In-studio footage from former Aftermath artists Busta Rhymes, Stat Quo and Bishop Lamont. I have my dislikes with Busta the artist, but Busta the philosopher is a truly enlightened individual.
1) Busta brings up a great point that I've always wondered about. Ringtones, or snippets of songs are $3. Whereas an entire song from iTunes is 99 cents. That makes absolutely no sense. Just the way the fee structure is set up encourages ringtone rappers as opposed to artists.
2) Youtube is both a gift and a curse to artist since it has allowed them to bypass the major label dependency on video budgets. But at the same time, the quality of end product is decreased and the industry has been watered down since anyone can become a rapper in their bedroom.
3) Piggybacking of #2, everyone knows at least one person in real life that thinks they can rap. And there are enough avenues to make a little piece of change in the rap game. It's only a matter of time before the industry totally revamps and abandons the major label set-up or the major label set-up collapses and forces change.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Hard Out Here For A Pimp
Ummmm
1) I've heard of robbing a bank before to get cash, or even a gas station or convenience store. But this lady walked up to the McDonald's drive thru. She couldn't have made off with more than like $73.50 tops.
2) Panties on your face? You have money to buy gloves to cover your fingerprints but not a ski mask? At least something to cover your blonde hair with? The only thing worse than panties on your face is that stupid mask R. Kelly started wearing after he ate a 13-year-old girl's asshole out on camera. Yeah.
3) She was gully about it though. Reaching in through the window, straight to the register? BAWSE. I haven't seen gulliness like that from a female since "The Wire" went off the air.
1) I've heard of robbing a bank before to get cash, or even a gas station or convenience store. But this lady walked up to the McDonald's drive thru. She couldn't have made off with more than like $73.50 tops.
2) Panties on your face? You have money to buy gloves to cover your fingerprints but not a ski mask? At least something to cover your blonde hair with? The only thing worse than panties on your face is that stupid mask R. Kelly started wearing after he ate a 13-year-old girl's asshole out on camera. Yeah.
3) She was gully about it though. Reaching in through the window, straight to the register? BAWSE. I haven't seen gulliness like that from a female since "The Wire" went off the air.
Mood Music
Every now and then you hear a song that just hypnotizes you. The epitome of mood music. I don't know anything about the lady who sings it, but her voice is amazing. I guess I'm in whatever kind of mood you need to be to dig this song, because I've played this song about 30 times in the past day or so. Enjoy.
Bonus
Here is song by Mississippi rapper Big Krit that samples the above song. Also, I included another song that uses a cool Adele sample.
Bonus
Here is song by Mississippi rapper Big Krit that samples the above song. Also, I included another song that uses a cool Adele sample.
Everything Based
That’s it. I can’t sit around anymore and watch people bash the homie Lil B anymore. I just can’t. Yall have called this dude a retard, basehead, faggot, homo, everything but what he is: a rapper. When you strip back (pause) all of the extracurricular stuff he has going on, what matters is that he’s a rapper.
Lil B is one fourth of the rap group The Pack. They had the smash single “Vans” and had major regional success in the West Coast market. All four of these guys rap over spaced out beats about stuff your average teenager would: looking fly, spitting at girls, partying, whatever. But it sounds pretty good, especially due to Young L’s production. After their LP dropped, each went and did some solo work on the side. Other than Lil B, the Young L album is worth a listen. Lil B’s first projects were in the same vein as the Young L album in terms of spaced out rap, but somewhere along the line he chose a different path. Before long, he chose to add the Based freestyle to his repertoire.
Before I go too far, let me define based, from the mouth of Lil B himself:
Based is all about opening up the mind and letting whatever come out come out. Sure, this is probably derived from baseheads and drug addicts rambling, but let’s look on the bright side here. Is Lil B a base head? No. Does he look like he participates in recreational drug activity? Yes. Most people that work jobs that don’t require random drug screenings use recreational drugs. Some people who do get drug tested still mess around with drugs. It happens.
Lil B enters a based mindstate – take that how you want – and proceeds to just let words spill out. When you take away sensors and allow subconscious thoughts to spill out, it can lead to repressed thoughts emerging. A lot of that deals with sexuality, since we as human beings are carnal creatures. What that means in layman terms is that Lil B mentions getting his dick sucked and fucking bitches an awful lot, with his trademark line being “hoes on his dick because (fill in the blank as to why he has all of these hoes on his dick”. He even went as far as to say “Hoes on my dick because I look like Jesus”.
No seriously, he did.
But the thing is, when you just have an outpour of words without quality control, you’re bound to say some wild stuff. So this has led to songs where he calls himself a pretty bitch, a faggot, a lesbian. You name it, he’s said it. And he looks like Matlock. Go figure. But you know what happened? People started to accept these random outbursts on record and actually embrace that he was free to say whatever he wanted to say. He is completely at ease and accepted when rapping about those topics, and he’s gaining lots of mainstream exposure a lot quicker than he did while he was rapping straight edge. Being an attention starved kid, he seeked out this attention and began a headline grabbing moves, with the sole purpose being garnering attention.
