The Audacity of Dope

There were a bunch of things that I wanted to post while my computer issues knocked me out of commission, and this video from Louwop is one of ‘em.  Rather than do a traditional music video, he invited Shad and Zaki Ibrahim to perform live versions of two tracks off his The Great Escape album.  I could vibe to this all day.

From the homey G:

This is some old footage from Shad’s 2006 performance at the Beats, Breaks & Culture festival. He was opening up for Cadence Weapon in the Brigantine Room at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre.  There were some technical difficulties with the decks in the middle of the performance, so Shad dropped a free, and I started handing him stuff that I found by the stage.

I love ish like this.  Reminds me of simpler times.

This might be the most beautiful music video I’ve seen in a minute, and I watch a ton at the day job.  I don’t believe Shad and the homies are using this as an official music video, but it would get my vote.  Great stuff.

Grab the EP this track is on right here and NYC folks better not miss Shad’s first performance in the Big Apple:

Another fun week here on SNSS in the 206, peep the highlights:

• Great music from the likes of Brother Ali, Balance, One Be Lo, Fresh Daily, Raekwon, Little Dragon, U-N-I, Mayer Hawthorne, Phonte, and more.
• A world premiere for the new Blue Scholars track, “Dawn’s Song,” off the upcoming re-release of Bayani.  The track features Shad, possibly my favorite MC in the entire industry right now.  Yeah, I said it.  Not familiar?  Watch this and thank me later.
• We aired part of our interview with the Pac Div homies.  Be sure to catch the full interview for all sorts of hip-hop and basketball talk.  I mean…is there anything else in life?
• We gave out tickets for this weekend’s Bumbershoot Festival (where I’ll be DJ’ing for U-N-I) and my most anticipated concert of the year – The Foreign Exchange (Phonte & Nicolay), Darien Brockington, Carlitta Durand, Yahzarah, Zo!, the Physics, and more at Nectar Lounge on September 15th.  We’ll have more Foreign Exchange tickets next week too, so be sure to tune in…
• More EPL goodness: Chelsea is looking dominant…Arsenal squandered a great chance to put Manchester United further down the table (wtfffffff @ Diaby)…Aaron Lennon finished off Birmingham to keep Spurs’ 100% record intact.  Overall, very exciting.  Can’t wait until we get football and basketball on top of this in a few weeks…
• On a sad note, we have to give yet another RIP shout to DJ AM, easily one of the illest DJ’s and sneakerheads in the game.  This summer has been rough.

Show #222 (8-30-09)

1. Brother Ali – “Fresh Air”
2. D. Black ft. Tiffany Wilson – “Touch The Stars” (Local Music)
3. Balance ft. Freeway & Jay Rock – “We All In”
4. One Be Lo ft. Mike Posner – “Pigs”
5. Havoc ft. Lloyd Banks – “Bang, Bang”
6. Rashid Hadee – “(See You In My) Nightmares”
7. Fresh Daily – “Video Gaming”
8. Peter, Bjorn, & John ft. Big Pooh, Phil Nash, & Chaundon – “Stay This Way (DJ Jazzy Jeff Remix)”
9. Drake ft. Kanye West, Lil Wayne, & Eminem – “Forever”
10. **INTERVIEW WITH PAC DIV (SNIPPET)**
11. Pac Div – “Taste”
12. Little Dragon – “Never Never”
13. Mayer Hawthorne – “The Ills”
14. U-N-I – “Calendar Girls”
15. Kev Brown ft. Kenn Starr, Wayna, Raheem DeVaughn, & Eric Roberson – “The Hennessy Joint”
16. Blue Scholars ft. Shad – “Dawn’s Song” (Local Music) (WORLD PREMIERE)
17. Raheem DeVaughn ft. Ludacris – “Bulletproof”
18. The Nope (Moka Only & Psy) – “Rain All Day” (Local Music)
19. Raekwon ft. Cappadonna & Ghostface Killah – “10 Bricks”
20. 14KT – “Black N Gold”
21. Charlie Smarts – “Put You On”
22. Marc Mac ft. Phonte – “Take A Trip”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?ozmybywhidm
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/649603854484e662/)

Link to download the full interview with Pac Div – http://www.mediafire.com/?nzmr3eh32oi
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/649045665d98875b/)

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.

More dopeness from Shad K, this type at the Toronto stop of the Warped Tour.  Have you copped The Old Prince yet?

The newest in a series of excellent videos from Shad’s The Old Prince, which was just released here in the U.S. at the end of June.  Do…not…sleep!

Swiped from Shad’s bloggy-blog.

Man…I’ve been trying to tell you about Shad.  This little freestyle he recorded off the dome in the back of his Warped Tour bus with DJ TLO and Dallas Green is just another example of the incredible talent dude has.  Remember this too?

