HaterPlayer

Moving On Up

2008-09-27T16:58:00.000-07:00

HaterPlayer has moved to WordPress!!!

I finally checked out WordPress after hearing all the hype and it's seriously the illness. I had to make the move.

Content will remain the same but it's gonna look a whole lot fresher and it's gonna be a lot less strain on my membrane to deliver you the truth in the tunes and shit. Ch-ch-ch-ch-check it out!

PSA

2008-09-26T20:04:00.000-07:00

Also, my bad about the older posts and not being able to download tracks currently. My DivShare account only allows like 10 GBs of downloading per month and it's run its course this month. It'll reset on October 4.

I'll work on a different way to get the music to you.

Recap: The Office, Episode 5-1

2008-09-26T13:17:00.000-07:00

I saw the Pam other-lover storyline coming a mile away. Last season, the show had lost some of the emotional edge that it had in Seasons 2 & 3 because really, this show should've ended when Pam and Jim got together at the end of Season 3. That had been the emotional crux of the show and since that had been resolved, the show should've ended naturally. Of course, that's not how it works in American television so The Office chugged along. But last season struggled to find something to fill the void left by Pam & Jim's relationship. The show tried two different story arcs--Michael and Jan's relationship and the love triangle between Dwight, Andy, and Angela--to produce some sort of emotional resonance but neither worked because everyone hates Jan and no one gives a shit about Dwight, Andy, and Angela on an emotional level because they're all obnoxious (albeit hilarious) characters. While I like the fact that Jim proposed to Pam this episode, I know that the show is only setting Jim up for even more massive heartbreak later in the season when he catches Pam whoring herself out like Angela or something to her newfound college buddy. I can see Jim now, busting into Pam's lecture hall and rushing her new BFF who has a thing for her, a la how Roy rushed Jim in Season 3. It's pretty crap that the show fucks Jim over like this, especially since they introduced the Michael-Holly dynamic, which is something that we can really get behind (how can you not support the possibility of more rap duets from Michael and Holly?) and something that might actually achieve the same level of emotional investment/tension as the Pam-Jim courtship in the first three seasons. I just hope that the show doesn't fall into some kinda Ross-Rachel cycle because that would be just freakin lame.

And speaking of lame, how the hell did Ryan get back on? As a temp? WtF? Combined with the inevitable breakup between Pam & Jim, it's like they're trying to bring The Office back full circle so they can rehash it over and over again.

On the bright side, one element I was glad to see again was the resurgence of the Dwight-Michael-Ryan triangle (..... that's what she said?). Season 4 was wrought with too little of Dwight and what little we did get was emo-Dwight, whining over that ho-bag Angela. I thought he was funnier kissing ass to Michael than he was when crying over Angela so I hope this old dynamic will bring a greater focus on Dwight's ass-kissing adventures.

Overall, it's as interesting as last season's premiere and while I liked some of the elements from past seasons, I wouldn't want them playing it too safe with the show. Hopefully, Kevin gets to bang Holly after all and they shift focus to him because dude is hilarious and he deserves to win one every now and then.

That's what she said > No homo

2008-09-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Office season premiere tonight!

I've personally had a lot more fun with the "That's what she said" game than the "No homo" game. Plus The Office > Dipset. They even rap better.

The Mighty Underdog

2008-09-24T19:24:00.000-07:00

Z-Ro "You"

Z-Ro "Lonely"

This week, Rap-A-Lot released Z-Ro's latest album, Crack, with zero promotion to speak of outside maybe a 10-mile radius around Fondren & Main. Which is about the same promotion that the ABN (Trae & Z-Ro) It Is What It Is release got earlier this year. And that's a damn shame.

I just got put onto Z-Ro earlier this year and I've been anticipating more from him ever since. Z-Ro, the self-proclaimed "King of the Ghetto", possesses the same quality that makes Tupac and The Game so attractive. Amidst all his posturing, Z-Ro is brutally honest and emotionally vulnerable. He doesn't bother much fabricating tales of the crack game or really tales of anything. His singular obsession is the loyalty of those around him. He constantly shifts betweeen unabashed love and unrelenting hatred for the people around him, without a hint of irony or self-consciousness. At one point, they could save him but at another they could be gold-digging fakes. With this paranoia, he reveals the scars of a tortured soul, struggling with himself to find companionship. His latest album is full of his signature brand of down-home bluesy raps. It's not quite as strong as the ABN album because it's less varied without the relief of Trae. But it's still really good and it definitely merits more buzz than it currently has.

New World Water

2008-09-18T17:09:00.000-07:00

Mos Def "New World Water"

Cali's been in a water crisis for a minute now. For the past two years or so, I've been looking up to the sky everyday, trying to squeeze some drops of water out of the clouds with the sheer will of my gaze. Somehow, it feels that everyone else has just caught onto the worry too. The news is challenging us to use less than 20 gallons of water per day. And the price of refilling a gallon of water just went up from 25 cents to 30 cents, the first price increase of water in like 40 years or something.

I don't think Mos Def intended for his words to become literal. Back in 1999 when he first dropped this cut on Black On Both Sides, I thought Mos was merely decrying corporate greed, depicting a world where corporate greed leads companies to charge us for even the most essential of essentials. Now, it's looking like the world he spit wasn't a figment of his imagination, it was a prophecy. Water is slowly becoming the new petroleum.

That half-empty glass is looking emptier everyday.

Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn

2008-09-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

Fuck-a-Playstation.

Yet another look into video game-sampling. I think I'm gonna retire this series with this post (yeah right). The general song quality is dropping and the concept is getting played out quicker than Killer Instinct.

I hesitate to include any so-called "nerdcore" because that would include like another 7,000 more songs sampling video games. Plus, I'm not sure how legitimate "nerdcore" is as a sub-genre or really as actual music. I guess Def Jukies, Anticonvicts, and Canibus can get about as scientifical, verbose, and obtuse as much of what I've heard of nerdcore. But well, the whole thing just kinda sounds like a joke, like every song sounds like a Weird Al Jankovic rap parody where much of the humor comes from the fact that some overly nerdy person who shouldn't be rapping--and who pretty much knows he shouldn't be rapping--is rapping about nerdy stuff in a corny way. Except that nerdcore wants to extend this joke over an entire sub-genre? Fuck outta here.

Credit due to Quibian and the commenters at The Examiner, most of whom probably came from Digital Gangsters.

Sonic 2 Boss Battle Theme

Jokaman, Magno, Spark Dog, K. Reata "Playing Sonic" (aka "Sonic Sega Flow")
Sega gets first dibbs. I've been looking for this one since my first post in this series. This appears on the Southern-rap-oriented Awready Vol. 5 mixtape. I'm glad they didn't try to do too much to the sample or else it might've ended up as corny as Green Lantern's FF7 flip. They just laid some bouncy drums over it and had some fun. This takes me back to fighting Metal Sonic at the end of Sonic 2. I hope these Houston rappers survived Ike.

"Korobeiniki", the Russian folk song that forms the basis of the Tetris theme

Extended F@mm "Line Drop"
QN5's Extended Famm does about the same thing, laying some upbeat drums over some simple cuts and loops of the Tetris sample, except they gradually speed up the track to mimic how Tetris speeds up its pace. The emcees drop some kinda-hilarious, kinda-clever, kinda-corny punchline raps that work because of their energy and chemistry.

Kid Icarus: Stage 2 - Overworld

Tonedeff "Move In, Ride Out" (aka "Round 'Em Up")
Quibian dropped an alternate mix of this that may or may not have come from the Game Over 2 compilation as "Round 'em Up", though Amazon shows otherwise. This version here landed on Tonedeff's Hyphen EP. With this and the "Line Drop" track as evidence of his hardcore gamerdom, I say him and Oh No collab on a game-oriented album.

Super Mario Bros. Level 1-1

Benefit "Warp to Level 6-9"
I'm not sure if Benefit considers himself nerdcore. I made that assumption on my first listening because of his weak-ass voice. But this is pretty hilarious in its own right, on the same level as maybe something Kool Keith or J-Zone might think of.

Max Payne - Chapter ?

Jedi Mind Tricks ft. Ill Bill, Sabac Red "The Wolf"
I've had this since the first post but, not having played the first Max Payne, I didn't think it was anything other than a vocal sample. I was wrong. Dope sample and some typically ultra-violent, gothic raps from Jedi Mind Tricks, if that's your thing.

Random "Rock and Roll" (Rockman MM Soundtrack)
Quibian was feeling the "Shadowman" track but I thought this was the runaway highlight. Random, inspired by ytCracker's nerdcore NES-sampling work, dropped Mega Ran, in which he samples exclusively from Megaman games. You might think this would legitimate nerdcore to me if a rapper I like respects it. But the difference is that nerdcore rappers are still geeking on the novelty that they're rapping about nerdy stuff. They don't get beyond the novelty to actually craft something entertaining out of their foundation of nerdy knowledge. On the other hand, Random doesn't obsess over his nerdiness. Rather he uses this knowledge, just like any other knowledge, within the context of some sick battle-braggadocio rhymes.

But someone shoot me now because I cannot for the life of me find this sample. Each song is labelled with the stage and the version of Megaman that the sample comes from (eg. "Shadowman MM2" for the "Shadowman" track) but "Rock And Roll" is listed as coming from "Rockman MM Soundtrack". Does this mean the soundtrack to Megaman 1, the soundtrack to the short-lived American cartoon series, or maybe even the soundtrack to a Japanese cartoon series (as "Rockman" is what they call Megaman in Japan)? Wtf?

Saafir "Smart Bomb"
Saafir kinda struggles lyrically but that beat is sick, using random sound effects to dope effect. Sounds like a weaker version of "Put Your Quarter Up" though.

Jay-Z ft. DMX "Money Cash Hoes"
I can't confirm this but someone mentioned that this Swizz track samples Space Invaders. While I can definitely see that as a viable possibility, I've yet to find the exact version of Space Invaders with the exact sound effect used. Is this BS? Help?

Previously: Part 1|Part 2

Broken Glass

2008-09-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

Punk-ass bitches broke into my car last night. Thankfully, they didn't steal anything of real value like my stereo (dumb-asses) but I got a busted window and all my CD's are gone including my actual copies of:

The Roots - Illadelph Halflife
Big Pun - Capital Punishment
Pharcyde - Labcabincalifornia
Mos Def - Black On Both Sides
Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Blackstar
Reflection Eternal - Train of Thought
Pharoahe Monch - Desire
Dilla - Donuts
Dilla - The Shining
Cunninlynguists - A Piece of Strange
Psalm One - The Death of the Frequent Flyer
J-Live - The Best Part
J-Live - Then What Happened?
Oh No - The Disrupt
Oh No - Exodus Into Unheard Rhythms
Killer Mike - Monster
DJ Neil Armstrong - 2Original

And some other shit. Criminal delinquents. They must've listened to too much of that infernal rap music.

Fuck.

Go Home With You

2008-09-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

Kardinal Offishall (ft. T-Pain) "Go Home With You"

Kardinal Offishall "Going In"

I guess people are too busy either sucking Kanye's d-i or raping him up the ass to notice that Kardinal Offishall just dropped the best mainstream album of the year.

It was really tempting for me to write this off as his sell-out album. Kardi already half-admits it in the album's title, Not 4 Sale, as if pre-emptively guarding against critics because Kardi knows himself that this is some sell-out shit. Glancing at the guest spots, it looked to me like hip-hop had died and went to a hell where it must spend the rest of eternity collaborating with R&B devil crooners. But I give Kardinal more credit than that, and even moreso, I give Steve Rifkind more credit than that, given his history of managing gully-ass rap on his labels (hell, he even signed Pharoahe--Rifkind knows good rap).

Behind the sparkling synthesizers and unnecessary, forced star-powered guest spots that characterize most mainstream albums, Kardinal still spits that illness. This isn't his sell-out album but it is his compromise album. It's the compromise that conscious artists like Lupe Fiasco have been trying to achieve for the good portion of this decade. The compromise that lets them preach to the people beyond the choir. Kardinal looks to have achieved it here, feeding his lyrical gymnastics and refreshing positivity with a spoonful of glossy synths and sing-songy gayness to help it go down the throats of the radio-tuning masses. It's not just sneaky. With Kardinal's always-dynamic delivery able to adapt to the production, it's legitimately good and entertaining. And in the second half of the album where Kardi looks to have been given more creative control, he starts keeping it real again and drops gems like "Ask me who's my top 10?/ I'ma mention myself, my shadow, my fame and no more men".

The album can be summed up in the song "Go Home With You". It's a song that's sorta about the club with a T-Pain guest spot that seems tailor-made for the club and for radio. The beat lurks in the shadows and then T-Pain's vocoder crooning comes in, embellished by this ghostly choir on the hook, creating this haunting, hypnotic club atmosphere. But Kardi merely uses the typical club theme as a jumping off point for impressive wordplay-based braggadocio and even for some conscious raps. It's the type of effortless balancing act that characterizes the album, a balance between the brand of lyrical hip-hop he came up with and loves and the brand of club-ready hip-hop that will expand the messages he spits beyond the underground niche audience.

Now stop blogging about Kanye's latest exploits in attention-grabbing and cop that Kardinal Offishall.

Reasons To Hate AJ's Playhouse

2008-09-12T01:35:00.000-07:00

Strictly for Daygo peeps. I've extricated myself from the Matrix that is the hip-hop blogiverse to a large degree this week so the majority of my musical stimuli has come from the radio fumes pervading my workplace. And my office listens to AJ's Playhouse on Channel933. It's been a long week, to say the least.

Reasons to turn that dial:

1. Fuck Clear Channel.

2. AJ straight-up isn't that funny.

3. Hula completely bites Jack from Will & Grace, which means;

4. Hula is an Uncle Tomming disgrace to the gay community.

5. Geena the Latina is about as hispanic as Al Pacino in Scarface.

6. I would rather put a hanger on the stove for like a half-hour and stick it up my ass real slow like "Tssssssss" than listen to Geena the Latina's blog of the day.

7. Karoake song spoofs from Geena and the interns make me want to put the Japanese back in internment/concentration camps for popularizing karaoke.

8. Fuck Clear Channel.

Fruity Loops

2008-09-07T01:09:00.000-07:00

I'm not exactly sure what set Charles Hamilton off against Lupe Fiasco personally. But I could see why Lupe might take issue with Hamilton.

As similar as Lupe and Hamilton might be stylistically, Charles Hamilton might have even more in common with Soulja Boy in their approach to the game. As children of the Internet Age, both rappers are more than just your typical Net-savvy artist. Shit, Myspace is littered with droves of garbage rappers, singers, and artists trying to make it by hitting up random people with creepy friend requests and robotic automated messages. But, as Jeff Weiss points out with Soulja Boy and DocZeus with Hamilton, both these rappers have taken digital self-promotion a step further by actually focusing their music around the promotion of their Internet ventures whether it be Soulja Boy's website and Youtube channel or Charles Hamilton's various blogs. And they don't just randomly shout out their web addresses at the end of a song like a DJ drop or something. They've made it their album title and a hook of a song. Then of course, these web ventures serve only to promote the music, which sends you back to the website, which feeds you their latest music--you get the point.

This weird loop of product promotion is exactly what Lupe was criticizing on the bonus track on his first album, Food & Liquor.

Lupe Fiaso "What It Do"

First of all, the song, "What It Do", is pretty fuckin unlistenable. I'm not really down with these staccato string hits that rappers seem to think sound any good, as if every single fuckin instrument in a rap song has to be used percussively. Although it's hard to blame them for the strings because, with drums that flat, I'd try to make up for it too. And of course on top of that, half of Lupe's rhymes don't make any goddamn sense. But strangely enough, this vomit-inducing quality of the song is part of the point Lupe makes.

In the decipherable part of his verses, Lupe rhymes from the perspective of a consumer caught in this promotional loop. Lu goes back and forth, back and forth rhyming about the TV show that led him to buy the CD that led him to buy the DVD which came with another CD which prompts him to check out the making-of on TV. He keeps rhyming the same words over and over and over again to mimic this tangled loop that he's gotten caught in. Pretty cleverly, he even starts slipping with the grammar later in the song, telling you to "catch the rerun" if you miss what he says on the CD, as if he's starting to lose his grip on reality because the lines between the two products are blurring. The crap beat and the meaningless lyrics just add to the nauseating feeling brought on by this cross-promotional bullshit.

And Charles Hamilton is definitely on this cross-promotional bullshit.

So while I don't know what exactly Charles Hamilton has against Lupe Fiasco, it makes sense that there would be beef somewhere along the line. Because they are opposed in their approach to marketing, which in this case, means they are opposed also in their approach to music. Add to that the salt of your music being compared to his music that you don't feel, and you can see where the hate comes from.

Or, yknow, maybe Lupe really did just fuck his girlfriend.

Change of Heart

2008-09-06T12:59:00.000-07:00

I just felt that we were taking The Game a little too seriously. Watching this again now, the whole thing seems pretty fake and scripted so I guess it's not actually that embarassing for Game. But it's still pretty entertaining.

