Stock Check 20X: The Top 10 Rappers In The Game

It’s been a long time.  In the time since my last post, I’ve started a new blog (Intellprop), created a new WordPress alias (yourwrong wasn’t originally my idea), and generally overcome lots of writers block. But now I’m re-energized; at least for the time being. I also found that this particular post was difficult to write. Do I include heavyweights that really haven’t been buzzing as highly lately (wayne, tip), but I have no doubt will still more records than most of everyone else on this list? I decided against it. I’m just gonna go with who’s hot right now. So without further ado….here goes:

10. J.Cole
Ever since he dropped “Lights Please” late last year, eventually getting the attention of one Shawn Corey Carter, Cole has been one to watch. After out-shining Mos, Jay Electronica, and Talib on “Just Begun,” he moved into stealing the show on Wale’s album highlight “Beautiful Bliss,” and most notably gave Jay one of the best songs on Blueprint 3, with “A Star Is Born.” Every backpacker’s new favorite rapper then dropped a first official single with “Who Dat,” which dominated the summer as one of the few “true school” hip hop jams that crossed over to the 106th & Park crowd. Continuing the momentum with leaks such as “It Won’t Be Long,” Jermaine Cole now has everyone’s attention for his debut to drop.

9. Lloyd Banks
I’ll be honest, I thought dude was done. Even 50 hasn’t been able to get a buzz for years, and Banks was just his understudy. But having two of the biggest hip hop songs of the year will do wonders for your career. Now he’s lookin at the release of The Hunger For More 2, with more buzz than he had when he released the original (though I doubt he’ll sell like he did the first time – that original Curtis buzz was a super-power). The release of “Beamer, Benz, Or Bentley” caught everyone’s attention and moved Banks out of the shadow of his chipmunk-looking mentor. Then “Any Girl” dropped and took Banks to another level. We’ll see if he has any more heat for the album, but Banks is in a great position to further his career.

8. Wiz Khalifa
The underground’s favorite stoner dropped perhaps the mixtape of the year with Kush & OJ to start the year, and has been riding the wave ever since. He’s since popped up on Rawse and Trey Songz remixes and was named MTV’s Breakthrough Rapper. Plus he recently dropped the most ridiculously addictive Steelers anthem, so you know he gets points for that with me. And he ripped Rock The Bells.

7. Nicki Minaj
While the obvious comparisons to Lil kim will continue to come up, Nicki is more like rap’s Lady Gaga. But like Gaga, you can talk about the outfits but she’ll kill you with the talent. I have to say, after the Ass-juice that was “Massive Attack,” i didn’t know what to expect. But she kept goin. The much girly-er “Your Love” became a smash, and it looks like “Right Thru Me” might be even bigger. But what really took me by surprise was Nicki stealing the show from Jay and Kanye on “Monster.”

6. Jay-Z
Not bad for not dropping an album this year. But still Hov has kept his presence up. He continued to ride the success of Blueprint 3 with the singles “Empire State of Mind,” “On 2 The Next,” and “Forever Young,” and is popping up with lil bro to drop a collab EP in the fourth quarter. Oh yeah, plus he discovered J.Cole and watched two of his other discoveries, Kanye and Ross, become the class of the game. His “quiet” years are louder than most folks biggest years.

5. B.O.B.
Just as once upon a time, a group from Philly named themselves after an old New Edition song (“Boys To Men”), an ATLien named Bobby Ray Simmons decided to place two periods between the first three letters of his name in a nod to his favorite OutKast song. Oh yeah, plus he had three of the biggest hip hop songs of the year and a major adidas ad. And in the 3-degrees of separation theory, B.O.B.’s boss is T.I., who was originally discovered by Organized Noise back in the day. Of course, with all the dissention going on at Organized Noize at the time, Tip was kept on the backburner and eventually left LaFace to go to Atlantic and the rest was history. But “Nuttin On You,” “Airplanes,” and “Magic” gave Bobby Ray quite a debut in 2010, let’s see if he can keep the momentum going.

4. Kanye West
The Machine is currently up and running. Kanye doesn’t do anything quietly. He didn’t even take a leave of absence quietly, as every rapper on the planet had to report to us that they had gone to Hawaii to work with him. “Power” is one of the best songs of the year, and G.O.O.D. Fridays was part of a marketing plan that is beyond comparison. Did I mention he’s got two albums coming out in the fourth quarter? A Watch The Throne collaboration with big bro Jay-Z, and his fifth solo offering, Dark Twisted Fantasy. Every once in a great while, an artist comes along that is so great that we choose to ignore their negative side. I think we saw it with R. Kelly, and now again (on a lesser scale) with Kanye. Kanye is just too great of an artist to hold grudges against him. Cuz in that situation it’s you that’s missing out.

3. Drake
Drizzy Drake has had quite the roller coaster since his initiation as a superstar in February of 2009. Once “Best I Ever Had” came out, the game was a wrap for the kid. He’s had a number of singles off his official debut, Thank Me Later; “Over,” “Find Your Love,” “Fancy,” and now “Show Me A Good Time.” Plus, in case you were sleeping on his pure skillz, he dropped the “9 AM In Dallas Freestyle,” and a jaw-dropping verse on the extended version of Rick Ross’ “Aston Martin Music” (“I hate callin the women bitches, but the bitches love it!”).

2. Eminem
This was Slim Shady’s heroic return. The most talented (possibly), highest selling (definitely) rapper of all-time returned in 2010 with perhaps his best album. The soul of the lead single “Not Afraid” and the reflective “Going Through Changes,” mixed well with the triumphant comeback sounds of “Cinderella Man,” and the defiant of “No Love.” Then he had a two-city tour. But not just any one, he teamed up with Jigga for an all-timer. He’s still not getting any G.O.A.T. votes from me, but he’s definitely strengthening his case.

1. Rick Ross
I don’t this is too surprising for anyone who’s read my countless pieces on him. But Rozay is the top of the heap right now. Did he sell like Slim? no. Did he get the hype machine running like Drake? no. But strangely, considering he has DJ Khaled and Puff both working on his project, he did it the old fashioned way. An epic video for his first single with Ne-Yo. A remix of said single with Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y, the hottest dudes on the underground. A smash strip club staple bigging up classic gang leaders. And an all-around dope ass album. Oh and now he has a Nike commercial with his talking chain.

 

All Synth’ed out: 10 Beats that made The Runners

The Runners have been a big part of the DJ Khaled/Rick Ross/Lil Wayne-led Miami movement. Their synth-heavy sounds have dominated radio since Rick Ross’ “Hustlin” first hit back in 2006. These are the 10 most important beats in their history.

10. “All Of The Above”-Beanie Sigel feat. R. Kelly (2007)
Before Maino and T-Pain were “All The Above,” Beans and Kellz had a “the” in the middle. This was the first time the Runners did a beat for a non-southern artist, and the Kellz co-sign was a bigger deal then than it would be now. Plus it was catchy as hell and it was Beans’ first release after his classic The B. Coming and probably his biggest actual hit single ever.

9. “Go Getta”-Young Jeezy feat. R. Kelly (2007)
Following the success of Beans, was Jeezy with another Runners/Kellz collabo. This one was a bigger hit, though probably not quite as solid. Jeezy’s second effort was a mixed bag, but this one of three impact singles.

