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Lil B - Call Of Duty Task Force [ Mixtape ] [ Full ] 2022

Legitimately one of the best tapes B has put out in time. Sounds like 100% Percent Gutta but with modern touches. Thank You Based God.

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OUR NEW GROUP

My friends and I started a group called Lost Connexion. We released our first single "REAPER" on the 21st. It's a poppy number with a fast drum beat, some MIDI guitar parts, some synthesizers, some autotune, all kinds of good stuff. At least I think so.

If you're into stuff like Beck, Rat Boy, Beastie Boys, etc. you will dig this. I mean, we don't sound like any of those artists, but that's the vibe here. We're trying to blend rap with other genres without being garishly distasteful, which is a finer line than you might think.

I hope you enjoy this new single. I'll put a link at the bottom of this post. We've got an album coming out in the new year called "Dangerous Nights" that I think is going to be a very fun affair.

Check out REAPER anywhere you find music:

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BLINDSPOT/ROCKIFICATION

Why does this dude have such a massive blindspot when it comes to trap and street rap?

Just take a look at his new top 50 albums list. Not one trap or drill album. Not a single one. Are you fucked in the head? How are you gonna call yourself "the internet's busiest music nerd" when you don't even acknowledge the existence of the biggest rap subgenre in the world currently.

Imagine leaving Babyface Ray, Icewear Vezzo, BabyTron, Quavo & Takeoff, Duvy, Lucki, iayze etc. off of your end of the year list in favour of some generic, derivative garbage like The Forever Story. Just try and imagine that. Try and imagine having that bad of taste while also calling yourself "the internet's busiest music nerd."

The bald man seems like a nice guy but he needs to learn to listen to music properly. You're supposed to be this bigtime music critic right? So why you still listen to music like a fan then?

The thing that drives me nuts about Fantano is the simple fact that he tries to cover pretty much all music in the popular and indie spheres. There's a reason that reporters and critics have "beats" or specific areas of expertise that they cover. Pitchfork wouldn't send Al Pierre to review a Carly Rae Jepsen record. They know that's not his wheelhouse. They'll get Dylan Green or some other poptimist sycophant to do that kind of bidding. So why is Fantano reviewing shit that he doesn't like, is never going to like, and doesn't understand? That's not to say critics shouldn't give negative reviews. That would be ridiculous. I'm saying that a critic should not speak on music that they don't understand, and based on Fantano referring to Chief Keef's "Finally Rich" as "ridiculous novelty" (as well as his general ignorance on street rap), I think it's fair to say that he has no understanding of it. A 16 year old kid recounting all the murder, addiction, and destruction he's seen in his life is "ridiculous novelty" to you? Come the fuck on, bald man.

Remember when this dude was sucking off Brockhampton being all buddy buddy with them? That shit was unbelievable. What kind of self respecting music critic would ever make friends with an artist? There is a very necessary division between critic and artist and you can't just go around playing jump rope with it. Lester Bangs didn't start kissing up to Lou Reed when he interviewed him, despite Reed being Bangs' idol. No. He did the exact opposite. He called Lou Reed a bitch to his face and said his music sucks now and he should give it up. That's a real critic.

This guy needs to realize that traditional albums have never been a good way to consume rap music. Sure, you get an Illmatic or a Butterfly every now and then, but for the most part rap is a singles genre, and rappers' attempts to create albums in the rock & roll tradition (ten to fifteen songs, cohesive, with a curated tracklist and reflective cover art) is always annoying. It rarely ever works out. That's why J. Cole sucks so bad on albums but on features he's pretty good. Because when he's on a feature or a single he's just rapping. He's not concerned with making some great cohesive rap album, he's just spitting bars.

Idk. I love albums. I hate them in the context of rap sometimes. I "hate" them for the same reason that I hate when rappers perform with a live band. This is Hip Hop. It's not rock music. We don't need to conform the genre to the popular standards of music, because none of this was ever about that. The whole thing I fell in love with about rap, besides the music itself, is that it existed in stark contrast to and firm defiance of established musical norms. Rappers didn't try and be popstars. If one became a popstar, like Em or Wayne or Hov, it was almost always in spite of them being a rapper, not because of it. And I loved that. I mean, it's great that rap is popular now, but also it's terrible at the same time. I'm glad more people are being exposed to it, but also I wish that they would please just leave us alone and stop trying to make this genre into something it's not.

I'm aware that I'm not making the clearest point here, so let me say this: Trap and drill music are the new blues. It is a hyper-violent blues, but it is blues nonetheless in that it is poetics and rhythms that speak on a working class Black American experience. And it is being received with the same ignorance and narcissism that blues was received with.

