The Audacity of Dope

You don’t have to be Irish to join in on the celebration.  Straight from the Haggerty clan to you and yours.

Derek Pike directed visuals for the title track from Saigon’s long awaited album.  This track is probably a few years old, but at least we finally get to hear all these crazy Just Blaze/Saigiddy records!

Collie Buddz’ new single, “Holiday,” hits home for any of us who work WAY too hard at the office.  My fellow overachievers unite!  But always remember to take a little time out for yourselves…

Mitch: Much more than a song about shoes… Macklemore just let loose the first track off of his and Ryan Lewis’ upcoming album. Don’t let this one slip by ya.

Produced by Ryan Lewis
Chorus Written by Hollis Wear
Violin – Andrew Joslyn
Cello – Danah Olivetree
Piano by Noah Goldberg
Trumpet – Owuor Arunga
Bass – Zach Fleury
Vocals – Ray Dalton, Camila Recchi
Childrens Choir – Denny Middle School, West Seattle
“WINGS” photo by Jason Koenig (JKoePhoto.com)

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Wings

Not only do you get to see Philly Freezer and Jake tear it down, but you get an opening set from my favorite group in Seattle, The Physics, plus DJ’ing by the legendary Vitamin D all night.  Gonna be a crazy show, be there at Neumo’s on Thursday!

Another week in the books and another reminder why as maddening as this industry can be, there are still so many dope people involved and so many good reasons why we can’t give it up.  On Wednesday, J. Moore and I checked out one of our favorite groups (and my fellow Swedish brethren), Little Dragon, for their third performance at Nectar in Seattle.  Since we’ve been supporting the group for a bit (peep one of our older interviews & their new music video right here), they’re the homies these days and it’s always fun to catch up with them.  The band is blowing up so in between touring with the Gorillaz and lead singer Yukimi recording for Raphael Saadiq’s upcoming album, you need to go check them out when they’re in your town.  Has Sound Session ever steered you wrong about an artist?

If you answered, “yes, remember Kevin Michael?”…you win.  But that wasn’t our fault!  He had all the tools to be a dope artist and perhaps one day we’ll see that fulfilled.  That said, I’m still struggling to see how you go from this…to this?  Ruh roh.  Even Lauryn told him to reel it in a notch.

Anyway, we followed up Little Dragon by chopping it up with close friend of the show, Lupe Fiasco, on Friday.  We ran a contest allowing 20 listeners to win a meet and greet by submitting their favorite Lupe verse and, quite simply, the responses floored me.  We had about 200 entrants in less than 2 days and almost every verse was different.  It was amazing to see how many people Lu has inspired with his music and also to such degrees.  There were stanzas in his verses that literally changed peoples’ lives.  Pretty cool.

After the meet and greet, we broadcast a live interview with Lu over the net and followed that up with a web chat firing listener questions at him.  You can see both archived as one video right here and while we may produce some snazzier looking video in the coming week(s) for the blogs, there’s a TON of great Lupe info in there for you right now.  We discussed everything from his upcoming album…to food…to his surprisingly balleriffic car collection.  And on that note, Lu wanted to make sure everyone saw his endorsement of the Corvette ZHZ he rented from Hertz while in town, so we grabbed some footage on the iPhone just cause.  Laughs here.

So yeah…after yet another week filled with #inboxmadness, sometimes you need these little reminders as to why we do what we do.  Above all, it’s just the music…but it’s vital to interact with other music lovers, not listeners, every now and then.  We’re a dying breed…

Show #294 (1-16-11)

1. J. Cole – “Too Deep For The Intro”
2. Outasight – “Losing My Mind”
3. Thee Tom Hardy ft. GQ – “So Outrageous”
4. Slaughterhouse ft. The Lox – “Put Some Money On It (Remix)”
5. Roc Marciano ft. Sean Price – “Snow (Remix)”
6. Saigon ft. Faith Evans – “Clap”
7. Killer Mike – “Burn”
8. Ghostface Killah ft. Killah Priest & GZA – “Purified Thoughts”
9. ChillxWill – “Systems” (Local Music)
10. Kanye West & Jay-Z – “H.A.M.”
11. Kanye West – “Hell Of A Life”
12. U-N-I – “Donkey Kong”
13. TiRon & Ayomari – “Good Food”
14. Brothers From Another ft. Sol & JusMoni – “New Easy Lift” (Local Music)
15. Asher Roth & Nottz ft. Colin Munroe – “Dontcha Wanna Be (My Neighbor)”
16. Talib Kweli – “I’m On One”
17. Fortilive ft. Skyzoo – “Jim Kelly”
18. John Crown – “Be’s That Way” (Local Music)
19. Big Sean – “Final Hour”
20. Lupe Fiasco – “The Show Goes On”
21. Black Star – “Brown Skin Lady” (Throwback of the Week)
22. JR & PH7 ft. Shawn Jackson – “She Loves Me”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?5p6t9y1laqc9f8z
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/853878561c5d77c7/)
(2nd back up – http://usershare.net/zn3tx071hb1x)

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.

Our friends from Sweden just killed it at Nectar last week…again…and I stumbled across their new video for “My Step,” one of my favorite records off 2009’s Machine Dreams.  Be on the lookout for the new album soon!

If you missed it, peep our last interview with the band here:

Interesting story from Million $ Mano about how his work ended up forming the backbone for Kanye’s “Lost In The World.”  Apparently he wasn’t credited on initial copies of the album but he’ll get his due in newer pressings.  Either way, it’s always cool to hear stories about how Kanye is down to work with lesser known, but always dope, artists and keep the cycle going.  It’s rather refreshing to see cats just excited about making dope music…

That said, producers: make sure you get your publishing in order.  Otherwise, when they ask “who will survive in America?”  It won’t be you.

Full interview over at Ruby Hornet.

Jake on the beat.  Pinder on the vox.  All you need.

While we patiently wait for Mack & Ryan to release the “Irish Celebration” video, they decided to shoot some quick visuals for their recently released tribute to Seattle Mariners announcing legend, Dave Niehaus.  It’s tough to describe the impact that Niehaus had on any of us sports minded 80’s babies from the 206, but Mack does a great job.  As with all his verses, he has a knack for talking about his own experiences in a way that instantly relate them to our own.

So where were you when you heard Dave’s famous call in ’95?  I was riding in the back of a University Prep athletic van as we headed back from a soccer game (a dub, I’m sure).  We didn’t get to watch the game live but listening to Niehaus’ call was all we needed.  When I saw the highlights later, I already knew EXACTLY how it looked.

RIP Dave.