8. “I’m So Hood”-DJ Khaled (2007)
This featured one of Khaled’s posse cuts that he completely over-did for the remix with approximately 324 rappers. Ludacris steals the show here with his inclination that he’s “…so hood that Ludacris shoulda been on the original version!” Though Rawse drops a memorable line about his life being a movie, and Wayne responds to Plies’ verse on the original, where Plies states: “I’ll never buy a Phantom, 28’s can’t fit!” Wayne responds on the remix with “since I heard Plies, I done brought the Phantom back/went and got me a fifty-two inch Maybach.” This is knowledge you can only get on DJ Khaled tracks.

7. “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home)”-Usher (2010)
This should’ve been a bigger deal than it was. The lead single from an Usher album is supposed to be a bigger deal. But this song flopped for everyone involved, but is still a nice accomplishment for the production team. And the bass still THUMPS.

6. “Pusha”-Lloyd feat. Juelz Santana & Lil Wayne (2009)
Since Wayne appears on every Lloyd single, and pops up on seemingly every Runners song, of course he’d up here. Juelz’ inclusion is a little more surprising, but this is still one of Lloyd’s more solid singles. His voice and way with hooks is more appropriate for these Runners tracks than Ursher’s.

5. “Money On My Mind”-Lil Wayne (2005)
This was the Runners’ first major placement, and it ended up being a street single for Weezy’s classic second Carter installment. In what was really the song that Weezy’ sort of made “A Milli” into a sequel of, Wayne drops all sorts of random one-liners such as “Hello mr. toilet, I’m the shit!”

4. “Dreamin”-Young Jeezy feat. Keyshia Cole (2007)
The Runners actually had 2 of the 3 singles on Jeezy’s second album (the other was “I Luv It” produced by DJ Toomp), with this being the most memorable. This is probably Jeezy’s most personal song to date and the Keyshia Cole chorus didn’t hurt either.

3. “Go Hard”/Remix-DJ Khaled feat. Kanye West & T-Pain (& Jay-Z on the remix) (2008)
The original was a pretty big deal to have Kanye on Khaled’s track. The remix was a bigger deal as Jigga Man decided to drop a verse as well (“I’mma go harder than ‘Ye go/and ‘Ye go hard, that’s baby bro”). Kanye + Jay-Z was probably the biggest feat in the careers of Khaled and The Runners, at least on “wax.”

2. “It’s My Time”-Fabolous feat. Jeremih (2009)
The standout from Fab’s most recent album is probably my personal favorite Runners track ever. The Fab album was pretty easily his best to date, and the fact that this wasn’t a single was a big drop-of-the-ball by Def Jam.

1. “Hustlin”/Remix-Rick Ross (feat. Young Jeezy & Jay-Z on the remix) (2006)
This was the first impact single they dropped, and it really started it all, for the Runners, Rawse, and Khaled. Jigga and Jeezy re-word a lot of Ross’ claims from the original, and the whole shit is just classic at this point, even if Rawse has developed into much more of a lyricist and an artist since.

 

The ‘Burn’ Argument: Why Prodigy is Top 10 D.O.A.

If hip hop were a movie, you’d probably think of Prodigy as a supporting actor. A second-tier star, second to Nas, second to 50, even second to Havoc’s production within his own group. But in his prime, P holds his own with anyone that ever touched a mic.  And it is for hype-reasons that he is not usually considered an elite emcee.

Yo, I conversate wit many men, it’s time to begin again
Forgot what I already knew, aiyyo you hear me friend?
Illuminati want my mind, soul, and my body
Secret society, tryin to keep they eye on me
But I’m stay incogni’, in places they can’t find me
Make my moves strategically, the G.O.D.
It’s sorta similar but iller than a chess player
I use my thinker, it coincides with my blinker
While you wondered what we sayin on the records real
Yeah you motherfuckin right kid you know the deal
My Mobb is Infamous just like the fuckin title read
You get back slapped so hard make ya nose bleed
Some —- kids feeling guilty bout the —-
But you first baby girl so just face it (awright)
But anyway, back on the real side of things
My niggaz sling cracks and wear fat diamond rings
Not only is it inside the songs that we sing (kid)
Everything is real not just a song that we sing (word up, it’s real)
From my life to the paper (what), very accurately
Give you all of my two so maybe you can three
Prodigy will forever will S-H-I-N-E (shine baby, just shine)
My shit attract millions like the moon attract the sea
How dare you ever in your life walk past me
Without acknowledgin this man as G-O-D
I shot ya faggot ass

(By the way, the edited lyrics in this song were originally “Some dyke kids feelin’ guilty ’bout the space shit/the truth hurts muthafucka, just face it”…and only the second line was re-recorded)
Prodigy was a beast from 1995-1999.  On a track with such heavyweights as LL Cool J (the self-proclaimed GOAT himself), Keith Murray (who was no slouch on the mic himself), and a young, hungry Foxy Brown, P’s verse was the crown jewel.  It wasn’t just the background hearsay going on with this song (P and Murray were supposedly both aiming at each other – more on this later), it was the gully with which P spoke.  In particular, the lines “illuminati want my mind, soul, and my body/secret society, tryin to keep an eye on me,” that resonated with people.

(People like illuminati conspiracies.  This is a fact.  Please reference the movie/book Angels & Demons and all of the weird 2Pac theories.  Thank you).

Another reason you may overlook P is his history of beefs.

“Didn’t Tupac diss the shit out of them Mobb Deep fools? ‘Don’t one of you got sickle cell or somethin’? That shit was great!” – generic quote from typical 2Pac fan.

“Didn’t P get exposed by Jay-Z at Summer Jam?  ‘You was a ballerina, I seen ya!’ Great line!” – generic quote from typical Jay-Z fan.

I am not going to condone P in any of these circumstances.  However I will put them both in context.  2Pac hit P dead in his prime, but didn’t exactly give him a chance to respond (being that he died a couple months after “Hit Em Up.”).  And Jay hit him when P had fallen off a cliff lyrically (more on this later).

Perhaps the only on-going battle worth mentioning was with the aforementioned Keith Murray.  On the first major Mobb Deep album, the classic The Infamous, P mentions in an intro:

“All you rap niggaz wit ya wack ass lines talking about how high you get, how much weed you smoke, and that crazy space shit that don’t make no sense, don’t ever speak to me when you see me. Ima have to get on some ole high school sh*t and start punchin niggaz in their face just for living.”

Of course, Keith Murray had the song “Get Lifted” out at the time, about smoking weed, and liked to make references to space throughout his debut album, The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World. This reportedly led to an incident at a club where Keith punched P in the face, but P claims he did it in front of the police so P had no chance to retaliate.

He only retaliated verbally.

“First off all these dyke niggaz wit that spaced out shit, I’ll send a rocket up ya ass and give you a lift.” (“Man Down, from 1996’s Hell On Earth)

“Fuck a faggot nigga Keith Murray and his whole click, yeah you snuffed me, in front of the cops, that bullsh*t. Told you come around the corner wit no police and no witnesses, little to your knowledge, you almost got shot…” (“In The Long Run,” bonus cut from Hell On Earth)

….and of course, the aforementioned…

“Some dyke kids feelin’ guilty ’bout the space shit/the truth hurts muthafucka, just face it” (“I Shot Ya Remix” by LL Cool J, from 1995’s Mr. Smith)

Yes he burned Murray.

But the real reason Prodigy is top 10 all-time?

