Fort Lauderdale’s Butta Verses is an honorary member of our hip-hop community here in Seattle and he recently leaked some unreleased videos to the net. Above is “Round and Round” featuring Choklate (what up Chok!) and after the jump, you can catch the visuals for “Work.” Both joints are produced by the big homey BeanOne. Neither of these songs will be on Butta’s new album, Reality BV, dropping September 16th, but look out for a video for the single, “If I Die,” coming real soon!
Another dope Sound Session in the books, as we played great joints from artists like Q-Tip, Wale, Rhymefest, Bishop Lamont, Game, Shawn Jackson, Buff1, and many more. We also debuted an instant NW classic by our friends The Parker Brothaz, which features Talib Kweli, Big Pooh, and Naledge. Crazy track. We ran another posse cut that’s all over the net these days, the new one from T.I. featuring Kanye, Jay, and Wayne, when we gave away tickets to see Tip and Keyshia Cole at the upcoming Bumbershoot festival. Next week, we’ll have more Rock The Bells tickets for y’all…
Lastly, Maryland based MC SoulStice stopped by the show for the 2nd time (peep our first interview here), so be sure to check out the full interview through one of the links below. We talked all about his last album, Dead Letter Perfect, his upcoming Beyond Borders project, the international hip-hop scene, balancing his music career with his day job at the Department of Defense, the presidential race, and more. Also, shout to local artists Grynch and DJ Nphared for swinging through the studio as well. Be sure to check them out on Saturday at Bumbershoot!
Parker Brothaz ft. Big Pooh (of Little Brother), Talib Kweli, & Naledge (of Kidz In The Hall) – “Text Me (Tha Bizness All-Star Remix)” (Local Artist)
Wale ft. Young Chris, Freeway, & Beanie Sigel – “Cyphr”
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.
You may have heard us talking about this on Sound Session the past few weeks. It’s official: two of the best in the game, Elzhi and Black Milk will be coming out to the Seattle stop of the Red Bull Big Tune Beat Battle. It’s going to sell out, so be sure and cop those tickets…
Is it wrong that this kinda gave me goosebumps? Not to get too cheesy, but this video that a Seattle-ite named Matt Harding put together is not only dope visually, but also shows how small the world really is. We’re all basically the same.
After being convinced to do a silly dance in front of the camera on one of his vacations, Matt decided to start doing it every place he went. Soon, Stride Gum heard of the story and started financing all his trips, and this video is the end result. Makes me want to travel. I think my next adventure is going to be a Japan/China/Australia trip next year. Time to start planning.
Posted in Goods, Videos on July 8th, 2008 by Hyphen
When I mentioned that I DJ’d for U-N-I at the Seattle stop of the DunkXChange a while back, some people hit me up wondering what exactly the event was. Well this video sums it up nicely. Shout to all those involved, I’m looking forward to the next one in the 206.
This is literally the worst day in Seattle sports history. If you haven’t heard, the City of Seattle and the ownership group for the Seattle Supersonics NBA franchise agreed to terms yesterday that released the team from the last 2 years of its lease at Key Arena, effectively ending 41 years of storied tradition the Supes built in my city. If you want all the gory details, hit ESPN. If you want to see the carnage as it was unfolding, read this brilliant Bill Simmons piece.
I could write a book on this travesty, but here’s the Cliff Notes version. The head of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, bought the Sonics in 2001 and aside from some minor success, ran the team into the ground. Despite having a net worth of over a billion dollars, Schultz worried about losing a few million and decided to sell the Sonics to an ownership group from Oklahoma City, even though it was widely known that they would attempt to relocate the franchise to their hometown. He could have sold the team to other local business people and prevented this all from happening, but he declined. He’ll forever have the legacy of Seattle’s biggest traitor.
Instead, from day one of their ownership, Clay Bennett, Aubrey McClendon (who was the 8th largest donor to the Swift Boat Veterans who smeared John Kerry in 2004 and is currently raking in a fortune as the head of Chesapeake Energy while we pay $4.50 a gallon), and the rest of The Professional Basketball Club, LLC, lied to the city and people of Seattle, promising that they would do everything possible to keep the team here. Rather than keep their word, they traded behind the scenes emails that later became public about how they were planning on moving the Sonics all along, and literally laughed about keeping it a secret. At the same time, they snuggled up to Bennett’s long time friend, NBA Commissioner David Stern.
After doing everything in their power NOT to keep the Sonics in Seattle (including a Major League style fire sale that led to the Sonics posting their worst record in franchise history last year), the city was left with one last option: sue the team to ensure that they play out the final years of their lease at Key Arena or settle with them for a barrel of money and hope to receive an expansion franchise (or steal someone else’s team…hello Memphis) in the years to come. Rather than irrevocably damage their relationship with Stern and the league, the City of Seattle caved and gave up the team for $45 million dollars, or $75 million if another NBA franchise isn’t put in place within 5 years. This doesn’t even cover the economic benefits of having the Sonics here, let alone the non-financial value the team had to the city and residents. There’s also no guarantee that we’ll get another team, and one of the greatest cities in the world (not to mention the 13th biggest market in America) will be without professional basketball for years to come.
In layman’s terms: a bunch of really rich people decided to become local heroes by going to another city, swindling more rich people and an inept local government, and stealing a franchise that had been there for 41 years. In the process, they ripped out the hearts and souls of the people in that city, including my own.
Teams have relocated in other sports and other cities in the past, but never under such devious and unscrupulous auspices. It’s unfathomable that a city as brilliant as Seattle is going to be without an NBA team, and it’s a warning shot to sports fans everywhere. If a city’s franchise can be hijacked and stolen away in broad daylight, it sets a frightening precedent.
Worst of all, this has a real effect on the kids in this area. I grew up obsessed with basketball and shaped almost every aspect of my life around it. The friends I made, the memories I had, in full, the person I have become…are all direct results of growing up in the Seattle basketball community. It’s part of who I am. Now similar kids won’t have this opportunity here. Dads can’t bond with their sons at Sonics games like I did with my stepdad. That’s gone. The 8th graders I coached this past year are absolutely crushed, and all because a few rich people decided to screw us all over.
I’ve been doing my best not to swear on this site (no easy feat on a hip-hop blog), but this is the first time where it’s completely justified, and in fact, too lenient.
Fuck you Howard Schultz. Fuck you Clay Bennett. Fuck you David Stern.You stole basketball from the city of Seattle and you stole memories from me. You extinguished the possibility of life changing experiences for future generations and I hate you all.
(NBA Finals, 1996. The start of summer after 8th grade. We were louder than the PA announcer. I’ll never forget it.)
As I mentioned a few days ago in the post with U-N-I’s live performance of “Beautiful Day” on my radio show, I DJ’d for their set at the Seattle stop of the DunkXChange last Saturday (yes, that’s my ill Kanye t-shirt in the background). It took me a minute, but I got a video medley of joints from the performance up for y’all to check out.
Remember to set your YouTube accounts to play high quality videos. Click on “account”, then “video playback quality”, and then select “I have a fast connection. Always play higher-quality video when it’s available.” It makes a huge difference, especially with Flip Cam stuff. Unfortunately, if you embed high quality YouTube videos, you can’t fast forward them and there’s all sorts of extra html code. So if you want to peep the better quality, watch it at YouTube here.
In other U-N-I news, check them out in a new interview at Okayplayer and in the July issue of The Source (w/Game on the cover). Told you the homies were doing big things! Go befriend them on their MySpace.
