November 2007 Archives

When asked what’s missing in today’s hip-hop, many will say the authenticity of the music. Others will say the excitement of the music, the swag, and most importantlyâ€"lyrics. But there’s one thing that many overlook, which is an element of hip-hop that, if constructed as so, stands as one of the most grueling and skilled segments of the hip-hop genre. That would be dance, an art form that has quickly become a faded image in the hip-hop movement. To some it’s a natural born skill, and for others, it’s virtually impossible; to be able to quicklyâ€"and accuratelyâ€"imitate rigorous and tricky dance moves displayed by the instructor in front of the dance studio takes something that many people just don’t have… which is why I’m a writer.

I took a convenient trip down the street from my job to join choreographer Bam Bam at the class he teaches at the Broadway Dance Center, located on Manhattan’s 44th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues). And watching his class I realized that hip-hop dancers deserve a lot more credit than they recieve… and choreographers, granted their innovative creativity, deserve more.

The Monday Night Fight Klub, which first earned major buzz throughout the New York City streets with the infamous Remy Ma Vs. Lady Luck battle back in 2004, is strapping up for yet another season of lyrical warfare.

According to a press release, Fight Klub’s creators and host International P are on the prowl to uncover the most prolific freestyle battlers to showcase their rawest spittage in front of the cameras, which will be unleashed via television at a later date.

Was he just trying to remind us that things can--and probably will--happen, or was he just trying to spark a little buzz via conversation?

Whatever the kid Icadon was aiming for, one thing's for sure: he got two of the most credible. Icadon teamed with Rocwilder and DJ Kay Slay to put together a mixtape called Earthquake in New York-- a name that brings to mind something utterly eerie. Too eerie. After seeing the motion picture The Day After Tomorrow, a couple of people made sure not to forget that a disaster can definitely happen in the city of 8 million. Too bad 3/4 of New York City is made up of islands. The Bronx... at least we're mainland.

Shoutout to Shawn with his photoshopping skills.

Damon Dash has left Kanye alone and has now turned his focus to Jay-Z… something he has never really come flat out and done point blank, at least not the way he did with Bossip.

“Yall know what happened. [Jay] made a request to the 'powers that be' that… he maintain control of it [Roc-A-Fella] and that we weren’t a part of it. And that’s what he asked for and that’s what he got. That’s what happened. There’s nothing more to it."

Lil KY Gelly Cease spoke to "Forbes DVD" in front of a courthouse right after a hearing he had, and said he posted the video of him "letting the monkey out" in front of his boys on his Myspace page... as a defense mechanism, of course. "Hey everyone look at me dangling my d*ck in front of some dudes... I aint ashamed, I wasn't doing nothing wrong. Haha it's funny."

Yawn. Slow news day.

Check out the DJ Green Lantern, Lenny S- R.O.C Stars Street Leak

01. Broad Street Bully Intro - Beanie Sigel
02. This Shit Right Here - Jay-Z
03. DP3 - Jay-Z
04. Success - Jay-Z, Nas
05. C'mon Baby - Jay-Z
06. Cant Tell Me Nothing - Kanye, Beanie Sigel, Freeway
07. Live In London Interlude
08. Blue Magic - Jay-Z
09. Step Back - Freeway, Lil Wayne
10. ROC Fam Freestyle - Memphis Bleek
11. Get Ya Money Up - Memphis Bleek
12. Freestyle Session - Freeway, Beanie Sigel, Uncle Murda
13. Rocafella Billionaires - Freeway, Jay-Z
14. The Allure Of Flashy Lights - Jay-Z
15. You Ain't Ready 4 Me - Beanie Sigel, Styles P
16. Barrel Brothers - Ghostface, Styles P, Beanie Sigel
17. DJ Khaled Interlude
18. Run To The Roc - Young Chris
19. Informer - Uncle Murda, Wyclef
20. Wet Em Up - Tru Life
21. Go Low - Beanie Sigel, R.City
22. Take It To The Top - Freeway, 50 Cent
23. All The Above - Beanie Sigel feat. R Kelly
24. My Hood Is Greasy - Peedi Crakk, Swizz Beats
25. ROC Boys - Jay-Z
Bonus Track: Blue Magic (Green Lantern Remix)

