Common: New Track "Break My Heart"

Hey, I said I wouldn't post the whole album. This is only one track--that makes it okay...right. Here's one of the tracks that I was feeling off of Com's upcoming lp, Finding Forever.

Break My Heart

It's leaked: Common Finding Forever

I ain't gon post it b/c me and my man is from the same parts, but it's out there if you look.

Naw Bruh That's Not Really A Classic

Yesterday, I was reading Meka Soul's blog on HipHopDX. It's basically about the besmirching of the word classic. Only in Hip Hop do cats throw the word classic around every 5-10 days with albums that are usually worth less then a "blowski" (word to Bol) from a chick with long teeth and gingivitis (sorry female readers of the blog). Here's how Dictionary.com defines a classic "an author or a literary work of the first rank, esp. one of demonstrably enduring quality." Suffice it to say that you can sub out "literary work" and add "album" for this context.

I'm going to go ahead and throw in my own two cents. A classic album is one that 9 out of 10 cats would consider to be damn near flawless--that means like one track that's booty and possibly a few annoying skits, but in all likelihood an album that's perfect. And yea, that one cat who doesn't agree with the other 9 is probably a down syn-baby--sorry to say. One person can't categorize an album a classic and it's just so. The streets have to proclaim it so and it remains so after years and years of bumpage. Also, for good measures the album has to change the way cats make music afterwards and not for a couple of months but for years to come. So, with that said it's time to quiet that talk about how you think so and so's album is a classic. If it ain't 3FeetSupremeReadyIllmatiReasonableChroniCriminal CubanEnterdaPaidinItTakesaMill and a select few others that shit ain't a classic. I hate to be the one who tells you younger guys but there hasn't been a classic in about 10-12 years...Yea, that long.

So here's the list of a few recent albums that are NOT classic.

College Dropout or Late Registration-I like Kanye West. I respect what he does but if you can hear a cat taking breaths in between bars then he's not ready to make a classic yet.

Hip Hop is Dead I haven't listened to this album in months and when I do I skip through alot of the tracks. When it came out, it was deemed a classic. Now, that the excitement has died down...Not so much. Most of yall yokels can agree this one is not a classic; another good album but not a classic. Couldn't hold the weed of Illmatic. Say I'm lyin'.

Lil Wayne-The Carter 1 or 2 I don't think this needs any explanation but okay, I'll go through it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Wayne fan but neither of these albums are classic just based upon the fact the album, persona and motif are a collage of pop culture icons and unhealthy male on male obsessions plus the whole fabled ghostwriting thing.

Food and Liquor I like Lupe's debut and it's certainly dope; possibly a near classic and defintely one of the more creative releases in recent Hip Hop history but not a classic. I get the concept of the album, but I don't think he uses much of that throughout the album. It's difficult deeming whether "I Gotcha" is either or where does "the Instrumental" fit in??? The individual tracks are dope but it just doesn't seem to come together as a whole for me. He should've released the leak but nevertheless, not a classic.

Be This is a hard one for me. I think most Com fans--including myself--just want to give dude his props a la Scorsese but I can't honestly agree that this album is better than Resurrection (a classic) or One Day It All Makes Sense (a near classic). I think alot of times when we hear our favorite emcees get laced with some decent beats we're like "yea, this is it." But, when you look at the subject content of Be, it's not as focused as the albums mentioned above.

Fishscale This is another difficult one for me. This was my favorite album of 06, but would you say it's Supreme Clientele??? Not, if you're smart. This may be as close as you can get to a classic in this era especially in the mainstream. After a couple of years this may be considered a classic but for now, I'm gonna have to say nope.

There's a few others that I can think of i.e. a few Talib albums but I think this should do for now as I know most of yall do not like scrolling down and reading this far down into a blog.

A Couple of New Videos (Courtesy of On Smash

Remy Martin *smh*: You Dun Fucked Up Now

Woody Harrelson really hit it on the head in White Men Can't Jump when he said something along the lines of black people would rather look cool and lose, then look dorky and win. Note: This doesn't refer to all black people but every now and again we get glaring examples.

