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Top 5: Dead or Alive |
1. Phonte "Who Loves You More"
2. Jay-Z & Kanye "Primetime"
3. Pac Div "The Greatness"
4. Drake "Lord Knows"
5. TiRon & Ayomari "Jack Kerouac" |
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Crucial Album |
Oddisee - People Hear What They See
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The Dimebag |
Raydar Ellis - The Dimebag
Links: 1 2 3 |
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Sum Ish R Wrote - 2.15.10 |
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Written by Big R
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Monday, 15 February 2010 |
Freeway and Jake One's
Stimulus
Package to resurrect Hip-Hop
Freeway has always been one of my favorite emcees due to his hunger and
ferocious style. The bearded wordsmith has dropped his third
full-length, The Stimulus Package,
and in my opinion he finally puts out a product we knew he was capable
of. The Philly Freezer caught everyone's attention on the
Just
Blaze banger "What We Do", and he kind of fell off after "Flipside"
from the mainstream Hip-Hop ranks. However, he has turned to
the
indie scene going absolutely ballistic with mixtapes and that "Month of
Madness" where he released a track a day. The Stimulus Package
is Freeway's
complete product that portrays the dude's ability to capture the
biggest of backpackers and the casual mainstream head.
But before we delve into what Freeway is saying, I have to immediately
commend the producer of this project. Jake One has always
been a
favorite of mine since I heard his stuff on the unreleased Prozack
Turner LP. His work on De La Soul's The Grind Date
cemented his status
as dope producer in my eyes, especially with the banger "Rock Co.Caine
Flow." Jake One has a soulful style which is apparent
immediately
on the Beanie Sigel assisted intro. Free and Beans flow
effortlessly over a smooth guitar-laden jawn with sick horns.
The
album starts with 30 seconds of pure instrumental and Beanie Sigel and
Freeway do the rest. These two needed to do an album together
like 5-10 years ago.
Jake One's style goes from soulful to banger immediately on "Throw Your
Hands Up" where Freeway just sounds at home getting loud and
aggressive. "One Foot In" at first worried me since from the
title it sounded like some sort of remake of the Hokey Pokey, but there
ain't nothing hokie about this album. Even when Freezer is
talking to the ladies, he does it on a banger on "She Makes Me Feel
Alright." A Freeway love track of course is filled with
coarse
references to boning and a hilarious reference to the "mechanism" that
pulls you back in when you are trying to pull out. A perfect
song
for Valentine's Day.
The song leads up to the banger of the year so far which is "Never
Gonna Change." Just call this joint Rock Cocaine Flow pt. 2
as
Jake One creates a stutter step beat with strong kicks and riding
violins that Freeway matches at every switch up with sharp precision.
This is the track that epitomizes the special musical
connection
Freeway and Jake One has. This is one of those projects that
hopefully will launch both of their careers to new level, much like
Reflection Eternal did for Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-tek.
The features on this album are also fresh and range from Raekwon to
Birdman. Yes, that Birdman.
Hell that song "Follow My Moves"
sounds like a DJ Toomp banger and Jake One shows his diversity as a
producer for that track. Young Chris, who needs to get more
attention, kills his verse on the banger "Microphone Killa."
"Freekin the Beat" features a sultry beat with a sultrier chorus
provided by Latoiya Williams.
This complete, thorough, and developed album ends on a really
dope outro track. Freeway reads and responds to letters from
fans
over a beat that does a good job of making you bop your head but still
pay attention to the lyrics. Oh yeah, and this album cover is
possibly the greatest cover
I've seen.
I like how Freeway ends this album on a genuine note that this is real
rap, and not meant to be a complaint about the current state of
Hip-Hop. At some point that's what fans want.
They
don't need to be told this will save Hip-Hop, they just want a great
album to listen to. This is the album the 2009 4th quarter
needed, as it is a strong product provided by two hungry and very
talented musicians. 2010 is young, but it may already have
given
us the album that will define this year in regards to dope Hip-Hop.
Grammys
still
sucked in 3-D
Somehow, the Grammy's this year left me thinking the awards show is
whacker than it already is. It has notoriously not given a
crap
about album quality in the past decade, and is mostly a marketing tool
for the major labels to push their crap. However, there are
normally at least one to two dope performances that make it worth
watching. Plus, the only other thing on TV at the time was at
the
Pro Bowl and you could not pay me to watch that powderpuff nonsense.
The
most glaring weakness about
this year's Grammy's was the weird 3-D tribute to Michael Jackson.
I don't mind the cast of singers which featured Jennifer
Hudson,
Carrie Underwood, Celine Dion, Usher, and Smokey Robinson; it was the
presentation of the entire thing. First off, who has 3-D
glasses
laying around the house?! Unless you just saw Avatar, most of
us
were forced to watch the awkward 3-D camera shoot the performance.
The only people who did have the 3-D glasses were the people
there, and they looked pretty unimpressed. The
background
video for "Earth Song" featured "majestic animals" roaming around the
plains and sea. You saw flying whales, galloping horses, a
random
little girl playing in a forest...I think even gay people thought out
loud "Wow, this is incredibly gay, even for a MJ tribute involving
animals."
