Oh Word

If you're not checking Oh Word then you need to get your weight up. They got some dope shit going down over there, not to mention some kickass banners too. The latest is this great breakdown of Devin the Dude's Biar Patch and Brer Rabbit by Rafi Kam. While you're over there check Kevin Beachams Gza interview because it's great too. Those guys almost make me want to not be as lazy about writing as I am.

Grime

So I haven't done many posts on grime lately, shit is hard to keep up with and doesn't really enter my life outside of the internet. But I think there are some things worth checking out this year - two mixtapes in particular, so get up on THIS. The first is DJ Target's Aim High 2 which was a good blend of grime and more British hip-hop tracks, and lyrically takes a step towards making grime interesting to listen to. Which is fucking necessary because so much of it just hits me as ridiculous blaring rawness and thats good at first but becomes oppressive.

The other mixtape I was feeling this year is Logan Sama's RWD mix, which doesn't stick to one-note blazing banger grime tracks - although it has those - but blends into more R&B-ish shit, is broader stylistically, and that holds my attention better than one hundred grime rappers with gimmicky hollering catchphrases: ITS THE MERKLE MAN! I'M SERIOUS! POW! WONGGGGG! Ok Wong is pretty funny. But yeah, fuck that shit for a whole mixtape, unless you know how spread it out, which Logan Sama apparently does. Hot shit like the barreling rhythm of Ruff Sqwad's ululating classic "When I'm 'Ere" or the flute-and-synth interlocking in "Never Guess" blending with more laid back lyrical shit like "City Life" and the upbeat party tracks like "Mr. DJ" 'for the ladies!' Part of why this stuff appeals to me is its like some bizzaro world club scene that only exists in abstract. How about those vaguely east asian melodies plucking in between synths and R&B crooning, laser blats on "My Life"?...this stuff does exist here ("Dip It Low," maybe), but without that guttery trippy two-step bounce. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with American rap and R&B, and Chicago radio is too good to me. The real appeal of this stuff is its remoteness + uniqueness, like it's hard to imagine a place where this shit is 'pop,' - and that inimitable trippy stomping groove? I liked Dizzee a bit, wasn't really feeling the Kano album, the Wiley was aite, but never really loved Grime until i heard some mixtapes last year, got the sense of groove and continuity that I get in rap from Chicago DJs on WGCI and Power 92, with DJ Lil John and Boolu Master.

Anyway, since you fuckers are clearly here for free music, here's the b-side to "Anna." "Anna" pops up on RWD, but this doesn't, so cop it. I think its pretty badass.

Ruff Sqwad - Bring It Down

French MP blames riots on rappers

A French MP has publicly accused rappers of fuelling the country's recent riots with their songs.


Monsieur R feat. Akon - Rebel Music

Al was recently saying how Akon's on the best songs out right now, and I totally agree (check the new Styles P if you haven't heard it). Monsieur R is quoted in that article saying "Hip hop is a crude art, so we use crude words. It is not a call to violence." I don't know what the fuck Monsieur R is saying in this song, because my French lessons ended a while ago (my last class I did win a "best Franglish" award from my teacher, seriously) but Akon kills the hook and R's voice sounds dope and its very timely, so enjoy it.

Self Destruction

For some reason I thought I'd posted about this record before but turns out I'm dumb and was confused about when I posted Semi.Official. Saturday night I went to Slim's to see I Self Devine bust some raps. He's on a tour with Gza, Muggs, and goddamn Swollen Members. I had doubts about going to the show because I really didn't want to have to deal with Swollen Members but my desire to see I Self out weighed my hatred of shitty rapsingers.

I primed myself for the show by drinking some Seirra Nevada Christmas beer shit that is just out in time to get you drunk enough to not remember all this holiday season bullshit. We get to Slims just as the opening act, M80 is finishing his set. I Self was up next and was fucking great. He got all cute freestyling over the "Put You On The Game" beat. His set was about 30-45 minutes or so I think. More people need to listen to I Self Devine because dude is really putting out some dope stuff. He had some hypeman with him whose name I don't remember but I do remember walking up to him after the set to speak some jibberish to him about my friend.
"you see her?"
"um yeah"
"she fucking sucks so bad that I thought you should know that."

After I Self's set was Swollen Members so I decided to drink more beer so that I would not remember their set; this proved to be a wise manuever which resulted in me yelling shit like "got my white tees and my stunnas on, gold ones and I can't go wrong!". I don't think wutang/swollen fans appreciated the embarrassing greatness that is Go Dumb so fuck those tulips. After throwing back some beers I saw Matth of anticon and decided I should talk to him because I'm drunk and awesome. Turns out that wasn't Matth but the guy acted like he knew me because he thought I was in his math class. Then shit got awkward when the guy I thought was Matth didn't understand why I was asking him if he's got some new beats dropping soon and I thought he was a retard for not making music. After getting annoyed at fake matth for giving up rap beats I think I turned around and told my friend Kristin that she was a stupid korean bitch which was a failure at my attempts at being a drunk racist because she's filipino. On the way out of the club we saw I Self Devine and I tried to tell him about Go Dumb and how he should do that song. He didn't tell me to shut up so that was nice. I gave him some money for a micranots cd and stumbled outside. That's pretty much the point at which my brain said fuck it I'm out of here but fortunately my girlfriend got me home where I could passout in safety.

