Giving Thanks--Hip Hop Style

It's November 24, 2010.  A time for thanks.  I give thanks every day for many things--a job, my health (kind of) and my family and the few friends I have.  However, since the world is feeling very thankful at this time, I wanted to share with you the top ten things I'm thankful for in hip hop. 

#10 - No One Man Should Have All This Power

 10.  "Power", Kanye West:  Kanye's triumphant return from the Taylor Swift incident provides hip hop heads some of the most powerful wordplay of the decade.  The first time I heard the track, I was sitting in a McDonald's using the free Wi-Fi.  Right now I am writing this while sitting in a McDonald's using their Wi-Fi.  No one fast food chain should have all that power.....

#9 - This is the ONE pic where she had clothes on!

 9. Nicki Minaj: I remember hearing about this female game spitter at the close of 2009, but as with all things fresh, I didn't embrace her at first.  Oh how she changed my mind.  I first realized I was missing out when listening to Drake's album and hearing her spit the verse on the track right after the Kanye produced "Show Me a Good Time."   

#8 - BUY THE INSTRUMENTAL VERSION!!

 8. Thank Me Later Drake: I don't like Drake, but there is one thing I should give him credit for: having an album full of great production.  The production on this album was incredible.  Other than that it was a C- at best.

#7 -Rosewood, G.O.O.D Music and the best clique since the Golden Girls

 7. Pusha T & Mos Def Sign to G.O.O.D Music:  If you know hip hop at all and have any idea who the greats are through the years, you know that these two signings only strengthen the Kanye West segment of the hip hop world.  Mos is a great, Pusha made "Runaway" a hit!

#6 - I envy the kid, I really do

 6. Raekwon x Kanye x Justin Bieber:  What a trio.  People read this and laugh but the track wasn't half bad.  It's funny how Raekwon can make even the most pop sounding music hood status. 

#5 - The Ruler's Back

 5. Jay-Z Decoded: The book to end all books.  I call it the hustler's Bible and the rappers Q'uran.  If you don't know why Jay-Z has blown up into one of the world's greatest businessmen, please read.  Warren Buffet, Bill Gates..you have nothing on Shawn Carter.  It's truly the rags to riches story from the ghetto perspective.  At least check it out at your local library (if you have one). 

#4- You spoiled little L.A. girl..you just an L.A. girl

 4. VH1 Storytellers, Kanye West:  Not too many stories told on this one, but it's incredible how the performance went.  Imagine, Kanye in a suit with a heart on it talking to himself while 100 people watch.  I love the soundtrack more than the video to be honest.  The best song "Touch the Sky."  It's my fave anyway but this version really brings together the Curtis Mayfield-like harmony of "Move on Up."  Classic.

#3 - I coulda just put the pic of the album but this one humanizes Rozay

 3. Teflon Don, Rick Ross:  If it wasn't for the classic album from Ye, Ross' Teflon Don would definitely have been number one.  The album is captivating from beginning to end. "Free Mason" took controversy and squashed with one of Jay's most lucrative verses in years.  "Live Fast, Die Young" reminded us that Kanye West is a producer first...although the verse was SICK.  Finally "Aston Martin Music" made me wish I had me a Chrissete Michelle down chick and a Maybach so that we could cruise to that ish all summer.  Great album, great production, and Ross solidified himself as a top five artist hands down.

#2 - GREAT music

 2. Authenticity, The Foreign Exchange:  Some people really think that rappers are only rappers and have no other abilities other than spittin lyrics that rhyme.  In 2008 I was introduced to the FX and was blown away by their Leave it all Behind album.  It was a classic, in my mind better than Ye's 808s & Heartbreaks.  The smooth R&B sounds of Little Brother's Phonte make me appreciate that good music still exists, even if in a small form.  I never understood why people choose Eminem and Nicki Minaj over music like FX's, but I guess the taste of the world isn't quite the taste of yours truly.  If you haven't listen to the FX, please take the opportunity to introduce yourself to good music...wait, GREAT music.

