AUGUST 2020
Welcome to the Monthly post, where I lay out everything you may have missed over the past 30 or so days, name an Album of the Month, a Song of the Month, and give a little “state of the union”. Come look at some other Monthly Posts to catch up on previous months. Thank all of you for reading, and happy listening!
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This was a better month for me over here at Tha Soup Dude’s Kitchen: some amazing stuff has come out in August, a lot of love has been thrown in my direction, and the job (the real job), while not getting in any way easier, has been something that I can more easily relegate to the back of my mind. I’m not even going to get into political and social issues of the month… Jesus what is going on the world in 2020 man? I’ll sum it up like this: justice to those who deserve justice, both the innocent and the evil, and Rest in Peace to Chadwick Boseman.
This month I instituted a lot of changes around here, specifically to the Weekly Fix. To help cut down on the length of the Fix (while also giving time to singles more effectively), I made a standalone Singles post that will come out every week before the Fix comes out. This post includes embedded links to all of the songs contained within it, one click away from listening to anything that you might be interested in. Besides breaking the singles off, I also reworked the way I approached the Fix itself. I now have two sections: one for projects that are focused on streaming, and another for projects that rely on individual business on websites such as Bandcamp. I’ve done this to give attention to those both in the mainstream echelon, while also directing you towards a storefront or a website where you can support these amazing artists. The response to this has been fantastic, and I hope everyone who has found a new favorite artist reading my shit here considers helping out these artists directly in the future; you don’t gotta go out there and start your vinyl collection or anything, but a $5-$10 investment on Bandcamp won’t break the bank, but can go a long way in establishing these artists.
As for stuff that came out this month, we really got it from all fronts in August. Old acts like Nas and The LOX, new acts like Internet Money and Vic Mensa, and TONS of underground fire that sought to overwhelm my innocence: Benny the Butcher brought out his Black Soprano Family, Mach-Hommy is back after a long absence, M.A.V. teamed up with Giallo Point on Hoodlum, then AGAIN with Rob Gates and Big Ghost for The Dark Side of Nature, TWO Flee Lord albums, Jay Royale’s magnum opus The Baltimore Housing Project…. I could go on, but I’ll sum it up with “there was a ton of shit”.
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Drake (Feat. Lil Durk)
Laugh Now Cry Later
Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music
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WEEKLY FIXES
Weekly Fix #31 ('20) & Week #31 ('20) Playlists (with M.A.V. & Giallo Point’s Hoodlum and M.A.V., Rob Gates, & Big Ghost’s The Dark Side of Nature)
Weekly Fix #32 ('20) & Week #32 ('20) Playlists (with Amine’s Limbo and Mach-Hommy’s Mach’s Hard Lemonade)
Weekly Fix #33 ('20) & Week #33 ('20) Playlists (with Jay Royale’s The Baltimore Housing Project and Ransom & Nicholas Craven’s Director’s Cut (Scene Three))
Weekly Fix #34 ('20) & Week #34 ('20) Playlists (with Nas’ King’s Disease and Recognize Ali’s Recognition)
Weekly Fix #35 ('20) & Week #35 ('20) Playlists (with Flee Lord & Mephux’s Pray for the Evil 2 and Internet Money’s B4 The Storm)
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SINGLES
Week #32 ('20) Singles (with Conway the Machine’s Lemon and Armani Caesar’s Simply Done)
Week #33 ('20) Singles (with Anderson .Paak’s Cut Em In and Drake’s Laugh Now Cry Later)
Week #34 ('20) Singles (with DDG’s Moonwalkin in Calabasas (Remix) and Headie One’s Ain’t It Different)
Week #35 ('20) Singles (with Conway the Machine’s Fear of God and Black Thought’s Good Morning)
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ART APPRECIATIONS
Week #31 ('20) Art Appreciation (Featuring work from Action Bronson and Manuel "Cep" Concepcion)
Week #32 ('20) Art Appreciation (Featuring work from DMT and al.divino)
Week #33 ('20) Art Appreciation (Featuring work from ChrisHaven and its_a_s_h_a)
Week #34 ('20) Art Appreciation (Featuring work from Ivan Merlin and honeiee)
Week #35 ('20) Art Appreciation (Featuring work from ral_duke and moodzanzan)
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And there you have it folks: August in a nutshell. I had a lot of fun shaking things up this month, and I hope you all enjoyed the new content.
Next month, I have a quite a few things on the radar, but most of them will probably be out by the time this post goes up, cause it’s all dropping on September 3rd. Beyond tomorrow (which sees the likes of Big Sean and Napoleon Da Legend), I hope we’re getting the rescheduled Griselda releases from Armani Caesar and Westside Gunn, because the Conway the Machine project would be mighty lonely without them. We also got another Grafh project with Good Energy, another RJ Payne project with Educated Dropout, AND, just announced the other day, we are getting an Elzhi project on the 25th. Take a look at everything I see coming in the future on what I call my Upcoming Heat page, a calendar that I’ve created to help people keep up with releases that I’ve seen confirmed release dates for out there in the wild. Save this page, bookmark it, whatever works; hell, I use it myself often.
Let’s go through the socials real quick: I’m going to start off with what is now my most-used platform, Instagram (@thasoupdude). I’ve been slipping on IG recently, I know, but ideally I post on there every weekend with a weekly recap, as well as update my story with new posts that I do on a regular basis. People seem to like this one the most, but I’m still a Twitter guy at heart. Speaking of which is my official Twitter account (@tha_soup_dude), where I get a lot of my info about current music events nowadays. It will update with all of my posts automatically, so follow it to follow me. Next is the Official Facebook Group for Tha Soup Dude’s Kitchen (facebook.com/ThaSoupDude), which also updates with all of my posts automatically. You’ll get extra credit by joining Drake’s Hidden Children (facebook.com/groups/drakeshiddenchildren), which is where all of this crazy shit started back in the day, and where me and some people in the group will post songs and news every once in a while to get a discussion going. Lastly (and in some respects most importantly for you real audiophiles out there) is a website called RateYourMusic; it’s not really social media, but it ‘s a music cataloging site that I use CONSTANTLY as a good place to study up on artists discographies, see collaborations, and, whaddaya know, rate the music I listen to. It’s got everything I’ve ever listened to cataloged on there, so go take a look at my profile (and add me as a friend).
So passes another month of 2020, a horrible year to be sure, but one that music has made that much more tolerable. I’d like to extend my thanks to everyone, every single person who’s checked in on me here at Tha Soup Dude’s Kitchen, whether that be those looking for new music, randoms stumbling across some of my writings out there, and the artists who notice what I’m doing here and show love. TSDK is about two things: showing all of you listeners the fire music that is being released on a weekly basis, and LOVE. Love is so important, validation and support is so important, music is so important. So keep listening to the shit you love, tell others about the things you’re listening to (maybe you’ll create a new fan), share your thoughts on this music shit, and go out there are support these artists who work so hard to provide us with this music that keeps us going. Here’s to a great September: PEACE.
