The Audacity of Dope

GregTheDude and Tunji took OkayplayerTV around Los Angeles to link up with Thes-One and Double K, better known as the People Under The Stairs.  The duo talked about how they originally linked up, their recording history, their new Fun DMC album, and their video for “The Wiz.”  That clip is one of my favorites from this past year, though I never would have guessed that the weather was awful when they shot it in Australia.  It always looked like the perfect summer joint to me:

Sidenote: it’s not smart to watch a video like that on a day when we’re snowed in here in Seattle.  Even if it was freezing down there, it makes me miss summer like craaaazy.

The downside of being able to work from home due to the Seattle snow is that I’ve been firmly planted at the computer for the last 12 hours.  So when the homies are about their business and provide perfect descriptions for stuff to post, it makes one happy Hyphen.  Take it away fellas:

Follow a night in the life of new supergroup Idle Warship (Talib Kweli + Res + Graph Nobel) as they travel through NYC, hit the studio to record, DJ a set at a club, perform, and generally talk sh*t. You can also preview new songs from the group’s forthcoming mixtape and album. Shot/Edited by Court Dunn for Restless Films. Second camera Andrew Baxter.

Shout to young Tunj for sending this through and peace to the entire Blacksmith fam.  As a bonus, Tunj included the song featured heavily in this clip:

Idle Warship – “Steady”

Now all that said, minus 10K points for making me hear “Pop Champagne” at the end of the clip.  Blech.

If you’ve been sleeping on Idle Warship, it’s a new group consisting of Talib Kweli, Res, and Graph Nobel.  They’ve put out a few tracks already, but here’s a video for their newest joint, “Black Snake Moan.”  Peep their web clip for “Fall Back” from the primary season and then catch up with Talib through my recent interview with him if you missed it.

Shout to Tunji and the whole Blacksmith crew!

If you’ve been sleeping lately, Keelay & Zaire are an incredible production duo that have been doing their thing for a minute now.  They’re about to drop their debut full length album, Ridin’ High, at the start of next year and people are finally starting to catch on.

Here’s the video for their current single, “The Times,” featuring Blu, Fortilive, and Nino Moschella.  If you’ve been listening to Sound Session, you’ve heard this one and the b-side, “Addicts For Real,” with the homey Tunji.  It’s been a long week, so my memory is failing on me, but I thiiiiiiink I remember hearing that there will be a video coming for that joint as well.  Do yourself a favor and get familiar with these dudes.  Shout to Karim and the whole Myx Music family too.  Big things in ’09!

(watch it in HD on HyphenTV right here)

A few weeks ago, the big homies Talib Kweli and Corey Smyth stopped by KUBE to make their 4th appearance on Sound Session.  It’s always great to meet and interview people for the first time, but it’s even better once you get to know them and your ‘interviews’ just turn in to catching up with old friends.  It probably could have been under better circumstances though, cause right before we got up, this happened.  It shows you how cool Talib is that despite just finding out about the theft, he still took time for us before trying to find the laptop.  Booooooooo @ that “fan” who took Kwa’s MacBook.  Shame on you.

Anyway, if you missed any of the previous discussions, you can check ’em out on our podcast page right here.

This time around, we talked all about his current projects, including updates on the next Reflection Eternal album with Hi-Tek, his Idle Warship group with Res & Graph Nobel, and all things Blacksmith. We also discussed what it’s like to operate his own label, how new media has affected his career, a little politics, and more.  Be sure to watch it in high-def on the HyphenTV Vimeo page, or if you only want the audio, grab it below:

Talib Kweli on Sound Session – http://www.mediafire.com/?2dmzymzi3jt
(back up / streaming link – http://www.zshare.net/audio/515797634df69ac9/ )

Blacksmith is the movement.

I’ve been trying to tell y’all about Chester French for a minute now, but if you’ve been sleeping, check out their appearance on OKPtv courtesy of GregTheDude and Tunji.  D.A. and Max talk about their background, their sound, and misrepresenting Inverse as “an instrumental hip-hop group” hahahah.  Not exactly, but he’s still learning.  Peep the clip and see why Pharrell signed these dudes immediately after hearing their demo.

Chyea.  Not only is Grynch the homey, but he’s one of the best artists we have here in the Pacific Northwest.  He recently linked up with the production crew of Two Good Men for this EP to tide y’all over until his next release.  If this is your first time hearing dude, download the EP featuring Tunji, Geologic (of Blue Scholars), and Thig Natural (of the Physics) at GetGrynch.com, and then go cop his last album, My Second Wind, either on his MySpace or at iTunes.  You won’t be disappointed.

Tunji wins.  I’ll beeeeeeeeee dat.

It’s a beautiful thing to see some of my favorite people all working together.  The homies GregTheDude and Tunji linked up with the other homies Com and Okayplayer to cook up a couple videos for y’all.  In these clips, Common talks about his upcoming Universal Mind Control album, politics, his past work, and more.  Hit the jump to watch the other two pieces and click here to check the last time we had Com on Sound Session.

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Get ’em Tunj.

Courtesy of Eighty’s Baby.