Yeah, we’ve been riding with EK for a while, now you can check her out for yourself courtesy of the good folks here at ML. The first person to respond to 
with the subject “Emily King Contest” in the Anaheim area, gets 2 tickets to see Emily open up for Floetry.
I wouldn’t have cared if some crappy Southern Rappers (see: Lil Boosie and co.) had decided to remix Hurricane Chris’ abortion of a single “A Bay Bay.” I was a little suprised to see Game on the remix, but then again he has been doing a lot of those crappy remixes lately. But seeing Jadakiss on this remix was too much. I decided to take a listen to see if he dropped his usual awesome bars on an otherwise crap track, and no, no he did not. His verse is terrible, its like he lowered his rap ability just to stay on par with the other dudes in the song. Its really a terrible place to see a guy who was dropping shit like this in recent memory.
Then again this isn’t the first time he’s done this. His crimes are multiplied since he was also on the remix of Wipe Me Down, another unforgivable offense and yet another bad verse. Now it may seem like I’m shitting on the South, but there are quite a few artists from the dirty who I really enjoy. Take UGK for example, or the Goodie Mob, or even the more contemporary Lil Wayne to name a few. If Jada would have been on a remix of one of these guys’ songs I would have been fine (as long as his verse was good). But instead it seems like more and more good rappers are appearing on crappy Southern bangers just for the airplay. What’s next KRS-One doing a remix of Krispy?
P.S. I don’t care that LL Cool J was on the actual Krispy remix. That dude has been crap for a while.
A Bay Bay Remix Video (Warning: Content May Disgust Hip-Hop Fans):
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=VRW6sPLBZ-U[/youtube] Sphere: Related Content
Royce Da 5’9″ is an industry veteran that has ridden the ups and downs of the record industry as many of your favorite rappers have. Royce also happens to be one of ML’s favorites, so we’ve followed him in all that he has gone through so far. Fresh off his reemergence with his post jail bid mixtape The Bar Exam, which is an appropriately lyrically hungry mixtape, we caught up with Royce a few months ago. We talked to Royce about his mixtape, being a boxing fiend and his relationship with many of Detroit’s other rappers like some guy named Eminem. You. know. the. drill. read.
ML: What’s going on?
Royce Da 5’9”: How you doin ML?
ML: Pretty good, how bout yourself?
R: Not bad at all, not bad at all, just chillin.
ML: How’s your day going?
R: It’s going great.
ML: Could you talk about the mixtape you just put out, The Bar Exam?
R: It’s leaked, pretty much everywhere, like all over the internet. The Bar Exam is just something basically me and Prem wanted to get together; myself, Prem and Statik. We wanted to get together and do something; we just wanted to go a different direction from where everybody was going. It seems like nobody’s really taken the art of MCing serious anymore. Rap is kind of going through a phase where it’s not really about that. So we really just wanted to be true to what we do as artist, which is stay true to the art form and just start my way from the underground back up. So, I have no gimmicks or nothing, I just wanted to spit through the whole thing, and then Statik came and they dropped a few different beats under there. Shoot that was pretty much it; it was simple, simple format.
ML: Any reason for the title for the mixtape?
R: Yeah. When I was locked up, when I was at the trustee camp, I came up with it. It really does mean, examine the bar; examine every bar, like; every bar, examine it. Do you know what I’m saying?
ML: Yeah. You mentioned that it’s leaked everywhere, how do you feel about that?
R: I feel good about it. I feel good about it because what I was shooting for was as many people as possible to hear it. So it wasn’t about this, not about the money at all, so I’m not worried about how much money I can stand to lose. You know, by it being leaked and a lot of people having it for free. What’s more important is – just more people hearing it. So shit, I’m happy about it being leaked. Even though I didn’t leak it, I’m happy that enough people wanted to hear it to where they would go as far as to download it and however they got it.
ML: There’s definitely a big buzz for the mixtape and not a lot of mixtapes get that kind of buzz?
R: Yeah.
ML: What was the beat selection for the mixtape? How did you pick out the beats you wanted, the ones that weren’t yours that you wanted to freestyle on?
R: A lot of them I wanted to stick with the Premier theme. You know, when you got a producer like Premier hosting your mixtape I really felt like, let me just use some Premier classics and a lot of other beats. I just wanted to use something, I felt that was classic, every beat was beats that I love; minus the ones that, of course [where] Statik took some of them and took the beats from under my vocals and replaced some of the beats and put my vocals in Serato and synced it up with new beats. But most of the beats I picked myself, I actually round over like, the Feeling It beat – the Million & One Questions beat. All those beats like that, are beats that was always classic to me.
ML: Two personal notes from that mixtape: You killed the Go Getta beat. Then on Million, you killed it. The second thing: I noticed on the mixtape for The Return of Malcolm, the beat is different from the original one I heard maybe two or three months ago, is that what Statik did – he changed the beat?
