Rappers-Turnt-Writers

I feel like Samuel L. Jackson.

Remember a few years ago when loud-mouth Sam had issues with all these rappers thinking they could come into Hollywood and become stars just because? Like they had some sort of entitlement to be on the big screen just because they could hold a microphone? He was mad. (I guess he’s gotten over it, seeing as though Home of the Brave, where he stars alongside 50 Cent was just released on DVD).

Expressing oneself through a different artistic medium is nothing new or wrong, but you just can’t go switching up all willy-nilly, translating one skill to the other without hard work. I have to give props to cats like Mos Def and Luda though. They have demonstrated a real commitment to show biz and have the work ethic and talent to back it up. But you have these other rappers – a list way too long to name – that have been cast solely because of their star power and can’t act for nothing (which should have been obvious since most of them can’t rap either).

So it looks like books are the new movies. It seems that a book is the latest item on the requirement list for rappers (and producers) in the game, the bullet point right under a clothing line, a movie credit and smellgood.

Curtis is racking up points. Along with the DVD release, he just dropped a new book, 50x50: 50 Cent in His Own Words. The book is co-written with Complex magazine editor Noah Callahan-Bever and recaps Fitty’s life story (again?) in the style of a full-color scrapbook that includes handwritten lyrics and mixtape covers.

And of course, nowadays no Fitty release would be complete without the kid Kanye dropping something. According to his website, Yeezy will drop Thank You and You’re Welcome on Dec. 15. The book is co-written by J. Sakiya Sandifer who wrote Think, Think and Think Again: The Power of Ideas Designed to Spark Change. It is a volume of Kanye-isms, which his site describes as “the creative, humorous and insightful philosophies and anecdotes used in creating his path to success. It captures the same wit, playful irony, and piercing insight found abundant in his lyrics.” The first 500 books sold will be autographed by authors and you can pre-order your copy here.

I’m not hating on these dudes. I respect what they’re trying to do business-wise. I think it’s real good that they’re promoting writing and reading so maybe some of these young bucks will start thinking it’s cool to carry books. Reading, for your information, is fundamental and all that. But I’m not giving them an automatic pass. They need to bring something to the page just like they need to bring something to the big screen just like they need to bring something to the stage.

Does Blender Got Beef With Common?

The magazine bills itself as the “ultimate guide to music and more.” That should mean it is the end-all, be-all music expert, the supreme source on beats and notes. But it turns out that “more” only means more crap.

For years Blender magazine has been putting together these “best of” and “worst of” lists of albums, artists or songs. It has compiled the 10 Songs You Were Probably Conceived To (If You’re Between 25 and 35), 20 Songs You Should Download, and The Filthiest Lyrics Of All Time, a list which included Lil Kim’s How Many Licks and Ying Yang Twins’ Wait (The Whisper Song). It even teamed up with VH1 for the 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs segment, where “We Built This City” by Starship took the top honors.

The lists are put together most likely by a bootleg committee of some sort. For what it’s worth, I guess it does help to have that niche when you’re up against music magazine heavyweights like Rolling Stone and XXL (Does anybody actually read Blender?). But I’ve noticed in the past two years that Blender seems to have an issue with Common. I’m not sure if he played them on an interview one time or if a bitter ex of his works in the editorial department but there’s something up.
Last year, Blender put together a list of the 25 Biggest Wusses Ever. And Common comes in at No. 18. I mean I admit, the whole crocheted sweaters and everything was a little off, but it was a phase. Let’s stick to facts: Back in the mid-1990s, after Common dropped the classic I Used to Love H.E.R., Ice Cube got all offended and released the diss track Westside Slaughterhouse. Common didn’t back down. He came back hard [pause] with The Bitch In Yoo, which is one of the dopest diss records ever. I mean, Com dissected Cube’s whole career in four minutes.

That list was last year. I let it go. But now, Blender releases its list of The 40 Worst Lyricists In Rock and guess who made the list? That’s right, boxed in by Bryan Adams and Dashboard Confessional is Common at No. 36 (see full list below).

36 • Common: Never trust a rapper in a sweater-vest.
Common wasn’t above dissing Ice Cube on “The Bitch in Yoo” (“I heard a ho say you her favorite rapper/So I had to slap her”), but don’t be fooled—he’s also a self-righteous hippie. The principled rhymer’s earnest neo-soul thoughts touch on abortion (“Turning this woman’s womb into a tomb”), social injustice and his own vegetarianism. Worst lyric: “I’m your worst nightmare squared/That’s double for niggas who ain’t mathematically aware” (“Making a Name for Ourselves”)

I don’t know how and I don’t know why. (They included the Cube diss in this breakdown probably realizing they missed it with the previous list). I Used To Love H.E.R. alone should be enough to keep him off this list. The only other hip hop names to make the list are will.i.am. at No. 14, KRS-One at No. 25 (which is just as disgraceful) and Mr. Take That, Take That Diddy at No. 33 (somewhat understandable but not really since it has been known that he supposedly uses some ill ghostwriters such as Pharoach Monche to the pen his verses.)

This list comes out when Soulja Boy is still No. 1 on the Top 100 for the seventh straight week and in the past few years we have seen god-awful rappers like Jibbs and Mims and Dem Franchize Boyz butcher the whole genre even more. Not to mention the hugely overrated Weezy, the swagger-only snowman Jeezy and the repetitive nursery rapper Cam’ron. If we’re talking about a lack of lyricism, Common shouldn’t even be a thought. He has been dropping gems consistently since the early 1990s. And he just won Lyricist of the Year on the BET Hip Hop Awards and the MTV Brain Trust placed him in the top 10 of the hottest in the game right now. Even Jay-Z, the god-emcee, cosigned Common’s lyricism on the Black Album’s Moment of Clarity.

Not to say that Common doesn’t have his fumbles (“You fake like a smile/like a hug I’m tight” – Hungry, One Day It’ll Al Make Sense), but he recovers with rewind-heavy lines like this (also on Hungry): “I hold mics like a second nut until the second coming.” Read it again if you have to. But that’s the point, most of his metaphors and wordplay you just can’t catch the first time around. In the grand scheme, I guess it doesn’t matter. One month from now, this list will be long gone and forgotten and Common will still be spitting lyrics that stand the test of time and criticism.


