After diggin in my crates(my hard drive) I found this tasty morsel. Here have a listen.

Pete Rock & CL Smooth - T.R.O.Y. from Mecca and The Soul Brother

I'm taking over Throwback Thursday for today and, unlike Brett, my hip-hop past is so much less hardcore, so let me take you back to the time of 1997, the time before I listened to rap. I was still rocking KFRX, listening to Casey Kasum's Top 40 Countdown, and I probably owned a Limp Bizkit CD. My taste in music was, in short, terrible. I didn't know up from down, Mariah Carey from Nirvana.

And then, one day, I heard this song. Puffy gets a lot of legitimate critique, but his being everywhere in '90s is what open to door to hip-hop for me and for that I'll always have a large soft spot for his crazy dancing antics. Don't hate guys, we've all been moved by this song at least one:

Fun fact: Because I had no real idea who B.I.G. was when I first heard this song I thought it was an incredibly moving love song written to a dead girlfriend. I wasn't until muuuuuch later I realized my error.

There's a lot to love there--the dramatic motorcycle crash, the kids in white, and the dramatic rain. Was this the start of Puffy's subdued suit-wearing as opposed to, well, what I posted earlier this week? That's definitely a landmark for hip-hop fashion right there and makes the video noteworthy for more reasons than my narcissism.

Finally, I couldn't start my P. Diddy embargo without at least posting a link to this video. Welcome to Perfectowm, population: Awesome.

Thursday morning for you suckas in the east, that is. Missing the sunshine much? I'm happy to report it's warm on the Best Coast; and now I got the crack.

You're not going to believe this, but I finally found a new Jay-Z song that I actually enjoy; Timbo on the decks, pretty bangin' but a bit derivative. Rumor has it this is from the upcoming Blueprint 3. Yes, 3.

And since were in a Timbaland mood today, he's got a jam out with Flo-rida that is really garbage. The chorus is the most asinine thing I've heard in weeks--and I hang around a bunch of goons, so that's saying something. Maybe the juice has gone to his head?

Oh, did I mention there's a new Weezy remix out, with Mary J? Indeed, there is. Take a deep breath.

There's also a gem of a posse song that just dropped from D-12, "We Deep". I don't see why they still let Bizarre rap though, and yet somehow I enjoy his flow, but mostly out of pity. It's sort of like humoring one's little cousin. Best line? It's the anchor: "My gun's like my dick, I spent years playin' with it."

Kanye West is obsessed with early-1980s hacker culture. Seriously. That's where all this fashion is coming from.

From the same mixtape that brought you the Jay-Z/Timbo joint, here's Fabolus over one of my favorite beats of all time, "Hey Papi." This knocks, but try playing Jay-Z's verse at the end to see what's really good. Some real Nutty Professor 2 shit.

I'm only including this link because I'm completely fucking confused as to why it's on Nah Right. B.O.B., a nobody out of ATL, with Amy Winehouse on the hook. What's the story here?

I bet you've never heard Rockwilder rap before. "I'm comatose, she gon make me overdose," says Icadon, also on the track, who then proceeds with some heavy laptop-rap. Man, between this, "Ayo Technology", Kanye West's fashion and Kia Shine's "Tech Game," I'm seriously saying l33tsp33k will soon find it's way into rap music. Somehow, someway, I'm calling it. "I'm not a man, I am a robot!"

Pandatoes has a live Diplo New Years Eve set posted. Get it while it's hot.

Finally, I'm not going to leave you without the hookup on that new DJ Clue. What, with the Jay-Z track and Fab freestyle, it's gotta be hot, am I correct? Dester Storm Radio 8 (I am Legend Edition). "I Am Legend Edition"? Man, I love NY mixtape DJs. While southern DJs are addicted to gunshot samples, NY cats can't help but appending the name of a contemporary film to their latest mix. Sort of dates it, I suppose.

CURREN$Y (via MixtapeTorrent.com): Independence Day

Haven't listened to this sucker yet--too much homework right now--but wanted to post a link because what! I kinda love the kid. He always sounds like the Cash Money fam's baby brother who fell asleep in his footie-pyjamas in the next room and had to be woken up for his verse.

Brett can have all the hate towards Lupe and Kanye that he wants--I don't get what all the fuss is about over those guys, but Lupe did a song about a zombie gangster and I can't have too much animosity towards that. For my money the worst rapper of all time is Mars Black, a guy of so little significance that (luckily) you will never, ever hear him.

