Dr. Mike Check's Album of the Year Award Goes To...

I was going to write a whole long list ranking the illest track of 2007 or the most valuable verse or the most improved spitter, etc. None of it really matters. One tight puzzle piece doesn’t mean much if the puzzle isn’t a work of art. I can give props all day to Talib Kweli’s lyricism in the third verse on Eardrum’s Say Something or Jigga’s marketing scheme, tying in his album with Denzel Washington’s gangster flick. I can hand out official unofficial awards to Kanye dethroning Fitty or the comic relief of Little Brother’s Good Clothes off the GetBack LP. I can write a whole post about the grand majesty of International Players Anthem by UGK ft. Outkast, the record and the video. I could clown Lil Weezy for being the most overrated rapper of all time.

I could. But I won’t.

As we close the door on 2007, I only want to cast my vote for the year’s greatest album. Now, when people talk about classics, a key factor is an album’s impact, meaning the effect the album had on artists and albums and on society as a whole. You take albums like The Chronic and Reasonable Doubt and their ranks on hip hop’s highest shelves seem obvious. That’s why it is slightly inaccurate to call Common’s Be a classic (even though that remains my personal favorite album of the past three years): it didn’t alter hip hop’s landscape.

But that’s neither here nor there because I can’t say there has been a true classic that has come out this year. That is not to say that there haven’t been excellent albums. In fact, this year (especially in the fourth quarter), we have seen some really good hip hop music come out (We still have ways to go before I would call it a resurrection with Soulja Boy still on dominating the scene.) So here is my picks for the top five albums of 2007:

Honorable Mention:

Getback- Little Brother
What is Little Brother without resident producer 9th Wonder? Still ill, it turns out. When it comes to everyman comedy, this rapping duo from North Carolina is your ticket. On Getback, Rapper Big Pooh steps up his game and Phonte has to be among the most consistent in the game. Part of what kept out of the top five is that their previous albums were so good. This album doesn’t have the package deal like the others had. (Sidebar: Minstrel Show is my second favorite hip hop album of the past three years after Be).
Standout Tracks: Sirens, Good Clothes, Two Step Blues

5. Eardrum – Talib Kweli
After putting out superior mixtapes Right About Now and Liberation with Madlib, Kweli returns with this infectious studio album. With this underrated LP, Kweli proved he could do a little bit of everything. The album opens with the legendary Sonia Sanchez and then moves into back-to-back bangers with some of the illest producers giving Kweli the soulful arrangements that fit best with his voice. Ever since Liberation, I have felt that Madlib is the best match for Kweli. His lush production allows Kweli to fall into the sounds rather than try to force his precise rhyme scheme into the crevices. Hi-Tek, Kanye and will.i.am do excellent work too, but Madlib stands out as Kweli’s best bet. But throughout the album, Kweli sounds hungry. It’s a good sound too, especially on tracks like Say Something where he and Blacksmith labelmate Jean Grae trade-off flawless verses on this will.i.am produced track: “We not falling for your tricks/’cause your image is like a gimic/forget it, every rhyme is bitten/you like a mimic/I’m callin on the lord and I’m askin him for forgiveness/just for kickin niggas out the club like Michael Richards.” Like I wrote in this post, the only bad thing about this album is the fact that there’s no overarching theme, no net that holds all of the tracks together. It might have been a problem from the beginning with the name Eardrum itself. Unlike Finding Forever or The Cool, Eardrum doesn’t lend itself to any type of narrative. Regardless, this is the album that grows on you over time and the production allows Kweli to get his preach on without you feeling like you’re sitting in a pew.
Standout Tracks: Say Something, Eat To Live, In The Mood, New Day

4. Graduation – Kanye West
This album is up for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year and it will probably win. I call Graduation a “masterpiece of minimalism.” It is the third in his academic trilogy and you can easily see how much Ye has grown and how far he has come. I love that the album is only 14 tracks instead of his typical 21 and that he has limited guest appearances this time around and no skits (I loved the skits on College Dropout but I can’t stand them on Late Registration.) He really has come of age as a producer and the feel of the able is consistent, seemingly connected with a thread of synths. Actually, some years ago, people probably wouldn’t even call this a hip hop album. It is so far left that seems to be something else entirely, not quite hip hop, not quite pop, but an electronic fusion of what the future of music looks like. That’s Yeezy. Always created, always forward-thinking. From his website to his Stronger video, you can see that this man is out of this world creative-wise, standing at the forefront of possibility and crossing over into facet of culture like Will Smith. With that said, this is his best album, but my least favorite of his albums. Compared to his previous two LPs, Graduation finds Kanye less humorous, less political, less versatile, less personal and less hungry. It’s not his fault. He’s only rapping about where he is in life, which is basking in his superstardom (Good Life). Lil Wayne brings down the whole project with his uninspired verse on Barry Bonds and Drunk and Hot Girls is nowhere near as funny or timely or utterly ubiquitous as Golddigger. But all in all, Graduation is still a great album. He deserves that degree.
Standout Tracks: Flashing Lights, Champion, Glory