From 1995 to 1999, there was not a more consistent, better all-around, rugged emcee than Prodigy.  Among his best verses is the first verse to 1999’s “Quiet Storm”:

“I put my lifetime in between the paper’s lines
I’m the ‘Quiet Storm’ nigga who fight rhyme
P yeah you heard of him but, I ain’t concerned with them
Nigga I pop more guns than you holdin them
Make my route while the sun’s out and scold your men
Unload ten, in broad daylight, get right
Fuck your life – hop on my ninety-eight dirt bike
You try to stop mines from growin, I’ll make your blood stop flowin
Take affirmative action, to any ass if he askin (yeah aight)
Now here come the mack 10
You’se a dick blower, tryin to speak the Dunn language
What the drilly with that though? It ain’t bangin
You hooked on Mobb-phonics Infamous-bonics
Lyin to the Pop Dog like you got it
You ain’t no wildin out for the night fist thrower
Rusty shank holder, we live this shit”

There’s two parts of this verse that are especially impressive.  Let’s start with, “Make my route while the sun’s out and scold your men/Unload ten, in broad daylight, get right/Fuck your life – hop on my ninety-eight dirt bike.” This is fairly representative of his rhymes in general.  The brilliance of this rhyme is how easily he talks about murdering you.  He makes it sound like he’s going to murder you on his dirt bike like it’s a paper route or some shit.  He makes the reference twice in the verse; once with the “route” in the first line, and again when referencing the dirt bike in the last line.  The second impressive part of this part is the rhyme scheme he puts together.  He rhymes “route” with “out” and sets up “men for the next line, then finishing that rhyme with “ten,” he rhymes “daylight” and “route” in that line.  He finishes the part with rhyming “life” and “bike” in the same line.

The next impressive stanza is; “You’se a dick blower, tryin to speak the Dunn language/What the drilly with that though? It ain’t bangin/You hooked on Mobb-phonics Infamous-bonics/Lyin to the Pop Dog like you got it.” What makes this impressive is how true it was at the time.  Mobb Deep spoke with a slurry style that created new slang words like “dun.”  It was mainly noted as QB slang, as both Nas and Capone-N-Noreaga used a lot of the same slang.  An acquaintance of Prodigy’s had a speech impediment that did not allow him to say the word “son,” but replaced it with ‘dun.’  The word caught on, mainly because of Prodigy’s rhymes, and was used by non-QB rappers who were affiliated with Nas and P, like AZ, Raekwon, and Ghostface Killah.  By 1999, these phrases and words were popular in hip hop culture in general, and had caught on to the masses.  Here he  mocks his own slang (“what the drilly with that though?”).  He also references the old “Hooked on Phonics” educational program that was constantly mocked in pop culture at the time, and compares his own slang, as if his raps were the equivalent for teaching his own slang to other rappers. Just as Prodigy suggests, the slang had been picked up by other rappers and was starting to play itself out.  What E-40 was to Bay Area slang, Prodigy was to Queens slang.

The main stone cast upon Prodigy is the Jay-Z feud.  And it was a deserving one.  Jay had quite a scathing record used at Prodigy.  Of course, P had fallen off considerably at that point and used most of the following album to dis Jay.  Perhaps underrated but just as scathing was the Nas dis against Prodigy in “Destroy & Rebuild.”  It was one thing for Jay to dis him, as they’d been going back-and-forth since 1999.  It was another thing for long-time affiliate Nas to dis him.  It was no secret that Mobb Deep spent most of their career (particularly their prime) in Nas’ shadow.  But it seemed they had no real problem with it, as the two constantly guest appeared on each other’s projects.  What Nas revealed in the song was that Prodigy, who always claimed Queensbridge to the death, was not actually from QB.  The record seemed to particularly bother P, whenever it was brought up in interviews.  The two have since seemed to patch things up, mainly due to mutual respect and a lengthy personal history that extended before music.

But none of these facts challenge that P in his prime was as ill as anyone.  In fact the rap industry was so overcome with Mobb Deep that everyone and their mama had to have P on their songs.  Everyone from LL to Mariah Carey, to 112 , to KRS needed some dun language on their tracks.  In fact, the group most compared to Mobb is EPMD.  Like Mobb Deep, EPMD is essential for most hip hop purists.  While people mainly mention each’s first 3 albums, I’d like to add that EPMD’s fourth was better than their third.  And that Mobb’s joints were just better.  In the history of hip hop, very few groups could compare to the first Mobb Deep albums.  And Prodigy’s rhymes were the leading cause of fights at the old NYC Hip Hop Club, The Tunnel.

…And that’s why he’s top 10 all-time.

 

More Wrappin Upp…

The Top 10 Contemporary R&B/Pop Songs of 2009

10. “I Can Transform Ya”-Chris Brown feat. Swizz Beats & Lil Wayne
Chris Breezy wins the award for most hated man of the year. I hate to be the voice of reason, but……did anyone hear his album? It’s pretty dope, right? The Swizzy-produced lead single had, perhaps, the coolest video of the year. But, please, feel free to continue to ignore the kid’s dope music in the vein of keeping up with every Rihanna spotting.

9. “I Invented Sex”-Trey Songz feat. Drake
The weird thing about Trey’s domination of R&B in 2009 was how under-the-radar he went. Then by December, when both “Say Ahh” and “I Invented Sex” were all over radio, we were like…yo, this kid’s had a song in regular rotation since March. The year started with his help on Drake’s “Successful,” then to his own lead single “I Need A Girl,” then “LOL :-),” and the current duo of songs, with “One Love” sprinkled in somewhere in between. Oh, and he’s got a video for “Yo Side Of The Bed” just shot.

8. “Amazing”-Kanye West feat. Young Jeezy
While it’s obviously difficult for Kanye to resist his urge to soak up the spotlight, he did a pretty good job trying in 2009. He allowed his new “franchise artist” (I say that in quotes because John Legend was his first franchise artist), Kid Cudi to shine. He even let him take his spot on the Lady Gaga tour. He also, particular after his experience with Taylor Swift at the MTV VMA’s, took some time out to be a “regular guy,” which is something he talked about throughout 808’s & Heartbreaks. But not before he left us with the visual for “Amazing.”

7. “Break Up”-Mario feat. Sean Garrett & Gucci Mane
While not quite as dominant as Trey Songz, Mario had quite a good year on the radio as well. He also dropped a very solid album. “Break Up” was one of the catchiest radio singles of the year, and featured a strangely standout appearance by Gucci Mane (side note: it is not a good sign if your most famous lyric is something to the quality of “girls are like busses”), of all people.

6. “Run This Town”-Jay-Z feat. Rihanna & Kanye West
Jigga man rounds up his two most famous proteges (sorry Bleek) for his comeback single. While “Empire State Of Mind” was the bigger single, I find it a bit overrated and prefer this joint. Plus it felt like a comeback single for all 3. Jay needed a comeback after his critically acclaimed but commercial flop American Gangster, Rihanna hadn’t been heard from since Chris Brown incident and was about to come back with a new album, and this was Kanye’s first high profile return to rapping.

5. “Fancy”-The Dream
This song was so dope, Fabolous sampled it less than 6 months after it came out. The Dream continued to dominate radio for the first half of the year, but noticeably disappeared during most of the second half. And the long-promised vid for “Fancy” never did appear.

4. “I Need A Girl”-Trey Songz
As I mentioned before, Trey had quite a stranglehold on R&B this year. The-Dream really had 2 super hot singles, while Trey had like 6. This was the lead single from his third album. And while his radio success hasn’t translated into album sales quite yet, he’s still got a solid number in there. But not representative of how much he dominated 2009.

3. “Knock You Down”-Keri Hilson feat. Kanye West & Ne-Yo
This was Kanye’s other major song with him rapping on it. Keri brokethrough with “Turnin Me On” and knocked it out of the park with the follow-up. She would probably be second on the most R&B airplay this year, as she also had success with “Return The Favor,” “Slow Dance,” and “Get Your Money Up.” What will be interesting to watch is how Ne-Yo comes back. He usually has dropped an album every year, but he’s coming off of his second multi-platinum album (his second album only sold one million) and no longer has too much competition from Chris Brown.

