Tag: Rap

Categories
Greatness Hip-Hop Uncategorized

Murder Inc.: The Supergroup That Never Was

Murder Inc XX Cover

Originally, Murder Inc. was to be the name of a supergroup comprised of Jay-Z, DMX, and Ja Rule. All three were signed to Def Jam (through their own imprints of Roc-A-Fella, Ruff Ryders, and Murder Inc.) and had known one another for years. They appeared in each other’s videos, shouted out one another, and performed on the same stage during the Hard Knock Life tour.

In 1999, when all three were at – or very close to – the peak of their popularity, they appeared on the cover of XXL to announce the formation of Murder Inc. Some believe that the three could’ve become the greatest hip-hop group in history, but it never happened. As Ja Rule said, “We tried to deliver that album. It was a situation where egos all just played a part in its demise.”

We’ll most likely never get a Murder Inc. album so, just as I did with Detox, I have collected the tracks they did record together in various combinations.

Continue reading “Murder Inc.: The Supergroup That Never Was”

Categories
Music

1999: The Year Hip-Hop Sprang a Leak

tumblr_nihqdd7Lvr1ti1ilso1_500

In 1999, as the world was prepping for Y2K, another, less heralded innovation in the world of computers was about to change the music business: “Napster launched in 1999, and over the next three years tens of millions of music fans eagerly (and by today’s standards, incredibly slowly) downloaded oft-mistagged, low-bitrate mp3 versions of new music to their hard drives, and shared what they’d ripped themselves with software like the WinAmp player.”

The industry would never be the same.

Continue reading “1999: The Year Hip-Hop Sprang a Leak”

Categories
Flashback Friday Flop

Flashback Friday Flop: “Til the Casket Drops”

1373150854_32971

Welcome back to the latest edition of Flashback Friday Flop, a weekly feature in which I examine a hip-hop album from years ago that was considered a flop, either critically or commercially or both, when it was released and see if it has gotten better – or worse – over time. 

This week: Clipse’s Til the Casket Drops (2009)

In the spring of 2002, there came a song with a sparse, backbreaking beat that immediately induced Pavlovian head nodding. As Pharrell introduced himself and proclaimed that “The world is about to hear something that they never heard before,” another voice kept chanting “I’m your pusha!”

This is how most people were introduced to Clipse.

Continue reading “Flashback Friday Flop: “Til the Casket Drops””

Categories
Flashback Friday Flop

Flashback Friday Flop: “Blood Money”

Mobb-Deep-Blood-Money (2)

Welcome back to the latest edition of Flashback Friday Flop, a weekly feature in which I examine a hip-hop album from years ago that was considered a flop, either critically or commercially or both, when it was released and see if it has gotten better – or worse – over time. 

This week: Mobb Deep’s Blood Money (2006)

Hip-Hop was experiencing another golden age in the mid-1990s. Classic albums were coming from all over the map. The south had Scarface, UGK, Goodie Mob, and Outkast. The west had Death Row, Ras Kass, and DJ Quik. And in New York, there was The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, and Mobb Deep.

Continue reading “Flashback Friday Flop: “Blood Money””

Categories
Flashback Friday Flop

Flashback Friday Flop: “Welcome to: Our House”

slaughterhouse-welcome-to-our-house-cover.jpg

Welcome back to the latest edition of Flashback Friday Flop, a weekly feature in which I examine a hip-hop album from years ago that was considered a flop, either critically or commercially or both, when it was released and see if it has gotten better – or worse – over time. 

This week: Slaughterhouse’s Welcome to: Our House (2012)

I’m a Slaughterhouse fanatic. I really, really like Joe Budden, Royce Da 5’9″, Joell Ortiz, and Crooked I as individual artists, but I love them as a group. Unfortunately, their aggressive, super lyrical content would be more at home in the late ’80s or early ’90s, so I’m one of about 29 people that went out and purchased their debut self-titled album in 2009.

