The less said about this one the better, so let us just say that we’re very thankful for all of our listeners, the folks we’ve been lucky enough to interview and everyone who interacted with us or helped spread the word about the podcast. We’re wrapping up our first season and feel very lucky to be able to share this music with you. -Nate, David, and Demone
Before you listen to this week’s episode, make sure to familiarize yourself with this list from Complex, edited by our guest, writer and podcaster Shawn Setaro: https://www.complex.com/music/2018/10/best-hip-hop-producers We get deep into the list, which was a massive undertaking for Shawn and his collaborators. We’d love to hear what you think of the choices that were made, hit us on Twitter @dadbodrappod to debate our takes. Enjoy the show!
This week we take a look at the music of one of the most interesting hip-hop cities Detroit, Michigan. We interviewed one of the most talented cats to emerge from the city’s vital hip-hop scene, MC extraordinaire Elzhi. He was mad cool, talked about his whole career, including his latest LP Jericho Jackson. We also recommend some cuts from other Detroit artists, though admittedly Demone is a lot more keyed in on the area than Dave or Nate.
We welcome special guest @djcutso back to the show this week. He is not only a phenomenal DJ and producer, but one of our real life homies. Cutso has been on a tear the past few weeks, performing on Sway in the Morning and all over the Bay Area and NYC. We talk about the state of the DJ game and premier an exclusive track off of his upcoming EP with rapper @big-hongry entitled Paper! Cutso also produced all of the beats you hear on the show this week. This was a fun one, check it out.
What is gangster rap? Is it a sub-genre, its own lane, or something else entirely? Who is the physical embodiment of gangster rap? We talk about all of this and then interview Soren Baker, the man who literally wrote the book on the subject. The History of Gangster Rap is available wherever books are sold right now, cop that.
This week we discuss the amazing Quincy Jones documentary on Netflix and recommend some Q songs and the rap songs that he inspired. In the second segment we talk to friend of the program Zilla Rocca about his new record Future Former Rapper out soon on POW Recordings, as well as the general state of the rap game and his beloved 76ers. Beats for today’s show were submitted by Charles Edison from the UK, check out his page charlesedison.bandcamp.com for more heat.
The word legend is thrown around a lot in hip-hop but what makes someone a true legend in the game? We contemplate this question in the first segment. In the back half we have a special interview with The Rhyme Inspector Percee P. Percee takes us through his life and career, explaining in depth about his, dare we say, legendary battle with Lord Finesse.
It’s all about the beats this week, as we interview the prolific and dope producer Blockhead about his process, his love of hoops, and his upcoming tour! In the back half of the show we recommend some of our favorite instrumental hip-hop gems.
This week we are nerding out with our fellow podcasters Uncommon Nasa and Samurai Banana of Dope Sh!t Podcast. We appeared on their show earlier this week, in a podcast crossover event of epic proportions. We talk the intersection of hip-hop music with them as well as a second segment featuring an in-studio interview with Seattle’s WayStyles, a DMC champ DJ who also works as a programmer.
Disclaimer: We are far from expert on Chicago’s thriving hip-hop scene, just admirers from afar. That said, this week we are recommending some great songs by Chicago artists and talking to one of the most creative MCs working there now, Chris Crack.
We’re joined by journalist Paul Thompson to talk about the career of the recently departed Mac Miller and his great Pitchfork review of the new Armand Hammer record, Paraffin. The second segment is an interview with Brian Coleman, the author and editor of Rakim Told Me and Check the Technique vols. 1&2, which are indispensable deep dive interviews with the creators of classic hip-hop albums. We appreciate the beat submissions from Son Raw and Books One.
How many of the top 10 best selling rap albums are actually good? We discuss that with journalist Shaka Shaw live in studio. The second segment is a wide-ranging conversation with journalist Jeff Weiss of Passion of the Weiss, the Washington Post, and soon The LAnd, a new magazine that is emerging from the ashes of the disgraced LA Weekly. We’d like to thank Jumbled for submitting the beats we used in between segments this week. Give him a listen on Soundcloud.
In the first segment we pay tribute to the Queen of Soul, the dearly departed Aretha Franklin. We spend some time on her life and music and we recommend tracks to help folks understand the connections between her music and some classic hip-hop productions. In the second segment we interview Apani B Fly MC, a standout of the late-90’s, early-2000’s New York underground scene. We are big fans of her music, her voice, her writing, and she makes a few announcements that will be great news for her fa...
