Video: Frenchie, Waka Flocka, Etc – “We Here Now”
This has been out for a while but it’s new to me, first heard it on Frenchie’s Nightmare on Brick Street tape. A few of these names are familiar (Eldorado Red has worked with Rick Rock extensively) but most are lesser known Atlanta rappers (and those that transplanted to the A – Frenchie is from Queens). The track reaffirms both what I was saying a few days ago about the death of the fun posse cut and what we discussed a few weeks prior about the rebirth of crunk. Say what you will about the Brick Squad and their extended family but at the very least they are a welcome antidote to the post-Jay-Z/Young Chris too cool to rap whisper style. Everybody on this track is pretty excited about rapping, whether or not they are actually good at it. And a couple of them are quite good at it. Though Ms. GoHam is definitely no Nicki Minaj.
Tumblin' Erb
November 5th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Noz why do you write brilliant NPR articles then post the shittiest artists… Help push hip hop not set us back, push artist from dc that deserve consideration like Phil Ade or push kids that say something of worth like j Cole or moruf or wale.. Wacka flocka is an insult to intelligient listeners
November 5th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
that was cool, but some of those rap names are outta control
slim dunkin?
myko montana?
‘da kid?
ms. goham?
also, is Made In Atlanta (M.I.A.) aware of the existence of “Paper Planes”? if they are do they worry about the potential confusion between them and a hipster Sri Lankan woman from London?
November 5th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Jarret, come on. “An insult to intelligent listeners”? Intelligent listeners are pretty hard to insult, because they’re busy listening.
And Flex, I co-sign, but M.I.A. is not a hipster. Love her or hate her, there’s a difference between “hip” and “hipster.”
November 5th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Jarret has a point tho, this shit is less rap than a survey of the culture
I can’t say anyone could compare these guys to what once came from ATL and noz where’s the love for the youth that does it right
November 5th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
oh i love m.i.a., and i gotta think i must be the only person that considers hipsters not to be a put-down (or shouldn’t be considered one, at least), but really, this is cocaine blunts, not fader, so i’m not gonna debate m.i.a. here
November 5th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Jarrett – I don’t think any of the artists you mentioned say anything of greater “worth” than Wacka Flocka. From what I’ve heard Wale and Phil Ade mostly rap about their $300 shoes. The absence of negativity alone doesn’t denote intelligence and I’d argue that the streetwear fetishism that those artists promote is pretty destructive in its own right.
November 5th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
plus wale is a bitch, and if u dont believe that look at his performance at the bet awards cipha, how the fuck nicki manaj rip it more the him?
hahaha
this track wasnt that bad, got alot better round the end, i like this posse shit tho, im glad ppl are returning to it
this is the second time i herd frenchie on a track (the first was competition) and i gotta say hes pretty dope
November 5th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
I agree with jarret on j cole being nice
phil ade and moruf i spent the last two hours listening to both, id say moruf overall is better but i couldnt find much music from him
on that note i cant discredit this video on basis of them being good
November 5th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
This shit sucks! The beat is bullshit….. But even if i´d imagine these rappers rapping over a dope beat it wouldn´t be much better!
November 5th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Noz post tracks from all the artists Jarret named and one from wacka flacka and then we can have a forum on what’s good
November 5th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Btw props to noz for sparking a convo like this
November 5th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Frenchie is growing on me, there is an energy in his delivery I like and like you put it he does “seems pretty excited about rapping”.
I’m into Wacka Flocka as well, even though he def falls into the “character”-category, I didn’t really pay him any attention until I saw him on youtube, so with him it’s more his persona, the rapping could use some work. But his verse on “Real As It Gets” goes hard. Plus I think he looks good.
