Somehow the BET Awards outdid themselves on this year's incarnation of the Cypher series. No one else in the world, nor I, thought they could one-up the Mos Def/Black Thought/Eminem viciousness, but they did. I'm gonna start by going in on the world renowned G.O.O.D. Music cypher. BET definitely owes Kanye big for wanting to push his collective through their channel's otherwise crappy award show. And just to add a little flavor, I'll rank the performances of the emcees in each one.
Kanye West - Cypher 2010 #5 (feat. Pusha T, Big Sean, CyHi Da Prynce, & Common)
5. Common - Sorry, OG. The sucky thing is that I thought he performed an insanely great verse for seeming to be out of his element amongst these youngsters. The main thing he gets graded off for is the painful "the incomparable ... remarkable ... articles ..." dictionary reading in the early going. Ugh. But then he picks it up even with a recycled ESPYs bar. He personally struck a chord with the hardest with the "cold to myself" line. He ended it as strongly as possible "Requested from the the years I invested/Arrested, developed, addressed it, enveloped/the body of the black party from Farley to Bob Marley/Go home or go hard, at home is life hardly."
4. Pusha T - He did all he could, throwing around effortlessly smooth movie references (Book of Eli, Street Car Named Desire, Jerry McGuire) as well as slickly fluid song weavings of Bone Thugs, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, and even his new label head. But the competition was just that sick. He kinda left it hanging though without that one stand-out punchline that cypher audiences so sickly crave. And it also doesn't help that he was the first to be introduced and everyone else after was able to eclipse him. Newbies first, I guess. "With good company, and better jewelers/to the good life, we G.O.O.D. Music ..."
3. Big Sean - Even though I wholeheartedly disagree with his LeBron-related championship ring prediction, Big Sean killed it as Pusha's follow-up. At that point, I was feeling like Sean was going to go down as the champ, hands down. That's how dope this cypher event was. He even through in a little change-of-pace on his goofy motorboating line, and that's especially notable because Sean is famous for never switching up his flow ever. Add that into his shock "wet dream" opening, his sick banana clips/guerrilla warfare line, admitting he watched last year's cyphers on his couch, and his Mercedes 700 CLK nastiness and you got yourself some pre-debut album hype "I'm Big L, Notorious, Big Pun/Shawn Carter, Sean Combs, and Connery all in one/Whoever told you sky is the limit is lookin' dumb/Cuz I'm 22 and I'm moonwalkin' on the sun."
2. CyHi Da Prynce - While he started off a little too simple with the bread/Quiznos line, he destroyed every bar from there out. Major ups for referencing himself as "MJ with the big nose", making a dually hilarious hanky/lanky rhymed, the "can't bleep it out" genitalia line, and the run-off of eight straight bars of rhymes starting with "flexible" and ending with "federal". Intrinsic rhymers, take notes. This was as big a coming-out party as you could get for a slick street spitter like CyHi. I'm sure 80% of the audience had never heard of him before. Mission accomplished. "Let me stop it, I forgot this was a big show/If bein' dope made ya broke, I am piss po'/I'm Big Poppa plus I'm 2Pacalypto/My mind is a weapon, what I need to pop a clip fo'?"
1. Kanye West - Could it be anyone else? Even though he cheated by spitting a freestyled intro and a sick closing verse (assumingly one from his new album). Just focusing on his closer ... it was perfect. There's not a guy who can put together such relatable and sick sounding bars like Kanye does so consistently. I don't know if it's because he has such gifted lyricists around him again such as Mos Def and Pusha replacing slackers like Jeezy and Wayne, but whatever it is happens to be working. He sets up the sickest childhood metaphor to his life remarking on him being an only child lost in the world, asking where the lonely kids go when the bell rings, and saying if he didn't have ends then he wouldn't have as many imaginary friends. His deeply thought reflection as well as vocal inflection play up the performance to an unimaginable degree. It's not the normal cypher braggadocio, but it definitely is Kanye West. And there's nothing out at the current moment better than that. "Fresh air, rollin' down the window/Too many Erkels on your team that's why your wins low (Winslow)/I sold my soul to the devil, that's a crappy deal/Least it came with a few toys like a happy meal."
... and Free Enes.
