#Eminem spits freestyle on “Rap God” | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

weirdotherapper-blog · 6 years

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Diss Track - HeadShots -

I’ma take a few shots at some rap and hip-hop artist who are not

As cream of the crop; not a heart stops; you wannabe show stoppers;

Yall just bar hop -and bump hips to hop to the top,

So lemme get the trigger ready to take a steady shot

-Head shot number one;

Yelawolf where the fuck did you come from;

No one even gives a fuck about you son;

Last time you were relevant you were trying to keep up with Tech-N9ne; and Busta-Rhymes;

Now your time to be in your prime has already run outta lifelines;

Then you come and also Diss M.G.K. - I’m Sor-ray your word-play is on-lay okay

Here comes Headshot number 2; get outta the way

And M.G.K. you pretend to play, with words even though your cadence is

Boring making fans snoring as you pretend you are flooring,

Them with same repetitive nonsense, no one’s in suspense as you repeat clever sentences from a previous artist; don’t start this,

If you can’t finish it; if you ain’t really in it to win it,

Headshot number 3, I used be your biggest fan, Slim-shady sorry,

I said used to be cause honestly as of lately Eminem,

Been wack and only attacking other artist to continue having a story,

Marshal Matthers maybe retire and pass down the godly rap glory;

We get it Slim-Shady, Eminem, Marshal Matthers Baby,

You got a legacy you wanna see thrive, and desperately keep alive

The problem is you haven’t had a good album since before 2005

Headshot Number 4; I just gotta settle a score;

Drake your trash; your fake; you’re lame; you only rake and take in

Money and bitches after some ghost wrote the lines that got you honey and riches;

You’re not raw; you’re not tough; allow me to call you further on your bluff,

Like Jimmy Brooks ima leave you shook as I take the next shot;

You are no 50-cent, Biggie, Or Tupac; stop pretending to be something you not;

Before I give you a reason to not have your legs work; okay I gotta stop

Head Shot Number 5, 6, and 7 - A trifecta of Music my friend,

Kanye, Dr.Dre, and Jay-Z, can yall just stick making beats, Please?

Kanye you’re already clinically insane believing your Gods gift to us, okay right

Call me an Indian giver cause get that shit outta my sight,

God can take back this quack crack-pot gift and lift this curse,

before I gotta spit another diverse verse so go disburse,

Please just leave and take your barely passable rap skills

At least Dr.Dre has flow and always goes for his kills

But lets be honest without Slim-Shady coat-tails your ship probably would’ve already set sails

Jay-Z I respect you freestyle essentially everything,

But could you be a little more interesting?I

I know your pussy whipped but does Beyonce gotta be slipped into everything, bad enough the illuminati already gotcha nuts gripped,

I’m just saying I hate when artists step out of there element just to revel in idea of being relevant,

Speaking of irrelevant relevance

Headshot number 8 and 9; I don’t give fuck that they are both hella fine,

Kardi-B and Nicki-ménage à trois - we know how yall got ya jobs

Yall an insult to what women truly represent, saying you are supposed feminist;

When your words are socially venomous; pretending to be Mean pristine Queens -Mirror Mirror on the wall?

Who is the sluttiest of them all?

That’s a tough question; maybe make more investments in your talent then;

Then your fake asses and barely passes for music my cum-swallowing friends -

Headshot Number 10, this motherfucker doesn’t know if he’s gonna go to hell or heaven,

Marcus Hopsin, you are talented; you can sing, and rip bars and minds apart;c

Cause we get it your fucking smart; being a psychology major I find,

when I see an Ill mind I gotta pull that brain apart;

Your close-minded to what others believe, and even say multiple times weed is the Devil; please,

Maybe you need to take a few tokes and relax and come to our Level; Marcus see -

you’re becoming Narcissistic, egotistic; eccentric and malevolent

when you used to be so sentient, and relevant it’s evident you’ve become nothing but bullshit and sediment,

it fills me with resentment cause at one point I respected your intellect,

Always comparing your cerebral flare to others as though we are mentally bare.

minimal broken individuals, with residual visuals working for subliminal criminals.

when you’re the one becoming a dark individual with critical criticisms becoming catatonic and chaotic,

a cataclysm of schisms risen out of insecure idioms into introverted introspective Imprisonment,

Ignorant to inner interference ironically inseminating itself with Ignorance, inevitable isolated intelligence incarnates into immoral idiotic indulgence,

But honestly,

fuck what I think though speaking relatively, it’s all irrelevant in a universe intertwined in infinite immeasurable possibility,

but seriously though, can we like, stop being so childish and petty?

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honestlyprettychill · 7 years

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Just Plance Things

Some headcanons and random Pidge/Lance thoughts, because i cant get enough of this ship

-Lance has an incredible voice, angelic (i mean, we already know that lol) and loves to sing. He’s always humming like 24/7. He tends to hum the same tunes so much that Pidge has actually managed to memorize some of them, and if she’s in the same room as him, she’ll hum along until he notices. He’ll whirl around, and she’ll just keep doing whatever she’s doing, pretending like she’s not paying attention, and he get’s so confused. “Pidge...? are you--is that.... umm... ah never mind.” It’s her favorite thing to do when she’s bored.

-Now Pidge can’t sing. Like at all. But she can rap like no one’s business. Her favorite song to rap is Rap God by Eminem, and Lance gets dizzy listening to her spit out so many words in such a short time, but he loves it. He tries to lay down a ‘sick beat’ for her but just ends up spitting all over cause he cant beatbox for shit. If they’re ever just chilling in the castle together, he’ll give her a topic off the top of his head, and Pidge has to freestyle about it. One time she rapped about chicken nuggets for a solid twenty minutes. It helps her code better for some reason.

-When Lance and Pidge went to the space mall and bought that video game together, they were given a single gak coin back as change. Pidge keeps it in her pocket all the time as a keepsake and likes to fiddle with it when she’s bored or stressed.

-Lance goes to Kaltenecker for all his girl problems. He brushes her and talks for hours about Allura and occasionally Plaxum, and always ends up talking about Pidge sooner or later. He asks Kaltenecker why Pidge always gets really quiet or testy when he talk about about other girls. “You think maybe she thinks im too good for them? Moo once for yes, and twice for no”

-When Pidge introduced her two garbage poofs to Lance, he jokingly suggested to name them Plance and Lidge and she spent the whole night a blushing squealing mess.

-Lance is a terrible sleeper, and always wakes up at least three a night times if not more, whether it be from anxiety or bad dreams. He tries to remember one of Pidge’s raps to lull him back to sleep, only for his eyes to pop back open as he wonders why Pidge is always the first person on his mind when he wakes up.

#just plance things #random plance hc #plance #pidgance #flirtyrobot #pidge #lance #voltron #green and blue #kaltenecker #trash lance #water my plance

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virginiamanmud-blog · 7 years

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VIRGINIA MAN - MUD TIRES

Discover New Music With Satellite Internet

Hip hop music tunes are around the world wide web, giving rap lovers the ability to dig deeper than ever into this expanding genre. Here's how you can download absolutely free hip hop music videos and songs from old and new school artists who have topped the charts.

The very first place I recommend is Jamendo. On their site, you can search by license and musical style. The former is beneficial if you want beats to use for your own music. If you want to hunt for songs you can reuse, search for tracks that allow you to alter, construct or adapt and utilize commercially (if you would like to offer your music). If you aren't looking for royalty free beats, the website still provides a large choice of hip hop songs for you to peruse. The selection is in fact incredible.

An internet radio station with a great selection of rap artists is Pandora. I use this website religiously to learn about new music. You can create your own radio station by telling Pandora to search for a specific genre, artist or keyword. For instance, you can construct a station according to Nas, and Pandora provides up a list of related artists and tunes which are related to Nas (both musically and lyrically). As each song is performed you can vote it up or down, and Pandora will shift its selections according to your own preferences. I can not clarify how many new artists I have found though this particular service.