This post isn't really about i self because I'm lazy like that so download this shit and go cop the album because it's raptastic.

Feel My Pain

Ice Cold

Live In The Moment

"Best Rapper Alive"

I buy it.

Big Shug, Yo Gotti + album round-up

So with AZ's "The Come Up" everybody's favorite producer/rap eugenicist DJ Premier has made his "It's All Real" for 2005. Well hold up: Here's the best DJ Premier beat I've heard all year which in 1994 might have actually meant something.


Big Shug charms Serg's girlfriend.

Big Shug - Bang 'Em Down

Big Shug's album Who's Hard is about like you expect it to be. I don't know what else to say really. The single was "The Way It Is" which is another Premo "banger" but its not as good as "Bang Em Down" because it doesn't have those horns ripping it up. If you like pretending it's still 1996, peep game on Gang Starr affiliates!

Yo Gotti
Yo Gotti had that club single "Full Time" that TVT sent to every music writer east of the Atlantic. It was in Hustle and Flow during Skinny Black's party near the end, and it's pretty solid, hard drums and tight guitar distortion, um, flanging in and out.* Yo Gotti has a thick, almost clumsy flow and the closest touchpoint I can think of is Shyne, for some reason. He's not exactly a lyrical king, but he does have a certain charisma. Anyway he hooked up with 8ball and Bun-B for "Gangsta Party" which is on Southern Smoke 22, one of the best songs on it too. It is recommended that you get up on this.

Yo Gotti, 8Ball and Bun-B - Gangsta Party

*I may have misused the word "flanging."


David's Popular Rap Album Round-Up
Here's where I tell you what to think about the albums everybody's talking about.

Get Rich or Die Trying Soundtrack
OK I'll be real, aside from "Window Shopper" which is surprisingly decent for a boring 50 single, I only checked for the Mobb Deep and M.O.P. tracks. None of the Mobb songs are as good as the "Outta Control Remix," and although I'm glad the guys hooked up with G-Unit they need better beats. Production is boring, no really hard tracks, sort of Genericized-Unit smoothed-out M-O-B-B. "I Don't Know Officer" is alright. By far the best track is "When Death Becomes You," by M.O.P. with 50 Cent providing one of those classic slurred hooks that he does so well ("There's nowhere to run to, when death becomes you, some say your soul may burn into flame,") And M.O.P. just do what the fuck they do best, shouting and growling. D-D-D-D-DAT'S WHASSUP!

Lil Kim - The Naked Truth
Fuck five mics! It inspired "kinda gangsta, but T.I. sounds bored." But really it is pretty good, the first half especially. "Lighters Up" is the best Scott Storch track in a minute, and "Whoa" is fantastic. My personal favorite is "I Know You See Me," with soul-sampling that feels more 'confident strut' than forced nostalgia. But uhh what's up with that awful Game song, it's like cliche to say this now but Eminem make a new beat plz.

Trina - The Glamorest Life
This is really pretty great, even though it's her worst album, better than Kim's. Probably the best in this list.

Chamillionaire - Sound of Revenge
This is pretty bad.

Paul Wall - The People's Champ
By contrast, this is pretty good. Not exactly adventerous or surprising, but it's consistent and funny, as expected, and when he's honest/personal it's pretty convincing. "Smooth Operator" is totally the best song, it uses horns like late 80s rap songs used horns, and I want club DJs to spin it.

Juelz - What the Game's Been Missing
This is better than I expected, still a bit one-dimensional and predictable as dipset is wont to be but there are some interesting surprises throughout. I like "Clockwork."

You know the place

So Serg gave me shit for posting about Ginuwine because its 14-year-old girl music or something, so here is some badass rapper music with which to reassert my masculinity. Motherfucker.


The only googleable image of Smoothe on the whole internet, with Vlad the Butcher.

Y'all know Smoothe da Hustla from the totally classic BROKEN LANGUAGE which is like if you took "Time's Up" and replaced O.C.'s lyrical fists with bricks. Or some shit I donno it's late and I'm tired. Anyway I have no idea what the fuck this dude is up to any more other than hooking up with Trigger the Gambler who sounds silly because he spells out his R's when Smoothe is DA HUSTLA but what the fuck do I care? Also Lil Cease is here, and I think this song rules. This single is actually called "Even Da Odds," but that song is lame because it samples Carmina Burana poorly, and if you're gonna sample that then do it right. It also comes off as a little Dipset. The other song on the CD single is called "Get This Money" but I don't like it that much. Anyway enough talking, listen to this shit:

Smoothe da Hustla, Trigger the Gambler and Lil Cease - Brooklyn

In defense of Jazze Pha

This is one of the less-creepy pictures of Ginuwine on the internets.

