New Rap Music
Soulja Boy – “I’m So High“
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Say what you will about Soulja Boy, but he’s a biter of impeccable taste. He’s been shouting Lil B out on twitter all week and this seems to be his very blatant attempt to channel The Based God. People might forget that Soulja originally came up through the same type of underground web blitz that B has been engaging in over the past eighteen months. But really he should be sending B beats instead of trying to rap like him.
Mariah Carey f/ Gucci Mane, OJ The Juiceman & Big Boi – “H.A.T.E. U (Remix)“
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Mariah or not, it’s two of my favorite Atlanta rappers of all time (oh yes) rhyming over “My Boo,” goddamit. Juiceman sounds as weak as usual here, but his AYE/OKAY adlibs were born to live on this beat. It’s only too bad this didn’t come out too months ago for maximum summer jam effect. The world might just be ready for a full scale A-Town pillow bass revival.
Cormega – “Make It Clear“
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from Born & Raised (Traffic, Oct. 20)
Now that Cuban II has become a reality, Mega’s Born & Raised is the de facto last-anticipated New York rap albums from the old guard. It’s hard to believe it’s been seven years since The True Meaning. “Make it Clear,” produced by DJ Premier is, well, just good enough to be a Mega/Primo collab. It’ll be a solid album cut, but if this is their big gun lead single then we might be in trouble. Years ago, when I saw Mega in concert he was quite clearly in love with his artform. The type of rapper who says he does it for the love for the love, and not out of bitterness and unfulfillment. This mentality isn’t so explicit in his music, but it’s probably why he managed to release two of the stronger no-frills boom bap albums of this decade. Let’s hope that whatever has delayed this album for so many years hasn’t extinguished that spark.
Young Dro – “Gettin’ Money“
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from LA Dro (Mixtape, 2009)
This slapdash LA Dro tape went mostly overlooked. I guess folks are so anxiously waiting for the R.I.P. joint (How about that Oct. 1 release date?) that they completely slept on this one. Dro is in and out on his half of the seemingly unofficial tape, sometimes spitting like old Dro and sometimes doing little swag rap ditties more suited to his thundercat running mate LA. He’s in full form on the all too brief “Gettin’ Money,” as evidenced by the number of times I had to hit rewind in an attempt to transcribe the following tongue twister before giving up entirely: “rock lobster colored boxster helicopter, etc, etc.” And it turns out this is just a guest shot on some crappy r&b song. And, no I’m not posting the entire thing, you already got Mariah.
Mac Bre-Z f/ Gucci Mane – “If“
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Personification! See, Gucci is a great writer, yes. (via muzikfene)
6 Tre G f/ Lil Boosie – “Fresh“
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Who could have expected 6 Tre to have the first hit out of Huntsville? Not that I’m complaining, it’s a great look for the city. And did Boosie really make a “Hyphy” reference on this new remix?! First Jeezy does a Too Short impression, then the Soulja B cross over and now this. Rap worlds are colliding rapidly. (via TNT)
Cran Neely f/ Lil Ru – “Carolina Fine”
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The Carolinas have been having a pretty exciting moment as well, even if folks aren’t really noticing. Here are two tracks I know nothing about. I’m assuming the second guy pronounces his name Brode and not Broad, either way he is a complex rapper, sort of has a T-Rock thing going on. (Via Blvd. St and uh somewhere else I forget.)
Z-Ro – “I Don’t Give A Damn“
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from Cocaine (Mixtape, 2009)
I’m still slowly working my way through this immense mixtape. Regular length Ro albums require marination. It might take a lifetime to really grasp all one hundred and fifty minutes of Cocaine. “I Don’t Give A Damn” is an early standout. It’s like a mash up of every rap song a casual white listener has ever heard – “Regulators” and “I Ain’t Mad At Cha – but through a very Houston lens. Sometimes this lower fidelity approach complements Ro’s raps more than the more polished RAL stuff because it’s just so H-Town. There’s always been a sadness to Screw and post-Screw music and you already know that Ro magnifies that. Heroin now has a tentative release date of October 27th, btw.
