INI: Center of Attention

One of the most underrated Hip Hop albums ever; produced entirely by Pete Rock.

INI-Center of Attention

ATCQ: Low End Theory

Let's celebrate this Hip Hop shit!!!

A Tribe Called Quest-Low End Theory

Thanks: 2,000 Readers and Counting

I wanted to do this when I hit 1,000 hits but I just never got around to it and I thought it would be kind of lame to do it when had already passed(like thanks for 1,016 hits) but I appreciate all the love people have been showing me on this blog shit. I remember when I got my first hit. I was mad excited now cats regularly check my shit. I write just because I love to write and I originally created this blog b/c I wanted to talk to yall and yall have been talking back. ON THE REAL, THANKS Be on the look out for the mag I'm about to put out too...More on that later.

Thanks...Yall (the readers) are the reason I keep doing it

This is Why I Love This Hip Hop Shit: Jay Electronica

Fuck, I can't come up with anything profound to say. I got writer's block which is a bit odd for me...

(minutes later) Okay, here we go. Just when I was ready to give up on this Hip Hop shit, someone reminds me just why I love this shit so much. Although on a daily basis we see Hip Hop debased, degraded and (excuse my French) fucked in the ass, we forget that it has so much potential. It truly is an art form when placed in the right hands. Which brings me to the reason for this post: Jay Electronica. As I came to work, thinking about how much I hate fucking working on shit I don't care about, I went over to Billie X.'s blog over at XXL and stumbled upon this cat named Jay Electronica. As I enjoy listening to new music I went over to Just Blaze's blog and what I heard made me forget everything I was doing and realize why I love this Hip Hop shit. Click below and let me know what yall think.

A Special Dedication to a Friend of Mine's

Common-The Bitch In You

Money Does Not Equal Intelligence

This post originated from my watching of the BET awards. I'm watching Ciara's performance, Lil Jon emerges from the ground yelling in his usual fashion and Ciara goes into an all out Uncle Luke booty twirk. So, you're Bow Wow. You have a big ass house, $$$, cars and possibly one of the bombest bitches in the game--whose career will soon dwarf your own--and somewhere along the line you Fuck Up and they say he doinked a stripper or some shit like that. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING??? Bow Wow, watch this and feel the sour face my friend b/c now you're hoe is getting her pipes cleaned by Mr. Vitamin Water. This is the perfect example of how money does not equate into intelligence.

DJ 2Tall Presents...Dudley Perkins and Georgia Anne Muldrow-Beautiful Mindz

Hip Hop is dead has become a commonplace nuance in discourse about the current state of rap music. Similarly, ingenuity in R&B has died down as well as it appears musicians (both rappers and singers) no longer carry the passion for their crafts that they once did. So, it’s refreshing to stumble upon a project like DJ 2Tall Presents…Dudley Perkins and Georgia Anne Muldrow-Beautiful Mindz. Each of the talented multi-faceted artists contributes their own unique ingredients into the cauldron to produce an effort that’s equal parts experimental, funky, futuristic, and free flowing.

“A Beautiful Mind,” the lead single of the album, has Dudley Perkins (also known as Declaime) and Muldrow pairing up to show their palpable chemistry. 2Tall provides a background laden with breezy flutes and a basic drum pattern suitable for Declaime’s free flowing stanzas that hit on varying topics including empowering the youth, inciting revolution and spirituality. It’s not until mid-song where, songstress, Muldrow displays the range and depth of her vocals on an extended hook. The formless structure of this track characterizes most of the album as speech transitions into rhymes and rhymes transition into crooning etc, etc. For instance, the duration of “Atall” has Declaime giving a revelations-esque spiel, claiming the end is near, in which his verse falls somewhere between an uptempo monologue and traditional rhyme spitting and eventually evolves into singing. The loose structure gives the album an organic and fluid feel. The instrumental interludes 2Tall provides weave the album together and illustrate his production prowess. On “Coils” 2Tall accesses tambourines and an active string section to make a unique concoction akin to something the RZA would have put together in his hey day. Muldrow’s appearances are few and far between as her only solo effort comes in “Ain’t That Strange,” a not so impressive rant about deceitful people who prey on others. This album is at its best when Declaime, Muldrow and 2Tall are all contributing on the track i.e. “Fonkwitme.”