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An Illuminating Interview with Dayton Church -- The Forgotten Member of Odd Future

By Francis Porter

Very few names can conjure images of a time and place on mere mention alone, but Dayton Church happens to be one of them. The 27-year-old California rapper, once a member of the notorious Odd Future Wolf Gang, has been a mainstay of the West Coast hip hop scene for close to twenty years now, but it is his work with the eclectic rap collective that brought him to the place he is now.

Many casual fans of Tyler, The Creator and Earl Sweatshirt may be wondering "Who the hell is Dayton Church? I don't remember him being in Odd Future." But the real heads know. The real heads remember Dayton Church.

Dayton was nice enough to speak with us about his upcoming album, his previous work with Odd Future, and what it means to be a West Coast rapper in 2022.

FP: First of all, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. You've had a very unique experience in the music industry and I'm excited for people to finally hear your story.

DC: No problem. Thanks for reaching out. I don't do much press these days, which is mostly fine with me.

FP: You don't like doing interviews?

DC: It's not that I don't like them, it's just a little tedious. At least the way we were doing it back then.

FP: You were probably posted up in hotel rooms doing one reporter in one reporter out kind of stuff?

DC: Yeah, exactly. Super shallow.

FP: Well, I'll try to avoid boring you here (laughs).

DC: (laughs) Cool, man. Sounds good.

FP: So I wanna start with Odd Future, and the work you did with those guys.

DC: Sure, yeah. That's usually what people wanna hear about. I met those guys in 2009 in Ladera Heights. They were at the mall and I saw Tyler trying to kiss Hodgy Beats on the lips. Hodgy was running away but Tyler kept chasing him down and saying "gimme a kiss baby boy" and shoving his face up to Hodgy's. I figured it was some kind of sexual assault going down so I tried to stop it but then they all started laughing at me and taking videos of me and I realized that they were goofing around.

FP: Wow. That's so embarrassing for you.

DC: I guess. It was cool though. We laughed about it and then they invited me to come smoke in their car. Once they realized that I made music, and I realized that they made music, it was a wrap. We were boys after that.

FP: Was there anyone you were particularly close with during that time?

DC: Yeah. Me and Left Brain were really close. We used to go down to this record store on Fairfax where you could find really crazy synthwave records to sample. He used to take the records and wipe a bit of his butt sweat on them to "mark them with his scent" and "curse the sample" so that no one else could flip it. I always thought it was funny but then one day the owner caught him doing it and we got banned.

FP: So you guys were really close, then. That's interesting, because Left Brain notably told Complex that he always thought you were a, and a I quote: "Bitch made, baby-brained, baby-dicked motherfucker with no friends and no bitches."

DC: Yeah. We all had our little falling out. I don't blame anyone for the things that were said during that beef. It got a little tense there but everything is fine now. I actually ran into Left Brain the other day. He's working at the bodega by my house.

FP: Did you guys catch up or reminisce?

DC: No. I bought some cigarettes and pretended I didn't know who he was. I thought I got away with it too, until I went to leave and he said: "See you in your dreams, Dayton. We've been watching and waiting. I am looking forward to becoming you." It was weird but I think he was trying to be nice.

FP: It sounds like he's trying to let bygones be bygones.

DC: Yeah, I think so.

FP: You didn't get along very well with Tyler, the Creator. Is that correct?

DC: (laughs) Yeah, you could say that.

FP: Why not? You guys seem like you could be very good friends if you put aside your differences.

DC: I'm sure we could be. I don't think he's a bad guy, we just had very different goals. He was listening to Quincy Jones production all the time. He wanted this really jazz-fusion kind of sound but the software and equipment we were using at the time wasn't really made for that kind of thing, so all of his beats sounded like Creed Taylor tried to write a song on a Nintendo 64. I hated it and I would tell him that I hated it.

FP: You weren't into what he was doing?

DC: Eh, not really. I'm more of a street rap guy. I'm inspired by Raekwon, Ghostface, Jeezy, Wayne, that kinda stuff. I never really liked the R&B type shit.

FP: Did you and him ever have any disputes over this? Perhaps come to blows even? Fisticuffs, and the like?

DC: Why are you talking like that?

FP: It's how journalists talk. I'm a good and serious journalist so I talk like that too.

DC: Okay, well we didn't come to any fisticuffs, but we did get into quite a few screaming matches.

FP: Tell me about that.

