Help me ID this track

At my work we've got this 16 year old kid who loves going dumb and all that shit. A while back, shit months ago now, he gave me a cd of stuff he liked. It was mostly bay shit but there were a couple of southern joints sprinkled in. One song was this shit about doing drugs and seeing spaceships on bankhead. He didn't know anything about the song other than that he downloaded it and I've never heard it outside of the cd he gave me. It's been months and I've never found out what the hell the song was so I've decided to just post the song and see if someone knows the fucking title. I thought it might have been a D4L song but I don't know. I don't listen to them so it could be or I could totally be wrong. Anyways if you do know this shit post up in the comments cause it's been bugging me for months.

Spaceships On Bankhead

Funky president

WASHINGTON, Dec. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a statement by President Bush:

Laura and I are saddened by the death of James Brown. For half a century, the innovative talent of the "Godfather of Soul" enriched our culture and influenced generations of musicians. An American original, his fans came from all walks of life and backgrounds. James Brown's family and friends are in our thoughts and prayers this Christmas.

SOURCE White House Press Office

RIP James Brown

I can't believe this shit but James Brown is dead.
Rest in peace.

A lot of people are going to say a lot of shit over the next couple weeks, and rightfully so. Hopefully this guy will get the tribute he deserves - easily one of the most important musicians of the 20th century, without question one of the foremost musicians and anyone anywhere who listens to rap music owes this guy a debt of gratitude for basically creating whatever massive percentage of the genre he directly and indirectly inspired. I mean if you're talking 20th century musicians you're at what - louis armstrong and the beatles and dylan and duke ellington? James Brown belongs with those guys. I know lots of people think about popular music as rising with the beatles and falling with the 70s but 70s and 80s babies have known different, the way shit changed with kraftwerk and james brown and chic and everything that shifted when DJs grabbed on to the rhythm Brown & co were working with, JB is responsible for a huge percentage of some of my favorite music, the turning point, the godfather...I donno this is terribly written and its 2:25AM christmas morning but christ james brown just died and this is fucked up. Rest in peace man.



See Afrika Bambaataa @ SmartBar next month if yr in the chicago area.

banner beats

Bangs, but I'm still not won over by the chopper city boyz as rappers.... Gar is pretty good on this though. B.G.'s new look (see also the Top Back remix) is like some hip-hop Hotter than July-era Stevie Wonder (minus SW's penchant for what the kids today would recognize as the Bape color palette)

Haha or maybe thats a stretch.

I haven't heard the unedited version, so what does B.G. say he's gonna put in Wayne and Baby's mouth? Nah don't answer this.

Here's a classic video from Wayne and B.G.'s friendly days. What happened to Mil? I like this new Clipse album alright but why couldn't rap bloggers bring back this dude and Philly's Most Wanted instead? This beat&Sigel's verse were fire

thats how a player ride

I mentioned these dudes in my last post on Chicago rap. Well I ordered their 'underground classic,' which showed up a week or two ago, with a note in the corner of the photocopied case that this is a 'limited edition (100 CD's Only)'. So you should get on this now if you get a chance, 20 bucks sucks I guess but its worth it.

As it turns out this shit is better than I expected. Its got this self-serious late-90s storyline that that takes on this dated 'don of the clique'/mobster/'roaring 20s'/'the family' mythology, but I have to say I've played it more than most of the rap that actually came out this winter, dated 90s sub-firm nonsense or not. I don't know how much of my interest is because they're local, but other than "North Pole Anthem" the majority of this shit isn't about Chicago, really; some of my favorite chicago rap sounds like it could have come from anywhere. Its just really tight late 90s rap music with really focused and occasionally personal lyricism - and more proof that paranoia can inspire some of the best rap music.

Hustle Til I Die
Never Divide

To give you an idea of their range, here's some lyrics off the more introspective cut "No Surrender," which sounds like GZA/Killah Priest's "BIBLE" except with better rapping.

I took advantage of the times that I had
lost my mama when I crashed,
and my father he was fatally stabbed
n***as was sad, cuz the tramp that murdered him, she was trash
n***as was mad, at my father cuz he left us the cash
it wouldn't last a year
before my funds were exhausted, disappeared
totally clear, becoming broke was my fear
No I couldn't, never turn to my peers
so many tears, no idea, didn't have changin gear
livin in fear that i would be abandoned
alienated, i was trapped, i was stranded
in this society where only cash was demanded
singlehanded i planned my victory
consistency would be the key to unlockin
all of my mysteries
the misery was still inside me
right beside me
left beside me
in front of me
wherever i turned, it was behind me
trouble would find me
money would blind me when my thoughts were infernal
bleedin' bad i needed stitches from a fence that i hurdled
runnin with drugs in my drawers, I didn't hesitate, pause
i was determined to escape from these laws....