In fact, the only reason I'm aware of his existence is that he's from my home state and I was once sent his demo. The latter made me tell the label not to sign him until he learned to distinguish between yelling and flowing and the former is what pisses me off the most. I don't know what kind of rap scene Nebraska has--probably not much of one. But I'll be damned if this lame ass excuse for a rapper is going to be the only representative of it.

But, really, all you need to know about the guy is that he's signed to Conor Oberst's Team Love label. That only should inspire enough bile to want to bury Mars Black.

There's no website I despise more than Myspace (Geocities for the New Millennium!), but if it helps get some buzz for stuff like this, I guess that's ok:

The latest issue of XXL which goes over the greatest moments in hip-hop since their inception, is making me reminisce, because it seems that me and XXL hit hip-hop around the same time.

So in honor of me and Sunday and some nice weather finally hitting the Midwest, here's the first rap video I ever saw. Shiny suits and dancing, what! It totally blew my pre-teen mind:

...he's almost a felon.

Bummer dude.

Trial slated for early February, likewise The Carter III.

Juvenile's "Ha", a video that dropped in 1998 with little more than a murmur of praise, is in hindsight a definitive video for the former Cash Money star, one which brought true New Orleans patois and unabashed ghetto imagery to MTV audiences nationwide. In "Ha" we are given a stick-thin Juve, very much at home in the Magnolia projects. He raps on street corners and from porch steps; in alleyways and on sidewalks framed with graffiti.

Though there is action in the video, it is not a traditional southern bounce jam. The lyrics are charged, and yet for a majority of the video, viewers are presented with still images in a slow series: a shirtless man by a telephone pole, EMT's posing in front of an ambulance and the boys and girls of NO standing long-faced and wide-eyed amid the neighborhood; in "Ha," there is nothing much to hide.

The purity of this video is apparent in every cut, and the authenticity of Juvenile and those that surround him is a testament to the quality of storytelling presented within. Much as a book of portraits can tell a story without words, "Ha" presented on mute also provokes a very visceral reaction.

Many listeners--particularly the backpackers and NY hip-hop heads--dismissed "Ha" as being inundated with slang and possessing very little lyrical quality; not betraying the song's title, Juvenile does indeed spit the word "Ha" to end almost every line of every verse. Those who object to this lyrical form are disregarding the song based on a flimsy criteria: repetition has always been a key component of rap music, and yet there is still something new to be discovered in "Ha", because unlike much of southern rap today, the song is honest to its core. With "Ha" Juvenile betrays neither himself nor his community. His speech remains unaltered and deep while his community provides a backdrop for the music.

"Ha" is very much a cultural video, and the pictures provided inside are brilliant. Take for example the children at 18 seconds, the man at 22 seconds, the group photo and EMTs (at 29 and 30 seconds respectively) and Juvenile himself at 44 seconds. These are the pictures in which the first verse is framed, and none is more poignant than the open shirted Juvenile standing alone near a chain link fence. In this image (44 seconds) he isn't rapping about the ghetto, nor is he flashing gold teeth. He's standing, dressed in his regular street duds, looking slightly downward with urban decay surrounding him--this image alone says more than most hood rappers did in 2007. How many of them can even return to the projects to film a shot like this?

The pictures continue for the duration of the video, and as a cultural artifact "Ha" is brilliant in this regard: it is the rare combination of music reflecting culture in both words and images. There is also a tension inherent in "Ha," with sports cars being placed in the ghetto setting. These symbols of wealth and achievement are out of place and yet celebrated by the entire community as groups of men lounge on them. Though Juvenile has chosen to add these vehicles to his video, he has also chosen to present them to us in a certain context: that from whence he came.

In "Ha" there is something unique and very New Orleans. I love to give this video a play every now and then, though I must admit that at first I never understood it.

I was lurking on Kanye's blog and i saw this vid. The song is called Flashing Lights by an artist named Colin Monroe. The beat was tweaked a bit from the original, thats probably why I like it.

Flashing Lights

I just found out about this kids show Yo Gabba Gabba! which may be he most delightful and entertaining program I have ever seen. Beyond the insanity of things like this, the show also features a regular segment where Biz Markie teaches kids how to beatbox:

Evidence with "Chase the Clouds Away." Is it an anti-drug ode? Is it just a bit of upliftment? Whatever. Shit bangs like a breath of fresh air after rain. California, what's good??

