The Audacity of Dope

What can I say…I was bored and needed to get out of the house.  Seeing as how its been snowing for 10+ hours now and the roads are completely covered, I’m guessing there won’t be an episode of Sound Session tonight.  I’m hoping to have some cool stuff to post up in the next few days to make it up to y’all.  We’ll see.

In the meantime, stay warm!

I think Shad is my favorite discovery of this past year.  I know he’s been doing his thing for years, but apparently I was sleeping cause I just caught on to him at the end of 2007.  Better late than never though and in fact, this video is from back in July, but the new homey G just shot it over and I was floored.  This dude is crazy.

Be on the lookout for big things from Shad in ’09.  He’ll be at SXSW in March and on the Warped Tour all year, including a Seattle stop in August.  Prior to that, it looks like he’ll be out here in the Pacific NW rocking shows, so I’ll keep y’all posted when things get announced.  In the meantime, be sure to cop The Old Prince asap.

I would imagine that everyone prefers Sam Cooke’s original version, but of all the R&B singers out today, Hamilton is one of a few that could pull this off nicely.  The original is beyond classic, but Anthony does a pretty damn good job.

Swiped from 2DopeBoyz.

Another day, another dope mixtape…this one from the homey Roosevelt Treasurechest, GLC, and the fine folks over at Ruby Hornet.  It featues a bunch of new tracks, unreleased joints, and live performances from GLC, which should get you ready for his upcoming G.O.O.D. Music project, Love, Life, and Loyalty, coming in 2009.  While you wait for that, bump this.

Download here.

I think I remember seeing this footage go around the blogs back at the end of September, but I never posted it up for some reason.  As I mentioned in the post on his Sound Session appearance, Murs is one of the hardest working artists out there.  He consistently puts his all into his live performances, and that’s on display here in the footage from Amoeba’s Hollywood store.  Peep the video and watch him run through tracks like “Better Than The Best,” “H-U-S-T-L-E,” “Bad Man,” “Can It Be,” “Silly Girl,” “Lookin’ Fly,” and more.

Thanks to Paul for sending this through.

Have Royce and Premier ever combined for a bad, or even mediocre, song?  Nope!  This is another banger, though I think it might be the first collaboration of theirs without the signature Preem cuts in the hook.  No matter, it’s still a great beat and Royce kills it with some more introspective lyrics that remind me of his Death Is Certain days.  Shout to Rik Cordero for yet another dope video too.

I don’t normally enjoy today’s mixtapes, but when I saw that the homey Legend and the OnSmash team were involved, I knew I should check this out.  Sure enough, it’s dope as hell.  2 discs, packed full of great music from some of my favorite artists in the game today: Royce, Wale, B.o.B., Blu, Termanology, Fashawn, Emilio Rojas, Don Cerino, Kid Cudi, Theo, Skyzoo, and many more.  Definitely grab this:

DISC ONE

1. Emilio Rojas – Back 2 The Basics 2 (Intro)
2. Royce Da 5’9″ – Part Of Me (Produced by Carlos Broady)
3. Grafh – In Love With The Dealer
4. Johnny Polygon – I Been Runnin
5. Wale – Pot Of Gold (feat. Daniel Merriweather) (Produced by Mark Ronson)
6. B.o.B – We Drank (feat. Playboy Tre)
7. Ced Hughes – DragonBlood
8. BK Cyph – Rap 101
9. Cambatta – Voice Of God Freestyle (Produced by Scram Jones)
10. Styles P – Ride or Die (feat. Snyp Life & Bully)
11. Red Cafe – There He Go (feat. Fabolous & Paul Cain)
12. Don Cerino – Missing Element (feat. Royce Da 5′9″)
13. Hell Rell – I’m So Special
14. La The Darkman – Quiet Storm Freestyle (feat. Willie The Kid)
15. Kool G Rap – Thugs Love Story (Chapter IV)
16. Fortlive – The Come Up (Produced by Illmind)
17. Rain – Director’s Chair (Produced by RocWilder)
18. Big K.R.I.T. – Playaz Circle Freestyle
19. ESSO – New Day (Produced by Black Friday)
20. Donny Goines – The Look (Produced by Dame Grease)
21. ATM (Smoke DZA, Numbers & Cory Gunz) – Time Machine 1.0 (Produced by The Heatmakerz)
22. 1982 (Statik Selektah & Termanology) – Thugathon (feat. Lil Fame)
23. Almost September – 16, 17, 18 (feat. KRS-One & Al Be Back) (Produced by Jared Gosselin)
24. Blu & Sene – Mars
25. Rick Ross – Can It Be Freestyle

