New Rap Music
Wale – “BASEhead“
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Wale picks up on the rolling double time flow that folks like Meek have been popularizing in Philly. For a short while it seemed like Wale would be stepping in as a remote member of State Property. Or at least Young Chris’ new Lil Neefy. So it’s no surprise that he’s been paying attention to rap trends in the City of Brotherly Gun Similes. He’s snapping too. This is produced by someone or someones going by the name Basshead which is strange because there’s virtually no bass on the record. Just church bells and 8 bit blips. That drum programming seems a little complex for a NES game though, I wonder if Basshead is rocking Nanonloop or something similar.
Kurupt f/ DJ Quik, Terrace Martin & Snoop Dogg – “Bounce, Rock, Skate“
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from Streetlights (Penagon, 2010)
So Kurupt still hasn’t quite figured out how to hold down a solo album, no news there. Too often on Streetlights he either falls into the trap of mathematical hypothetical lyrical spit or that of his recent completely confusing directional obsessions. “I’mma take the top and put it where the bottom drop / then I’mma reverse it and make the bottom touch the top / see this what they all call the top spot / then I’mma show the top where the bottom stop.” That’s an actual quote, sounding like a particularly twisted game of Simon Says. Anyway, the real Streetlights highlight goes to his Blaqkout partner demolishes this bonus cut, delivering purposely clunky insults with calm malice. “You’re the color of money / and your weed looks like autumn / and the pockets on your jeans look like they did when you bought ‘em.”
Cousin Fik – “Don’t Talk About Me“
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from No Gravity – The Album (Sick Wid It/Internet, 2010)
Fik’s No Gravity dropped as a freebee download last week and went unnoticed but is worth checking if the two and half hours of Revenue Retrievin wasn’t enough Vallejo madness to hold you down. Fik, who I presume is actually E-40′s cousin or nephew or something given the Sick Wid It family orientated standard, always seemed to lack an identity when he popped up on crew tracks. That’s less of a problem here. He is busting on “Don’t Talk To Me.” Gassing, as the kids might say. This is more or less tolerable trance rap but the production on the rest of the album is a pretty even split between Rick Rock/Droop type post-hyphy and DJ Fresh style 80s jams, so yeah it’s worth a download.
D-Boi f/ The Jacka – “Pimpin’ In My Cadillac“
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The Bay Area has Country Rap Tunes too.
Philthy Rich f/ Keak The Sneak & Stevie Joe – “Teeth 2 Feet”
Keak links with Livewire. The hook is proof that Wayne would be a perfect fit on this type of neo mob shit. Somebody get Khayree on Carter IV.
Devin The Dude – “People Talk“
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from Suite 420 (Koch, 2010)
On first listen Suite 420 seems to suffer from the same sort of half assedness that Devin’s last album did. Here is an artist who once wrote songs with concepts and structure now content to just ramble about weed aimlessly for an hour. “People Talk” stands out only because of D’s someone else’s brief and totally unexpected try at double time rap.
DC Don Juan f/ Whitefolkz, Likeblood, XO, Kingpen Slim & Phil Ade – “Lookie Lookie (DMV Remix)“
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Don Juan calls on a huge chunk of the DMV to lace this remix of his ’09 near hit. For all of the DC rap talent and internal pride, artists haven’t exactly been able to present a unified front on the national scale. These sort of city-wide posse cuts might be a good way to rectify that situation. Wale should have made one six months ago.
Raekwon – “Jolly Ranchers”
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As we learned from that ESG song that was on MF Doom’s last album for no reason, Raekwon rapping over untreated classic breaks is always a welcome choice. Produced by The Alchemist.
The Dudez f/ Audio Push – “Yeah Buddy Remix”
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The jerkin stuff lost my attention months ago but I grabbed this from Digital Dripped because it was labeled “jerkin song?” with a question mark. That must be a typo because this is unquestionably a generic jerk record. Which is unfortunate. After a year and half of unilateral jerk moves, one would hope that the scene would start producing at least a few question marks. Until then this crap is perfectly fine. It’s just surprising that such a limited sound has sustained a scene for as long as it has. “The Dudez” is a really horrendous rap name. And the “I’m fly… Red Bull” line might be the worst Drakeism to date. Step up ya rap game, jerks. Beat knocks though.
Sauce Money – “Snipershot”
I tried to figure out a way to review this record without mocking Sauce’s ballooning obesity but then I gave up. He has another song on Youtube that’s also bangs in the ’99 Tunnel jam sense of the word.
Tumblin' Erb
April 21st, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Man, who said you can’t be forty and come with fire? Quik is putting these youngsters to shame!
April 21st, 2010 at 2:24 pm
I think Devin just sings the hook on “People Talk”; sounds like Jugg Mugg on the double time verse.
April 21st, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Hmm. You might be right. When I listened I thought it was Devin doing that half of the verse. I guess his album is completely irredeemable then?
April 21st, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Quik has to be the most underappreciated rapper ever. Kills it regular.
April 21st, 2010 at 6:31 pm
^^^^ in addition ot the most underappreciated producer.
April 21st, 2010 at 8:53 pm
that philthy song is oooooooooold. go check youtube for philthy rich – straight from oakland
April 21st, 2010 at 9:02 pm
Wale sound like Lupe on the Enemy of the state mixtape
April 21st, 2010 at 11:21 pm
I love these.
