During MTV's first ever O (Online) Music Awards, Chidera "Chiddy" Anamege (on the left of photo) from the rap duo Chiddy Bang, attempted to freestyle live for 9 hours straight to earn the Guinness World Records title for "Longest Freestyle Rap," with the time to beat being 9 hours, 15 minutes and 15 seconds by a Indianapolis rapper named M-Eighty.
You wonder what a person can go for 9 hours rapping about, right? Chiddy was ahead of us, asking his followers via twitter to give him some topics to freestyle about.
And how, do you ask did he prepare? "I just gotta get a good night's rest, eat a healthy breakfast."
Since it's been doin' Toy Story 3 DVD sales numbers over the last week thanks to someone linking it on one of the Somethingawful.com forums, I thought I'd give my Ego Trip Book Of Rap Lists singles style noughties post an overhaul by increasing the 15 singles per calendar annum into a more rounded 20 choices per year, switching a few singles I was off on date wise to their correct years of residence, adding a few songs I either didn't realise were singles or had slept on back in 2009, generally just moving songs up and down lists, and starting anew with my favourite 20 singles of 2010 now enough time has passed for me to be able to make sense of the year. I always used to hate the way Sight & Sound magazine would let their contributors list their favourite movies in alphabetical order rather than any kind of hierarchical structure of preferance come poll times, but, oh man, after putting together a list like this I can see why it's such a critically sound strategy because I can't look at this list without spluttering in disgust that I've ranked Grindin' higher than Lovely, The Essence and It's All Gravity; a matter this recent edit has put right.
Also mentioned some of the notable absences in the '79 - '98 lists in the Ego Trip book in the post, which is great timing because in the new Fat Lace spodcast Drew points out the sheer injustice at the Ego Trip crew deciding that Down The Line deserved a spot in ..The Bad.. section of their posse cut Clans, Posses, Crews & Cliques chapter alongside such communal duds as Ladies In Da House and No Hook.
Nice & Smooth ft. Preacher Earl, Melo T, Bas Basta, Asu & Guru - Down The Line (1991)
HL asked me if I'd like to contribute an entry in his monumental countdown of the best rap songs of 2010 and offered me a handful of choices, I said I wouldn't mind writing an appraisal for Flying Iron by Curren$y & Fiend, so here it is as his 3rd favourite song of 2010.
Because it'd be ill-mannered of me to bid you adieu with nothing but a link, here's the first song those 2 chums dropped together a couple of years back during Curren$y's mixtape run.
Curren$y ft. Fiend - Coupes And Leers
Fiend's verse sounds like it was recorded in C-Murder's jailcell toilet bowl.
Bonus "we did it, Blogosphere, we did it!!!" action :
#YouKnowYou'veMadeIt when : your stats reveal that your posts are getting linked on the Dissensus.com forum.
I only skimmed through 3 pages of the board's token hip hop thread my 2010 singles/other random songs post was linked in, but therein lay everything one could possibly hope from a Dissensus thread about teh rap muzik : an impassioned back-and-forth about not enjoying rappers who are materialistic/sexist/homophobic, a discussion about which is Nas's best album, and a comparison between Lil' Wayne and Bob Dylan. Marvelous work by all involved, and thanks to whoever linked my post for showing love and recognising that Baserock Babies by Beeda Weeda was one of '010's most neglected jams.
This is liable to change given that we still have 29 days of the december to go, but tonight feels like an appropriate oppurtunity to get the obligatory "these are my favourite rap singles of the year, fellas!!" self-indulgent list post outta the way since other blogs have already started dropping theirs. I originally intended on ranking these into some sort of hierarchy but there were so many great singles this year that it's impossible to collate them into order of preferance yet, and Im not sure I'll ever bother since it just seems a futile exercise to assess whether you like Hard In Da Point more than Canal Street and Top To The Bottom, or Earl more than Teach Me How To Dougie and Ric Flair when they're all equally brilliant but just happen to serve different purposes.
The criteria : in an age when the actual physical format of the single is obsolete I'm defining the term ‘single’ as songs which were afforded promo videos, and there's a one-single-per-artist rule, which I haven't flaunted by including something by Curren$y AND something by Curren$y & Fiend since the latter's entry on the list comes from the forthcoming mixtape they're doing as a duo, so it counts as a seperate entity to my Curren$y solo single choice.
No Ready, Set, Go by Killer Mike & T.I because it only came out the other day, nothing by French Montana because I'm not listening to thug-talk by a dude who looks like a cartoon lesbian version of Psycho Les, no B.M.F because Rawse reminds me more of Ahmed Johnson than Albert Johnson, zilch by Freddie Gibbs because he has the personality of Ahmed Johnson's two-by-four, no Power because it just inspires me to listen to King Crimson's 21st Century Schizoid Man instead, nada by blog darlings like Big K.R.I.T, and Roach Gigz because I've yet to really investigate them beyond cursory listenings, no Pretty Boy Swag 'cause I prefer the remix with Gucci Mane which isn't a proper single, and no My Middle Name Is Crime because there simply isn't enough room.