On They Jock For The Rhymes They Wrote

2008-09-01T15:27:00.000-07:00

The Game ft. Lil Wayne "My Life"

The Game ft. Raekwon "Bulletproof Diaries"

If The Game is anything, he is a rap nerd. While the incessant name-dropping has been rather contemptuously deemed unoriginal by those who just plain find it grating, Game's style is more a reflection of his ardent rap standom than anything. I get the sense that all his day really consists of is rapping at the studio then coming home to listen to rap classics and to read the blogs on the latest gossip in the world of hip-hop. What happens is that while other rappers, who look or even exist outside of hip-hop to any degree, can make metaphors or punchlines relating to The Beatles or Days Of Our Lives or kung-fu or something, hip-hop is the entirety of The Game's sphere of influence so that's all his lyrics and metaphors can relate to--other hip-hop. The standom-as-art isn't unlike the innumerable producers who love old school soul and funk so much that they sample these records to make new music out of their experience as listeners. It's just that while their favorite music was the funk and soul they grew up on, The Game grew up on '90s-era hip-hop. So really, all you can blame The Game for is being closed-minded enough to not step outside of hip-hop to sample or reference something else in his lyrics ..... but c'mon, who the hell am I to accuse someone else of being musically closed-minded?

On the solo tracks on LAX, his stannery for West Coast g-funk is apparent as he sticks to the bitches, blunts, dubs, and drugs topics pretty zealously. I can't completely believe that he's dealt drugs before, but I know that Eazy-E used to so The Game just channels his hero and puts that fiction to paper as well. On collabos, The Game switches targets and channels his featured guest. It's endearing to imagine The Game in the studio with Raekwon or Common or Ice Cube, geeking out because he gets to even breathe the same air as these rap heavyweights he's read about so much at HaterPlayer (......). So when he writes his verse, all he can do is jock these cats who are in front of him, adopting Cube's blunt flow structure and fiery delivery on "State of Emergency" featuring Cube, sprinkling Wu-Tang slang into "Bulletproof Diaries" with Raekwon, and proclaiming how he fell in love with H.E.R. on "Angel" featuring Common (who by the way, turns in another pretty lackluster verse).

The hands-down best track of the album is "My Life" featuring a great, emotionally vulnerable vocoder hook from Lil Wayne to go with Game's emotionally unstable verses mulling his own mortality, whether taken at the hands of his enemies or by his own hands. There are some really classic moments here, like when he offers to share his mom with the now-motherless Kanye or when he rides around Hell, smoking blunts with Satan while playing The Chronic backwards. It's a glimpse both of the unabashed honesty that makes him so attractive and the creativity he still finds by staying within the sphere of hip-hop.

LAX is another solid album by a rap fan with an excellent ear for beats and an eagerness in his words. If the name-dropping doesn't explode your head, take a seat and think about how much you have loved or still love hip-hop too.

Piss On The Constitution

2008-08-31T01:28:00.000-07:00

Eh, in case anyone was watching the Democratic National Convention and got some hope for the future or something. I've been casually following it but when this came on in my car, it reminded me to keep it real and shit. This was supposed to be on Pharoahe's shelved album, Innervisions. Pharoahe tosses together American history, Biblical verse, and dystopian paranoia into a mess of a message meant to mirror the chaos he sees in the world. Yknow, par for the course for Monchichi. And Pharoahe shows Mike Shinoda how hip-hop can really rock.

Pharoahe Monch "Book of Judges"

[Verse 1:]
America the Ugly raped my mother
Deceived my sister, separated my brother
Murdered my children, hung my father
Now they want me to Rock The Vote, the fucks why bother?
Seen them commercials for the army of whatever
Picture me giving a damn, I said never!
My mind's too short, my brain's too clever
My spine is too strong, every line pulls your lever
Limitless rhymes for the indigenous the remedy
PLOT! Getting my money like the Kennedy's
Flip it! Put 'em in stocks, collect anemities
Rock, roll, behold my epiphanies and
Read 'em and weep, heat 'em, I beat 'em to sleep
Mislead 'em until we even-steven, defeat em' with freedom of speech
And we let them know that I'm the motherfuckin' fire-starter
Piss on the constitution and burn the Magna Carta

[Chorus:]
All I know is what I feel
Deceive my eyes and distort what's real
All truth will set you free
I rather die on my feet than delivery my knees

[Verse 2:]
We dying over black gold they harvest in the sand
Presidents living marvelous, they starving in Sudan
It's obvious we walk a blind path to oblivion
The book of judges, read the scriptures unlike Gideon
Light my fire, start my engine
When Pharaohe becomes Moses it's medicine for who listens
A veteran with the might bringing prophecies to fruition
Motivational verses on the adverse conditions
Caught on the mainframe, I see the names man
They watch you from the street light, you and your main man
The barcode around your neck same as your name brand
You're lost in strange land, no thoughts of a game plan

[Chorus:]
All I know is what I feel
Deceive my eyes and distort what's real
All truth will set you free
I rather die on my feet than delivery my knees

[Outro:]
Piss on the constitution, then burn the Magna Carta
Piss on the constitution, then burn the Magna Carta
Piss on the constitution, then burn the Magna Carta
Piss on the constitution, then burn the Magna Carta
Piss on the constitution, then burn the Magna Carta
Piss on the constitution, then burn the Magna Carta
Piss on the constitution, then burn the Magna Carta
Piss on the constitution, then burn the Magna Carta [fade out]

The Fake Debater

2008-08-30T03:12:00.000-07:00

As much as I like the Man In The Mirror mixtape and as much as I'm anticipating El Che's new album, Rhymefest just lost major points this week.

Chi-town hip-hop blog Fake Shore Drive unveiled a new series called The Great Debaters (via The Rezidue) in which they let Rhymefest conversate with another random rapper about different issues facing the urban/black/hip-hop community. They kicked it off this week with perennial Interview All-Star Killer Mike. Just hearing the lineup, I was pretty amped to read what these two highly-intelligent, articulate, "spokesmen for rap"-worthy rappers had to say. Unfortunately, I might've given Fest too much credit.

What sticks out and jabs me in the gut the most is Rhymefest's over-willingness to call black folks ignorant--he explicitly mentions "ignorance" in reference to the black community three times. He somewhere picked up this assumption that he was some sort of Messiah, come to save the people from their own savagely ignorant ways. So as Killer Mike speculates that Southern black folk wouldn't shop at bougie-ass, boutique-ridden Lake Shore Drive in downtown Chicago because they are comfortable in their own style and skin, Fest twists this into a symptom of black ignorance, the same ignorance that apparently keeps black kids from learning about different scholarships. Because that's how I learned about MY scholarship opportunities--by shopping. Rhymefest stretches his argument too far in order to direct the conversation into the topic of black people and how stupid they are.

Ultimately, Rhymefest falls into the familiar trappings of "conscious" rap and suffers the same faults. As implied above, he's elitist. Second, he's obviously biased against Southern rap, likely seeing it as some kind of harbinger of ignorance in hip-hop. When Killer Mike breaks down the inspirational stories of Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy, Rhymefest "wish[es] it would be told more often" as if Weezy and Jeezy weren't continually repping their rags-to-riches successes in their songs. It's like Fest don't listen to Southern music, he just skim through it. Luckily, Killer Mike calls him out on a faulty comparison between Young Jeezy and Kanye, which Fest tries to use to anchor his point that Southern rap is more harmful to the kids (because it always has to be about the kids) than Chicago rap.

And when there's nowhere to turn, please let's all rely on pre-packaged vaguesnesses and myths to prove our points:

- "..... ignorance is prevalent in the absence of positive role models, which is the enemy of our people."
Ignorance of what exactly? What golden knowledge will turn around the situation of the black community? And what role models need to be present to alleviate this ignorance? How do we go about developing these role models en masse? It seems unfair for me to ask all these questions and I don't expect Fest to have answers to all of these. But if he's as proactive as he would like to seem, Rhymefest needs to answer something. Because we've already gotten this far. We've come up with these questions before but no one likes to talk specifics about solutions.

- "I’m not saying negative or gangster rap is the downfall of our children in America. What I will say though, is that there’s no longer a balance between the positivity and the negativity. It used to be that I could listen to Scarface, but guess what, they’re gonna play Rakim right after that. I can go and listen to Too Short, but they’ll play A Tribe Called Quest right after that. Now, there’s no balance."
He just skim through it. As the "conscious" crowd will tend to do, Rhymefest misreads the positivity and negativity of rap. He places Rakim and Tribe at the positive end of the spectrum and Scarface and Too Short at the negative. I can't vouch for Too Short because I'm not up on him like I should be. But while Scarface presents an unhappy view of life, his psychological music is ultimately more substantive and thus more positive in terms of real-world benefit to his listeners than acts like Rakim and Tribe. While Tribe may have happier music, it's superficial jam music that has been misinterpreted as socially-conscious due to a few Afro-centric signifiers dropped here and there. The same could be applied to Rakim, who really just did the same by inserting some Five Percenter vocabulary into his battle rhymes. In terms of real world lessons, which is something that conscious rap strives for in theory, Scarface is much more positive. For Rhymefest to have misinterpreted this so wildly speaks to his inability to really comprehend rap and the messages behind the image, behind the chain, behind the thug front.

All this to say that Rhymefest is clearly out of touch with the mentality of the poor black people for whom he dedicates his work. You'd think a motherfucker be proud, to see his homie on his feet instead of talking him down.

Thoughts on Radio

2008-08-24T00:29:00.000-07:00

After my (not so) radio-friendly send-off a couple weeks ago, the homie babygirl started getting on me about radio and trying really hard to legitimize radio to me, rationalizing its place and purpose and trying to get me to understand why radio needs to be as crap as it is. Well this one's for you, babygirl. Because I owe you more of an explanation for my "Fuck radio" stance than just "Because it sucks."

Truth be told, I didn't really want to intern for Z90.3. I seriously haven't listened to much radio since maybe middle school, before I stepped into the wonderful world of bootlegging. And when I would peruse the airwaves, all I heard was a bunch of T-Pain nonsense that I'd gladly switch off immediately. But living in the conservative hotbed that is San Diego (meaning they hate black people and hip-hop), Z90 is one of the only legitimate doors into the hip-hop/music business available to me. With seemingly no other outlet, I dove right in.

What I was expecting was flashing lights. Incessant payola transactions, mad perks, fake-ass cutthroats, a bunch of white-collar bastards who didn't know shit about real hip-hop, and wannabe celebrities with their heads so far up their asses you'd swear they were mining diamonds for their chains up there or something. What I found was a small team running a small business, a tight-knit group of realer-than-real peoples that surprisingly knew something about good hip-hop. So when I say that I hate radio, I don't mean that I hate the people who are in radio because for the most part, they're regular-ass people working a job and I respect that.

And it's not just the music or the content either. Yeah, it does play some part in my dislike for radio. I mean what hip-hop head wouldn't be mad listening to a bunch of R&B and Pop on the hip-hop station? But the experience has opened my ears to mainstream music to some degree and I can appreciate, at times even downright like some of the stuff that's played. And yeah, I get the value of the host and the show between the music. Big Boy and Tatu of Big Boy's Neighborhood are hilarious and I'll suffer through a lot of T-Painful hooks to hear what they're gonna say.

It's not the people and, for the most part, it's not the music or content. It's the business. Maybe I wasn't ready to see music as a business so close-up. Maybe I wasn't ready to find out that the entire playlist was preset, right down to the daily countdowns for which listener requests actually have little-to-no input. Seriously, I had a girl call in, request a song, then call back two hours later, bitching because we hadn't played her request like we said we would because we always say we will. I wasn't ready to straight-up lie to listeners, telling them that we got those so-and-so tickets they're looking for just to keep them listening even though all we got is a free burger to Carl's fuckin' Jr. or something. What happened to keeping your fanbase happy? How much listener loyalty does blatant lying build? I'm just frustrated with this facade that radio is fair business and it's just playing what the listeners are asking for. The station pretends to care about its listeners but it goes to great lengths to alienate them with only a superficial nod of acknowledgement here and there, as if a couple of movie tickets are gonna keep their faith true and their radios locked.

And really, I thought radio stations were supposed to promote music. When did this get flipped? When did stations start promoting themselves before the music? Hell, when did the stations start using the music to promote themselves instead of the music using the stations to promote itself? We set up shop at concerts many times seemingly against the wishes of the concert promoter so we can associate ourselves with artists like NERD that we don't even play on our station. The sting of post-modern fakeness abounds. Every week, the director assures us that what we are doing makes a difference to the station, but what kind of difference does the station make to us? If all it's gonna do is preset our tastes, brainwash listeners into requesting Flo Rida because that's the first song that comes to mind because it has been in heavy rotation for the whole year so far and thus get the song played more and thus brainwash listeners more heavily, what's the point?

And seriously, Katy Perry? Wtf? Why, because she's fucking a sorta rapper? What's next, Jonas Brothers? Country's real popular in SD, are we gonna start playing that? Where's the line? The playlist is already rife with watered-down hip-hop. Are we gonna completely push hip-hop out the way?

Maybe I'm being too naive to give a shit about a couple of listeners. Maybe I don't want to blemish my pristine image of music. Or maybe I really am that fucking bitter about the playlist. Maybe I just got a stick up my ass. In the end, it comes down to a gut feeling and my gut was getting ready to blow chunks after working only six months in radio. Fuggit.

PS. Finished Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass on the Nintendo DS. Best Zelda since Zelda 64. But that should mean I'll be posting more regularly again.

Nintendo, Sega Master System .....

2008-08-13T18:34:00.000-07:00

Some addendums to my proudest blogging moment yet. I got a lot of traffic coming in from the IGN boards out of nowhere so props to them for adding to the list. I also just got a Nintendo DS and I'm pretty addicted and I'm getting lazier with the blogging. Here's to rehashing past classics in a lesser form. I feel like Talib making "I Try" or something.

Lil Flip "Game Over"

This was an egregious oversight on my part the first time around. I'm not a big Flip fan but I should've remembered this hit. However, the song still pales in comparison to Beanie's Pac Man joint (though, to be fair, what doesn't?).

Bone Thugs & Harmony "Crossroads" (original mix)

Eternal Champions "Bad Ending" theme

Bone Thugs & Harmony "Eternal"

Eternal Champions "Roster" theme
I remember Eternal Champions more for its mature storylines than for quality of gameplay (and thank God, because that shit is trash in retrospect). The premise was that these 12 or so characters were already dead and they were fighting in a tournament for the ultimate grand prize: a second life. With many characters occupying a moral grey-area, the games had undertones of redemption and forgiveness that is advanced even compared to fighting games today. It seems natural that death-mulling Bone Thugs would gravitate towards Eternal Champions. They adapt the beautiful themes into their dark, melancholic raps well. The sample source puts a new spin on "Crossroads" considering that the song plays when you fail at the hands of the final boss, triggering the bad ending. It's like they mourn the fallen, call for their return, but they know in the back of their mind that they're lost.

Camron "Troublemakers"

Final Fantasy VII "One Winged Angel"
It's just too grandiose for me. I also downloaded a Black Album remix project that mashed Jay-Z's album together with songs from FF7. I stopped after five tracks. Maybe the FF7 themes are too calculatingly orchestrated to be sampled well. The hip-hop beats kill the mood of the originals. And really, who cares about Camron?

Omarion "Ice Box" [prod. Timbaland]

Chrono Trigger "Memories of Green"
The original is the song played on the 1000 AD World Map in Chrono Trigger. Omarion's not rap but it's hip-hop enough and that beat is pretty dope. Timbaland denies any claim to having sampled this (because he's obviously too much of a genius to ever sample ....) but the similarity is there and the debate is ongoing as you could venture from the Youtube comments.

Passin' Me By

2008-08-07T16:43:00.000-07:00

Rock The Bells in San Bernardino this Saturday. Some footage from other cities' tours has gone around the blogs but what's up with no Pharcyde? I don't know if people forgot that they were RE-U-FUCKIN-NITING this year.

I picked up a compilation of Pharcyde remixes and rarities way back on Record Store Day. The double-disc is pretty hard to listen non-stop (because who needs to hear FOUR MORE versions of "Soul Flower" in one sitting) but it's got a lot of must-have tracks that would just be a bitch to find individually. I favored those remixes from Pharcyde's collaborators like L.A. Jay, J-Sw!ft, and Jay Dee because they seem to know Pharcyde and their sound the best. And who can pass up a Beatminerz remix?

Soul Flower (Brand New Heavies Version)

Soul Flower (2 tha 3 mix) [prod. J-Sw!ft]

Passin' Me By (Fly As Pie Remix) [prod. L.A. Jay]

Ya Mama (Remix) [prod. J-Sw!ft)

She Said (Jay Dee Remix)

Y? (Be Like That) (Jay Dee Remix)

Drop (Da Beatminerz Remix)

And I can't front on this remix from the homies at Glass Bottom Boat. Much better than the version that's on this disc and the new Phillipians version from the Delicious Vinyl's RMXXOLOGY project.

Runnin' (Glass Bottom Boat Remix)

Also, don't forget to drop by 2dopeboyz for a musical deconstruction of "Passin' Me By." Which is to say, he's compiled all SIX samples that make up that song for your perusal. That's a pretty amazing feat of production.

