Guest Blog- Soulja Boi is better than Mos Def

Finally, my man NC-17 is off his ass and is back with another blog designed to piss you the hell off...or maybe not.

Soulja Boy Is Better than Mos Def




People love to shove dirt on Hip Hop and consider it dead and buried. Most of these people are old school fans… yes old school. Its 2010, old school no longer refers to Rakim and KRS One, it refers to Biggie, Tupac, Nas, Wu-Tang, Common, and any rapper whose best work was pre 2000. Food for thought, Soulja Boy says the first rap CD he brought was 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Trying… of course it was he was born in the 90’s. My first rap CD was Dr. Dre’s the chronic. I am so fucking old school. Some of you will argue, well Jay-Z isn’t old school. Yes he is. Comparing Reasonable Doubt to Blueprint 3 is like comparing LL Cool J’s Radio to Head Sprung. Some artist will continue to make music regardless of the years in the game, but trust me Hova’s best days were back in the late 90’s to early 2000’s.



As much as I loved Cam’ron and Ma$e, listening to their newest song, which is a good track, reminds me of Guns and Roses forcing Chinese Democracy down people’s throat. It’s artist from a different era in time trying desperately to stay relevant. It’s kind of depressing hearing someone who use to ROAST DJ Clue mixtapes rapping about “Cookies and Applejuice”, but still lyrically the weakest artist from ten years ago will murder the top artist from last year.


BUT…



It’s not about lyrics these days. Someone recently told me and I quote "Soulja Boy is better than Mos Def". And I'm not a Mos Def fan at all, but it made me angry... then I thought. this kid's not talking about lyrics. When I was growing up listening to Wu-Tang, Nas, and Mobb Deep, I had no idea what the fuck they were talking about; I was a kid who liked the beats and the flow. It didn’t matter if I didn’t understand what the fuck Raekwon meant when he said:

“Say peace to cats who rock mack knowledge Knowledgists, street astrologists
Light up the mic God, knowledge this
Fly joints that carried your points
Corolla Motorola holder
Play it God, he pack over the shoulder “.


As I got older and listened to Jada, Hova, and Eminem I became obsessed with the PUNCHLINE, I thought if you can’t give me a punchline that blows my fucking mind you’re not a real rapper. In my mind, what killed the west coast was the inability to feed the late 90’s rap fan lyrical lobster. As cool as Snoop and Cube was their punchlines were nonexistent.



Remember No Limit? I hated that shit. But all of my boys loved it. I remember the most asked question on month was you got that new P? No, I don’t got that new P, that new P, like the old P sucked. But I listened to Silk and mystical and … fuck it. I admit it-- was peer pressured into liking No Limit. I knew Soulja Slim sucked but when we piled into my mother’s car for a joy ride and a blunt session, I had it on tap because that’s what my degenerate friends wanted to listen to. I left the hood. I went to college and discovered new rap music that I would never listen to. My college homies put me on to underground rap, backpack rap, rap so complex you needed a graphing calculator to figure it out; yeah these guys were lyrical but it was to a fault. I always though there had to be a thin line between commercial rap and lyrical rap.




The clubs took over. Kids these days start going to the club at age 15, and they don’t go to drink or smoke, they go to dance and party. You can’t play Capone N Noriega in the club. You don’t want to be grinding on a girl’s ass and be like “Damn son! Did you hear what he just said?”. I had to realize a long time ago, not every place has bmore club music, they have to dance to regular rap music, therefore that regular rap music must do two things: Have an up-tempo beat that bumps loud and hard, and simple lyrics that you can sing along to while drunk, high, or screwed up.


When I think about the Ying Yang twins “Get Low”, I think about this girl I use to smash. When I think about ”hot in here” by Nelly. I think about this girl I use to smash. When I think about The Lox’s we are the streets album, I think about smoking weed while sitting in the dorm with my boy Cello. The point is, this new school hip hop, for the most part, isn’t about lyrics it’s about having a good time. You go to the club and listen to Jeezy and it makes you wanna floss ya money, buy some liquor. You go to the club and listen to Soulja boy you want dance get silly. There’s nothing wrong with that type of music. Everyone likes to have a good time and as a man I’ll admit, the prettiest hoes may not dance all night until that ONE song they love comes on. Shit; I still owe Juvenile for all the whores I booked off of “Slow Motion”.