Please believe there's ample space for Code Name by White, though, since it spoke directly to my saltine-soul like no other song this year, and although I'm not a fan of Vado as anything other than a preferable post-Dipset weed carrier alternative to that Penz kid who stunk up Glitter, I really like the Polo remix. What can I say? I'm shallow and easily swayed so I appreciate the fact he's gone from being the dude who looks like Shyne to resembling a young Grand Puba in the remix's video for maximum Polo points, and Dro's presence on the song obviously doesn't hurt, either.
So, without further ado...
Lil B - Good Morning Raekwon - Canal Street Lil' Boosie - Top To The Bottom E-40 - Undastandz Me Cousin Fik ft. E-40 - Bay Area 51 Cam'Ron & Vado - Ric Flair Vado ft. Young Dro - Polo remix Max B - Where Do I Go? Yelawolf - Pop The Trunk CNN ft. Imam Thug & MussoliNY - Planet Thug Gucci Mane - Normal Waka Flocka Flame - Hard In Da Paint AZ - Feel My Pain Earl Sweatshirt - EARL Big Boi ft. Cutty - Shutterbugg NhT Boyz - Slidin' B.o.B ft. T.I & Playboy Tre - Bet I Bust Elzhi - Deep Danny Brown - Re-Up Eddi Projex & Beeda Weeda - Gettin' G's White - Code Name Lil' Blood ft. J-Stalin - Sell My Coke Sean Price - Figure Four Curren$y - Life Under The Scope Curren$y & Fiend - Flying Iron Red Cafe ft. Pete Rock - Heart And Soul Fabolous - I'm Raw $tarlito - What Was I Thinking? L.E.P Bogus Boyz - Goin' In For The Kill Zed Zilla - I'm Da Boss Yo Gotti - Look In The Mirror Young Jeezy ft. Yo Gotti - All White Everything remix Cali Swag District - Teach Me How To Dougie
Ah, but it ain't over, mawfucker : because a list of singles doesn't even begin to do justice to the story of rap in 2010 given how fractured and chaotic the game is nowadays, here's another 30=something of my favourite rap songs from this year which weren't singles :
J-Stalin ft. The Jacka - Red And Blue Lights Roc Marciano - Ridin' Around $tarlito - Alright KanYe West ft. Kid Cudi & Raekwon - Gorgeous Killa Kyleon ft. Z-Ro - Swang Real Wide Big Boi - Daddy Fat Sax NhT Boyz ft. The Jacka - Big Money Big Noyd - Queens Chronicle intro E-40 ft. Marty James - Rick Rock Horns Cousin Fik - No Gravity Lil' Boosie ft. Webbie & Big Head - Bank Roll 2 Webbie ft. Lil' Phat & Birdman - Do It Bigger Max B - Lonely Cam'Ron ft. Vado - Fuck A Freestyle DB Tha General - Murda Tyler The Creator - Bastard Waka Flocka Flame ft. Kebo Gotti - Grove St. Party AZ - The Calm DJ Kayslay ft. AZ, Raekwon & Ghostface - See The Light Yelawolf - F.U Beeda Weeda - Baserock Babies Freeway ft. Peedi Crakk - Snappa Pow Z-Ro - Blast Myself Suga Free - Nobody Young L - Martian Clap Lil B - New York Subway The Pack - Hella Bass remix III Thug Lordz ft. Tha Realest - Mean Muggin' Curren$y - Airborne Aquarium Curren$y & Fiend - Executive Brass Soulja Boy ft. Gucci Mane - Pretty Boy Swag remix Young Dro - Freeze Me Danny Brown - Guitar Solo Ski Beatz ft. Camp Lo - Back Uptown Yo' Gotti ft. Gucci Mane & Zed Zilla - Bang Bang Black Rob - Up North Keak Da Sneak - Maxi Pads Styles P ft. Sheek Louch - Double Trouble Husalah - You Neva Knew The Jacka & Ampachino ft. T-Nutty & Husalah - Hustle In The Rain
All in all, a very enjoyable year in rap, and since it really is a Daily Operation (R.I.P Guru - why couldn't one of your Baldhead Slick & Da Click weed carriers like Mendoughza or Don Parmazhane have died instead??) to stay on top of everything coming out you can't help but find yourself totally immersed in the music.
