Obligatory wrap-up post of those songs I've played most during the month when my YouTube feed was clogged up with stupid Alpo conspiracy theories. Pennance for all the times I flexed about copping the pre-cinema release Paid In Full bootleg DVD from Canal Street?
Money Mark - Rock In The Rain
(From Push The Button album; 1998)
For better or worse, "I'm just a rock in the rain" could be this blog's motto. If this ain't better than Hand In Your Head then it's the closest one. Lord only knows what Mo Wax label owner James Lavelle put in Money Mark's tea to turn him into a lean, mean songwriting machine for the Push The Button album. Even the instrumental jams were more grand.
Money Mark - Crowns
(From Push The Button album; 1998)
Crowns makes for a great soundtrack to grocery shopping imho. That's the beauty of music innit - it can transform the most mundane task into something a tiny bit majestic.
A Fresh & Nef Tonite Show is something which should have happened in 2016, but better late than never. Fave song on this shit is a good example of parallel universe Rap: what if Saturday Night Fever '08 Hyphy was a thing? Dunno if that's a sample or live keys, but, either way, DJ Fresh is a beast with pianos. No, really doe:
Not to toot my own trumpet, but me calling him Thizz Khalifa is still the best description I've ever seen of Nef The Pharoah's music.
Solemn Brigham - Dirty Whip
(From South Sinner Street album; 2021)
Solemn Brigham clearly ain't a subscriber to the Lil' Fame "with my chrome 10 inch hubcaps, but I keep 'em clean tho" philosophy. Swear this song keeps following me around, but I ain't complaining since it Hits Different™. Dirty Whip's appeal? Shit's a capital A piano Anthem from the Mello Music Group which sounds like it could be from a new Maybach Music Group compilation. The first song from Mello Music Group's roster which has potential for a viral challenge or wot?
Bonus beats: ex-Maybach Music Group affiliate Stalley now dropping music on Mello Music Group makes the cipher complete. Stalley was the O.G J. Cole in terms of "he's so boring that...." jokes, but I'm a big fan of Cup Inside A Cup meself. Shit was like a millennial MF Grimm Cloud-Rap song.
Stalley - Cup Inside A Cup
(From Honest Cowboy EP; 2013)
Always wanted to say that Max B has album intros which body other Rapper's whole albums and now I can. My man still makes good music, man. A lotta y'all favourites don't!!
Mountains is as close as this Negro Spirituals album comes to a Nu-Wave BBQ Music anthem, which is a pre-Christmas miracle since it's produced by that useless hack Paul Couture.
Max B - Mountains
(From Negro Spirituals album; 2021)
Miraculously, Paul Couture also didn't manage to mangle the Picture Me Rollin' interpolation on Don't Make Me Cry. Bit weird having Raheem DeVaughn on this shit, tho - Max and a sanger on the same song is like having parsnips and potato wedges on the same plate innit?
Max B ft. Raheem DeVaughn - Don't Make Me Cry
(From Negro Spirituals album; 2021)
Shout out to Buck Tarbrush, we in the building like Sing Sing! Even bigger shout out to Martorialist commenter Fred since he suggested I do a list of Rap songs about doing time. Not sure whether this top 25 of my favourite prison Rap songs is what Fred had in mind, but much like Norman Stanley Fletcher, I'm not a stickler for other people's rules. As ever, free Max B until it's backwards.
Which type of Rap fans are the W.O.A.T - middle aged white boom-bap purists or middle class black KanYe West fanboys?
The teenagers and paedophiles of TikTok need to form like Dai-X and make Valee's Allat retroactively blow up.
When Public Enemy got inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, the hosts should have noted that Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos is the best breaking-outta-the-bing song since Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak.
Nino Man's 5-0 gotta be my favourite Go Fight Some Other Crime type song since Go Fight Some Other Crime itself.
Pa Salieu ft. Slowthai - Glidin'
(From Glidin' single; 2021)
Lads, blokes, countrymen - please tell me I ain't the only person who secretly likes Pa Salieu's song with Slowthai? Obviously Slowthai is utterly unacceptable on any/every level and the song is pure Alexis Petridis' Guardian single of the week-bait, yet Glidin' is still the best Roadraprobeats single of 2021 so far.
Beggars can't be choosers now J Hus has taken a hiatus from music ¯\_㋡_/¯
Freddie Foxxx - The Master
(From Freddie Foxxx Is Here album; 1989)
Freddie Foxxx's The Master wasn't the first Rap video to have an intro, but it was the first to have an annoying intro that was almost as long as the song itself. All we wanted were some Paid In Full posse cameos, but all we got was Eric B as Fred's spiritual guiding light, a sumo wrestler who looks like an AZN Biz Markie, and some Chinese lass ferrying Fred to the club on a rickshaw. Oh well, at least The Master is the one killer song from Fred's first LP and one of the 'ardest Rap songs of 1989 full stop.
Back in the early noughties ya host replied to a Hip Hop Rumours message board thread with a post about Freddie Foxxx allegedly bum-raping someone from Benzino's crew with a baseball bat. A week or so later I received a surpringly polite message from Fred himself asking me to remove the post because it was wrong - he'd #actually only threatened to bum-rape someone from Benzino's crew with a baseball bat. Moral of the story? And when ya nose is drippin' and drainin' blood, Bumpy Knuckles will be all up in your D.M's saying "What, what? That's wrong!"
Travis Porter - Like Dat
(From Back On Bullshit album; 2021)
**Dem Franchise Boyz voice** I THINK I LIKE IT!
Here at The Martorialist we're diggin' the notion of parallel universes in Rap, so if T.P had signed to T.I's Grand Hustle imprint to drop a second album then the lead single woulda sounded a lil' sumfin like Like Dat.
**EDIT** Also feelin' the Swag-Rap Fresh Prince(s) storytelling of Same Hoes. This shit needs a video which sticks to the song's script.
Travis Porter - Same Hoes
(From Back On Bullshit album; 2021)
Gotta love when that harmonica comes in at the end for maximum "my baby's cheating on me" Delta Bluesman vybz. It's the little touches that make a big difference.
