SOHH Left Coast

Snoop's mugshot circa 1993, annnnnnd...

...Snoop's mugshot circa 2006 (1 of 3... collect 'em all!).

Look who's all grown up!

For those who don’t know, Snoop was arrested for the -- count em’ up -- THIRD time in three months, again with weed and a gun, but this time he upped the ante and added some yayo for good measure. He’s still awaiting trial on two other cases, and apparently, big Snoop decided it would be a good idea to leave the Jay Leno show in Burbank riding dirty with all the elements of a crunk ass afterparty (although he was noticeably missing an oversized bottle of Belvedere) in his stashbox, ‘cause that’s what intelligent guys do when they’re “laying low.”

I guess the first two times it was sort of funny in a “Oh, that crazy Snoop Dogg! He’s up to his old antics again...” kind of way. But when I heard the news this morning on the radio while driving to work, all I could do was shake my head slowly. I would’ve hung my head in shame, but you know... it’s hard to drive when you’re doing that.

For the record, I’m aware that rappers -- much like Charles Barkley -- aren’t role models. But at what point does a 35-year-old man start acting his age? It’s one thing if you’re a penniless 16-year-old rolling around with nothing to lose on some “fuck the world” shit, but when you’re a successful entertainer, father, husband and Pee Wee football coach, you need to step your game up a little. I can't for the life of me begin to fathom why someone with so much to lose would put their livelihood, and the livelihood of their family on the line for such dumb shit. Especially when it’s obvious that Johnny Law is keeping pretty close tabs on you. Grow the fuck up and take care of your family.

Things were still looking good before all of this, despite the upcoming trials on his first two dumbass arrests; he released his best album since Doggystyle, and he just announced the “How The West Was Won” tour in early 2007 with The Game

On a related note, the numbers for the first week sales of Blue Carpet Treatment, and while they’re not spectacular, they’re decent. First week sales hit at around 275,000, coming in fifth after Jiggaman, a country star, a compilation of the year’s shittiest pop hits, and a record from a British group comprised of two dead guys, a 60-something-year-old man who beat his one-legged wife, and the former host of Shining Times Station.

Good luck promoting the album from jail, son.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (47)

We’re gonna get to the official Hell Hath No Fury review on thursday, but this one right here is too good for me to pass up.

After I was offered this job, I had to write a sample blog (which you can find below) to submit with my resume. I had heard one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard in my life earlier that week, so I decided to write about that. Then, today -- two and a half months later -- I got an email that the video was currently being shot for said song. I can’t imagine what exactly the video will be like, but I’m fairly sure that it will be every bit as terrible. While we here in Northern Cali have been randomly subjected to hearing the track on the radio, the rest of the nation will soon feel its wrath; may God have mercy on our souls.

Now without further ado...

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It’s official like a referee whistle: the hyphy movement has reached an all time low. I understand that every rapper in Northern Cali is trying to jump on the bandwagon as quick as possible, as they very well should; the public and the press are going to pay attention to this about as long as they paid attention to reggaeton (although reggaeton still gets much love from the bootleggers in Santee alley in Los Angeles). But please. The ridiculousness needs to stop here.

When The Federation jacked Corey Hart’s... ahem... “timeless” classic and mutated it into “Stunna Glasses at Night” it appeared that going dumb had reached record dumbness. But the masses approved, the single was thrust into the top ten charts of radio stations up and down the West Coast, and it became apparent that anything would go at this point. But then came “Ghostride It.”

Mistah Fab has been a stalwart when it comes to Bay Area Rap; he came up under Mac Dre, undeniably the father of all hyphyness, and his last album, Son Of A Pimp was on point as was his recently-released mixtape Recess. “Super Sic Wid It” (featuring E-40 and Turf Talk) enjoyed heavy airplay, and he even popped up with Too Short and E-40 on the remix to Wolfpack’s “Vans.” He got signed to Atlantic. Everything seemed to be going his way- until now. 

Set to the one of the weakest beats ever, “Ghostride” sends up the theme song to Ghostbusters, with busting ghosts replaced by scrapers, grills, stunner shades, ghostriding, and everything else you need to throw on a single to let people know you’re a card-carrying member of the hyphy movement. And Fabby doesn’t come that bad on it lyrically; it's just that the idea to make the song should have been rejected from jump.

The Bay has made dope music for decades, but the current trend in Northern Cali seems to be that you have to drop hyphy catch phrases in order to catch notice. It’s a team effort -- established rappers like San Quinn, Too Short, E-A-Ski, and E-40 are stepping up to give virtual unknowns a hand, and the Bay is finally getting noticed by the rest of the nation. But hopefully Bay Area artists can use the momentum they’ve gained from following “Tell Me When To Go” with a barrage of like-minded insta-hits and can cover some new ground, without damaging their credibility along the way. Bay Area, stand upppppp!

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (220)

So now that the two big major label West Coast releases of the fourth quarter (The Doctor’s Advocate and Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, as if I really had to clarify) have dropped, there aren’t going to be any huge publicity storms, or Tuesdays spent waiting around to get off work so you can rush to your local record store to cop that new West Coast joint that’s dropping. That said, now’s the perfect time to spend a little time getting reaquainted with your CD collection.

Granted, I’ll still be keeping that Snoop album in the rotation for some time (although I don’t see The Clipse album leaving my CD player after I go cop it tomorrow afternoon), but I’ve definitely been digging through the proverbial crates in the last couple weeks and dragging out some of the albums I listen to on a monthly basis, and some of the albums that I don’t listen to as often as I should. Here’s a list of what I’ve currently got in the traveling CD booklet:

Jay-Z - Kingdom Come: Yeah, no duh.

Tha Alkoholiks - The X.O. Experience: Not the best Liks album by any means, but nowhere near as bad as Firewater. “Promote Violins” with Kurupt is still a sick fuckin’ track though, as is “My Dear” with Defari.

Project Pat - Mista Don’t Play: Classic. I could listen to “Chicken Head” every day for the rest of my life and still smile every time I hear it. My wife even likes that song, and she doesn’t even really like hip hop.

Sam & Dave - The Definitive Soul Collection: If there’s anyone out there corny enough to say that they listen to hip hop and nothing else, you’re missing out on a whole world of amazing music, and you need to spread your wings a little. Any of you youngbucks out there who don’t know about Sam & Dave need to do your research.

Lupe Fiasco - Food & Liquor: I liked this album from the start, and I like it more and more with every listen. I would love it if lyricists like this took the game back, but with corny dudes like Jibbs edging emcees like Lupe out of the countdown, sadly, I don’t really see this happening.

Jackie Wilson - Best Of Jackie Wilson: Soul music like this doesn’t exist anymore. You might think some R&B artists come close, but if you listen to the contender’s album after this one, you’ll see that they really don’t.

J.R. Writer - History In The Making: I don’t really give a fuck if you hate Dipset or whatever; this dude’s a beast. And for the record, I’m looking forward to that Hell Rell album like a motherfucker.

Sky Balla - Lifestyles Of The Hoodrich and Famous: This is a short ass mixtape, and it still got me hyped on this dude. I can’t wait to hear the album or another mixtape or whatever; this Fillmore MC is stepping the game up for Bay Area hip hop. If you haven’t heard him yet, check him out.

Pitbull - El Mariel: This album’s actually pretty likeable; definitely a lot better than his last joint.

Yukmouth and C-Bo as Thug Lordz - In Thugz We Trust: I still gotta pick up the Thug Lordz Trilogy joint with Spice 1. If anyone out there has it, let me know if it’s worth swoopin’ on.