R: Yeah, Statik did, Statik changed that beat. I gave him complete creative control. I let him just go ahead and do what he does – I trust his opinion. My personal opinion, I liked Return of Malcolm a little better over the Jeezy beat, but I also like what Statik did to it; that’s like a personal preference thing. I think the people who never heard the original version, I think will like it just the same. It was good for a change, ‘cause that original one got leaked out anyway, so it was good to hear it differently on the actual track list.
ML: Yeah it’s like getting two songs for the price of one.
R: Yeah.
ML: You mentioned getting the title for The Bar Exam while you were locked up. What are the conditions of your work release? And do you know when your out of the clear of all that?
R: I’m out everyday, I’m actually out six days a week – I stay in on Mondays. I’m out 10 to 10 everyday, six days a week. So that’s pretty much the conditions. The conditions are…I got a letterhead; it’s like a work paper with my work address as my office in the studio. There’s, actually about three studios on there. I can pretty much go to any one of those four addresses throughout the day and I get an hour lunch, so I can call and say, “Okay, I’m eating lunch here”. And I guess it’s kind of like living with your mother, you just got to let them know everywhere your going, and you got to be on time. That’s the conditions.
ML: So, your typical day is pretty much going to the studio and just working there non-stop?
R: Everyday.
ML: Everyday. Alright so, the first day you got out is that what you started doing? You hit the studio?
R: Yep, the first day I got out. Because I actually had the Royce is Like freestyle the long [version], it was a hundred plus bars and I had Jeezy, The Return of Malcolm freestyle which is over a hundred bars – I had those written already. It was going to take me a couple days to record both of those because it was so much stuff. I was like, losing my voice on them – I had to drink tea. It was like, so much shit that I had to lay down.
ML: Yeah.
R: I got right in there.
ML: How much stuff did you write while you were in jail?
R: I didn’t write until like the last month that I was over there. It took me awhile to adjust. I was over there for two months before I even touched a pencil in that manner – I had to get adjusted. I had never been in jail before so it was new to me, and everybody knew me and I never had a moment to myself. There was always people around me, we was always talking about music, and it was just…*Laughs*…it was a fucking nightmare! So I ended up getting this job over there. Where I was working, I had to walk over to the other jail, and I was getting people’s bags when they went out to court. So I would be like in the laundry room by myself for like hours at a time. That was my moment of solitude that I needed. As soon as I got that solitude it was just like…it just started flowin and I just started writing everything down, it went from there.
ML: You know that’s a really unique story. Like you’d think of maybe writing stuff in your cell. But in your case the only place you could write was during spare time at your job.
R: Yeah, because I never had a moment to myself. I was in a ten man cell and then I went over to a camp, it’s like being it the Army, and so it’s a lot of open dorm room with bunks in it. So I never had a single cell to myself and I never had that solitude until I got that job.
ML: I was reading online, is it true that you never lost a rap battle?
R: Yeah, I’ve never lost a rap battle. I didn’t have that many battles though. I didn’t have that many, I wasn’t battling a lot like Em and all of them dudes. But no, I never lost…*Laughs*…I’ve got a flawless record.
ML: Alright, all knock-outs.
R: Yeah, yeah all knock-outs, all clean sweeps.
ML: When was the last time you battled?
R: I don’t even remember, man. It was before I was signed.
ML: You mentioned Em, when was the last time you spoke to him?
R: I haven’t spoken to Em in a minute – years.
ML: Alright. the other thing I wanted to ask you. Would you say the track, The Dream, featuring Rell; it was originally suppose to be on Papoose’s LP, right?
R: We both had the beat, yeah.
ML: So, you acquired the beat for your mixtape as well?
R: No, I actually…I was recording it for my album and after it got leaked out, after Papoose leaked his version, it was like, well…I mean there’s nothing else I can…I can’t really put it on my album – so from there it was like a leaked record. So I just put it on the mixtape.
ML: Oh, alright I see. Are you still in talks on maybe getting on The Jones Experience with that Nas Label?
R: I haven’t had any conversations with Nas about it, you know, of course I’m open to it. Until you hear about me actually being in a situation – I’m always open to that idea. I think it’s a great idea but that’s going to be on Nas, there’s only so much that I can push for that.
ML: So you’d be open going to a major? You don’t have anything against going to a major?
R: Oh I’m definitely going to a major!
ML: I wanted to ask you the whole Rock City situation, your first album with the majors and all the delays it suffered from. What was that whole experience like, looking back a few years now?
R: It was a learning experience to the 10th power, it’s the only way you’re going to learn anything in this business. Especially if you come from a market or a regent where no one knows really about the business, because the business hasn’t been there for along time – you know since the Motown Era. Like the record industry, as we know it, exists in L.A., New York and Atlanta and a little bit of Miami. You know its like; I dove in head first into it with a bunch of people…with a few people who didn’t know anything about it either. So you know everything I learned from it, I learned just from making mistakes. I figure if I get a record deal – I made it. You know and that’s not the case, you got to be somewhere there’s a perfect fit for you. I can go get a record deal right now with no problem; it’s not about the money. It’s not about saying, “Oh I gotta million dollar record deal” and nothing like that. It’s about going somewhere where the company’s sees the vision that you see, and you guys can collaborate and it can be a perfect fit – and y’all can make money together. You can’t come to the table with ideas and they got different ideas and everybody thinks they know the direction Royce needs to go, and you know – it’s a disaster. And that’s pretty much the situation that I found myself in, in the past. Because I can go so many different directions everybody likes a certain kind of Royce. You know…“You should make radio records” and it’s like, “Aw, no you should do all underground shit” or “You should just spit”, everybody thinks they know all the answers. You know at the end of the day it only hurts me when it doesn’t work. So it’s just about me doing what I’m comfortable with and the label being comfortable what I see, and we go on from there.
