New Rap Music
Young Dro – “Clean With It“
from The Young And The Restless Maybe? (Grand Hustle, 200Never)
Whenever I see tilapia on a menu I think of Dro. It’s not uncommon to catch me waiting around the carry out mumbling “still got the chopper on katrina spray…” This is sort of the associative inverse to Rakim’s classic line. Dro can take a phrase that’s often heard, flip, now it’s a very specific reference to uh… Dro. Anyway, dude once again name drops the baller on a budget white fish here and, perhaps not coincidentally, he’s again rapping good. Band Geeks’ beat, something like the futuristic successor to “Fat Albert,” only bolsters his schwag.
(via Nah Right)
Kurupt & DJ Quik – “Fuck Y’All“
from Blaqkout (Penagon 2009 Coming Soon)
Presumably the first leak from Kurupt & Quik’s collaboration LP, which should have anybody who cares about rap foaming at the mouth. Less exciting is the idea of Quik basically dissing every rapper he once called crew. Though no one burns a bridge (then rebuilds it, then burns it again) quite like David Blake. Love the reasoning, too: “Hi-C, AMG, K & D / Why your names all rhyme and mine don’t? / ’cause I got it and you won’t.” Okay. It’s especially nice to hear Quik returning to the windows down genius beats and abandoning the kiddie snap aspirations of the Fixxers project. Kurupt sounds a little tired but they would have to try really hard to make Blaqkout anything less than great. (via 2dopeboyz)
X.O. – “1 Of Those Days“
from Realmatic (Mixtape, 2009)
Last years Takeover 2 was an incredibly cohesive collection of heavy insular uptown dc talk that balanced both the street and true hip hop sides of DC rap over impeccable production from locals like the NahRight approved Oddisee and my old boss Slimkat78. Along with Playboy Tre’s Goodbye America it’s probably the best recent argument for the mixtape-as-album discussion. (Sometimes get a little sick to my stomach when I think about how I ran with the gimmicky Wale Seinfeld tape as the token DMV entry on that NPR mixtape list.) Realmatic, which dropped earlier this week, is disappointingly none of that. It’s not without out it’s moments, but it is just a mixtape. Though the production is all original, it jumps around sporadically from generic attempts at street bangers to Best Kept Secret style go-go fusion to the boom bap. The rapping and concepts are solid but everything about the project just screams slimline case. In short he’s become a victim of his own high standards. Still dude is one of the brighter talents from the urrea and any new material from him is always welcome.
Jim Jones f/ Mel Matrix – “Man Down“
from Street Religion Heron 3:16 (Mixtape, 2009)
What a beat. Too bad about the raps. I was looking at the notebook I keep by my bed and there was some barely legible scrawl about Jim Jones being the guest editor for Da Capo Best Music Writing. Yes I woke up in the middle of the night to write that joke. And then I didn’t even finish it. And then you didn’t even get it. (via YN)
Afro Classics (Scarub & Very) – “Lemonade“
from The Classic EP (Legendary Music, 20009)
I spent the other night trying to figure out what the folks from my west coast mix have been making as of late. Some still sound tight. Some less so. Scarub and his carrier Very have a new EP which seemed pretty hit or miss on first listen. I fool with “Lemonade” though. It was, after all a popular drink. And it’d be pretty hard to accuse Scarub of rapping poorly ever. The beat is a more massacred take on that Kanye “Two Words” Mandrill shit. You know rap is outta control when the Legends actually have solid drums.
Also Eligh just put out a folk record with his mom, which is a pretty endearing gesture, if not musically outstanding or even good. But if you fall in that all too slim cross section of Living Legends and Carol King fans it might be something to look into.
March 12th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
i just happened to be listening to clean wit it as i pulled up the blog and i was thinking “shit noz should really be talking about this”. shit bangs.
March 12th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
afro classics is the best in this list but i hope music in 20009 is a little more advanced then that..
