Big Noyd never gets the credit he deserves. Regardless of how hard his contemporaries fall, he continues to drop rugged street raps without any illusions of commercial success, perpetually dropping gems. With his follow-up to 2008’s insanely dope Illustrious, we get more of the same from Big Noyd’s Queens Chronicle. This is as hard and gritty as you would expect with very little filler. Guest shots from ACD’s Dog (who is as slept-on as it gets), some singers and some guys I’ve never heard of… and Termanology, who does his usual and ruins a fantastic beat. Check out the highlights and support the guy.
The first leak off the War Report 2 from CNN, featuring Imam and Musaliny. If the rest of the album sounds anything like this, we’re in for something special. Since CNN first made their appearance in 1996, they have gone through drastic changes (Arrests, label issues) but now they are back, and hopefully they continue to drop heat like this.
Considering the prevalence of pussified skinny jean-wearing mohawk sissies finding relative success in today’s rap landscape, we are in need of a bonafied rap villain now more than ever. Gunpowder Guru is short, hard and to the point: Tony Yayo is that villain.
I spent a lot of time trying to fill this slot. I was torn between two albums that I absolutely love, Breaking Atoms by Main Source and Whut? Tha Album by Redman, but the more I listened to those albums the less I could justify including them in the top ten-est rap albums of all time based on the criteria laid out in this space two weeks ago. So I pondered, and tried to figure out what I could put in this slot. I already had every album I wanted to include on this list plotted out and ready to go. Then it hit me I needed to move Ghostface Killah’sIron Man from its previous position which was so high because it was going to be the de facto Wu album to the number 8 slot and move Enter the 36 Chambers into the slot held by Ghostface. After all Enter the 36 Chambers is a monster that has earned its right to represent itself.
So here we are at number 8 with what I consider to be the best of the Wu Tang solo records and one of my favorite records of all time. One could argue that any of the first round of Wu Tang solo records could claim a top spot on this list, but you would be wrong. Tical was very good for its time, but Meth’s style on the record has become dated; Liquid Swords aged horribly mostly due to Gza’s anti-personality; and Return to the 36 Chambers while fantastic was just a little too uneven. That leaves Raekwon’s Only Built for Cuban Linx and Ghostface Killah’sIron Man. I feel like you can make an argument for either of these albums being the high point of mid 90s NYC street rap perhaps only being matched by Mobb Deep’sThe Infamous and Hell on Earth, but I can’t give any credence to an album where Havoc is prominently featured on the mic. So I went with my personal favorite of the two. Iron Man.
There is something special about this record, I wouldn’t say it is the high point creatively for Ghostface and the Rza, that would be Supreme Clientele, and it isn’t even the high point for ghost as a lyricist. But there is something about this album that makes me revisit it for weeks at a time. It has a cohesiveness that the others lack, still holds to the signature Wu sound which you could easily argue was the last sound out of New York that really mattered. Sorry Jay-z’sThe Blueprint was cool and all but it was not redefining shit. Where Supreme Clientele and Bulletproof Wallets highlight the verbal ability of Ghost they are lacking in a constant that tethers you to the music, causing the albums to lose urgency as time goes on. Pretty Toney, while enjoyable was the start of the downfall of Ghost as a creative entity eventually leading horrifically boring projects like Fish scale and More Fish. Sure they had moments but they were few and far between. I think what makes Iron Man so special is the emotional core and the rawness of the sound. It resonates through time and the music throughout the record is phenomenal, with a perfect mix of Wu Tang battle raps, street revelry and introspective genius that I think I will still be revisiting well into my latter years.
The “international version” of 50 Cent’s new album leaked this afternoon. A month early. Sucks for 50 and whoever leaked it, but its pretty cool for us. Curtis promised a grimier album, and delivers… kinda. The first half of this is really good, suprisingly so, but the last 7 or so songs are either terrible single attempts or terrible singy bullshit lovey songs. You would think that a seasoned rap industry bully like 50 would know that his fans will buy his albums no matter what and he doesn’t need to do songs with R Kelly and Ne-Yo anymore, but there they are. Bad. At least we get a good 10 songs worth of drugs, guns and violence.
The relative lack of guests is a nice surprise, with Eminem “renegading” (Man, such a tired term) 50 on “Psycho”. Tony Yayo would have sounded right at home on tracks like “So Disrespectful” and “Death To My Enemies”, but Interscope kinda fucked that up. The production doesn’t get too exciting, but “Death To My Enemies” and “Crimewave” are a nice change of pace from the sterile Dre-ish plodding that 50 usually works with. Young Buck, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne and Jay-Z all catch disses in varying degrees of harshness and Fif does some nice things lyrically and flow-wise, but he is still 50 Cent…
Hopefully the leak will result in internet outrage over the bullshit at the end of the album and 50 will leave the crap off of the final product. Probably not. Here are some of the solid gold jams off of this thing:
Before Wayne discovered auto-tune. When Juelz still had a viable rap career. Before Wayne became a martian artiste. Before Cam took his ball and went to Florida. Before Drake. Before Skull Gang. Before Lil Twist was potty-trained. Before “swag splashing”. Before Wayne became a pop mega-star with his own Behind The Music. Before anyone gave a shit about a Grammy.
Rumors of I Can’t Feel My Face as a mixtape started in 2006, and later turned to rumors of a full-on album. Songs started leaking, as did reports that it would be impossible to find a workable label situation for the project (Jay-Z beef and early Cam’ron fuckery). Who knows whether these leaked tracks were meant for the mixtape incarnation or the album, but they are pretty fantastic. Both of these guys were in their prime. No pretension, no singing, no big name production, just rapping. These are the tracks that Mick Boogie would turn into the Blow mixtape, which immediately took attention away from the source material with it’s shiny packaging, false “official/exclusive” allure, interviews and skits. Here are the untouched original tracks. Original beats, no drops, no skits.
