As we continue on, our Sounds Like Summer series adds another volume while the humidex/heat index pushes past 100 in the north east. Somethin’ for your car, somethin’ for your hangout spot, or just somethin’ for you to chill to. Hella shouts to dirt_dog from TROY for the artwork. Download link, tracklist and links to the rest of the series after the jump.
— Snoop Bloggy Blogg
(more…)
Alongside the now popular Jay ElecHanukkah Shirt, X Is The Weapon has come with The Mos Def inspired, Love Powers Tee. Both are available at www.xistheweapon.com. The Jay Elec tee is a must for Sunday service. — Philaflava
Since my thermometer is finally crackin’ 70 this week, I thought it might be time to throw together a mix for the summer. Lets do it the right way though. 10 volumes from here to September, 16 tracks per clip. Somethin’ for your car, somethin’ for your hangout spot, or just somethin’ for you to chill to. Our A-Alike blog TROY runs a series called “Sounds like the 90s,” so we’re gonna call this one “Sounds Like Summer.” Volume uno below.
— Snoop Bloggy Blogg
Sounds Like Summer – Volume 1
ZShare | UserShare
01 E-40 – Nah Nah ft Nate Dogg
02 3xKrazy – West Coast Shit
03 Da Brat and The Notorious BIG – Da B Side
04 Erick Sermon – Music
05 Snoop Dogg – Lets Get Blown
06 Kilo Ali – Love in Ya Mouth ft Big Boi
07 King Tee – Dippin (rmx)
08 Dam Funk – (My Funk Goes) On & On
09 Scritti Politti – Tinseltown to the Boogiedown ft Mos Def and Lee Majors (Ali Shaheed rmx)
10 2Pac – To Live and Die in LA
11 Ice Cube – You Know How We Do It
12 Boogiemonsters – Honeydips in Gotham (Monster rmx)
13 The Dove Shack – Summertime in the LBC
14 Big Mike – Burban & Impalas
15 Rich Boy – Boy Looka Here
16 Big Tymers – Still Fly
Although you’ve no doubt seen it already, here’s Hitchens sparring with someone hip hop related:
Monday.
Peace,
Employee
A few weeks ago I started a new series of mixes called Laskified, the premise was that there are a gang of rap artists that have an amazing collection of music but for one reason or another they cannot put together an album that keeps my attention. The first in the series was the rapper Mos Def who is an insanely talented rapper but might be a glue sniffer because his work is often inconsistent and erratic.
The goal of the series was to put on my a&r hat and take the artists collection and cherry pick from it to make a cohesive album, of not necessarily essential tracks but, tracks that would work for a complete album that keeps your interest from front to back. When conceptualizing the idea I came up with a set of rules to follow that included:
1. The music can only come from the artist album catalogue, no collaborations, guest appearances or side projects.
2. The project must flow like an album, which means if the song doesn’t fit, it doesn’t get on, I don’t care if it is their biggest hit nor has a Jay-Z or Kanye guest appearance.
3. It must not be longer than 55 minutes and 14 songs, because no album ever should be.
With today’s artist, The Roots, we went a little over out time limit but still came in at under 1 hour. I have a love hate relationship with The Roots, while I know they are extremely talented and when all things are clicking there are very few groups that can fuck with them at all. Unfortunately that rarely happens outside of their live shows. Where they excel in the live arena they tend to flounder on the studio. The Roots have released 7 studio albums, 8 if you include Organix which I do not, simply because it sucks. All of the 7 albums contain a few good to great songs and a lot of boring filler shit. The other problem is that every album carries the same format – an intro, a few songs about rap, a few girl songs, one crossover type single that is always awful, a few experimental joints which are always surprisingly good, and a few songs of rapper Black Thought completely demolishing the mic. When it comes to just ripping the shit out of a track few can do it better than Black Thought. Unfortunately, they get away from that too much because they have this BS formula that sucks the life out of every project.
It is very frustrating to see a group that is this talented avoid what they are best at. At the same time it’s hard to argue with a group that has been releasing music for 17 years, and still remains a relevant force today. I just wish they would put out one album that puts all their strengths together, trims the fat and makes a fucking classic. Until then this will have to do.
