J. Moore and I were just talking about this topic the other day, and Jay Smooth happened to repost an old video of his for Current TV recently. As always, dude is on point. I feel sorry for kids today, judging music off a cursory listen of an unmastered song squeaking through laptop speakers. [McCain] that’s not music we can believe in my friends [/McLame]
Be sure to peep Jay’s blog!
Couple things:
Next up from Chi-town, FNF representative Gemstones, just got a nice little feature on VIMBY. He takes you through Chicago, talking about his style, his inspirations, and his upcoming album, all the while displaying some of his personal growth as an artist. He also got really in depth about his evolution when we had him on Sound Session a few months back. If you missed that interview, you can download it right here ( or through the back up / streaming link available here).
Be on the lookout for Gemstones’ Testimony of Gemstones mixtape dropping very soon…for real this time!
Shout to KayCee for the video
I’ve been having friendly debates with people recently about this upcoming monumental election, and the better ones have evolved into discussions about why you believe what you believe. I’ve found that a disappointingly large number of people will blindly support a candidate, either due to image or party affiliation. I’ve always fallen squarely on the ‘Democrat’ side of things, but that’s because the general beliefs of their party line up with mine most of the time. If you believe in the same things I do, and see the world the same way, chances are I’ll vote for you…regardless what party you schlep around in.
So with this election coming up, the most fundamental thing you can do is educate yourself. Find out what the candidates believe in, what their policies are, and what they want to do with this country. Then make your choice accordingly. Granted, you may believe that you’re choosing between “the lesser of two evils,” but that’s still an incredibly important decision…especially this time around.
?uestlove put up this little PSA to talk about a few of the reasons why he is voting for Barack Obama, and I encourage y’all to check it out. The topics he mentions are almost never discussed on any of the ‘talking heads’ news programs, but they’re all very important.
Decide what issues are most important to you in this election and then find out where the candidates stand on them. Hopefully, we’re all progressive people here and supporting Obama, but if not, it’s all good. We just disagree. But make sure we’re really disagreeing on issues and policies, not because your parents have always voted Republican…
The Roots and Erykah Badu came to Seattle last Thursday to perform at Marymoor Park. While there, J. Moore and I had a chance to hop aboard the Roots’ (dope as hell) tour bus and talk to their drummer/ringleader, the legendary ?uestlove. We recorded the whole interview (shout to Caitlin on the Flip Cam) for y’all to check out. It’s 5 parts on YouTube, but the conversation was so dope and extensive, I didn’t want to just put up clips.
?uest spoke about all sorts of topics, including their new Rising Down project, the lost Roots album, volunteering for Barack Obama’s campaign, working on albums from Al Green and Marvin Gaye, why Black Thought is continually underrated, the rumor of a sequel to Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, and more!
Check out the first video here, and the rest after the jump.
Part 1 of 5
Also, if you can’t watch the videos and just want to peep the audio, you can do that right here (ZShare link available here). Warning: the audio only quality is a bit janky…the Flip Cam’s microphone + a running tour bus = an audiophile’s nightmare. I suggest watching the videos if you can.
As I mentioned a few days ago in the post with U-N-I’s live performance of “Beautiful Day” on my radio show, I DJ’d for their set at the Seattle stop of the DunkXChange last Saturday (yes, that’s my ill Kanye t-shirt in the background). It took me a minute, but I got a video medley of joints from the performance up for y’all to check out.
Remember to set your YouTube accounts to play high quality videos. Click on “account”, then “video playback quality”, and then select “I have a fast connection. Always play higher-quality video when it’s available.” It makes a huge difference, especially with Flip Cam stuff. Unfortunately, if you embed high quality YouTube videos, you can’t fast forward them and there’s all sorts of extra html code. So if you want to peep the better quality, watch it at YouTube here.
In other U-N-I news, check them out in a new interview at Okayplayer and in the July issue of The Source (w/Game on the cover). Told you the homies were doing big things! Go befriend them on their MySpace.
more ?uesto coming soon
(Kanye & Consequence trying to feign interest)
Today’s wack lyric is simply:
Anything that DJ Khaled has ever screamed over his tracks, especially his annoying catch phrases and his gratuitous use of the n-word.
(“said i was a nerd, but i ain’t a punk” – Skateboard)
Chyea. I’ve been looking forward to the new N.E.R.D. album, Seeing Sounds, for a while and it’s finally here. In Search Of… is a personal classic to me, and while Fly or Die didn’t hit me as hard, it’s still real dope. The day before the Glow In The Dark Tour kicked off here in Seattle, Pharrell, Chad, and Shae came through Sound Session for a little listening party for material off this album (what up Blaze!). Ish sounded dope then, and it’s even better now. It drops this coming Tuesday, June 10th, and if you have any sense in you, you’ll cop this over Wayne’s Carter III disaster. Support good music from artists who put their hearts and souls into their art, painstakingly analyzing every frequency and note they create…not someone who wastes his talent by getting trashed off every drug imaginable, mumbling his way through disjointed rhymes, and slapping the auto-tune effect on it. Hmm, perhaps that was a bit much. Maybe I am a hater. [Mavado] Anywaaaaaaaaay [/Mavado]
Since I interviewed N.E.R.D. right before I launched this blog, here’s a clip of Pharrell explaining the meaning behind the album’s title in case you missed it. Be sure to download the full version of the interview as well, right here.
And a hilarious bonus clip of Pharrell pushing this kid off the stage that’s been all over the net this week. The dap + shove move is clutch.
Remember: Cop the N.E.R.D. album on Tuesday!
More good looks for the homies Y-O and Thurzday, who are destined for big things. Here’s an interview they did as Hip-Hop Official’s “Artist of the Week” segment.
LOL @ the superhero pound. ya diiiiig?