Category: Rap

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Greatness Hip-Hop MLB NFL Rap

Bo Jackson and Lauryn Hill: Legendary Even Without Longevity

Some people are too talented to be confined to just one lane. 

Vincent Edward “Bo” Jackson was the rare two-sport athlete. He could have been a Hall of Famer in both baseball and football. 

Lauryn Hill was the rare two-discipline musical artist. She could have had the greatest career as both a rapper and a singer.

They also shared several other traits in common: reaching incredible heights; colleagues accusing them of being difficult; focusing on their families; and, above all, not being interested in living up to the outsized expectations created by their early acts of brilliance.

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Greatness Hip-Hop I Was There Rap

I Was There: State Property & The LOX Live

Cross another off the concert bucket list.

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Greatness Hip-Hop Rap

The LOX Have Some of the Best Hooks in Rap History

“N—as rhymes be aight but they need hooks”

— Jadakiss

Rappers and hip-hop artists of a certain type value lyricism (“bars”) over pretty much everything else.

As a purist, I appreciate that, but I think it ignores a vital yet rare skill that only some MCs possess, even those that can fill notebooks: the ability to write and deliver a great chorus.

MC’s that can craft an intricate hook hold a higher spot in my personal rankings and the LOX have some of the best rap choruses in hip-hop history.

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Books Rap Reviews

A Deep Analysis of Lyrics That Tries to Be More – “What’s Good: Notes on Rap and Language” Reviewed

In the opening moments of the iconic track, “N.Y. State of Mind,” Nas almost mumbles, “I don’t know how to start this shit.”

It’s appropriate, almost poetic, that this line kept running through my head as I thought about how to approach this review because Daniel Levin Becker’s What’s Good: Notes on Rap and Language is all about lines and lyrics – how they’re created, how deep they go, how they get stuck in our heads, and, awkwardly, what they mean within the larger societal context.

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Hip-Hop Lists Rankings Rap

What Does Rolling Stone Know About Hip-Hop?

I don’t know what’s worse – the rankings or the omissions

“Fuck The Source, I’m on the cover of Rolling Stone!”

– 50 Cent

Lists and rankings are easy ways to create attention and chatter, especially in the internet era.

We all know this. There are countless terrible rap lists floating around online and I’ve been as guilty as anyone (my first book, The Hip-Hop 10 is always available for purchase!), but there are levels to this.

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Hip-Hop Rap Wu-Tang Clan

“Wu-Tang Forever” at 25

While not as gritty as its predecessor, it is much more cinematic and its title has become a mantra to a new generation

Photo Credit: Loud/RCA/Certified

I wrote a 3,300 word piece back in 2017 celebrating the 20th anniversary of Wu-Tang Forever, so this will be much shorter, but I couldn’t let the silver anniversary of my favorite album pass in silence. 

It’s easy to forget now, considering how long ago it was and how much things have changed (both for the group and the industry), but the release of Wu-Tang Forever was an event.

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Hip-Hop Music Rap Wu-Tang Clan

The Disappointment of RZA’s Solo Career

The sad truth is that he doesn’t have an undisputed classic in his own— or Bobby Digital’s — name

Definition of alter ego:

1: a second self or different version of oneself: such as

  • a: a trusted friend
  • b: the opposite side of a personality [Clark Kent and his alter ego Superman]
  • c: a fictional character that is the author’s alter ego

— via Merriam-Webster.com

What is RZA’s best solo album?

Actually, back up a moment. Can you even name every RZA solo album?

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Hip-Hop Lessons Life Rap

13 Lessons Learned from Griselda Records

The approach of Westside Gunn and his crew offers valuable wisdom for not only music, but business, writing, and even life

“I really like that whole, like, cliquing up, Griselda shit. It’s just ill to me…I think what they’re doing is great. It just reminds me of a different time and it’s not easy to do. To make that music and just come off wavy and be interesting.”

 — Drake

The 2010s was a decade in which the line between rap and other genres became not only blurred, but largely nonexistent. Referred to by some as the “melodic era,” it was no longer a rarity or even a surprise to see a hip-hop artist transition into harmonizing, and while that had certainly been done in the past, it now became de rigueur as Drake, Young Thug, and many others rode that wave to stardom. 

At the same time, some dudes stepped onto the scene and began flooding the market with their own music that sounded fresh but at the same time reminiscent of projects that had been released in the mid-’90s. No singing, no theatrics, just grim street tales of drugs and violence delivered over grimy, pounding basslines, creating a “gnarly sound inspired by the slimy criminal underbelly of Buffalo, New York.”

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Books Hip-Hop Rap Reviews

So Much More Than Just a Biography of a Man and a Movement — “Dilla Time” Reviewed

For the most part, whenever I heard a J Dilla (previously known as Jay Dee) beat, it sounded…off, wrong, maybe even sloppy. I couldn’t totally follow it. I wanted to like it, but I couldn’t fully appreciate it. It made me feel a bit discombobulated.

Only much later did I realize that was the intention. Dilla was not only reinventing what was known, he was inventing what was previously unknown.

As Dan Charnas writes, “What Dilla created was a third path of rhythm, juxtaposing those two time-feels [straight time and swing time], even and uneven simultaneously, creating a new, pleasurable, disorienting rhythmic friction and a new time-feel: Dilla Time.”

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Hip-Hop Rap

The Godfather of the Hip-Hop Magazine

A one-on-one interview with Brian Nagata, the man behind RapZines

For us hip-hop superfans that came of age long before the internet and streaming era, we had to get our fix in other ways. Years before blogs and social media, we got our info from the scant TV programs that focused on the culture – Yo! MTV Raps; Urban Xpressions; Rap City – but most of our knowledge and insight came from publications.

The Source was the bible, but there were others. Only in these magazines could we get a regular diet of in-depth features, reviews, and previews of everything happening in and around the music.

No one appreciates that fact more than Brian Nagata, the founder, owner, and operator of Rapzines.

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