Just a little post :)

Life is pretty cool right now. I am still catching up from missing the first week or so, and on top of that carrying on regular life. I get to play watchdog today and our edit board is grilling UK's president Lee T. Todd today. I think I'm going to take it easy... Ha. Anyways, it's Tuesday which makes me think of music. So here you go:

First, Kanye has a new version of Love Lockdown! It has been mastered and is now on point.

Next up, ATM(Cory Gunz, Smoke DZA, Numbers) ft. Mickey Factz - Swagger Like Us . Mickey Factz, Cory Gunz and two random dudes rap over the Swagger Like Us beat and its a decent effort. Now I normally don't do in depth commenting but here's what I got. Mickey Factz is quickly becoming one of my favorite people to listen to, simply cause he gets it. He isn't on Wikipedia, most people don't know who he is... and when he gets on a track he definitely let's you know he is above and beyond what you normally hear. The second guy used the auto-tune and I didn't even mind it. Actually his verse was pretty hot, but I can't say that he gets it 'cause I have no idea who he is just like the last guy on the track. Cory Gunz did a good job of showing why the vocoder needs to be destroyed and why the auto-tune only should be used by no one.


Rick Ross also jumped on Swagger Like Us. I guess its the new A Millie. Ricky Ross the rent-a-cop really did a nice job on this track, better than most can. Still, I am hoping that Fabolous destroys that track here soon, but even more so that when Joe Budden releases his next mixtape (where he will finally go back to jackin' beats) he will get on beats like this and show people how much better he is than 99% of the game.

Speaking of Tuesday, Royce 5'9 has a new mixtape. Royce's intro on his first album was called It's Tuesday and that track/album was sick. His new mixtape, "The Bar Exam 2", just popped out and I will stake my rep on its hotness.

Below is the Cool Kids new video Delivery Man. Last year they did that song Black Mags, and they definitely have a good sound.


Cool Kids Delivery Man

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

Jadakiss is about to drop a new album... so he can call himself top 5 dead or a live off three LP's. The first single is called By My Side and it features my least favorite Neyo.

Finally, I will link you to the best mixtape of the year There is No Competition by Fabolous. If only he were consistent and spit as hard as he does on mixtapes when he makes albums :(

Just because this was all music I may post another one today, if not....

Salute

A little disappointed

I'm not gonna lie. I signed up for that special text message to see who the future VP is going to be and it broke at like 10 pm PST (1 am where I'm at). That was really wack. The whole idea behind it was to keep the supporters in the same loop as the media, but the media still had the upper hand and had to break the story. I mean I guess I get the point of why it leaks or gets out, but still I wanted to have a breaking story as it happen. It really cheapens the process, thank goodness I haven't gotten any of the other texts they sent out otherwise I would be pissed.

This is one of my problems with the campaign. There is an effort to be cutting edge and groundbreaking, but in a lot of ways it will go to traditional political norms when it comes to things. I don't want to go too in depth and get cynical, but it is one of those things....

EDIT: I got the text at 12:15 PST (3:15 am where I'm at) Obama/Biden '08!

Edit 2: I just checked hiphopgame.com one of the sites I frequent and Barack Obama selected Joe Biden as his "runnin" mate. I dont think its a typo. How are people supposed to learn if they are taught improperly?

Anyways, to take my mind off of the slight betrayal heres some music for you all to hear:

"SLU (Swagger Like Us)"--TI f/ Kanye West, Jay-Z & Lil' Wayne aka The Little SwaggerMonster that could
Line of the track: I'm Christopher Columbus, y'all just the pilgrims" Mr. West


http://www.zshare.net/audio/1748577144739ae1/


"My President is black" Young Jeezy f/Nas
Line of the track: "Y'all touch him we ridin'" ...gotta love Jeezy (talking at the end of the track btw)

http://www.mediafire.com/?dt1g0weprif

Salute (and tell a friend)

Where has the orignality gone?

This is gonna be a difficult post cause two of my favorite rappers are guilty of this, or I guess followers of this terrible evil plague of rap..... Rapping over another dudes beat. (I want to say the n-word as they would say in the streets, but after what happened to Jesse Jackson, I doubt any negro with sense will have the n-word be heard out of their mouth).