Ginuwine - Secrets

So just as soon as I finish clowning Jazze, talking about how bored I am by his pimp-formula-tracks he brings it on ... Ginuwine's album?! Yes. And Back II Da Basics is definitely a solid R&B album too, for those of you who like R&B, up with Mariah, Keyshia Cole, Charlie Wilson and Amerie's releases this year. The trick is Ginuwine himself of course, something Timbaland fanatics might not have given him on 100% Ginuwine even though he deserved the accolades for that too. But "Secrets" is cool because its Jazze doing one of those Neptunes-style Rhythm and Gangsta beats they did for Snoop, smoove silvery R&B a la "Signs," but without now-annoying Neptunes quirks. And there's the addictive chorus where Ginuwine's voice peaks on "SEEEEcret, canyoukeepa SEEEcret." I like the uptempo songs more on first listen but its usually that way for me with R&B, I'll let some of the slow jams grow on me. None of them seem outright boring at first, which is a good sign, because Ginuwine is like the hardest working man in slow jams.
Buy the album here.

Best rap album of 2005

1. Intro
2. Triumphant Horns of Victory (Prod. by Rocky VI)
3. After Which What? (Prod. by and feat. Mannie Fresh)
4. Let's Get Even More Blown (Feat. Snoop Dogg)
5. Euphemisms for Dealing (Feat. Young Jeezy and Juelz Santana)
6. Cars, Neat! (Feat. Someone from Swishahouse)
7. Pimping, Obviously (Prod. by and feat. Jazze Pha)
8. Heartfelt and Vaguely Caribbean (Prod. by and feat. Akon)
9. Get Laid (Feat. Trey Songz)
10. I Can't Believe We're Still Here, Either (Prod. by the Neptunes)
11. No really, Lil Wayne's Good Now (Feat. Lil Wayne)
12. Kinda Gangsta, but T.I. Sounds Bored (Feat. T.I.)
13. Lets Get This Rude Club Song on the Radio (Feat. Ying Yang Twins, prod. by Mr. Collipark)
14. I Have Bun's Phone Number (Feat. Bun-B)
15. Avant-Garde, Yo! (Feat. Cam'ron, prod. by NY No-Name and Axl Rose)
16. Yeah, OK, That'll Do Fine (Prod. by Lil Jon)

Disc Two: Screwed and Chopped

OK maybe this shit isn't that funny but fuck you anyway.

Killa Kyleon

I thought about posting about Killa before but then I figured I'd wait till his new shit dropped, Murder He Wrote, but since rappers are so reliable with their release dates I'm just going to post up some old shit. For those that don't know Killa Kyleon is in Slim Thug's crew the BossHogg Outlawz. He came up on the southside watching all those Houston legends put it down on Screw tapes but never manning up to get on one. Years later he got down with Slim and just road that wave. Who knows when his album is going to drop but I'm hoping it's soon because that shit is going to be something fierce. If you're hoping to hear something similar to Slim well you might be disappointed. Slims style is that slow confident delivery while Killa's is more aggressive and a lot more abrasive. Killa is one of my favorite emcees from Houston. He doesn't rely on recycling used up lines about chopping blades and how he's coming down. I saw him in Austin and dude just fucking killed it with this ridiculous freestyle. He has this intensity that you don't find in a lot of houston rappers and it's what makes him standout so much.

See About Cha
Hog Clap
Both of these cuts are off his Welcome To Da Hood mixtape from a couple years back. I think my favorite part of See About Cha is when he says "bitch it's our time, money long and it stretch like a powerline" because it makes me think of the Goonies and I just know that the boyz n blue are down with Mikey and Data. The other joint is him covering Nola Clap with some gun shots sprinkled in there to lighten up the mood.

Texas Lifestyle Flow ft Bun B
Addicted To The Game Flow
These are off Rapid Ric's Whut It Dew 2 mixtape which is hosted by Bun and Kyleon. When ever those to team up for rap it's usually for good for rap. The second track is Killa doing what bitchass Game wishes he could have done over that beat. So many Texas rappers have killed this beat on mixtapes that is pisses me off that Timberland sold this to a weak ass motherfucker like the Game. That amateur doesn't deserve shit like this.

