Dime’s Fantasy Finals Matchups

Basketball websites always has these gimmicky user-involved tournaments. Balls Don’t Lie is probably the king of these. But the best I’ve come across is Dime Mag’s Fantasy Finals. In fact I like these so much, I decided to post my thoughts on their early matchups.

2008 Lakers Vs. 1995 Magic

In Dime’s rules, everyone’s healthy and the older team has home court. Now personally, I have a somewhat low opinion of last year’s Lakers team, at least historically speaking. Fish is/was washed up. His last great year was with Utah. And I say “great” because Fish is one of the most underrated players of my lifetime. Played great D, hit clutch threes, Kobe and Shaq both trusted him, Phil trusted him. Vlad just sucked anyway. Ariza hadn’t really had his 2009 breakout year. Bynum’s soft. And Gasol needs to demand the ball more. Odom’s inconsistent. At least Vujacic and Farmar were much better last year. And they had Turiaf. Come to think of it, with the exception of Ariza, everyone on the Lakers was better last year.

This Magic team was one of my favorite NBA Finals losers. They had Shaq entering his prime, Penny in his dead-prime (which only lasted like 3 years). Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott playing out of their respective minds. Horace Grant giving it one last shot, and Brian Shaw doing all those little Brian Shaw-things. But their bench was very weak after Shaw.

The key to this series would be Odom. If he shows up every game, the Lakers probably win in 5 or 6. But since I have never seen him do that (even in Miami and with the Clippers – the playoffs were what made Wade and Brand the number one guys on those teams), I don’t think he does it here. I’d say if Kobe gets a 10 in this series, Penny’s probably an 9.5. Shaq’s a 10, Bynum’s probably a 6. I’d give Gasol a 10 if he was demanding the ball move – the dude has a sick arsenal of post moves. But since he’s so lax, he gets an 8, Ho Grant was standing on one leg at that point, he gets a 5. Since Penny and Kobe would guard each other, it’s washed up Fish vs. pussy Anderson. Fortunately it wasn’t until after 95 (when he missed the free throws) that Anderson went into a complete funk. But here he should have enough to barely edge Fish, say…..7-6. In the Vlad/Scott matchup we’ll call it even since Scott’s much more deadly, but Vlad has the size advantage, 7.5 each. The bench is where Odom comes in. I’ll give this to the Lakers, but only barely. When Odom doesn’t show up, it’s basically even. So we’ll say 8-7. Coaching-wise, Phil gets it 9-8 over Brian Hill. Totals? 46.5 for Orlando, 46.5 for the Lakers. Dead even. I’ll go with Orlando in 7. Because we know that Shaw shows up, we don’t know about Odom.  Plus the Magic get homecourt.

1998 Bulls Vs. 2007 Spurs

This is closer than you think. The most dominant NBA team of all-time goes up against possibly the most boring dynasty of all-time. At that point, Ron Harper was 2005 Derek Fisher. And Tony Parker kills him, we’ll say 9-7. MJ probably guards Ginobili, but Bowen probably guards him. We’ll say MJ gets a 10, because even though that’s got to be tiring, MJ’s sort of…well he’s the best player ever. Ginobili probably guards Pippen. So we’ll say Ginobili’s tired but still manages a 7.5. Bowen manages to be a solid 7, and Pippen’s a 9 here. Duncan gets a 10 while Rodman gets an 8, good matchup. And both of the terrible centers get 5’s because it’s really the sixth men who get play. The coaches are even at 10, but the Spurs pull the advantage off the bench with Horry, Finley and Barry over Kukoc and Kerr, 8-6. 55 for the Bulls, 54.5 for the Spurs. Bulls in 7.

