Yea...

I Called That?
written by Just K

JusHH took you through that feeling of joy - the undeniable feeling of triumph when you endorse an artist before anybody else does. The risk of believing in an artist in the earliest stages of his or her career and the reward of that belief blossoming into an accurate prediction is a wonderful thing. But ladies and gentlemen, it’s not all hi-fives, daps, and hugs. Oh no! I’m here to show you the dark side of believing. I’m here to show you that sometimes that MC you vouch for in front of everyone – and yes, it is even more painful when you vouch by yourself – can have a mainstream career that disappears quicker than crab legs at a buffet. As painful as it may be to take this trip, I am willing to display my numerous erroneous “calls” so that you, the faithful readers of PTM, understand that as impeccable as my taste in music is, even I have made mistakes. Ah, the perils and pitfalls of “calling” it. This is what happens when you “call it” and no one answers.

Remember Lil’ Zane? Yeah, I called it. After his verse on one of 112’s hits, I started looking at dude to see if he’d pop. Then he had a few decent singles on his own. I thought it was a bonus that the female fans found him attractive. I just knew dude had a shot at blowing up. I guess it was more like Blowing Up Fatty Koo. Mind you, I didn’t think he’d be a lyrical titan in the game. I just thought he would achieve mainstream success. After his singles dropped, there was a decent delay in the CD dropping. Then after the delay, there was little promo for the album. Then there was no more Lil’ Zane.

Da Band. Now before you start laughing, I’d like to say I didn’t vouch for the whole group. Dylan the Grenadian Gangsta was enough to stop me from doing that. I figured that once they broke up, Babs and Ness were going to be alright. Babs had a solid joint in “Left, Right” and Ness had the “My Hood” track that got popping. Ness even had a bunch of different plays on his name. It’s Nessessary, the Loch Ness monster, Nesstalgia, Nessquito bite, Bird’s Ness (ok, I’m wilding). I thought they’d drop their album and it’d be a wrap. It’s not supposed to be a wrap before the album, son. And while we’re at it, I’ll toss Aasim into the Bad Boy pit of gloom that I “called.” Man, I heard dude on some mixtape tracks and I just knew he was the future of NY hip-hop. Not so much, huh? He had enough style and charisma to not just be another mixtape dude. Now I’m not even sure if he’s a mixtape dude. And before we leave Bad Boy, I’m going to go ahead and shoutout another dude I endorsed that I wouldn’t have known if it weren’t for Da Band. Yup, shoutout to Jae Millz. After the “No, No, No” joint, I knew he was on the way. If only I knew where he was on the way to…

Since we’re in NY, I’m going to make a quick run over to 106 & Park. When “Jurassic Harlem” hit I was sure that Postaboy could do a little more than retire the Freestyle Friday crown. Again, I was wrong. When Jin tried to get me to “Speak Chinese” I knew it was curtains, Chinese curtains, for him, too. Never again have I checked for a 106 graduate.

By the way, if they’re signed to Aftermath, forget about it. You can scrap somewhere between 2 and 4 “calls” right there.

I can do this all day, but I’m going to pick the be-all and end-all of “I Called It” gone wrong. Your favorite battle rapper and mine, Can-I-Bus. First I thought the world would realize he could rap circles around everyone’s favorite MCs. The ladies that wanted to booty-shake in the clubs didn’t get that memo. Then I figured everyone would realize he smashed on LL in that battle. That didn’t happen either. Then I decided to sit back and wait for the classic album he was going to drop. Ummmm…he dropped an album. To call it classic would be like calling this year’s Knicks the best team in basketball. You get the picture. But what can you do except acknowledge you called it (or pretend you didn’t) and invest your belief again.