Local producer Jake One and Rhymesayer emcee Brother Ali co-hosted KUBE 93's Sunday Night Sound Session this week to discuss and play a bunch of tracks from the most excellent new album White Van Music. DJ Hyphen's blog Audacity of Dope has the Sound Session download and streaming links posted, so get it while the getting's good! While you're in Jake! One! mode, Raindrophustla has a longish video from DJ Nphared featuring footage of Brother Ali and Jake hanging out in the station's studio as well as an extended glimpse at Npha's car's dashboard. Note: White Van Music is the next big thing, and for very good reason. more ›

Late summer festival/extravaganza Bumbershoot announced another hiphop headliner today. Ludacris, the one and only, has been added to the line-up! The other three rap-alicious big names thus far are Brother Ali, whose recent show at Neumos was nigh unto a spiritual experience for Seattlest, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, and Kid Sister out of Chicago. Unless, of course, you count Beck as a rapper. (We don't.) more ›

Brother Ali is here to share The Undisputed Truth in person! From the Twin Cities, this man has a powerful story and a powerful vision for what hiphop can be. He's challenging, personal, and fresh. Witness: more ›

Okay, friends and neighbors. December is a huge month for local hip-hop, and not just because of Blue Scholars' The Program. This week, Chop Suey's got you covered for Monday and Tuesday with the Parker Brothaz tonight (GMK will be there! We love that guy!) and freestyle master Eyedea & DJ Abilities tomorrow night. Over in Fremont, Nectar's offering Waves of the Mind and Gabriel Teodros/Abyssinian Creole on the 13th (there are nine acts on the bill, as a heads up) and an apparently two-night-long extravaganza featuring One Be Lo and Grayskul (along with some big name producers and djs) on the 15th and 16th. more ›

We would like to take a short minute to let you know what we did on Sunday night instead of hitting up the Rakim/Ghostface/Brother Ali show for $32. Instead, Seattlest trundled over to The Comet, where we got to sit down (albeit in rickety wooden chairs), drink $4 whiskey sodas, and enjoy the hooting and hollering of a crowd of thirty at the Nite Owls show. We had never been to a show at The Comet; the one time we'd even considered stopping in for a drink, we heard the strains of hiphop coming from Havana across the street and we went there instead. As it turns out, we love the Comet and we love the low-key, gruff, rough-and-ready hip-hop we heard there on Sunday. more ›

Well! Seattlest lives for weekends like the upcoming one. On Saturday night, we've got Seatown representing rather well at Chop Suey. Assisting North Carolina all-star Little Brother in making the night oh-so-memorable are 206's tough-spitting Dyme Def, rhyme maestro Grynch, The Physics (thank you, God!), and DJ Top Spin. That's right, mutha-flippin Grynch will be there. Seattlest is going because we missed The Physics a couple weeks ago and truly regret that. We are also going because we have heard too much about Grynch to have never heard him live. Who IS this very white guy who throws it down like that? Check out "How I Feel" on his MySpace. We like! more ›