I'm cheating on this one. I'm using it as a "classic" and a fake "sampled" joint. But you'll forgive me.
Little Brother - Whatever You Say (Pete Rock Remix)
Maxwell - Whenever, Wherever, Whatever
The middle of this remixed Little Brother joint has one of my top three Phonte verses of all time. I'm not gonna ruin it for you if you haven't heard it, but it has one of those closing lines that can instantaneously make you an annoying mixtape DJ ... "BRING THAT ISH BACK!!!
And Pete Rock beautifully laced it with a remix beat utilizing a song off of Maxwell's debut album. [As an aside, I don't think Urban Hang Suite is even a fraction as ridiculously and amazingly perfect as BLACKsummers'night. But that's just me.] You'll like it. You'll even sit through Big Pooh because you'll like it so much. I'm just joking. But not really. I don't have much else to say about it. It's classic and is one of those hip hop moments that you just need to know.
... but do take my word for it.
Showing posts with label Little Brother. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Little Brother. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Classic: Whatever You Say
Monday, June 22, 2009
New Wale
Who could possibly get most of Slaughterhouse, all of State Property, Talib & Jean, Bun B, Black Thought, and a disposal of singers and other rappers to boot for one project??? An apparently very patient Wale.
Wale -
Back to the Feature
Pretty much anyone who cares about rap was waiting for this one. Will it be the critics' darling like The Mixtape About Nothing? Probably most definitely not. But it's a lot of rap that you need in your collection.
Wale's proved he can push a concept joint like almost none other, but here he just wants to feed the fans a collection of dudes rapping like their lives depend on it. Collabos between writers can only push the product in positive ways. I even like what I hear on this tape from a few rappers I usually don't care too much for. What's crazy is how easily Wale still manages to standout regularly. The host emcee could have gotten lost in the fray of guest appearances on literally every single song, but Wale's rhyming style is so distinctive and enticing that you're practically waiting for him on every track.
Now my one complaint. 9th Wonder. Back when dude was with Little Brother, I thought he could literally do no wrong. Their sound was so defined that I swore and abided by it. It just worked some other kind of perfection to my ears. But on here ... some of the beats feel stale to me. I hope you don't hear it the same, but I can't help it. 9th is renound for having an unbelievable amount of compositions at his disposal, but on this project you can pretty much understand why. Some don't seem to have gotten much individual attention besides some conveyor belt treatment. There's the soul sample and the drums and ... yeah.
But don't let that detract you. If the tape fits your mood, that's the last of your worries. And the MCs shred every bar something unholy. They had to. This is a Wale tape.
... put 'em both together and you got yourself a super spork.
Pretty much anyone who cares about rap was waiting for this one. Will it be the critics' darling like The Mixtape About Nothing? Probably most definitely not. But it's a lot of rap that you need in your collection.
Wale's proved he can push a concept joint like almost none other, but here he just wants to feed the fans a collection of dudes rapping like their lives depend on it. Collabos between writers can only push the product in positive ways. I even like what I hear on this tape from a few rappers I usually don't care too much for. What's crazy is how easily Wale still manages to standout regularly. The host emcee could have gotten lost in the fray of guest appearances on literally every single song, but Wale's rhyming style is so distinctive and enticing that you're practically waiting for him on every track.
Now my one complaint. 9th Wonder. Back when dude was with Little Brother, I thought he could literally do no wrong. Their sound was so defined that I swore and abided by it. It just worked some other kind of perfection to my ears. But on here ... some of the beats feel stale to me. I hope you don't hear it the same, but I can't help it. 9th is renound for having an unbelievable amount of compositions at his disposal, but on this project you can pretty much understand why. Some don't seem to have gotten much individual attention besides some conveyor belt treatment. There's the soul sample and the drums and ... yeah.
But don't let that detract you. If the tape fits your mood, that's the last of your worries. And the MCs shred every bar something unholy. They had to. This is a Wale tape.
... put 'em both together and you got yourself a super spork.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Jealous Love
I absolutely loved the following tracks individually and wanted to slap myself when I didn't realize they used the same sample after reading Talib's liner notes on Right About Now. They both take powerful lines from Bobby Womack's 1975 song "Jealous Love". All the MCs involved are ridiculously nice. I think Jean Grae destroys it something else though.
