Raekwon's "Have Mercy"

I felt bad for writing nasty things about Raekwon a few entries ago so I listened to Cuban Linx II again and HOLY SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK -



Guess I didn't appreciate this song the first and only time I listened to Cuban Linx II and maybe I ought to listen to records more than once before posting blogs about them. "Have Mercy" is produced by MoSS, who produced every track on Obie Trice's most recent album.

Jay Electronica's Beefs

In the song linked above, Jay Electronica raps, "Guru told me slow up the flow 'cause science and metaphors will slow up the dough." He should have listened to that advice.

He's from New Orleans then Brooklyn and he recently challenged RZA on some comments RZA made about Southern rappers. The beef between them is funny and here's a choice interview with Jay on some British music show where he calls RZA "a beautiful black man"...



L.Black da Eastcoast Bully recorded a funny dis called "Jay Harmonica" where he says, "Who the fuck is Jay Electronica anyway? Nerd backpack rapper's in the way." Haha

Wale's "More About Nothing" Mixtape

The song "The Perfect Plan" on Wale's "Mixtape About Nothing" is crazy. I love it. Wale recently tried to re-live past glory by releasing "More About Nothing". The sequel doesn't boast any songs as good as "The Perfect Plan". I used to think Wale was great but now when I hear his music I think about Eminem saying "try to outrap me with that happy shit." He's starting to sound like the corniest parts of Andre 3000 and Kanye West. His major label album was weak (how many guests?), though the song about the hoity-toity bulimic girl who does coke became one of Marissa's all-time jams. I'll give Wale to her.

Maybe the critical praise Wale got for the original "Mixtape About Nothing" went to his head and now he's more ambitious, attempting to record his own version of "The Love Below" by Andre 3000. Noooooooooo!!! "The Love Below" signaled the end of Outkast and I never want to be reminded of it again. Big Boi's "Speakerboxxx" on the other hand is a masterpiece. Wale ought to copy that one.

"The Motivation" is my favorite song on "Mixtape About Nothing", but it's kind of a guilty pleasure. I don't feel right blasting it in the car. It sounds like that "happy shit", even if the lyrical content isn't so happy. The lyrics are Wale at his best - angry. He should stick to angry preachy songs and stay away from slam poetry recitals for the ladies. "The Motivation" features Dre from Cool & Dre in some capacity. I'm guessing he made the beat. He couldn't be listed as a collaborator just for saying some stuff at the beginning, could he? Cool & Dre produced The Game's excellent "Hate it or Love it", one of the only good Game songs (sorry).



The next track is a slam poetry recital for the ladies and I hate it...



I miss "The Perfect Plan"...

Awesome

Wu

RZA produced the beat above. It's from GZA's most recent album, Pro-Tools, and it's the only track on the album that I'm into. I like the instrumental version more because it's not ruined by GZA's broken down old man flow. RZA has a verse on the song and his rapping is weak like GZA's. Raekwon's flow is weak now too. Most Wu members don't rap like they used to. Maybe they quit smoking weed or doing coke or whatever it was that got them to record such great tracks in the nineties. Ghostface has been consistent, bless his heart, and I'll probably always love RZA no matter how off-beat his rapping gets. I forgot about Method Man until The Wire and then he contributes my favorite verses to the surprisingly good Wu-Massacre record that came out last year. This track isn't produced by RZA but it's got a great Meth verse on it and I feel like he references The Wire when he says "potato silencers"...



RZA's beats are some of the most melodic and experimental music I've heard in rap. Hip hop is a relatively small genre of music so popular trends in the sounds used by producers can often be traced back to single influential songs. For instance, RZA's beat for "Verbal Intercourse" off Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx paved the way for songs that incorporate sampled vocals into the beat, like Kanye's "Golddigger"...



Here's another great RZA beat...



Sometimes I imagine what the world would be like had RZA's Prince Rakeem schtick taken off...



P.S. I thought it was weird when Cappadonna released a greatest hits CD after he was only two albums into his career. Here's a story about his stressful life: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1472556/20030611/cappadonna.jhtml

Coolio's "I Remember"

"I Remember" by Coolio is such a good song. The instrumental to this classic track from It Takes a Thief was in a Transworld skate video that I used to watch when I was in high school while nodding my head to the beat. People who can't listen to Coolio can at least appreciate J Ro's verse because he was in Tha Liks and they have more street cred than Foolio. I don't really think Coolio is a fool. He's probably a nice guy, always on Nickelodeon and stuff. That reminds me - has anybody heard Street Sweeper Social Club? I'm not really feeling them. My step dad went to see Eminem and Jay-Z with my little brother yesterday in Detroit. My step dad said he was "surprised Coolio didn't come out" because "Coolio is one of the original rappers".



Freddie Gibbs is kind of good. Have you heard of him?



Gibbs recently released a decent EP called Str8 Killa that features two tracks with guest vocals by Bun B because Bun B must be really cheap to get in the mic booth. He's been on millions of tracks recently, including a new song produced by DJ Premiere off Bun's new album Trill OG. Bun begins the track saying, "R.I.P. Guru. Gangstarr for life," and then the saddest Premiere track I've ever heard plays, and it's great, but the lyrics aren't that great. Beater rhymes "maine" with "maine" like ten times in a row at one point. I'm a big fan of Bun B and UGK so don't get mad at me for saying this. Maybe he choked in the presence of a legend, and if that's true, he's more endearing now.



Everybody's saying "goon" all the time now. Anyway, Premiere has a similarly reflective beat on Fat Joe's new album.



It's the last track on Joe's The Darkside Vol. 1 and it's just as good as the Bun B track, even if I haven't been into a Fat Joe song since "John Blaze". Remember...



Play every video in this blog simultaneously and you'll hear a secret message.