Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 continues the real Hip-Hop takeover takeback of NYC.
Last nite the Wu show came to the legendary Sounds of Brazil in SoHo.
Just wait until Raekwon goes the Roots Jam Session @ the Highline Ballroom.
My stannery will finds it zenith.
Believe it. I seen it.
Raekwon featuring Inspectah Deck, Masta Killa – ‘Kiss The Ring’
If Hip-Hop had a victory lap then I took that joint yesterday. I finished my day job in Manhattan and then met up with Chocolate Snowflake at the Whole Foods in Chelsea. Tuesday night used to be our ‘date night’ where we would go to a movie for free thanks to her Optimum Rewards card while we smuggled food into the theatre. I had to break our date though in order to put myself in position to be part of rap music history. Raekwon’s album release party at Santos Party House was the most talked about event I can remember in a while. The vibe at the EMI rooftop listening session was so dope that you knew everybody that didn’t make the cut wanted a taste of this concert.
The scene was something that reminded me of the Tunnel in its heyday. The energy I meant to say. Back when rappers used to hang out to show love and just chill hard. And when the groupies and rap fans came out in Full Force. Speaking of Full Force, Kangol Kid was in the building too. It’s impossible to put into words what I felt being at this show and I write down my feelings as if my life depended on it. The show wasn’t just Raekwon. It wasn’t just Raekwon and Ghost either. It was Raekwon, Ghost and Cappadonna. It was the rawest elements of the Purple Tape, on stage, on the microphone. In a phrase, it was Hip-Hop.
more pix @ VillageSlum
From the Only Built For Cuban Linx show(I call the new album ‘The Deuce’ in homage to the karate movies I used to watch on 42nd Street when I was a teenager) I still had a tank full of Hip-Hop energy I needed to burn off. I checked my watch and it was just the right time that the Roots would be putting their spaceship into the upper atmosphere so I motivated over to the Highline Ballroom to take flight with the most legendary hard working. Shouts to ShamzOKP for making sure I get on the spaceship before takeoff.
The Roots change genres in the Jam Session like a street hustler switches white tees. The music went from rock to rap to jazz to reggae to almost house and then to gospel before coming back into the roots of the Roots. There is no band that can navigate any genre of music like the Roots. It isn’t simply Quest on the drums or Black Thought on the microphone. The entire band is a collection of vertiable virtuosos who band and flex but never break. Actually they do breakbeats. O-Ski Love on the bass is becoming my favorite player of recently. He is one funky white. Study the bassline on this joint. Sonn is nice with his.
The Roots featuring Chrissette Michelle and Wale – ‘Rising Up’
The thing I love about the Roots shows at the Highline Ballroom is that they have featured up and coming musical talent to complement their outstanding musicianship. Keep an eye and an ear out for DANA J. HAWKINS. Dude is affectionately called the son of ?uestlove but during this Jam Session he picked up the bassline and spelled O-Ski Love for a few. From Raekwon to the Roots crew the beat doesn’t stop. Hip-Hop is growing older and wiser and still teaching the truth to the young Black youth. The white youth too. But y’all already knew that.
Sean Price is the Hank McCoy of the rap game.
Sonn is a beast.
The Kimbo Price mixtape will roll out on the streets after DuckDown Records releases the ‘Survival Skills’ LP featuring Buckshot and KRS-1. I’m hype for y’all to hear this joint. For those of y’all that fux with hard beats and even harder rhymes Kimbo Price is gonna be the antidote to the skinny jeans emo rap that plays all day every day on your radios.
The Kimbo Price mixtape is the precursor to the next Sean Price album ‘Mic Tyson’. Give Sean Price credit for introducing his music with the dopest concepts. From Donkey Sean Jr. to the Monkey Barz abum, from Jesus Price Superstar to the Master P album. All of these projects are consistently great music. Sean Price is the best rapper on the internets.