Continue reading “Flashback Friday Flop: “Welcome to: Our House””

Categories
The Musical Outcast Uncategorized

The NBA & Hip-Hop: Til Death Do They Part

54cb229f5bae5_-_chris-paul-jay-z-041309-lg

The NBA has a complicated history with hip-hop, but the sooner it embraces the fact that the two are forever entwined, the better it will be. My latest for The Musical Outcast.

Continue reading…

Christopher Pierznik is the author of eight books, all of which can be purchased in paperback and Kindle. His work has appeared on XXL, Cuepoint, Business Insider, The Cauldron, and many more. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Categories
Hip-Hop Medium Uncategorized

Nineteen Ninety-Sex: The Year of Rap’s Femme Fatales

a.jpeg

“I used to be scared of the dick/Now I throw lips to the shit, handle it like a real bitch”

Lil’ Kim was 22-years-old on November 12, 1996, when she uttered those lines, the first lyrics on her debut album, Hard Core. Just one week later, 18-year-old Foxy Brown released her own debut, Ill Na Na, and together the two Brooklyn College Academy alumni set the course for female emcees for the next two decades, changing the way women in hip-hop present themselves to the world — and how they are received by it.

From the cover photos to the lyrics to the album titles, almost nothing was left to the imagination, and with their lethal combination of sexy and street, they easily appealed to fans from both genders.

While Kim and Foxy may not have been the first female hip-hop artists to use their looks as their strongest weapon, they were certainly the most visible and, at least up until that point, the most successful.

Continue reading “Nineteen Ninety-Sex: The Year of Rap’s Femme Fatales”

Categories
Flashback Friday Flop

Flashback Friday Flop: “For All Seasons”

51J6n7jMdoL (2)

Welcome back to the latest edition of Flashback Friday Flop, a weekly feature in which I examine a hip-hop album from years ago that was considered a flop, either critically or commercially or both, when it was released and see if it has gotten better – or worse – over time. 

This week: Nature’s For All Seasons (2000)

The first time many people heard of Nature was when he replaced Cormega as the fourth member of The Firm in 1997. While that project fell far short of expectations, it did debut atop the Billboard 200 and would eventually be certified platinum, exposing fans of Nas, AZ, and Foxy Brown, to this young spitter who performed admirably, even if he was unable to steal the show.

Continue reading “Flashback Friday Flop: “For All Seasons””

Categories
Flashback Friday Flop

Flashback Friday Flop: “Back from Hell”

run-dmc-back-from-hell-back-n-the-day-buffet

Welcome back to the latest edition of Flashback Friday Flop, a weekly feature in which I examine a hip-hop album from years ago that was considered a flop, either critically or commercially or both, when it was released and see if it has gotten better – or worse – over time. 

This week: Run-DMC’s Back from Hell (1990)

A valid argument could be made that Run-DMC is the most important act in hip-hop history. They influenced so much of the culture, from the sound to the look and, in the process, became one of the first prominent rap artists to be featured on mainstream media, most especially MTV. Their 1986 crossover smash “Walk This Way” with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry not only revitalized Aerosmith, but also became a landmark in hip-hop, becoming the first rap song to reach the top five of the Billboard 100 (peaking at number four).

Continue reading “Flashback Friday Flop: “Back from Hell””

Categories
Flashback Friday Flop

Flashback Friday Flop: “A Better Tomorrow”

music-review-wu-tang-clan-2a6c742b289babfa

Welcome back to the latest edition of Flashback Friday Flop, a weekly feature in which I examine a hip-hop album from years ago that was considered a flop, either critically or commercially or both, when it was released and see if it has gotten better – or worse – over time. 

This week: Wu-Tang Clan’s A Better Tomorrow (2014)

In the twenty-plus years since arriving on the scene, the members of Wu-Tang Clan have released about 50 albums, both as a group and as individual solo artists. Depending on the criteria used (does Cappadonna count? What about Redman & Method Man albums? How about Czarface?) that number can rise significantly. Of those 50, some are undeniable classics.

Continue reading “Flashback Friday Flop: “A Better Tomorrow””