My Mind Spray 24

Seeing great football players from the 2000s/2010s reduced to playing in the MLS and scoring goals against plumbers from Maryland is the sporting equivalent of seeing great rappers from the 1980s/1990s reduced to touring Europe and doing albums produced by the Snow Goons. Yeah, it's undignified, but everybody gotta eat and get their adrenaline rush somehow, right?

Favourite line on a 2026 Rap song: "I'm in my bag like yo' grandmama's peppermints" from Mic Terror's A Year Ago. You know a line is good when you can add it to your IRL lexicon.

That unreleased Digital Underground song Blue View from the recent Sex Packets reissue is cool. It sounds like Shock G had been listening to Bristolian Trip-Hop but in a good way: Portishead rather than that whispering stoner c**t Tricky.

Shout out to Tricky's Christiansands tho. A notable entry in my personal canon of Shinola Songs By The Shittiest Artists.

Those tech lad Rap fans who did the AI videos for Ice Cube's Once Upon A Time In The Projects and My Summer Vacation should do a video for Slick Rick's The Moment I Feared next. Might be best if they avoid doing one for Rick's Indian Girl (An Adult Story) tho.

I've seen a buncha very promising snippets from BunnaB recently. Thus, I'm very optimistic about her next album.

Every corny "U.K club mix" of a Rap song CJ Mackintosh hacked out in the late 80s/early 90s was worth suffering to get his remix of Whitney Houston's Queen of The Night. The lumpen original transformed into Diva House tremendo. That shit rivals K-Klass' remix of Bobby Brown's Two Can Play That Game in the canon of incredible U.K remixes of U.S pop singles.

Laughin' to the bank

Public Enemy - Can't Do Nuttin' For Ya, Man!
(From Fear Of A Black Planet album; 1990)

Keep yer ears peeled at 0:56 and 2:29. Unless anyone can think of any earlier examples then it's time Flava Flav is recognised & realised as the #actual pioneer of the Max B laugh on wax.

Pour out a little snakebite for L7's Jennifer Finch. L7 were basically four L.A Punk birds doing Motörhead, and so they were one of my favourite bands of the early 90s. No lie, their Bricks Are Heavy LP is as important to me as any of my favourite Rap albums from that era. L7 also had two truly great moments on British TV: their performance of Pretend We're Dead on The Word and Johnny Vaughan interviewing them on Naked City.

In The Trunk (part 2)

Trunk Boiz & Seiji Oda ft. Fijiana - Sky Scraper
(From Right Back In EP; 2026)

A video for one of my favourite cuts from the Trunk Boiz & Seiji Oda EP. I fuxwit this one because it sounds like a Trunk Boiz and Kreayshawn collaboration which should have happened in the early 2010s. And that's the thing: lots of my current favourite choonz sounds like a parallel universe of Rap which never happened but which really should have happened.

Kreayshawn's Gucci Gucci was a true “I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it!” song.

21 Years Later

Z-Ro - Mo City Don (Freestyle) (video)
(From Let The Truth Be Told album; 2005/YouTube; 2026)

It's never too late for a proper video to one of the greatest songs in Texas Rap history. A song with no actual chorus which is #actually one long chorus innit. Just press stop or rewind at the 4:30 mark because no discerning Rap connoisseur needs to be reminded of what comes next. True story: when I first copped the Let The Truth Be Told I was so stuck on this song I didn't even listen to the rest of the album until days later. And so here's a generic list post of 25 first songs on albums which were so good they had me in a headlock for days.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Foxy Lady (1967)
Isaac Hayes - Walk On By (1968)
Curtis Mayfield - (Don't worry) If There's A Hell Below.. (1970)
Baby Huey & The Babysitters - Listen To Me (2011)
Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak (1976)
The Damned - Neat Neat Neat (1977)
Ramones - I Just Wanna Have Something To Do (1978)
Michael Jackson - Don't Stop Til You Get Enough (1979)
Motörhead - Ace Of Spades (1980)
Prince - Let's Go Crazy (1984)
Run-D.M.C - Peter Piper (1986)
Beastie Boys - Rhymin' & Stealin (1986)
Eric B. & Rakim - Follow The Leader (1988)
Danzig - Twist Of Cain (1988)
N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton (1989)
Kool G. Rap & DJ Polo - Road To The Riches (1989)
Digital Underground - The Humpty Dance (1989)
Faith No More - From Out Of Nowhere (1989)
LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out (1990)
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991)
Soundgarden - Rusty Cage (1991)
The Diplomats - Un Kasa (2003)
Mac Dre - Feelin' Myself (2004)
Z-Ro - Mo City Don (Freestyle) (2005)
Young Bleed - Stamp On It (2011)