.kurupt and quik both wasted alot of talent lets be real……but at least they left us with alotta songs and some really dopeclassic hiphop albums….this collab album is 15 years too late tho…prolly something to do with their camps warring with each other in the streets.did they ever collab on death row?? id have to look into that…and this song aint all that, but well see …..hopefully the album has a few gems..
as fat as jim jones..just growing up in southern cali..to hear somone from new york that dresses like someone from west hollywood to say “sooo wooo” is just very gimicky and corny id rather watch dora the explora
March 12th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
ahaha u bastard — i almost posted on the quik & dro tracks last nite & decided to pitch reviews of them instead
blogging is weird
March 12th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
“.kurupt and quik both wasted alot of talent lets be real”
????
March 12th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
the sad truth is dj quik never made his “chronic” or even a “niggaz4life” ……he never really produced that one album that stands alone above all the bullshit…and in my eyes he had the talent to do so….kurupt is one of the illest lyricicsts rap has ever known…there was a time when he was regarded the best even by alot of underground heads….he lost alot of in in his pursuit to rhyme the names of every dictator the world has ever knoen …(”im gotti hussein hitler musoliini etc etc etc.)…somewhere they both lost it…i think drugs got alot to do with it…..but theres not too many rappers who could touch kurupt on dogg food lyrically or conceptually….
and wassup with quik dissing everyone…he worked with amg years after he was dope(?) when he really shouldnt have …..now hes dissing all of them…didnt he even diss his sister in the press?slap her up or someshit? …fuck it……
March 12th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
“Sad truth” in terms of popularity and hits or quality? I’d say Quik has albums better than both of those…
March 12th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
quik has a few basically flawless records imo. & his hit rate is real solid. but how many rappers even have a chronic?? chronic is a game changer. aint that many of those in existence.
i actually disagree w/ noz that the fixxers direction was inherently a bad one. the single is an A+ classic track & damn near the entire song (incl. AMGmail’s verse) is quotable front to back. but mostly it was a good new direction & while I love the classic Rhythmalism Quik sound in retrospect his new direction makes this kind of shit seem relatively unexciting
make my eggs & onions cheesy for me
March 12th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
“i actually disagree w/ noz that the fixxers direction was inherently a bad one. the single is an A+ classic track & damn near the entire song (incl. AMGmail’s verse) is quotable front to back.”
I like that record but you are really going overboard with this.
The album was horrible.
March 12th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
““Sad truth” in terms of popularity and hits or quality? I’d say Quik has albums better than both of those…”
Dead that revisionist bullshit. Quik clearly never made a Chronic but, like Deej said, that’s hardly a blemish on his career.
March 12th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
“The album was horrible.”
yah but how much of that was the fault of the release being some pre-finished tracks?? a lot of whats appealing with Quik material is the polish
March 12th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
The world may never know.
March 12th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
yo anybody got that takeover 2 im diggin the cut
March 12th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
“the sad truth is dj quik never made his “chronic” or even a “niggaz4life”
well “safe + sound”, “street gospel” & “classic 220″ are close.
March 12th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
A lot of people liked Trauma and all, but I thought that The Fixxers’ single was the most fun Quik had created since Balance & Options/”Justify My Thug.” (the rest of the album was questionable at best, thus why Interscope only cut the check for a single + a Rich Boy one-off)
This Kurupt/Quik album (isn’t there a Pete Rock/Kurupt album coming afterwards?) sounds good on paper, but the song itself is not moving me in the least.
Kurupt hasn’t had good production in years and years (where is Fred Wreck?), so I’d really like to see a couple of guys that are overdue for some shine walk away with a stellar indie project.
March 12th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
the dro song is AMAZING
March 12th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
fred wreck is down with snoops camp, and when kurupt left to go to the row everyone cut him off, they still dont really fuck with him only daz and soopafly…snoop will put him on a song or 2 but thats all he ever did…i think fred wasted madd talent too on whack artists…..
ive liked quik for many many years i am just being a little bit critical…i think he could have done alot more than he did….and like i said u hear things on the streets…heroin is a fucked up drug holmes
March 12th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
That Quik & Kurupt song is pretty good, but it’s more like a cool filler track on an album rather than being some monumental great shit, like it should be. I’ll still be checking for it though, obviously.
