I fully admit to running with a crew of country fans, pop sluts, indie rockers, and WGCI slaves. So it’s no surprise to me that I haven’t heard much buzz about Fashawn in real life scenarios. All my dialogues about the dude have occurred either on the internet, or via text with extremely hip out of towners still checking for rap and tripping the light fantastic.
Fashawn out of Fresno started popping up with a track called Memory Lane, and I took pause to think about it before actually listening. I didn’t really consider the possibility that it could be a Nas cover, figuring it to be a tribute or a reference or something like that. But, sure enough, he raps over Memory Lane. Check it out:
You really can’t be mad at it. He does the beat justice and it’s solid. However, Memory Lane is one of my favorite Illmatic tracks, and therefore one of my favorite Nas songs by default, and I suppose one of my favorite rap songs by another degree of default. I realize nothing is sacred at this point, but is this blasphemy of the highest kind? Probably not. I think there were a lot of ways to bludgeon the memory of Memory Lane with a horrid cover version, and this wasn’t that. So assuming you’re not already anti-Fashawn on every level, let’s cruise through some of his youtube catalog on this sunny ass Friday.
I’m hung over.
Exile did great things for Blu, and as such I haven’t really dug most of Blu’s stuff that isn’t from Below The Heavens. (I remember the first time I listened to that album, let me share. Me and Trav had heard the name Blu for weeks, and we got into a conversation about it and realized that neither of us had actually listened to the songs. So we pull up Soul Amazin’ and actually let it ride all the way through (this is a rare thing for 3rd floor youtube sessions). Then we listened to the rest of the songs. It was a good day.) Exile produced Fashawn’s debut in it’s entirety, and his jilted, eerie production works wonders for up and comers. Peep game:
I like that the production is somewhat hard to follow at first. Planet Asia is on this song as well and he sounds great for a guy in his seventies. Not really party music, and that’s okay by me; I’m an anticon fan.
There’s one that’s more reminiscent of Exile’s production on Below The Heavens, with a guest spot from Aloe Blacc for my father who is a fan after 5 weeks of How To Make It In America. Go figure. I’m pretty much done. Check for Fashawn now, and in the future. I predict big things.
Now don’t get me wrong, a lot of my favorite rappers are whites, or at the very least high yellows. I understand the cultural significance of Caucasians in da gayme, and I’m not here to cast judgement upon mic-wielding pasteoids. This post isn’t about these guys
It’s also not about this guy, although he deserves a post at some point in the near future
(This photo was ripped from a website called the brooklyn vegan, which isn’t hard to believe at all.)
No, this post is about the dangerous side effect of taking this indie rap thing to MTV, the bedroom cover artists. Inspired fully by a thread on philaflava.com, I was unaware of this shit until earlier today. What do emotional, effeminate, crackers do when they connect emotionally with an emotionally emotional Aesop Rock song? Well despite the obvious answer (weep openly) they will try to make the song their own. It’s a common phenomenon. High schoolers will pin a hundred band badges on their backpacks, transcribe the lyrics to their favorite Fallout Boy song in their notebooks, and sing loudly when they blast terrible music in their parents’ cars. Unfortunately for you and I, they’re now covering rap songs in the most incredibly absurd way possible. BEHOLD AND TURN THE VOLUME DOWN BEFORE DOING SO:
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. This is actually one of the best ones I’ve seen, due to the fact that this kid seems to be playing all his own instruments and doing the mixdown himself. Still, I’ve never understood a format of music where you absolutely must scream at all times, especially when it’s a cover of a song that is generally pleasant and well liked. Moving on:
This kid looks like he tripped and fell in a tackle box. Part of enjoying great music (or shitty music) for me has always been admiration. Like, you admire a song or musician enough to never attempt to do what they do ever. This is apparently lost on the youngstaz, because their way of expressing their love of music is to corrupt it in every way possible. This clueless young student actually covers the shit at the beginning of songs when you get a promo copy of an album. Listen to the first 30 seconds and then try to erase this from your memory.
