hip hop

★★★

“Yeah, uh huh, you know what it is.” Wiz Khalifa’s anthemic opening line from his mega-hit “Black and Yellow” is neatly applicable to his most recent mixtape/free album Taylor Allderdice. If you are at all familiar with the work of Wiz Khalifa, then “you know what it is” when it comes to his latest offering. For those who are less initiated into the world of Wiz Khalifa, what this means is laid-back songs, primarily about marijuana consumption, drinking, women, partying and his newfound wealth. In short, it is quite shallow stuff, but that is not to say there can be no enjoyment found in Taylor Allderdice.

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★★★★

Truly talented hip-hop producers are a rare breed. For every Kanye West or No ID (two of the defining producers of the modern era of hip hop music), there are dozens of cheap imitators who attempt to play off established styles without carving out their own niche . Thankfully Big K.R.I.T. falls into the former. As he proves on his third free online album 4eva in a Day, he is one of the most intriguing producers to emerge in the past few years. 4Eva in a Day doesn’t stray to far from K.R.I.T.’s established style, but, luckily for the listener, that is a decidedly good thing.

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J. Cole’s name has been floating around the hip-hop community for a few years now, but nobody quite knew what to expect from Cole World: The Sideline Story. Releasing an album isn’t nearly as easy as it used to be, and gone are the days when a debut album was truly a debut. To release an album in the hip-hop world today, an artist must first establish themselves by releasing hundreds of free songs and multiple successful mixtapes. Cole has done this over the past 4 years or so, but getting a record label (in Cole’s case Roc Nation) to approve a debut album is merely the beginning. Often times labels will force artists to commercialize their music to boost sales, causing artists to abandon the style which garnered them fans. Couple this with the expectations that accompany an album years in the making, and artists face the seemingly impossible challenge of pleasing both fans and their label, while still putting out a quality piece of work that is true to the vision of the artist.

These were all concerns that I and many others rightfully had as Cole’s album was continually pushed back, particularly because Cole has a raw style that is tough to release to a broad audience. However, the album finally arrived, and to the relief of many he stayed true to himself and released an album marked by its impressive production, creative lyrics, and unmatched rhymes. Read More »

“A man broke his jaw trying to say what I / say on the microphone, you shoulda left it alone / just for the record, let it be known / that my ego’s only partially grown / and never will I ever condone / biting, in any form”

-Masta Ace, “The Symphony,” 1988.

 Nothing can inspire indignant hip-hop purists and classicists quite like Justin Bieber’s flirtations with rap music. When Raekwon featured on the 2010 remix of Bieber’s hit “Runaway Love,” many “real hip-hop heads” were up in arms, disturbed by how their favorite gritty street rapper would sell his soul to the marshmallow-soft teen pop star. Read More »

“If the Quest don’t look good, then Queens won’t look good
But since the sounds are universal, New York won’t look good”

-Phife Dog, A Tribe Called Quest, “God Lives Through,” Midnight Marauders, 1993.

Welcome. In this, the first Boom Bap Backstory, all the readers out there deserve an explanation. Some of you out there might be asking, “what is boom bap, and what’s its backstory?”

Boom bap is one of the sounds of hip-hop: steady, pounding, swinging drums. Any hip-hop song from New York from 1989-2000 that you’d call an anthem is most likely boom bap.

The term boom bap also has a connotation of classic-ness. And therein lies the aim of this column. I take the hip-hop of today, and add in the “Boom Bap Backkstory” to it. I want to show the roots and long-term trends that have led to what’s present within the music today. The point is to tie everything together, and make hip-hop of different eras and styles more accessible. Read More »

Hip-hop has changed the name of the American Dream. It has transformed white-picket fences into 22” rims on a blacked-out Escalade. It has changed a dutiful wife and kids to a harem of women and a loyal entourage. Climbing the corporate ladder has become burning the corporate ladder, just to build it again, but this time with diamonds. In the same line as fast cars and quick women, hip-hop moguls rise swiftly, but fall faster. Face Off is here to pick up those tattered, dusty pieces left behind by the has-beens and once-was, polish them off, and present you with a sparkling competition.

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Ask most people about some of the young artists in hip-hop and you’re likely to hear about Drake, Wiz Khalifa, and maybe even Big Sean; but the budding star everyone should be buzzing about hails from North Carolina and goes by the name of J. Cole. Many first heard of J. Cole back in 2009, when he was the first artist to sign with Jay-Z’s new record label, Roc Nation. At that point, the common hip hop listener most likely didn’t know the remarkable path J. Cole had followed. While most rappers scoff at education, extolling that they knew from the time they were a child that college wasn’t a possibility, J. Cole overcame these obstacles and attended St. John’s University in New York City on a full academic scholarship, graduating magna cum laude. While this may not seem atypical, it won’t come as much of a surprise upon listening to his music. Read More »

A biweekly look at what is up in the world of hip hop, including both retrospectives on the classics and first takes on the modern-day pioneers, who I believe are led by – but by no means limited to – the innovators of Odd Future.

For most, Madlib is the best DJ they’ve never heard of. For me, he’s one of the best DJ’s I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing, and I hope you will soon come to the same conclusion. Throughout his career as J Dilla’s handpicked apprentice and crate-digga extraordinaire, Madlib has put out crates of his own records, as a producer for artists such as Talib Kweli, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, MF Doom and De La Soul; as part of his own groups and collaborations such as Lootpack, Madvillain and Jaylib; under his solo moniker, the Beat Konducta; and under the guise of various fictitious jazz cats like Joe McDuphrey and Monk Hughes. A comprehensive review of Madlib’s career could provide the material for hundreds of blog posts (and probably will depending on how long they let me write this), so I am going to focus on what is perhaps the most diverse, most eclectic, and most awesome project in hip hop history, Madlib Medicine Show.

♫ Listen: Miles by Madlib off Madlib Medicine Show #8: Advanced Jazz

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