Hip hop music tunes are discussed passionately on numerous rap forums, and are a great spot to find out more. Most forums like RapBeats and AllHipHop have sections that share new music. Post a couple of your favourite artists and see what others recommend.

Another fantastic place is YouTube. My friend started using this to play with background music at a party, which we attached to his TV. It's like having your very own personal MTV at all times! Frankly, I was amazed at the number of old school and popular chart topping videos it offered. Naturally, you do need to modify the tunes yourself, however, the video selection is unlike any other online!

Searching for new rap songs from your favorite mainstream and underground hip hop artists? When it's gangsta rap, Dirty South paths or old school hip hop, here's where you will discover the hottest new rap tunes...

Admittedly, the world wide web has taken its toll on radio stations in the past ten years, yet new tunes get a lot of exposure. Following is a brief list of radio stations and radio where you'll hear new music releases...

Pwer 106. The major name in the rap game. Power 106 falls music in the most popular rappers in the game, like Lil Wayne, Eminem and 50 Cent, in Addition to the up and coming new stars such as Drake, Flo Rida and T.I.

Power 105. Oddly enough, this radio station originally played stone, but changed their format to hip hop and R&B in the past several decades. Besides brand new rap music, they also play old school hip hop and also have a part for rappers to spit freestyles (such as the Wake Show).

Hot 97. Another authority when it comes to hip hop. Their motto is "We're hip hop and R&B" and awarded their years of experience dropping the newest new rap tunes, no one would disagree.

IMEEM. With this site, you can easily make your own playlists from a wide variety of music, such as underground rap, old school hip hop and regional favorites such as East Coast or Dirty South. Another great feature they provide is that listeners may share their playlists with other people through the social networking feature. Want to listen to what other people are listening to? This is where to test out.

Pandora. This just may be my favourite website, period. When it comes to locating new rap music, look no more. With Pandora, you simply look for a musical style or artists and Pandora serves up a streaming playlist of associated songs according to your preferences. It's amazing how well Pandora functions up new artists; I'll play this while on the computer and seem to hear a new song I like from a musicians I have never heard of every ten minutes! Funded by the Music Genome Project, this website is totally free.

When it comes to finding new music, The Internet is a virtual treasure trove, with a seemingly limitless supply of new and established musicians, hidden gems and struggling and fledgling artists that are on the cusp of stardom. Here are some excellent legal resources to help you find more songs to add to your group:

Pandora.com

Technically, Pandora is a free online radio site, but look a bit deeper and you will find a whole lot more than that. From the primary page, you'll be asked to type in your favourite music artist. Then a radio playlist is created that includes your favourite artist as well as similar artists that Pandora considers you would like. They choose similar artists by fitting up the rhythm, lyrics, harmonies, melodies and just about every other aspect of your favourite artist's tunes and selects more artists and songs based on such an analysis. The outcome is a really customized playlist that likely includes many artists that you haven't heard of, yet will very likely be of interest for you. Pandora continues to refine your playlist even as you're listening to your radio station, by letting you give a thumbs up or thumbs down to every song. If you're searching for new music, then Pandora is a great place to get started.

Last.fm

Last.fm is similar to a social model of Pandora. You begin with downloading the participant, it will scan your computer for songs you already have, then create a personalized radio playlist from that. You can also find new artists throughout your friends and get even more music recommendations.

MySpace.com

MySpace is great for discovering unsigned artists. Many unsigned artists start out by promoting themselves onto a customized music MySpace page. Artists are allowed to add up to 4 songs for visitors of the profile to obey and can add extra links to upload or songs videos right into the profile. You can discover new music and artists by browsing from profile to profile clicking fascinating friends of the artists. Many artists on MySpace are agreeing to assist promote one another, so this works great for them and for you personally.

MusicMatch.com

MusicMatch offers a very good music player for your personal computer, but they also provide something called the MMGuide. Where you simply type in the title of your favourite artist and MusicMatch will give you recommendations based on the listening habits of their whole music community.

RadioBlogClub.com

RadioBlogClub is a service that allows webmasters and bloggers to add a customized radio playlist for their websites. Just type in the title of an artist or a song name and you will get a listing of playlists which have those songs. The key here is that these playlists rarely simply include a artist, but as soon as you're done listening to the specific song or artist you requested, more music with that site will play, and it's often fairly similar in flavor. It is a great way to hear new artists, especially foreign artists including Indian and Asian.

We constantly hear talk about new music and the new music launch but, on closer examination, these phrases are words that are loosely bandied about. They are words shipped forward with lifeless certain intent and yet they have no certain criteria. They're similar to other words that we use with serious intent which also have, at best, a subjective significance; phrases like 'god,' 'soul,' and 'normal.'

First of all, when we use the words 'new songs,' we make the arrogant assumption that we are talking about the new songs of our own creation, like previous generations did not have and talk about new music. Let's return MUD TIRES by VIRGINIA MAN to the early 1700s, at the end of J.S. Bach's lifetime where we will find just one such circumstance of the advent of new music. J.S. Bach's sons were among the proponents of this new music that we now call Classical.

The music of J.S. Bach's day, the Baroque, has been a more complex form of music, thus we see yet another example of fresh music between a de-evolution of types and part and parcel using a popular movement. As a student, I had a music history professor whose pet thought was that everything following J.S. Bach was just a recycling of material, as it had been. If you look at music from the perspective of the harmonies only, it is Tough to Argue against what he said.

Again, in this day and age, we're seeing a great deal of lawsuits being filed by one artist contrary to the other, stating that their song was 'ripped off' This occurred back in the days of Classic Rock, and understandably, since rock was so clearly derivative of this older big band sounds.

Even though we have been by a dozen or more labels since, such as new wave, punk, and grunge, there hasn't been much movement apart from the regular chord progressions. The Beatles were quite glib about songs that they'd 'nicked' or stolen, meaning they had taken the chord arrangement of a tune and changed the lyrics and speed. One obvious example of this is 'You will find Bells' and 'Little Child' which appear on the same album!

A recent article from the Times defended this process, stating that if an artist makes certain changes to a tune and individualizes it using their own opinion of interpretation and it, they then have that (variant) of this song.

Ironically, this is much more in accordance with the view composers from the baroque seemed to take. Bach thought nothing of changing Vivaldi violin concertos to harpsichord concertos because he believed nothing of his own songs being played completely different instruments than it was initially written for.

Music is a fundamental element of everyday life. Whether to the radio or at that dirty and slightly awkward elevator, it illuminates the entire world. There's a massive collection waiting to be found. It is important to get new music on your life.

The basis to discovering new music would be to understand some of your musical preferences. Gather a piece of paper and a pencil and start writing down a number of your musical tastes. You will discover what you like from your personality, your entertainment tastes, your civilization and what you enjoy doing.

As an example, I love anime and their soundtracks so I wrote down Japanese pop. As among my musical tastes. I also play trumpet in a jazz group, so I wrote down jazz songs that features the trumpet as among my tastes

When you've got some idea about what you enjoy, decide on where you wish to begin. Your decision may be specific (e.g. jazz music featuring the trumpet) or generalized (e.g.electronic home music). Remember who you enjoy in this genre or whatever you like about it.

Now that you've a basic idea on where you want to start exploring, the fun begins. There are many ways that I use to discover new music on a weekly basis. My favorite method is that the Pandora online radio. It enables you to select artists, genres or songs that you enjoy and it plays music that's similar to what you've chosen. The system the developers have used brilliantly chooses songs based on their musical qualities and wallpapers. It is simple and free at Pandora.com. Listening to the community radio is not a bad idea . I am conscious that mainstream music isn't appealing to everybody. But should you give it a chance you might find a couple of songs you really appreciate. If you're not enjoying a certain station simply change to another one that inherits more of your preferences.

