Generic list post: November 2020

Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when there was no sadder sight than European men masquerading as American political experts and arguing about Biden Verzuz Trump. You nerds need to cultivate some Yank interests which are actually fun - like Rap music, natch.

39 Posse - Got What It Takes To Make It (1991)
Mac Dre - Doin' What I Do (2001)
Jhi-Ali - My Way (2005)
Mac J - Sparky (2020)
NHale - In My Hood (2020)
Eatem ft. 70th Street Carlos - Spin The Bottle (2020)
M1llionz - B1llionz (2020)
Prince - Love Sign (Shock G's Silky Remix) (1998)
Moodymann - Just Stay A While (2020)
Michigan & Smiley - Tom's Diner (1990)

Other notables: OHFR? is the first Rico Nasty song I've kinda liked this year; listened to Goodie Mob's new album and I wish they'd replace Cee-Lo with Witchdoctor or Backbone or Nathaniel or damn near anyone who's ever appeared on a Dungeon Family album; Rio Da Yung OG should be forced to retitle his Accidental Shit Talkin' EP as Here's Some First-Take Freestyles I Can't Be Bothered Writing Any Hooks For; no matter how many times YouTube recommends it to me, I'm not listening to Kay Slay's Rolling 50 Deep 18 minute posse cut; shit I wasn't expecting this month: a Tinashe Xmas EP where she covers Wham's Last Christmas.

PS: last thing I wanna say - R.I.P Lil' Yase.

True story or no story part 6

"Ay' I'm a reptable
Treat him like he cut the line 'cause he next to go
I think I'm a timebomb, yeah I'm next to blow
He was talkin' all that beef 'til he a vegetable"

Mac J - Sparky
(From the internet; 2020)


Now I'm checkin' in, check me out. Missed this one last month but now I've caught up it's my fave Mac blast since OldSkoo. Hookless if you take the song at face value in homage to producer Sparky Made It Slap, once you realise Check Me Out was the O.G title then there is a sneaky hook in there like Abu Hamza in a cheap suit.

Whenever I listen to Mac J on Soundcloud and leave shit runnin', it always ends up playing some terrible Mac Miller song with Juicy J. No disrespect to the dead, but Mac Miller sex-raps were second only to Mindbender Futurama sex-raps in terms of sheer horrificness.

Late pass! Michigan & Smiley's culture

And there was my uncultured arse thinkin' that the ultimate remake of Suzanne Vega's Tom's Diner is the Shock G remix of Dopefiend's Diner by 2Pac...

WRONG!

This Dancehall refreak by Michigan & Smiley of Nice Up The Dance fame takes the crown. Jah's greasy spoon uptown ranking which almost certainly woulda been banned from the jukebox in Tom's IRL diner if Kramer's racist arse was in the building.

Michigan & Smiley - Tom's Diner
(From Tom's Diner single/Gunman Riddim; 1990)

Michigan & Smiley · Tom's Diner

Late pass! Dre Day part 2084

Mac Dre - Doin' What I Do
(From Mac Dre's The Name album; 2001)

Mac Dre · Doin' What I Do

Every year I come across a couple of Mac Dre songs I'd previously slept on and 2020 is no different; first there was the acoustic version of Times R Gettin' Crazy and now there's this hubba knock from that dodgy Mac Dre's The Name album. Ain't gon' lie, first time I heard this song I sat there sweatin' bullets expecting an uncredited guest verse from some Gilligan pill-carrier like BA or Miami The Most to spoil it. Praise the Lord - Hallelujah for some uninterrupted guerilla gurp from Furl Hawaiianshirt.

Slangin' humble pie and Stella pints in the same sentence

M1llionz - B1llionz
(From B1llionz single; 2020)



FFS can't believe I enjoy a U.K Drill song by some breh afflicted with the dreaded kid's TV presenter voice which runs rampant in the sub-genre. Tbf, M1llionz's Brummoi accent does have chutzpah and the B1llionz beat conjures up images of green grass rather than grey pavements. Not arf bad for a miserable style of music I usually can not stand.

Maybe I'm buggin' but the flow/beat combo here kinda make me think of a midlands Jacka. Midlands Jacka: a phrase I never expected to type lolz.

Martorial Elegance: The Blacker The Beret

It ain't necessarily a bad thing that Jeezy's gone from berettas to berets if he's rebranding himself for the Western Europe market on some Jacques Or Die type shit. It is, however, a bad look that he's gone from Circulate to resemblin' an uncircumcised Plush Penis©.

Bonus hats: are Quartersnacks' Coinstar caps inspired by Juiceboxxx's ode to the loose change dream machine?

Born To Audiomack: 2007 Bonus Beats

Uncle Murda on Noz's 100 best Rap songs of 2007 list eh? 2020 keeps throwing up all sorts of surprises. Top bloggin', but missing twelve Martorialist classics by twelve different artists who didn't make the list. So, here they are in an easily-digestible Audiomack playlist. No surprises here for regular TM™ readers, just twelve songs I'll never resist an opportunity to Stan for.