Retrospective on Jansports

2008-08-06T21:21:00.000-07:00

Favorite Rap Albums From Each Year of My Life
1985. LL Cool J - Radio
1986. Doug E. Fresh - Oh My God!
1987. Eric B & Rakim - Paid In Full
1988. Eric B & Rakim - Follow The Leader
1989. Biz Markie - The Biz Never Sleeps
1990. Ice Cube - AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted
1991. Organized Konfusion - Self-Titled
1992. The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde
1993. Wu-Tang Clan - Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
1994. Notorious BIG - Ready To Die
1995. The Pharcyde - Labcabincalifornia
1996. The Roots - Illadelph Halflife
1997. Puff Daddy & The Family - No Way Out
1998. Mos Def & Talib Kweli - Blackstar
1999. Pharoahe Monch - Internal Affairs
2000. Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek - Reflection Eternal
2001. Nas - Stillmatic
2002. Edan - Primitive Plus
2003. Lyrics Born - Later That Day
2004. Kanye West - College Dropout
2005. Edan - Beauty & The Beat
2006. J Dilla - Donuts
2007. Pharoahe Monch - Desire

Who can resist making a list? Seems like everyone's doing one in some form.

This is mad backpackerish but fuggit, thats the roots of my hiphopdom. I wanted to make it more gully and seem like I have more diverse musical tastes, but if you give me two equally enjoyable albums, I'll usually take the one with scientifical gibberish over the hard coke raps. And take the '80s picks with a grain of salt because I'm still not up on my old school game.

Some heartbreaking omissions (yes, a sub-list):
Nas - Illmatic (1994)
The Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury (2006)
Scarface - Made (2007)
GZA - Liquid Swords (1995)
Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow (2002)
Eminem - The Eminem Show (2002)

Read The Labels

2008-08-04T22:19:00.000-07:00

GZA "0% Finance"
cut from the upcoming Pro Tools (Babygrande 2008)*

Tracks like "0% Finance" have become GZA's signature, the one song every album (two actually on Legend of the Liquid Sword) that proves to you that he's a Genius. Each song is a list-rap employing puns on a list of different names based on a concept. You can definitely marvel at his technical prowess in flipping the puns so well but it seems like GZA's taken the pun to its literary limits. It worked best with "Labels" and "Publicity" because the freestyle nature of battle raps allows each pun to hit independently. GZA took it to another level with "Animal Planet" and "Fame," unifying his metaphors and puns around a single theme, the ghetto landscape and its characters. But on "Queen's Gambit" and this latest track, GZA tries to pun his way through a story. And while it's clever enough, the storylines suffer because GZA lets his puns dictate the direction of the narrative. The barely-decipherable plots drift here and there but ultimately end up nowhere.

I respect GZA for continuing to explore and evolve the pun, which is basically the primary literary device for rap. It's almost as if by stretching the life of the pun, he wants to stretch the life of hip-hop. But I think GZA's out-grown it and maybe for hip-hop to survive, it needs to out-grow it too.

GZA "Labels"
off Liquid Swords (Geffen 1995)

GZA "Publicity"
off Beneath The Surface (MCA 1999)

GZA "Animal Planet"
off Legend of the Liquid Sword (MCA 2002)

GZA "Fame"
off Legend of the Liquid Sword (MCA 2002)

DJ Muggs vs. GZA "Queen's Gambit"
off Grandmasters (Angeles 2005)

*sample clearance issues

Blogger!!! Suckas Never Play Me

2008-08-04T12:47:00.000-07:00

I think posting radio BS was found to be too obscene for Blogger so they took it down. Here's the Youtube version. Added a song, jacked video from OnSmash.

Who's Gonna Save This Video?

2008-07-28T18:54:00.000-07:00

Gnarls Barkley's "Who's Gonna Save My Soul?" is this intensely personal, intensely emotional cry for help, a plea for solace from the heartache. Cee-Lo just sings his heart out, putting it all on the line. The official video just leaked the other day but it fails miserably in capturing the beauty of the song. It tries to translate the "sings his heart out" metaphor literally, having the dude pull out his heart so it can proceed to perform like one of those California Raisins. But this kills it. The cutesy cartoon distracts you from the actual emotion of the song and turns your attention to this metaphor/concept that's based on the emotion. You get caught up with the animated heart and you forget the dude that just lost it.

But the worst part is the dialogue between the couple in the middle of the video that basically translates in a "Relationships for Dummies" way what the song says on its own already. The guy tells the girl in this very matter-of-fact way how she will affect him in the future, how her breaking up with him now will destroy any chance for a future relationship to work and they discuss this like literary scholars at a cafe. But while they focus on how he will be hurt, they fail to capture how he is hurt in that very moment. Worse still, the dialogue plays IN FRONT OF THE SONG so you couldn't even hear the song if you wanted to. If I preferred things laid out this scientifically, why the hell would I even listen to music in the first place (it's like someone put the blog about the song's meaning in the video itself)? The video loses this immediacy and intimacy that you should feel when hearing Cee-Lo wail from the bottom of his lungs and from deep in his soul. It misses the simplicity of emotion by focusing on the technical complications of relationships that never really mean anything anyway.

By contrast, ?uestlove's amateur take on this video really expresses the song much better than the official. This is the most simple video you can get: one long shot of the bottom of ?uestlove's face singing the entire song. It's close-up, it's raw, it's intimate and it's intrusive just like the song is. It's a video diary that relies on the actor's/singer's expression to tell it with moody Macbook lighting to complement the expressions. It captures the simple anguish of Cee-Lo. And best of all, you actually get to hear the song.

Something Hella Funky

2008-07-27T21:48:00.000-07:00

It's been rough but I finally dug up this four-track tape-only(?) release from Rally Ral called Something Kind of Funky. It includes the title track that appears on the Street Fighter Movie OST as well as three more dope tracks. The EA Ski-production is the highlight but Rally Ral is competent enough not to be a distraction.

I can't really find any info on Rally Ral other than the fact that he's from the Bay and was associated with Master P/No Limit in their fledgling yeras. He also might have released another four-track tape-only EP on No Limit but I haven't confirmed it. Wikipedia mentions that he was one of the original members of TRU with Master P, EA Ski and some others, but he's only got one verse on their debut album so it's hard to tell what his level of involvement was. If anyone has more info--or better, more music--from Rally Ral, holler at me.

1. Material Broad

2. Break'em Down

3. Old Days

4. Something Kind of Funky

One Man Arsenal

2008-07-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

Cut Chemist ft. Edan "Mean Gene"
B-side off What's The Altitude 12" (Warner Bros. 2007)

I was pretty randomly checking Cut Chemist's myspace and I stumbled upon this new-to-me (though apparently pretty old) track featuring Edan. Edan hasn't released much since his last album dropped back in '05 so anything I can find is good news. This track wears its throwback colors without reservation--basic breakbeat, lo-fi filter, fast rap-battle rhymes, and DJ shouts. It's shameless but then again, Edan's invocation of the old school has always felt pretty sincere relative to the conscious rap crowd and/or hipster rap crowd (I swear like I don't belong in both of those myself). He's a rap geek and his music is like (or sometimes, literally is) a primer in hip-hop history. He takes the craft seriously without taking himself too seriously. Here are a few more non-album cuts from Edan.

Edan "Sagittarius Rapp"
off Now Again Re:Sounds, vol. 1 (Now Again/Stones Throw 2007)
I believe this is his absolute newest work, coming off a comp from Now Again Records, something of a sister label to Stones Throw. The label's main focus is re-releasing vintage vinyl from obscure-as-funk/soul outfits but they tossed in a few rappers with the old school tracks to make it more enticing to their Stones Throw rap fanbase. Throwback champion Edan is the obvious choice for this. He's still on his Beauty & The Beat, psychedelic hippie ish here.

Edan "Rap Beautician"
off Home - Boston Underground Hip Hop (Landspeed 2001)
Off a local label comp, a label that also specializes in re-releasing vintage music, except they release vintage hip-hop. Edan's kinda on some hippie-ish here except that it's rooted in the "Four Elements of Hip-Hop" BS. But this song makes me want to buy into it again, Jansport and all. This would later be the basis for "Beauty" off Beauty & The Beat.

Edan "Sing It, Shitface (Donavexx IV)" (original mix)
off Architecture (Biscuithead? 1998)
The original take of his signature song that was later re-recorded and tacked onto Primitive Plus as a bonus cut. Wikipedia says the Architecture LP was unreleased but I thought it was actually dropped over in the UK. Either way, the rhymes showcase his weirdo-rap humor.

And yes, I am lifting the ban on Boston hip-hop. I'm over the Finals.

Street Fighter The Movie The OST The Blog

2008-07-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

Considering the cross-promotional bullshit that Street Fighter: The Movie embodies, it's amazing that the soundtrack came out so well. Capcom fills the soundtrack with 12 rap songs out of a total 14, probably figuring: 1. that the same outcast teenage joystick connoisseurs coming out to watch this so-bad-its-hilarious movie would be attracted to the rebellious nature of rap; and 2. that rap was hot on the streets. Soundtrack tie-ins like this usually come off pretty corny--and no doubt, the Street Fighter OST has those moments too though even those moments are cushioned by smacking boom bap--but luckily, the genre of hip-hop works naturally with the two prevailing themes in the Street Fighter movie: "battle" and New World Order paranoia (yes, I just extracted intellectual themes from Street Fighter: The Movie). Plus who can deny a roster including rap heavyweights Ice Cube, Pharcyde, and Public Enemy, as well as a young Nas coming fresh off of Illmatic? To be fair though, some of the really obscure acts drop some of the better tracks on the album, including the funk-oozing Rally Ral joint.

Nas "One On One" [prod. Large Professor]

Pharcyde "Pandemonium"

Rally Ral "Something Kinda Funky"

Then of course, there's this gem .....

MC Hammer & Deion Sanders "Straight To My Feet"

Jacked from OST Da Blog.

In The Cut Like Neosporin

2008-07-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

The last Nas post forreal forreal. The final album has 15 tracks but there were 6 more that didn't make the cut and another one that was released on the UK version. I'm not sure why they were cut but it couldn't have been for lack of quality. Here's a couple I would've put on the final version:

Nas ft. David Banner "Middle Finger"
In case you thought David Banner wasn't anything but "Get Like Me." He kills this song. This song is as passionate and fiery as "Sly Fox" and I wish the album had more high energy tracks like this.

Nas "Esco Let's Go"
Another high energy track that I would've liked to hear to break up the melancholy. Nas gets back to talking shit about himself, how he should've been the fifth Beatle and the tenth member of Wu-Tang (although I thought that was Cappadonna). This doesn't fit with his album thematically but then neither do his sellout songs. If there's room for those, there should be room for this.

You can dig up the others with a good Google search:
Be A Nigger Too
Association (ft. Stic.man of deadprez)
War Is Necessary
Nigger Hatred
Like Me (UK Bonus)

___________

2008-07-17T18:01:00.000-07:00

Nas "You Can't Stop Us Now"

Paranoia aside, this is a solid album. For the past few albums, Nas had been sticking with his boy, LES, for the majority of his production. Which pretty much meant every beat shouted "Bitch, I'm from the streets!!!" and only worked about every fourth song or less. Nas takes this release in a more reserved, melancholy direction to fit the mood of his decidely more sociopolitical lyrics. Songs like "You Can't Stop Us Now" (despite the beat-jacking) and "N.I.G.G.E.R." hold a certain dramatic weight behind them, like a sadness of knowing too much. Whereas his old production might stomp you in the head with street tales and philosophy, these backdrops sit back to let you meditate on the messages. These more subdued productions also punctuate the fire-breathing indictment of Fox News, "Sly Fox," the runaway album highlight.

Lyrically, the album stands on Nas' ballsiness to be provocative. But I get the feeling that I like it mostly because I'm some left-wing Communist-/terrorist-sympathizer myself so I would like what he's saying. From a technical standpoint, Nas' excellent flow and delivery are intact. But his story-telling presence and "street philosopher" steez is fading. It's like his songs are becoming more dry studies of issues and less complex stories with issues. Plus they're just not as violent, which for a rap album, is the equivalent of playing the SNES version of Mortal Kombat 1.

I already mentioned that Nas has suddenly stepped his promo game up and you can see that part of that promo game was including two sellout songs. Truthfully, "Hero" is a dope song with a fresh beat. The spacey synths are something new for Nas but it still hits hard enough to make sense in his catalog. On the other hand, "Make The World Go Round" featuring both Chris Brown and The Game (on the same track ..... I know, right?), reeks of sellout without even actually being catchy enough to stick around on the radio. Wtf? I guess I could give Nas the benefit of the doubt and assume that the label forced him to make this god-awful trash. Yknow, just like they forced him to change his album title.

Overall, this is a good album with plenty of solid material. If you're into pseudo-intelligent rap, Untitled* has it in spades. If you want Nas to lead the revolution, I don't know what to tell you. I'd say this is about as good as Street's Disciple if that album had been cut into one disc. Which ties it for 4th best Nas album in my book.

*What's with Untitled becoming like an official title of the album? Without a title, wouldn't the album be self-titled by default?

EDIT: Songs got taken down. Here are the videos:

Bamboozled

2008-07-16T23:29:00.000-07:00

The album that seemingly couldn't finally did. After months of delays and controversy, Nas finally released his 9th studio album, Untitled, this Tuesday. The hype machine has been rolling for this ever since Nas and his boo came to the Grammys sporting matching jackets with the then-current title of his latest album, Nigger, laying across his chest.

Since then, there's been a whirlwind of controversy which eventually led to Nas reneging on his original title and leaving the album without a name.

Even back then, the title was gimmicky. We bit the first time when he named his last album Hip Hop Is Dead. How could he expect us to fall for the shock-name tactic two albums in a row?

I can't help feeling uneasy about the album title controversy. It seems like a good number of the album's songs reference the fact that he had to change the title because of corporate pressure. I think he uses this fact to his advantage, to portray himself as a victim of the system and ultimately as the sort of martyr that he's always wanted to be. But there's so much material that references the title change, including the lead single. I can't shake this nagging feeling in the back of my ears that I got ..... bamboozled. It's just too calculated. Nas has definitely stepped his promotional game up for this release, dropping something like an interview per day for the past two months solid it seems. But maybe this was the ultimate promo push: the appearance of his art being persecuted by the label, the image of being held down by "The Man."

The theatre of the revolutionary.

Bengalis Represent

2008-07-14T22:24:00.000-07:00

Busta Rhymes "I Got Bass" [prod. Bangladesh]

This beat is fuckin' ridiculous. From the same producer as "A Milli." I'll intellectualize on this tomorrow.

Courtesy of Fader.

EDIT (7/15/08): My bad for not presenting a proper post at first. I didn't have time last night to post but after hearing this joint, I HAD to make sure to throw it up before I could do anything else.

This is some fucked up music. I mean this is mentally disturbed. That kazoo parading around as a bassline sounds like the pronouncement alarms of Hell's army about to come ransack the Earth. It sounds like the bass Busta's talking about is really "base" because when you hear this song, you start tweeking out nervously like Tyrone Biggums. If you can focus your brain cells long enough to listen to the lyrics, Busta drops some appropriately apocalyptic rhymes. He mentions everything from Godzilla to zombies dumbing out to cancer epidemics. He's not hear to kill a man, he's hear to wipe out the entire face of the planet.

Shondrae "Bangladesh" Crawford crafts another trippy, minimalistic, monster beat but unlike "A Milli", this instrumental is devoid of any cutesy quirkiness that the other may have possessed. "I Got Bass" is purely sinister. Thankfully, like Lil Wayne, Busta can keep up. This is off his new album, Blessed, due out sometime never. If this becomes half the hit that "A Milli" is, dare I hope that actual rap rap become popular again?

Hard Hit Just Like Camacho and Vargas

2008-07-13T19:31:00.000-07:00

With all the media surrounding Nas's upcoming album, dropping this Tuesday, AZ's coinciding mixtape release really caught my attention. Piggybacking off the original title of Nas's latest, AZ names his mixtape N.4.L., or Niggaz 4 Life (presumably), complete with a cover image along the same lines of race-conscious, shock value/thought provocation as Nas wanting to name his album Nigger. On the one hand, you could see this as AZ taking advantage of Nas's hype to get some shine for himself. But, judging from AZ's career, one that he could have easily built by jocking Nas but didn't, I doubt that. I can't help but see this as a symbol of open-armed support from one brother to another, a statement from AZ letting Nas know that he, for one, understands Nas's creative vision and will carry on the torch of that vision on the underground, in the streets.

If there is any other rapper that understands Nas, it is AZ. When they connect, their chemistry should make Kelis jealous. That's even more impressive when taken in context of Nas's personality. Nas is an insular rapper. He's the type of artiste-diva that journeys into new worlds and zones out into his own reality when he creates. As such, it makes sense that he would be something of a loner. Unless you count The Bravehearts (.....), he doesn't really have a crew. Earlier in his career, he rolled with a Firm/QB collective including Foxy Brown and Mobb Deep and such, but those relationships couldn't survive Nas's ego. Nas's relationship with AZ is the only one that has lasted from the start of Nas's career. Here's a look at some of their best collaborations.

