Back again with another edition of THINGS WE LIKE! Woop wooooop!

I’ve got a real love/hate relationship with The Hype Men Podcast. I like it because it’s nerdy dudes talking about rap for an hour with occasionally interesting guests. I hate it because sometimes it’s just unbearably nerdy at a very specific, uninteresting level… and it all too often turns into Jensen relaying pointless anecdotes about BEING A WHITE RAPPER SIGNED BY INTERSCOPE and WORKING WITH KANYE and blah blah blah. We get it, buddy: Interscope tried to cash in on your whiteness and multi-syllabic rhyme patterns and Jimmy Iovine would probably spot you money for an Orange Julius if he saw you in the mall. (By the way, what the eff is up with white rappers and multi-syllabic rhyme patterns?)

Anyway, I guess my point is, I have a love/hate relationship with this podcast mostly because of lack of options. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, there’s not a whole lot of rap-related podcasting available, which seems really silly to me. Surely there’s plenty of people that would love to hear hour long interviews with their favorite rappers that delve into deeper discussions than the 5 minute youtube/vimeo/worldstar interview clips where random-rapper-guy is just like “YEAH I WAS IN THE STUDIO WITH WIZ KHALIFA AND HE SEEMS PRETTY COOL! BY THE WAY GO BUY MY NEW ALBUM! SHOUT OUT TO DUBLIN, IRELAND!” or whatever. I guess the Juan Epstein Podcasts are good but they don’t come along frequently enough. A podcast is unfortunately only as good as the podcasters’ commitment to updating frequently. So, yeah, begrudgingly, I like the Hype Men Podcast and you should check it out when you get a chance. The Just Blaze Episode is legitimately great and Fat Jew Episode is legitimately hilarious. Their entire archive is worth scrolling through. They’ve interviewed 88 Keys, Jean Grae, Freddie Gibbs, and a few other notables. Also, Jensen sharing 2 of Yeezy’s earliest beat tapes is an awesome look.

Kudos to the Hype Men boys for trailblazing this hip-hop podcasting ish and, at the very least, providing a constant stream of material that at least ATTEMPTS to move in more interesting directions than most rap journalism out there. And, big up rap nerds everywhere!

-e