1. Sting
2. Neil Peart
3. Scott Stapp
4. Noel Gallagher
5. Dan Fogelberg
6. Tom Marshall
7. Paul Stanley
8. Dianne Warren
9. Donovan
10. Jim Morrison
11. Larry Henley & Jeff Silbar
12. David Crosby
13. Pete Gabriel, Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks, Steve Hackett & Phil Collins
14. Will.I.Am
15. Bernie Taupin
16. Ben Gibbard
17. Jon Anderson
18. Ian Anderson
19. Queensyche
20. Ryan Ross
21. Alanis Morisette
22. Jon Bon Jovi
23. Robert Plant
24. Fred Durst
25. KRS-One
26. Simon Le Bon
27. Will Jennings
28. Greg Graffin
29. Timbaland
30. Kevin Federline
31. Carli Simon
32. Matisyahu
33. Diddy
34. Henry Rollins
35. Dashboard Confessional
36. Common
37. Bryan Adams
38. Paul McCartney
39. Billy Corgan
40. Anthony Kiedis

Preview: Jay-Z's American Gangster

No more words from me on the album until Nov. 6. Meanwhile you can feast your ears on this.

MC Niecy? Let It Go

After one episode of Celebrity Rap Superstar, I already knew Niecy would win.



The show, which premiered back in August on MTV, took these random acts from all over and paired them up with rap coaches to try to make them rap stars. Like it’s that easy. Big Boy, Da Brat (who has been making serious rounds lately) and DMC did the judging while pint-size comic Kevin Hart did the hosting duties.

There were eight episodes and I stopped watching it after two. I don’t know why I even thought it would be anything worthwhile. Jamal Anderson, the former Atlanta Falcons Running Back with zero swagger, got booted in the first episode. Some loser named Jason from MTV’s The Hills completely butchered Chamillionaire’s Ridin.

Truth be told, I was surprised to see how many real rap stars agreed to be a part of the show. Too $hort (who else?) was the mentor of one of Hugh Hefner’s three girlfriends, Kendra Wilkinson, Redman coached Anderson, Warren G (he’s been making rounds too) coached Countess Vaughn and MC Lyte did her thing with Shar Jackson, Niecy from Moesha if you didn’t know. You did have your washed up mentors like Bubba Sparxxx and D12’s Bizarre, but their trainees -- Jason and Pedro Sanchez from Napoleon Dynamite -- were in the top three to get voted off anyway.

To me, the show got old real quick. I think it underscores the fallacy that anybody can rap, that anybody should rap. That’s the problem with hip hop today. You got these disposable clowns who think just because they can open their mouths, they should have a microphone and a record deal. But it takes more than a few weeks of watching Rap City to become an emcee.

Which makes it even more depressing that Niecy (even though she thoroughly man-handled the competition) might be getting a major deal. She is supposedly working with Mr. Collipark (who is already on my wack list for co-signing Soulja Boy). Don’t get me wrong, she can rap circles around her babydaddy K-Fed. She had the swagger, the style, took shots at besieged pop star Britney Spears and added her own flavor to each performance:





I'm all for female emcees getting put on in the game, but for real? Niecy should get a major record deal when real lyricists like Jean Grae have been doing their thing for years? How obvious is it that these lazy execs just want to pimp whatever washed-up celebrity is in the spotlight for the moment? How desperate has the music biz become that it needs to pick from the litter of dated-sitcom-turned-reality-show fodder? In an ideal world, moguls would be cleaning up the trash in the industry, not adding recycled piles of garbage to it.

Video: Common's I Want You

[via onsmash/nahright]

Wyclef Jean: Beyond Borders

Wyclef Jean is all over the map.

That’s the dope thing about him. You can try if you want to, but you can’t really label that man when it comes to music, you can’t put him in any box. He’s a Haitian-American rapper, producer, guitarist who could go conscious, spitting about politics and what it would be like if he were president. He can go pop or reggae or even Latin with Shakira (Hips Don’t Lie). He might get his acoustic ballad on like he did on Gone Till November.

His collaborations list is out of control. He might vouch for T.I., comparing dude to Pac or a modern-day Malcolm X (that’s kind of pushing it though) or hop in the BET Hip Hop Awards cipher (see below). He might put together a single called Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill) with Weezy, Akon and a newcomer named Niia or he might turn around and get awarded a diplomatic passport and a goodwill ambassadorship from Haitian ambassadors (Now that’s hip hop!). You can’t call it.

For any other artist, being that nondescript would have been a marketing nightmare for label execs, too difficult for simple, single-minded fans to swallow. But if you were part of one of the illest hip hop groups ever with one of the illest hip hop albums ever made (read: The Score), you’d get a pass too. Then again, the Fugees broke up. Clef seems to be the only one that even matters anymore nowadays. Praz, like always, pops up every now and then and according to Clef, Ms. Hill “needs psychiatric help.”

So the show – or the Carnival in Clef’s case – must go on. Wyclef Jean’s new album "The Carnival II: Memoirs of an Immigrant" is slated to drop on Dec. 4. As usual he works with a diverse group from Paul Simon to Mary J. to reggae artist Sizzla. In this Billboard article, he had this to say:

“I always write music first and then I see who will fit perfectly. I don't know who will be on it until the very end," Jean tells Billboard.com. “I've got T.I. rhyming against acoustic guitars. I have Paul Simon on a dark hip-hop beat. I have Chamillionaire against a Bollywood orchestra. I'm just influenced by different songs and beats in the world.”

He has a track with T.I. that addresses society’s ills including the war, Katrina, Jena 6 and gangs. He has another track called “Selena,” a tribute to the late Mexican-American singer and he even samples her hit single “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom.” Also according to Billboard.com, anyone who purchases his CD will automatically be entered into a raffle to win one of Clef’s cars, a $500,000 1932 Zebra.

You can tell that Wyclef Jean comes from that old school of thought with the ideals that reject labels and rebel against taxonomy. Will this current generation that seems to buy into sameness and simplicity feel him? I can’t call it.