Like Jeezy I don't be Tweetin'. It's not that I'm not a narcicist trying to turn a corner of the internet into a shrine to myself too, but the only thing I can think of that's possibly worse than polluting the internetz with every asinine thought of mine or mundane updates about the hemp seed oil I've just bought this afternoon, is having the invaluable information about Shaun Pollock bowling averages and Spanish license plates stored in my head that may well come in useful in a pub quiz one day forever dislodged from my dome by YOUR asinine thoughts and mundane updates about the hemp seed oil YOU'VE just bought this afternoon, and NONE of us want to see that happen, do we?
So, you'll have to excuse me while I use this place for an anally self-indulgent year end list post. This one is more for personal future reference, so here's a picture of a cock 'n' balls shaped tomato grown by a friend of mine to keep you amused while I get on with the boring stuff.
No specific order to any of these.
TV shows of 2009 :
The Inbetweeners series 2 Life Are You An Egghead? series 2 Peep Show series 6 Curb Your Enthusiasm season 7
I have friends who think Peep Show has fallen off the past few series. These friends deserve an eternal damnation consisting of nothing but repeats of David Baddiel's Sky One shitcom Baddiel's Syndrome. Still haven't found time to check season 3 of Mad Men, season 4 of Dexter or season 2 of True Blood yet, so, bar Curb, the UK ran t'ings for me this year.
Movies of 2009 :
The Wrestler Mesrine 1 + 2 Moon Inglorious Basterds Bad Lieutenant, Port Of Call : N.O
No explanations necessary, right? Drag Me To Hell and District 9 also get love 'round these here parts.
2009 movies everyone else hated which I liked :
Gamer The Box Notorious Surrogates
Man, fuck all y'all. Especially all y'all who kept recommending Where The Wild Things Are who caused us to waste last night watching it at the flicks.
Radio shows of 2009 :
Hawksbee & Jacobs on TalkSport Jeff Mao on SpineMag radio Greenpeace on SpineMag radio
H&J was the radio show of the decade really, and the only thing which has gotten me through some incredibly boring afternoons in work. Andy is responsible for the finest shit puns this side of the Fat Lace comments section and to hear him piss and moan that Chelsea are going to get relegated after any loss they suffer is one of the few pleasures of a monday afternoon. Music-wise, the various SpineMagazine radio shows are pretty much the only music radio I listen to nowadays since Westwood insists on playing too much shitty UK grime. Plz Westwood - Dave The Ruf these fuckers and play some Boosie and Sean Price in their place.
Albums of 2009 :
DJ Quik & Kurupt - BlaQKout Kylesa - Static Tensions The Dream - Love Vs. Money Curren$y - This Ain't No Mixtape Converge - Axe To Fail
Quik & Kurupt wiped the floor with everyone else in rap; Kylesa wiped the floor with everyone else in metal; The Dream wiped the floor with everyone in general; Curren$y's official debut is the best rap album which doesn't actually exist as a rap album; and Converge's latest effort is pretty much Converge-by-numbers down to the sad epic closing track and that's exactly what I want from a Converge album.
Other rap songs I was feelin' in 2009 :
Cormega - The Other Side AZ ft. DJ Greg Mack - Live Your Life Lil' Boosie ft. Webbie - Fuck The Police DOOM - Batty Boyz Curren$y - Get It Ya Self Wiz Khalifa & Curren$y - Rolling Up Suga Free - Still Rather Give U My Bitch Z-Ro - Raw Method Man & Raekwon - Meth Vs. Chef Part 2 Eddi Projex - On Sight 8Ball & MJG - Ten Toes Down Jay Electronica - Exhibit C The Jacka & Berner ft. Killa Tay - Prey On The Weak Husalah - On The Street Red Cafe ft. Pete Rock - Heart And Soul Lil B - Chasing The Rain Gucci Mane - Lemonade Beanie Sigel ft. Young Chris - Return Of The Chain Gang UGK ft. Sleepy Brown - Swishas And 'Erb G-Side ft. Yelawolf - Who's Hood Cam'Ron - Cookin' Up Max B - Cops Come Running A-Wax & Gonzoe ft. E-40 - Designer Drugs And Beatdowns
AKA rap songs I was feelin' in 2009 that I've not mentioned on here in previous posts. All of these got serious play by me and most will feature on any 2009 playlist I'll make in the future.
Live shows of 2009 :
De La Soul doing 3 Feet High And Rising Ghostface CL Smooth
Would've liked to see the Pete & CL reunion show but, fuck it, CL's solo show was good enough. What i'm really pissed off about is missing the Devin The Dude show and reunion shows by Faith No More and Sleep. On the positive side of things, Chek and I djed a birthday party which was doublebooked with a hen party where we had fake tanned chickens in tacky nurses outfits dancing to classic G-Funk by Ice Cube, E-40, The Luniz and Snoop. On the negative side of things, we had to endure a male stripper prancing around in a thong to Euro-trance before we got to the point where we could bless them with the likes of It Was A Good Day and I Got 5 On It. Sacrifices, yo.