What It Did

This joint might be up on the internets already but now lil flip has a new song out called What It Do (ram) (windows) so I figure I should post up so fools be knowing about how this came out already. Now everybody wants to think that "what it do" is some houston slang because of the rapid ric mixes and paul wall saying that shit on cutesy mtv but people don't know about people saying that shit in the bay for a minute now. I'm not getting into some bullshit about who started it but I know some folks in the bay are a little salty about people getting famous off bay shit. In fact my friend Malina thinks "that shit is hella moted." I don't really give a fuck about who said if first but I think people should know about the Keak joint because it's fucking dope and I like it more than the Flip joint even though Mannie is bringing it. Whenever I rock my Whut It Dew shirt I got bay dudes sweatin me for that shit wondering where I got it but then I tell them Texas and they are like what the hell. The Keak Da Sneak song is off the Guce & Killa Tay - Bullys Wit Fullys 2 mixtape and I think it's from early 2004 but whatever just download it and use this info to bicker for useless hiphop status with your nerdy friends.

Keak Da Sneak - What It Do

4, 5, 6

I mentioned this album in my AZ post and it deserves more attention.



Kool G Rap is one of my favorite rappers and not just his '80s 'golden period' shit either. I'll even go to bat for the vocoder-laced "My Life" that popped up around G Rap's Rawkus almost-revival, one that ended with G Rap in the Koch graveyard. 4, 5, 6 though features the rapper at his hardest, chest-popping mid-90s production and then 808s on the 80s reminiscence "Fast Life," non-stop internal rhymes from an experienced veteren, symbolic collaboration with torchbearer Nas. You've got Grimm pre-shooting on "Take Em To War" and the title track's claustrophobic "NY State of Mind" bite, soulful 80s horn bounce of "For da Brothaz," Buckwild's melancholic mid-90s production, "So catch a flashback of a G Rap track attack like a head crack get smacked through ya cap with lead black..."

The whole album reeks of smog, liquor breath, tobacco and weed smoke exhaled below blood-shot eyeballs half-covered by heavy lids, sounds like the solid thud of unlaced tims on dirty sidewalks, rattling chain-link fences and clanging fire escapes, the sudden wooden smack of a chain-locked door and the clicking of cocked handguns, distant shots buried behind the scarred paint-flecked doors of inner-city hallways and echoing in the haunted public housing stairwells, images of gray skylines smokily blended into the foggy atmosphere, ruthless daily suffocation, NYC-crime noir, moody suppressed evocativeness. The dissonant production, snare rolls that echo with dusty intensity, G Rap's elder rough-edged flow riddled with conviction, impenetrable attitude, spitting packed stanzas of internal rhymes and hearkening back to crack-dominated 80s when he was one of the best rappers in New York. When his career was cornered, trapped in a younger kids game, he really came with rhymes of ruthless desperation, one of the most underrated New York rap releases of the mid-90s.

Kool G Rap - Ghetto Knows (Buy this shit here.)

Bay Area History

if you don't know about the cocaine blunts board get your weight up cause some member on there posted some cutesy bay area mixes. Pretty much all the songs are off tapes or vinyl. He threw up all 8 parts in this series. I just started listening to part 8 and it's fucking great. Go check this shit out They are about half an hour long so that might suck for you dial up fools but I suggest you just man the fuck up and stick it out.

peep the tracklisting from part eight:

1. (1987) M.C. Hammer - Feel My Power (Off his 1st release before he got signed)
2. (1993) Funk Mobb - Inner City Funk
3. (1993) Potna Deuce - Brand New Playas Original Mix
4. (1994) D-Cal - Trigga Drop
5. (1994) C.O.P.S. - Loungen
6. (1995) Knowtorious - Real About A Come Up
7. (1989) Mac Dre - Mac Dre Is The Name (Only Available on the YBB EP)
8. (1994) Budwyser - Black On Black ft Black C
9. (1991) JT The Bigga Figga - Dank Or Dope
10. (1990) Total Devastation - Total Devastation (Their 1st EP)
11. (1989) Hugh EMC - Pimp Style
12. (1989) Supermacks - Supermacks In Effect
13. (1994) Totally Insane - Here We Go Again

The Carter II

The first one was, in retrospect, totally classic. I haven't found a tracklist for this yet but we can be hopeful right? Wayne was one of the best things to happen to Trina's new album! Cash Money is basically dead since Mannie left this summer, but this is basically a post-CM album anyway, classy cover art to signify the transition from bouncey youthful exuberance to battle-tested, scarred experience, matter-of-fact flow and superstar status. Compare this to his face on the cover of Guerrilla Warfare! OK but the LW transition is old news. Whats new on this one? 1) Katrina 2) Will Mannie return!? 3) Hopefully Jazze Pha will keep it "Earthquake" and knock it off with the song intros marring Slim Thug and Bun B albums AWRIGHT AWRIGHT AWRIGHT LADIES! AND! GENTLEMEN! [skip button]. Seriously, Mannie's intros aren't this bad!