#1 - The album to end all albums, this pixilated cover is one of six total (if you count the pixilated and un-pixilated separately).  The other five are awesome too but not as awesome as the edited cover. Haha

 1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West:  Oh yes, the man who makes great music finally releases his fifth album...TWO years after his last.  As you might recall, the last album was filled with love songs, depressed lyrics, and heartbreak for sure.  People were livid over the fact that he was singing in 85% of the album.  However, after a couple of months, people began to respect and enjoy the album.  Well, flash forward to 2010, and the album to end all albums was made.  Released this past Monday, there is no doubt in the minds of music critics that Kanye West is back and ready to make people feel stupid once again.  Couple that with the controversial Taylor Swift and George W. Bush issues and you have yourself a marketing machine.  It's funny that the more people that dislike Kanye, the more albums he sells.  We'll see next week how the album sells.  One thing is for sure, though: Kanye is king of music, king of pop in our day.  You can call him an asshole, a douchebag, a scum bag...he doesn't care.  His motivation is making music from the soul.  As Russell Simmons put it, Kanye West is the most passionate artist alive.  NOBODY even comes close.  The passion is sometimes taken to the extreme but nobody can deny the output exceeds the input for sure.  Classic albums aren't made with catchy hooks and sex appeal.  Classic albums are made when artists reach deep down into their soul and remind people that we are all human...as f*cked up as we may be, we are ALL human and that the world is a dark, twisted place.  No one man should have all that power, but he does.  This is the one thing I'm most thankful for in hip hop....

Honorable Mention: G.O.O.D Fridays; Wale; Black and Yellow; Lupe Fiasco Rally; Illuminati Talk; Swizz Beatz at NYU

Happy Kanye West Release DAY!

The prodigal son returns with the freshest album since Tha Carter III.  Wow.  That's all I have the energy to say.  Wow.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

The Original: The College Dropout

The College Dropout

It was a Monday morning.  It was the Spring of 2004 and I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of this album, The College Dropout by Kanye West.  I hadn't heard a whole heck of a lot about the dude but I certainly had been introduced to him on Jay's Blueprint album.  See, unlike most people, I found the booklet inside of the CD to be very informative and very much a good read.  I remember reading the producers' credits on the album and seeing this name Kanye West.  I remembered the name from the 1997 remix of Jagged Edge's "Let's Get Married" remix. 

I received the album right before my first period class--Saracino's World of Work class.  What a joke class..but on this day I would never look back on a day so fondly.  I threw the burnt copy of The College Dropout on my Sony Discman, popped the earbuds in, and zoned out to the most incredible sounds I had ever heard in hip hop.  Then I heard the dopest, freshest, flyest line ever:



We all self-conscious, I'm just the first to admit it





When I heard this, my world turned upside down.  It was like I had just heard myself speaking on the human condition.  I never thought in a million years that I would EVER hear a rapper say something so real TO ME. I mean, rappers spit some real verbiage in their music (well, some do).  This, however, was different on so many levels.  It was poetry to me.  Poetry in the sense that it made me realize that I wasn't the only dude that felt like being different was a cool thing.  I used to wear dress shirts with fly jeans to class in high school.  I used to love being NICE to girls (imagine) and talking to them like they were gems as opposed to treating them like the dirt the gems are found within.  It was the realest album I had ever heard.  I knew the first time I heard "Spaceship" that this dude, Kanye West, was my favorite artist of all time. 

"Two Words," "Get'em High," "All Falls Down," "Jesus Walks," were all epic songs.  Epic means history changing and that is exactly what they did.  They changed history. 

This moment in time was about two months before graduation from high school.  My grandpa had died in October, 2003 and that affected me very much.  I was depressed, scared of life after high school and unsure about who I was as a person.  All of the childhood friends and memories that I once held so fondly had been bashed by the back stabbing and the corruption of people who I thought were friends.  I was in a weird spot that moment and this album was timely to say the least. 