But I will continue to give Wyclef Jean much respect for the simple fact that where most artists are too scared (or controlled) to think outside their box, Clef has no comfort zone.

10 Things I Learned While Watching The BET Hip Hop Awards

If anyone cares, the BET Hip Hop Awards aired last night. Regardless of what you thought, the show was much better than last year though. I do want to give props to BET President Debra Lee for cleaning up the network's act in the past few months (there's still a lot of work to do, but you have to admit the sista is doing her thing.) There was no beef and no speeches bloated with rhetoric. Cornel West dropped by. The ciphers were cool (Phonte is so sick). But still, the crowd looked like it was asleep for most of the time. The biggest part of the show happened days before it aired when T.I. was arrested for allegedly trying to buy some machine guns. He has been in federal custody since Saturday. So maybe that was the reason for the dead mood that seemed to envelop the room. (Wyclef and Busta Rhymes shouted him out). But if nothing else, for me the BET Hip Hop Awards was an educational experience, therefore (and so you don’t have to bother with watching it later) I will give you the 10 things I learned while watching the awards show:

10. Judging by the preview of This Christmas, which kept playing during the commercial breaks, the movie looks like it's going to be one of those classic black Christmas movies that never gets old like The Preacher's Wife.

9. MC Lyte is still fly.

8. Hurricane Chris -- whose Ay Bay Bay song sounds like a retarded Yogi Bear gone bad sample -- flops around a lot and those grade-school girly beads are even more obnoxious than his music.

7. Ludacris is still the ultimate go-to-guy for that featured rapper spot. He destroys every track he gets on (like this one) with raw energy and punchlines to the gut. So it’s no wonder that when he stormed the stage as a surprise guest during the Duffle Bag Boy performance, the crowd actually moved for the first time all night.

6. You just can’t please Kanye. If he loses in an award show, it’s tantrums and hissy-fits. If he wins, which he did last night for Video of the Year for Stronger, he’s still not happy. “I been waiting for the opportunity to win an award that I feel like I shouldn’t win.” He thought the best video was International Players Anthem by UGK and Outkast so he tried to give it to them. Big Boi came on stage and gave it right back (like he should have), appreciating the gesture but saying the Yeezy deserves it. I guess the grass is always greener for the recent Graduate.

5. KRS-One is still the Teacha, calling for rappers to unify and inspire the children even though "hip hop is being asked to grow up and answer problems that aren't really even ours" and I really respect David Banner.

4. Culture critic Michael Eric Dyson (“hip hop is most alive when it refuses to die”) can spit harder than 95 percent of rappers out there.

3. This Soulja Boy nonsense is officially out of control. He performed Crank That last and had everybody doing his dance with background dancers in red and blue capes and the crowd trying to sing along to a song that has no lyrics.

2. Common is finally getting his props. The Chi-town veteran has been doing this rap thing since before some of these young cats even had hands big enough to hold a microphone. He’s 15 years deep from dropping his debut Can I Borrow A Dollar and last night, he said in his acceptance speech, was the first time he ever received an award on TV. But he did walk away with two well-deserved and long-overdue awards for CD of the Year and Lyricist of the Year. 'Bout time. (Peep the trailer to his new I Want You video.)

1. Lil Wayne (who won MVP of the Year) is the most overrated rapper of all time.

Will The N-Word Stand For Nas?

You’ve got to give it to Nas. Dude definitely knows how to pimp publicity with an album title.

It wasn’t always like that for Esco though. Before last year, each album title – from Illmatic to Street’s Disciple -- was a cultural concoction of black power, spirituality and philosophy and street life. Then some time last year -- after all the hoopla of him and former rival Jay-Z kissing and making up died down -- Nas decided to name his next album Hip Hop Is Dead. I thought it was one of the illest titles I had heard in a minute. It was a simple declarative statement. Nothing subliminal or subtle; no beating around the box.

Its reception from fellow rappers fell into two categories: on one hand, it was a “why-didn’t-I-think-of-that” title that conscious and old-school emcees could co-sign. But on the other hand, you had these rappers -- mostly south of the Mason-Dixon line like Jeezy and Weezy – who thought hip hop was more alive than ever and claimed Nas was just mad because he was past his prime, a has-been that nobody cared about. Maybe they were right. Even with all the controversy and hype, Hip Hop Is Dead has yet to break the platinum barrier, selling 743,000 copies in the country, only 60,000 more than Jay-Z’s Kingdom Come sold in one week.

Now, it seems God’s son is up to his old tricks. The new album, slated to come out before the year’s end, may be called Nigga. That’s right, the same word that Al Sharpton will start storming the streets against, the same word that made Michael Richards America’s most racist man of the moment last year, the same word that even Mr. Paul Mooney himself (“I say nigga to keep my teeth white”) has laid to rest. It has been America’s buzz word for months and with racial tensions boiling over with nooses popping up all over the place, Nas pulls a stunt like this.

So let’s please give the man his props.

Even though some reports are denying the possibility of the title:

Fox News reported Tuesday that a source close to Island Def Jam Music Group Chairman Antonio "L.A." Reid said: "There is no album release by Nas on the release schedule at this point. And they would be unlikely to release an album with that title. How would that look at Wal-Mart?"

If it does happen, this title will be even more controversial than HHID and in the next few months, there will be debates and letters and probably online petitions urging folks to boycott the album. Jesse and the NAACP ain't really feeling it. There will be way more videos like this one:

But isn't anyone who avoids the word or crusades against it only giving it power? Consider 50 Cent. Earlier this year, Cam’ron and Jim Jones were blasting bombs at Fitty, calling him in snitch and had everybody and they mama yelling “Currrtiisssss!” Next thing you know, the G-Unit General changes the title of his album from Before I Self-Destruct to Curtis to capitalize on it. Suddenly, the tide shifted and the dis died out. Cam hasn’t been seen since (except in some random sightings) and Fitty went on to sell nearly 700,000 albums in his first week. It wasn’t rocket science. He took the negativity and made it positive. He took the pig scraps and made soul food.

