Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Internet Oddity: "Weird"
Every fiber of my being wishes this was real. Makes me long for the days of "My Bologna" and "Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch". Well, not really.
Music Video: "I Feel Better"
The best song off the new Hot Chip album is now an amazing, weird, and hilarious music video. A rare example of a video making a song even better.
New Hotness: "Nothin' On You"
This super smooth Hip-Hop-Pop come from Kanye-wannabe (or "Kannabe") B.o.B. is currently climbing up the pop charts. It's a guilty pleasure, good for a few listens.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
New Hotness: "Ambling Alp"
This killer Indie power jam is from their new album Odd Blood, and it's leagues better than anything on their debut. This is the "My Girls" of 2010. Included is an awesome remix by one of my new favorites The Very Best.
Yeasayer - "Ambling Alp" (The Very Best Mulomo Remix)
New Hotness: "Jump In The Air (Stay There)"
Off the upcoming New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh. Judging from this track and the cover art, expect part 2 to get a little freakier than the 4th World War.
Friday, March 12, 2010
New Hotness: "Baby I'm Yours"
Upon furthur contemplation, I realized that the new T.I. joint isn't really banging enough of a New Hotness to kick off the weekend. So when I stumbled over this epically amazing dance song, I had to throw it up. From the consistently fresh French dance label Ed Banger, this new Breakbot single oozes with Michael-esque disco flavor. I'm gonna be grooving to this one all weekend.
New Hotness: "I'm Back"
The first official single from T.I. since his release finds the rapper right where we left him. The song is pure T.I., it's good to see prison didn't change a playa.
Rocker of the Day: "Devastation"
I like these guys, because they rock pretty hard for a bunch of Canadian shoegazers. Kind of like if Arcade Fire listened to a lot of weird 70s art rock.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Internet Oddity: 8-bit Hip-Hop
Apparently this is about a year old, but I've never heard it and it's incredible. Nine rap anthems are given the NES treatment in stunning 8-bit sound, and it's amazing hop good they sound.
Here are the songs in the medley:
Jay-Z — Dirt Off Your Shoulders
T.I — What You Know
Chamillionaire — Ridin’
Ludacris — What’s Ya Fantasy
Bonecrusher — Neva Scared
Kanye West — Overnight Celebrity
Ludacris — Move Bitch
Lil Jon — Get Low
Kanye West — Gold Digger
Diplo Presents: Free Gucci
★★★★
The rise of Gucci Mane from obscure mush-mouthed rapper to pop chart Usher collaborator is just as difficult to understand as his allure. It's an allure that's undoubtedly there, despite the fact that on the surface he seems like any run-of-the-mill Atlanta ex-drug dealer turnt rapper. As it is with Hip-Hop, so much of an MC's talent lies within his voice, and Gucci's voice is something special. His withdrawn viscous growl conveys so much more than his wry and simplistic rhymes, which he humorously lets out in short bursts. He doesn't scream or dominate the microphone like so many other power-obsessed rappers. Instead it almost feels like he's just going along for the ride, casually talking to himself as the beat goes on. On Free Gucci, it's the same old Gucci but the beats have changed, thanks to Diplo and a cadre of indie electronic producers.
The rhymes on Free Gucci are from three mixtapes called The Cold War Series, your basic rap mixtapes with DJ Drama screaming all over the tracks. With all the "Gangsta Grillz!" and explosions going off, and the repetitive pounding of the contemporary Hip-Hop beats, it's easy to lose sight of Gucci Mane. You would think the same would happen here, with lavish techno production drowning out lil' ol' Gucci. What's so great about Free Gucci is that it's the exact opposite; the production here gives Gucci room to breath. The DJs have give the vocals all the focus, and on most of the tracks they amplify their impact with incredible beats. On Gucci's most recent studio album, The State vs. Radric Davis, there were some examples of production that gave Gucci the opportunity to be heard like he is here. Hopefully more producers will follow suit.
Key Tracks: "Danger's Not a Stranger", "Dope Boys", "I Be Everywhere (Mumdance Remix)"
1. Danger's Not A Stranger (Diplo Remix)
2. Dope Boys (Bird Peterson Remix)
3. Excuse Me (Memory Tapes Remix)
4. No No No (Brodinski & Monsieur Monsieur AKA Rubi Sapphyr Remix)
5. Frowny Face (Douster Remix)
6. Frowny Face (Emynd Remix)
7. I'm Expecting (DJ Teenwolf Remix)
8. Boi (Zomby Remix)
9. My Shadow (Salem Remix)
10. Excuse Me (Diplo Remix)
11. Photo Shoot (Flying Lotus Remix)
(For some reason this is the only one not on YouTube. Whatever, it's weak.)
12. I Be Everywhere (Mumdance Remix)
13. I Be Everywhere (DZ Remix)
14. I'm The Shit (DJ Benzi & Willy Joy Remix)
15. Break Yourself (Diplo Remix)
New Hotness: "Over"
Damn, a double daily dose of New Hotness today. This is the first single from Drake's debut studio album Thank Me Later. It's going to be one of the biggest rap albums of 2010, second only to a little super-anticipated album known as Good Ass Job from everyone's favorite Kanye. Drake's 2009 mixtape was a lot like Kanye's 808 & Heartbreak, but Drake said recently that his debut would be straight Hip-Hop. He's got a good start here, blasting off over a killer Boi-1da beat.
New Hotness: "Guilty"
Ur-shur baby. I cannot wait for Raymond v. Raymond, because if anyone can get it poppin' it's Usher. This song is pretty hot, and it features one of T.I.'s first post-prison raps.
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
★★½
Hot Chip is a band that's been derided for being practitioners of "indietronica", 2008's hottest music fad. The hipster genre is all about dancefloor tempos paired with mellow instrumentation or atypical sounds and structures. On their 2008 album Made In The Dark Hot Chip played with these structures, moving away from the technicolor glitch pop of their early work to a more varied and matured record. Songs like "Ready For The Floor" were infectious and meticulous pop hits, while slower songs like "We're Looking For A Lot Of Love" gave the album a ton of depth. With their new album One Life Stand, it seems they've returned to the shallow end of the pool, delivering an album that is cohesively toned down and zoned out, and one of the most boring dance albums I've ever heard.