I’ve been listening to a lot of Kurupt’s ‘92-’99 output lately though, and I was thinking.. Even though I’ve enjoyed some of the stuff he’s been doing in the past couple years (”Yessir”), Kurupt is a serious contender for biggest fall-off/wasted potential in all of rap. I mean, his performance on Dogg Food is unreal, but his solo records have been mostly disappointing, with only “Streetz Is a Mutha’ being more than like half-good (if that). And even that one wasn’t as good as it could be. A huge chunk of the stuff he did starting with “Space Boogie” was straight garbage.
March 12th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Yeah I’ve been bumping that Dro track on the regular since yesterday.
Also, that one preview video tht Dro did for Black Boy, White Boy seemed to hint that the next album was gonna be called P.O.L.O (Players Only Live Once) as opposed to Young and the Restless. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TinPKSmuu_o
Really hope that T.I’s got Dro and Grand Hustle camp set up before he steps into the penn. It only makes sense
Need to dowload that Takeover 2 tape. sounds promising.
March 12th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
“well “safe + sound”, “street gospel” & “classic 220? are close.”
& rhythmalism, & trauma, & plenty of other shit
March 12th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
if quik was on heroin hes aged pretty damn well considering!! i mean b.g. i believe it but quik?? dude looks like hes still in his mid 20s
March 12th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
and yeah the Dro track is amazing — one of the best rap traxx thats leaked all year
March 12th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
If you fall in that all too slim cross section of Living Legends and Carole King fans…”
I am perhaps the only person on earth who fits this description. I think? I mean, both acts have put out nothing but boring shit for many years, more or less, but Tapestry is the shit, and anyone who thinks otherwise can suck a nut in my opinion.
March 12th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Random thoughts no one has asked for but I’ma say ‘em regardless:
-Kurupt does sound tired most of the time lately but “Yes Sir”, his Pete Rock-produced single from last year, had him trying on a weeded-out, seemingly Wayne-influenced style over one of the best beats Pete’s done in, I don’t know, let’s say 15 years. It was ill as hell.
-Dro is THAT DUDE. All I want from big dawg is some potent emotional shit or whatnot, just to diversify or whatever it is. Motherfucker spits like a dragon. Only thing is, Brother Ali’s critique about ‘jargon’ on “2nd Time Around” resonated with me, and I wanna see Dro become immune to it ’cause he doesn’t deserve to get dissed like that.
Aiyyo Noz what you make of Brother Ali anyway? I think he’s the underground’s answer to Killer Mike, which is very much a compliment, that motherfucker goes in. And his anti-mainstream critiques and preaching are potent and well-argued enough that the bitching and moaning gets a pass in my opinion. Fuckin’ amazing rapper.
-XO is ill! And Mel Matrix has a cool-sounding rap voice.
March 12th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
And speaking of Da Capo, I got the joke thank you. Forever Changes is that shit that’s that shit still. That type of shit and The Mountain Goats are about the only white-people music I regularly fuck with.
March 12th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
And as to Kurupt the only semirecent shit I’ve heard apart from “Yes Sir” was his supbar performance on Focus’ superb Pete Rock homage beat (better than anything Pete’s done recently besides “Yes Sir” and I guess “Be Easy”) which bar Kurupt had exclusively wack rappers on it. Oh and “Play Your Flutes” which he vandalized on some smooth shit but does that count?
March 13th, 2009 at 1:15 am
wasnt there a kurupt song called across the river thru the woods or someshit???? enchanted garden?? it was someshit like that…..and yea thats my point he fell off bigtime….but streets is a mutha is a classic in my opinion…
March 13th, 2009 at 2:58 am
It’s not revisionist bullshit though tough guy. Even at like age 9 or whatever I knew ‘Chronic’ had a real weak Side B just like I knew my Spin Doctors CD wasn’t so good once I got to the songs that weren’t on MTV, Way 2 Fonky on the other hand….