The word nigga, needless to say, exists on a much wider and more hot-buttony scale, but the strategy should be the same. If Fitty never changed his album, people would remember the name Curtis as Dipset’s synonym for snitch. Now, Curtis will be remembered simply as the album that got beat by Kanye. So truthfully, I trust Nas. I mean, you can't really believe he's not going to come with a dope concept that delves into social consciousness and stabs at the status quo. So I hope the higher ups don’t try to shut it down. Let us hear him out, at least.

The real and more important issue with the word is when young’ns today spew it out like sunflower seeds and don’t know its history, they don’t know the context. Leave it to Nas to give it to them. Leave it to Nas to tell these boys about themselves. Because most of these so-called rappers wouldn’t know the truth if a legendary Queensbridge emcee named an album after it.

Salt-N-Pepa Reality Show Adds Spice To VH1

Simply put, the Salt-N-Pepa show, which aired last night, is a weekly examination of the phrase “control freak.” Salt wants control. Pepa is still a freak.

It is no wonder then that VH1 jumped on this one (the station seems to have taken on the permanent role as resuscitators to former rap acts). The show has all of VH1’s classic reality show ingredients:

Rap stars-turned-ordinary folks looking to relive their glory days? Check.

Pure drama that stems from strict differences in lifestyle preferences? Check.

Bickering, arguing, yelling and river crying? Check.

The hip hop trio (where is Spinderella anyway?) hit the scene in the mid-1980s, cranking out hits like “Push It” and “Shoop” and “Whatta Man.” They won a Grammy award in 1995 for Best Rap Performance (“None of Your Business”), making them the first female rap Grammy winners. But in the years to follow, things would slowly fall apart. Pepa married Treach of Naughty By Nature in the late 1990s and was divorced two years later. Then Salt called up Pepa and said she was through with the business and the group broke up in 2002.

Sandy “Pepa” Denton has been getting around ever since. She was on VH1’s Surreal Life in 2005 and the Fame Games earlier this year. On the other side, Cheryl “Salt” James Wray found a husband, found a church home and found a quiet, low-key life-after-Shoop in Long Island. Hence the drama.

The show is all about their attempt to reunite. Pepa is still very bitter about the break-up. And Salt, who says she had to leave to recover from bulimia, is content with her new life and uninterested in reverting back to the racy rap star she used to be. (“I don't want to perform things that are contrary to the person that I am now.”) She calls Pepa “a storm cloud comin’ in.” While preparing for a party for Shaq, they argue about rap lyrics and the stage presence. When Shaq’s party falls through, Salt suggests they perform at her church and Pepa initially decides to wear the “see-through thingy, but with a bra.”

The show does have potential as it follows the two rappers as they struggle to see eye to eye. They are in two very different places now and they’re both stubborn. There was even some rumor that they came to blows during filming some months ago (which of course if it is true, it won’t be aired). They are both fortysomething-year-old mothers, playing tug of war with time. Pepa is trying to pull Salt back while Salt is trying hard to move forward.

I guess watching former stars try to climb back into the limelight and fall short makes for good TV. VH1 once again is cashing in on some old-school hitmakers that this generation hasn’t even heard of and probably doesn't care about. Truth be told, I can’t see myself watching any more episodes. Compared to other reality shows on VH1, this is probably one of the realest and most entertaining, but to stay hooked I would have to believe the outcome would actually mean something. It doesn’t. It wouldn’t mean much if they did or did not reunite. The hip hop scene unfortunately has long moved on and shipped out since the group was dominating stages and Salt seems to be the only one who understands that. I mean, when was the last time you saw a female rap group anyway?

T.I.: Awards, An Arrest And A Good Reason For Reruns

Just two weeks ago, I watched T.I. on TV all suited up and dropping gems wrapped in a generic brand of bologna.

It was the BET special Hip Hop vs. America, where intellectuals, journalists and critics gathered to discuss the state of hip hop, its failures and fallacies. And there he was -- the trap rapper from the ATL -- on a panel that included Michael Eric Dyson and Al Sharpton. The bologna wasn’t so much what he said but the fact that he was the one saying it.

The opening question was this: why is hip hop attacked? In his response, T.I. said that because hip hop culture is so popular and sought after, rap artists become easy targets for blame and criticism. He also talked about fake rappers: “They promote things they aren't willing to carry out themselves. They put the wrong images in the children minds … I really have done these things and I'm just giving my testimony.” And later, he talked about the value of upbringing: “It starts in the home, in the houses. We have to teach the kids this is the right thing you should be looking for in music, this is the wrong thing...”

He was saying all the right things, but the sincerity was all wrong. I couldn’t believe him. Contrary to Nelly -- the only other rapper to appear on the panel -- there was nothing about T.I. that suggested he came to learn or hoped to change or that he even thought anything was wrong with hip hop in its current state.

So when my homie hit me up Saturday telling me that the self-proclaimed King of the South had been caught up by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and was arrested for allegedly trying to buy some illegal machine guns, I can’t say I was all too shocked. Ever since T.I. moved to the Big Kids Table of the rap game, he has been trapped between his duties as a role model and his lifestyle as a street hustler. In fact, his fifth studio album T.I. vs. T.I.P., which dropped this past summer, is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde concept album that explores these dual personas.

So in that case, I guess what we saw two weeks ago was T.I. and over the past weekend T.I.P. thought it was his time to shine again. If so, the timing was right on. The rapper was arrested late Saturday, just hours before he was scheduled to appear at the BET Hip Hop Awards ceremony in his hometown, where he was the most nominated artist with nine. Maybe T.I.P. was holding a grudge these past two weeks for T.I.’s responsible comments on the network that has been airing reruns of the special ever since. Maybe T.I.P. was jealous of T.I. getting so much hype and wanted to get back at him. Or he took his upcoming role in American Gangster too seriously.

But it doesn’t really matter who’s who and what’s what. The rapper whose birth name is Clifford Harris might be in big trouble now. In a statement, David E. Nahmias, US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia said this:

“This convicted felon allegedly was trying to add several machine guns to an already large and entirely illegal arsenal of guns … Harris (T.I.) then agreed to meet and took possession of the machine guns this afternoon. He now faces serious federal charges and a potentially long prison sentence.”

