Metal Lungies

The Real gets soothing & serene.

In case you weren’t fortune enough like ML to attend the show, Amalgam Digital put up a live stream to gaze over.

Aftermath’s Focus… has been pretty regular with the dopeness lately. I still haven’t gotten tired of the Marsha Ambrosius mixtape or the Bishop Lamont track he produced. Here’s “Homage to Premier,” with Focus… doing his best Premo rendition, which is actually quite good. Apparently this is the first song in a series of tributes.

Also, the ellipsis is getting annoying fast.

Also, that’s three Royce-related posts in a row. That’s the kind of treatment only ML-Hollerees get.

Download: Focus… – Homage to Premier feat. Royce Da 5’9″, Phonte and Stat Quo

Phonte via 2dopeboyz

(image source) 

Royce and Busta Rhymes freestyle over the “Nutmeg” beat. Royce murders it and Busta follows suit.

Busta has to be one of the most inconsistent rappers in the game. How do you go from Leaders of the New School to “Woo-Hah!!” to “Light Your Ass On Fire” to making an album with Dr. Dre to working with fuckin’ Ron Browz and at the same time holding your own against Royce Da 5’9″?

Related: Aaron’s piece on the many faces of Busta Rhymes

Download: Royce Da 5’9″ & Busta Rhymes – Freestyle

via Xclusives Zone

You can only imagine what the crowd looked like Thursday night at S.O.B.’s with Joe Budden, Crooked I, Joell Ortiz and Royce da 5’9 on the bill. Wall to wall mean-muggers, all drunk and ready to hear some murder-raps. As Joe commented at one point, “Joe Budden fans don’t dance!”

I came late and just missed Royce’ set, but I was just in time for Joe Budden, who would have rocked it better if the sound system weren’t completely fucked. I maneuvered the crowd and found Crooked I in a less crowded corner by some drunk girls – the only females in the building except for the bartender. Crooked seemed to remember ML and was telling me how he’d like to see Royce and Eminem do an album together.

The crowd went nuts when Joe brought Crooked and Joell on to do a capella freestyles. The eight foot tall mean-mugger next to me was jumping up and down and screaming like a girl. Royce joined them they tried to do some Slaughterhouse joints, but the malfunctioning sound system wouldn’t allow it. They did a song or two a capella before I left.

Crooked and Royce stole the show, I’d say.

Crazy that today it will be 2 years since Disco D passed away, Donny Goines hit me up today with a track he did in honor of his friend back in ’07.

Donny Goines-Never Let My Talent Die (Produced by Disco D)

ML was at LIV Night Club last night to check out BYT’s 19 hour party (sadly, we were there for only about a 4th of that..there was some obscure ceremony going on downtown that we decided to check out.)

This was our 4th time seeing Wale live, making it his best that we’ve seen yet (and it softened the agony of missing out on that epic NYC show he had last month). Wale ran through his most known cuts like Nike Boots to W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E. (favorite of the night?), in addition to performing 2 debut album cuts for the 1st time. Wale performed the Cool & Dre produced Chillin (the final version, which isn’t out, will feature Lady Gaga) and Pretty Girls. Wale’s stage presence should be in a textbook for all rappers performing live, the crowd was feeding off of it all night. The vibe of the whole club was so dope, that it seemed Wale didn’t want his time to end, scrambling last minute for a make-shift encore featuring a line over My President Is Black (“My President is Black, my credit card is too./ but my credit is fucked up thanks to that previous dude“) as well as inviting local-bred producer/rapper Oddisee to freestyle a quick 16.

Wale also had a few PSAs through out his set that stuck with us:

*UCB x Wale album coming soon (separate from the debut).

*If you hear someone mispronounce his name (ie Whale or Wall-E (Wale predictied that he’s gonna be bigger than the Pixar joint).. smack that person for Wale .

*Tre (of UCB) wrote a Lindsay Lohan (or say it like Wayne: Lo-hann) song.

*Wale is signed with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.

The event in of itself was kick ass, there were 2 floors of live music, cheap Colt 45s, intermissions with Burlesque Dancers and Comedians (Tig Notaro). We even got some good new music on to our radar, Team Facelift (who might be the wildest partying pack, I’ve ever seen live?) & Team Robespierre.

Peace to Dan & Wale; Victor & the BYT crew for organizing such a dope event.

Check the whole set of our pictures at the Flickr page. Seeing as I used my dslr camera at a concert for the first time, I plan on getting better at it, to see dope(r) fisheyed photo’s check out BYT’s stash.

Lastly, check what Washington Post had to say about Wale’s performance.

Lessondary member Che Grand adds a tight verse to a Jay Electronica’s demo for “Hagler” off Scratches & Demo Tape Vol.1. The result is unsurprisingly dope. These two should hook up for a genuine collaboration; their voices complement each other nicely.

Jay Electronica – Hagler (ft.Che Grand)

Thanks to Robert Santos for the hookup.

“It’s A Boy” is a 1991 single by Slick Rick, released to promote his sophomore release, The Ruler’s Back. Rick spits about the birth of his son Ricky.

Vance Wright produced “It’s A Boy”. His instrumental consists of tinny horns, clipped synthesizers and a sloppy loop of the “Impeach The President” break- can you tell I’m not a big fan of Vance’s work on the beat? The chorus consists of an reverb-ed Rick saying “It’s a boy” followed by a baby crying.

Large Professor remixed “It’s A Boy” for the 12′ single release of the song. Large Pro brilliantly flips a Carl Tjader sample, combining chiming vibes and thick bass line. LP adds dusty boom-bap drums and his trademark sleigh bells. Some echoing horns complement the chorus nicely.

The track got the music video treatment featuring a bunch of rappers as adorable children.  There’s a baby Rick, Flava Flav, LL Cool J, MC Hammer, even a tiny 3rd Bass! Wee MC Serch is awful precious. YouTube won’t let me embed the video but you can view it here.

Slick Rick – It’s A Boy

Slick Rick – It’s A Boy (Large Professor Remix)

I’ve covered Large Professor’s remix prowess before but this is the first Remix Tuesdays I’ve written where the remix tops the original in every single way. Vance Wright’s original beat is awful, cheap-sounding and utterly ill-suited to Rick’s lyrics.

S.O.B.’s is where it’s at this week. Mickey Factz tomorrow and Slaughterhouse on Thursday.