That there is a group in the A calling themselves M.I.A. is wonderfully ignorant. Are they not aware of M.I.A. or do they simply don’t give a fuck? If so I woulda loved to be a fly on the wall when those guys saw that grammy performance
November 5th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
“putting words together, just to match”
November 5th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
btw, anyone know anything about “Travis Porter”? Is it a group? That video #HellUTalmbout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es-CNSQQ0IE
feat, Frenchie & Waka is great, sorta like this but with less rappers and better
November 5th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Yeah Frenchie kills that shit, but I can’t get with Travis Porter. It is a group. “All The Way Turnt Up” was their hitish joint http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69CMT63nz-c
November 5th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Honestly, y’all are comparing apples and oranges here. “Intelligent” rappers I’m diggin at the moment are like Playboy Tre, Freddie Gibbs and Killer Mike. And I love Wale’s 100 Miles tape too. And I bump Waka Flocka on the daily! Why? Because the beats get me amped and just like Brett Favre he sounds like he’s having fun out there. I’m not about to say any of these dudes are great lyricists, but they’re music is fun, which is what rap was all about in the beginning anyway. So for me, there’s no way to compare all the dudes mentioned in these comments. Depending on what I’m feeling at the time I’ma bump one or the other, ya feel me?
November 5th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Noz please do a follow up post, I’d love an article touching on what Jarret brought up and I like gucci because of his beats and flow yet I can’t remember anything he’s ever said lol
November 5th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
This reminds me of that fat guy that rapped “I ain’t never scared”.. He was a garbage lyricist but he evoked passion and excitment. Noz can post who he feels, yet a strange sense of repeating history comes upon me. I think jarrets points are off because intelligience has no bearing on your musical choices but I do understand his next point. Noz your cosign often push these artists due to our faith as readers of your blog. Although I comment rarely I check cb 2x at least a day to be informed and excited. As a native nj head I was hype when you posted Billy roadz yet he’s not the cream of the crop. The youth in nj is stockpiled with talent like Ramel (jayz’s nephew) and Moruf. So I agree you should give them shine as well
November 5th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Lupe Killt that Travis porter all the way turnt up
November 5th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
“that fat guy that rapped “I ain’t never scared””
^^ Bonecrusher, that song was fiyah!
November 5th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Lmao at Yankees, I forgot bout bonecrusher wonder if he’s on a yacht eating big macs jamming to wacka flacka.. But I checked Phil ade he’s a 3 out of 5 kinda like a young wale, J Cole is probably the best freshman better than drake/wale, Wales album is cool but he seems a bit of a d bag, moruf from the little I’ve heard has a great delivery, when the words match the flow he’ll prob be a hyped up rapper that loses my cosign cause girls start liking him lol I can’t listen throught a wacka flacka song
November 5th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Wait I was watching some interview video with a rapper recently and Bonecrusher just wandered into frame randomly. Anyone remember what I’m talking about? Or the time his pants fell down on Conan?
Someone sent me Moruf’s tape and I checked it out on the strength of the title (Garden State Of Mind). I was underwhelmed. All these “Freshman” rap dudes sound exactly alike to me. You got a link on this Ramel? All I’m seeing on myspace is a Chicago R&B dude with that name.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
I’m just going to make up my own spelling. From now on, he’s Whacker Flahkquer.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
I remember Bonecrusher talking about how he was gonna come back out as a Christian artist. Like “Real”, but Christian, or something. That was earlier this year I think.. it was always about the ‘never scared’ rmx- Cam & Jada sounded good on that.
November 5th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Noz here are some links::
http://concreteloop.com/2009/09/hot-or-not-mel-carter-the-message
http://marcustroy.com/music/music-moruf-garden-state-of-mind-til-infinity/
November 5th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Noz u mean to tell me Billy roadz is better than moruf, the only thing better maybe the mixing lol. I’m emberrased for not remebering bonecrushers name, almost. Ramel isn’t good yet but there’s hope.
November 5th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
These guys rap alright on a technical level but are generic as fuck. They aren’t writing songs, they have no personality and have no memorable punchlines. They just fill space on tracks. What stands out about them?
