April 2008 Archives
It looks like the New York Times also cares about Lil Mama. There's not too much hilarity to be had there, except for an attempt to coin "hip-pop" as a phrase. Because, apparently, the New York Times lives in a world where hip-hop and pop music haven't been in conversation with each other for, oh, the last two decades.
I'm not sure what the purpose of this post is--maybe just an attempt at solidarity with Ian--but, dudes, Lil Mama's debut album dropped today. I bet none of you knew and I bet none of you cared, but seriously, check this out. And maybe it's just my biases towards good pop, good lady rappers, and colorful clothes, but I'll be damned if this lady doesn't go places. She's talented as hell and if her songs, deliciously pop, pro-woman, and hip-hop as anything else you'll hear this year, can't convince you of than that then maybe her ripping up a cipher will convince you:
I mean, come on! She's barely 18 and she's ripping it up like this? I can't wait to see where she ends up. And while I would prefer that you went out and bought her album, I'll note that it may be possibly to grab it for free.
Saying that some good rap videos came out this week would be a lukewarm understatement. Between Prodigy and Icadon are about 5 other rappers who put out dope videos within the past 7 days, the most important being Bun B's. "That's Gangsta" featuring Sean Kingston ranks as his first high-quality solo video, stylized to a point that seems almost too mainstream for the only remaining Underground King.
The authentic street shots, filmed from a car driving through Bun B's home of Port Arthur, really make this video pop. You can tell that half of the guys caught on camera are real dudes from the city chuckin' up a deuce in mad respect. Also, you have to love the Bun B tour bus, the UGK graf mural, and the "Smart Is the New Gangsta" black-tee. II Trill is shaping up to be a stellar fucking album.
The next, almost equally important video, comes from Gilla House's Icadon. "Cock Back (Dump A Clip)" appears on its face to be a shoot-em-up track that has gone way over the top: witness the chicks in bikinis firing automatic weapons, donut-spinning in European supercars, and the stoned gun-waving. At the end of the video, though, Icadon does something unexpected. The title, "Introducing: Back To Real Life (Rap Life Is Fake)," pops up, and then Icadon gives a short interview about how a Discovery Channel show on gun violence changed his perception of firearms. I'm not sure what the takeaway is from this whole thing, but I generally like it and think I respect Icadon.
The other big deal this week in rap videos is of course Kidz in the Hall with hip-hop's newest reimagining of the Beastie Boy's classic, "Sabotage." The hit, "Drivin' Down the Block" could have taken any form as a video, but somehow Naledge and Double-O settled on a tongue-in-cheek used car commercial for their theme. Hipsters and nervous white people are feeling great about this video. It's everything the borderline rap fan wants: hipster kitsch with bleeding edge beats. That's what its all about, right? (No disrespect though, song is hot.)
And then there's this: Keak Da Sneak, "That Go (Remix) f. Prodigy and Alchemist," What a fucking beat on this thing. The video is nothing really, just low budget nonsense, but the song is hot as hell, and Keak Da Sneak actually sounds decent. Pay attention to his voice, it's freaky. If he moves over to these darker, sparser beats, he might have a chance at the mainstream.
Hot Dollar comes hard with "I Luv Tha Streets." The short intro, full of mean mugs and guns, represents the video to be something grimier than it actually is. The beat is a soft, spaced out loop that seems inappropriate with all of the gun imagery. Yet somehow, the scene--Hot Dollar and his sign-flashing comrades parading around with guns--comes out feeling eerie and eulogistic. The best part of this video must be the final 2 minutes of local gang-member cameos. WG fucks with Hot Dollar for sure, been down since "Streez on Lock."
Last but not least is R. Kelly and his most recent hit/style change, "Hairbrader." I can't say that I'm feeling the song, but Kels and the director must have had fun getting bent and experimenting with studio lighting. Just to be clear, I love the new hairstyle. R. Kelly is an icon; let the haters keep on hating.
Finally, Prodigy put out four videos this week. Seems efficient enough to me--if you're headed in for a bid, why not film some shit for your forthcoming album? H.N.I.C 2 is a winner, by the way. P comes hard and sounds a lot like his old self. I'm keeping this one in mind for year-end lists.
