Longtime New York record excec Dante Ross recalls the time LL Cool J reached out to Ol’ Dirty Bastard for a song and Dirty ended up peeing on a platinum LL plaque outside Chung King studios. Needless to say, the collab never happened.
ODB > LL Cool J by a hundred thousand trillion
via Nah Right
Sphere: Related ContentAnother year, another BET Hip Hop Awards. I’m not sure who the genius behind the idea of the Cypher portion of the show is, but that mofo has had me watching BET (albeit once a year) for the last 3 years. But enough about me, let’s break down the performances:
Nicki Minaj kicked things off with a pretty hot verse. Honestly, it seems almost sacrilegious to have someone like Minaj spit bars with Preemo spinning in the background, but she actually came ahead with one of the hottest verses in this portion. Buckshot’s verse was kinda low-par compared to his usual shit, and definitely didn’t seem noteworthy (even after 3 viewings!). Maybe I missed what he was going for. Who knows? The cypher contest winner, Crown Royyal, came pretty hard on his part and I really liked his verse, despite my hatred of the word swag. But the best verse of this portion, and one of the best of the night definitely goes to Joe Budden. Joe’s verse was ridiculous! That line about Serena Williams?! I practically fell out of my damn chair.
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Whenever a major artist dies, there’s an initial media blitz where you have a ton of people talking about everything except the music. You know, those people who watch cable news for 3 hours a day. Eventually, those people find something else to talk about, usually a sex scandal or someone winning American Idol.
But even after the story’s buzz dies out, the music-lovers continue to carry the torch. Even though Michael Jackson isn’t front page news anymore, artists continue to pay tribute.
With He’s The King, I’m The DJ, DJ Jazzy Jeff runs through Jackson’s greatest moments and also throws in some rare remixes. Yes, Michael Jackson is synonymous with controversy, but take an hour to remember why his death shook the planet. He made timeless music.
via UNDRCRWN
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Here’s another heater off Crooked I’s EP Mr. Pig Face Weapon Waist. Crooked screams impassioned verses over an epic beat.
One Dub Plate at a Time: A History of Soulspazm is a collection of Soulspazm tracks compiled and mixed by DJ Revolution. Says Revolution,
I always checked for the Soulspazm records in the mail because I knew they would be quality. The label consistently worked with talented artists and producers to put out great music that was in my opinion, severely slept on.
This track is from a 2001 12” and is produced by DJ Sat One. You know it’s pure hip-hop when Revolution is involved. Album drops November 17.
Tracklisting after the jump
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ML consigliere Marco Polo just laced me with this track off Kam Moye’s (formerly known as Supastition) album Splitting Image (October 27).
I’m not an expert on Kam Moye, but it sounds like he’s slowed up and hardened his flow. Marco’s production production leans more toward Port Authority than Double Barrel, so less gunshots and explosions.
Another leak from Stoney Jackson. I wouldn’t mind hearing some of the other shit Mr. Kweli is cooking up with Madlib.
Mixmaking Underground Explorers via Talib Kweli
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Sean P and Royce drop equally mean verses. Off Kimbo Price: The Prelude to Mic Tyson, out this week.
Royce ends a lot of verses with lines about vaginas.
Damn, The Clipse got the Purple Haze Cam’ron (not the lame Crime Pays Cam) on the best Neptunes beat I’ve heard in years. Aside from delays, things are looking up for Til the Casket Drops.
via dajaz1
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RZA gave an exhausting interview to the A.V. Club as part of his book tour for The Tao of Wu, his compendium of wild philosophical interconnections. If you skip all the mumbo jumbo, RZA actually talks about music and makes some surprising claims/revelations. It’s a daunting read, but c’mon, it’s The RZA.
On how he came up with the idea for Ghostface’s “R&B” album four years ago,
Ghost, I think, took my advice. I said, “Yo, we should do a love album.” I told him this four years ago, we should do a love album. I was going to produce it, he was going to rap on it, and we’d make it strictly about love. Just bring love. Everybody keeps bringing violence, let’s bring love. He wasn’t feeling it then, but now he has an R&B album where he’s bringing songs more sympathetic and shit.
On how “Gravel Pit” was originally meant for Aaliyah,
People thought that “Gravel Pit” was a bad decision. Now, I don’t think “Gravel Pit” was a bad decision, it was our first top 40 record as the Wu-Tang Clan. It was during the period where top 40 was important, and during the period that the European scene was really coming strong, and our sales were equal in Europe and America, and I wrote the song for Aaliyah, who we lost before she could do it. But it was written originally for Aaliyah, who was my favorite artist, and I felt every single she made was great.
On the possibility of an Ol’ Dirty Bastard biopic,
We have talked about it. His estate is pretty confused, like any estate is in our country. The estate is kind of confused on what to do, and all the rights and all that shit, but it’s definitely been talked about. There’s also been talk about a Wu-Tang Clan movie. So we’ll see what life brings. In my opinion, I’d rather see an ODB pic than a Wu-Tang Clan pic, because Wu-Tang is still alive, and may be active for a few more years. But an ODB pic, just to really describe his life, would be good. Right now, there is a documentary that’s done that’s pretty good. It ain’t a knock out of the park, but it’s pretty good, it gives a nice piece of him. Then you start with that, and we can build more awareness about his life, and build more interest in people seeing a movie about it.
What would be weirder, RZA x Aaliyah or Raekwon x Timbaland?
The A.V. Club via The Playlist
off Digi Snacks
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