4 Bars- G.O.A.T.?

Jay-Z has claimed on several occasions that he is the Mike Jordan of rap and honestly, he probably is. But the great thing about Hip-Hop that I wish we could do with hoops is that you can actually compare rappers of different generations. I was listening to Lil’ Wayne's new joint with Gucci Mane where he claims he’s the best to ever do it and I thought, “damn, is he right?”


After a week of Hov bashing, I figured I’d continue the theme. LSCFoot brought up two REALLY great points of criticism of Hov that I think apply to more than just his latest offering: “no development of his style” and “nothing pushing any preconceived notions of what a superior lyricist should sound like”. In the past 5 years, if you could name a rapper that has done both of these things, who would it be? If you answered Kanye or Wayne, I would have to agree.

Now I’m not saying that you have to do an alternative record (808s and Wayne’s upcoming rock joint count, the joint Hov did with Linkin Park does not) that’s not hip hop, but watching Wayne develop from “wobbledy wobbledy” to “I’m richer than Nicole and I’m a lion like her daddy” has been mind blowing. Kanye has emerged as one of the most creative artists in any genre and like he said “now he look at me like, Damn dog you where I am…” I’m just thinking, can’t I compare Jay with these young cats? They’re all still rapping and making music. No injuries or conditioning issues prevent it so in Hip-Hop, if you still rapping, you better be doing it well.

Hov continues to put out great music, but lately, Ye and Weezy have elevated the game to places we didn’t think possible. Who thought a legit rapper could make an album where all he does is sing (Jus says 3 Stacks did it first but that’s sans autotune and he was spittin a little) and what other rapper has done a legit rock album? As long as everybody is still rapping, there are standards that are applied across the board. The Jiggaman is probably the closest to “the greatest” but there are cats hot on his heels and if he sticks around long enough for one of these cats to catch/surpass him, what will it look like?

This is what I live for!

Is there really anything that I need to say about this video?

Mix it up...

Older Onus
written by Just K

I celebrated when I heard Death of Autone.

Show Me What You Got, not so much.

We Made You from Eminem almost made me depressed.

No Matter What and Dead and Gone were both triumphant moments. Thanks T.I.

You can throw What You Know About That in there too.

Can’t Tell Me Nothing from Kanye was a beautiful thing.

What Them Girls Like and Moneymaker were painful from Ludacris.

Throw It In the Bag? Ewwww.

A Millie made my day, month, and maybe half-year.

Nas – Hero. Yes!

Where am I going with this? Give me a second.

I expect a group by the name of FLY to drop a record called Swag Surfin.

I expect Rich Boy to put out a club banger called Throw Some D’s.

Am I surprised at all that B Hamp put out Do the Ricky Bobby? Hell naw.

Nor am I surprised by the Stanky Leg.

I am also not shocked that no one from XXL’s New Class has really blown yet.

They can actually rap.

We really do live in an ADHD ringtone world. In many cases, new artists that have substance but can’t deliver a ringtone-worthy first single fall off before they even get the chance to show the public what they can do. That being said, I blame the proven vets for some of the craziness on the radio. The dudes who have been doing this forever are guaranteed to go at least gold, usually platinum whenever they release an album. Why not give us something a little different? I’m sure they have earned more creative freedom than rookies in the game. On top of that, they’ve been around since a time when being able to really rap was a good thing.

When I hear an artist that’s been successful in rap over the span of many years and many albums deliver a piss poor, contrived radio single it confuses me. It’s your job to set the standard. You’re hot. It’s your job – no, your responsibility to tell us what’ll be the next hot trend. Don’t hop on a whack or corny trend that already exists. And even if you give us a “surefire” hit, do something different and creative with it a la Lollipop from Weezy. As catchy as that song was, there was nothing on the radio like it at the time. He stayed in the box while stepping out of one. Sweet.

The cats that have been around for a while have leeway. Please use it. Push the envelope. Worst case scenario, we’ll send it back and allow you to ship out a new package. More than likely, it’ll change what a lot of people deliver to the radio.

Pimp This!

Xzibit has had a unique career in Hip-Hop. He's such a popular figure yet you can't really categorize him easily.

Make no mistake about it. He is a rapper first. But rap isn't what has been paying the bills. But by most definitions, he's been a successful rapper.(6 albums with one going platinum) But when you think about Xzibit, you don't even think about the lyrics. You think about the chevy novas or his passing roles in movies like Training Day or Grid Iron Gang.

