[quote]blackartsviper wrote:
Oh Yeah I gotta expand on this question: what has been the best hip hop release of the year? Nothing has really stood out this year. Hopefully that new Nas, Outkast, or Roots album will save the day. [/quote]
Nothing has really impressed me yet this year either, I’ve got high hopes for that Roots album, they are one of my faves. Has anybody heard any of Lupe Fiasco’s mixtape tracks? They released “kick push” as a single off that album, and it is the weakest track I have heard from him. His mixtape stuff is nuts. His album, Food and Liquor, could be real good.
i listen to ALOT of different shit. mostly towards the hardcore metal stuff (nonpoint, killswitch, etc.). although the favorite hip hop stuff revolves around:
mobb deep
DIPSET
3 6 mafia
pac
jeezy
shyne
nas
i could keep goin but ill stop now
Emdawg, you made an interesting point about ‘hoes’ and hiphop fucking kids up. But i grew up listening to the wu, Gangstarr, jeru the damaja, smif n wessun and that sort of thing, 92-96 shit, and not to mention dead prez (borderline supremacists, but they like malcolm so they’re cool) and the coup, we’ve got far more moral messages of all flavours in hiphop than other genres, even folk/whatever.
There’s The pharcyde’s ‘otha fish’, to ‘black steel in the hour of chaos’, to ‘i can’t go to sleep’, to ‘shinin…next shit’ and ‘KIM’, to ‘moment of truth’, to ursula rucker’s stuff on the roots, pops raps on the end of common albums, pretty much all post-resurrection common in fact, black star, etc etc.
We need to buy that shit and fan the media’s interest in it, and keep it prominent. Fuck 50 cent and all shit, only time i want2 hear it is grinding in a club drenched in sweat and fucked off vodka. That shouldn’t be the mainstream
Oh yeah, nas’ illamtic, one of the most inspirational things i’ve ever seen/heard/felt. That kid saw through the eyes of a poet. Beats were sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet too. never get large pro, pete, premier, qtip on an album again. That was special. Greatest album ever, for all time. Will never beat the ‘ita aint hard to tell’ verse, or ‘lifes a bitch’, or in fact any of it.
Threw on some Blackstar and Mos Def on the MP3 player, damn I forgot how good that shit is! I’m pissed off cause I can’t find my Nas Illmatic CD, but I can cope for now. This is a great thread, throw some more stuff out there so I can check it out.
[quote]Ovation wrote:
Has anybody heard any of Lupe Fiasco’s mixtape tracks? They released “kick push” as a single off that album, and it is the weakest track I have heard from him. His mixtape stuff is nuts. His album, Food and Liquor, could be real good. [/quote]
I downloaded a “supposed” copy of Food and Liquor(I don’t know if it an actual copy of the album since it’s not out yet), and really like it for the most part. I liked “Kick, push,” too, if for no other reason than he was rapping about something different–skateboarding (and I’ve never been on a skateboard in my life). I also thought it was refreshing that there was almost no cursing on the album (I counted 2 “shits”.).
In short, I enjoyed the album. Is it the album of the year? No, but it’s new voice who raps about some cool, different subject matters. He gets some points from me because of that, especially since I believe he has the potential for some commercial success.
So far, my choice for album of the year is Jurassic 5’s Feedback, and I think it might be their best album yet. Of course, I’m a little biased in that I really, really like J5.
[quote]blackartsviper wrote:
OK This is a multi tier response:
Bodyguard: Damn I didn’t know you went back that far in hip hop fandom! You can remember all the old school DJ’s from the 80’s. Also for the record I’m starting to appreciate Jazzy Jeff more and more as a DJ. THe reason why I never appreciated him back in the day was because he was associated with that hypocrite Will Smith. But, I’m respecting his skills more and more.
Proxy: Yeah its nice to see Doom grab more and more attention. I’ve heard about him for years and after listening to that Dangerdoom, I know that the Hype is justified.
