I’ve been contemplating on this one for a while now. Weiss likes it. Pitchfork likes it. And many others feel the same way.

To begin with, its a good record. The fact that weez has been spittin more nonsense than bill o’ reilly over the last few months has been unsettling for sure. But I’m not gonna dismiss the entire effort because of a few stabs at the pop charts. “Milli” “Get Money” “Phone Home” and “Lollipop” are cheezy, overblown, and out of place. Lots of people are gonna love those tracks, and talk shit on me for dissin em. But think about how good those tracks would be without five shots of Jagermeister.

I wouldn’t expect complete greatness from C3 if it weren’t for the songs that knocked my socks off. “Milli” and “Lollipop” were only as disappointing as they were because “Mr. Carter” and “Dr. Carter” were fat as rick ross (and deserving of more inventive song titles).

In hopes of legitimizing my comments I’m gonna break down my thoughts on C3 song by song.

1. 3 Peat (Produced by Maestro):

He opens up the record showcasing his lyrical ability. His flow is interesting (nothing new), and some of the rhymes made me pause with pleasure.

“Got a million duffled up/ for the, fuck, of, it”

Admittedly a fucked up line, but it was delivered with excellence. And his gruesome metaphors can yield some provocative scenarios.

“Swallow my words, taste my thoughts. And if its too nasty spit it back at me.”

The song was a good start. He spit about his abundance of money and his inherent greatness too much, but at least he established that theme early.

2. Mr. Carter feat. Jay-Z (Prod. by Drew and Infamous):

One of the most noticeable disparities in this album is that some of the producers dug deep for just the right sample. Drew and Infamous are in this camp. The sound is lush and complete, and it surprisingly cradles weezy’s sound just as effectively as Jay-Z’s. W drops numerous quality lines, and I think he put out a better performance than Jay.

“Blind eyes could look at me and see the truth/ wonder if Stevie do?”

Something amazing about Lil’ Wayne is that he can make not-that-great-of-lines sound ballin like MJ.

“I call em April babys cause they fools.”

3. A Milli (Produced By Bangladesh):

When I first heard this song I thought, okay, maybe it will be less annoying with a fat sub. So I listened to it with a decent system and, wow, was I wrong. The bass ends up smothering the instrumentals (which is kind of a good thing) and there isn’t much left except wayne trying to turn a decent club beat into a legitimate rap song.

If you enjoy this song, I’ll agree with you if you wish to say it shakes your balls like a motha fucka and its cool when your drunk; other than that this is not good music.

Take a look at what the producer himself had to say:

Bangladesh: This girl I produced for, Shanell, got it to him. But I never went to the lab with him. If I had my way, I would like it more. But I wasn’t around, so what he felt, he put on there. I just thought he would make more of a song out of it, honestly. He’s just rapping. If it was going on the mixtape, it’s cool, but not on no album or single. It’s saying, “A milli.” He needs to pop about being a millionaire. He switched it up and tried to make it “ill.” If that was somebody else, it wouldn’t be on the radio. They just f*ck with Wayne regardless. That right there makes me like that sh*t, because it’s against the grain and it’s working. That sh*t’s no format. A n*gg* went in, freestyled, and that sh*t’s all over the radio. And it’s the hottest beat in hip-hop right now. Every time I turn on Rap City, they in the booth rapping to the beat…

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Once upon a time, Al Green taught the world how to treat a lady.  The silky grooves on “Lets Stay Together” are testements to the undying nature of true love, plus they are really bitchin tunes.  Back in the day, my father was clearly moved by the hopefulness of the title track.  He made it his ringtone as soon as he split with my mom.  I found this hilariously ironic; at the same time it made me lament for a record that could fill my heart with the love that my dad found in that song.  What the hell am I supposed to make babies too, huh?

Well my prayers are answered by the new Al Green Record, sort of.  Its an enjoyable listen and there are some standout tracks, but all in all its a little underwhelming.  Undoubtedly, the songs are still smothered in Al’s romantic goodness.  I mean every song is pretty much about his undying affection for a female or the lack there of.  So, in that respect I am satisfied (I give it a 8 out of 10 for babymaking potential).  But there isn’t the same “wow” factor that you saw in “Lets Stay Together” or “Tired of Being Alone.”  It seems that the soul vet has settled down a little, laying down tracks that are noticeably conservative.  

That being said I have been enjoying the record on repeat for the last few days.  ?uestlove nailed the production, and even added a little bit of hip-hop flavor without obstructing the soulful feel.  So, if your a fan of Al hit this up, no questions asked.  The record is released on May 27th. 