Anyways, I saw the 30th free over the little creature feature's track Let the Beat Build today and I thought to myself: "this is what is wrong with hip hop." The new school, including two of my favorites, Joe Budden and Fabolous, make their names off of getting on somebody else's track, and in their case doing it better. But very few make a name for themselves on their own original work, so what happens? Rappers flock to get on a beat and outshine the next emcee and you have the A Millie Wars, the Show Me What You Got Struggles, and the Grindin' games. Its sad.

Spanky, my hurt little cousin said that is what is good about hip hop. Granted, it was in a different and nonsensical context. But whatever, its Spanky aka Marty Mcfly (if he has pissed you off or you want to get at the bum cause for some strange reason you think he is smart thats how to find him. I think he's going to start blogging soon btw). Anyways, I think its terrible what hip hop has become because it's replacing sports as the new crack (the method by which urban youth seek to "make it"). Everybody thinks they can get rich off of it, the people who are good at it make it clear that they put no effort into it, and if you don't succeed, to be quite frank, your f*cked. So you have a bunch of little wanna be "God MC's" running around trying to be the best rapper alive while making it rain, either dropping tracks in minutes without working on them, and wasting their other assumed talents on rap. Sad I know.

But more importantly the art is dying because all of the skilled aspects of rapping have given way to the subjective aspects of the craft. So wordplay, structure, bar quality, blah blah blah, have given way to flow, beats and whatever the hell else that ru(i)ns hip hop. Again I am not a hater. I listen to the Lil' Creature of the Su woo gang, the Jeezy's, and all the new school rappers and I like them a lot, they have brought a lot to the game. I guess I'll say hip hop needs a few organ transplants.

What if your lungs forgot to breathe or your brain let your thought processes be redundant. It's getting bad y'all.

When will it stop....

I haven't posted in a while so I am gonna drop a few today, hoping you all have as much time to read as I do to write.

Between Tuesday and Saturday I worked a little over 45 hours, but the killer part of all that was the "fun having" I did in between. Luckily, I don't get out of control, well maybe a little bit ;).

Anyways, Friday night was a friend’s party and at every party you have music. At the party I was so focused on having a good time and mingling with the folk I didn't have time to really analyze the music, it was just background noise to my sporadic conversations I guess. Well I got up today to do my usual internet browse and I came across a free(style) by Cam'ron. You know that rapper that wears, raps about high fashion, and was the first big name saying no homo (hmmm), over the Lil' Wayne Let the Beat Build track.

Then I remembered hearing the original track on Friday and actually waiting for the beat to build which took like 20 mins…. actually only like a minute and some seconds, but still much longer than any beat needs to build. Back to the point. Why? I don't need to wait for the beat to build. That is a dumb a$$ concept for a song anyways. What? You gonna rap about building a beat and then what happens after it drops? Start again. Am I the only person who sees through this crap? I mean seriously. When will this man go away?

I am so sick of Wayne right now. Don't get me wrong. He's hot. BUT:

1. He isn't good (he doesn't do anything well except simple punchlines and metaphors with a hellified swag.
2. He has very limited talent (he can rap yes, but he can't work within the constructs of an album well. Those are two different things)
3. He is ugly, short, and does dumb stuff like sip sizzurp (an alcoholic drink with cough syrup)
4. He kisses boys (can you no homo that?).
5. He has a 1 hot album every 10 years average (Carter 2. He kills random tracks on mixtapes but is no where near consistent.)
6. He bites everybody's flow (for all you dummies that get on Jay for being a biter Wayne is much worse.)

I could probably go on but then I would be called a hater....and I'm not. Wayne is in like the top 20 people I listen too... the thing is he is everything people hate about other rappers rolled into one rapper and everybody loves him. He says some of the wackest lines, bites the most flows, has some of the lamest songs, does that gayest things, and so on and so on... yet he is loved.

