The Audacity of Dope

This might be the most beautiful music video I’ve seen in a minute, and I watch a ton at the day job.  I don’t believe Shad and the homies are using this as an official music video, but it would get my vote.  Great stuff.

Grab the EP this track is on right here and NYC folks better not miss Shad’s first performance in the Big Apple:

As I was saying, the talent in the 206 is immense right now.  I meant to put this on TAOD when Ryan first sent it to me, but I failed.  Thankfully, 2DopeBoyz posted it up and reminded me about it.

In Ryan’s own words:

All summer I’ve been working on my thesis project to graduate from the UW. It’s another still-image motion picture like the 2Pac Vs. Franz Ferdinand mash-up I made last year. It features Macklemore and a few other people you may know (list below). Take in mind this is version one. Between limited access, finances, etc I couldn’t really pursue a lot of the ideas I originally envisioned in efforts to make it epic. I feel like the music got there more than the storyline. However, we may do an improved remix of it for the VS. (Macklemore/RyanLewis) EP featuring Mack rapping and a revised production more like a music video, shot with actual video.

It was shot entirely with regular still-image cameras (Canon 5D, Canon 5D Mark II, Nikon D300 and a Nikon D3), batch-edited in Photoshop and produced in Final Cut Pro. The music was probably the biggest Pro-Tools session I’ve ever ran. Although it samples the original Fake Empire’s piano and backing vocals, everything else was recorded live over numerous sessions.

Thanks a ton to everyone who helped:

The National – Fake Empire (Sample)
JkoePhoto.com (Jason Koenig) – Photographer
MazagranPhoto.com (Johnny Valencia) – Photographer
Myspace.com/Macklemore (Ben Haggerty) – Main Actor
Tricia Davis – Actor
Kevin Veatch – Electric Guitar, Electric Bass, Engineer
Andrew Joslyn – Violins and plucking
Zach Fleury – Main Drums, Percussion
Jonah Peters – Percussion
Ryan Lewis – Music Production, Photography, Film Production, Drums, Key Strings, Organ

We shot 100 + strangers portraits who choose a sticker that pertained to an organization/company that has either consumed them or acted as an alternative means of communication to operate with society.

Group Vocals –

P Smoov (Mad Rad)
Rosanna Veatch
Zach Fleury
Sol
Xperience
Macklemore
Anna Clausen
Isabella Du Graf
and more.

Also, Ryan has been working with a dope MC/vocalist named Symmetry for about 3 years now and I believe they’re just about to drop their full project for the masses.  Here’s a taste:

Symmetry / Ryan Lewis – “Fireflies”

For those who aren’t aware, the talent in Seattle is crazy right now.  One of my favorite releases of the year, local or national, was Fresh Espresso‘s Glamour, and Rik Rude & P-Smoov just enlisted Grynch, Macklemore, and Gatsby for the remix.  Video by Stephan Gray.  Bananas.

Fresh Espresso ft. Grynch, Macklemore, & Gatsby – “Something New (Remix)”

I’ve been working like crazy this week and finally have a little time to catch up with everything that went down.  So far, it seems like the highlight was that the world’s funniest human, Dave Chappelle, performed an impromptu set at the Laugh Factory in NYC.  I’ve only seen this Flip Cam footage, but we need more to leak.  This is hilarious, especially at the end…

Swiped from 2DopeBoyz.

As I mentioned on this week’s SNSS recap, Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3 tour came through Seattle this weekend and pretty much shut down the city.  Along with Hov, J. Cole, Wale, and N.E.R.D. performed and all the opening acts came through our station (KUBE 93) to chop it up before the show.

In these clips, peep the homies Karen Wild and Producer L talk with Pharrell, Shay, and N.E.R.D.’s newest member, Rhea, all about their upcoming Instant Gratification album.  They also revealed some secrets behind their creative process in the studio and gave lots of insight to the motivation behind their art.  Some lucky listeners also got to ask the group a few questions as well.

Check out all 4 parts of the interview…P kicks knowledge throughout.