November 5th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
i saw m.i.a . live in a secret show downtown los angeles about a month ago and i can say shes more talented and more entertaining then any rapper from atlanta since the dungeon family
November 5th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Listen to moruf crooklyn noz I know you’ll like it, I can’t vouch for the others so I understand your gripe in today’s landscape
November 5th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
And listen to j Cole heartache
November 5th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
“I’m not about to say any of these dudes are great lyricists, but they’re music is fun, which is what rap was all about in the beginning anyway.”
you don’t have to lie to kick it. I mean Melle Mel recorded The Message in 82 but wrote most of it in 79. So this whole age of innocence people posit for rap is a fiction- most likely a projection of the fun they used to have. But it was never all titties and dicksucks.
November 5th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
I saw this link on Twitter and all I can say is this discussion will have me checking this site more often, this is truly hip hop and I got to hear about new artists without the hype circus most blogs follow
November 5th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
“I mean Melle Mel recorded The Message in 82 but wrote most of it in 79.”
Right and that’s a complete outlier. I’ve heard just about every rap record released prior to “The Message” and dozens of live sets from that era and can only think of maybe two other songs that are about anything but partying/throwing your hands in the air/hollering at girls/being great at rapping. If these guys were interested in other topics they certainly weren’t rapping about them.
Also “most of it” is probably an exaggeration. It was one old verse that Sylvia Robinson zoned in on and saw an oppertunity to legitimize the genre. I’m not saying that it was a bad move because we might not be here today had she not had that vision. But to suggest that the verse in question was at all representative of the hip hop community at large at that time is just wrong. The group didn’t even want to make that record.
The Furious Five, however, weren’t convinced. “Nobody liked the song,” Melvin “Melle Mel” Glover says. “It was totally different from what we were doing. Even [Duke Bootee] didn’t think much of it. He had two songs, ‘The Message’ and ‘Dumb Love,’ and he wanted to do ‘Dumb Love.’ Sylvia was the only one who really wanted to do ‘The Message.’ We dodged it for a year or two and then she cornered us.”
“‘The Message’ wasn’t one of my favorites,” Grandmaster Flash maintains. “What [Robinson] wanted out of us was totally the opposite of what we were. We were into the DJing thing, the party thing.”
http://www.blender.com/guide/67707/greatest-songs-ever-message.html
November 5th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Rap is about true expression delivered through rythmic spoken word and poetry. Wacka Flocka although I agree with nothanojs view is still rap although he says nothing of importance and articulates ignorance he’s is fun and can make you laugh…at him. I could barely watch this video but not all southern rap lacks that prowess.
Yankees I listened to the tracks you put and orines links, here is the honest scoop;
Ramel albeit jay-z’s nephew should stop rapping but that songs beat is hard.
Moruf is ok on the link but Crooklyn is a really well put together song and I like when new rappers pay respect on throwback beats, he’s definately a quality artist but let’s see if he will last
J Cole is a gem of a rapper, every bar is emphasized and he will probably stand out for a long time, brings me back to when I first heard Lupe.
November 5th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Also I wanna add that noz- Byron Crawford- combatjack are the trillest bloggers in hip hop even when you post wookie flookie
November 5th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
jay elecchanukah jay elecyarmulke.. damn this was a great read
November 5th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Didnt mean to piss anyone off , I just think this is horrible and the rappers i named arent lol
November 5th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Yeah but the Message resonated then a m*******er. Of course The Message isn’t one of Grandmaster Flash’s favorites- Melle Mel stole all his shine on that one. I mean, really, what do you expect him to say? Flash sued Sugar Hill for $5 mill for The Message because, even though he didn’t do anything on it, and he hates that song, his name’s on it, blazay blazay bullshit, this split up the group, etc… So, basically, no disrespect to the Grandmaster, but you should really take anything he has to say about The Message with a grain of salt and a side of sour grapes.
The bottom line is, life isn’t all titties and dicksucks, and it didn’t take but a minute for somebody to write raps about that. It might have taken somebody a minute to convince his crew to let him rap about something other than titties and dicksucks, seeing as they were afraid it might impact their steady flow of titties and dicksucks- and, indeed, by Flash’s tone, perhaps it did end the innocent age of titties and dicksucks. Who knows. I’m not buying.
November 5th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
“you don’t have to lie to kick it. I mean Melle Mel recorded The Message in 82 but wrote most of it in 79.”