Won't do

like father like son

Ethan Padgett's review of the new Birdman and Lil Wayne album.

Sound Tracks | Hip Hop/Rap
Like Father, Like Son
Edition:
by Ethan Padgett

After the departure of B.G., Juvenile, Turk, and producer Mannie Fresh, Cash Money CEO Birdman probably spent a lot of time on his knees in thanks that Lil Wayne is still around. Though still a Hot Boy, after nearly a decade in the game Wayne is eager to prove that he's far from a little squirt, regularly beating off the competition with such force that it's understandable if he's feeling a little testy on the duo's new album. A rapper with this much spunk coming out his mouth doesn't need to spend any more time boning up on his skills or trying to impress people with his stamina. Wayne effortlessly dominates Like Father, Like Son to the point that Birdman often gets the shaft....

That 70s show pt. 3

I checked the Rock the Bells tour last night when they came through Chicago, got to see Ghostface in place of Keith Murray - GF came out for "Ice Cream," performed "One," and did track off his upcoming cash-in More Fish, among other shit. Smif-N-Wessun were good, Supernatural was funny, and Redman was alright too. Raekwon was the best though - I copped this Raekwon mixtape because I thought it was novel to pay too much for something I could download, and because he kind of ripped shit on stage.

There were posters for Cuban Linx II everywhere; there's something so contrived about that shit to me. I mean, Dr. Dre's involvement doesn't mean the same thing it might have even a year ago - 2 of his beats on Snoop's album were trash, and how long did it take everyone to forget about The Big Bang, about a week? - and there hasn't been a good New York EVENT album I can think of since 50's debut. No reason to think this will be different, another case of label dudes and rap impresarios mining New York history in the hopes that some of the past's shine will rub off on inferior product. Never mind that Rae promised at Rock the Bells that the new album would be 'strictly crack rap,' which is some weird boast about when the only rapper who prolly has touched less dope in the last few years than non-ODB Wu rappers is Busta (sans the 'roids). Either that or dudes are pushing crazy weight on the college campus tour circuit.

But then - Raekwon's actually kind of killing it right now. He sounds focused, like lots of time spent on writing, that classique intricate NY style, carefully thought out and memorized, line by interlocking line. Straight up, Rae is just not being lazy - check the recently leaked track Da Destroyer, knocking the crown off Jay's lazy head, "some nights I feel like stickin up exxon/ my gun game experienced, came from robbin Louis Vitton." And then there's this mixtape, a salute to the 70s Heroin era with a Mayfield & Mary Jane Girls funk soundtrack, the prequel to Cuban Linx 2's 80s crack culture electro shock. Its got densely written drug talk that sounds more immediate that most anything coming from Ghost or Papoose or certainly Busta. Its like despite everything working against him - history, age, his peers falling off, the death of NY rap - Rae can shoulder the load and bring quality when it matters, with hard work and an absolute resistence to gimmickry, keep his shit focused and worth dissecting, rewinding so you can deconstruct each lyric like you did back when you first copped OB4CL. At the concert, Rae mentioned growing up in crack-era NY as his continued inspiration, the same inspiration that triggered his verse on "C.R.E.A.M.," the first Rae verse I ever heard and connected with, the same inspiration that continues to drive him; so even though NY is post-crack, even though Cuban Linx II will inevitably disappoint, hyped beyond belief with Aftermath marketing muscle and selling off of history like classic rock radio and Lenny Kravitz CDs, Heroin Only (or any of the other 5-6 mix CDs he's dropped recently) can slot right next to this year's AZ album and maybe the new Prodigy mixtape as a record of well written NY classicism without the obnoxious pressure that warps yr expectations. Its no classic but its nice to see some old dudes aren't ready to hit the beach chair.

