Sad news yet again, people; last week I forgot to mention one local MC who recently (and violently) lost his life—and come to find out this week that there's another area rapper we've lost. RIP to Get Money Click member/So Hood Records founder AKshun Tha Don (gunned down in First Hill late November) and to Boss Up representative Hurtlock, and condolences to all of their family and friends. Even if we don't all know each other round here, the loss is real, and this year has seen more than its share of young people gone.

But like the man said—and it don't stop. As the year closes on a variety of notes, some saddening and others encouraging, and it's cold enough to freeze slow conversation, there's plenty of live, heart-pumping, life-affirming music here for all. Submitted for your approval, the Winter Classic going down at Nectar on December 18—Khingz, Helladope, GodSpeed, Okanomodé aka SoulChilde, Black Aries, Mikaela Romero, Hi-Life Sound System (that being Khingz with B-Flat and Crispy of GodSpeed), and DJ Audeos. It's all hosted by Sportn' Life's Spaceman and Big World Breaks' heartbeat Aaron Walker-Loud—big tings! But before you hit Nectar that evening, there's a little event going down at the Rendezvous Grotto a touch earlier—the first annual Proofie Awards, celebrating the best and (far, far more likely) the worst to be found on the loved and hated (often simultaneously) 206Proof.com (which ya boy helped found, BTW). Love it or hate it, it's still my favorite full-service local-hiphop IQ test—it's all an experiment. Yeah, much like those last couple sentences, it'll be as self-aggrandizing a ceremony as you're likely to find. Plus it features musical guests Le'Roy and Mr. Hill. Cheers, bitches!

The following evening features a heavyweight hiphop lineup that's a must-fuck-with: the locally loved, nationally respected D.Black, Yirim Seck, Tha Stahi Bros, and Candidt at Chop Suey. Props to the Life for putting together another rock-solid show and, as always, for being that true local vanguard of vital, real, raw, black hiphop in Seattle that it is—because this fucking city needs it more than ever. That's not to say you shouldn't get your white ass there, because you most certainly better! If not: The blacks will get you. Fact.

Wait, come back here. I got one more for ya. Nectar on December 20 hosts a big one: Coolout and 206 Zulu's monster 2 X 4 Northwest party, a gift to everybody toasting their born day this wintry month. We're talkin' DJs B-Mello, Luvva J, Soul One, Sho Nuff, Seabefore, Surreal, Tecumseh, Gumbeaux, Scratchmaster Joe, and WD4D, all said to be spinning nothing but NW music, from Ghetto Children to Jimi to Fatal Lucciauno to the Gits. (Okay, so that last one was actually just my own personal request.) And it's all free—a price every local rap nut can certainly afford, so get it in gear. Crumbs.