The Audacity of Dope

(Part 1 of 3)

One of the dopest MC’s in the game, Crooked I, came through Sound Session last night while he was up here in Seattle over the holiday weekend.  We talked about his groundbreaking “Hip-Hop Weekly” series that dominated the blogosphere over the past year, his upcoming B.O.S.S. album and Block Obama mixtape, his “Dream Big” single with Akon, and more.  Plus, he even blessed the mic by ripping a few beats: Jaylib’s “The Red” (in part 2) and the end of A-Trak & Lupe Fiasco’s “Running Man” (part 3).  Be sure to check HyphenTV to watch these clips in high quality (Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3).  You can also download the audio by itself below, and of course the whole show right here.

(Part 2 of 3)

(Part 3 of 3)

Download the audio of the Crooked I interview – http://www.mediafire.com/?u3zz10rybmv
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/148487462fa062a7/ )

Remember to call or email your local stations and request “Dream Big.”  It definitely has a chance to break through and get Crooked the mainstream success he deserves, but since he’s doing it independently, he needs our support. C.O.B.!

Bastian Schweinsteiger of Germany was giving his post game interview after losing in the Euro 2008 final, only to be interupted by the Spanish players celebrating.  Ouch.  It’s a celebration bitches Bastian!

Doesn’t get much better than that.  Steve Nash recently held some charity events in NYC, one of which was “The Showdown in Chinatown,” a pick up game of footy involving some of the biggest stars in basketball and soccer: Baron Davis, Jozy Altidore, Thierry Henry (a future Sounder?),  Salomon Kalou, Claudio Reyna, and more.  The stop motion photography gives this video a great artistic touch.

Damn, now I really want to go play soccer…but instead I’m off to register voters at various 4th of July festivities.  Have a good 4th y’all!

Spotted on Hypebeast.

This is the N.E.R.D. I know.  All 3 of ’em are hilarious in different ways, and here, Pharrell steals the show.  Perhaps one day I’ll post up a speech he recorded for me as his alter ego “JD Sweathog.”  I know.  It’s as weird as it sounds.

Cop Seeing Sounds!  One of the best albums of the year, hands down.

Swiped from the official BBC blog.

New Nike commercial, greatness.  I got dunked on once…by Donald Watts…I was a high schooler at the time though.  Never had it happen again, so I’m aight.

Shout to the homies Owen and Dave for being on the receiving end, pause, of the two nastiest dunks I’ve seen from a game I was playing in (Dave even got it on his birthday…ouch).  Special shout to Evan for selling Owen out on that play by letting his dude go backdoor, errr…second pause.  Final shout to Alex who did this to people on the regular back in our P-P days.

Spotted on RealTalkNY

I’m a little ashamed that as big of a sports fan as I am, I managed to go the entire Euro 2008 soccer tournament without mentioning it in a single entry. It’s even more blasphemous because I watched pretty much every game and saw every goal. When you’re a Western European mutt like me, Euro is great because you can root for a handful of teams. My English side couldn’t cheer since they choked in qualifying, but I could claim allegiance to Italy, Sweden, France, and the eventual champion, Spain. Still waiting for my Maltese homies to qualify for a major tournament…ok…I’d be happy if they could win a single game. Actually, maybe I should go try out for them…

Anyway, I won’t bore you with all my thoughts on the tournament, but basically, it was great. If you missed it, here’s a good mix of someone’s top 10 goals, and I agree with most of ’em:

(if you weren’t sick of this song already, you will be now)

Top 10 Goals @ Euro 2008:

10. Robin van Persie finishing off a brilliant Dutch maneuver
9. Daniel Guiza staying onside and clinically scoring off Cesc Fabregas’ dime
8. Lukas Podolski cleaning up some sloppy German play with a sweet volley
7. Arjen Robben drilling home a stunner from an impossible angle
6. Nihat Kahveci kissing the underside of the bar to cap Turkey’s stunning comeback
5. Philipp Lahm opening up his body to send the keeper the wrong direction & win the game
4. Wesley Sneijder poking home a one time effort to complete a “total football” goal
3. Zlatan Ibrahimovic audaciously scoring far post with the wrong foot from that angle
2. Wesley Sneijder scoring my favorite goal of the tourney with a long range bomb
1. Michael Ballack blasting a free kick that continues to rise all the way to the top right corner

Off the top of my head, the only one I would have included that they left out was Andrei Arshavin‘s goal against Sweden. That was end to end brilliance. Funny that Spain only has one representative on the list, but their goals weren’t necessarily that amazing. They just played the best football over the course of the tournament, hands down. Good stuff.

Skateboard, Chad, and Shae talk about the world of tattoos.  Chad’s sense of humor is hilarious by the way.

I’m not sure I’m cool with that skin graft stuff.  I’d rather think ahead and avoid getting a million tattoos rather than have to get new skin applied to hit the reset button.  If you’ve already gone all out though, perhaps it’s worth it.  LOL @ how these fools will look at 60 years old (correction: LOL @ them now).  I’m good with my single tat…though I may get another to match it on the other shoulder blade when the day comes.

Sidenote, go cop Seeing Sounds.  “Time For Some Action” is the official workout song of the moment.

Swiped from the illustrious Info.

“…that was awesome.”

Yeezy linked up with Absolut Vodka apparently, and, not surprisingly, hilarity ensued.

This is why Barack doesn’t take any money from PAC’s or lobbyists.  Rather than be accountable to big business, he’ll be accountable to us.  Vote.

Yo. This is the illest thing I’ve seen all week! This dude combined Barack, Breakin’, and “Din Daa Daa.” It simply does not get better.

If you’re not familiar with one of the greatest songs of all time, peep it:

George Kranz – “Din Daa Daa”

It’s been sampled by the Roots, Wyclef, Ying Yang Twins, and more.

Shout to my man Gedi for sending this over.

*pops & locks his way out the post*