Tracklist:
1. Act Won (Things Fall Apart)
2. 75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction)
3. Here I Come
4. Act Too (The Love of My Life)
5. Panic!!!
6. The Seed (2.0)
7. Stay Cool
8. Water
9. Clones
10. Living In A New World
11. Distortion to Static
12. Thought @ Work
13. The Web
14. The Lesson, Pt. 1
The Roots: Laskified -
I have been pretty much actively avoiding this write up since last week. Partly because by brain isn’t functioning that well due to lack of sleep and partly because I just didn’t know how to attack it. How many ways can you say “hey this thing here is great” without sounding redundant? With this album we are now 9 albums deep into our little Top Ten-est list, and like most top ten lists it seems like everything that needs to be said about an album has been said. Finding a new angle is increasingly difficult and at times pointless, but regardless I need to pull something out of my ass to finish strong.
When today’s album dropped, friends kept telling me I needed to check it, The Source gave it 5 mics, the world seemed geeked on it, but I just could not give it the respect it deserved because I my east coast bias was so strong. Their accents threw me as did their style. I loved SouthernPlaylisticCadillacMusic, when it dropped but there was still something decidedly familiar about that album, even the videos had a whole DPG meets Souls of Mischief vibe to them. Granted neither of those groups were east coast but they were familiar enough that I could get my head around it.
Atliens on the other hand turned me off completely, I hated the whole aesthetic. Of course now I can look back and see that there was some genuinely brilliant rap music on that album, but it was still an uneven effort and sounds incredibly dated. You can tell that they were on to something but it wasn’t fully clicking.
After a few months of non-stop brow beating Aquemini finally clicked with me thanks to my friend Big Ben who played the album endless when we were driving around Manhattan and Brooklyn in his Nissan Pathfinder doing things we probably shouldn’t have been while driving and messing with girls that could best be describe as “if she was your daughter you would feel ashamed of yourself”.
It was in that car and in that altered state of mind that I really started to appreciate the album. The production was original, thick and layered. The drums patterns were unique and amorphous, and the lyrical performances were tremendous. Big Boi is easily the best second fiddle not named Prince Po and Andre is just brilliant. His patterns are some of the best ever and continue to amaze even today. His content managed to remain entertaining even when being, for lack of a better term, conscious. He draws you in where others come across as pretentious (see Mos Def) or semi retarded (see Dead Prez). He is also the only MC right now that if feel has a chance to make an honest and entertaining album well into his late 30s and 40s.
Outkast has 4 albums that you can claim as their best, however the only one they would be correct about would be Aquemini.
Download Here
I have recently been thinking about artists that show potential but never reach it for whatever reason. This phenomenom tends to be of epidemic proportions in rap music and I am not sure why. It could be the culture in the record industry demanding quick turn over and a follow the leader approach to marketing the music. It could be that most rappers do not have the musical background to understand what it takes to make a strong record. it could be that there isnt a lot of guidance other than the “make sure you have the x, y and z” style songs on your album. Or it could just be that some rappers are either too self indulgent or lazy to ever get the best from them.
I started thinking about this because of the artist Mos Def. Obviously a talented rapper. His work in the late 90s with Black Star was brilliant. His first solo album Black on Both Side, though uneven showed immense promise. Sadly that promise was never reached. It was a combination of him being bored with rap, trying to do too much, acting, getting hammered by Christopher Hitchens on Bill Maher, etc.
The point is he was unable to keep focus for a full album and his works became increasingly, how can I say this without being insulting, shitty.
With Mos there are always amazing moments.
When he is on, it is exactly what I want to hear when I listen to rap music, but when he is off it is exactly everything I hate when I listen. So this got me thinking, what if some one like Mos, or The Roots, or Ras Kass had a strong personality with an ear for what makes a great record pushing them to do so? Would it work. Would we get what we always hoped for from them? Sadly we will never know because the music industry has pretty much eliminated the true A&R position for quick profits and disposable artists. So I decided to try on my A&R hat and see if I couldnt put together a great album from the material that is already out there. I set a few rules in place to avoid just turning this into a best off type deal:
1. The music can only come from the artist album catalogue, no collaborations, guest appearances or side projects.
2. The project must flow like an album, which means if the song doesnt fit, it doesnt get on, I dont care if it is their biggest hit or has a Jay-Z or Kanye guest appearance.
