Way back in 2000-2001, if you would have asked me who my favorite rapper was, I would have said Pharoahe Monch unequivocally. Fast forward nearly a decade later,I’m left scratching my head wondering what the hell happened to his career?
Sure, he had that joint with Dilla, Love, but that is the only jam that equals his output from the 90′s. It’s not like this man has lost his talent, but it feels like he lost his heart, which is readily apparent on his second solo album, Desire. I imagine with all of the label drama he had to go through in the past decade, that the love will go away from you, too.
Pharoahe’s flows, even to this day, are top tier. Plus he is a master at switching tones on you, at one point he can be this sick, sadistic sonuvabtich (think “Rape”), then the next he can be singing the sweetest of love songs (think “The Light”).
Anyways, what was the point of this post? Oh yeah, check out this Best of Pharoahe mixtape mixed by DJ Foodstamp. I already own all of these songs, but it’s good to hear them mixed up very nicely.
So, apparently Bun B. and Pimp C. had an album in the vault before Chad’s untimely passing. Their last album will be called UGK 4 Life and will be dropping in Spring of this year.
“The new UGK album 4 Life is the final studio album from my late great brother Chad Butler aka Pimp C and myself,” Bun said in a statement. “It is my sincere hope that it’s a fitting bookend to the legacy of UGK and to the life and times of Pimp C.”
I am not the biggest fan of these dudes, but I’ll be checking this one out.
D-Nice has worn many hats throughout his storied career: rapper, beatboxer, dj, producer, photographer, and now a successful blogger.
His blog contains a series called “True Hip Hop Stories,” where he interviews rap legends like Masta Ace and Monie Love. I have spent the better half of the afternoon checking out these videos, and was most intrigued by a comment that Doitall from Lords of the Underground made.
He says that, and I am paraphrasing here, “when we were at our peak, the people in Lords of Underground ranged from ages 18-20, so we made music for people in that age group. Nowadays, those people that listened to us back in the day, they are professionals: lawyers, teachers, etc. No one makes music for them anymore. So what they’ve done is, they’ve moved onto R&B and other kinds of music.”
I agree whole-heartedly with this statement. It is sad that there is a lack of music being put out for (former?) hip hop fans in the 35 year old range, many of whom stopped listening to rap over a decade ago. Superstars from that time, the Rakims, the Big Daddy Kanes, haven’t put out music since that time. Guys like KRS-One still manage to put out records frequently, but they pale in quality to the music they put out almost 20 years ago.
I find it strange that this largely untapped market goes unnoticed. This older generation of hip hoppers are more apt to buy records than the younger kids, because they grew up buying cassettes and cd’s, and it’s quite likely that they are just not as computer savvy as we are.
I remember three or four years ago, when Lord Finesse came to Pittsburgh, there was a large group of fans that I had NEVER seen before. These people knew EVERY word that came out of Lord Finesse’s mouth, while younger guys like me who were not as familiar with ihs material, could only bop our head, watch and smile. Towards the end of his set, some dude came to the front of the stage wanting to battle Lord Finesse. Totally disrespectful.
Anyways, here is the Doitall interview, but check out the website because there is a ton of stuff on there.
I was going to make this picture the first thing you see when you come to the site, but then I decided against it.
I just did some maintenance on the gallery and put up some assorted pictures from our Scribble Jam excursion back in October (HUGE shout out to Slim Wilkins). For a dope regular episode and a recap of that weekend, check out episode 67.
Over the past two weeks, one of the best battles in recent memory has been waged over the internet: Saigon vs. Joe Budden. It went four rounds, a lot of dope punchlines were exchanged and it all ended… ah well, you’ll have to read to the end to figure out what happened.
One of the biggest omissions from Notorious was Charli Baltimore, who apparently was B.I.G.’s most lasting girlfriend.
“Like I said I’m not bitter about the film because for me, I always felt like my relationship really was nobody’s business. I know what I had with Big; I didn’t really need to explain it to anyone. But I also…you know Big confided in me as a boyfriend would confide in a girlfriend. So I know a lot of things about Big that I would never discuss with anyone.”
I’ve always liked John Forte. “Flash the Message” was my join back in the day. It’s pretty cool that Bush commuted his sentence, it looks like John was just a guy who made a mistake, and paid dearly for it.
Don’t get me started on the hypocrisy of drug law in this country.
A Message From Kanye West
I can understand people wouldn’t like Kanye West. His arrogance can be off-putting, and over the years we as a public have watched him become more arrogant and eccentric. His black mullet is just ridiculous.
Still, I will always respect him as a man that believes in himself and does whatever he wants, no matter what the reaction will be.
I usually try to stay away from Justus League cats outside of Phonte, no one impresses me all too much. Median can be pretty dope, but I’m just not feeling his albums. Guys like Joe Scudda, Legacy, and even Big Pooh arerun of the mill rappers that don’t do anything out of the ordinary.
Skyzoo however, I am really feeling. I first heard him on a Wale track awhile ago and thought he ripped it pretty hard. I just copped his corner store mixtape, I am hoping it lives up to my expectations.
Anyways, here is a video with Panama and Skyzoo. Panama is looking pretty sharp with the sweater vest and tie. Is he related to Lupe Fiasco at all? The similarities are uncanny.
Our first show actually recorded in 2009, here is a full hours worth of the Funk Doctor Spock, Green Eyed Bandit, and the Vocabulist-otherwise known as Redman, Erick Sermon and Keith Murray. There is also quite a bit of Parrish Smith on the episode too because he was one half of a group called EPMD.
A hip hop podcast, dedicated primarily to the independent or underground genre. A group of friends, overwhelmingly male, get together, play dope tunes and talk about whatever they feel like. At times, the result is awesome, at others it is awesomely bad.