Listening to One Life Stand it seems as if someone talked this band out of having fun. Nothing on the album even attempts to reach for dancefloor greatness like "Ready For The Floor" or "Over and Over". The few moments when they do are the album's highlights; big juicy slabs of retro house perfectly suited for Alexis Taylor's quiet quivering vocals. I'm not against the album's slow songs; the ballads on Made In The Dark were my favorite moments. It's just that all the energy has been sucked out of the album, mostly due to some truly awful songs that don't add anything at all to album. It's ten songs long and five of them suck. A big step backwards for one of Britain's biggest bands.
Key Tracks: "I Feel Better", "We Have Love"
Rocker of the Day: "It Ain't Gonna Save Me"
A few weeks ago Jay Reatard took his own life, and while his second album Watch Me Fall is filled with jangly punk rock numbers, the lyrics and tone of the album have taken on a whole new meaning since then. "It Ain't Gonna Save Me" is a bubbly clap-along head nodder, but when the bridge starts in with "All is lost there is no hope", it becomes a maudlin farwell address.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
New Hotness: "Ridin' Solo"
If you like your pop saccharine, look no further. This track from white-boy heavy-hitter producer J.R. Rotem might make maple syrup ooze out your ears it's so sweet.
Rocker of the Day: "Five on the Five"
On The Raconteurs' second album Consolers of the Lonely they strayed from the basic classic rock archetypes on their debut for a little more variety. It featured everything from country ballads to punk jams, and this slice of gasoline-soaked rock n' roll. Starting with Jack White's signature guitar scream the song is relentless to the end, filled to the brim with jangly tambourines, misplaced cowbell, and power choruses and fretwork that would make Thin Lizzy jealous. Rock on.
Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
★★★★
A fictional band is a hell of a platform, and Damon Albarn has used Gorillaz to let lose his wildest pop fantasies. It was easy to tell Albarn wasn't interested in being trapped within the confines of a band after his fallout with Blur guitarist Graham Coxon. Since its debut in 2001 Gorillaz has acted as an outlet for Albarn, and each album has been fascinated with styles far from Blur's Britpop. Their self-titled debut was an experimentation in dub, while nearly every song on 2005's fantastic Demon Days was rooted in Hip-Hop. Now with Plastic Beach Damon Albarn presents us with a tapestry of pop, full of orchestral swells and Wilson-esque grandiosity.
Don't let the Snoop Dogg fool you, Plastic Beach isn't the murky Bush-era rap album that was Demon Days. The album is both parts melancholy and eager anticipation, with haunting pop ballads based more in electronic music than trip-hop. There are moments of psycheldelic layering that recall The Soft Bulletin, and other times we get muted electronica reminiscent of Air or even Hot Chip. On Demon Days Albarn's collaborators dominated on a lot of tracks. Here the featured performers seem to adapt more to the album, like the brilliant Bobby Womack on "Stylo" and even Lou Reed on "Some Kind of Nature". The album has a cohesiveness that really draws you in and makes you appreciate its little nuances that much more. There was talk that this Gorillaz album was never happening, but the progress made on Plastic Beach makes me very excited about the future of this project.
Key Tracks: "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach", "Superfast Jellyfish", "Plastic Beach"
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
The 100 greatest Hip-Hop songs of the 2000's: 1-10
1. "99 Problems" - Jay-Z
How do you defend the statement of claiming one song to be greater than all others? It's not easy. You could approach it from a cultural standpoint; trying to determine what song had the largest impact on our pop culture. You could consider artistic merit and aesthetics, two factors most people don't even consider when they think about Hip-Hop. Really, when you break it down, it has to be great for greatness sake. Great as in powerful. Great as in dominant. Great as in the fiery bellows of the greatest MC of the decade, in vicious top-form from a self-imposed fictional retirement. Great as in Rick Rubin, who here delivers a beat so other-worldly and unique that we have to question where the hell it came from. Great as in hands down the purest slice of Hip-Hop nostalgia in years that at the same time sounds years beyond 2003. When it comes down to it, I guess I had to ask myself, "Would it be right to put any song above this one?" Guess not.
2: "B.O.B." - OutKast
A lot of rock critics are saying now that the fusion of Hip-Hop and electronic dance music into the gelatinous pop-like substance we consume now was inevitable, fueled by the TRL generation. Unfortunately they and a large number of other "hipster-types" (i.e. people that can't dance) deride our modern booty music as unrefined and low-cultured. How wrong they are. If only they weren't total losers they would know that the Akons and J.R. Rotems of the world owe their Bugati's to "Bomb's Over Baghdad", a bombastic techno-rap that's so advanced and beyond comprehension I swear it was sent from the future. A Miami-Bass injected, dancefloor-drenched boogie anthem about a war that wouldn't start for another three years that ends chanting "Power music, electric revival!" To listen to this song is to hear the next ten years of Pop and Hip-Hop in five minutes. How did they do that?
3: "A Milli" - Lil' Wayne
The changes between 2000 and 2010 are pretty huge, and if you hear something in 2010 it's probably gonna sound more like "A Milli" than "B.O.B." Just a screwed up vocal sample, chopped up real quick with a simple yet sinister bass and snare. The staples of Southern Hip-Hop. So why "A Milli"? Because a beat like this puts it all on the rapper, and in 2008 there was no better rapper than Lil' Wayne. "A Milli" was an album stand in for every mixtape track Wayne had done in the years leading up to Tha Carter III; straight freestyle rapping, no hook. Without any of the frills of modern pop production Lil' Wayne made one of the most impactful singles of the decade with no chorus to speak off. Ask any geek off the street and he can probably rap the whole thing back to you.
4: "Paper Planes" - M.I.A.
There's something so intoxicating to American ears about international sounds bent into American genres. When we hear South Africans battle rapping in crazy afro-dutch accents we realize just how far our little hometown hero Hip-Hop has come since 1973 in the Bronx. M.I.A. was hyped up before her 2005 debut as an Indie savior of dance and Hip-Hop. It wasn't until her sophomore album Kala that her real success came, when she transformed her early multi-cultural jam vibe into a gritty, third world envisioning of American pop music. "Paper Planes" is the albums highlight and heart, a towering slab of funked-out rap that's half swagger and half satire. The snaps and thumps of the beat owe themselves to Southern Rap, but the international subject and starlet elevate this song into something bigger than the sum of its parts. By the time little Maya taunts "Some I murder, some I let go", you feel like Tupac in '95: Untouchable.
5: "What You Know" - T.I.