Nas ft. AZ "Life's A Bitch"
off Illmatic (Columbia 1994)

AZ is the sole guest rapper on Nas's seminal Illmatic LP. On "Life's a Bitch," they each spit individual verses but more than being two takes on one theme, each verse complements the other. AZ's verse provides a bird's-eye-view as he breaks down the science of his life philosophy, reasoning that with crime and death looming over the ghetto, he tries to enjoy himself as much as he can before its too late. Nas then shows how that philosophy applies to his own life, sharing details of how he almost fell into the cycle of crime and death but celebrating the fact that he hasn't. At least not until he became a crime-lord in The Firm.

AZ ft. Nas "Mo Money, Mo Murder, Mo Homicide"
off Doe or Die (EMI 1995)

This is the first official take on The Firm concept where AZ and Nas move from street poets to organized criminals. On some Tarantino shit, the track tells a story from two different perspectives that mask their relationship to each other until the climactic end. This is the best of any of The Firm tracks, including "Phone Tap", because it's filled with the gritty details of the crime as opposed to the shiny details of the crime's pay-off that litter so much of the Firm material.

Nas ft. AZ "The Flyest"
off Stillmatic (Columbia 2001)
Nas goes off topic in his verse but the third verse makes up for any flaws you could find in the song. They trade bars like Run-DMC, finishing each other's lines and spitting others in harmony. Why this technique has been abandoned nowadays is beyond me.

AZ ft. Nas "The Essence"
off Aziatic (Motown 2002)
Nas raps "This might be another part to 'Life's A Bitch'", but this is really like a sequel to "The Flyest." Besides quoting "The Flyest" for its hook, this song employs the back-and-forth style from the last verse of "The Flyest" over the entire song. But rather than having each rapper boast about themselves, "The Essence" starts out employing a kind of cross-braggadocio where each rapper boasts for the other one, which is really precious in a semi-gay way. As the song moves from braggadocio to street philosophy, it's amazing that they can follow each other on this freestylish journey. It's like they share the same stream of consciousness.

AZ ft. Nas "Serious"
off Livewire b/w Serious 12" (Fastlife 2005)
Each one is trying to one-up the other's previous verse with this ridiculous flow. Salaam Remi busts out a monstrous breakbeat.

With that said, I can't wait to see if AZ one-ups Nas with the mixtape, slated for release on August 5.

Doowutchyalike

2008-07-09T23:16:00.000-07:00

More reading for you guys, but not from me. DubCNN conducted two intensely entertaining and insightful interviews with Shock G from Digital Underground. Besides philosophising about drug use, fast food, and American industrialism, Shock G touches on his experiences with Tupac, his alter-ego Humpty Hump, his production and more. One point that stuck out was how he framed "hyphy":

One thing I was always proud of Oakland for, from a technology & bravery standpoint, was this: As a form of self-expression, and to let off steam, NY evolved DJ'n & breakdancin, LA evolved surfin & x-games on bikes & skateboards, but in the Town? We swing the big toys...cars. More expensive, more risk, more danger, but still became a sport, and now it's worldwide. Ya gotta give it up to the bay for evolving a game that requires u to ruin an automobile! ..just like scratching ruins records. Instead of findin a spot to put the cardboard down for windmills, we find a good intersection ta whip a few loud & smokey donuts! Leave a few black circles on the pavement, ya smell me? That's not givin a fuuuuuck! Ha ha that’s breakdancin wit an automobile.

To someone who doesn't quite get "hyphy", this analogy helps. This is seriously one of the most thoughtful and charming interviews I've ever read. It would be a great disservice to yourself if you passed this up.

Interview (pt. 1|pt. 2)

I don't usually like "Best Of" compilations because the label/distributor chooses only the most commercially successful tunes in an artist's catalog. Which to me, doesn't seem like it could ever accurately summarize an artist. But this is straight from the mouth of Shock, via part 2 of the interview.

Ten Songs That Best Represent Shock G:

Digital Underground "Same Song"
off This Is An EP Release (Tommy Boy 1991)

Digital Underground "Doowutchyalike"
off Sex Packets (Tommy Boy 1990)

Digital Underground "The Humpty Dance"
off Sex Packets (Tommy Boy 1990)

Digital Underground "Sex Packets"
off Sex Packets (Tommy Boy 1990)

Digital Underground "Sons of the P"
off Sons of the P (Tommy Boy 1991)

Digital Underground "Body Hats" pt. 1| pt.2| pt.3
off The Body-Hat Syndrome (Tommy Boy 1993)

Digital Underground "Do Ya Like It Dirty?"
off The Body-Hat Syndrome (Tommy Boy 1993)

Digital Underground "Jerkit Circus"
off The Body-Hat Syndrome (Tommy Boy 1993)

Digital Underground "Walk Real Kool"
off Future Rhythm (Radikal 1996)

Shock G "Your Sun Iza Pimp"
off Fear of a Mixed Planet (33rd Street 2004)

Stupid Doo Doo Dumb

2008-07-07T19:01:00.000-07:00

Mac Dre "Stupid Doo Doo Dumb"

No, I'm not being ironic.

Props to Cowabunga Ed for my first lesson on Mac Dre. I've been sleeping.

RiP Mac Dre.

Fear of a Hipster Planet

2008-07-07T00:15:00.000-07:00

*
Ever since hip-hop left New York, the history of hip-hop has been written in binary code. From the late-80s to mid-90s, it was East Coast vs. West Coast, or real hip-hop vs. trendy bullshit. In the late-90s, it was underground vs. commercial, or real hip-hop vs. trendy bullshit. So far this century, it's been East Coast vs. the Dirty South, or, you guessed it, real hip-hop vs. trendy bullshit. Recently, a new battle began.

Some weeks ago, Unkut hosted a controversial poll to determine who is the "biggest douchebag in hipster rap." For months, the term "hipster rap" had been tossed around like a hacky sack but that poll seemed to be an official jumpball for what can potentially become the next battle in hip-hop. But what exactly is "hipster rap"? And why is it seen as such a threat to the hip-hop status quo?

It's been hard for me to get even a decent grasp of what "hipster rap" refers to. If you go by Unkut's standards, you're a hipster rapper just for wearing tight-fitting, trendy clothes. Given just that fact, it would make sense why there's such a backlash against hipster rappers--tight-fitting clothes = homo = not hip-hop. Obviously.

I only half-joke here because to a degree, that IS what's operating on a very real level. But further than that, there is a deep aversion to anything "hipster" in the hip-hop community. Even many of those accused of being "hipster rappers" don't defend their hipsterdom. Rather, they attempt to validate themselves by differentiating themselves from hipster culture, as The Knux did when they were faced with the issue. So then, what did hipsters ever do to hip-hop?

"Manhattan keep on makin it/Brooklyn keep on takin it" -Mos Def

I'm not sure if Mos was the first to say this but this statement was likely a reaction to what happened to hip-hop in New York in the 1980s. Historically speaking, the statement is backwards--Brooklyn made it, Manhattan took it. As hip-hop bloomed in the ghettos of NYC, Manhattan socialites--something of a precursor to what we now know as "hipsters"--exported it from the 'hood and into the bougie nightclubs that just yesterday had been trying their damnedest to keep those people out of sight. And though this social scene ultimately helped hip-hop network its way from out of local and into mainstream consciousness, the trendy socialites' exploitation of the culture and of the impoverished participants in said culture made this relationship bittersweet. Now, as hipsters begin to dictate a new direction in hip-hop, old sentiments remain.

A couple of years ago, the Chicago dance-hop scene arose seemingly out of nowhere. Artists like Kid Sister, Flosstradamus, and The Cool Kids rocked the crap out of uptown, Chi-city nightclubs, hyping their hipster audience up enough to make them dance their hearts out. The new presence of hip-hop in bougie Chicago nightclubs bears resemblance to the 1980s Manhattan scene. Only this time, the show-rockers seem to be trendy socialites too. Has cultural exploitation evolved into gentrification?

And that could be the biggest fear. The fear that hip-hop is being lost to suburban outsiders/invaders/colonists. Fear that the culture will no longer be from nor about the impoverished. Fear not that hip-hop will be taken out of the ghetto, but that the ghetto will be taken out of hip-hop. And once again, those people can be kept out of sight.

*Didn't want to use the same pic as Unkut but it's too perfect.

C3PO (Carter 3 Pissed On)*

2008-07-04T16:55:00.000-07:00

Lil Wayne "Dr. Carter"

Lil Wayne ft. Jay-Z "Mr. Carter"

Lil Wayne "A Milli"

I won't front like I'm up on my Lil Wayne game, like I take him too seriously, or like I know anything about Cash Money Records (yknow, like how I usually front). If you want to read better, more informed takes on this album, please look elsewhere. But obviously, if you're chillin at this blog, you weren't expecting much of anything well-informed anyway.

People been waiting on Tha Carter III ever since Carter II where Lil Wayne claimed "greatest rapper alive" status. Since then, Wayne's been releasing mixtapes left and right in a mad push to keep his name hot on the streets like Ness's taxes or something. As such, Tha Carter III went platinum in its first week. But does he live up to his own hype?

As I listen to it, I can't help but think that for everything good on Tha Carter III, there's something equally crap to balance it out. There are few instances of entirely good songs. Weezy takes on the role of "lyrical surgeon" almost literally on "Dr. Carter" to explicitly dope effect. He's got Jay-Z jocking his flow on "Mr. Carter." And he serves the monster beat like a monster-goblin-rapper on "A Milli." But for all that illness, there's entirely gay shit like the T-Pain-In-My-Ass-isted "Got Money" and the T-Pain swagger-jacking "Lollipop." Not to mention random, incoherent rambling at the end of the album on "Dontgetit" that would give old black people more good reason to hate on young black people.

Most of the rest of the songs balance themselves out within the songs themselves. You'll find something good in the song--usually Wayne's raps--but also something that keeps it from actually being a good song. "Tie My Hands" might be good political commentary if the boring acoustic guitar beat and use of white boy Robin Thicke on the hook didn't overtly scream "Gimme a Grammy, whitey!" Similarly, "Mrs. Officer," a clever track about literally fucking the police, might be good if the beat and the hook and the singer didn't suck balls. "Let The Beat Build" has an uplifting soul beat and good rhymes, but they just don't fit together. If you chop off the too conventional guest verses on the Willy Wonka-ish "La La," it could be a good one-verser interlude to remind you of how freakin off-his-rocker Lil Wayne is. Conversely, the more traditional boom-bap of "You Ain't Got Nuthin" featuring Fabolous and Juelz Santana might be served better with a more normalized Wayne verse.

The last thing that stuck out to me was how generic much of the album's production sounds. With the exceptions of "A Milli" and the overtly eccentric "Phone Home" and "La La," everything else sounds so New York. Which I wouldn't have expected from a Southern rapper now migrated to Mars. It might not be a fault of his own but rather a symptom of the rap game's NY-centrism. Lil Wayne probably couldn't be mentioned in "best rapper" talk unless he proved himself on New York terms. But considering how wack NY rap is now, you can't help but wish Wayne would've given a big F.U. to NY and stuck with Mannie Fresh beats.

Wayne's raps are pretty tight but all the R&Bullshit, T-Paining, and NY-jocking hold him back from making a better album. This is where I tell you to stick to his mixtapes as if I actually listen to them. But I guess we should be happy that "A Milli" is on the radio as opposed to a second Soulja Boy and/or Flo Rida single. And yes, Soulja Boy can eat a dick.

*Yeah, I know I'm hella late. I wasn't gonna do it until a reader requested it. And as half of my readership, you know I had to heed his call.

Said It Before ......

2008-07-04T01:52:00.000-07:00

Talk about recycling the same samples. Off Nas' new album, being released only a few weeks after RZA's Digi Snacks (which is ill by the way). Seriously, wtf?

Yes, I downloaded the leaked Nas album advance. You can do the same but keep an eye out for other versions with different tracklists. Props to Grandgood for the link.

Nas "You Can't Stop Us Now" (ft. Eban Thomas of The Stylistics & The Last Poets)
off the album formerly known as Nigger (Def Jam, 2008)

RZA "You Can't Stop Me Now"
off Digi Snacks (Koch, 2008)

Girls Can't Rap

2008-07-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

Sirah One & DJ Hoppa "Buttons"
from Clean Windows Dirty Floors (Broken Complex 2007)

I've been meaning to give some propulatoritionisms to my boy who be running shit like Flojo over at his label, Broken Complex Records. He's got a girl rapper, Sirah One, that he signed last year that I finally got around to checking out and forealziz, she's got spit like camels do. And those of you that know me know that I'm almost openly-sexist on top of being a natural hater so for her to impress me has got to mean something.

Sirah One comes from Brooklyn but reps Angeles currently. This cut comes from her Broken Complex EP release with in-house producer DJ Hoppa, Clean Windows Dirty Floors. Besides having actual technical skill, Sirah's also got a good sense of sarcastic, biting humor and a realer-than-real personality to punctuate her flows. If she can avoid becoming too bitter about the realities of being a female emcee in the rap game (because lord knows she's basically assed-out from the start), Sirah might stick around for a minute.

Sirah @ Myspace
Broken Complexualization

She's on the Warped Tour (yknow, because she be white and shit) so check her out when she's in your area. If for nothing else than to see the spectacle of quality rapping from a girl.

EDIT: Sirah is not on Broken Complex. She is unsigned hype!!! Independent as fuck!!! That's +10 in Gully factor! Support, support!

Upcoming Shows ( view all )
Jul 5 2008 9:00P
Sirah @the terrace Pasadena, California
Jul 26 2008 9:00P
Scarub, Afro Classics Sirah(’s Birthday) @ LIttle Rock Tarzana, California
Aug 1 2008 12:00P
Sirah on Warped Tour Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Aug 2 2008 12:00P
Sirah on Warped Tour Tinley Park, Illinois
Aug 3 2008 12:00P
Sirah on Warped Tour Shakopee, Minnesota
Aug 5 2008 12:00P
Sirah on Warped Tour Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Aug 6 2008 12:00P
Sirah on Warped Tour Calgary, Alberta
Aug 8 2008 12:00P
Sirah On Warped Tour Nampa, Idaho
Aug 9 2008 12:00P
Sirah on Warped Tour George, Washington
Aug 10 2008 12:00P
Sirah on Warped Tour St. Helens, Oregon
Aug 13 2008 12:00P
Sirah On Warped Tour Fresno, California
Aug 14 2008 12:00P
Sirah on Warped Tour Chula Vista, California
Aug 15 2008 12:00P
Sirah on Warped Tour Mountain View, California
Aug 16 2008 12:00P
Sirah on Warped Tour Marysville, California
Aug 17 2008 12:00P
Sirah on Warped Tour Carson, California
Sep 4 2008 9:00P
SIRAH, AWOL One @ Safari Sams. All Ages! LOS angeles, California

"Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis ....."

2008-06-30T20:51:00.000-07:00

".....When I was dead broke, man, I couldn't picture this"

Charles Hamilton "Where's My Fucking Genesis?"

I geeked on this track when I first heard it a few weeks ago. I played the crap out of Sonic 2 and I was a hardcore Sega fanboy until the day that the company jumped ship on its own child, the Dreamcast.

After hearing this track, I dug up some more notable uses of video game beats in hip-hop. Matched them up with the originals as much as I could via Youtube. Props to the Gamespot forums for putting me onto most of these. In loose order of freshness.

Beanie Sigel "Mac Man"

Ms. Pac Man
Not sure if he sampled Ms. Pac Man (because that would just be gay and if rap is anything, it's homophobical) but it's closest to the sounds effects I hear. Undoubtedly the best of these video game flips.

Cocoa Brovaz "Super Brooklyn"

Super Mario Bros. Level 1-2
The most recognizable sample. If you don't geek on this, go to the swap meet now, buy a Nintendo with Mario/Duck Hunt, blow in the cartridge, and enter a new world.

Eminem, J-Black, Masta Ace "Hellbound"

Soul Calibur - Cervantes' Theme
From Eminem's Game Over sessions. Yknow, when he still wanted to rap.

Del ft. Khaos Unique "Proto Culture"

Darkstalkers - Morrigan's Theme
Apparently, Del performed this at the Dreamcast 9.9.99 launch party. Props just for being a fellow Sega fanboy. Or otherwise letting himself be exploited by Bernie Stolar.

J Dilla "Zelda"

J Dilla "Zelda 2"

The Legend of Zelda - Hyrule Theme
Off one of J Dilla's beat tapes that float around the Internet. They're both probably from the Hyrule/Overworld theme but I'm not positive. Which is probably a sign of how ill his chopping was.

Percee P ft. Diamond D "2 Brothers From The Gutter"

Contra
Sample comes from the Start/Select Screen music, which you hear only briefly in the video. I think one of the gunshot sound effects is also sampled. My bad for only having the promo copy of this song. Production by Madlib.

Oh No "The Ride"

Castlevania III Intro
And here's Madlib's brother, Oh No, on the mic and the beat.

Green Lantern ft. Kool G Rap, Prinz "We G's"

Final Fantasy VII - Battle Theme
Kinda corny.

Statik Selektah ft. Big Shug "Punch Out"

Punch Out
I'm letting Boston in ONLY for the sake of my dope post. The song kinda sucks.

U.N.I. "Castlevania"
Couldn't find a match for this sample. It might be from Simon Belmont's theme, but I can't hear it definitely.

