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.

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 amount of dope MC’s that have come from North (and South) Carolina since 2000 has been incredible.  I remember those Napster days where after discovering Little Brother, I kept branching out and finding related artists, all of which were killing it.  From LB to the Justus League to TheThyrDay to Supastition, etc., and the latest group to really carry the NC torch is Kooley High.

They’ve been favorites of mine for a few years and they just dropped the visuals for the title track off their recent mixtape.  If you haven’t peeped the tape yet, grab it here and stop sleepin…

How did I miss this when it first dropped?  Wow.  My bad y’all…

One of my favorite crews out, Kooley High, just dropped this brand new mixtape in conjunction with K-Salaam and IllRoots.com.  Listening to this group reminds me of the good ol’ days in college when I discovered their North Carolina predecessors, Little Brother & TheThyrDay.  Just dope, genuine hip-hop from the soul by some cool ass folks…the exact kind of hip-hop that I love listening to.  You can’t beat it.  Shout to the whole Kooley fam – Charlie Smarts, Rapsody, Foolery, Tab-One, Sinopsis, & Digitz…

1. Intro(ducing)
2. Gettin’ Up (Remix)
3. Daykeeper (Kooley High Remix)
4. Phonte’s Movie in a Minute
5. Stay Up (Young N’ Fresh Remix) feat. HaLo
6. Flow Glow (Kooley High Remix)
7. I’m Fresh (Remix)
8. Due Process (Kooley High Remix)
9. G Building (Foolery Koolery High Remix)
10. Bodega (HaLo Remix)
11. Jacques Cousteau
12. Kooley is High
13. Soldier (Kooley High Remix)
14. Rude Bwoy
15. The Next Episode (Foolery’s Fooldogg Remix)
16. Trix (1983 Kooley High Remix)
17. The Light (Outro)
18. Worldwide (BONUS TRACK)

Download here.