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Hip Hop
Law student (Notorious B.O.A.L.T?) at UC Berkeley Law raps about CivPro (Language NSFW). [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBTba2J6OKI]
This part made me laugh:
Your girl is an 8a, short and plain But that bitch is a ten when she’s giving me brain She bolted out of ASP, demanding relief But first I made her taste my jurisdictional reach
[Via]
Snoop and the Dogg Pound freestyle while Dre plays the piano. Classical gangstas. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb0MtwQqAj0]
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What recession?
Lil Wayne received a suitcase containing one million dollars for his birthday from fellow Cash Money Millionaire Birdman aka Bryan “Baby” Williams.
More photos here.
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The search engines MSN, Google, and Yahoo! go head to head and rap battle for supremacy. This is what Eminem gave birth to: Guys in blue tights and on Segways rapping about search results. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w688s-AURE]
What would SouljaBoy say about this I wonder?
[Via]
Rolling Stones gets the story or rather, stories straight from the mouths of the various players involved in the creation and aftermath of Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, a seminal album released 10 years ago that "went on to sell more than 8 million copies, win five Grammys." It's also one of my all time favorites and one of those albums that I would bring with me to a deserted island scenarios.
John Legend: I was in the spring of my junior year at University of Pennsylvania. A friend invited me to give her a ride to Lauryn's house in Jersey. Lauryn was working "Everything Is Everything." I sang and played a couple songs for her. She asked me to play piano on the track. She guided me a little bit but it was pretty simple because I was playing along with a string part that was already there. I became known around campus as the dude who played on "Everything Is Everything." It was my little claim to fame at Penn for my whole senior year.
[...]
Che Vicious: She gave me co-production [on "To Zion"], but I did the track on my own. There was label pressure to do the Prince thing — written and produced by. I still love you like a sister, but you didn't do it on your own.
Until I read this I had 1) no idea that John Legend worked on her album, and 2) that he went to Penn.
Read more here.
J posted this new music video from Common for his song "Announcement" featuring Pharrell and I want to nominate it as a hot track. The song has got that shoulder-bouncing beat in a laid-back way, Pharrell's cameo works, and the video concept is dope. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH5KaTiVqLk]
What say you?
I went through a period in my life where I used to watch BET 106 and Park regularly and... I don't care who you are, but you HAD to give it up to my man Jin when on BET freestyle fridays he destroyed all those phony challengers. Seriously, watch these clips to see what's called "running the table" as he straight slays all these cats one after the other. Also, note how he wins the initially skeptical crowd over week after week--who were all too stupid to keep coming at him with the Chinaman jokes (What's wrong with ya'll? It's the 21st mofo century). Unfortunately the above videos don't capture the last few battles where he gets better and better, and by the last battle the crowd is outright mocking the pathetic roadkill challenger. Anyway, back to the point of this entry. Watch this clip of my friend's friend freestyle for like 9 minutes non-stop. It takes me 9 minutes to just write a haiku so...
In the red corner we have "Hipster Girl" that mocks all things Hipster from Bedford to Grand, although I secretly suspect everyone in the music video lives somewhere either in Bedford or on Grand. That said, the "hipster girl" in the vid does give me that funny feeling. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTbwCsjN4Ek]
In the blue corner we have "Dim Sum Girl" by Asian hip hop trio Notorious MSG. Unfortunately the only video of this song I could find was that of these three AZN brothers out in Texas putting their own spin on this song. But you get the general idea. [youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=FaNRg3nn23U]
So you've seen both videos. Which do you prefer?
Tired of the played out tropes in hip hop music videos--you know, the bling, the girls, the Cristal, the guns, the machismo? Well, this video has something you've NEVER seen in a hip hop video...or any music video for that matter, unless you've previously already seen male rappers give birth, not to the next beat or seminal verse, but to an actual baby. Even if you dont like rap, watch this video for the first 33 seconds. You'll either thank me or hate me later.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKJb4iZ3eoQ]
Wondering why that Fugees reunion ain't happening? Blame Lauryn.
Funkmaster Flex on July 4th played a commercial free five hour set on Hot97 of pure classic hip hop goodness from the 1990s (minus "Hammer and Young MC").
Some dude broke up the set into four mp3s which you can download here.
It's a must have for any hip hop fan or connoisseur. I've been listening to it all night (I doubt I'll be able to listen to the entire set considering it's five hours long in case you forgot) and it's simply hot, although a small minor complaint is that sometimes there's a little too much Funkmaster Flexing his big mouth. Nonetheless the songs fit really perfectly with the hot summer nights and it makes me want to get in a car with a couple good friends, nod our heads along to the beats, and just drive somewhere.
So you think you have a complicated handshake/greeting with your boys? This video pays homage to that tradition. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVge3CiE5uU]
I admit the headline makes no sense; I just wanted to channel Coolio for a moment. This past weekend the Red Sox hosted the Wankees, and I'm sure most of you have all heard or seen it by now, but during the Sunday game, the Sox slammed four home runs off one Yankee pitcher. Correction: Four consecutive home runs off one pitcher. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAGTfFJFsfA]
What a thing to see and experience for those people at the game who'd never been to a baseball game before. Now they're going to expect that at every game henceforth.
Oh yea, and here's some Coolio. You know you want it. 1,2,3,4 get yo woman on the floor ya'll:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNj3IFkKCOw]
Update: ESPN's Bill Simmons made a funny about ARod:
A-Rod is like pollen -- you can always count on him to make an impact in April and May.
Using NYC's hip hop radio station "Hot 97" as the focal point, the always awesome New Yorker examines the current state of hip hop in New York City. It's a very fascinating, engrossing and entertaining read. Here's an excerpt from the article:
A recent edition features a scene shot last year, before Gravy’s feud with Hot 97, and shortly after he and Fendi had negotiated to take their private label, Dirty Money Records, to Warner Bros., for a reported three million dollars. It is night, and Gravy and Ice-T are standing on Eighth Street, in the Village—a young rapper on the cusp of success, basking in the attention of an elder statesman. “We just chilling,” Ice-T says. “I bumped into Gravy. Say, ‘What’s happening?’ We talking.”“We gone got the official Gangsta Man,” Gravy says. “You can’t get more gangsta than this man right here, you know?. . . Tell me, what you got going on, Ice-T?”
“Right now, I’m on TV—niggas watching me on ‘Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,’ cause I’m the real mothafuckin’ pimp,” Ice-T says. “Playing the police. Imagine that. That’s real pimpin’ for a street nigga like me.”
Ice-T mentions that he’s got a new album coming out (“Gangsta Rap”), along with a clothing line (310 Motoring) and an energy drink (Liquid Ice) to promote: “I’m just trying to get it all, man. I’m trying to stay in the game.”
Gravy, nodding along, is wearing three huge silver necklaces, with crosses dangling in front of his stomach. “My man, shit, let me check out how you roll,” he says, turning and pointing behind Ice-T to a silver luxury car.
“Yeah, this the Bentley,” Ice-T says, before directing the camera to the front seat, where he shows off a customized steering wheel. “Got a lot of wood up in there. You go check niggas’ Bentleys out, you ain’t even going to see the wood steering wheel, ’cause that’s extra. That cost five thousand. . . . But I got it from hard work.”
Ice-T turns serious. “The hardest thing in the world to get is street respect, where niggas really are happy to see you with this type of stuff, you dig? That’s the hardest thing to obtain, is to get it, and have the hood feel like you deserve it, you dig? ’Cause you can go out there, get a budget, and get a whole bunch of money—niggas will run right up in your crib and repossess that bullshit, real quick. Look, look, look— ”
A double-decker sightseeing bus has pulled to a stop behind the Bentley (“Ladies and gentlemen, Ice-T!”), and tourists on the upper level begin snapping pictures. “What’s up, Ice-T?”
“What’s happening?” he shouts back.
“There he is!”
Turning to face the camera again, Ice-T smirks, and says, “That’s all white people—trip. That’s all white people. So you got to be good in the hood, and gets respect from the top deck, you dig? World renowned, internationally known, and locally respected. That’s me and Saucy”—Gravy—“we do it like that.”
The cameraman asks, “Ice-T, how’s the rap game changed since you’ve come up?”
“I mean, the rap game’s changed a lot, but I’m not mad at it,” he says. “It’s more raw. . . . Now every rap crew is made of real mothafuckin’ dangerous individuals, you dig what I’m saying? You got to understand, I got in the rap game to get out of the streets. . . . Now the streets is in the rap game.” Ice-T, as if in a time warp, appears to be counselling his protégé Gravy from some vantage point in the future. “Now niggas idolize the shot, not the shooter,” he says. “You brag how many times you got shot. I’m supposed to be impressed? . . . I’m down with the niggas who staying on the streets, who ain’t getting shot, ’cause nobody wants to shoot ’em. . . . I’m down with the niggas who come from the gutter but are trying to do it right, so they can feed they kids. Them is my crew. . . . Like this, ya heard?” He tugs Gravy back into the frame. “If you motivate niggas to do low, you hustling sideways.”
Ice-T’s wife, Coco, who is white, enters the picture, and his mood lightens. “She representing—just got her mothafuckin’ nails done,” he says. “I love her to death. . . . All the black women that got problems with Ice-T with a white girl? Kiss my fucking ass.” Then he puts his arm around Coco and starts singing “We Are the World,” swaying from side to side.
People are asking me why I'm switching from my old blog to this new one. If they use the points made in this article as a metaphor, they'll understand my motivations. I'm just trying to step up my game, ya heard?
