19 posts tagged “rap”
Show us something you love but everyone else hates.
Submitted by AKA Vasquez.
This Vox Hunt is nearly a month old and the idea behind the post is approaching a year old but I've been meaning to get this off my chest.
I'm a fan of Will Smith's music.
There I said it.
Back in December I bought a used copy of his most recent album "Lost & Found" and the guy at the store gave me flak for it.
"Are you sure you don't want to put this back and maybe get something like the new Young Jeezy?"
"No thanks, I like good music."
With that he held up the Will Smith and shot me a look as if to say "you call this good music?"
" Will Smith is a good rapper. He keeps it clean and can still rap better than 90% of the rappers out there. My mom could listen to Will Smith."
He shrugged his shoulders and rang me up.
For some reason it's an unpopular thing to say. Other rappers diss him, trying to give themselves some sort of cred by dissing him.
(Lil') Bow Wow: "....he did his little rap thing first. But to me honestly, Will wasn't like a real rapper. He was more like a gimmick. Then he zapped into get a TV show, and it was poppin. Then after that he was in Hollywood. So things with came easy for him. With me, I'm a rapper. I ain't with the whole coloful cornball-type things. That's just not my style.."
“The only real rappers out there right now are ME, Kanye, 50, and maybe Jay. But Jay ain’t in it like that no more.”
Really? Insolent little punk wouldn't even have a record deal if it wasn't for the tracks Will Smith laid. As he says in one of his songs "first ever rap Grammy," what have you done Bow Wow?
Anyway, here is a couple tracks from his most recent album and of course the classic Summertime.
POST A SUMMMER-ish TRACK
FROM YOUR PERSONAL LIBRARY
It can have summer in the title or reference it in the song...or it can just be one that always reminds you of hot days, warm nights, cooking out, laying out...whatever.
I feel like this is an obvious choice but maybe that's just me.
What year was it? 2002, 2003? I don't remember anymore.
One of my bff's, Sly Philly, released his second album (since I'd known him) and had a music video produced to accompany one of his songs.
The fact that this got made at all is a testament to his will to make it happen. It was made during a time when he didn't have a car and was walking 3 miles to work everyday and was regularly dining at "99 Cent Chinese Food & Fried Chicken" because that's what he could afford.
I personally put together most of the CDs he released the night this video premiered. Printing and folding the back insert, the inside insert and many of the labels. It was a great time.
I was checking his MySpace this morning and 1) noticed that I'm not even in his top 16 anymore (we don't chill like we used to) and 2) His video is up on YouTube.
Now his video is up on Vox for my whole 'hood to see. It's not perfect, nor is it is his best work but how many unsigned artists do you know with 3 albums and a professional looking music video?
Sometime ago I thought I saw a Vox hunt that was asking to share a favorite love song. I thought I saved it so I could come back and answer it later . Apparently was imagining the whole thing as I can't find it in anywhere. So I'm creating a Bootleg Vox Hunt.
Bootleg Vox Hunt: Share your favorite Love Song
Audio: Share something extremely rare that deserves to be heard.
Submitted by deusdiabolus.
Isn't "extremely rare" kind of subjective? I mean what's rare to me could be common place to lots of other people.
Anyway, these are some tracks that I think people will know, may have loved, but probably haven't heard in untold years.
I couldn't find audio for one so I'm adding the video I found.
"On the strength, Money."
MC Milk Dee and his brother DJ Giz broke into show business in 1988 with the popular old school album What More Can I Say. Having MC Lyte for a sister worked to their advantage: under the name Audio Two, they gained distribution through Atlantic Recordings. As was the case with Licensed to Ill and many of the other rap albums of the same period, What More Can I Say has been heavily sampled over the years.
-Who is Who: Milk
Part 3!!
A long time ago, before she got Vox famous (let's face
it, you are, it's freakin' awesome if you ask me) Mathilde put out a
list called "The Top 11 Rap Songs"
and when I saw her list I countered with one of my own. That's when
things got interesting and the gauntlet was thrown down. Well...kind of,
probably only in my mind really.
Anyway, Mathilde wrote a post called "
Revising the top 11 rap songs" in which she listed criteria for her songs that she thought qualified them as the top 11 songs.
The list is below, I added the (A), (B) & (C) for classification, which you will see later on.
- (A) Song had to introduce something musically that is novel to the genre.
- (B) Song had to introduce something thematically or literary to the genre.
- (C) Song had to put forth either exceptional writing or give voice to the voiceless
This is my response. I
have made attempts at numbering this list but I just can't do it so I
left them in the order that they came to me over the weeks it took to
compile this list and write this post.
Bizze Bee vs. Kool Moe Dee
For this one I'm going back, way back, back into rhyme. This is the only song that fits into all three categories.
It changed the face of rap music, just listen to it (fair warning it's kind of long and not the best sound quality). You can hear it change from one style to another. It's like the changing of the guard right before your ears. None of these other songs would be on the list if this had never happened. Arguably this is the most important rap song ever.
Nuthin' But A G Thang
I'm putting this in category A but it
could be argued that it fits in B as well. When The Chronic dropped in
like 93 it changed the face of rap music just as much as the Bizze
Bee/Kool Moe Dee track did. On the strength of this song and the album it
appeared on Dr. Dre, Snoop (Doggy) Dogg and Death Row Records change
the rap game and not necessarily for the better. For my money Dr. Dre
is the best producer to ever touch a sampler (that includes Pete Rock).