Update: Yeah, I left off the most recent vid by the Roots, as well as B.O.B. and Rich Boy's "Haterz Everywhere." The beat for that song definitely reminds me of the stuff Wiz Khalifa has been spitting over lately: heavily influenced by trance. A new rap subgenre emerging, perhaps?
Although I'm often disparaging of aging old school fans, I have to admit that it holds an appeal for me. Maybe all my anger over their nostalgia is simply me being bitter that I never got to live in a time (or neighborhood) where I could regularly walk by cipher's, breaking circles, and the like.
While it seems like we might still live in that time, if I would just boogie over to another country. Last night a friend and I checked out Planet B-Boy, a movie I enjoyed the hell out of. It follows five teams--two from South Korea, one from the States, one from France, and one from Japan, as they prepared for the Battle of the Year competition in Germany. There's a lot of good dancing and reflections on the international appeal of hip-hop and then there is more awesome dancing. Plus good characterization, long-standing country rivalries, and even more awesome dancing. If it happens to be playing anywhere you are go see it.
I'm not going to pretend to be the most racially savvy person on the planet, and even though it's been within my sphere of academic study, I'm not going to pretend that a white person can ever "get" racism the way someone who experiences it daily can. But I am racially-aware and, as such, I can sometimes feel troubled by the music I listen to.
Now, I know that hip-hop is not all one thing. But I also know that most of what I bump is gangster rap/crack rap/whatever. I know it didn't used to be this way--that I came to more commercial stuff through the underground. And I know that some of what I listen to is made especially for kids like me--white kids from smallish cities who want a taste of the cool. I can accept that, even as I dislike it. I know what I listen to traverses a variety of social conditions and that I need to be conscious, even as I just enjoy the metaphor that hustling brings to my life.
Now ignore that masturbation above, as I am going to talk about this: I love it when people defend rap. I really do. Rap is so often a scape-goat that it's great top see voices from all sides. But too often I feel we see defenses like the Angry Black Woman's.
I'm not arguing that Angry Black Woman is wrong. But it does what so many people do which is classify "real" rap as whatever the problem is not. That is, if the problem is gangster rap, have no fear--"true" rap is nothing like it! On the one hand, there's the great point that no genre of music can truly be as bad as the institutionalized racism within this country. No music causes that problem. On the other hand, there's a line drawn between the good and the bad. And that what is bad is simply not true.
This is a arguement you find everywhere. Art is really not divided into categories of bad and good, but art and non-art. Patriotism is not a complex thing, but patriotic and non-patriotic. Hip-hop is apparently this way too. Something is either truly hip-hop or it's not hip-hop at all. (Gangster fans do this too--claiming that anything not hard enough is "gay" and "not music"--they just happen to be in the majority, in terms of numbers).
Why is it always an all-or-nothing proposition. Yes, the underground is hip-hop. It's a huge part of hip-hop. But that doesn't mean the commercial stuff isn't.
Additionally, I think more than any other genre, in hip-hop the realm between underground and commercial is blurred, thanks in large part to mixtapes. Is Lil' Wayne underground? All his success comes from underground releases (free releases at that)--his commercial stuff doesn't do nearly as well. Is UGK underground, even with commercial success? Even though they're gangster rappers? Can such clear-cut distinctions be drawn these days?
I respect what Angry Black Woman and others like her say. I respect that they try to expand the notions of hip-hop for those who are unfamiliar, for those who really do believe that Fiddy or Jay-Z or 2Pac are the be all and end all of hip-hop. But I also caution them to not do the same thing--to say that true rap, real rap, good rap, entirely about the underground scene. That nothing good can be gangster or commercial.
Rap is both commercial and independent. It's gangster and inspiring. It's misogynistic and pro-female. It's messy. It blurs lines. And hell, that's half the reason it's wonderful.