Blood on the chef's hatchet i'm here for the action
kill a hundred n***az with asprins and piss in they casket
4 5's rip thru your glasses, all mines Mr. Gymnastics
give me more time or visit the blasteds
cuz i'm starvin, hungry but classy
i'm dead up ya lassies
cuz its nothin press a few buttons
see city disastors
and yo, anthrax em and axe em with cyanide acid
choke em out, left in the cold and skate thru lake placid
stop frontin
know you a pastor, you know i'm a master
i'm like 6 6's in traffic, you n***az is taxis
hard bodies, come thru jurassics
its all about mossberg rugers
loadin them ratchets and blow em like napkins
cuz i'm elevated at the top of my floss pile
the m'll stay young fly and rich as a rothschild
with transaction gram action n***az on the stove maxin'
throw a thousand birds off the road while my soldiers catch it
playin all the lobbies the gottis the red mazzeratis my collegues'll blow somethin, show you karate
we know the code
pyrex and pottis the live section keep em on his toes take off them chromes and pass em to mamis
cuz federados watchin us gambi's is everybodies laundry they huntin for we can get more if we fuckin prolly
we hang n***az bang pistols take a piece of yr finger the same whistle you better respect it cuz my name sizzles HUH

that 70s show pt. 2

Prodigy on fire, pt. 2
n***az get mad i pop in the clip/ and pop for the symbol on they new york fit'/ with a rusty gun, but the shit still spit / rubber bands on the handle, the new york grip

so so detlef

No idea where this came from, it was posted on a message board

So you feel you haven't wasted your time, check out the new post about One Gud Cide/ Twisted Black on cocaineblunts, especially "Game of Life" off the impossible-to-find Look What The Streets Made. Twisted Black has a new album coming out (check "Tru Hussla") which should make being on the TVT mailing list almost worth dealing with 63248 Ying Yang Twins cash-in products.

...like I hear Marvin

NahRight posted this back in July, and when I came across it I remember basically putting it on loop over and over; was reminded by the internets earlier today to track down those early 90s Mob Style releases, and that in turn reminded me of this video, which came out in '91.

Back in the 80s there was a triage of Harlem crack kingpins named Alpo, Rich Porter ("Yo, rest in peace to Rich and Ron, money what they was about yo/ The twins was from queens but got crazy cream with Alpo") and AZ (from whom the Firm/Illmatic/solo rapper took his name). The movie Paid in Full, which came out in '02, was based on the story of the rise and fall of these figures.

Thing is, the REAL AZ ("Azie") was also a rapper, and released a couple albums with Mob style & solo. I've only heard a few tracks here and there, and this shit hasn't been rereleased or anything...but then there is this video on YouTube which is pretty amazing. You'll recognize the beat - there's that track on Cuban Linx which is basically a tribute to this song. Its a pretty significant historical piece I think, and despite AZie's sorta off-the-beat flow, its a really strong song too.


Read about Azie's background and his time coming up in the 80s, including the incredibly story of when he was betrayed and shot, here. And StreetsOnBeats did an informative post on Mob Style last October, which you can read here, including the story of the events described in "Whats Goin On Black."

My block.

MTV's My Block came to Chicago this summer and they finally sent me a promo copy of the companion CD released alongside it. Its got some good shit - Gemini and GLC both sound pretty good, plus its got some classic hits from Crucial Conflict and Do or Die, but as an overview of Chicago or its sound its not very representative - no Triple Darkness, E.C. Illa, Traxster ("Po Pimp" aside), Psychodrama, Infamous Syndicate (Shawnna gets a solo cut tho), Los Marijuanos or Snypaz. Also, why the hell they would include "Girl Tonite" and "Overnight Celebrity" but not "Adrenaline Rush" is just beyond me.

If you're looking for a good idea of Chicago rap and its history you can't do better than the Chi-Bangin compilations - there are a bunch of them but they went and compiled a 'Chi-Bangin re-release' double disc comp of some of the best shit which you can get here via The Tip CDs.


Not convinced? Well fuck you. No but seriously, here's some tracks to convince you to get off your ass. First is a Lil Reap freestyle about Humboldt Park, the Puerto Rican neighborhood on the near northwest side, and the song is hard as fuck.

Another significant track that probably should have been included on a My Block comp is D.A. Smart's "Walk With Me," which is basically a neighborhood tour of gang blocks on the south and west sides and can be found on another comp better worth your time than My Block:

here's a bonus track off Wicked Streets to give you an idea.

Of course this leaves off my actual block, where I grew up on the north side (which people in the Chi call the 'north pole'). And maybe one of the best tracks you discover in the Chi-Bangin set is Jiggs and Cheeks "North Pole Anthem," which does the same thing for the hoods on the north side that "Walk Wit Me" did for the rest of the city. (DA Smart recently did a new version of "Walk Wit Me" that you can find a performance of on YouTube that has him talking about the North Side.) You can read some Chicago message board debates about the relative gangsta-ness of the north pole here. Of course, a lot of this stuff is now outdated, since the city began tearing down public housing and shunting people off to suburbs in the outer ring of the city like Dalton and Cicero, but to me this makes these tracks even more valuable, as snapshots of the mid-late 90s Chicago rap scene, when the 'inner city' actually meant in-the-city and when the music was much more gangsta rap-oriented than a sanitized MTV-approved collection featuring a Common song with John Mayer would suggest.