Showing posts with label 2Pac. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2Pac. Show all posts
Thursday, October 14, 2010
G.O.O.D Music Cypher
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Game vs. Nas
2006
Game - Why You Hate the Game (feat. Nas & Marsha Ambrosius)
Game - One Blood (East Coast Remix feat. Jim Jones, Fabolous, Clipse, Juelz Santana, Nas, Jadakiss, Styles P, Fat Joe, N.O.R.E., & Ja Rule)
Nas - Hustlers (feat. Game & Marsha Ambrosius)
2008
Game - Letter to the King (feat. Nas)
Nas - Make the World Go Round (feat. Game & Chris Brown)
2009
Busta Rhymes - Don't Touch Me (Remix feat. Nas, Lil' Wayne, Big Daddy Kane, Spliff Star, Game, & Reek Da Villain)
2010
Game - Street Riders (feat. Akon & Nas)
... and do the John Wall.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Tom's Diner
I can see why this song's been spun back so many times. This probably has the catchiest completely bland vocals and songwriting ever. But who am I to talk? If it possibly inspired 2Pac, even if like twelve years after his death, then it's all good by me. We'll just focus on three different interpretations of Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner" joint.
DNA - Tom's Diner (feat. Suzanne Vega)
2Pac - Dopefiend's Diner
Mike Dreams - Tha Diner
Charles Hamilton - Ghosts
All these attack the sample completely different. Pac took the melody and retold a ghetto tale that a fitting posthumous backdrop to match the emotional invocation of his (gasp) CuDi-esque sing-rapping. Mike Dreams, though uses the vocals as a story set-up in which he fills in the detail gaps between Vega's verses. And then there's Charles, who unconventionally almost disregards the sample altogether in his song composition. He cuts the sample and slows it down a smidgen while heavily lays over an unrelated tale of his struggles in ... not letting a ghost stress him out. And I like all three of them.
... but do take my word for it.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Hold On: LaVish
It's fitting that transitioning from brandUn DeShay in the "Hold On" series is LaVish. I first heard this Los Angeles native rap next to brandUn on the song "Confidently Modest" with Casey Veggies, too. I decided I needed to get familiar with more of his music as the new class of emcees out of LA seem to be bringing some other kind of energy breaking away from the Snoop/Pac/Dre stereotype of the coast. And he was. Funny thing I found out was how young the dude was. And regardless of that, he still was well on his way to establishing his signature.
While his big time Hometown Hero mixtape hasn't dropped yet, LaVish has material floating all over the web including the aforementioned DeShay collabo, a place on ReUpSpot's Bailout mixtape, and other featured spots on various artists' projects. And while we're waiting for that proper defining release, his talent's perfectly apparent on every freestyle and HH leak that makes its way onto the internet. You can hear his influences in his strong flow, whether it's an ode to the Native Tongues or productively stylized like the Justus League. His voice, to me at least, is reminiscent of something halfway between Wale and Kanye, but his flow and lyrics are fully his own. And you already know that, cuz we don't mess with clones around here. My favorite song I've heard him over is the Mike G feature that I got linked down below. When LaVish settles in on a beat, he stands out and can go through a crazy aggressive verse like it's nothing. And that's what he's gonna bring to my song coming soon. So go ahead and browse through the links below to prepare yourself. And hold on.
LaVish songs -
Tops Come Down (feat. B. Allan)
Mrs. International
Baby Girl (by Carmine)
Exhibit A (Transformations by Mike G)
Blog - MySpace - Facebook - Twitter
... but do take my word for it.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Since You've Been Gone
Who knows where Charles Hamilton is? I for sure don't. I just have this strange inkling that maybe like ... Dave Chappelle has prolly seen him recently. But that's just me.
Thankfully, for all us remaining fans of the dude who dissed Soulja Boy, may or may not be hated by fellow freshmen Wale and Cory Gunz, got punched in the face by his girl/assistant, may or may not have accidentally "stole" a beat, claimed to be involved with Relapse, Blueprint 3, and Detox, and got all of Detroit ready to body him over typing out the name "J Dilla" on his unreleased album tracklist ... he put in even more booth work than we knew of before he went on an unexplained public hiatus. And on the same level of thankful, there's a dude who's been digging like none other and compiling tapes on the regular of CH joints that aren't outright on any of his solo projects. And while I considered myself an avid Hamilton follower, this guy Chris Rivera has some other kind of connections to pull out the tracks that he's got leaking that I've never even remotely got a sniff of.
Here's what the world's been missing out. Who knows if these were just throwaway studio sessions or recording that Charles wanted to keep unreleased or just his crock pot of 2Pac material, but here's three tapes worth of whatever it is compiled by Where Is Charles Hamilton???
Charles Hamilton -
|charles~hamilton|
Abbreviated Dreams|Extended Nightmares
|charles~hamilton| Volume 2
... but do take my word for it.