Download: Al Green-Standing in the Rain 

See Also: Al Green: Thought It Out 

When I got this I was confused. I didn’t think people did this anymore. Initially I gave it a quick pass, and blew it off as a set of good, obscure dance tracks. That is not the purpose of a break tape though. So, last night, I took some of the tracks and threw them onto my Virtual DJ program. As I moved through the collection I began to notice that instead of looping up single parts of tracks I was looping damn near every section of each song. I made soulful beats. I made fast beats. I made scary beats. But more than that, I Made Beats!!!! The entire night I was thinking that this must be the feeling that great producers have when they find the perfect part of the perfect song. And those suckers have to dig for their breaks. I guess that kind of explains the subtitle on the CD, “Breaks For Modern Living.” After all, some of us aren’t paid to look through stacks of wax all day, and who has the free time? So for all you “modern” people, this is the answer to your production fantasies. Mr. Thing has done the work. So you don’t have to. Now, I’m off to look for an MC. It’s time for a block party.

Favorite Tracks: Lloyd Charmer – I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little Bit More, Blackbuster – ShackUp

To preview the compilation go here. My copy didn’t have this, but the retail version will also have a Mixed CD made by Mr. Thing. It comes out February 11th. Very Limited Vinyl, but who cares? Everyone has Serato or something digital anyway.

Yo, what up to all the Metal Lungies out there. Recently ML was in the N.O (New Orleans, duh!) for the Voodoo Festival. I arrived at about 7:30pm the first night for Rage Against the Machine‘s performance. They killed it, this was my first time at the fest, so I had no Idea what to expect. The first place I went to was the Playstation trailer, talk about flat screens, PSP’s and a shit load of PS3′s in there, it was a game nerd’s heaven up in there, and the playstation chicks were hot as hell. Back to the evening, well, I got a chance to get up and close for the first 3 songs of RATM’s performance, I had a shitty camera so the shots sucked but at least I got to see them lol, just kidding. Between them arriving on stage and performing the first couple of songs, about 3 people passed out and maybe 5 were escorted away for crowd surfing, they took a 5 minute intermission them came back out and rocked the crowd. They closed the set with “Killing in the name of” then I left and went home.

Lots of bands were on the horizon, Djlethal01 aka Rockville’s finest told me about the electric performance of a band called Mute Math, so I checked that out, and it was crazy! It was the second day and it was the day time performance on the main stage. The hottest part of the set was when the drummer hopped on top of the keyboard and drummed his solo on the f*ckin keyboard, that was wild. Also the lead singer/keyboardist brought out his grandpa on stage, the old guy was hilarious. Because of it being light outside of course I got a chance to see the crazy people out there, a bunch of acid head chicks were hoola hooping and I got a chance to semi-stalk them throughout the day, it was funny because the company they kept were even weirder than they were. I saw a pirate couple walking around them also some lady with a hideous mask on, both sightings scared the shit out of me.

I got a chance to eat some food on the second day as well, it was nothing like I thought it would be, being a native New Orleanian, I expected more, I never heard of any of theses people that had stands set up, I gave a few the benefit of the doubt and ended up spitting out the food asap. The best thing to eat/drink there was the lemonade, real talk. I did find a cool tent that was selling some run/dmc looking shirts that read “Defend” and it had New Orleans in the middle.

Told you this was coming. Hopefully you got your emails out to but you still have time (considering there is no time limit…)

The legacy of HBCU’s (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) is a very rich and diverse one. Every institution came up under different circumstances but the results are remarkably similar. They took what was already established by society as the norm and made it there own. From the way administration was set up all the way to the halftime festivities. This DVD is a celebration of that legacy. I went to TSU, which is regarded as a traditionally HBCU (until recently when they joined the Board of Regents, thus becoming a state funded school but that’s another story). So this DVD meant a lot to me personally. This ain’t like UT or Michigan where the football team is the story season in and season out. At TSU and other HBCU’s the story is the band and halftime. It’s a bonus to have a good football team, but it’s imperative to have a great band. The best halftime show between rivals is the bragging rights. You could walk around the stadium during the first 2 quarters but you’d better have a seat have the half, and some folks actually leave after that. That’s just how it is. Been like that since high school and in college it just went to another level. [Read more]

[Dj01 Note- You just read the tracklisting? now the review is ready, you know how we do!] Just who is Statik Selektah? I mean we’ve all heard his mixtapes, we’ve all heard the vocal drops on his music, but just who is this guy? A quick glance at Wikipedia and it mentions the basic general info. Who his parents are, how long he’s been in the game and what his accomplishments are. Well for one he seems to be Nas’ mixtape DJ of choice, which ain’t a bad distinction. He also did a joint collaborative effort with DJ Premier and Royce 5’9 on the Bar Exam. And he’s dropped 31(31!) mixtapes since 2000 in addition to his mix shows on satellite radio. So from this information I gather 2 things.

• He works hard at his craft
• He knows how to surround himself with unbelievable lyrical talent.