3. American Gangster – Jay-Z
American Gangster put Jay-Z back on track. There’s not much more to say that I haven’t said already. The soul samples and the feel of the album work with Jay’s voice and flow and make this one of the year’s best LPs. He took it back to Blueprint with this one and created the third best album of his career. It debuted at No. 1 tying him with Elvis for the second most No. 1 debuts in history after The Beatles. And the album tied into the movie, which made it even more appealing, even though it was a completely separate project. I put this album should be higher than Graduation because Jay is, quite simply, a better rapper and this time around (rather than Kingdom Come), he chose production that was complementary to him. He doesn’t have Beyonce singing some forced hook (although she is speaking on Pray, but it sounds right). He doesn’t have a lot of heavy drums that push his voice around. It’s the lush instrumentation that holds his rhymes up in the air and let’s you all know that the ruler’s back. “Push/money over broads you got it F**k Bush/Chef, guess what I cooked/Baked a lot of bread/And kept it off the books/Rockstars/Look/Way before the bars my picture was getting took/Feds, they like wack rappers/Try as they may they couldn’t get me on the hook.” (Blue Magic)
What more can I say?
Standout Tracks: Roc Boys, No Hook, Ignorant Sh*t, Blue Magic

2. The Cool – Lupe Fiasco
I didn’t think much of it at first. But the more I hear it, the more it seeps into my subconscious. Listening to The Cool (or any of Lupe’s records for that matter) is like mining for gold, or watching a classic film noir or shopping at Black Thursday: you know there’s good stuff there somewhere but it’s going to take some work to find it. I find myself picking apart his verses, coming up with my own theories to his meanings and double entendres. The album, which elaborates on the Kanye West-produced track The Cool off of Food & Liquor is supposed to be a concept album that revolves around three characters. The main character is Michael Young History and then you have The Streets (a chick with dollar signs in his eyes) and The Game. I do think this album surpasses his previous effort Food & Liquor (although I might have a different opinion if the leaked version of F&L was the released version because that Theme Music To A Drive By is still one of the best tracks I ever heard from Lupe.) He can’t do whatever he wants lyrically, switching up his flow at the drop of a beat and going from talking about rape to spitting about one of the greatest Super Nintendo games of all time in Gold Watch: “I love Street Fighter 2/I just really hate Zangeif/Only Ken and Ryu/I find it hard to beat Blanka.” The downside is that the album is too long and there are too many skippable songs like Hi-Definition. He always doesn’t even start rapping until track 3, which just feels like a forced attempt to do something different. But when Lupe is on, he is on and his lyrics speak for themselves: And from a throne of their bones, I rule/These fools are my fuel so I make them cool/Baptize em in the water out of Scarface pool/And feed em from the table that held the Corleone's Food/If you die tell em that you played my game/I hope your bullet holes become mouths that say my name/Cause I'm the {*gunshot*} (Put You On Game). It’s a shame he’s allegedly hanging up the mic after his next one.
Standout Tracks: The Coolest, Intruder Alert, Streets on Fire, Little Weapon, Gotta Eat, Dumb It Down

And the winner is….

1. Below The Heavens – Blu & Exile
There’s not much to say. This album has it all: Lyrics, music, theme. Blu is a beast. He has all the makings of a top notch emcee. His delivery is on point and his rhyme scheme never fails and unlike a lot of rappers in this era, Blu is not afraid to speak candidly. He talks about his father beating his mom and what it was like when he first found out his girl was pregnant. Blu gets deeply personal and the album almost comes off like his own lyrical bibliography, which makes me curious to see what he’ll come back with the next time around. He’s skilled when it comes to storytelling and has the comedic punches to match. On top of all that is producer Exile whose soulful beats are versatile so that the album never becomes redundant but each one is specific to the emotion of the track. But Exile’s production never goes over the top so much to outshine the emcee. But they vibe off of each other. On tracks like Cold Heated, Blu plays hopscotch with the beat, jumping back and forth across the repetitive drum pattern effortlessly. This album actually caught me off guard. I had been skimming over some boards online and some heads were going on and on about Blu & Exile’s Below the Heavens. One poster even claimed that he would refund the purchase price if someone bought it and didn’t like it. I went to his myspace page to check out some samples and by the time the intro was a quarter of the way through, I was already sold. At the underground music store I go to, there were only three copies (not because it was sold out but they only ordered a handful.) so I got it, peeled off the plastic and I’ve been bumping this ever since. Blu is a unique talent in a world that has gone commercial. And he’s only a rookie so just imagine what he’ll be doing at this time next year.
Standout Tracks: All of them (and if you don't have this album, go cop it.)

and that's all for 2007 folks. happy new year! see you on the flip side.

peace.