Clipse - Reup Gang, Vol. 1&2: The only thing able to tide me over until November 28th.

Now let me know what all of you are listening to lately, other than Kingdom Come, Blue Carpet and Doctors Advocate...

Come holler at the official SOHH Left Coast Myspace page at www.myspace.com/sohhleftcoast.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (73)

Hopefully everyone had a positive, drama-free weekend; now it’s time to get back to the grind again. Since I ran the review of Tha Blue Carpet Treatment last friday (go read it if you haven’t already), we’re going to take today to catch up on Random S#!t.

By the way, Mondays fuckin’ suck.

After a heavy couple of weeks for West Coast hip hop releases, this week’s looking pretty empty. Since there aren’t going to be any new West Coast albums, make sure you go cop the new Clipse album. I don't give a fuck if they're not West Coast artists; these guys are two of the most talented cats in the rap game right now, and everyone needs to go cop Hell Hath No Fury. Don’t download the album either; you know it’s going to be a solid release, so reward these guys for not coming with a half-assed album and go buy that shit. They earned your 14 bucks.

The Rock The Bells Tour, which I mentioned in a previous blog, will now be featuring performances from Smif N Wessun on all of the dates, Ghostface Killah on 9 of the stops, Pharoahe Monch in SF and Vegas, EPMD in Toronto and Dirty Heads for the last half of the tour. In a moment that surprises no one, Keith Murray dropped off the tour due to “unforseen circumstances.”

DJ Whoo Kid and Bay Area DJ E Rock are teaming up to release the third installment of the Bay Bidness mixtape series. The latest installment will include new music from E-40, Keak Da Sneak, Mistah F.A.B, Messy Marv, Guce, Turf Talk, The Federation, San Quinn, J. Valentine, Dem HoodStarz, PSD and more. E Rock will also be dropping an album on Steve Rifkind’s SRC imprint in the near future.

In other DJ album news, Los Angeles radio legend Julio G. will be releasing West Side Radio: My First Strike in 2007 on Mack 10’s imprint, Hoo Bangin’ Records. The KDAY radio personality’s album will feature Snoop Dogg, B-Real, DJ Quik, Daz, Kurupt, Xzibit, Bishop Lamont, Glasses Malone, Mitchy Slick, Kartoon and La-La. The album will feature production from Julio G himself, as well as E-Swift, Alchemist, Fredwreck, Battlecat, Soopafly and Jon B. While seeing albums from DJ’s like Clue, Khaled and Kay Slay is pretty commonplace these days, we dont see too many DJ compilations from West Coast DJ’s drop on this grand of a scale, so hopefully this one gets a buzz going before it drops.

The BARS (Bay Area Rap Scene) Awards are this Saturday, and there’s a good chance I’m gonna head out there. In the event that I do, you can expect a full report next week. For anyone that wants to attend, tickets are still available (although they’re not cheap).

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)

Shouts to all the regulars; I hope everybody had a beautiful Thanksgiving with their families or friends. Now it’s time to get back to the grind...

Tha Blue Carpet Treatment hit the shelves of record stores this past tuesday, and all though there was much less fanfare over its release than that of The Doctor’s Advocate, Blue Carpet is a superior album.

Although his past several albums have been solid efforts, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment finds Big Snoop Dogg returning to form. After Doggystyle, Snoop seemed to be relaxing his flow more and more on each album, until it got to the point where he was basically just talking over beats on R&G. But even from the intro on his new album, Snoop let’s us know that things are going to be different this time around.

I don’t know if Snoop eased up the blunt intake during the recording sessions, but he sounds more awake than he has in years. While he never comes off as overly aggressive, he sounds hungry again on a lot of the songs, and that manages to add another layer of energy to songs that already succeed thanks to the unique voice and charisma that Snoop lays down on just about every track he has touched since he started doing this.

And all in all, Blue Carpet winds up being his most solid release since Doggystyle, in lyrics, style and production. The album covers all the bases, from laid-back shit, to gangsta shit, to contemplative shit, and it all somehow comes together without sounding scattered or disjointed. And while there are some songs that are better than others, there isn’t really a terrible song on the album, which is no small feat considering that it has 21 songs on it.

The rundown:

1. “Intrology” feat. George Clinton
It’s an intro; you get the picture.

2. “Think About It”
A nice smoothed out joint with Snoop flipping an old school type of flow...The beat has a little bit of a vintage, jazzy feel to it; the quintessential Summertime song.

3. “Crazy” feat. Nate Dogg
A nice bubbly undulating bassline courtesy of Fredwreck with Snoop spittin’ game and Nate doing his thing on the hook; haven’t heard Nate flex his vocals too much like he does with the “Long Beach to Compt-uhhh-uhhhn” part, and he pulls it off in a major way.

4. “Vato” feat B-Real
The more I listen to this joint, the more it sounds like it could’ve been a song on Doggystyle. And thank God I can hear it now without half the fuckin’ hook edited out.

5. “That’s That Shit” feat. R. Kelly
One of my favorite tracks on the album. Nottz flipped that “Coming To America”, and Snoop’s braggadocio sounds fucking perfect over the beat. Another perfect Summer joint.

6. “Candy” feat. E-40 MC Eiht, Goldie Loc, Daz, and Kurupt
40, Goldie Loc, Snoop and Daz all come correct on this one, but MC Eiht steals the show with a hard verse, even though it sounds like he recorded it in a shower. I don’t know what Kurupt was doing on this one; he sounds like somebody woke him up from a nap to record his verse, and he doesn’t really say shit until the last two bars. Rick Rock comes with yet another Digable Planets sample for the hook.

7. “Get A Light” feat. Damian Marley
Goddamn, I would love an entire album of Snoop/Timbaland tracks; these two cats make magic happen every time they do a joint together. This one’s a simple, dark, synthed out Timbo track with Snoop coming tough as fuck on it, and Jr. Gong definitely adds a layer of diversity to it. Good look on the Northern Cali shout, Snoop...

8. “Gangbangn’ 101” feat The Game
Game and Snoop go for broke on this one; Game comes hard on every bar, and stole the whole song with “it ain’t a gangsta party ‘til we go and dig ‘Pac up.” Terrace Martin’s beat is perfect for this one, and when it transitions into the hook, shit is ridiculous.

9. “Boss’ Life” feat. Akon
A nice, simple Dre beat with a descending piano loop, and Snoop kicking some pimp shit. Akon shows up on the hook, and I have to say it’s nice to hear him over a beat that he didn’t produce.

10. “LAX” feat. Ice Cube
Not feeling the super-minimal beat on this one so much, but Snoop and Cube do what they can with it.

11. “10 Lil’ Crips”
Someone was saying on the blog the other day that this song wasn’t dope, but I beg to differ. It’s not the best Neptunes beat I’ve ever heard (that award still goes to “What Happened To That Boy”), but it’s nice to hear Snoop’s energy over another darker track. This song also gives a lot of insight to just what Snoop was talking about when he said he was going to be going back to that gangsta shit for this album.

12. “Round Here”
I’m sorry man, but I can’t stand to hear that stupid fucking Dido sample on another hip hop song. It’s a shame, because the lyrics and subject are actually pretty dope, and I really like what Snoop did with the hook. Bad look, Dre.

13. “A Bitch I Knew”
Sounds like some late 80’s gangsta shit, with the typical fuck-a-bitch subject matter. Get ready for your girl to reach for the skip button if this comes on while she’s in the car.

14. “Like This” feat. Damani, Soopafly, Bad Lucc, Latoiya Williams and Raul Midon
Not really feeling this one so much...