If it turns out he is guilty, he can’t really say he didn’t know any better. He is suppposed to appear in court today. But I do hope he can catch some of those Hip Hop vs. America reruns while he waits. Maybe he will realize that hip hop is an easy target for blame and criticism because big artists like him do things that warrant blame and criticism. And maybe he will learn that he shouldn’t promote things he isn’t willing to carry out himself.

The 2007 BET Hip Hop Awards is scheduled to air on Wednesday, Oct. 17 on BET at 8pm (ET/PT).

Soulja Boy: Marketing Mastermind or Minstrel Mess?

“I wonder if these wack niggas realize they wack …”
(Common, Chi-City)

I was listening to Common’s Be on the road the other day and I heard this line. It wasn’t like I never heard it before (believe me I played this classic album to the ground), but that day, at that moment that line had a relevant ring to it. It’s not even one of Common’s most lyrical of lines or most profound of thoughts. And as much as I like it for its simplicity and straightforwardness, I have to call Common out on this one: This line is a lie.

But, oddly enough, that’s what makes it work. It is verse filler, a hollow thought, which actually gives it more substance and rhetorical meaning because we know Common can’t be serious. What I mean is Common can’t really wonder such a thing because the Chi-town emcee as well as any emcee intelligent enough to think about the question already knows the cold and dismal answer: NO.

Just ask Soulja Boy, that annoying gnat of a rapper that also has roots in Chicago before he moved Atlanta. As much as I try, I still can’t escape Crank That (Soulja Boy). Everywhere I go that ubiquitous song is blaring from some sound system or TV set and I’m stuck in some never-ending pseudo-hip hop nightmare. It is taking over like some infectious disease and everyone who comes in contact has to do that dance (don't front, you know you've done it).

Crank That is definitely a sign of the times. Like 90 percent of rap music out right now, there is nothing about the song that is clever or innovative or lyrically impressive. It is a compost pile of random ridiculous phrases, which I suppose is the point. But there’s something about that dance. It’s like the Macarena on crack. It’s more unifying than Walking it Out; it’s more energetic than the Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It; it’s easier than Krumping for the more rhythmically challenged; and it makes people move out of their comfort zones. Literally.

Maybe it’s just that in this age of so-called terrorism and wars abroad and school shootings, cranking that Soulja Boy provides that release where you can zoom all around carefree. It has consumed youtube, reaching high and low and has an instructional video that has more than 10 million views, a rock remix by Travis Barker and voice-over cartoon remixes from everyone from Simba on the Lion King to Dora The Explorer to Winnie the Pooh to Sponge Bob. It’s everywhere -- in houses, in backyards, on football fields. Beyonce has done the dance on stage and Jamie Foxx was tearing up the 106th & Park with it a few weeks back. (I’m just waiting to see George W. get his Soulja Boy on. He knows he wants to and somehow, some way he will find a way to link it back to Iraq.)

But as much as Soulja Boy has that mosquito-at-a-family-barbecue thing going, I can’t hate on his hustle or his buzz. He’s 17 and he’s making moves. Even before anyone knew him, he was uploading his songs to the internet and mistitling them on purpose to match popular titles of the mainstream hits. For example, he may have titled his song “In The Club” so when a user downloaded that version, instead of hearing Fitty’s raspy “Go shawty, it’s your birthday,” they heard some random “Yaaauuuu!” And since he puts his name on everything (including his sunglasses; don’t ask), people started searching the net to find out who he was. Hence, his myspace page has more than 15 million views and his album souljaboytellem.com sold 36,000 the first day. Does that make him a credible artist?

The song is still No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and his album is at No. 4. Mr. Collipark -- who you may remember for producing Bubba Sparxxx’s Ms. New Booty and the Ying Yang Twins’ Wait -- has called Soulja Boy a genius and compared him to Michael Jackson. He knows how to market, I’ll give him that. Still, for some reason, when Public Enemy and KRS-One talked about a hip hop movement, I find it hard to believe that this Soulja Boy – the kid or the dance – was what they had in mind.

Video: Jay-Z's Blue Magic

Or see it here.

Jay-Z's Roc Boys (And The Winner Is)

Roc Boys (And The Winner Is) - Listen here.

All right, for real, this will be my last Jigga post until the album drops. Roc Boys (And The Winner Is) hit the net this week and I really tried (all of five minutes anyway) not to listen to it. I had wanted to wait to hear any tracks until Nov. 6 when the album, American Gangster comes out. But I couldn’t help it.

I have to admit it. I am really really excited about this album. Maybe it’s just top notch marketing with VH1 putting the Fade to Black and Classic Albums: Reasonable Doubt documentaries on repeat. Or the fact that the new album called American Gangster ties into this ill-looking movie called American Gangster about Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas, while BET’s hit series called American Gangster has Frankie on the show’s lineup (which if they were smart, they would synchronize that episode with all the other hoopla and put it out say Oct. 31).

Speaking of... (quick Frank Lucas sidebar)



More than that though, it’s the musicality. Blue Magic, the first single, had that 80s feel. But Jay already stated that the rest of the album is pure 70s soul. And it starts with Roc Boys. At XXL, YN wrote an official preview here a week ago, which included this excerpt:

Supposedly, Puff had gotten all the D-Dots, Amen-Ras, Nashiems, Stevie J’s and Carlos Broadys back together again and they’ve been creating some funky 70’s soul inspired grooves. Jay asked Puff, “What are you doing with these tracks?” Puff was like, “I don’t even know. It’s just some cool shit, I listen to around my house. Walking around with my socks on and shit.”

Just how Just Blaze’s work inspired the beginning of Kingdom Come, the Hitmen tracks built the foundation of American Gangster … Jay likens it to the lyrical side of Reasonable Doubt meets the musical majesty of Blueprint.

As always, the production carries the weight of the words. So I believe an album inspired by that 70s soul and Jay going back to his lyrical roots has the potential of a classic. He sounds better on tracks like this. Kingdom Come’s Just Blaze-produced eruptions of sound and Dr. Dre’s heavy throbs just didn’t suit Jay as well as those old-school soul samples do. Jigga is not a gruff, raspy rapper so his voice gets bullied by those bass-heavy beats. But he is at his best when hoisted up by horns, those triumphant trumpets that blare as if announcing his arrival. Or his return. Or maybe just the fact that he is here still making classic hits and feeling right at home.