Jiggs and Cheeks - North Pole Anthem
Jiggs and Cheeks - Gamble with Life

Theres something incredibly suffocating about the utterly claustrophobic production that came out of this city throughout the 90s on most of these underground tapes; Resurrection, as classic as it was, was about as representative of Chicago's sound as the Pharcyde were for Cali in the Dr. Dre era. "Gamble With Life" is bleak, and thats a word people use to talk about somber rap music a lot but its hard to come up with other words to describe just how spare the track is. But on the rapping tip, Jiggs really brought it on this song:

In my lifetime I seen a lot that
n***as underestimate the next man and thats how fools get got
and thats how thugs get shot
and thats how family gets hurt
and thats how n***as end up dead six feet under the dirt
its either me and you first
you fallin offa your square
and my mind is made up that i ain't goin nowhere
Too many folks to take care of
can't let you shatter they dreams
close the curtains on my future
let you battle my team
I'll be in yo hair like a bad perm
until we reach an agreement
or better yet
til we come to my terms
cuz I refuse to get burned by non-negotiable
unapproachable
little pranks screamin that they got rank
frontin like they got bank when i could care less
I will suggest you walk around with a bulletproof vest
cuz frankly I think you well outta tune
with more to lose
if you got beef
then simply have me removed
No need for bad attitudes,
cuz I ain't got the latitude for f*ggot dudes
that think on a small magnitude
you in the danger zone
never travel alone
and when you see me on the streets
I'm concealin the chrome
Jiggs Capone will blast first and ask questions later
playa haters calm down and i'll return the favor
acknowledge me instead of botherin me
this ain't a threat, its a promise like godfather part III,
I'm bein honest

you can gamble with your life dude
but its a price to pay
for everything that you might do
nobody needs to enlight you
we trife too
ain't no tellin what we might do
to strike you

Jiggs is an amazing rapper, but after dropping their underground classic "The Don," they disappeared and only recently resurfaced - Cheeks moved to Detroit and has a MySpace page up and goes by "Chameleon Chief" now; some of that shit sounds alright. Jiggs still lives in Chicago and apparently recorded a bunch of songs and wants to get back into the music, according to an article Chi Bangin posted in April of '05. The best news I've heard lately tho is that "The Don" is back in print, for a limited time, at The Tip CDs; I just ordered a copy and if you like "Gamble with Life" and "North Pole Anthem" it is recommended you do the same.

Another Chicago dude missed in the My Block comp is No I.D., which is especially fucked since he's been producing for more than a minute, and I'm not just talking Resurrection. He's done work for a bunch of folks - "Beats for Common feat. Lauryn Hill, Jay-Z, DMX, G-Unit, Bow Wow, Toni Braxton, Janet Jackson, Jaheim, Jamie Foxx, Beanie Sigel, John Legend, Monica, Mikkey, Rhymefest, Kaye Fox, India.Arie, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Johnta Austin, LEP, GLC, Imfamous Syndicate, Shawnna, Daz (Dog Pound), Do or Die, Malik Yusef, Magic Massey, Bossman," sez his Myspace - the track for Daz was "Thang on My Hip" off Daz's So So Gangsta from this year. Plus dude has an underrated record under his own name (plus whatever this is), and the Beatnuts remix of his track "State to State" is one of my favorite cuts ever. He's been working with Jermaine Dupri lately (which is how he got on the Daz record) and he got Dupri to sign this Chicago rapper named Mikkey, another cat that probably could have gotten a spot on My Block over the second Lupe Fiasco song.

Mikkey grew up in Hamilton Park and worked with Kanye (who, to bring this full circle, was mentored by No I.D....) and eventually got signed to Cash Money - he's on Hood Rich and Undisputed and dissed CM over the "Go DJ" beat awhile back although for some reason I can't find the mp3 I used to have of that shit. He had a contract dispute and left them, now he's got an album coming out co-produced by Dupri and No I.D. One track, "Poppin," shows how strong No I.D.'s soulful style still is; another, "Liquor Store," is kind of a tour-de-force indictment of the Liquor Store's effects on ghetto life and you can hear both at Mikkey's myspace. Its caused a kind of minor "Black Korea"-style boycott due to the following couplet:
"Shorties run up in the store, Arab on they every move" and "He's getting money here, ships his bread back home / They give him tax breaks, banks give him easy loans."

