T.I.: King of the Atl Maybe…The South, Not So Much

So, I’ve heard T.I.’s first couple of tracks from T.I. Vs. T.I.P. and I can’t help but think “looks like I’ll have another weed plate soon.” Well, I wouldn’t say that because I wouldn’t buy the cd anyway but still you get the point; T.I. next lp = shitty album in the making. Coupled with the fact, the dude is working with Wyclef on a number of tracks (yeah, the dude that napalmed Canibus’ career/life) and simply put, shit ain’t looking too good.

But after I came to the realization that T.I. was going to put other another frisbee, I got to thinking “Hmmm…when has this dude ever put out a great album?” No, not an okay album, not a so-so album, but a classic or at least near classic. And the survey says, NEVER. I’m Serious was good. Trap Muzik was decent. Urban Legend was butt and King had a production line-up that a teething baby couldn’t fail with. And even when cats talk about it all the say is “it sold a shit load of copies.” No one ever says the shit was fire.

T.I.’s formula of success is a Southern accent + okay flow (lightweight East coast) and at the time he debuted that pretty much made you the best. When T.I. came out, NOT ALL but most, southern rap (barring OutKast, Scarface, UGK and a select few others) consisted of screaming into a mic and adding as much bass as possible on the track. But even when he came out, Ludacris was better than him BY FAR. His flow was/is better; his lyrics were/are better; his albums were/are better. I never quite figured out why people favored T.I. over Luda besides the fact that Luda is a clown-like rapper not a gangster/trapper which somehow in the absurd world of rap makes you a less talented rapper. But anyways, the only justifiable reason I can come up with for T.I. being deemed the king of the South is because no one else applied for the job.

Following his formula, I will now deem myself the king of blogging and in about 3-4 months I’ll be making mad bread having ménages with internet groupies that respect my diction.

Let Me Put You On: El Michels Affair

I got another dope group I want to put y'all on. They're called the El Michels Affair (look below)



They're the guys that's not Raekwon. They've toured with Rae and Wu playing back up making old school Wu shit even doper than it was...They don't rap. They don't sing. They don't beef with other musicians to get pub. They're not picking up trannies (at least I don't think). Them niggas just play music (not that fruity electronic pro tools/fruity loops bullshit, real music with instruments); music that's funky. The first time I heard this shit it touched my soul. The shit is fresh. I'm gonna list a couple of tracks. If y'all like it let me know and i'll up the whole thing. Enjoy. If you likey, cop the shit (album cover pictured below, it's called Sounding Out the City). I didn't cop mines but you should cop yours. Cheap Bastards!!!




Detroit Twice

Ochos Rios

"Can't Tell Me Nothing," New Track By Kanye Tidda

Another Ye track leaked. I scooped it from another blog. It sounds like some real down south shit with the organs and horns (DJ Toomp-ish from Young Jeezy fame). Tidda even threw some Jeezy adlib samples on there too. Ironic, I was just talking about Jeezy. On the track, Ye rhymes about using cake to escape his problems. It's cool definitely not onpar w/that Common shit but it's iiight. Y'all let me know what you think about it.

Can't Tell Me Nothing

Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101 = The Premier Gangsta Opus of Generation Y

I'm about two years late with this post, but sometimes it takes a minute for an album's effect to really set in. Awhile back, I think it was right after Jeezy dropped The Inspiration and I was debating music with my dude and I told him that Jeezy was putting out the best gangsta rap of our generation and he vehemently disagreed proffering no substantial substitute. After awhile, I think he said the Clipse who are dope but can you really say dudes rapping about full length chinchillas, english muffins and duvets are gangsta rap? Let's keep it 100, most cats don't even know what a duvet is.

DUVETS = NOT GANGSTA

You can say what you want about Jeezy (he's killin' hip hop, he looks like a turtle, he and jadakiss are twins) but the dude makes hot shit; POINT BLANK. Do I think Jeezy is the savior of hip-hop? Hell no. Are his lyrics the best ever? Not even close. But when it comes down to that straight ignorant, drink something/smoke something, bass wangin in your whip shit, HE'S THE BEST HANDS DOWN.

Case and point,Thug Motivation. When that shit dropped, summer of whatever year that was I think 05', I can't think of one n***a I knew that wasn't letting that shit yank from the whip AND LETTING IT RIDE FROM THE START TO FINISH--except that one slow track about banging out chickens, at least not while ridin--that's a neighborhood no no.

Thug Motivation was gettin burn in whips, on the radio, in the strip club, in the sewer. It was FUCKING everywhere!!! From LA to NYC, cats felt that album. Even Beans cosigned the shit. It was the biggest movement I had seen since 50 and the Get Rich album. Dude made gangsta rap sound epic ("Standing Ovation"); drums, horns and my homey put it best...Just saying the adlibs made you feel as gangsta as spitting the lyrics. I could go through the whole album in a review like manner but 1)I don't feel like it 2) I'm lazy and 3)no one would read that shit anyway. The bottom line: Thug Motivation 101 is the best gangsta rap album of Generation Y till someone puts some harder shit together.