My biggest gripe is that people listen to these based freestyles and automatically assume they are songs. Lil B has released 2 albums, available on iTunes and Amazon, which are fully composed songs. There are no “Hoes on my dick” lines that fill the records. These are crafted in almost the same vein as The Pack songs. However, these records don’t garner any type of buzz or publicity. In this day and age, good hip hop is frowned upon. So what choice does that leave him if he has dreams of reaching an even bigger stage? Gotta supply the demand, unless your name is Lupe Fiasco.
At some point, once he’s reached his peak, he probably will return to making hip hop tracks. Maybe not. But one thing’s for sure: he knows exactly what he is doing. Only Lil B knows what’s in store for Lil B.
Bonus:
I’ve included some of the better songs from Lil B. Songs, not based freestyles. If you still wish to ignore that this kid is a halfway decent rapper that is just doing all this for a show, do your thing.
B.O.R.
D.O.R.
I'm God
Real Life
Thank You BasedGod
Myspace
Lil B is one fourth of the rap group The Pack. They had the smash single “Vans” and had major regional success in the West Coast market. All four of these guys rap over spaced out beats about stuff your average teenager would: looking fly, spitting at girls, partying, whatever. But it sounds pretty good, especially due to Young L’s production. After their LP dropped, each went and did some solo work on the side. Other than Lil B, the Young L album is worth a listen. Lil B’s first projects were in the same vein as the Young L album in terms of spaced out rap, but somewhere along the line he chose a different path. Before long, he chose to add the Based freestyle to his repertoire.
Before I go too far, let me define based, from the mouth of Lil B himself:
Based is all about opening up the mind and letting whatever come out come out. Sure, this is probably derived from baseheads and drug addicts rambling, but let’s look on the bright side here. Is Lil B a base head? No. Does he look like he participates in recreational drug activity? Yes. Most people that work jobs that don’t require random drug screenings use recreational drugs. Some people who do get drug tested still mess around with drugs. It happens.
Lil B enters a based mindstate – take that how you want – and proceeds to just let words spill out. When you take away sensors and allow subconscious thoughts to spill out, it can lead to repressed thoughts emerging. A lot of that deals with sexuality, since we as human beings are carnal creatures. What that means in layman terms is that Lil B mentions getting his dick sucked and fucking bitches an awful lot, with his trademark line being “hoes on his dick because (fill in the blank as to why he has all of these hoes on his dick”. He even went as far as to say “Hoes on my dick because I look like Jesus”.
No seriously, he did.
But the thing is, when you just have an outpour of words without quality control, you’re bound to say some wild stuff. So this has led to songs where he calls himself a pretty bitch, a faggot, a lesbian. You name it, he’s said it. And he looks like Matlock. Go figure. But you know what happened? People started to accept these random outbursts on record and actually embrace that he was free to say whatever he wanted to say. He is completely at ease and accepted when rapping about those topics, and he’s gaining lots of mainstream exposure a lot quicker than he did while he was rapping straight edge. Being an attention starved kid, he seeked out this attention and began a headline grabbing moves, with the sole purpose being garnering attention.
My biggest gripe is that people listen to these based freestyles and automatically assume they are songs. Lil B has released 2 albums, available on iTunes and Amazon, which are fully composed songs. There are no “Hoes on my dick” lines that fill the records. These are crafted in almost the same vein as The Pack songs. However, these records don’t garner any type of buzz or publicity. In this day and age, good hip hop is frowned upon. So what choice does that leave him if he has dreams of reaching an even bigger stage? Gotta supply the demand, unless your name is Lupe Fiasco.
At some point, once he’s reached his peak, he probably will return to making hip hop tracks. Maybe not. But one thing’s for sure: he knows exactly what he is doing. Only Lil B knows what’s in store for Lil B.
Bonus:
I’ve included some of the better songs from Lil B. Songs, not based freestyles. If you still wish to ignore that this kid is a halfway decent rapper that is just doing all this for a show, do your thing.
B.O.R.
D.O.R.
I'm God
Real Life
Thank You BasedGod
Myspace
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Queen of Sanity
It’s great catching up with old friends. Whether they’re old friends from high school, college, or whatever, seeing someone again is always a great event. Sometimes though you have grown apart from that person. You get one on one with that person and realize you don’t have any common interests, and it just feels like talking to a stranger. Not the case for me though.
I hung out with some old college friends recently and it was a great time catching up. Reminiscing about good old times. Talking about being adults in the workforce now. Quote of the night was “I used to laugh at farts and now I laugh at tax code jokes.” It’s such an accurate representation of where we find ourselves in life and times of reflection with friends and libations are something everyone should experience. One of the guys there just got engaged recently so he’s adapting to the whole joint living thing. He hadn’t been that far removed from his past girlfriend so we asked why they were no longer together. His answer was simple: “She’s crazy.”