2006 Heat vs. 2001 Sixers

This is a fun matchup. It’s Allen Iverson in his best season vs. Dwayne Wade in his I’m-better-than-MJ season.  One thing sticks out, Wade can sort of guard Iverson.  Iverson has no shot at Wade.  Wade’s almost as fast and about half a foot taller.  They have similar games in those seasons, but Wade is worlds better in efficiency.  Plus he has more help.  If Wade gets a 10, and Iverson a 9, the rest of this matchup is pretty one-sided.  Jason Williams, in his last effective season, beats snow, 8-7.  ‘Toine, also in his last effective season, bests George Lynch, 7.5-6.  For fun, we’ll call Haslem/Hill a tie, even though common sense would go with Haslem, 7-7.  And Shaq bests Deke, 8-6.5.  Coaching is an even 9, and the Heat’s bench still had James Posey, ‘Zo,  and GP, while the Sixers counter with Aaron McKie, a not-yet-developed Raja Bell, and a bunch of stiffs.  Heat, 9-6.  For a final total of 57.5 for a strong Heat team, and 50.5 for the Sixers.  I think the Heat sweep this.  Fun Series, but not too long.

2004 Pistons vs. 1994 Knicks

Bad matchup for the Knicks. The Pistons counter the Knicks strengths too well. Chauncey dominates Harper, 9-7. I think Rip pulls out ahead of Starks, 8.5-8. Tayshaun edges Smith 7.5-7. Rasheed pulls Oakley out of the paint, and beats him 8-7. While Ewing can only muster a 10-8.5 edge over Ben. Plus that Pistons team was deep. The Knicks’ strength was their depth, but this Pistons team was even deeper. The Pistons rolled out Corliss Williamson, Elden Campbell, Lindsey Hunter, Mike James, and Mehmet Okur. Picture that. Okur, entering his prime, was the 10th man on this team. And he’s been an all-star in this league. Anthony Mason and Greg Anthony give the Knicks the edge in a lot of series, but here they lose 10-9 Though we just called the Pat Riley/Larry Brown matchup a tie, so we’ll stick with that, 9-9. Brown gets his revenge here, 60.5-57. I think the Pistons take this in 6, they weren’t too good at breaking team’s backs, if you remember.

2008 Celtics vs. 1993 Suns

Wow, giving this a quick eyeball, it looks like the best matchup yet. KG’s best squad vs. Chuck’s best squad. Rondo/KJ. Majerle/Ray Ray. I’m giving KJ the PG edge, 9-8. But remember, KJ disappeared in the finals that year. Rondo does not disappear. He’s consistently annoying you. But KJ was better. Ray Ray gets the same slight edge on Majerle, 9-8. Mainly because, none of these guys could stop each other. But Ray Ray’s slightly better. He might be the best pure shooter I’ve ever seen. Pierce/Dumas is where the Celtics probably win the series. Pierce gets this, 10-7. Dumas was slightly underrated in memory, but also slightly overrated at the time because his numbers were better than he was. Mainly because of the system he played in – like a mid-90’s Leandro Barbosa. We’ll call KG/Barkley a tie, 10-10. Both moved on from their crappy first teams to much more loaded second squads. This was Barkley’s best year, but KG played better defense. The Centers were Kendrick Perkins vs. Mark West, and we’ll call this even at 6. As good as the Celtics’ bench was last year, the Suns’ was even better with Ceballos, Ainge, Chambers, Oliver Miller (don’t laugh, he was decent that year), and Frank Johnson, 9-8. And in Doc Rivers and Paul Westphal we have two of the most maligned coaches of all-time. They get an even 7. Final score, 58-56 Celtics. But the Suns get homecourt. I don’t know how to call this. It’s too close. Put a gun to my head? I’ll go with the Suns in 7.

2003 Nets vs. 1995 Rockets

Interesting matchup. I don’t know exactly how this’ll come out. Memory would probably tell you the Rockets were better, but let’s see because I think the Nets would give them problems. Kidd takes Kenny Smith pretty handily. Smith was one of the more underrated PG’s of the 90’s, at least he was before his TNT stint. But Kidd was the engine that made the Nets go, and 2003 was his best season. We’ll say 10-7.5. Clyde was not in his prime anymore, but still was very good. And he beats Kerry Kittles, quite easily, 9-6.5. Richard Jefferson probably beats Mario Elie, 8.5-7. They were similar players in those seasons, the difference being RJ’s defense and athleticism. K-Mart beats a young Horry, mainly on the defensive end. Most people don’t remember, but both of these guys were extremely athletic at that age. That would be a fun matchup. But K-Mart takes it, 8-7. Meanwhile, Hakeem dominates Collins, 10-6. I don’t need to say much else about that. Benches are pretty even – Deke/Lucious Harris & Aaron Williams playing over their heads/Rodney Rogers/a young Anthony Johnson vs. a young Sam I Am/Charles Jones (milk carton?)/Mad Max/Chucky Brown, 7-7. And Rudy bests Byron, 9-7. 56.5 for Clutch City, 53 for the Nets. Plus the Rockets get homecourt, so we’ll say Rockets in 6.

