A thread about hiphop...

[Mr. X]

:(

[Stego]

Step in The Arena will always get play from me.

[Horus Ex Machina]

Did anyone see the letter that Guru wrote before he died. It was posted on DJ Premier's blog for awhile, but if you can't find it there it's also in this Toronto Star story. Also DJ Premier was on Sirius for two hours, but I haven't heard it, but I imagine that someone posted it in pieces on Youtube. I also imagine that the subject of Guru's letter, Solar and the rest came up. Can't believe that I'm just seeing this.

May 18th Nas and Jr. Gong's Distant Relatives finally drops. I'm marking my calendars, all of them. Finally!

[Stone-Made-Soft]

May 18th Nas and Jr. Gong's Distant Relatives finally drops. I'm marking my calendars, all of them. Finally!

I thought Nas's self-entitled was pretty weak. Should I cop this?

I've been listening to Uggh’s New Hip Hop Radio. A few highlights: Rearview by Marco Polo & Ruste Juxx, Sadat X (of Brand Nubian) feat. Rhymefest, The Change Up by ENO.D + Magnificent Ruffians.

[Horus Ex Machina]

I thought Nas's self-entitled was pretty weak. Should I cop this?

You should definitely cop it. I think I posted a link earlier to the single from the album that they released for Haiti Relief. But moreso for what Damian Marley brings to the combination than anything else. There are few who combine roots-style reggae, dancehall, and hiphop as well as Jr. Gong. The closest name that comes to mind is a guy like maybe Jah Cure. I still think that Halfway Tree was his best album but Welcome to Jamrock is off the charts too.

Bottom line, making music with Jr. Gong is almost definitely going to bring some of the best out of Nas.

[Horus Ex Machina]

As we Enter off the Nas and Jr Gong album. It goes by kinda fast but the style and flow was something that I wasn't totally expecting. I really wasn't expecting them to trade verse for verse since it's something that Jr Gong never has done in any of his colaborations to date. There really wasn't much of that in the track that they'd released previously for the Haitian Relief effort. I can't wait to get the rest of the album when I can find a place to purchase and dl it.

My only complaint is that it leaves you craving another two verses. Way too short for such a strong hook, beat and flow. It almost feels like they wasted it. And I definitely did not appreciate the 30 seconds or so of dead space in the track. Jr Gong or Nas could have thrown in another verse in that time period. I'm all over this track, but I hope that they're planning to remix it and add on a few more verses. It deserved more.

[Horus Ex Machina]

I gonna have a tough time not talking about this album since I've been personally waiting for it for so long. Let me know what you think. The NJ gives a nice review here and covers alot of the same points that I get to.

Now having copped the single yesterday and finally getting the album today, I'll say that some expectations were not met while others were. First off, As We Enter only served to give me false expectations that we would see Jr Gong actually trading lines with Nas on more tracks like a new-age Fugees. However outside of that track which raised my expectations, there was no other reason for me to have believed that that would be the case since Marley has collaborated on numerous tracks in the past and until then had never done this. The rest of the album is more of what we've seen from Jr Gong in the past on colabs, but this is not a bad thing, especially on tracks that use more Afro-beat rythms and such.

All in all everything and everything that I would expect out of Jr Gong which is nothing but excellent vocals and setting of the mood for every track.

Now Nas comes at you with quick-flowing lyricism that we haven't seen from him track-to-track for some time. Now because of the pacing of some of the tracks he does seem to take a bit of a hiatis while Marley sings, but when he comes he almost takes over entirely and you really do start to believe he's found his muse. I'm giving this an A-minus and only because it was simply missing more of what we got in As We Enter. Nah mean gets close.

Bottom line, these two really need to do this again. By simply teaming up with Nas, Jr Gong will likely be heard by more Americans than he ever has been in the past, even taking into account 'Welcome to Jamrock'. Beside's K'naan, offerings from Outkast and occasionally Eminem, hip hop just hasn't seen too many artist go fully out of the conventional in mainstream hip hop in this decade. It used to be common in the nineties. The Fugees were the best of many examples. I'm plan on starting a Twitter campaign to force Nas and Jr. Gong to give us an encore album next year.

My picks from this album:

As We Enter, Friends, Tribes at War, Strong Will Continue, Nah Mean,

, Patience,

[Iforgotmyusername]

Just saw this thread.

Lately I just really have gotten into a group from Philadelphia, PA called Chiddy Bang. If you like electro-hiphop mix they are awesome.

So far they have 2 mix tapes out with their debut dropping this August. They are going to be huge this time next year in the States. They are getting pretty big in the UK right now.

Also has anybody heard Eminem's underground songs lately? He sounds like the OLD Eminem from his first 2 albums. He has that edge again I'm hoping his album that comes out next month is back to those classics.

[Horus Ex Machina]

Just saw this thread.

Lately I just really have gotten into a group from Philadelphia, PA called Chiddy Bang. If you like electro-hiphop mix they are awesome.

So far they have 2 mix tapes out with their debut dropping this August. They are going to be huge this time next year in the States. They are getting pretty big in the UK right now.