Hottest chicks of 2009 :
Winehouse post-tit job Amanda Knox Chantal Hadley from University Challenge Aubrey Plaza in Funny People Sienna Miller in G.I Joe
Winehouse just gets better and better even though I'd like to see her strung out wandering the streets half naked again; Amanda Knox is the real life Veronica from Heathers and our mate Emile used to teach English to her boyfriend; Chantal Hadley, Aubrey Plaza and Sienna Miller are all proof that the glasses maketh the woman 10 x sexier. A little birdie tells me that since featuring on here, Chantal has become an avid reader of The Martorialist as she's a huge fan of rap music, old wrestling promo videos and analysis of pictures where men wear their trousers at varying heights on their waists. Seems plausible to me.
Biggest fagz of 2009 :
Mr Hudson Drake Nick Atkins
Mr Hudson is just a fucking pussy with Ponyboy bleached hair; Drake really does have weak knees like Wheelchair Jimmy; and Nick Atkins tried to get his Claude Carpentieri on when he threatened to sue us for posting pictures of Chantal Hadley in her knickers from his Flickr which came up via Google. The same pictures appearing all over DigitalSpy days later had nothing to do our hombre James, and I have certainly not emailed the pictures to various Red Tops in case Chantal becomes a Trimble type news story.
Most missed of 2009 :
Borders HipHopConnection Captain Lou Albano Mr. Magic
Was this the only year this decade a rapper from the Screwed Up Click didn't die a syrup-related death? Anyway, Terence Trent D'Arby and that chubby bald bird who sang the Bud-Bud-Ding-Ding-2.99 song to Dr. Linda Papadopoulos on Celebrity Big Brother died this year and stuff, but I was more sad to see Borders and HHC go belly up, personally. R.I.P to Captain Lou too; like I said at the time : the world would be a much better place if there were more Captain Lou Albanos and less Captain Save-A-Hoes.
Biggest lolz of 2009 :
Rafa Benitez in general Mark Hughes getting the sack
What was funnier - Rafa's shellshocked expression and nervous laugh when Geoff Shreeves asked him about Xavi Alonso after Liverpool lost their first math of the season, or Wenger barely being able to conceal a smug grin when asked about his opinion on Mark Hughes gettin' the boot? Pity nobody asked David Moyes for his thoughts on Sparky's departure as he'd have probably given us the most rousing rendition of The Laughing Policeman in recent memory.
A few of you may possibly remember when Y.N hinted on the XXL site back in its halcyon days of 2006 (Bol and Noz posting everyday, Y.N himself comin' through with old KMD and Raekwon audio intervews, Sickamore being rechristened Yung Lipgloss after posting an extremely suspect picture of himself, DJ Drama gettin' run off the internet due to the torrent of abuse every post of his brought forth, the angry Bun B cameo in Bol's post about Pimp C etc etc) that there was gonna be a new Ego Trip's Book Of Rap List due in 2009 to celebrate the ten year anniversary of the first book on. So, ummm, yeah - what happened there then?
So, since we aren't getting our promised new Ego Trip book I've had to nerd-out and come up with my own lists of singles for the past ten years. As this decade has progressed and we've seen formats like vinyl become near extinct it's become harder to define what actually constitutes a single nowadays, so here's my criteria : it must have come out as an actual single on 12"(or cd/tape) or/and have received video treatment. Like the Ego Trip book, I'm also considering b. sides on 12"s to count as singles and it's one song per artist a list unless they dropped something under a different moniker. Got it? We're good to go then :
Since the Ego Trip book finished in '98 and '99 - '09 is a full decade we begin here. Nas Is Like? You've come to the wrong blog if you expected that overrated clunker to be anywhere near this list. Simon Says is a bit of an obvious choice for # 1, but in this instance it just about seems the right one.
It seems a lifetime ago now when hardcore NY street records like Whoa, Bad Boyz, Keep It Thoro, and Ante Up could become these huge pop hits and radio mainstays, huh? Honourable mention go to Boom by Royce Da 5'9".
Despite the fact that most rap fans were enamoured with the beef between that dude who went on to pork Beyonce and that other dude who'd get fleeced by Kelis this year, there was so much better music elsewhere as this list proves. Takeover may have turned Prodigy into Harry Caul at the end of The Conversation, but make no mistake that Mobb's Burn bodied any single released in '01 by Jay-Z. Honourable mention goes to As I Come Back by Busta Rhymes.
See, I always think of 2000, 2002 and 2005 as being my favourite years this decade, but I look at this list and I'm like Damn. Stay Real by Black Moon, and Fall Back by Peedi Crakk & Freeway receive honourable mentions, although the video version of the latter sans Freeway which emerged a few years later was preferable to the original.