That was fun, we’ll do it again.

Stock Check: The Top 10 R&B Singers – Male

Ok so around this time every year, (usually more March-ish) MTV has its’ annual top 10 hottest emcees list.  I’m going to one-up it and give the top 10 hottest emcees, and male and female singers.  We’ll start with the males.  And with Chris Brown in legal trouble and R.Kelly and Usher falling back a bit, it’s a hard list to make.  Keep in mind that this is based more upon popularity, buzz and fame than quality.  I’m trying to do this as objectively as possible.  First let me say that artists considered for the list but didn’t make it were Robin Thicke, Akon, Musiq Soulchild, J. Holiday, Anthony Hamilton, Bobby Valentino, and Kellz.  But here goes:

10. Lyfe Jennings
There was a time when Lyfe’s label was going all-in with him. A couple of years ago, Atlantic thought Lyfe was going to be their Kanye West. But after his first album sold well over a million copies, his last two have combined to barely break the million mark. Nevertheless, Lyfe has had a steady stream of singles ever since he debuted in 2004, breaking through in 2005 with “Must Be Nice.” Lyfe has been the musical descendant of Jodeci and Donell Jones. The dude with the super soulful voice but a contemporary sound. His last album, Change moved a pretty poultry 350K but was backed with a strong following and a couple of hit singles in “Never Never Land,” “Will I Ever,” and “Cops Up.”

9. Ryan Leslie
The current favorite new hook-man in hip hop is Ryan Leslie. It could be because he produced hit singles like Cassie’s “Me & You” and Slim’s “Good Lovin.” It could be because his album was the best that’s come out this year so far.  Or it could be because his keys/synth-heavy sound is becoming the go-to sound in urban radio.  While his album was sort of put out to fail, he’s still keeping his name alive anyway.  But I’ve already written about how dope his album is, so I’ll keep this one short.

8. T-Pain
T-Pain is another guy whose album sales never quite caught up to his buzz.  While he consistently out-sells the three guys I’ve mentioned before him with one exception (Lyfe Jennings’ first album), he never sold enough to find himself in the elite R&B dudes.  His second album, Epiphany, is his biggest seller at 908k.  For all of its’ hype, Three Ringz only sold 560K.  But in today’s R&B world that’s still pretty strong.  Pain’s a guy whose appearance on other peoples hits has overshadowed his own.  And his somewhat disappointing numbers on his third album are what have dropped him to seven on this list.  The buzz for that album didn’t last very long at all, and it’s been long-gone for a while now, we’ll have to see if he re-invents himself or if this is the beginning of the end of his reign.

7. Usher
Usher is sort of an opposite of Pain.  He’s sold a gang of records in his career (including 2003’s diamond-status Confessions album).  He even just sold 2 mil off his last album, Here I Stand. But no one really talks about Ursh anymore.  In fact Jermaine Dupri’s run as a whole (which included two straight diamond efforts in Confessions and Mariah Carey’s The Emancipation of Mimi) seems to have come to a screeching hault.  So So Def’s go-to songwriter, Johnta Austin, is now even working more with Stargate these days.  It could be that after Confessions, Ursh waited too long (4 years) to return.  It could also be that while Confessions had seven stellar singles, Here I Stand managed only one.

6. Chris Brown
Chris Brown is absolutely the hardest one on this list to place. Just because he’d probably be number one if not for the whole beating-up-Rihanna thing.  His second album, Exclusive, sold a nice three million worldwide.  It was also backed by countless hit singles, “Wall To Wall,” “Kiss Kiss,” “Take You Down,” and the two monsters; “With You” and “Forever.”  I’ve already shed light on how big those last two were.  But he seems to have been slightly black-balled by radio.  Sure shot hit singles he’s featured on by T-Pain (“Freeze”) and Ciara (“Turntables”) have gotten no push from radio or their record labels.  The only real precedent I can think of for his situation is R.Kelly in 2002.  His label dropped promotion of the album at he had out at the time (Kellz’ Best Of Both Worlds duet with Jay-Z), and shelved its’ follow up.  After another year, Kellz saved all his hits for The Chocolate Factory and was back in the spotlight with “Ignition” and “Step In The Name Of Love,” selling another three million records.  We’ll see if this is similar to what happens with Chris Breezy.  It’s a strange situation for everyone involved – including his fans.

