The Audacity of Dope

Our good friend Lupe made another appearance on Sound Session recently, though this one was in the form of our “Studio 93” series, where we interview an artist in front of a large group of winners.  We talked about his upcoming Tetsuo & Youth album, including details about his creative process and a discussion about how responsible complex MC’s are in ensuring listeners understand the messages they put in their verses.  We also discussed how he collaborates with other artists and how he’s often turned down for these projects because of his past controversial statements, before moving on to topics like his relationship with Rick Ross and how the music industry has changed as technology has improved over the years.

It’s always fun to chop it up with Lu, who really is one of the most gifted individuals we have in hip-hop.  He’s an innovative thinker that likes to challenge the status quo, which is always necessary, plus him and Shad are the 2 best writers in the game, imo. Hope you guys enjoy the conversation.  Shout to the Marsupial Empire for recording and editing.

FNF up!

Speaking of amazing writers, if it’s not Shad, then Lupe gets my vote for the best writer in the game. So many messages in his bars, it’s almost a must to follow along on RapGenius. Peep this video for visuals set to a few of his songs: “Lamborghini Angels,” “ITAL (Roses),” and “Audubon Ballroom.”

“ITAL (Roses)” is still the one.

Raw.

Add-2 just released a video for “Love Jones,” my favorite record off his Save. Our. Souls. project, which you can download here.  I haven’t watched Love Jones in ages.  I need to bring that one back sometime soon…classic flick.

Nardwuar hit a home run with all his hip-hop interviews at SXSW last year and this year was no different.  Dude was everywhere.  Here’s his clip with Kendrick Lamar, where K. Dot gives you a little insight into his history.  Love the story about his dad driving him and his mom home from the hospital for the first time and blasting Big Daddy Kane because “he has to hear this.”  Awesome.

I heard a new record from Scheme tonight that features Astonish and I realized that Astonish is probably the dopest MC around that nobody seems to have heard of. Sure, he’s got some notoriety in his hometown of Chicago, and the Molemen affiliation helps a bit, but people don’t seem to be up on him.  In this world of massive blog exposure, that’s insane.  Here’s hoping he gets a lot more exposure in 2012.

Up top is a relatively new video and below is one of the first tracks I heard from him and played on SNSS in 2008.

Gotta be one of the top songs of the year, right?  I’m happy to see the official visuals after the lyric video held us down for the last few weeks.  Common’s The Dreamer/The Believer was scheduled to be released in November, but it’s just been pushed back to December.  No matter.  I’m still predicting a classic.

Some feel good music from the Chi. Has Tall Black Guy ever put a foot wrong? NO. What a beat…

Self-explanatory. Great record.  Com’s The Dreamer, The Believer will be released on November 22nd and we’ll also be getting an official video for this song soon.

I’ve been a fan of Chicago’s Add-2 for a while now and when I saw he dropped a warm up mixtape for his upcoming Save Our Souls project, I knew it would be good.  When I actually had a moment to sit down and listen, it definitely didn’t disappoint.  This is a damn good project.  Download it below and keep your eye on this dude…

Download here.