A regular episode, but this time Nice Rec picks the jams. This hasn’t happened… ever!

Jay-Z – Can I Live

Cool Calm Pete – Giddy
Doom – Absolutely
Jay Electronica – Victory is in my Clutches

Black Milk – Watch ‘Em
Q-Tip – Official
DJ Jazzy Jeff – The Definition f/ Kel Spencer
Lootpack – Hityawitdat

Method Man – The Afterparty f/ Ghostface
Sean Price – 1,2 Y’all
Capone N Noreaga – Live On Live Long

Mission Man – Chillin’ at the Papa

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An hour and some change dedicated to Tupac Amaru Shakur. Nice Rec gives the man his just due on this one. Come quick see…

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A trend in recent years has been for famous rappers enforcers to drop albums. These “rappers,” in the post-50 Cent era, must hope that their street cred will overshadow their lack of actual song-writing skills and lead to sales because every single one of them is garbage. Let’s take a look at the players: 50 Cent has Tony Yayo, Cam’Ron has Hell Rell, Lil’ Kim has Maino (?), and now Eminem has Trick Trick. Trick Trick must be a force to be reckoned with out in Detroit, because that serious place to do dirt, as evidenced when top 40 rapper Yung Berg recently made a trip to the Motor City.

The problem I have with Trick Trick is that he is not satisfied with just having high hopes for his album, only to have his five best friends buy it and then fade back into obscurity. No instead, he has used the release of his album to spit vitriol against the gay community:

“I’ma go on the record right now with this. Homosexuals are probably not gonna like this album,” Trick revealed to AllHipHop.com. “I don’t want your f**got money any goddamn way. I don’t like it [homosexuality]. Carry that s**t somewhere else.”

This man actually has songs that go on the offensive against known gays like Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres (see the self-titled song, Trick Trick). This is far beyond the childish “no homo” utterings of annoying Dipset fans. This is straight up unabashed homophobia!

The problem with hip hop, and music in general, is that being talented musically does not translate to actual intelligence, but many artists still use their art as a platform to convey their often ignorant views. Even rappers considered conscious have homophobic, misogynist and even racist views. Sure, we can say that these men are simply products of their environment and are simply one symptom of a larger problem, but at what point do we say enough is enough? At what point do we say that we are not satisfied with ignorance as the status quo?

As a fan of hip hop, I have rolled with the punches. Some of my favorite rappers are guilty of reciting some very ignorant lyrics. Does that make me homophobic/misogynist/racist? That’s all relative to a person’s individual opinion. I love rap music, but I wish that rappers would be responsible with their lyrics.

I guess, in maybe 40-50 years time, hip hop will be lumped in with the likes of shows such as Amos and Andy, products of a time long past, looked down upon but still admired in a way because they are a reminder of how the way things used to be.

“This ain’t rappin, this is Street-Hop
Now get up off your ass like your seat’s hot.” – Nas

Real quick, top rappers in the game right now: Royce da 5’9″, Blu, and T.I. All three of these dudes are true lyricists that know how to make songs. Hiphopsite.com reports that Royce will be dropping Street Hop in the first quarter of 2009. The album will be executive produced by DJ Premier. We played the first single “Shake This” on Episode 67 and it’s a cot damn banger. I really think this goes beyond anticipation. It’s more like, give me the album right now, before I hurt somebody!

I’ll admit, I was late to jump on the Royce bandwagon. I mean, I loved the Bad Meets Evil joints, and the singles with Premier are classics (“Boom,” “Friend,” etc. etc.) but I never thought much of his solo albums. Maybe he was spitting pretty hard on those albums, but the production was lacking if my memory serves me correctly. However, my new found obsession with Royce began when I first heard “Motown 25,” a collaboration with fellow Detroit MC, Elzhi (who can spit flames if didn’t know already). Ever since then, it seems like everything I hear from Royce is absolute FIRE!

It seems that Royce is always near some beef no matters what he does. Remember how he got kicked off Dr. Dre’s 2001 back in the day? Or his beef with Eminem and D12? Or most recently, what about the exchange of words between him and Joe Budden? By the way, Joe Budden doesn’t hold a candle to Royce. Have you ever heard Budden’s beat selection? His beats are terrible rock rap style bullshit!

Anyways, on paper, Street Hop sounds like it could already be a contender for album of 2009!

Man, maybe my tastes in women have (d)evolved over the years, but Britney is a little hot tamale. It also might be that I’m something of a masochist and find myself incredibly attracted to women that are COMPLETE TRAINWRECKS, but I have taken a vested interest in this woman ever since she decided to shave her head bald.

One thing is for certain, she still looks great (look at those legs), and with a title like “Circus,” my interest is piqued because at the very least the liner notes will be nice to look at. A recent MTV article revealed some of the song titles from the album:

Spears also announced that the next single [after "Womanizer] will be the title track, “Circus,” produced by Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco. It’s the second cut on the album, after “Womanizer.” The rest of the songs under Britney’s big top include “Out From Under,” “Kill the Lights,” “Shattered Glass,” “If U Seek Amy,” “Unusual You,” “Blur,” “Mmm Papi,” “Mannequin,” “Lace and Leather,” “My Baby” and as a bonus track, “Radar.”

With song titles like this, it’s at least worth a download. I probably won’t make it through three tracks, but I’ll waste some bandwidth and ratio on it!

I can hear Nice Rec making out with his girlfriend in the living room. YUCK!

Anyways, we love Lupe Fiasco on this show. We even broke our ban on top 40 singles and played Superstar on an episode, although to be fair, we dropped it the day it came out, way before it got ran thousands of times on radio stations.

Apparently, his new album is actually going to be a 3 in one ordeal. Three discs, one titled Everywhere, the second titled Nowhere, and the last, Down Here.  Collectively, the first letters of these discs spell E.N.D., but you have probably already figured that out.

In this day and age where artists struggle to release one album, three albums sounds terribly excessive, but I’m willing to give Lupe the benefit of the doubt. I think both Food and Liquor and The Cool are solid albums. Here’s opening that lupEND will be three discs of bliss.

Exile is the guy on the left!

FreshSelects recently caught up with producer Exile (of Blu and Exile fame) to get some details on his upcoming solo project:

Rarely one to take the expected path, Ex decided to flip the script a bit and instead of doing the typical instrumental album, challenged himself to only sampling sounds taken from his local L.A. radio waves to make his beats & statements with. The result is a sonic collage of crisp drums, static feedback, talking samples, and sounds from a wide array of genres – all filtered through Exile’s signature seamlessly chopped-up, tempo-switching style, and composed to convey succint life messages to the audience.

I have liked Exile ever since I heard Mobb Deep’s Pearly Gates, and of course we damn near played every track off of Below the Heavens on the podcast, so this is definitely good news. Check out FreshSelects to download the track “In Love” off the album. Or you can just wait for the next regular episode of the podcast…