3. It must not be longer than 55 minutes and 14 songs, because no album ever should be.
So lets see how this little experiment worked out. Mos Def, you are about to be Laskified.
Mos Def – Laskified
Track Listing
1. Champion Requiem
2. Mr. Nigga
3. Murder of a Teenage Life
4. Ghetto Rock
5. Quiet Dog Bite Hard
6. Undeniable
7. White Drapes
8. Sex, Love, and Money
9. Napoleon Dynamite
10. Close Edge
11. Umi Says
12. History feat. Talib Kweli
13. Brooklyn
Mos Def – Laskified
Here is a recent show with Jay Electronica, Talib Kweli, Mos Def & P.Diddy all performing “Exhibit C” live. It wasn’t too long ago Puffy was considered a hack rapper and to many the rap anti-Christ. Now he’s embraced by all and is suddenly in his creative zone making music backpackers will soon enjoy. Hip-Hop really is 360. -Philaflava
My disclaimer: I’ve taken the liberty of deciding for all of you that trudging through some half-assed, inferior, “End of the Year” smorgasbord of songs and situations of importance to me, Employee, would bore you to salty pretzel, heart-shaped tears comprised of an indescribable fury. That being said….I thought it would be lighter on the psyche if I asked as many different microphone megalomaniacs and sample slaughterers if they’d be benevolent by sharing their personal ruminations on the year that will soon be a calendar in the garbage. Nothing is edited.
Ardamus
The Good, The Bad, and The Fucked Up.
This year was the hardest on my own personal life but the best when it comes to doing the music. Performance-wise, I lucked out got to open for indie heavyweights Busdriver, Blu & Exile, Blueprint, Tanya Morgan, and Killah Priest all throughout the year. On top of that, I got to share the stage with legends Dres from Black Sheep and at the J. Dilla Foundation show, Phife Dog from Tribe. Most recently, I got to perform with alot of my DC/MD/VA peers (i.e., Bomani Armah, X.O., Tabi Bonney, and etc.) for the Greatest Hip Hop Cover Story Ever Told. It was a show that celebrated 30 years of hip hop with two shows that were packed both nights. The director, Diallo Sumbry, is currently working to get this production on the road.
As for actually projects and etc., I dropped my collaboration project with The Metaphysical entitled “A Day In The Life Of Modern Day Living”. A 10-track project that goes throughout a person’s whole entire day. It leaked in the summer and we dropped the actual disc in November; we’ve gotten good reviews from various listeners so far. Since its very DIY, promotion was limited but the release party got some heads looking our direction. And trying to get more bloggers aware of the concept has been a challenge. A few blogs such as Upset The Set Up, forthedmvonly.blogspot.com, pure-hiphop.blogspot.com (shoutouts to RAZAH CUTZ) and dcmumbosauce.com put it out there for people to check. Besides getting it on the usual iTUNES distro, Sage Francis was kind enough to hit me up about putting it on consignment in his SFR Record Store with support from Seez Mics of Educated Consumers, Buddy Peace, and Storm Davis (here’s the link: A Day in the Life of Modern Living).
Trying to get it to other spots like illroots.com and kevinnottingham.com is the next step I’m trying to take because I know I have to promote it in different light. Its part of the reason why I didn’t drop my “When Everything Goes Wrong 2.0″ mixtape thats a follow-up to my solo album “When Nothing Goes Right” that came out in 2008. I peeped how downloads get way too disposable now to the point where you have to try to promote in a original light if people don’t know who you are. Its a perception of putting it out there and realizing it can lost amongst mixtapes that get uploaded to zshare and you see nothing but may 12 downloads of your shit get out there. I’d like to shoot for 100 or 200 at the very least. These days you can’t just think like an artist or producer. You have think like a businessman; even you’re working at a lower level that mindstate helps.