Man, his blog is a thing of hilarity. The two most recent posts are absolutely fantastic. I'll quote them here for your pleasure. The first is titled, "FROM A SKETCH 2 THE STADIUM ... A DREAM REALIZED," a short post amounting to only a single sentence: "this is my original sketch of the stage drawn at my dinning room table less than 2 months ago." The sketch of his 'Spaceship Platform' is truly something to ponder. The first comment? "Kanye you're a genius man I can't wait 4 your show! MTL may 20th!"
Of course.
Though that was a great blog entry, the prior post shows just how much thought Kanye has really been putting in to his tour. Under the title of "PLEASE FORGIVE ME SAC-TOWN," 'Ye apologizes for spacing the name of the town he performed in:
I can't believe I bust a spinal tap! It's no excuse for this I wish I could sink in a black whole. When I said Seattle and there was no crowd response I was up on my spaceship platform thinking damn... I think I just said the wrong city!!!!! I kind of muffled the words so I was praying nobody really caught it. I guess all those hours that me and Phill spent making my mic clear as possible back fired on me! We had alot of problems with the video servers on the first 3 songs and that completely threw me off! Hey, I'm not perfect. Hope everybody had a good time. I'm a man, I can say it... I'm sorry.
At least he knows how to give an apology without excuses (saying nothing of his ability to write a coherent English sentence), and that's cool. Ye is a monster in the blogosphere. Look out.
So someone asked Lil Wayne what kind of statement he wants to make with The Carter III and his response is ridiculous to the point that you can't not love the guy. Yes that's a double negative, but my syntax isn't as strange as what you're about to hear:
What can you say to this? ""I live the statement" ... "I'm different. I'm not your ordinary. I got too much to say to make a statement." It's the Jimmy Hendrix of hip-hop; music historians aren't going to remember your favorite rapper, but they'll remember Weezy.
It's once again the time of year for us all to come together and raise awareness for planetary problems without actually doing anything to fix them. This Earth Day I'll be participating in an event that will illustrate to the local community just how much of the city will be underwater should the sea level rise one meter--I'm sure everyone will take it to heart.
On the brighter side of things, this Earth Day weekend includes another holiday which isn't about Greens celebrating, but celebrating the green--I know where I'll be this Sunday afternoon!
Oh yeah, and there's rap music to talk about.
Despite all of his federal troubles, T.I. made the blogs with a new track, "Hunt Em Down" which was subsequently removed from share sites due to copyright issues. Clifford is saying its an old track that was shelved, and won't be on the forthcoming Paper Trail. Of course, you can still snag it off DJ Teknicks' If You Buyin' We Sellin' mixtape. Also, there's this interview.
In Weezy news (and there's a lot of it), "Big Spender," a Nicki Minaj track featuring Lil Wayne (first heard on The Come Up DVD) dropped, the Carter III cover came out to boos from across the blogosphere, and then a week later Rolling Stone named Wayne the best MC of 2008--an honor which also brought out the boos. If you're looking for a Lil Wayne related laugh, have a listen to Cassidy over "A Milli"--it's a total joke. Way to expose yourself doggie.
The most underrated MC out of Alabama, Rich Boy, has dropped his newest mix, Bigger Than The Mayor. I honestly haven't spun it yet, but from the feedback I'm getting it's hot. Check the interview at DJ Booth and then cop the mix.
Ice Cube and Game covered XXL this month, and the cover art is nice. Big up to the West Coast. Let's hope these two are cooking some good albums--judging by the first singles ("Big Dreams" and "Gangster Rap Made Me Do It"), Los Angeles looks to be coming hard this summer.
Wiz Khalifa is freestyling, DMX is inciting riots at his shows, Vanilla Ice is getting arrested and Stat Quo is dropping awful tracks. If that's not crazy enough for you, Bill Cosby has a rap album coming soon.
In hipster rap news, the Cool Kids were caught on tape performing a remix to "Black Mags", and recently dropped a new track, "Oscar". Also, the Knux respond to hipster rap allegations. Yawn.
R. Kelly has a new hairstyle. I don't care what any of the haters say, I love this guy.
From the albums-that-will-never-see-the-light-of-day department, Just Blaze said something about Saigon's project. I didn't bother to read it, but you can click the link if you want (just to be clear, I'm not reading any more on that album unless it's a fucking release date).