On August 11, 1973 DJ Kool Herc invented what we now call hip-hop at his sister’s birthday party at 1520 Sedgwick Ave. in the South Bronx. We talk about that and a bunch of other things on the show this week. Thanks for listening, and special thanks to Jumbled for submitting some dope beats for us to use between segments!
Really fun episode this week, we were honored to talk to Gift of Gab from Blackalicious, one of the best technical MCs in the game. He opens up about his career, especially the early part with the legendary Quannum collective. We are huge fans of his, so we dig into our collections for slept on gems from his storied catalog in the second segment.
No guests this week, just your three hosts DEM ONE, Nate LeBlanc and David Ma discussing dual threat rapper/producers, a surprisingly large category. The second segment focuses on DOOM, our favorite rapper/producer and we drop some slept on gems from his huge and legendary catalogue.
Special guest this week is Adisa Banjoko, founder of the Hip Hop Chess Federation and one of the curators of the hip-hop exhibit at the Oakland Museum entitled Respect.
We are fans of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series, so we run through some of the more prominent rap and R&B entries in the series, recommending the best ones to check out.
We had Traxamillion, the great producer of the genre-defining beat for Keak da Sneak’s Super Hyphy in-studio this week! We talked to Trax about his life and work, including his long-time friendship with our co-host DEM ONE. We also briefly touch on the World Cup, and give some spoiler-free thoughts on the amazing film Sorry To Bother You.
We were lucky enough to talk to Ant from Atmosphere this week. We touched on his origins DJing, his production methods, and his work with various MCs over the years among many other things.
We’re joined by the talented Adrian Quesada of the awesome band Brownout to discuss their new album of Public Enemy covers, Fear of a Brown Planet. We discuss how hard it is to mimic hip-hop production with live instruments, being intimidated by the immensity of the Bomb Squad’s sound, and growing up in hip-hop culture. In the first segment the guys recommend rap covers and talk about Cat Power’s surprisingly large feet.
Recorded in an undisclosed location in sunny San Jose on a scorcher of a day, this week we ruminate on summer and summer jams and why hip-hop’s major releases tend to drop in the summer time. Of course we talk about music, the GOOD Music album roll-out issues and you have to stick around for Demone’s thoughts on the issues surrounding the new Nas album toward the end.
Is Happy Rap a thing? We’re honestly not sure but we talk about it in the first segment. The second part is an in-depth interview with writer, professor, pioneering blogger and host of the excellent music podcast Heat Rocks Oliver Wang aka O-Dub. It was great to catch up with Oliver, we particularly enjoyed the stories about when rap reviews had consequences.
The second half of our emergency recording session is devoted to discussing Black Thought’s latest EP, Streams of Thought Vol. 1 with producer 9th Wonder. We’re lifelong Roots fans who are into this project, so much so that we wonder aloud if he’s one of the greatest MCs of all time. We close by recommending some newly-available music from Chris Crack, Anderson .Paak, and Kamal Keila.
This week we get a little more topical than usual, talking extensively about Kanye West’s new album Ye, Drake vs. Pusha T beef, the brilliant Daytona album, and whether or not “canceling” people exists. We’d love to hear your feedback on this episode in particular.
This week’s episode is centered around an in-depth interview with legendary MC Del The Funkee Homosapien of the Hieroglyphics Crew. One of the longest-tenured and best rappers to ever come out of the Bay Area, Del has achieved massive success with groups like Gorillaz and dropped underground classics like Future Development. We are all huge fans of his album No Need For Alarm, so we spend some time talking about that, along with his new project Gate 13 with producer Amp Live, who we interviewed ...
We’re joined by prolific producer Amp Live this week. We discuss his life and career with a focus on his new album with Del, Gate 13. He’s a thoughtful and humble cat with some good insight into production methods. The second segment focuses on the seminal Wu-Tang Clan and their legacy.
This week we discuss contemporary fandom. What’s a fan, what’s a stan, what fan base makes you think twice about the artist themselves? The second segment is a very special interview with Geechi Suede and Sonny Cheeba of Camp Lo, focusing on their classic album Uptown Saturday Night.
This week we were lucky enough to talk to legendary producer Easy Mo Bee. He shares amazing stories from his long and illustrious career working with Biggie, 2Pac, Miles Davis, Craig Mack, and more! We’re very proud of this interview and hope you enjoy it.
How do you feel about ghost writing in hip-hop? It turns out we are somewhat ambivalent at this point, with so many known and rumored instances over the years. The second segment is an interview with one of the best rappers in the game right now, The King of Living, Vic Spencer. Vic discusses his past, his influences, and his creative method.