Dude said all his friends thought she was crazy but he didn’t believe them. He let her meet his parents and his dad pulled him to the side like “Son, she’s crazy.” But love is blind. The guy needed to see it for himself. He said that his girl would start arguments about when, not if, they have kids whether they would go to private school or public school. But nothing prepared him for the moment that they decided to call it off.
He said shortly after they broke up, she started sending him crazy emails and text messages. She would call his friends and try to turn them against him. She would still send him random presents and gifts in the mail, something that almost sabotaged his relationship with his current fiancé. He even called him once and said that while talking to her mother, they had come to the joint conclusion that my friend was depressed. I wish I could make that up.
The highlight of the craziness moment was when she sent him a book titled “Good Guys and Bad Guys”. The book had certain passages and lines highlighted in them with tabbed notes in the margins of the book. And inside of the book was a handwritten note from the girl’s mother detailing why the girl and my friend were meant to be together. That’s beyond ridiculous in every sense of the word.
That girl must not have any real friends. Thankfully, my friend has friends like me that let him know that chick was crazy. We didn’t get around to describing HNH in detail but I’m sure he would instantly become an avid supporter of my theory were I to divulge it with him. This is just confirmation that most females are nuts, but I won’t stop loving them though.
I hung out with some old college friends recently and it was a great time catching up. Reminiscing about good old times. Talking about being adults in the workforce now. Quote of the night was “I used to laugh at farts and now I laugh at tax code jokes.” It’s such an accurate representation of where we find ourselves in life and times of reflection with friends and libations are something everyone should experience. One of the guys there just got engaged recently so he’s adapting to the whole joint living thing. He hadn’t been that far removed from his past girlfriend so we asked why they were no longer together. His answer was simple: “She’s crazy.”
Dude said all his friends thought she was crazy but he didn’t believe them. He let her meet his parents and his dad pulled him to the side like “Son, she’s crazy.” But love is blind. The guy needed to see it for himself. He said that his girl would start arguments about when, not if, they have kids whether they would go to private school or public school. But nothing prepared him for the moment that they decided to call it off.
He said shortly after they broke up, she started sending him crazy emails and text messages. She would call his friends and try to turn them against him. She would still send him random presents and gifts in the mail, something that almost sabotaged his relationship with his current fiancé. He even called him once and said that while talking to her mother, they had come to the joint conclusion that my friend was depressed. I wish I could make that up.
The highlight of the craziness moment was when she sent him a book titled “Good Guys and Bad Guys”. The book had certain passages and lines highlighted in them with tabbed notes in the margins of the book. And inside of the book was a handwritten note from the girl’s mother detailing why the girl and my friend were meant to be together. That’s beyond ridiculous in every sense of the word.
That girl must not have any real friends. Thankfully, my friend has friends like me that let him know that chick was crazy. We didn’t get around to describing HNH in detail but I’m sure he would instantly become an avid supporter of my theory were I to divulge it with him. This is just confirmation that most females are nuts, but I won’t stop loving them though.
Rose That Grew From Concrete
"Some how, some way, we gotta make it up out this life"
In this day and age negativity outweighs positivity. You can go to WorldStarHipHop.com and find a multitude of videos where niggas act like niggas. I haven’t been to WorldStar in about a month or so but I’m willing to bet that there’s a video where some people are fighting, a video with Kat Stacks, some diss record, a video where somebody holds 18 guns at a cameraman, and a video where some half nekked woman bounces her ass to some corny rap song. If I’m wrong, forgive me. But I doubt it.
You would never find a video like this on the site.
This is Deonte Bridges, valedictorian at Booker T Washington High school in Atlanta, Ga. He is the first black valedictorian in more than a decade at the school. He has amassed over one million dollars in scholarships. I repeat, he has amassed over $1,000,000 in scholarships. I just like writing that out. And these are academic scholarships, not athletic scholarships. Not knocking people who use athletics to enhance their education but it’s a difference and that difference should be appreciated. Deonte is an inspiration to me that there are children out there who are doing it the right way and not trying to be a hood star. If you don’t get moved by his speech, you don’t have a soul.
In this day and age negativity outweighs positivity. You can go to WorldStarHipHop.com and find a multitude of videos where niggas act like niggas. I haven’t been to WorldStar in about a month or so but I’m willing to bet that there’s a video where some people are fighting, a video with Kat Stacks, some diss record, a video where somebody holds 18 guns at a cameraman, and a video where some half nekked woman bounces her ass to some corny rap song. If I’m wrong, forgive me. But I doubt it.
You would never find a video like this on the site.
This is Deonte Bridges, valedictorian at Booker T Washington High school in Atlanta, Ga. He is the first black valedictorian in more than a decade at the school. He has amassed over one million dollars in scholarships. I repeat, he has amassed over $1,000,000 in scholarships. I just like writing that out. And these are academic scholarships, not athletic scholarships. Not knocking people who use athletics to enhance their education but it’s a difference and that difference should be appreciated. Deonte is an inspiration to me that there are children out there who are doing it the right way and not trying to be a hood star. If you don’t get moved by his speech, you don’t have a soul.
Monday, July 12, 2010
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