2. “Rockin That Shit”-The-dream
The-Dream had very good first two albums. But then he went pretty quiet for the second half of the year. “Rockin That Ish” was his biggest single of the year, but he had some other standouts on the album. Apparently, he spent most of the rest of the year working on productions for Mariah Carey (flopped) and Rihanna (ehhh…). I say he just drops more stuff for himself.

1. “Best I Ever Had”-Drake
This one is listed as an R&B song to me. But this was Drizzy’s big breakthrough single.  He had probably the biggest presence of anyone on the scene this year, and ended the year appearing everywhere.  But this is the joint that really did it for him.

Related Items: The Top 10 Best Alt. R&B/Soul Songs of 2009|The 10 Best Contemp. R&B/Pop Songs of 2008|The 10 Best Alt. R&B/Soul Songs of 2008|The 10 Best Hip Hop Songs of 2008|

 

The Whole 9….

It’s been a long time

…..but I’m back and rejuvenated heading into the end of the year.  It’s Monday, so Let’s go over the highlights of the weekend:

1. The Bengals beat the Steelers.
My boys were swept by the Bungals, who look for real.  And word is that they’re getting Larry Johnson, too.  Even more real is that as I’m typing, the Ravens are beating the batter out of the Browns.  So the AFC North looks like this:

1. Cincinnati ………7-2

2. Pittsburgh………6-3

3. Baltimore……….5-4

Cincy has 4 easy games (@Oakland, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City), 2 tough games (@Minnesota and a @ a red-hot San Diego), and one who knows game (@NY Jets to end the year). While the Steelers have 3 relatively easy games (@KC, Oakland, @Cleveland), two more they SHOULD win (Green Bay, @Miami), and two who-knows games with the Ravens. The Ravens have the two Steelers games and a Colts game, then 5 games they should win. All things being equal we could very well have three playoff teams from this division. I think we’re looking at records of 12-4 (Cincy), 11-5 (Pitt), and 10-6 (Baltimore). What’s the best division in football?

2. Manny Pacquiao Beat Down Miguel Cotto

Manny by no means kicked his arse, but it was a very good fight until the last couple of rounds. Unfortunately it was stopped in the 12th round, which made no sense to me. Either you stop the fight in the 10th, when it looks decisive, or you let the man fight til the end. He’s earned the right, having taken the pounding through 12 rounds. Anyway, rant over.  Now we can pay our attention to the potential Mayweather/Pac-Man fight.  As Mayweather bet millions on Manny on Saturday and was seen celebrating his “earnings” with Diddy and Ray-J.

But does this mean that the matchup is inevitable?  I’m sure there will be plenty to read on this dream fight, so I’ll pass on my .02 for now.

>3. Young Money drops a double nickel on the Dubs
He looks like a cross between Trey Songz and Terrence from 106th and Park, his game reminds us of AI, and he’s from the city of Compton. He’s got the mouth to start ish, and the game to back it up. Be prepared for the Ochocinco of the NBA here folks. Or the second coming of AI, which ever you prefer. Oh and he was callin himself Young Money (i don’t know if he calls himself that anymore) before Lil Wayne, Drake an’ ’em wanted to fuck every girl in the world. Did i mention he spent the pre-draft talking trash about Ricky Rubio? The Bucks are the surprise team of the year (with my beloved Kings flying under the radar), and he’s the main reason.  Young Mooooola, baby!

4. Belichick also went for it on fourth, in case you haven’t heard
In the least hyped game of the year (sarcasm alert!), Belichick went for it on 4th and 2. My take is the guy knows what he’s doin. As much as i loathe Belichick, the guy has 3 rings – why criticize? This is not Eric Mangini we’re talking about here.

5. Carmelo and the Nuggets destroy the Lakers, then the Rockets do too
The Lakers faced their two main foes from last year’s playoffs and lost to them both. First Carmelo and crew absolutely destroyed them on the latter end of a back-to-back. Then, the star-less Rockets pick-and-rolled them apart as well. Suddenly, the Lakers don’t look so invincible in the West.
6. Buzzer Beaters: Dwayne Wade, Dirk Nowitzki, John Wall
Dwayne broke the Nets’ hearts last night, then tonight Dirk did the same in OT to Young Moola and the Bucks, then John Wall shook off any upset threats from Miami of Ohio and saved Kentucky with a buzzer beater of his own. By the way, keep an eye on Wall, he’s my pick for College Player of the year. Think about it: who’s returning that’s got any clout? Cole Aldridge? Perhaps not even the best player on his own team. Luke Harrangody? Child, please…. Kyle Singler? Great player, not Player of the Year quality. Kalin Lucas? Are you kidding? Willie Warren or Scottie Reynolds would by my pick of the returning class, but this year’s draft sucked the talent pool clean of the returning players. I’d go with Wall #1, with Avery Bradley #2. Going to Kentucky and Texas, they arrive to coaches who know a thing or two about freshman sensations (John Calipari has had Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans the past two seasons, and Rick Barnes had Kevin Durant).

7. The biggest album of the year leaked
Sorry Hov, Slim, and Weezy, but Rih Rih’s comeback is the biggest album of the year. It also leaked sometime Friday night/Saturday morning.  “Hard” is ill with Young Jeezy, and it looks like the next single.  “Rock Star 101” has hit single written all over it as well.  I’m still gathering my opinion on this album and I’ll drop it later.

8. Fiddy called out Jigga, again
The G-Unit/Roc rivalry continued this weekend as 50 Cent jumped on the hook of Beans’ new single and called out JiggaMan at the ending. Not sure where this is goin, or if I even care.

9. ESPN’s College Basketball Marathon just started
….And I’m watchin UCLA tryin to avoid an upset from CS Fullerton (which is a big baseball school, but not much of a hoops school). I’m out, as I attempt to watch as much of this marathon as humanly possible.

 

You Owe Me…

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that, for purposes of this article, Roc-A-Fella was the greatest crew of all time. That gasp you heard, that was Cash Money, Death Row, and Wu Tang fans all gasping at once. But that’s not the point here.

Remember Young Chris from the Young Gunz? Well he’s turned into quite the emcee. Through his affiliation with new hot shot Wale, he’s re-establishing his brand in the game. He has a scathing verse on the new Beanie Sigel mixtape/street album song “Run To The ROC,” which garnered praise recently from The Smoking Section (my favorite hip hop blog). Basically, the song is about the boss (“Big Homie,” err Jay Z) leavin his frontline soldiers out to die (or dropping them all from Roc-A-Fella). Beans and Sparks both lead verses as well, but its’ Chris’ that stands out. Mainly because he’s somehow become the best rapper in the crew. So that brings us to the question: What do these superstar rappers owe their proteges that helped them build their brand? We’ve seen it many times, from all the QB homies sayin Nas should be helping them out of the hood (Cormega, Nature, Lake, etc.), to The Eastsidaz sayin the same about Snoop, to Alfamega and T.I., even Bang Em Smurf and Fiddy. Jay himself has gotten the most flack; Teirra Mari, Foxy Brown, Jaz-O, and now the entire State Prop. For every Rihanna and Kanye who he “Run(s) This Town” with, there’s a bunch who say he turned their backs on them.

