes a household name.

Peep our 3 part interview with Cole to hear him discuss all sorts of topics:

Part 1:

(watch on HyphenTV)

• His background and influences
• How he found his own voice on the mic
• His first rap names
• The tenacity in his delivery
• How graduating college helped him as an artist and person
• His experiences hustling beats as a producer

Part 2:

(watch on HyphenTV)

• His audition with Jay-Z and when he got signed to Roc Nation
• The Come Up vs. The Warm Up
• The state of his basketball game these days
• The Blueprint 3 tour and Jay’s cosign
• The status of his debut album
• His production influences

Part 3:

(watch on HyphenTV)

• Where he sees himself in 5 years
• What he would change about the music industry
• His 5 favorite foods
• The decline of MySpace

You can also download the entire interview, including some topics that weren’t included in the video segments, right here:

J. Cole on Sound Session – http://www.mediafire.com/?amymlnnjndy
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/6849461769676d85/)

“Everyday a star is born…”

The homey Kosha Dillz came through the station recently while he was out on tour with the RZA.  You know we couldn’t let him leave before he kicked a little freestyle in the KUBE 93 parking lot.

Kosha will be joining us in the studio on this week’s SNSS as the road warrior himself is back in Seattle.  I’m predicting another dope free off the dome…

I’m Edwin Ortiz. I’ll be helping Hyphen out with keeping this site updated, whether it be a dope mixtape, footage from concerts, or exclusive content from SNSS. Also, with the approval from Hyphen, I’ll periodically post articles that I feel warrant a discussion. In this way, readers can sound off about the current happenings of hip-hop.

Without getting into too much detail, here’s a little info about me: I’m from the Northwest, born and raised. I’m double majoring in journalism and history at the University of Washington. Along with blogging duties here, I write for HipHopDX.com and have contributed to other various sites such as KevinNottingham.com.

I look forward to building with the viewership/readership Hyphen has already received with TAOD, and I hope that this sites reach can expand through quality content and commentary.

And remember; Holla at a playa when ya see him in the streets. (c) Stuart Scott

Editor’s note: Welcome aboard Edwin! – Hyph

(watch in better quality on HyphenTV)

Anyone who follows TAOD knows that last week marked Seattle’s annual music & arts festival, Bumbershoot.  J. Moore and I have hosted the main stage hip-hop show for the past few years, but this time around, I had the special pleasure of not only being on the “Bumberboard” that helped plan the entire event, but I even got to perform by DJ’ing for the homies U-N-I.

Thurzday and Y-O took to the Fisher Green Stage (alongside artists like Mayer Hawthorne, Janelle Monae, De La Soul, and more) to rock in front of an enthusiastic crowd. We ran through a high energy set including tracks like “Cali Soul,” “Beautiful Day,” “Land Of The Kings,” “Supreme,” “K.R.E.A.M.,” “Hollywood Hiatus,” and more.  Aside from the classicness that occurs at 1:29, the highlight has to be “Supreme.”  The kids were wylin’ out to that one and both Y-O and Thurz got some crowd surfing in.

I had a really good time all weekend, so big shouts to everyone involved: One Reel, the artists, KUBE, the homies, the new folks I met, and [Jay-Z] most importantly, you, the customer [/Hov!].  If I have time, I’ll be posting up some more footage of various Bumbershoot performances here on TAOD.  Stay tuned.

D. Black and the Sport’n Life crew came through Sound Session recently to talk all about D’s upcoming Ali’Yah album that drops on the 15th.  Always a pleasure to open the SNSS studio up to dope artists, but it’s especially fun to chill with good people.  Download the whole audio of the show right here.

D.Black, a Seattle-based rising hip-hop artist, took some time out to visit the good folks J. Moore and DJ Hyphen over at KUBE 93 for Sunday Night Sessions to speak about his newest release Ali’Yah. While talking about Ali’Yah, D.Black made special note of the increase in maturity and artistic development since his last album. That maturity is evident on such songs as the recently released “Yesterday,” the first single off Ali’Yah, and when asked about the song D.Black explained the concept saying, “All of us have had situations in our past that if we look back at it, we breathe life back into it. So it’s better to leave yesterday behind and look forward to tomorrow.” The positive vibe was reflected back by the fans as well as D.Black spoke with a few folks who called. D.Black also spoke on the opportunity he had to work with so many talented artists while crafting Ali’Yah, noting the contributions of fellow artists Jake One, Vitamin D, B. Brown, Melissa, Choklate, Spaceman, Kuddie Mak and many others. Be on the lookout for D.Black’s newest album Ali’Yah available September 15th via Sport’n Life Records/MYX Music Label.

A little before Pac Div dropped their Church League Champions project, Like, Mibbs, and BeYoung came through the Sound Session studio to chop it up on a variety of topics.  We discussed that mixtape, the digital EP they put on iTunes a while back, and of course their upcoming full length debut, Grown Kid Syndrome.  They also talked about the importance of their live show, how their creative process likens to their game on the court, their favorite underrated West Coast MC’s, the L.A. scene, a possible collaboration with Andre 3000, and much more.

Pac Div on Sound Session – http://www.mediafire.com/?nzmr3eh32oi
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/649045665d98875b/)

This was one of the most enjoyable interviews I’ve done, mainly because chilling with Pac Div reminded me of kicking it with my college homies back in SoCal.  These dudes are real hip-hop heads who love Dilla and basketball…pretty much all it takes to be cool in my book.  Plus, we’re both fans of the Arizona Wildcats and even spent time commiserating over that damn 2001 NCAA Championship game.  For the record: I still hate you, Mike Dunleavy.

Sometimes the industry moves fast, sometimes it moves slow.  We had Raheem DeVaughn on Sound Session in February of last year when he had just released Love Behind The Melody, and at the time, he was planning on dropping the follow up later in 2008.  Plans changed however, but his new single with Ludacris just leaked yesterday and lo and behold, it’s the same song he previewed for us a year and a half ago.

Since we grabbed this footage before TAOD was in existence, I figured I would bring it back for those who may have missed it.  Here’s the studio version of the track with Luda as well, courtesy of 2DopeBoyz:

Raheem DeVaughn ft. Ludacris – “Bulletproof”

If you want to go back and check out the full interview with Raheem, click here or peep our podcast page…although you’ll have to scroll down a bit haha.  Damn, we’ve interviewed hella folks…we might have to dip into the archives and put up all the interviews we did in the first 2 years of Sound Session too, cause those aren’t up there yet.  Rest assured though, as the son of a librarian, I’ve got everything archived offline.

Interview with Joell, Royce, and Budden (Crooked was recording a feature in the town) coming soon…