Lupe Fiasco's Cool Intentions

“God, it’s gonna get ugly, man. They’re gonna buy you drinks. You’re gonna meet girls, they’re gonna try to fly you places for free, offer you drugs. I know it sounds great, but these people are not you’re friends. These are people who want you to write sanctimonious stories about the genius of rock stars. And they will ruin rock ‘n’ roll and strangle everything we love about it, right? And then it just becomes an industry of cool.”
(Lester Bangs, Almost Famous)

So I just happened to be watching Almost Famous last night and I heard this line.

It came in an early scene when rock journalist Lester Bangs (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) was spouting advice to William Miller, a fledgling, adolescent rock reporter ready to hatch. I know this Cameron Crowe classic was released in 2000 and set in the 1970s. And I know Bangs is speaking specifically of the rock star lifestyle and the impending demise of the musical genre, but his words seem to resonate in this current climate of hip hop.

This is an era of snap music and Soulja Boy, devoid, many would say, of any real substance. Hip hop has become an "industry of cool." Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool is an examination of that very industry and, truth be told, nobody is better suited for the inspection job. His goal? To make the cool uncool and visa versa.

Lupe actually reminds of young William Miller in the movie, a fresh-faced breath of fresh air, who knows the rules and understands the game, but somehow remains immune to it, untouched and untainted by the trappings of mainstream coolness. But on his second album, that detachment is both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness.

When I first read about the The Cool being a concept album with recurring characters, I thought it was a good idea, a way to comment on the ills of society via caricatures a la Aaron McGruder. But the characters make guest appearances at best and tend to get lost in the shuffle. You don’t miss them much because, as always, Lupe’s lyricism steals the show. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Lupe is unmatched lyrically. His verses are mummified in metaphors that may take years to unwrap and unravel. And the wordplay is way too dense to digest in a single sitting. Case-in-point: Dumb It Down.

Verse 2

And I'm mouthless, which means I'm soundlessNow as far as the hearing, I've found itIt was as far as the distance from the earring to the ground isBut the doorknockers on the ear of a stewardess in a LearShe fine and she flyin, I feel I'm flying by 'em'cause my mind's on cloud nine and I’m a mime at the same timePimps see the wings on the underground kingWho's also Klingon, to infinity and beyondSomething really stinks, but I Sphinx like Leonor lying(lion) in the desertI'm flying on Pegasus, you're flying on the pheasantRider of the white powder, picker of the fire flowersSpit "hot fyah" like Dylan on Chappelle's skitYeah, smell it on my unicornSnort the white horse, but toot my own horn - sleep

Or this verse from the fast-food metaphor friendly track Gotta Eat (which on the surface has all the signs of being contrived ridiculousness, but let’s not forget that Lupe is in a league of his own):

Hey he had a whole lotta cheese/plus he was a mac had a whole lotta seedsMade a lot of niggas fat gave a whole lotta G's/grams man, he had a whole lotta these/And he would let you hold like a whole lotta keys/even if u lose some he would give you new ones/Twice the bread like he had two buns/and he had a whole lotta seeds/even his kids had meals (mills)/For reals some rich small fries wrapped in paper since they was lil, catch up nigga

He is a rapper’s rapper, who refuses to sand down his delivery or surrender his depth. This kid is a beast. He raps about rape on Intruder Alert and from the point of view of a rebel soldier overseas on Little Weapon, showcasing his superior storytelling ability. He can speed it up (Go Go Gadget Flow) or slow it down like on the Tribe Called Quest-esque Paris, Tokyo (which is even more confusing considering Fiascogate). The high point of the album comes with six tracks in the middle from Hip Hop Saved My Life up to Dumb It Down. Put You On Game is dope but, once again, Lupe flubs on his album closer, this time with the obnoxious Go Baby. The Cool’s standout track is Streets on Fire, produced by Chris & Drop, where he portrays the streets as an infectious virus.

But like the writer noted in this Village Voice article, Lupe could use a guide, a mentor, a veteran Lester Bangs type who might help him hone his creativity. Somebody should’ve told him that the album was too long. Somebody should have told him that Snoop Dogg doesn’t belong on Hi-Definition, the arguable low-point of the LP this side of Hello/Goodbye (Uncool). Somebody should have told him to stop it already with singing his own hooks. And somebody should have told him that Soundtrakk isn’t quite the “genius” that Lupe makes him out to be.