Young Chris is probably the most intriguing example. Most of these characters either really didn’t have much talent to start with (Teirra), got lazy (Foxy), or were just not marketable (Jaz + most of the State Prop cats). But Young Chris really doesn’t fall into any of these categories. He’s gotten better since Jay dropped the last Young Gunz album (which he through out with no promotion by the way), and he’s quietly been building his own buzz on the under. He’s now affiliated closely with Wale and has Mark Ronson and others backing him up. What he could really use is a co-sign and presence from an already established star, as Wale is still up-and-coming. You know, someone like…..Jay-Z!

But does Jay really owe it to Young Chris? The only hip hop superstar whose stuck by his original cats for his whole time was Eminem. But when was the last D-12 album, anyway? And the most talented cat that Em associated himself with, Royce Da 5’9″, hasn’t gotten any help from Em this decade. You think the Slaughterhouse album couldn’t have benefitted from an Eminem cameo?

The major thing here is ego trippin. Wu Tang has stayed a collective for 15 years, but they are really without a superstar. Meth had his moment, but never really capitalized on it. And they’ve had enough in-fighting to fill a gossip magazine. We rememnber seeing Meth cursing out U-God for getting out of line in The Show. We also remember Rae and Ghost anti-promoting the last Wu album. But they’re still together.

Cash Money is in its’ third inception and can’t seem to stay together. The only artists from the crew’s original heyday are Baby and Weezy. Both the former in-house producers, Mannie Fresh and Jazze Pha, left a long time ago. BG? Juvie? Long gone. Even the artists from the second era (circa Big Typers’ “Stay Fly” to The Carter I); TQ, Boo and Gotti, Mack 10? All Gone.

Death Row was the definition of in-fighting. Dre left, ‘Pac dissed him. Snoop left, Suge tried to sabotage him. Kurupt and Daz both left, came back, stayed, but never at the same time. And they stayed dissin each other until a couple of years ago.

And don’t even get me started on all the QB nonsense. Ok I give; Nas vs. Prodigy has been on and off for this whole decade. Nore had some issues with Nas at the beginning of the decade. When was the last Bravehearts record, anyway? ‘Mega and Nas went at it and then made up. Nature’s been exiled from the crew. Where’s Lake at? Even AZ & Foxy (who really aren’t from QB, but are included as part of Nas’ crew) have had his public issues with Nas.  Mobb Deep signed with 50 because they were broke. And many forget that 50 was actually a part of the Bravehearts at one point, before having his own issues with Nas.

And the Proof & Em vs. Royce thing finally died out when Proof, unfortunately, passed.

Don’t think the newer cats are immune. The whole Gucci/Jeezy thing started out of a song they did together. Tip’s got Alfamega dissin him now. The state of Florida was at one point united. But there’s the trio of Rick Ross/Trick Daddy/Plies that are constantly beefing on-and-off with each other.

The point is, this shit happens.

Once associates, now enemies on wax.

But let’s get back to the Young Chris/Hova thing specifically.  Hova took part of Chris’ style (the whispering effect) and ran with it.  Chris didn’t mind, in fact he and the rest of State Prop went at Nas, went at D-Block.  But did Hova benefit more from their help, or did they benefit more for his co-sign?

One thing’s for sure, Dame Dash isn’t looking like such a bad guy anymore.

 

“We give a damn about the drama that your dude bring/We just tryin to change the color on your mood ring…”

Quick note about some recent songs that’ve come out.  We can start with “Run This Town” by Hov, Kanye, and Rih Rih.  It should definitely be noted that Kanye appears to have passed his mentor lyrically.  And I must say, it’s a huge surprise to most everyone.  Don’t get me wrong, Hov can still hold his own, but ‘Ye murders this shit.  I must say though, I like the direction that they’re going musically, but this doesn’t seem like a huge song – despite the superstar supporting cast.  It’s dope, but (like the street single “D.O.A.”) it’s a little boring musically.

The Beasties grabbed Nasir for the new single “Too Many Rappers.” It’s vintage Beasties, so either you like it or you don’t.  Lots of activity in the drums, old school rhyming, and a Nasty Nas guest spot.  Nas’ verse doesn’t come across as heavily thought out and his rhyme pattern isn’t as conformed as he normally is.  He’s more relying on the Beasties’ element, and his everything sounds freestyled.  It’s quite dope tho.

Amerie had to go and remix “Why R U?” and grab the Whodini beat for “One Love.”  Why doesn’t this chick get more pub?  Former Current(?) big bro Nas jumps on the beginning, and Jada, Ross, and some other guy jump on at the end.  The OG still knocks harder, but it could be my preference of “Ego Trippin” to “One Love.”  Nas is sure startin to hit the cameo scene hard, must be gettin close to album time.  Ross needs to take a break, his verses are dope, but we’re getting a little oversaturated, here.  And I’m not sure what Jada’s doing with his promotion.  Speaking of….

Jada dropped his remix to “Who’s Real” a while ago.  And while I’ll take the Ruff Ryders crew any day over OJ Da Juiceman, it still wasn’t as classic as I wanted it to be.  And is it me, or is Eve the best lyricist in that crew right now?  Sheek’s verse is the only other memorable line “If you’re real and you know it, take the skinny jeans off/take the autotune off and stop actin all soft.”  By the way, Jada’s album sucked….again.

Drake’s hype train continues.  And this song is really old so I won’t say too much, but “Successful” = song of the year?

Lupe’s “Shining Down” seems to have been forgotten quickly.  But I still think its’ dope.  It could just be because he completely disappeared after he leaked the track.  He told us it wasn’t finished and then vanished.  Where the hell you been at, Lupe?  Drop some more ish…when’s the album droppin?

I was fairly un-impressed with the majority of what-was-to-be the Paper Trail re-release (though I think I have a full column in the works about the OG).  But this recent leak, “Bread Up” with ‘Face and Keri is fire.  I think if Atlantic just went ahead with the re-release anyway, it’d end up selling more than Carter 3. Which is a good thing, since it was a vastly superior album.  I think I’ll have more about the impact of those two albums and a third major album from last year later.

Twista’s on a nice run lately.  “Wetter” was fire.  “Yo Body” is ehhhh.  But the album’s pretty good.  I don’t think he’ll ever escape the shadows of his better albums, Adrenaline Rush, for the hardcore/underground, and Kamikaze for the mainstream/radio.  It’s interesting that the dudes has 2 classics/near-classics that couldn’t be further from each other in style.  Speaks to Twista’s versatility.

Slaughterhouse dropped a really dope album.  I honestly haven’t listened to the whole thing, cuz i can’t stop repeating the first 7 or 8 songs.  “The One” actually sounds better in the context of the album.  “Not Tonight” could easily be a single as well.

Meth/Red are thus far, the album of the year.  I’m pretty sure they could’ve gotten some more hype if they’d dropped “Hey Zulu” as a single.  Over a perfect synth-hype Rockwilder track, Red and Meth get their party on.  I’ll try to write more about Blackout 2 and Slaughterhouse too.

The Roots’ “How I Got Over” is a welcome change of pace for the group.  While I’m sure lots of fans are going to want more rapping from Black Thought, it’s a much more traditional rock feel for the group, more in lieu of “The Seed 2.0” than “Adrenaline.”  Plus it’s jammin.

Finally, I was real hesitant to jump on the Raekwon hype machine, bein that I didn’t care much for “New Wu” and “Criminology 2” was only so-so.  But “House Of Flying Daggers” is that ISH.  The re-appearance of Inspectah Deck is there, Meth drops the best verse, but it’s really the J Dilla beat, sounding like RZA in his prime, that steals the show.  That was a card I didn’t know that Rae had.  This is as good as anything Wu dropped in their prime.