DC: The worst one was at Syd's house. We were all recording making beats and stuff. Tyler had this beat going on the laptop and it was just astoundingly bad. Like, I can still hear it in my nightmares. That level of bad. He had this drum loop going that sounded like Timbaland having gay sex with both of The Neptunes while Alex Da Kid watched.

FP: You like your analogies.

DC: My weekly pub trivia group calls me "The Analogy Guy."

FP: Is that true?

DC: No.

FP: So what happened when Tyler found out you didn't like the beat he was making?

DC: Well, he was drinking an Iced Frappe from Starbucks when I told him that I thought his beat sounded worse than my ass taking a shit in the morning. He promptly hurled it at me, getting Frappe all over the studio. Syd was screaming: "Fuck you, Tyler! You always coming up in here and getting my shit all covered in various delectable sugary drinks! I hate you!" I really thought they were going to kick us both out of the group.

FP: Did things calm down once Syd got involved?

DC: No, Tyler leapt across the room and attacked me. He put his hands around my throat and told me he was going to kill me. "I want to watch the life leave your eyes," were the exact words he said to me.

FP: Wow. He must have been pretty upset.

DC: He was. But he had this calmness in his voice. Like his rage was stone cold. It was... chilling. It scared me to my bones.

FP: Is that when you left the group?

DC: No, I stuck around a few more months after that. I was helping Earl with his debut mixtape and I would have felt bad leaving him behind. He needed a lot of help with rapping when he first started.

FP: Really? I bet a lot of people would be surprised to learn that Earl of all people needed help rapping.

DC: He was really bad. The potential was there but he was genuinely one of the worst rappers I ever heard. He would only rap about Bob the Builder because he thought there were secret messages in the show. He'd be trying to write these intricate, conceptual verses about Bob the Builder and I'd be like: "Earl, man, why don't you write about something else?" So he switched to Thomas the Tank Engine for a little while. But after a couple months he was right back on the Bob the Builder thing. It took a lot of work to get him to rap about other topics.

FP: Well, they say all great artists have thematic preoccupations.

DC: This is true.

FP: What's your favourite song that you were involved in with Odd Future?

DC: Probably Yonkers.

FP: But you're not on that song? Are you?

DC: No, but I wrote and produced the entire thing. The whole song is actually a thinly veiled metaphor for my relationship with my father. It makes me sad that all anyone talks about with that song is the shocking stuff, like the Bruno Mars line, and not the actual deeper meaning behind it.

FP: Did you ever do any work with Frank Ocean?

DC: No, he wasn't actually in the group. He just paid a PR firm to pretend he was so that he could be popular with the young kids. The guys went along with it because his presence gave the group an appearance of versatility. It really helped them to level up, in my opinion. I doubt anyone in the group would be where they are now if Frank hadn't pretended to be involved.

FP: But what about the songs he did with Odd Future members? Was he pretending there too?

DC: He's not actually on any of those songs. Several of the guys could do pretty good impressions of him so they'd just hop on the track and lay a "Frank verse" down whenever they wanted something a little different. Mike G probably had the best Frank Ocean impression. You can hear his on "She."

FP: Mike G sings the chorus on "She"?

DC: Yup, he's even in the video. They just dressed him up like a sexually fluid bohemian and put a prosthetic mask on him. Pretty wild stuff, actually.

FP: You have so much insider information, I could chat with you all day about it, but I do want to ask you a little bit about your upcoming album before we go. Can you tell me about it?

DC: Sure, it's called "Faking the Frank" and its nothing but fake Frank Ocean verses I recorded. It's produced by Popstar Benny and it's about the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire, told through the lens of a five-year-old boy with Down's Syndrome.

FP: That certainly sounds forward-thinking.

DC: Not really. It's all about historical events. If anything I am exclusively looking backward on this record.

FP: Well, in any event, it was very nice speaking with you, Mr. Church. I look forward to hearing "Faking the Frank" and whatever other projects you've got cooking up.

DC: Thanks for having me.

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So there you have it folks. The low down on the downlow, from the man who saw it himself. I hope you enjoyed reading this interview, stay tuned for more!

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Best Rap, 2022

Quavo & Takeoff - Hotel Lobby

Duvy - Rich Off Drugs

Drake - Sticky

iayze - 556 (Green Tip)

Earl Sweatshirt - Titanic

Lil Yachty - Poland

Kendrick Lamar - United in Grief

KANKAN - GTA

ZahSossa & DSturdy - Shake Dhat

BROCKHAMPTON - RZA

Why G - Alot

Lucki (ft. Future) - KAPITOL DENIM

2Rare & Lil Durk - Q-Pid

Lil Uzi Vert - CIGARETTE

Homixide Gang - Lifestyle

Kanye West - Someday We’ll All Be Free

Rx Papi - Kiss the Ring (First Day Out)

Gucci Mane (ft. Lil Durk) - Rumours

Ab-Soul - NO REPORT CARD

Glorilla - F.N.F.