5. Jamie Foxx
While I probably wouldn’t have placed him on this list based upon his first album, he makes it here because he has a hit single to back his platinum album. He’s currently in his 13th straight week atop the Billboard Top R&B singles chart with “Blame It.” The album itself is chalk full of hit singles should his label continue to promote it. “Number One” and “I Don’t Need It” in particular just scream “hit single.” “Blame It” is easily the contemporary R&B/Pop single of the year thus far, and has easily been the biggest song of Foxx’s singing career. We’ll see what he does to follow it up.

4. The-Dream
This seems about right for the-dream. He seemed to dominate airwaves last year with “Falsetto” and “I Love Your Girl,” and he’s gotten right back to the act with “Rockin That Shit.” But he doesn’t seem to really sell too many albums. He’s more known as a producer/songwriting act with his partner Tricky Stewart. But Def Jam gave him more promotion this time around and it looks like he’s going to sell about the same as last time. His album is pretty good, not as good as his debut, but still very high quality.

3. Trey Songz
Songz is the other guy in the Lyfe Jennings/Donell Jones/Jodeci comparisons.  He’s also the lesser hyped third guy in the Chris Brown/Ne-Yo-trilogy. Another guy who has assaulted radio since his 2005 debut, Songz has stayed much more relevant than his album sales would justify. He stands on two simple gold albums, but has added to hit singles by Twista (“Girl Tonite”), Young Joc (“1st Time”), Scarface (“Girl You Know”), Ace Hood (“Ride”) and most recently, Drake (“Successful”). He’s had his own big singles as well with his classic debut, “Just Gotta Make It,” “Gotta Go,” “Wonder Woman,” the monster smashes “Can’t Help But Wait” and “The Last Time,” and “Missing You,” but he’s going for the gusto with his latest single “I Need A Girl.” Written by Johnta Austin and produced by Stargate, it’s clear Trey’s label is finally deciding to give him their all this time around. Expect to hear this song alot, it’s similar production to Chris Brown’s “With You” with a little synth added on top of it. I think we’ll see this near the top of R&B/pop songs by the end of the year.

2. John Legend
Things are going very well in the G.O.O.D. Music camp with Mr. Legend’s success only being eclipsed by his mentor Kanye’s. John Legend has sold 6 million records off of his three albums to date, and his promotion has carried on through outlets most artists can’t reach. The president used “If You’re Out There” as part of his campaign, and the NBA has used it for their “NBA Cares” features. His album has only really had one single heavily promoted, “Green Light,” and still sold another million copies. His music is as critically acclaimed as it is popular, and he’s my pick as the #2 R&B dude in the game right now.

1. Ne-Yo
With Chris Brown on the edge, Usher on his way down, and none of the newcomers really stepping up, Ne-Yo is almost undisputed at the top of this list. Really, Legend is the only one with a case to make, and Ne-Yo’s smoking him in album sales, buzz, and hit singles. There was a time early in the year when it was being whispered that perhaps Def Jam was putting more emphasis on the-dream and making him their #1 R&B dude, but the sales just don’t back that up. The dream’s two albums combined haven’t outsold Ne-Yo’s worst seller. And he came back with 3 mega-singles off his grammy-winning (he even got a coveted Album of the Year nomination) third album Year Of The Gentleman. Grabbing Jazmine Sullivan to open up, Ne-Yo’s even stepped his performance game up significantly. Like the 80’s Mike Jack/Prince comparisons, the Ne-Yo/Chris Brown thing is going to go on. But right now, Ne-Yo’s winning. Really for the first time. His first album sold 2 million worldwide (actually outselling Breezy’s more single-heavy effort) with just two major singles. He came back with really only one single on his sophmore album but still easily sold a millie. This time he’s well over two mill again and could creep to three. He was pretty much neck-and-neck with CB before the Rihanna incident, but he’s easily surpassed him since.