Southern Hip-Hop has been a lot of things, but most of the time its been almost a second tier genre. Throughout the 90s Hip-Hop's focus was on the coasts, and artists from New York and California were the ones bankrolled by major labels. They got the freshest beats and the videos with high production values. Southern MCs relied on soul samples or crude electro beats (think Goodie Mob and Mannie Fresh, respectively), while they formed their own independent labels. Wouldn't you know that this model set the stage for the influx of diversity in rap in the 2000s, and now Southern MCs dominate the landscape. What was (and still is) a challenge is adapting the Southern sound to the ever homogenized dance music of the Billboard charts. Words used to describe the dirty south of old might be "dusty", "funky", or "ghetto". "What You Know" conjures words like "regal", "epic", and "awesome". T.I., Atlanta trap superstar who started out rapping about rims, creates a track that rocks as hard as any Metallica song and is just as precise. Transforming the dirty dirty to the high and mighty.
6: "Hate It Or Love It" - The Game feat. 50 Cent
Nostalgia is huge part of Hip-Hop. The debates about "realness", or what constitutes real Hip-Hop, are tied up in the past. Old schoolers claim that what's on the radio isn't real rap. Guys from the 90s get pissed when you call them old school. The young MCs cite Jay-Z as Hip-Hop history. So when contemporary artists pay tribute, or make concessions, to the earlier days the results almost always take you back to simpler times, even if you weren't around for them. If Game really wants to be Dr. Dre, then this is his "Express Yourself"; a song imbued with positivity despite the reality of the rap interfere. Put this on at your next party and count the smiles.
7: "Drop It Like It's Hot" - Snoop Dogg feat. Pharrell
The Neptunes had to work with a lot of people before they found the one voice perfectly suited for their spaced-out electro funk. At a time when rap radio was yelling at you to "Lean Back" and "Get Low", things got real quiet whenever "Drop It Like It's Hot" came on. Over the deepest beat they ever made the Neptunes and Snoop make some strange magic here, with Snoop's threats and street language swallowed whole by the beat's echoing hugeness. As soon as this track was everywhere, imitators came running with quiet storm beats, but it just wasn't the same. If you need an example of perfect chemistry in 21st century rap, look no furthur than Snoop and the Neptunes.
8: "Country Grammar (Hot Shit)" - Nelly
Something I asked myself a lot in writing this list was, "how did this happen?" How did we get to the point of rap being just another aisle in Tower Records to having Hip-Hop pop, Hip-Hop culture? Hell, some would say we have a Hip-Hop president. If I had to pick a turning point for the tide of Hip-Hop in America, it would be this song. At the beginning of this new millenium, a young man was given unto the world, and his name was Nelly. He had a song called "Country Grammar", built around a grade-school jump rope rhyme and sing-song rapped at super speeds. He wasn't from New York or California, he wasn't even from Atlanta. He was from...St. Louis? His music video had all these crazy hood people, and rims, and fried chicken! This was not the same old music we'd always heard. It was new, and most importantly it was distinct. This song blew the roof off regional rap; finally audiences were ready for something new. In the song, Nelly shouts out nearly every city across America, and finishes with "getting paid off this country grammar." Thus the definition of regional rap in the 2000s.
9: "Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You)" - UGK feat. OutKast
This song, more than anything else, reminds us of what we don't have in contemporary Hip-Hop. The passing of Pimp C just months after this song was released made it so UGK would never have a single like this again. This was the biggest song they'd released since "Big Pimpin'" came out nearly ten years earlier, and a chance at fame was finally theirs. OutKast makes one of their first real Hip-Hop songs in five years, and their abscense from the Top Ten can be felt. Three 6 Mafia crafts a beat for Southern Soul purists that sounds more like Motown than Cash Money. In so many ways, this is the music we're not getting; souled out slow jams about marraige and fidelity, and also pimpin and poppin tags. This song should have launched UGK into the stratosphere, but there's no UGK left. RIP to the Pimp.
10: "Daylight" - Aesop Rock
Where are the descendants of Aesop? Where are the legions of high-functioning MCs gracing the covers of indie music mags, spitting dense cerebral lyrics to art-crowd white boy fans? In 2000 it seemed that they would be everywhere, saving Hip-Hop from itself. Aesop's label, Definitive Jux, was supposed to be the vessel, delivering a cadre of post-modern rappers. So where is alternative Hip-Hop in 2010? Jurassic 5 broke up, Black Star still only has one album, and just last month El-P stepped down as director of Def Jux, the label he founded in 1999. The idea was that indie rap would coexist alongside mainstream rap, but just look around. The scores of underground MCs still exist, but they no longer strive for a unified aesthetic. Instead they try harder and harder to sound like everybody else. This great rap movement never came, but Aesop Rock's 2001 album Labor Days is its high-water mark. "Daylight" is a song imbued with the raw passion that separated these alternative MCs from the flock. It's a shame this didn't blow up, because its one of the greatest Hip-Hop songs of all time.
How do you defend the statement of claiming one song to be greater than all others? It's not easy. You could approach it from a cultural standpoint; trying to determine what song had the largest impact on our pop culture. You could consider artistic merit and aesthetics, two factors most people don't even consider when they think about Hip-Hop. Really, when you break it down, it has to be great for greatness sake. Great as in powerful. Great as in dominant. Great as in the fiery bellows of the greatest MC of the decade, in vicious top-form from a self-imposed fictional retirement. Great as in Rick Rubin, who here delivers a beat so other-worldly and unique that we have to question where the hell it came from. Great as in hands down the purest slice of Hip-Hop nostalgia in years that at the same time sounds years beyond 2003. When it comes down to it, I guess I had to ask myself, "Would it be right to put any song above this one?" Guess not.
2: "B.O.B." - OutKast
A lot of rock critics are saying now that the fusion of Hip-Hop and electronic dance music into the gelatinous pop-like substance we consume now was inevitable, fueled by the TRL generation. Unfortunately they and a large number of other "hipster-types" (i.e. people that can't dance) deride our modern booty music as unrefined and low-cultured. How wrong they are. If only they weren't total losers they would know that the Akons and J.R. Rotems of the world owe their Bugati's to "Bomb's Over Baghdad", a bombastic techno-rap that's so advanced and beyond comprehension I swear it was sent from the future. A Miami-Bass injected, dancefloor-drenched boogie anthem about a war that wouldn't start for another three years that ends chanting "Power music, electric revival!" To listen to this song is to hear the next ten years of Pop and Hip-Hop in five minutes. How did they do that?