If you listen to Sound Session at all, you know that we give out tickets all the time on the air.  Well today we’ve got a little present for our loyal TAOD readers as well, courtesy of the homies at Obese Productions.

If you want to go check out the Ghostface Killah show this Saturday night at the Showbox Market, I’ve got one pair for the reader that can email me at DJHyphen@gmail.com with the best reason why you should get to go see Ghost.

Contest ends at 5pm (PST) Friday the 23rd.  Let’s go!

In case you want a little video to go with the audio from this week’s SNSS, here’s some footage of the homey Sol sitting in with us.  We talked about his new EP (download here!), his upcoming trip to Brazil, and more.

ahhhh, the homies!  Good times y’all…

Weekends like these don’t come along too often.

This past Saturday, Jay-Z performed in Seattle for the first time in 10 years (apparently Bill Gates needs to remind Hov about our lovely city) and pretty much shut down the city.  Aside from a few Blueprint 3 songs that really have no business being performed at a Jay-Z show, the concert was epic from start to finish.  Call me old fashioned, but I’d like to see at least one song from Reasonable Doubt (“Dead Presidents”!?!?!) or In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 (“A Million and One Questions”!?!?!?) rather than “On To The Next One.”  Maybe that’s just me.  *Kanye shrug*

That said, in front of a sold out Key Arena, Jay killed it from beginning to end and the opening lineup of J. Cole, Wale, and N.E.R.D. was excellent.  Big shout to all those artists for coming through the studio before the show.  We’ll have interviews with them coming soon…

Meanwhile, on this week’s SNSS, we played new joints from (who else) Hov, N.E.R.D., J. Cole, Big Boi, Slick Rick, the CunninLynguists, Ghostface Killah, Fashawn, and more.  Local artist Sol joined us in studio and we played a snippet of our interview with Royce Da 5’9″.  Cop Street Hop in stores now!  Last but not least, we world premiered a new track from the one and only YZ featuring Slug and Brother Ali.  If you don’t know, now you know.

Show #229 (10-18-09)

1. Jay-Z ft. Pharrell – “So Ambitious”
2. N.E.R.D. ft. Santigold – “Soldier”
3. Janelle Monae – “Come Alive (The War Of The Roses)”
4. Lupe Fiasco – “Fire”
5. Dynas ft. Slick Rick – “Family Jewels”
6. Keelay & Zaire ft. Tunji, Thurzday, Kam Moye, Ragen Fykes, & the Park – “Addicts For Real (Remix)”
7. **INTERVIEW WITH SOL, PT. 1**
8. Sol ft. Grynch – “No Sleep” (Local Music)
9. **INTERVIEW WITH SOL, PT. 2**
10. Big Boi ft. Gucci Mane – “Shine Blockas”
11. J. Cole – “World Is Empty”
12. **INTERVIEW WITH ROYCE DA 5’9” (SNIPPET)**
13. Royce Da 5’9” ft. Phonte – “Something 2 Ride 2”
14. Yoshi ft. Buff1 & Darien Brockington – “Magnetic”
15. Jay Rush ft. D-Black – “I Ain’t Even Mad (Khrysis Real Sh*t Remix)”
16. BK-One ft. Murs – “Eighteen To Twenty-One”
17. YZ ft. Slug & Brother Ali – “Did I Ever Tell You” (WORLD PREMIERE)
18. CunninLynguists ft. E-40 & Evidence – “Running Wild”
19. Macklemore ft. Geologic – “Church” (Local Music)
20. Debaser ft. Phat Kat & Rasco – “Out Front” (Local Music)
21. Ghostface Killah – “Stay”
22. Sene – “WonLover”
23. Fashawn ft. Exile – “Bo Jackson”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?jjmocwngna4
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/6721777347ecef6a/ )

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.

This is crazy.

I don’t think anyone is on the same level as Kanye these days – musically, artistically, personally, etc..  There are a lot of different interpretations that you could pull from this short film, but I’d be interested in hearing your take.  Keep in mind, this was filmed before the MTV VMA incident and his decision to step out of the spotlight a bit.  What do you think?

Sidenote: peep the Mayer Hawthorne track playing during the “love” scene.  A-Side FTW!