Collaboration was key this year, too. Appearing on the PF project was definitely great because I peeped how many folks didn’t know I did music on the regular. Also, collaborating with producers in Italy (Weirdo and RES NULLIUS of Crazeology Fam), France (Babytraxxx), New Zealand (Doug The Dagger), and North Carolina (C-Royal and Mind-U-Mental) was actually good for me to connect with other people. As for the future, I’ve got some work with some people I’ve known and respected for years on the horizon…..known and unknown folks who’s work I enjoy.
Ok, enough about what the fuck I’ve been doing, I’ll just speak on 2009 and its state of hip hop. As for the music overall, in my opinion, its just like the previous years but now predictions that fans, artists, and critics have made or didn’t expect are at the forefront. From the death of Technics making turntables anymore to OG’s in the game putting together albums that garner more so an indie buzz these days (i.e., KRS & Buckshot, OC & AG, Masta Ace & Ed O.G.) marks a chapter in hip hop we knew that was coming since the early 2000s: a shift in the technology and outreach to the core audience in hip hop music. Also, the introduction of more adult contemporary hip hop is bubbling but to a good portion of the mainstream, its an elephant in the room unless you hear certain names mentioned. Next year, more ways to promote with technology will be developed but lets hope more ideas that are original or at least try to be original are pushed more; with some well-put together execution. And also lets put to rest weak artists that flood a blog but can’t rip shit in public and wack-ass myspace producers that sell overpriced beats that sounds like they threw a Casio keyboard down a flight a stairs with a tape recorder nearby. The more we start to realize that times change will change and that longevity is the key to having quality music, the better hip hop music will develop. Regardless, I’m gonna do this shit til the wheels fall off and enjoy listening to others make projects that I can enjoy. Lets get ready for 2010.
Picks of the year (no order):
Tanya Morgan – “Brooklynati”
Rick Ross – “Deeper Than Rap”
L.E.G.A.C.Y. – “Suicide Music”
Felt (Slug & MURS) – “Felt 3: A Tribute To Rosie Perez”
Curren$y – “This Ain’t No Mixtape”
Blakroc – “Blakroc”
Abstract Rude – “Rejuvenation”
Fashawn – “Boy Meets World”
Anti-Pop Consortium – “Fluorescent Black”
Stat Quo – “The Great Depression”
Mykah Nyne – “1969″
Mos Def – “The Ecstatic”
Diamond District – “In The Ruff”
Themselves – “The Free Houdini”
K-Beta – “89 to 09″
DOOM – “Born Like This”
MC Esoteric – “Saving Seamus Ryan”
Kev Brown – “Random Joints”
Eyedea & Abilities – “By The Throat”
BK-One – “Radio Do Canibal”
Souls Of Mischief – “Montezuma’s Revenge”
D-Sisive – “Let The Children Die”
X.O. – “Monumental”
Blaq Poet – “The Blaqprint”
DJ Quik & Kurupt – “Blaqkout”
Skyzoo – “The Salvation”
Slaughterhouse – “Slaughterhouse”
Ardamus & The Metaphysical – “A Day In The Life Of Modern Day Living” (yeah, i jock my own shit, biyatch, LOL)
Mic King & Chum – “Flavor Ade”
Mindbender Futurama
Hi.
2009 – The Year of The Power Shift by Mindbender Futurama
One day in January, I heard ‘Crack A Bottle’ by Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent. On the same page of Allhiphop, I heard a Drake song. And, not because I’m Canadian, but because I know good rap when I hear it, I said “holy shit, this Drake song is actually better than this song by Interscope’s Three Headed Monster. Rap is outta control!” And since then, Drake has done so much more for Toronto, Canada, and hip hop in general. He has made many amazing accomplishments in 2009 alone, and just might sell a million copies of his debut album ‘Thank Me Later’ come March 2010. Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Neptunes, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and maybe Andre 3000 and Sade on your shit? Yeah, it will move units. Haters gonna hate. I just sing one of my favorite Drake songs and say ‘Congradulations’. It’s crack!