The best video of the week goes to (I can't believe I'm saying this), Speedknot Mobstaz and Twista with "Money To Blow". In close second is a video that I never thought would actually be made, Three Six Mafia and DJ Unk's, "I'd Rather." Academy Award winners, indeed. Take that every other rap artist. (Since I'm giving out awards for videos of the week, Playaz Circle and Phonte get the bronze medal for "Paper Chaser").
And last but not least, Akon is a complete fraud. Surprise, surprise.
Does it sort of weird anyone else out how fast all the old people got this reference?:
Jigga, this is exactly why no one gives a toss about your albums anymore.
That's IT. If Panda ToesPhilebrity can call for a moratorium on banger, I can call for an end to videos that begin with me being told that I am "about to see something I have never seen before." Really? REALLY? You think I've never seen moving images, hoodies, diamonds, and cars before? You don't think much of my life, do you?
Learn a new trick.
Surprise! The video for Fresh is as boring as the song. Props to the lighting crew I guess.
Hot Spitta's got some lines (Cut short like cesarean? Come on, that's great) but everybody else's mediocre rapping makes up for it. The first guy uses the word "block" three times in his verse (the most sterile sixteen I've heard in a while) and please, we all know "killers" rhymes with "drug dealers."
If my cat's not perturbed, you can bet it's a song that goes nowhere pretty much the whole time. Curren$y, if this is the direction in which you are heading, I will be way disgruntled.
Project Pat is a phenomenal artist. He's a longtime affiliate of Three 6 Mafia, a double-felon convicted in federal court, and the North Memphis native who coined the exquisite neologism "Chickenhead" a few years back. But in addition to all this, Pat has one hell of an eye for album cover art.
Among his six albums are classic covers like Ghetty Green, which depicts Project Pat on security camera holding up a convenience store. A strategically placed Parental Advisory logo obscures what is surely a gun in Pat's hand. The best part of this cover is the cleark, a dorky white dude who takes up about half of the frame. The best track on this album: "Rinky Dink/Whatever Ho"--mainly because the skit at the beginning is fucking priceless, but also because it's a posse song.
So there's Ghetty Green--a great cover in its own right--but then there's Layin' Da Smack Down, a piece of album art that surely ranks in a top 10 list somewhere. The scene is a project landscape, and Pat, clad in black cap and mask, is spying a completely oblivious snitch. By the look in Pat's eye, and the suggestive album title emblazoned nearby, it is clear what's going to happen next. Layin' Da Smack Down, indeed. Best track on the album: "Shut Ya Mouth, Bitch"--wonder what was on Project Pat's mind when he put this disc together?
Perhaps Project Pat's best effort at a cover was his first. Murderer's and Robbers has cover art that feels a bit like Microsoft Paint, save for the bold texturing of the words "Project Pat," and the extruded font style used for "Underground album." Looked at objectively, the artwork reminds of a detective's cluttered desktop: just who is this 'Project Pat,' and what's he doing in North Memphis?! There are a bunch of (what appears to be) newspaper clips scattered around, the best of which reads: "Another Player Hater Robbed At Gun Point." Project Pat is so uncompromising. I love it.
It's unfortunate that Project Pat has fallen off as of late: Walkin' Bank Roll is just another step down a musical descent that started with Crook By Da Book: The Fed Story. Though both discs have some memorable moments, they pale in comparison to Pat's older, underground work. Their newer, cleaner cover art reflects a sonic atmosphere completely devoid of the grit and grime that made albums like Ghetty Green so credible (and infinitely bumpable).
Some of the last, best work Pat did was on 2006's Gangsta Grillz 15 (Hosted By Project Pat), but some will argue that Crook By Da Book was an unequivocal success. Though a fun listen, it's nowhere near the authentic, street-quality of the Gangsta Grillz mix, and "Been Gettin' Money" simply can't carry the entire album.
If you've never taken any time to explore Pat's catalog, I highly recommend his early work--take some time and explore the discs above. Good shit.