15. “Which One Of You” feat. Nine Inch Dix
This shit’s weird as fuck, but I’m lovin’ it. Newcomer 1500 comes with a Neptunes ripoff, and Snoop gets into character and sings over the entire track.

16. “I Wanna Fuck You” feat. Akon
I’m pretty sure everybody’s already pretty fucking familiar with this one.

17. “Psst!” feat Jamie Foxx
Another one of my favorites. Jamie Foxx opens up with his best D’angelo impressions and then carries on through the rest of this track in full-blown Prince mode. This one’s one of them sweaty club bangers.

18. “Beat Up On Yo Pads”
This song’s kinda corny, but you gotta love it on GP. Snoop’s kicking something positive for the youth and at the same time, showing that he can rap about whatever the fuck he wants to rap about. If you need proof that Snoop doesn’t care about conforming and taking part in the Rap Popularity Contest that’s been plaguing hip hop for the last decade, this is it.

19. “Don’t Stop” feat. War Zone(Goldie Loc, MC Eiht and Kam) and Kurupt
Thank God, Kurupt woke up for this one and hogged on it. Gotta love hearing Kam again, and if this War Zone thing ever pops off, I can’t wait to hear it.

20. “Imagine” feat. Dr. Dre and D’Angelo
This shit’s beautiful. One of the best Snoop/Dre collabos, and that’s no small feat. And once D’angelo’s finally done with being a crackhead, the R&B game seriously needs him back.

21. “Conversations” feat. Stevie Wonder
I was a little skeptical when I heard about this little collabo, but DJ Pooh took “Have A Talk With God” to a place I could’ve never dreamed of. We were listening to this on the way back from my wife’s family’s Thanksgiving dinner, and my mom was singing along with Stevie on the hook, so I you know I gotta love that.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (49)

I’m gonna keep things relatively light today since I’m working on the The Blue Carpet Treatment review for tomorrow’s blog. I picked up the album yesterday, and that shit is ridiculously good, but you’ll hear more about that tomorrow. But the news that everyone was waiting on yesterday was Game's first-week soundscans.

As the news broke yesterday, The Game’s first-week numbers hit the SOHH Left Coast boards with a vengeance. There was speculation throughout the day that he sold 500,000; there were also some numbers quoted that were much lower. But the confirmed sales mark lays somewhere in between.

Hitsdailydouble.com finally posted the first-week sales for Doctor’s Advocate in the mid-afternoon: 380,000 units. Oh, and I have to give a special shout to the douchebag that came on here to post thirty different Game disses under thirty different names after the news broke; if you’re reading this, you owe me the 7 minutes of my life that it took to delete all of your retarded posts.

While 380K is far less than the 1 million units Game said he wanted to sell, 380,000 is still a pretty respectable first week. If you’re looking to completely discredit him for sellling 380,000 records, you’re being illogical. If you said he would flop, technicallly, you’re wrong. And if you were trying to say that this album would change hip hop or completely shut down G-Unit, you’ve also been proven incorrect. Now if everyone can start playing nice and just forget about this whole G-Unit/G-Unot, maybe we can all move on with our lives.

Alright everybody, tune in Friday... Peace until then.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (789)

Today Snoop Dogg’s Blue Carpet Treatment drops, and it’s one of his most anticipated releases in quite some time. While a lot of hip hop fans looked forward to Paid Tha Cost to be Da Bo$$ as the album that would return him to the forefront of West Coast rap, just as many Snoop fans are looking forward to Blue Carpet as the second peak of his career since Doggystyle.

This is Snoop’s ninth album, and other than 2000’sDead Man Walking , every single one of his albums has at least gone platinum. (The aforementioned album had only sold 220,000 as of 2005, which is likely due to the fact that Snoop very publicly criticized and, made it known that noone should purchase it or support Death Row in any way.) The sales of hip hop albums have been continuously waning in recent years- largely due to piracy, and fickle consumers who have grown weary of artists dropping half-assed albums -and yet it’s a safe bet that Blue Carpet will sell a million albums effortlessly.

Although Snoop’s discography is fairly solid, the No Limit years were a little sketchy. They did yield a few hits (“Snoop Dogg,” one of his first collaborations with Timbaland, and “Bitch Please”), but overall, the albums released between ‘98 and 2000 weren’t really his best. And while the younger generation of hip hop may have had the good fortune of missing the No Limit era of Snoop’s career, I can remember going out to buy Da Game Is To Be Sold Not To Be Told and being a bit disappointed. No Limit Top Dogg and The Last Meal were also some of Snoop’s weaker albums, and still, they weren’t really all that bad.

Overall, our boy Snoop’s had a good run. In celebration of his latest release let’s take a second to look at his discography:

1993
Doggystyle

1996
Tha Doggfather

1998
Da Game Is To Be Sold Not To Be Told

1999
No Limit Top Dogg

2000
Dead Man Walkin'

2000
Tha Last Meal

2002
Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss

2004
R&G (Rythm &Gangsta) The Masterpiece

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (87)

So tomorrow, two prominent artists who have been in the rap game for over a decade are both dropping albums. As everyone already knows, those artists are Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z. But the big question is, who’s going to have the better album, and subsequently, who’s going to move the most first-week units?

For Snoop, this is his 9th studio album since 1993 (not counting Dogg Pound, 213 or Eastsidaz albums); for Jigga, his tenth album since ‘96 (not counting the bullshit with R. Kelly), and also, a comeback album from his 2003 “retirement” from making hip hop records. Jay’s sold over 21 and a half million records in the US alone, while Snoop has sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 million. They’re both huge names in the rap game, and have been ever since they dropped their first albums. And when it comes to relevance in today’s market, it’s a given that they’re both going to do pretty big numbers over time.

But tomorrow, fans will be heading to their local record store -- or Target, or wherever the fuck people buy CDs these days -- to pick up the new release of the day (which for some, is a weekly ritual), and there are lot of people who will be faced with a decision: Blue Carpet Treatment or Kingdom Come. Granted, there are lot of people who will pick up both, but for many, it’s a question of finances or other circumstances and picking up both won’t be an option.

I think there're just as many people on the East coast who love Snoop as there are people in the West who love Jay, so I don’t think passé coastal allegiances will really come into play; for this round, I think it’s strictly a question of quality. Both albums have been available for listening for at least a week before their release date; Kingdom Come was heavily leaked (as was almost every other big album that dropped this year) and Blue Carpet could be heard in it’s entirety on MTV.com. And from what I’ve gathered so far, the reviews coming back from Jay’s album haven’t really been all that positive. Not only that, but he’s riding on a mediocre single (“Show Me What You Got”) to generate sales for the album, and a lot of people have considered his return to the rap game after two years of “retirement” where he did a number of guest spots on people’s albums, a little bit corny.

Snoop, on the other hand, has had two singles -- “Vato” and “That’s That Shit” -- that have been well-received, despite limited radio airplay in many areas. And those who listened to Blue Carpet came back with mostly positive reviews, especially regarding the production on the album. Besides that, this is also the album where Snoop has said he is returning to form as the Gangsta Snoop of old -- a move that has been as widely embraced as it has been criticized. And then of course, you have his reunion with Dre.

I myself am going to cop both albums; I’m definitely a lot more hyped on the Snoop album, but I still want to see if Jay’s big comeback album is any good. Sales-wise, I think that the timing may just provide the chance for Snoop to outsell the self proclaimed “greatest rapper alive,” which would be a huge step for West coast rap music. You can never count the Jigga fan base out though, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Also, on an unrelated note, I wanted to take a second to thank Bird, da_natrol and Nimrod for sparking some intelligent conversation in the response section of Friday’s blog. Hopefully some of the readers took a second to read the discussion that you three had going, because it was definitely a breath of fresh air from a lot of the irrelevant, aggressive, opinionated banter that goes on in these boards a lot of the time. Keep doin’ your thing.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (167)

Here is your super-abbreviated version of Random Shit for the week.