Disclaimer: ALL YOU SO CALLED HIP HOP HEADS THAT PLAN ON FRONTING ON THIS POST. STOP FAKING LIKE Y'ALL DON'T HAVE AT LEAST ONE ALBUM THAT YOU PUT DECK IN THE WHEN YOU'RE ABOUT TO RIDE/GO TO THE CLUB ETC WHATEVER. Y'ALL KNOW THAT TALIB SHIT DON'T ROCK WHEN IT'S TIME TO GET MESSED UP

Kanye West Stronger = First Single Off Graduation

This is the new Kanye single off of the upcoming Graduation album.

Cool Kids: Some New Ish I Dig (That You Ain't Up On)

I love putting people on to new music, because cats sleep so hard on anything that's not on 106 & Park or on the radio aka BULLSHIT ASS POP MUSIC. Here's something I found on the fader site today while working hard at my gig. I came up on this HEAT ROCK. It's by these dudes from the Chi named the Cool Kids. The track is called "Black Mags," which is a reference to BMX bikes called Dynos (picture below)



Although their steez (fashion wise) is the overly saturated "hey, we're different look at us" jumpoff, the music is dope. Why the fuck does everyone want to be from the 80s? And when did being a nerd get cool? Like Commons says, it's the questions y'all. Enough with all the extra, here's the live performance and if you want to hear black mags check out their myspace.

A Man Torn: Ambivalent Feelings About Laila Ali

One day as I was sitting at my desk working diligently (aka perusing allhiphop.com rumors [shout out to Illseed])and they showed Laila Ali doing her thing on Dancing With The Stars. I saw this...



It left me with a number of thoughts; first being, she's kind of thick; second wondering would I hit; third, her arms are like Both my legs taped together plus my left arm which happens to be my strong arm and lastly, her back is wide as shit and laced with muscles I didn't know existed. The shit really had me fucked up because usually when a chick is diesel like that it typically makes me vomit/I'd never hit but this time it made me kind of wonder. Lightweight, she's kind of pretty AND she can move her hips which equals a hands down pass in my book but her ability to control me physically scares me, literally. I've dealt with women that have been larger than me before, which is almost a given when you're as skinny as I am but I've never dealt with a chick that could hem me up if it came down to hands. I'm no Jason Kidd/David Justice/Ike but c'mon it worries any dude knowing his chick could kirk out one day and whoop his ass, but Laila is ight minus that roided out voice she has...Y'all let me know what y'all think.

You Know What Really Grinds My Gears...

Dipset + New School Temptations = Diptations

When will the Dipset disappear forever??? Friends for life, Camron and Jim Jones, are allegedly beefing. Maybe it's getting SLAPPED up by Tru Life and an assortment of other goons on a regular basis, maybe it's the frequent skin tight jeans and V-neck tee disses, or maybe it's the fact that these dudes produce a hot track about once every 2 years...Who knows but hopefully these clowns will vanish into obscurity forever a la Ed Obannon.





Busta Rhymes' On Steroids--Snoop's On Coke (Both consume Speedballs)

Between the two of these aged rappers, there has to be more arrest lately than football players at the U--and those dudes get busy. Snoop got arrested with nothing short of the mafia on him (guns, coke, bundles of weed) and Bussa Bus crazy ass has been Bruce Bannering (slapping up) random cats like it's nothing along with numerous traffic violations. I'm surprised a judge hasn't slapped one of these fools with a bid in the soap factory (jail).




Mayweather Lays Hands On the Golden Boy

Why do boxers have the most brutal sport but the frutiest nicknames? The Pretty Boy v. The Golden Boy. Both are equally soft. Anyways SURPRISE SURPRISE Mayweather beat Oscar. Everytime Floyd lifted his hands he landed punches while Oscar threw girl like flurries occasionally punching Floyd in the arms or ear. Nice work Oscar. On another note, both fighters caught an assload of $$$. I'm no jockey rider but Mayweather's cooning antics should be documented via reality tv. That n***a is funny.



Warriors are Catching Wood From the Jazz

I watched the game which looked like Arch Rivals and the Warriors caught dick by way of the refs for what seemed like all game. They missed mad fouls, gave Utah mad questionable calls so on and so forth. I'm confident GS will get in that ass at home.

Fruity or Fly???

As many of you know Kanye can be a bit flamboyant...I'll leave the picture below and y'all let me know what y'all think...

Wynton Marsalis Lays the Smack Down on Hip Hop?