Just like on Food & Liquor, Soundtrakk is his producer of choice from his 1st and 15th crew. Unfortunately, most of the beats don’t really grab you and maybe that’s for the best. Now, you have no choice but to give Lupe your undivided attention rather than losing your mind in the complexity of the production. (But just imagine for a moment what it would sound like if Lupe’s words were buoyed by the lush production of a producer like Madlib.) Yes, the buddy-buddy guest spots and bland production make the LP a testament to Lupe’s unfailing loyalty but it is also why The Cool can’t be anything more than an almost classic.

Skillz - 2007 Rap-Up

It's that time again.

Behind the Scenes at the video shoot:

Jay-Z Steps Down As Def Jam Prez

I'm still "out of the office" if you will, but I had to put up this news bulletin. [via Billboard]

"It's time for me to take on new challenges. I am pleased to have had the opportunity to build upon the Def Jam legacy, helping to move the company into a new era of artistic success."

So it's official. We'll just have to wait and see what tricks Boss Hova has up his sleeves. Peace and love people.

Go Cop Lupe Fiasco's The Cool

I remember I had just bought Lupe Fiasco's debut Food & Liquor from my regular music spot back when it came out. Then my girl, Gabby, hit me up and was telling me about some bonus cuts off of the Best Buy version. I was mad at that. My album ended after that ridiculous outro where he shouts out everybody who he has ever ran into in his life. To this day, I still haven't heard those bonus tracks, but I told myself that I would make sure to check Best Buy's version first. So I copped The Cool today from Best Buy and now I guess this track Blackout is a bonus off the Circuit City version of the album. I can't win.

Anyway, it's going to take a few days for me to sift through the complexities of this album, but be on the lookout for the official really real talk review soon. I'm going to be in and out over the next few days, doing the whole holiday thing. And most def, I still plan to post a 2007 In Review post highlighting the highs and lows of the past year.

I hope everyone has a good holiday and safe travels and stay tuned as hip hop continues to show subtle signs of recovery with albums like The Cool. peace.

Dave Chappelle On Def Poetry Jam

Y'all didn't know dude could spit? This is classic comedy. (Warning: You might want to watch this with the volume down if you're at work.)

Crooked I vs. Jay-Z: Part 2

[via nahright]

Lil Wayne = The Anti-Real

Lil Wayne is the sum of overrated and ignorant, which means he’s overignorant or ignorated.

Either way, Weezy’s missing some key brain cells and getting way too much props for it. In the December 2007 issue of the hip hop publication Ozone Magazine, the 5th Annual Sex Issue, the half-pint croaker went on this rambling rant:

"If you are talking about rap and beef, I'm the wrong person to talk to. I am from New Orleans. Cut your televisions on. You know where I'm from. I'm from the murder capital, ma. Beef is a different thing there. I have four teardrops on my face and I have to look my mom in her eye every day. I can't lie to her. Fuck what they think and fuck what the world thinks, we real. My mom is real. The first day I got a teardrop I lied. I called her and asked her can I get a teardrop tattoo, but I had already got it." She said, "When you get it, come by me so I can see how you look with it, cause I was thinking about getting one my fuckin' self." "We don't play. No, I'm not gonna rap about you man, I will murder you, your family, your child, a newborn, I don't give a fuck. I could never go to hell cause I'ma take over, bitch."

I can’t say much about it. The stupidity speaks for itself. But Charlamagne The God, the radio personality from The Wendy Williams Experience recently put out this response that is spot on:

This ladies and ghetto men is one of the most socially irresponsible things I have ever heard spoken by a public figure in my life. To keep it one hundred, this fake blood, want-a-be gangster, scream murder but I don't believe you, pill popping piece of pig shit has lost his muthafucking mind. Please tell him to back away from that triple stack of Styrofoam cups he walks around with. This young man that is contributing to the degradation of our culture has had to much Hawaiian Punch and Promethezyne.

First of all to say, "I have four teardrops on my face" and "I come from the murder capital", is implying that you have indeed killed someone in your life. In case you people didn't know, a teardrop tattoo is a symbol of having committed at least one murder; well in North America it is. In Australia a teardrop tattoo has an entirely different meaning. It is forcibly marked on convicts who are accused child molesters! Now if I listen to Gillie the Kid, I guess that is why Baby, CEO of Cash Money, has his teardrop tattoos. It was said by Gillie that Baby used to touch on Wayne when he was a child. Like father, like son? They say the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, but let's just stick to what Wayne was implying.

