Metal Lungies

David Beckham made big news earlier this year when he signed his 5-year, $250-million contract to leave Real Madrid and join the L.A. Galaxy of the States’ Major League Soccer, which, contrary to previously-popular belief, still exists. Though the money may make it seem otherwise, it’s quite a bold move on Beckham’s part — attempting to revive popularity in a sport that hasn’t seemed to matter since Brandi Chastain showed us all her sports-bra back in ’99. He’s off to a pretty good start, considering how heavily publicized his MLS “debut” was this past Saturday, where his 10+ minutes of jogging along the sidelines was more impressive than his 10+ minutes actually in the game. [Granted, he did have an injured ankle and realistically didn’t have to play.]

Current Knick point guard Stephon Marbury, if you believe a word he says (and he did once say that he was “the best point guard” in the NBA), is following suit, as he recently announced that he plans to play in Italy once his current contract in New York expires, describing it as a “Beckham thing”.

It’s nice to see athletes take such pride in their professions, and, in a sense, themselves, that they would relocate to a new country and take it upon themselves to try and make an impact in that country’s culture. With hip hop music being so competitive here in the U.S., you’d figure maybe a rapper might try to do the same — not just touring to different countries, but to go live somewhere for a while, work with the local artists, help create a scene for hip hop music, and (if all goes well) be praised for starting something.

I present a few suggestions after the jump. And, by the way, don’t take this to mean that I’d like to see these artists shipped out of the U.S. for lack of enjoying their music. I’m actually a fan of these guys well, some of these guys — the last guy in particular I’m not too fond of.

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Here at ML, if 50 Cent didn’t do so many interviews, we’d have nothing to talk about. In this batch of outtakes from his interview in the latest issue of XXL, 50 attributes Nas’ book smarts to the fact opinion that Nas is “not hot right now” and has lost his “initial audience.”

Granted, Hip Hop Is Dead didn’t break any records with its sales, but it has been certified gold, which is more than can be said for a lot of hip hop releases in recent memory. Considering how much record sales have declined in hip hop, and that Illmatic is platinum only once over, I’d say that Nas has actually done a pretty good job of keeping his “initial” fanbase in tact — if Nas has lost anyone, it’s the people who jumped aboard after he did “Hate Me Now” with Puffy and “You Owe Me” with Ginuwine, and, if anything, that was dead weight to be lost. And as far as Nas not being hot right now, it’s true that he doesn’t have a single that’s getting hourly burn on the radio at the moment, but I wouldn’t say it’s from lack of effort — has Nas really been trying to make a radio-friendly single in past couple years? Meanwhile, 50, by my count, is 0-for-his-last-3 in “hot” singles (“Amusement Park”, “Straight To The Bank”, “I Get Money”), and Curtis has twice changed release dates as a result.

Hearing 50 say that Nas is losing his audience, and thinking back to Hip Hop Is Dead at the same time, 2 particular tracks stick out in my mind — “Who Killed It?”, which had Nas on some Dick Tracy shit, and “Blunt Ashes”. I’d say that the latter track, with its different-sounding production (provided by Chris Webber of all people) and Nas’ off-kilter flow, was largely hit-or-miss with fans. But, if you can get past those things, Nas’ lyrics on “Blunt Ashes” are a great listen — he sheds light on some of the mysterious deaths of musicians of the past who have been influential to not just hip hop, but all music in general.

I picked a couple of choice rhymes from “Blunt Ashes” and broke down in greater detail what Nas is talking about. I figure that if 50 is right and Nas is losing fans, the least I could do is try to win back some who may have been confused by the song, on Nas’ behalf. Of course, this shit ain’t rocket science — 30 minutes of Wikipedia and Google searches provided me with all of the information I’m about to share — but a lot of these details were new to me, so I can only assume they’d be new to others as well. Enjoy.

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We just got this… This is their off their 1st post 9th Wonder album Get Back, which drops 9.25.07 via ABB Records. The beat is produced by Illmind.

Grab it here, as well as the instrumental.

In hip-hop when you are called a biter it usually means you are biting someones style. Well this doesn’t seem to be the case when Suge Knight is involved. He physically bit Kevin Connolly (who plays Eric Murphy on HBO’s Entourage) at a post ESPY’s party while they were “horsing” around. Maybe this is just his way of showing that he isn’t going soft. Where is Mills Lane when you need him?