If you have a mobile device, I recommend getting shazam or even soundhound. These programs let you record music that's now playing and defines them for you. I like to keep shazam handy whenever I'm listening to the radio or going to a location where I won't be able to determine songs. The "Discovr Music" program is just another tool I use. "Discovr Music" functions on a graphical internet system. You start with a artist or band then the app will provide you the names of artists who are similar. The program will also give you an option to view a number of the most well-known songs.

It is often hard to discover new music. I listen to music constantly; at home, at work, in the car, occasionally even to allow me to sleep. But with no ability to discover new music, I would soon get bored of the same old play lists. I've tried different approaches over the years to expand my musical preferences, so hopefully some of these can be useful to somebody else.

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beatmyaudio · 4 years

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First Mixtape BASED FREESTYLE Song Lyrics –

First Mixtape BASED FREESTYLE Song Lyrics

First Mixtape BASED FREESTYLE Song Lyrics From Popular Hollywood Artist from Free (BASED FREESTYLE MIXTAPE) Album.

This song is sung by singer ” ” in Year 8/5/2015.

Lyrics of First Mixtape BASED FREESTYLE :

(IGH!)Yes sirDo you feel it in your feet? In your head??To the tip of your toes, that’s just the tip of the iceberg, tell ’emThat’s the tip of the iceberg?Cause all these nerds, they ain’t got enough slurs?Enough words to come fuck with usWe be under the covers and stuck with us?No, no homo thoughWe be rockin’ off the top man these bitches lowFirst mixtape, not a mistakeNot a diss tape, tryna escapeI was stuck in a band, he was stuck in a packWe was rappin’ about bands, got hella fansAnd they understood that peace of the world is more important?You know that the shit that we recordin’ don’t ever been written?We the greatest like Jordan, if he was a twin, Rivers of JordanAnd I’m what’s up, what’s up?Comin’ through buss up, what’s up, what’s up?What’s next? What’s nuts?Me I go nuts, I focus on whatever I want upAnd when it comes out it’s so mystical?Super physical, like the education in the gym class?I been passed all the classes they been gassed?They been tellin’ me I need a gas mask just to rap as fastAs Eminem back in ’96 (Woo)?Who you think you’re rhyming with?You don’t got a mixtape with Lil BThis off the top bro, I can’t stop broOne time, one timeYo extend that beat man cause we got a lot of knowledge to say They talkin’ about we got it, we got it, engineersYou see the drive in these cars, ain’t no engine hereI’ve been on the reservation, ain’t no Indians hereThey been callin’ us niggas and hella ninjas hereBut they don’t understand, I throw a star across the River of JordanYeah, I’m going back to rhymin’ with Jordan cause that shits so importantI be feelin’ like foreign bitches ain’t enough for meSo I be comin’ through, I know the life is tough for meWhen God give me hella devils and is stuffin’ me?I understand that it’s just complete as a task?As a test that I gotta get throughWhen I’m comin off the top, you know I gotta spit glue(IGH!)Man, you know I’m feelin’ superb right nowYou know, I’m still at church on sunday reading the word right now?You know, praying to the good Lord right now?It’s not a joke, I gotta shout out everybody though real quick cause we gotta?Can I shout out, can I shout out Chatham, just real quick? West Chatham specificallyCan I shout out that Harold’s on 87 real quick? Can I shout out Chicago public libraries? Can I shout out the shorties? Can I shout out squad? Can I shout Tribe? Can I shout out uh, can I shout out family? You feel me? Cause I, I, I feel like there’s a lot of knowledge?Can I tell them something??I wanted to let everybody know that as long as you understand God world, Man world could never hurt you, do you understand??Like it could never hurt you, you could be in after curfew, you feel me??You could have a growth spurt too, you could have, do you feel me??You get older, but it’s still gon’ have to be a point where you reach a quota, that’s you know, that desire at the end of every month?So while you sparkin’ that blunt to this base tape, I want you to understand, we love you for realAnd that’s for real for real for real, for real?That’s the truth, RuthDon’t drop it, just lock it, hold it on, don’t stop it, cop it and then?You know what I’m saying? Let somebody else use it, you feel me??Cause everything is free out here, we definitely free, freeA Declaration of Independence

First Mixtape BASED FREESTYLE Song Lyrics

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newsrib · 5 years

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I’m The BackBone Of Rap – Eminem

What is freestyle without the Rap god? Eminem has released a new 11-minute freestyle titled ‘Kick Off’, in which he references a lot of things, including the bombing at Ariana Grande‘s Manchester Arena show. Recorded visually at St. Andrew’s in Detroit, the simple video shows Eminem spit impassioned barz like he is known to do. […] https://www.theinfostride.com/2018/12/im-the-backbone-of-rap-eminem/

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kidsviral-blog · 6 years

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MC Jin's Second Chance

New Post has been published on https://kidsviral.info/mc-jins-second-chance/

MC Jin's Second Chance

Over a decade ago, MC Jin was signed to Ruff Ryders — the first Chinese-American rapper to approach mainstream success, only to vanish from the scene as quickly as he arrived. Now, after becoming an unlikely star in Hong Kong and overcoming stereotypes he helped promote, he’s attempting a comeback. But is anyone listening?

The Chinese-American rap artist MC Jin is the last act scheduled to perform on the final evening of the Orange County Night Market, a series of outdoor festivals inspired by the culture of strolling open-air, dusk-to-midnight bazaars in Asia.

Jin, 32, bounds up the stage erected at the center of the fairgrounds. His voice booms from the speakers, shouting for those standing near the back to come closer, while he glides across the length of the stage to slap palms in the pit. He wears black and gold high-tops, black cargo shorts, and a black long-sleeved tee printed with a glossy white Mercedes-Benz logo across the chest but parodied by the words MERDERES DEMZ. A black five-panel cap sits backwards on his head.

A natural performer, Jin stalks the stage with charisma and confidence. Watching him rap is a delight. It all feels effortless, the sprezzatura with which he spits rhymes, the intimacy created between the rapper and the legion of upturned faces that Sunday night. Jin basks in the glow of attention. He conscripts the crowd in singing, chanting, and clapping along throughout the first few songs; he hams it up admirably for all the phones bobbing in the air. When he snatches one out of a young woman’s hands and plants a kiss on the screen, she shrieks with glee.

MC Jin at the Orange County Night Market instagram.com

Photos and video footage later proliferate Instagram and Twitter with the hashtags #MCJin and #JourneyTo1459, a nod to his new studio album entitled XIV:LIX, or 14:59, which references the dwindling seconds of a clock counting down the proverbial 15 minutes of fame.

More than a decade ago, Jin freestyle rapped his way to sudden stardom on BET’s flagship hip-hop television program, 106 & Park. In 2002, Jin Au-Yeung was 19, the baby-faced newcomer on “Freestyle Friday,” the show’s weekly battle segment for aspiring emcees. Swimming in an oversize navy blue sweater, the brim of a bucket hat angled over one eye, the 5-foot-6-inch Chinese kid from Queens annihilated the returning champ that first week, and went on to collect six more consecutive wins to earn a spot in 106 & Park’s “Freestyle Friday” Hall of Fame.

Touted the first mainstream Asian-American rapper, he had the ears of the hip-hop world and the devotion of every Asian-American kid with even a passing interest in rap music. Following the BET run, Jin scored a deal with Ruff Ryders, the label that developed artists Eve, DMX, and Jadakiss. To say that hype surrounded Jin’s studio debut is an understatement. Back then, he endured constant comparisons to Eminem, as much for a shared history of coming up the freestyle battle circuit and because of his race. Jin was another outsider trying to come up in a genre dominated by black artists.