This is exactly what it sounds like, a short award ceremony for our favorite crossover videos of the 1990s--the ones that took rap music from the urban to suburban. It's videos like these that made nervous white kids warm up to rap music (and I guarantee you most suburban rap listeners can recite this shit word-for-word, whether or not they will admit to it--even the hardest backpacker has the shadowy figure of Coolio lurking in their past).
Remember the movie Dangerous Minds? Yeah, me neither. But Coolio's braided dome is absolutely unforgettable. Though he looks somewhat like Pippi Longstockings, his isn't the only strange mug in the video. I wonder where the guy who sings the chorus is today--because you love him on this track, but he's completely unbelievable as a solo artist.
This track is full of gems such as "Too much television watchin' got me chasing dreams," or "Even my momma thinks that my mind is gone!" Beyond the memorable lyrics, however, is a strange title, "Gangster's Paradise"; at once easily dismissed as too romanticized, it becomes strangely poetic upon a second look. Just what is Coolio getting at here!? Just what exists in a Gangster's Paradise?
If you have subs, I would advocate that you burn a copy of "Gangster's Paradise" and bump it next time you roll out. I guarantee people will fucking love it.
Other Coolio hits such as "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin New)" and "Fantastic Voyage" are crossovers in their own right, but they had nowhere near the appeal of "Gangster's Paradise"; a song equipped with lyrics impossible not to memorize. Coolio spoke to a generation of uncomfortable white people--and look where rap music is today (not that I want to bestow too much glory on the braided one).
One final thought: how hilarious would that set have been? Michelle Pfeiffer basically just sits and stares at Coolio for the duration of the video, looking sassy. I would have been unable to contain my laughter.
Death ain't nothin' but a heartbeat away, I'm livin' life do or die, what can I say?
Ok, it's not technically Thursday, but I have a flight in an hour and it is snowing (yes, in April, for the second time) so I am going to demand some slack be cut.
Once again, this is more of a personal throwback, going in the wayback machine to a time when I was an innocent ten year old watching a ton of MTV. And this video flipped my shit. It terrified me really--I didn't understand it, but there was a lot of weird dancing and camera angles and it totally freaked me out. As did Missy Elliot's "The Rain". And so in honor of Busta's new mixtape as well what is the last time a rap video ever elicited terror, here is the 90s at some of their best:
Ooh, the haters is fucking mad! Lil Wayne's Carter III cover appeared on Amazon yesterday, and every hip-hop fan with a keyboard up in arms.
That's it. It's an infant sporting Weezy's notorious face tattoos, perhaps an image of young Wayne himself. Who knows what the real meaning behind it is--I'm sure Weezy will have something to say about it later--but who really cares? It's a cover that made you look twice. It's a cover that made you think twice. It's a cover that's probably going down in history. In the case of most mainstream rap bloggers, it's a cover that made you hit capslock and pound out an indignant, "WTF, WTF!"
WTF is right. What's the fucking big deal? Your favorite rapper's favorite rapper already put a baby on the cover of his greatest album, released more than a decade ago.
Or were you so ignorant that you forgot about Ready to Die? And if that's not enough for you, did you also forget your other favorite rapper's seminal album cover?
I mean cry me a fucking river mainstream bloggers. "Oh, holy shit! There's a baby on the cover! And look, he's got (fake) tattoos all over his mug!" What passes for commentary in most of the blogosphere is a joke, and as far as art criticism goes, the top writers are about as status quo as it gets. Of course they love Kanye's recent cover yet hate Wayne's. Of course they'll pan a cover with an infant on it, completely neglecting the history of hip-hop's greats.
In the grand tradition of rap-blog-acronyms, I'll give you a "SMH" and a "GTFOH."
Until anyone commenting in the rap community can actually provide a coherent assessment of just what is wrong with this cover (in the context of album covers like Ready to Die and illmatic) then I'm just going to have to label everyone hypocrites. "No Words" is not a sufficient criticism. Neither is calling it an April Fools joke or writing LOL. My favorite description of the cover though? an abomination.