“Stronger”

Kanye West is the Dwayne Wade of the NBA.  Think about it.  He’s the most relate-able, driven superstar.  In hip hop, there’s really the top 3 (Yay, Tip, & Weezy), and then everyone else.  Basketball is the same way (Lebron, Kobe, Wade).  Plus they’re both from Chicago.

“Stronger”: The Career of Kanye West
Yay first grabbed notoriety for producing “This Can’t Be Life” from Jay Z’s underappreciated The Dynasty: Roc La Familia album.  This was his first real break.  But he was originally tagged by Jermaine Dupri and Deric “D-Dot” Angellettie.  D-Dot put him on and worked with him on some ghost producing.  Kanye also was mentored by No I.D., who was mainly known (at that time) as Common’s main producer.  Today, No I.D. works closely with Dupri’s So So Def Productions.

The soul sample on “This Can’t Be Life” led him to be managed by Roc-A-Fella, and teamed up with another young producer named Just Blaze to form the label’s new sound.  Y’all know what happened next: Yay landed 5 joints on Hova’s seminal album, The Blueprint. This included the first single, “Izzo,” the monumental Nas/Mobb Deep diss “Takeover,” “Heart Of The City,” which was later used in the adds for the movie American Gangster, “Never Change,” and the hidden remix to “Girls, Girls, Girls.”  Kanye continued producing more hits, most notably Ludacris’ “Stand Up” and Alicia Keys’ “You Don’t Know My Name.”  He also set the hip hop world ablaze by giving three tracks to Scarface’s The Fix, including the lead single, “Guess Who’s Back.”  He also produced Talib Kweli’s biggest single to date, “Get By,” and the hits continued to rattle off.  Kanye had a special ability to reach to both the purists and the pop crowd.

After getting into a car accident in 2002, he recorded “Through The Wire,” with a wire through his jaw.  After recovering, he re-recorded his verses and the song took off.  Now signed to Roc-A-Fella, he began work on his debut album.  Most of it leaked at the end of 2003, so he went back into the lab and re-mixed a number of tracks and there were some notable tracks that were left off the final product (“Keep The Receipt,” “Home,” “The Good, The Bad & The Ugly,” and “My Way”).

But Kanye kicked off 2004 with the heavy promotion from Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam.  The single was breaking through to the urban charts, and he released a duet with Twista called “Slow Jamz” which was to appear on both of their albums.  The song became a #1 pop hit and drove both albums to multi-platinum status.  Kanye was heavily involved in Twista’s double platinum album Kamikaze, lending three tracks including the the album’s two smash singles, “Slow Jamz” and “Overnight Celebrity.”  Twista’s album just worked to build more hype for Kanye’s debut.  Two weeks after Twista’s album came out, The College Dropout was released.

Around the same time, the album’s official second single was “All Falls Down.”  At the time, it seemed everything Kanye touched was becoming a smash.  The album itself, featured notable songs all up and down the tracklist.  Kanye received contributions from mainstream rappers (Freeway, Jay-Z, Twista, Ludacris), conscious rappers (Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common – he even had a beat from Evidence), and his own proteges (John Legend, Keyshia Cole, Miri Bin Ari, GLC, Consequence).  Kanye was becoming the answer to 50 Cent.  He was the intectual, much less aggressive yin to 50’s yang.  The game definitely needed him after going through a year of 50’s promotion.  Kanye’s third single, “Jesus Walks,” became one of the biggest hip-hop/pop singles of the year.  He even made 3 videos for the song.  When all was said and done, Yay had sold almost four million records in the U.S. alone and picked up 2 grammys.