^^ What does this have to do with the rest of the Furious Five/Melle Mel catalogue? I never said rap used to be one way and is another now. There have always been records that are party records, and among them there have always been some great joints, and also some joints about “titties and dicksucks” (often the same thing). Think about the entire basis of 2 Live Crew’s popularity: production and rapping about “titties and dicksucks,” Too $hort also, major, major influences (although Short Dog is also just one of the best storytellers ever). I should have said “from the beginning,” not “in the beginning.”
November 6th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Ugh, did every “real hip hop” vaginal gash need to jump out of the wood work at the same time? This thread should be quarantined.
November 6th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
thanks stunt for adding nothing of benefit to this discourse, we all needed that
November 6th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Titties and dicksucks always were popular, and always be. No complaints here. Yay, they packed the club and did they thing. Goodtimes. I object to formulating some kind of historical arguement that priviledges that kind of stuff over other stuff. I don’t object to clubhop the music. I object to clubhop the ideology.
November 6th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Ms. GoHam looks like a Flavor of Love contestant.
November 7th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I also object to this “back in the day rap was all just party music, ergo contentless rap is really a return to rap’s roots” argument. I mean, as a statement of fact, sure, but as an evaluative judgment, who says late-70s/early 80s rap is what we should be aspiring to return to? It can’t be denied that at some point(s) in rap history rap was more political than it is now, or just more descriptive of actual social conditions that people live, rather than all about the luxurious life the rapper lives or pretends to live, than it is now.
November 8th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Tray- You’ve misinterpreted what I wrote. In no way was I suggesting that rap today is a “return to rap roots.” That’s an idiotic argument. All I was trying to say is that fun, party music has always been a part of rap, along with everything else. Whether or not rapps today should aspire to late 70s/early 80s rap is another issue entirely, and not an argument that I was putting forward (or ever would, for that matter). All I meant was that there’s no reason to hate on Frenchie, Waka, etc. for being contentless, not very skilled rappers when their music is undeniably fun to listen to. The reference to rap’s history may have been misguided since everyone seems to have taken it the wrong way; I was just trying to point out that it’s not like rap has somehow gone downhill because of the 1017 clique. The over the top claims to ridiculously luxurious lifestyles is just part of what makes the music fun for me.
November 9th, 2009 at 6:09 am
Right and that’s a complete outlier. I’ve heard just about every rap record released prior to “The Message” and dozens of live sets from that era and can only think of maybe two other songs that are about anything but partying/throwing your hands in the air/hollering at girls/being great at rapping. If these guys were interested in other topics they certainly weren’t rapping about them.
Hard Times by Kurtis Blow would be the obvious one, right?
November 9th, 2009 at 11:51 am
This sh@t is garbo, any way you cut it. Am I getting old, or did being known as a ‘rapper’ (read MC) used to hold a lot more weight, and everybody couldn’t do it. Now, everybody can’t rap well, but everybody can rap. What happened to clever lines, being informative, having a vocab above primary school, as opposed to some half-ass, sorta humourous bs sub-punchline crap? These jerks are in love with the sound of their own voices, without really having anything to say. Talk about ‘regular rap’. Don’t get me wrong; everybody doesn’t have to be X-Clan, BDP, or PE, but at least let’s have some variety and art in the music.
November 11th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Y’all are talking MIA and not the great Suga Free ref? Why y’all bullshittin’?
November 12th, 2009 at 12:31 am
#
david
i saw m.i.a . live in a secret show downtown los angeles about a month ago and i can say shes more talented and more entertaining then any rapper from atlanta since the dungeon family
Nov 5th, 2009
u should be banned from commenting this … better than T.I.? Jeezy? gtfo
November 12th, 2009 at 12:32 am
& how the fuck are party raps ‘contentless’??? partying is content. good songs about partying = good songs. anyone who calls non-political rap ‘contentless’ is an idiot
November 12th, 2009 at 12:33 am
also im pretty sure ‘all the way turnt up’ is actually a roscoe dash track — its been rereleased w/ a soulja boy verse & w/out these other dudes