YOUTUBE PLAYLIST --- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhqnZfmx7d9tStSLJ4rFR4xR7HJtuG1ml

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Metro Boomin - Heroes & Villains (Short Film)

This is a better superhero film than anything Marvel or DC have put out in like a decade

-rivers

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can u turn off the light

A FILM BY LOST CONNEXTION

a little something my friends and I made. sort of a visual poem. original score by LOST CONNEXTION.

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#TheUnderGod x FonzFutura.com

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YOUTH OF TODAY

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The Adam Friedland Show (2022)

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people gotta start rapping like this again

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american political literature

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Strange Rumblings in Toronto

By Rivers The Poet

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what I expected.

Since it's inception, Rolling Loud has been very hard for me to pin down, both conceptually and morally (stay with me, we'll get to this). On one hand, it's a celebration of rap music. An entire weekend dedicated to the most beautiful thing humanity has ever created: hip hop. On the other hand, it always appeared to me as more of a large-scale extension of the exploitation and voyeurism that plagues so much of the audience-artist relationship in modern rap music.

The reality is much more boring. For the most part, Rolling Loud Toronto was just poorly planned. I could sit here and list all the logistical problems that went down throughout the weekend, from faulty bridges to failing POS systems to near constant lineup changes, but I would be here all day. Besides, the biggest problem wasn't any of that. It was the rappers.

I'm virulently opposed to pretty much all of the popular critiques of rap music. I always make an effort to defend the music and culture that I love so much, and I would never want to add to any negative misconceptions that ignorant people might have about This Thing of Ours. That's why it pains me to write this next part. I hate to do it, but I have to tell the truth: so many of these guys can not rap.

It's such a weird critique to have to make in 2022. That people 'can't rap'. You'd think that by now, fifty years into the genre, anyone with a modicum of interest in being a rap artist would spend time and energy on being good at the actual craft of rapping. Not lyrics, but rapping. Breath control, voice control. You'd think that it would be impossible to obtain any level of success without having a grasp on those very basic tenets of emceeing. But this is not the case.

Instead, what you will see at an event such as Rolling Loud Toronto, are rappers with no breath control. Rappers who have clearly never rapped without punching in. Rappers who have no stage presence. And worst of all, rappers who don't give a shit about rapping.

I'm going to name names because this shit is unacceptable.

NLE Choppa: Telling people to open the pit and jumping around in one spot doesn't count as stage presence, and screaming until your voice is hoarse doesn't count as emceeing.

Destroy Lonely: I like your music but write a different song man. Literally just make a different type of song one time. Try it out. See what happens. And also learn to rap you backing-track-using cornball.

Tory Lanez: I hate to disrespect the king of Peel Region himself, but I witnessed this dude stand on stage for entire verses at times, not rapping a single word and just letting the track play. What the fuck are we here watching you for? Are you an emcee or a DJ my guy? Jeez Louise.

Smiley: This lovable guy actually had one of my favourite sets of the weekend, in spite of his complete lack of breath control. I give him a pass though. He's a big man and he's new. Give him some time. He was trying at least.

Outside of the performance issues, there was the moral issue I spoke about in the beginning. My whole opinion on this matter is a mess of contradictions, so bear with me, but the simplest way I can put it is this: As a fan of trap, drill, and street oriented rap music, I feel an incredible disgust in the way we consume music from these artists. People with no involvement or stake in gang politics will gleefully sing along to lyrics about actual dead people, people who were killed. They will turn up and party to music about death, addiction, and tragedy. Everyone who sang and danced along to Pressa while he rapped with flippant disregard about the murders of Sizzlac and Sluggah is culpable in this exploitation, myself included. But what are people supposed to do? When the beat is thumping through your entire body and the guy on stage is telling you that this is a cool thing you should aspire to do, it can be hard not to just rock with it. It's an uncomfortable question that I don't have the answer to.

Speaking of Pressa, his set was excellent, morality aside. His presence on stage was magnetic, as he played classics like Wass Gang, Canada Goose, and She So Pretty, as well as newer hits like Attachments and Second Hand Smoke. He brought out The Wassas, who assisted in running through a litany of Toronto party staples. The whole crew was on fire and had the crowd in the palm of their hands.

A thing I really want to talk about is a guy named Drownmili, who played Saturday at the Uber Stage. I was standing over on the grass smoking when I saw this guy come out with a guitar player and a drummer and a hype man. It was the strangest band setup I had ever seen but immediately I was intrigued when he played his opening track. I made my way over to the stage to get a better look at these guys. By the third song, the crowd had already began to grow. The eclectic mix of punk, hip hop, and indie rock that boomed from the mainstage made easy work of attracting hordes of pale-jean-wearing youngsters who all seemed equally surprised and intrigued by how fucking good this guy and his band were.

A thing I don't want to talk about at all is Future. I'm upset with him at this current juncture, but I think deep down I'm really just upset with myself. If you were there, you know what happened. But I won't speak on it. I can't. It's too fresh.

On Sunday I travelled back in time to 2016 into a sea of four-sided longsleeves and black skinny jeans and finally felt at home again as Pouya, Fat Nick, Xavier Wulf, and $uicideBoy$ cruised through their expansive discographies. The best part was that these guys could actually rap. Not a backing track among them and they sounded incredible on a live stage. It felt great to see these guys actually take their performances seriously and deliver a memorable show to their fans.

All in all, Rolling Loud Toronto was a bit of a let down, music wise. I had a sweet time partying with my friends but that's not what I'm writing about here. I'm writing about the festival itself. And the festival itself was Not Good. There were good parts of it, it wasn't entirely horrible, but I could never quite shake the feeling that something like Rolling Loud will just never work. Rap isn't meant to be performed or listened to on a massive event ground with stages sponsored by Uber and cops crawling all over the fucking place. It's just antithetical to the whole thing. My soul died a little when I saw a candy shop called the Trap Mart and at least fifty white kids wearing ski masks. A white frat boy in a Hawaiian shirt threw up a Crip sign in an act of acknowledgement as I passed him and I got so confused I thought I was having a stroke.

Maybe I shouldn't complain. I don't listen to Yeat. I don't use Tik Tok. I don't wear huge t-shirts and small shorts and chunky Air Force Ones. This thing wasn't meant for me. But I still think rap fans deserve better than this, so I will continue to scream into the void.

ig: riversthepoet

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You Had to Be There

By RIVERS

I have a real soft spot for pop-rap released between 2009 and 2011. I'm not sure why. It could be because that's the time when I was first getting into hip hop really heavily. It could also be because it hearkens back to a simpler time in my life, when I was free of irony or cynicism, and earnestly enjoyed music without thinking about why I liked it or didn't like it. Whatever the case may be, I still fuck with a lot of those early tracks I was listening to. I've listed some of my favourites below. I'm sure you've heard all of these songs. But what you haven't heard are my dumb opinions about them.

B.o.B - Nothin' On You (ft. Bruno Mars)

This one right here is a certified banger. I had to put it first on the list because it's actually, genuinely a good song, and I will die on that hill. The beat is this cool, piano driven, chill-wave-esque thing. The piano sounds chopped up and resampled and there's some great guitar and synth stuff going on. B.o.B isn't the greatest rapper but he was a serviceable Lupe clone at the time and his early work continues to be enjoyable. Bruno Mars obviously went on to enjoy plenty of success, and this remains one of his finest hooks. Great melody, easy lyrics, nice breezy vocals. I love it and I don't have all that much more to say about it.

Jay Sean - Down (ft. Lil Wayne)

I'm gonna be honest, this song is really funny to me. It's a good song and I enjoy listening to it, but it makes me laugh every time I hear it. First of all, who the hell even was Jay Sean? No one ever questioned his presence in music, and I feel like somebody really should have. Where did he come from? Where did he scurry off to after his five minutes were up? These are not questions that I have the answers to, but they plague me nonetheless. Second of all, the beat is just god awful, featuring some of the worst pop-music tropes of the time, right down to the staccato string section. Third of all(?), Lil Wayne manages to deliver a verse that is so bad it somehow circles back around to being good. I am a virulent defender of Lil Wayne's mid-career work and this track is no exception. I will defend this verse as being good until the day I die. It's so fucking stupid that it's impressive. There's talk of "battlefield[s] of love" and cupid shooting arrows. He closes his verse by saying he's "down like the economy", and I've gotta say, I'm absolutely obsessed with that. Just an incredible use of the English language. The verse is like 30 seconds long too. It's short as hell and he packs so much insanity into it. Incredible stuff.