He was implying that he has killed someone and so has his mother. Imagine that I work for the FEDS and I'm reading this. I'm like okay; I think this is an admission of guilt. Then I keep reading and see this idiot has relinquished all doubt because he says, "I will murder you"! Not just you, but "your family, your child, a newborn." Could somebody get this Fisher Price, my first red bandanna wearing kid a publicist, or has he already said too much? I think the City of New Orleans should charge Wayne with some of the city's unsolved murder cases. He is glorifying murder and admitting, even though I don't believe him, that he has killed someone. "I will murder you" should be taken seriously in a court of law!

Have you ever seen "Minority Report" starring Tom Cruise, where a special police department called "pre-crime" apprehended criminals based on foreknowledge? Well we have the foreknowledge and the confession before the crime! Lil Wayne said he will "murder your family, your child, and a newborn"! Someone save this guy from his self! Usually when someone snitches on you to the FEDS and says that you did something or were involved in some way, the FEDS come and arrest you on what they call a conspiracy charge. Lil Wayne dry snitched on himself. No I take that back, he didn't dry snitch he flat out snitched on himself and his mother. I think they need to be picked up and charged with conspiracy to commit murder. I just want him to be charged so I can hear him tell the truth and say, "I never killed anyone, I'm just a rapper! I need to sound tough to sell records! I got these teardrop tattoos because it looked cute on Baby!"

This dude ladies and gentlemen is a fraud, a phony, a fake, and those comments he made to Ozone Magazine are detrimental to society. Do you know how many kids this guy psychologically influences? Watch how many people you start to see walking around with Styrofoam cups; watch how many kids start drinking his Hawaiian Punch and promethezyne concoction; watch how many kids will get that thought branded into their brains that they "will murder you, your family, a child, and a newborn"!

Has anybody read the new study that shows most teenagers will indulge in risk taking behaviors because of poor brain development? Even if they know right from wrong, good from bad, positive from negative, God from the Devil, they will still ignore it because that is what they have been programmed to learn. The study by Temple University Professor of Psychology, Laurence Steinberg, PhD, concludes from newly emerging research on adolescent brain development, that "Teenagers seek out risk-taking behaviors because the brain systems involved in decision making mature at different times. The section of the brain most involved in emotion and social interaction becomes very active during puberty, while the section most critical for regulating behavior is still maturing into early adulthood."

"This explains" Steinberg says, "why teens are so susceptible to peer pressure and why education and prevention efforts designed to keep teens from engaging in risk-taking behaviors don't work all that well. We have tried to prevent these behaviors by educating kids about the dangers of things like smoking, drinking, taking drugs, and unprotected sex," he tells WebMD. "The thinking has been, if they know about the dangers they won't do these things, but that is clearly not true."

Damn right it's not true because if I'm a teenager whose brain is not fully developed and I'm listening and following a jackass like Lil Wayne, that means I'm going to want to join a gang (and kids you will get jumped in, you're not going to pay your way in like Lil Wayne). Wayne, if you wanted to be an honorary member of an organization and pay dues you should of pledged A.K.A. I'm sure those fine women would have accepted you as one of their own. It would have made more sense because pussy knows pussy.

I call him pussy because only a pussy, during an interview with a national publication, would say he would kill a child or a newborn baby! Let me refocus, if I'm a teenager whose brain is not fully developed and I'm following a jackass like Lil Wayne, I'm going to want to join a gang. I'm going to drink my syrup all day and I'm going to look for someone to kill for no reason, possibly a newborn baby because Wayne said he would and he's the best rapper alive (allegedly)!

The problem with this is the judge does not want to hear that a 17-year-old's brain is not fully developed. By the time this not fully developed brain under the influence of drugs goes out and really kills someone and is arrested, then sentenced to life in prison, it's too late. Case in point,the four young men, who broke into Washington Redskins player, Sean Taylor's home looking to steal. When Sean popped out, they shot him and now he is dead. Now those kids are going to jail forever!

What influenced those kids to do that? I'm not going to blame that on Lil Wayne, but comments like those made by Wayne don't help. If my brain is not fully developed and this drugged out, fake gang banger, possible baby killer is the closest thing I have to an influence then what the fuck? Lil Wayne said, "Fuck what the world thinks, we real." I hate that word because the definition of what real is in hip hop is not real at all. Real is not pulling into the parking lot of Walgreen's in ATL, in the middle of a Saturday afternoon and allegedly trying to purchase machine guns. Real is not being 38 years old and now pledging your allegiance to the Bloods and flagging at award shows. Real is not being on DVDs pointing guns at the camera and licking shots in the air. Why incriminate yourself like that? Lastly, real is most certainly not interviewing with a national publication and saying that you will kill children and newborn babies.