The Kimbo Price mixtape boasts features from Boot Camp Clik stalwarts like Rock from Heltah Skeltah and Ruste Juxx as well as Duck Down members Torae and Skyzoo. There are also appearances from Poison Pen, Royce da’ 5-9 and production from P.F. Cuttin’. This mixtape is going to have some of the hardest rhymes you hear this year. Make sure you wear the proper headgear or you might get knocked the fux out.
DuckDown featuring Skyzoo and Torae
MegaSean (Hail Meg!)
Boostin’ Mobiles
pix courtesy of JazminMillion
Here’s why I fux with big Ruck…
Son is the realest cat you know. If he fux with you then you know that off top. If he don’t fux with you then you know that from the gate as well. There ain’t no pussyfoot sidetalk whisperface bullshit with this dude. Just realness.
In a business where you are supposed to appear wealthy even when you aren’t Sean Price told his listener that he was the brokest rapper you know. Sean P isn’t about fake imagery put in place for photo ops. Son is just real.
The word real is the most misused and abused word in the history of rap. Anything that claims reality is phoney and scripted. Sean Price is the opposite of all these rappers who wear a facade of wealth yest still ride the subway.
Look out for some really good Sean Price material to be floated on this page. From his new mixtape, Kimbo Price, which is some of the best rap I have heard all year because it reminds me totally of DOOM. To new video content, Boot Camp will be getting LOTS of attention from me. I may even have to feature some tracks from ‘Survival Skills’.
The Kimbo Price mixtape is a right cross to the jaw of any rapper wearing their underwear outside of their pants. Listen B, that shit is stupid, The Kimbo Price mixtape is a roundhouse kick in the gut of anyone who thought it was safe to come outside and play. The Kimbo Price mixtape is biting off your ear because you thought you heard all of these rhymes before.
Hold this video untl the Kimbo Price mixtape is ready to fly…
Getting this invite sent to me was like getting my birthday present exactly one month before my new year.
I’m an unabashed Wu stan and we all know that.
It’s prA’li my dream to be buried with my purple tape.
So it’s no big deal that I super stan out extra hardbody for Raekwon and Ghostface. These are the dudes that were my age and saw some of the same things that I saw. They described them in a way that my mind’s eye could immediately register. The Wu-Tang Clan was my escapist cinema soundtrack.
Enter The 36 Chambers – This was me and my dudes staying out late going to see karate movies on the Deuce in rundown pissy sensimile smokefilled theatres. Shaolin Avengers, Flying Guillotine and anything from the Shaw brothers. The Deuce was the livest shit I had never seen. people were fighting and pulling out guns and trampling each other. And when I snuck back out to 42nd Street the following weekend to the chagrin of my dad I found out that they were doing the same shit all over again. I was transformed. Hail Meg!
Return of The 36 Chambers – Ol’ Dirty Bastard is the one Wu member that I connected to the most. He was the most spiritual dude ever in rap music. I think he contained a part of every Clan member in his persona. Dirty would get wild. Dirty would get crazy. Dirty was filled with love even for people that didn’t love him or understand him. Dirty had compassion for humanity. Fuck that, Dirty was a Black man. This chamber is my Blaxploitation period. The movie this album describes is Coonskin.
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx – This was the greatest album I had ever heard. From the rhymes to the beats to the song interludes there was never an album in Hip-Hop that did the shit the purple tape did. Albums were only filled with songs. This album was filled with stories. The interludes offered narration to bridge the chamber’s chapters. The new album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 is great, but nothing can duplicate this album in my life. The words and music were pulled right up off the concrete on the streets. Those were my dreams to have remarkable cream. They still are. Word to ThunderCracker. Rest in power.
On the rooftop of his record label’s Manhattan offices, Raekwon the Chef spit some of his Wu classics and some of the new hot shit from the Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 project.
As the sun was setting for the evening the sky in the background became purple.
I think that was Ol’ Dirty blessing this project that appears to be re-uniting the Wu.
Wu-Tang is 4ever.
Suuuuuuuuuu!
RAEKWON – ONLY BUILT 4 CUBAN LINX 2 PROMO CONCERT from dallas penn on Vimeo.