 

Stock Check: The 10 Hottest Rappers In The Game Currently

These are always fun. In case you missed it, Ne-Yo topped our male R&B singers top 10. While Rihanna ran the female side of things. Is this a good sign for Def Jam? Probably…..Def Jam has four of the rappers in this top 10, but will they grab the #1 spot again?

10. Fabolous
I went from wondering if Fab was ever gonna get anything buzzin for this album to being caught up in it completely. The “Throw It In The Bag” remix with Drake is completely off the chain. He also has a couple songs with Ryan Leslie on the album that are sure-shot hit singles should he decide to got that way (the best being “The Fabolous Life”). The Trey Songz joint is pretty hot too. I’m not too sure that he’s going to sell what he’s used to this time, because of all the leaks. But I’m going to say he’s still quite on a hot streak at the moment, and barely cracks the top 10 over bigger names like Luda, Nas, and of course 50.

9. Lupe Fiasco
Back to show the newbies that he’s still a little better than them, Lupe has seen a lot of copycats goin after his swag. But he dropped “Shining Down” and everyone was quieted. Lupe is probably the most questionable on the list (even more than Fab), but he’s doing a fairly good job of keeping the momentum from his last album going, and I think people are starting to view the bigger names (Luda, Nas, 50) who didn’t make the list as “past their prime.” 50 was probably the hardest omission, just because he’s been going so hard on the mixtapes. But he’s got to show me something in terms of a hit single or somethin to pass Lupe.

8. Young Jeezy
Jeezy’s lost a little momentum since last year with all the singles that went straight to youtube. Especially considering that last year at this time he was riding his biggest hit single to date in “Put On.” He’s consistently releasing new videos for just about every song on the album, and hasn’t promoted a real single. He’s about to drop a new album, which should pick up some slack, but it’d sure be nice if he had a new single to test the waters.

7. Eminem
All things considered, it was a fairly quiet album release for Slim. Despite the huge numbers he did, we haven’t really heard much from him since, even as much as MTV has been trying to shove him down our throats. “Beautiful” was the only song on the album that I’ve been able to keep much attention to (sans the second single “3 AM”). And altogether it seemed like Em had a huge month or so, and then we went back to talking about Tip, Wayne, Ross, Kanye, and everyone else.

6. Jay-Z
I originally was going to place Hov higher, but he really hasn’t caught the buzz he seems to be going for. His “Death Of Autotone” has gotten almost as much backlash as praise. I expect him to heat up and fly back up the list as we get closer to his album release, but at the moment I have to have him in the bottom half of the list.

5. Rick Ross
Despite being the most discussed MC of the first half of the year, Ross only manages to clock in at number 5 with all of the talk. He’s dropped probably the best album of the year, but his beef with 50 seemed way too contrived for most. He wasn’t quite able to etch his way into that top 3 and has probably had one man pass him. I don’t think he’s quite the star that the four dudes ahead of him are. But he sure has had a successful first half of the year, all things considered.

4. Drake
If anyone is going to give our top 3 some new competition, it is probably going to be this guy. He’s the #4 on this buzz-list and he hasn’t even dropped an album yet. That’s probably because he has the urban radio song of the summer (“Best I Ever Had”) and may hip hop publications’ best song of the year so-far (“Successful”), both off of his mixtape released at the beginning of the year. Sure it helps to be Lil Wayne’s protege and have Kanye West as your executive producer. But it probably helps even more to be managed by the team that manage both of the above superstars. Whatever the case, this dude has the biggest buzz of a debut artist in years.

3. Lil Wayne
He’s got his “brother” right on his heels, and he’s still supporting his “daddy,” but Lil Wayne is still well entrenched into the current holy trio of hip hop. He’s had one of the bigger songs of the summer in “Every Girl,” and has introduced a megastar in Drake to the world. Thought it does concern me that he hasn’t quite gotten much support in terms of MTV, BET and radio for his forthcoming Rebirth project. Do you think Def Jam would let Kanye fall into that trap? Atlantic definitely wouldn’t let T.I.

2. Kanye West
Unlike the others in this top 3, Kanye has been hittin the cameo scene hard as he attempts to make his return to rapping after his autotuned-sang 808’s & Heartbreaks, which, after all was said and done, still sold 2mil+. Most notably are his appearances on Dream’s “Walking On The Moon,” Jamie Foxx’s “Digital Girl,” and Beyonce’s “Ego.” And then there he was fighting over Keri Hilson with Ne-Yo on “Knock You Down.” He’s also executive producing Drake’s album, and is scheduled to guest-star (with Rihanna) on Jay’s first official single. Not a bad “off year” for Yeezy, musically. Oh yeah, he also released the Air Yeezy’s which are the current lust of the sneaker community, and shot him up into the Diddy/Hova/50 levels in terms of the Forbes list.

1. T.I.
It’s been fairly well established that going to jail helps your street cred in hip hop. Even moreso when you are a superstar already and just released your most successful project to date. And your star can only improve if you filmed a reality series leading up to your reporting to jail. Tip has elevated himself to the top of the game. Last time he went in, he was coming off his first breakthrough project (Trap Musick, which gave him his first real hit singles in “Rubberband Man” and “Let’s Get Away”) and he saw his momentum stalled with his time in jail. This time around, he was already in the elite rapper group going into this album, before releasing his most successful LP to date. He took full advantage in using his situation to help his momentum with his reality series, two #1 singles that kept fighting amongst each other for the #1 song in the country, a memorable collaboration with three others on this list performed at the Grammys, and many successful artists. Simply put, T.I. is on top of the game, even if physically he’s behind bars.

 

Best of 2008: Part 3

The Top 10 Hip Hop joints of 2008:

10. Rick Ross-“The Boss” (feat. T-Pain) (from the album Trilla; Produced by J.R. Rotem):

Say this about Rawwsss: I respect his hustle.  He hit the mixtapes hard after the first album to build anticipation.  And then he hit us with “The Boss,” which ruled hip hop in the first quarter.  This was probably T-Pain’s most hardcore track that he did a hook on.  And JR Rotem positioned himself as the next Dre producer of the moment.

9. Nas-“Hero” (featuring Keri Hilson) (from the album Untitled; Produced by Polow Da Don):

This one struck hard.  It wasn’t anything like Nas’ recent jazz-tinged singles.  It was a full-fledged banger with a full drum-line, and futuristic sounds effects via Polow Da Don.  And it felt monumental, like the God of the flow had returned.  And in turn, he dropped a very superior album.

8. Lil’ Wayne-“Mr. Carter” (featuring Jay-Z) (from the album The Carter 3; Produced by Infamous & Drew Correa):

There was a lot of Wayne dickriding going on in 2008.  Of course, it was helped in no small part by the 1.1 millie he sold in his first week and the 3+ mill he’s sold in the states alone.  And while I have to admit I liked all his singles, none were particularly stand-outs.  Let’s get some realness out of the way here: “Lollipop” was annoying and too pop, “A Millie” was a re-hash of “Go DJ” and “Money On My Mind” – a bunch of silly wordplay and clever one-liners.  “Mrs. Officer” and “Got Money” were both made-for-radio without any lyrical content.  But “Mr. Carter,” and “Dr. Carter” were the joints for the real headz.  And it featured a passing-of-the-torch between Wayne and Hov.