You already know Havoc stays grinding in the studio. Well now he is dropping his own solo project, The Kush through Nature Sounds on 9.13.07. It will serve as a prequel to his “official” solo project on a major label ala Prodigy’s Return of the Mac from earlier this year. Speaking of which do you think a Havoc solo will be better than surprisingly solid Return of the Mac? We think maybe, but Alchemist brought his A-game on there, which will be hard to top.

1.) NY For Life (produced by Havoc)

2.) I’m The Boss (produced by Havoc)

3.) By My Side f/40 Glocc (produced by Havoc)
4.) One Less Nigga (produced by Havoc)
5.) Ride Out f/Nyce (produced by Havoc)
6.) Balling Out f/Un Pachino (produced by Havoc)

7.) What’s Poppin Tonite (produced by Havoc)
8.) Class By Myself f/Nitti (produced by Havoc)

9.) Set Me Free f/Prodigy & Nyce (produced by Havoc)

10.) Be There (produced by Havoc)

11.) Hit Me Up f/Un Pacihno (produced by Havoc)

12.) Get Off My Dick (produced by Havoc)

You gotta love the wordplay on the title yo! From the man that brought you gems like this (before Killa Season was even a thought in cinema greatness):

Comes Black Supaman:

We might have our 2007 equivalent of Killa Season in terms of Hip-Hop watching entertainment. Only it looks like Percy Miller doesn’t take his role as serious as Cameron Giles does in his project. There is also a smaller camp of potential cameos (Dipset > No Limit; in terms of how deep the roll these days, Dipset & friends can fill up 3 1/2 tour buses these days (with cam & jim on separate buses of course)). But there is hope, maybe there is smuggled footage of C-Murder locked up beautifully edited into the film.

First, as if dissing somebody based on their looks and fashion sense isn’t foolish enough, Cam’ron had this to say in the opening of his Jay-Z diss record, “You Gotta Love It”:

You talkin’ ’bout you a 80’s baby — you 37 years old, you was born in 1968. And I open the Daily News — how’s the king of New York rocking sandals with jeans? Open toe sandals, with chancletas, with jeans on. How’s the king of New York rocking sandals with jeans, and he 42 years old?

Then, in this recent interview, Hell Rell had this to say (and there’s a Part 2, if you’re really interested):

To sum it up, around the 0:31 mark, Rell, in response to people saying that he no longer has a deal, says that he’s been signed to Diplomat Records since 2002. Then, around the 0:59 mark, he says that he’s been signed to Diplomat Records since 2004, which, I guess, is technically true, but then again, why short-change yourself?

I’d say that DipSet has somewhat of a reputation of being trendsetters, but I’m hoping that this isn’t the new shit — to blatantly contradict a statement that you made mere seconds earlier.

And, by the way, as he mentions in the interview, Hell Rell’s solo debut For The Hell Of It drops on June 28th. So, be sure to check for it when it hits stores on September 11th.

(… to echo Lethal’s sentiments from yesterday, we’re obviously pretty big Wu heads ’round these parts.)

In a recent 50 Cent interview with Spin Magazine (a great read, by the way), Tony Yayo, the talking head of 50’s “peanut gallery,” claimed that Ghostface Killah did not write his highly-praised sophomore album, 2000’s Supreme Clientele. The topic came up of hip hop artists that, though widely recognized for their artistic qualities, are not big sellers, and interviewer Charles Aaron brought up Supreme Clientele (which actually sold a solid 700,000+ copies) as an example. Yayo, in between using his blasphemous mouth to finish twisting up a blunt, chimed in with the following:

“He didn’t even write that album, man… That kid from Far Rockaway — Superb — he wrote that record.”

Not to question Yayo’s credibility (that is, if he has any), but there’s only 2 people whose opinions matter as to this claim — Superb, and Ghostface himself. Superb had already spoken on it (props to Nah Right for the link, and here’s a transcript, too), and his claims are in line with Yayo’s, that he, and not Ghost, wrote Supreme Clientele. Ghost hasn’t commented on it, but I’d guess that he’d disagree with Superb — I doubt highly that Ghost would come out and say, “Yea, Yayo’s right, I didn’t write that album. Sorry, everyone!” Personally, I have a hard time buying Yayo’s, and Superb’s, claims… and it’s not just because of my Ghostface-fan bias.

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A serious opponent to EA Sports’ Madden juggernaut?