I hear that they're touring stateside so that will be interesting. My current personal issues that have kept me handcuffed these past months are about to end but apparently they're just touring the West Coast. I'm interested in seeing what type of show they put on. I've said before live shows with hiphop is pretty hit and miss, so I'm always interested in seeing who's coming on tour.

I'll have to do a sample on Pandora tonight and maybe I'll cop a few tracks.

Also has anybody heard Eminem's underground songs lately? He sounds like the OLD Eminem from his first 2 albums. He has that edge again I'm hoping his album that comes out next month is back to those classics.

I know that he doesn't do anything with Green Lantern anymore, but he supposedly recorded a cut with Slaughterhouse that I'm still waiting on since that would finally reunite him with Royce. There was a story that I read about that last week when all the rumors were that SH had already signed with his label. But other than that, I've only been going off of what one of my friends, who's the biggest Eminem disciple ever, says about what he's doing. I've heard one track that went pretty hard but I don't remember the name of it.

I'm optimistic about his skills and ability to make good music, I never doubted that. That's why only listening to his underground shit and refusing to stoop to buying his last two albums makes sense for me. Anyone can steal anything off the internet that they want, but when artists make music that I like, I make it a point to purchase it for just this reason. But I just doubt the bigwigs at Interscope won't convince him to release alot of the same cheesy shit that sells that he's put out on his last two albums. I've said it before, Eminem can literally take a shit in a cd case and it will still move at least a million units. It matters about how much he puts into it.

I've been listening to Uggh’s New Hip Hop Radio. A few highlights: Rearview by Marco Polo & Ruste Juxx, Sadat X (of Brand Nubian) feat. Rhymefest, The Change Up by ENO.D + Magnificent Ruffians.

I've been meaning to check this out. I'm still hooked on Pandora and listening to my new MP3's but I'll probably make a point of it to stream it tonight.

[afterroots]

The Eminem track he's probably talking about is a new freestyle called 'Despicable' where he goes in over Drake's 'Over' and Red Cafe's 'Beamer Benz or Bentley'. It's definately a return to form.

[Horus Ex Machina]

The Eminem track he's probably talking about is a new freestyle called 'Despicable' where he goes in over Drake's 'Over' and Red Cafe's 'Beamer Benz or Bentley'. It's definately a return to form.

Eminem will always be one of the best, if not the best, lyricists perhaps ever. But his biggest roadblock is production. Eminem's early albums were heavy on Dre or Bass beats and if you look at some of his biggest singles alot of them aren't tracks that he produces by himself. The Eminem Show is probably his weakest album to date and he produced more of that LP by himself than he did for any other album. Encore was promising but pretty much every track I liked on that album was a Dre beat. Relapse is a bit of an anomaly since Dre practically produced the entire thing and it definitely improved on the Eminem Show and even Encore but it still wasn't memorable.

I think if he can go back to the mix that he had back in 2000 it would be just right. Eminem has never had a collaboration or mixtape which he didn't go harder than the other emcees that he was spittin with. All you had to do was listen to his verse on Forever to know that. Maybe it's bc the pressure is off, he's just putting the lines together and the music is provided for him.

[Iforgotmyusername]

I hear that they're touring stateside so that will be interesting. My current personal issues that have kept me handcuffed these past months are about to end but apparently they're just touring the West Coast. I'm interested in seeing what type of show they put on. I've said before live shows with hiphop is pretty hit and miss, so I'm always interested in seeing who's coming on tour.

I'll have to do a sample on Pandora tonight and maybe I'll cop a few tracks.

I know that he doesn't do anything with Green Lantern anymore, but he supposedly recorded a cut with Slaughterhouse that I'm still waiting on since that would finally reunite him with Royce. There was a story that I read about that last week when all the rumors were that SH had already signed with his label. But other than that, I've only been going off of what one of my friends, who's the biggest Eminem disciple ever, says about what he's doing. I've heard one track that went pretty hard but I don't remember the name of it.

I'm optimistic about his skills and ability to make good music, I never doubted that. That's why only listening to his underground shit and refusing to stoop to buying his last two albums makes sense for me. Anyone can steal anything off the internet that they want, but when artists make music that I like, I make it a point to purchase it for just this reason. But I just doubt the bigwigs at Interscope won't convince him to release alot of the same cheesy shit that sells that he's put out on his last two albums. I've said it before, Eminem can literally take a shit in a cd case and it will still move at least a million units. It matters about how much he puts into it.

I've been meaning to check this out. I'm still hooked on Pandora and listening to my new MP3's but I'll probably make a point of it to stream it tonight.

What did you think of Chiddy Bang? Did you get a chance to check out any of the tracks yet?

I agree with you about buying music. Here is my own personal stance. If I respect the artist and can tell they take the time to put effort and time into their craft, I always buy their music. For instance people like The Roots, Lupe Fiasco, Wale -- They deserve every penny they get. But I download individual tracks from people that honestly aren't that good and you can tell threw together a track in 15 min that's made for the club. For instance I downloaded Audio Push's "Teach Me How To Jerk" today. The song isn't even that good, it just has a catchy chorus but there's no real talent there. But that's my own personal stance.

