A Guest in the House

In our final episode of the biweekly podcast, Dave and Mickey pay their respects to two fallen hip-hop icons, Kangol Kid of UTFO and Jesse D of the Force MDs. Our hosts each name the hip-hop moments they were glad to experience, the ones they were sorry to miss, and the ones they still hope to see. Podcast producer Anthony Sergi joins the guys on the mic as we sign off for now, but

Dave and Mickey start with a look back at 2021, then turn their sights ahead to the new year, sharing their hopes for more civil debate and less divisiveness. Mickey offers up a quote from author Kurt Vonnegut, who wrote that our ideas are worn as “badges of friendship or enmity,” and that can cause us to dig in our heels rather than stop and think when we encounter an idea tha

Dave shares his Spotify stats for 2021 and the guys discuss how little money musicians make for thousands of streams. They think back to earlier technologies like bootleg CDs and used CDs that also cut out the musician and talk about the differences between paid streaming services for music, and public libraries for books. Mickey shares his end-of-year publishing royalty statement

Dave celebrates the 10th anniversary of his Black Champion EP and catches us up on the musicians who contributed to the album. Mickey waxes nostalgic about his old iPod and the songs it holds that are either not on streaming or have disappeared from the Internet altogether.

Dave and Mickey talk code-switching and the conflict between expanding your audience and trying so hard to fit in that you end up being less than yourself. They speak on the recent governor’s race in Virginia and the rallying cry against critical race theory and suggest that people approach uncomfortable moments in their education by asking, "What more do I need to know?" This ep

The fellas breeze through a few random topics including more of their favorite rap names, favorite opening lines in songs, skillset vs. "cool factor," and a few artists and projects that pleasantly surprised them. Things evolve into a more poignant discussion about music and artistry reflecting the times and whether the current popular music paints an accurate picture of today's so

Mickey and Dave recap the recent Verzuz event celebrating hip-hop icons Big Daddy Kane and KRS-ONE and discuss the sustained excellence and longevity of many of hip-hop's legends beyond the height of their mainstream popularity.

Having discovered that the rapper Gunna's government name is Sergio Kitchens, the guys discuss what goes into choosing a rap name. They run through some categories of rap names throughout history, give some context on names that come from the Nation of Gods and Earths, consider rappers who've changed from one rap name to another, and shout out their favorite rap names of all time.

Dave and Mickey discuss some of the new music they have been listening to or discovered over the past few weeks as well as the anticipation for some of hip-hop's bigger artists like Drake, Kanye and especially Kendrick Lamar who the guys believe may be returning with a point to prove. The music talk transitions into a more serious discussion surrounding Da Baby's recent controversi

The guys discuss Dave’s recent move to Atlanta and how it feels to move from the Northeast to the South (and vice versa) as regional identities get pitted against each other and Americans have come to associate the South with a stubborn racism that the guys have seen plenty of in the Northeast too.