"Where you gonna run ... ? Where you gonna hide ... ?" It kinda sucks cuz you know both producers knew they struck gold when they originally mixed their respective tracks. Just happened that 9th Wonder's got on wax with LB before J. Cardim's did. And, like I said, both tracks are bonkers, but once I heard Jean spit, "Ten years deep and my tenure's still deep. My bad, I'm sorry, I don't like when phrases repeat." Uh! But Phonte slaps it nasty, too (of course), so which do you like better? Oh, and the picture with this post was just the first thing to pop up on Google images when I searched where you gonna run. The picture actually had something to do with the Nina Simone song, "Sinnerman", but oh well.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Dear Diary ...
I did a word association post way long ago about my favorite songs featuring the word "nobody". And I wanna do another one. So I'm gonna do another one. Here's another one.
The Idle song uses the same instrumental composed by Alicia, but everything else is 100% original. Idle Warship is another Talib Kweli group to join the ranks of Black Star, Reflection Eternal, and Liberation. Dude's starting to get an alias complex like MF Doom or Madlib ... connect those dots ...
It's really sad back in the '90s that Nas offed Cormega. If he hadn't, Mega prolly would be in everyone's top NY rappers list ever. Dude's got a real heavy poetic influence in his rhymes for such a hard-persona emcee.
But Ms. Keys' "Diary" is one of my favorite songs ever. Forever ever. There was a point in my life last year where, I swear, I had to watch the video for that song on my iPod every single night or I couldn't fall asleep. She made me content like nobody else could at 1:30 on any random night. Below isn't the video I'm talking about, but it's a taste of the song.
... and so concludes another masterpiece
Friday, October 24, 2008
The Cipher: Bittersweet
In its short three years of existence, the "Cipher" series has gained quite a bit of recognition as the solely reserved non-industry segment on the BET Hip Hop Awards. On the surface that's all quite apparent. While it's sad that grouping legitimate emcees in a celebration of the true foundation of rap is relegated to a few two minute segments yearly, I'm obviously happier that BET puts them together rather than not. And all praise for DJ Premier scratching every year.
BET Cipher Series - feat. Everybody
But I still feel I'm watching an eerily sold out product even though I enjoy every single addition to the series. It seems that BET makes this the annual equivalent of "Saturday sinners, Sunday morning at the feet of the father." (c) Talib Kweli
It's like the producers are trying to make up for all of the garbage they flood the masses with every single day by putting together a cut that'll have all the hip hop heads celebrating. Here are a few reasons why I so strongly get that vibe in elaboration after I've just got done bobbing my head and cheering.
1. Rappers are prominently featured that BET could absolutely not care any less about.
There was a big debacle that I remember awhile back about a Little Brother video being blacklisted from the station because their video was, infamously quoted, "too intelligent." Fans were in a big ole uproar over it, especially since The Minstrel Show was just such a monstrously dope album altogether. But when the next year came around, Phonte got a lead spot in a cipher. A more recent and even quicker-responding example is Q-Tip, whose video was also disgustingly quoted as being ... "different" as a reason for why it wasn't on online polls to be put on 106 & Park. And guess who gets a closing cipher appearance before his album even drops?
2. Nothing wrong with international rappers, but interlingual?
There's just something about a rapper spitting in Japanese while the dudes around her "ooh" and "uh" as if they're hanging on every punchline. For me personally, it's hard enough to pay attention to Dizzee Rascal's heavy accentuation, much less the aforementioned Hime or the French Flo or K'naan slipping into Somalian. Unless Fuse TV is on the brink of buying out BET, these artists have no chance of ever getting another two milliseconds on the station. And I'm serious, Willy Northpole was sweating Hime's tanka usage.
3. Hurricane Chris got a spot in there ...
Yeah. I know everybody's waiting for next year's Rakim-Lady Sovereign-Soulja Boy spit down.
Now I just gotta say it again, I absolutely love these cipher segments! But you know when something seems a little too good to be true and you just know the motives behind it are in no way honorable? I can't complain about the final aired product, though. I'll suffer through an I-don't-know-why-everybody's-bigging-upping-him Ace Hood verse if it means there's gonna be a Lupe, Rhymefest, or Jadakiss to come correct afterwards. Maybe if BET replaced Rap City with some form of a Cipher show that actually showcased real talent on a regular basis then I'd shut my mouth and actually enjoy the thing.
They say the game got the belly of a beast ... (c) Lupe Fiasco
... and so concludes another masterpiece
... and so concludes another masterpiece
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