The Audacity of Dope

We can only hope!

If you haven’t heard the news yet, Phonte and Nicolay, collectively known as The Foreign Exchange, have been nominated for a Grammy Award for their song, “Daykeeper.”  Normally, I hate award shows and rarely care about the Grammys at all, mainly because they not only pick awful songs (big songs do not equal best songs) but they also nominate artists out of category too much.

Thankfully, and perhaps just by enough trial and error, they finally seem to have gotten something right.  With any luck, Tay and Nic will walk away with a Grammy in hand, completely independent and thanks to their passion for making great music they believe in.  Artists take note.

Here’s a dope new EP from Zo!, covering some classic songs by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Prince, Bobby Caldwell, Quincy Jones, the Isley Brothers, and more.  Zo! (I always like including the exclamation point in his name) is insanely talented by himself, and when you bring in Phonte, Darien Brockington, Carlitta Durand, Sy Smith, and Yahzarah, you already know how it’s going to turn out.  Enjoy some more grown folks music, perfect for this rainy Saturday night…

Zo! – …just visiting too

Okaaaaaay, you can blame it all on me tonight.

Real music.

So much going on in the world of Hyph…good music, cool homies, great sports, artists coming into town, even a job promotion (raises FTW!), etc…all sorts of dopeness, so I’ll get right to it.

Check out the latest episode of SNSS for new tracks from people like Sean Price, Raekwon, Fashawn, Mayer Hawthorne, Drake, Wale, Crown Royale, Shafiq Husayn, Felt, and many more.  Special shout to Phonte and Nicolay of The Foreign Exchange calling in to talk about their show TONIGHT (Tuesday, the 15th) at Nectar Lounge.  Everyone here in Seattle better come through…it’s sure to be one of the best concerts of the year.  We gave out more tickets to that this week, along with tix to the Method Man & Redman show on Thursday and copies of the soundtrack to the new Big Pun documentary.  Thanks to everyone involved and congrats to our winners!

Lastly, as I mentioned last week, I had the pleasure of DJ’ing for U-N-I during their Bumbershoot performance.  With J. Moore aka Jonny Tarantino on the cam, we grabbed some footage for y’all too.  Be sure to watch it here to see Thurz & Y-O tear down the Fisher Green Stage in the shadow of the Space Needle.

Show #224 (9-13-09)

1. Marco Polo & Torae ft. DJ Revolution – “Double Barrel”
2. Sean Price ft. Skyzoo & Torae – “Duck Down”
3. Raekwon ft. Method Man & Ghostface Killah – “New Wu”
4. Fashawn – “Fash Plays It Cool”
5. Strong Arm Steady ft. The Game – “Trunk Music”
6. BK-One ft. Phonte, Brother Ali, & The Grouch – “Here I Am”
7. Skyzoo – “Popularity”
8. D. Black – “The Return” (Local Music)
9. Jay-Z ft. Kid Cudi – “Already Home”
10. **INTERVIEW WITH THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE**
11. Nicolay ft. Carlitta Durand – “Lose Your Way”
12. Mayer Hawthorne – “Shiny and New”
13. Wale ft. Jazmine Sullivan – “Award Tour”
14. Drake – “Fear”
15. Dynas – “Challenges Of L.O.V.E. (Leaving One’s Virtues Exposed)”
16. Big Pun ft. Fat Joe – “Twinz (Deep Cover ’98)”
17. Crown Royale (Buff1 & DJ Rhettmatic) – “We Gotcha”
18. Sonny Bonoho – “Judge Brown” (Local Music)
19. Felt (Slug & Murs) – “Protagonists”
20. Shafiq Husayn ft. Fatima – “Lil Girl”
21. Macklemore – “And We Danced” (Local Music)

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?yiggnz0ux2m
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/65592032ba214e50/)

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.

Wow.  An excellent video from Phonte, Nicolay, Muhsinah, and Matt Koza for an excellent song off FE’s Leave It All Behind opus.  I hope you younger cats are feeling Foreign Exchange, cause their music is so necessary for when you’re feeling grown like I do these days.

Seattle people: Phonte, Nicolay, Yahzarah, Carlitta Durand, Darien Brockington, and Zo! will be performing at Nectar on September 15th and it’s sure to be an incredible show.  Even the opener, The Physics, will be great, so everyone 21+ needs to be there.  We’ll be giving away tickets each week on Sound Session leading up to the show and we’ll also be holding a contest here on TAOD to sit in on our interview with them.  Stay tuned and make sure to be there!  More info right here.

Just when I’m all caught up in the Drake buzz and can’t stop listening to So Far Gone, the “Take Off The Blues” video drops and I’m reminded there’s another dope MC with some excellent singing chops.  Phonte, Nicolay, and D-Brock linked up with Matt Koza for this clip, which shows the ups and downs of a relationship by starting with those harmless glances across the room and ending with visuals for “Valediction.”  Two of my favorite tracks off Leave It All Behind?  You can’t go wrong.

One of my favorite songs of the year, Phonte & Nicolay’s “Daykeeper,” finally has some excellent visuals to go along with it.  If you missed my interview with Tay a few weeks ago, we talked a lot about how part of the beauty of Leave It All Behind is that it’s so open to interpretation.  I think the same can be said for this video.  One thing’s for sure though, it’s wild how a song like this can really change your mood everytime you hear it.  Definitely a “night song” and I always tend to get very reflective when I hear it.  Great stuff.

Peep that interview with Phonte right here and be sure to stay up to date with everything FE on their site.

In stores now, complete with an extra bonus CD full of the instrumentals.  Copped!

The homies Phonte and Nicolay called in to Toronto’s Real Frequency to talk with Arcee about their upcoming album, Leave It All Behind.  It’s rare that people get to interview both at the same time, so this was dope to hear.  Along with LIAB, they talked about the other projects they’ve released recently and what’s next on tap.

Check out the discussion on the Real Frequency blog right here and make sure you stay up to date with everything FE on the official site.  Oh, and if you haven’t peeped the sampler, what are you waiting for?

(I told y’all FE’s artwork is always incredible.)

Tay and Nic blasted out the sampler for their upcoming Leave It All Behind project, so you can finally hear a little of what all the fuss is about.  Believe me though, these teasers don’t do the album justice.  Check out the sampler for now and cop the entire thing on October 7th (digitally) or the 14th (physical copies…with instrumentals!).

Foreign Exchange – Leave It All Behind (sampler)

a. Take Off The Blues
b. All or Nothing
c. Something To Behold (this is my jaaaaam)
d. If This Is Love
e. If She Breaks Your Heart

Remember to peep the official FE blog to stay up to date on everything they’re doing.