The performance was like an acid flashback mixed with images of cutesy
animals being thrown at you. If I didn't know any better, I
thought CBS was trying to play the pedophile praying on the minds of
kids by distorting their eyesight and offering pretty pictures of
animals.
The Drake performance taught me a few things. First, that
Drake
is a monumental star when he is closing out the Grammy's and being
introduced by Eminem and Lil Wayne. That was unreal, good for
him
and I hope Thank
Me Later is
worthy of all this pre-album praise and hoopla. Second, CBS
obviously hates rap people. All of the emcees were
self-censoring
themselves, but you couldn't tell as half the performance was censored
by CBS. I guess they are still reeling from JT"s bra rippage
of
Janet Jackson. If people are up that late to watch the
Grammy's,
something tells me a little curse word won't set the world on fire.
And on to Taylor Swift. I bet Kanye West is kicking himself
as
his antics have catapulted this starlet to "Best Album of the Year."
Not that I know anything about T-swift, but I can't name ONE
song
from that record and I pay pretty close attention to popular music.
Kanye's douchebag move should have been saved for Grammy
night,
because Beyonce's album was a much better fit for that award.
Sum Ish on Sports
Who Dat? - Congratulations
to the New Orleans Saints for taking the
Lombardi Trophy. I imagine folks in New Orleans are still
going
crazy in the streets, and after 43 years of futility, I'm sure they are
stoked for that. Drew Brees went from San Diego's trash to
Super
Bowl MVP in four short years. I wonder how they feel in SD
these
days? Probably not too good. Anyhow, this is about
the Saints and they put on a helluva second half to win that game.
Onside kick to start the half? PURE CAHONES on Coach Payton's
part. The most enduring image to me is Drew Brees lifting his
newborn son in celebration, you can peep it here. That's some
powerful stuff, holmes.
Olympics
up North- The Olympics return
to television, and I forget how much I hate the Olympics.
Don't get me wrong, the concept of international competition
at the highest level is pretty dope. Teams playing for the
gold in hockey will be legitimately fun to watch. However, I
hate TV's coverage of the Olympics, especially NBC's. NBC is
already losing 200 million dollars on the Olympics, and their attempts
to get you interested by pimping people like Anton Ohno, Vonn, and Bode
Miller are so half-assed and filled with a smug, corporate type of
patriotism. Bode Miller's interview with Tom Brokaw was the
primetime interview on NBC's Nightly News! That's not news,
Afghanistan, the lack of jobs, the economy generally, and health care
reform are topics worth discussing.
I saw glimpses of Canada's opening ceremony which was mad odd.
They had aboriginal dancers in the middle dancing the entire
time while the nations were introduced. Haven't they had an
already tough history to be forced into dancing at a boring Olympics
opening ceremony? Vancouver had the tough task of following
Beijing's opening which was simultaneously the most gorgeous and
heinous opening done by thousands of indentured laborers. It
was also proof that China is ready to wreck some shit globally.
But back to our friendly Canuck neighbors. Their choice to
light the torch ultimately was a confusing foursome when the Torch had
a bit of a malfunction. Either way, it made sense to have
Gretsky, justifiably the best man at his sport period, light the final
torch. I'm a huge Steve Nash fan, especially his love for
the Canadian Tuxedo,
but I didn't know he was Canada's dude like THAT. He is a
great point guard, likely HOF, but he is never been to the Finals.
You'd think Canada could have used more heroes like Georges
St. Pierre or Michael J. Fox. I do want to end this on a
positive note, as K.D Lang absolutely MIRKED her rendition of "Hallelujah"
NB-Mehhh
- This season of Houston Rockets basketball has been especially
unbearable after seeing my team take the Lakers to game 7 last year.
Now I'm reading about Amare Stoudemire is about to get traded
to Cleveland for J.J. Hickson and Big Zyrdunas Ilgauskas.
Wait....what?!! That's trading an all-star for a
young guy with potential and a played out big man. I hate
when these trades happen, which seemingly happen in only MLB/NBA, where
a team just gets all the right pieces. Remember what the
Lakers gave up for All-Star Pau Gasol? Kwame Brown.
Yeah, great move there Memphis GM and former Laker great
Jerry West. Collusion seems to be the name of the game in
trades like this.
The NBA is losing tons of money, apparently over $400m this year.
I suppose they need stars in key markets to keep interest up.
I wonder if we'll start seeing teams fold or lowered
salaries. Apparently the players ripped up the collective
bargaining agreement because it hindered their salaries quite a bit.
I do agree in a salary cap in the sense that it allows for
parity. However, it's not like NBA owners are limited in the
amount of profit they can make. Still, if owners are losing
money, that means the league itself is in jeopardy.
The NBA, and the rest of the viewing public, requires a Lakers-Cavs
finals. Look out for some Tim Donaghy antics these playoffs
if the Lakers or Cavs are struggling on the way to the Finals.
That NBA finals will get sponsors geeked, think about how
many MVpuppet commercials we'll get that Finals.
Ok, I"m out for now. Peace!!
RIP and REP D. Ellis
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