The Audacity of Dope

Seeing this clip of Kanye and John Legend Stephens performing in Amsterdam around the release of The College Dropout reminds me of my 2nd semester of senior year down in Cali.  The homey Tunji and I had been steadily following ‘Ye’s burgeoning rap career, ever since we heard the first couple of freestyles that he put on the net, and we were lucky enough to see him perform 2 shows in LA around the NBA All-Star Weekend in ’04 (right around my birthday too).  Shout to DJ Off Beat, aka Don C, for hooking it up.  Kanye even filmed the “All Falls Down” video at our local airport in Ontario, CA that week too…if only we had known Stacey Dash was in our neighborhood…

Anyway, I’ll never forget chopping it up with ‘Ye in the back of House Of Blues Anaheim and him being so happy that random dudes like Tunj and I knew all his freestyles.  He was so geeked that he started rhyming new verses a capella to a couple of college kids, just to prove that the best was yet to come.  Hanging out with one of my best friends while Kanye excitedly rapped what would become a verse on “Gold Digger” (“18 YEARS…18 YEARS!”) is one of my favorite music memories ever.

The College Dropout changed my life, real talk.

Murdoc narrates the story of Plastic Beach, the new project from the Gorillaz.  Obviously, ill…everything about this band has been since day one.

Not only did Ms. Monae hook up a dope remix to her “Tightrope” record, but she also got the crew together for a quick video.  Just for the record, has anyone seen her guitar player, Kellindo, and Andre3000 in the same room at the same time?

Fice and Erik Soderquist team up for this ode to Tacoma, our friendly neighbors just south of Seattle.  I’m digging the record and the video, though I will say, one of my rules in life is to never answer an unknown number from the 253.  Life lesson.

Just the biz this week.  Rooting for Japan and Spain to pull out victories in the morning and set us up for a stellar Elite 8 in the World Cup.  Shout to DV-One for co-hosting while J was out and about.  Holler.

Show #265 (6-27-10)

1. Shad – “Listen”
2. Royce Da 5’9” ft. Black Milk & Elzhi – “Real Hip-Hop”
3. Bilal – “Free”
4. Brother Ali – “Don’t Look At Me, Look Around”
5. Goodie Mob – “Night Train”
6. SOTA ft. Sol – “You Know Girls” (Local Music)
7. Theophilus London – “Flying Overseas (Version 1)”
8. Ice Cube – “I Rep That West”
9. E-40 ft. 50 Cent & Too Short – “Trick (Remix)”
10. Drake – “You Know, You Know”
11. The Roots ft. Truck North & Peedi Peedi – “Web 20/20”
12. Rakaa (of Dilated Peoples) – “C.T.D.”
13. Cool Nutz – “Monster Up” (Local Music)
14. Wiz Khalifa ft. Killa Kyleon – “Spotlight”
15. Aloe Blacc – “Femme Fatale”
16. Nneka ft. Nas – “Heartbeat (Remix)”
17. Dwele ft. Slum Village – “How I Deal”
18. Canary Sing – “My Style” (Local Music)
19. A Tribe Called Quest – “Luck Of Lucien” (Throwback of the Week)
20. Rhymefest ft. Mario – “The Classics”
21. Chromeo – “Don’t Turn The Lights On”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?rndmdzzyzw5
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/777516699cf5c159/)
(2nd back up – http://usershare.net/ztq2802up7u6)

If there are any problems with the links or if you’d like to be added to our weekly email list to receive the playlist and download links after every show, just shoot me an email, DJHyphen@gmail.com.

“Act like an activist, you know…active”
— Black Thought, “Web 20/20”

From the “bang like bangers/hang like hangers” school of MC’ing, one of our favorite rappers of all time takes an unfortunate dip in the WLotD pool.  Sorry ‘Riq.  Still gonna play this song on SNSS tonight though…

Newest visuals from J. Cole and BBGUN, who are consistently killing the one shot style…very fresh.

The homey Laws just dropped the video for his DJ Khalil produced record.  “I’m a boss…M. Bison and Ganon in one…”

Peep our interview with Laws right here.

(word to Darius Lovehall)

I’m always amazed when I see/hear how dope Aloe is singing, because I used to bump his older stuff when he was really just killing it on the MC tip.  What an incredible artist…and speaking of which, RIP to the King.

So legendary.