This is part two to the Saigon interview with Onsmash:

It was going down last night as S.O.B’s. I got the special “downstairs in the basement” treatment due to my homie wanting to do an interview with Cormega, so I was tight that I didn’t have my camera with me; actually, I didn’t even expect to end up at S.O.B’s at all. It just kind of happened, and because of that I can’t provide any exclusive pics BUT! I will say one thing’s for sure: Cormega definitely has a hard-core following, and most definitely still possesses the same hunger and thirst he displayed upon entrance to the mainstream rap game over a decade ago. Rappers like Cormega remind me why these pop tart rappers can’t move 60,000 units despite having a #1 single on Billboard, but real rappers like Talib Kweli can move 80,000 with no promo. It’s called a “following.” And it takes time to acquire.

He performed a bunch of classic Cormega hits, including his infamous verse on Nas’ “Affirmative Action,” and then threw some kind of subliminal at the crowd…but since I can’t confidently confirm that it was in regards to Nas, I won’t say what he said. They did squash their beef years ago, but that doesn’t mean anything... especially since it's been about two years. Anything could have happened in between, considering the fact that this beef lasted for nearly 10 years.

Before anything, check out the Onsmash video, where Saigon says "We have a tendency to forget that hip-hop is black music," amongst other things.

Towards the end of the video, Saigitty spits some real, intellectual rap.

A press release distributed by Fat Joe's camp says his official single, the J.Holiday-featured "I Won't Tell," is "rapidly heading to the #1 spot on the charts!"

But we all know that's not real talk. The single was just shipped to radio stations barely a week ago, and doesn't possess enough clout to climb from out of the bottom of Billboard's top 200 that fast. Not that I'm trying to throw salt in the game, but let's be realistic.

Styles P tracklisting to Super Gangster (Extraordinary Gentlemen), out December 4th

1. "Intro"
2. "Blow Your Mind (featuring Swizz Beatz) (Produced by Swizz Beatz)
3. "Let's Go" (featuring Ray J)
4. "Alone in the Street"
5. "In It to Win It (featuring Bully)
6. "All I Know is Pain" (featuring The Alchemist) (Produced by The Alchemist)
7. "Got My Eyes on You" (featuring Akon)(Produced by Akon)
8. "Green Piece of Paper"
9. "Holiday" (featuring Max B)
10. "Look at Her"
11. "Da 80's"
12. "Interlude 1" (Performed by Comedian Tony Roberts)
13. "Shoot *****s" (featuring Raw Buck)
14. "Super Gangster" (Produced by Vinny Idol)
15. "Star of the State" (featuring Ghostface Killah)
16. "U Ain't Ready 4 Me" (featuring Beanie Sigel)
17. "Interlude 2" (Performed by Comedian Tony Roberts)
18. "Gangster, Gangster" (featuring Jadakiss & Sheek Louch)
19. "Cause I'm Black" (featuring Black Thought)

I was trying to fall back on this story, but it needs to be addressed.

Most of us know that the NY Profling Department has established a special task force to monitor, harass, and frame New York City rappers, but they've also acquired what seems to be a spicy fixation on killing young black males. This seems to have become a sickening kind of fetish which has been making news headlines nonstop ever since a white cop shot and killed Timothy Stansbury on the roof of a Bed-Stuy housing project back in 2004... with absolutely no reason as of why. Besides the fact that the officer became "startled."

Now we're back in Bed-Stuy, only this time on Gates Avenue between Throop and Marcus Garvey, where 18-year-old Coppin (no first name provided) was shot and killed 7pm Monday night by five officers with 8 bullets--12 additional bullets missing Coppin by inches. If you do the math, that's 20 bullets... for one child. And according to witnesses, Coppin had already dropped the hairbrush-- which cops are swearing on their lives they thought was a gun-- before they began to shoot.

Rampage told HHNLive that the Flipmode Squad is no longer named... Flipmode Squad, and that Busta Rhymes is no longer part of the crew.

"[It's just] Rah Digga, Baby Sham, Spliff Starr, and myself," Rampage told HHNL. "We just changed the name of the group and it's now called FMS. ...We just decided to do our own thing...It's not under Flipmode anymore. It's under FMS, just me, Sham, Digga, and Starr and FMS stands for Famous Millionaire Squad."

Saigon was on the radio [listen] talking to a caller who asked about that fight he had with Prodigy a while back:

"N*ggas stay sex-on-the-beach.... come on man. ...That's a stupid question n*gga. ... He can't even come out his cell n*gga I'm The Yardfather. ... Let me tell you something about New York State Correctional Department: he can't come out his cell. Any jail he go to in New York state, he gonna get punched in his face wherever he goes. I'm The Yardfather. ...He can't go nowhere. The whole three-and-a-half years, he gonna be in a box his whole bid. He gonna be in his cell."

Memphis Bleek serves "Breakfast" on new track, where he addresses the ROC. It's not bad. But he could come with something more fiyah than this. He been M.I.A long enough.

Memphis Bleek- "Breakfast" [listen]

And also check Fat Joe featuring J. Holiday- "I Wont Tell" [listen]

And LL continues to take jabs at Jay, even though Jay gave him a pass. This is like the tenth jab. Literally.

“I’m not anti Jay-Z,” he told MTV, “I’m pro-LL. I think it’s important that people understand that. … I have no reason to begrudge his success. I just want to put that out there. …I just don’t feel like he had the necessary experience to do that job [as president of Def Jam]. I don’t know any other record company that he worked for where he learned how to run this business. This is a label that started in 1984 you can’t just give somebody a job because you want to attract talent and look sexy. Because there are artists that suffer."

Makeda Barnes-Joseph--the victim of the July shooting who has since been accused of constructing a sting operation gone wrong, but maintains Remy intended to kill her-- is trying to stay fresh in memory. And it worked; I damn sure had forgotten her until now.

Remember back in the summertime when Remy spent the night at Riker's and was facing a 25-year sentence for attempted murder? Then the charges got reduced to assult. And Barnes-Joseph's attorney, Lauren Raysor, isn't feeling that (via Villagevoice):

Shout out to Carl “H.D” from BET.com , who brought this to my attention.

Sounds like Dame is still a little bitter (which, from some angles, is understandable), and is trying to throw salt in the game. When speaking with BET.com, he said of Kanye’s “Big Brother”:

Yawwwn. Slow news day. BUT!

"American Gangster" is finally in stores... but not on iTunes. Why? Hov says:

"As movies are not sold scene by scene, this collection will not be sold as individual singles."

Someone suggested that I post this, otherwise... two thumbs down.

The blog title was going to read what the video was named, which is simply "Riding Shotgun with 50 Cent," but since this corny chick is acting all stupid I figured I'd just call it what it is.

Here is the American Gangster cover art and tracklisting

1. Do You Feel Me - Anthony Hamilton
2. Why Don't We Do It In The Road? - Lowell Fulson
3. No Shoes - John Lee Hooker
4. Across 110th Street - Bobby Womack
5. Stone Cold - Anthony Hamilton
6. Hold On I'm Comin' - Sam & Dave
7. I'll Take You There - The Staple Singers
8. Can't Truss It - Public Enemy
9. Checkin' Up On My Baby - Hank Shocklee
10. Club Jam - Hank Shocklee
11. Railroad - Hank Shocklee
12. Nicky Barnes - Hank Shocklee
13. Hundred Percent Pure - Marc Streitenfeld
14. Frank Lucas - Marc Streitenfeld

Shoutout to Eskay

Too bad nobody's gonna buy it.