As a matter of fact, going into 2008, I don't want any rappers to say that they are keeping it real. The dictionary defines real as being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verified existence; not an illusion. You rappers like Lil Wayne are about as real as the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny. Poverty and unemployment are real. 40 million people with little to no healthcare in America is real. The war in Iraq is real. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is real. Pedophilia is real. Incarceration is real. Our people, continuously dying at the hands of one another, for no reason is real.

With all these problems going on in the world, the only thing Lil Wayne can think to have come out of his mouth is, "I will kill you, your family, your child, a newborn baby"? Charlamagne Tha Gods says fuck Lil Wayne. I say fuck him because I say fuck the devil every day. When you proclaim that you "can't go to hell because you will take over," what you are really saying is you are worse than Satan. You are saying you are worse than God's mortal enemy. Fuck Wayne and any rapper or person that thinks like him. Praise to be ALLAH!! Death to all Devils!

P.S. When I hear statements like those made by Lil Wayne, I realize people's value of life is at an all time low. I would hope the tragic and untimely passing of the legendary Pimp C, (who I am sure was an influence to Wayne) touched him in a way that makes him value and appreciate his life. Not just his, but his daughters lives and newborn babies everywhere. R.I.P. Pimp C

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

The Way We Campaign: Kidz In The Hall Rep For Obama

Work To Do (Obama 08)


and the making of...

Crooked I vs. Jay-Z: Who You Got?

I grew up on the Wake Up Show so I know they always getting real. So the question for all you lyricism junkies is who you got out of crucial West Coast emcee Crooked I and Boss Hova?

Mic Sessions: Talib Kweli

American Godfather Trailer

classic material.

Preview: Lupe Fiasco's The Cool

As much as I might sound like I'm knocking Lupe Fiasco, I do got a lot of respect for dude.

I have said often that I believe he is one of the dopest lyricists (if not the dopest) in the game right now. His upcoming LP, The Cool, is going to be hip hop's potent punctuation following such a crazy year. You all know I prefer to wait until the album actually drops before I listen to tracks, but for my impatient people, you can preview the album via mtv here. And the kid is breaking down his second album in this complex interview.

And in true end-of-the-year fashion, Lupe shares some of the year's highs and lows and the future:

The Year of the Ye?

Let the campaigning begin.

The nominations for the 50th annual Grammy Awards are in and Mr. Kanye West is on top, scoring eight nominations including the coveted Album of the Year. It is no secret that the highest Grammy honor has been Ye’s top target since the beginning. He’s pouted and preached and huffed and puffed about why he should win the award every year.

“If I don't win Album of the Year, I'm gonna really have a problem with that,” West told MTV in 2005 about his second album Late Registration. “I can never talk myself out of [winning], you know why? Because I put in the work. I don't care if I jumped up and down right now on the couch like Tom Cruise. I don't care what I do, I don't care how much I stunt — you can never take away from the amount of work I put into it. So I don't wanna hear all of that politically correct stuff. You put the camera in front of me, I'm gonna tell you like this. I worked hard to get here. I put my love, I put my heart, I put my money [into Late Registration]. I'm $600,000 in the hole right now on that album and you tell me about being politically incorrect?”

He lost to U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb that year. The year before that, he lost to Ray Charles’ Genius Loves Company.

Truth be told, as good as Graduation is, let me just go on the record and say that I believe Amy Winehouse’s incredible LP Back to Black is the undisputed album of 2007. It is a nearly flawless masterwork that came seemingly out of nowhere. This is the album that is most likely to upset the Louis Vuitton Don. If Grammy voters are anything like Oscar voters, they might decide to hold out on giving the top award to Winehouse (six nominations) because she is a newcomer with enough talent to win the Album of the Year later in life.

So in that case, this year just might be Yeezy’s year. Winning the award would make Ye only the second hip hop artist to ever win it after Outkast made history in 2004 taking the honors with Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. All the signs point to Kanye taking home top honors. Graduation was a huge album that went nearly platinum in one week, dismantling the atomic bomb that is 50 Cent. The LP wraps up his academic trilogy, pushing the bounds of his musicality and raising hip hop’s crossover bar with epic singles like Stronger.

He’s been on magazine covers, published a book and launched his website, kanyeuniversecity.com and his mother, Donda West, recently passed away. It has definitely been one crazy year for the Chi-town artist. Who knows whether these things factor into the equation when it comes down to voting? But it is safe to say that 2007 was Kanye West’s year and the Album of the Year award would be the perfect punctuation.