Gym Class Heroes - Stereo Hearts (ft. Adam Levine)

I don't know man. This one is weird. It's not very good. I don't understand what Gym Class Heroes is. They're considered to be a rock band but I hear drum machines and synths and samples in all their music? Not sure what's going on there. But I think Travie McCoy was a cool emcee. Not a good one, mind you, but a cool one, which is a very fine thing to be. Adam Levine sucks. We all know this, I won't harp on it. He's got some good hooks though and this one ain't bad. It's not good either, but it doesn't make me wanna turn off the song. I know I'm coming off like I hate this song, but I really don't. It's honest about what it is and what it's attempting to be and that's the most important thing to me.

Justin Bieber - Baby (ft. Ludacris)

This list would not be complete without what is, in my opinion, Justin Bieber's finest work. I have always liked Justin Bieber. When he first came out he had that soulful whiteboy swag about him in a way that Jack Harlow and Post Malone can only dream of. Just the truest of the soulful white dudes. He was forced into making these label friendly tunes but you can tell that my guy was a real R&B head. I respect him, and I respect the career he built for himself. This song is pretty good. I mostly like it for being a perfect representation of what I love about Justin Bieber The Brand. It also has a bad Ludacris verse that I can't get enough of and an appearance in the video from a pre-6ix God era Drake. Before the muscles and beard and fake hairline.

T.I. - Live Your Life (ft. Rihanna)

Paper Trail. The worst T.I. album, according to many. I would agree with them for the most part, with the exception of this incredible song. The Numa Numa sample is just way out of line. When I hear it my eyes roll back in my head and I start flopping around on the ground like a Pentecostal at a church revival. When Rihanna starts singing her version of the sample my body levitates seven feet in the air and emits a bright white light. When the beat drops I'm flung across the Universe at an impossible speed and instantly disintegrate into Space Dust, becoming one with everything that ever is, was, or will be. When T.I. starts rapping I wake up in my front yard covered in my own vomit.

Travie McCoy - Billionaire (ft. Bruno Mars)

Yup, we're doing a solo Travie McCoy track, which seems to be the exact same fucking thing as a Gym Class Heroes song, so I'm once again insanely confused by what that band even is. This song slaps though, which is why I had to close this list with it. The whole concept is pretty dumb. Travie says that if he was a billionaire he'd "go to where Katrina hit" and "do a lot more than FEMA did." I was pretty young when Katrina happened so I'm not super well-versed on any of that, but what he's saying doesn't sound correct to me. And that's ignoring the fact that Katrina happened five years before this song came out. This is why Travie McCoy is a cool emcee and not a good one.

Not much to say about Bruno. It's a great hook and everyone quoted it for years after it came out. He was really on fire around this time. His feature game was like a radio-pop Lil Wayne.

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Best Rap Albums: Jan-May 2022

By Blunted

Decided that this would be a good time for a roundup. I know it's not halfway through the year quite yet but fuck it I'm bored. Let's go.

By Blunted

Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers

Duvy - GRASSWAYZ

Future - I Never Liked You

Black Star - No Fear of Time

Buddy - Superghetto

Earl Sweatshirt - Sick!

42Dugg & ESTGee - Last Ones Left

Pusha T - It's Almost Dry

Yeat - 2Alive

Babyface Ray - FACE

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Hip Hop is Dead

By Blunted

The most underrated Nas album. Yes, I’m saying it. Hip Hop is Dead is good. Hell, I’ll even say it’s great. It’s underrated, over-hated, not considered enough, and whatever other similar language you can come up with in your head.

For a while, there was a pervading narrative that Nas had fallen off. It was not uncommon to hear people say that Illmatic was his only good album. Maybe they’d throw in It Was Written and/or Lost Tapes if they wanted to give caveats, or Stillmatic if you were talking to a particular brand of listener. Life is Good had a moment as well, but for the most part, people seemed to agree that most of Nas’ post-Illmatic output was not good. This has started to fade over time, you can see the tides changing on Stillmatic, God’s Son, and even the atrocities that are I Am… and Nastradamus, in rap comment sections across the internet whenever Nas is brought up. It’s a good thing, and the albums that are being re-appraised by fans mostly deserve it. I don’t agree with this whole thing where people pretend that Untitled is actually pretty good, but I’m glad people are having these conversations.

However, there is still one Nas record that has not received justice. A record that, while occasionally talked about, is largely forgotten or considered to be bad. I would like to enter this record into contention for Re-Evaluation By The Fans. The record I’m talking about, in case you can’t read titles, is 2006’s Hip Hop is Dead.