Genre
As it stands right now since I sent all my intros, interludes, outros, and production kits to the recycle bin, I got 18,518 songs sitting in the iTunes. And since I'm one of those OCD organizers who gotta have everything straight and accessible, I got each song labeled perfectly appropriately according to my mental categorization. As you can imagine, the rap/hip-hop tag was just simply not gonna work for me to tag as the genre for darn near every joint. So initially I split it up like any reasonable hip hop head would and got my compass on. East Coast, West Coast, Dirty South, Midwest, and Foreign. But that even got too cluttered. For real, Bay Area joints should not be mixed in with So Cal joints. That kinda stuff don't quite mix right. Or at all. And while I could have microcosm-ed the genre's down to boroughs in all honesty, I finally settled for a mixture of state, city, and general region dichotomy. It works. As long as you know where everybody's from of the top or got Wikipedia on your favorites bar. So just because I wanna, here's a list of my top five emcees (where applicable if I care about five whole people) from each of my hip hop genres on my personal overloaded iTunes.
Alabama: Rich Boy
Atlanta: Andre 3000, Cee-Lo, Big Boi, Bobby Ray, Killer Mike
Boston: Termanology, Guru
Canada: Shad, k-os, Drake
Carolina: Phonte, J. Cole, Joe Scudda, Median, Big Pooh
Chicago: Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, Common, brandUn DeShay, GemStones
Detroit: Royce da 5'9", Eminem, Obie Trice, Elzhi, Big Sean
European:
Houston: Scarface, D.O.C., Chamillionaire, Devin the Dude, Bun B
Kansas: XV
Kentucky: CunninLynguists (group), Nappy Roots (group), Chris Campbell
Los Angeles: 2Pac, The Game, Crooked I, Blu, The KnuX (group)
Maryland: Wale, Sage Francis, Marky, Oddisee
Miami: QuESt, Smitty
Minnesota: P.O.S, Brother Ali, Slug, Young Son
Mississippi: David Banner
New Jersey: Lauryn Hill, Joe Budden, Wyclef Jean, Redman, Serius Jones
New Orleans: Jay Electronica, Lil' Wayne, Curren$y
New York: Rakim, Jay-Z, Charles Hamilton, MF Doom, Pharoahe Monch
Oakland: Lyrics Born, Gift of Gab, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Boots Riley, Lateef
Ohio: KiD CuDi, Ilyas, Donwill, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (group)
Pennsylvania: Wiz Khalifa
Philadelphia: Black Thought, Jedi Mind Tricks (group), Asher Roth, Beanie Sigel, Freeway
Rhode Island:
Seattle: RA Scion
St. Louis: Wafeek
Tennessee: GRITS (group), Three 6 Mafia, Young Buck
Virginia: Praverb, Tonedeff, Clipse (group), Trey Songz, Skillz
... but do take my word for it.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Classic: Thugz Mansion
This is a nice lil' two-fer. Same official Pac verse, but one hundred percent different tracks. One was released on the posthumous Better Dayz with Anthony Hamilton while the other transfered a verse to the acoustic Nas rendition on God's Son. I'm a sucker for anything with finger-picking or Mr. Hamilton, so I enjoy both rather thoroughly. Somehow 2Pac remains both over and underrated in his legacy since his death, but it's impossible for somebody to not have a few Pac songs they sweat.
Supposedly the short Pac-Nas feud was deaded right before Pac's unfortunate passing, so I'm sure the 2002 version was deeply genuine, especially considering it came shortly after the passing of Nas' mother.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Classic: Don't Go Breaking My Heart
This one's just for me. Definitely in my top ten songs of any and all genres from any and all time. Get up on it.
Third all-time saddest premature hip hop death in my opinion behind 2Pac and Biggie. Doesn't get shouted out enough as others such as J Dilla, Jam Master Jay, or Aaliyah, but was definitely a legend.
If you're having a bad day, either get up on your sertraline game or listen to ODB/Dirt McGirt/Baby Jesus sing. Either one. Here's a bonus beautiful tribute by the Clan.
Monday, October 27, 2008
G.O.A.A.A.A.T.
Just to be slightly more elaborative, the greatest of any and all applicable time.
To quote myself from a verse that'll never see the light of day cuz the ensuing bars sucked, "Everybody claimin' to be the best rapper alive/Answer me one question, 'When did Rakim die?'"
And that's my general thought process on that. I laugh off LL Cool J saying it. Weezy's just intentionally buffing his bigger-than-the-game persona by saying it. 50's frickin' remedial, so you can't blame him for maybe accidently saying it. And whoever else, uff outta here. (c) Charles Hamilton
I believe (and who'da thunk it?) that Andre dealt with the question best in his line from "Mighty 'O'" saying, "I'm not sayin' I'm the best, but till they find somethin' better/I am here, no fear. Write me a letter." He ain't saying it, but he's saying it. Ya know? So here is my best rapper list. Of course it's subjective ... but trust me on it. I wouldn't lie to you.
5) Lupe Fiasco
4) 2Pac
3) Cee-Lo
2) Rakim
1) Andre 3000
I'll reserve my heartfelt reasoning on individual posts highlighting these monsters' careers so far. But for now take the song appetizers as proof. Gimme your list.
.... and so concludes another masterpiece
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