April 21st, 2010 at 11:55 pm
man why you bother throwing up that shit Fik track, you should have put Fo 15′s up, that one slaps man. fuck the trancerap shit
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:12 am
‘bounce rock skate’ is mad old dude:
http://somanyshrimp.com/2008/12/23/2008-top-20s/
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:40 am
This double time rap in Devins track is very poorly executed.
April 22nd, 2010 at 2:06 am
I do believe this is the first time Jacka has appeared in a CB post.
April 22nd, 2010 at 2:21 am
No love for G-Side’s Money In The Sky, Noz? I would have thought that you would like it.
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:04 am
Pimpin in my cadillac = YESSSS
April 22nd, 2010 at 5:31 am
I’m sorry, I totally failed to notice this: Are those seriously Dirt McGirt Sour Cream & Onion chips urging us to Think Responsibly?
April 22nd, 2010 at 9:07 am
Sauce Money makes it hard for me to breathe..
April 22nd, 2010 at 10:38 am
@AK — I’m a proud owner of that very bag of chips, still unopened. I bought them in a gas station in St. Louis the day he died. That slogan still gets me.
April 22nd, 2010 at 11:49 am
I am going to change the name of this column to just “Rap Music.”
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:28 pm
I have never understood the commenter impulse to point out when a song is old. I suppose the title suggests this is new, but that’s beside the point. Unhappy with how current your favorite rap blog is? Start your own.
“that philthy song is oooooooooold”. The video is precisely 22 days old. If you give thoughtful bloggers a hard time for covering anything more than 24 hours old, you give up your right to expect anything but content aggregation online. Go read Nah Right. Nothing will be more than 20 minutes old, and you’ll forget about in about as much time.
April 22nd, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Saw Devin last night and it was one of the guys from 14K who does the double time rap.
The “I baffle the minds of workers at the Laundromat / They think my clothes have been worn by a walking ganja plant” line is the closest that album gets to being redeemable.
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:58 pm
5. Teeth – Philthy Rich
Sampler of Town Thizznes Albums mixed by DJ Racks
credits
released 16 June 2009
willy u asshole. it was on a mixtape a year ago. came out well before that.
April 22nd, 2010 at 6:12 pm
For chrissakes, some of us have better things to do than comb through every single goddamn bloody mixtape. How many mixtapes did the Livewire crew drop last year? Did anyone actually listen to Gorilla Zoe’s 28-tape series?
April 22nd, 2010 at 7:33 pm
you should eat a dick too ak, round here a song comes out and gets 3 months of heavy rotation, which is to say you hear it comin out the cars at the gas station. and yeah, everyone round here done listened to every ptb and livewire tape. so that song got played, then had 9 months of rest, now here you are tellin me not to say its old? cause you aint up on it? in the town this is like if i had a blog and i posted up a year old jay z track. it would be mad obvious.
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:46 pm
You should post more Jacka, he’s really one of the best rappers in the Bay right now.
April 23rd, 2010 at 12:59 am
DRGZ – the video just dropped for that shit this month. relax.
April 23rd, 2010 at 8:55 am
Those chips did not taste good. Neither of them. And I was pretty stoned.
April 23rd, 2010 at 10:48 am
DRGZ – Just gonna piggyback on what NOZ said here. The VIDEO came out a month ago, and NOZ posted the video. I’m sure you don’t expect NOZ to take trips out to East 14th and listen to whether dudes are listening to Livewire tapes or not. If Philthy thought the shit was really played, and did not have to reach a larger audience, he wouldn’t have had Keak waste those back issues of Murder Dog on the shoot.
That’s lovely that Livewire has a seriously devoted fanbase in Oakland. They deserve it. It takes some time for these things to get national attention. I don’t see why you knock it when someone like NOZ helps with that.
April 23rd, 2010 at 1:06 pm
I say this not to jump into the “that’s new/that’s old” dogpile but instead to chart Quik’s development– “Bounce, Rock, Skate” has been floating around since at least spring of 2008.
I’m psyched for Book of David.
April 23rd, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Who did the beat for that D-boi song? Sounds like they studied Pimp C like he was the topic of their term paper…
April 23rd, 2010 at 8:43 pm
“WILLY
I have never understood the commenter impulse to point out when a song is old. I suppose the title suggests this is new, but that’s beside the point. Unhappy with how current your favorite rap blog is? Start your own.”
I did. And I posted a link to a year-end round up I wrote from 2008, where I mentioned “bounce rock skate,” which is indisputably old.
April 24th, 2010 at 1:31 am
Good looks on mentioning the Sauce MFin. I’ve always been perplexed by the lack of props divvied out in his direction, and these two new joints (more the one you didn’t post then the one you did) just confirm he still deserves them. Is anyone else reminded of Sauce’s flow when they hear Davinci?
April 24th, 2010 at 4:50 am
DaVinci reminded me of Beanie Sigel in a couple places.
April 24th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
sample on that 2nd sauce money track is ‘you used to’ by thelma houston & produced by jam & lewis … more of that 80s R&B shit that NYers were all ripping over for awhile & now the Bay has started to mine
April 25th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
YO NOZ THE SHARED RSS BROKEN?
April 26th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
I don’t think so, I just haven’t shared anything in a minute.