The Audacity of Dope

We used this instrumental on SNSS this week and I realized that a lot of folks out there might not be familiar with the original track.  “Rock Wit U” is off Jeff’s 2002 The Magnificent album and in my opinion, it’s a new school classic.  It’s one of the smoothest joints of the past 10 years and should be on every R&B lover’s top list of the 2000’s, but it’s always been criminally slept on.  I bet most of y’all didn’t even know it had a video, huh?

Big shout to the Crew54 fam for sending this new video from Mojoe & Bavu Blakes through.  A dope beat from S1, genuine heartfelt lyrics, and clean visuals…what else do you need?  Cop that – http://www.mojoefamily.com/

Here’s the first official leak from Free & Jake’s Stimulus Package album dropping 2 days after my birthday in February.  Pretty straightforward joint, but a dope ass beat plus dope rhymes…[Phonte] what more do y’all want? [/Tay]

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.

The more I hear this record, the more I like it.  That chorus is a monster.  Not sure I really needed the cheesy Heroes style effects in the video, but when you get to stare at Alicia Keys for 5 minutes, you really shouldn’t be complaining about anything.

The homies Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are not only two of my favorite artists from the town, but they are also two of my favorite people in the Seattle music scene.  They’re just really cool dudes who love making art and take it pride in everything they do.  When you mix in their incredible talent on top of that (need proof?), it’s mandatory to check for everything they’re involved in.

Here’s their long awaited collaboration, The Vs. EP, where they sampled some contemporary bands and combined rock with hip-hop.  Don’t get it twisted though, this isn’t some half-assed, corny mash up project.  Instead, it’s an excellent piece of work where Ryan’s lush soundscapes are complimented perfectly by Mack’s heartfelt and sobering (quite literally) rhymes.  I can’t recommend this highly enough.

Download here.

Just because I like to share my technological frustrations with the world, here’s a quick update of the issues that have dominated my life the past 2 weeks:

• PC: data saved (clutch!), hard drive reformatted, rebuilding slowly but up and running.
• Mac: optical drive fixed, new studio monitors arrived and sounding great.
• Blog: resolved issues, saved the whole database of past entries (double clutch!), slightly revised the look. “All black everything” – Jay-Z
• Car battery: replaced.

See, even my car is bowing to the peer pressure and trying to fit in.  The way things are going, I’m surprised lights still turn on when I flip switches.  But anyway, looking positively and moving forward (“strikes and gutters dude“), I think we’re close to being back to normal.  Besides, as long as the episodes of SNSS aren’t affected, we’re all good right?

Peep this week’s show for new music from people like Wale, J. Cole, Pill, Freddie Gibbs, Clipse, AZ, Laws, Theophilus London, Nneka, Mos Def, Robin Thicke, the one and only Sade, and more.  Plus, we played a snippet of our recent interview with Nipsey Hussle.  While I work to post up the full version, you can always check our first conversation with him from a few months ago right here.  Enjoy!

Show #237 (12-13-09)

1. Wale ft. J. Cole & Melanie Fiona – “Beautiful Bliss”
2. Pill ft. Freddie Gibbs – “Run Up To Me”
3. Clipse – “Freedom”
4. Vinnie Paz ft. Clipse – “Street Wars”
5. AZ – “I’m Ill”
6. KRS-One & Buckshot ft. Talib Kweli & Geologic (of the Blue Scholars) – “Oh Really (Remix)”
7. Laws ft. Jay Rock – “Number One”
8. Budo & Krukid – “HalfPastHell” (Local Music)
9. Theophilus London – “Humdrum Town”
10. Kardinal Offishall – “We Gon’ Go”
11. Brasco ft. Serani – “Money Train”
12. Nneka ft. Jay Electronica – “Walking (J. Period Remix)”
13. Sade – “Soldier Of Love”
14. Mos Def – “Supermagic”
15. **INTERVIEW WITH NIPSEY HUSSLE #02 (SNIPPET)**
16. Drake ft. Nipsey Hussle – “Killer”
17. Freeway & Jake One – “Know What I Mean” (Local Music)
18. CunninLynguists ft. Grieves, Geologic, & Macklemore – “Close Your Eyes” (Local Music)
19. The Game – “Turn Off The Lights”
20. Lupe Fiasco – “Popular Demand Freestyle”
21. Robin Thicke ft. Jazmine Sullivan – “Million Dolla Baby”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?0n3mnwdo0nm
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/699163698458fa3a/ )

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.

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.

Hmmm.  I love this record…well, like 75% of it (sorry Tim)…but this video doesn’t do much for me.  Seeing Timbaland lip sync Drake’s lines just reiterates the fact that Drizzy completely carries the song.  I believe this is what they call “pulling a Birdman.”  I.e., riding Drake’s coattails for dear life to remain relevant in hip-hop.  Shrug.

If you’d like an alternative, be sure to peep the mix I did including Lupe…

I’ve never done a single drug in my life (no, seriously…I’ve only taken Aspirin like 5 times…ever), but I’m pretty sure I’d take whatever Rosa Acosta wanted to give me.  And for the record, I like Posner, though I feel like he’s about to start getting hated as much as his fellow Duke grad, JJ Redick.  Wait, doesn’t JJ fancy himself a rapper?  Why hasn’t a collab been commissioned?

Anyway, something tells me that even if you’re not a fan of Mike Posner, you’ll probably enjoy these visuals…