To many of you, this year was the extended death of certain things in hip hop. The idea of releasing an album on CD and pushing it to the masses to sell seemed to have finally accepted its own futility (thank you, Interweb). Hey, if 50 Cent can flop, then YOU sure can too! Ha! Thing is, I didn’t even hear that much stuff that was really blowing me away, even though I was happy at the amount of adventurous experimentation that was happening. As time slips by, I think people are realizing the separations between genres are only as arbitrary as your mind makes them, and that there is very little difference between Def Jux shit and southern shit, except maybe their capitalist values. Hearing El-P’s remix of a Young Jeezy jam today sounded perfectly normal, when 10 years ago, it would be a double-barrelled blast of blasphemy beyond comprehension that would have probably been rejected by both fanbases. This year, hip hop worlds merged more than ever, since we all see that no matter what kind of rap region you are into, you still gotta masses of ignorant ass Taylor Swift fans snootily pointing their nose at all things hip hop, cause of that “stoopid nigger Kanye West”. Word to Onyx (who I still want to hear music from), I agree with their timeless sentiment: all we got iz us. I don’t particularly bump certain artists from Houston or D.C., but I respect the fuck out of their movement, and I feel kinship with every hip hop community still carrying on tradition, even if it’s not in the style that I prefer.
But still, hip hop embarrassing more than too many times this year. On top of any other silly coonish shit that happened (like the return of ‘blackface’. WTF, yo.), I heard a lot of sub-par, uninspired, rehashed rap music, and I never thought the percentage of essential hip hop to listen to would get so low. I honestly don’t think I missed much by sleeping on certain things. Hip hop ain’t dead, its limbs are just lifeless. Lil Wayne was exciting because he proved that skills can fluctuate in an expanding career, cause that ‘No Ceilings’ mixtape packed a gang of heat. Some of it was that shit ass rambling rock and roll heroin addict warbling he’s into lately, but I just skip those songs. I’m glad he’s taking risks. That’s what more cats need to do to stand out in 2010. Just don’t think none of yo’ shit don’t stink, is all. Otherwise, I basically ignored the weak shit, and copped some decent hip hop this year. I like how some people realize what still matters: dope beats and fresh rhymes. From now til infinity.
Biggest disappointment: the Slaughterhouse album. Even though they were, thankfully, some of the most vocal proponents of motherfuckers who were bringing REAL lyricism back to the game (cause shit’s been pretty weak for a few years. Damn yoo hipsters!!!) I’d rather not talk about how underwhelming that LP is, thank you very much. I haven’t anticipated something that much in years, and it just didn’t do what it should have done to my domepiece. Straight up: three days out of seven, I think Crooked I is the best MC on planet earth. I been a Royce the 5’9″ junkie since ‘We Ridin’, and even since ‘I’m The King’. Fools is just catching up lately getting all amped on Royce. And Joell Ortiz might be the most insanely improved MC of the year, on top of creating one of my favorite rhyme moments of 2009, when he devoured about 5 minutes of the ‘D.O.A.’ beat in that ferocious 18 minute Green Lantern session. And Joe Budden? He provided tragic comedy by getting punched in the eye by one of Raekwon’s weed carriers (karma’s a byotch), but yeah he can rap. (Although Saigon butchered him with that second dis song, ha ha!) Nevertheless, Slaughterhouse should have made one of the best fucking lyrical masterpieces of this decade. But they just… didn’t. AND Pharaohe Monch didn’t rhyme on it. Double fail! Next time (cause they need to do a follow-up in 2010), I hope they get some Shady Records magic poppin’, and make the classic they potentially can create.
Joell really spit some of my favorite bars of 2009:
~”Please exit the water, you’ll die if you can’t swim/ this music’s a novel, you still on Page 10/ I read it, re-wrote it, published it and called it ‘Amen’.” Wow.