The Game played Times Square. The kids loved him. He’ll also be playing a free concert in LA next week. If you missed him at the $2 Bill show he did in LA, go catch this one. After that, he’ll be doing photography for Playboy because the editors apparently decided that rappers don’t already have enough skanky mudflap bitches to skeet on.

Snoop's coming out with clothing for dogs. Or doggs, rather. I can’t fucking wait to see what this looks like.

Don’t forget, his album comes out next week, and the shit is fire. It sucks that there hasn’t been a little more promotion but you know, a muhfucka’s got court cases to fight...

DJ Muggs has now branched into the hip hop hipster boutique business; Greyone has merged with Soul Assassins. And yes, I do realize that this means absolutely nothing for the vast majority of you.

To make up for further tarnishing Pac's life with yet another crappy post-mortem album, Afeni Shakur is holding some sort of creative contest in Pac’s memory. The four categories are Artwork, Essay, Poetry and um... Music Video. Break out the Crayolas and butcher paper and go to www.tupaccontests.com for more info.

And in a new installment, the Hater of The Week Award goes to this salty-ass turd burglar:

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“i wanna no who gave this guy his own blog he doesnt know shit about hip hop support the west you faggot the cd is straight fire and there isnt a bad song on it and jayz should push his album back til january cuz its wack and snoops is hot”
Posted by: jose at November 15, 2006 03:06 PM
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Well, to answer your question, the people who gave me this job not only know about apostrophes, periods and commas, but can also spell the word “know” correctly, you little fuckin’ crumb.

And to end things off on a positive note, there was a late post on yesterday’s blog about up and coming West Coast artists, and dude dropped some insight; for some of you from the East or Down South, you might learn a lil’ something about the Cali hip hop scene here. For anyone who didn’t get the chance to read it yesterday, I’m reposting it here.

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“Ok, I read everybody's posts on here, and it's funny how 99.9% of dudes don't even think about what they're saying, or maybe they just didn't understand the question. They just ramble on and on about all the underground talent they know about on the West Coast.
California, in my opinion, has the most stable underground scene of any region. Period. There's so much quality music being sold in the streets out here, it's ridiculous. And depressing, from a standpoint of seeing it as impossible for ALL of these artists to ever truly be heard. Despite the fact they're a goldmine.
I think for some West Coast artists, that's where a lot of the feelings come into play. You have an artits like The Game, who undeniably has truck loads of talent...but is there not a handful of other artists who might, just might, have 'deserved' that shot before Game? Who might have handled the spotlight in a more professional manner, opening the doors for other West Coast talent? This is a whole other subject altogether, so I'll keep it moving.
The question was who's next blow. The next to 'blow' (this is a stupid term, because to us it equals success, which is the problem with the whole industry anyways) - I'll coin it better: The next person to be marketed on a national level will be Glasses Malone. You'll see that followed by Lil' Eazy. Both of them have incredible music, hands-down the best music being made in hip-hop today. Anybody that would rather hear Paul Wall make another album about grillz rather than hear Glasses...well...I don't know. You need someone to sit down with you.
And to be honest, I think that's where it stops. Like I said, it's not that there's no talent out here...it's just that there's no options for these artists other than to work their music in the streets of Cali. The industry's a trainwreck, and none of these majors give a rat's ass about the West. So until there's some major renovations done within the industry, the buck stops here.
Bottom line is it's time for the artists to come together and figure out what's going to happen next. Radio, MTV, record stores...all that's dinosaur. It's time to take control of the art and take it into the new millenium. Figure out how to reach these kids in 2007 and on. Don't sit around waiting on some cracker record label clown to rape you for you money, sell 75,000 units of your album and send you off to milk carton status. Your careers in your hands. God with you...”

Posted by: West Coast Love... at November 16, 2006 11:49 PM
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Alright Children McNuggets, have a good weekend. And as always, be safe and all that.

Come holler at the official SOHH Left Coast myspace page @ www.myspace.com/sohhleftcoast

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (203)

It’s pretty much been established that Snoop, Too Short, E-40 and The Game are the bosses of the West Coast right now. But it’s been a minute since any new artists out of the West have made a nationwide impact, and with the current focus that’s recently settled on the coast with the most, we’re due to have some new talent making some waves any day now.

While it doesn’t seem like Snoop is really trying to break any new artists right now, Too Short and the 40 Water have been pulling double duty to guest star on the albums of just about every rapper coming out of the Bay right now. And now that Game has released his sophomore album (with no BWS guest spots? Hmmm...), it’s possible that soon he’ll be pushing the next artist out of his camp. But there’s a whole underground scene out here that’s flourished for many a moon and it’s entirely possible that the next big thing might just come out of nowhere. While you might be familiar with some of the following artists, there might be some that you’ve never heard of. Also, I might not be as up on the L.A. underground as some of you dudes who live down there, so if there’s someone making moves down there who you feel might be on the verge of catching some fame, shout him out.

Glasses Malone (G Malone) is the frontrunner right now, and pretty much a shoe-in. Dre’s got his back, Big Fase 100 is his manager and the man is a beast on the mic. What the West needs now more than ever is for a lyricist to step into the spotlight, and this just might be the dude to take care of that.

Spider Loc- With the G-Unit Affiliations, the whole world already knows his name, but he’s gonna need to show and prove if he wants to show the world he can stand on his own two, especially with the rapidly growing disdain for all things Curtis Jackson.

Strong Arm Steady Gang (Krondon, Mitchy Slick, Phil Da Agony and Chace Infinite) -- While there’s no questioning his lyrical abilities, ex-Likwit Crew member Phil Da Agony has been in the game for over a decade and hasn’t really accomplished a whole lot in that time, and Chace Infinite has already released a ton of classic music as one half of Self Scientific. But this just may be the squad to make those two -- as well as Krondon and Mitchy Slick -- household names. While they lost their big name endorser after parting ways with Xzibit, they stay busy, and it’s looking more and more like DJ Muggs just may step in to promote the fuck out of these guys.

Juice- We keep hearing about Game’s stable of Black Wall Street artists, but this is pretty much the only one of them that has any buzz going...

Clyde Carson-... other than this dude. It’s been a big year for The Team, but it’s looking like Clyde might jump ship to run with BWS full time.

Sky Balla- This guy almost has an East Coast type of flow, and plenty of NY connections to boot. His style is different, but he’s still all the way Bay with it. Dig around for Lifestyles Of The Hoodrich & Famous, it’s pretty nuts.

JT The Bigga Figga -- This guy’s a fucking legend in Bay Area hip hop and it’s ridiculous that there are still people sleeping on him. He’s been making some power moves lately, so keep and eye peeled because you’re definitely gonna be hearing his name a lot more in the upcoming months.

Young Hoggs -- A whole different side of Compton. If G. Malone blows up, don’t be surprised if he takes these cats and Quiz with him to the top.

Big Rich- E-40 cosigned him, XXL and several other hip hop mags did features on him, and his single got national airplay on BET and MTV. He’s got the buzz going, and for people that have always been in to Bay Area hip hop but are looking for something a little more grimey than hyphy music, Fillmore Rich is that dude.

Ya Boy- I’m pretty sure he’s dropped his Black Wall Street affiliations, but he kept a hold of the buzz and shows no signs of stopping.