Evidence's voice has always made me cringe: even when he was working with Dilated Peoples, I couldn't take his flow. The worst part is that his unique delivery spawned an entire population of suburban white kids all trying their best to do hip-hop by constructing a flawless Evidence emulation.

I've reconciled with dude, though, and this song is nice, due in no small part to Alchemist's presence behind the boards. Put a smile on your face, snitches.

Wu-Tang's most volatile member (at least currently), echoes my sentiments almost exactly in a recent New York Daily News interview where he speaks on Jay and Kanye:

“A lot of street people don’t put stock in them anymore because they aren’t doing enough to excite anyone,” he tells us. He suggests both superstars should “come back to the hood and drop $100,000.” And why doesn’t he do that? “I don’t have money on that level,” says Chef. “And I don’t know where to drop it.” What’s more, the Staten Island rapper doesn’t dig the NYC hip-hop scene now because “everyone is ignorant and arrogant. When you’re around that crap, you become part of it.”

Rae hit it on the head: it's not that American Gangster or Kingdom Come were awful, it's that they were boring. Both albums had some decent tracks--indeed, a few gems--but Jigga has sounded bored with music since he put out The Black Album. Shit's tired, and it shows.

Jay-Z recently attained the unattainable, tying Elvis with 10 albums debuting at the number one spot. It's a great accomplishment, and a particularly important one for rap music as a whole--how shattering to the status quo that Brooklyn's finest has equalled The King? Unfortunately for Jay, however, his feat speaks to his age and his fanbase: there's nothing wrong with being mentioned in the same sentence as Elvis, but it's important to think about just what that means in terms of age, style and hunger for the mic. As Rae says, he's just not exciting anymore.

I'm inclined to agree with much of what the Chef says of NY hip-hop as well. Most of what comes out of NY on the blogs and airwaves is indeed arrogant (to say nothing of ignorant; dudes won't even listen to music from south of Virginia).

Glad someone said it, but I have to call Rae on one thing: you can't buy street cred, $100k to the hood or not.

(As for Kanye, was he ever really hood? No comment on that, for now.)

Here at WG, we're mostly concerned with the part of the music industry where everything's already been done, but I thought this open-source drum machine was too neat not to link. As a former drummer/person who covets a real drum machine it's a great way to spend some free time. And who knows, maybe someone here ill make some great hip-hop with it.

This is the jam.

I came across Kidz in the Hall just the other day, and the track "Driving Down the Block" has got my iTunes stuck in repeat mode. The beat is right and the lyrics come hard. It's unfortunate that the group shares a name with the famous comedy troupe--makes Googling them that much harder--but the info is indeed out there.

From XXL:

Made up of producer DJ Double-O and Chicago MC Naledge, Kidz are a throwback to the days when beatmaker/rapper combos like Gang Starr were common and rap was less polarized.

I'm not completely with all their shit. Some of it is a bit to Lupe for me, but I can't deny them "Driving Down the Block." Peep the preview from Duck Down Records:

And then cop the mp3.

Kidz in the Hall - Driving Down the Block (zShare)

Seeing this post today reminded me that while I love, love, love big group remixes (some of my fondest childhood memories involve the word REEEEEMIX) when it comes to massive group efforts, no one does it quite as well as the British.

There are two main grime groups over the pond right now--So Solid Crew and Roll Deep. Roll Deep, counting ex-member Dizzee Rascal, have 22 people involved, which seems like a lot until you hear that So Solid has (at my count) a whooping 46 members, including a sub-branch called The So Solid Kids. I don't care how many people DJ Khaled stuffs on a remix, he isn't ever going to top that.

Of course, a large amount of people rarely translates into quality, which is why it seems to work best so Roll Deep, who have tracks I like, and not at all for So Solid, whose claim to fame is largely built on a track called "21 Seconds":

While thinking of a subject for their debut single, one member suggested "Right, we've got 21 seconds to think of something" -from this, it was decided this was to be the theme. Additionally, each MC/Performer on the track has exactly 21 seconds to sing their verse.