~”You gotta hear what I gotta say, I’m just like that/ and from what I’m hearing this day and age, I don’t like rap/ I was a fan, I used to LOVE this shit/ now y’all getting away with murder, like the glove don’t fit/ y’all either flossing or talking like savages/ I don’t mention a coffin, and doggie, I’m not having it/ you n!ggas rappin’ is fractions below averages/ I don’t give a fuck what you can do with a little half a brick!” WOW! Co-signed in the blood of your favorite internet-hyped wack MC!
Speaking of bricks, Dipset died an agonizing death, and Juelz Santana still hasn’t put out the official ‘I Can’t Feel My Face’ with Lil Wayne. Cam’ron’s music is suffering from the law of diminishing returns (you gotta evolve, dog.) and the Clipse also didn’t leap forward as far as I had hoped they would. Remember when they were beefing with Wayne? Now Weezy is making songs with Shakira and Eminem, and I heard one of the Clipse homies use the “word… oops I mean, werrd” rhyme style Lil Wayne created. Rap is outta control.
I admit, ‘Relapse’ proved Eminem could still spit with the best of them (considering how atrocious ‘Encore’ was)… but the essence (sorry, I had to, Employee) of what he was spitting just isn’t as witty as it used to be. I mean, rap about sticking funny objects in your ass was funny the first four times, but after a while… even ’3 AM’ sounds kinda desperate for attention. That single ‘We Made You’ was one of the most underwhelming and forgettable moments of 2009. Shit is disgusting, B. I bet even Jessica Simpson was like “Eminem really is rapping about me? I’m so 2007. He must not have much to say.”
Damn, Alfamega got fucked over real bad. T.I. really needs to do some better background checks with his hired help. Fuck around and get Officer Ricky on Grand Hustle, yo.
For the record: former Correctional Officer William Leonard Roberts aka Rick Ross is the fakest rap personality since Vanilla Ice. He does know how to craft a decent record though, I’ll give him that. Those Justice League beats are synthtastic!
The second fakest personality is The Game. The utmost in unforgivable transgression occurred when dude pledged on that shitty ass over-dowloaded Michael Jackson tribute ‘Better on the Other Side’ that he was done beefing with 50 Cent. Before the summer was over, Game was talking “fuck 50!” again. Bi-polar Frankenstein gangsta rapper, your next album better be your very last. We don’t believe you, you need more people. You are lucky Jay-Z didn’t annihilate your future with one dis record. And how you gonna talk about Jigga is old, and then make a song with Jaz-O, who is a few years older than Jay-Z? Game, you need professional psychiatric help. Your last great moments should be on ‘Detox’. Then please learn how to gracefully bow out, for the love of God and hip hop. You have nothing left to say. Stop the madness.
Speaking of, I had the distinctive honor and unparalleled pleasure to listen to Bow Wow’s ‘New Jack City II’ album this year. It was almost not even worth the money for the review. A vortex of cliche, ignorance, regurgitation, hubris, style-swallowing, and stupidity on a level that your worst nightmares can’t conceive. Worst album of the decade. Real talk!
I fucked up so large. I miscalculated the time on the Rock the Bells concert in Toronto, and ended up missing the first 3 acts, which were Slum Village, M.O.P. and… SLAUGHTERHOUSE (one of my biggest concert-going regrets in life) As far as I know, it was Crooked I’s and Joell Ortiz’s first time rhyming in Toronto, and I missed it. I really look forward to seeing them guys live. Peace to Chang Weisberg and Bishop Brigante. Joe Buddens, I’d put Rich Kidd’s beats against your homie Focus anyday! Ha ha, I digress. The point is, that was one of the final performances of Baatin of Slum Village before he died a few weeks later, and I missed it. Peace to the brother. On the same note, I saw Busta Rhymes at the end of the summer, and even though his show was crazy weird (in a not so good way. He cut off his own verse from ‘Scenario’! WTF, yo), at least I saw Grandmaster DJ Roc Raida perform one last time, before he passed away a few weeks later. He’s pure disc jockey and I always got love for guys like that in hip hop, who just stay dedicated to what they love. Peace to the brother.
When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong: Max B, C-Murder, T.I., Gucci Mane, Boozie, Jim Jones, Lil Mama, Charles Hamilton.
