Metal Lungies

Sphere: Related Content

Genius. I hope most of you don’t need a hint, but if you do, hopefully because you are cracked out right now.. what is each shirt missing? I’m def coping one of each.

Buy it at TTL.

Sphere: Related Content

As seen on nahright. We’ve done our fair share of coverage of DJ Khaled’s callabo orgy fest (nh) ‘We The Best’. He was on Rap City yesterday to promote the album, nothing noteworthy but one thing which I had to mention. Khaled was asked to pick 3 albums that were the best out of selection that included We The Best, Reasonable Doubt, Illmatic, Ready to Die, and Fat Joe’s last effort Me, Myself, and I. After first picking his own album for obvious reasons, this dude picked Me, Myself, and I next!! Now I know there is Loyalty (not the Fat Joe album), but that was straight jokes in my book.

Sphere: Related Content

Sean Price — one-half of Heltah Skeltah, established solo artist in recent years, the Ghostface of the Boot Camp Clik (in the sense that Monkey Barz revitalized the BBC in the same way that Supreme Clientele revitalized the Wu) — is dropping a mix-tape on July 24th entitled Master P, complete with an appropriate Pen & Pixel-style cover. I could use words to describe why Sean P is dope and why his new music should be always checked for, but if a picture is worth a thousand words…

… then what more really needs to be said?

(Image courtesy of duckdown.com)

UPDATE: Peep ML’s interview with Sean Price from earlier this year here.

Sphere: Related Content

Stack Bundles of The Diplomats, and formerly the A-Team was shot and killed early this morning. I really dug the work he did when he was down with the A-Team, they were putting out some of the most consistent mixtape material in the early 2000’s. It’s a shame he never got his shine as we hoped he would after his move to the Dipset camp.

Sphere: Related Content

It was reported earlier this week that legendary DJ, producer, and all-around pioneer in hip hop Marley Marl had suffered a heart attack. I was hoping to have gotten some sort of update on how he’s doing since then, but other than him being in stable condition, everything’s been relatively quiet — which could be a good or a bad thing. Considering the loss of Jam Master Jay almost 5 years ago, I’m sure that the entire hip hop community is praying that we don’t lose another legendary DJ so young, and that Marley is back on his feet soon.

Marley’s name was most recently in the news following his collaboration with one-time rival KRS-One on this year’s Hip Hop Lives. While on the topic of KRS, Marley and the infamous “Bridge Wars,” here’s a fascinating read, possibly the greatest item I’ve ever read on a hip hop blog, courtesy of unkut.com — a three part interview with Boogie Down Productions’ Kenny Parker, KRS-One’s younger brother. In it, Kenny discusses the P.M. Dawn incident and the positive and negative reactions to it, KRS’ perceived “contradictory” nature, and watching his big brother grow from making wack demo tapes with dogs barking in the background to debuting “The Bridge Is Over” at Union Square.

It’s a rather long read, so here’s a soundtrack to get you through it:

Download: Boogie Down Productions – “South Bronx”

Download: Boogie Down Productions – “The Bridge Is Over”

Download: Boogie Down Productions – “I’m Still #1”

Download: Boogie Down Productions – “Stop The Violence”

Download: Boogie Down Productions – “The Kenny Parker Show”

Download: KRS-One – “Black Cop”

Download: KRS-One – “Sound Of Da Police”

Download: KRS-One – “Step Into A World”

Sphere: Related Content

This may be the best song/video I have heard released on a major this year! The goddamn video is Cameo-tabulous!!!!! I just can’t stop listening to it!!!!!!

UGK ft. Outkast- International Players Anthem:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t60bb2ZRwzw[/youtube]

And if you didn’t already know its a Hypnotize Minds beat that Project Pat used a couple of years ago in a song that was hot in its own right.

Project Pat- I Choose U:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0yiTI-uGrs[/youtube]

Mathematics sampled this shit too…. but it was on some different shit.

Why did Outkast ever stop singing about pimp shit?

Sphere: Related Content

OOOOHHHH WEEEEE, this continues to be a sick week for mixtapes droppin from the sky. Weezy releases the precursor to The Carter 3, and lets just say you need to hear this. Beatles (!!!)& 80’s samples, so many many references to random shit (ie travis barker to female novelists) that you can probably write an encyclopedia of random , before you even finish track 4.

01. The Empire & Lil’ Wanye – Tha Carter 3 (Intro)               00:46
02. Lil’ Wanye – Did It Before (Produced By Kanye West)          03:50
     (Carter 3)
03. Lil’ Wanye – How You Like Me Now (Carter 3)                  03:20
04. Lil’ Wanye – Something You Forgot (Carter 3)                 03:39
05. Lil’ Wanye – Scarface (Carter 3)                             02:18
06. Lil’ Wanye – World Of Fantasy (Carter 3)                     03:56
07. Lil’ Wanye feat. Mack Maine – I Know The Future              03:33
     (Produced By Timbaland) (Carter 3)
08. Lil’ Wanye – What He Does (Carter 3)                         03:13
09. Lil’ Wanye – Help (Carter 3)                                 01:32
10. Lil’ Wanye – Time For Us To Fuck (Carter 3)                  02:36
11. Lil’ Wanye feat. Mack Maine – Zoo (Produced By Rockwilder)   03:36
     (Carter 3)
12. Lil’ Wanye – I’m A Beast (Carter 3)                          04:05
13. Lil’ Wanye – Pussy MVP (Carter 3)                            01:14
14. Lil’ Wanye feat. DJ Khaled – Let’s Talk (We The Best)        03:17
     (Not On Album)
15. Lil’ Wanye feat. Currency – Diamonds & Girls (Carter 3)      03:56
16. Lil’ Wanye – I Feel Like Dying (Carter 3)                    03:27
17. Lil’ Wanye – La La La (Carter 3)                             04:38
18. Lil’ Wanye – C.O.L.O.U.R.S.                                  00:54
19. Lil’ Wanye – Get It Shawty                                   01:17
20. Lil’ Wanye – Prostitute Flange                               05:18
21. Lil’ Wanye feat. DJ Khaled – Brown Paper Bag (We The Best)   01:17
22. Lil’ Wanye – Is It Coming Out? (Outro)                       00:13

 

 Download it here, that’s an order, not a suggestion.

