First, some support and love out to my dude Big Rob, cofounder of the Members Only massive, terrific chef (you may've seen yr boy Guy Fieri spazzing over his clam linguine on ye olde Food Network), and terrible standup comedian. Since an emergency open-heart surgery, he's suffered a series of strokes, but being a bear of a dude, he still has the energy to talk shit on Twitter and 206Proof. Much love and energy your way, homeboy. With your ironclad constitution, I have faith that you'll get well soon, perhaps even to terrorize the very notion of "humor" once again.

Also, some support out to the folks all the way across this too-proud nation, the protesters occupying Wall Street. The NYPD has been acting like, well, the NYPD since the protest began last month, but it sounds like—as of this writing—they've stepped the brutality up a notch; video of the pigs wailing on citizens with billy clubs is everywhere. Big shouts-out to the hiphop folks who've shown their support of this movement, from Lupe Fiasco to Immortal Technique to the OG Russell Simmons. This isn't merely the anger of some wishy-washy grad student hashtag activism, this is the most articulate cry yet heard from the American disenfranchised group, which is looking increasingly like it includes just about everybody who ain't ballin'. It's not just "hippies" out there. The satellite demonstrations are happening everywhere, even here in Seattle, which you probably know by now. How will/can/has Seattle hiphop—which has the ear of the area youth like never before—show its support?

Speaking of, a couple shows to hit: Friday, October 14, at Lo-Fi, catch combos from Black Stax, Specs One, and Saturday Morning Cartoon, along with DJs Zeta Barber and OC Notes. Sunday, October 16, at High Dive, you can peep That One Show (Notion, Ripynt, Know Choice, and Shast), the GNU Deal, and Steph & Ryan Caraveo.

Quick history lesson: Seattle's Street Level Records started out back in 1996, pumping out a particular North End menace with the first joints from Full Time Soldiers. Scores of fans across the country and beyond soon came to anticipate the quickly growing catalog of SLR releases, from FTS to Portland's Syko, Byrdie, brothers Twin G and Skuntdunanna, Dividenz, and, of course, the 206 gangsta supercrew Lac of Respect. Infamous label head/producer/jerk D-Sane, overbusy with his Shoreline-based Not 2 Sane studio (where he still crisps up the sounds of everybody from Avatar Young Blaze to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis), put SLR on an unexpected hiatus back in 2005, to the chagrin of street-rap lovers everywhere. Six years later, D-Sane has officially reactivated SLR and FTS with the release of Street Sense Pt. 1, the new album from Soldiers Smoke & Dub. Hard-hustling 10-toes-down tales in the grim sonic vein of the Mob Figaz, it's a solid lick executed with some exemplary guest shots from Sleep 6, Syko, BD, and the Figaz' own Ampichino. Catch a CD release party for Street Sense at Nectar on Sunday, October 16, with Luck-One and Young Britt. Class dismissed.