The Audacity of Dope

As I mentioned in the Throwback post about JJ+FP, there have been rumors that Jeff and Will would team up for some performances this summer in support of Hancock.  The homey Mick Boogie DJ’d at the premier in Los Angeles and managed to get some footage of their quick set (“Summertime,” a freestyle joint, and “Brand New Funk”).  Hopefully we see some actual dates, and not just a few one offs.  The video isn’t the greatest quality, but still, this is so dope.

Bonus:  DJ Jazzy Jeff on Sound Session (April ’07) – http://www.mediafire.com/?02eemmjopxa

(you may have to wait a minute to get the Hulu player to load the clip)

My favorite song out right now.  Chris Martin’s voice sounds ridiculous live and the end result is fire.

MC’s…who’s gonna be the first one of y’all to jump on that bridge and record something?  It’s open, just loop it a little and kill it.

If y’all ain’t up on the Red Bull Big Tune Beat Battle, you really should be. Not only is it an incredible event, but it’s the brainchild of my Sound Session co-host, J. Moore, and the homies Jake One, Vitamin D, DV-One, and Marcus Lalario. In essence, the idea is to emulate and update a traditional ‘sound-clash’ by pitting 2 producers against each other in a head to head beat battle. You play your beat, he plays his. Repeat. Then the crowd picks the winner. Pretty simple right?

The program runs in multiple cities over the summer, taking the top 2 finishers in every region to the final round at the end of the year. Last year, Sabzi (of Blue Scholars & Common Market) won the title here in Seattle. This year, Philadelphia, Oakland, and Houston have already represented, and Detroit, Chicago, Seattle, DC, and Los Angeles are on deck. The finals will be held in NYC in December. Producers looking to get involved can apply on the Big Tune website.

Yesterday, The Smoking Section wrote a dope piece on the event with a few videos wrapping up Philly and Oakland. Check out the feature right here.  Big tings a gwan!

As I mentioned a few days ago in the post with U-N-I’s live performance of “Beautiful Day” on my radio show, I DJ’d for their set at the Seattle stop of the DunkXChange last Saturday (yes, that’s my ill Kanye t-shirt in the background). It took me a minute, but I got a video medley of joints from the performance up for y’all to check out.

Remember to set your YouTube accounts to play high quality videos. Click on “account”, then “video playback quality”, and then select “I have a fast connection. Always play higher-quality video when it’s available.” It makes a huge difference, especially with Flip Cam stuff. Unfortunately, if you embed high quality YouTube videos, you can’t fast forward them and there’s all sorts of extra html code. So if you want to peep the better quality, watch it at YouTube here.

In other U-N-I news, check them out in a new interview at Okayplayer and in the July issue of The Source (w/Game on the cover). Told you the homies were doing big things! Go befriend them on their MySpace.