Although Beautiful Mindz is an enjoyable effort that’s an alternative to the fodder currently out there, it does have its faults. At times Declaime’s subject content is a bit too abstract and comes off as hippie existential babble. Also, 2Tall’s beats at times become cluttered with too many elements. Personally, I’d like to have seen more of Muldrow who’s mostly reduced to singing bridges but for the most part, Beautiful Mindz is a seamless, invigorating outing that’s inspirational and innovative.

Kidz in the Hall "Work To Do"

T.I. Vs. T.I.P.: (Afterthoughts)/Prince Paul's A Prince Among Thieves = a Real Hip Hop Concept Album

Props to my homie Shafeeq for the inspiration on this one...

Enter T.I. who says:

“You have to go back to Aquemini, All Eyez on Me, Reasonable Doubt, Ready to Die. You have to go back to all those classics to compare this album to."

My Opinion: Hell No

About a day or two after that T.I. album leaked, I reviewed it on my blog. Initially, my thoughts were it was a real good album. In fact, I said it was a damn good album. Here's why I thought that though: he actually carried the dual persona motif throughout the duration of the album and he took a risk by putting out a concept album when he could have just put out a traditional LP and still sold a billion ringtones/albums. And as far as production (top notch producers), storyline (self explanatory) and arrangement (cohesion) it was a nice overall effort. Now, the lyrics weren't spectacular--not a big surprise, T.I. was never Rakim or no shit like that--but as far as the whole presentation and how dramatic and larger than life it was, it was a kinda fly album.

It was kind of like how you know Diddy sucks balls at rapping but you cop the album because you know there's going to be some ill beats and some crazy features. Yea, it was that type of effort.

Now that the dust has settled the shit don't seem too ill anymore. T.I. fans may want to exit left...now. The shit is a blatant bite off of at least 3 or 4 albums. Circa 2004, I recall Cassidy recording an (shitbag) album named Split Personality where he recorded halfway decent gutter tracks and the other (God-awful) half of that crappy album was cotton candy ballads with R&B artists that catered to chicks. Albeit the album hurt my ears, you can kind of see the similarities between the two efforts. Not convinced, what about Nelly's weed plate album that came out around the same time Sweat/Suit. I'm not gonna front like I've ever listened to more than about 4-5 tracks on either of these discs but the concept behind the album is half of the tracks are for the club and the other half are for chicks...T.I.'s mix = half for the streets/half for the birds...Then there's Eminem who had the whole Slim Shady alter ego thing. With that said, you can't really give T.I. too much props for the whole split identity concept b/c it's been done a million times before and those are just the joints I can't remember. And the whole alter ego motif is the foundation of the album so if you can't give him props for that what else is there??? Right.

Womp womp for T.I.

Now that I've got that out of the way, I can talk about a REAL concept album: Prince Paul's A Prince Among Thieves.



If you're semi new to this hip hop shit read about him. Here's Wiki's description of A Prince:

"The concept follows the story of an aspiring young MC named Tariq (played by rapper Breezly Brewin), who needs to collect money to record a demo tape before a meeting with Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA. A desperate Tariq quits his low-paying job, and turns to his friend True (played by rapper Big Sha), who plugs him into the world of drug dealing. The story sees the two making their way through the drug world, a police ambush, jail, and finally, a deadly showdown.

The album features cameos by Kool Keith, Big Daddy Kane, Chubb Rock, Biz Markie, De La Soul, Everlast, Sadat X, Xzibit, Kid Creole, Special Ed, Chris Rock, RZA and Buckshot. If you haven't heard it, go buy/download or steal it."

Here's my description A Prince Among Thieves = CRACK. My words won't do it justice. Do yourself a favor and cop it (buy/download/steal) by any means necessary. Imma try and find the album and post it.

It's the BEST HIP HOP CONCEPT ALBUM BAR NONE.