Pill went and got himself a budget. The 4th ward representative turned gray lady golden boy‘s latest video explores a lot of the same themes that “Trap Going Ham” did, but the track itself is more sober. Suddenly it’s not about the madness of the hood, but the pain. “Trap” was a cool record but “Glass” is more indicative of what makes Pill a likable emcee – thoughtful, reflective and slightly spiritual. Not just go ham madness.

Project Pat & Juicy J – “Twerk“

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from Play Me Sum Pimpin Pt. 2 (Mixtape, Coming Soon)

I’ve been listening to a lot of mid-90s M-Town tapes as of late, inspired both by a sudden blog revival and a four month late tape order from Tommy Wright’s ebay store. One thing I’m noticing is how much of an influence New Orleans bounce was having on Memphis at the time. The idea I got when I was interviewing these dudes a few years ago was that it was a simultaneous evolution. To hear the tapes speak (and tapes do speak) Memphis was more informed by New Orleans than the other way around. (And then Atlanta stole from both! I kid, but I don’t.) Juice’s old Vol. 9 tape is about halfway to being my Bounce For Relief compilation – a slowed down “Get The Gat,” etc. That influence trickles down to “Twerk”, from the “twerk dat ass” refrain to a full fledged Triggerman breakdown. But one of the great things about Three 6, even on those early tapes, is that they never let their influences overpower their sound. It ends up a loose hybrid between late 90s Cash Money and early 00ts Hypnotize. They are really having the best year ever, by the way. (A version of “Twerk” with Webbie was floating around a while back. I guess this is the official mix.) (more…)

Sorry that the writing has been so terse this week. Big things are in motion. Patience, people.

DX ran my Lil Boosie feature today. It’s not the definitive Q&A that I had hoped for, slightly sabatoged by some ratchet ass cell phone issues, but it picks up a little towards the end. In any case it’s an important interview because it inspired one fruitfly to inaccurately describe Boosie’s fade as a “bowl cut.” And thus my imagined photo of Boosie Bad Azz with a Lloyd Christmas style mushroom do has surpassed this tape cover as the greatest non pornographic image to enter my head today. If my computer didn’t hate Photoshop so much I’d be putting together a Boosie & Webbie in Trill and Triller movie poster at this very moment.

Superbad drops 9/15/09. I’m as concerned by all this “for the women” talk as you are. But it will still probably have 2-3 great street records. Which is 2-3 more than Blewprint 3 will.

More of this on Superbad, please.

from Various Mixtapes (2007-2008)

Shake at 2DBz has put up a nice little compilation of early B.O.B. tracks. The selection leans a little towards the Bobby Dre 3k we are the world tip, but it’s good to finally grab high quality rips of earlier actual rap jams like “Hip Hop Ain’t Dead” and “Daddy.” The premise that B.O.B. has already made something close to a classic album across his handful of mixtapes is spot on. As an added bonus, I’ve re-upped some supplemental mixtape era loosies. Each track is CDQ, NODJ, all that.

Shake says: “Word is [Atlantic] really like[s] B.o.B but are trying to force him into a 360 deal. And if he doesn’t conform, they are gonna shelve him.” This seems like a cute starving artist story but its probably just not true. Something tells me if/when B.O.B. makes a significant hit, they’ll have an album on the schedule in a matter of weeks. Then again they wouldn’t have that problem had they given “Cloud 9″ the proper push in the first place.