Before his next release, Yay did a lot of behind-the-scenes work.  In addition to his typical production work (he lent hit singles to Dilated Peoples, Kweli, Brandy, Slum Village, Cam’Ron, The Game, and Young Gunz), he also was setting up his G.O.O.D. Music label and establishing his artists.  Common signed with the label, but it was Yay’s right-hand-man, John Legend who became a superstar.  Get Lifted, the debut album from John Legend, was released on Yay’s label in a joint deal with Sony.  It sold 3 million copies worldwide led by the Yay-produced first single “I Used To Love You,” and the will.i.am-monster “Ordinary People.”    Next up was Keyshia Cole.  Cole had a side deal with Interscope but was managed by G.O.O.D. Music to begin her career.  Kanye gave her the first single, “I Changed My Mind.”  Her debut album, The Way It Is, managed to sell a tad under 2 million copies with other singles being “I Just Want It To Be Over,” “I Should’ve Cheated,” and the biggest song, “Love.”  Common also lended the biggest selling album of his career, which was also his debut on G.O.O.D. Music/A&M with Be, featuring the Yay-produced singles “The Corner,” “Go,” and “Testify.”

Feeling like he could do no wrong, his label leaked his first single to his second album, “Diamonds,” which sampled the James Bond Theme and was a clever play on words for his label Roc-A-Fella’s hand sign.  A recently then-retired Jay-Z even hopped on the remix.  The fact that the single really didn’t gain any buzz didn’t particularly deter Def Jam.  They just put out another single.  That single happened to be the biggest song of the year.  “Gold Digger” featured Jamie Foxx and spent 10 weeks atop the pop charts.  The album was perfectly marketed (as Def Jam is famous for), and released around the time the song went to number one.  When all was said and done, Late Registration had the largest first week in the label’s history, going over 850k in a week.  While West’s debut was very highly acclaimed, this one was even higher.  He sold another 3 million and released three more singles.  “Heard Em Say” featured an Adam Levine hook and began hip hop’s weird obsession with Maroon 5.  “Touch The Sky” was the outside production for the album, as Just Blaze provided the incredibly upbeat track.  It also became the launchpad to another artist Kanye had worked closely with.  Lupe Fiasco opened up for Kanye on two straight tours and became a big artist in his own right.  And by the time “Drive Slow” had a video, T.I. had gotten a verse on the track.  This was sort of notable as T.I. had become the new superstar on the block, and was heavily promoting both his fourth album King, and his motion picture debut ATL. Tip and Yay had worked together in the past, on Tip’s breakthrough second album Trap Musik, and had both had ego issues with each other.

The album itself was very dark in content, both in terms to social issues (“Crack Music”) and personal issues (“Addiction”).  It also featured an out-of-hiding Nas (“We Major”), a solo Common song (“On My Way Home”), a tribute to his grandmother (“Roses”), and a tribute to his mom (“Hey Mama”).

Kanye took a longer break after releasing two huge albums in two years.  He still popped up from time to time, whether re-uniting with Keysh and Twista on “Impossible” from the Mission Impossible 3 Soundtrack, helping out his homie Rhymefest’s debut by featuring himself on two songs, continuing his work with Lupe, Jay, John Legend, Nas, and Kweli, and again providing the lion’s share of Common’s album.

And before you knew it, it was time for a new album.

The leaked lead single this time was “Can’t Tell Me Nuthin,” a strange DJ Toomp co-production with adlibs by Young Jeezy.  Yay was starting to lean in another direction with this album as witnessed on the next single, “Stronger.”  Becoming Kanye’s third #1 pop song, “Stronger” kicked the full-promotion for Kanye’s third album.  Once again, Def Jam rolled out all the stops for ‘Yay.  This time he was involved in a silly first day release competition with an ever decreasingly relevent 50 Cent.  Yay re-united with Roc-A-Fella pals Beans and Freeway for the remix to “Cant Tell Me Nuthin,” and introduced his third single after appearing in Entourage through the credits.  That episode ran three days before the album’s release date.  Kanye ended up destroying 50 at the bank.  The single featured T-Pain, and “Good Life” was another monster hit.  This was followed up by another monster, “Flashing Lights,” and before you knew it, Yay had sold another 3 million copies in the U.S. alone.  In the meanwhile, Kanye broke his own Def Jam Record for biggest first week with 930K. The album itself featured a couple of cool cartoon viral videos (“Good Morning” & “Champion”) but was released amidst Kanye breaking up with his then-fiance and dealing with the death of his mother.