David Banner – “Something Is Wrong“
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Like Pimp C before him, David Banner’s greatest strength lies not in his energy, but his truth. So it’s frustrating that he finally seems set to drop an album that lives up to his intelligence and honesty but he’s doing so at the mercy of 9th Wonder’s overly limp drum samples. It’s not at all clear why 9th has become the go-to conscious rap side project producer. Can’t these guys just pay Pete Rock instead? I mean 9th is reaching almost Living Legends heights of awful presets here. The duo is supposedly doing an album together, more samples are in this rambling ustream clip, all suffering a similar drum fate. Hopefully Mr. Crump will have the good sense to slip 9th an 808 kit before this record goes to the plant. (Via TSS)
The Suppliers f/ Gucci Mane – “Wanda“
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Here’s an mp3 rip of this Tray-approved soft hands future classic. For archival purposes, as Eskay would say.
Likeblood f/ Bobby Valentino – “Money Over Here“
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I started doing a DC New Rap column over at the Washington City Paper Arts Blog. You should read it.
Tumblin' Erb
October 9th, 2009 at 1:01 am
wow dro spazzed on gettin money.
October 9th, 2009 at 1:31 am
yea Gittin Money iz crazy mayn, still fienin fo R.I.P doe mos uv de LA tape wuz recylced.
yea “I Dont Give A Damn” iz a clssic mayn im luvin Heroin
October 9th, 2009 at 4:05 am
Juicemans Alaska In Atlanta “tape” is surprisingly solid, I usually like my OJ in smaller portions but the production on there held my attention throughout the whole thing.
btw is it cool 4 you to post Gucci again?
October 9th, 2009 at 4:19 am
Boosie + Slick Rick sample + references to Hyphy and intimate details of his wardrobe = the standout.
Raw is the one for me from Cocaine for me. ‘Ro and Mike Dean are the most unfuckwithable combination in rap from ’04 – ’09.
October 9th, 2009 at 7:07 am
Great writeups, the Cormega entry particularly.
October 9th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Yeah “Raw” is incredible too. It is like “Eyes On Paper Pt. 2″ minus the unnecessary Pau Wau verse.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:57 am
^exxactly whut i wuz thankin too mayn! mah fav doe iz “Dont Worry Bout Mine” de “Problems” revival mayn iss too thowed
October 9th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Just to check, there isn’t an un-Screwed version of Stick Of Dro on any of the versions of Cocaine, is there?
I sorta wanna hear the original version, but i’m wary of it not being as dope as the Screwed version.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
“I mean 9th is reaching almost Living Legends heights of awful presets here.”
Ouch.
October 9th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
what the fuck? Mac Bre-Z’s still alive? And she’s working with Gucci again after he knocked her block off?
October 9th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Another amazing Gucci song
October 9th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
9th needs to make an album with Terminology. It could be called “Our Success Is A Shock Even To Us”
October 9th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
boosie’s verse on that fresh remix is too good
October 10th, 2009 at 1:52 am
lace body suit and disco pants?!
a classy combination!?!
lmao
October 10th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
mariah, oj, gucci, and big boi song is the highlight here… what a remix!
plus, that’s mah lady.
October 10th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Where is the lecture that I was expecting from one of the somanyshrimp folks scolding you for dissing OJ Da Juiceman? Of whom David (or was it Jordan) once said, “we all expect Gucci to make a classic album one day, but maybe it will be OJ instead.” Anyway, I found the Mega song a pleasant surprise, actually. The beat’s quite a bit better than the purely paint-by-numbers Premo we’ve had to settle for (for the most part) from him the past 4 or so years.
October 11th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
I never bought the argument that Primo’s work had become uninspired in recent years at all. Where new Pete Rock or Large Professor beats, for example, are no longer reliably excellent, Premier hasn’t really missed a step. I can count on one hand the number of boring or unexceptional beats Primo’s made in his entire career, and some of the best work he’s ever done is quite recent. I’m of the opinion that “The Format” for AZ, “That White” for Fat Joe, and “Watch How It Go Down” for (the unbearable) Termanology are three of his best ever. This new one is good shit too.
Young Dro murks that “Gettin’ Money”, but this new swagged-out style he’s rocking is lousy. Bring back the ferocious mic-murdering delivery of “Clean With It” in my opinion.
Rother wins.
October 13th, 2009 at 9:36 am
That Mariah is baaaaaad. Lovin it.
I like the Banner and Fresh, too.
That new Del/Tame 1 joint is pretty crazy. Getting into some of the Curren$y album, and that D Block album from earlier this year, too.
April 11th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
[...] can knock out in an afternoon all in the name of personal expression. We’ve already heard Soulja Boy’s entry into the Based cannon, but lesser known aspiring rappers all over the world have been tossing up [...]
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