Slug, Aesop Rock, MF Doom "Put Your Quarter Up"
This samples a bunch of different sound effects from different games. The main one might be a Mario coin sound effect but I'm not sure. Doom drops a nice verse.

If you can find those last two and/or confirm some of the samples I'm unsure of, I'll be indebted to you. Keep on gaming.

A Message To The Heads

2008-06-26T18:02:00.000-07:00

Lest you think I went Cedric Ceballos on you. It turns out I actually liked chillin with my fam in Houston. Who could've guessed? Thus no updates.

Here's a special post for my nearly-openly-racist unkkkle. Thanks for the laptop. I'ma store as much dirty, colored folk content on here as possible.

About Houston Week, I'll put that on hold until I can really sink my ears into the stuff I picked up. Mot

A Lot of Rap

2008-06-18T20:07:00.000-07:00

I'm about to be taking a week-long trip to Houston, the birthplace of hip-hop, starting tomorrow morning. In celebration, I'ma be catching up on all things Houston hip-hop, or as much as I can stomach. I might call this "Houston Week" but I have no idea how big this scene is and so I have no idea when I'll run out of material about Houston (plus, my aunt is still rocking the dial-up connection so I have no idea how consistent updating will be). If anyone can point me to some good starting points, that'd be great.

But for now, we'll start with Now and work our way back gradually to Then.

In recent years, Hip-Hop has decided to re-write itself to make it seem like Southern hip-hop actually mattered in the past. Conveniently enough, Houston rap veterans stepped up in '07 and dropped three of the best albums of the year on the quintessentially Houstonian Rap-A-Lot Records (though I overlooked UGK at first [because obviously, shit just sounds better after the artist dies]). Y'all can probably find download links for these albums on your own (or yknow, actually buy them at the store) so I won't go into that again. But here are some of the doper moments from Houston's finest (nope, not the exact same songs I picked as highlights first time around).

off Devin The Dude's Waiting To Inhale:

"She Useta Be"

"Don't Wanna Be Alone"

"No Longer Needed Here"

off Scarface's MADE:

"Suicide Note"

"Girl You Know"

"Boy Meets Girl"

off UGK's Underground Kingz:

"Int'l Players Anthem"

"How Long Can It Last?"

"The Game Belongs To Me"

Go support.

Trill N***** Don't Die

2008-06-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

Artists who are now banned from HaterPlayer:

Guru (but not DJ Premier)
Edo.G
Big Shug
Krumbsnatcha
Edan
Mr. Lif
Insight
Akrobatik
Dagha
7L&Esoteric
John Cena & The Trademarc
Benzino
The Almighty RSO

Until further notice .....

But trill n****z don't die. We'll be back next year.

Get The Third

2008-06-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm still on J-Live's d-i. Still nodding to Then What Happened? non-stop. Plus I want any excuse to post "The 4th Third", one of my personal favorite love rap songs of all time. Here's J-Live's "Third" series, with liner notes.

J-Live "Get The Third"
off The Best Part (Triple Threat/7Heads, 2001)

J-Live's "Third" relationship series started on The Best Part with "Get The Third", a light-hearted song revolving around a pretty arbitrary linguistic connection. As you can tell from the hook, "Third" is a phrasal prefix for three images: third eye, third leg, and third finger. These images represent three types of relationships--those based on an intellectual/mental connection (third eye), on a physical/sexual connection (third leg), and those that just suck-ass (third finger = middle finger = f.u.). Together, these three types form three thirds, the whole of what J-Live believes relationships can offer.

J-Live "The 4th Third"
off All Of The Above (Coup D'Etat, 2002)

In "The 4th Third", J discovers a woman that reaches past the boundaries set in "Get The Third". She is the 4th Third or the 4/3, an improper fraction that goes beyond the logic of the whole. She has this sort of divine presence that J can't explain. The track is beautifully delicate. The main guitar riff loops itself throughout the song (a sample?) while the second guitar and the other instruments seem to play around it, sprinkling flourishes in and out like whispers, each instrument careful never to impede on the riff and careful not to outplay the song itself. It's the perfect backdrop for J-Live to delicately weave his own thoughts together on his love found and lost, as if he's still trying to save the fragile pieces from falling down, knowing full well that the pieces have since disappeared.

J-Live "The Last Third"
off Then What Happened? (BBE, 2008)

Over a more bluntly hard, bluesy jazz beat, "The Last Third" chronicles J's divorce from his wife and the aftermath of raising their children. Here, the title "Third" has no semantic meaning--it only ties this song to the themes of the previous two. The hook embodies J's separation from his wife as J-Live spits "1, 2" but cannot find the right rhythm for the life of him. The simple "1, 2, 1, 2" phrase is a signifier in hip-hop and it should come naturally to him as emcee, just as his marriage/love for his wife should come naturally to him as a husband. But it doesn't. It's like 1 and 2 can't co-exist anymore, just as he and his wife can't co-exist anymore.

If you hear these songs alone, you'd think that "The 4th Third" would refer to J's ex-wife, that the love lost in that song indicates his divorce, and "The Last Third" simply revisits that divorce. But J-Live recorded The Hear After in between the period of those two songs and on The Hear After, he records a song with his wife that shows a good relationship between them at that point. That implies that "The 4th Third" refers to a mysterious "other" woman that got away. I don't wanna pry too deeply into J's life (because fuck TMZ), but could his wife have resented his too-fond memory of that "other" woman? Could it have strained their relationship at all? I guess I'll have my first question ready if I ever get to interview him.

My bad for being vainly indulgent in these posts recently. I'm feeling myself too much, I guess. It must be a side effect of reading too little trivia. Next post will be more of that ignorant shit you (and me, both) like. Now go cop that J-Live already!

The Upgrade

2008-06-13T00:17:00.000-07:00

J-Live ft. Oddissee, Posdnous "The Upgrade"

J-Live "And It Don't Stop"

J-Live "We Are!" [prod. DJ Spinna]

Yesterday, a friend asked me what "backpack rap" was. And if there's any one rapper I could use as an example, it would be J-Live (I've already chosen my one producer).

J-Live is the unsung hero. After releasing some incredibly strong singles in the late '90s indie-rap boom, J-Live seemed poised to become an underground juggernaut. Unfortunately, his debut album, The Best Part, became victim to the all-too-familiar Industry Rule #4080. It finally saw a quiet release in 2001 and each subsequent album release has seemed quieter than the one preceding.

Undeterred by the war between art and industry, J-Live has continued to develop his emcee style at the speed of thought. On his latest effort, Then What Happened? (BBE Music, 2008), J-Live again showcases his greatest strengths--intricate wordplay, thoughtful metaphors, and self-deprecating humor. Like a diamond in the rough, he may not immediately dazzle you with a hard-hitting punchline or a breath-defying flow pattern. But if you take the time to listen, you will see how tightly his lyrical ideas weave around each other as in "The Upgrade," where J subtly extends a sports metaphor across two verses to tell you and show you how he's stepped his game up.

J's last album and much of the material he released leading up to it saw him attempting to produce his own beats to unremarkable results. Thankfully, he took a backseat this time, content to guide the direction of the album while letting more qualified beatsmiths provide the bulk of the music. Thus, you get heat from (relatively) high-profile producers including DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ Spinna, and Nicolay. The result is quality, souled out grooves that just give J-Live enough room to maneuver his lyrics around.

As you would hope, J likes to experiment as an emcee if for nothing else than to challenge himself (in the liner notes for "We Are!", he says he rhymed each line of his first verse with the corresponding lines of the first verse in the song from which "We Are!" samples--just for fun). However, his indulgence leads him astray at times. For the first two verses of "What You Holdin'", J-Live awkwardly clunks his way through a 6/8 rhythm, though his climactic grasp of the rhythm in the third verse is nothing short of amazing. And "Simmer Down" shackles him down too deftly to be listenable.

By deferring to more talented beatsmiths, J-Live allows himself to focus on his lyrical strength. Again, J exhibits the qualities of a great emcee. On this outing, he showed growth simply by moving away from overtly-intellectual, "backpack" experimentation to more natural concepts and songs. In this way, he can showcase his skill without banging you over the head with a sign saying "Look, I'm smart as hell!" Of course, with increased subtlety, J-Live runs the risk of garnering even less attention than he currently gets. But then if he got any shine, I would have to hate on him immediately so I'm grateful he's catering to ignant rap fetishists like me.

But in case you needed that smack upside the head .....

Touch-Screen Turntables

2008-06-11T18:58:00.000-07:00

Final Product // ATTIGO TT from Scott Hobbs on Vimeo.

I BEEN meaning to post this for a few weeks, I just forgot to. Seems like the next logical evolution from Serato. Obviously, if you're not down with Serato, you won't be taking to this either. But for the Serato-heads, does it make DJing too easy?

Via Grandgood. And reminder via JustBlaze.

PS. I swear, I'll post up original content soon, as opposed to just media-jacking. Damn, I feel like Diddy making a beat.

Y'all Know The Name

2008-06-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

Troy Donald Jamerson explains the origins of his rap moniker, Pharoahe Monch. This is part 2 of an interview with Thrasher TV. Part 1 (below) is boring but whatever.

The Push

2008-06-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

Raashan Ahmad "Hello"

Raashan Ahmad "City Feel Proud"

Raashan Ahmad "Cancer"

I got a confession that will surprise a few of those who know me: I'm not actually feeling Crown City Rockers' music much. Yes, I've booked them for shows on multiple occasions, gone to a few more of my own volition. Yes, I'm amped for the show. Yes, I geeked that they half-remembered us and gave us props during one show (wow, I'm so on my own jock right now).

But truthfully, Crown City, a live hip-hop band, is one of those acts that I want to like more than I actually do. They're all such hippie do-gooders. You can tell on-stage that they're having fun, not trying to front at all, not arrogant or chip-on-the-shouldery about show business or anything. I remember one time, Raashan, the lead emcee, jumped off the stage to join the B-boy cipher happening in the crowd for a second. You get the feeling that they actually like what they do and they actually still appreciate their fans every now and then.

But when it comes to their album, Earthtones, I wasn't feeling it. It just kinda bored me with its serenity, consistency, and general jam-bandiness. And as I semi-bash this new record too, I hope that Raashan and I can still become BFF's one day.

The lead emcee, Raashan Ahmad, just released his first solo record, The Push. It's definitely better than Earthtones because it is more emotional and more lyrically-diverse. Raashan takes the time to address his own struggles dealing with anything from politics to show business to the deaths of loved ones around him. This emotional freedom seeps into all his writing so that even general freestyle/braggadocio raps hit harder.

The beats work best when they sound the least like Crown City. The first few tracks are standouts because of it. "Hello" and "If I" use great dusty samples and the instrumentation sounds more vintage than Crown City. "City Feel Proud" lays down some creepy, Indian funk. Towards the end of the album, "Cancer" employs a tweaked-out sample to frantic effect. And the closer, "Peace" benefits from instrumental simplicity that Crown City usually overlooks.

Much of everything else in-between sounds too much like Crown City, which is decent but nothing to write home about. And for as much as improvement as Raashan displays on this solo outing, he still lacks a commanding presence and an intricate pen-game that marks a great emcee. As it is, this is a solid effort but un-extraordinary.

Though I just shat on Crown City basically this whole post, I still ride for their dope live shows so check 'em out when they come through your area code. I don't mean to piss them off, but if Raashan gets hella mad and ethers me and starts dropping bombs on the game, I'd like to think I pulled a Jay to his Nas circa Stillmatic.

PS. Props for the behind-the-music stories in the liner notes. Almost makes it worth the buy.

Greatest Rapper Alive

2008-06-05T12:39:00.000-07:00

If we win this year, I'll think about finally letting Kobe off for replacing Eddie Jones.

Chasing The Cool

2008-06-04T07:02:00.000-07:00

Lupe Fiasco ft. Stack Bundles "I Keep It Gutter Like"
Unreleased, 200?

The Cool

The Coolest

Lupe Fiasco is a fake son of a bitch.

The whole concept behind "The Cool" that Lupe speaks on in his albums is that the current images portrayed in the media and then internalized by ghetto youth are devastating the lives of these youth. The youth are "chasing The Cool," trying to become the "hustler" figure that so many rappers claim to be. In "The Cool" on Lupe's first album, Lupe employs several standard "rap hustler" signifiers--the zombie wears "bling, two earrings, a chain laying on his chest", he "uses some flowers to brush the dirt up off his shoulders", and he immediately looks for "something to slang." However, instead of glorifying the "hustler" by indicating his material wealth, his self-confidence, and his never-ending work ethic, Lupe uses these symbols ironically to deconstruct the hustler's qualities. The reality is that the archetypal "hustler" is a "hustler for death". The Zombie character shows that hustlers themselves are zombies, not quite alive, caught in a cycle of death and death-doling. In this context, the qualities are trivial--the jewelry literally makes him "fresh to death", the self-confidence of brushing dirt off his shoulders doesn't brush the decay or death off his shoulders, and, as illustrated by the two kids who are also hustlers who shot the Zombie in the first place, the hustler work ethic plays a direct role in the deaths of people around the hustler.

In the conceptual sequel, "The Coolest", off Lupe's second album, Lupe expounds on this idea further. Though the lyrics are much less decipherable, what's clear is that materialism--the narrator's "obscene obsession for the bling"--brings him "status" and fame. But it ultimately leads him to betray his "queen" for "a new lady who gave me a Mercedes/ and a necklace with a solid gold key." The women in the song seem to symbolize different trends that go in and out of style. That's why they can offer him fame and fortune at different times. Thus when the narrator betrays one for the other, he is really hopping from an old image of "The Cool" to the current image, regardless of any connection he made under the old image--not even if she "gave me a baby. What about lately?"

That's why I have to call Lupe out on the release/leak/existence of the song "I Keep It Gutter Like." In this song, Lupe embodies the very "hustler" aesthetic that he had previously portrayed as so deadly to the people. He encourages the material extravagance that made previous characters chasing The Cool. He brags about a high-end "Ford, no keys, the doors open like grocery stores" and a 7-karat jeweled money-clip, and he encourages you to start "pouring liquor out like its Prohibition". Apparently, he also "keeps chicks topless, keeps whips topless", exuding the hustler self-confidence that he parodied in "The Cool." He glorifies crime by bragging that "he's the illest crime caught on tape." At one point he even says "like dope (?), I flip it with no thoughts." He is on every account the hustler that he decried previously.

Even more ironically and thus more biting, this new song, in contrast to the previous ones, serves as evidence that Lupe has become the two-faced hustler in "The Coolest" who abuses one trend to its fullest extent before abandoning it and moving on. It seems that Lupe, having abused the "conscious rap" trend to its furthest financial extent, seeks to change his image to be able to tap into a market he has yet to reach, the one that wants the traditional "rap hustler" image. He's become as "cool" as he can get slanging the conscious, Okayplayer image to the masses. Now, he tries on a different hat, a different "cool" to widen his appeal.

Of course, the defense remains: Lupe's just gotta get that paper dawg. And somehow this defense has become passable now that art has married industry. But as opposed to self-proclaimed rap hustlers who wear these hustler values, however flawed, on their sleeves, Lupe's hustle gains your trust then stabs you in the back. Like many artists in the Rawkus days, Lupe gains an audience based on an aversion to the typical rap steez. He positions himself as something of a revolutionary against the hustler aesthetic and its social pitfalls. Yet now, we see him pushing us off into the hole. Even if he throws the rope down, can we really climb it?

The Iron Fist of Justice

2008-06-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

Justice "Stress"
off Cross (2007)

Keeping it gully to the fullest.

Radio-Friendly, vol. 1

2008-06-01T23:34:00.000-07:00

As I look back on the past four months as a radio intern, I can't help but remember all the tight people I've come across, the great times we had, the human connections we made ..... and of course, all the crappy music I promoted. Seriously, I hope Flo Rida gets caught in one of the many fires burning in his home state. Pitbull needs to get Michael Vicked. And T-Pain needs to get a talk-box shoved up where the sun don't shine.

But I can't front. Some radio music is legitimately good (at least before we play it out). For those shining beacons of light offering me hope for the future of the music industry (or otherwise converting my ears to retardation), I dedicate this series. Here are all the radio songs from the past 4 months that get the official HaterPlayer seal of approval.

Usher ft. Jay-Z "Best Thing" (prod. No I.D.)
It seems like No I.D. came back from the dead. I haven't heard from him since Common's One Day It'll All Make Sense. This beat is pretty hard as far as R&B goes (omg, I think I hear chopped samples on the radio). I hope it catches on but Usher's status is a little shaky now. Apparently, less women are swooning over him because he's married like a grown-ass man now*. I guess they were holding out hope that they could snag him using the ol' "panties on stage" strategy.

Hot Styles ft. Yung Joc "Lookin Boy"

V.I.C. "Get Silly" (prod. Soulja Boy)
Two of the stupidest songs I've ever heard. But damnit if they aren't so catchy! "Lookin Boy" is hilarious. Who wouldn't love disses like "This is the song that doesn't end, Lambchop lookin' boy"? Plus Hot Styles and Yung Joc have amazing chemistry together. In "Get Silly", I like the light-hearted, Alice In Wonderland-ish melody during the verses, the stabs during the hook, and the stupid delivery. This almost makes me glad that one kid didn't successfully assassinate Soulja Boy.

