Killer Mike and my sometimes employer Hip Hop DX are offering Mike’s I Pledge Allegiance To The Grind 2 as a free download. Not to underestimate your internet savvy, reader. If you were going to download it you would have rapidshared it a long time ago, I’m sure. Ayo technology.
Still this is a good and guilt free excuse to revisit or visit Mike’s masterpiece. Oh yes, masterpiece. It might just be the last truly great rap album. It’s definitely the hardest. Mike channels Cube at his rawest. He pours all the go getter energy of Jeezy into something actually productive and thoughtful. I’ll never understand how this record was so relatively slept on in the same year where Young got jocked for simply acknowledging a recession. Download it and then maybe buy it anyway.
Gucci Mane has released something close to a hundred songs in the last two weeks or so. I hope Warner doesn’t sue me before I finish giving each and every one a full and thoughtful listen. Here are some highlights from the Cold War saga, plus a few other loosies that have dripped to the web in recent days.
Gucci Mane – “Break Ya Self”
from Brrrussia (Mixtape, 2009)
For UGK being his favorite group, his production is usually far from Pimp’s classical trunk funk. So it’s nice to hear Guch hop on some heavy Hammonds once in a while. It has been a long time since I’ve heard a rapper use the word “dolo.” Of course, rhyming it with “solo” is probably not the most inspired decision but the other rapps more than make up for the slippage.
The biggest secret in rap is that 50 still makes good to great music. Even if every beat he rocks these days has the exact same drum pattern. It’s strange that more parallels aren’t drawn between Gucci and Fif. Not so much musically, though they are both making a killing with a drawl, but morally. Gucci is on the cusp of wearing the rap villain belt that 50 once held. At least since Tupac, every era of rap has had a major villain. A force so evil that the crusaders for real hip hop (no tony d) and detractors against all hip hop must constantly remind us how the mere existence of these rappers is destroying the world. (Until, of course, a few years pass and their detractors either soften with nostalgia or are pandered to directly by a villain who has reinvented himself as a hero.) The vilification of major gangsta rappers is to be expected, even necessary, at this point. (more…)
This is basically a regional rap record about New York City. Sure that’s not a first (Busta’s “New York Shit” comes to mind) but “Heart & Soul” is notable because it’s almost completely devoid of PLACE WHERE IT WAS BORN posturing. It just talks about the city and sounds like the city the same way, say, a Houston record would. It’s a great look for NYC. I guess Jada’s “New York Minute” would also fit in the same conversation except that song picked a minute from 2002 to focus on. Pete & Red are perfectly on their 1995 shit, which is probably a better year to be trapped in. Especially if you are trying to be an advocate for New York City. (via So Many Shrimp)
Gucci watch 2009 continues. I give this track four burrs out of five. “There once was a rapper named Gucci… and a DJ named Drama… they got together and made a movie!” (more…)
Finally, a mixtape that features both Asher Roth and OJ da Juiceman!
B.O.B. is snapping on here when he wants to. I just wish he never let himself get involved with all these blog boys and I am just imagining if the Asher, Mickey Facts & Charles Hamilton spots were replaced with Bohagon Young Dro and Homebwoi but whatever. Also he needs to stop singing. The “Bobby Ray” half of the tape is mostly unacceptable sub “Hey Ya” rap.
No DJ mixtape rips are the best thing to happen to hip hop since Roger Linn but feel free to download the mixed version if you are into sadomasochism. Tracklisting after the jump. (more…)
