The Audacity of Dope

Shug’s an OG, but:

“I’m servin’ hot lead, like I’m the gangster waiter”
–Big Shug, “Soundcheck”

Hmm.  Not cuttin’ it, sorry dude.

Ever have one of those times where everything is going great, and then something completely random goes wrong and tries to pull you down?  That’s pretty much how my weekend went.  Aside from my 6th grade basketball team crashing out of our tournament with the quickness, everything was busy, but still dope…until I drove in to the station for this week’s Sound Session and my car decided to blow up.  It took all day today to get things back up and running, but I swear, those Prius jawns look better by the minute.

Thankfully, this week’s show provided a little therapy through an hour and a half of good music and good people.  We ran a ton of great tracks and played two short snippets of our recent interview with Talib Kweli.  Be sure to check out the full version of that interview (and watch the video in HD) below.  Also, shout to the homegirl Jessica from Spectre for coming through to kick it!

Show #182 (11-23-08)

1. Alchemist ft. Evidence, Blu, & Kid Cudi – “Therapy”
2. Keelay & Zaire ft. Blu, Fortilive, & Nino Moschella – “The Times”
3. B.o.B. – “Left Field Lovely”
4. Grynch ft. Geologic (of Blue Scholars) & Thig Natural (of the Physics) – “I’m A Dreamer” (Local Artist)
5. Q-Tip – “Fever”
6. Black Milk – “Hold It Down”
7. Colin Munroe ft. Wale – “Will I Stay (Remix)”
8. Reef The Lost Cauze – “Home”
9. Ludacris ft. Nas & Jay-Z – “I Do It For Hip-Hop”
10. **INTERVIEW WITH TALIB KWELI #04 (SNIPPETS)**
11. Self Scientific ft. Talib Kweli & the Game – “Everywhere I Go”
12. Evidence – “Rain Or Shine”
13. GLC ft. Kanye West – “Big Screen”
14. Kanye West ft. Mr. Hudson & Kid Cudi – “Paranoid”
15. Foreign Exchange – “I Wanna Know”
16. 88 Keys ft. Phonte (of Little Brother) – “Close Call”
17. Fresh Espresso (Rik Rude & P-Smoov) – “Diamond Pistols” (Local Artist)
18. **INTERVIEW WITH JESSICA WEBER (of SPECTRE)**
19. Json – “M.O.B.” (Local Artist)
20. Statik Selektah ft. Jon Hope, Torae, & Sha Stimuli – “Destined To Shine (Obama Mix)”
21. Now On – “Unwind”
22. B-Real ft. Young De – “Don’t Ya Dare Laugh”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?koggndwnmqw
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/5182069911de45aa/ )

Link to download the full interview with Talib Kweli – http://www.mediafire.com/?2dmzymzi3jt
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/515797634df69ac9/ )

(watch in HD on HyphenTV)

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.

Akon decided to raise the WLotD bar with this one and do an entire song full of…questionable…lyrics.  Here’s the first 20 seconds:

“I won’t take off your mp3 address, until you tell me yes/
That you received my text, now you got the sex/
I wanna mp3 me & you, I’m on your laptop/
Go ahead and download, baaaaaaby/
I wanna mp3 me & you, straight from my hard drive/
Into your software, gotta let you know I care”
–Akon, “MP3 Me & You”

Can’t we just kill this whole extended metaphor already?  Next did it first (“I want your PC, sit on my laptop”), and every incarnation since then has been embarrassingly bad.  Here’s the ‘Kon if you want to hear more of the hilarity:

Akon – “MP3 Me & You”

I can’t even make out all the words around today’s WLotD, but Snoop gets the prize for hawking McDonald’s mid-verse.

“Mo’ at it, mo’ padded/
I’m the Big Mac with 4 patties/
Special sauce, mo’ cheese…”
–Snoop Dogg, “Day Dreaming”

Kanye skipped across the pond last week for the Glow In The Dark Tour and sat down with the BBC’s DJ Semtex for a great interview.  ‘Ye is the illest artist in the game right now, [Jay-Z] plus his interviews are hotter [/Hov].  I highly recommend checking this out…quotables for days.

Kanye West talks with DJ Semtex – http://www.zshare.net/audio/516729337e0e3225/

808’s & Heartbreak drops today.  Go cop that.

If you’ve been sleeping lately, Keelay & Zaire are an incredible production duo that have been doing their thing for a minute now.  They’re about to drop their debut full length album, Ridin’ High, at the start of next year and people are finally starting to catch on.

Here’s the video for their current single, “The Times,” featuring Blu, Fortilive, and Nino Moschella.  If you’ve been listening to Sound Session, you’ve heard this one and the b-side, “Addicts For Real,” with the homey Tunji.  It’s been a long week, so my memory is failing on me, but I thiiiiiiink I remember hearing that there will be a video coming for that joint as well.  Do yourself a favor and get familiar with these dudes.  Shout to Karim and the whole Myx Music family too.  Big things in ’09!

(watch it in HD on HyphenTV right here)

A few weeks ago, the big homies Talib Kweli and Corey Smyth stopped by KUBE to make their 4th appearance on Sound Session.  It’s always great to meet and interview people for the first time, but it’s even better once you get to know them and your ‘interviews’ just turn in to catching up with old friends.  It probably could have been under better circumstances though, cause right before we got up, this happened.  It shows you how cool Talib is that despite just finding out about the theft, he still took time for us before trying to find the laptop.  Booooooooo @ that “fan” who took Kwa’s MacBook.  Shame on you.

Anyway, if you missed any of the previous discussions, you can check ’em out on our podcast page right here.

This time around, we talked all about his current projects, including updates on the next Reflection Eternal album with Hi-Tek, his Idle Warship group with Res & Graph Nobel, and all things Blacksmith. We also discussed what it’s like to operate his own label, how new media has affected his career, a little politics, and more.  Be sure to watch it in high-def on the HyphenTV Vimeo page, or if you only want the audio, grab it below:

Talib Kweli on Sound Session – http://www.mediafire.com/?2dmzymzi3jt
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/515797634df69ac9/ )

Blacksmith is the movement.

…but he makes dope music off it, so I ain’t mad!

The homey Brainstorm of Dyme Def won our 2008 Redbull Big Tune beat battle a while back and now he’s preparing for the finals out in NYC.  Peep the preview video and get familiar with young Brainy Stacks.  Shout to our runner up, Rising Son, who will also be representing Seattle in the finals.  Good luck fellas!

Rik Cordero and the team at Three/21 Films connected with Q-Tip for another video off his new album, The Renaissance, which is in stores now.  I need to listen to the full project, cause everything I’ve heard so far has been pretty dope.  Be on the lookout for the next Cordero/Tip collab for “Manwomanboogie” dropping soon…

My train of thought:

• Ah, I hate that phrase, “it is what it is”…right up there with “everything is everything.”
• Oh wait, this is from Prez…that dude is dope.
• Oh word up!  This is off his mixtape from a few months back…good stuff.
• I was already won over, but I forgot Prezzo gave the ill Above The Rim reference.  Shout to my favorite movie of all time.  “Guard?  Coach, I’m all the guard you need!  Man…get to the back of the bus.”
• Haha, forgot DNEZ kicked a Beckham line too.
• Man, the new West ain’t playin’.