3: "A Milli" - Lil' Wayne
The changes between 2000 and 2010 are pretty huge, and if you hear something in 2010 it's probably gonna sound more like "A Milli" than "B.O.B." Just a screwed up vocal sample, chopped up real quick with a simple yet sinister bass and snare. The staples of Southern Hip-Hop. So why "A Milli"? Because a beat like this puts it all on the rapper, and in 2008 there was no better rapper than Lil' Wayne. "A Milli" was an album stand in for every mixtape track Wayne had done in the years leading up to Tha Carter III; straight freestyle rapping, no hook. Without any of the frills of modern pop production Lil' Wayne made one of the most impactful singles of the decade with no chorus to speak off. Ask any geek off the street and he can probably rap the whole thing back to you.
4: "Paper Planes" - M.I.A.
There's something so intoxicating to American ears about international sounds bent into American genres. When we hear South Africans battle rapping in crazy afro-dutch accents we realize just how far our little hometown hero Hip-Hop has come since 1973 in the Bronx. M.I.A. was hyped up before her 2005 debut as an Indie savior of dance and Hip-Hop. It wasn't until her sophomore album Kala that her real success came, when she transformed her early multi-cultural jam vibe into a gritty, third world envisioning of American pop music. "Paper Planes" is the albums highlight and heart, a towering slab of funked-out rap that's half swagger and half satire. The snaps and thumps of the beat owe themselves to Southern Rap, but the international subject and starlet elevate this song into something bigger than the sum of its parts. By the time little Maya taunts "Some I murder, some I let go", you feel like Tupac in '95: Untouchable.
5: "What You Know" - T.I.
Southern Hip-Hop has been a lot of things, but most of the time its been almost a second tier genre. Throughout the 90s Hip-Hop's focus was on the coasts, and artists from New York and California were the ones bankrolled by major labels. They got the freshest beats and the videos with high production values. Southern MCs relied on soul samples or crude electro beats (think Goodie Mob and Mannie Fresh, respectively), while they formed their own independent labels. Wouldn't you know that this model set the stage for the influx of diversity in rap in the 2000s, and now Southern MCs dominate the landscape. What was (and still is) a challenge is adapting the Southern sound to the ever homogenized dance music of the Billboard charts. Words used to describe the dirty south of old might be "dusty", "funky", or "ghetto". "What You Know" conjures words like "regal", "epic", and "awesome". T.I., Atlanta trap superstar who started out rapping about rims, creates a track that rocks as hard as any Metallica song and is just as precise. Transforming the dirty dirty to the high and mighty.
6: "Hate It Or Love It" - The Game feat. 50 Cent
Nostalgia is huge part of Hip-Hop. The debates about "realness", or what constitutes real Hip-Hop, are tied up in the past. Old schoolers claim that what's on the radio isn't real rap. Guys from the 90s get pissed when you call them old school. The young MCs cite Jay-Z as Hip-Hop history. So when contemporary artists pay tribute, or make concessions, to the earlier days the results almost always take you back to simpler times, even if you weren't around for them. If Game really wants to be Dr. Dre, then this is his "Express Yourself"; a song imbued with positivity despite the reality of the rap interfere. Put this on at your next party and count the smiles.
7: "Drop It Like It's Hot" - Snoop Dogg feat. Pharrell
The Neptunes had to work with a lot of people before they found the one voice perfectly suited for their spaced-out electro funk. At a time when rap radio was yelling at you to "Lean Back" and "Get Low", things got real quiet whenever "Drop It Like It's Hot" came on. Over the deepest beat they ever made the Neptunes and Snoop make some strange magic here, with Snoop's threats and street language swallowed whole by the beat's echoing hugeness. As soon as this track was everywhere, imitators came running with quiet storm beats, but it just wasn't the same. If you need an example of perfect chemistry in 21st century rap, look no furthur than Snoop and the Neptunes.
8: "Country Grammar (Hot Shit)" - Nelly
Something I asked myself a lot in writing this list was, "how did this happen?" How did we get to the point of rap being just another aisle in Tower Records to having Hip-Hop pop, Hip-Hop culture? Hell, some would say we have a Hip-Hop president. If I had to pick a turning point for the tide of Hip-Hop in America, it would be this song. At the beginning of this new millenium, a young man was given unto the world, and his name was Nelly. He had a song called "Country Grammar", built around a grade-school jump rope rhyme and sing-song rapped at super speeds. He wasn't from New York or California, he wasn't even from Atlanta. He was from...St. Louis? His music video had all these crazy hood people, and rims, and fried chicken! This was not the same old music we'd always heard. It was new, and most importantly it was distinct. This song blew the roof off regional rap; finally audiences were ready for something new. In the song, Nelly shouts out nearly every city across America, and finishes with "getting paid off this country grammar." Thus the definition of regional rap in the 2000s.
9: "Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You)" - UGK feat. OutKast
This song, more than anything else, reminds us of what we don't have in contemporary Hip-Hop. The passing of Pimp C just months after this song was released made it so UGK would never have a single like this again. This was the biggest song they'd released since "Big Pimpin'" came out nearly ten years earlier, and a chance at fame was finally theirs. OutKast makes one of their first real Hip-Hop songs in five years, and their abscense from the Top Ten can be felt. Three 6 Mafia crafts a beat for Southern Soul purists that sounds more like Motown than Cash Money. In so many ways, this is the music we're not getting; souled out slow jams about marraige and fidelity, and also pimpin and poppin tags. This song should have launched UGK into the stratosphere, but there's no UGK left. RIP to the Pimp.
