Remember this story about ‘Ye rapping to Tunji and I acapella in the back of HOB Anaheim when he was on the come up? Well that passion is still there and on full display in these videos of his recent trip to the Facebook offices this past week. I’ve been saying for years that no other successful MC cares this much about his art. When you combine that passion with his ability, you have the best artist in the game.
I’ve been meeting cats in the industry for a decade now and I don’t think there’s anyone funnier than the homey Phonte. His 90’s reggae impression is on poooooooint.
Seeing this clip of Kanye and John Legend Stephens performing in Amsterdam around the release of The College Dropout reminds me of my 2nd semester of senior year down in Cali. The homey Tunji and I had been steadily following ‘Ye’s burgeoning rap career, ever since we heard the first couple of freestyles that he put on the net, and we were lucky enough to see him perform 2 shows in LA around the NBA All-Star Weekend in ’04 (right around my birthday too). Shout to DJ Off Beat, aka Don C, for hooking it up. Kanye even filmed the “All Falls Down” video at our local airport in Ontario, CA that week too…if only we had known Stacey Dash was in our neighborhood…
Anyway, I’ll never forget chopping it up with ‘Ye in the back of House Of Blues Anaheim and him being so happy that random dudes like Tunj and I knew all his freestyles. He was so geeked that he started rhyming new verses a capella to a couple of college kids, just to prove that the best was yet to come. Hanging out with one of my best friends while Kanye excitedly rapped what would become a verse on “Gold Digger” (“18 YEARS…18 YEARS!”) is one of my favorite music memories ever.
I’m always amazed when I see/hear how dope Aloe is singing, because I used to bump his older stuff when he was really just killing it on the MC tip. What an incredible artist…and speaking of which, RIP to the King.
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.
Dope visuals put together for an in-studio live performance of Donwill’s “Love Junkie (Wallpaper Remix).” Doesn’t it just make you want to move? Shout to Yours Truly.