Even though that's the kind of the story that usually makes me love a song instantly, it's a bad enough track to overcome even that. That said, it's a worse video--incredibly early 90s for something from 2001:

As I said, I find Roll Deep to be superior, largely because a group that created Dizzee Rascal can't be all bad, but largely because in face of the shiny shirt-wearing, cage-match, crazy contacts of So Solid, that have a better sense of how to have fun, which is sorely needed when pulling off any large group projects, remix or otherwise:

Remember that all-animated movie that came out a while back? Final Fantasy, I think it was. Thing flopped in theaters, but that won't stop Mike Jones from taking a page outta their CGI notebook:

And this is why I love America: somebody, somewhere, is masturbating to this.

Also, please don't forget to note the American flag outfit and the dancing aliens. God Bless America.

Here's a previously unreleased Nas video for an amazing track, "The Unauthorized Biography of Rakim." I guess this has been making the blog rounds, and since we're all like a big herd of sheep, I gots that good, too.

Listen to his lyricism. Man. Only question I'm left with after this is: when's the KRS-One track coming?

X Plastaz is the kind of group designed to get love from white, globally-oriented rap fans like myself. A group of Maasai who rap? That's like our crack. And yet, I don't think I can totally endorse them as, even after many searches, I have yet to find a translation of the lyrics to this song. I can love the beat--which is sick--but only knowing that msimu kwa msimu means season to season and the song is about the state of hip-hop doesn't help much. Sounding awesome will only get you so far and after that I need some context.

That said: Maasai! Beats! Globalization! Africa! Enjoy.

Four words to preface this entry: Soulja Boy plus CNN.

God Bless America.

Just came across some new Bun B featuring Sean Kingston, "That's Gangsta". Shit comes off Bun's forthcoming album, II Trill set to drop on April 1st. Let's hope that this new "Trill" album is better than the first, which exposed Bun as a weak solo artist (but still the best feature in the game).

Bun B f. Sean Kingston - That's Gangsta (zShare)

Got this via Nah Right.

In honor of our new West Cast grad student:

Nas performing "NY State of Mind" live in New York with Busta offering up "Touch It" to a go-nuts crowd. Shit is classic. Marley Marl on the decks.

Found this gem via Crate Kings, dudes seem to be up on everything lately.

Jay Dee speaks on Notorious B.I.G., Lil Kim, Q-Tip and more. Rare shit right here.

Props goes out to Crate Kings for the hookup: they always have the line on shit.

I woke up in my new West Coast home and discovered a new West Coast video from KAZE and Young Flu: "You Call That Gangsta."

This shit is all about fools who snitch on themselves, posing with guns on MySpace (VT, anyone?) or just speaking too much business in a video. Pretty comical.

This video made major blog rounds today, so I guess I'm obligated to post it, even if Gille is mostly wack, and the beat is kinda soft--heads will be chatting about it.

I have to give props though for Gille using a Raising Arizona sample as the chorus. And hey, did anyone else spot the Led Zepplin tee that someone in his entourage was rocking on their way into the club? Shit is fresh--I rocked it back in 7th grade.

I'd like to restrict any comments on this post to making fun of the "Gille King of Philly" neon he put together for the vid.

I considered posting this in the "Overstand" category.

If you don't know, well, now you do. I'm going to go hang my head in shame for posting this.

We got the Speedin remix, featuring all the regular suspects when it comes to a Super-Duper Miami Rap Remix: R.Kelly, Busta Rhymes, Lil Wayne, Birdman, Plies, Fat Joe, DJ Drama, Webbie, Flo-Rida, DJ Bigga Rank, Brisco, Torch, Gun Play, Gorilla Zoe, and of course the number one hype man in the game, DJ Khaled.

Rick Ross - Speedin (Remix) (zShare)

But who are we kidding? This song ain't shit without a video that has Rick Ross doing a cannon ball into the ocean off some random bridge. You must be new in town.

Also: check Lil Wayne's anchor verse and flawless Kels impersonation.

Soulja Boy off in it, ho.

Soulja Boy and I have the same ring tone, but he rocks it better because he actually made the song, and I'm just jocking it. Next on my to-do list: record a hit track and make it into a ringer.

Also, watch this video to the end because it's got a snippet of my favorite Soulja Boy track: "Report Card." Best use of a Rich Boy sample, ever. Haters step off.

I used to be a member of a Facebook group called "There's More to Rap than The Roots and Atmosphere", a mostly good-humored dig at the taste in rap shared by the majority of our liberal art cohorts.