Yes Soulja Boy may make more relevant tracks these days than Mos Def. But In the long run, most people who strive to be rap artist don’t want the ringtone sales, they want the acclaim. Every Rapper wants to be known as the best, not the guy who came up with jerking. Yes we’ll always need the club music, but if history is any proof-- rap will always return to who’s lyrically hot.

Hip-Hop and Religion

If it is one thing the black community is known for is it's churches and ties to organized religion. Hip-hop artists much like athletes and political figures try to incorporate this into their lives. However, most of it seems to be hollow gestures that are done more so just because it is expected. Take a look at songs then look at awards acceptance speeches and album liner notes.

You have the majority of artists who talk about how they are blessed by God when they win an award or receive an acknowledgment from someone but they don't carry any of the ideals of religion across in their music. This pertains to both Christian and Muslim artists for the most part. The most notable exception of this is DMX who does take the time to dedicate at least one song on each album to God.

DMX - Lord Give Me A Sign
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X is one of the few artists who can successfully cross over from the gangster talk to telling how the Lord has affected his life. It's not the contradiction that keeps most artists from pulling this off, but the passion and truth in their voices. X truly feels it.

Then you do have some contemporary gospel artists who can be considered hip-hop or at the very least hip-hop influenced. However, unless your name is Mary Mary and you slap some auto-tune onto your latest song, don't expect it to be played on the radio.


(I feel another regular series coming on)


Hey it was the first thing I saw on youtube and Diamond Dog sounds just like Ed Lover.



This guy seems to be more subliminal with his message but it's there.


Where is all of this coming from? Honestly the entire "Jay-z is a devil worshipper" movement has me pissed off. We're quick to start following a conspiracy theorist who is telling us what a song sounds like backwards when no one else can even listen to it backwards. Ipods don't do that buddy. Yet it is once again a sign of us looking for the negative instead of trying to find the artists who are seeking to show the light and positivity of their particular faith.



Would a Catholic rapper be accepted? What about a Jewish rapper? We already know there are many Muslim rappers though the main proclamation about their faith we seem to hear is that they don't eat pork and that they use Allah in some songs in addition to the usual "only God can judge me". Will these artists ever be allowed to spread the tenets of their faith outside of using them as excuses to sell drugs and shoot each other?

Apparently, only dealing with Puffy can make you find God

Mullyman

I'm back and once again showing a renewed focus on helping to promote and expose new artists or less familiar artists to those who may visit the blog. Today I'm going to focus on Baltimore artist Mullyman. Mully has been one of the brightest 'stars' of the "Baltimore Movement" (because everything is a movement now). He has been featured on MTV's Hoodfab across from DC's Wale, and also had his video in rotation on MTVJams.




His newest joint "She Hurtin Em" is also directed by another DC native, Tabi Bonney.



Now I am always skeptical of Baltimore rappers but I think by now Mully has earned my trust. I have liked what I have heard but I haven't heard an entire album or "mixtape" from Mully myself. This song has a decent party beat however I thought that they over-thought the hook. Using the title of the song in rapid succession would have been better to me than the way it was done. I also think the focus should have definately been more focused on the women in the video during the hook since it is "She Hurtin Em". Sorry, I had to offer some criticism because Mullyman is actually an artist that has a story to tell and the ability to actually be successful at it.

Where are they Now: Tracey Lee

Now this is funny, I showed someone my list of upcoming topics and he asked me why you keep asking about Tracey Lee? I couldn't do anything but laugh because I had the Many Facez album back on tape (do people even know what those look like anymore?) and he was one of the earlier guys to use the multiple personality concept and he worked with it. You remember his single, "It's Party Time"?