I read ‘The 50th Law’ by Curtis Jackson and Robert Greene, and it’s pretty good, even though it’s not even close to as analytical as the ’48 Laws of Power’. It’s worth a look though. The essence of the book: fear nothing.
That DJ Quik album with Kurupt was COLD. Quik got weirder than usual on it.
Kid Cudi’s album is super meh to me. Droning, blase, and lyrically soft, it’s not my thing.
‘Blackout 2′ was banging as fuck, fuck what you heard. Can’t leave rap alone, the game needs Red and Meth.
I wasn’t expecting to enjoy that De La Soul/Nike album as much as I did. And believe me, I worshipped them Plugs for many a year. I just kinda don’t know what they want to do with the rest of their career in rap. I want them to get more aggressive with their legendary status or something. Just fucking stop keeping us waiting. Rap needs y’all too. More than it needs another Flo-rida album.
Mos Def’s album was much better than people said it was. I saw too much criticism for it, and even though I think homie is being too insular with his creativity, the beats are still fresh and the rhymes are still dope. ‘Auditorium’ with Slick Rick is fucking ridiculously dope (“I saw this young Iraqi kid, carrying laundry/ what’s wrong G, hungry?/ ‘no, gimme my oil and get the fuck out my country!” word up, Ricky!) and the video and song for ‘Casa Bey’ is amazing to me. I also really liked ‘Life In Marvelous Times’. Him and Talib should do one last classic Blackstar album featuring all their awesome rap friends, and then tell everyone to shut up about it, ha.
There’s a few albums I kinda slept on that I would normally listen to right away, but I been doing my own shit. I JUST got a few joints off that ‘Broad Street Bully’ album and I thought it was pretty fuckin dope. Beanie Sigel’s chin check to Jay-Z was the realest record I heard in years. ‘Average Cat’ is BRUTALITY. Jigga basically -can’t- reply to it, cause he’s not that real about his shit. I love Hov, but there’s tons of smoke and mirrors in his circus act. Manipulations abound, and I’m glad the truth is coming out now. Freeway even laced up ‘Love Is A Battlefield’ with some eye-opening insights into the reasons the Roc crumbled. There are now very hot rumors of an ‘Empire State of Mind’ remix featuring 50 Cent and Nas, with Jay-Z. (No Beanie Sigel? Do we really gotta learn to live with regrets like that one? We’ll see.) I hope the beef gets squashed, for the sake of unifying hip hop, but if it doesn’t then I just hope great records get made, cause both Jay-Z and 50 Cent are not near the top of their rhyme game in 2009. If they battled, at least they would be deeply inspired. Like Nas was, ha ha. Beanie Sigel’s ‘Average Cat’ is ‘Ether Part 2′ to me.
I love Wu-Tang beyond words, and Ghostface is one of my rhyme heroes, but ‘Wizard of Poetry’ just didn’t connect to me like I expected. That song with Fabolous is sick as fuck though. Hope Ghost just gets a bunch of RZA beats from 1997 and goes buck wild on them. I hear Pharoahe Monch is taking it back to the 90′s for his next album. And that ‘Chamber Music’ record that RZA made featuring AZ, Sadat X, Masta Ace, Cormega, Sean Price, Kool G Rap and some other 90′s legends was fucking ill. A breath of fresh poisonous paragraphs. Looking back at what happened from 2000-2009, I can definitively say we sure didn’t know how good we had it in the 90′s.