New music comes out every day that is a direct result of this song.
Microphone Fiend
I'm listing this a C but it could also be B.
To the best of my ability to reckon Rakim was the first MC to drop science on the mic. He might as well have invented a whole new style of rhyming for what he did.
I was a fiend before I became a teen
I melted microphones instead of cones of ice cream
music orientated so when
hip-hop was originated
Fitted like pieces of puzzles
Complicated
Except for that whole thing about melting microphones that is exactly how I felt. I think that's how a lot of us felt.
Life's A Bitch
This falls into category C, with lyrics like these, can you argue?
I woke up early on my born day, I'm twenty years of blessin
The essence of adolescence leaves my body now I'm fresh and
My physical frame is celebrating cause I made it
One quarter through life some God-ly like thing created
On my original list I had left Nas off the list because I found it too hard to pick a single song off of Illmatic. I've been listening to it quite a bit recently and the more I do the more I am convinced it very well could be the best rap album ever, including ones that haven't been written yet. (I was already 99% sure that was the case to begin with anyway.) It wasn't until I sat down with Mathilde's criteria that I was able to decide that this song belongs on the list.
C.R.E.A.M.
Cash Rules Everything Around Me. As with most of the songs on this list The Wu-Tang Clan changed the whole face of hip hop. It turned out they ruled everything around them. With their own line of clothing, video games, comic books, home videos...you name it they had a finger in. In less than 5 years the 9 members of the Clan made something like 100 million dollars off their names and music. Everyone wanted to sound like, dress like and just generally be like The Wu. In my mind their heavy sampling of Kung-Fu movies brought the genre back to the forefront of popular culture; when Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was released there was a special screening for The Wu Tang Clan. I'm dropping this in column B.
The Message
This is kind of a given, I mean everyone puts this
song on their list. I'm going to put this under C. At the time it came
out it really put into words what New York was like. Look at some of
the footage of New York in the early 80's and it looks no different
that any war zone any where in the world. I'm forever shocked by it
when I see it. Previously I had left this song off the list in favor of
6 In The Morning. Now I'm listing them both as two sides of the same
coin. One is a direct result of the other.
Six In The Morning
6 In The Morning Police At My door
Fresh Adidas squeak across the bathroom floor
Out the back window I made my escape....
Before
he was on TV Ice-T was one of the most notorious rappers out there (as
if you don't know this). Arguably he is he the father of "Gangsta
Rap." As I said earlier this song is like part two of The Message. The
events depicted in The Message lead directly to the events in this
song. With no opportunities for anything else, people turn to crime;
soon the police are at your door. Category B.
Lodi Dodi
I wanted to put The Show here but I can't find a copy of it online or in real life. I used to have a CD with it on it but after weeks of looking I can't find it. This works well in its place.
Anyway, Slick Rick, Doug E Fresh; it doesn't get much better than this in the old school. Other people had done the whole beat box thing before but who did it better than Fresh? I'm putting this in group A. This was one of the best alliances in hip-hop history.
Hard Knock Life
This one falls under category A. I can think of no other songs before or since that have used a hook from a Broadway musical. It took the retirement of Jay for me to realize the genius of his music.
The thing with rap music is that it comes from almost nothing. It was literally a hard knock life and it's easy to see how people growing up in that can identify with the song.
911 Is A Joke
I'm putting this in category C, that's right I'm saying Flavor Flav wrote an exceptional song and at the same time gave a voice to the voiceless. At the time this song came out most white suburbanite kids really had no idea what was going on in the places where rap music was born and bred. Sure they knew it was rough but having been from the 'burbs they really had no idea that if you are poor and in a "bad" part of town you don't get prompt service from emergency services. This song opened eyes.
You Must Learn
...Black & White kids both take shorts
when one doesn't know about the other ones culture
ignorance swoops down like a vulture.
Knowledge Reins Supreme Over Nearly Everybody. KRS-ONE gave a lot of people (black & white) knowledge in his music that they might never have received otherwise; which is why this goes under B. His message of self empowerment and knowing your history to become a better citizen is universal. He deemed himself a teacher and even though it's corny I'll stand by that. I learned a lot from KRS and I'm not the only one.
Sublime wrote a song about him; here's the opening verse.
In school they never taught 'bout hamburgers or steak,
Elijah Muhammad or the welfare state.
But I know.
And I know because of KRS-ONE
And there you have it. Did I miss something?
At X-Mas I made a gag X-Mas greeting for my homie Sly Philly's & my sisters MySpace featuring some old school pro-black rappers.
A Very Hip-Hop X-Mas
I planned one for New Years but was ill and didn't get around to it.
For Valentines day I tossed this together tonight.
Audio: Share a song that fits the moment you're living right now.
Inspired by cherè.
"Life can drive you crazy, all I wanna do it be lazy..."
This is my first attempt at posting anything via email since work has block
Vox (and I just found out they blocked Flickr; my blood continues to boil
over MySpace is still being available.)
Anyway, this is the funniest page so far this year from my Onion Page-A-Day
calendar.
There should be a photo attached to this, if not I will upload it at home.
