Generic list post: march 2015

Obligatory round-up post of the songs I've listened to most during the month when nobody of note in the rap trade died, making it a welcome change from the last 3 months where Larry Smith passed away in december, Yams overdosed in january, and Jacka was murdered in february.

3 Deep - Say What I Wanna Say (2008)
5th Ward Weebie ft. Snoop & Juvenile - Let Me Find Out Pt 2 (2014)
Mr.2-17 - Strong Arm Flexin' (2014)
Meek Mill - Monster (2015)
The Purist ft. Roc Marciano - Patina (2015)
Rich Homie Quan - Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh) (2015)
Young Thug - Halftime (2015)
Tha Dogg Pound ft. Kokane & Snoop - Skip Skip (2015)
Foxx - Real N*gga (2015)
Lil' Bibby & Lil' Herb - Ain't Heard Bout You (Kill Shit Pt.2) (2015)
Jidenna ft. Roman GianArthur - Classic Man (2015)
DonMonique - Pilates (Kendall, Kylie, Miley) (2015)
T-Pain ft. The Dream & Vantrease - Let Your Hair Down (2015)
Vybz Kartel - Time (2015)
Disasterpeace - It Follows (Title) (2015)

I'm a big fan of Game's most shameless latter-day industrial output but Ambitionz Of A Rida with Dej Loaf has yet to find its way into my steady rotation, even though Dana Dej doesn't sound like Tink Got Gunz on it. Not listened to the Kendrick Lamar LP because it seems the sort of album noted rock canon expert Questlove would describe as sounding like the rap equivalent of Johnny Clash's At London Prison.

Rap songs that aren't on YouTube but really should be # 6

The year is 1989 and denial is not just a river in Egypt but how rap's O.G King Of New York Melle Mel is livin'. By night the fallen Frank White is now hittin' the crack pipe like Jimmy White; by day he shoots anti-crack TV commercials for WNBC with his What's The Matter With The World collaborator Van Silk and hits the studio to record songs like White Lines '89 and Drug Wars for his Piano LP.

Drug Wars isn't Piano's highlight (that'd be Free Style which saw Melvin blackin' the fuck out and Izz-izzing words on wax before E-40 or Snoop even touched down proper) but it still badly needs to be streamable somewhere online for the chil'ren. Rumoured to be ghost-produced by the album's in-house DJ Kid Capri, its beat is a lo-fi precursor to Know The Ledge, and the song itself is a lowkey missing link between Night Of The Living Baseheads and Slow Down in the pantheon of golden-era songs about how crack decimated New York's poorest neighbourhoods. Basically, it's prime street-level rap noir from a man slap bang in the middle of N.Y.C's crack epidemic and a final grand huzzah from rap's first Grandmaster.

Grandmaster Melle Mel - Drug Wars
(From Piano album; 1989)

Got Kinga, got Saskia, got Maxwell

Painful as this is to admit, there are now two legitimate joints to have (sorta) emerged from the Fadercore cesspit of Awful Records. The first is Lil' Wayne's freestyle over O.G Maco's U Guessed It, which is best experienced by pretending its a Weezy original over another one of those primitive Soulja Boy beats a la Wowzers. The second is this Pilates (Kendall, Kylie, Miley) song by some Brooklyn bird called DonMonique, with the video that was shot at an Awful Records party in N.Y full of teenagers with pierced noses.

DonMonique - Pilates (Kendall, Kylie, Miley)
(From YouTube; 2015)


It'll probably transpire that DonMonique is the pet project of the Pitchfork Reviews Reviews Tumblr guy or some equally toxic New York media incubus (no Das Racist's manager), nonetheless this song slaps in much the same barely-there way that Pussy by Lady slapped, and if the stench of New York industry nepotism around it becomes overwhelming then you can easily Fabreeze that shit by just pretending it's a New Era comeback record instead.

Big Bamboos >> nose rings.