Ironically, I was over looking at Da Jaz 1's blog this morning and lo and behold what do I see but a Dirty Money (you know the group with the bootleg Estelle, Knock-off Keri Hilson, and tired Puffy) remix of that "Love Comes Down" song with none other than the man, the myth, the legend himself, Tracey Lee. Check it out here:



Wikipedia doesn't have too much information but it seems Tray Lee graduated from Southern University Law School in 2004 and if you can believe his verse, he now is some type of sports agent but he still has some decent rap ability. I wonder if his boss and professors knew about this song though,

I don't like mixtapes pt. 2

Okay, I might not have been clear in my first post about the dislike I have for the current mix tape. I understand that it is a promotional tool but a large part fo the problem is that there are too many of them which are by artists trying to make it or D-boys looking to cleanse some dirty money. Number one is that most of these so called rappers now just suck. Honestly, you have to have a story to tell in order to be an interesting artist and most of these guys don't. I'm tired of the same old trap boy stories.

That brings me to another annoying thing about these so-called mixtape DJ's. Half of them aren't real DJ's in the first place. Aspiring producers/ A&R's get their friends/main group together and throw anything on the disc and push it into your face. They don't even have good names for the mix tapes. Clue was always creative and came with something that made his tapes stand out. now you get:








Notice the trend in having a "series". It was alright the first time when you drop something with a common theme, but all of these are the same shits. It's not like a group of angry rappers called 'disciples of X' it's the same 10 rappers and most of the time the same damn tracks. It sounds like one long boring ass song.

Then back to the unsigned artist using a mixtape as a "Street album". Back in the days, If you showed up on a Clue tape you got some notice. However, that wasn't it, you had to be featured on Doo-Wop, Tony Touch, Kid Capri, Kay-Slay, multiple times and not be on some bullshit to be taken seriously. Joe Budden's entire career is based on his Clue freestyles as is Fabolous. The Lox; DMX; Mase all made their names being listed on mixes alongside artists like Biggie and Nas whom you already respected and would listen to. What in the sam hill hell is going to make me pick up:







This last one has the nerve to say Special edition. How do you have the special edition of a mix tape? This is a great example of Hip-hop growing up and yet the bad part about it being exploited at the same time. Even street rappers are going for the gimmicks to try and swindle you out your hard earned three dollars using the best photoshoppers and the offer of unreleased bonus tracks. Isn't this supposed to be a mixtape? How are there bonus tracks? Honsetly if you have as many records as Pac, you should do like he did and hide them until something happens and people wnat to hear even your crappy music.

Which leads to another thing, stop rapping so damn much. Sit back, write a verse, yes actually put that shit on paper, and then evaluate it and decide is this the best that I can do? Too many people these days just want to put anything down and go with it. Few people are that nice and I doubt you are one of them. Secondly on this issue, you are not Lil' Wayne so forge your own identity, he dropped 12 mix tapes in a year and it doesn't mean you should do the same damn thing.


Honestly, I could go on and on about these new mix tapes but then I would just get called even more of a hater. I'll stop here any questions, tweet me twitter.com/remmy1881 or drop a note right here.

Music from across the Pond

I get a little bit of e-mail asking me to review music but not that much. I'm not that big yet. I get to it all eventually, I'm always a little pressed for time but I did get around to checking out a song sent to me by BPM (Boys Playing Music) from the UK. Normally listening to music from overseas is odd because of the accents; nothing personal, it just always seems to hit the ear oddly. This 'single' though is very listenable, sort of like Estelle can be not only tolerated but jammed to. That's two major hurdles, overcoming an accent and making a solid single. Shouts out to BPM, here is their myspace myspace.com/boysplayingmusic and twitter if you want to follow them twitter.com/bpmallday




I don't think I've ever posted my twitter on here so if you want to follow me hit up twitter.com/remmy1881

Here is the link to the song: http://www.zshare.net/audio/7174092939c9ac1e/