Here’s a guaranteed party starter, Time Out of Joint by El-P. It’s an incredibly awkward song about a break up. THROW YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR AND WAVE THEM LIKE YOU’RE NOT SURE IF YOUR GIRLFRIEND LOVES YOU OR IS IN LOVE WITH YOU
What is going on in the world? Usually when you’re so deep into the darkest recesses of YouTube, something amazing will come out of it. One shining exception to the rule of everything is terrible. Unfortunately, as hard as I tried, I couldn’t find one, so here’s Twista doing a song on a mixtape over a beat Jay Electronica used first.
And before you go out and get dumbshit Irish this weekend, remember to say erin go bragh every so often to remind yourself that this holiday is really about a nation of drunken smelly euros that even the British can’t stand to be around.
So we missed Miley Monday, and it wasn’t because we weren’t thinking about Miley Cyrus, because we were. We were thinking about her a lot. No, we were just tired from a large dinner of meat the night before. We’re just now recovering actually. So alas, we have nothing new and exciting to put you on this week. We also don’t have a snarky post about drug rap for you this Friday.
However, we’re pretty nostalgic people, and we got to talking about how much we miss things. We didn’t talk about rap music specifically, but it really all comes back to hip hop when you think about it. This is usually the point in time where we bring up old songs and then talk about them. First we have to give you a frame of reference. This is what happens when you allow Canadians to make rap music:
So I got to thinking about the stuff that got me interested in this masturbatory genre in the first place. The music I came up on, so to speak. I’m not talking about Outkast albums or Wu-Tang, or The Chronic, or any of that shit. If I thought that people wanted me to link extremely popular songs off of multiplatinum rap albums from the nineties I’d be really sad.
I guess what I’m talking about are songs that I felt some kind of connection to. This usually happened via proximity, since hip hop fans of my particular age bracket used to be very proud of the local scene. There was real value in traveling back in the mid nineties, because you would be exposed to things that you wouldn’t necessarily hear in your city and in turn expose people to what your scene sounded like. We had our radio shows, and they played stuff from all over, and we all got stretch & bobbito tapes, so it wasn’t exactly the stone age, but you know what I mean. One of the songs I would always play for people who were from out of town was this one by Mass Hysteria
Lyricism, yo. Props to MC HawkOne for upping a lot of these tracks. Following that logic, the next track I thought of was This Is How We Chill by Rhymefest and MC Juice. Rhymefest you know from Brand New, and being the guy who won Kanye a Grammy. He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. He keeps taking shots with his albums, and I always buy them, but he hasn’t really hit mainstream yet. Still, he’s one of the my favorite MCs ever.
This is how we chill, so deal with it. As far as classics go, you can’t really fuck with this shit right here. It’s Okay by All Natural. One of those positive message songs you’ve always heard about but never actually witnessed. Capital D is one of my favorite people in rap because he never really came at anyone in a negative way. That is, he had other shit to talk about, I guess. Whatever the reason, this song is a classic for lots of reasons.
I’m covering a lot of ground here pretty quickly, so before I forget, lets listen to a little Vakill, shall we? This dude is crazy with the words. Like, there’s a lot of them in his songs. I have no idea how he memorizes all this shit. He’s notoriously sick with his freestyles, but that’s a concept that has been dead for about ten years now so lets not even worry about it. Safe to say he’s good at it and you shouldn’t try to battle him in case you were thinking about doing so.
More new school than the previous MCs, Qwel is easily top 5 all time from Chicago. I got called on this a couple years ago and I justified it somehow but I forget. This list didn’t contain Juice or Common, and it was wildly controversial, trust me. this song is about weed:
He also made a classic song about graffiti, called the manhattan project. Typical Cats is a great idea, but Denizen Kane’s presence on songs ruins fun. I just can’t take it. Qwel and Qwaazar are incredible rappers though.
Qwaazar is a beast. This is from Outerlimitz which is him and Hellsent, and this shit took me forever to find on youtube, for some reason. It might have something to do with it only having two views ever. This song is called Answers, and it’s amazing. I am nodding my head at this very moment. It’s true.
