The Audacity of Dope

Every day, another person asks me what I’ve been listening to recently and most of the time, I default with “whatever we’re playing on Sound Session.”  It’s an easy answer since it’s true and there’s just too much music being released to keep everything top of mind.  Recently, I’ve switched it up a bit because there are a few artists killing it to such a degree that I’ve found myself listening to their projects over and over.  One such artist is Los Angeles’ Dom Kennedy, who is quietly writing a blueprint for independent success without a major cosign.

If you haven’t checked out his past few releases, you’re missing out on some of the dopest music around, especially for these west coast summer days.  I can’t recommend The Original Dom Kennedy and the two editions of From the Westside With Love enough.  Cop ’em now!

Dom will be performing in Vancouver on Thursday, August 24th, and thanks to our friends at Fortune Sound Club, we’ve got one pair of tickets to give out here on TAOD.  Whether you live in Van City or you’re a fellow Seattle resident able to make the drive up, if you want to check out the show, just answer the question below by emailing me – DJHyphen@gmail.com – and I’ll pick out a winner on Sunday, the 21st:

Question:  According to one of Dom’s singles, in what year did he write his first rhyme?

If you know the answer and can go to the show, hit me up!  Along with Dom’s performance, they’ll be celebrating the 4 year anniversary of The Freshest, one of the illest DJ collectives around.  It’s gonna be a great night…

If you’ve listened to Sunday Night Sound Session at any point since our debut on KUBE six years ago, you already know that Lupe Fiasco is one of our favorite rappers.  Not only is he an incredible MC, but he’s one of the most forward thinking, intelligent, socially responsible, and innovative artists that we have in hip-hop.  On top of all that, he’s just a cool dude who has appeared on our show numerous times and always shows us, and Seattle, lots of love.

On Friday, January 14th, you…that’s right, YOU…can meet Lupe in person as he comes through the KUBE studios to hang out, sign autographs, talk with listeners, and discuss his highly anticipated upcoming album, Lasers.

If you’re able to come to the station in downtown Seattle from 11am to noon on Friday, the 14th, here are the details on how to win an invite to this meet and greet:

Tell us what your favorite Lupe verse is and why.  Email your answer to DJHyphen@gmail.com and if selected, we’ll notify you by Thursday at noon.

We’ll also pick a few random winners who retweet any of our announcements for this event on our Twitter feeds:

• twitter.com/kube93
• twitter.com/djhyphen
• twitter.com/jmooreseattle

Be creative and thoughtful!  Just like Lupe.  Hope to see you Friday!

On Saturday, May 29th, Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek will be making the Seattle stop on their Revolutions Per Minute Tour at the Showbox Market.  We’ve been giving away tickets on the air through Sound Session, but now we’re extending a special offer to our loyal readers on The Audacity of Dope and KUBE93.com.

We’ll be interviewing the duo at 2pm on Saturday and if you would like to join us to meet and hang out with Reflection Eternal, email me – DJHyphen@gmail.com – these 3 things:

1. Name Talib’s business partner for their label, Blacksmith Music.
2. Name 3 guests from Reflection Eternal’s Train Of Thought album.
3. Name the first video released from their new album, Revolutions Per Minute.

I’ll pick 2 winners and you’ll each be allowed to bring a guest to the interview.  It’s just that simple.  What are you waiting for?  Go!

Contest ends Thursday, May 27th, at 3pm Pacific Time.

For all you up and coming musicians out there, if you’re a fan of Daniel Merriweather like I am, you may want to look into this.  Daniel and his team are giving you the chance to remix his “Change” single with Wale and get some great exposure for it.  For more information, click here.

And if you missed it when it first dropped, the video for “Change”:

Shout to my folks down under in AU.

Y’all remember how these work?  Cop Jake’s White Van Music NOW.  And if you don’t want to pause it at the very end, here are the details of the contest:

U-N-I performing “Beautiful Day” with Me-N-Them for MTV…where did that 3rd verse come from?

So if you haven’t heard, MTV is holding a contest for the best breakout artist from Los Angeles, and the homies Thurz & Y-O from U-N-I are in the final three!  The winner gets to perform at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 7th (which will be hosted by the hilarious Russell Brand, chyea).

Here’s where you come in: we need everyone to head over to http://la.mtv2.com/ and vote as many times as you can for U-N-I.  The underground hip-hop community managed to help Substantial win the last MTV contest like this, so we need to do it again.  If you’re really bored, pretend typing in the captchas is keyboard practice.  Eh?  Ehhhh?  Ok, fine.  Do it for good music instead.

What are you waiting for?  Go.  GO!

The homies over at The Lupe Fiasco Show are giving aspiring music video directors an opportunity to get some shine, along with all sorts of cool prizes.  Go here for the complete rules, but basically, if you make a video for either “Gotta Eat,” “Just Might Be Okay,” or “And He Gets The Girl,” and you win, you’ll be featured on Lupe’s official website and get a bunch of autographed goodies.  So be creative, break out Final Cut Pro, and get busy…

Oh, and I don’t know if I’d recommend tackling “And He Gets The Girl,” unless you think you can top this web video some kid made a while back.  If you think you can, show and prove.  Good luck.