VH1 Hip Hop Honors and Lupe's Fiasco

Lupe Fiasco is effin' up. Last night, I lost a lot of respect for dude. And it definitely hurts me to say this since I think he’s one of the top 5 sickest lyricists out right now. Actually, I want to clarify that. It wasn’t so much what happened during the show but how the Chi-town emcee responded.

Let me backtrack. The 4th Annual VH1 Hip Hop Honors aired last night and during the last tribute of the night, to hip hop honorees A Tribe Called Quest, Lupe messed up the lyrics to Phife’s verse on “Electric Relaxation.” The internet is going crazy over his two-bar slip up. It was such a disgrace that people have dubbed it “Fiascogate.”



Lupe was originally against the idea of participating in the tribute because he says he didn’t grow up listening to them and the 25-year-old rapper didn’t want to seem “phony.” But apparently, Q-Tip reached out to him personally and Lupe had two and a half weeks to get on his game.

The boo-boo was bad enough. But to me, the worst thing about it is that Lupe is putting out this whole “whatever” attitude. He responded to the criticism that he disrespected the Tribe to HipHopDX and on the Okayplayer message boards, this cat goes on some pointless rant, typing in all caps like little kid about how he grew up listening to gangsta rap, not backpacker music. Phonte from Little Brother weighed in (post 201) and puts it in proper perspective. He responds to each of Lupe’s statements (see excerpt below with Lupe's initial remarks in all caps):

>THE LITTLE GHETTO KID FROM THE MEAN STREETS OF THE WESTSIDE OF>CHICAGO GREW UP ON SPICE 1, 8-BALL & MJG, NWA AND SNOOP>DOGG...

That's fine, but your music and more importantly your image leans more towards Native Tongues than killaman-killaman-saykillamankillaman-wit me glock. If it walks and talks like a duck, most people would call it one. You can't blame OKP's or anybody else for putting you inside a box that you were willing to sit comfortably in and benefit from (see: Diamonds, American Terrorist, Daydreaming, I Gotcha).

>I WASNT A BACKPACKER RAP ENTHUSIAST!!!...I NEVER CLAIMED TO>BE...I GREW UP ON GANGSTA RAP!!!

I have several problems with the term 'backpacker rap,' but okay. However, if you truly grew up on gangsta shit and it was a big influence on you, you should do more Pop Pop's and less Dumb It Down's to help your listeners understand that.

>HAVE I LISTENED TO MM IN ITS ENTIRETY?...NO!!!...(Sorry>Quest)...

This statement is nothing but pure arrogance. I wonder how your friend Q-Tip would feel about you 'having no interest' in hearing what many consider to be his landmark album....especially after you forgot his lyrics during a tribute and your only defense is, "hey, shit happens......but I still ain't listening to the album tho..."

>GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSES AND YOUR SACRED COWS...SOME OF YA'LL>MAKE ME SICK...

I'm an artist so I understand how we all go through our times of arrogance and flat out niggotry, but seriously, now is not the time for this. You had a fuck up and there's really no one to blame but yourself.

------------

He could have handled it like a man, apologized for the fumble and kept it moving. But his reaction has made it bigger and badder for him than it ever would have been. The show is all about honoring the legends and Lupe Fiasco lost points on this one. As dope as he is a lyricist, that doesn't give Lupe a pass for losing his cool.

VH1 Hip Hop Honors And The Missy Elliott Effect

VH1 is like that one kid in school who is always clowning in the back of the class. You remember, the one who flicks rubber bands at the blackboard, balls up worksheets to practice his jump shot in the wastebasket, turns in assignments late, flirts with the female substitute teacher and starts cracking up every time someone says the word “organism.”

But then, every now and then, the teacher asks a question about something like the flaws with the country’s Electoral College. No one knows the answer and silence envelops the room. The teacher calls on the slouching kid in the back of the classroom. And the kid responds, speaking with nothing but confidence and putting together an answer more insightful and intricate and inspired than anything the teacher ever heard.

In the same manner, VH1 serves its fair share of regurgitated garbage, but at least once every year, the television station gives us one of those meaningful answers in the VH1 Hip Hop Honors. It’s not about those microwave-hot artists of the moment and doesn’t drag on with stale acceptance speeches with a laundry list of names nobody cares about with God at the end for good measure. It’s not about rap rivalries (leave the beef at home to thaw out later). We didn’t come for that. We all came to pay homage to those who have influenced and shaped some aspect of hip hop in a unique way. On the stage, it’s all about the music. Real music. And the music speaks for itself.

Last night was VH1's fourth annual show and the honorees included Missy Elliott, Snoop Dogg, Whodini and A Tribe Called Quest. With the star power on the stage, you could feel the energy oozing out of the television set with each tribute performance. Ice-T spit “Gin and Juice,” the show gave props to Teddy Riley and Andre Harrell for creating the New Jack Swing movement of the early 90s and honored the classic hip hop documentary Wild Style with performances by hip hop legends including Grandmaster Caz, Bizzy B, Grand Wizard Theodore and Mr. I Am Hip Hop himself, KRS-One.

The big moment came near the end of the show in the tribute to A Tribe Called Quest when Common and Skateboard P were performing “Scenario” and then Busta Rhymes busts onto the stage, jumping and flailing around like a human live wire. It is an explosion of pure, perfect energy.

For me though, perhaps even better than that was the tribute to Missy Elliott. Not because Timbo along with a female powerhouse of performers (Keyshia Cole, Eve, Ciara, Tweet and Nelly Furtado) set it off on stage, which they definitely did. But mainly because Missy -- the youngest, the only female and the most contemporary of all this year’s honorees -- deserves to be called a legend.

Ever since she came out, she has been raising the bar as far as innovation goes, breaking the rules, setting trends and representing hip hop to the fullest. She is unique and stands on her own in an industry dominated by men. She writes, raps, sings, produces, dances. She pushes the envelope like few do, men or women. She has stacks of classics in her own catalogue and in her work with phenomenal artists from Aaliyah to Nelly Furtado. She had the futuristic videos years before Kanye got his anime on.