Trust me no hate here. I wanna see most all black people make it, as long it isn't to the detriment to other black people (like MJ and Jordans, or Bob Johnson and BET., you know people whose careers feed off of the exploitation of black people). Wayne is fast approaching that status because everybody and their momma (probably literally now) thinks they can rap.

Sadly, I must say Jay-Z is probably to blame for Wayne.... them damn Carters and their refusal to write lyrics. If only Wayne was good at going off the top of the head.

OHHHHHHHHHHHH.....in completely unrelated and irrelevant news Amil (All Money Is Legal) formerly of Rocafella records has a freestyle over the A Milli beat. So now everybody and somebody's momma has rapped over it.

Check it out: http://www.zshare.net/audio/150887202a379180/

Swagger and flow are the steroids of rap, beats the B12 shot that keeps you going

I am a big hip hop fan. And my biggest problem with the genre isn't necessarily the artists, but the listeners.

Why do I say this? Because Weezy F baby is allowed to say he is the best rapper alive and get away with it. Admittedly, I am a fan. But I listen to, and a fan of a variety of other rappers ranging from talentless and celebrated (Jeezy) to extremely talented and grossly underrated (Joe Budden) which gives me a lot of insight. Wayne is talented yes, but it’s only marginally better than other above average rappers. Case and point Barry Bonds off of Kanye West's Graduation.
Here's his lyrics (edited):

And me I'm Mr Weezy baby...yea I'm so bright not shady, my teeth and my ice so white like shady, ice in my teeth so refrigerated, I'm so **** in good like I'm sleepin' with Megan, I'm all about my Franklin's.. Lincolns and Regan's
Whenever they make them..i shall hayve (Not at typo) them, oops I meant have them, im so crazy, but if u play crazy you'll be sleepin' with daises, its such a habeet (again not a typo just bad lyrics), oops I meant habit, and my drink still pinker than the Easter rabbit, and I'm still cole(cold) like Keiyshia's family, stole on my waist turn beef to patties, and I ate it cuz I'm so at it, and I don't front, and I don't go backwards, and I don't practice, and I don't lack it, and u can get buried ****

Decent. But not great. Basically the story of Wayne's career. Like I can figure that out the first time I hear it.... there's not really anything of substance or is even above the wit you can find on the street. And half of it is swagger and flow nothing actually lyrically based.

Its super annoying that he lets it be known that he doesn't practice because clearly he should, and his influence on all of these wanna be d-boys/rappers is going to be the death of the game. And the theme of the song is another hit....the saddest thing about it is that it takes a hot beat and 15 minutes in the studio and a little swagger to make another hit....Barry Bonds. Swagger is the steroids of rap! Well its one kind. Pump your raps with swagger, flow, "style" and spit it over a good beat and you've got one of these new school steroid rappers who outshines the traditional emcees doing it the right way with lyrical content, wordplay, varied structure, multi-syllabic rhymes, creativity, etc.

It must be said that the reason I made this post was because on this Fabolous mixtape of DJ Drama's there is this posse cut with Freck Billionaire, Paul Cain, and Red Cafe where Fab makes a reference to the four rappers as the 4 Horsemen of wrestling fame. I was trying to verify the lyrics that connected the metaphor to the punchline so I could quote it to a friend who said that Fab has fallen off. When I Googled the lyrics, EVERY single site that had the lyrics screwed up the reference. The original 4 Horsemen were Are and Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard and of course Ric Flair, but whoever got the lyrics must not have known that and had some ridiculous combination of words that made no sense....but was probably hot to their stupid little mind.

What does that have to do with anything?

Well one, it shows people aren't listening and two it proves the whole rap being non-lyrically based. That wasn't the only lyric that was messed up in that track, which is considered one of the best on the mixtape and if people don't know what they are hearing then they really aren't respecting the lyrics and two the flow and swagger (combined with the beat) carry the song to where people actually like it.

I know when you go to the club, you would rather hear about lollipops than how blacks have been oppressed and forgotten achievements like some of Nas' lyrics suggest. Even something a metaphor calling you people Clinton, HillBilly mofos (get it Hillary Bill Clinton lol), isn't something you want to hear at the club. But let's not call the rapper with the most commercial appeal or the easiest, slightly clever lyrics to decipher the best rapper alive. Please. I beg you!

