Considering the impact that the Def Jam label has had on hip-hop music, looking back over the first eight 12″ singles on the maroon label is pretty amusing. After the incredible debuts of super rapper T La Rock with ‘It’s Yours’ (on Def Jam/Partytime) and LL Cool J via ‘I Need A Beat’, the other early six releases that Rick Rubin had his hand in are a bit of a mixed bag in terms of quality. (more…)
Somehow or other, I recently found myself at the local library, where I stumbled across a book titled Def Jam, Inc. The author, Stacy Guerseva, did a great job of recalling the history from the early days of the label based in Rick Rubin‘s dorm through to the powerhouse that it would eventually become. Of course I was less interested in the corporate development and more focused on the what rap trivia I might find. Turns out there was a lot of great shit in there: (more…)
After hearing the new album, I wasted no time in doing a follow-up interview with Roc Marciano to see what he’d been up to since we last spoke back in 2008. Since the piece will be running in the next issue of Germany’s JUICE, I can’t drop the interview for as minute, but here’s a little something that you should know about it:
Robbie: So what’s next?
Roc Marciano: I’m about to drop the Marcberg Reloaded – that’s gonna be free for everybody that’s fuckin’ with me. I’m in the process of wrapping that up right now. So that’s coming with it, just like Strength & Honor that I did in unison with UN Or U Out. Whenever I put out a project I give something away. It’s gonna be like part two to that, like a double album real quick. I’mma give another fifteen songs away, just on the strength. Like, ‘Boom, take that’. That’s gonna be a free download.
In other news, the mighty P Brothers have released the second volume of their limited-edition EP’s from The Gas, this time finding ‘Caviar’ and ‘Late Night’ joined by two new tracks! Cop it here.
The P Brothers feat. Roc Marciano - ‘As Long As It’s Real’ [snippet]
The P Brothers feat. $amhill – ‘That Kid Is Nice’ [snippet]
As I reported last October, Prodigy dropped a seven-minute verse over the phone for the homies Sid Roams to turn into a track. It took a minute, but Bravo just threw the finished version my way…
Prodigy - ‘The Phone Tap (Welcome To State Prison)’
Here’s a guest drop from Phillip Mlynar, who was the Deputy Editor at Hip Hop Connection magazine before people stopped buying rap magazines.
Talking about rappers whose fanatical fan worship bore no relation to their actual talent or recorded output used to be easy. Someone would say that 2 Pac was the greatest ever rapper. Someone who’d listened to more than three rap records in their life would counter by pointing out the patchy nature of his music, and how he was prolific in the sense of hopelessly lacking any sense of quality control. They’d be hit back by someone talking about how Afeni’s son was the hip-hop generation’s James Dean and how his whole thug life aura and rapist-without-a-pause mentality was bigger than music and all of that. Then someone would mention “Brenda’s Got A Baby” and everyone would shake hands and move happily on.
These days though there’s a slew of rappers and rap chaps whose publicity, fan worship, and reputation makes ‘Pac looks positively underrated. Here are the five leading exponents… (more…)
Guess some Nas stans got a little butt-hurt over the last piece. Of course, they failed to read the part where I declared that “there’s no denying that Nas is one of the greatest MC’s of all-time” and shed tears over the fact that I didn’t list ‘If I Ruled The World’ as a ‘classic’. Turns out that Ghostface has an impressive track record of eight official solo albums, so it’s only right that he’s subjected to the same analysis… (more…)
Legend delivers an exclusive leak featuring one of the more interesting line-ups I’ve seen in a minute. From the 24 Hour Karate School mixtape, due March 30.
Ski Beatz feat. Jean Grae, Jay Electronica, Joell Ortiz and Mos Def - ‘Prowler 2′
“With the exception of G Rap, Nas has more dope songs then anyone from Queens and just as many as any other rapper in the world” – Johnny Hardcore
Following this challenge of sorts by a guy who seems to have taken his screen name from a male pr0n star, let’s take a look at Nas’ discography to see how many great tracks he’s released (not including his seemingly endless unreleased catalog): (more…)
During the interview with Meyhem which I dropped yesterday, I asked him which three songs he’d play to someone who’d never heard hip-hop from Queens before. He gave me five… (more…)
You might know Meyhem from his work with J-Love, as he’s hosted the majority of his mixtapes and appeared on all of J’s street CD’s, and is also a member of The Outdoorsman crew. Not to mention his outstanding contribution to the Counter Strike tape (‘Animal Science’ feat. Roc Marciano) and numerous dope songs he’s been leaking as he prepares to release several solo projects in 2010. I recently took a minute out to build with this Queens representative on the rise…
Robbie: When did you start working with J-Love?
Meyhem: I knew J from before I rhymed. We’re from the same neighborhood and we had mutual friends. I started doing my thing with the music and he was already ‘J-Love’ by then, and one day I just went up to him like, ‘J, I need some beats’. And he’s like, ‘What are you talkin’ about? Beats?’ He didn’t even know I rhymed, and we kinda took it from there.
Plus you both collected Polo gear, right?
That’s actually how we got cool in the first place. We know the same people and we were the two Polo heads out the group – tradin’ items, dealin’, switchin’ all that – this is when we were younger, but that definitely built our friendship.
What age did your ‘Lo addiction start?
Junior high school, like twelve, thirteen. Just stuck with me forever, you know? I used to be into graffiti a lot when I was younger – I used to write – and through graff, fashion comes with it. People used to rock a lot of Polo and North Face, and we used to boost paint to go bombin’ and then we met people boostin’ ‘Lo. I had a lotta friends from Brooklyn, they went and put me on, and the team that I repped – it’s an honor to rep – the Brooklyn Lo-Life’s, they’re the original ‘Lo team comin’ outta Brooklyn. A lot did it, but if you really do the knowledge and really ask about who started it and who really put it down to make Polo blow to the extent that it did? It was them. That’s who I run with – my man Thirstin Howl III, FI-LO, Bar, Disco – all the originals over there. (more…)
At the Raekwon show the other night, I witnessed the next generation of weed holding. Several members Ice Water were helping out The Chef on stage as you might expect, but it wasn’t long before one of the co-stars tired of vocal back-ups and abandoned his mic in favor of taking care of the drinks for everyone on stage. Every time Lex Diamonds required a top-up of his vodka and cranberry, this loyal side-kick made it happen. When a bag of local weed was handed to Shallah, he quickly passed it to the same dude so he could roll it a fatty, and when some skeezer’s/jump-off’s started hanging out on stage behind the crew, homeboy started the ever-important ‘selection process’. Salute for a job well done! Meanwhile, Rae did his thing as you might expect, peppering his performance with words of encouragement for folk with self-confidence issues and urging the crackers in the crowd to try and bag some black chicks when they get the chance. Much like other Wu shows, Rae spent a lot of time performing his crew’s rhymes for some reason, but when did shit from the original Cuban Linx all was forgiven. That reminds me, I still haven’t ordered that Linx 2 vinyl….
This is Critical Beatdown for 2010. While it doesn’t exactly share any similarities in terms of the beat science presented, Marcberg is a game-changer. Much like the impact of Ultramagnetic MC’s long-awaited debut, you’ve never really heard an album like this before. No guest producers, over-used hooks or any type of traditional song-structure for that matter. This is fourteen cuts of raw flows over minimalistic tracks – only built for real rap connoisseurs. (more…)
