The Audacity of Dope

If you’ve been sleeping on Idle Warship, it’s a new group consisting of Talib Kweli, Res, and Graph Nobel.  They’ve put out a few tracks already, but here’s a video for their newest joint, “Black Snake Moan.”  Peep their web clip for “Fall Back” from the primary season and then catch up with Talib through my recent interview with him if you missed it.

Shout to Tunji and the whole Blacksmith crew!

(I was going to point out that it’s NSFW, but that’s obvious.  Besides, my European side was like “what’s the big deal?”)

I believe this is the 3rd to last video scheduled for Ev’s Layover EP, but I’m not sure what the next one will be.  The final (and only ‘big-budget’) clip will be “For Whom The Bell Tolls,” which will be shot at the start of December.  If you want to hear more info about Ev’s projects, be sure to peep that interview I did with him and Alchemist a few weeks back right here.

Video courtesy of OnSmash.

Chyea, the long awaited visuals for “The Truth” video have finally arrived.  Jake + Free + Ali + Rik Cordero = dope.  Have you copped White Van Music yet?

If you’ve been sleeping lately, Keelay & Zaire are an incredible production duo that have been doing their thing for a minute now.  They’re about to drop their debut full length album, Ridin’ High, at the start of next year and people are finally starting to catch on.

Here’s the video for their current single, “The Times,” featuring Blu, Fortilive, and Nino Moschella.  If you’ve been listening to Sound Session, you’ve heard this one and the b-side, “Addicts For Real,” with the homey Tunji.  It’s been a long week, so my memory is failing on me, but I thiiiiiiink I remember hearing that there will be a video coming for that joint as well.  Do yourself a favor and get familiar with these dudes.  Shout to Karim and the whole Myx Music family too.  Big things in ’09!

Rik Cordero and the team at Three/21 Films connected with Q-Tip for another video off his new album, The Renaissance, which is in stores now.  I need to listen to the full project, cause everything I’ve heard so far has been pretty dope.  Be on the lookout for the next Cordero/Tip collab for “Manwomanboogie” dropping soon…

My train of thought:

• Ah, I hate that phrase, “it is what it is”…right up there with “everything is everything.”
• Oh wait, this is from Prez…that dude is dope.
• Oh word up!  This is off his mixtape from a few months back…good stuff.
• I was already won over, but I forgot Prezzo gave the ill Above The Rim reference.  Shout to my favorite movie of all time.  “Guard?  Coach, I’m all the guard you need!  Man…get to the back of the bus.”
• Haha, forgot DNEZ kicked a Beckham line too.
• Man, the new West ain’t playin’.

My friend: “There are so many dope videos dropping these days, it’s tough to keep up.”
Me: “Didn’t I just talk to you bout my new job?  Tell me about it…”

Here’s that video Al was talking about in my interview with him and Evidence off his new EP, The Alchemist Cookbook.  It’s always cool to see someone tackle making a video for a song like this in a dope and creative way.  Super dope, but if only they could have dropped this in time for Halloween…

Courtesy of OnSmash.

Yo.  Ev is killing it right now.  The latest video from his upcoming Layover EP features Defari and it’s yet another dope clip.  Be sure to listen to the interview I recorded with Ev and Alchemist about the whole project and why they’re releasing so many videos for it.  We also talked about how hungry he is these days, which is clearly evident, no pun, in these clips.  Cop the Layover on the 25th!

Swiped from OKP.

Since my other job deals with music videos, I think TAOD is going to end up showcasing even more dope clips than I would have previously.  Here’s the new one for Donny Goines’ “I Am Moving,” a track that premiered on MTVu earlier today.  Fans of DMX’s It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot will remember the producer, Dame Grease, from “Get At Me Dog,” “Damien,” “Stop Being Greedy,” the criminally underrated classic, “The Convo,” and more.

You can help get the homey Donny into rotation on MTVu by voting for him right here.  Support hip-hop and cast a vote against generic emo pop rock at the same time.  Seems like a win/win to me.

Some new visuals for Blu & Mainframe’s Johnson&Jonson project, which is one of the dopest releases of the year.  This is even one of my least favorite tracks on the album and it’s still crazy.  That shows you how good the album is.

Sidenote, the way Blu rhymes on this is an example of how Lil’ Wayne could sound, if he wasn’t hopped up on lean and obsessed with auto-tune.  Very few MC’s can rock this relaxed, free form flow as effortlessly as Blu does here.  Dude has bars for days.