The Audacity of Dope

Asher returns with another perfect college single, just in time for the back to school rush.  They’ve actually been pushing this track for a minute and I’m a bit surprised it hasn’t caught on little more honestly.  The beat is cool, the content is radio friendly (read: Becky from the suburbs likes to sing it in her new Jetta), the hook is catchy, Asher’s verses are cool, and the crowd at our Summer Jam responded well to it (interview still coming soon).  Oh…and Keri Hilson is fiiiiiiiiiine (in real life too).

We’ll see if the visuals help turn the song into a hit…but in the meantime, this song will always remind me of one of Dane Cook’s few funny moments:

(4:32 FTW)

I like how I’m so busy/tired these days that I upload my own footage and forget to post it on TAOD until I see it on other blogs.  Whoopsidoodle.

Much like the Asher Roth footage I posted last week, here’s a medley documenting Cudi’s performance in front of 15K people at our Summer Jam from the end of last month.  After coming out to his intro, he ran through joints like “Dat New New,” “Is There Any Love,” “Sky High,” “Make Her Say,” and “Day N Nite.”  I’ll have more SJ footage soon, plus interviews with Cudi and Asher as well.  Stay tuned…

Ok, honestly…it’s about 10pm and still damn near 90 degrees here in Seattle.  I like summer weather, but in a city that only has AC in office buildings and stores, we’re just not built for this.  J and I always disagree, but I’d rather be too cold over too hot any day.  If it’s freezing, at least you can turn on the heat or put on more clothes.  If it’s 80+ degrees in the dead of night, there’s only so many Otter Pops you can devour.

Unfortunately for the town, we didn’t help the cause by playing [Dylan] hot fiya [/Chappelle] this week on SNSS.  With new joints from the Roots, Goapele, Saukrates, Killer Mike, Jay-Z, Pac Div, Mr. Hudson, and more, this was a great show from start to finish.  Shout to our homey Larry Mizell Jr. (aka Gatsby from Cancer Rising) for coming through to celebrate his inheritance of Street Sounds, one of the longest running radio programs here in Seattle.  Be sure to check him out every Sunday on 90.3 KEXP (www.kexp.org) from 6-9pm to hear more great hip-hop on the airwaves.  Sunday nights are oh so official in Seattle.

Lastly, peep the footage we just posted of Asher Roth performing at our Summer Jam in front of 15K people last weekend right here.  For more Summer Jam footage featuring artists like the New Boyz, Asher, Kid Cudi, The-Dream, Pitbull, Flo Rida, Sean Paul, Akon, and Ludacris, keep your eyes on this page all week.  We’ll have more live clips and our interviews with Cudi and Asher coming soon as well.

Show #217 (7-26-09)

1. The Roots – “How I Got Over”
2. U-N-I – “Land Of The Kings”
3. Goapele – “Milk & Honey”
4. Consequence ft. Kanye West & John Legend – “Whatever U Want”
5. Saukrates ft. Rich Kidd – “Salt N Pepper”
6. Rakim – “Holy Are You”
7. Trife Diesel – “Wanna Be A Rapper”
8. Killer Mike – “In My City”
9. **INTERVIEW WITH LARRY MIZELL, JR.**
10. Grynch ft. RA Scion (of Common Market) – “You Know Me” (Local Music)
11. J. Cole – “Dream Girl”
12. Jay-Z ft. Kanye West & Rihanna – “Run This Town”
13. Freeway & Jake One – “Bloggers” (Local Music)
14. Pac Div – “Back”
15. Asher Roth ft. Chester French – “As I Em”
16. Slaughterhouse – “Cuckoo”
17. Drake – “The Winner”
18. The Physics ft. Language Arts – “Back Track” (Local Music)
19. Punchlyne & Fokis – “We Came To Rock”
20. Mr. Hudson ft. Kid Cudi – “Everything Is Broken”

Link to download the mp3 of the show – http://www.mediafire.com/?yzlynmwemnc
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/632634413588b8b0/)

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.

Those of you in Washington (or stalking my Twitter) probably heard that we had our annual Summer Jam concert yesterday at White River Amphitheater with performances by the New Boyz, Asher Roth, Kid Cudi, The-Dream, Pitbull, Flo Rida, Sean Paul, Akon, and Ludacris.  Usually, I have nightmares of these days because it’s a fun event for the audience, but generally really hectic to work.  Last year was a painful double dose as I spent the entire day registering voters  for the Obama campaign (we put onnnnn) and then running around backstage interviewing cats.  This year was a lot more relaxing as I spent the majority of the time chilling with my two favorite acts on the bill, Asher and Cudi, and their folks.