...which, shockingly, The Chicago Reader actually covered.

In other news, wtf this new Black Sheep album isnt bad at all.

I'm At the Budget Inn

I don't know a fucking thing about this dude Gridlock. All I know is that he's from Miami Florida, one of the most worthless states ever. They don't sell 40's there, I will never go just because I have standards. My homie Mike showed me this video on youtube and I've watched it a shitload of times. It's got like 32 views and probably half of those are Mike and I. Gridlock isn't the best rapper but man the song bangs. Yeah it's hella low budget, lyrics ain't nothing new, but there is something to be said for how he holds on to that styrofoam cup so tight. That and escalades with six myspace address on them. I like that dude reps the budget inn. He's a baller for the common man, fuck rick ross and all that fancy rapper fantasy island shit.



another joint that doesn't try to live up to the job of playing pretend that is being a rapper is this Track by Mr Sche, Front Me Something, featuring BlueBoi and Pimpminista. My favorite part of the song is the "I'm hurting dog" adlib. Yeah the song is about selling drugs but it actually touches on some real shit, being broke and unemployed as fuck.

DPGC renaissance

OK so I finally checked that Snoop album. Its a really strong record - "Vato" of course, but he gets all old-school lyrical on (the Impressions-sampling) "Think About It," great smooth funk on "Crazy," and Neptunes don't come off to bad at all ("Vato" of course, and "10 Lil Crips"). I do kind of wish it was more smooth Cali bangers ("Don't Stop") and less jumping around, but really its hard to complain when the Timbaland, Rick Rock and Nottz tracks are that good (I'll pass on Dre sampling Dido but bringing back D'Angelo makes up for that garbage). I wish MC Eiht was still sounding good. Someone should try to convince me to pick up 2006 CMW in the comments section, if there's anyone out there who actually heard the damn thing.

90s vets keep dropping event records, though for every Kingdom Come and (probably) Hip-Hop is Dead (the title track blows in like every way) we've been lucky and gotten solid-to-great records from Fat Joe and E-40. Plus 90s-worshipping weirdos like Game, who's sounded like an oldster veteran ever since he dropped fully formed from the brain of Dr. Dre, obsessed with a past he was never a part of.

Anyway the point of this post is that between Cali iz Active and the new Snoop album and the production from dudes like Soopafly, Battlecat and Daz, its hard not to think that these guys are really bringing it, making LA rap exciting again; "still the beats bang," this badass modern Cali g-funk. I mean check Battlecat's work on "LAX," the way he flips and chops the vocal sample is like nu-Swizz, with Big&Puff vocals stabbing all over the track, over loose grooves with busy samples and random sound drops that suggest a serious amount of craft, even if they seem sort of conservative compared to massive aggro-Atlanta anthems, or blockbuster-sized Dre and Storch beats, or the beats we're used to from the swizz-neptunes-timbo-mannie era of super-syncopated keyboard space funk. But that conservatism seems timely, refreshingly smooth and tasteful. Like the rap world focusing on rap again instead of being all bigger-than-rap millenial crossover artists, and very Cali, the musical equivelent of creased khakis and chucks. Classicist.


For a guy who had beats on All Eyez On Me, Daz Dillinger's profile's been pretty low on the production tip, although he did get some dap in Murder Dog's year end roundup last year for his '05 output. He's been real consistent lately - check Kurupt's '06 album as Young Gotti (myspace here), or check Daz's solo record from this year, which is hot (new No I.D.!) if you drop some of the shittier Jermaine Dupri tracks and Rick Ross - but his profile's just gonna get higher in the next year. He didn't have any tracks on the last DPG record but he's producing Dogg Chit (terrible title), and it drops January 2nd. In other Daz news:

Daz is producing Khujo Goodie's album. Keep an eye on this, its sure to be the next Gnarls Barkley.

A track that should have been on Cali Iz Active prod. by the Alchemist, and another track w/ San Quinn from earlier this year. He and Kurupt are on the Baby&Wayne album, and the DPGs are hosting the track on their site. If you haven't heard it yet check it here, shit could not be hotter.

And this:

"Talented" is pretty hot.
Soopafly produced my favorite beat on Cali Iz Active, "Thrown Up Da C". Uh and this post should not be read as an endorsement of any particular street gangs, obv.

(Classic records, by the way.)


Finally, Robert's classic SMS post on the "Eat A Dicc Saga."

Free X-Clan mixtape