Mob Figaz- It’s been a big year for The Jacka, and although Husalah was recently locked up on a dope charge, he’s got a steady stream of new releases dropping that have been turning heads. When Hus gets out, I’d bet on all that pent up energy releasing on the world, and once a few people finally notice these dudes, they’re bound to add a huge number of new fans to their already solid fanbase.

Doey Rock -- This Sac town representative has been doing his thing for some time now, and has a pretty hefty buzz going in the Capital City, and now there are rumors that he might be the next new artist on E-40’s Sic Wid It imprint. Time will tell, but Doey’s definitely got a lot to say for anyone who’s willing to listen.

There are a ton of immensely talented underground artists out there as well that are a little more on the backpacker tip, but based on what hip hop fans are paying attention to these days, I don’t really see anyone blowing up from that scene, as much as I would love to see it. When the world looks to the West, they look to us for gangsta shit and nothing else, which is unfortunate because there are a ton of emcees out here that really need to be heard, and a lot of them have been grinding for a decade-plus without blowing up on a national level.

Rep the coast with the most. Shout out your favorite spot and be featured on SOHH.com!

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (256)

So the UPS man finally showed up this morning with my copy of Doctor’s Advocate. After seeing some of the back and forth between people in response to yesterday’s blog (although most of the conversation was Soundscan-related), I was looking forward to getting home to check it out. And after listening to it a couple of times, I gotta say... it’s not too fuckin bad.

http://blogs.sohh.com/myspot/archives/2005/08/sohh_members_re.htmlGranted, there were people on the Left Coast boards yesterday hyping it up to be the best thing since sliced bread, and one dude even said it was one of the top ten albums of all time. That’s a stretch, to say the least, but it is probably one of the better hip hop albums to come out this year.

If you take a look at yesterday’s blog comments, when people weren't projecting first week sales, everybody was either losing their shit over Doctor’s Advocate or shitting all over it. But I didn’t really see anyone who didn’t have strong feelings one way or the other. It seems like too many people have emotional investments in The Game’s music; people either love it or hate it, there’s no middle ground.

Some of the solid tracks on the album:

“It’s Okay (One Blood)”- I liked the single the first time I heard it on the radio, and then a little bit less each time I heard it, until I was finally burnt out on it. But now that they’ve eased up on the radio play, I’m kinda coming back around.

“Compton”- I’m not really seeing how this song is about Compton, but it’s still fire. Will.I.Am is silly as fuck to me, but after that “Bounce” joint that he did on Too Short’s album, and now this, he might actually be on a roll sometime soon...

“Too Much”- This has to be one of my favorite Scott Storch beats ever; the Tuff Jew touches back on his keyboard playing days with The Roots to give us some dope keys on this one, and the strings are minimal enough that they work out perfectly. Game definitely comes correct on this one, and Nate Dogg gives a relatively subtle performance on the hook.

“Wouldn’t Get Far”- Not the best Kanye track ever, but ‘Ye and Game do something clever with the subject matter, and it works out. But does anybody else remember this vocal sample from that Jadakiss track “By Your Side”?

“Scream On Em”- I know Swizz Beatz can do better than this, but Chuck Taylor goes for broke, and his energy on this track is undeniable.

“One Night”- The Game gets on some deep shit on this one, calling out fake homies, and it’s one of his better lyrical performances on the album. But a couple parts of the hook on this one has got me confused as fuck.

“Ol English”- Hi Tek always comes with it, and this is no exception. I’m typically not into super slow joints like this one, but both of them flipped it.

“Bang”- Jellyroll’s production has been fire this year (I know you heard “The Whole World” off that Xzibit album) and he keeps it popping with this one. And I could never get sick of hearing Kurupt and Daz when they’re in top form.

Some of the lamer songs on the album:
“Da Shit”- This hook is too fucking irritating for me to even listen to the song all the way through.

“Remedy”- The beat suuuuuucks.

“Doctor’s Advocate” (feat. Busta Rhymes)- I don’t know man, this song’s just fucking creepy. Is he crying on this one?
“Around The World” (feat. Jamie Foxx)- This one’s just plain corny. And Pharrell needs to holler at this Mr. Porter guy who produced it, because he bit the fuck out of “That Girl.”

“Why You Hate The Game?” (feat. Nas)- Maybe I was just expecting too much of this one. I would’ve liked to hear them ripping over a beat with a little more energy.

And I’m still on the fence with “California Vacation”; Game, Snoop and Xzibit all come with crazy verses but the beat is boring as fuck. With the lineup on this track, why didn’t they get a beat that was equally powerful?

Is Doctor’s Advocate an above-average album? Yeah, definitely. Is it really worth flipping the fuck out over? Not necessarily. For now, I’ll count it in the top ten, but there are still some major heaters that have yet to drop (Snoop, Jigga, Clipse) so we’ll see where it stands when January first rolls around.

By the way, if all of you junior marketing analysts can manage to tear yourself away from analyzing the album's sales on here for 24 hours, I'd love to hear what you think of the album.

Rep your favorite spot in Cali. West Coast stand up!

Don’t forget to holler at the official SOHH Left Coast Myspace page at www.myspace.com/sohhleftcoast

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (222)

So today is the proverbial judgement day: November 14th. The speculation as to whether or not The Game’s album can come anywhere near the sales benchmark that The Documentary set will either be validated or dismantled in the coming weeks, and the question that has been up in the air for the past several months will be answered- Can The Game carry the West Coast on his back?

And do we need him to?

It’s been a while since a figure in hip hop has had audiences this polarized, and it’s arguable that there has never been a West Coast artist so equally loved and loathed. If you need any proof of this, you need look no further than any of the SOHH Left Coast blogs posted in the last two months. In blogs where the topic was Game-related, fans and Stans and haters of The Game bickered relentlessly; even in blogs where the topic had absolutely nothing to do with The Game or Doctor’s Advocate, conflicts would bubble up out of nowhere, and every day without fail, some self-appointed member of the D.A. internet promotional team would inevitably post the track listing for the album or praise for the album or a 3 week old quote from MTV about how “Game stopped by our offices today...”

Although I don’t really dislike The Game, he’s not my favorite rapper either; I think his lyrics are pretty good, his cadence is cool and he has a dope voice. But when he starts up with his over-the-top, mean-mugging tough guy hood swagger, I just can’t take him seriously, and I’d be lying if I said that doesn’t have at least a little effect on me when I’m listening to his music. I’ve looked forward to hearing Doctor’s Advocate, but I probably didn’t share the same sort of crazed anticipation that a lot of other hip hop fans carried; yet my middle-of-the-road stance on this rapper has been met with criticism from all sides. One day some little dipshit is complaining about how I’m a Game hater and I shouldn’t ever say anything negative about a rapper from my own state; then just as quickly, I’m labeled as a Game dickrider if I say anything positive about him. I can’t remember seeing this kind of rabid loyalty to rappers before this whole G-Unit/G-Unot bullshit came along, and frankly, I can’t wait until all of it goes away.

The bottom line is that the steamrolling promotional blitzkrieg that has preceded this album has drawn an insane amount of attention to it. Whether or not you like him, you have to admit that in the last few months, Game has been living proof that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Besides whatever promo budget Interscope gave him, he got shitloads of free pub by just talking shit and perpetuating beef like he normally does. And whether you approved or disapproved, he kept his name in everyone’s mouth for a solid two to three months before the album dropped. At this point, it’s very unlikely that the album’s going to flop; it’s also a bit of an unlikelihood that it will enjoy the same success as Documentary. But for those of you thinking that this is the end, guess again; if I had to place my chips right now, I’d bet that for AT LEAST the next two weeks, every day someone will have some kind of comment about the album in the comment boards.