Wow, just wow. The rest of you may have "no words," but I've got at least one, and that's ignorant.
(I will, however concede that the suit is a bit tongue-in-cheek, and the typography a little strange. Overall it's just a tatooed baby--not exactly an abomination.)
(And hey, speaking of Kanye, if he's not being sarcastic, I have to give props for what he wrote about the Carter III cover.)
(This one is sorta old because I have been finishing school.)
I choose Mz Unique's Show Me My Opponent for my mixtape this time around because, well, it was hosted by someone called DJ Black Jesus. But also because I love my Lady Rappers. And that may be entirely unjustified--a lot of Lady Rappers just aren't that good. But these are dames in an industry that is sort of against them and I feel a need to support that (via free downloads).
Mz Unique is, like all rappers these days, young. At 18 her career is either just starting or never going to take off. Her age shows a bit--the tape is decent, but it's a been unpolished, a bit simplistic. But man, do I love "Mah Hustle On". I mean, check the chorus:
I don't need a plan/I don't need a man/we could be friends baby/we could be cool/but I get mah hustle/I'm on the move
There's so much out there that says girls need a man or girls want a man or if not, then they are sort of bitter about it. And this song perfectly captures how me and most of the women I actually know are. It says, dude, a man can get in the way of me. We can be friends. We can kiss. But if you're not going to be cool about it, them whatever. I'm just here to be awesome.
That's a message I support and I think it's a pretty awesome conclusion for such a young lady to make, especially because when I was 18 I was doing god knows what. Mz Unique may not be the Next Big Thing and she hasn't earned my heart like Lil' Mama, but I feel confident dropping her in the category of Lady Rappers worth paying attention to.
It's Saturday and there's basketball on TV--not that I actually have much time to watch it. I'll be pumping a keg at the Monterey Institute's annual "International Bazaar." If you're in the hood, come through and I'll pour you a cup. If not, there's plenty of nonsense in the raposphere to keep you occupied.
First off, Busta Rhymes has apparently already outshined your favorite rapper, and says so on the cover of his latest mixtape. I can't disagree with dude--The Coming is probably the most underrated rap classic ever, and puts Busta up there with B.I.G. and the other greats (yeah, I said it). For more Busta fun, peep this nasty video from MissInfo that finds Bus-a-Bus lecturing fans on what respect means. What an animal.
If you missed it, 2dopeboyz had the best April Fools prank in the hip-hop world. After you peep it, peep the wedding announcement.
The following should probably be filed under "misguided revolutionary fetishism": Rhymefest is saying that his new album will be based on Che Guevara's life. I thought all the Che nonsense died with Rage Against the Machine back in the mid-1990s. All the people who love his iconic stencil-face and flowing hair seem to have no idea what he's actually about. There's so many other revolutionaries who were much more down than Che, but hey, whatever. If you're going to rep him all I ask is that you do your homework.
There's not one but two new State Property tracks over at Fader; "Oceans Seven" is the better of the bunch, but both flow great. This is what I want to hear more of. Rappers: make music similar to this.
Props again to Crate Kings for putting me on to a nice DJ Toomp interview--you know Toomp, he's the man who put together a shitload of synth-heavy summer hits about 2 years ago. Definitely worth a quick read.
Pitchfork reviews Webbie's Savage Life 2. "Fitting for an album that documents a perhaps unwilling crawl to maturity, Savage Life 2 succeeds when it sticks to the specific, discrete, and (relatively) adult." Man, Pitchfork is so ridiculous. Gotta love it.
Polow Da Don may as well be called "Polow Da Shameless". Thanks to 2dopeboyz for this little expose. As they say, "Polow lost." I'll cosign that.
New Wale track, "Conclusion" off his upcoming Mixtape About Nothing. I'm still on Wale's bandwagon but I'm going to need more to keep hyping him.
I can't leave you without new Weezy info: check out "Let's Pray," perhaps the most asinine track Weezy's done in a week. It's getting panned across the blogosphere, and probably rightly so. But as I always say, if you can get the haters mad, you must be doing something right.