Jay-Z at Glastonbury

I was browsing Hiphopgame.com today in the audio section where I go to find the good, the bad and the ugly of national, underground and regional hip hop/rap. Well I listened to an interview Jay-Z did with popular British DJ and hip hop everything figure Tim Westwood and I must say it was pretty good. They talked about the love of the game, performing, life...typical interview stuff. But one of the topics they touched on was the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing arts in Pilton, England.

Jay has been selected to perform at this festival which has caused some controversy, as Glastonbury traditionally is a rock based gathering. Considering the fact that its a three day outdoor hippie fest of sorts, it doesn't come as a surprise to me that people feel Jay will be out of his element. Heres the actual interview its worth a listen:

http://nahright.com/news/2008/06/25/jay-z-interview-with-tim-westwood/

So Jay talks about listening to different types of music and how its like the old slave like mentality that wants to keep him out of the show. And to a point I agree. But being unfamiliar with the whole Glastonbury mess I did a quick Google search and came across some nme.com. The site had bunch of the news stories related to the controversy and there was a forum for commenting.

Mixed in between the typical ignorant, racist, culturally insensitive posts and the optimistic, was open-minded and embracing gem of a post. It said "Imagine if Radiohead was headlining a hip hop/rap festival... Do you think people would 'embrace' them? No chance. I'm not sure why he's 'taken aback' and acting so surprised."

Now me I literally listen to everything. So when I read Radiohead, I was like shoot, I have been at least a casual fan since I was a kid and they had those crazy animated videos. (Now I am a fan of Thom Yorke the lead singer, his album is called Eraser and its pretty nice and they make pretty entertaining music in general). But then I thought that post is right on.

But whose fault is it that there is such a controversy with the music?

This is not rhetorical. Please respond and I'll give my thoughts a little later on.

I Love T-Shirts...but what's s going on here?

T-shirts are probably my favorite piece of apparel behind shoes and basketball shorts. They're comfortable and easy to maintain, and they have classic fashion status (the day t-shirts go out of style the day society ceases to exist). Well right now the t-shirt is having a bit of a reboot in the form of different neck styles....and I'm not sure if I like it.

I was listening to a song by Pacific Davision, an up and coming group out of LA and in a freestyle (over Busta Rhyme's Touch it Beat produced by Swizzy and Dre), they mentioned wearing white tees with tight necks. And I said well that must be how they do it out West cause that's how everybody i know up and down the coast wears t-shirts. And then I thought to myself, "that's pretty much how everybody wears tees. You know with the fitted neck right? The only way to wear them."

And then a couple of months ago, I was reading something on one of the hip hop blogs I frequent and there was a new Joe Budden track. What made the post stand out besides the fact that the best rapper alive had a new track was the picture. Dude was standing in the middle of the club with a mean ice grill on his face in a white tee. Now why is that funny? Because you could damn near see the top of his belly button in the shirt cause the neck was so loose. I thought to myself "well I guess that's what they do in Jersey." But why Joe? LOL.

But even at that point I just dismissed it as something they do somewhere else that I had no control over.

Like I said I do a lot of observing and I have seen how tees went from regular, to tall, to snug to trendy, and everything else under the sun. But in all of my observations other than Shaggy I have never seen anybody in a V-neck T-shirt. OK maybe somebody born before 1970 that won't give up the style, but that's it. Now I am seeing V-necks everywhere. And they are not hot. Plus most of the time they are rocked very snugly, just like the new jeans fashion that’s going around. I don't know where hip hop is going these days. What happened to LA Kings hats, Jheri Curls and the flannel shirts with the buttoned top button?

I could understand even the slight V for fashionable purposes or to give a different look, but now its like at minimum cleavage showing V's and its just not necessary. It is really odd that men are starting to show more skin up top. But we have been on a trend to more androgynous clothing anyways. Was Jadakiss right "tight shirts, tight jeans all these homo-sapiens?"