Metal Lungies

If doing crack during childbirth is wrong then I don’t wanna be right. Enjoy.

It never meant to change the world.It did. Made it funkier. Slowed it down. Made it scarier. When you were little, it was like the trashy novel you couldn’t put down. The kind of thing you hid when mom and dad were around. Its gangster rap. And I loved it.

For me it started with MC Eiht. Hood Took Me Under represented a niche of music culture that has long since disappeared in this recent age of synthesized club bangers. He was a real dude who made music about pimpin’ hoes, bustin’ caps, and jackin’ punks. Things that interested the average suburban white kid, who could give less than a shit about what was going down in the club.

NWA knew this. Why do you think they never had any slow jams? Why do you think one producer handled their entire album time after time. Would 100 Miles and Runnin sound as good with a Scott Storch banger? Would the DOC be funky enough with listennnnnn being repeated in the background? Or would Ice Cube be just as militant with Olivia on the hooks?

No.

So put down your got rich, now celebrate jams and dust-off your copy of EFIL4ZAGGIN and remember a time when you didn’t care about the models in the video. After all, Bitches Weren’t Shit.

If you didn’t know Styles, Cam’ron and 50 Cent had a fiery exchange on the radio a few days back anyway 50 has already comeout with a diss video. It’s called ‘Funeral Music’ I’m not impressed at all, judge for yourselves

more later,

out.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all you readers out there on the internets, and what better way to celebrate then to see RZA sing a Xmas classic?

enjoy.

(click the video, to watch it because the embedding doesn’t work)

One of the most underrated rappers from the 90s, AZ, has a new album on the way. AZ, who many forget is actually one-half Dominican, can defiantly be filed under the hip-hop veteran category. There is a good reason for his long standing in the hip-hop game. From running side-by-side with Nas to The Firm, clearly he has already left his imprint in hip hop history. Although he has not been able to reach “mainstream” popularity levels of that of his old buddy Nas, he has one strong cult following, especially in New York. AZ drops his new album ‘The Format’ on November 7th (with a bonus DVD w/ videos & live footage). Here is the full track listing;

1). I Am The Truth (Produced by Lil Fame)
2). Sit ‘Em Back Slow f/M.O.P. (Produced by Face Defeat and Lil
Fame)
3.) Get High (Produced by Emile)
4.) Make Me! (Produced by Emile)
5). Rise & Fall f/Little Brother (Produced by J.Cardim and Phonte Coleman)
6.) Animal (Produced by Statik Selektah)
7.) Doing That (Produced by Lil Fame)
8.) This What I Do (Produced by J.Cardim)
9.) The Format (Produced by DJ Premier)
10.) Vendetta (Produced by J.Cardim)
11.) Game Of Life (Produced by Emile)                                                                             12.) Royal Salute (Produced by Emile)—Bonus Track

Opting to stay true to his hip-hop style by not getting the hot producer of the month, rather instead hooking up with DJ Premier for the title track single.

Check out the video:

Get the Mp3 for your collection here.

By the Way AZ has one of the cleanest MySpace designs of any musicans I’ve seen, check it out.

BREAKING NEWS! From the playbook pages of Diddy’s Vote or Die Campaign, former MLB Pitcher/ star of the cinematic masterpiece ‘The Greenskeeper’, John Rocker, comes with ‘SPEAK ENGLISH’. Accompanied on this “campaign” is Ms. Bikini Universe 2004, Alicia Marie, who for the most part is a vital piece in the movement, utilizing the Belly Shirt version of the SPEAK ENGLISH apparel/propaganda line. John Rocker would like to know from his life-changing MSNBC interview from Rita Crosby that:

“It’s not a business, it’s a campaign”

Near the end he mentions that it’s hard to get a white collar job with out speaking english. It really is so thoughtful that John Rocker is concerned about people getting white collar jobs, because clearly he has one.

Also, John, can we at least get a PLEASE on the shirt? AMERCIAN MANNERS DAMMIT!

Lastly, check out the banner from his official site, (where you can conveniently stock up on your ‘SPEAK ENGLISH’ merchandise, no word on where the proceeds go? I wonder??)

The 2nd to last picture looks like its CNN’s lead reporter interviewing John, oh, and I hope John’s cat can SPEAK ENGLISH.

On the site he has posted the longest piece of writing he has probably ever written.

In his letter he mentions;

I went to numerous local holiday celebrations such as parties that centered on the Puerto Rican holiday “Three Kings Day”, as well as numerous other festivals and gatherings. 

So using this idea, if I were to go to a “Three Kings Day” and muster out a few lines like maybe, “Mami Es Muy Caliente”, I could be seen as someone who is conforming to the Puerto Rican culture. Honestly after I got one good quote out of this one and a half page turd, I stopped reading, I’m sure it sings of beauty and intelligence afterwards but sadly I’m no where near John Rocker’s comprehension level to compute any more of this totally awesome campaign. In conclusion it must be said…

JOHN ROCKER FOR THE PRESIDENITAL CABINET !! VIVA (SORRY JOHN!) SALUTE ‘SPEAK ENGLISH’!!

out.

