Archive for the ‘Billy Sunday @ XXL’ Category

SO LEGENDARY…

Friday, December 19th, 2008

black thought

I have seen the Roots perform one million times now. From Tramps, to Wetlands, to S.O.B.’s, to the Apollo Theater, to the top of the fucking world in musical entertainment, Radio City Music Hall and never have I been disappointed. If anything they never play long enough. I could swear they did a six hour set for the Spitkicker concert series at Roseland Ballroom. About ten thousand rappers came onstage that night and spit they shit. Black Thought held all them dudes down too.

How can you fuck with a man who has every single rapper’s catalog in his head? There is some obscure underground emcee from Seattle, Washington who put out a white label joint in 1996 during the backpack rap heyday and the only other person who knows that LP line for line is Black Thought. Plus, just take a second and step back and ask yourself who has the most hardbody emcee name. Seriously think about that. If you had a super-power would you want to be the Hulk, or Professor X? That is who Black Thought is in this rap shit. He is the Charles Xavier to all these other Toad ass ninjas.

black thought

Alright so here’s how it went down. I came home from Wednesday night’s activities and uploaded the video footage from Niketown as well as Pete from Premium Laces birthday party. I got an e-mail from the homey at Okayplayer asking me if I had RSVP’d already to the holiday party. I hadn’t because I didn’t think I was going to go. The Okayplayer holiday party was sandwiched in between two nights of NYC madness. Later tonight is the Block Royal holiday party at their studios and then the Knitting Factory will host their final Hip-Hop show before shuttering their doors for good. This will be a classic evening.

I knew that if I fucked with this Okayplayer joint then I had to holler at my man fifty grand RUFFIAN. Ever since homey and I politicked a few years ago I have been fuxing with dude. Homey is from Chi-Town and he is a real nigga out in these entertainment industry streets. I made a 2009 resolution tonight to get more h8ters with RUFFIAN. Fam is that real (no Rosenthal). RUFFIAN hit me on the hip that he had the Brook’nam obama for us to get our weight up pre-game style before going in to see the Roots tear shit up.

black thought

MISSBEHAVE mag had a hipster bar onsmash in Williamsburg with the crazy special rum and Coke (no Dwight Gooden’s white pudding). As is my custom I was using both my hands to ferry drinks from the bar to where we were posted up. Another part of the ‘Go In’ Brothers crew was up in that piece. CHAD MILLER is the man and he only knows ladies in between the ages of 22 and 24 yrs old. As soon as you turn 25 he deletes your telephone number from his Blackberry. Did I tell you that JEN HODO was rolling with us too? Yeah, we were getting twisted up lovely on MISSBEHAVE’s dime. Pre-gaming is essential if your main party is having a cash bar. BTW, I also hit up the liquor store beforehand for two(2) 50ml bottles of Hennessy to smuggle into the club.

But this drop is not about me smuggling liquor into the club or getting my mind rizzight on some of that W.B. Last night was about enjoying the legendary Roots crew featuring Black Thought, single-handedly the number one emcee on the planet. There is no one out there putting in as much work as Black Thought night in night out for over the last decade. No one. I have to say that some rappers are lucky they are deceased because they would get murdered on the microphone by Black Thought. Bilal also murdered the microphone. If you put Bilal and Black Thought on a track with auto-tune the game would be over. After watching Bilal and Black Thought tonight I hate every fucking song on my 500GB external hard drive.

So classic, so timeless, so legendary.

black thought

The Rise Of The Red-Shirted Freshmen…

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

donny goines

The X-spot is going hard with their story about the Freshmen 10 of 2008. I ain’t even gonna lie when I tell you that 10 motherfuckers trying to come up at once is too much. Some of the dudes that read this might feel some kind of way like Tupac stans always catch feelings but the truth is that the music industry in regards to rap dudes just can’t support 10 new stars. The machinery, and more importantly the fanbase needs to allow some of these acts some more time to get their artistic weight up.

To use a sports metaphor, some of these rappers need to be red-shirted. I say this because there are some artists whose gifts are wasted in this climate of now-now-yesterday. It forces artists to churn out work to fast and it also makes their work less valuable in the eyes of consumers. Why should I listen to some rapper’s latest track if he is gonna do another one next week, or even tomorrow? I’m not tryinf to be the dude that holds people back from their dreams in as much as I want dudes to realize their potential.