This entry isn't about either those groups, but instead one that seems to belong on the list: Blackalicious. I've been listening to them again lately, mostly due to the limited CD selection in my car. And it has always seemed strange to be that despite their lyrics, vibe, and general sensibility Gift of Gab and Xcel don't seem to get the love from the liberal art crowd that I run with. Then again, maybe I'm with the wrong crowd.

Regardless, and largely because A2G was one of the first albums I owned, Blackalicious feels like my rap dads--always telling me to get good grades, eat my vegetables, and to make them proud. And, in my book, that's enough reason to love anyone.

MTV's got the latest on the state of the Carter, but I'm pretty sure they meant to say Jonathan Mannion. Foolios. Interns're gettin' fired tomorrow!

P.S. So's not to inundate your subscriptions with Lil Wayne posts, just letting you know, there will be a WG field trip to see the man with the plan live this Saturday at Myth nightclub in Minnesota. I will be piloting one of two vehicles. Did I mention it's an all ages show? Oh yes. Ohhhh yes.

Check this out.

Now, setting aside the bizarre religious elements for the time being, I think that wholly ridiculous site serves as an excellent example of an all too common theme. Articles like that (well, not quite like that--like that minus Christianity) come out all the time. They try to get people in on the hip lingo (or "slanguage", apparently). And they always fail, sounding strained and cranky, as if the very concept of those words should be indecipherable to any reasonable person.

Now, the fail because they are outdated. Always. That is beyond question. But even a guide to outdated slang is still interesting and funny and maybe even useful if done right. They fail because they take somerthing that is alive and fresh and suck all oxygen out of it.

They are right on precisely one count--that hip-hop strength lies in its language. The word play, the rhetoric, the hyperbole--that's the stuff that gets you to fall in love with rap. But they always focus on the made up words, the slanguage, as if decode everything was what mattered.

I maintain you can listen to any rap song with a word you don't know and understand it by the end, even though the song probably spent .02% of it's time defining it for you. I can't really convey what the word fresh means, and having tried to explain it to people before it ends with either party satisfied. But if I give a spin to OutKast and "So Fresh, So Clean" I bet you by the end of that we're all going to understand what's going on.

This is because the slang of hip-hop, like any slang, works in the cracks of things. It's about the rhythms between the languages, the pauses and modifiers and all that noise. That's what makes a word. That's what makes a term. And, I'll argue, that's what makes hip-hop hip-hop. But you don't get that from stuff like the articles at the top of the page. As is usually the case when outsiders try to take on things, all that's left is reductionism and dry words on a dulled page.

In short--old people and Christians, stop writing those articles and start listen to the dang songs.

Interviews with David Banner always get me underlining, margin-responding, and ultimately doing my own writing. This one--about Banner's experiences testifying before congress--went up Monday on the Village Voice's Status Ain't Hood blog and is no exception.

I'm the type of person that if positive is there, I want to talk about positive too. The one positive thing I did see: Some of the congressmen were actually listening. Some of the congressmen were like, "Damn, I didn't even think about it that way. He has a point." Some of them didn't give a shit either way. But that was what surprised me the most. We have the power.

Ice Cube interviewed in Complex Magazine. He mostly chats on movies, which ain't exactly hip-hop, but I love when the man opens his mouth.

I'm not saying that gangster rap is real, and ring-tone rap ain't, because both rap is real. I don't want you to be fake and just trying to do anything you need to to get over. Those are the rappers I don't like the ones that do anything to get over. They got to be popcorn they'll be popcorn, they got to be hard they'll be hard. That's fake. My style ain't never change.

Yeah, he's been hard since day one, no Vaseline.

Leaving Denver this morning was a harrowing fucking experience. Twelve hours and a pound of pad thai later, I find myself in Flagstaff, AZ, and with hardly enough energy to post. Peep the roundup:

Both Miss Info and eskay quip on Prodigy of Mobb Deep's 30 more days of freedom. Though P hasn't done much for me lately, his recent piece in XXL was something else: dude spoke from a hospital bed while being treated for sickle cell, and it was real talk indeed. Now if only I could find a fucking link to that one.

I love AZ, and with last year's brilliant album, The Format, I'm counting the days until his new disc drops. In the meantime, Nah Right has a preview of what AZ is offering up.

From Crate Kings, links to an 8 part panel discussion on the future of the music industry. I don't have enough free time to dig into this right now, but feel free to waste your own workday on it.

