The other night, Ron Artest took an unnecessary three when it would have made much more sense to wait down the shot clock. Fans booed, but a moment later, an unfazed Artest charged to the basket and hit a game winning shot at the buzzer. In the post game interview (below), Craig Sager asks as nicely as he can why Artest took the three when the Lakers had a three point lead. During his largely incoherent response, Ron responds with what I hope will become a maxim for our generation: “You gotta play basketball.” Yes Ron, you do play basketball.
It’s weird that I remember this quote from a December 2008 interview (the legendary Hex Murda interview!), but ever since I read it, I’ve been waiting to hear what Black Milk was talking about. Listening to this leftover from Album of the Year, which drops in July, I can conclude that Black’s “Beatles shit” was well worth the wait. I only wish it were longer than two minutes.
First, Black mastered the soul sample. Then he legitimized keyboard beats with Tronic. Now, perhaps just to show off, he’s conquered rap-rock, a sub genre with an embarrassing history.
Update: I had the sample and I didn’t even realize.
With no explanation, Blu shared this track with Exile where he moans about his beloved over what sounds like some 1950s Chordettes era shit. I could see Blu angrily adjusting the antenna on his brand new color television to this. of Needless to say, it’s awesome.
I was racking my brain to figure out where I had heard this before until I finally matched the beat to Rosa Acosta’s ass. This warm and carefree joint has summer anthem written all over it. “Do It Better” will appear on Seattle rap group Dyme Def’s upcoming project Sex Tape, which drops June 1.
Tha Bizness are The Neptunes of the new school. They provide stars like Drake and unknowns like Dyme Def with radio-ready jams, then turn around and lace Pill and Bishop Lamont.
Estelle’s new single sounds like “American Boy” lite, but it’s still an essential on my slumber party mixtape. Very clubby poppy, but without today’s compulsory electro inclination. Nas put more vigor into this verse than anything on his latest African hippie excursion with Damian Marley. Something about pop tracks entices rappers to punch the beat in the face.
“Papermill,” the first single from the new Madvillain album, clocks in at 1:45, but that’s enough of time for Madlib and Doom to shit on lesser hip-hoppers’ careers. Madlib pulls out a funky guitar loop from God knows where and Doom raps in puzzling non sequiturs.
Mr. Porter assists Royce the rapping machine on a futuristic, but souled out gem off the deluxe edition of Street Hop. A lot of artists now are using special edition re-releases to get a second swipe at the apple on store shelves.
Boston’s Quest Tha Young’n summarily bodies Statik Selektah’s beat with a satisfyingly dynamic flow. But no linkage on the hilariously bad video. Nope. OK fine, here.