Here’s the other relevant categories via Rolling Stone [see full list here]:

Album of the Year

Foo Fighters, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

Vince Gill, These Days

Herbie Hancock, River: The Joni Letters

Kanye West, Graduation

Amy Winehouse, Back to Black

Record of the Year

Beyoncé, “Irreplaceable”

Foo Fighters, “The Pretender”

Rihanna feat. Jay-Z, “Umbrella”

Justin Timberlake, “What Goes Around … / … Comes Around”

Amy Winehouse, “Rehab”

Song of the Year

Carrie Underwood, “Before He Cheats”

Plain White T’s, “Hey There Delilah”

Corinne Bailey Rae, “Like a Star”

Amy Winehouse, “Rehab”

Rihanna feat. Jay-Z, “Umbrella”

Best Rap Album

Common, Finding Forever

Jay-Z, Kingdom Come

Nas, Hip Hop Is Dead

T.I., T.I. Vs. TIP

Kanye West, Graduation

Best Rap Song

50 Cent feat. Justin Timberlake, “Ayo Technology”

T.I., “Big Things Poppin’”

Kanye West, “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”

Soulja Boy Tell’Em, “Crank That”

Kanye West feat. T-Pain, “Good Life”

Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group

Common feat. Kanye West, “Southside”

Fat Joe feat. Lil Wayne, “Make It Rain”

Shop Boyz, “Party Like a Rockstar”

UGK feat. OutKast, “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You)”

Kanye West, Nas & KRS-One, “Better Than I’ve Ever Been”

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration

Akon feat. Snoop, “I Want to Love You”

Chris Brown feat. T-Pain, “Kiss Kiss”

Keyshia Cole feat,. Lil’ Kim, Missy Elliott, “Let It Go”

Rihanna feat. Jay-Z, “Umbrella”

Kanye West feat. T-Pain, “Good Life”

R.I.P. Pimp C

Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You) - UGK ft. Outkast

Artist Site

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here's the official Jive Records Statement:

It is with great sadness that Jive Records announces the passing of Chad "Pimp C" Butler, a member of the celebrated rap duo UGK (Underground Kingz). Jive Records' President and CEO Barry Weiss states: "We mourn the unexpected loss of Chad. He was truly a thoughtful and kind-hearted person. He will be remembered for his talent and profound influence as a pioneer in bringing southern rap to the forefront. He will be missed and our prayers remain with his family and Bun B. I've known Chad since he was 18, and we loved him dearly and he was a cherished member of the Jive family."

Born in Port Arthur, Texas, Butler's father was a trumpet player who played professionally with Solomon Burke. Outside of his father, the 33-year old rapper's influences varied, ranging from Bobby Bland, Jimmy McGriff, the 1960's Motown artists to Run DMC. Butler met his inseparable partner Bernard "Bun B" Freeman in high school where they formed UGK. In 1992, the duo signed to Jive Records and went on release a total of eight albums for the label. They earned their highest achievement earlier this year when their most recent album, UGK (Underground Kingz), debuted in the number one position on the album pop chart. According to the New York Times, UGK "helped inspire a generation of Southern hip-hop stars, from OutKast to Lil Wayne."

Bun B is not available for comment at this time.

Rapper Pimp C of UGK Found Dead in LA Hotel

[my homie jw just hit me with the news. condolensces to his family and friends.]

Rapper Pimp C from Houston group UGK found dead in LA hotel
© 2007 The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Pimp C, one-half of the veteran Houston rap group UGK, was found dead in an upscale hotel on Tuesday. "It is with great regret that I must confirm that Chad Butler aka Pimp C, one half of the legendary UGK, was in fact discovered dead this morning," his publicist, Nancy Byron, said in a statement. "Manager Rick Martin is asking that everyone please respect his family and those close to him at this time and refrain from rumors and innuendo." Pimp C and partner Bun B were pioneers of Southern rap, and hit the mainstream with their cameo on Jay-Z's hit "Big Pimpin'."

Video: Kid Sister's Pro Nails

So this video by Chicago rapper Kid Sister was making rounds Monday and, according to mtv, it was made for only $3,000 and directed by Ruben Fleischer (M.I.A., Dizzee Rascal). Mr. Kanye West even comes through to give his Chi-town homie a crucial co-sign with a guest verse. Thoughts?

Sean Taylor And The Inevitable 'Thug' Label

[Shaffer/Reuters]

Thousands of mourners gathered in Miami today for the funeral of 24-year-old Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor, who was shot and killed in his home last week. I was reading this oh-so-true Newsweek piece by Raina Kelley when I came across this:

In a survey performed last month by the Pew Research Center, 71 percent of African-Americans said that rap had a negative impact, while 54 percent of young black adults believed that portrayals of African-Americans in movies and TV had a negative impact on society's view of black people.

As the battle rages on between rappers who, for the most part, claim what they do is merely “entertainment” and mainstream America that has made hip hop society’s scapegoat, what do you make of surveys like these?