1. Camp Lo - Black Hollywood
2. Rock D The Legend ft. Big Boi - DDT
3. ByrdGang - Anniversary
4. Tha Camp - 1 Rubber
5. Grand Puba - Let's Go
6. Smooth B - I Want My Money Back
7. Jackie Chain - Waffle House Pimpin'
8. G-Side ft. Marcellus - Feel Like I Look
9. AZ - Doin' That (Memphis Sessions mix)
10. Mic Terror - Juke Them Hoes
11. Blaq Poet - Don't Give A Fucc
12. A-Wax - Gatez



Favourite find on Noz's list has gotta be Jhi-Ali's My Way. Very unique vibe - like if Bizzy Bone's little cousin from Alabama made his own version of Devin's Do What You Want To Do. Not only had I never heard the song before, I'd never realised Jhi-Ali was a bloke until the video later popped up in my YouTube recommendations. Cinderfella Jhi-Ali - 2020 truly is full of all sorts of surprises innit?

Jhi-Ali - My Way
(From My Way mixtape; 2007)



**EDIT** Just lookin' for a no-DJ MP3 of My Way and it turns out the song first dropped on this Slow Motion Soundz compilation in 2005. There's another solo Jhi-Ali solo track on there called On The Run that I'm curious to hear - anybody got it? It ain't on YouTube or Ali's Soundcloud.

R.I.P to Nate Dogg, he got to procreate (part 2)

NHale - In My Hood
(From Young Dogg EP; 2020)



Feelin' this intro to his upcoming EP by Nate Dogg's Scrappy Doo NHale. Nate Sprogg can't quite hold a note like his dearly-departed old man, but the quivers in his voice give him accidental Kokane vybz and stop him becoming the 3D Nate Dogg hologram.

Bonus beats: five years on and Warren G's single with the posthumous Nate Dogg hook where he interpolated Madness' Our House is still very much my shit. Even Russell Grant couldn't have predicted that G-Funk and 2 Tone's paths would ever cross.

Warren G ft. Nate Dogg - My House
(From Regulate... G-Funk Era Part II EP; 2015)



Warren G clearly not a believer in All Property Is Theft™ eh? Do call it a comeback, don't call him a comrade.

Sorta late pass: the lost tribe of Salieu

Pa Salieu - B***K
(From B***K single; 2020)


So, ya host is warming to the U.K Rapper I'd previously dismissed as J Hus' equivalent of Dana Dane. This B***K song is an Afro-Bashment/Lakim Shabazz hybrid and I'm all over it like a Seagull on a bag of fish & chips.

My Family with BackRoad Gee is his choon of choonz, though. It was the first Salieu song where I didn't wish J Hus had got the beat instead, and the first Roadrapfrobeats song with big Next Hype energy.

Pa Salieu ft. BackRoad Gee - My Family
(From My Family single; 2020)



If Salieu drops a couple more undeniable choonz then he's officially the best thing to come outta Coventry since Fun Boy Three.

Fun Boy Three - The Telephone Always Rings (single version)
(From The Telephone Always Rings single; 1982)

Tears of a 'town

The only American The Beat I acknowledge belongs to ESG. That's my diplomatic way of saying it was an act of cultural imperialism that The Beat had to rename themselves The English Beat for the U.S.A when 'Murica's own The Beat were little more than a Costco Cheap Trick. Certainly, the so-called English Beat went on to have far greater cultural impact stateside than their Yank namesake with various songs popping up in Hollywood movies over the decades - most notably Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Grosse Point Blank, and some shitty Spiderman flick. Ultimately, The Beat U.S.A was aiight, they was cool, but they never recorded anything as John Blaze as Mirror In The Bathroom, Ranking Full Stop, or Tears Of A Clown.

The Beat - Tears Of A Clown
(From I Just Can't Stop It album; 1980)


A glaring ommission from my Cover Me Good list, tbqh - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles gave it wings, The Beat made it fly. Same happy music/sad lyrics contrast as the O.G version, but with the whimsical Motown sweetness replaced by spiky 2 Tone Ska. Plus, a saxophone solo and Ranking Roger's outro!

Final score: 2 Tone - two, Motown - one.

Everybody eats, b! (But preferably at their own table)

"F*ck it, go and spin the bottle
You know I don't do no cappin', that's why a n*gga wearin' goggles"

Eatem ft. 70th Street Carlos - Spin The Bottle
(From YouTube; 2020)


Pffft - you wait a couple of years for two of Baton Rouge's rowdiest to hop on a proper track together and when it finally happens Carlos' vocals sound like they've been clumsily Pro Toolsed in from another song entirely. Is it too much to ask for a guest verse that's cognisant of the lead rapper's presence and the song it features on? That is why ya host is a solo song afficionado nowadays - gimme a singular vision rather than a shared collaboration.

Late pass! Tuba(ular) Bells

39 Posse - Got What It Takes To Make It
(From 39 Posse 12" EP; 1991)


Whoa na! Killer combination of Second Line brass band and Bob James Mardi Gras bells from very young KLC. Heard this for the first time yesterday on Chicken-N-Kalinka's Parkway Pumpin' Records mix and it was love at first listen. Stream C-N-K's full mix here: