The Audacity of Dope

(hint: floating left is when I like to pull the most)

As I’ve mentioned on the blog and Twitter, I traveled down to Austin last week for SXSW.  In addition to all the incredible shows I saw and artists I chopped it up with, I had the privilege to play in the first annual HoopxHang 3 on 3 tournament.  John Gotty of the Smoking Section (my personal favorite blog because of the care they put in their write ups and their excellent musical taste), Nick Huff of Hard Knock TV, and Nike Basketball organized the event and invited about 50 artists, DJ’s, managers, bloggers, record label reps, and other industry folks to take their talents to Doris Miller Auditorium.

Anyone who knows me personally knows that as much as I live and breathe music, sports has always been 329318239128x the passion in my life.  I’ll go play any game, anytime, anywhere, so I was just excited to get a little run in during the trip.  Also, every time these rappers come through Sound Session, you should hear them go on and on about their skills on the court.  After all that talk, I finally got to play with a few of the homies!  Topping it all off, Nike came through with free gear from head to toe.  #winning!

Special shout to my two teammates:  Kenny, a friend of The Smoking Section’s John Gotty, and Chris (pictured below) from Hollyweerd.  We didn’t know what squad we would be on before we began, but we meshed pretty nicely.

After winning our first two games (yours truly with the game winners in each…#humblebrag), we were ousted in the semi-finals against the eventual champions…these guys:

That would be Push Montana (who turned into Khalid El-Amin against us), Brock (Diamond Supply), and Dutch (Smokers Club).  They had a solid mix of skill, size, and intensity that proved too much for the competition as they knocked off the Pac Div homies (below) in the Championship.

Despite what had to be a logistical nightmare, the event went off without a hitch and everyone had a great time.  Hats off to everyone who organized and participated and thanks again to Gotty and Nick for the invitation.  Looking forward to it being bigger and better next year…perhaps we could we see a little 5 on 5 action?  We need to get these rappers in shape!

Be sure to check out the official recap with more pictures and stories over at The Smoking Section.

New fire from the Kooley High homies featuring a Median sighting! These guys make some of my favorite music out right now…

If you follow me on Twitter (and if you don’t, you should…#humblebrag), you know that I was down at SXSW last week in lovely Austin, Texas. The first night that I arrived, the staff at MTV hooked up a pass for the MTVu Woodie Awards and I got my first experience on a red carpet. Aside from just enjoying the overall environment, I was able to chop it up with everyone who walked by. I grabbed a couple quick videos for y’all with Wiz, Yelawolf, Skylar Grey, and Lil B. Enjoy.

Mitch: The homie Logics just dropped his first video off of his #Problematic EP which you can download here if you haven’t already. Video directed by Altrac Productions, enjoy.

Hyphen: Did they film this at Fort Lewis?  Swag.

New visuals for Big K.R.I.T.’s “Dreamin’,” of his upcoming Returnof4eva project that comes out March 28th for the freeeeee.  Krit is one of the best up and coming artists in the game and it’s crazy that he also handles his production.  How many other dope artists are doing that these days?

Mitch: Here it is folks, the debut solo project from the recent G.O.O.D. Music addition, Pusha T, featuring appearances from Rick Ross, Kanye, 50 Cent & more. Now we just need that new Clipse album and we’re set. Download link below…

1. Intro
2. My God
3. I Still Wanna f. Rick Ross & Ab-Liva
4. Money On My Mind Freestyle
5. Feeling Myself f. Kevin Cossom
6. Blow (Funk Flex Freestyle)
7. Cook It Down Freestyle
8. Open Your Eyes
9. Can I Live Freestyle
10. Raid f. 50 Cent & Pharrell
11. Touch It f. Kanye West
12. Speakers Going Hammer Freestyle
13. Alone in Vegas (Outro)

Pusha T – Fear Of God (Mixtape)

Honestly, I never really know how to wrap up SXSW.  For those of you who went, you already know how ridiculous it is.  For those who haven’t been to one, it’s everything you read about…but louder.

I’ve been to the last three, but I admit that 2010 was a bit of a bust for me.  I over-planned and tried to hit every event I was interested in, plus I met up with a TON of industry folks and had way too many meetings.  It resulted in an exhausting experience (even more than an average SXSW trip) and I wasn’t really looking forward to going back.  With that on my mind, I treated this year more like a vacation and took things 100x slower.  I still met with lots of people and enjoyed countless performances, but without a doubt, the highlight was just hanging out with friends old and new…and enjoying the 80 degree weather.  I’ll post up some footage on the blog soon.

Shout to everyone we ran into and especially all the other Seattle people that made the trek.  Special thanks to John Gotty from The Smoking Section for organizing the incredibly dope “HoopxHang” basketball tournament (your boy Hyph knocked down a few game winners but we were ousted in the semis to the eventual champions) and also my lodging pals, Shad, T-Lo, and G…the coolest homies you could ask for.  Also, thanks to JJ at Foundation, Jessica at Co-Sign, Jasmin at Cashmere, Ter’rece at MTV, and everyone at Decon, all of whom showed extra hospitality to a Hyphey.  Oh…and Zoe Kravitz…for the hug.  Second year in a row son, WHAT!

Show #303 (3-20-11)

1. Eminem ft. Slaughterhouse & Yelawolf – “2.0 Boys”
2. Thurzday – “Rodney King”
3. Fashawn ft. J. Cole – “Nothin’ For The Radio”
4. Pusha T ft. 50 Cent & Pharrell – “Raid”
5. XV ft. Pusha T – “Awesome (Remix)”
6. Grynch – “So Long” (Local Music)
7. Jean Grae – “You Don’t Like It (So What)”
8. Travis Barker ft. Lupe Fiasco & Pharrell – “If You Want To”
9. Nate Dogg ft. Warren G – “Nobody Does It Better” (Throwback of the Week)
10. Dom Kennedy – “Can’t Let Go”
11. The Weeknd – “What You Need”
12. Frank Ocean – “Novacane”
13. Childish Gambino – “Be Alone”
14. State Of The Artist – “I Think I Love You” (Local Music)
15. The Physics – “Fix You” (Local Music)
16. Big K.R.I.T. – “American Rapstar”
17. 80 Blocks From Tiffany’s (Camp Lo & Pete Rock) – “Mic Check”
18. Add-2 – “Chicago Blues”
19. Nitty Scott, MC – “Work (Grustlin’) (J. Period Remix)”
20. David Dallas – “Big Time”
21. Shad – “Rock 2.0 It”
22. CunninLynguists ft. Freddie Gibbs – “Hard As They Come (Act I)”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?kod4ow0z9zp0d0w
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/88099630dd4b8e93/)
(2nd back up – http://www.usershare.net/58x63g316frr/DJ Hyphen and J. Moore – Sunday Night Sound Session, Show 303, 3-20-11.mp3)

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.

Short on time this week as I’m frantically trying to wrap up any loose ends before making the annual trek down to SXSW in Texas.  If you’re going to be down in Austin, hit me with an email, text, call, comment, tweet, etc. so we can link up!

There are a million great events but be sure to come through the 1st annual Hoop & Hang basketball tournament on Saturday from 12pm – 4pm.  I’ll be out there breaking your favorite rapper’s ankles and dropping a few from Jimmer range.  More details will be revealed this week on The Smoking Section, who are hosting the event along with Hard Knock TV.  Should be a fun time…

Show #302 (3-13-11)

1. Killer Mike ft. Big Boi & T.I. – “Ready, Set, Go (Remix)”
2. Big K.R.I.T. – “Dreamin’”
3. Rittz ft. 8Ball – “Pie”
4. Frank Ocean – “Novacane”
5. The Physics – “Fix You” (Local Music)
6. Travis Barker ft. Lupe Fiasco & Pharrell – “If You Want To”
7. Shad – “The One In Front Of The Garage”
8. Dom Kennedy – “Goodbye”
9. Pusha T – “Cook It Down”
10. Pharoahe Monch ft. Styles P & Phonte – “Black Hand Side”
11. Raekwon ft. Nas – “Rich and Black”
12. Notorious B.I.G. ft. Method Man – “The What” (Throwback of the Week)
13. Grynch ft. Jon Hope & Language Arts – “Timeless” (Local Music)
14. Bambu – “Something”
15. J*Davey – “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
16. **INTERVIEW WITH PRECIZE**
17. Mickey Factz – “Paradise”
18. Thurzday – “Rodney King”
19. Sweatshop Union ft. D-Sisive – “Bring Back The Music” (Local Music)
20. Recess ft. Blu – “How Do You Sleep?”
21. The Weeknd – “Wicked Games”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?yqciwhqyfjm02f6
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/8780237842a73436/)
(2nd back up – http://www.usershare.net/7jb9t3ptu6lr/DJ Hyphen and J. Moore – Sunday Night Sound Session, Show 302, 3-13-11.mp3)

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.

When Talib called in to SNSS a few months ago, he was surprised that we liked this song enough to play it on our show.  His reasoning was that our show is somewhat known for playing “real” hip-hop, which somehow has a connotation that we might shy away from playing “the girl song” from an album.  On the contrary, we love girls!

And I love this record.