A Thin Line Between Love and Hate

"So f*ck De-Haven for cavin’/that’s why we don’t speak/made men ain’t supposed to make statements/end of the story, I followed the code, cracked the safe/other niggas ain’t in the game so they practice hate."(Jay-Z No Hook, American Gangster)

You know Jay-Z is serious when he starts calling you out by name.

That means you hit a nerve. It doesn’t happen too often. In most of his diss records, Jigga will tuck not-so-thinly veiled references behind barb-wired bars. He will talk about your sloppy sales, your insufficient funds or your adopted style. But if he doesn’t say your name, he is basically saying you’re a nobody; a tiny, annoying but squashable ant in the grand scheme of his full-course existence.

Kingdom Come is a prime example. For months and months before Jay released that out-of-retirement LP, Cam’ron and Jim Jones among others had been spitting darts his way. The industry waited to see if Jay would come back with some career-ending verbal assault. He didn’t. He basically ignored them. On the album, he fired a few shots back, most of them on the track Dig A Hole: "Real niggas like, ‘why Hov talkin to dude’/He's sellin’ low 2s/Only time you went plat/My chain was on ya neck, that’s an actual fact." Everybody knew he was talking about Cam. But Jay never says his name. And that’s even a special case. Most of the time, Jay just flings a wide net of insult out there, where it can apply to just about anyone.

But there are those times when Jay means business and names get called. Of course, the most notable example is on The Blueprint LP on the severe diss record, Takeover, where he personalizes his attacks against Mobb Deep and Nas.

So in No Hook when Jay dedicates six menacing bars to former partner-in-crime De-Haven, you already know it's serious. Earlier this year, De-Haven posted a series of Youtube videos “Jay-Z Exposed.” The videos (see above) look bootleg with De-Haven saying he has all this dirt on Jay-Z and threatening to expose Jigga as a fraud. He doesn’t give details or back up his claims. It’s supposed to be an appetizer of sorts that will get people anxious to buy his DVD and his book when they come out. New York Magazine writer Ben Westhoff recently spoke to De-Haven about all the controversy:

Did you and Jay sell drugs together?
No, he ain’t do much selling drugs. I did all that work. He was just a good dude to be around. He was one of my best friends. I taught him some things, but I mainly kept him from being out on the street a lot. Whatever was mine was his. So, we shared clothes, we shared a whole bunch of stuff. We had sex with the same women plenty of times. We both got burnt! We had the drip. My mom took him to the clinic. My mom also got him out of jail.

Does Jay exaggerate his drug-dealing in his songs? I’m telling you he overexaggerates. He was there to see things, but doing some big-time Frank Lucas–type thing? No. He nickled and dimed, but nothing on a major scale. He definitely didn’t sell nothin’ in Marcy. Spanish Jose, who he mentions a lot [in his songs], was a friend of mine. Jay didn’t have no affiliation to Spanish Jose.

When did the two of you have a falling-out? We never really had a falling-out, that’s the problem. This is why I’m so confused. There was no argument, there was none of that. I don’t want an apology [from him], I want a reason. What happened? When my case [a federal drug-conspiracy charge] came in 1998, I never seen him again too much anymore. The case had nothing to do with him, his name never came up, so I’d like to ask him, “What happened?” Where did his departure come from?

When he talks about you on “No Hook,” is he accusing you of snitching? I think he’s talking about the way I went about this YouTube project [and not about snitching]. But he’s into subliminal messages, so [I think] he’s trying to get me hurt. That goes beyond disrespect. He’s getting my safety involved. I can’t believe my own daughter’s godfather is trying to get me hurt. But it won’t work. Being that I’ve been in prison a lot of times, a lot of people know my credibility. They know I went all the way to trial with my federal case, and I won.

The real question is why now? He could have done all this years ago if it mattered that much to him. With Karrine Steffans a.k.a. Superhead "blowin’ up" after releasing her tell-all book, Confessions of a Video Vixen, it seems that everybody has something they want to say about somebody else. Anything to make a dollar.

De-Haven is most likely telling the truth about Hov. Let’s be real. If Jay, or any other self-proclaimed drug kingpin rapper for that matter, was as big a drug dealer as they claim, they’d either be dead, in jail or still in the game. It’s not the type of gig you just walk away from all willy nilly just because you realize it doesn’t come with health benefits. Will the validity of Jay-Z’s story affect his prominence? No. Plenty of people have made money or attained position based on lies. Our president, for instance. It is the American Way; fake it till you make it.

But what do y'all think? Is De-Haven relevant? Is his quest to reveal Jay-Z’s true origin a righteous one? Or is he just trying to make a few bucks on the back of someone that was close to him back in the day?