The Audacity of Dope

Fresh off a year-long stint across the pond my bro DJ Hyphen comes through for one of my favorite episodes to date. We spend minimal time on his back story and then delve into everything that comes to our minds from Game Of Thrones to Kanye. A true convo amongst music nerds. This is what The Biggest is all about. #ItsTheBiggest

The longtime homey Miguel Rockwell recently invited me on his super dope podcast series, The Biggest, and the episode is up now for y’all to check out.  I really enjoyed this convo with Mike and his cohost Joe “HawkinsBird” Hawkins, who Mike affectionately refers to as “the most redundant man I’ve ever known.”  They’ve been recording some great conversations with all sorts of folks in the Seattle hip-hop scene, so it was an honor to sit down with them and chop it up.

There’s all sorts of random Hyphen-related trivia sprinkled in here as we completely nerd out about random topics.  This is probably the most you’ll ever hear me talk, so you’ve been warned!  Enjoy!

It’s 3am here in London and I’ve been listening to Joey Badass and Lupe’s new albums all night, which are completely reinvigorating my feelings towards contemporary hip-hop. Honestly, outside of some of the best, I feel like hip-hop’s been a bit stale the past few years. Well both of these projects and both of these artists are absolutely KILLING it right now and restoring my faith. This legit, off the top freestyle from Lupe is a great example of what I’m talking about. Cop Tetsuo & Youth in stores now and enjoy!

Logic murders the “5 Fingers of Death” on Sway In The Morning, first with a crazy written verse and then switching in to a fun, off the top freestyle.
Seattle people: We’ll be giving out tickets for Logic’s 6/10 show at the Neptune on tonight’s SNSS.  Tune in!

(you like that 3rd person blog title, don’t ya?)

The homies Doc and Armond do one of the best hip-hop podcasts around with their Clock Radio Speakers show and I was honored to be a guest on a recent episode of theirs.  Toss this on and listen to us nerd out about all sorts of topics, including rap’s fascination with radio play and how radio really works, Wale’s issues with Complex, “event” releases in 2013 from artists like Jay-Z and Beyonce, my #InboxMadness Twitter series, industry tastemakers, and a whole bunch more.  Just a fun discussion with some folks that truly love music.  Good times.

If you aren’t familiar with one of the best cultural critics we have in hip-hop, this gives a good introduction for what Jay Smooth does on and offline. Let this play and learn something. I guarantee you’ll be inclined to check out more of his stuff, and you can do so right here.

Wow, great to see this behind the scenes footage unearthed of The Pharcyde and Spike Jonze filming one of the best music videos ever created.  Classic in every sense of the word  Shout to 2DopeBoyz for posting.

And the result:

Thoroughly enjoyed this documentary from Jabari on the homies Mack & Ryan, shot during the lead up to their stellar album, The Heist, and including behind the scenes footage of the “Thrift Shop” music video.  Shout to everyone involved with this.

As I mentioned before, there are few things better than a Curren$y and Nardwuar conversation. I mean, just look at the frame above. Simply awesome.

“…and now she grants wishes!?!?!?”

Yukimi, Fred, Erik, and Hakan answer a few questions in this interview and then perform two unreleased, never heard before songs: “Sunshine” and a cover of the Eurythmics’ “Here Comes The Rain Again.”  Easily one of my favorite bands in music these days…

Not only is it great to see Mack and Ryan link up with my guy Nick @ Hard Knock TV (cough…SXSW HoopxHang Champions!…cough) during the Paid Dues Festival, but the interview turned out really good as well.  But if you’re familiar with Hard Knock content, that’s no surprise.  Peep both clips to hear the fellas talk all about their story, their upcoming album, Seattle’s hip-hop scene, and much more.