68 Inches Above Sea Level
E-40 – “The Ambassador”
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from Ball Street Journal (Warner/Sick Wid It, 2008)
New rule: from here on out every E-40 album must open with a Digable sample.
Ball Street Journal drops Tuesday and is sounding better than expected.
Tumblin' Erb
November 20th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Damn I didnt know Feezy’s new album leaked… I’m all over this shit…
November 20th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBQ7Qzj4oXQ
November 20th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Word. I’m always up for anyone having a little tradition throughout their albums (vainglorious!). This could be like 40′s version of De La’s “channeling, in sync so my etc.” at the beginning of every album (or just two in a row).
November 20th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
They should release two versions of this album, each with gender specific tracklistings. These for-da-ladies joints don’t fly.
November 20th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
On the plus side him and B-Le are rapping about getting drunk again, which is always a good sign.
November 20th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
they should have splitted the album like “my ghetto report card” (where the first part was clearly hyphy, and the second was more “southern”) : a boy part an a girl part.
November 20th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Below the sea level chills the illest sister
Quick to get ya tangled in my web of gangsta pictures
When am I getting my No Limit album track compilation??? UGhhhhhh!!
November 20th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
the album is actually really solid minus the r&b bullshit. way better than expected.
November 20th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Dope. I don’t know why people were so down on this album. Did people not here Umbrella 2? Of course he’s going to come with some shit we don’t want to hear, he’s the ambassador, but there’s gonna be a lot I DO want to hear. Does everyone listen all the way through older 40 albums? Cos I don’t think there’s one I don’t get at least a bit skippy on.
November 20th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
new ladybug mecca
http://oldtothenew.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/new-joint-git-beats-ladybug-mecca/
November 20th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
beez – i would say In A Major Way is a pretty complete listen top to bottom. Maybe Grit & Grind as well?
November 20th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
So the PRG’z tape finally dropped – are they really good or a Fader-created gimmick for people who “just like the idea of rap”? Or both?
November 21st, 2008 at 12:53 am
Watch out for the Warner Bros. Records stormtroopers NOZ!!!
My website is effectively shut down right now because I posted (get this shit) the TRACKLIST to Ball Street Journal. No mp3, no video, just the tracklist. They sent an infringement report about the post in question to WordPress (my blog service) and apparently when there’s an infringement complaint, WordPress prevents you from uploading any media (music, pics, etc…). Kinda shitty when you run a music blog.
Hopefully I get it squared away tomorrow.
November 21st, 2008 at 2:23 am
“So the PRG’z tape finally dropped – are they really good or a Fader-created gimmick for people who “just like the idea of rap”? Or both?”
Uniformly great production, but most of their rappers strike me as the type of dudes who probably spent too much time listening to Post-Cham Paul Wall. Block Beattaz need to get some tracks to, I dunno, Ball & G?
You’ve got me scared Doxx…
November 21st, 2008 at 3:23 am
There is this kind of bloggy bubble-ishness feel to the tape. Like all the Diplo remixes, or when the guy says that he’s been on Chrome since Three 6 signed him. How many people do you suppose even know who Chrome is besides me, you, and readers of Status Ain’t Hood (which plugged Chrome once, back in the day)? Speaking of which, Chrome has another album out. Thought it was pretty unremarkable, but depending on how much of a fiend you are for Triple 6 production, it could be worth your time.
November 21st, 2008 at 8:27 am
the g-side album is much better than the PRG’Z tape
November 21st, 2008 at 9:06 pm
What Tray just said could be applied to Kanyes new album too. The difference is that the PRGz album is actually well produced, not just “supposed to be” well produced..
November 21st, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Also, with a couple of obvious exceptions, this E-40 album is actually pretty fucking great. I’m enjoying it very much and I usually don’t enjoy things.
November 21st, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Oh yeah, I’m sure I’ll enjoy the PRG’z tape way more than the Kanye, once I finally get around to even getting the Kanye (shows you what my preferences are that I shelled out 5.00 for the bonus tracks edition of the PRGz before I even downloaded 808&H). The only thing I liked much that I heard off the album was Robocop, and then he fucked around and made a new version that isn’t as good.