10: "Daylight" - Aesop Rock
Where are the descendants of Aesop? Where are the legions of high-functioning MCs gracing the covers of indie music mags, spitting dense cerebral lyrics to art-crowd white boy fans? In 2000 it seemed that they would be everywhere, saving Hip-Hop from itself. Aesop's label, Definitive Jux, was supposed to be the vessel, delivering a cadre of post-modern rappers. So where is alternative Hip-Hop in 2010? Jurassic 5 broke up, Black Star still only has one album, and just last month El-P stepped down as director of Def Jux, the label he founded in 1999. The idea was that indie rap would coexist alongside mainstream rap, but just look around. The scores of underground MCs still exist, but they no longer strive for a unified aesthetic. Instead they try harder and harder to sound like everybody else. This great rap movement never came, but Aesop Rock's 2001 album Labor Days is its high-water mark. "Daylight" is a song imbued with the raw passion that separated these alternative MCs from the flock. It's a shame this didn't blow up, because its one of the greatest Hip-Hop songs of all time.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
The 100 greatest Hip-Hop songs of the 2000's: 11-20
11: "Grindin'" - Clipse
Before this song was released, we knew The Neptunes could make great pop music. Their two biggest hits before this were Jay-Z's "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)" and Britney's "I'm A Slave 4 U", both bouncy hits that had that signature Neptunes sound. It was with "Grindin'", however, that they expanded on that sound, showing us their stark yet powerful approach to hardcore Hip-Hop production. It was a world apart from the industry R&B and pop they had been churning out, a raw electronic backed kind of Hip-Hop that married beautifully with hardcore street rap. This song is the reason The Neptunes went on to dominate rap radio in the 2000's, and why everyone from Snoop Dogg to Common was clamoring to work with them.
12: "Hip-Hop" - Dead Prez
As you may have gleaned from the previous posts, protest and social consciousness have little place in today's corporate homogenized Hip-Hop. It's hard to imagine anyone getting signed to a major label now who's "down for running up on them crackers in they city hall". This song managed to get some people's attention when it was released in 2000, mostly due to its forward-thinking bass-driven beat that would become mainstream eight years later with songs like "A Milli", but it may have drawn people's focus away from the lyrics and the overall message. What we're doing is bigger than Hip-Hop, yet so many contemporary MCs work so within the style that they can't rise above the genre and reflect on it. It's hard to be bigger than Hip-Hop when Hip-Hop is the biggest thing in the world.
13: "Get Ur Freak On" - Missy Elliott
If there's one thing Timbaland is very good at, its taking disparate musical elements and molding them into a cohesive beat. World music, like the Asian strings here or the Middle Eastern samples in "Big Pimpin'", are one of his specialties. They don't sound foreign, rather they sound perfectly contextualized, like you've been hearing them on the radio for years. Its a testament to Timbaland and Missy's artistic relationship that this weird song with Indian strings, African drums, random Chinese chattering, and hawked loogies made it the Billboard Top 10. We've all heard this song a hundred times to the point where it seems commonplace, yet it couldn't be further from ordinary.
14: "The Light" - Common
Things looked pretty different at the beginning of the 2000's then where we are now. Coming off the 90s, the identity of the decade was up for grabs, and for a brief moment that identity had more to do with a politically correct swanky new bohemian lifestyle than the paranoia and frustration of the post-911 era. Artists like Common appealed to the dotcom boomers who wanted their rap smooth and non-confrontational. When things were good we got beautiful Hip-Hop ballads about love. When things got bad, shit got real.
15: "Stay High" - Three 6 Mafia feat. Young Buck, 8 Ball & MJG
If there was an unlikely story of the decade in Hip-Hop, it has to be to comeback of Three 6 Mafia. These Memphis horror-core rappers rose to prominance in the 90s feuding with Bone Thugs N Harmony and rapping about body parts in trunks. Years in the game have only solidified the production heart of the click, DJ Paul and Juicy J. The beat on this song is ridiculous, so much more polished and refined than the brutish beats of their early albums. Three 6 managed to parlay the sucess of this song into featuring on and producing big name chart hits, and set them up to produce one of the songs in the top ten.
16: "The Way I Am" - Eminem
Eminem existed between decades, and in many ways was the transition point from the pop music scene of the 90s into the Hip-Hop dominated one we see today. If it weren't for the millions of new white rap fans created overnight by Eminem's popularity we would not see anywhere near the amount of rap in our everyday popular culture. Eminem primed a generation of white teenagers to become the rap consumers of the 2000s. Without his impact this list might not be half as long, and "The Way I Am" is pure unadulterated Hip-Hop from an MC at his zenith.
17: "Southern Hospitality" - Ludacris
Despite what this list says, this has to be my favorite Neptunes production. This is the song where we knew Ludacris was here to stay,and the song that cemented the Neptunes sound as the sound of the years to come. Years before Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake got the Pharrell makover, a little southern rapper with a big mouth was making gold with a perfect marriage of Star Trak funk and Ludacris crunk.
18: "Flashing Lights" - Kanye West
Kanye West is a famous man. The 2000s had to give up on some things, most notably our pop stars. With internet music sharing and more and more musical options, it's unlikely we'll ever get a larger-than-life star like Michael Jackson ever again. That said, Kanye comes pretty damn close, at least in his own mind. From calling Bush a racist to award-show antics (I'ma let you finish...), Kanye wants to be our King of Pop. And if Kanye is Michael Jackson, then "Flashing Lights" is grandiose pop poetry, genetically engineered for the dancefloor and near perfect in its craftsmanship.
19: "Get By" - Talib Kweli
Jay-Z once said "If skills sold, truth be told I'd probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli", to which Talib replied: "If lyrics sold then truth be told I'd probably be just as rich and famous as Jay-Z." Why critically-acclaimed MCs have such trouble making the crossover to mainstream auidences is probably similar to why bands like Deerhunter and Animal Collective aren't wildly famous while considered to be the best. When these artists try to make the leap to the Billboard 100 they rarely stay there, but their pop aspirations are often excellent, like "Get By". Produced by Kanye West, here Talib really does play the Jay-Z role to awesome results.
20: "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" - Jay-Z
I've talked up the Neptunes a lot over the course of this list, but here the top twenty kicks off with three songs in row produced by none other than Kanye West. The element that Kanye added to early 21st century Hip-Hop is hard to define, but its centered around his masterful use of soul-based samples. "Izzo" was the first national platform for the young Mr. West, and after America heard this, we needed more.
Before this song was released, we knew The Neptunes could make great pop music. Their two biggest hits before this were Jay-Z's "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)" and Britney's "I'm A Slave 4 U", both bouncy hits that had that signature Neptunes sound. It was with "Grindin'", however, that they expanded on that sound, showing us their stark yet powerful approach to hardcore Hip-Hop production. It was a world apart from the industry R&B and pop they had been churning out, a raw electronic backed kind of Hip-Hop that married beautifully with hardcore street rap. This song is the reason The Neptunes went on to dominate rap radio in the 2000's, and why everyone from Snoop Dogg to Common was clamoring to work with them.