Other bits and pieces: Saigon in XXL, RZA seeking openers on CraigsList, Wiz Khalifa performs "Say Yeah," and some screens from Bun B and Sean Kingston's new vid, "That's Gangsta."
That's all I've got. I'll leave you with one parting shot: when rolling around this weekend on 26's and sipping purple drank in the club, ask yourself, "What am I doing to help curb carbon emissions?" Now that's gangsta.
Vast Aire, one half of the legendary underground rap duo Cannibal Ox, has fixed June 24th as the release date for his solo project, Deuces Wild. This will be his sophomore solo-LP, and drops on One Records.
I'm praying that Vast isn't still stuck on the sinking ship that is post-2003 underground hip-hop mentality. You know what I'm talking about: the underground was really making waves but then fell off big time as so many players tried to latch on to the aesthetic that made groups like Can Ox great. That's to say, the underground was diluted bigtime, and even supreme efforts--like from Vast Aire--were lost in the mix. The fact that all that music was "underground" made it just that much more difficult to sort out the goods from the chaff--being in the loop just wasn't enough.
But it's not 2003 and the underground has been long dead now. It's time for Vast to come back and come back strong, but I'm not going to make any predictions about this thing, especially considering what happened with Del and The Eleventh Hour, a disc seven years in the making. In any case, I've got one mp3 off the upcoming disc, "Mecca and the Ox" featuring Vordul Mega.
Vast Aire f. Vordul Mega - "Mecca and the Ox"
Also, check out the tracklisting after the jump.
Anyways, your favorite blog (but apparently not everyone's) posted a few excerpts from an interview with Weezy F that'll be front page news in Vibe's May issue. Daps. I'm always interested in what's going on in Wayne's mind. Here's a couple of 'em excerpts:
On his legacy:
I wanna be a Bob Marley. I wanna be a Tupac. Their lives mean so much. I wanna mean so much after I’m gone. Y’all still gotta do shows, tributes, dedicate 20 whole minutes to me on every show. I want that.Wayne on his love for making music:
I love the studio. It feels like going into a classroom, you know you didn’t study everything, the test gets in front of you, and you’re like Damn, I know all the answers. That’s how I feel when I get in the studio, like Damn, I know all the answers.Lil Wayne on wanting respect as an artist:
I still feel like I’m not being respected. I still feel like I don’t have the crown. I still feel like there’s something I have to do that hasn’t been done.
Wayne's right, and we know geniuses need love too, so hook the lil homie up. Despite all of his efforts, singles, mixtapes, features and Bad Ass Grasshoppers, Wayne still doens't get any love. It's like the rest of the industry is hoping that if they ignore him long enough he'll simply disappear, or get dropped (not like Joey Crack, I mean like pap pap).
Seriously, Wayne destroyed every rapper last year, but I don't hear him on the radio around these parts--not without Akon's broke voice whining a chorus. Weezy knows what's up, he's being ignored by a large portion of the market and he shouldn't be.
Even Eskay seems to think Curren$y flys higher than Wayne:
"Remember when Wayne kicked this kid out of Young Money because he was afraid somebody was gonna realize that he was better than him? That was fucked up. Nah, lemme stop, that’s (probably) not what happened."
You even listen to music dude? (probably not)
That being said, does anyone even know how many songs Wayne recorded last year? We know it's more than the 77 Vibe cataloged as the best, and fuck you thinking Fennessey, putting "We Takin' Over" in the top spot? I'm gonna have to come back with my own best of list; Whatever's Good, Weezy's Better 'The only songs your iPods need til C3.' It's time to set the records straight.
Back to business. Even though last year's strategy didn't reap the big rewards, awards, nor the crown for Wayne, it looks like 50 cent and the Goon-Unit are gonna take a page from the hip-hop king's diary anyway. Buildin' buzz. They've dropped one mixtape already (RIP Joe), have multiple discs slated for release in '08 and continue to build a solid fence around the blogosphere with all the posts their affiliates are front page posting over at thisis50. That still doesn't make their music any better, but here's the jam anyway. Newest single from the upcoming G-Unit album:
