The Audacity of Dope

If you’re like me, you’ve been listening to Drake’s Thank Me Later album quite heavily the past few weeks, so you’ll probably also enjoy this interview with Semtex.  While they don’t break down every song on the album (I would have been particularly interested to hear the story behind “Karaoke”), there’s a lot of good info in here.  I did laugh at the “sounds like your parents played a big role in your life” question though.  Generally speaking, that’s pretty much what they tend to do.

You can also check out footage of Drake murdering our Summer Jam last night over on the KUBE site.  It was impressive to watch, thinking back to when we played him over 3 years ago on Sound Session.  I never would have anticipated his success to be this great, but it’s really ill to have the hottest rapper of the moment actually be dope.  Novel concept, I know.

When Miguel blows up, we can all tell our friends we used to listen to him sing harmonies on Blu & Exile records before he got his deal…

Oh, and Seattle people: J. Cole is coming to Bumbershoot this year.  As one of the Bumberboard, you’re welcome.

Some of my friends don’t really approve of the liberal use of the Marvin Gaye sample, but I don’t think Theophilus is trying to take it to that level or anything.  This is just a mixtape record, albeit a super sexy record, especially when paired with the Vashtie directed video.

Check please.

And the winner of “best artist to come out of nowhere and immediately become one of Hyphen’s favorites” is…

While on tour with Reflection Eternal (check our interview here) and U-N-I, one of the nicest up and coming MC’s in the game, Laws, stopped by the Sound Session studio to chop it up.  We talked all about his background, linking up with the J.U.S.T.I.CE. League production team, his 4:57 mixtape with Don Cannon, his upcoming Yesterday’s Future project, and more.  Check out the links below for the full interview!

Laws on Sound Session – http://www.mediafire.com/?mz1yu3znh20
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/772049093f61ac06/)

If you haven’t downloaded 4:57 yet, grab it right here.

(Part One in HD on HyphenTV)

As I mentioned in the post with just the audio, Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek came through Sound Session two weeks ago to talk all about their new album.  Here’s the entire in-depth interview with these two legendary hip-hop figures, and more importantly, just two all around good dudes.  Support them by copping Revolutions Per Minute and for the youngins who never bought Train of Thought, you better get that too!

Part 1: “RPM’s,” “City Playgrounds,” and “Back Again.”

(Part Two in HD on HyphenTV)

Part 2: Affion Crockett/Russell Simmons skits, being considered “conscious,” the marketing of “neo soul,” “Strangers” featuring Bun B, “In This World,” sampling Jay-Z’s classic lyric, “Got Work,” and more.

(Part Three in HD on HyphenTV)

Part 3: “Midnight Hour” featuring Estelle, “Lifting Off,” the war on drugs, “In The Red,” and more.

(Part Four in HD on HyphenTV)

Part 4: “Ballad Of The Black Gold,” energy consumption, live instrumentation vs. samples, “Just Begun” with Jay Electronica, J. Cole, and Mos Def, and more.

(Part 5 in HD on HyphenTV)

Part 5: “Long Hot Summer,” working as a group, “Get Loose” with Chester French, “So Good” and the return of MC Hi-Tek, the absence of Dion on the album, and more.

(Part 6 in HD on HyphenTV)

Part 6: “Ends” featuring Bilal, the pursuit of money, music piracy, the autobiographical outro of “My Life,” the future of Reflection Eternal, and more.

Enjoy!

Pardon the delay in archiving the last 2 episodes of Sound Session, but I wanted to make sure I gave you guys every option for checking out our in depth interview with Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek, collectively known as Reflection Eternal.  In celebration of their new album, Revolutions Per Minute, Talib and Tek came through to talk about every song on the project and the inspirations behind them all.  Consider this an “Inside The Rapper’s Studio” style interview, not for the faint of heart.  Oh…and BUY THE ALBUM!!!!

Note – the interview played on air was not the full discussion.  If you’d like to check out the entire interview, please view the videos through the link below.

Show #261 (5-30-10)

1. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 1**
2. Reflection Eternal – “RPM’s”
3. Reflection Eternal – “City Playgrounds”
4. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 2**
5. Reflection Eternal ft. Res – “Back Again”
6. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 3**
7. Reflection Eternal ft. Bun B – “Strangers (Paranoid)”
8. Reflection Eternal – “In This World”
9. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 4**
10. Reflection Eternal – “Got Work”
11. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 5**
12. Reflection Eternal ft. Estelle – “Midnight Hour”
13. Reflection Eternal – “Lifting Off”
14. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 6**
15. Reflection Eternal – “In The Red”
16. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 7**
17. Reflection Eternal – “Ballad Of The Black Gold”
18. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 8**
19. Reflection Eternal ft. Jay Electronica, J. Cole, & Mos Def – “Just Begun”
20. Reflection Eternal – “Long Hot Summer”
21. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 9**
22. Reflection Eternal ft. Chester French – “Get Loose”
23. Reflection Eternal – “So Good”
24. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 10**
25. Reflection Eternal ft. Bilal – “Ends”
26. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 11**
27. Reflection Eternal – “My Life”
28. **INTERVIEW WITH REFLECTION ETERNAL, PT. 12**

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?yweowynmtqk
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/76743509fd03f5b6/)
(2nd back up – http://usershare.net/bdytv0q0rr07)

Link to download just the interview breaks – http://www.mediafire.com/?l4wommmmwyn
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/7674405781126bf1/)
(2nd back up – http://usershare.net/y65gnbvwms07)

Watch video of the interview – https://www.theaudacityofdope.com/2010/06/08/reflection-eternal-on-sound-session/

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.

This is actually one of my favorite songs from Bobby Ray and while I was disappointed to see it not make the album, at least they shot some quick viral visuals for it.  As for the topic at hand, you could write an interesting psychological analysis of girls that become models.  That’s gotta be a weird life decision to reconcile with yourself as you get older.  But for the rest of us, at least they’re fun to look at…

The video seems a bit excessive, but this track is dope as hell.  In case you’re still under a rock, Broken Bells are James Mercer of the Shins and Dangermouse.

Checking in from out of the country to post up some behind the scenes footage of the homies Sol, Grynch, Geo, and Thig Nat recording Sol’s “Spliff” remix.  Download the EP here if you haven’t already!