I will write more on her when her album drops in 08. Even though Timbo made the comment below, he should be producing much of the album.

"Missy's too over-the-top for this hip hop," he said to MTV earlier this year. "It's a different era, it's not the same. Some of these songs that are out right now [are] songs that I know if we played two, three years ago, people would have laughed at us."

He wasn’t saying that in a bad way. In fact, he is absolutely right. She was forward thinking 10 years ago when hip hop was still very much alive and in this current rap scene of crusty clowns, it is painfully evident that she is still in a class all by herself. Which is why her outside-the-box approach is just the answer we need right now.

The 4th Annual VH1 Hip Hop Honors

[Scott Gries/Getty Images]

Q-Tip performs onstage during the 4th Annual VH1 Hip Hop Honors ceremony at the Hammerstein Ballroom on October 4, 2007 in New York City.

The taping of Hip Hop Honors 2007 went down last night at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. You can check out VH1's full photo gallery here. The event, hosted by Tracy Morgan, airs Monday. If you need something to hold you over, check out this Village Voice post.

Via VH1: Most bonkers moment of the show: Busta Rhymes‘ stage-stomping, ballroom shaking verse on A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario.”

Return Of The Lyrics Part I: Papoose

If you look up hip hop in the dictionary, you should see a picture of Papoose. This lyrical leviathan is a rapping lexicon with more vocab than V from V for Vendetta. If you’ve ever seen that movie, you may remember that early scene where the masked main character is spouting his purpose, using nothing but words that begin with the letter V. In Alphabetical Slaughter, Papoose does V 25 better. On the single, which started making heavy rounds at the beginning of this year, the Brooklyn-bred emcee upgrades all of those pre-school ABCs lessons and rhymes multi-syllabic words from A to Z. And he makes it look so easy.



People say Papoose is a soldier in the next battalion of emcees that will usher in a new era of lyricism. The timing is right on. For years, critics in and out the industry have been bashing the South for dumbing down the rap game, plaguing good music with crunk anthems and dance-a-long joints. The crop is ready to sprout and the lineup includes Lupe Fiasco, Young Dro, Saigon and Crooked I as can be seen on the latest issue of XXL (see below). But most of these so-called Leaders of the New School have been around for a while, struggling to break into the door of the music business with lyricism as their lockpick.





Pap is 28 and he’s been rolling with DJ Kay Slay and Busta Rhymes for a minute now, boiling underground and ready to erupt. He has been putting out mixtape after mixtape for years, developing a following and making a name for himself by spitting guest verses for artists such as Nas, Busta, Kool G Rap, Jadakiss, Ghostface Killah and Talib Kweli. I actually first heard him rap back in 2005 on Kweli’s mixtape, Right About Now, on a track called The Beast. Pap destroys the track coming in on the first verse with a ravenous hunger that you can almost smell. His first line is this:

Knowledge is the founder of everything in existence/if you not dropping knowledge abolish because you ig’nant

That ain’t no crunk music. After his verse, the rest of the track doesn’t even matter. As sick as Kweli is, his follow-up verses are merely aftershocks to Papoose’s opening sonic earthquake. The same thing almost happened on Busta’s Touch It Remix, which is why putting him anywhere but first was a very good idea. (Kanye did the same thing to Lupe on Touch the Sky.)

But even with his guests spots, political statements and intricate mixtape tracks that have you pressing rewind and running to Webster, Papoose has yet to break real industry ground. He saw a glimpse of that glory last year when it was announced that he had signed a $1.5 million deal with Jive Records. But just last month, Kay Slay had disclosed in a radio interview that he and Pap had to part ways with Jive, stating that it was “A&R hell” and impossible for an old, white suit to steer the career of a black emcee from the streets. That nightmare, he said, had ended but he wouldn’t say much else about what Papoose will do now.

It has been more than two weeks since Kay Slay made that declaration of freedom and I have been waiting for a follow-up announcement, anything that might suggest that Papoose's debut album will see the light of day before year's end. Nothing. Who knows what will come of his debut, titled The Nacirema Dream (which is American spelled backwards), initially one of the most anticipated albums of 2007? While Soulja Boy is still cranking it at the top of the Billboard charts, I can’t help but see this as just another staggering sign that it will be a long time before real lyricism returns. Then I see Pap in the booth on this recent Rap City clip and realize that it already has.

Jay-Z's Blue Magic Trailer

Jay-Z's American Gangster Tracklisting

Because I already wrote a post about Boss Hova and his forthcoming album, American Gangster, I will wait until the album drops on Nov. 6 before going into any more analysis. His first single Blue Magic, produced by Pharrell, sounds better and better even time I listen to it (check the trailer above). And thanks to the good folks at iTunes, we now have the tracklisting (see below) and we know that the album includes some crucial collaborations with T.I. on the title track, Nas and Kanye West. I will say that this album -- inspired by what I bet will be the movie of the year -- is looking like it will force everyone else to "get their thang together." But like I said, I'll dissect the album fully in the official review.

American Gangster:

01 Amen

02 Blue Magic

03 Untitled

04 Alright, Alright

05 You Don't Know

06 And the Winner Is

07 American Gangster

08 Welcome

09 Ignorant Shit

10 The Demise

11 I Get Money (Remix)

Nas Greatest Hits: The Rush Of Less Than An Hour

Nas Greatest Hits is set to drop Nov. 6, the same day as Jay-Z’s American Gangster.


To hear Less Than An Hour, press play or listen here.

