(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.

Mz Unique - Mah Hustle On (zShare)

Show Me My Opponent torrent

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:

g-unit - I like the way she do it.mp3

So I'm exhausted and have a sore throat. Whatever. It's not going to stop me from sharing a few tracks with you. There's not much else exciting going on in rap today, except some Roots Rising Down footage (yawn), a Busta Rhymes mixtape I haven't listened to yet and a list of the Top 40 hip-hop blogs. Surprise, surprise, we ain't on it.

But anyway, you're here for music.

• MJG - Shades off This Might Be The Day. Everything about this is great, bump this in your iPod while taking a stroll this afternoon. Be sure to bring the shades.
• David Banner f. Chris Brown - Get Like Me. David Banner needs to drop an album in short order.
• Curren$y - The Takeover. Yeah, the Hot Spitter is only alright, but this jam is catchy. Off the very mediocre mixtape Higher than 30,000 Feet.

Okay so my Google Reader tells me Nicki Minaj dropped this on MixtapeTorrent last July, but that's kinda when school starts so whatever. I'm actually kinda glad I didn't catch it until recently--I'm a courier and until recently the weather wouldn't have been warm enough. Windows down, gettin my hustle on, etc etc.

If you don't remember her on Can't Stop Won't Stop from Wayne's Drought 3 there might not be any help for your taste. Or alternately, possibly your memory. But she's on her own here with the same Brooklyn accent as Lil Kim and a clever, updated aerobic wit somewhere between Weezy, Missy Elliot and Lil Mama. She's smart and she's quick and it's not the universal thematic eruption of Diamond's Bitch Music, but it don't think it's supposed to be.* It's jokey and chatty and conversational, she's personal without telling you about herself--in the same way that Wayne is--instead she lets her talent, skill, and delivery as an artist and MC demonstrate. Nicki Minaj is doing something else, and I'm not sure what it is yet. Keep an eye on her.

JAMZ:

Diamond, La La La

Nicki Minaj, Whatchu Know Bout Me
Nicki Minaj, Dreams '07

_______________
*However, the tape dropped in part under Big Mike, one of the same DJs. I know nothing about him but evidently he reps for some cool broads.

I love Rhymefest. He's not someone I can listen to every week or anything, but going back to CD every now and then is like remembering a favorite book. Despite his Kanye ties, I think the dude is clever, smart and not overly preachy while still political.

He is also ridiculous. I mean, the dude did a cover of "Build Me Up Buttercup" with ODB that is one of the most amazing things ever. And it seems like he is letting the ridiculous take over as I just found out he has a new mixtape out that is based around, of all things, Michael Jackson.

Needless to say, it is insane. It is also infinity listenable. I dig Mark Ronson, and he produced it, so the beats are enjoyable, the spits good and the concept...something. It does expose a major flaw of Rhymefest, which is that despite his large personality, his flow is a little flat and his beats tend to run together, but the fact that this sort of madness is the mixtape makes me excited for his sophomore release.

Does anyone else feel like we're just twiddling out thumbs until spring comes and every album anticipated album comes out? April is gonna be off the chain.

Man in the Mirror (Thanks to Wale)

Kidz in the Hall - Geniuses Need Love Too (Mixtape)

Haven't had a chance to spin this yet, since I'm sitting in class with major sciatic nerve pain and no headphones, but I anticipate that it will be stellar. Blaze one for me.

Update: I'm putting it out there even though it's February, "Do What Grown Folks Do" is already a classic. Chicago, What the fuck is up! These beats are butter.

God, I love the Yay Area. At once I both understand and fail to comprehend everything they are talking out, but who cares, because they are damned enthusiastic about it.

Plus, E-40 and Lil Jon? Oh yea. Check out the (clean) version of "Turf Drop", courtesy of Cocaine Blunts:

zShare

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)

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.

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.

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

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)

Kool G. Rap just dropped a few sweet verses over a primo beat. I don't have much to say about it, other than Premiere's production is on point and that KGR sounds raw. Oh, and that Hayle Duff sings on the hook. I'm not sure what to think of that.

Kool G. Rap f. Hayle Duff - On The Rise Again (zShare)

This is the type of NYC shit that I love. Let's see more of this.

For the Weezy fans, will it ever end? The "Nike Boots" remix featuring Lil Wayne dropped Christmas Day on Wale's myspace page, I grabbed it this morning and I can't stop listening to it.

But it's really not just Weezy who has my ear. Wale, pronounced wah-lay, spits for DC with a cordial swagger and an attitude that confirms his focus isn't only about doubling dollars:

"People [in DC] think it's cool to be stupid sometimes. If you say something that's too on point, people are going to look at you like, 'Damn, fuck you think you're smart or something?' I've made it my duty to not dumb it down for people."

Holla!

Truth be told, Wale may not sell five mill' with his debut album, tentatively titled Love Day and slated for a summer release; his goal for the disc is to follow in the footsteps of "Nike Boots" and make a "change where we stop hating on everything in DC and know that it's possible to make it out." He's currently shopping it around the major record labels and has yet to leave a meeting without an offer.

So check out the original, the remix, and then listen to Wale spit over my favorite non-hip hop song of 2007. Please do enjoy!

Wale - Nike Boots (zShare)

Wale - Nike Boots Remix featuring Lil Wayne (zShare)

Wale - W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E. (zShare)

I love race-passing. And class-passing. And really any kind of passing. Because I think that whatever actions or choices "passing" entails by definition help nullify the divisive, ugly classifications of ethnicity, class, gender, etc., that pre-date the passing in question.