Let’s take a trip down the history of Pusha T & Malice, the brother duo that make up The Clipse. Being down with The Neptunes since 93′, they recorded their first album around 1998, which would finally see the light of the day as an internet leak dubbed ‘Exclusive Audio Footage‘ around 99’/00’. Their label at the time, Elektra, never released this as a retail album. Even though I was fan of their single ‘The Funeral’, it didn’t catch on, even though in retrospect the song hasn’t dated itself, and sounds superb to this today. But this didn’t strain their relationship with The Neptunes who brought them along on to their Star Trak imprint through Arista (Jive). They kept themselves busy, inclduing appearances on the ‘Training Day‘ soundtrack, and they enjoyed a guest spot on my personal favorite pop remix of Backstreet Boys’ ‘The Call’. Even at Arista/Star Trak things didn’t start to go smoothly for the most part. After a bunch of times being pushed back, only after the mega-monster track ‘Grindin‘ caught on with the mainstream did the album ‘Lord Willin‘ finally get a concrete date to come out, August 22, 2002. It was a success that would go on to get certified platinum. I can’t pick a track on that album that I would skip over, they all range from very solid to classic. By 2003 the brothers were back in the studio working on their follow-up ‘Hell Hath No Fury‘, it was penned to come out December 16, 2003. Shortly after this, Arista dissolved into Jive, and Star Trak went over to Geffen/Interscope sans The Clipse. Jive refused to release The Clipse and kept them on the roster, they continued working with The Neptunes, but the split from Star Trak put the album in limbo. Fast forward to late 2005, the Clipse were given the green light to finally drop their album, but worried that their songs from 2003 weren’t relevant they starting putting together the album from scratch. In early summer of this year the 1st single ‘Mr. Me Too‘ with some direct jabs at their record label came out. Even though the single caught on and was featured as the jam of the week on MTV Jams, I felt that it was getting a one and done type push from the label for them to make some money by quietly releasing the album and ridding themselves of the Clipse afterwards. When I saw them opening up for Ice Cube in mid-May (when they had the energy & material to headline but got dealt about 20 minutes of stage time) the duo announced that the album was scheduled for a late August release. As July was creeping up into August, the album was re-scheduled for a October 31st release. With the 2nd single featuring Slim Thug, ‘Wamp Wamp‘ out, I could finally start to taste the album coming very soon. That taste turned sour as the album has been pushed back intro December, making it, 3 years overdue, what a fucking shame. But there might be a light at the end of the tunnel, as it recently got a perfect XXL rating from..XXL. Hopefully this will force Jive to put out the album, right? right?? Shelving a alleged-classic will make a lot of people pissed (no one more then the brothers themselves). Recently Rolling Stone had a piece on The Clipse, and I truly feel their pain they are suffering through with their label. Read..

Lots of artists hate their record label, but the Clipse really, really, really hate their label. In a recent interview at the Manhattan offices of their, um, label, Jive Records, rappers Malice and Pusha-T did some extreme venting. As our interview with them began, Pusha snatched the recorder, looked around conspiratorially and let it out: “I hate Jive. I hate them motherfuckers. With all my heart and all the passion and my soul I hate these bitches. It’s about the lynching of every staff member up in this motherfucker.”

One sticking point? The release date of the Virginia hip-hop duo’s second album, Hell Hath No Fury, has been pushed back three times (most recently to November 28th of this year). Malice and Pusha-T also complained that Jive doesn’t know how to handle rap records, forcing the duo to hire it’s own publicity and marketing teams. “You could ask anyone in here to give you a marketing plan on Clipse and they could never do it,” says Pusha. “It’s like damn, What do you understand about hip-hop? You ain’t had nobody since Spice 1! You don’t know the fucking formula. Everybody in here’s like 50 years old!
“Just drop us,” continued Pusha, “Leave us the fuck alone so we can go where there’s plenty of people like Clipse.” “Have you ever heard anyone say that they’d be happy to get dropped” said Malice.
Pusha: “Besides fucking Prince?”

Malice: “Besides Prince.”
“And he carved his own face,” said Push, “which I won’t do. I won’t paint on my face. They ain’t going to drive me fucking loony.”

I’ve never wanted rappers to come out on top more than this. And how could you hate on rappers that send out cook aprons out as a promotional item?

out.

as a bonus check out a redonk freestyle, the video for ‘The Funeral’, and the most random Clipse clip you’ll ever see from this years VMA (probably my only highlight of that event):

This is probably the funniest video of the day for me, I guess even puppets on Sesame Street get hasseled by those boys in blue.

[wmv width=”320″ height=”240″]http://gorillamask.net/Media/muppets-nwa.wmv[/wmv]

Credit: Gorilla Mask

YN Puts on his Happy Face.

 I got this in the e-mail the other day and thought it was relevant to share on hurr. YN Talks about 2pac & him still being on XXL’s covers more than 10 years after his death, and his dealings with Interscope. Enjoy..

[youtube]oN6EJNWoyEQ[/youtube]

Part 2:

[youtube]uYqOeaAf8hk[/youtube] Sphere: Related Content

In celebration of the first sunday in this NFL season, I’m posting a song that pays homage to one of my favorite NFL players behind Marcus Washington, Santana Moss of the Washington Redskins.
My favorite line in the song is:

And now he’s in the NFL str-8 punishing dudes / And when they in that cover 2, watch him give them all a “sue-flae”

Credit goes to D.C. Sports Bog, which by the way is a must-read for any DC area sports fan.