Hopefully I’ve played at least one thing you’ve never heard. Probably not, unless you’re some kind of out of towner. Moving away from Chicago for a minute, here’s a track that Why and Odd Nosdam put out that I always loved, own on vinyl, and forget about from time to time. Thanks to Employee at Intrepid Colorwayz for reminding me about Black Light District. His entire blog is hilarious and should be bookmarked.
This shit came out in the midst of the Anticon frenzy that gripped the early part of this century and was the answer along with Dose One’s Hemispheres album, to the question “If these cats can rap why don’t they ever do it?” IN YOUR FACE. Speaking of Hemispheres, this is one of my favorite tracks off that album, As For Bias
There are method to the madnesses. This is a group I used to be into a lot, K-Otix. I think they were from Texas? It doesn’t matter. Their beats hit and they rap really really good. I used to be into shit like this in a major way. Whether or not people are still doing this kind of rap is irrelevant, because on some level I don’t really care any more. I’ve learned to appreciate all rap for what it is and it’s a lot easier to find stuff for your headphones if you have that kind of attitude. K-Otix had two songs that I really like, they’re both below these words you’re currently reading.
Questions was really my favorite of the two. Youtube is really amazing. If I had to sit here and dig this shit out of my tape collection or rip it off wax I just wouldn’t. I could do this all day but I won’t. Maybe another time. Last track I’ll burden your attention span with is by this dude DV Alias Khrist. I know, I know. I don’t care. This track is really what Cee-Lo is all about. Enjoy it.
Wow. So I know what you’re thinking. We go from Clipse worship to this? Well let me explain. Yes, this is still Coke Rap Friday, where we talk about rap music that talks about selling drugs. However, this Friday is all about using drugs. This kid is on drugs, right?
Grieves is Rhymesayers’ newest act. He’s on a label with Freeway. I would really like to be a fly on the wall when those two meet each other.
Can he rap? I’m not sure.
Still not sure. He’s got a song with MISTER LIF. I can no longer explain this genre of music that I loved so dearly in the nineties. I highly suggest you listen to this song, it’s got a stupid ass vocal sample but the beat is pretty cool, and Lif murders this shit.
I mean, I guess the kid can spit. (Is that what the kids are saying now, spit?) It’s a little contrived, but it’s weepy, sentimental, and largely based around the concept that Grieves is talking to a girl in his songs. So it’s not hard to see why Slug would have signed him. Zing!
This next clip is a live performance from the Knitting Factory, and is a perfect example of why I don’t attend rap shows any more. At least rap shows in small venues where white people are the core audience. You’re standing on stage in a small t-shirt singing emotional songs with complicated lyrics over a shitty PA and you expect us to what, throw our hands in the air like we are no longer concerned? If you’re going to do weird things on stage and sing complicated songs about emotional things I only ask that you be Dose One.
The next rap show I go to, the first thing I want to hear after the curtain comes up is
TOP DOWN, CHROME SPINNIN
And then I want to be stabbed and mocked for being stabbed.
Tony Yayo put out a new “album”, and he’s the perfect candidate for this weekly installment. Remember G-Unit?
Nah, not the button you press when you need to get buzzed into my apartment. That’s Unit G. You know, 50 cent and those guys. Tony Yayo seems to have come out of that whole clusterfuck unscathed. Lower budget rap is sometimes a good thing. He still raps like he’s heavily sedated, but I’m not mad at it. This is what his bullets whistle like:
I’m always down for shit like this. It might not get a lot of replays, but once you get the idea it’s pretty much a sold concept. We don’t like to give away music on this blog because we’re in this for the fame and we want to be taken seriously by people like Tony Yayo, however since steadybloggin’ did it already we’re going to recycle their link and pretend it’s on accident. Go here
You know what I hate? Subgenres. You can’t just say you listen to rap any more, you have to say which rap, like it matters.
I like the one where they talk about guns and drugs and stuff.
Word, me too.
It takes a certain kind of personality to sell the premise of coke rap. If you think about it, who has done it best over the years? Raekwon? He eats a lot. Here he is stocking up on breakfast foods with one of his best customers.