Race passing makes me especially happy because, as a one-time anthropology minor, I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that race does not exist outside of abstract conception. There is no biological basis for race and our continued use of it as a species is not only ignorant, prejudiced, detrimental, and corrosive, it's just inaccurate, just wrong. And since all I want is for everyone I know to be right all the time, I thought you should know.

Obviously this isn't just a hip hop thing. Take Ernst Lubitsch films for class, take Sascha Baron Cohen for culture, race, ethnicity, and sexuality; take pretty much any celebrity with a reality show for class; take Cate Blanchet as Bob Dylan for gender. But okay, in hip hop take DJ Drama, Juelz Santana, DJ Kahled, Fat Joe, the list goes on.

So I'll be doing Without Wednesday (in keeping with the alliterative segment theme) to broaden your horizons. Because people think hip hop is a race thing, a social thing, a class thing and the current state of hip hop (hello congress!) leads me to believe that people are forgetting that art is always all of those things and a whole lot more. Whether or not the art is avant guarde, underground, commercially successful, high brow, low brow, or critically hailed.

Here's how it's gonna go down: 1) I start with someone you've maybe never heard of and show you a picture and give you some great mp3s. Then I'll 2) follow up with a person or people who I think was actually greatly influenced by the first person even though everyone on the planet's heard of the second person and not the first (and give you some mp3s to mount my argument). 3,4, 5 and beyond) and finish with a person or people relevant to a discussion of contemporary hip hop that should be obvious enough by the time I'm done that I don't even have to give you mp3s (but I prolly will because we're all about cooperation here at Whatever).

Hopefully the W/oWs will feed off of each other as I do more and more of them. My hope is that they'll build a larger, more expansive, bush-like web of musical evolution through history by intersecting the narrower linear progressions we continue to seek out. I just hope you're prepared to get your shit educated and your mind blown. I'll give you till Wednesday to ready yourselves. Get into some clean underwear while you're at it.

I tend to be a little behind the times, which I've learned to make peace with, because frankly the times can move a little too fast. But everyone has to discover the hot thing at some point, so this is for the people that, like me, may lag a little.

"Stack My Paper Up" was a hot track on the blog scene earlier this year, but I just got into about a month ago and have still given it precious few spins. But at the bar last night I reminded of how great the sample was, of how badass and inspiring those violins can be and just how perfectly suited they seem to be for the drama of the game:

Born Wit It and B.O.B. - Stack My Paper Up (zShare)

Maths and English is an album that I enjoy every time I give it a listen, but I've given it precious few listens this year. But this video for "Sirens" blew my mind. Earlier this year Jessica claimed that DJ Khaled's "We Takin' Over" video was going to be the video for 2007, as it had it all--Weezy, terrorism, international flavor, etc, etc. It represents something. "Sirens" may be a more depressing beast, but it feels the same way to me--it represents this uniquely English moment that, as a half-Brit, I'm completely charmed and captivated by:

For a long while now I have been disappointed with the state of underground hip-hop. Whether it be too serious, too corny or even a little too full of itself I have had to satisfy myself with the mainstream and sometimes the mundane.

That is until a resurgence of simple beats, poppy lyrics and a fantastic party feeling rose to the surface. Names like Spank Rock, Chewy Chocolate Cookies and Simian Mobile Disco were reinventing fun rap. It's sort of a robotic electric boogaloo with a pinch of 8-bit new wave.

Simian Mobile Disco - I Got This Down (zShare)

Attack Decay Sustain Release is the debut album from Simian Mobile Disco and is well worth a listen. It provides a jump start for several emotions, not the least of which is the one that makes you want to get up and dance.

With the passing of Pimp C recently after a show with Too Short I am all too quickly reminded that if I like a rapper they are either now dead or in jail (or have spent quite a stretch in the clink). Pimp C was a rare bird; whether solo, with UGK or featured on someone else’s track he received constant play with me. It’s fitting then that after serving a couple of years in jail on weapons charges that a few months later Pimp C was found belly up in a hotel room.

Pimp C's smooth flow instantly caught hold of me the first time I heard him on the Crooked Lettaz track "Get Crunk" The song is a pre-solo career David Banner, Kamikaze and one of the finest verses from Pimp C. After hearing that track I dug up all the old UGK albums discovering each one better than the last. My only regret in loving Pimp C unconditionally is that I will defend the latest albeit sub par UGK release.

Crooked Lettaz ft. Pimp C - Get Crunk (RapidShare)

Just because a rapper is dead does not mean that they get a free pass into my ‘favorites’. (see: Big Pun and Proof). It does however give you a head start in the street cred game against all the other rappers whose empty promises leave me dissatisfied with the current state of rap music.

Peanut Butter Wolf & Charizma - Methods - Part 1 & 2 (RapidShare)

I've never been a person much for going to concerts. I like them just fine, but more often than not I find myself feeling a little let-down, even with some of my favorite groups. It's seems rare to find both a great artist and a great performer and the older and broker I get, the more willing I am to stay home, rather than go out and try new things.

Fortunately for me, my college will occasionally bring us free shows and its under this circumstances that I got introduced to Blitz the Ambassador.

Now, I'm going to be upfront--Blitz is solid, lyrically, but he's not amazing. A good, standard underground type guy, as far as a I could tell. But man alive, could he put on a show. He played to a crowd of only about 50 students, but he it was like he was playing to a crowd of thousnads. He put all his energy and heart and skill into and gave me one of the most enjoyable concert experiences I've ever had. At the end of the night everyone (including him) was grinning and dancing and having a great time and, shit, how often do you get to say that about shows?

So, buy the single or not, but if you have a chance, go see him live. As concerts get more bloated and impersonal, as performers get lazier, and as more people show up just to be obnoxious, performers like Blitz will be harder to find. See him while you can.