You might count a handful DJs and producers — Q-bert and Invisibl Skratch Piklz, DJ Babu of Dilated Peoples, the Fifth Platoon crew in New York — but Jin was undeniably the only rapper out there calling himself “the original chink-eyed MC.” In a New York Times Magazine profile, Ta-Nehisi Coates once wrote of Jin as “the Great Yellow Hip-Hop Hope.”

In 2003, Rolling Stone had named him one of the year’s top new artists to watch. The producer credits on Jin’s The Rest Is History reads like a murderer’s row of hitmakers — Just Blaze, Wyclef Jean, Swizz Beats, Kanye West — but when it was released in 2004, the record received tepid reviews and underperformed in sales.

“I didn’t realize it, but when I first got into battling, as early as age 13, 14, that [freestyle battling] would be my gift and my curse. There’s this stigma about being a battle rapper,” Jin says. “There was a chip on my shoulder, like, ‘Yo, I gotta prove that battle rappers can make songs.’” He shakes his head. “It was just one more thing to add on to the distractions that pulled me away from being able to be truly creative.”

We’re sitting in The Arche, pronounced “ark,” the recording studio at the SEED Center, the vast warehouse in downtown Los Angeles that Jin’s manager and longtime friend, Carl Choi, stripped and transformed into the home to the Great Company, the artist management and event production venture Choi heads up. The Jin in front of me now is toned-down version of the boisterous, ebullient rapper stomping around on stage at the Orange County Night Market a week ago. He is easygoing, and quick with spitfire wisecracks. He speaks fast, sometimes interrupting himself to clarify a detail, jumping forward or looping back to the topic at hand. Jin is always in command of the conversation, even while his mouth appears to rattle on extemporaneously.

In the decade and some years since his 106 & Park and Ruff Ryders days, Jin’s star has blotted, if not faded entirely. Word spread that he’d quit the rap game and had moved to Hong Kong to capitalize on all that new China money.

Jin is back, though in truth, he’d never quite arrived in the first place. “What was driving me then? Fame, money, self-glorification,” Jin admits. “The difference between now and 10 years ago is that [I have] so much more clarity now. So much more purpose. The XIV:LIX mind-set is ‘Yo, Jin, this could be the last interview you ever do, so be honest, be authentic, be grateful, be sincere. This could be the last song, the last album.’”

View this image ›

Photograph by Jon Premosch for BuzzFeed News

Jin and Ruff Ryders parted ways after the disappointing reception to The Rest Is History. “It was looming in the air. We all knew it was a matter of time,” he says of being released. A few independently released mixtapes came out to little notice. By 2007, he was living back home in Queens, the Au-Yeung family of four (Jin, his parents, and younger sister Avah) all crowded into a desolate basement apartment.

“It was the darkest two years of this whole past decade,” Jin says. “I was in the depression zone — and I don’t use that word lightly.”

“I was on the verge of hanging it all up: Maybe troop on over to Best Buy and see if they’re hiring.“

“I was on the verge of hanging it all up: Maybe it’s time to really let this music thing go, and troop on over to Best Buy and see if they’re hiring,” he says, describing his mind-set then. “At least I’d know I have a job, and it’s not based on popularity and acceptance and hype. I just clock in, stock the TVs, and clock out.”

Jin moved to Hong Kong in 2008; he released a Cantonese-language album through Universal, which led to acting gigs in Chinese film and television. Jin calls the choice to attempt resuscitation of his music dreams overseas a “no-brainer.” He says, “There was absolutely nothing going on for me here in the U.S. at the time, career-wise.” Around the time, Jin found a renewed faith in Christianity. He says, “God really allowed me to blossom. To me, that was the biggest thing to come out of the Hong Kong experience. The last thing I [expected].”

Though Jin was a household name in Hong Kong by then, acting on TV and in films, hosting variety shows, cashing checks for paid endorsements, even appearing alongside a top government official in a state-sponsored holiday greeting spot, he packed it all up and moved back to New York to be a full-time dad to baby boy Chance, who arrived in 2012.

He quiets, and his hands stop moving; he’s not scratching his head, pounding a fist into an open palm, shooting gun-fingers, waving a hand in the air while the other mimes holding a microphone. Mando Fresko, a radio personality on L.A.’s hip-hop station Power 106 who advised on the production of XIV:LIX, says of Jin, “He’s fast at everything. He’s fast at writing songs, fast at recording. Once he feels it, he runs with it. He doesn’t second-guess. He’ll hop in the booth and knock it out.”

In putting together the new album, Jin recorded 35 songs in total. Fifteen tracks ultimately made it on the record. The first single is “Chinese New Year,” a revelatory celebration of Jin’s Chinese-American identity, the story of his family’s immigrant, working-class roots, and a candid acknowledgment of the failures in his rap career thus far — including regret over “Learn Chinese,” the first single off The Rest Is History, and probably still the most recognizable song in Jin’s oeuvre.

“I’m at a point now where I don’t cringe if I hear ‘Learn Chinese,’” he says now. “But I don’t think there was ever one point when I was genuinely, genuinely proud of that song.’” He adds, “I definitely still cringe at that video.”

The video for “Learn Chinese” is a study in the hackneyed stereotypes of Orientalist fantasy. Jin plays two characters in it: the villain in an eye patch and thin mustache who leads a gang of karate-chopping henchmen, and the hero who rescues the sexy Asian girls from some den of iniquity deep in the bowels of a glamorized Chinatown ghetto. The concept is intercut with shots of Jin in a maroon jogging suit rapping underneath an arched, neon-lit Chinese gate, a diamond-encrusted “R” chain swinging from his neck, the famous logo of the Ruff Ryders.

Jin recalls the awe he felt collaborating with Wyclef, who produced “Learn Chinese” and makes a cameo in the video as hype man, bouncing and weaving with his palms pressed in prayer hands, and occasionally bowing, high-kicking. “If Clef said, ‘Yo, you should do this,’ whatever it would have been, I probably was like, cool, let’s do it. Everything he’s suggesting was gold to me.”

Oliver Wang, a music writer and professor of sociology at California State University, Long Beach, has criticized the song for its failure to actually break racial stereotypes of Asian-American men. “It’s still wholly conservative in its ideal of what masculinity looks and sounds like,” Wang asserts. “The video still ascribes to all the same tropes of hegemonic masculinity that we’re familiar with in terms of capacity for violence, sexual prowess.”

“I had this opportunity to make a statement. My criticism of it now is: You had this opportunity and that was the statement you made?”

Jin blames his youth and industry naiveté for the misguided execution. “I look back, and I had this opportunity to make a statement. That was my first single to the world that the label was going to get behind. My criticism of it now is: You had this opportunity, Jin, and that was the statement you made?”

He has higher hopes for the single off XIV:LIX. “I have absolute peace when ‘Chinese New Year’ comes on right now. Whether I’m in a room by myself or it’s in a room full of strangers, or people I do know. Just that alone tells me it’s different from ‘Learn Chinese.’”

At least one critic is cheered; Wang writes to me by email, “It’s like Jin made an 180. On ‘Chinese New Year,’ it’s all about looking inward via introspection and he basically apologizes for his 21-year-old self on ‘Learn Chinese,’ which is striking since it’s rare to see many rappers walking back their own earlier catalog.”

