VIDEO: Big Pun f/ Black Thought “Super Lyrical”

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RIP DILLA

A few years back I asked Black Thought—for the Roots cover story on the left, try to find it, it’s good—why he had so few collaborations with other MCs outside of the Roots camp. His answer:

“It’s cause people are scared to rock with me on their joints, I don’t know. You only going to work with motherf**ker’s that you know… It’s very rare…there is a couple of rare occasions where you just reach out to somebody you have no existing relationship with already to get them on a record but that’s not really how I tend to work. Yeah, a lot of people are scared and over the years it’s, ‘Why I’ma put somebody else on my record that’s so spectactular? It might sound mediocre.'”—Black Thought

What’s ill is that the Roots frontman somehow manage to sound humble while giving that answer. Anyway, the late great Big Pun wasn’t scared. Props to 2DopeBoyz.

Cory Gunz X Big Pun X Shaq

So that kid Cory Gunz can rhyme with the best of them, as seen in the clip above. However, what grabbed my attention was in the interview portion (below) where Peter Gunz’s progeny said he intended to drop a mixtape using nothing but the late, great Big Pun’s beats.

Normally such intentions are cause enough to gorilla slap a precocious rapper—especially those that need to put the mic down and get a damn job. Luckily Cory is talented enough to do those tracks some justice. The XXL Freshmen Class alum also knew Pun (pic on the left, the shortie in the center), which is an added bonus in his favor.

Cory also speaks on his God-Daddy Shaq O’Neal and that fateful “Kobe, how does my ass taste?” incident/freestyle/hilarity. To think, this Bronx repper doesn’t even have a deal right now.

RELATED:

Cory Gunz XXL Freestyle [via The Smoking Section]

Cory Gunz Mixtape Daily Interview [via Rap Radar]

Cory Gunz “Shut Em Down” Video

E! True Hollywood Story: Rapper Wives

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Was watching the E! True Hollywood Story on Rapper Wives. Needless to say it wasn’t the best of looks for the rapping hubbies.

Mos Def’s ex-stripper wifey, Alana Wyatt, filed for divorce a few months after they got married in 2005, but he hasn’t signed the papers—so they’re still married. DMX is…pretty much in a bad spot (to put it nicely). And the late, great Big Pun, according to his widow Liza Rios and damning video, was unfortunately a wife beater. [sigh]

The only rappers that came out unscathed were Uncle Luke and neglected white rapper Paul Wall (he just dropped an album, ya know). Guess Jay-Z and Beyoncé weren’t available. Shout out to former spouses KRS-One and Ms. Melody too.

Can a rapper have a healthy marriage in the Hip-Hop game? Surely; if he or she wants to. But that applies to any marriage, rapper or not. Respect those vows.

I asked her to leave the chain at home.

Hey Joe

Flow Joe steez

I was speaking to the homie Rob Markman the other day and discussing the merits of Fat Joe. We are both longtime fans of Joe Crack we went over some of the finer points of what has and hasn’t worked for the Bronx rapper of late after hearing his 9th album, J.O.S.E. 2, due in April. But no matter how you feel about Joseph Cartagena as an MC, he will always be good money with me since he did put Big Pun on.

While lately it seems like Joe gets more pub for everything but his music (beef with Remy, G-Unit and Pun’s wife Liza Rios, as well as my personal peeve; collabos with the trendy R&B crooner  of the moment), after a 16+ year career the big man’s got a chunky catalog. Here are a handful (at least the ones with videos: check Big Pun’s “Fire Water (Remix)” with Joe, Raekwon and Armageddon) of my favs that I keep at the ready when forced to defend his Hip-Hop merit.

“Watch the Sound” – Joe’s DITC comrade Diamond D flips Sister Nancy and threatens to steal Youth Corp checks while Grand Puba looks for the Love Boat and Joe goes “glock for glock and tech for tech.”

“S**t Is Real (Remix)” – DJ Premier on the remix. That’s all you need to know.

Big Pun f/ Fat Joe “Twinz (Deep Cover ’98)” – Yeah, Pun obliterated this ish but Joe did a commendable job riding shotgun.

Terror Squad “Lean Back” – Happier times and Scott Storch still had his mojo.

Fat Joe “300 Brolic” – from his last album The Elephant in the Room. Don’t snooze on it.

And one more…

LL Cool J f/ Keith Murray, Prodigy, Fat Joe & Foxy Brown “I Shot Ya (Remix)”