You can play this game with me if you want, but there's one rule: all first songs on albums which are preceeded by a skit or an intro are officially excluded.

Surf youts with attitude, kinda groovy

BabyChiefDoIt - Ghetto Love Story
(From R.A.M.B.O album; 2026)

Nowadays you have to look for that Charlie Rambo waviness in places other than Max B's music. What a pleasant surprise to find it in a song by a teenage Chicago Drill rapper which sounds it could be on a new So So Def Bass All-Stars compilation. In fact, this is the most So So Def Bass All-Stars soundin' track since Freak Like Me by Slimeroni. Anyhoo, I'd call Ghetto Love Story my Song of The Summer™, but England is experiencing another 30+ degree heatwave and I'm ready for autumn already.

AIight then

Ice Cube - Once Upon A Time In The Projects
(From AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted album; 1990/YouTube; 2026)

Examples of AI being aiight: when it's used to create videos for Ice Cube's greatest storytelling songs ever. Cube never shot the video for Once Upon A Time In The Projects himself, so some tech geek Rap fans got the computers 'putin. Damn, this is exactly what I picture in my mind's eye every time I listen to the song. Now do You Can't Fade Me next plz.

My Mind Spray 23

After EttelThun revisted Wu-Tang Forever, I decided to give it another listen meself. It's an album which keeps getting better with age. By 2099 it might be almost listenable beyond the 3 or 4 highlights.

The day Wu-Tang Forever dropped, me & My best m8 Sahin had a celebration listening party. About halfway through we gave up and put Liquid Swords and Only Built 4 Cuban Linx on instead.

In no particular order, ten 1997 Rap albums which body Wu-Tang Forever: Street Gospel by Suga Free; Uptown Saturday Night by Camp Lo; Stone Crazy by The Beatnuts; Solja Rags by Juvenile; The War Report by Capone-N-Noreaga; Welcome To Our World by Timbaland & Magoo; Life After Death by Biggie; Stackin' Chips by 3X Krazy; Sex Style by Kool Keith; Tru 2 Da Game by TRU.

Ten New York Rap songs from 1997 which body any song on Wu-Tang Forever: Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See by Busta Rhymes; Verbal Attack by Black Attack, Problemz & Al Tariq; Phone Tap by The Firm; Piece Of The Action by Godfather Don; Day One by D.I.T.C; Just Another Case by CRU; Universal Magnetic by Mos Def; Fortified Live by Reflection Eternal, Mos Def & Mr. Man; Feel So Good by Ma$e; It's All About The Benjamins (Remix) by Bad Boy Records & Lil' Kim.

Everybody eats, T

"What you been through? What you got to rap about?
Besides what your brodie did, and you the type to rat him out"

Mic Terror ft. Easy O'Hare - Rent Money
(From The Terror Files album; 2026)

Bloggin' ain't a game, Gawd! Call me Emma Radacanu because I don't play! Here's another fave cut from the new Mic Terror LP. That beat is like half Kamikaze, half Deliverance: a midwedternplayalisticcountryrapchoon. As for the werdz, Terror does Terror for the first verse and chorus before his pal Easy O'Hare slides in for the second verse. The LP ain't no fun if ur m8s can't get none, and it's been that way since El Shabazz.