For me this is the full stop on Nas's career because after Thief's Theme and his verses on AZ's Serious this retarded tin-eared retard ceases to exist in my world. This is also the year when Texas and the Bay really started killin' it with banger after banger, and when Ca$h Money Records alumni thought possibly washed up on smack dropped three of the best singles of their career. Real Big by Mannie Fresh is an honourable mention alongside Breathe by Fabolous, I Tried by Geto Boys, Lessons by R.A The Rugged Man, Drop It Like It's Hot by Snoop, Game Of Death by Roc Marciano, and No Problem by Lil' Scrappy.
The last year in this list where near enough every single came out as a 12", bar the Young Bleed and Prodigy tunes which were released as internet videos. The Prodigy clip pretty much saved his career after the G. Unit dickriding, but I really liked Put 'Em In Their Place too even if nobody else did. The Pharcyde and Y'All So Stupid had been seen sporting various Sk8 His and Eras on LP sleeves in the 90s, but nobody foresaw a group of young upstarts from the Bay droppin' rap's first musical ode to the footwear of one Paul Van Doren. Honourable mention goes to Da Beeper Record by Fam Lay.
Usually, these single lists give a good indication of my listening habits per year, but that wasn't the case in '07. Freeway and Scarface both released great albums with dud singles, and nary a single was plucked from my 2 favourite albums of '07 - Turf Talk's West Coast Vaccine and Husalah's Huslin' Since Da 80's. Still, it seems churlish to whine about such minor trivialties in the year which gave us that top 10 and a fair portion of the list on crisp black wax 12" singles.
A few of these became official singles long after they dropped (The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, We Roll and Nuthin' 2 A Boss), and it's a good thing they did because great singles weren't exactly overflowing in 2008. Can't complain about the singles released this year, though, (especially that top 10) and every tune other thsn Royal Flush and We Roll were afforded a video. As much as I love the format of the 12" single, at this point i'll take a video on Youtube or WSHH over a piece of wax in a plain cardboard sleeve which I'm running out of room to store.
All of these got the video treatment, bar De La's Excursions remake that appeared on an 12" EP of the best tunes from that J. Period tribute to Q. Tip/ATCQ mixtape, which is a nice way to end the decade. Honourable mention goes to On Smash by Camp Lo ft. Styles P.
Since we're 6 months into '09 (well, we're closer to 7 now but it was 6 when i first started compiling this in notepad) here's my pick of the year to date.
UGK - Da Game Been Good To Me
Pimp C was a true gang$ta-rap great because he was the South's answer to Eazy E (higher echelon ig'nant shittalking rapper) and Dr Dre (perfectionist super-producer) all rolled into one with a dose of Scarface's self loathing (not so much navel-gazing as small intestine examinations). Da Game Been Good To Me was the first track to leak from the posthumous UGK album and, despite the fact the album went on to give us classic UGK full of bluesy guitar, Superfly horns, falsetto crooning and lyrics covering topics as broad as marijuana use, the Reagan era, the futility of the war in Iraq and the anal hair of 20 year old strippers on tracks like Swishas & 'Erb, Purse Come First and the I Left It Wet For You redoot Hairy Asshole with Webbie and Boosie (let's all just forget the odious song with Akon, shall we?) this is still the one i jam the most.
The Jacka - Crown Me
As a caucazoid who likes some reggae but who can't really enjoy listening to it due to growing up in a place and era when UB40 were ubiquitous and the mental flashbacks of unwashed cracker cunts with dreadlocks and Rasta coloured jester hats encountered during my weed smoking days, it's the one genre of music which definately sounds more comfortable for me with someone rapping about their dick or blasting guns over it. Jacka's dropped a plethora of good stuff this year with the release of his The Street Album mixtape and his long awaited Tear Gas opus but it's due to the aforementioned reggae-rule that i'm gonna go for the highlight of the mixtape as his tune of '09.
Raekwon ft. Method Man & Ghostface - Wu Ohh
If Rae wakes up and stops doing that lame, barely comatose whisper-rap he's been inflicting on us the past couple of years then it's possible that OB4CL 2 might not suck and merely end up being a painfully average affair, but as long as it includes this banger then it's got at least classic Wu moment on there.
Curren$y - Scared Of Monsters
This shit gets me like Vince; Any one - Vaughn, McMahon :
Curren$y's digital album thingymebob turned out to be one of the better releases of the year thus far and while there are a handful of potential picks on there Scared Of Monstersstill remains the highlight and his best song since Reagan Era a couple of years back. A better Clipse song than any of the actual Clipse songs released so far this year.