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:21 am
i was worried about this album after hearing so much hate for it, but after hearing it i knew i shouldn’t have doubted 40water. “play me in the winter play me in the summer play me in the order…any order.” HARD
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:17 pm
re: the PRG’z mixtape
I dunno, I for one love it, though I totally hear and kinda agree w/the whole Diplo/Fader hype thing. actually, that initially made me wary, but there’s just no denying that ~90% or it is pure quality (the formula does fall flat in a couple of places). The rapping is indeed pretty generic/average for the most part, but I guess I don’t really care as long as it’s not so bad that it detracts from the great production. Shit, I’m pretty much a hip hop dilettante these days anyway. I have no doubt that the use of the most obvious of 90s rock and techno samples is precisely designed to hook in a more diverse audience but they just do it so goddam well. Plus it’s in that whole MF Doom (and Dispet, of course) tradition of flipping 80s/90s shlock pop into gold.
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Oh yeah, it’s very good. I just had, you know, No Limit/Cash Money/Hypnotize Camp Posse kind of expectations for how good these guys could be based on stuff like “Wood Grain” (they certainly have the in-house production part locked down) and I notice that
a) there’s no star here, it’s kinda difficult to tell all these guys apart
b) it’s their first huge mixtape and already there are these little signs of their getting cannibalized by the blogs that blew them up to folks like us. Like this isn’t like walking into a record store and finding 400 Degreez, this kind of Rousseauvian untamed shit (and yeah, I’m totally aware of the racial implications, a ton of rap criticism has these kinds of racist implications – “oh why did they stop being their ghetto selves and listen to the white people”). They’ve already started conceding to people like me before they’ve even really gotten on.
c) Similar to a, they sound like super-nice guys, which is cool, but there’s no “fuck the world, Paper Route Records is the best fucking rap label, if you didn’t know now you know” attitude here that’s kind of the fun of listening to old No Limit or Cash Money in the first place. Instead it’s just like, “well we’re some cool folk from Huntsville, trying to come up…it’s a pretty slept-on area as far as rapping goes but we think we’re mad decent… we hope you enjoy our mixtape!” I mean, shitting on other rappers, claiming you’re the best, as annoying as Khaled is when he does it, is kinda fundamental to hip-hop in a way.
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I don’t understand why they did remixes of “rollin”, “woodgrain”, “don’t go” & “soul glo”, they’re all far inferior to the original versions. This tape is useless (except of getting some hype)
November 22nd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
The assumption is you’re already up on that shit if you got the tape. (Plus two of them are on the 5.00 bonus tracks edition.)
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:49 pm
tray – I don’t disagree with any of that. I just don’t really care about any of it either. I hardly listen to any rap these days and even when I was more serious about it I wasn’t one of those dudes who looked to rap for a vicarious red in tooth & claw kinda fix. I would always take, say, The Cold Vein or Liquid Swords over 400 Degreez, you know? Not to say that I don’t appreciate the potential greatness of a lot of ignorant rap, it was just never my thing. If PRGz wants to get on w/the crowd that Fader/Diplo attracts, then power to them. It’s probably a smart business move in the wake of Ye/hipster rap etc. (though that whole thing is going to be due for a strong backlash in a year or two).
Anyway, I doubt I’m in their target audience – too uncommitted of a rap fan, too serious of a techno head for their glaringly obvious samples.
anu – of course they did it to build hype. Diplo remixes, a Wale feature, and so on. I mean, what else did you expect, given that it was coming out on Diplo’s label? plus, and this is just me, but I much prefer the remix of “Rollin” to the original. there’s just something glorious about a bunch of dudes rapping blunts/sipping lean ish over “Halcyon & On & On”.
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Maybe I think robert miles is more “samplable” than orbital.
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Yeah, you need to tell me what blogs to read to get on that techno. I don’t recognize any of these samples. Seriously.
November 25th, 2008 at 9:50 am
why can’t we download this song? only stream it? booo.
c’mon
September 12th, 2009 at 7:40 am
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September 14th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
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September 15th, 2009 at 10:18 am
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September 19th, 2009 at 6:55 am
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November 18th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
??????? ;)