1. Less Than An Hour (with Cee-Lo)
2. Untitled New Track
3. It Ain’t Hard To Tell
4. NY State Of Mind
5. One Love
6. If I Ruled The World (with Lauryn Hill)
7. Street Dreams (with R. Kelly)
8. Hate Me Now (with Puff Daddy)
9. Ether
10. One Mic
11. Got UR Self A….
12. Made You Look
13. Oochie Wally
14. Bridging The Gap (with Olu Dara)

I had just finished watching Rush Hour 3 at the drive-in movie (yes, they do still exist although endangered) when I heard it. The dark piano notes and eerie Tarantino-movie sounding guitar crept into the car speakers like a black panther. It had a 70s twang to it and the familiar notes played under the delicate voice of a French woman. Then the drums. And then with his velvet rasp, the soul machine himself Cee-Lo Green lets out a “La-La-La-La La-La-La-Laaaaaa.” Nas quickly utters “uh oh” in the background and without further ado, starts to spit:

Mr. International/the man centerfold women loathe/Voice bump out the Bose in a tinted Rolls/Craftiness, take a stab at it/Don't ask if Nasty's back at itI don't run out of magic

It is, by far, the best part of the movie. As the credits roll, you sit there trying to figure out where Rush Hour 3 took a wrong turn and why you forked over grocery money for a rushed script with bad jokes. But Nas with his trademark flow over this reworked movie theme song beat and Cee-Lo in full Gnarls Barkley glory makes you forget all of that. It's one of those tracks that would be perfect for a high-speed drive down an empty interstate at midnight, yellow lights flashing by in streaky blurs as you zoom forward into a shadowy distance. The song feels good. It feels right. The pace, the hook, the soul, everything.

It is no wonder that, according to the above tracklisting (source: Nah Right), Nas Greatest Hits opens with this exceptional song called Less Than An Hour. In my opinion, it’s the perfect opener because it’s one of his newest and Nas is in his zone. The rest of the album will feed off of that with undeniable classics like If I Ruled The World and One Mic stirring up nostalgia and still sounding relevant in this age. (The only song I feel doesn’t deserve its place is Oochie Wally.)

The album is set to be released on Nov. 6, the same day that Jay-Z’s American Gangster will drop. It won’t be some hyped-up rivalry like Ye and Fitty. Nas is Jay’s BFF now remember -- even though it is interesting to see Ether on the album, which of course is Nas’ lyrical assassination of Jigga back when they were fighting for the throne in 2001. We’ll see what happens. I do know that whether Nas Greatest Hits sells 200 or 200,000, Less Than An Hour already proves that Nas -- who fully acknowledged hip hop’s death on his last album -- still has some magic up his sleeve.

The Boondocks Season 2 Preview

Aaron McGruder: Bringing The Truth, Even If It Hurts

Aaron McGruder is no joke. Whether you like it or not, he will hit you over the head with material to make you think that comes without warning and leaves without an apology. His punchlines leave marks. That’s the main reason his cartoon The Boondocks has been a hit with most critics and a miss for the more conservative crowd. And that’s also the reason I can’t until Oct. 8, when The Boondocks returns for a second season (see above) after being M.I.A. for nearly two years.

Expect more of the same gut-checking, double-taking social wit that McGruder – inspired by artists like KRS-One and Public Enemy -- has become known for since The Boondocks comic strip appeared in 1999. In this season, expect a spoof of “Soul Plane,” an examination the N-Word in “The N-Word” and a rapper named Thugnificent who moves to the area. According to this article in the LA Times, McGruder says this next season is much better than the first.

“It's just so much more satisfying, and we're much closer to the goal of what I think the show can be," he says to the Times.

For those who don’t know, The Boondocks focuses on the Freeman family, who has recently moved from the South Side of Chicago to the dainty, mostly white suburb of Woodcrest. You have Huey, the 10-year-old revolutionary, Riley, his 8-year-old gangsta wannabe brother and their grumpy grandfather, Robert. The show aired back in fall of 2005 (before hip hop died) and if you watched any of the 15 episodes of the first season on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, you know that McGruder will go the distance to make his point:

The word “nigga” peppers the speech of the main characters (McGruder has said it makes the cartoon feel more sincere), he has an episode with a plot to kidnap Oprah, he takes jabs at Bill Cosby, shows a white nameless art teacher not unlike Bob Ross tagging on houses and shooting at cops and revives Martin Luther King Jr. from a 32-year coma to see how his “turn the other cheek” philosophy has fared in this Post-9/11 age (which scored him a Peabody Award).

Of course, with that comes controversy. The Rev. Al Sharpton was one of McGruder’s chief critics, blasting him for his liberal use of the N-word and the episode of Martin Luther King Jr. Many other black activists felt that way. They obviously missed the point. That’s McGruder’s humor style, spoofing to the extreme. The cartoon -- like the preceding syndicated comic strip it stems from -- does not tap dance around offensive topics nor does it allude to societal defects. It puts them on blast. It is stinging satire that stares you in the face, then slaps you in the face, then laughs in your face because you don’t realize you just got slapped.

Done right, satire can be an effective weapon because the art becomes a mirror, forcing viewers to see themselves. Like Lupe Fiasco’s second verse on his track Daydreamin’ featuring Jill Scott or Little Brother’s incredible album, The Minstrel Show, McGruder uses his characters as vessels to mock what he is speaking out against. The absurdity is so absurdly true to life, it turns into social commentary. McGruder takes shots at rappers, political figures and black popular culture to examine the problems with rappers, political figures and black popular culture.

For example, in the sixth episode of the first season (see below) of The Boondocks, McGruder mocks rap beefs when a rapper named Gangstalicious is shot and put in the hospital. When Riley visits his bedridden idol, he learns that Gangstalicious is a short, scared sucker whose real life is a far cry from his rap lyrics:

Gangstalicious: I dropped the gun.
Riley: You dropped the gun!?
Gangstalicious: What’s done is done, let’s be solution oriented.
Riley: How you gonna drop the gun Gangstalicious!? That is not gangsta. That’s very not gangsta. Man, I can’t believe this. You a fraud!
Gangstalicious: Oh, I’m a fraud? You scared too.
Riley: I’m eight!
Gangstalicious: Ok, fine, fine, whatever, I’m a fraud, I’m a fraud. I’m just an average normal dude. I don’t wanna do this stupid shit no more. I’m tired of getting shot. Help!
Riley: It’s like going to heaven and finding God smoking crack.

With his theme song by Asheru, cameos including Sway and poignant rap culture parodies, McGruder is obviously a real hip hop head. He is not afraid to push the boundaries and in the wake of hip hop’s death, I know he has a whole lot more knocking upside the head to do.

The Boondocks: The Story of Gangstalicious

Check out this video: The Boondocks - The story of Gangstalicious