Case and point, dumbass Remy Martin. I'm sure most of yall have heard about her fiasco over the weekend. If not, you can catch it on just about every Hip Hop-related website but here's the gist of it. Remy Martin was in New York's trendy meat-packing--can't they come up with another name for this area--district partying and bullshittin. She was with some friends (weed stashers) and probably some groupies and goons. So, for some unknown reason, Remy goes to do something else and leaves the designer bag under the supervision of her friend. What she was doing hasn't been stated yet but it can assumed it was probably some dumb shit she wasn't supposed to be doing in the first place (blowin' a guy, snortin' rocks or tuckin' her penis). So, when she returns to said friend and bag someone had lifted 2 stacks ($2,000) out of the bag. Now to me, 2 stacks is a helluva lot of money--possibly enough to hit someone with a blunt object while they're not looking but kill nah. But to her, it doesn't seem like hardly enough to make a big deal over ya know with all the bricks she's flipped. I mean it's not the first time a rapper's been robbed i.e. Young Buck, Prodigy, T.I., Jeezy, Bow Wow (yup, just about everybody). But this bitch goes all O'Dog and caps her friend in the stomach. Then, she stupidly tries to getaway in a loaded blue Escalade--like nigga's won't see her--and here's the kicker the dummy crashes. Later, she turns herself in.

So, in order to keep her street credibility she blammed the chick right on the spot and now has to figure out how she's gonna beat what looks like an unbeatable case. She's not facing misdemeanors, these are major Fs (attempted murder). She definitely don't have the Hilton dough so when the judge drops the gavel on this one, expect to see Remy in 2040. If anything was to be learned from recent rap going-ons it would be that you have pimp's tricks beat up the perp and keep it moving but because of Remy's newly found gully juice, she now has to figure out how she's gonna replace the 2 stacks and the 250 stacks she just blew on bail and how to manage to not become apart of the jailhouse commerce.

Just another example of when keeping it real goes wrong.

Callin a Spade a Spade...

I'm at work on Nah Right doing what I does--moonlightin' like fuck and gettin paid on the company dollar and hear Cassidy's I Get Money (Freestyle) and I must say he styled on 50 with a pretty mediocre Cassidy verse, but that's only to be expected as if 50 produced anything other than a turd nowadays it would be astounding. Towards the end there's an interesting jab taken at the rapper du jour, you know Mr. 468K out the gate/dude with two dudes living in him. I'm not the type to pat myself on the back but I was all over it (about 2 weeks ago) with this post so give me a round of applause. Thank you, thank you. Apparently, Cassidy was reading my blog or has eyes and ears that function with minimal comprehension skills. Judging from T.I.'s recent hijinx I'm sure he'll have something to say and Cassidy will respond, yall know how it goes and maybe in the end, someone will catch an eye jammy much to my delight. But the sad thing here is that T.I.'s blatant bite sold more in its first week--and if not first week then the addition of his second week--than Cassidy has sold ever (whole catalogue, perhaps). Is there any justice in Hip Hop??? It's like when someone makes a diving catch in Madden for a TD on the last play. You know it's bullshit but what can you do?

The Notorious

Peep game:

The Notorious MSG

Just Drop the Fuckin' Album You Pricks

Betwixt all the tomfoolery that went on with the two above this is the product (one out of the many tracks they supposedly collabed on). I think this is supposed to be Saigon's single, although I thought "Pain In My Life" was the single but I figured that wouldn't last b/c it's just a little bit too real for the radio. Depending on how well the Greatest Story Never Told sells, I think we may see a new model for promotin' albums; artists upping their internet presence, getting guestblogs on myriad sites, droppin E-disses via Youtube. Although nerds like myself have been rippin' artist(s) new assholes on the world wide web for some time now, we are now beginning to see rappers have their semi-literate weed carriers use the net to push their own agendas, mainly selling an assload of albums and subsequently making $$$ via concerts. I think I see a blog coming...For now, check out Saigon's new single "C'mon Baby" produced by Just Blaze adlibbed by Swizzy.

Oh yea, you two fucks stop teasin the fuckin net and drop this fabled album. We're feenin over here!!!

Saigon-C'mon Baby

My Other Child

This idea spawned out of many of my dialogues where I'm ranting about how hot some new shit is and how yall (my friends) need to get up on it. Basically, I have a new blog devoted to posting new shit, exclusive shit, vintage shit; well just mad shit but it's more so music-driven. Confused, well this ought to clarify. When you're done there, here's the main address for your audio consumption and general enjoyment.

Don't worry loyal fans, I'm still posting here but while Hip Hop is so blah I gotta do something right.