7. Kanye West-“Flashing Lights” (feat. Dwele) (from the album Graduation; Produced by Kanye West & Eric Hudson):

Kanye capped off the smash promotion of his third album with a crossover smash that slowed the electro-sound he used on “Stronger” down but kept the bassline at the same speed.  It was quite a year fo ‘ye, with both the ending promotion of his third album and the release of his fourth in the 12 months.  I still think “Flashing Lights” would’ve been helped with a real video clip to accompany it instead of the weirdness we got.

6. The Roots-“Rising Up” (featuring Chrisette Michele & Wale) (from the album Rising Down; Produced by ?uestlove & James Poyser):

Everyone loves the underdog.  And for the past 15 years, the Roots have been hip hop’s favorite underdog; ever since “Proceed” blasted through speakers in 2008.  Now they’ve gone from Hov’s backing band to the house band of a late night show.  But they’re still dropping dope music.  Oh and Wale might be the second MC ever (after Big Pun) to steal the show from Black Thought.  Of course, this go-go-influced track was more suited to him than Thought.

5. T.I.-“Live Your Life” (featuring Rihanna) (from the album Paper Trail; Produced by Just Blaze) &

4. T.I.-“No Matter What” (from the album Paper Trail; Produced by Danja):

While Weezy got most of the hype, Tip quietly dropped the heat. Despite the massive wackness that was “Whatever You Like,” his other lead singles from his project were completely on point.  Both tracks are uplifting and spiritual.  You get the feeling Tip’s almost leaning on the conscious side of the tracks. And did i mention that both beats were bananas?  It’s almost impossible to choose between the two.  “Live Your Life” was the bigger hit, but also the more poppy of the two.  “No Matter What” was better lyrically, so I gave it the edge.  Plus Tip was doing his trademark hand signals in the video.

3. Scarface-“Can’t Get Right” (feat. Bilal) (from the album Emeritus; Produced by Nottz)

The late charger got all the way to #3 before bowing out to the two titans of this category.  Lyrically, Face is shittin on everyone in the game on this track.  Bilal adds that perfect touch of soul on top.  This year Face lashed out at “bubble gum rap.”  Said Emeritus is his last solo album and that, among other things, he wants to do groups with both Beanie Sigel and Jay-Z, and Nas and Ice Cube.  He also said he’s tired of the game and that the “Scarface” name was too limiting.  Whatever.  Dude is top 5 all-time, he can do what he wants.

2. Young Jeezy-“Put On” (featuring Kanye West) (from the album The Recession; Produced by Drumma Boy)

I would say that “Put On” is that career-defining crossover record for the hardcore hip hop street artist.  But Jeezy already had that record in “Soul Survivor.”  So maybe this one is just the frosting?  But to be fair, Kanye West steals the show and (strangely?) drops one of the most memorable autotunes verses in recent years.  “Put On” was the biggest rap record of the year.  Yes, the biggest, but not quite the best.

1. Lupe Fiasco-“Hip Hop Saved My Life” (feat. Nikki Jean) (from the album The Cool) (Produced by Soundtrakk)

This was probably expected.  Lupe is that next.  The Cool was the best album of last year, and Nikki Jean is my new love.  The memorable video helped as well.  Damn, this is still the jam!

 

My Top 10

My favorite songs of all-time list changes periodically, but generally keeps the same top 10, just in different order. At the moment this is how it goes:

10. “Sugar Hill”-AZ:

This was my jam back in the day. I was hyped for his debut after “Life’s A Bitch” and “Sugar Hill.” AZ was an MC that was similar to his mentor, Nas, but maybe even more intellectual (at least at the time). Some of the stuff I didn’t quite understand as a 13 year old, but now it’s all that more impressive. Peep the alliteration: “formulatin’ up plots to escape from salem’s lot cuz it’s scorchin hot” or “But never me, see/my destiny’s to be forever free/an ecstacy on a hill that awaits for me, so/plush, just the visualiza’s like a coke bust/vivid enough to make livin this a must.” L.E.S.’ production was perfect in an R&B-ish, minimal sense, to accompany AZilla’s rhyme structure. If Rakim got the most out of his bars, AZ tended to take it to a-whole-nother level. And for the record, AZ was more like Rakim than Nas was. Nas was a completely different monster, but we’ll get to that later. The album itself was quite solid, if non-spectacular. It suffered from some drag concepts (“Ho Happy Jackie”) and some spotty production (“We Can’t Win,” “Your World Don’t Stop”) but is still, to date, his best full-length offering. The Pete Rock beats and Nas collabos were the other highlights. But “Sugar Hill” still stands strong today. And it is one of my ten favorite records ever released.

9. “Hip Hop Saved My Life”-Lupe Fiasco:

I know this just came out, but it has already risen to become one of my all-time favorite cuts. The story of Slim Thug was manifested as Lupe’s best cut to date. The fact that Lupe is the illest rapper in the game at the moment shouldn’t be too surprising. But the success he’s had with his classic second album, is a bit so. “Superstar” was the big song, and will probably be his signature track, but real heads recognize the second single. The story, according to legend, is that Lupe went down to Houston to visit the area. The first time he’d gone there he was completely bored, and this time he wasn’t looking forward to it all that much. So when he gets down there he calls Bun B, who takes him around and shows him the town. Lupe loves it so much that he decides he’s gonna write a tribute record to Houston. In it, he narrates the story of a (supposedly) fictional rapper from North Side Houston, and the rise of his rap career. It later came out that the song was loosely based on the life of Slim Thug, which probably was the most attention Slim got in his entire career. Lupe’s producer Soundtrackk’s keys and Nikki Jean’s angelic chorus create an atmosphere of hope and vividly enhance the story. But it’s Lupe’s picture-perfect portrayal that makes the song so memorable. This song was so dope, they were selling “Hip Hop Saved My Life” T-Shirts at the Rock The Bells concert (of which Lupe wasn’t part of) this summer.

8. “Crossover”-EPMD:

Erick and Parrish had been making dollars for years before I was as huge of a hip hop fan as I would become. But this was one of the songs that made me originally become such a big hip hop fan. The other (Tribe Called Quest’s “Check The Rhyme”) narrowly misses this list. EPMD came out in 1987 and released two straight hip hop classics. But the third album wasn’t quite as memorable and the duo needed some funk to get them back to the top. They sure got it. Maybe it was the duo’s breakup that made their fourth album so memorable. Maybe it was the two classic singles. Whatever the case, “Crossover” was the only EPMD song that ever got real radio burn. “Headbanger” was another classic from the album, but narrowly misses this list. The ironic thing about “Crossover” was that it was taking shots at rappers who made radio records, and it became their only radio record. Obviously hip hop has drastically changed since those days, but the record reminds me of when the music was more pure. Erick and Parrish go hard at these crossover rappers, but it’s Erick with the most memorable lines: “thinkin about a pop record, somethin made for the station/for a whole new relation-ship/or a new type of scene/to go platinum and clock mad green/aka a sell-out, the rap definition/get off that boy, change ya mission.”

7. “Bring The Pain”-Method Man:

It might sound strange now, but there was a time when Meth was thought of as highly as Biggie and Nas. Actually, those three were considered the holy trinity of NY in the mid-90’s. “Bring The Pain” was Meth’s signature record. Sure “All I Need” was a platinum single with Ms. Blige, but it was the grimey first single that pushed the album to platinum originally. “Bring The Pain” was one of the signature records of the NY-renaissance in 1994. It was grimey, dirty, and dark. The accompanying video was just as vivid, as it portrayed Meth in the subway seemingly high on angel dust. As the most marketable member of the Wu-Tang Clan, Meth hated being put into a “commercial” box. He didn’t like doin R&B records (he reportedly only remixed “All I Need” if Def Jam bought him a Lexus), and wanted to be remembered as a rugged, ruff rapper. “Bring The Pain” is his calling to arms. It is as hype of a beat as The Rza ever made. Sure the fallout over his disappointing later albums may still be fresh in your memory. As well as his bad movie and TV shows with Redman. Hell, I still remember him getting out-shone on every song on their album together. But this was his moment. “Bring The Pain” beats any song Red or any member of the Wu did, in my humble opinion.