The thing about this record is that it received a fair amount of backlash right off the jump because of its title. In all fairness, it’s an inflammatory title, probably intentionally so. Nas was certainly not alone in his opinion at that time, but many southern rappers took great offense to it, most notably Young Jeezy, who later settled the minor dispute with Nas and went on to work with him. Recently, on a podcast I can’t be bothered to listen to but read a quote from an article, Nas said that the title was misunderstood. He was talking about the East Coast, not the South. And he wasn’t entirely wrong. There wasn’t a whole lot of great stuff coming out of the East at this time. Things were reaching a peak on the West Coast and the South was in the beginning stages of its eventual takeover.

But in the end, all of that stuff just distracted from the great music that is on this record. Obviously the title track was a hit, but this thing is just packed with good songs from front to back. I can’t get behind the idea that Nas has bad beats, so let’s just get that out of the way up front. I think that most of the beats Nas has rapped on are, at the very least, pretty good. Maybe I just have a taste for the cheesy keyboard-based beats that came from the 2000s, but I like almost every beat on this album, and most of Nas’ albums. For starters, this album opens with three of the best beats he’s rapped on, but the best of the trio is Carry on Tradition, which helms together a staccato faux-string section and stuttering drums. It’s one of my favourite Nas tracks, and one of his strongest conceptually. He reflects on his place in the game, declaring himself rightly as a cross-bearer, who keeps the game in check and makes sure things never get too out of hand. It’s a cool take, and it actually is a very astute representation of Nas’ place in hip hop. He’s not as much an elder statesman as he is a perpetual peer who represents the core of what the genre is about.

Where Are They Now is another strong track. It’s a cool 80s kind of beat, with a rock-influenced guitar lick, chopped vocal samples, and tight horn stabs.

There’s more rock influence on the will.i.am produced title track. Nas’ refrain on this track is just incredible, and the entire song in general is proof that Nas can make something catchy and poppy in a way that doesn’t sacrifice his style. Sidenote: this song has always reminded me of Gorillaz.

Who Killed It fucking rules and I won’t hear any different. The James Cagney voice is cool and the beat is funny. There is literally nothing to hate about this song unless you hate fun. And is Nas not allowed to have fun? Is the greatest rapper of all time not afforded a little wiggle room to goof around and do a silly voice? I think he is, and this song is the shit. Not only is it funny and whimsical, it’s also very well-written, with some great storytelling that puts narrative before rhymes without sacrificing the latter too much. I’ll honestly say this is one of Nas’ best songs, and if you initially dismissed it, you should revisit it. I promise you’ll find it funny, and it’s meant to be funny, so don’t take it too serious. I know humor isn’t something you would normally find on a Nas album, but he’s got it in spades on this track. The computerized “hip hop is so fuckin’ dead” voice at the end of the track seals the whole thing perfectly as what I would call a Great Bit.

Black Republicans needs to be talked about I guess, considering it’s one of the three songs from this album that people ever talk about, even though it’s actually one of the weaker tracks on the record. The beat is pretty good and I like it well enough, but it’s a very Nas beat. Nas floats over it, delivering excellent verses, but Jay Z gets a little lost in the bombast of it. The only guy who can rap over beats like this is Nas, because he seems to be able to completely tune out everything other than the tempo of the beat and write something great no matter what kind of atrocious instrumentation he’s spitting over. Nonetheless, it’s cool that Nas and Hov finally collaborated on this one, and I don’t completely hate it. Hov definitely does not fit on this beat though.

I like the verses on Not Going Back a lot, and the beat is great, but the hook is just so dated, and that’s coming from a guy who thinks Tougher Than Leather has aged well. I never liked those sung R&B hooks that were big in the 2000s, even at the time.

Still Dreaming is a beautiful rap song, truly. It represents everything I love in a hip hop recording. Soulful production, funky drums, sample chops, and good raps. It also represents the end of this album’s very short low-point. Kanye absolutely blacked out on this one, lyrically and on the beat. Nas rocks a great verse as well. This might be the best track on here next to Carry on Tradition. Nas and Ye work so well together, it’s a shame that NASIR was such garbage. Hopefully they collab again and make something on the caliber of this track or We Major.

Hold Down the Block is one of the best beats Nas has rapped on. I should note that when I say ‘best beat’ in this review, I’m referring to everything post-Illmatic. I’m not trying to pretend Salaam Remi or whoever else is on Premier’s level. And on that criteria it’s true, this beat is very good, flows nicely after Still Dreaming with it’s chill pianos, dense bass, and atmospheric synths. The hook is really nice as well, and its chopped refrain throughout the verses is a nice touch to Nas’ rhymes.