Steven Y. Wong, curator at the Chinese American Museum, is more skeptical. Wong has written about the challenges that artists and arts institutions, like the one where he works, face when addressing culturally specific stories. He says, “Too often, our own ethnic communities celebrate the four F’s (famous people, festivals, fashion, and food), with good intentions, to perhaps demonstrate success, acceptance, and assimilation.” In his estimation, these themes fail to present the nuanced complexities of a community of people, and actually perpetuate “the misconceptions and cultural reductions that prevail in the American imagination” when it comes to Asian-Americans.

The song hits three of Wong’s four F’s: Bruce Lee (famous people), Chinese New Year (festival), and wontons and dim sum (food). The musical production, too, grates Wong’s ears, with its “guzheng- and erhu-sounding pentatonic loops,” stringed instruments that Wong dismisses as “a stereotypical strategy to incorporate an essentialized Chinese-ness.” And that “gung hay fat choy” chorus? Wong calls it “cliché.”

Other listeners are not as discerning and despite his long absence, still seems to have a core following interested in seeing how his Hong Kong detour might bode well for his revived music career at home. Not that he’s overly worried.

“To me right now, fun is taking a drive to Home Depot,” he says. “How’s the album doing, planning for this, got a gig there, social media, all that stuff is out the window. I’m just pushing the cart, Chance is sitting there. We’re talking about we need to get new shingles, whatever. To me, that’s living.”

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Photograph by Jon Premosch for BuzzFeed News

The night of the XIV:LIX launch party at the Sayers Club in Hollywood, a line of a hundred or so people stand listlessly against the brick-wall facade of the nightclub, waiting for a stoic woman with waist-long black hair to find their names on her clipboard. About 50 have been admitted into the front of the house, where a step-and-repeat is set up next to a long wraparound bar. There are men in vests and shirtsleeves, and brightly colored bow ties. The more casually dressed have affected styles of studied dishevelment; ironic logo shirts, cuffed jeans, Nike Air Force 1s. The women wear high-waisted shorts, sheer tops, and heavy gold necklaces, eyelids glittering in iridescent colors.

At 8:20 p.m., guests are ushered into the black-box theater space decorated in the manner of a 1920s speakeasy. Edison bulbs hang from the vaulted ceiling. Half a dozen chesterfield sofas circle the stage, leaving a small aisle for the cocktail waitresses in black hot pants to deliver bottle service. Private booths line the periphery of the room, but most of the attendees remain standing in the aisles or leaning against the massive stretch of bar at the back, dimly lit by a row of wrought-iron candelabras.

Mando Fresko, the Power 106 radio host, commands the DJ booth, spinning a mix of old and new hip-hop joints by Common, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Macklemore. Jin is somewhere in the room greeting old friends and fans, but when Mando jams Outkast’s “ATLiens,” he gallops to the booth and bumps fists, then raps along to every word in the first verse.

Jin runs through all 15 songs on XIV:LIX, performing parts of tracks live, wisecracking with Fresko, narrating the story of how the album was conceived and brought to light. He is accompanied by a drummer on stage. At one point in the night, he indulges the audience with a freestyle rap session over the snares and kicks, and the crowd goes nuts for it, whooping and whistling for more.

The morning after the party, Jin is visibly drained. “I wanna go home.” Then, he softens. “That’s how I feel, you know? Want to go home. See the fam.”

I recall a moment near the end of our first interview session, when he tells me that he’s not as confident as the persona he projects on stage. He’d just finished giving a blow-by-blow account of how he came to win his first “Freestyle Friday” battle on 106 & Park, from the open casting in Harlem, to how he felt about his chances after the audition, getting the callback (“The taping’s on Wednesday — that blew my mind right there. ‘Freestyle Friday’ isn’t even on Friday!”), the story on defending champ Hassan who stood over a foot taller than him, his strategy going into the battle, down to the David-defeats-Goliath moment when the judges announced him as the winner.

“Sometimes, man, these different chapters don’t always end up panning out the way you think.”

In those quiet seconds after this elaborate, detailed account, his eyes cast toward the rug on the floor, I glimpsed some vague, irretrievable sadness about him. The last thing he’d said, before we stopped recording, was this: “Sometimes, man, these different chapters, different seasons, don’t always end up panning out the way you think.”

I never see that Jin again, not once, in the two weeks I spend trailing him at radio interviews, meet-and-greets, and club shows where he’s mobbed by drunken, crushing crowds. (One determined young woman sidled up to me at Emerson, a nightclub in Hollywood, and demanded that I take a photo with her: “You’re MC Jin’s wife, aren’t you?”)

The day of the album launch, the accompanying XIV:LIX merchandise also arrives in office: CDs with 15 different covers, T-shirts, embroidered hats. Jin studies the liner notes in silence, then quips: “The Great Company, with two O’s, though?” A dreadful silence, then he says, “I’m just kidding!” The staffer in charge of merchandise wails and nearly collapses, while everyone else guffaws.

View this image ›

Photograph by Jon Premosch for BuzzFeed News

“I would like to think that XIV:LIX will open up a lot of doors in 2015.” A tour is in the works and he hopes to pursue more acting, picking up where he left off in Hong Kong. Late last year, he appeared in Revenge of the Green Dragons, a crime drama directed by Andrew Lau and Andrew Loo, and executive produced by Martin Scorsese. Jin’s performance as a rookie NYPD detective is nothing spectacular, but he delivers his lines adequately and manages to hold his own opposite Ray Liotta.

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MC Jin in Hong Kong, 2008 Jerome Favre / AP Photo

I ask him if it’s a goal to be signed to a major label again. A long pause, then he says, “That’s a good question.” Another pause, and then he decides, “Yeah. It is.” His approach now, however, is vastly changed from the Ruff Ryders days — acknowledging that the industry, too has changed. “Now, I’m not in the mind-set of ‘I’ll do anything to sign, whatever deal you give me I’ll take.’ At one point, that probably was the reality. I was just thirsty for a deal, whatever kind of deal it is.”

Carl Choi, Jin’s manager, says “some sort of collaborative deal makes sense,” which means retaining creative control, but with a major label’s financial resources. Though Jin has been under Choi’s management for years now, the Great Company is a startup venture; XIV:LIX was made in part through crowdsourced funding via a successful Pledge Music campaign.

Choi is no neophyte, however. He has previously managed another Asian-American rap act to platinum success. For years, he was inseparable from the dance/hip-hop group Far East Movement. The relationship imploded after the quartet signed with Interscope in 2010.

At the time, Choi felt strongly that Far East Movement should’ve gone it alone, without the mainstream label deal. “Their songs were getting picked up on the radio, we had traction with touring,” Choi says. “I told the guys, I think we can do this indie, but because I was trying to get them out of that deal, I became the enemy.”

Since breaking with Choi, Far East Movement has gone on to open for Lady Gaga, Calvin Harris, and Lil Wayne. Their hit single, “Like a G6,” has sold over 2 million copies. Kevin Nishimura, one member of Far East Movement, declined to speak on his relationship to the group’s former manager, though he allowed that upon signing with Interscope, the label suggested a name change for the band.

“Right then and there, it really struck us, that’s something that’s not negotiable,” Nishimura says. All four members of Far East Movement are Asian, but their lyrics have never explicitly referenced race. Nishimura explains that that’s partly why the foursome from L.A., with deep roots in Koreatown, have insisted on keeping their original name. “It’s been our way of representing,” he says.

Jin, on the other hand, has never shied away from discussions of race. “People always want to debate, are you black enough or not-black enough, are you Asian enough or not-Asian enough. Like, how do you gauge that?” He chuckles, and continues: “These last few weeks, I’ve been at the OC Night Market, [which is] predominantly Asian. I’m there speaking Cantonese, being myself. And then there’s the Christian music conference I attended in Tampa. Completely opposite, totally not Asian, a good diverse mix of folks. To me, that authenticity, people can feel it. I don’t feel like I have to turn off or on something.”

Though he no longer suffers the comparisons to Eminem (“Number-one reason people don’t call me the Asian Eminem anymore is because he went on to sell billions of records, build this magnificent career, and I went the opposite way,” he says, with a wry laugh), Jin acknowledges that he is a “stan” of his, as well as Macklemore. But he distinguishes himself from another popular white rapper who’s been at the center of recent heated debates in hip-hop: Iggy Azalea. Last year, Azalea was derided by many rap purists, including Q-Tip, for being dismissive of the genre’s cultural roots. “I’m very vocal about saying that we have to remember hip-hop is black culture,” Jin says. “It can grow and evolve, yeah, but my own personal take is that we can never get to a point where we forget that, or not acknowledge it. It comes from respect, and I’m big on the history of hip-hop.”

A couple nights after his album release party, Jin is feted by chef Roy Choi at POT, the hipster Korean restaurant at the newly revamped Line Hotel. The comedic female rapper Awkwafina is there, eating dinner with Dumbfoundead, the Korean-American emcee who’s now going by the stage name Parker. Both are featured in Bad Rap, a documentary on Asian-Americans in hip-hop, directed by Salima Koroma.

In a glib deadpan, Parker says, “Asians in rap? That shit is a very hard mix.”

“If you don’t address race, then people are like, why don’t you talk about the elephant in the room,” says Awkwafina. She adds, “But you have to do it right. It can’t be gimmicky.” A native New Yorker, she calls Jin a “hometown hero,” and she remembers seeing him years ago, “rolling around Flushing with that Ruff Ryders chain, just chilling with friends.”

The two sit at the bar, drinking beers and sharing several plates of food between them. A few feet behind them, an Asian family tucks into their meal wordlessly: grandparents, parents, and two teenage daughters. Jin is on a break. In the meantime, the DJ spins old-school rap songs and cuts from Jin’s XIV:LIX. When he returns behind the bar and grabs the mic again, one of the teenage girls, her hair dyed a shocking pink ombré, turns around in her chair and starts recording with her phone. Jin freestyles a few bars, then leads off chanting, “What’s for dessert, Chef Roy? What’s for dessert?” The entire restaurant chimes in; one of the waitstaff dances exuberantly for a moment by the host stand, popping and locking.

Later, Choi answers by handing Jin a round cake with white icing. The rapper grins, then looks around, and asks innocently, “What do I do with this?” His eyes widen, as if threatening to dump the cake over one of his team. Someone takes the cake from him, and then Jin runs off again, ready to grab the mic and entertain the restaurant’s staff and guests.

Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jeanho/mc-jins-second-chance

#106 and park #ruff ryders

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deadcactuswalking · 6 years

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 28th January 2018

This week was very, very busy so I’m going to get straight to the point here and look at our top ten, which has changed quite a bit to say the least.

Top 10

I suppose we won’t be having Eminem topping the chart for much longer, not even with Ed Sheeran’s help, as Drake’s most recent snoozefest has, in the first time in Reviewing the Charts history, debuted at number-one. All I have to say about this is... really? I’d rather have Lil Pump top the charts, at least he’s relatively interesting.

“Barking” by Ramz stays at number-two in the runner-up position as I just keep on losing interest in this dude.

At number-three, we have last week’s chart-topping “River” by Eminem featuring Ed Sheeran, and I’m not bothered, really, it’s okay, not amazing.

“IDGAF” by Dua Lipa is up by 10 spots all the way to number-four, and that’s just all for the best, this song is amazing.

“Tip Toe” by Jason Derulo featuring French Montana has made the top five, because the UK charts love me today, and decided this should go up three spaces.

The new arrivals are really messing up whatever traction Cardi B’s remix of “Finesse” by Bruno Mars ever had, now it’s down to number-six, but I do hope it makes a rebound soon.

“Perfect” by Ed Sheeran – now just Ed, without Beyoncé for some reason – is down four spots to number-seven, which means the UK is taking baby steps towards no longer caring about Ed Sheeran. Thank God.

We have another new entry into the top ten, with “This is Me” by Keala Settle and The Greatest Showman Ensemble up five spots to number-eight.

Our final new entry into the top ten is “Breathe” by Jax Jones featuring Ina Wroldsen three spaces up to nine.

To finish off our top ten, once again, is the non-mover “I Know You” by Craig David and Bastille.

Climbers

Other than the top ten having some major change-ups, we also have quite a few climbers and fallers, with the biggest climber being “Strangers” by Sigrid going up a massive 12 spaces to #14. ��Feel it Still” by Portugal. The Man also hits the top 20 incredibly late, going up five spaces to #20 – seriously, why now? Is this all because of that advert? Not that I’m upset, this is a great track. “Him & I” by G-Eazy and Halsey also went up five spaces to #27, but if you care about that song at all, I don’t know what to say to you.

Other minor climbers include “Bad” by Steel Banglez featuring Yungen, MoStack, Mr. Eazi and Not3s up to #30 and “Bouff Daddy” by J Hus up to #26.

Fallers

Jesus. The amount of fallers this week is unbelievable, but not many of them are very large. The top twenty contains most of the major drops, with “I Miss You” by Clean Bandit and Julia Michaels dropping seven spaces, “Anywhere” by Rita Ora dropping six spaces, “Let You Down” by NF dropping four spaces, “Never be the Same” by Camila Cabello dropping eight spaces, “17” by MK dropping five spaces and "Decline" by RAYE and Mr. Eazi down three spaces to #11, #12, #13, #15, #16 and #18 respectively. "Havana" by Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug is also down six spaces to #22, unfortunately, as is "Naked" by James Arthur, fortunately. "For You (Fifty Shades Freed)" is proving itself as a flop, with the Liam Payne and Rita Ora debut dropping eight spaces to #29. Justin Timberlake jumped down a 10-spot bridge down to #38 with "Filthy" with me as the cackling overseer.

Other minor falls include "No Words" by Dave featuring MoStack down to #24, "Wolves" by Selena Gomez and Marshmello down to #25, "rockstar" by Post Malone featuring 21 Savage down to #31, "New Rules" by Dua Lipa down to #34, "Dimelo" by Rak-Su featuring Naughty Boy and Wyclef Jean down to #35, "Let Me Down" by Jorja Smith featuring Stormzy down to #36, "All the Stars" by Kendrick Lamar and SZA down to #37 and "Silence" by Marshmello featuring Khalid down to #39.

Dropouts

Maybe my theory is correct. The UK is getting tired of Ed Sheeran, and it's a damn good sight to see "Shape of You" finally drop out the top 40 from #39. Sure, it's still in the top 100, but who cares about the other 60 songs? Let's be fair here. "Man's Not Hot" by Big Shaq finally realises its status as a meme deep into the grave, and drops out from #18 to my glee. Stormzy and MNEK also drop out with "Blinded by Your Grace, Pt. 2" from #37, as does "My My My!" by Troye Sivan from #38 after its first week (flop alert). We haven't talked about the new arrivals yet, but I'm sure this is gonna be a good week looking at these dropouts, fallers and climbers.

NEW ARRIVALS

Let's see if this really is a good week by looking at our new arrivals.

#40 - "Sick Boy" - The Chainsmokers

Andrew Taggart can’t sing but he does his best here, I suppose, with his slightly nasal multi-tracked vocals over the oddly dark pop ballad, with simple piano melodies played over drums that are not trap snares or rattling hi-hats or steel pans, a first for Reviewing the Charts – yes, seriously. The synths in the bridge are pretty intense as well, making this a pretty powerful alternative rock song, which I can call an ironic anthem for sick boys, I suppose. They say that he’s the sick boy, and his singing voice proves their point massively. It’s not a bad song though, with a better vocalist and maybe, you know, not being completely all over the place in terms of structure, this could have easily been best of the week. We need more upbeat rock in the top 40, even if, yes, it is from the Chainsmokers.