Download link – http://sharebee.com/c0561a6c

DISC TWO

1. Ced Hughes & Emilio Rojas- Kick In The Door (Produced by The Kickdrums)
2. Raekwon & Special Ed – Hood Story (Produced by Huu Banga)
3. Curren$y – Got It (Produced by Monsta Beatz)
4. KiD CuDi – Can I Be
5. Nipsey Hu$$le – HoodStar
6. GoDChilD – Toast 2 Life (Produced by Black Friday)
7. Sha Stimuli – Next Up (Produced by J.Cardim)
8. The Kid Daytona – Lately (Produced by Ill Bomb)
9. Theo – Roberta Flack Revisit (feat. Dolly) (Produced by Flying Lotus)
10. Killer Mike – Grinding
11. Nino Bless – Murdera
12. Kardinal Offishall – Set It Off (Remix) (feat. Dr. Dre & The Clipse) (Produced by Boi-1da)
13. Novel – Noise (Produced by Breeze The Beatmachine)
14. Chip The Ripper – Moses Freestyle
15. D-Black – Hold Up (Gangsta Sh*t) (Produced by Illmind)
16. Fashawn – Freedom (Produced by Exile)
17. Joell Ortiz – Say No
18. Mickey Factz – OnSMASH (feat. CurT@!N$)
19. The Insomniaks – Crashin Whips
20. Mikkey Halsted – Karma (Produced by No I.D.)
21. Skyzoo – Catch Up (Produced by Ski)
22. Billy Danze – Undescribable (feat. Busta Rhymes)
23. Wafleek – The Hollows
24. Harlem’s Cash – Modern Day Malcolm (feat. Santogold) (The Government Remix)
25. A.Pinks – In My Own World (Bonus)

Download link – http://sharebee.com/390cd2d4

I’ve been meaning to post up this joint for a while now, cause I’ve been playing it a ton over the past month.  I love this track.  Convinced is yet another dope MC from the new breed of Los Angeles artists, who are killing everything they touch these days.  Speaking of Cali, this joint really reminds me of my college days…for many reasons.  Peep it and then go download Convinced’s Refreshing project on his blog right here.

Shout to Eighties Baby as well!

The downside of being able to work from home due to the Seattle snow is that I’ve been firmly planted at the computer for the last 12 hours.  So when the homies are about their business and provide perfect descriptions for stuff to post, it makes one happy Hyphen.  Take it away fellas:

Follow a night in the life of new supergroup Idle Warship (Talib Kweli + Res + Graph Nobel) as they travel through NYC, hit the studio to record, DJ a set at a club, perform, and generally talk sh*t. You can also preview new songs from the group’s forthcoming mixtape and album. Shot/Edited by Court Dunn for Restless Films. Second camera Andrew Baxter.

Shout to young Tunj for sending this through and peace to the entire Blacksmith fam.  As a bonus, Tunj included the song featured heavily in this clip:

Idle Warship – “Steady”

Now all that said, minus 10K points for making me hear “Pop Champagne” at the end of the clip.  Blech.

The homegirl KayCee from The Shameless Plug hooked up with the homeboys Thurz & Y-O when they went out to VA a little while back.  Check out the resulting interview to hear the fellas talk about their background, the curse of the “hipster” label, blogs, their upcoming Love Supreme album (y’all aren’t ready), and all sorts of goodness.  You also get some cool live performance shots.

I’ll be posting up an interview I did with U-N-I pretty soon, but first the snow and ice needs to get off the roads so I can go get the audio from the station hahah.  Hold tight!