Be sure to follow along with Shad’s Warped Tour experience over on his site and you better catch his set when he comes through your town:

6/26/09    Pomona, CA
6/27/09    San Francisco, CA
6/28/09    Ventura, CA
6/30/09    Phoenix, AZ
7/1/09    Las Cruces, NM
7/2/09    San Antonio, TX
7/3/09    Houston, TX
7/5/09    Dallas, TX
7/7/09    Indianapolis, IN
7/8/09    Pittsburgh, PA
7/9/09    Cleveland, OH
7/10/09    Toronto, ON
7/11/09    Montreal, QC
7/12/09    Hartford, CT
7/14/09    Columbia, MD
7/15/09    Scranton, PA
7/16/09    Buffalo, NY
7/17/09    Camden, NJ
7/18/09    Uniondale, NY
7/19/09    Oceanport, NJ
7/21/09    Boston, MA
7/22/09    Virginia Beach, VA
7/23/09    Charlotte, NC
7/24/09    Orlando, FL
7/25/09    Miami, FL
7/26/09    St.Petersburg, FL
7/28/09    Atlanta, GA
7/29/09    Cincinnati, OH
7/30/09    Milwaukee, WI
7/31/09    Detroit, MI
8/1/09    Chicago, IL
8/2/09    Minneapolis, MN
8/3/09    St.Louis, MO
8/4/09    Kansas City, KS
8/7/09    Boise, ID
8/8/09    Salt Lake City, UT
8/9/09    Denver, CO
8/12/09    Calgary, AB
8/14/09    Vancouver, BC
8/15/09    Seattle, WA
8/16/09    Portland, OR
8/19/09    Fresno, CA
8/20/09    Mountain View, CA
8/21/09    Sacramento, CA
8/22/09    San Diego, CA
8/23/09    Los Angeles, CA

Oh…and The Old Prince is officially in stores now in the U.S.!  [Diddy] COP THAT Cop That cop that [/Diddy]

What up G!

As I mentioned, Shad is releasing his insta-classic The Old Prince Still Lives At Home album in America on June 30th.  Since the LP has been out in Canada for a while, they’ve already dropped some excellent videos for it (including possibly my favorite video ever for the title track), but the new one for “Compromise” will be coming at the start of next month.  In the meantime, director Christopher Mills created this prelude with some extra footage from the video and a quick spoken word poem by Ian Kamau to hold folks over.

Additionally, they released the US artwork today too:

Freshness.

Lastly, even though the Warped Tour doesn’t have a ton of hip-hop on the bill, I highly recommend you check it out when it comes through your town this summer so you can catch Shad’s live set.  Dates are below:

6/26/09    Pomona, CA
6/27/09    San Francisco, CA
6/28/09    Ventura, CA
6/30/09    Phoenix, AZ
7/1/09    Las Cruces, NM
7/2/09    San Antonio, TX
7/3/09    Houston, TX
7/5/09    Dallas, TX
7/7/09    Indianapolis, IN
7/8/09    Pittsburgh, PA
7/9/09    Cleveland, OH
7/10/09    Toronto, ON
7/11/09    Montreal, QC
7/12/09    Hartford, CT
7/14/09    Columbia, MD
7/15/09    Scranton, PA
7/16/09    Buffalo, NY
7/17/09    Camden, NJ
7/18/09    Uniondale, NY
7/19/09    Oceanport, NJ
7/21/09    Boston, MA
7/22/09    Virginia Beach, VA
7/23/09    Charlotte, NC
7/24/09    Orlando, FL
7/25/09    Miami, FL
7/26/09    St.Petersburg, FL
7/28/09    Atlanta, GA
7/29/09    Cincinnati, OH
7/30/09    Milwaukee, WI
7/31/09    Detroit, MI
8/1/09    Chicago, IL
8/2/09    Minneapolis, MN
8/3/09    St.Louis, MO
8/4/09    Kansas City, KS
8/7/09    Boise, ID
8/8/09    Salt Lake City, UT
8/9/09    Denver, CO
8/12/09    Calgary, AB
8/14/09    Vancouver, BC
8/15/09    Seattle, WA
8/16/09    Portland, OR
8/19/09    Fresno, CA
8/20/09    Mountain View, CA
8/21/09    Sacramento, CA
8/22/09    San Diego, CA
8/23/09    Los Angeles, CA

August 15th it is…

The two dopest artists in the game to me right now both hail from our friendly neighbor to the north, Canada.  Yeah, yeah, I still love all the usual folks I listen to, but in the past few months, I’ve been bumping nothing but Drake’s So Far Gone and Shad’s The Old Prince Still Lives At Home.  Even though it’s been available up north for a minute, Shad’s album is finally dropping here in the States on June 30th.  I really can’t recommend it enough…and those songs are like 2-4 years old now.  Wait till you hear the new ish.

And if you need any convincing that SK is dope, peep this…possibly the illest freeverse ever:

I’m sorry…WHAT?!!?!?  Incredible every time.

I told y’all these cyphers were breaking out everywhere down in Austin.  This pretty much sums up the kind of vibe that SXSW carries…everyone was just down there having a good time and people were all about their music.  Fabby Davis Jr. murdered this by the way.