#33 - "These Days" - Rudimental featuring Jess Glynne, Macklemore and Dan Caplen

Four artists, all of which are hit-and-miss (excluding the complete nobody Dan Caplen), collaborate for something that’s completely out of all their leagues: a largely acoustic yet also largely electronic pop nostalgia ballad, with gospel choir vocals assisting Jess Glynne on the chorus and Dan Caplen channelling his inner Ed Sheeran. It’s actually pretty excellent for a generic pop song, in fact, I’d call it perfect. The vocaloid drop sounds so much like an electric guitar that I can pass it off as a guitar solo, and there’s some creative manipulation of the vocals here to create trumpet-like blares in the post-chorus. Macklemore’s slightly autotuned rap verse isn’t bad, but he doesn’t make much of an impression, especially at the end of his section where he’s overwhelmed by both Caplen and Glynne’s vocals as well as the elegant synths and (real) trumpets. This is essentially a representation of British popular music in 2017, but made so much more natural. Check this out, even if the Bon Jovi song of the same title is much better, just saying.

#32 - "Fine Line" - Mabel featuring Not3s

We’ve had pop and rock so it’s about time for some boring reggae-rap, right? Nope! Mabel switches things up with a dancehall-influenced tropical R&B jam with a twinkly synth lead and cluttered percussion that could have been cleaned up to match the smoothness of the production and Mabel’s vocals, which make her sound better than she ever has, seriously, she sounds amazing on this track, for the most part. When she doesn’t sound amazing, she’s forcing Jamaican inflections that are so obnoxiously forced it’s borderline racist. Not3s can’t sing, so he decides to mumble back in the mix with Mabel bringing some liveliness to his verse, while he switches up his flow that combines rapping and singing into a weird mush of Future-like nonsense except much more audible. The one thing bringing these two songs down is the guest rapper, but again, their involvement is not noticeable enough to really make them bad songs, or even mediocre. This is pretty nice, and I hope when Mabel’s album comes around, this track is replaced with one without Not3s. Not3s’ name is fitting because his verses are comparable to leet-speak: they’re wastes of time and I’m sick of them.

#21 - "Diplomatic Immunity" - Drake

I despise Drake to my very core because of his complete lack of interesting qualities, but when he really starts spitting, you have a really good song on your hands. This is no exception, with the orchestral intro leading into a chilled trap beat where Drake can just freestyle bars about, yes, bragging of course, but he pulls it off, with more enthusiasm than he usually has, and some really funny punchlines. While I wish the bass wasn’t as high in the mix as it is, it doesn’t affect the song that much. The several vocal samples of a female voice throughout the track had some soulful smoothness to an otherwise trap beat, making a beautiful contrast between the grittiness of the hi-hats as well as Drake himself (who now listens to heavy metal for meditation; thanks for that update, Aubrey) and the orchestral instruments, which break down into an intense outro which is probably one of the best and most interesting moments in Drake’s career. It’s not that hard, to be fair, but this is taking the cake. If the bass wasn’t as prominent as it was and Drake’s rhymes were tighter, this could have taken best of the week.

#1 - “God’s Plan” - Drake

So, this is the big debut from Drake, and is it any interesting? No. Oh, you want me to talk about it? Too bad. Drake doesn’t deserve any more of my interest, and he doesn’t deserve any more of yours. The keys in the background make this a really hard listen, with the autotuned Drake crooning not helping, and when he’s not singing, he’s rapping, but the length of these verses are so short I can just ignore their existence. This is background music, and Drake is a background person who is unfairly pushed into the forefront. Drake has talent, but the sheer oversaturation of him on the charts and in the public conscience is too much for me to handle, and I’m sure it’s too much for Drake to handle. In this case, I understand why his music is so full of dread and reeks of laziness; he can’t truly make what he wants to make and what he has a passion for simply because he is afraid of his relevancy slowly fading away, and I can’t blame him in the world of one-hit wonders and stream-hungry Soundcloud rappers making undeserved waves in the mainstream because at this point, anyone can have a hit, and Drake is one of the very few true pop stars in the game right now. Does this sound familiar? Well, that’s because a similar situation happened between Lil Wayne and Birdman. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the Young Money tree, huh. This is still a bore of a song, though, and totally did not deserve to break all-time streaming numbers.

Conclusion

So, we ended this week on a slightly depressing note, but overall, this week is awesome, and I don’t think I can even give a worst of the week or a dishonourable mention because the only reason “God’s Plan” fails is because of its drab production and unenthusiastic vocals. Surprise, surprise! That’s Drake for you. Honourable mentions go to “Diplomatic Immunity” and “Sick Boy” by the Chainsmokers for being awesome anthems for the OVO label and... ironic sick boys...? The best of the week goes to pop perfection, as it probably will until I grow sick of the “so-perfect-it’s-boring” trend of songs that seem to be more popular in the UK than the US by a landslide, “These Days” by Rudimental featuring Jess Glynne, Macklemore and Dan Caplen. I’d make predictions but I don’t know what to expect, maybe a Fall Out Boy song or something? God knows. See ya next time on Reviewing the Charts!

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weeklyrapgods-blog · 6 years

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Legendary Underground Emcee, Shabaam Sahdeeq has dropped a “60 Seconds Of Flame” freestyle video Tuesday morning for Us (WRG) and our partners at Wrap.Fm. Over the instrumental for “Made You Look” (made famous by Nas), ‘Double SS’ (as he is also known as) spits that tongue-twisting flow in his immediately identifiable vocal tone. Peep it!

Returning from his European tour only a month ago, this hip hop veteran recently dropped his best project yet — Timeless: of the Collection. Like fine wine, SS’s flow gets better with time. Best known for killing Lyricist Lounge in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, Shabaam released his first album Arabian Nights in 1997 with Rawkus Records. He went on to release Sound Clash in 1998, and a host of mixtapes. Over the years, SS gained a loyal fan base. This esteemed Brooklyn rapper has worked with hip hop legends like Mos Def, Common, Busta Rhymes, Kool G Rap, Eminem, Redman and Method Man, to name a few.

Timeless: of the Collection is a testimony of how Shabaam has mastered his craft while maintaining his strong presence in the game. The beats are melodious and raw, the lyrics are on point, and SS always bodies the delivery. This is boom bap at its finest. The project features a bunch of hip hop greats (Keep reading to find out who). Shabaam has received rave reviews on this latest body of work. And he was gracious enough to take time out of his day to chop it up with us at Weekly Rap Gods.

Timeless: of the Collection — Album Cover

Weekly Rap Gods: Who are your musical influences? Shabaam Sahdeeq: All the musicians, producers, emcees and DJs who came before me. Legends of the game. Way too many to mention.

Weekly Rap Gods: Tell us about how you got your record deal.

Shabaam Sahdeeq: My first record deal was with Rawkus Records in 1997 as a solo artist, but I got another deal at the same time with a group called PolyRhythmaddicts on Nervous Records. The deal with Rawkus came about through a manager I had named Ruby Red. We went to Rawkus, but they weren’t all the way believers till I dropped an independent single called “It Could Happen to Anyone” on my label Synista Voices distributed by Freeze Records and radio stations started playing it. Mainly Red Alert during the 5 o’clock free ride on Hot 97, and Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito on WKCR (college radio). Stretch & Bob invited me up to freestyle for the first time on Colombia College Radio and I went back and forth with Black Thought of The Roots when they had their fist album out, and I did real good. After that, I got more meetings. My boy Ed Rivera was doing radio at Def Jam at the time so every single that came out at Def Jam he promoted my stuff with it. When they were doing mail outs to DJs, he stuffed my vinyl in with their artists like, Redman, DMX, Foxy Brown, etc. lol After that, Rawkus gave me two single deals both 12 inch records did good. One of which I had Eminem on before he got really big, called “5 Star Generals”. It was a B-Side to a song called “Sound Clash”. Then they gave me a full album deal. I dropped a bunch of classic singles that appeared on the Soundbombing series of albums. But my solo album never came out. I went to prison shortly after for 3 years.