12: "Hip-Hop" - Dead Prez
As you may have gleaned from the previous posts, protest and social consciousness have little place in today's corporate homogenized Hip-Hop. It's hard to imagine anyone getting signed to a major label now who's "down for running up on them crackers in they city hall". This song managed to get some people's attention when it was released in 2000, mostly due to its forward-thinking bass-driven beat that would become mainstream eight years later with songs like "A Milli", but it may have drawn people's focus away from the lyrics and the overall message. What we're doing is bigger than Hip-Hop, yet so many contemporary MCs work so within the style that they can't rise above the genre and reflect on it. It's hard to be bigger than Hip-Hop when Hip-Hop is the biggest thing in the world.
13: "Get Ur Freak On" - Missy Elliott
If there's one thing Timbaland is very good at, its taking disparate musical elements and molding them into a cohesive beat. World music, like the Asian strings here or the Middle Eastern samples in "Big Pimpin'", are one of his specialties. They don't sound foreign, rather they sound perfectly contextualized, like you've been hearing them on the radio for years. Its a testament to Timbaland and Missy's artistic relationship that this weird song with Indian strings, African drums, random Chinese chattering, and hawked loogies made it the Billboard Top 10. We've all heard this song a hundred times to the point where it seems commonplace, yet it couldn't be further from ordinary.
14: "The Light" - Common
Things looked pretty different at the beginning of the 2000's then where we are now. Coming off the 90s, the identity of the decade was up for grabs, and for a brief moment that identity had more to do with a politically correct swanky new bohemian lifestyle than the paranoia and frustration of the post-911 era. Artists like Common appealed to the dotcom boomers who wanted their rap smooth and non-confrontational. When things were good we got beautiful Hip-Hop ballads about love. When things got bad, shit got real.
15: "Stay High" - Three 6 Mafia feat. Young Buck, 8 Ball & MJG
If there was an unlikely story of the decade in Hip-Hop, it has to be to comeback of Three 6 Mafia. These Memphis horror-core rappers rose to prominance in the 90s feuding with Bone Thugs N Harmony and rapping about body parts in trunks. Years in the game have only solidified the production heart of the click, DJ Paul and Juicy J. The beat on this song is ridiculous, so much more polished and refined than the brutish beats of their early albums. Three 6 managed to parlay the sucess of this song into featuring on and producing big name chart hits, and set them up to produce one of the songs in the top ten.
16: "The Way I Am" - Eminem
Eminem existed between decades, and in many ways was the transition point from the pop music scene of the 90s into the Hip-Hop dominated one we see today. If it weren't for the millions of new white rap fans created overnight by Eminem's popularity we would not see anywhere near the amount of rap in our everyday popular culture. Eminem primed a generation of white teenagers to become the rap consumers of the 2000s. Without his impact this list might not be half as long, and "The Way I Am" is pure unadulterated Hip-Hop from an MC at his zenith.
17: "Southern Hospitality" - Ludacris
Despite what this list says, this has to be my favorite Neptunes production. This is the song where we knew Ludacris was here to stay,and the song that cemented the Neptunes sound as the sound of the years to come. Years before Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake got the Pharrell makover, a little southern rapper with a big mouth was making gold with a perfect marriage of Star Trak funk and Ludacris crunk.
18: "Flashing Lights" - Kanye West
Kanye West is a famous man. The 2000s had to give up on some things, most notably our pop stars. With internet music sharing and more and more musical options, it's unlikely we'll ever get a larger-than-life star like Michael Jackson ever again. That said, Kanye comes pretty damn close, at least in his own mind. From calling Bush a racist to award-show antics (I'ma let you finish...), Kanye wants to be our King of Pop. And if Kanye is Michael Jackson, then "Flashing Lights" is grandiose pop poetry, genetically engineered for the dancefloor and near perfect in its craftsmanship.
19: "Get By" - Talib Kweli
Jay-Z once said "If skills sold, truth be told I'd probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli", to which Talib replied: "If lyrics sold then truth be told I'd probably be just as rich and famous as Jay-Z." Why critically-acclaimed MCs have such trouble making the crossover to mainstream auidences is probably similar to why bands like Deerhunter and Animal Collective aren't wildly famous while considered to be the best. When these artists try to make the leap to the Billboard 100 they rarely stay there, but their pop aspirations are often excellent, like "Get By". Produced by Kanye West, here Talib really does play the Jay-Z role to awesome results.
20: "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" - Jay-Z
I've talked up the Neptunes a lot over the course of this list, but here the top twenty kicks off with three songs in row produced by none other than Kanye West. The element that Kanye added to early 21st century Hip-Hop is hard to define, but its centered around his masterful use of soul-based samples. "Izzo" was the first national platform for the young Mr. West, and after America heard this, we needed more.
Friday, January 29, 2010
The 100 greatest Hip-Hop songs of the 2000's: 21-30
21: "Oh Boy" - Cam'ron feat. Juelz Santana
If things had worked out differently, Cam'ron could have been 50 Cent, the Diplomats could have been G-Unit. Cam was cursed with bad luck, his group dissolved around him, Rocafella dropped him, and his stock in the rap world plummeted. This doesn't mean Cam'ron didn't produce some of the most interesting rap of the decade; both Come Home With Me and Purple Haze are stellar albums. What it does mean is that we may have had a chance to have a lot more Cam'ron in our lives, which wouldn't have hurt anybody.
22: "Ms. Jackson" - OutKast
In the year 2000, OutKast was the best band in the world. That statement isn't really debatable, as the music scene at the turn of the millennium was bleak as hell. In a sea of Creed and N*SYNC, OutKast were some of the only people doing anything interesting. With "Ms. Jackson", they let the world know they had skill. The song hit number one and earned the duo a Grammy, launching OutKast into the pantheon of rock critic favorites. The fact that they haven't given us a song like this every year since then is a fact we have to live with.
23: "Jesus Walks" - Kanye West
The complete absence of spirituality in popular music can't be denied. That's why its no surprise that "Jesus Walks" garnered some much attention. Kanye dared radio to play the song, and they did in droves. Critics applauded the song while religious leaders saw it as an amazing call the Christ. Even the Stellar Awards, the biggest gospel recognition award, came close to nominating The College Dropout for best gospel rap album, until someone noticed that it wasn't gospel at all. Perhaps most importantly, "Jesus Walks" gave us the first indication that West was destined for mega-stardom, someone who could say unpopular things and still have people listen.