I had to post this before logging off--and when you open your ears, you'll understand why I couldn't resist.

Now, I know that Rick Ross doesn't actually sing the hook on this song, but with a chorus like "Money makes me cum," my impression of rap's Bearded One has changed a little bit. What, you mean money don't make you cum? You must be new in town: we the besssss.

Rick Ross - Money Makes Me Cum (zShare)

They don't call him "Boss" for nothin'. Props for getting "Cum" in a song title mane, even Weezy uses some kind of euphemism.

I'm out after this one, but here's something for the road (for me, that is), Shady Nate featuring J. Jonah with "No Days Off":

No days off indeed. Dope song, but man, Shady Nate sounds like the rap name I gave myself back in 7th grade, and my first name ain't even Nate. I got ten hours in a car tomorrow. Flagstaff or bust--see you heads later.

DJ Skee has reworked Jay-Z's American Gangster with samples from The Godfather. Granted, it sound better than the original release, it's mostly still garbage considering Jigga's weak lyrics, tired flow and uninspired choice of theme. As I've been told many times before, you can't polish a turd, but you can at least try. No disrespect to DJ Skee, other than to say he could have chosen some better lyrics for these beats.

Jay-Z - Say Hello (DJ Skee Remix) (zShare)

Ripped shamelessly from Pandatoes, source of hip-hop music and unadulterated musical heron.

The Clipse are coming with heat once more. According to the Re-Up Gang blog, there's some raw on the way, in the form a a third We Got It 4 Cheap installment.

Should be good music--We Got It 4 Cheap Vol. 1 & 2 were on permanent rotation--but the cover? I've seen my mom's 5th grade students do better during their "9 layers in Photoshop" tutorial. Get Malice away from the keyboard and back in front of a mic.

Also, anyone got an explanation for the tagline? "Spirit of Competition" is somehow not making any sense in my brain. Maybe it's some drug-trade free-market insider talker, some real Stringer Bell shit.

Found this slideshow of DangerMouse's studio, courtesy of the NY Times. Even though dude has gone pop, I'm still in to him, and say what you want, but he's an innovator.

I remember when I chatted with him after The Grey Album dropped and he was only just getting used to the fame. He hooked me up with 45 minutes of quotables, now I'd be lucky to get him on the phone for five. Life must be something else, with Gnarls Barkley and whatnot--he's not getting college journalists ringing him up, he's getting New York Times reporters showing up at his studio clamoring for a shot.

Coming to you live from a snow-packed Denver. Things aren't going so hot right now: I was planning to be in Vegas tomorrow, doing some drinking and gambling, but the snow has spelled shut-down show. All I have to keep me warm is the rap-o-sphere.

Via Nah Right.

Will this shit ever come out? I was steady believing the hype for a few months, especially after Return of the Yardfather dropped, but I'm going to need to hear something new to stay on the Saigon bandwagon. In any case, here's the alleged tracklist for his debut, The Greatest Story Never Told--or maybe more appropriately, the "Greatest Album Never Sold":

1. Station Identification
2. The Invitation feat. Q-Tip & Fatman Scoop
3. Come on Baby feat. Jay Z & Swizz Beatz
4. The War
5. Enemies
6. Friends
7. The Greatest Story Never told
8. Clap feat. Faith Evans
9. Preacher
10. Its Alright feat. Marsha Ambrosius
11. Believe It
12. Give it to Me feat. Raheem Devaughn
13. What the Lovers Do feat Devin the Dude
14. Better Way feat. Layzie Bone
15. Oh Yeah
16. Pain in my Life feat. Trey Songz
17. Enemies Live feat Bun B

A track with Devin and another with Layzie Bone? I mean, I'm not hating but Saigon's been spouting off about this going to be the best debut ever, and I'm saying, why so many unnecessary features?

But which track am I salivating for? The anchor: "Enemies Live," with the greatest guest feature in rap music, Bun B.

Hey Whatever's Good. My name is Gypsi, some may know me as Jovan. Anyway this is my first post so don't flame me if i screw something up.

Anyway I know Ghostface Killah's Big Doe Rehab has been out for a while now but I can't stop listening to the last track on the album. I really wasn't a big fan of Chrisette Michele, but this song changed my mind. The only thing i wish is that the song be a little bit longer but whatever....Here peep it for yourselves.