With less than two days to go until the drop of the new Kanye album, I am reminded of what drew me to his music.  It was the passion. 

That same passion is what makes Kanye, Kanye.  He is truly an artist that transcends culture, background and demographics.  Nobody likes the dude's music more than me, but there are legitimate and very personal reasons why I love it.  This is more than another album release to me.  It's a new chapter in the book that is Kanye West.  I can't wait to hear how it plays out. 

Tomorrow: The moment "Late Registration" hit me in the face.

Eric B. & Rakim, "Move the Crowd"

"Standing by the speaker, suddenly I had this
Fever, was it me or either summer madness
Cuz I just can't stand around
So I get closer and the closer I get, the better it sound
My mind starts to activate, rhymes collaborate
Cuz When i heard the beat, I just had to make
Something from the top of my head
So I fell into the groove of the wax and I said
How could I move the crowd
First of all, ain't no mistakes allowed
Here's the instruction, put it together
It simple ain't it but quite clever
Some of you been trying to write rhymes for years
But weak ideas irritate my ears
Is this the best that you can make?
Cuz if not and you got more, I'll wait
But don't make me wait too long coz I'm a move on
The dancefloor when they put something smooth on
So turn up the bass, it's better when it's loud
Cuz I like to move the crowd"

Russell Simmon's "Letter to Kanye West"

One of the most respectable men on the planet puts into perspective what I feel about Kanye and why his music is so important to me.

"Dear Kanye West,

I have early recollections of Damon Dash calling me and forcing me to put you on Def Poetry Jam. I knew your record, “Through The Wire,” but I didn’t know much more. When you took the stage on Def Poetry Jam that night, and spit those genuine, heartfelt words, I witnessed your specialness that Damon had emphatically told me about. That is what artistry is about…to look inside for what is unique. With your journey towards a higher level of consciousness, a journey that we all are on, you have shown through your art a commitment to greatness.The thirty minute film you most recently made was beyond brilliant. Brilliance is not a word that can even begin to describe your ability to paint vibrant, vivacious, colorful yet muted paintings of poetry, music, costume, art, design and most important, passion. The passion you put into your new album is why I stayed up all those nights in the early 80′s trying to get DJs and radio stations to play our records. I knew this day would come. Actually, maybe I didn’t know, but I really, really hoped it would. I didn’t work this hard when I was your age to watch the culture go the wrong way. And you, my friend, just took us to another level. I am simply in awe.With this power, as you know, comes great responsibility. I am saying nothing you haven’t heard before. When you spoke about President Bush during the Katrina telethon, it was not the particulars of your words that mattered, it was the essence of a feeling of the insensitivity towards our communities that many of us have felt for far too long. It was the image of the President, our President, the President of the United States Of America, peering out the window of an airplane, as the people on the ground were drowning, that hurt us the most. For centuries, our people have relentlessly tread water as hard as they could to stay afloat, and here we were, literally drowning, and it felt like the President was insensitive. There is no need to apologize, Kanye. You spoke from your heart and that is all we will ever ask from you. Don’t be afraid of the press, as your art is your blueprint, thanks to Jay-Z, your big brother, we will always carry our destiny in our own hands. You are are an artist whose art is masterful. You are a servant to this world who no matter how hard it gets, keeps on giving. Giving gifts that inspire us, challenge us and motivate us to be better family and friends.

Keep on, Kanye. Keep on. We love you. We cherish you. And we will always have your back. "

Eye Candy: Keri Hilson

Ms. Hilson is one of the most beautiful women in the world. Even more so, she's a beautiful person. Anyone know of a Keri Hilson-like single lady, hit me up. Hahaha.

The Significance of Jay-Z's "Decoded"

So this past Wednesday I copped the Jay-Z "Decoded" book and have some thoughts to share.

First of all there are a lot of rumors and accusations around Jay as a person. I hear them, I read about them, but they have no merit to me.