Interesting story I came across on XXLMag.comWynton Marsalis Calls Out 50 Cent & Ludacris; a jazz musician expresses his thoughts on hip-hop in a very candid way.

“I call it ghetto minstrelsy,” Marsalis tells The Guardian. “Old school minstrels used to say they were real darkies from the real plantation. Hip-Hop substitutes the plantation for the streets. Now you have to say you’re from the streets, you shot some brothers, you went to jail. Rap has become a safari for people who get their thrills from watching African-American people debase themselves — men dressing in gold, calling themselves stupid names like Ludacris and 50 Cent, spending money on expensive fluff, using language like “bitch,” “ho” and “nigger.”

Disclaimer: This is not about all rappers just the hoe ass n***as that purposely put out wack music.

I agree wholeheartedly and I'd even take it further. Rappers are not just coons, they're HOES. And I don't mean hoes like a hoe n***a. I mean hoes like prostitutes/tricks. Basically, record labels find guys that look like what they imagine a sale-able archetype to be i.e. thugged out, gangsta or heartthrob. They loan them some money so they can get some nice clothes, flashy cars, watches and jewels...Then they put their BITCHES on the strip and tell them to go fetch their bread. If that's not a trick then I don't know what is. When rappers fuck up, labels smack them up. They shelf their projects, cut their marketing budgets, call them in meetings and verbally spank them etc. etc. When a label's perceived as a better fit, rappers move to another pimp. And you never see the pimps in the field. They just put their hoes out there. When they're done shaking their HOES down, they leave them for broke.

Nevertheless, thanks Wynton for thinking and saying what most civilized Black people think about mainstream rap already.

Pound For Pound Beanie's Better Than Hov...

I've been wanting to post this one for a minute but I just never got around to it plus I'm lazy. Do y'all remember the line "Compared to Beans you wack" by Nas when he was etherizing Hov. sidenote: Who thought Nas was gonna drop that napalm on Jay??? I know I didn't. Anywho, nobody ever really took it serious because it was said in the heat of the battle but if you've ever listened to a Jay track that features Beans or vice versa. It's kinda true.

Exhibit A: "Raw and Uncut" Jay's still the elder statesman but Bean's shows he can keep up no doubt.

"Raw and Uncut Lyrics"

Exhibit B: Jay's "Roc La Fam" is like Bean's coming out party. "This Can't be Life" Beans is in the anchor, same thing on "Street's is Talking" etc, etc.

Roc La Familia Lyrics

Exhibit C: On the B-Coming "It's On" Beanie shines on Jay

"It's On" Lyrics

There are some lapses and some other features where I feel like Bean's shines on Hov but I don't feel like scouring the net to find all the features the dudes has ever done. I mean I do have a REAL JOB although I spend most of my time bullshittin'. If that ain't proof enough check this out. Nas v. Jay. Both artists exchange blows but Nas decisively KOs Jigga with Ether. Superugly the response was only a bitch fit with low blows and "Blueprint2" the track was too late. Beans on the other hand bodied Jadakiss in a way that no emcee has ever been bodied before. It was like watching a highschool bully smack up a kindergardener. It was just sad. Jay is probably 10X richer, sold 100X more albums, with Beyonce blah, blah, blah but if these dudes came out at the same time, Jay might be Bean's underling...

Pour Out Some Liquor 4 Hip Hop's Bible

Well, The Source has hit ROCK BOTTOM. No, not the 200th issue with Cube on which was pretty LAME-O in itself or the 100 Pac and Big tributes (seriously though how many of those tributes can you put together) but they're certified deadbeat status. They've filed for Chapter 11 which means if the Source had a whip, the repo man would be on his way to snatch that shit back.

All jokes aside, it's kind of sad because The Source used to be the definitive magazine for hip hop bar none. It was the only magazine nationwide that properly dealt with hip hop in a way that was not too stiff or dry but not too "Tyrone from the block" with its language. The shit was hot!!! John Blaze shit. It used to make us mad when they overrated an album (lil kim's "5 mic" shitbag) or underrated an album (supreme clientele 4 or 4.5 mics). And when they gave Jay's Blueprint and Nas' Stillmatic 5 mics we all had orgasms. Now they're broker than Pookie after he beamed up at the carter. This officially is the BEGINNING OF THE END. THE BIGS ARE GONNA PICK UP SOME OTHER EDGY GENRE AND DISPOSE OF ITS RED HEADED STEP CHILD THAT'S NO LONGER A CASH COW.

Now it'll be left to assrags like XXL and Rap Pages to hold it down. I never fucked with XXL from the beginning b/c it wasn't the Source but I guess I'll check it out after all their blogs are straight.

RIP THE SOURCE

Quasimoto Come On Feet

This video is from off of one of the better hip hop album ever made. It's hella funny too.