The opening of Blunt Ashes is so tight. Nas wonders if Langston Hughes and Alex Haley smoked weed before telling stories, and then says he’s about to get blazed before telling a story, and it all just fits so perfectly. Nas is a storyteller, truly one of the greatest who ever lived. All music aside, I pray to God that his writings are preserved far into the future to be studied in English classes like Hughes and other writers of that caliber. This track is yet another of the countless incredible stories that Nas has told, and is only slightly ruined by the hook, which isn’t all that bad but is kind of stilted. I like Nas on this tempo, you don’t hear him as much on Southern-influenced rhythms. He uses the extra space on the beat to his advantage and gets into some cool pockets and breaks out some great schemes.

Let There Be Light is one of Nas’ strongest tracks post-Illmatic. The lyrics detail Nas’ experiences with hip hop, reflecting on its ‘death’ mournfully, complete with a gospel hook. It’s great stuff. A little melodramatic, but it hits you in the heartstrings if you’ve got any. Nas is tapping into a similar vein as tracks like Memory Lane on this one, rapping through pained nostalgia about times lost. This is a very well-written, well-produced rap song. Just about as close to perfect as you can get without sacrificing honesty and sincerity.

Play on Playa sees Nas linking up with Snoop Dogg and the results are excellent. The beat is funky and slick, and Nas and Snoop both come with good raps. Nas’ gets into some sexier territory here though and it is not his strong suit. He is not good at writing sexual material and never has been. Any time he enters that realm the results are gross. But it’s only a couple lines, so I can forgive it, and rightfully so because this track is a banger. Snoop came to hang with Nas and he, shockingly, was not entirely out-rapped. He held his own, which maybe shouldn’t be surprising, but I’ve never considered Snoop a top tier lyricist or anything like that.

The beat on Can’t Forget About You is beautifully crafted. The samples, the scratches, the drums, it’s all perfect. The hook from Chrisette Michele is really nice, jazzy, and soulful, and bridges the gap perfectly between Nas’ verses. The verses, speaking of, are technically brilliant, but conceptually they don’t grab me quite as much as some other songs on this record. Nonetheless, this is a great track in a string of great tracks, and I love hearing Nas on this kind of blown-out production. He’s not entirely familiar to it, but there’s a lo-fi-ness to it that I think sounds really unique in the context of Nas’ lyricism.

The Game checks in for a guest verse on Hustlers. In the opening lines of the song, Nas claims that he was the first New York emcee to work with Dr. Dre, which I didn’t think was true, but after checking briefly on the internet it does appear to be a factual statement. This beat is classic, in my opinion. It doesn’t get much better than this in terms of 2000s-style production. The ascending strings add a tension to the track that is resolved by the low pitched brass stabs that pop in and out. The Game’s verse is alright. I’ve never been a huge fan of his, and this verse isn’t really any different. The gunshot thing in his verse is pretty cool, but other than that he just does his usual thing where he raps about other rappers. I enjoy the verse nonetheless though, Game taps into some cool flows and he’s got a cool rap voice. Nas outshines Game on this track in the end, though.

Hope is a cool track, but honestly not my favourite of this bunch. The line about “you can smell the PCP smoke” is sick, and there are many other quotables and good flows on this track, but I just can’t really get into listening to an acapella. It’s cool in the context of the album though, and pays homage to the early days of hip hop with dudes kicking it acapella in cyphers and what not. But still, it doesn’t translate amazingly to recording, and doesn’t really reward repeat listens once you’ve dissected the lyrics, which are really great, but would have been even more impactful with a tight beat to go with them. This track is still worth a listen for how unique it is.

Shine On, the album closer, is unfortunately completely indefensible, and nearly discredits my entire argument about this album being good. It is genuinely so bad that I reconsidered writing this review after hearing it, but I think my point stands in spite of it. If you delete this track and have Hope as the closer, it’s an easy 9/10 album. With this track it gets bumped down to like a 7.7 or something if we’re using the Pitchfork scale, which we’re not.

While Hip Hop is Dead may have its flaws, I still believe it’s an essential listen for any hip hop fan, and especially anyone who considers themself a fan of lyrics. There is some excellent conceptual writing on here, and Nas explores the concept of the Death of Hip Hop from a multitude of different angles until the entire idea itself is dissected and dismembered, begging to be bludgeoned to death. Maybe that explains Shine On. He had to end this thing somehow.

[francisp0rter]

Rx Papi - Heaven For A DopeBoy

By Blunted

One of my favourite Pap songs. Possibly a hot take: I find Rx Papi infinitely more compelling and interesting than RXK Nephew. Both are doing really cool stuff but Pap just gets the edge for me.