Second, the book is insanely well written (not grammatically, but thought provokingly) and it's a book of incredible insight and in-depth analysis of what makes hip hop, hip hop. Many negative connotations come up when the term "rap" music is used. Even today. But the Jay book gives greater meaning to the words we've heard for years--multiple times.

Great read. I recommend. Bought it Wednesday and finished by Friday, it was that good.

Jay-Z, Decoded

So as yall know Jay-Z released his much anticipated book of rhymes on Tuesday called Decoded. I copped the book and have to say, I am extremely impressed with it. I'm still getting through it, but if you really want to know the true meaning of his name, his background and his lyrics, check it out. I lost a lot of respect for him over the past year but read in the book that he has incredible knowledge. His intelligence is impeccable.

Grab the book. There are a lot of quotables in it. It's def worth the $25. More to come.

Kanye is BACK!!!!!!!

It's interesting to me to note that there are so many Kanye haters that actually love the dude's music. I understand the hate for the dude, he's constantly wylin and he makes himself look mad stupid all the time. But seriously, how do you like an artist's music whom you hate personally? Is this legal? I mean, think about it. People back in the day hated Ike Turner after people found out how he treated Tina. Back then the internet didn't exist and it took a lot more for people to learn the person behind the act than it does now. Still, people hated Ike...to the point almost where he had death threats and other threats directed toward him at some point.

Why? He was a jerk. People didn't give two cents about how much good music came from his brain...they hated him. And his music along with him personally.

Today, there are four days left until Kanye West's new album comes out. Some of it has leaked already but the whole thing hasn't leaked yet. It's so sick. The way Kanye takes a totally different approach creates a sort of hesitant curiosity that even the GREATEST of all haters can't get past. Kanye is fresh. Kanye is the dopest musical artist in history. PERIOD. Evidence? People love the music despite HATING him as a person. Similar to a Miles Davis, Ye is demonized all over town because of his ability to not give a sh*t. Cannot wait for the album. It will be INCREDIBLE.

9th's Finest!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For y'all that don't have a clue who 9th Wonder is...please, get a clue. He is the god of hip hop producers since Dilla died. You can argue it all you want but the smoothness of these beats and the simplicity of the sounds is like no other. Kid is amazing!

Mase "Welcome Back

Drake "Thank Me Later" Album Review

One of the most anticipated albums ever, Drake's Thank Me Later has taken the hip hop world by storm and created a Drake "frenzy" amongst the music biz's biggest fans.

To me, Drake is a robot. He has nothing in the way of lyrical skills nor mic presence. I first heard Drake about four years ago on some random mixtape remix of a Weezy song. I hated his sound then and I dislike it the same now. However, there are some high points to Drake's ability to sell records.

Typically I don't listen to albums made by Toronto rappers who got their big break as a child actor. It's not my cup o' tea if you dig me? But for some reason unbeknownst to me, I had to look at the situation from a strictly musical perspective and take my bias against production line rappers out the question. Here's what I came up with:

Track 1: "Fireworks" f/ Alicia Keys: So there are a million advantages of putting the most beautiful female singer alive on the chorus and the people in his camp knew exactly that fact. It's kind of weird but there are few things that I enjoy more than hearing Ms. Keys sing the word "fireworks" over and over again...oh wait, one of those few is hearing Drakester talk about his realtor. I'm sorry but real emcees don't talk about the repoire they have with their realtor. Fact. What saves this track is the fact that Ms. Keys is singing about fireworks. The piano at the very beginning is good too. Gives you hope.

Track 2/3/4: Irrelevant. The album really could've done without them. Just sayin...

Track 5: "Show Me a Good Time": Alright, so this track is produced by none other than Mr. Kanye West. Of course Kanye is the greatest act alive...but the real one up here is that Kanye produces one of the smoothest sounding tracks ever, without a sample! There is a video on MTV of Drake typing rhymes into his blackberry for this very track...geez, sounds like he truly is the hardest working man in hip-hop (PLEASE!) The thing I love about this song is the last bar of the track: "call me over rated or creative or too jadedbecause any way you put it bitch I made it, YUP" To me that is one of the greatest lines ever spit to people like me...who aren't too fond of the Drakester. Honestly when I first heard it, it felt like I got slapped by a four year old girl. Great stuff!

