Revenge Of The Jerk

YG - Knocka
(From Knocka single; 2024)


First time I've checked a new YG single since Swag in 2020 and he's only gone and dropped some fresh extratellestrial Jerk redux shit which is right up my Grove Street. Initially thought that synth stab thingy is the It's Like That synth stab thingy, but now I think it's Raised Like This synth stab thingy.

Ezale - Raised Like This
(From Raised Like This single; 2021)


Whether It's Like That or Raised Like This, this is still a new YG single I can jam alongside a classic Ezale single. Two thumbs up like Run & D.M.C's heads.

OJ was a hero/villain to most, but he was always just Detective Nordberg to me

"Car trunk fulla cocaine
And that pistol in my lap go bang
I can never lack, no way
F*ck the police, I'm OJ"

Mic Terror - OJ Simpson
(From No Lives Matter album; 2021)


I was slightly disappointed that Mic Terror didn't capitalise on OJ Simpson's death by belatedly shooting a video for the best song from his No Lives Matter album. It's always said that the L.A police's pursuit of OJ Simpson was the most leisurely car chase of all time, so it makes sense that Mic T's ode to The Juice™ would be some prime "drive slow, homie" music. Big fan of the casual contempt for Fivio Foreign on this shit. That lad was part of my favourite New York Drill song to date, but he's a vacuous empty vessel, and N.Y Drill is novelty Rap even if it does offer up a few choonz every now and then.

My Mind Spray 14.5

Top 5 Rap interview lie of all time: Cage claiming he accidentally bit a prostitute's clitoris off via HHC magazine in the late 90s. All the more impressive given that late 90s Cage looked the sorta fella who thought a clitoris was some bloke who played for the Brazilian football team at the 1994 World Cup (hold ya head, Roberto Baggio.)

I hate when someone on eBay is selling a CD I want but they've taken a photo of the disc data side down on their mucky arse carpet. Who raised these melon-farming savages? I'd rather pay more and buy the CD from another seller than risk the CD turning up covered in dust and cat hair.

Let's piss off the purists: as far as 2024 old man-Rap goes, Brotha Lynch Hung's new single is vastly superior to Nas & DJ Premier's new single. Hung's single is a sleek evolution of his vintage sound, while the Nas & Primo song is so stodgy it's audio high cholesterol.

Rap beefs nowadays are just #content for Joe Budden, DJ Vlad, Akademiks, Adam22 and other such terrible gossip-mongering nonces to yap about. Still, if it stops Budden from actually releasing his Godawful music then long may his shitty podcast continue to flourish. How was it even possible to ruin the Pump It Up beat? Let some zombie-voiced wifebeater rhyme ONNNNNNN it, that's how.

Late pass!

G. Dep - Dollar Bill
(From DJ Ashknuckles' The Underground Railroad Part 1 mixtape; 1998)


Discovered via Instagram, a kinda proto-wavy pre-Bad Boy G. Dep deep cut. Apparently Black Rob was a big fan of this track and it lead to their link-up. One of those boutique reissue labels needs to drop a CD EP of all Dep's pre-Bad Boy jams; alas boutique reissue labels with good taste don't grow on trees like palm leaves. So, for now, you can catch this song where it currently makes the most sense - in my G. Dep deep cuts playlist, natch.

One very much 4 the Britz: grandads, we love you

Nine & Dex - Pecan Pie
(From Pecan Pie single; 2024)


Oh ok, so these are the two lads who ghostwrite and produce for the Road-Rap pensioners Pete & Bas (apparently they're their grandads.) Since the faces been revealed, game got real indeed: mans go back-and-forth like Neville & Carragher. Much like Giggs' Monsta Man, this is that old robotic futuristic Jet Set Willy crazy shit. 90% of British Rap is only good when it embraces the fact that it is, essentially, novelty music. LD and Youngs Teflon could never!

Pete & Bas - Mr Worldwide
(From Mr Worldwide single; 2023)

Generic list post: New York's alright...

Party Sparty whipped up a list of his favourite songs recorded for movies set in Noo Yawk. Great topic, lemme rock it: 20 Martorialist faves from N.Y.C movies/movie soundtracks which aren't on the Spartorialist's list. Very annoying that so many of the best soundtrack-exclusive Rap songs of the 90s were for movies based in California, but I guess that's the universe course-correcting New York bias or sumfink.

Krzysztof Komeda - Dream (1968)
Edwin Starr - Easin' In (1973)
Badder Than Evil - Hot Wheels (The Chase) (1973)
Curtis Mayfield - Do Do Wap Is Strong In Here (1977)
Keith Emerson - The Chase (1981)
John Lurie - The Lamposts Are Mine (1984)
Melle Mel & The Furious Five - Beat Street Breakdown (1984)
Arthur Baker - Breaker's Revenge (1984)
Madonna - Into The Groove (1985)
Beastie Boys - Desperado (1988)
Grand Puba - Fat Rat (1991)
Biggie Smalls - Party & Bullshit (1993)
Crooklyn Dodgers '95 - Return Of The Crooklyn Dodgers (1995)
Mobb Deep ft. Big Noyd & Rakim - Hoodlum (1997)
Vincent Gallo ft. Uncredited - Lonely Boy (1998)
Clint Mansell - Summer Overture (2000)
Harry Gregson-Williams - First Call (2002)
50 Cent ft. Young Buck - I'll Whip Ya Head Boy (2005)
Tony Yayo - Fake Love (2005)
Julian DeMarre & Heiko Male - Moe At Work (2019)

Related: if you've ever wanted a wordless animated bromance between a dog & a robot set in 1980s New York which features a breakdancing scene set to T La Rock's Breakdown then Robot Dreams is the movie 4 u. Best bittersweet buddy comedy flick since Brian & Charles, and the freedom of animation means they've been able to recreate 80s New York in a way no live action movie ever could. My fave movie of 2024 so far.

Born To Audiomack: G. Dep deep cuts

G. Dep - G. Deep Cuts
1. How (1995)
2. Blak N*gga (1996)
3. Automatic (1996)
4. Head Over Wheels (1996)
5. Blow More Spots (1996)
6. Dollar Bill (1998)
7. Everyday remix (ft. Faith Evans) (2001)
8. Gametime (2009)


Throw ya hands in the freakin' air and keep 'em there, G. Dep just got outta the box that's square. Celebrate the Deputy's release from prison with this playlist of G. Deep Cuts where he makes the gutter sound butta. Truthfully, this used to be my best of G. Dep playlist from 2015, but all the songs from his Bad Boy Records album have long since been DMCA-ed into oblivion and these seven songs are what's left. Regardless, this is still a playlist so hot it'll make you scream like you struck gold, that's cold.

**EDIT** added Dollar Bill which I've just discovered.