Ryan Leslie "Diamond Girl"
As much as I hated on him when he came through to UCLA last year, Ryan Leslie is a talented mother. Ryan Leslie is the dude behind Cassie's "Me & U." This single has a simple piano cascade but with that snare hit on the tail end, it's hard-body.

Chris Brown "Take You Down"
Because I just can't get enough Chris Brown in my life. ::squeals:: Seriously, this reminds me of R&B from the '90s, the "too sexy for you" stuff I grew up on ..... no homo. Apparently, it was also too sexy for the parents of little teenage girls who wanted to get taken down by Chris Brown anyway. After some backlash, he released this Disneyfied abortion of a song as a single.

Estelle ft. Kanye "American Boy"
I only like her because my teeth are fucked up too. Great song-writing and I love the synths.

You already know I also ride for the new Ice Cube but that got yanked off my ish with a quickness. I won't even try at this point.

*God forbid that musical quality be the sole determinant of a musician's success.

Said It Before, Say It Again

2008-05-28T18:38:00.000-07:00

Beat-jacking is so hip-hop.

RZA "Can't Stop Me Now"
off his forthcoming Bobby Digital album, Digi Snacks (2008)

Mos Def "Undeniable"
off Tru3 Magic (2006)

Ill Bill "Unstoppable"
off What's Wrong With Bill? (2004)

King Geedorah "Anti-Matter" ft. Mr. Fantastic, MF Doom
off Take Me To Your Leader (2003)

The Whatnauts "Message From A Black Man"
off Introducing The Whatnauts (1970)

The Temptations "Message From A Black Man"
off Puzzle People (1969)

Welcome Back

2008-05-27T20:35:00.000-07:00

*
I couldn't stay away for long. For all my detached, unsentimental musical elitism, I do have a heart and hip-hop stays pumping it like that powder white.

Here's a bit of the newness I've heard in the last two weeks that has me looking forward to, well, the next two weeks in hip-hop at least.

NYGz "Days R #'d (remix)" ft. Lady of Rage, Bumpy Knuckles, Royce
Lady of Rage?!!!??!? WTF? Dope sorta-posse cut featuring a bunch of people that work with DJ Premier. It's like The Symphony but less relevant to the current scene.

Cuban K. Soze "What About Me" ft. Perfecto, Colombo Black
I checked this out at DubCNN based only on The Usual Suspects reference. Even though the end of the second verse goes at fake chumps like me, it's still hard. West Coast represent!

Bishop Lamont "Be Cool" ft. Xzibit, Rass Kass, Glasses Malone, Mykstro
West stays winning with this deep posse cut. Xzibit and Bishop go IN on this.

The Cool Kids "What Up Man"
Did you know he made this beat with his mouth and a bell? Dope beat on that same throwback minimalism that they've made their name on. And the elementary-ish throwback rhyming has a certain Biz Markie charm to it.

Kidz In The Hall "Driving Down The Block"
Great vocal sample and beat. This actually got some play on TRL when it first came out, if you can believe it. But I guess they are kinda actin a fool in the video so it figures.

*You almost thought I'd put you through a full Ma$e song, huh? Hah!

Beneath The Surface .....

2008-05-23T19:36:00.000-07:00

..... something bubbles.

Office Spacin' Out

2008-05-13T21:02:00.000-07:00

On hiatus until I find a new work situation. Yeah, bringing the realities of ... reality onto the Internet is crazy but what can I say? I'm re-focusing my blogging energies into finding a better job. I'll hit you back after I get my grown man on.

Ooh Baby I Like It Raaaaaw

2008-05-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

Biggie Smalls - Another Rough One

It's Demo Week at Unkut.com, where they're posting joints from rappers' demo tapes. This comes from Biggie's tape. Dope.

The Disrupt

2008-05-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

The Disrupt sampler

Yes, I love Stones Throw like a fat kid loves cake. If I could dedicate the rest of my life to studying Stones Throw music, I would apply to grad school instantly.

Oh No is the lesser-known, younger brother of Beat Konducta-extraordinaire Otis Jackson, Jr. bka Madlib. You'd think he'd have some sort of inferiority complex standing in Madlib's shadow (more like an eclipse). But thankfully, he's so dope on his own merit that he doesn't have to sweat that.

The Disrupt, Oh Nuckle's debut album, was dropped back in 2004 but I finally got around to picking it up on Record Store Day a couple weeks back. As with any material released by Stone Throw Records, the dirty, blunted beats are the real standouts on the album. To Oh No's credit, he's the best rapper I've heard out of the Los Angeles collective (except maybe Percee P, if he counts yet). His style reminds me of SoCal neighbor Planet Asia--mixing thugisms with nerdy spaciness, using big dictionary words, and flowing slightly behind the rhythm. The lyricism rarely knocks you in the membrane but it's enjoyable enough for me (because I relish the thought of nerds ever having street cred). And it's good enough so that it doesn't distract from the beats.

The beats just bang. These beats have a very dirty, rough quality that lends the tracks some bonus gulliness. I've always admired Stone Throw producers for taking sampling to that next level. Unlike most beats where samples blend in with the rest of the elements, Stones Throw producers go to great lengths to expose the sample and play with it. The tracks seem to speak with more soul than the average. Unsurprisingly, Madlib handles much of the production and J Dilla also contributes some joints. But the bulk of the beats are handled by Oh No himself and he more than holds his own.

Overall, it's a good album with strong standout tracks. The lyrics are good and the beats knock. Normally, I'd give out the download link here but for a Stones Throw release, I'ma refrain from that in hopes that you take the bait and support them too. Check Oh No on myspace here.

When You're The Seed of Lemons

2008-05-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Atmosphere - Yesterday

A friend asked me what I thought of the new Atmosphere album. But to keep from releasing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere (.......), I'll keep the hating to a minimum.

I didn't like the album. But I liked this cut. Because anyone who has ever lost someone can relate to the chorus.

LA heads: Atmosphere is playing tonight. And tomorrow night.

Behind The Music

2008-05-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

Some great articles to click through at work:

KING Legacy: Nasir Jones. pt.1 | pt. 2
Nasty Nas discusses coons, his fans, and rap beef.

King: Well, you guys were taking shots at each other.
Nas: On a song I did on my second album, Tupac thought it was about him, but it was really toward Biggie.

“The Message”?
[Nods] From the first lines all the way to “One life, one love, there can only be one king.” That was specifically going in that direction. The whole fucking song, really. Tupac was not even on my radar for going at him.
...
I didn’t think you were going at Biggie.
He did.

What did he say to you about it?
“Your reign on the top was short like leprechauns.” [Laughs]

Pete Rock - The Unkut Interview
In-depth with the Soul Brother about his musical heroes, crate-digging, national politics, and industry politics. Among other things .....

Unkut: There was an interview that Kanye West did in Scratch magazine where he was talking about ‘I’ll sample drums off a Pete Rock instrumental if they’re open’. That was kinda funny to me.

Pete Rock: I believe it! I hear my snares out there, and I’m like ‘Wow, that’s fuckin’ crazy, man!’ I feel like that’s lazy shit. You obviously don’t love it as much as I do, because for you to not go out there and find it on your own…you’ll find so much if you just take the time out to go dig, man. We do all the hard work so y’all can just snatch our records up and listen for open snares and kicks? That’s some wack shit. I respect cats that come with their own sound. Like Dilla was the master at that – having kicks and snares. I just recently learned that he always two-tracks his beats – he never gave-up any separate sounds, which is a great idea I think. He didn’t want to put his kicks and snares out there so people could steal ‘em.

Royally Flushed
An interview with the team behind Big Boi's first single off his solo album. Plus a short interview with Big Boi.

Black's Reconstruction

2008-05-01T20:31:00.000-07:00

Rising Down sampler

Over-compensation from insecurities about their masculinity? It's like they're Asian-Am men or something.

The legendary Roots crew released their 8th studio album this week, Rising Down. You could call this Game Theory 2 as Rising Down follows the themes and style set in their previous album: they're hella political, crazy dark, and most of all, grimier than before. For many groups, this could lead to self-righteous pulpitting over recycled Fruity Loops beats. With The Roots however, this has expanded their sound dramatically. On Game Theory, ?uestlove experimented with new drum timbres. On Rising Down, Kamal trades in the fender Rhodes for synthesizers. Both changes have increased the gulliness factor of their music as if to let us know they're not some soft "conscious" artists.

The first five tracks, including the label drama intro and the freestyle interlude, are the reasons to listen to this album. The title track features strong guest verses from Mos Def and conscious rapper Styles P (.....). Second single "Get Busy" also features dope guest verses from Dice Raw and Peedi Crakk, not to mention the hardest drums and synths of the album. The stripped down street single "75 Bars (Black's Reconstruction)", with nothing but fancy drumming and sinister synths, lets Black Thought do what he does best: talk about nothing.

After that, the album suffers a serious drop-off in quality. For the next five tracks, Black Thought and all his poor man's Memphis Bleeks try to tackle heavy concepts, often by writing from the perspective of some type of criminal-ish character (e.g. suicide bomber, war soldier, V.Tech shooter, etc.). Except that the writing is shallow enough that you see that they're not at all stepping into any of these characters' shoes. It's just more detached, boring conscious rap.*

The hooks in this section are like salt in the wound. Granted, I haven't liked too many Roots hooks since Illadelph Halflife and Things Fall Apart. But with all these whiny, emo-rock pansies crying convoluted sonnets over the beat, they seem to have gone the extra mile to make me start Olsen twinnin' ie. gag. They should stick to the hook ideas on "Get Busy" and "75 Bars"--which is to say don't have one at all. But then again, I'm racist enough that I would hate on anything imported from white people.

"Unwritten" is what the middle section was trying to be--a vividly-told, intimate, believable story from the eyes of a killer. On "Lost Desire", Black, Malik B, and Talib spit enough hellfire to justify apathy. And the rest of the disc is altogether forgettable.

This is a good album with great moments. I like ?uesto's direction into infinite gulliness and I hope The Roots continue trying to convince us that they're hard-asses. You can cop this album for $10 at Circuit City this week. I would've provided a download link for the album but I didn't want Peedi Crakk breaking my bootlegging legs.

*With the exception of "I Can't Help It", half-interesting because Black Thought spits about the danger of drugs in the same song as former Roots member, Malik B, who dropped out because of his drug habit/s. But if this didn't work, obviously this paltry verse won't help much either.

Divine Intervention

2008-04-29T21:28:00.000-07:00

Immortal Technique "Dance With The Devil"

I just heard this earlier today on a re-run of Divine Forces Radio. I didn't realize I've been sleeping so hard on Immortal Technique. ::pause::

Off Immortal's Revolutionary Vol. 1. A fairly generic though well-told ghetto cautionary tale. Until the plot twist that'll have you wondering if this didn't come out of the mind of some demented Asian thriller director. And the epilogue ingeniously frames the story, placing Immortal within it, blurring the line between fictional story and reality.

Tacked onto the tail end of the track like a hidden, bonus cut, there's a vicious battle rhyme. Can someone let me know if this is on the proper release too or if I just stumbled across a rare gem accidentally?

Talk Like Sex

2008-04-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

I'm a sucker for concepts. If an emcee can maintain a concept for the full duration of a single song, I'm impressed. It's like taking everything I learned from old farts like Shakespeare, Donne, and Dickinson and applying it to raps from new farts like J-Live or this cat. Implementing thematic cohesion into rap is like fitting a cylinder into a square hole (or like fitting education into California's State Budget).

But Jerry Blackwell didn't hit home for me. Most of the time, he sounds too detached from what he spits as if he wrote these rhymes in the back corner of his social work class in college as opposed to experiencing any of this first-hand.

Ironically enough, it's when he indulges the intellectualism that detaches him that he sounds remotely interesting. Brainiac rap is like a fun brain-teaser. Once you get it, you feel all smart like Tahj Mowry or something. In "Birds and Bees", Jerry Blackwell expands the generic "birds and bees" idiom into a cautionary tale to his son about sex and shady-ass bitches. The 9th Wonder beat provides a sound of innocence to juxtapose the insightful lyrics, giving the song that fun, light feel. And you can tell, he's not really doing it to teach his son some generic lesson about them ho's. Dude just wants to show off.

The other track above is the other concept track on his album. I would've geeked on that more but it's been done before. It's nice to hear the cry-baby Joe Budden influence in him though, especially since the cry-baby flow fits thematically with the song.

PS. In case you actually liked any of this crappy music I'm putting up but didn't know how to download it, you can click on the "DivShare" part of the music player to take you to a DL page. In case you were wondering .....

Protect Ya Neck

2008-04-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

"This is atrocious. This is unjust. Those racist bastards. We need to come together as a community. We need to fight back. We need to protect ourselves. We need to unite as one and overcome. We're at war. We need soldiers. We need to do something. We can't let this happen again." Blah blah blah.

The verdict in the Sean Bell case just came through on Friday. If you're not up-to-speed, Sean Bell was another victim of police brutality last year. Details are pretty sketchy but according to the NY Times, Sean Bell and two friends left a club, hopped in their Altima, and rammed into an undercover police minivan. Twice. The police reacted by unloading 50 shots on the vehicle, killing Sean Bell and injuring his two other friends. Three of the officers were brought up on charges of man-slaughter and/or excessive force.

And of course on Friday, the judge acquitted the police officers completely.

After incidents like this, there's lots of talk about needing to do something, usually something vague like "coming together as a community." Well, fuck that. I'm gonna do something very un-hip-hop and actually do something halfway productive.

Obviously, if you ram your car into a police car and they unload three full clips on you, that's a wrap. But in case you find yourself in a less extreme situation with the police, you need to do the knowledge to defend yourself against the possibility of getting raped by the law (figuratively speaking ..... unless of course, you end up in a federal "pound me in the ass" prison).

These four articles from FlexYourRights.org should prepare you in dealing with the police: in subways, in your car, on the sidewalk, or in your home.

One of the best tips I've learned is that you don't need to tell police shit and you probably shouldn't tell them shit lest you incriminate yourself. All you really need to tell them is your name and where you live. If they ask you anything else, answer their questions by telling them you won't answer their questions without your lawyer, or you plead the Fif.

The reason is that even if you have the truth on your side, the police have justice on their side and they can use whatever you say to toss your salad. For example, if an officer asks you where you were at 10pm that night, that seems like an innocent question. And if you were just watching Harold & Kumar 2, you have nothing to hide. But what they don't need to tell you and won't tell you is that the police are investigating a crime at the movie theatre around 10pm. If you answer truthfully, you've placed yourself at the scene of the crime and they can legally arrest you instantly. The truth might set you free eventually ..... but then again some slim shady shit could go down in the processing of the paperwork. God is in the details but the devil is in there too. You need to be prepared in case it's the latter.

If you want to help the family of Sean Bell directly, go to their website where they update you on the organized actions they are taking and how you can help. At the very least, you can help them buy their happiness back by donating to his kids:

Sean Bell Benefit Fund
c/o Mitchell Law Office
225 Broadway, Suite 1410
New York, NY 10007
or call 1-866-695-2992.

Live the verbs.

PS. Wow, did BET really get something right?

The Source .... without Benzino

2008-04-23T19:48:00.000-07:00

This CD is probably one of the first CD's I've heard in awhile where I immediately started thinking of all the other people I NEEDED to make a copy for. You being the first in my mind.

I usually don't go for mixtapes. Even if they have some hot tracks, some exclusives, and/or "better" (ie. more technically-proficient) rapping, they generally have too much of a cut-and-paste feel for me to get into them for long.

But DJ Neil Armstrong's 2Original mix is nerd-out heaven. Focusing on mid- to late-90s classics, Neil Armstrong will play the song then mix in the original sample source. You'll hear how some of your favorite songs were inspired by (or straight lifted from) older records and trace the musical lineage throughout. It gives you an inside look at the songs and an education on hip-hop. Plus, the mixtape is blended pretty masterfully. How he can mix hip-hop with soul, jazz, classical, and world music without missing a beat is nuts. In the two tracks above, he goes from The Doors to Jay-Z's "Takeover" to David Bowie, back to "Takeover," then to "Dead Presidents," Nas' "The World Is Yours", Ahmad Jamal on jazz piano, and finally to old school emcee, T-La Rock.

I also gotta give props to DJ I.Emerge who has a short feature/interlude towards the end of the mix (he's the one cutting up Pharoahe Monch quotables).

Check out the mix here, get educated, and hopefully get put on to old school music. Or you can just keep it real and restrict yourself to hip-hop ..... like I do.

Step In The Arena

2008-04-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

The legendary DJ Premier schools us on stories behind some of his classics.
The best story he shares:

Preemo was having sex when he found out Big L had died. But before confirming with other friends, you know, "like a real man do, you gotta get that nut .... I actually went for the finish a little early because I knew something was wrong." On the "Full Clip" song, he put "Rest In Peace Big L" in the intro so that DJ's would have to cut that in whenever they played the record.

Via Grandgood.

To LA heads, don't forget to check out Pete Rock vs. DJ Premier tonight at Crash Mansion.

PS. Five updates in five days??!??!!!? Essaywhuman?

Song of the Week: Showin' Out

2008-04-17T19:27:00.000-07:00

E-40 (ft. B-Legit & Laroo) - Showin' Out

Little to say here. That beat is straight bonkers. Get dumb, put on your thizz face, ghost-ride the whip, and do every single other hyphy-ism to this.

Courtesy of Cocaine Blunts.

Better Than G.O.O.D.

2008-04-16T18:54:00.000-07:00

The radio station's been going pretty crazy preparing for the Kanye "Glow In The Dark" tour, which is coming to SD this Sunday. Me, personally? I wouldn't care much for anything glowing in the dark unless I was high on extacy. And of course, I can't ever like anything that's actually popular .....

If you feel like me or if you'd just rather pay your electric bill than pay for a ticket to Kanye, there are some other events going down in both SD and LA (especially LA!) that can hold you down:

Soled Out LA presents
Pete Rock vs DJ Premier - a legendary DJ battle
also with
Pacific Division, Inka One, and DJ Journey
4/18 @ 7pm-1am
Crash Mansion LA
Cover: $25 advance, $30 at door

Guitar Center Sessions presents
An Evening of Education, Conversation, and Insight with
Pete Rock
featuring special guests
Just Blaze, 9th Wonder, DJ Nu-Mark (of Jurassic 5) and DJ Revolution (of The Wake Up Show)
4/20 @ 6-9pm
Guitar Center Hollywood
Cover: Free
For the nerds who have enough sense to idolize producers more than rappers.

Exile, CashUsKing, World, & Sene
4/18 @ 9pm
UCSD Porter's Pub
Cover: Free

House of Rep presents
SD Beat Battle: Round 3
with guest judges
Oh No (Stones Throw), Jake One, & Mr. Brady
performance by Oh No and Roc C
4/20 @ 3pm
Alliance MMA/Urban Rebel in Chula Vista
Cover: $15
See Madlib's little brother and maybe meet Jake One, the producer behind John Cena's theme song.

Put Your Quarter Up

2008-04-15T21:42:00.000-07:00

It's like DDR for fat and stanky music snobs. Which of course means I've found my G.O.A.T. of video games.

Like any other music/rhythm game, Audiosurf places you on a track and has you hitting brightly colored shapes in some way, in this case with a flying aircraft cursor. The part that gets me giddy is the fact that you can load ANY song from your computer to play on. The program will analyze the entire song and create a track based on the song's musical qualities. So you can nerd out on your collection in an entirely new way.

Snoop "Lodi Dodi"

Aesop Rock "Daylight"

Bone Thugs N Harmony "Flow Motion"

Jay Electronica > Wiz Khalifa's electronica beat-jack

2008-04-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

Alright fine. You win. He's nice ..... sometimes. For the most part, he only hits when he's rhyming to dope J Dilla beats. But it's hard to deny the technical virtuosity of flowing on top of the Eternal Sunshine acoustic theme song. Impressive.

His next challenge will be to create something that evokes emotion. Right now, he sounds limited by pseudo-political battle raps and punchlines. If he can get over his own hype and open up, he might actually become an artist.

Fresh Coast Historical Society

2008-04-10T00:24:00.000-07:00

Inexplicably, I've been running into a heap of material in some way related to some history behind West Coast hip-hop.

Shock G speaks on the making of Tupac's "I Get Around":

"Swear ta god, it was all rush-rush like that. But [Tupac] musta seen the exhaustion in my eyes because before I could even respond, he picked up a pen & pad and started scribblin words as he paced around the room. Less then 2 minutes later he handed me the paper and said.. "Just say this." ...... Another concern of mine was the title & concept of the song.. us braggin about how we get around wit the chicks n all. At the time I was in love and engaged to someone, so at the time I was not down to be a "player" on the song, and I thought forsure that Pac would overlook this. But he knew Melissa, and supported our relationship, and had me covered. When I read.. "just cause I’m a freak doesn’t mean that we can hit the sheets.." that’s when I decided it was appropriate for me to say."

Fatlip from the Pharcyde speaks on the making of "Passing Me By"

Davey D Interviews Medusa, the Afrika Bambataa of West Coast Hip-Hop
pt. 1

powered by ODEO
pt. 2

powered by ODEO
Around the 37:00 mark in pt. 1, Medusa drops some knowledge about the legendary Good Life Cafe, most associated with Jurassic 5. Apparently, Ice Cube jacked his flow from some other group that hung around there.
Around 24:00 mark in pt. 2, she talks about Erykah Badu's roots in backpack rap before the neo-soul sangin. But seriously, listen to the entire interview. So much knowledge.

DubCNN Interviews Big Hutch from Above The Law

"That's what always intrigued people about Hip-Hop, that's what always lured people to Hip-Hop, more so than anything. I'm not just talking about West Coast Hip-Hop I'm talking about any kind of Hip-Hop. If you listen to a Too Short record, it takes you to the Bay, you feel me? If you heard a KRS One record or any East Coast record, they would put you in their borough, they would put you in their project! You feel me? That's what we're missing now! Now it's like "Okay, I'ma leave my projects and I ain't gonna talk about my projects, Ima act like I'm from Uptown Project and Magnolia Projects now, so I'ma make the song like this. We're losing that, and we'll lose Hip-Hop if we don't wake up, if we keep doing that."

April 4, 1968

2008-04-08T12:31:00.000-07:00

I've made it a point to keep it strictly hip-hop here as of late. But I just learned that last Friday was the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. And if hip-hop is anything, it is race and poverty, MLK's primary foci. As opposed to the usual "I Have A Dream" soundbite, some other pieces of the 360 of Martin Luther King, Jr. ..........

Ten Other Things Martin Luther King said:

Michael Eric Dyson releases new book - "April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Death and How It Changed America"

“Many white people think when they hear Barack Obama, they’re hearing Martin Luther King Jr. and when they hear Jeremiah Wright, they’re hearing anti-Martin Luther King Jr. They’re wrong. They’re hearing two different elements of Martin Luther King Jr.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam"

Read along here (Note: Because of the age of the cassette tape recording, the Youtube audio skips portions of the speech. You may encounter some difficulty in following the text.)

"A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

And no, we don't celebrate Martin Luther King Day as a political gimme to the black community. We celebrate it because he is arguably the most important figure in all of American history.

DJ Spinna Invented The Remix

2008-04-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

I like to diss Okayplayer for no apparent reason but sometimes I forget that I actually like most of their conscious, neo-soul, hippie tunes. And every now and then, they'll have a mega-jocking post with massive mp3 leech links.

DJ Spinna came up in the late-90s Rawkus Records era when independent hip-hop flourished into a sizable niche market. As a part of the New York underground, Spinna made a name for himself almost solely on the strength of his remixes. Spinna epitomizes the virtues of "underground" with his obsessive-compulsive knowledge of vinyl, his dedication to unsigned hype, and his fervent devotion to soul even amidst deep space experimentation.

After the underground scene began to stagnate, Spinna made a name for himself in house scene. But since I like to keep it real and shit, I only posted the doper hip-hop remixes. Of course, if you're open to all of it, why not?

PS. I'm not really feeling the Lyrical Fluctuation remix but Pharoahe's verse is so ill:

Spit miraculous shit, drink Dracula's blood, exist for centuries
My DNA eventually, mends wounds, heals injuries
The identity unknown for obvious extremities
Pharaohe, the assassin who was hired to kill Kennedy
The murder of Malcolm X my only aborted assignment
Reduce my molecules then pass through solid confinement
The eclectic, collectively indivisible
Please, your fuckin with the wrong individual
Why would one even combat an entity
In which when one is attacked, reacts by absorbing your energy
I already peeped your verse before you said it
I scan the wack shit through the powers of telekinetics

Style switches like a _______

2008-04-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

I'm not sold on Jay Electronica yet. But I'm mad on his behalf. His fans suck.

For some months now, okayplayers and their ilk have been blowing this guy up to behemoth proportions. He's released maybe two and a half songs and gotten shout-outs from maybe two and a half hip-hop artists. And suddenly, he's the next best thing this side of sliced bread.

Until he performed live.

He opened for Mos Def in New York the other day with a less-than-stellar set and now the web-rap world cries foul.

C'mon now. Internet fans are so fickle. When an artist first breaks out into the spotlight, they tout him as the Messiah of rap, come to save hip-hop. But once said artist stumbles for a second, they crucify him.

So Jay Electronica has a wack live show. Big effin deal. I hate a wack show as much as the next fan but let's be real. How many great hip-hop artists have crap live shows? I've personally been disappointed by: RZA, Mos Def (on two occasions), MF Doom (if that was really him) ..... the list can go on and on. But it doesn't mean a thing when I'm bangin 36 Chambers, Blackstar, or Vaudeville Villain.

It seems that for so many fans, it has to be all or nothing. Either you're the next Biggie or just another Lil Cease. I hate to say that fans owe something to the artist but they owe more than hating (and definitely much less jocking). Obviously, very few people actually know these artists personally to say that they owe something to that artist as a person. But with all the strife and emotion and vulnerability that artists put out on their records, fans can't feel like they're completely detached from artists. The least fans can do is treat these artists with some semblance of respect, treat them like more than just product designed with the sole purpose of your insatiable consumption. Fans need to remember that artists are regular people with both moments of glory and shades of weakness. And whether onto a pedestal or a cross, they don't need to be raised up.

Just because an artist sucks at some point, it doesn't mean it's the end of the world. And just because an artist is dope at some point, it doesn't mean it's the beginning of a new world. If you haven't realized yet, the end and the beginning are the same thing anyway.

Chi-Town Guevera

2008-03-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

Speak of the devil ......

My bad. You were right. He isn't much about the Benz after all. That whole Benz vs. backpack dichotomy must be defunct.

What I mean is that while he's conscious, he's never preachy, upright & uptight, or just straight up mad all the time. He's honest, funny, and most of all, still vibrantly optimistic. Which seems rare for a conscious rapper.

Reflection Eternal

2008-03-27T21:14:00.000-07:00

I won't go into too much detail about how crappy this Thriller 25th Anniversary remix album is. Truth is, I haven't heard it. But I'm willing to bet that it sucks (and as my friends can attest to, I'm cheaper than a lapdance in TJ [though cheap bastards would of course say 'frugal' instead] so my bet means a lot). If you really want music that respectfully gives props to Michael, check out this fairly spankin' new mixtape from Rhymefest.

Rhymefest is the rapper who won a Grammy for ghost-writing Kanye's "Jesus Walks" gospel hit (........) some years ago. Like West, Fest hails from Chicago and positions himself as one of those "benz and a backpack" rappers--conscious without having the broom from Breakin' up his ass. Unlike Ye, El Che actually flows well and delivers solid punchlines.

Earlier this year, Rhymefest released the "Man In the Mirror" mixtape, a tribute to Michael Jackson that samples exclusively from MJ's catalog. It's a great trick because we all pretty much know Michael's songs by heart. When you hear Rhymefest's take, you can see how the original gets chopped and flipped and appreciate it moreso than other rap songs.

For Fest's part, he rocks the mic right. Rhymefest handles both light-hearted and serious subjects with a mix of gravity and humor which keeps it fresh. This is how he handles Michael and this is how he ultimately pays tribute to him.

El Che scatters skits in between all the songs that really provide the glue to this project. He cuts up clips from Michael's old interviews and edits them into conversations between himself and MJ. Of course, he can't help but rag on the dude because c'mon it's freakin Michael Jackson. But he also highlights Jackson's playfulness, optimism, and sheer humanity in a way that we seem to have forgotten in all our joking ridicule of the wannabe-Albino weirdo (random note: what if Michael Jackson collabbed with Brother Ali?). Rhymefest helps us remember that, at heart, Michael Jackson is a good person.

I'm sure this is the feeling Michael wanted to evoke in putting out this remix album. But artists like Fergie just aren't bad enough to make MJ look good.

Download: Rhymefest - Man In The Mirror

The Cartoon Scientist

2008-03-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

Rare and nerdy enough to get some love up in here too.

Dexter's Laboratory: The Hip Hop Experiment. (Kid Rhino, 2002)

Cartoon Network's first full-length foray into hip-hop (to my knowledge). It's rare to hear a concept album in hip-hop. Cartoon Network makes it work by cutting it off before you get sick of the concept. Seven tracks, 21 minutes of Dexter, no filler, no compromises on the concept. Rappers take note ::cough:: T.I., Jay-Z ::cough::.

Courtesy of obscureklazzix.

Atmosphere "Shoulda Known"

2008-03-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

It's ironic how Atmosphere's new video glorifies drugs to some extent. I mean if lesbians that hot are into it, how bad can it be? This must be Atmosphere's attempt to appeal to the largely untapped male hip-hop market. Because how many guys wouldn't like this video? I've already made the Youtube video my homepage.

Watching Atmosphere in concert on May 6 in Floss Angeles. You guys should come through too.

The Dirty Scientist

2008-03-21T22:14:00.000-07:00

Every now and again, you'll hear some music. And maybe it's not the first time you've heard it. Maybe it's not the first time you've listened. But all of a sudden, something snaps in your mentals. And you start snapping your neck like a SlimJim. Something reaches under your ribcage and doesn't let go. And you don't get it at all. But somehow, it's like the music gets you.

Exile is the producer behind last year's underground/Internet hit, Below The Heavens. I made reference to it briefly once before, thinking it was over-hyped. But damnit if I can't get "No Greater Love" out of my head. Then I realized this was the same Exile all over SD rapper Blame One's Priest, Thief + Wizard album. THEN I saw him in the credits on Jay Loves Japan. That's when I finally admitted it--I am on Exile's dizznick.

If you listened to Below The Heavens, you might think much of Ex's production is the type of really chill, simple stuff that Neo-Soulquarians might dig in the lobby while discussing the latest scholarly dissertation on how hip-hop disarms North Korean missiles through the disembodiment of African cultural rhythms into the psychological perspectivisises of the Oriental Panda Express.

But sometimes, Exile gets beyond elevator music into, well, beyond music. It's that sound that hints at something else, hints at a secret garden or a half-way mystical realm or another state of being. Something only vaguely there, phantasmically existent, perpetually on the edge of discovery yet always so elusive. Like being exiled into an exotic realm ripe with mystery.

In dumb-ass words, say music is like breakfast. Exile's music is like toast. A lot of the times, it serves its purpose and it goes well with your eggs, but c'mon it's just toast. But sometimes, the roastiness of your toastiness resembles the Virgin Mary or the prophet Muhammad or Christ on a (cruci)stick or something. At least to crazies like me anyway.

PS. Real hip-hop is spontaneity. Guess who's freestyling while holding an MPC? Cipher after House of Reps Beat Battle in SD. Blame, Ex, some shaggy white dude, and Johaz.
secret cypher after the beat-battle

They Reminisce Over You

2008-03-18T12:31:00.000-07:00

R.i.P. Elias aka that hairy dude in SAP

No Sleep Till Infinity

2008-03-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

You might know him only as the dude on MTV that looks like Mekhi Phifer aka Proof in 8 Mile. But Sway actually holds it down for hip-hop.

Sway and King Tech host The Wake Up Show in Los Angeles, one of the last hip hop radio shows that actually caters to hip hop heads (crazy, right?). I never personally tuned into actual airings of The Wake Up Show (because seriously, who listens to radio anymore?). Power106 tossed it into that late-night, tax write-off slot on Saturdays when everyone's out in the clubs or having sexual relations or something of that nature so it's hard for them to get heard (I'm resisting a pun with "sexual relations" and "hard" in the same sentence--but you should know it's there). But even now, they still represent and they are still a great outlet for underground artists to make a name for themselves out on the Left Coast.

The new Wake Up Show website has a huge archive of video footage from their radio shows. Here's a few of the more classic hits I could dig up on Youtube but there are SO many more available on the site. Don't sleep:

Eyedea & Slug pt. 1

Eyedea & Slug pt. 2

Yes, that's actual freestyling off the top.

Biggie

Because LA radio needs to play more goddamn Biggie.

Thirstin Howl III

Again, real freestyling.

Juice vs. Ahmad

Juice is the dude that should've beaten Supernatural in that one infamous battle. Which sucked for him. Not that Supernatural is much better off, doing nothing but hosting Rock the Bells every year (hey, that's a free ticket!). But at least he's not working for UPS or something like Juice is. Maybe Juice should write a jingle for Minute Maid or Tropicana to get back in the game.

Cee-Lo

Pre-Gnarls Barkley Cee-Lo drops some knowledge. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think he should go back to rapping. Probably.

And in more recent memory ....
Crooked I with Avila Bros. pt. 1

pt. 2

Don't miss out on the DJ Quik interview or Blackalicious freestyle on the site either.

Curb Servin

2008-03-07T15:47:00.000-08:00

Christ I just heard this ambiguously amazing verse by Scarface. I dare you to try to follow his tone. With sharp sarcasm, he dismisses critics, smashes global politics, punks the American economic system, and glorifies his own thug-boss image--all in the span of 16 bars. No disrespect to Cube or Nas but Face takes the proverbial cake (he would, that fatty).

Ice Cube ft. Scarface, Nas - Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It (remix)

Nah nigga, blame me
For servin cocaine to the geeks
Gangbang in the streets, shootin guns where you sleep
Puttin niggas in sheets, the noose hung from the tree
The corrupted police, I ain't denyin it was me
I'm the reason for the setbacks of blacks, it's a
Natural fact that gangsta rap did that
I hope that Barack would pull the troops from Iraq
Cuz the truth is Iran got them nuclear mac's
I'll shoot me a cat in the head with a gat
Or a man that considers me a nigga when I'm back
In the slums. Waitin for a check like a bum
Look how I did them niggas off in 'Nam
I got the stroll full of holes, liquor stores up the road
Big church on the corner with a spot
For my Rove. A glock for my foes wipin snot from my nose
I'm guilty of it all but I am not gonna fold

Yall Know The Name

2008-03-04T21:51:00.000-08:00

I was reading through this blog and realized that the entire blog was basically dedicated to dick-riding on these two rappers. And I thought, "Fuckin brilliant!" Because there are so many rappers that I'm gay for and all I wanna do is e-jock them all day long.

Enter Pharoahe Monch, the best lyricist alive. I searched on Youtube and found all sorts of videos that I never knew existed and I was so happy you would've sworn I was on Pornotube. Pharoahe's official like Starter.

Two more videos from his last album which brings the total to FOUR (4) videos just for that one album ..... none of which actually contributed to sales but still dope that he got such a push (no pun intended). You gotta appreciate the "Desire" vid with all the live show footage. Pharoahe gets really emotional.

Pharoahe on the hook. The Polyrhythm emcees don't do much for me but Pharoahe on top of DJ Spinna beats? Man, I could bust right now. And I really think Pharoahe's like Cee-Lo in that his singing has great hook quality.

Never heard this verse before. Dope.

The undisputed truth. No offense, Brother Ali.

PS. If you're reading this on Facebook, Simon says to get your ass to the proper HaterPlayer address: http://haterplayer.blogspot.com/

Sicker Than Lime Disease and Gangrene

2008-02-27T20:51:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty bored, being sick and staying at home and shit.

Devin The Dude - Hope I Don't Get Sick A Dis

Gang Starr - Love Sick

Madvillain - Sickfit [Instrumental]

Oh No - Oxcity Sickness

Buck 65 - Sick Stew

Bonus:
Biz Markie - Pickin' Boogers

Ugh, I was gonna have a pic of gangrene but it looks too nasty. Don't get gangrene people!

Been Around the Block, vol. 2: L-Dot

2008-02-23T18:12:00.000-08:00

I was gonna write all this shit about West Coast music and how it's under-respected and whatever whatever. But fuckit. I'll let this shit speak for itself.

Three relatively new artists just starting to make a splash on the Internets. None of them are great, but all of them have shown potential for greatness. And all of them rep Angeles. Look out for them.

Blu "No Greater Love"
U-N-I "Castlevania"
Pacific Division - Blendtape

And since we're talking about Boss Angeles .....

The Questions (radio edit)

2008-02-17T18:10:00.000-08:00

Is there something wrong with working at a radio station if I don't listen to radio? Is this what selling out is? Working for something I don't believe in?

Really? You'd pay $210 to see Kanye? And there's people who would pay $1249? Didn't they know about the Cut Chemist, DJ Shadow, and Kid Koala show?

Why are women our target demo? Men don't like music? Why can't we hear some dirty beats on radio? And how can women listen to hip-hop when we degrade them so much?

Why does Flo Rida have such a wack flow? Did he learn how to ride flows from Diddy or something?

Why did they play "Sensual Seduction" three times in 4 hours? If they know their product is the same as two other stations, why don't they play different songs to improve the product?

How can they promote shows for the "Ay Bay Bay" kid, Baby Bash, and Pitbull with a straight face?

If hip-hop is dying, why do they cling to the disease?

This is called "The Show"

2008-02-11T22:26:00.000-08:00

You know what sucks about hip-hop most of the time? Live shows. Emcees think they can just jump on-stage and karaoke for us with all their boyz singing along with them on too many mics, bumping into each other, shouting every single lyric, drowning out the dude we actually came to hear while the bass is on blast so much, it drowns everything out like Hurricane Katrina in Lil Weezy's home. Remember back before we were born when crews like the Furious Five (pictured, though not all of them) had on Village People knockoffs?

Artists, step your game up, word to Little Brother.

Here's a blueprint from a fan who has actually seen some well-done (but at the same time, raw) hip-hop shows in his lifetime so he has no reasonable doubt that these tips are more gift than curse.

1. Choreography - I'm not saying you need to be dancing around on some Thriller ish (or yknow, on some modern day minstrel ish) but how about some more planning and spatial organization? Because if you didn't notice, Wu-Tang OG's alone are 9 deep, not including bff's like Trife, Killah Priest, etc. With that many bodies on stage, the least you can do is try NOT to bump into each other all awkwardly.

Even if you think Jurassic might be corny as hell, they put on a good show because they know how to handle 6 dudes in a tight spot (pause!). All they really do is choreograph where each person stands during his own verse and then the group formation for hooks. It's real simple but effective because that allows them to utilize dynamic lighting to focus and engage the audience. In short, it's real clean and professional.

But then again, too much choreography can be hella corny too (sorry, Strange Fruit Project).

2. Crew - Speaking of Wu-Tang, I've seen shows from both RZA and Ghostface that were ruined (or almost ruined) by their crew. When I went to see The Abbott, he brought in like 20 Killa Beez and Wu extended fam that were buggin' the shit out of me. Similarly, at a Ghostface show, Ghost brought 5 Alvin, Simon, Theodore Unit flunkies on stage that seemed like they were playing Keep-Away with Ghost, trying to hide the one good mic away from him as much as they could (PS. fuck your OJ, bodyguard!).

FUCK YOUR CREW! I paid to see the artist I wanted to see, not his weed carriers. I understand if I see a Trife or a Memph Bleek or a Tony Yayo up there because thats like legitimate fam, "even if I die he's in my will somewhere" status. That's cool. But the ratio of crew to artist has to drop to 3:1 or less (not counting the DJ or band). They distract from the artist and they distract from the music.

3. Crowd Participation - Most emcees actually do put this into their set in some way. But Christ, can it be in a way other than "throw your hands in the air, and wave 'em like you just don't care"? This is a live show! Please engage the crowd in a live way. That "bouncing hands" shit is overused and played out.

At a De La concert, they choreographed the crowd participation ahead of time. Each emcee taught a different section of the audience some rudimentary beatboxing and then put it together like an orchestra. It was different and pretty fun.

But it doesn't even need to go that far. Both Ghostface and Immortal Technique are tight because they take some time to just talk between songs. Ghostface will really talk TO the audience, talking mad shit about random audience members and whatever whatever. Immortal took some time to introduce and explain the significance of some of his songs or else try to incite a political uprising/riot right there during the show. It's impromptu but better yet, it's just being real and having fun.

4. Dynamics - Rappers, take that fuckin' bass out your system. That is entirely too much junk in the trunk. Call me crazy but I actually like to hear melodies and samples. I don't know, I guess I'm weird for liking the good part of a beat. My bad. Not only does the bass drown out the melody, it can drown out the rapper too. And if you're a lyrical rapper, all your lyrics are gonna sound like oatmeal. And don't think that screaming into the mic helps us understand you either, genius. It just makes you sound like bad punk music over a hip-hop beat (.... Linkin Park?).

If you let up on the bass, you can let up on your voice too and then we can understand your verses. At a show with Elzhi from Slum Village and Blu, it was lucky they had a crap system because then they couldn't turn up the bass and I could understand they're dope lyrics ("I got a midget with a trigger in my top hat") and also I could feel the soulful cuts.

Pharoahe Monch's show is the best example of great use of dynamics. He'll turn it down and slowly build up with the more emotional joints. But then with fucked-up, dirty shit like "Simon Says," that's when he knocks up the bass like your moms in a porno, yells into the mic, and jumps around like he's in a moshpit.

This is pretty universal advice for all rappers. This last tip is pretty obvious, but I'll mention it anyway: be unique! Do something special in your set that is generally out of the ordinary, rather extraordinary. Who's ever gonna tire of J-Live rhyming AS he's juggling the beat on the Technics? Illness. Just stick to these pointers for your show and you're bound not to suck too much ass.

Hip Hop Lives .... At Least For A Couple Nights

2008-02-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

Christ man, anyone out there in the world that has any inkling of interest in this thing we call "hip-hop," anyone out there that wants to know what it is or wants to remember what it was and can be, anyone that needs hope in this new music order ..... or anyone that wants to celebrate the passing of a holiday as depressing as Valentine's Day--if you fall into any of those categories, you NEED to get up on this.

DJ Shadow. Cut Chemist. Kid Koala.

The Hard Sell.

Feb 14 - Anaheim

Feb 15 - Los Angeles

The cutting edge of turntablism. This event is better than you. Go pay your respects.

"I started off starvin', now they got me out here Brett Favrein'"

2008-01-30T20:25:00.000-08:00

This is gonna sound cliche as fuck but whatever, this is my time. And I avoid being cliche so much that being cliche would be pretty novel for me (did you catch that?) so just indulge me for a second.

I was thinking about this blog, my freaking TPS report-caliber, more-bland-than-white-meat-chicken (seriously, what's with white people and white meat over dark meat?) blog posts and then about music in general and I started wondering .... do I really love this hip hop shit anymore? Sometimes, I don't even know.

I remember back in high school when I first REALLY got into it, like beyond Puffy's No Way Out, the "Puffy's the greatest rapper alive, who the hell is this BIG fat dude over there" stage. I'm talking about when I first discovered the "underground," when I read an article about The Roots in the local paper and then downloaded Things Fall Apart track by track at 2.4 kb/s on Napster. I'm talking about bumping "The Next Movement" on blast, looking up lyrics on Ohhla.com, memorizing whole albums, stuffing headphones into my friends' ears to let them listen even though they didn't give a fuck about rap music. I'm talking about keeping a book of rhymes and doodling lyrics from time to time just when I was bored in class to keep the fire up under my ass and the thunder upon the flask and take my teachers to task. I'm talking about opening my eyes to the "Poison, schools where I learned they should be burned, it is Poison" with energy and conviction and the will to tear shit down. I'm talking about fucking passionate love for hip hop.

But it's not even like that anymore. I listen to new music and there's shit that I like but there's rarely that shit that I'll fuckin bump until my CD player breaks down. The spark, it's just not there anymore. And there are a lot of people that feel the same way. They might be the ones saying "hip hop is dead," the music is dead, whatever. What happened to it?

I've come up with this. What happened was that we fell for her and we got hurt. I got caught up in the whole "underground vs. mainstream" battle. I was a soldier for the underground movement against those money-hungry, no-talent, bling-ridden, dirty, no-good mainstream rappers raping the culture and leaving the bastard children to rot without child support. Then as it turns out, that wasn't the message at all. That was part of the record labels' new marketing scheme to rape me, the consumer of "underground" hip hop, up the ass for all my change. I got played like Sega with its Dreamcast but the dream shattered like glass and got stuck between my eyes. That "movement" was just an economic movement of money out of my wallet. Hip hop, you fucking whore.

Now I know she's a ho so I keep my guard up. I listen to music but I'm never listening with the music anymore. I'm almost on some scientifical, musical dissectitory tip--real surgical, clinical, cold, and detached. Apart.

So with that, I'm gonna be on hiatus again until I start to give a shit. When I find some way of letting the music back in completely and without reservation, I'll come back like Jordan wearing the 4-5 ..... except I'll try to make my posts better than Kingdom Come. Peace yall!

100 Posts and Runnin

2008-01-21T18:07:00.000-08:00

I figured it'd be hella corny (not to mention fuckin exhausting [albeit fun]) to make a list of 100 anythings just because this is my 100th post. And yknow, it probably shouldn't even count as my 100th because sometimes I post just to say that I'm too lazy to post. But fuckit, I'm too lazy to fight it.

I just checked out this dude in an issue of URB yesterday. He got the cover story and I'd heard about his new mixtape around on the streets (........ yknow, the streets of the information superhighway). Rapper Wale reps Washington, D.C., and hangs with super-producer/DJ/musician/promoter/label CEO/everything-man Mark Ronson. With the blessing of Ronson (Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, Xtina's last album), you better be thinking that Wale has to be at least a pretty decent artist.

And he is a pretty decent rapper. Hearing his flow, Wale reminds me of how Lupe sounds when Lu sounds like Lil Wayne. He takes Wayne's seemingly elementary schoolish, slow flow like he's gotta over-pronounce each word so you can hear him clearly or else it'd fly over your head like the dumbfuck that you are. But he sprinkles moments here and there where he just smashes you with syllables anyway, just to remind you that he can do that. Seeing this is a mixtape, Wale sticks to lots of shit-talking and talking-about-nothing raps, which is pretty sweet.

The real magic is in the mix though. DJ Nick Catchdubs chooses some great hipster beats for Wale to rock over. Obviously, you got Mark Ronson throwing a couple joints behind him. More than that, he throws his aphilliates' shit over too, so you hear Wale rocking over Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" and Lily Allen's "Smile." He also covers Common's "The People", Gorillaz' "Dirty Harry", and Justice's "D.A.N.C.E.". There's also a cover of "Warm it Kane" for old schoolers. The remainder of the beats generally sound neo-soulish, Tribe-y so you get a solid mix of stuff that'll give you hip points over at Okayplayer.

Check out Wale if you get a chance. I'm pretty sure the labels will be giving him a strong "conscious" rapper push when he decides to drop an album proper. Until then, download the mix (as sanctioned by Wale himself).

Been Around the Block, vol. 1

2008-01-14T18:25:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to get up on local San Diego hip-hop but it's been pretty rough. One dude pointed out Mitchy Slick, the least recognizable member of an already unremarkable group, Strong Arm Steady. And then there's Nick Cannon ....... I finally made it out to Access, a record shop in PB, and asked the clerk to put me on to some shit. He was good enough to bust out this album.

According to the clerk, Blame One has been around for a good decade plus, making him the Godfather of this rap shit in SD. From what I can tell, he's another white dude spitting dirty underground shit. But unlike dudes like the Demigodz or Def Jux, he's neither a shallow battle rapper or a "look at me, I'm so different" elitist. Blame's pretty similar in topic matter to Brother Ali, talking about everyman shit with a good mix of spirituality thrown in although he's much less emo (obviously--who could be more traumatizing childhood than an Albino?). He also reminisces of and (sorta) preaches about hip-hop but it's not hella cheesy.

I'm not sure if these producers are his regulars, but on Priest, Thief + Wizard, Blame uses a lot of Exile and Kan Kick beats. Meaning the album flips soulful samples in a pretty straightforward, unassuming way. The grooves are good and at times it can sound pretty esoteric and otherworldly.

Add him on Myspace and check for him if he's ever in your area. From the looks of it, he definitely needs your money to survive (or else you could be checking for him in a cardboard box next to your dumpster at some point). But yknow, whatever.

Best of 2007 pt. 3

2008-01-10T18:17:00.000-08:00

1. Pharoahe Monch - Desire
Hands down the best album of 2007 was Pharoahe's Desire. Pharoahe is the best emcee in the game and even now that he's pushing 40, he's STILL evolving. He shares the clever wordplay, unique concepts, and diverse subject matter that peers like Talib or Mos also have. What sets him apart is his humility. Unlike many "conscious" rappers, he never talks down on his subject matter or his audience. He doesn't stand as a pillar against the face of society's ills. He's not a savior carrying you on his back. He opens up about his own fears of and vulnerability to those ills. He's honest. He'll give you a helping hand with the understanding that you'll do the same for him. He's one of us.

You can hear his paranoia on dark songs like "Free," "What It Is," and "When the Gun Draws," where he runs through everything from record industry slavery and the Matrix to telekinesis and JFK conspiracies. In contrast to that, he has very soulful, uplifting joints like "Desire" and "Push," where he urges himself as much as you to endure the trials and keep living. Two-thirds way through the album, Pharoahe completely switches gears to address the ladies for a few numbers--"Bar Tap," "Hold On," and "So Good." Though they feel a bit out of place with the first 9 tracks, they are still very good songs in their own rights.

"So Good" is especially nice because of Pharoahe's excellent use of dynamics in his voice and delivery. It's a song of love-making and he treats it delicately with a whispered delivery and simplistic, smooth flow. More than anything, he lets the instrumental speak for itself. His voice shows vulnerability here and on "Desire" and "Push" as well, a vulnerability you can relate to.

For this album, Pharoahe experiments with a more deliberate flow. Even though it is dazzling to here him fire off syllables at an adrenaline-injected pace, he understands that different vocal rhythms create different moods. "So Good" greatly benefits from the simpler, relaxed flow. "What It Is," with its off-kilter drum pattern, works with Pharoahe's even weirder, off-beat, oddly-inflected, futuristic delivery. Pharoahe doesn't rest on his laurels.

Desire shines through not just because of beats and rhymes. It shines with honesty and innovation. Plain and simple, Pharoahe is better than your favorite rapper. Here's hoping he drops a bit more frequently than once every eight years.

Highlights: Free, What It Is, So Good, Trilogy

There it is, 8 albums that stuck with me this year and hopefully they'll stick to you too like Elmer or Bono. It's onlyforyoursoul music yall.