We’ll have interviews coming soon with those two, but in the meantime, I grabbed some footage of Asher’s performance for y’all.  Peep the video above to see him, Brain, and Wreckineyez run through a few joints from Asleep In The Bread Aisle, including “She Don’t Wanna Man,” “Be By Myself,” and of course, “I Love College.”  For more Summer Jam footage hitting the net all week, keep your eyes on this page.

I highly recommend checking out the Great Hangover Tour with Asher, Cudi, Pac Div, and B.o.B if it hasn’t hit your town yet.  I’m slightly salty that we didn’t get the full lineup here in Seattle, but SJ with 1/2 of it was dope too.  Anyway, peep it…you won’t be disappointed.

When we caught up with DJ A-Trak this past weekend, we talked about how this track came together, since it’s kind of an interesting story.  It’s not every day that a joint originates as a fun mixtape track, only to turn into an official single (and a follow up to a smash record) just a few months later.  I bet Lady GaGa is enjoying any $$ she makes off this…

Cudi will be at our Summer Jam this weekend, so if you have any questions you’d like us to ask him, email me – DJHyphen@gmail.com

Despite the special effects looking like cut scenes from an early 2000’s computer game (Starcraft FTW), I kinda dig this video.  Well, upon further review, I think I just like he song and the clip itself is adequate.  Kanye kind of bodies his verse (for a guest 16 on a R&B track) and The-Dream is actally one of the few pop/R&B singers I like these days.  Though I don’t like that there’s a hyphen in his name…not one bit.  Why does The-Dream have a hyphen and Flo Rida doesn’t?  These are the things that keep me up at night.

Sidenote, Seattle folks: The-Dream (and perhaps Ms. Milian?) will be coming to Summer Jam this year, July 25th at White River Amphitheater.  For more info and the complete lineup, click here.  And since it is a recession, if you want to cop lawn seats for $9.33, we’re having a special promotion this Saturday from 10am  – 1pm at White River.  Plus, if you find me there and mention The Audacity of Dope, you win a special prize*.

*special prize is dap lasting no longer than 2.3 seconds.

During last week’s KUBE Summer Jam, J. Moore and I linked up with The Game before his performance for a quick interview.  We talked all about his upcoming L.A.X. project, why he wants to retire after this album, his ear for beats, the rumor about him joining Westside Connection, his ‘game’ on the court, and more.  He also revealed why his first few rap names were destined for failure and how the Clippers are shaping up this year with Baron Davis returning home to Los Angeles.

You can watch the full interview above (with footage of his performance later that day), or you can download the actual recorded audio (higher quality) through either of these links:

The Game on Sound Session – http://www.mediafire.com/?xfjwynznyn2
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/160425975c2bd052/ )

Regardless of any controversy he’s been in over the years, every time I talk with dude, he’s cool as hell.  Plus, he makes good music.  Definitely be on the lookout for L.A.X. dropping soon.

It’s 2:30 in the morning and I just got home from the Wyclef/Kardinal Offishall concert, which still has my ears POUNDING.  I’m only posting up this new video for Young Jeezy’s “Put On” for 2 reasons.  One, I wanted to show y’all I managed to survive a crazy hectic few days (including our Summer Jam – watch all sorts of recaps here and find me in person for a million behind the scenes stories).  Two, Kanye’s verse is really dope.  Unfortunately, the first 3 minutes of the song are all Jeezy and filled with more wack lyrics than any other single song performance this year.  Look at it like Yin and Yang, if you will.

I’ll have (extensive) interviews with The Game, Kardinal, and Clef coming in the next week, so be on the lookout for those.  And to explain the title of this entry, me and the homey Lala registered 71 new voters at Summer Jam, 99% of which will be voting for Obama in the fall.  I put onnnnnnnnnnnnnnn…

Just a heads up, Sound Session won’t be on the air tonight (Sunday) since we’ll all be at KUBE’s annual Summer Jam concert.  We’ll be back on air next week, and if all goes right, we’ll have exclusive interviews from The Game, Kardinal Offishall, and Wyclef Jean for y’all.

If you need your SNSS fix, just check out the “Download Archive” sidebar (or click here) and listen to some of our older episodes and interviews.  There’s some classic stuff there…