Snow Tha Product >>>>>>>>>>> Dej Loaf

"I had to hit you with the ‘not now!’, with the ‘hold up!’
Even though you know I'm not down you like ‘so what?’
I'm looking at the bigger picture but you want a close up
What we had is in the past now you wanna show up?"

Snow Tha Product ft. Ty Dolla $ign - 1 Time
(From t'internet; 2014)


Show Tha Product's dreamy latest single then. You've got Ty Dolla $ign at his absolute sleaziest on some Robert Redford in Indecent Proposal type shit, but we can let him get away with it this once because 1 Time here ends on a cliffhanger with Ty still desperately begging Snow for a shag as she's probably laid up in the crib listening to the O.G version of Paranoid and laughing at Ty's penchant for fingerless leather Legion Of Doom gloves.

Most of Ty Dolla $ign's own music in 2014 has either been rubbish or ruined by unwanted guest verses by rappers, but we can let him get away with that too because he's also spent the past 12 months making his otherwise-awful Atlantic Records label mates like B.o.B, Lupe Fiasco, and now Snow Tha Product listenable with the legitimate 5/5 jams he's penned and produced for them. It's the small victories that are always the sweetest.

0_o

In the month when I've already given thumbs up to 2 separate Caskey tracks, and Snow Tha Product's latest single is likely to appear in my month-end list, the song ya boy is most embarrassed to co-sign is SD's Circles. The quasi-Keef ‘cerebral palsy phase’
flow SD uses here is a current bête noire of mine, but this beat is simultaneously beautiful and grotesque: Here Comes The Bride wedding day piano juxtaposed with the type of bass that makes a house haunted, the type of bass that bloggers get lost in, the type of bass you fear when you're dead in a coffin.

SD - Circles
(From Truly Blessed album; 2014)


Does SD scrutinize the many possible ripples of a concept like Circles with the precision of those iconic opening credits of a certain 1980's Richard Briers sitcom? He has a pretty good go at it, yes. Official Martorialist rating: 4 dreadlocked Lupe Fiasco's out of 5.

Reasons why I love YouTube: Ebenezer Schoollze edition

File this post under ‘rap videos I had no idea existed until 10 minutes ago.’

Young B.G Schoolly D accidentally knocking himself unconscious during his bungled robbery of a barbershop only to wake up in the land of nod outside a cinema screening of Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child where he's confronted by present-day 1989 Schoolly who then warns his younger self about the dangers of a life of crime like The Ghost Of Trifeness Yet To Come in the video for Livin' In The Jungle might be the absolute peak of conscious rap, especially since present-day 1989 Schoolly is dressed like he ganked his outfit from Paul Sorvino's wardrobe department on the Goodfellas set:

"I don't understand, my man
We need a plan
Why I gotta walk with a gun in my hand?
They're lookin' for a fight to excite or a rumble
Don't know why? 'Cause I'm livin' in the jungle"

Schoolly D - Livin' In The Jungle
(From Am I Black Enough For You? album; 1989)


Also file this under ‘rap videos which were cleared intended to look like they were directed by Spike Lee but kinda ended up looking like Joe Dante was behind them.’

Baefink

Just when I thought Fetty Wap's Trap Queen was the best Skooly-core song of 2014, along comes this recommendation via SpaceGhostPurrp Guy Maxwell. Invincible by Chicago's KO Tha God here even sounds like the sort of beat I wish Skooly actually could've/should've/would've sang his heart out over in 2014 with those Tampon commercial synths and that 808 Mafia type low-end.

KO The God - Invincible
(From the internet; 2014)


Speaking of Fetty Wap, who's the the bloke loungin' in the back of the car talking shit in the Trap Queen video? Dude got that Dr Dre in Limp Bizkit's Break Stuff video boss-level swag.

Lamont YoungBloodz

Cash Out ft. Snoop - Go Get That Dough
(From Kitchens & Choppas mixtape; 2014)


Go Get This Dough might be the first Cash Out song to tickle my fancy. Mainly because that beat makes Laffy Taffy sound like Get Low, and Snoop sounds like he's employing whoever ghostwrote his lyrics for Drop It Like It's Hot again. Alakazam, scram, go get me some lunch.

Generic list post: rappers lending their vocal talents to great non-rap singles this year edition

The past 12 months has been an unusually fruitful period for great singles by non-rap artists featuring the vocal services of rappers, huh? Here at The Martorialist our theory is that universe must have had to put some serious overtime into course-correcting itself after letting Schoolboy Q wreak havoc on Tinashe's 2 On. Hence we've been blessed with a heap of great non-rap singles featuring rappers this past 12 year as reparation, including a few tracks that date back as far as august 2013 but which didn't blow up until after 2 On dropped back in january 2014. Coincidence? Clearly not.

Here's the 12 best, most of which are already bonafide classics, and all of which are so good that they're able to make me temporarily forget that 2 On goes from its zenith of Tinashe's 2nd chorus to the abject horror of Schoolboy Q's verse in 2 seconds flat:

DEV ft. Sage The Gemini - Kiss It (2013)
Adrian Marcel ft. Sage The Gemini - 2 AM (2014)
DJ Snake ft. Lil' Jon - Turn Down For What (2013)
Katy Perry ft. Juicy J - Dark Horse (2013)
Body Count - Talk Shit, Get Shot (2014)
Jessie J ft. Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj - Bang Bang (2014)
T-Pain ft. B.o.B - Up Down (Do This All Day) (2013)
TeeFlii ft. 2 Chainz - 24 Hours (2014)
Fergie ft. YG - L.A Love (La La) remix (2014)
The Kid Ryan ft. Problem & Mr Smith - No Boundaries (2014)
Justin Bieber ft. Chance The Rapper - Confident (2013)
Wash ft. French Montana - Can't Trust Thots (2014)

Can trust FOTS

That's Friends Of The Show: peep this best of 2014 compilation from Hot Box which features the MP3s a couple of slept-on Martorialist favorites in Same Way by Uncle Murda & Keyz, and this masterpiece by Zaytoven's Sorority as performed live here in one of Atlanta's classiest bacchanals of the night:

CoCo Kiss, Robyn Fly & Ms. Go Ham - Side Piece
(From Zaytoven presents The Zaytown Sorority mixtape; 2014)


You other bloggers think you cute, you other bloggers think you fire, but you bloggers on the side like you got a flat tire. #TeamRobynFly got the game on lock like wednesday nights on Channel 5.

Rap songs that aren't on YouTube but really should be #1

Not entirely sure whether this eponymous Spoonie Gee track from his 1987 debut album has ever been uploaded to YouTube, or whether the intern Aaron Fuchs employs to Google unauthorized uploads of Impeach The President and Tuff City Records material simply had it removed for copyright infringement. Either way, Spoonie Gee here deserves to be streamable on the 'net in 2014 for 2 reasons: 1) it was the first rap song to use the Ohio Players' Pride And Vanity sample later made famous by Mary J. Blige & Grand Puba, and 2) it's the best moisture-moment slow jam Marley Marl ever produced.

"Now girls call me lover, sometimes the rhyme-sayer
I could be president, but I'll settle for Mayor
With money in my pocket, girls at my side
Sit back and relax while we cruise in my ride.."

Spoonie Gee - Spoonie Gee
(From The Godfather Of Rap album; 1987)


With a near-8 year wait between his debut single in 1979 and his debut album in 1987, Spoonie Gee pretty much pioneered Jay Electronica's whole career blueprint.