Yeah I think Eminem is the type who needs to feel he's an underdog or getting attacked to produce high-quality music. His first two albums he felt he was an underdog and a target -- and he was -- from the whole "faggot" backlash to the white rapper thing. After those first two albums, he had the respect of the masses and hiphop heads regardless of his race and Elton John's support helped clear the anti-gay stuff. At that point, he was on top, he made it.

I think after his last album, he came under a lot of backlash that he fell off, that he lost it, that he was a has been. Couple that with his record label losing many of the artists he had and now he's back under that "I'm an underdog" mindset.

[Iforgotmyusername]

The Eminem track he's probably talking about is a new freestyle called 'Despicable' where he goes in over Drake's 'Over' and Red Cafe's 'Beamer Benz or Bentley'. It's definately a return to form.

Yeah that's the song I am talking about. It's the return of the old Eminem. Even his first track off his album coming next month, "I'm Not Afraid", there's a line where he addresses the last album and admits it was ehhhhh. Usually on his first singles he puts out some goofy song that tries to be funny aka "The Real Slim Shady", or "My Name Is" but this time he didn't, I think another good sign. I'm going to buy it and hopefully it lives up to the hype.

[afterroots]

Eminem will always be one of the best, if not the best, lyricists perhaps ever. But his biggest roadblock is production. Eminem's early albums were heavy on Dre or Bass beats and if you look at some of his biggest singles alot of them aren't tracks that he produces by himself. The Eminem Show is probably his weakest album to date and he produced more of that LP by himself than he did for any other album. Encore was promising but pretty much every track I liked on that album was a Dre beat. Relapse is a bit of an anomaly since Dre practically produced the entire thing and it definitely improved on the Eminem Show and even Encore but it still wasn't memorable.

I think if he can go back to the mix that he had back in 2000 it would be just right. Eminem has never had a collaboration or mixtape which he didn't go harder than the other emcees that he was spittin with. All you had to do was listen to his verse on Forever to know that. Maybe it's bc the pressure is off, he's just putting the lines together and the music is provided for him.

The general consensus (which I agree with in this case) is that Encore is by far his worst album and that Relapse is a average hit an miss album. The Eminem Show is generally seen as one of his best albums.

I would say Eminem's biggest problem isn't his production but the stupid immature tracks he does which were prolific on Encore and Relapse in particular. Your Rain Man, We Made You, Big Weenie type tracks.

[elmis]

i have been listening to UK grime lately. Mainly Devlin. Posting from a phone or I would youtube link you, but do a search for Devlin - Community Outcast.

[Stone-Made-Soft]

I haven't listen to Eminem in forever. He's at his best in collaboration joints, e.g., What's the Difference of 2001, Renegade on The Blueprint, ect. And yes, if Eminem wrapped a turd in cellophane it would surely go triple platinum.

[Horus Ex Machina]

The general consensus (which I agree with in this case) is that Encore is by far his worst album and that Relapse is a average hit an miss album. The Eminem Show is generally seen as one of his best albums.

I would say Eminem's biggest problem isn't his production but the stupid immature tracks he does which were prolific on Encore and Relapse in particular. Your Rain Man, We Made You, Big Weenie type tracks.

Yeah I think I got the albums confused, bc the Eminem show was the last of his albums that I actually bought and I actually like that one alot. It seems I rearranged the facts to fit my argument and didn't pause to think about which album that I was actually talking about. Cleanin' Out My Closet was good, Till I Collapse was epic, yeah you're right there.

Encore was the album that I stopped buying his music, not TES. And it was entirely because of the single off of that album, Just Lose It. I remember it was my nephew (who was around 12 or 13 at the time) was the only one who was excited about that track. The video was silly, there was no point to the song, and it annoyed me to listen to it.

Yeah, you have a point with the immature tracks becoming prolific in his last two albums which is a combination of production and writing. Partly out of his control and partly entirely his fault. The funny thing is that it was TMMLP and TES which were his more serious and probably best albums. But when you think about it, there were some of the same stuff that we complain about now on the Slim Shady LP. But he didn't take it too far on that album, and we were still a bit in awe of his lyricism so we kinda overlooked it. And even the sillier tracks like Brain Damage or Cum on Everybody still had enough punch to keep my interest. Plus I was younger then. I'll take a mulligan on my previous comment.

Like everyone else here, I want an album from him worth buying bc he's great when he's on his game.

[Iforgotmyusername]

Has anyone heard Kanye's new song "Power." It leaked today -- I think it's FIRE. You have to download it though, the ones on Youtube are blocked or the song playing isn't really how the real song sounds.

[afterroots]

Great song, Kanye never disappoints. The leaked version is unfinished as well according to Plain Pat who is Kanye's A&R.

[StarkTheWolf]

I'm personally not feeling the vocals in the background. The lyrics and flow are cool, but the chanting is annoying and kind of drowns out his voice.