But why do you have to be obsessed with Scarface to rap about selling drugs? Do you think successful coke dealers sit around watching movies all day? No way. During the day they’re asleep because they’re up all night selling coke, dude. That and they’re throwing people out of airplanes at every available opportunity.
Yo fuck that. Criminology rap.
Then we have Jay. Does anyone out there believe for a second that this dude sold cocaine to anyone, at any time, any where? I just don’t.
Jay Z might have sold some crack rocks, but Sean Carter-Knowles?
Instead of linking some newjack bullshit song with Alicia Keys, or Beyonce, or whatever, here’s Crew Love which I have a story about
So this one time my buddy Tyler had a party at his parents’ house. This had to have been 1999. Me and another friend of mine who we’ll call Richard were with my girlfriend at the time and her best friend. For whatever reason they didn’t want to go to the keg party. Me and Rich had some acid so we ate it. We ate the shit out of it. And we walk directly into the party.
We were just mingling, grabbing beers, whatever. When the acid finally kicked in we had kinda forgot about it. All of a sudden there were evil forces all around us; people who could not be trusted, and more importantly were very hard for us to understand. We dubbed them Illheads. (you stress the ill, it’s not like some wigger trying to compliment a group of individuals. Think: pillheads then drop the P) Tyler’s house had 3 floors and the keg was in the basement. Being temporarily done with the whole beer thing, me and Richard went all the way up to the third floor where we had some turntables and speakers set up. There were couches, Bob Marley posters, the whole nine. It was a great place to smoke weed when we were 17.
Temporarily safe from the illheads, we started to let people into the safe haven of the third floor. Our friends and associates were slowly gaining the acid’s trust back. So we felt it necessary to put on some music. Since it was 1999 we were very into Belly, and Tyler had the sound track. Rich and I always like Crew Love, but that night we were so FUCKING INTO IT. Particularly the opening lines.
Yo Yeah I smoke weed now I don’t give a fuck/
And I also tote guns in case my dram pop up/
That’s it. Go hit play on the video I linked, then when it reaches 8 seconds, start it over. Now do it again. Do it 189 more times and that was our evening. To tell you the truth we weren’t even that big on the second line, it’s mainly the first. People would come into the room, sit down, we’d start Crew Love up, and they’d go “Hell yeah I love this song.” and just when they started to get into it we’d start it over. And we were as excited about it the 191st time as we were the first. Most people would walk out of the room after 30 seconds or so. Drunk people wouldn’t get it. Some of our stoner friends though, hung out for the duration. They honestly wanted to see if there would be some point where we wouldn’t be entertained by the opening bar of Crew Love. There wasn’t. That point arrived artificially at 3:40 am when Tyler made us go home.
Moving on-
Da Kingz of Da Coke Rappaz
Too bad your album kinda like sucks ass. ‘Til The Casket Drops is a step back. Some good tracks on it but overall it’s pretty shallow and pedantic. Kanye is nice. And since you’ve hung out this long I’ll treat you to a golden era Kanye mixtape you may or may not enjoy. Props to the people at steadybloggin’ for this link.
Kanye West – Lunch Room Freestyles (2002-2003)
01 Kanye West – Rocafella (intro)
02 Kanye West – A Million freestyle
03 Kanye West – Stand Up freestyle
04 Kanye West – The Truth freestyle
05 Kanye West – React freestyle ft Consequence
06 Kanye West – Girls, Girls, Girls rmx freestyle
07 Kanye West – Love You Better freestyle
08 Kanye West – Electric Relaxation dub ft Consequence
09 Kanye West – Def Poetry Jam
10 Kanye West – Nowhere to Go freestyle
11 Kanye West – Gimmie the Light freestyle
12 Kanye West – Came Back For You freestyle
13 Kanye West – Live freestyle ft Black Star
14 Kanye West – Bonnie & Clyde freestyle
15 Kanye West – ‘03 til Infinity dub ft Consequence
16 Kanye West – Out the Game freestyle
17 Kanye West – Kanye V Common ‘96 freestyle battle
Brandon and Julie
Brendan
ideatoopportunity
Jules
The Brandon and Julie Show 