24: "In Da Club" - 50 Cent
What a great idea. Take Eminem's massive fan base of new Hip-Hop listeners and package them an inner-city rapper ready to further the Shady empire. His debut album sold 872,000 copies in its first week, thanks to scores of white kids. 50 was able to dominate the rap scene for the first half of the decade, being THE rap superstar. Unfortunately those white kids didn't stay loyal for long, and his black listeners began to see through his facade and nine bullet holes. 50 Cent will always be a millionaire, but he might not sell a million copies again.
25: "One Mic" - Nas
When rap was in its golden age, it had the potential to change the world. MCs like KRS-One saw themselves as teachers trying to uplift their people. I don't have to tell you again that that is no longer the case. Yet the idea still influences modern rap, the position of MC as inspiration still exists. While underground of independent Hip-Hop still clings to that ideal, mainstream rappers seem to ignore it. Nas is a special breed though, a relic from the New York hardcore days that knows what it means to be an MC. You have to pair the tales of the streets with the hopes of the heart. Emotion needs its place in rap music, and power and dominance aren't emotions. Let's hope that Nas stays visible amongst the herd.
26: "Still Tippin'" - Mike Jones feat. Slim Thug & Paul Wall
Wanna know what Houston sounded like in 2005? Well, here you go. I don't think a specific city's music scene exploded into national consciousness like this since Seattle in 1991. If that's true, then this is Houston's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"; three of its best MCs over an archetypal Swishahouse beat, dripping with southern swag.
27: "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" - Jay-Z
Timbaland and Jay-Z make quite the team. Together they made "Big Pimpin", which if it wasn't released on December 28, 1999 would be near the top of this list. "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" is a different animal, full of swirling synths and dramatic drum programming. The whole thing feels easily executed and nonchalant, perfect for 2003.
28: "Bring 'Em Out" - T.I.
Sometimes when you listen to a song, you want it to energize you, to get you out of your seat and get to clappin'. This is one of those. T.I.'s first crossover hit is a stadium ready banger, and is played at almost any NBA game you go to. Built around a Jay-Z vocal sample, producer Swizz Beatz creates a cavalcade of horns, sirens, and whistles; the song literally sounds like half time. Jock Jams for the 21st century.
29: "Touch The Sky" - Kanye West feat. Lupe Fiasco
Soul is always welcome in Hip-Hop, and Kanye was the main purveyor of Soul Rap during the last decade. Produced by Just Blaze and centered around a killer Curtis Mayfield sample, "Touch The Sky" oozes with 70's bump and funk (and it's not just due to the Evel Knievel inspired video). Add a fresh-faced Lupe to the mix and those horns are gonna stay with you all day.
30: "Fix Up, Look Sharp" - Dizzee Rascal
From across the pond came Dizzee, a mushmouthed East London rapper with one hell of a debut album. Boy In Da Corner sounded like nothing we'd ever heard in Hip-Hop, and frankly its still ahead of its time. The minimalist laptop beats were like nothing in rap at the time, leading to the album topping many critics year-end best of lists. Yet the album didn't make much impact on American Hip-Hop loyalists, with this song being the exception. Build around a bombastic Billy Squire sample, "Fix Up, Look Sharp" got your attention. The song grabs you and holds you close, your ears wanting to recoil as youstrain to make out Dizzee's garbled lyrics. A sensory assault of the finest kind.
If things had worked out differently, Cam'ron could have been 50 Cent, the Diplomats could have been G-Unit. Cam was cursed with bad luck, his group dissolved around him, Rocafella dropped him, and his stock in the rap world plummeted. This doesn't mean Cam'ron didn't produce some of the most interesting rap of the decade; both Come Home With Me and Purple Haze are stellar albums. What it does mean is that we may have had a chance to have a lot more Cam'ron in our lives, which wouldn't have hurt anybody.
22: "Ms. Jackson" - OutKast
In the year 2000, OutKast was the best band in the world. That statement isn't really debatable, as the music scene at the turn of the millennium was bleak as hell. In a sea of Creed and N*SYNC, OutKast were some of the only people doing anything interesting. With "Ms. Jackson", they let the world know they had skill. The song hit number one and earned the duo a Grammy, launching OutKast into the pantheon of rock critic favorites. The fact that they haven't given us a song like this every year since then is a fact we have to live with.
23: "Jesus Walks" - Kanye West
The complete absence of spirituality in popular music can't be denied. That's why its no surprise that "Jesus Walks" garnered some much attention. Kanye dared radio to play the song, and they did in droves. Critics applauded the song while religious leaders saw it as an amazing call the Christ. Even the Stellar Awards, the biggest gospel recognition award, came close to nominating The College Dropout for best gospel rap album, until someone noticed that it wasn't gospel at all. Perhaps most importantly, "Jesus Walks" gave us the first indication that West was destined for mega-stardom, someone who could say unpopular things and still have people listen.
24: "In Da Club" - 50 Cent
What a great idea. Take Eminem's massive fan base of new Hip-Hop listeners and package them an inner-city rapper ready to further the Shady empire. His debut album sold 872,000 copies in its first week, thanks to scores of white kids. 50 was able to dominate the rap scene for the first half of the decade, being THE rap superstar. Unfortunately those white kids didn't stay loyal for long, and his black listeners began to see through his facade and nine bullet holes. 50 Cent will always be a millionaire, but he might not sell a million copies again.
25: "One Mic" - Nas
When rap was in its golden age, it had the potential to change the world. MCs like KRS-One saw themselves as teachers trying to uplift their people. I don't have to tell you again that that is no longer the case. Yet the idea still influences modern rap, the position of MC as inspiration still exists. While underground of independent Hip-Hop still clings to that ideal, mainstream rappers seem to ignore it. Nas is a special breed though, a relic from the New York hardcore days that knows what it means to be an MC. You have to pair the tales of the streets with the hopes of the heart. Emotion needs its place in rap music, and power and dominance aren't emotions. Let's hope that Nas stays visible amongst the herd.
26: "Still Tippin'" - Mike Jones feat. Slim Thug & Paul Wall
Wanna know what Houston sounded like in 2005? Well, here you go. I don't think a specific city's music scene exploded into national consciousness like this since Seattle in 1991. If that's true, then this is Houston's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"; three of its best MCs over an archetypal Swishahouse beat, dripping with southern swag.