Slow Down - Ghost Ft. Chrisette Michele

This video has been floating around the blogs today: Small World featuring Ludacris, "Mr. Magnificent." I'm feeling the beat but man, as much as I loved Luda in the past, every time I hear him spit on a track I feel like a 9th grader at a high school dance.

I loved Back for the First Time, but I been cold on dude ever since, and with Release Therapy being mostly crossover R&B garbage, it's going to take something more for the Mouth of the South to win me back over. Small World on the other hand? Dude has swagger and can flow. Respect game.

... and as a side note, is anyone feeling "Put it in Reverse"? I wanna hear some remixes over that beat. The rewind on the hook is sick.

I'm a big fan/connoisseur of the global reach of hip-hop, a fandom that can be difficult to maintain as, well, most international rap is not in English (damn you other countries!) It can be a very beat-oriented appreciation, is what I'm saying.

That said, I dig the hell out of this guy K'naan, from Somalia. His story's pretty incredible--last plane out of the country, growing up in Canada, etc--but his music is also solid and I love the way he reps East Africa. My computer's in the shop, so no song sharing for now, but check out these videos. "Soobax" is his signature track, and rails against the gunmen of Somalia; "Struggling" makes use of East African drums and rhythms and also K'naan's ability to genre-bust and "Kicked, Pushed" bites Lupe's beat and makes a hell of a social commentary song. Check it.

I'm familiar with Rap Snacks. I've seen them in stores and even purchased a few. I'm familiar with the many Rap Snack flavors, from Mack 10's "Red Hot Cheddar" to the YoungBloodz "Southern Crunk BBQ." What I didn't know, however, is that each Rap Snack comes with not only a celebrity rap-star in cartoon form, but a slogan to boot.

And what does Birdman have to say to us on the cover of his "BAR-B-Quin with my Honey Popcorn"? Just a pithy bit of advice for today's youth snack-consumers: "Stay Away From Guns." Man, I almost wet myself at that one. Though I'm unsure of why the slogans are included at all, I'm completely fucking nonplussed at who's believing them. I mean really, Birdman telling us to "Stay Away From Guns" on the cover of his honey BBQ popcorn rap snack? Quick, someone pass me a towel so I can wipe my purple drink off the keyboard--I just sprayed everywhere.

Look at the bag: the anti-gun mantra is just below his name, kids.

And hey! There's more to this post than convenience store goodies! In case you slept on Birdman's recent effort, 5 Star Stunna, I've got your crack right here, and don't forget: stay away from guns!!

Birdman f. Lil Wayne - Believe Dat (zShare)

It's almost impossible to believe that this song is now 12 years old--and it nearly brings tears to my eyes remembering that just two weeks ago I sold my ultra-heavyweight vinyl copy of Outkast's seminal album, ATLiens ... all about the CREAM, indeed.

ATLiens was indeed one of Kast's greatest, and though it can certainly stand alone as a brilliant album, I think it is best appreciated in the context of 1998's Aquemini. Those two discs are Outkast at their finest, before Andre decided to bury his one-of-a-kind flow in some hidden Atlanta graveyard, and when Big Boi was really letting his slang run wild.

The two CDs are in my eyes a double disc: I cannot give either a higher grade, as both are genius, framing similar thematic ideas (poverty, racism, drugs, pregnancy and relationships) with parallel musical backdrops. They are infinitely repeatable, and once one's ears have adjusted to the Decatur drawls, recitable ad infinitum. Not to mention the art direction is superb (a comic book in the CD jacket!? Fuck yes.)

Well, you sure can't find all the gems. After stumbling across Japan's Nomak yesterday, I realize that I may very well have left something off my top ten list for 2007. Calm is an almost entirely instrumental effort comprised of choppy piano samples and atmospheric drums with liquid smooth vocals here and there. It's got a sort of Zion I feel, and with track names like "Anger of the Earth," "Spiritual Home" and "Geishas in the Days," you know what Nomak is about.

His site, mostly in Japanese, is dripping with nature, and though you may not be able to read it, there's enough fun with Java and images to make it worth a look. From the sound of Calm, Nomak feels much like the incipient resurrection of DJ Krush, though I wonder if I'm not making that connection because they are both from Japan.

Nomak - Anger of the Earth (zShare)
Nomak - Geishas in the Days f. Prismo (zShare)