MF Doom - Cellz
As Doom's years in the rap game roll by like the booby trap released boulders during a tunnel scene in an Indiana Jones flick, he seems to have reached a comfortable plateau after the awkward post-Madvillain years by producing his best album since 2004. Never let it be said i'm not swayed by cheap gimmickry as, although, Gazillion Ear is blatantly the best song on Born Like This, i ride-or-die with Cellz due to the Bukowski sample which opens the song. His most creepy tune since Hey
Smitty - Real N*gga Shit
Janet Street Porter could rap over this Gil Scott Heron break and i'd proclaim the resulting song to be better than anything off Illmatic. This video follows the same recipe as Prodigy's Mac Ten Handle with Smitty mugging the camera as he sits alone in a room sippin' booze out of a plastic cup and pointing his pistol at us. I've never heard any of Smitty's albums but i've always liked the few tunes i've heard from him like Belts To Match with UGK, that joint with Scarface which KanYe produced, the Fuck Smitty track from earlier this year and this. Someone needs to recommend me some Smitty releases to check.
Royce Da 5'9 - Shake This
"Fresh outta jail feelin' like Christopher Walken/ the king of my city, swingin' my dick when i'm walkin'"
^ Every time i hear this i'm like :
Some would say Primo looping up some Axelrod is lazy sampling but better that than another dry clunker with the U Know My Steez snares, eh? Anyhoo, this is effective in the same way that Wayne and Swizz's Dr. Carter was effective with the crescendos suiting Royce's, for lack of a better term, Slint-rap steez just lovely. Can Royce finally make the LP he's capable of? It remains to be seen, but hanging out with tone-deaf battle rapper scrubs like Joe Budden - a man whose fanbase primarily consists of the people who type furious keystyles to one another in the comment sections of Just Blaze instrumentals on Youtube - surely isn't going to help.
G. Mane ft. G-Side - No One Duz It Betta
Already posted about this one a while back and G. Mane has dropped a grip of great tracks like Memoirs Of A Geisha and Hard since then but this is still the one. Not only does G. Mane sound like Bun B, he even goes as far as making the music Bun SHOULD be making sans UGK.
Tha Dogg Pound ft. Turf Talk - Y'All Know What I'm Doin'
Tha Dogg Pound's latecareerrenaissance continues with an excellent single which is propelled to classic status by a guest appearance by the mighty Turf Talk playing the middleman and a video which alternates between scenes of men in Dickies gear drinking booze from bottles in brown paper bags outside a 7/11 and pole dancers with their arses cocked up in the air jiglling their wares in a strip club. That said, Turf Talk's Princess Leia style afro puffs are the highlight of the video.
DJ Quik & Kurupt - Nine Times Outta Ten
I know everyone always goes on about Nas and Canibus when they talk about rappers who killed shit on guest spots/freestyles/singles before releasing an album but Kurupt trumps 'em all for me. Who'd a thought that when Quik and Kurupt combined they'd end up making this year's PSK/Do The James/Come Clean/Grindin', though? Tuffest tune of '09 thus far.
De La Soul - Excursions '09
It's kinda sad that one of the greatest avant-garde rap groups ever can now only sound inspired cranking out a remake of an old Tribe tune for a tribute mixtape but beggars can't be choosers and i'll take this over pretty much anything they've done since the first A.O.I album , bar the underrated Impossible Mission mixtape.
Q. Tip ft. Busta, Raekwon & Lil' Wayne - Renaissance Rap remix
One of the highlights of Tip's suprisingly pleasant new LP gets remixed with guest verses from 3 currently washed-up rappers who somehow managed to sound reinvigorated on here and Tip himself sounding awfully like The R. Wayne's verse sounds like it was recorded on a dictophone placed inbetween Lady Gaga's tits but at least he's rapping again.
Curtains - Black Folks
See - he can make tracks about real issues and not just rap about gear 'n' kicks. However, it's his ability to do both which make him the closest we've got to a modern day incarnation of Grand Puba because, lord knows, we don't need the old one any more judging from the snippets i heard from his latest LP.
Young Dro - Dro Rock Diamonds
All i need in this life of sin is me and Dro rhyming 70, Cherokee, Heavenly plus Aunty named Beverley over Love And Happiness with a Biggie cut-up as the hook. It's baffling to me that there are people with similar taste to me who, for reasons i could never begin to fathom or empathise with, rate Gucci Mane over Young Dro since Gucci is a less fancy Dro X the most boring bits of Jeezy + a billion Zshare mixtape links a month. Getcha ATLanta rapper with penchants for comparing jewellery and gear to food weight up, cuzzes.
Gucci Mane - Hurry
So, yeah, he's the most overrated rapper out there at the moment and i'd rather share a portaloo with Phil "The Power" Taylor than hear another Gucci track with a mid-tempo Shawty Redd knock-off beat bought for $10 off some Myspace producer but he's capable of greatness when he raps over something a tad more animated like this crazy carnival type shit here. Best thing i've heard by him since I Move Chickens.
