RESPECT x Eminem x Royce Da 5’9″
Bad Meets Evil covers the latest issue of RESPECT Magazine. Mag on sale June 7, Em & Nickel Nine’s Hell: The Sequel on sale June 14. Print is dead. Long live print.
Eminem’s Recovery Commercial x ShamWow! Guy
Interscope gets the Vince Schlomi aka The ShamWow! Guy aka the guy who had a hooker try to bite off his tongue, to speak on the merits Eminem’s new Recovery album. Genius.
RELATED:
ShamWow! x FAIL
Mos Def Black Thought Eminem BET Cypher 2009 + the rest
Easily the best of the Cyphers that dropped during the BET Hip-Hop Awards. Each MC came off and has a mean argument as to why they were the best. I say it’s a draw.*
The real winner is the random, bridge and tunnel looking white dude who got into like every shot. There he is, 2nd from the left in the pic below.
*I’m leaning towards Mos Def > Black Thought> Eminem
Vibe Mag’s 50 Hottest Rap Blogs X Slang Rap Democracy
So my little space on the Internets got bigged up at the #43 slot in Vibe Magazine’s Top 50 Hottest Blogs. I had no idea I was even in contention so it was a pleasant, and humbling, surprise.
Needless to say, Top [insert any # here] lists are fodder for limitless amounts of speculation and deliberation over who shouldn’t have made the list, who should have been ranked higher on the list, who was wantonly left off the list, and on and on.
Funny thing is that the more let’s say “unconventional” a list is—whether it’s be on purpose or because of naivety—the more controversy and debate it will spark. And that just may be the point; who is going to keep fussing about how much they agree on something?
Anyway, here is a compendium of the many rants and raves regarding the aforementioned list. I also hope this Vibe is bankrupt stuff doesn’t spell doom for the mag. Another print publication folding is just plain wackness. [Note: Not a single “source” in that ThisIs50 story, and it’s timing, means be weary.]
The post that started it all… Vibe’s Contorted Top 50 Hip Hop Blogs [via Animal New York]
#3 on Vibe’s 50 Hottest Blogs List! [via 2dopeboys]
VIBE’s 50 Hottest Rap Blog Ranked [via Nah Right]
Drafting Of The Bloggers I’m The Number 7 Pick [via Cocaine Blunts]
VIBE’S Top 50 Rap Blogs List…Plus My Comments [via Broken Cool]
Hip Hop Is Read… Is Alive? And… Popular? [via Hip Hop is Read]
Vibe Magazine’s Top 50 Hip-Hop Blogs [via Ill Roots]
Dart’s Rant Of The Day: The Bullshit © Jeru Tha Damaja [via Poisonous Paragraphs]
Vibe Magazine’s #20 Best Rap Blog [via The T.R.O.Y. Blog]
Vibe Magazine’s Top 50 Hip Hop Blogs List [via Notes from a Different Kitchen]
Rap Magazine’s Hip Hop Blog List Catches Bad Vibes [via Animal New York]
We Are 22nd! [via BEATS and RANTS]
A Message for Low Key….. [via You Heard That New]
The Real Top 50 Rap Blogs [via XXLmag.com]
Big Ced is More Hip-Hop than You
Eminem Slim Shady Review in Blaze
It’s true. Big Ced, of the Industry C0sign and a whole lotta ish you can ask him about yourself, is more Hip-Hop than any of us. I first noted it when after every time I thought to myself, “Damn, that dude in MC Lyte’s ‘Paper Thin’ video looks just like Ced”—it turned out to be Ced (via Rocka Candy) after all.
Then when searching for my old Source 50th issue to scan its cover for a recent post, I came across my set of Blaze Magazine issues [semi-tangent: Aliya S. King relayed a great story involving Blaze right here). I’ve teased Cedric many times that I would get around to scanning his appearance in the aforementioned mag’s review section. Nah, he didn’t write a review, but his mug was used as the sections rating scale (large pic below). Pretty creative move on the late mag’s part, actually.
Ced Classics
All this to say, Ced is more Hip-Hop than you, you, you and all the you in the back, and in the middle, and in the front. Word.
Gumsole Beatdowns#1: Notorious B.I.G. X Al Green
I'm surprised you run with them...
While the late Christopher Wallace’s flow was elastic enough to get busy over any groove, rocking over a flip of Al Green’s “I’m Glad You’re Mine” was so nice that B.I.G. did it twice on “I Got a Story to Tell” from Life After Death and “Dead Wrong” from the posthumous Born Again. The Al Green album, I’m Still in Love with You, that said sample originates from was released in 1972; yep, the same year Biggie was born. The heisted audio (you can listen to it below, but do yourself a favor and buy the entire album because it is vintage, baby-making music) isn’t too long—a sick rimshot that’s a couple of bars long, tops—but many a producer has gotten a good run from it. Here is Biggie’s double dose (not including “What’s Beef?”) as well as a few choice others handy for spreadin’ [Hip-Hop] love, the Brooklyn way. R.I.P. B.I.G.
Al Green “I’m Glad You’re Mine”
Notorious B.I.G. “I Got a Story to Tell”
An album cut that nevertheless gets heavy burn, “I Got A Story Tell” displays B.I.G.’s storytelling ability. Produced by DITC’s Buckwild with co-production credited to Chucky Thompson & Diddy [Note: find out what Buckwild thinks of that], the Rev Green’s drums are the tracks foundation as B.I.G. recounts a tale of infidelity turned to robbery.
Notorious B.I.G. “Dead Wrong” f/ Eminem
The lead single to B.I.G.’s Born Again album was produced by Chucky Thompson, Mario Winans & Diddy (guess they liked what Buckwild did with “I Got a Story to Tell”) and makes that illy rimshot a counterpoint to grizzly drums. The result is a greasy and booming tracks that makes B.I.G. dropping un-PC quotables like “japped her then I asked her who’s the man she said B.I.G., then I bust in here E.Y.E.,” almost acceptable. No Chris Brown.
BONUS BEATS
MC Lyte “Paper Thin”
This beat was so sick that on the Lyte As a Rock album that it appeared on you got to hear the entire instrumental run through after your favorite female MCs last verse. (Shout out to Big Ced.)
Eric B & Rakim “Mahogany”
It’s the R, and Eric. B, coolin’ at the Palladium (Note: I remember in the late 90’s seeing Jay-Z, rocking a du-rag, kick “22 Twos” in that infamous NYC nightclub. Mic Geronimo may have been the headliner. Times change, it’s now an NYU dorm). “Mahogany” is a winner from the Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em album and jacks Al Green’s track wholesale.
MORE BIG
Machine Gun Funk: Producers Remember B.I.G. [via Nod Factor]
A Dead B.I.G. is Better Than a Living Weezy! [via The Urban Daily]
Think Big [via XXLmag.com]
The Day Biggie Died (Rest in Peace/Live in War) [via Naked With Socks On]
Today Marks The 12th Anniversary of B.I.G.’s Death [via Real Talk NY]
DJ Drama & Cookin Soul Present: The Notorious BIG Tribute (Mixtape) [via Nah Right]
Big Don’t Fold [via Cocaine Blunts]
Wig Out (Puff Daddy) [via Rap Radar]
“Life After Death” The Mixtape Movie [via Notes from a Different Kitchen]
We’ll Always Love Big Poppa [via Combat Jack]
Slang Rap Democracy 