Although I’m a little pissed that I still haven’t recieved the album after Interscope told me that would mail me a copy a couple days before the release, if the album still hasn’t arrived in my mailbox after work today, I’ll probably head to a local record store and trade in some of the shitty CDs I’ve gotten in the mail in the last week to cop the album. And for the record, I really do hope that it lives up to the hype. But to be perfectly honest, I can’t wait until this is all over with and we can all start talking about something else.

I almost forgot; if there’s someone out there who wants to go to the record and cop something else, Mac Mall came out with a new album called Thizziana Stoned and the Temple of Shrooms. Seriously. Wait till you see the album cover...

Holler at the official SOHH Left Coast Myspace page at www.myspace.com/sohhleftcoast

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 12:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (266)

The Be The Riottt festival popped off this past Saturday at the Bill Graham Civic Center in San Francisco, and it featured some of the biggest hip hop perfomances so far this year year. There were some rock bands on the bill as well, but as far as hip hop went, the lineup featured performances from Busdriver, X Clan, Sa- Ra, Sage Francis, Visionaries, Saul Williams, Zion I, Living Legends, and the big name of the night, Clipse.

We showed up a little later in the day, as we weren’t reallly game for sitting or standing through 10 hours of music. When we showed up at 5:30, Oakland’s Zion I was about halfway through their set and launching into “Hit ‘Em,” which is one of the best tracks on the Heroes In The City Of Dope album they recorded with Grouch. While I was getting ready to enter the venue, I ran into Luckyiam, Asop and Sunspot from Living Legends, who I hadn’t seen in almost a year after spending 10 days traveling the west coast with them during their Classic tour. After catching up with them for a minute, I watched Zion I do a couple more songs and then headed out to check out the rest of the venue.

After Zion I finished doing their thing, Living Legends took the stage. Murs actually showed up (with some new Let’s Get Free era M-1 dreads) to contribute some energy to the performance, which didn’t happen at all during their last tour. They kicked through some of the songs from Classic, and a few of the artists kicked through some of their solo songs, including Murs doing “Please Leave,” Grouch doing “Simple Man,” and Asop testing out one of his new joints. As far as the main room went, the Bay Area favorites had the biggest crowd of all the performers that entire day.

Sage Francis came on in the main room, rapped in his socks, had a dance battle and did his usual politically-charged, “look-at-me-I’m-avant-garde” type of shit that he always does. Although he always puts a lot into his live show, it’s not really my thing so we wandered around for a while until the next performers came on. I headed to one of the side rooms, where spoken word artist Saul Williams had just started his set.

The Visionaries came on shortly thereafter and did their thing with a vengeance. I don’t really like to much of the stuff they do as a collective, but they have one of the best DJs in hip hop (Rhettmatic from the Beat Junkies) and they always put on a crazy show. I watched about half their set and then went to go take a break from the music for a while before Clipse came on and on my way out I saw Def Jux artist Aesop Rock (who relocated to SF from NY last year) roaming the hallways.

It’s not all that often that hip hop shows actually have good sound, but somehow the sound was on point in every room all night. This became especially apparent when Clipse came on, because instead of having to yell, their voices were almost exactly like they are on record. After their DJ got the whole crowd to throw their dubs up while he was playing “Nothin But A Gangsta Party,” Pusha T and Malice (who was wearing a blue long sleeve Pyrex shirt- where the fuck did he get that shit?) came out and launched into “Virginia,” and they sounded as on-point as they possibly could. After “Virginia,” Ab Liva and Sandman came out and the crowd was treated to the “Cot Damn” remix and a few other Re-Up Gang tracks from the We Got It 4 Cheap mixtapes. The rest of their set was relatively short, but they did play “Pussy,” “Grindin,” “What Happened To That Boy,” and the first singles off Hell Hath No Fury, “Mr. Me Too” and “Wamp Wamp.” Their set was a bit short, but since we probably won’t see too many West Coast performances from Clipse in our lifetimes, we’ll take what we can get. And what we got this night was the solid performance that we had been waiting all day for.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (218)

To get this started, we gotta talk about the new Snoop video for “That’s That Shit” that just dropped. When I had read the rumored track listing, I was counting this one out as one that I’d be skipping past. I’ve never really been a fan of rappers doing collabos with R&B artists (with the exception of a few tracks with Jaheim or Akon, and that Davina joint “So Good” that had a version with Raekwon and one with Xzibit). I’ve definitely never been a fan of R. Kelly, so I was a bit leery about this one, to say the least. But GOD-DAAAAMN. This song is fire. If the track I was worried about is this good, I can’t wait to hear some of the joints that I’m actually looking forward to. Ten days left till Blue Carpet Treatment , and I’m countin’ ‘em down...

Apparently Capitol is releasing a Best Of N.W.A. compilation with a DVD companion.... should be pretty dope. The track listing is pretty similar to the N.W.A. Greatest Hits album, but the DVD will make it worth copping if you don’t already own the Greatest Hits album or all of the N.W.A. albums. The album comes out Christmas, ‘cause we all know how much gangstas love the holidays.

There were a few albums that came out on Tuesday that I didn’t even know about...

Apparently a new Cali Agents (Rasco and Planet Asia) album dropped; the first C.A. album -- How The West Was One -- was insane, but the second one was kinda garbage. Hopefully this one, Fire & Ice, steps it back up a notch.

Keak Da Sneak dropped a new one, Husalah, Jacka, Messy Marv and San Quinn dropped Explosive Mode, Vol. 3 together and Sacto’s own Sumthin Terrible dropped their joint. Also, Thes One from People Under The Stairs dropped his solo joint. I had the chance to hear a couple of the singles a while back, and I’m looking forward to hearing this one.

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve been to a hip hop show, but I’m heading down to San Francisco on Saturday for the Be The Riottt festival to catch Zion I, Living Legends, Saul Williams, X Clan, Breakestra and Clipse; should be a dope show. I'll give a report on Monday.

I was thinking a little bit about the festival earlier today, I started thinking about some of the artists I’ve been lucky enough to see live: Redman, Wu-Tang, The Fugees, A Tribe Called Quest, Ras Kass with surprise guests Saafir and Xzibit, Cypress Hill, MF Doom with Madlib, Busta Rhymes, Beastie Boys, Common, Mos Def, Jedi Mind Tricks, Talib Kweli, KRS One (even if his last few albums sucked, it’s still the best live show you will ever see), Slick Rick, The Alkaholiks... the list goes on.

I have my memories, and my favorite performances, but here’s where we bring some crowd participation into play...

Tell me what the last hip hop show you went to was, and what your favorite life performance has been up to this point. If there’s any crazy sort of side story, like something about a drunk rapper throwing up on your face or fucking your sister, don’t leave it out.

Alright everybody, have a good weekend. Go out and enjoy the nice weather because unless you live in LA, it’s about to start getting cold, rainy and ugly out there.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 12:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (32)

I kind of had a feeling that one day of discussing this wouldn’t be enough, and apparently there are some things from yesterday’s blog that require clarification. So let’s go ahead with round two...

First off, there were 12 different people who responded to yesterday’s blog by calling me a hater. Since when is giving Game dap for his verse and saying that the remix was “definitely one for the books” hating?

This shit actually left me a little concerned. But it’s all good, because I’ve actually made a list of those who had trouble either reading the blog, or processing the information that it contained, and responded by calling me a hater. If you see your name on the list, refer to the link that follows it. I’ve also made some special notes for some of you; you can ask your parents or an older sibling to read them to you.