Cam'Ron - I Hate My Job
Crime Pays didn't quite live up to expectations after the Youtube trifecta of dopeness that was I Hate My Job, Cookin' Up and I Used To Get It In Ohio but they remain 3 of the best songs this year has seen, particularly the former with Cam', who, you'd imagine, has never had a proper job in his life, perfectly capturing the mundane horror of office life and feeling the pain of those of us stumbling our way through the rat-race.
Project Pat - Choppa To Ya Dome
What with every Southern rapper rhyming over nineties dance schlock by Robert Miles, Josh Wink and Ian Van Dahl at the moment it's comforting that you can always rely on Hypnotize Minds to lace Pat with some dark Memphis shit built on a bedrock of trademark Carpenter-meets-Colors -esque synths, church bells, machine gun fx and nails-on-a-chalkboard scratching.
Marco Polo & Torae ft. Masta Ace & Sean Price - Hold Up
The Marco Polo & Torae album serves the same purpose that The U.N album served in '04 : a fix of uncomplicated NY boom-bap which treads the fine line between backpack and street without falling into the pitfalls that come with either sub-genre. Masta Ace is drafted in to fill the obligatory veteran verse duties and has rediscovered his mojo after that painfully dull EMC record, while Sean Price adds an always welcome dose of ignorance. Not quite the '09 Crooklyn but, truthfully, it ain't that far off.
Big Mike ft. Rick Ross - Animals
Rawwwwwsse is a hack who doesn't deserve to be on a song with the guy who made No Nuts No Glory, Playa Playa and Havin' Thangs but this is one of the occasions when the moob bearing blob is just about tolerable. I still have to pinch myself to make sure i'm not dreaming when i see a Chops credit on a Big Mike or Bun B tune. From producing a happy-go-lucky Canadian backpacker group who made Jurassic 5 look like old Three 6 Mafia to lacing Houston heavyweights : how the fuck did that happen again?
Cunnilynguists ft. Killer Mike & Khujo - Georgia remix
In my world, the train carrying the Cunnilynguists doesn't usually stop at the station named great rap music so who'd a thought they'd would ever make anything dope, let alone anything dope which features Killer Mike and Khujo from Goodie Mob?
Witchdoctor - Rich And Poor
Some new Witchdoctor is always welcome, particularly if the tune itself is a well executed concept song and it's accompanied by a low-budget Youtube video of him and his mates jigging around in a variety of car-parks. Big Boi could do a lot worse than taking a leaf out of Witchdoctor's book and going the independent route with a bunch of cheap Youtube videos since his label are never going to release his Lucious Left Foot.. album.
Slim Thug ft. UGK - Leanin'
Nobody really wants to hear Paul Wall, at least minus Chamillionaire, in 2009 but i'll always check for Slim Thugga despite the fact, like Paul, he rarely deviates beyond recylcing all the old Swisha House motifs in the cliched way imaginable. The reasons for this, of course, are because of Slim's splendid beat selection, his choice in guests (you can never go wrong with UGK and Z-Ro guest appearances) and his possesion of one of the most unfuckwithably awesome voices in the history of rap. Dude could just say Baaawwwwwwssssss for 4 minutes over a beat made from the flatulence of chiuauas and it'd still be in this list.
E-40 - On Oil
E-40's last album was little more a less consistent variation on his My Ghetto Report Card blueprint of 50% Bay shit/50% joints for da ladeez, with Earl being the only track which still gets regular burn around these parts but, worry not, as he's already leaking incredible solo tracks with Droop-E behind the boards from the next Sick Wid It compilation album to make up for it.
The Dream - Rocking That Thang
The token r&b joint. The Dream's album is the only non-rap album i've listened to this year, which is somewhat of an accomplishment since rap is all i've listened to since two years back in 2007 when Hilary Duff put out Stranger and The Dream released his debut (i tried with the latest Mastodon album but they peaked with Remission for me and have been on a downward spiral ever since). I am not quite a Dream stan of the Breezy calibre - who is to The Dream what Peter Bogdanovich is to John Ford - but when he's good he's the closest we've currently got to Prince in his heyday.
Saigon - Pushin' Buddens freestyle
"Now can you name 5 people that felt Touch And Go? don't worry i'll wait..HELL FUCKING NO!"
^ That line gets a genuine L-O-L every time and if this track were a scene from Saved By The Bell then it'd be somethin' like this :
As annoying as Saigon can be (you're not the messiah - you're just a decent miscegenation of F.T and Tragedy circa the Intelligent Hoodlum days) when compared to the insufferable mumbling faggotry of the highly delusional Joe Budden, he's as lovable as Biz and hearing him evicerate Budden so thoroughly ("what kinda grown-ass man be sayin' OWWWWWWN?") on his 2nd dis track to him was as enchanting as witnessing the likes of Kevin Nolan and Richard Dunne go in studs-first on Ashley Cole.
