Episode 03 - Freedom Allah

In this episode we sit down with Samson S from Samson & Swift / 22nd Precinct / Tribal Productions. This 2 hour conversation covers deep rap history, the pervasiveness of the original New York sound and it's affect places as far away as Seattle and Atlanta, Samson S's beef with DJ Shadow, listening to early soul and funk records before the genesis of the sampling / crate digging perspective, and a wide variety of other topics. A truly wonderful conversation.

In this episode we sit down with Seattle MC Draze to talk about all sorts of issues including his video for the song "The Hood Ain't The Same" (**disclaimer** I directed it) and gentrification, mandatory minimum sentencing laws, the crack epidemic, racism, manhood, and dreams dying hard. Fabulous conversation. Please enjoy.

In this episode we sit down with Tribal Productions member James "Truth" Browne. James was one of the founding members of Tribal Productions - perhaps before Tribal was Tribal - and was active as a solo artist within Tribal and also in the group Union of Opposites. We speak about his time in Tribal, watching the formation of the group, the Pharmacy, hip-hop history both in and outside of Seattle and his transition into doing soulful house music under the name JM Browne.

In this episode we sit down with Freedom Allah, lifelong Seattle resident, to talk about Seattle hip-hop history, the Central District and the South End of Seattle and their gentrification, the Seattle Public School's mandatory bussing program of the 90's, messages in hip-hop, life, love, contentment and the conditions of the modern world. Perhaps a little light on rap history, but long on breaking down the science - Doing The Math if you will.

In this episode of the Do The Math Podcast we sit down with Seattle's own, the legendary Grammy nominated producer, album cut assassin and blap architect Jake One. Jake has a particularly interesting perspective on the Tribal Productions crew, seeing them from their absolute genesis point as kids performing at Garfield High School talent shows to putting out music locally. We also talk about Jake's start in beatmaking, learning from Vitamin D, digging for samples and making the Conmen tapes with Mr. Supreme, Conception Records, hooking up with Minneapolis's Rhymesayers crew, Jake's involvement with Mayer Hawthorne and his Tuxedo project, Snare Jordan and a bunch of other topics. Official Town Business.

In this episode of the Do The Math Podcast we sit down with Seattle's own DJ Topspin AKA Blendiana Jones to talk about the genesis of his involvement in DJ'ing, learning production, his attendance of the recent sold out Macklemore show at Key Arena, the idea of musical curators, and a variety of other topics.

Hello and welcome to the Do The Math Podcast! In our first episode we will be giving you a prelude of sorts of the content to come. Our goal: Telling Seattle stories...long form interviews with the creators, innovators and legends of our Seattle Hip-Hop community.