Oh Yeah I gotta expand on this question: what has been the best hip hop release of the year? Nothing has really stood out this year. Hopefully that new Nas, Outkast, or Roots album will save the day. [/quote]
Damn bro, I go all the way back to the beginning LOL. I actually battled jeff and cash. Back then, no one could touch Jeff or Cash Money - they’d go to NYC and wreck all those big name dj’s…but DJ skills have taken a quantum leap since those days…Jeff with Prince is really quite a contradiction…Prince was so bubble gum and harmless and Jeff was a street battle DJ from day one. It was an odd mix but one that obviously worked to both their benefit. Jeff was a Philly icon on the circuit long before he hooked up with Smith. He and Cash even had an hour or so on an AM station once a week back in the day when hip hop was NOT played on the radio to any appreciable degree - and they were letting those two cut it up raw. Smith had some skill in the beginning…he wasn’t so “pop” - catch a clip of them live at union square…very different than his recorded music of the time. I wasn’t a “fan”…but he did have a different “look” than what was on his records - everyone in philly is familiar with that earlier edge to some of his unrecorded work.
One group that I don’t think has been mentioned yet is the “Living Legends” crew fromt the west coast.
Amongst LL are two guys by the name of “The Grouch & Eligh”, they made an album titled “No More Greener Grasses”. VERY good album. Anything LL is great…
As for the most underrated rapper out there (that are somehwat commercial but relatively unknown) is a tie betw. Big L and AZ. AZ is one of my fav rappers, and one of the few that can hold his own with Nas on a track.
One of my favorite lines of all time is a Talib verse (I believe from “Once inna Lifetime” off Blackstar), where he speaks of commercial rappers and states that their songs are full of “intellectual masturbation with premature ejaculation”…
Anyways, favorite artists and the ones found on my creative zen vision:m are:
Big L
AZ
Nas
Nature
Capone n’ Noreaga
The Firm (Nas, foxy, Cormega, Nature, AZ)
Bone (first EP and first LP)
De La Soul (select songs)
Dead Prez
Do or Die (first album “Picture This”)
Gang Starr (imo Guru isn’t much without primo)
Goodie Mob (first two albums)
Grouch and Eligh
Heltah Skeltah (“Nocturnal”)
Jay-Z (“Reasonable Doubt” & “Rap Phenomenon III”)
2Pac (“Me Against…”, “Eyez…”, & “Rap Phenomenon II” <–Best mixtape of all time)
Biggie (first two albums & “Rap Phenopmenon I” <— 2nd best mixtape ever made)
Immortal Technique
J Dilla
Jurassic 5
Living Legends
Lauryn Hill
M-1 (“Confidential”)
Redman (solo stuff & w/Method Man in “Blackout”)
Mobb Deep (Infamous, Hell…, and murda Muzik)
Mos Def
Nappy Roots (select songs)
Outkast
Papoose
Pete Rock
Scarface (imo “The Fix” being his best)
Talib Kweli
The Roots (select songs)
older stuff like Rass Kass “Soul on Ice”, Raekwon’s Cubal Linx, GZA’s “liquid swords”, etc
also Twista’s, Ice Cube’s, and XZibit’s older stuff…
Check out Living Legends album “Classic” and Grouch & Eligh’s “No More Greener Grasses”…
Mostly into the early 90s stuff, tired of hearing about how many $$$$ they have and what kind of jewellery rappers wear nowadays. Some favs:
NWA
Comptons Most Wanted/MC Eiht
The D.O.C
2 Pac
Early Dre, Ice Cube, Snoop Doggy Dogg
Warren G
Eazy E
Kurupt
Nas
Tech-N9ne
Gangstarr
Early Fugees
Dogg Pound
LOL. I actually battled jeff and cash. Back then, no one could touch Jeff or Cash Money - they’d go to NYC and wreck all those big name dj’s…but DJ skills have taken a quantum leap since those days…Jeff with Prince is really quite a contradiction…Prince was so bubble gum and harmless and Jeff was a street battle DJ from day one. It was an odd mix but one that obviously worked to both their benefit. Jeff was a Philly icon on the circuit long before he hooked up with Smith. He and Cash even had an hour or so on an AM station once a week back in the day when hip hop was NOT played on the radio to any appreciable degree - and they were letting those two cut it up raw. Smith had some skill in the beginning…he wasn’t so “pop” - catch a clip of them live at union square…very different than his recorded music of the time. I wasn’t a “fan”…but he did have a different “look” than what was on his records - everyone in philly is familiar with that earlier edge to some of his unrecorded work.