The “backpacker” underground kinda disappeared as we knew it, since the major labels mostly evaporated. I don’t even know what’s going on anymore, but it’s both good, bad… and insane. Like ‘Blueprint 3′ being so successful, and simultaneously being so shitty. It made me go back to the bloated beast that is ‘Blueprint 2′ and appreciate it more than I used to. Jay catered to a bunch of hipsters on BP3, and when it’s all said and done, it’s just a schizophrenic scramble of sub-par sonics and one of Jay’s worst albums. ‘Already Home’ is my favorite song on it (Kanye can still make a great beat), and I think Alicia Keys’s chorus is far and above the best part of ‘ESOM’ as a song. Besides that, I don’t really check for much of the album at all. I don’t enjoy how Jay-Z spends 12 bars bigging up Shyne and making grandiose promises on ‘Real As It Gets’, but never says Jamal Barrow’s name. That’s the kind of shadyness I’m talking about. But when did Timbaland lose his freakin’ ass mind and start publicly bragging about how he didn’t give Jay-Z his ‘A-material’ (?!? W.T.F., y.o.) That’s why ‘Off That’ featuring the boy wonder of hip hop right now, Drake, wasn’t the second single. Good job, Tim. Shoot yourself in the hand you make beats with next time, instead of the foot that’s in your mouth. Sure, Drake should have had a verse where he would have possibly murdered Jigga on his own shit (like we know Nas would have if he was on ‘ESOM’), but Timbaland really made a mistake there. I don’t know why, but I just want to hear him make more Aaliyah-level magic. Funny how he just came out with a single/video featuring Drake for ‘Say Something’ on his ‘Shock Value 2′ album. The game is cold. I want to see what Jay-Z decided to do in return.
Speaking of cold, that was the temperature of the public’s reaction to 50 Cent’s ‘Before I Self-Destruct’. Which wasn’t that bad of an album, truth be told, even though it was, yes, ‘tedious’. It was kinda rugged, even though it was very calculated, didn’t have a hit single to build buzz (‘Baby By Me’ is virtually the same played-out formula as ‘I Get Money’, Curtis. F.a.i.l.), and got pushed back more times than anyone cared to count. If he just took the ‘L’ he got from Kanye West like a man, dipped out for a year and filmed straight-to-DVD action movies with Val Kilmer on the low, while crafting his rap comeback, then he wouldn’t have been over-exposed in a semi-hilarious but futile beef with an inferior opponent, ala Rick Ross, and people would have wanted to hear what 50 Cent would have to say in 2009. When he finally dropped his album, nobody even cared to hear what he had to say on it, literally, even though the title is brilliant. 50 was his own Nastradamus. Ha. But he still wreaked havoc and reigned terror on various squads in New York City street hop, and fucked up the game to the point where it will take years to rebuild the damage he did to NYC. His hyper-competitive drive was an inspiration and an abomination, and the mixtape formula has all but jumped the shark as a vehicle to stand out and release music. And Lloyd Banks don’t even get a verse on ‘BISD’, what’s up with that? The 50 Cent/G-Unit Era of hip hop is officially over. On to the next one.
I’m glad Ras Kass is out of jail. And Shyne too! I was listening to them both when they went in, and I’m still listening to them now, years later, now that they are free. I can’t wait til Prodigy gets out in 2010. That’s gonna be amazing. Big up to Alchemist who put out some good work this year too. Best beat on ‘Carter 3′, word up.
Best video of the year: Chris Brown featuring Lil Wayne – I Can Transform Ya. Seriously fucking MIND-BLOWING. I love that shit!
As unacceptable and un-fucking-cool as the beating was, Rihanna still threw Chris under the bus, then backed it up on his head and balls on that Barbara Walters interview. I want to see Chris’s reply.
I gained more respect for Tiger Woods this year, even though I feel bad for what his wife and kids are going thru now. Nice to see some female orgasms stains on those angels wings, brother. I think your jungle fever just got a little too hot, mayne! Good luck with all that.
I’m not talking much about Philaflava-connected music, so I don’t seem biased, but if I had to say one song and one album that I really enjoyed, I’d say ‘Felt 3′, which had my favorite Aesop Rock beats ever on it, and ‘How To Serve Man’ by El-P, as one of his best conceptual catharsis anthems yet. “Did I mention that I… hope it all works out like you want it to…”
And finally, I really enjoyed the movie ‘This Is It’. Michael Jackson forever.
Crazy in love,
Adhimusic “Mindbender Futurama Supreme” Shabazz Stewart
______________________
A tip of the hat to Ardamus and Mindbender.
For more Ardamus go here, here and here.
For more Mindbender go here, here and here.
Peace,
Employee