Yay kept a lower key on the collaborations this time appearing only on Game’s album (“Angel” – production only), Lil Wayne’s album (producing “Let The Beat Build” and “Comfortable”), and a somewhat monumental posse cut on T.I.’s album, “Swagger Like Us.”  The latter also featured Wayne and Jay, as the “Rap Pack.”  They even had a Rat Pack-themed performance at the Grammys together.  But the big single Yay appeared on was Young Jeezy’s “Put On,” featuring a Kanye verse in auto-tune.  Kanye then decided to record an album of auto-tuned melodies (since he obviously couldn’t sing on his own) and release it in the fourth quarter.  Thus, 808’s & Heartbreaks was released.

The project’s lead single, “Love Lockdown” was heavily acclaimed but lacked the starpower of his previous leads.  Though it did peak as a top 10 pop tune.  The follow-up, “Heartless” topped out at #3.  But while it didn’t quite live up to Kanye’s past, it certainly exceeded expectations for an album of Kanye singing.  “Amazing” was recently released as the third official single, and was picked up in promotion by the NBA for the playoffs.  To date, the album has sold almost 2 million.  I’m not going to comment too much on this as I think I have an entire column on this album coming up.

The Return of the Prodigal (White) Son….

I don’t necessarily consider Eminem among the top 5 or 10 greatest rappers of all-time.  I think he is a tad overrated because of his album sales for a rapper that really had one great album, two solid albums, and a terrible album.  Nonetheless I can appreciate his talent and impact to the game.

Any Man: The Career of Eminem

I first started hearing about Eminem in late 97.  He had dropped an indie album called The Slim Shady EP, which had a couple of songs that really caught my ear, “Just The Two of Us,” a demented trip with his daughter, and “I Just Don’t Give A Fuck,” which to me was so-so and nothing particularly special.  Despite how ill “Just The Two Of Us” was, I sort of wrote him off as another “horror-core rapper” in the Gravediggaz/TechN9ne mode.  Well, I was both wrong and right.

The Bad Meets Evil single dropped, and honestly it was Royce Da 5′9″ who really caught my ear on “Nuttin To Do.”  Em was still sort of in the background in my mid.  But then Dre signed the heavily-talented white boy and everything changed.  Heavily anticipating a first single, I jumped on “My Name Is” as soon as it came out.  Though I appreciated it a lot more before the white trash-heavy video.

The first album was ehhhh ok.  It definitely had its’ moments, most notably “Just The Two Of Us,” now remixed as “‘97 Bonnie & Clyde,” the mushrooms tribute “My Fault,” and the seemingly out-of-nowhere Cage diss on “Role Model.” But it was the second single “Guilty Conscience” that became a classic to me.  And had me heavily anticipating his next album.

But first he had another project to work on.  He appeared on two songs on Dr. Dre’s 2001 album, featuring the single “Forgot About Dre,” essentially a tribute to Dre.  Also appearing on “What’s The Difference,” with his classic “Dre I wanna tell you this shit right here while this fuckin weed is in me” blurb and “what’s the difference between us?/we can start at the penis/or we could scream “I just don’t give a fuck” and see who really means it” line.  He also dropped “Any Man” on the Rawkus Soundbombing 2 Soundtrack and contributed “Bussa Rhyme” to Missy Elliot’s album.

It was quite obvious that the kid could spit, despite his so-so debut.  But it was on The Marshall Mathers LP that Em really became great.  It reached new heights in both commercial success and quality that would propel Eminem to be pop music’s biggest artist.  The insanely catchy and much less annoying first single, “The Real Slim Shady” seemed to be made perfectly to blend in with the Backstreet Boys and NSync on pop radio as well as Jay-Z and Nas on urban radio.  He followed that with a much darker joint, “The Way I Am,” which may be his best lyrical song to date. Who could forget the first few bars?

