My pick is N.O.R.E.

Years back I made a post saying I think N.O.R.E. might be one of the lamest rappers ever. To this day I don’t understand why people hype him so much. That post had folks jumping in the comments telling me he’s actually nice, that I needed to revisit the catalog, give the music a second chance etc…

I tried again and I still don’t think he has a single line anyone would quote unless they’re clowning him.

My guy said:

“Ayo we light a candle
Run laps around the English channel
Neptunes, I got a cockerspaniel”

Wtf does that mean?!

Dude also said:

“It goes Indian style, knees bent in dashiki”

Why?!?

I also like griselda, rome streetz, roc marci and all those dj muggs collab artists

I’ve just listened to Murder by UGK for the one millionth time and was wondering what other songs does Bun B kill like this? One of my favorite songs but honestly I don’t know his full catalog. Any suggestions?

Rick Ross is William Roberts & Meek Mill is Robert Williams 😂

For someone that's been listening to hiphop/rap since a small kid, I'm 31 now, I can honestly say the genre is at an all time LOW. Like, hiphop and rap media trump music and it's not even close. Hell, streamers seem a lot more popular to the general public than artist nowadays. What happened to rappers being like the coolest and most popular people on Earth. Drake just dropped 3 albums and nobody cares lmaoo. Kai Cenat and Speed have more followers than and influence than rappers. Hell, rappers are starting to stream. Drake is starting to hang with streamers to promote his album(s). This Lil Durk trial is the biggest topic since Gucci Mane getting robbed. Nobody talks about music anymore. It's like nobody cares about actual music as much as they care about the drama and character. Blueface is all over twitter for KIK ?? Has he dropped an album since getting out of jail ? What changed ??

Recent examples in my queue:

JID on Bodies - All about the effort, I'm puttin' in leg work
Early in the mornin' countin' money 'til my head hurt (Let's go)
Niggas bein' funny, we can put 'em in a red shirt
Five in your chest like you Ant-Man Edwards (Let's go)

Kendrick on hey now - Hey now, say now, let me pop my shit
Water down my wrist, arm around my bitch
It's a green light, don't get out of bounds, I'ma blitz
It's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's all blue strips
Nigga, what?

I think the line itself matters obviously but also the cadence, the energy, and the beat in the back, whether it’s building or dropping, all play a factor in what I’m talking about here. So lmk yours

Nearly every Big verse ever is pleasant on the ears, but which one is he smoother than butter on the most?

For me, it’s Warning or Machine Gun Funk. Absolutely mesmerising flow.

Like a verse so bad it made you double check the credits lol

This is imo, only mine, but I feel like P.O.V by Clipse feat. Tyler The Creator would reach 11/10 status if they ended with Tyler. Malice is good. But Pusha and T were hard to follow up.

What say you, fam?

Here’s my second post about cool stuff I learned while reading J Prince’s book “Art & Science of Respect”

This story is about Prince’s unnerving first interactions with Suge Knight. 

Prince’s connection to Suge Knight had come through Harry-O, someone Prince had known from his street days. At first, Harry-O couldn’t understand why Prince walked away from the streets to get into music. Then, after being sentenced to decades in prison for drug trafficking, Harry-O now wanted to get into music because he needed a new hustle.

At the time, Dr. Dre was the hottest thing coming out of the West Coast. So Prince told Harry-O to get Dr. Dre to build a new company around. Harry-O still had enough juice in the streets back then to make that sort of move, according to Prince. Instead, however, Harry-O picked Suge Knight to be his business partner. 

And that is how Prince ended up first speaking to Suge. It was on a prison-monitored phone call with Harry-O.

Prince said of the first conversation: ”I saw immediately that Suge could become a potential problem.” On the call, which was definitely recorded (like all penitentiary calls), Suge spoke recklessly about “the type of things you don’t want the federal government to know about.” Prince didn’t specify here, but one can guess it was about illegal stuff. 

In any event, Prince said nothing on the call. When the call was over he thought “either Suge isn’t very bright, or he doesn’t care.” 

Prince was uncomfortable. He voiced his concern to Harry-O on another call (presumably just between them), who said he’d talk to Suge. Still, on the next call, Suge began to speak recklessly again. 

Prince said (of second convo with Suge):

“This clown was a time bomb waiting to happen. This time I hung up. Harry-O called me back, and I made it very clear to him - and to any members of law enforcement who might be listening - that I had no part in what Suge was talking about. I told him I wouldn’t be a part of their Death Row venture, but I’d be happy to cheer them on from the sidelines.”

Things seemed to go well for a while. Death Row went on to sign Dr. Dre (per Prince’s suggestion) after Suge got him out of his deal with Eazy-E’s Ruthless Records. When 2Pac needed $1.4 million to bond out of jail, Suge bailed him out, and was able to sign him to Death Row. They had other acts such as Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound, etc. And they stayed caught up in controversies, largely related to Suge’s reckless movement in the streets.

Regarding 2Pac, Prince also said that he wanted to sign 2Pac and was about a week away from “discussing a business deal” with him (whatever that means). But Suge got to Pac first. Assuming that was true, I have doubts that Prince would’ve offered Pac a better deal than Suge.

