Metal Lungies

Although rappers giving themselves titles like “King of [insert geographic area here]” often appear overzealous, self-indulgent, and tend to cause more negativity than anything, there was a time when Xzibit could’ve been a contender for the Los Angeles “crown”. His guest spots on Snoop’s “Bitch Please” and Dre’s classic 2001, followed by his incredibly-dope Restless LP, brought mainstream attention to the man who had been L.A.’s best kept secret for 2 albums prior. On top of that, his affiliation with the Likwit Crew and the side project Golden State Warriors (with Ras Kass and Saafir) kept his local popularity strongly in tact.

Sadly, not much went well after that — none of his follow-ups matched the success of Restless, J-Ro dissed him (though that beef has since been squashed), Snoop dissed him (allegedly after X backed down from a confrontation with Suge Knight), and Pimp My Ride didn’t exactly work wonders for his rap career. In between all of this, he formed Strong Arm Steady with Cali undergroud vets Phil The Agony, Krondon and Mitchy Slick, but soon after the crew got signed to Talib Kweli’s Blacksmith Records, X split from the crew on peaceful terms.

Despite being abandoned by the face (and founder) of their group, the Steady gang has remained hard at work, and their debut album, Deep Hearted, is scheduled to drop August 28th on Nature Sounds. Similarly to how Snoop Dogg put together the groups War Zone (comprised of MC Eiht, Goldie Loc and Kam) and Western Union (comprised of Damani, Bad Lucc and Soopafly), Steady presents 3 talented West Coast rhymers, primarily solo artists, who are likelier to acheive greater success as a group. Agony, a long-time Likwit crew-affiliate, has a solo LP under his belt, ’04’s Aromatic, but the songs with guest appearances (among them Kweli, Raekwon and Planet Asia) were the album’s highlights. Krondon, whose West Coast slang-heavy rhymes and rough voice make him a bit of an acquired taste, has a number of dope 12″‘s out. I’ll admit that I haven’t heard much of San Diegoite San Diegoan San Diegan Mitchy Slick’s work, but he’s got a few independently-released albums out, and is currently the feature interview over at DubCNN.

The Rap Up has the hook up on Deep Hearted: The Sampler Mixtape, and, after the jump, check out some early and some more-recent material from SAS.

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Reliving my early teens I played The Offspring single Original Prankster. After hearing this song over a hundred times I just noticed now that it’s Reggie Noble on the hook saying “Original Prankster”. Am I the only one that’s been in the dark, and didn’t realize this for 6 years?

First she almost did a song with NWA, now we find out this:

Do your kids turn you on to a lot of music?
My son, the 20-year-old, does, but it’s the kind of stuff that I was into anyway. Like he’s really into gangster rap, which I was kind of into anyway, but he’s a lot more into it than I would be. So he’s introduced me to a lot of Biggie Smalls stuff, which out of the corner of my eye I’d been interested in, but I never would’ve bought one of his records. To me, the rap movement is where you find … I know there’s a lot of shite in there as well, but that’s where you would find what I would call real art insofar as art that’s driven by hunger and necessity, where you have people who otherwise would have had no f***ing life, that didn’t have any education, couldn’t play an instrument, but were able to program a drum machine. Ice Cube, I think, is one of the greatest American poets ever.

She listens to Biggie? Ok, game over, we are praying to the rap gods on some sort of hip hop record featuring Sinead this year.

So earlier today Eskay over at the often linked nahright posted a new 50 cent track featuring Justin Timberlake called ‘She Wants It’.  The track isn’t anything special in ML’s book. By this afternoon the link was gone after the label asked for it to be taken down. Too bad, the song is everywhere, and even a simple google search comes up with a perfectly working mp3 link. It’s like taking out a wildfire with one fire truck, just a waste of time & energy for everyone involved.

If you want a good Timberlake/ 50 track, ML brings back that ol’ stuff, the remix to Cry Me a River. I can be hallucinating off the freon but to me it seems that 50’s delivery is so much more hungry & on point with the beat than the new record.

Wu-Tang Clan on MTV Cribs, in a rented pad in L.A., back while they were recording The W:

Murs’ video for “Risky Business”, featuring Shock G and, Shock’s infamous alter-ego, Humpty Hump (Video NSFW, and may put our recent PG-13 rating at risk):

Am I tripping, or are these the same house? [NOTE: The answer could be “yes” to both.] Sphere: Related Content

I’ve been listening to this over the past few days, it got lost in the holiday week shuffle to be posted. And, yeah we have been on a mixtape kick as of late. While this may not be up to par with the other exclusive laden tapes, and we might not like some of the material, serving as the the prelude to Free At Last, this tape deserves some playtime. Especially if you are a fan of the bearded lyricist monster that is Freeway.