Sphere: Related Content

The summer’s about to get hot on the movie front, with Transformers and Live Free or Die Hard amongst the most anticipated, but it’s never too early to look ahead to the end of the year. Due out in November, Denzel Washington will star in American Gangster, portraying Frank Lucas, a ’70s N.Y. drug kingpin who, according to his Wikipedia page (and Wikipedia don’t lie), masterminded a scheme in which “coffins of dead American servicemen being returned from Vietnam also include a dozen or so kilos of 98% pure heroin.” Can’t say I’ve ever heard some shit like that in a rap song. Russell Crowe also stars as the detective in pursuit of Lucas, and Ridley Scott is directing the film (the two of them having previously worked together on Gladiator).

Check out the trailer here, and you’ll spot a couple of rappers’/actors’ familiar faces, each of whom have a highly-anticipated album set to be released this year. I don’t expect either album to flop, but in case they do, at least both of these guys will have another career to fall back on.

Sphere: Related Content

While Three Six Mafia clearly have their limits, squashing beef is not beyond those limits. Back in ’99, Krazyie Bone, of former 3-6 rivals Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, and Project Pat did a song together. Recently, DJ Paul and Juicy J were rumored to be contributing a beat to Bone’s latest album, Strength & Loyalty, though that never did come about as planned… I’m guessing that, with Last 2 Walk being an oft-delayed work-in-progress, 3-6’s schedule just didn’t allow that to happen.

The since-ended beef between Bone and 3-6 has been rarely discussed, certainly because it didn’t result in as many record sales (or as many deaths) as that other beef that was going on around the same time. Though I wouldn’t go as far as to call the Bone/3-6 beef “friendly” competition, it most definitely wasn’t on some “You shot my man” or “You fucked my girl” type shit — it was some straight up, “You rap too much like I rap and I don’t like you for it” type shit. Whoever really came up first with the style that was heard so often in Bone’s and 3-6’s records — rapping melodically, frequently switching up speeds and breaking away from the then-traditional “every 2 bars ending in the same word” style — is sort of a moot point now, and that’s probably for the best considering that it’s tough to really prove who the originator was.

On one end, Bone was the first to put the masses on to this style of rapping with ’94’s Creepin’ On Ah Come Up — which featured the classic singles “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” and “Foe Tha Love Of Money (feat. Eazy-E)” — preceding Three Six Mafia’s ’95 debut Mystic Stylez. However, both groups have material that pre-dates their debut albums, so the difference of 1 year between ’em isn’t much of an indicator as to who came first. On the other end, 3-6 were the first to put out a diss record — “Live By Yo Rep (B.O.N.E. Dis)” off Mystic Stylez. Maybe 3-6 felt slighted by Bone using a style so similar to theirs, or maybe 3-6 were the real biters and just wanted to come out on the defensive. Or perhaps 3-6 could’ve just been looking to get some recognition off of battling an at-the-time more successful crew. Bone answered back on their ’97 album The Art Of War, not only responding to 3-6’s accusations, but also going at the likes of other “fast rappers” like Chicago natives Twista, Do Or Die and Crucial Conflict, all of whom had dissed Bone for alleged style-jacking… but none of whom had dissed 3-6. Interesting.

Listening to some of 3-6’s records from their early years (a few of which are linked below, as well as some other tracks relevant to this post), and listening to some of their more recent records, it’s crazy to think that this is the same group who once accused, of all people, Bone Thugs of jacking their style. Of course, back when Three Six Mafia actually had six members, it was mainly Lord Infamous and Koopsta Knicca (both of whom are no longer with 3-6) who sounded the most similar to Bone; meanwhile, DJ Paul and Juicy J, the only current members of 3-6, probably rapped the least like Bone out of the original Mafia members.

Download: Bone Thugs-n-Harmony – “Thuggish Ruggish Bone”

Download: Bone Thugs-n-Harmony featuring Eazy-E – “Foe Tha Love Of Money”

Download: Bone Thugs-n-Harmony – “U Ain’t Bone”

Download: Bone Thugs-n-Harmony featuring 2Pac – “Thug Luv”

Download: Notorious B.I.G. featuring Bone Thugs-n-Harmony – “Notorious Thugs”

Download: Three Six Mafia – “Da Summa”

Download: Three Six Mafia – “Live By Yo Rep (B.O.N.E. Dis)”

Download: Three Six Mafia – “Late Nite Tip”

Download: Crucial Conflict – “Hay”

Download: Do Or Die featuring Twista – “Po Pimp”

[Kind of off topic, but I always enjoyed the response Three Six Mafia would give when people accused them of encouraging Satanism and devil worshipping because of their name. Their explanation of the “3-6” name was always something along the lines of, “We started out with three members, then we added three more, and ended up with six.” It’s a good thing they chose to stop at that point, otherwise their name might now be Three Six Four Three Two Mafia — definitely not as catchy, though it would’ve helped put Castleberry, Alabama on the map.] Sphere: Related Content