------------------------------------------------------------

-AJ From Jamaica QNZ

-Bravado

-Naj

-King Of SOHH... This paycheck from Def Jam that you seem to think I’m getting is about as existent as your comprehension of reality. Which is to say, it’s nonexistent. Your conspiracy theory game looks like it has potential though... Try reading Behold A Pale Horse by William Cooper; that shit will help you step your crazy person game up.

-Simon... When you type in all caps, does that mean your chest is all puffed out?

-Nsite

-Akeem

-Realist

-D.A. ... I’m not gonna take anything personal from someone who has come on here every single day to post the release date of The Game’s album. Dude, we got it already. November 14th.

-BWS... You really came on here telling me to get a journalism degree and to “get a better education,” which you preceded by misspelling the word “is,” and followed up by misspelling the word “because.”

-Africa

-Some random dickhead who wrote a comment talking a bunch of shit, and then came on here under a different name (and the same I.P. address) to cosign himself. I forgot his name cause both of his corny ass identities got the delete button).
-------------------------------------------------------------

I want to post a link for all of the aforementioned commenters; it's a link to the National Institute For Literacy: http://www.nifl.gov/

Go holler at it.

One other thing... Fools are on here talking about Ja Rule’s verse like it was the second coming of Christ, saying he “killed it,” “ripped it,” “came hard,” etc. You must’ve all heard a different version than I did... Can somebody please post his verse on here somewhere so I can see where all these dope bars are? Because currently, I’m getting the feeling that his mediocre verse on this track won't be bringing him back from the dead anytime soon.

Just to dumb it down for everybody, I’ll try to put this as simply as possible -- I’m looking forward to hearing Doctor’s Advocate as much as anyone. And I actually liked this remix -- it was monumental -- but I definitely thought it could’ve been better with a few less artists on it. But the way you come on here with your nostrils flared and your little fists balled up, you would swear I had made some disparaging remark about one of your family members... If you disagree with my opinions, that's all gravy, just try to voice it in a more constructive manner, 'cause when you come out here sniveling and cursing at me over some dumb shit, you look like some ignorant 12-year-olds. Guys, this is fucking hip hop... quit taking shit so seriously and have some fun with it.

Come holler at the official SOHH Left Coast Myspace Page at www.myspace.com/sohhleftcoast

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (329)

I already know that no matter what topic I post about today, the convo is inevitably going to turn towards the “One Blood” remix. So here we go...

(Oh, and by the way, if you haven't heard it yet, it's on Game's myspace page: www.myspace.com/thegame)

Game wasn’t lying when he had something special coming together for the remix- and that something special ended up being 24 rappers on one 12 minute track. For those not in the know, the official lineup (in the order in which they appear) is Jim Jones (get ready to hear “Baaaaaalllin’!” like 6 times during the course of his short ass verse), Snoop (who really didn’t seem like he could find his footing on that beat), Nas (who ripped it, of course), T.I. (came pretty solid), The Game (whose verse on here is significantly better than any of his verses on the original), Fat Joe (eh...), Lil’ Wayne (whose verse was kinda weak when compared to his usual capability), N.O.R.E. (dude, just go away- after that reggaeton shit, your career is OVER), Jada & Styles P (with tradeoff deliveries, which worked out pretty well), Fabolous (pretty good), Juelz Santana (Ya life’s sweet like MTV’s Laguna Beach”? Daaaaamn...), Rick Ross (came pretty hard, minus the weak Jerry Heller metaphor), Twista (I’ve heard him do way better), Kurupt (solid as always) and Daz (not all that impressive, but not bad), W.C. (good to hear you again, man!), E-40 (kind of a crap verse), Bun B (who came the hardest out of everybody in my opinion), Chamillionaire (no comment), Slim Thug (like his voice and delivery, hate his raps), Clipse (way subpar compared to the talent they usually display), and Ja Rule (way to end it on a bad note).

It’s too bad that he didn’t have a better lead single to remix though, ‘cause I feel like some of the talent on that lineup could’ve definitely made use of a better beat and ripped the shit out of it. A remix that jam-packed with guests sounds good in theory, and it’s definitely one for the books, but shit's really scattered, and everybody came with kinda empty verses- no one’s really sying anything. Someone did a post a good point on the comments board yesterday regarding this, though- is this remix something tha people will listen to more than once?

Just to clarify, Game ain’t the first rapper to put together a long ass remix; on the Block Music mixtape that Shawnna did with Clinton Sparks over the summer, there was a 14-minute-long remix of “Gettin’ Some,” and it actually had a lot of the same cats that appeared on the “One Blood” remix. Besides Shawnna and Luda- who appeared on the original track -it also featured Busta Rhymes, Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Jim Jones, Pimp C, Ludacris, Twista, Pharrell, Too Short, Lil Wayne, Dre (from Cool & Dre), Pitbull, and Shawn J from Field Mob. Pitbull and Busta’s verses sucked, Pimp C’s was fire, Jim Jones and Twista’s verses were a hundred times better than their verses on the “One Blood” remix, and Lil Wayne’s was as subpar as his verse on The Game’s remix. Since there were a few more minutes and few less rappers on the “Gettin’ Some” remix than on the “One Blood” remix, it gave everybody a chance to spread out and say a little bit more, and plus they had a theme (gettin’ some head) to stick to so it was a little bit more cohesive in my opinion, but you’ll have to hunt it down and listen to it yourself to form your own opinion.

And don't forget to come holler at the SOHH Left Coast myspace page at www.myspace.com/sohhleftcoast

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 12:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (220)

Arizona has always been considered a Southwestern state, but we don’t have that shit in hip hop. When drawing the lines, we have the West, Midwest (which basically consists of, uh... Chicago), East and South. But no more riding the fences. We gotta get this figured out and decide whether Arizona is going to be considered a Western or Southern state. Actually, fuck that; I’m gonna settle it now... The South can have Arizona, ‘cause if this Hot Rod clown is what AZ has to offer, we don’t want it.

G-Unit needs to hire a new A&R guy or some shit, ‘cause this dude couldn't rap his way out of an open door. Seriously, one Ma$e wasn’t enough? You gotta recruit another mentally challenged rapper? Is G-Unit doing some Make-A-Wish foundation shit that we don’t know about? On second thought, I take that back -- Hot Rod makes that one rapper from The Kids Of Whidney High look like Rakim.

This guy's raps have about as much substance as rice cakes, and the video for "Be Easy" is almost as horrible as the song. It’s bad enough that I have to hear this cornball rapping like he’s in dire need of a metronome, but now I gotta watch him bounce around off-beat while he’s dressed up like a 7-year-old r&b singer on Star Search? And Mary J., WHY did you let yourself get talked into taking part in this?

Game defects from G-Unit, 50 recruits a Crip (Spider Loc). And now, as expected, in the never-ending back and forth between Black Wall Street and G-Unit, The Game has also, amazingly enough, signed... an emcee from Arizona! And he doesn’t like Hot Rod! Who would’ve ever guessed???

For what it’s worth though, Juice (someone really needs to help these Arizona kids out when it comes to picking their names), who Game recruited for BWS, actually has a flow and a little bit of talent. But in his feature in the last XXL, dude’s already talking about going after Hot Rod if he has to. Jesus, these fools are like wound up chihuahuas... Is there some instant rap crew beef clause in their contracts?

Alright Fifty, we’ve put up with Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks’ sophomore jinx, and now this fucking joker... JUST PUT OUT THE GODDAMN M.O.P. ALBUM ALREADY!