“I sit back with this pack of zig-zags and this weed/
it gives me the shit needed to be/
the most meanest emcee on this earth/
and since birth i been cursed with this curse to just curse/
and just blurt this bizurk bizarre shit that works…”

While it was obviously not expected to get as heavy airplay as its’ predecessor, it still did anyway.  It marked the first of many songs he’d record that are essentially a middle finger to his critics.  Lyrically, Eminem had become a monster, if he wasn’t already.  He let a lot of steam off on this LP.  He opens with his thoughts of maternal homicide on “Kill You,” both disses ICP and questions his own fame on “Marshall Mathers,” brings back the fun drugs theme (ala “My Fault”) on “Drug Ballad,” thinks about spousal homicide on “Kim,” and decides he’s a “Criminal.” But the most classic song on this album is his ballad about an obsessed fan, “Stan.”  The song was so popular that “stan” became a hip hop term, even memorialized in Nas’ scathing Jay-Z diss “Either”: “You’s a fan, a fake a phony a pussy a stan.” Over a haunting 45king piano loop and a Dido vocal sample, Em writes from Stan’s perspective for three verses before writing a reply from his own perspective until realizing the sudden conclusion of the story.

The third chapter to Eminem’s series was The Eminem Show. After the diamond selling sophmore joint, Em returned with much of the same on his third release.  An even sillier “Real Slim Shady” re-hash was released as the first single, “Without Me.”  Coincidentally, he disses Moby on the song (“Moby, you can get stomped by Obie/You thirty-six year old bald-headed fag, blow me/you don’t know me, you’re too old, let go/it’s over, nobody listens to techno!”), and the line “Nobody listens to techno” was used as a vocal sample for Moby’s first single from his following album.  Once again, it was the darker tracks on the album that got the most attention.  “Soldier,” “Sing For The Moment,” “Say What You Say,” and most of all, the props-searching “Till I Collapse” highlighted this time around.  The second single, “Cleanin Out My Closest,” was a typical -Eminem track dissing his mother, yet again.  He gets sillier on “Business,” and even political on “White America.”  It was not quite as good as the classic previous release, but still stands up quite well on its’ own.

In 2002, Eminem had hit his peak.  His second straight diamond album (the aforementioned Eminem Show) had come out, and it was time to do a movie about his life (or as motivated to do so by Jimmy Iovine, Interscope CEO).  Out of this was born 8 Mile, a movie loosely based on Eminem’s life (think Prince & Purple Rain but with a white rapper).  Possibly the best of these types of movies released, 8 Mile is a pop culture classic.  The accompanying soundtrack read as a sampler for Dr Dre’s Aftermath Records.  The first single was possibly Eminem’s greatest and biggest song, “Lose Yourself.”  It also introduced a little-known recent signee to Eminem’s Shady Records, 50 Cent’s “Wanksta.”  The soundtrack alone sold four million copies in the U.S. alone and Eminem was widely recognized as the biggest artist in all of pop music.

However in 2004, Em released his fourth album, Encore. The album was a failure in all aspects.  “Just Lose It” crossed the line between the silliness that was “Without Me” and “The Real Slim Shady,” to just plain wack.  “Mosh” was a cool, yet-contrived and ultimately forgettable political song. “Like Toy Soldiers” was a moving reflection on recent hip hop battles (namely with Source Magazine exec Benzino and 50’s archrival Ja Rule).  “Spend Some Time” was an interesting run of sexual brovado.  But the rest of the album ranged from terrible (think “Ass Like That”) to simply garbage (think “Puke”).

In the face of all of this, 50 had become one of the bigger artists in the industry and Interscope was riding high without Em.  They released a collection of greatst hits and threw a new single, “When I’m Gone,” yet another tribute to his daughter, into the mix.  The topics were becoming too obvious.  The music was all starting to sound the same.  Ultimately, it was time for Slim to take a break.

In addition to his typical squabs with his mother and daughter’s mother, Em lost his best friend, D-12’s Proof a couple of years later.  He then re-connected with Royce and brought unity to Detroit.  All of this led into late 2008, when word was spreading that Iovine and Interscope were planning to release the “Three Headed Monster” in the fourth quarter with releases from Em, Dre, & 50.  None of the three came out on time, but Em’s gained momentum to start 2009 when the single “Crack A Bottle,” featuring all three of them, leaked.  He then released his first official single “We Made You,” yet another silly, wack, pop song full of pop references (or dissing pop references, if you prefer), and everything was sounding typical again. But he leaked what is rumored to be his second single, “3 A.M.,” which is as riveting a song as he’s released in the past 7 years since 8 Mile. It’s demented, neurotic, demonic, and extremely dope.  Such leads to the return of Eminem, the best rapping white boy in history, and one who stands among the best rappers ever, regardless of whiteness.