Weekly Rap Gods: How did you start painting? What inspires your art?

Shabaam Sahdeeq: I’ve been doing graffiti since I was a kid. But while in prison, I really started to perfect my skills in fine art. So when I got cut loose, I really started to paint on canvas and selling my art. I recently started doing art shows in 2014 though. Music inspires my art. Art is frozen music.

Here's a slideshow displaying some of SS's paintings

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Weekly Rap Gods: What was your best experience on a tour? Where were you?

Shabaam Sahdeeq: My last tour in Europe this past November in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The crowd was so live and packed! They made me feel like a superstar. So I gave my all. I rocked for 1 hour and 30 mins holding a bottle of Jack in my hand. lol!

Weekly Rap Gods: What do you think of the current state of hip hop?

Shabaam Sahdeeq: I think it’s wonderful. I listen to and support what I like. And I don’t pay attention to the rest. It’s useless to complain about what you don’t like. The internet makes what you like accessible. So that’s what I rock with. As far as what’s on tv and commercial radio, it don’t concern me till I’m on there. Right now it’s strictly underground for me.

Weekly Rap Gods: What’s your creative process when putting together an album?

Shabaam Sahdeeq: I’m constantly recording and making songs. So I always have a large pool of songs to choose from when I’m ready to release an album. So depending on what the album concept is, I just pull songs from that.

Stefan Nitschke Photography 2011

Weekly Rap Gods: Tell us about your current project.

Shabaam Sahdeeq: Timeless: of the Collection is the first of a four-part series of albums that I’m dropping within two years. This album features production by Haze Attacks, DJ Ready Cee, Nick Wiz, Pete Twist, DJ Doom, Jake Palumbo, ThoroTracks, Rkitech, Supa Ugly, J57 & Ice Rocks. Guest appearances by Masta Ace, Planet Asia, Milano Constantine, Ras Kass, El Gant, El Da Sensei, Pawz One & Swayze artwork by Dread Solo. Cover art by Dread Solo available on Bandcamp and Audiomack but will be available on iTunes, Spotify and other digital outlets on my birthday — Janurary 13th.

Weekly Rap Gods: What’s next for you this year? Upcoming projects? Art shows? Tours?

Shabaam Sahdeeq: My next releases will be a full album entirely produced by J57, a full album with Nick Wiz, an EP produced by DJ Modesty, another EP produced by DJ Concept and “Keepers of the Lost Art Part 2”. I also have a European tour of 19 cities this May 2018 put together by 6 Feet Deep Entertainment and the Underground Store in France. As far as art shows I will be planning some events for spring after the tour!

Shabaam Sahdeeq always delivers that raw edgy boom bap with with heavy hittin’ bars. You heard it here first. So mark your calendars for Shabaam’s 19 city tour in Europe this May. The fans overseas can’t get enough of the lyrical vet, and neither can we here in the states.

Weekly Rap Gods would like to salute Shabaam Sahdeeq for this interview and his contributions to hip hop worldwide.

MUSIC

Stream/buy Timeless: Of The Collection via Bandcamp here:

Shabaam Sahdeeq Is Timeless (Interview) Legendary Underground Emcee, Shabaam Sahdeeq has dropped a “60 Seconds Of Flame” freestyle video Tuesday morning for Us…

#60 seconds of flame #boom bap #hip hop #interview #shabaam sahdeeq #timeless of the collection #underground hip hop #wrapfm

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Eminem’s anti-Trump cypher left celebrities and musicians shook

Eminem left the internet shook during a heated cypher at the BET Awards Tuesday night.

Performing in a Detroit parking garage, the rapper ripped President Donald Trump to shreds in a politically-charged freestyle which lasted just under five minutes.

SEE ALSO: Lose yourself and $2 million in Eminem’s outdated Michigan mansion

Every profound line he spit was filled with frustration with the leader of the free world and his supporters.

The FULL verse that EVERYBODY is talking about! @eminem BODIED THIS! #HipHopAwards http://pic.twitter.com/zoS0wEwjQF

— BET (@BET) October 11, 2017

Celebrities and musicians alike praised, saluted, and thanked the legendary MC for his raw talent and momentous lyrics.

Racism is the only thing he’s Fantastic 4(fantastic for), cause that’s how he gets his rock off, he’s orange. Sheesh @Eminem!! 🔥🔥✊🏾🔥🔥#United http://pic.twitter.com/wcL28BCWpy

— LeBron James (@KingJames) October 11, 2017

I appreciate you @Eminem ✊🏾 http://pic.twitter.com/nwavBwsOkQ

— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) October 11, 2017

Whoa. Rap God. @Eminem thank you. Potentttt

— J. Cole (@JColeNC) October 11, 2017

😳WOW! Watch @Eminem tell his Trump lovin’ fans to F$CK OFF in a freestyle rap. 🔥https://t.co/BYtbnXeZrQ

— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) October 11, 2017

.@Eminem powerful.

— kuz (@kylekuzma) October 11, 2017

.@Eminem killed this shit!!! Fuck that! This is for Collin ball up a fist!!! ✊🏿 http://pic.twitter.com/RF4jQ4LN2z

— Sean Diddy Combs (@diddy) October 11, 2017

Protect Eminem at all cost

— T-Pain (@TPAIN) October 11, 2017

I ❤️ @Eminem.

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) October 11, 2017

Make America Eminem Again

— Whitney Cummings (@WhitneyCummings) October 11, 2017

Is Donald going to tweet about Eminem now #BETHipHopAwards

— Angela Yee (@angelayee) October 11, 2017

Eminem just made a real statement. Much needed and much appreciated.

— Trevor Booker (@35_Fitz) October 11, 2017

@Eminem The GOAT speaking truth to power. https://t.co/uQz72we7Lu

— Christian Navarro (@ChristianLN0821) October 11, 2017

@Eminem, time to drop a new album. #TheStorm

— Daniel Dae Kim (@danieldaekim) October 11, 2017

Very cool to see that Eminem has been reading my tweets.

— billy eichner (@billyeichner) October 11, 2017

Eminem just dragged Donald Trump. #HipHopAwards http://pic.twitter.com/XU4ah7eiDb

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) October 11, 2017

That @Eminem freestyle was amazing!

— MC REN (@realmcren) October 11, 2017

YO @RealDonaldTrump YA BOY @Eminem KiNDA ROASTED YOU LiKE A HONEY HAM. ARE YOU GUNNA DROP A FREESTYLE ViDEO RESPONSE OR MAKE A DiSS TRACK ?

— RiFF RAFF (@JODYHiGHROLLER) October 11, 2017

Not totally sure how rap battles work, but I believe Eminem is now the President of the United States of America.

— andy lassner (@andylassner) October 11, 2017

Legendary. Woa! @Eminem

— Ace Hood (@Acehood) October 11, 2017

We needed a white man to say that ✊️✊️✊️✊️ #Eminem

— lil duval (@lilduval) October 11, 2017

I stand or (kneel) beside you. I appreciate you.

— Jennifer Carpenter (@J2thecarpenter) October 11, 2017

Even Snoop Dogg shared his thoughts on Eminem’s incredible performance.

Slim shady 🔌👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾

A post shared by snoopdogg (@snoopdogg) on Oct 10, 2017 at 6:37pm PDT

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