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (340)

I almost forgot about this one...

So to all the cats that come on here hating on the hyphy movement and saying Bay Area artists ain’t got lyrics, I got a little video for you.

If you never saw the battle between Mistah Fab and Jin (ex Ruff Ryders) at Hot Import Nights, here it is.

In my opinion, Fab took it.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 1:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (262)

So apparently the new shit for established hip hop artists is to sell guest spots on Myspace. In the months, I’ve seen tons of bulletins from some quality West Coast artists -- including 2Mex, Awol One (of Shapeshiftas) and Life Rexall, who are each selling verses for $500 a pop, and San Quinn, who is routing requests through his manager) -- selling verses on the cheap; I don’t know, maybe they were short on rent or something. If you had any doubts that Myspace is eating the world and swallowing it into a black hole, this should confirm it.

So-Cal's Rock The Bells festival is officially going nationwide. Redman and Aftermath’s newest signee, Raekwon, will be headlining. While the national tour will be on a smaller scale than the festival, it should still be worth checking out. I actually had a chance to go to the festival in L.A. a few years back; Wu Tang was headlining (all of them, even Ol’ Dirty), Redman and Method Man did some joints together, and Supernat, Eyedea & Abilities, Sage Francis, Dilated Peoples all got down. Although I ended up missing most of the Wu’s performance, and there was some gang funk earlier in the day, the shit was still a lot of fun. Keith Murray, DJ Kool and Supernatural will also be joining the tour.

So... Ron Artest's rap album dropped this week. Yeah, I know, I don't care either.

Although it was unclear if charges were going to be pressed, it’s now official: Snoop Dogg's’in some hot water. An arrest warrant was issued for Snoop after the whole “collapsable baton in the airport” fiasco, and the timing couldn’t be worse; his album is slated for a November 21st release date, and dealing with all this could put a real cramp on his promotional ventures. Hopefully, Snoop gets past this (he did beat a murder rap, so how hard could beating this be?), learns his lesson and is a little more careful in the future. Good luck to Snoop, it’s looking like he might need it on this one.

And in the world of release dates, although some rumors had been circulating that the release date was being pushed up due to the leak, but Doctor’s Advocate is still set for a November 14th release date.

And lastly, the "Borat" movie is dropping today, and will only be showing in 800 theaters in the U.S.. Apparently Fox is going to see how it does the first week and if it does well, they’re going to release it in more theaters. The movie looks hilarious, and you should show your support for someone who’s actually making an innovative and intelligent film. Go see it. I know this has nothing to do with hip hop (unless you count the fact that the guy who plays Borat, Sasha Baron Cohen, also played Ali G), but since Rupert Murdoch and co. are hoping to see the movie tank, people need to spread the word on their own.

Alright everybody, have a good weekend, and be easy...

Don’t forget to come holler at the SOHH Left Coast Myspace page at www.myspace.com/sohhleftcoast.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (70)

So today, while I was thinking about a blog to write, I started thinking about the fact that other than Lupe Fiasco, it doesn’t seem like there are a lot of emcees that are having fun making hip hop music these days... there are just a ton of pissed off dudes trying really hard to get an image across. And I don’t want to be that nostalgic dude talking about, “Ohhh, I remember backinnaday when De La Soul would talk about rollerskating and biddies and potholes, and we all wore neon colors an’ shit and everything was gravy,” but sometimes I just can’t help it...

For all the talk of “look at how much hip hop has progressed,” it’s actually been kind of stagnant for a while now. Sure, it progressed in the sense that everybody knows about it, and it’s become the most successful form of music in the market, and that clothing lines and retail stores have opened up and flourished through it; but if hip hop is still progressive, how come it hasn’t really changed in the last five to seven years? Hip hop started out as fun, then started to transform into something that was socially conscious, and then into either gritty street reporting or money-obsessed object-hoarding bragadoccio.

Now don’t start picturing a crazy, wide-eyed, overanunciating KRS-One getting all preachy about how modern day artists are ruining hip hop, ‘cause that isn’t how I feel. To clear it up, I love the grimey shit. My beef is with the fact that where there used to be a balance between party shit and street shit, there’s now a monopoly held by artists who take themselves way too seriously; I miss the balance.

When you actually start to think about the state of mainstream hip hop today, things aren’t so bad; there are some lyricists out there, there are some innovative producers and there are some really dope songs that blow up every now and then. But with most of the stuff that gets national airplay these days, there’s so much tough guy posturing and studio gangsta shit going on that no one’s really being themselves. This led me to thinking about “U Mean I’m Not” from Black Sheep’s A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing, which led me to thinking about something else...

And that’s when I went and found this on Weird Warren’s Vi-Vi-Vi-Video Countdown:

I seriously need to go rent that movie again.

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 1:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (31)

It seems like for most of Hip Hop’s history, the West Coast has been known for one thing, and one thing only: that gangsta shit. And while every Cali rapper who’s had the good fortune to enjoy success on a larger scale (Snoop, Eazy, Cube, Dre, Dogg Pound, Game, etc.) has stuck to this formula -- or has just been themselves and blown up off of it -- there’s a lot more out here than just gangbangin’ and guntalk. Don’t get me wrong, I love gangsta shit as much as anyone, but there’s gotta be a balance.

While Hiero, Dilated Peoples, Pharcyde and Tha Alkaholiks have all enjoyed moderate success at one point or another, it hasn’t really been on as grand a scale as any of their G’d up counterparts. Their music was different- based entirely on lyricism (and in the case of Tha Liks, drinking), and had more of a positive, less threatening vibe.

It’s been a while since there’s been a new underground artists of that style that’s made any kind of impact... and then there was Scipio, aka The Lost Angel.

Although the Altadena emcee isn’t really on some thug shit, he’s no softy either. His delivery is hard as nails, a lot of the subject matter is pretty heavy and he’s a beast on the mic. While the lines between gangster and lyric-driven rap have always been pretty severe, Scipio’s one of the first hip hop artists to come along in some time who’s blurring those lines. As far as comparisons go, think of Xzibit on his first album; meaningful, powerful lyrical content with an insane delivery to match.

He got some shine for a song he did a little while back called “Street Dreams,” which was a dedication to Stanley “Tookie” Williams. The source ran coverage of the track, and Snoop also took notice of the song and gave Scipio a call to personally show his appreciation. He also made some waves with “Still In The Hood,” which was Scip’s renewal of the Rodney O & Joe Cooley classic “Everlasting Bass,” and featured the original artists on the track.

Look for the hip hop nerds and the G’s to be checking for Scipio (if they’re not already) in upcoming months. If you haven’t heard the man do his thing yet and you’re looking to hear some of his stuff, he has a mixtape called Angel Dust that you can download for free off of his Myspace page. There’s 12 tracks, and it’s definitely worth taking the five minutes to dig up. And if you’ve already heard him rip, then you already know.

In regards to the Game concert in L.A., we’re setting my man Baldomar Jauregui up with a pair of tickets to go see Chuck Taylor do his thing live. Homie just moved out here from the midwest and has hit a rough patch since he’s been out here; hopefully going to check out the show will be the first step towards things getting better for him. I also picked four people to receive posters, so if you reached out, check your email to see if you’re one of them.

For the rest of you, the tickets go on sale tomorrow (Thursday, Nov. 2nd) on Ticketweb.com, and at the Music Box at Fonda Theater Box Office. If you want a ticket, you better wake up early.

Come holler at the SOHH Left Coast Myspace page at www.myspace.com/sohhleftcoast

Posted by SOHH Leftist at 2:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (25)