Boosie - I'm Tired
I remain wholly convinced that Boosie is better as one half of Boosie & Webbie than as a solo artist and he's a tad too prolific for my paleolithic ass (sifting through 20 track mixtapes every other month looking for gems can be such a chore) but when Boosie feels blue and comes off as Pimp C channeled by Z-Ro then he's one of the top 3 currently active exponents of sad-rap.
The Game-Recognise-Game award : * Jay Z in Manchester *
Not so much Jockin' Jay Z as Jocked by Jay Z with Hov' pointing right at the section Sha' Deezy and I were in during the "and, you, the customers" line in Roc Boys. The homie from Brooklyn clearly recognised that some stand-up gentlemen were up in the place that night. Fuck Marcy projects - we from the smokey, son.
The So Wrong But So Right award : * Amy Winehouse *
The more cracked-out she becomes and the more she begins to resemble a Spitting Image puppet hybrid of Dot Cotton and Bet Lynch, the more i want to make sweet luuurrrrrve to her or, at the very least, stick my tongue in her bony stank asshole.
The Thank Fuck! award : * Supreme Bad Brains Roir Sessions tee *
I was born to roll in a yellow Bad Brains Roir Sessions shirt but thou shalt never wear a shirt featuring Rasta colours if thou is a wet dog smelling whiteboy so i was shit outta luck until Supreme released this shirt with subtle Roir Sessions referencing that only the higher echelon amongst us will get and precisely zero rasta colours. In-your-face, Bob Marley!
Martorialist Approved 2008 tunes :
OutKast ft. Raekwon - Royal Flush ABN - Umm Hmm Z-Ro - 25 Lighter Trae ft. Slim Thug - Nuthin' 2 A Boss P. Brothers ft. Boss Money - Cold World E40 - Earl Sick Wid It Umbrella - Showin' Out AZ - Dead End Laroo ft. The Jacka - 20 Bricks The Jacka - Cocaine Race AP.9 - Snitch's Worst Nightmare The Jacka & Berner - Keep It Street Maino - Role Model Lil' Wayne - A Milli Cam'Ron - Pass Tha Dutchie Byrd Gang ft. Styles P - Hawaii 5.0 Max B - Lip Sing Pete Rock ft. Jim Jones & Max B - We Roll Young Jeezy - Circulate Lil' Boosie - In My Hood Heltah Skeltah - Da Art Of Disrespekinazation Rock ft. Sean Price - Fuck Dat Rapper Killer Mike - Belly Of The Beast Suga Free - Allergic To Bullshit Mickey Factz - Incredible Yelawolf - Boyz In The Woodz Peedi Crakk - Pimp Ya Pen State Property - Oceans Seven All $tar - Keep Doing My Thang Curren$y - The Reagan Era Blaq Poet - Don't Give A Fucc Soulja Boy ft. Gucci Mane & Yo Gotti - Shopping Spree Haystak - Hell Naw Bun B - Getcha Issue Devin The Dude - Bad Company Wale ft. Lil' Wayne - Nike Boots remix Fabolous - I Don't See Nobody J-Stalin - Cocaine Cowboys Wiz Khalifa ft. Kev Da Hustla & S Money - Head To The Sky Big Noyd - Heartless Prodidy Of Mobb Deep - Dirty New Yorker
The Why You Wanna Do That, Luv, Huh? award : * Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl *
It's bad enough any pub or club you go in has at least 4 groups of silly fake-bisexual bints who've never treated pussy like a dog treats a plastic toy in their life pretending to be lesbians and snogging each other for Myspace pix but now these stupid annoying bitches have an actual anthem which they insist on singing along with and dancing around their handbags to as well. Yeah, thanks for that, sweetheart.
The Joey Deacon award : * Eli Porter *
The front-tuck is the best, maaaaaayyyyyyyyne, it diiiiddddddd it. I'm sick of dudes like Weezy claiming to be king-retard just because he's allegedly rotted his brain with syrup and yayo when we've now got a genuine spacko like Eli P rappin' and herbin' muthafuckers in mc battles. Know your role and shut your mouth, Wayne.
The Dearly Departed award : * Isaac Hayes *
Pete Doherty is still alive yet since last december we've lost Pimp C, Frosty Freeze and, most importantly, Isaac Hayes. Shit ain't fair, right? My man rocked dookie rope chains before anyone else, made some of the best soul albums ever and without him countless rap classics by Biggie, Public Enemy, Geto Boys, MF Doom, Jay Z and Compton's Most Wanted simply wouldn't exist. R.I.P.
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