This album dropped like a slap upside the head. Distortion to Static was the perfect single to drop first. If they had pushed Datskat out first, it would have earned them the wrong audience.
The organic feel to the album, mainly due to Qwestlove's rhythms and the group's insistence on using only normal musical instruments, gives this album a live feel, even though it is studio album. The Roots always stand out.
MF Doom clearly spends the most time of any hip-hop artist in the "lab." He finds the most obscure jazz loops and works them into beats that are sugary treats. I still have yet to find anyone who can make a beat like Doom. I am not certain what his relationship with Madlib is, but they are very similar in style.
Special Herbs is an album that belongs in any discerning hip-hop listener's collection.
Del is funkee, simply because he was Kanye West, a decade before Kanye West. When he came out, he was just Del. There was no bling, no talking about ho's, money, cars, etc... His beats were eclectic and his lyrics were strong. No Need For Alarm is an important contribution to hip-hop.
It is hard to determine who Octagon is. His flow is stream of consciousness so he isn't for everybody. He hasn't really changed since he was with Ultramagnetic, and they were sick back in the day. Keith is still crazy, but Dr. Octagonecologyst was his best album.
This album is good, but not great, still it was one of the first albums from the Bay Area to achieve mainstream success. Digital Underground's albums were the first. That's When You're Lost was one of my favorite songs for years.
That round out my list. I believe that if you get all of these albums, you will have a good understanding of where Hip-Hop is today, and where it has come from.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
The Definitive Hip-Hop Collection (Part 6)
The Definitive Hip-Hop Collection (Part 5)
This album is probably the most raw, and ostensibly the most disarming album to be released since Wu-Tang released Enter the 36 Chambers. What 50 does in this album is let everyone know how hungry he is for success, as well as attention. His constant beef with just about every other rapper is evidence of that. I am not sure where Eminem found 50, but by putting him on, we are all eternally grateful.
Eminem is far and away the best lyricist that is currently on. In a battle, he will destroy any rapper that approaches. On I Still Don't Give A F**k he delivers one of the best put-together flows I have ever heard.
The basic problem is the same one that happens to most anyone else who is successful and has no real competition. They get lazy and release basically garbage. As a result this album stands as, lyrically, probably the best album on the list.
2-Pac has to be one of the most prolific hip-hop artists ever. I'm sure the number of songs he has written number in the thousands. However, with all of that volume, there have only been a few quality albums. This was his best. The title track sounds like warfare, and he doesn't stop there.
Every song on this album would be a single on any other hip-hop artist of the era's albums. The only song that is out of place is I Get Around with Digital Underground. The song is a little too playful for the album, but is still an outstanding track.
Ghostface Killah is my favorite rapper, and that bias should be known, but his lyrics are insane, he can deliver fast, he can deliver slow, basically if you have a garbage track you can throw him on it and he will save the track.
If there is a problem with Ironman, it is too much of a good thing. Many of the gems Ghostface drops are lost in the flow of the album, and the RZA's hard beats. The Pretty Tony album and Fishscale should get honorable mention.
Blowout Comb was a very moody album, and a departure from Digable Planets' mainstream style. I get the impression from listening to it that the success of Reachin' made them uncomfortable, and they wanted to go back to their revolutionary roots.
Many would probably wonder why I didn't put Reachin' on the list, but I think that artistically, Blowout Comb is a superior effort
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
How Dare the U.S. Congress Call Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft on Morality In China - A Rant
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. This is obscene, this Congress, this rubber stamp Congress, has absolutely no grounds for blaming Yahoo for their behavior in China. This is the most hypocritical action by a congress in my lifetime.
They are the ones who don't apply tariffs on goods and services from China. They are the ones who look the other way when the Chinese government slaughters students to keep doing business with them. They are the ones who keep "good trade partner" status with China while they force people to work 18 hour days on dangerous machines and allow poisonous foods into the country.
If the U.S. Government wants to take a stand on China, they should sanction them, and levy hefty tariffs on goods and services from China to pay for us screening every item until they improve the quality of the goods they are shipping into our country, and not remove the sanctions until they improve their human rights record.
Or perhaps, if they really want to do something, instead of just passing whatever garbage the President wants to introduce, they could actually help hold them accountable for destroying our right to protection from unwarranted search and seizure by allowing cases against AT&T, Sprint, and the like. It is the only way to challenge the constitutionality of those provisions of the USA Patriot Act.
Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft have only one responsibility as corporations, and that is to the board and the shareholders. If Yahoo had not turned over the information about the journalist, they wouldn't have been able to do business in China, it wouldn't have been acting in the best interest of its shareholders and wouldn't have been being a good corporate citizen. Morally, obviously they shouldn't have done it, but it is the U.S. Government's fault for making it so lucrative to do business with an immoral and repressive regime.
How can you expect for a business to not try to make money. It is the government's responsibility to provide oversight, and to structure policies as to ensure the best behavior of the corporate world, not complain about it after the fact. How can they say that it is OK to do business with them out of one side of their mouths, and then say that if you do, we are going to publicly embarrass you? That doesn't even make any sense.
All the government has done is what they always do, screw up the market, screw up the economy and make themselves an obstacle to peace and goodwill in the world. I certainly hope that in the upcoming elections we make a statement against this type of boneheaded posturing by politicians.
Blogged with Flock
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Bill Belichick Straight Thug
Whether or not you like what the Patriots are doing this year, no one can deny their PWNING of everyone out there. Jemele Hill compares him to Suge Knight, making the rest of the Patriots organization Death Row. In any event Belichick owns the NFL
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