The Audacity of Dope

I don’t condone violence against anyone, but that’s not what this video is really about. As Seed noted, Soulja Boy “is the poster boy for this dumb ish.” Fact.  Also a fact?  The hip-hop world was garbage for spending all of last week focusing on Young Buck crying and Soulja Boy beefing with Ice-T.  Seriously.  This is where we’re at?  Really?

Thank you to Bad Seed for sayin’ something.  Plus you get a nice bonus video of “Mr. Policeman,” speaking on everyone’s favorite city workers.

Swiped from the QN5 blog.

Here’s the new video from DC’s finest (aka the second best Nigerian rapper I know), Wale, and super producer Rik Cordero.  This song stands for pretty much everything I believe in as a DJ.  Unfortunately, about 1% of the other DJ’s, artists, producers, and industry folk in the entertainment world feel the same way.  Big shout to you if you’re repping that 1% though.  Keep fighting the good fight with us.

“The Artistic Integrity” is off Wale’s excellent Seinfeld inspired project, The Mixtape About Nothing.  If you missed it when it dropped, you can catch up via the download right here.

I’m not sure why Talib felt the need to drop another video off Eardrum, but I’m not mad at all.  The whole album is dope as hell, so if you’ve been sleeping, go cop it.  This song was produced by Madlib and talks about one of life’s basic necessities.  Did you know there’s a worldwide food crisis right now?  Are you doing anything about it?

Interviewed RZA tonight.  I’ll get the audio & video up for y’all ASAP, but in the meantime, check out his new album, Digi Snacks, which dropped today…

Damn, right after Tim Russert passes, we lose another great figure in the media world.  One of the greatest comedians of all time, George Carlin, died on Sunday night due to heart failure.  He was an inspiration to virtually every contemporary comedian we have today and the world just got a lot less funny after his passing.  Here’s one of my favorite bits of his, the classic “baseball vs. football” routine:

Greatness. Back in college, I was lucky enough to take a course called “History of Laughter,” taught by the illustrious Barry Sanders (no, not that one…this one).  He focused a lot of the class around his experiences growing up and idolizing one of Carlin’s heroes, Lenny Bruce.  Anyone who understands the importance of laughter to the human condition knows how impactful Bruce and Carlin were to both comedy and popular culture.  True geniuses.  RIP George.

That’s whassup. If you aren’t registered, be sure that you do so ASAP. If you’re 17 now, as long as you’re 18 by the election on Nov. 4th, you can register. You can do it online via Rock The Vote right here.

“I intend to post up John McCain every chance I get”

Seriously, could dude be any cooler?

Though I am taking away one point for him employing Reggie Love, who was part of the Duke team that stole (that’s a FOUL!) the championship from Arizona in 2001. That one’s right up there with the Illinois debacle in 2005. Sigh.

Told y’all these were coming. They’re gonna be dope…real relaxed and fun. I recommend checking one out in your area, and if you’re ballin’ and want to open up your house to host one yourself, definitely do so. It’s real easy and you’ll have a ton of help making it happen. Seattle people can holler at me directly if you’re interested in getting involved. For everyone else, you can find all the info here.

Yeah, just like the Fest post, a little late…but this is important so it goes on TAOD. Plus, Barack’s my new boss. Holler @ me if you or your friends need to register or need anything from the campaign here in Seattle. We’ll make that happen with the quickness. “Unite For Change” house parties are coming up on the 28th! Save the date.

Can’t wait for this dude to be President.

Damn, I wish I spotted this earlier. One of the best dudes in this crazy industry (plus one of the best MC’s), the homey Rhymefest, recently contributed to a book called Be A Father. On June 2nd, they held a release party for it in which Fest and his son Solomon interviewed each other, posing 5 questions that they’ve never asked one another. Andrew from FSD posted up a few video clips of the event that you can watch here, but I thought the last 2 were particularly moving:

(Part 3)

(Part 4)

Very dope. I hope more dads in our culture get their ish together and provide the love and support that Fest does for Solomon.

As an added bonus for y’all, here’s the Sound Session intro that Fest did a while back:

Rhymefest – “Sunday Night Sound Session Intro”