But he is definitely a rapper. When he first came out, he made his mark by being an LA dude with a NY lyrical flavor. But as soon as he started popping up on MTV, it was hard to take that menacing look and the crip walking in videos seriously. But he definitely made the best of a situation and his unique image and it has turned itself into some nice sized checks.

X to the Z has been one of the most successful people in Hip-Hop history but no one even really remembers how or why. Its probably because he's done it in so many different ways.

But he's definitely still a rapper.

I think.

New Music: J. Cole - The Warm Up (Mixtape)

Here's the long awaiting second release from J. Cole, check it out

1. Intro (The Warm Up)
2. Welcome
3. Can I Live*
4. Grown Simba
5. Just To Get By
6. Lights Please
7. Dead Presidents II
8. I Get Up
9. World Is Empty
10. Dreams ft. Brandon Hines
11. Royal Flush
12. Dollar and Dream II
13. Water Break (Interlude)
14. Heartache**
15. Get Away
16. Knock Knock
17. Ladies ft. Lee Fields and The Expressions
18. Til’ Infinity
19. The Badness ft. Omen
20. Hold It Down
21. Last Call

Bonus-
22. Losing My Balance

All Songs Written and Produced by J. Cole
* - Produced by Syience
** - Produced by Elite

Download: J. Cole - The Warm Up

It's Tha Reeaaallll

Excuse the shameless Beyonce pic, I had an interesting “discussion” with my sister the other day. She says that Beyonce is “fake” because “her fans don’t know who she really is” and it made me think about all the times I’ve written about “keeping it real” who is real, realness, the realest, etc. My question to ya’ll is what do these artists owe us, if anything, when it comes to the “real”?

Personally, I feel like artists don’t owe us anything except quality entertainment. So if Beyonce wants to keep her private life private, more power to her (and Hov). But I guess the difference with Hip-Hop is that artists constantly remind us how real they are and how they live what they rap, write, etc. But even this has come into question as a recent video from Pusha T shows us his modest yet nice house and his rimless BMW X5. Busta Rhymes had a similar sentiment when he described what happens when he gets in the booth, “you become whatever you want to be”.

The fact is I’m still just looking for honesty; whether it be a rapper telling me what the truth is or him truthfully telling me that what he’s saying is not the truth. But does he even owe me that?

DTW

Death To Whom?
written by Just K

Jay-Z made a song that pretty much echoes the sentiments of the streets. “This autotune bulls#!t is getting out of hand.” Like, remember when we heard rappers’ real voices? Remember when rappers were making hard songs instead of sounding all extra Microsoft? Apparently Jay-Z remembers this time and decided to take it back. Lyrics like “Holdup, this ain’t a number 1 record” and “this ain’t for sing-a-long” are the equivalent of Jay-Z telling MCs to stop trying to make hit records and just make quality music.

Hmmmm…a bit hypocritical much?

As Jus stated earlier this week, this is the same guy that gave us “Can I Get A…” (my raps don’t have melodies, huh?) which is clearly an attempt at making a hit song. “Give it to Me,” “Show Me What You Got,” “Big Pimpin’,” that seizure-inducing video for “Sunshine” and “H to the Izzo” are all definitely strategically planned hit records.



So here’s where things get a bit interesting to me. When Jay debuts the song, he takes time out to let it be known that T-Pain, Lil’ Wayne, and Kanye all have talent. According to the law of Jay-Z, they are allowed to use autotune. Aside from them, it’s just being used to way too much apparently. Again, hmmmmm. Did he just give a pass to the only people that use autotune and then tell us that autotune is being used too much? Aside from Ron Browz (the epitome of horrible autotuning), name another hip-hop artist that had major success off an autotuned single.



It’s cool. I’ll wait.


Now, here’s where Jus and I differ: I think the song is dope. I love it. It’s a declaration that is so bold, so strong, and so loud that the public is duped into thinking it’s completely relevant since the public has been saying for quite some time what Jay is saying now. He’s playing voice box (no pun intended) for the people, albeit a bit after we stopped talking. Regardless, it’s not like we weren’t saying it just yesterday. The beat is on some hard $#!t (no constipation). It’s got a soulful feel to it. The chorus is minimal and irresistibly catchy. Again, way to dupe the people by saying it’s not a hit song and giving it a hit song’s chorus. And recycling a part of Kanye’s “Big Brother” further ensuring that the song will be a hit – genius! The sheer hypocrisy and boldness is wonderful to me. The fact that he’s chosen a concept song for his lead single is even better. Yep. Rap’s Brett Favre is at it again. I think he may have tossed a two-point conversion and tricked the world into thinking it was a touchdown. Either way, dude still scored.