The Audacity of Dope

I’ve been meaning to post this up for a week now, but better late than never.  In a speech on July 15th, Barack laid out his policy on the war in Iraq and national security in general, in part to quell these nonsensical accusations that he’s flip-flopped on the issue.  From day one, he’s maintained the same ideas and principles, and stated them numerous times.  I’m tired of people complaining that Barack is just spouting empty rhetoric without any substance, only because they’re too lazy to do any research and dig past the soundbites they hear on TV.  It’s imperative that you take the time to seek out more than the 30 second clips on the news, or the intentionally simplified stump speeches.  I highly encourage everyone to read his last book, The Audacity of Hope (which you should be up on if you made your way to this URL), and the policies laid out on his website here.  It’s all there if you’re willing to educate yourself.

In short, the 5 goals Obama outlined for his national security strategy in this speech are:

1. Ending the war in Iraq responsibly
2. Finishing the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban
3. Securing all nuclear weapons and materials from terrorists and rogue states
4. Achieving true energy security
5. Rebuilding our alliances to meet the challenges of the 21st century

He explains the importance and strategy for each goal in the speech, and in even more detail on his site.  Take the time to educate yourself, especially if you think he’s peddling empty hopes and dreams.  There is real substance here.  It’s correct, and drastically different from what McCain is proposing.

I caught this live last night and wanted to share it right away.  As always, the net comes through in the clutch and it’s instantly archived.  I love technology.  Colby covers Nas & MoveOn.org’s protest of Fox News’ racist propaganda and then sits down with Nas for a brief interview.  Footage of that, plus Nas’ “Sly Fox” performance, and clips of the protest after the jump.  Well done Nasir.

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Trailer for an upcoming special airing Monday at 10 PM on MTV.  Kanye teamed up with Choose or Lose to help right the wrongs our government has put our soldiers through over the past few years.  I’m interested to see what exactly they’re doing to help, because a meet and greet with ‘Ye doesn’t quite pay the rent.  Should be dope though, peep it on Monday night.

Preview swiped from Eskay.

Since this was from the same show as Inverse’s VIMBY feature, it’s only right that it should get posted now too.  Like, Mibbs, and BeYoung of Pacific Division give a little interview and perform “F.A.T. Boys ’08” and “Paper.”  Dope ish.

One of my favorite MC’s of all time, Catashtrophe, was spotted rhyming with J-Ro, E-Swift, and Heltah Skeltah somewhere, but I’m too lazy to find out all the details.  I assume this is courtesy of SP1200.net, so perhaps they’ll have the details.  Wait, a session broke out and they rapped over “Tried By 12“?  Didn’t see that coming…naht.

Bonus video of Tha Liks performing “Only When I’m Drunk” after the jump.  How did a group called Tha Alkaholiks become one of my favorite groups when I don’t even drink?  Oh yeah, they make dope ish.  I need some new Tash in my life ASAP.

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Murs stops by G4 TV‘s Freestyle 101 and drops an ill video game inspired verse from off the dome.  Too many people these days think a “freestyle” is just a random verse.  I suppose the definition has changed enough that it can be, but I still maintain the true essence of it is to actually go off the top.  More MC’s need to remember how to do that.  My man Eddie would love the nerdiness of this video, but unfortunately he’s scared to death of the 8th Wonder of the World, aka Murs’ hair.

Swiped from 2 Dope Boyz.

I wanted to post this a few days ago when Jay Smooth initially tossed it up, but [Inspectah Deck] life is hectic [/Deck].  It’s a pretty interesting take on an old subject.  Peep it.  Of course you can also just hit people with the classic:

The 2nd of 4 Okayplayer TV ‘webisodes’ documenting the Roots Picnic from June 7th in Philly.  This one features The Cool Kids, though the recorded audio for their performance is pretty janky.  Also, how is Mike gonna wear a shirt THAT baggy, with pants THAT tight.  That makes no kind of sense at all.

Swacked from OKP.

Lupe’s MTV interview gets interrupted by his new artist, who reminds me of half the callers we get on Sound Session.  I was hoping a little cypher might pop off there.

Swiped from The Lupe Fiasco Show.

Spotted this over at the Dopehouse and I had to post it.  Once they broke out the Kid ‘n Play, it was a wrap.  Is it just me or were those credits kinda long for a short video?

But yo, speaking of Kid…did y’all know this just came out?

I have no idea how I feel about that.