Tracklisting:

1. Live Free Die Hard (The Opener) Feat Jae Ellis
2. Big Spender Feat Jay Z
3. Freezer So Cold
4. Money In The Bank
5. SmokeN That
6. Code Of The Streets
7. You Don’t Know Feat Mad Skillz
8. Make It Better
9. BuckTown (Home Of Philly)
10.Animal Instinc
11.Wipe Me Down Remix Feat UGK & Foxxx
12.You Already Know
13.Track Star
14.Philly To Where ever
15.Suck Me Off
16.We Want Freeway(Produced By Shane Boog’s)
17.Think It Over
18.Yhall Still Hate Me Now Feat Small World & Sun NY
19.Hit The Club Up Feat Jak Frost
20.Rocafella Family
21.Magazines
22. Life of a Philly Gangsta
23. True Honey Buns
24. Polictics 2007

Download Link.

Hi Haters, I’m back from Hiatus. If you aren’t suffering from short-term memory loss you’ll recall we posted Twista’s 1st single off of Adrenaline Rush 2007 featuring Pharrell. Well It looks Twista re-did his verses while the beat & Pharrell’s verse stay the same, say bye-bye to the RHCP name check. Anyone that has any clue to why the change went down, gets a cookie.

Of course we provide the evidence in the form of an MP3.

With the Wu gracing the cover of their upcoming issue, URB has taken upon themselves the daunting task of picking the Clan’s 20 greatest videos of all-time. Plenty of classic vids from the Clan as a whole — “C.R.E.A.M.”, “Triumph”, “Protect Ya Neck” — and from solo LPs as well — ODB’s “Got Your Money”, Meth’s “Bring The Pain”.

I can’t argue much with this list — the only dispute I have is why it couldn’t have been expanded to at least 25. If it could’ve been, here’s the 5 I would’ve added, in no particular order (though I probably would move “Gravel Pit” down a few notches to make room for these):

GZA/Genius – “Shadowboxin'” featuring Method Man / “4th Chamber” featuring Ghostface, Killah Priest & RZA

Always dug the whole military/warfare vibe of this video. Plus, it’s only so often that you get a Killah Priest sighting.

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Some good news for hip hop fans wanting that old thing back (or at least something closer to that old thing than most of what’s out right now).

Q-Tip (of A Tribe Called Quest fame, of course) is working on a new album, entitled The Renaissance, which is due out this fall on Motown/Universal. It’ll be his first album since ’99’s Amplified, not counting the 2 “un–commercial” efforts which Arista never officially released. Q-Tip’s description of his upcoming album as “thought-provoking, dance-friendly, fun and last but not least, hip-hop” certainly reads like a dictionary-definition of the music that Tribe made, and Q-Tip’s first single, “Work It Out”, falls in line with that. From reading Phife Dawg’s interview with XXL a couple months ago, it seems like that long-awaited/long-forgotten Tribe reunion album may still possibly be made perhaps, tentatively speaking. But in the mean time, Q-Tip’s new shit may be the closest we’ll get to that for some time. [And how peculiar is it that Tip’s first single and Phife’s interview are both named “Work It Out”? Pretty damn peculiar, to answer my own question.]

Also worth noting in the Q-Tip story is that he is scheduled to appear on the upcoming Wu-Tang Clan album, 8 Diagrams, on a track called “Kids With Words”. Some may not know, but Q-Tip has a long history with the Clan. I was fortunate enough to see one of Tribe’s many “reunion” performances, back at a Rock The Bells show in Anaheim in ’04 — sadly, it fell on the same day that Ol’ Dirty died, which was announced on a loud speaker early in the day in between sets. As night fell and Tribe was preparing to start their performance, Q-Tip performed “Brooklyn Zoo” a cappella, then went on to mention how he used to battle Dirty and other Wu members back in their teenage years. [On that note, peep the trailer for the upcoming Wu DVD, Wu-Tang Revealed, here.]

Finally, N.Y. legend Chubb Rock is back in the studio, with plans to release 2 albums in the near future. One will be a solo LP dedicated to the memory of Chubb’s wife, who died of cancer, titled The Grown and Sexy Theory (of everybody who could’ve put out an album with that title, Chubb was the last I expected). The other will be a collaborative effort with underground-known lyricist Wordsworth, titled Bridging The Gap. And, to complete the “six degrees of separation” vibe of this post, Wordsworth, on 2000’s Lyricist Lounge II compilation, worked with none other than Q-Tip, on the track “Makin’ It Blend”. Small world.

UPDATE: Listen to Q-Tip – “Work It Out” in Windows Media, Quicktime, or Real Player, and check out the single’s cover art here.