Track 6/7/8/9: Again, quite irrelevant, although it's definitely worth noting that Drake and T.I. have a song called Fancy and it's an ode to women...like Best I Ever Had was an ode to women. Not that I am against odes to women, but seriously? Play a different card Drakey, cuz that one's played out.

Track 10 "Light Up" : Without a doubt of my two tracks with the ability to not make me vomit, I really like it because I think this Jay-Z guy is really gonna be a hit! Best line: "F*** ni***s, b****s too/All i got is this money, this'll do" Hahaha, great line! The worst part of the track is where Jay-Z likens himself to Windows 7....pretty sure that's not apples to apples Jigga man!

Track 11 "Miss Me": Quite possibly the worst song on the album, Drake goes back to his roots (Weezy) and gives us a glimpse into the world of someone who truly believes that she wants to miss him. Weezy's verse on this track was not only stupid and nonsensical, but the flow was whack too! It's a bad attempt at cementing Drake as a true hip-hop elite. Sorry buddy, you should be thankin Weezy F. Baby!

Track 12 "Cece's Interlude": So Drake, 23, wishes he was in college so he could have her in his dorm room....ummm, Drake buddy, have you ever thought that maybe it could work the other way, where you go to one of those crazy college campuses and you can meet her in HER dorm room. Idiot!

Track 13 "Find Your Love": Now this is the joint. Drake finally utilizes the better of his two sub-par musical skills...singing! I personally enjoy the lyrics after going through the weirdest situation I have ever went through in my life..."I'm more than just an option (hey, hey, hey)Refuse to be forgotten (hey, hey, hey)I took a chance with my heart (hey, hey, hey)And I feel it takin over" I was an option for about three months and tried not to be. I could dig what Drake was feelin here. I actually like it. Not as much as, let's say, watching grass grow, but it's good!

Track 14 "Thank Me Now": The theme song for the instant self-gratification that is society today. Pretty sure I won't be thankin Drakester for anything in the near future...except, of course, if he stops rapping so mechanically.

Overall the best part of the album...the production. Two tracks are produced by Kanye West. The rest are produced by a Kanye protege, Noah "40" Shabib and Boi-1da (who are also with Kanye's production label, Hip Hop Since 1978). So there is no wonder why the production on the album is so sweet. If nothing else, get the instrumental version of the album. If you do I know you will give it five mics.

"Kick, Push" -- Lupe Fiasco

The all time skater-nerd-hipster track! This song was dope and was a product of the whole "backpack rapper" movement.

"My man got a little older
Became a better roller
Yea, no helmet, hellbent on killing himself
That's what his mama said, but he was feeling himself
Got a little more swagger in his style
Met his girlfriend she was clapping in the crowd
Love is what what was happening to him now
Uh, he said I would marry you
But I'm engaged to these arials and variels
And I don't think this board is strong enough to carry two
She said Bow, I weigh 120 pounds
Now, let me make one thing clear
I don't need to ride yours
I got mine right here
So she took him to a spot
He didn't know about
Something odd in the apartment parking lot
She said I don't normally take dates in here
Security came and said, "I'm sorry there's no skating here"

"Long Shot"

"Taken away by the negativity in my environment, I stop to ask God why does life have to be so damn complex?
I mean, daddy gone, mommy at work, here at Gramp's house not knowing who I'm supposed to feel good around.
Yet as time passed by and the situation improved, I began to see how I could finally make a solid move.
A move to where you ask? I have not a clue...maybe fame, maybe fortune, maybe even school.
I know, it's a long shot, but one day I will realize a dream that is attainable and that puts me where I need to be, forever."