A When Boosie Was Gone TRILL ENT compilation 4 u

Don't thank me, thank my blogga there Hot Box who zipped that When Boosie Was Gone generic list post of mine up into a compilation. If you missed the post, its premise was songs by TRILL ENT artists which were released when Boosie was doing porridge, which basically translate to a shitload of jams by Webbie, Foxx, Mouse On Tha Track, Lil' Phat, and Lil' Trill & Shell. Sod the British Bulldog & Owen Hart, the Martorialist & Hot Box is the greatest Anglo-Canadian union since that British golden retriever starred alongside Corey Haim in Watchers.

~~~> DOWNLOAD THAT SHIT HERE <~~~

Martorial elegance: Team Bacon Bra edition

Things done changed - rap went from Mr Magic to Mr Serv-On to Mr Me Too to Mr Porter. Gonna need a fan made video of this set to pix of those ponces from Pitti for it to truly become the viral anthem it's 'pposed to be.

"I'm a Classic Man
You can be mean when you look this clean
I'm a Classic Man
Callin' on me like a young O.G
I'm a Classic Man
Your needs gettin' met by the street elegant ol' fashioned man
Yeah baby, I'm a Classic Man"

Jidenna ft. Roman GianArthur - Classic Man
(From Classic Man single; 2015)


Hilariously apt how this video resembles the latest Jacamo advert. Things really have done changed.

Generic list post: When Boosie Was Gone edition

Apropos of that new Boosie song here's a list of legitimate jams by other TRILL ENT artists which were released during the years when Boosie was in the bing. Pimp C made it a hot line, Mel & Turk made it a hot label to launder their drug money by poaching Concentration Camp's hottest artist when C-Loc got locked up, then the rest of the TRILL roster made hot music to compensate for their marquee artist being in prison even if Mel & Turk stuffed up by not releasing a lot of it for retail and letting Mouse On Tha Track out of his contract.

Webbie - My People (2010)
Webbie & Lil' Phat ft. Birdman - Do It Bigger (2010)
Mouse On Tha Track ft. TRILL Fam - Turn The Beat Up (2010)
Foxx - Get On (2011)
Foxx - Gold Mouth Dawg (2011)
Foxx - Stressed Out (2010)
Mouse On Tha Track - Swagger Fresh Freddie (2011)
Mouse On Tha Track ft. Young Ready - Alligator Hummingbird (2011)
Mouse On Tha Track - Money And Stuntin' (2011)
Webbie - Crazy (2011)
Webbie ft. Lil' Phat - What's Happenin' (2011)
Webbie - Keep Ya Head Up (2011)
Lil' Phat ft. Mannie Fresh - Talk Some Mo' Shit (2011)
Lil' Phat - Countin' Money (2012)
Foxx - Rich N*gga (2012)
Foxx ft. $hizz - 3rd Person (2012)
Mouse On Tha Track - Hand Rub (2012)
Mouse On Tha Track - Like Ya Momma Showed Ya (2012)
Mouse On Tha Track - Raise A Finger (2012)
Foxx - Shut Up (2012)
Foxx - Put Yo' Pussy On The Phone (2012)
Foxx - I Wonder (2012)
Lil' Trill & Shell - Futuristic Lingo (2012)
Mouse On Tha Track - Bye Bitch (2013)
Mouse On Tha Track ft. Kevin Gates - Don't Make Em Like Me (2013)
Mouse On Tha Track ft. Level - Get It Back (2013)
Foxx - Ride (2013)

Bonus Beats: Top 3 songs from TRILL artists' collaboration mixtapes with non-TRILL artists.

$hizz & Foxx - Send Ya Hit Man (2012)
Box & Swagga Fresh Freddie - Get It Out The Mud (2011)
Killa Kyleon & Mouse On Tha Track - Carmelo (2012)

Atlanta reclaims Dabbin' from stoner bores

No, really.

Did think the recent Swag-Rap renaissance might have hit the skids after founding father of Swag-Rap J.Money's latest mixtape sounded like an exercise in pinning the tail on every generic Atlanta trap rapper from the past 3 years. Then YouTube recommended me this new single by the guy behind This And That and it was like Fast Life Yungstaz were reborn for 2015, but with less Ralph Lauren and more edumacational lyrics:

"I've been workin' like Harriet Tubman
Nappy headed just like Frederick Douglass
But I'm swagged like a house slave
In the shade drinkin' lemonade"

Mr.2-17 - #Dabbin'
(From YouTube; 2015)



Definitely the best video YouTube has recommended me so far this week. The worst? This:

I accidentally kilt British Lil' Chris and you know this

Lil' Chris - Checkin' It Out
(From whatever his album was called; 2006)


Think about it, yo - exactly a week to the day after I put together a best of Lil' Chris compilation his namesake former Rock School contestant Lil' Chris is announced dead. Nowt personal, mate, but it's best you've gone back the essence because you kept making it difficult to search for Chicago Lil' Chris on YouTube, Spotify, and the Amazon MP3 store.

Bonus Dead Perez Gossip: first the Fat Boys break up, then Chippy Nonstop gets deported, now tuneless Noisey/Fader/his aspiring videographer manager's puppet Yung Gleesh has been arrested for raping someone at SXSW. Destiny is picking off the careers of any rapper ever associated with The Wavery like they're them unfortunate kids in the Final Destination movies.