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Over a year ago, blogger god (bloggod?) Noz pointed out how up-and-coming solo MCs appear less and less willing to go the group route to establish themselves, and everybody wants to jump ahead and be the next somebody, or the first themselves. A year later, and it’s the same shit, different toilet. For every unsigned MC who’s trying to grind his way (nh) to a record contract, there’s a signed MC who has a finished album collecting dust because their label doesn’t know how to market them, be they a part-time HBO star whose waited over 12 months for a sample to clear, or the next big thing out of N.Y. whose lead single has a Snoop Dogg feature. [Were those blatant enough for you? To answer my own question, yes. And I'm not trying to hate either, just stating facts.]

Strong Arm Steady’s Deep Hearted serves as an experiment in this forgotten path to hip hop respectability. SAS (and I’m not talking about those British dudes in DipSet) have been a topic of discussion at ML for a little while now, and with the release of their debut LP this week on Nature Sounds, they take their next step in advancing their movement that has been many years, and many mixtapes, in the making.

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[NOTE: This isn't the album's artwork, just a picture of the group. My promo copy didn't come with cover art (most don't), and I couldn't find it on the net anywhere.]

NYGz, consisting of MCs Panchi and Shabeeno, have been down with DJ Premier and the Gang Starr Foundation for close to a decade. [By the way, can the Gang Starr Foundation still exist if Gang Starr is no longer together? Is Gang Starr no longer together?] Shabeeno first appeared on Gang Starr’s ’98 classic Moment Of Truth on “The Mall” (credited by the jiggier and goofier name, Shiggy Sha), and the duo appeared together on “Same Team, No Games” from Gang Starr’s last LP The Ownerz.

Unfortunately, the various ills of the music industry (according to their bio, their debut LP Pros & Cons was supposed to come out in 2003), in addition to a bid served by Panchi, has kept NYGz basically behind-the-scenes until now. Their street album Welcome 2 G-Dom is scheduled to hit stores on September 11th as the first album released by DJ Premier’s Year Round Records imprint, and Pros & Cons (their official debut set to be produced entirely by Primo) is set to follow soon after.

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Slang plays a big role in hip hop’s popularity. It keeps the genre regionally-divided, while at the same time helps maintain unity. At times it keeps the music current, while other times it brings it back to its roots. It makes sense to the listeners, and confuses the fuck out of outsiders who can’t quite fathom how hot and cool could possibly have similar meanings.

In some cases, though, it can confuse the fuck out of the listeners as well, but not to the point that it turns ‘em away. Camp Lo’s ’97 debut Uptown Saturday Night is such an example — drenched in outdated Blaxploitation-era terminology (you wouldn’t call another dude “sweet daddy” nowadays without a “no homo” before and after), Sonny Cheeba’s and Geechi Suede’s lyrics rode perfectly over Ski’s smoothed-out, funk and soul sample-heavy production. Its cult-classic status has brought much praise to the Lo-ah, by hip hop nerds and bloggers (which have become one in the same) everywhere. [Guilty as charged, here's ML's Camp Lo praise. And you'll be pleased to know that "Coolie High" has found it's way back to YouTube.]

10 years since Uptown Saturday Night — we’ll ignore ’02 Let’s Do It Again, most everyone else did — Camp Lo returns with Black Hollywood. As noted in our post linked above from earlier in the year, Ski was originally supposed to produce an entire EP for Camp Lo due out in August called Another Heist; but, instead, we get a full-length Camp Lo album, released a month earlier, and still produced entirely by Ski. Furthermore, the first single from the aforementioned EP, “Ticket For 2″, is not included on Black Hollywood — could this mean multiple Camp Lo releases in ’07? Did Christmas come early this year?

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[Incite a brawl on Sunday -- your album leaks on Monday. Karma, people.]

They say, “Don’t let your mouth write a check that your ass can’t cash.” T.I. called himself the “King of the South” on album cuts from both ’03′s Trap Muzik and ’04′s Urban Legend, but, with last year’s aptly-titled King, the millions of new fans he gained (among them Justin Timberlake, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and Denzel Washington), and a Grammy nod to boot, he not only cashed that check, he broke the bank. T.I. seemingly has nothing left to prove to anyone… except himself. Named after one of the many highlight tracks from Trap Muzik, a song which found T.I. and his extra-letter’d alter-ego arguing with each other, T.I. vs. T.I.P. attempts to build further from that concept. Business man vs. dope boy. The putting green vs. the block. Suit and tie vs. baggy jeans and a fitted. Making money vs. … making money. Well, nice to see that the two have something in common.

After the success of King, T.I. could’ve easily made an album titled King II, worked with the same people, made an album full of singles, and laughed all the way to the bank. Instead, T.I. appears to be branching out more, with a shortened, star-studded guest list and a slightly-altered line-up of producers — Wyclef Jean and Danja are in the mix, but no DJ Toomp, Swizz Beats, or Neptunes. Working around a concept such as T.I. vs. T.I.P. shows that he’s not resting on his already-solid reputation, and rather is focused on making solid albums… or so you would think.

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