The Audacity of Dope

Krit ripped this…one of my favorite beats of all-time by the way.  Shout to the homey John Colombo on direction.

It’s no “Super Brookyn,” but I’m down for anything NES related really.  It looks like Sai is making a renewed push and finally has a home for his long awaited official debut album too.  Here’s hopin’…

Speaking of which, someone tweeted this the other day and I never even realized it: if it’s the Mario brothers, wouldn’t that mean their names are Mario Mario and Luigi Mario?  Things that make you go hmmmm.

“Mix a little Leimert Park with a cold piano…and tell me if you heard something realer”

C’est magnifique, n’est pas?

I feel like the blogosphere is fairly familiar with TiRon, but I think he’ll take it to the next level in 2011.  He really has all the tools to be a dope, complete MC, and with other cats in L.A. blowing up recently, it’s just a matter of time until he does too.  Shout to Jerome D on the director for this clip too.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this was real home video of Pharrell…must be a nice life.  Minus points for the blatant Beats By Dre product placement (are we really doing that for EVERY Interscope video for the past 3 years?) and poor audio syncing to the video.  No excuse for that with the production budget.  This is actually one of my least favorite records on Nothing, but it’s cool.  20’s.  50’s.  5’s.  10’s.

The homeboy Jon Jon is currently down in Los Angeles learning all sorts of incredible film-making techniques to take his productions to the next level, so I think he’s falling back from music videos for a little while.  That said, he’s got a few more in the stash, starting with the debut video for B.o.B’s right hand man, and all around funny guy/dope MC/crazy hook writer, Playboy Tre.  What up fellas?!

Just the viral version, real video coming soon.  But either way, my girl is back.  Download the track for free on her site, www.lykkeli.com.

Heja Sverige!

Similar to the clips that made OK Go so popular, this new piece from Hollerado for “Americanarama” is the best video I’ve seen in a long while.  I kinda like the track too, but most amazingly…one take!

In case you overlooked it in this week’s SNSS wrap up, Joell Ortiz stopped by the show again to give us an update on everything he’s working on.  We discussed his Farewell Summer EP that just dropped, his upcoming Free Agent project, working with Jake One, whether or not Slaughterhouse is signing to Shady Records, and more.  You can check out the interview below:

Joell Ortiz on Sound Session – http://www.mediafire.com/?v43tdydgwml15x9
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/819879679df95f7d/)
(2nd back up – http://usershare.net/1zwf2itwan0k)

YAAAAAAAOOOWAAAAAAA

Anyone who has visited TAOD before knows that I’m a huge fan of Shad.  Not only is he one of the most gifted MC’s around, but he’s also putting his heart and soul into his music and discussing deep, genuine emotions.  I’m not sure you can ask for anything more from an artist and I’m elated to see the United States finally starting to catch on to his music.

Fresh of the American release of TSOL, Shad came to Seattle with K-Os for the first stop on their Born To Run tour.  It’s only right that we recorded a little something for y’all, though I do apologize for the poor lighting and video quality.  Hopefully you still enjoy our discussion covering the tour, the TSOL project, how it compares to his previous work, the intricacies of his lyrics, and more.  It’s not often that I get to discuss the finer points of artistic expression/responsibility with our guests, so this was an especially fun interview to conduct.  There’s much more that can be said about the issue though, so we’ll have to rekindle it when Shad’s back in town.

In the interim, enjoy the interview and be sure to cop TSOL and The Old Prince ASAP!