So that was basically it for Suge & Prince for several years. They were cordial but never that close.Prince said Suge was always respectful so there’s no hard feelings despite the awkward convos in the beginning. 

Prince also said something about starting a black-owned distribution company with Suge & Irv Gotti, but that fell through largely due both Suge & Gotti getting caught up in legal troubles.

Anyways, what do you make of that story? It sounds about right. Suge never struck me as being as cautious as Prince. 

Some random artist. Maybe he is popular but I haven’t seen many post about him.

“The Sword And The Soaring” album. Front to back was amazing…..for what I like and enjoy, it’s one of the best albums I heard in years. It’s up there

So smooth. Really philosophical too. Introspective. Conscious. Pretty sure he doesn’t curse also. Feel like fans of Phonte and Skyzoo would like him. Cole fans too.

I see a lot of conversation about Big L not dying, but what about if The D.O.C.'s solo career wasn't crushed with his larynx? Would West Coast Hip Hop be completely different? Would Dre have popped off without the ghostwriting? Would Death Row have been the environment to get Pac killed if Suge wasn't in the position of power he was because of the D.O.C.'s accident which enabled him to totally cut the original co-founder out of the paperwork? So many more hypotheticals, would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

Album “7 times down. 8 times up”..

I don’t listen to Elzhi much but….is he kind of one of the best rappers ever or something? I’m Foreal. Everytime I listen to his albums, I’m left speechless. I only heard two. The album mentioned and Elmatic. He flows like water. His song “smoke and mirrors”. Just reading the lyrics to it while listening. Dude is NICE!!!

A popular thought experiment is to imagine a rapper who died alive. Like "What would Tupac be doing nowadays if he wasn't murdered?"

I thought about it, and realised the reverse is quite interesting. Which rapper would be seen as a legendary figure if they died at a specific point of their career? Probably best with artists who peaked at a certain point and then fell off.

F.e. Wayne after Carter III, Em after Eminem Show

Weird question I know

I was just curious

Who are some of your favorite rappers or producers or dope artists from small towns or small cities?

I know small town and small city could mean many things and many ranges. It could be a town of 5,000 or a population less than 200,000 depending on someone's answer.

For me I'll say Rapsody who is from a small town that had less population than the small town I lived in growing up

9th Wonder also from a very small town

Phonte from Little Brother

Big KRIT

Missy Elliott

My point of making this post.

Great can come from anywhere. It can come from the poor communities in major cities, big cities in general, small towns, small cities, anywhere.

This might be bias because I’m from Tampa and have kicked it with all three members at one point or another, but I genuinely feel like the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League is the dopest producer collective ever.

Outside of Organized Noize, of course and even then, I personally fuck with JL’s music and overall style more.

Those dudes were composing music at a level that felt larger than life.

When people name names just for the sake of being popular. Something people just say but just to fit in

Example: Black Thought is top 5 rapper, or Freddie Gibbs has 4 Classics,

I’m revisiting the music I listened to around 2009–2015 and I’m realizing how insanely experimental some of this stuff was. Kid Cudi, N.E.R.D., A$AP Rocky, Travis Scott etc. What other artists/albums from that era had this kind of unconventional, atmospheric production?

Isn't it the exact same argument?

In the evolution of any culture, things steadily progress then there are occasionally major ‘jumps’ where something innovative happens and changes everything - eventually it becomes normal and we forget it was once ‘a thing’.

In hip hop it could be landmark changes in:

Rapping style or content, music technology, image/fashion, values and attitudes, historical social events, commercial distribution tech, politics etc.

TLDR: What evolutionary jumps do we forget (or would an 18 year old rap fan today simply take for granted)?

When it comes to the financial cost of samples, unless something has changed and I missed it, are there any industry wide financial rules, guidelines, system in place, do's and don't? Logically you would think, but seems to me, there is only one rule not to violate.

In terms of cost, is it up to the producer if you want to sample a melody, a hook, a beat, a horn sound that they produced? Is it up to Rakim or the publisher , if I wanted to sample, "After 12 I'm worse than a gremlin...? In theory, I think a five second sample could cost the same as a 30 second sample. I think I'm correct in saying a small Rolling Stones sample could cost more than a lengthy sample of group xyz, simply because the Rolling Stones are legends, and can ask for whatever they choose as financial compensation? Any hard and set rules?

I'm having a bit of a comedy marathon, and it's always annoyed me how the film industry has overused Rap as a short cut to make some connection to the audience. It worked with Pineapple Express because it was genuine. Every movie after this that has tried the same thing has just felt like that Steve Buscemi meme.

I am super out of the loop with Rap itself, so I was wondering if there's any modern equivalentz to Chuck D, dead prez, Paris (Scarface Records).

I would say it would be The New Rap Language by Treacherous Three. Some of the word choices are a bit elementary, but the rhymes are very internal and precise; plus the flow is infectiously catchy and aggressive. The earliest one that blew me away would be the verses on My Melody, but I'm a bit biased because Rakim is the greatest rapper to me. what are earlier tracks I'm missing?