ML: Is there a single thing from the whole experience of putting out Rock City that you would change?
R: Not a single thing.
ML: Not a single thing, alright.
R: Not a single thing. But the only thing that was wrong with Rock City, with me looking back, was how creative I was. But I don’t think I could have been more creative. I think I was young and just mentally I wasn’t there. So I can’t go back in time and make myself more focused. Like mentally getting your head in it and being more focused, and knowing what it takes to win – comes with experience. It’s like boxing; you know you got to get that ring experience, once you got it – you got that one up on your opponent. Right now I’ve got the experience; I know what to do, I know what not to do; I know what kind of people to surround myself around. I know all the ends and outs of it now and I’m more ready now than I’ve ever been. But you know, you can’t teach that to no body. I can tell my little brother all day, “Vishis look, you can’t do this – you can’t do that” but some shit he’s just going to have to learn on his own.
Sphere: Related ContentThe first 2 are from the same production team that brought you the Marco Polo Nostalgia video, so you know it’s ML approved.
Bilal + Hezekiah-Looking Up
The most underrated R&B crooner (outside of D’Angelo) joins philly-based Rawkus artist Hezekiah for a track.
[youtube]teGpxtMIJ_o[/youtube]Blue Scholars-Back Home
A video from the Washington underground group.
[youtube]En8DwCeKa6M[/youtube]Peedo Ft. KRS-One & Fat Joe
Can Fat Joe finally be going back to his original DITC formula, finally?!
[youtube]5JT51VFSafM[/youtube] Sphere: Related Content
We were stunned at the start of the year when Disco D committed suicide. Now the Village Voice (via spinemagazine) brings us the definite Disco D write-up. It’s a must read, considering not many knew about Disco D’s life and his battles. Also, a posthumous Disco D DVD, Hustle Harder about upcoming in the music scene just came out, check the trailers:
[youtube]PEfM4NOP5KU[/youtube] [youtube]_vWlBDy9oos[/youtube] Sphere: Related Content
We took the metro there and arrived at opening. The line to get in scretched down the street (full of privilged white kids, as expected). Suprisingly enough we got in and the club was pretty empty. We went up to the balcony to chill and Immortal Technique was walking around unnoticed until these two kids blew his cover after about 2 minutes. We decided it would be better to be stageside so we went downstairs and secured some great spots. And then came the waiting. Seriously, it was like 2 hours before anyone got on stage. Then this dude came out and said we were gonna watch a video featuring Technique, he was really excited that he got to debut it. It was terrible, I almost left. Then the show started…
Akir was the first act to come on. He did a great job of hyping up the crowd and his songs were good too. He sounds like a great lyricist I just don’t know any of his shit yet. He even let his hype man (dude in the green) do two of his own songs (he was actually better lyrically than Akir). When Akir’s set ended there was no long pause between acts. It went straight to Diabolic.
Diabolic put on an awesome show. His raps were incredible, he even dropped a few freestyles. He did some songs he was featured on off of Technique’s albums. Akir came out and did a song with him. He didn’t get the crowd moving as much, but his hypeman didn’t really come through in the hyping department.
Then Reverend Lennox Yearwood came on and started getting the crowd into a fever about impeaching Bush. He had been arrested the day before for a sit-in while trying to impeach Bush . It really got everyone into a mob mentality. I really wanted to break some car windows afterwords. And dismantle the corrupt government… and stuff.
Then came the headliner, Immortal Technique. When he came out all the openers joined him on stage and acted as a team of hype men. He ripped through some of his more well-known material, (Dance with the Devil, Peruvian Cocaine, Bin Laden) as well as some of his earlier stuff. Interspersed between his songs he gave short sermons on different issues, including topics such as:
– The Republican Party (Against)
– Racial Separation (Against)
– Record Industry Corruption (Against)
– Murdering Those Who Abuse Women (For)
He also took every opportunity he could to point out how we were all ignorant motherfuckers, and how incompetant his Dj is. Speaking of which, during the middle of his set he allowed his DJ to show off his skills, and dude is a scratch master. Diabolic and his DJ almost got into a fight after this when Diabolic accidentally sprayed some beverage on his turntables. After a bunch of songs Technique ended a long show and everyone left happy. I would definitely recommend seeing him live.
For more pics Check My Flickr.
Akir Performing:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=XxQRt8xAjDw[/youtube]
Diabolic Performing:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=ch_XQSCMaUw[/youtube]
Technique Performing:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=8BkZXPaqRGY[/youtube]
Sphere: Related Content