March 13th, 2009 at 6:54 am
brandon, no disrespect, but you had awfull tastes when you were 9.
March 13th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
ay supreme mayn i seen brother ali mad timez mayn de boi cool. i wuz chillin backstage wit him, ghost, and de homie Rakim once steady chiefin on de kill i tried ta pass it to ali he wuz like nah mayn. i wuz like mayn hol up how u gon make 1 song every 5 years an u dont even chief on kill?!?! de fuck u be doin all dat time dam homie!
March 13th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
“the sad truth is dj quik never made his “chronic” or even a “niggaz4life”
“well “safe + sound”, “street gospel” & “classic 220? are close.”
& rhythmalism, & trauma, & plenty of other shit
Yay, Trauma’s nearly as good as Niggaz4life! An album where one of the highlights is a surprisingly half-decent Chingy feature is almost as good as one of the three or so best-produced rap albums ever! And I really like Trauma too, but come on.
March 13th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I hate to say it but I agree with Tray.
March 13th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Anybody got a working link for Takeover 2? The only ones Im finding online are dead.
March 13th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
a wak side b????please….back then u shoulda had your channel on THEBOX…not bitchass MTV… i knew that since i was 5 and turned my shit from KISSFM to KDAY AM
in fact i liek the beats on niggaz4life better then the chronic…he shoulda had ren on there ….ren held n4l together cohesivley as a concept album pretty much…i never heard a dj quik concept album and to me thats what a real “PRODUCER” does…makes cohesive albums…the rest of these niggas just make beats
March 13th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
I didn’t mention “Trauma”, tray. That’s Noz’s revisionist classic, he had some XXL thing on it at some point. Of course, that was in the service of public good or something and would never be considered “revisionism”. Sometimes methinks tray and Noz are the same retard…
March 13th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Yes. I wrote about Trauma in the “Great Rap Albums” series. The whole point of which, if you’ll recall, was not to aggressively debate the canon but to ignore it completely, to simply look at great music on its own terms.
March 13th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
“you wanna see a young brother from the compton tip, check a grip, well keep lookin”
now THAT’S what I call classic.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Good selections, Noz. The beat on Lemonade is silly and I think the verses will grow on me.
It’s so good to hear Quik rap again but, yeah, the diss is surprising from the perspective of a fan. Has he done anything else since the Fixxers thing?
The Fixxers single was very good. A classic opening verse…Quik even got his hair done for the video! Hell, even Jim Jones came off on the beat nice.
David, Trauma wallows in the bullshit and then rises above it. It’s not a classic but it’s a very good and interesting album.
I think Kurupt comes off nice on this too. He hasn’t disappointed me very much in the last couple of years. There’s even been a few great Dogg Pound tracks and freestyles.
Why is everyone so bitchy about their opinions these days? Gawd.
March 15th, 2009 at 2:38 am
When I think of tracks like High Powered, Lyrical Gangbang, Stranded on Death Row, Bitches Ain’t Shit, Rat-tat-tat-tat and Nigga Witta Gun, I don’t think “dark, masterful, uncompromising, classic.” I think “weak B-side.” Wowser.
Way 2 Fonky was a good record but always felt like an EP once I got over (i. e. fast forwarded) the novelty of the reggae, R & B and Cool Jazz songs.
I was hoping for more from Kurupt after Yessir, but I guess I’m not that surprised with this mediocrity, Quik sounds good though, in an old-man-rap sort of way.
That Dro is awesome. More rappers should talk about grilled avocado, I’d pay good money for that.
Thank you for the info (i. e. dope songs) Noz! It’s needed.
March 21st, 2009 at 7:07 pm
The Dro is hot, I was in need of new color descriptions. Has he referenced sepia yet?