The Audacity of Dope

Dope video from CL’s performance at the 2009 QN5 Megashow from NYC a few weeks back.  Deacon, Natti, and Kno performed their entire A Piece of Strange album (which is a certified hip-hop classic) with Club Dub backing them up.

Unfortunately, I don’t believe the band will be joining them on their upcoming tour, but regardless, you won’t want to miss this show when it rolls through your town.

Seattle folks: you can catch CL performing with Looptroop Rockers, the homey Tunji, and some of our hometown heroes, Grieves & Budo, on November 25th at Neumos.  Be there.

The homey Cook, or as I know him, Will from Pomona (5-C’s represent, represent), just dropped off this fresh beat tape, mixed by DJ Seano.  Every time I hear Cook’s beats, I’m more and more impressed.  There are so many ill layers to these…it’s just up to the right artists to sprinkle the right spices and make some classic dishes.

This ain’t your mama’s crusty old beat tape! These are The Original Recipes – a collection of Cook Classics beats from the last few years. We managed to plug about 40 beats into a twenty minute set by the incredible DJ Seano. The tape starts with hip hop, but by the end you’ll be dancing like a teeny-bopper to some serious pop and uptempo production. To all the beat-jacking loop builders out there, we kindly introduce the funky chicken and our favorite lazer sounds to make your life just a little more difficult. Remember, this is only a small selection of hundreds of Cook beats, so if you want to work, hit me up! It’s time to cook, biatch!

Download here and holler at Cook on his Twitter.

Look no further!

I’ve talked about my day job here on TAOD a few times, but I haven’t mentioned that one of the perks is working with some really cool and talented people.  A few of my homies from work are part of a dope rap/rock band called the Goondocks and they’re throwing this event on Saturday night at Spitfire for Halloween.

Not only do you get some great music and some freebies from Stoli Vodka and Snowboard Connection, but you can come kick it with some cool folks at a great venue.

Oh…and it’s free.  Beat that.

Start.

(watch in higher quality on HyphenTV)

As I mentioned, Malice and Pusha T recently made their second appearance on Sound Session, dropping by last month to chop it up with yours truly.  We talked extensively about their upcoming Till The Casket Drops album, including breakdowns of their singles with Kanye West, Cam’ron, and Pharrell. They also looked back on their past work, detailed the success of their Play Cloths fashion line, doled out advice to younger artists, and much more.

To listen to the entire interview, including a lot of topics we didn’t include in the video above, peep:

The Clipse on Sound Session – http://www.mediafire.com/?yzljyqz0lzl
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/67551505ee1d198a/)

The Thornton brothers are about to drop a 3rd classic album, believe that.  Be sure to cop it on Dec. 8th…

Time is absolutely flying.  It’s about to be Halloween?  WTFFFFFFFFFFF, fail.

Another fun show this week, complete with a great soundtrack from artists like J. Cole, the CunninLynguists, Kidz In The Hall, Skyzoo, Vstylez, Paten Locke, Fashawn, Joss Stone, Wyclef Jean, Extended Famm, and more.  Shout to the homies Clockwork for coming through the studio and also Emilio Rojas for calling in from NYC, fresh off his victory celebration for the Yankees.

Is it wrong that I don’t even mind that the Evil Empire made it to the World Series this year?  It feels like it’s been so long, I’m almost…*gasp*…rooting for them.  Ok, perhaps I can’t go that far, but I’m fairly apathetic towards this year’s series.  One team that just won and the other team where everyone pretty much has a ring (though I’d like to see CC get one, so he can CC all the girls he see sees around town)?  Eh.

I’ll just root for good baseball and hope it goes 7.  I bet Cleveland is maaaaad salty looking at those Game 1 starters though…

Show #230 (10-25-09)

1. Royce Da 5’9” ft. Phonte – “Something 2 Ride 2”
2. J. Cole – “Welcome”
3. Crooked I ft. Snoop Dogg – “Guess Who’s Back”
4. **INTERVIEW WITH CLOCKWORK**
5. Clockwork – “Accountability” (Local Music)
6. Big Boi ft. Gucci Mane – “Shine Blockas”
7. Camp Lo – “Satin Amnesia”
8. CunninLynguists ft. E-40 & Evidence – “Running Wild”
9. BK-One ft. Black Thought – “Philly Boy”
10. Clipse ft. Cam’ron & Pharrell – “Popular Demand (Popeyes)”
11. Kidz In The Hall – “Jukebox”
12. Skyzoo – “Popularity”
13. **INTERVIEW WITH EMILIO ROJAS**
14. Emilio Rojas – “Bold and Arrogant”
15. Vstylez ft. Royce Da 5’9”, Big Pooh, Elzhi, & Phat Kat – “Clash Of The Titans”
16. Drake ft. Logics, Spaceman, Brainstorm (of Dyme Def), & Grynch – “Forever NW Remix)” (Local Music)
17. Substantial & Burns ft. Extended Famm – “The W.W.K.Y.A. Tour”
18. Paten Locke – “Wadaap!”
19. Fresh Espresso ft. Grynch, Macklemore, & Gatsby – “Something New (Remix)” (Local Music)
20. Fashawn ft. Blu – “Samsonite Man”
21. Wyclef Jean – “Toussaint vs. Bishop”
22. Joss Stone – “4 and 20”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?zn005o5zz5k
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/675511091424ed84/ )

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.

Shout to Smoking Section for reminding me of this play from the last NFL weekend.  I still remember the first time seeing high school footage of AP and realizing he just ran differently than anyone I had ever seen.  Wow.

Sidenote, I believe “Gay” is one of the “potentially offensive” words that’s banned from being used in customized NFL jerseys.  Laughable really, especially if you’re William and you want to press up some jerseys for your family.  WTF.

That said, pause @ William Gay and “maybe this guy can play both ways” in the same sentence.  Just sayin’.

I heard this video dropped, but I hadn’t had a chance to peep it yet until the homey Todd Angkasuwan alerted me via Twitter:

Yessir!  If you don’t remember, we had Raheem in studio last year for Sound Session and he blessed us with a little a capella preview of “Bulletproof,” peep game:

Todd definitely did the song justice too.  Great record and great visuals!

I’m Edwin Ortiz. I’ll be helping Hyphen out with keeping this site updated, whether it be a dope mixtape, footage from concerts, or exclusive content from SNSS. Also, with the approval from Hyphen, I’ll periodically post articles that I feel warrant a discussion. In this way, readers can sound off about the current happenings of hip-hop.

Without getting into too much detail, here’s a little info about me: I’m from the Northwest, born and raised. I’m double majoring in journalism and history at the University of Washington. Along with blogging duties here, I write for HipHopDX.com and have contributed to other various sites such as KevinNottingham.com.

I look forward to building with the viewership/readership Hyphen has already received with TAOD, and I hope that this sites reach can expand through quality content and commentary.

And remember; Holla at a playa when ya see him in the streets. (c) Stuart Scott

Editor’s note: Welcome aboard Edwin! – Hyph

The Clipse rolled through the Sound Session studio last month and spoke with me all about their upcoming album, Till The Casket Drops.  I’ll be posting up the full interview soon, but in the interim, seeing as how their “Popular Demand (Popeyes)” track with Cam’ron leaked last week and set the net ablaze, I thought I would toss up this part for y’all.

In the clip, Pusha and Malice discuss how the track came together, their motivation behind the record, and how Cam dissed them in 2002 by declining their offer to be on the “Grindin'” remix.  Download the track here:

Clipse ft. Cam’ron and Pharrell – “Popular Demand (Popeyes)”

Full interview coming soon…