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.

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 last week. Give it a listen and let us know what you think.

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.