It’s hard to tell people to let their shit marinate because tomorrow is granted to none of us. At the same time if we don’t plan for tomorrow we won’t be prepared when that new day comes, and trust me, the new day is coming. I created this drop with a few particular artists in mind. These dudes are on the cusp of something special for themselves and I think they all will present something unique to rap and hip-hop culture. They aren’t part of the XXL 2008 freshmen 10 but I think you will hear from them hardbody in 2009.

Donny Goines – Right now, Donny Goines might be the hardest working dude in rap music. He has leveraged his persistence on the internets with a debut album. This is no small achievement since the majority of the freshmen 10 are loaded with mixtape credibility but without completed albums. The CD is called ‘Minute After Midnight‘ and it features production from some reliable beatmakers as well as up and coming producers (who hopefully won’t become rappers). My favorite track on the album is called ‘I Am Moving’ and it was produced by Dame Grease.

Another cat I fuck with who is connected with Donny Goines is Panama a.k.a. The Spanish Kid. He was formerly on ‘The Wire’ as the dude who used to wear Bubbles ass out [ll]. In a few years Panama will be one of the “Raptors” that we all talk about. The good thing is that he respects the craft of rhyming and he wants to be viewed as an official MC. He also has the work ethic that will take him far. These dudes didn’t make the cover of XXL’s 2008 freshmen 10, but just like a blue chip prospect in college football they are getting red-shirted so that their career will be even longer.

Deconstructing The Myth…

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

pac

Thuggin’ bubbles makes the kids go crazy…

I was all ready to go in deep to deconstruct the myth of Tupac being in the Top 10 list of rappers of all time and I just realized that he may not even make the Top 50 list. Calling Tupac the G.O.A.T. is like calling Lil’ Wayne the “best rapper alive”. The only way either of these scenarios is possible is if you remove every other rapper from existence.

I originally was going to compare Tupac’s lyrics against these other rapper’s best songs…

Rakim
NaS
Jay-Z
Ice Cube
B.I.G.
LL
Kool G Rap
Common
Big Pun
Andre 3K
Big L
KRS-1

Then I realized that I had left off so many other rappers who deserve to get placed in that control group.

Redman
Scarface
Ghostface
Raekwon
E-40
Treach
Black Thought
GZA
Method Man
Mos Def
Talib Kweli

And then I realized that there are these rappers who will come to surpass Tupac in lyrical quality like…

Joell Ortiz
Joe Buddens
Royce da’ 5-9
Crooked I
Game
Saigon
Fabolous

And then I thought about how eazy it was to make a list…

Young Jeezy
Kanyeezy
Lil’ Weezy
Lil’ Eazy
Febreze

Okay, maybe I’m wrong on that one. Tupac might could rap better than Febreze.

SEPARATED AT BIRTH: BustAlbert…

Saturday, December 13th, 2008

bustalbert

This is what happens when you get off that HGH.

EMBRY from Australia stays on that good white boy weed when he sends us his latest and greatest S.A.B.’s.

Let him know if he got this one…

DP = iLose 2win

Friday, December 12th, 2008

comye

You couldn’t tell me nothing last night at the Marc Ecko holiday party. Free Ketel-1 from heavy handed barkeeps and some of the coolest MF’s evar. All my folks was in effect, especially my laaaaaaaaydeeeeeez.

ANNA is the truth, but JEN is that ride or die Chi chick. She might be from the Chi, but she ain’t no way shy. Peace to CARL, HOBBS and J ‘Che Guerilla’. A lot of up and coming cats was stuntin’ hard too. I’m excited for this city in 2009. There is so much energy and creativity. Plus beauty. Creative types always need their muses.

I blew out of the Ecko joint while the drinks were still pouring because I had to get to this secret Common concert on the Lower East Side.

The spot was this re-purposed church. I went to a Hennessy art show there a few years ago and met this painter chick who hated my politics when I told her that KEVIN POWELL was a two-bit shoeshine hustler. There are now three people that Black women look up to like some fucking holy trinity. BARACK, OPRAH and KEVIN fucking POWELL. That nigga is having a party tonight in the city and I will guarantee you that it is filled with the baddest Black broads that could squeeze their feet into a pair of high heels.

Anyhoo, last night. I caught a few Common songs and the what not but I flew the coup before KanYe came out and did whatever he did. The day job is the gift and the curse. I could never pay the mortgage and the maintenance of my co-operative apartment with my internets lifestyle. I have to remind myself of this when I am sitting in a 9:30am jobsite meeting.