6. “Why”-Jadakiss:

Jadakiss is as difficult a rapper as there is to be a fan of. When he’s not making up with rappers he’s bickered with for years (Beans, Jay, 50), he’s making horrible pop songs with the Neptunes (“Knock Yourself Out”). In fact, his partner-in-crime Styles has dropped a better album rate than Jada. But every once in a while, he just drops some shit. And you remember why you were a fan of his in the first place. “Why” was the best of that shit. Not only did it launch Anthony Hamilton to superstar status, not only did its’ timing perfectly mesh with the election, but it was Jada’s best and most popular record to date. The video was equally good, bringing back memories of Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power” with the political rallying march and accompanying signs. It was the first non-Nas political/socially-charged mainstream record in years. And it established Jada as a problem. Many people forget that this was also Havoc’s most successful song as a producer. Mobb Deep’s had plenty of hits, but none quite reached the success of “Why.” The record finds Jada asking “Why” to a number of issues; social, political, and personal. The remix took the song to an even higher level. It was the first major appearance of Nas and Common (two of the greats) on the same record. And between Jada, Styles, Nas, and Com, everyone came correct. This signaled just how great Jada could have been. But like Meth before him, he was quite a flash-in-the-pan. The greatness was there, but the motivation wasn’t.

5. “It Ain’t Hard To Tell”-Nas:

Ok, so it’s not much of a surprise that Nas is my favorite rapper of all-time, or that I consider him the greatest of all-time. Nor that I consider Illmatic the greatest album of all-time. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that he’s on this list twice. One thing that’s crazy to me is that the chipped-tooth Nas from the mid-90’s isn’t really that much different from the current Nas. What was cool about “It Ain’t Hard To Tell” was that it came out right after the big SWV single which used the same sample. But while SWV’s song sounded poppy and radio-friendly, the Large Professor-produced Nas joint still managed to sound rugged and underground. And with lines “I leave em froze like Heron in your nose,” there was no other way to go with this record. There were so many classic lines in this song, it’s hard to go into all of them. “I drink Moet with Medusa give her shotguns in hell” was one in particular that people took different meanings from. It was THE classic song from THE classic album. That’s what makes it one of the five best rap songs ever made, in my opinion.

4. “Bombs Over Baghdad”-OutKast:

Most people consider ATLiens or Aquemini as Outkast’s best album. Personally I thought Aquemini was their worst album. But Stankonia was always my favorite. I remember that i got an advance copy in the summer and played it for my crew. They hated it. It went way over their heads. Five or six months later, when the album actually came out, they denied ever saying such things. But “B.O.B.” was the center-piece of the album, along with being the first single. Sure “Ms. Jackson” and “So Fresh, So Clean” were the big singles – and both of them were quite dope in their own rights. But “Bombs Over Baghdad” was that SHIT. It was a sort-of-anti-war song over an electronic inspired beat, with an electric guitar solo made by two rappers. It was crazy. Of course, it’s been eight years since and the duo still hasn’t dropped another real OutKast album. They had a very successful stint with two solo albums packaged together as an OutKast album, but never a follow-up to Stankonia. Andre 3000 is a top 5 all-time rapper. And Big Boi, once a hinderance lyrically, really came into his own on Stankonia. Again, this song had a classic video that was as tripped out as the song itself. Classic shit.

3. “Dead Presidents”-Jay-Z:

Jay-Hova has been a lot of different things through the year.  And while i still contend that Reasonable Doubt was overrated, the young grimey-but-flashy cat that he debuted as was probably his strongest persona.  When he first dropped, he really just rapped about being a coke dealer.  But it was the mood and the images he created that sold the story.  “Dead Presidents” was the personification of this image.  After dropping a couple of singles that did nothing, Dame Dash finally got a video and distribution for the album off of the Ski-produced third try at a first single.  Of course, most people conveniently forget to remember that “In My Lifetime” and “Politics As Usual” were promo singles before “Dead Presidents.”  But that’s ok.  I was pissed as hell when i bought Reasonable Doubt the first day it came out only to find that they had a new lyrics version of “Dead Presidents.”  But luckily, I had bought the maxi single.  On the song, he paints this picture of this coke dealer that all the rappers envy.  “Rappers goin’ broke, tryin to keep up with me,” he’d say.  The track itself relies heavily on the Remix to Nas’ “The World Is Yours” for the chorus.  At the time Jay was this underground champion.  But no one could’ve foreseen just what he’d grow to be in the next few years.

2. “I Seen A Man Die”-Scarface:

In the mid-90’s, Houston wasn’t exactly the hip hop hot-bed it is now.  So what changed?  Well, the Geto Boys.  And more specifically, their leader, Scarface.  A fucking legend.  In recent years I’ve taken him out of my top 5 MC’s of all-time list, but that’s more because of his recent work.  His classic is still The Diary.  And the lead single, “I Seen A Man Die,” is my second favorite song of all-time.  The song was recently covered by Z-Ro, but it’s the OG that still knocks.  The Mike Dean-produced track narrates a young man that gets out of jail only to find himself in more shit.  ‘Face chronicles the guilt the man feels after his first murder, then kicks into the second verse about how a killer feels watching his victim die.  The third verse chronicles the man’s own death.  It’s a chilling, dark song by a chilling, dark rapper.  Yet it was one of his biggest (only?) radio hits.  It’s a classic song by a classic rapper that put Houston on the map originally.  The Chamillionaires and such that came later couldn’t quite touch ‘Face.  Though I have to say that Cham is probably the next best (unless you count nearby Port Arthur’s UGK).  But everyone from Houston is deeply influenced by ‘Face.  Cham even got him on his debut’s best cut, “Rain.”  ‘Face is sort of the Father of the South, whereas Andre and Bun B are the uncles.  And this current crop of Wayne, Tip, and Jeezy are the children.

1. “One Mic”-Nas:

Not only is “One Mic” Nas’ best song ever recorded, it’s also my favorite song ever recorded.  Stillmatic, in reflection, is almost as much of a classic as Illmatic was.  It had his best song, the most highly influential diss record ever recorded (“Ether”), and was among his biggest sellers.  Not a bad comeback record, eh?  “One Mic” also had his best video to go along with it.  The vivid depictions of Nas standing in the streets of NY, then leading an unknown African country to revolution, before inspiring prison inmates to continue are images that will be forever ingrained in hip hop.  He now closes his shows with the record as well.  The record was produced by Nas and Chucky Thompson, who has quite a lot of classic material under his belt.  The record marked a point in which Thompson came to Nas’ camp of producers after being a Bad Boy guy for most of his career.  He also produced all of Mary J Blige’s My Life, as well as various other Bad Boy releases like the first two singles from Total’s debut album (“Can’t You See” and “No One Else”), Biggie’s “Big Poppa,” and the “Flava In Ya Ear (Remix)” for Craig Mack.  But this record was his career defining moment as well.  It’s an inspiring ode to hip hop and the power one has while wielding a microphone.  Having a voice that influences the world.  It’s a powerful song, and one that defies the personal problems Nas was experiencing in his own life.  All of this is what makes it my favorite song ever recorded.