27: "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" - Jay-Z
Timbaland and Jay-Z make quite the team. Together they made "Big Pimpin", which if it wasn't released on December 28, 1999 would be near the top of this list. "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" is a different animal, full of swirling synths and dramatic drum programming. The whole thing feels easily executed and nonchalant, perfect for 2003.
28: "Bring 'Em Out" - T.I.
Sometimes when you listen to a song, you want it to energize you, to get you out of your seat and get to clappin'. This is one of those. T.I.'s first crossover hit is a stadium ready banger, and is played at almost any NBA game you go to. Built around a Jay-Z vocal sample, producer Swizz Beatz creates a cavalcade of horns, sirens, and whistles; the song literally sounds like half time. Jock Jams for the 21st century.
29: "Touch The Sky" - Kanye West feat. Lupe Fiasco
Soul is always welcome in Hip-Hop, and Kanye was the main purveyor of Soul Rap during the last decade. Produced by Just Blaze and centered around a killer Curtis Mayfield sample, "Touch The Sky" oozes with 70's bump and funk (and it's not just due to the Evel Knievel inspired video). Add a fresh-faced Lupe to the mix and those horns are gonna stay with you all day.
30: "Fix Up, Look Sharp" - Dizzee Rascal
From across the pond came Dizzee, a mushmouthed East London rapper with one hell of a debut album. Boy In Da Corner sounded like nothing we'd ever heard in Hip-Hop, and frankly its still ahead of its time. The minimalist laptop beats were like nothing in rap at the time, leading to the album topping many critics year-end best of lists. Yet the album didn't make much impact on American Hip-Hop loyalists, with this song being the exception. Build around a bombastic Billy Squire sample, "Fix Up, Look Sharp" got your attention. The song grabs you and holds you close, your ears wanting to recoil as youstrain to make out Dizzee's garbled lyrics. A sensory assault of the finest kind.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
The 100 greatest Hip-Hop songs of the 2000's: 31-40
31: "Don't Say Nuthin'" - The Roots
Making a more commercial sounding album isn't necessarily a cop-out, especially if it gets you working with Scott Storch. No one delivers inner-city anxiety like Black Thought, and here his murmurs and threats seem sinister, but the beat calms us back down, reminding us that for the moment its only a song, not the truth.
32: "Ridin'" - Chamillionaire feat. Krayzie Bone
A hit song has always had the ability to become larger than life, but in the 2000's there were so many more venues and outlets. Because of this song Chamillionaire was recognized by the RIAA as the first multi-platinum ringtone artist ever. Sometimes these things just happen; release a catchy hip-hop classic right when ringtones are at their zenith and reap success. Listening to "Ridin'", its pretty clear luck had little to do with it.
33: "Work It" - Missy Elliot
Missy's 2002 album Under Construction set the stage for the rest of the decade in many ways. Timbaland's beats had always sounded great paired with Ms. Elliot's raps, but the new pseudo-dancefloor grooves were prime for the big time. Timbaland's cache would only increase over the next years, his success tied to this song and his longest collaborator.
34: "Lose Yourself" - Eminem
If I had to categorize Marshall Mathers's musical output during the last decade, the word I would use is "disappointing". After exploding into American consciousness with 1999's The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP released a year later, Em retreated more and more from the limelight as his work's quality decreased. By the time he released Encore in 2004 he was panned and ignored, after many music magazine's declared him the next Elvis. His shining moment of the 2000's was certainly this song, a companion to his auto-biographical film but more an ode to his humble beginnings and love of Hip-Hop. There have been some recent indications that perhaps Eminem has more to offer us. This song is a reminder that once he offered us greatness.
35: "Welcome to Jamrock" - Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley
Dancehall was another style that was supposed to take over America last decade, yet apart from some infectious Sean Paul we didn't really get too close. Jamaican elements definitely found their way into our pop, just listen to Rihanna's "Pon De Replay". "Welcome to Jamrock" is not really dancehall, though, and bears little similarity to relentless danceability of Beenie Man. Rather, Damian Marley is doing American Hip-Hop filtered through the Jamaican soundsystem, and the result is intoxicating. It's slow, syrupy, easy-going and evil all at the same time. Art is all about contradictions.
36: "Blinded By The Lights" - The Streets
Personal emotion statements are infrequent in modern Hip-Hop, hidden behind a near-impenetrable wall of machismo. Mike Skinner's 2005 album under The Streets name was full of them. Told as a first person narative from track to track, Skinner loses money, gets a girl, loses said girl, and finds said money. We see the MC through the whole album with no facade or persona, Mike Skinner as Mike Skinner. The highlight, both musically and emotionally, is this song, a horrid night of drugs and revelation set to pounding nightclub synths. Its incredibly haunting and touching, and it's sense of helplessness stays with you.
37: "Kick, Push" - Lupe Fiasco
"The Rapper" has become a trope, a stereotype to conform to. Those that do can achieve a lot, simply by association with the culture. When an MC comes along that makes a point of avoiding the type we listen a little keener. When unknown talent Lupe Fiasco made a song about a skateboard instead of a Maybach, he made it clear his voice would be easily deciferable from the herd. The song refuses to be complacent, reveling in its uniqueness.
38: "Ante Up" - M.O.P.
Hardcore New York Hip-Hop was the 90's forte; artists like Wu-Tang and Busta Rhymes made in-your-face rap music that didn't make any concessions for the dancefloor. We can't say the same for the 2000's, but at least we have "Ante Up". Sneaking out in 2000, this song is so hard it might loosen your bowels. The fervor with which the Mash Out Posse scream out their rhymes is infectious; you literally want to hit the streets and jack some jewelery. Get up off your goddamn diamonds.
39: "Testify" - Common
Common wasn't really poised to make a big impact in the last decade. He was a remnant from the Soulquarians, a neo-soul based collective that included Erykah Badu and Talib Kweli. They were the self-conscious rappers that were supposed to change the game, but they were done by 2001. Luckily for Common, a young fellow Chicagoan by the name of Kanye West was willing to resurrect his career, and 2005's Be did just that. Built entirely from West's beats, the album was just what Common needed, and this song of deceit and betrayal is its best track.
40: "Cherchez LaGhost" - Ghostface Killah feat. U-God
As any douchey college professor will tell you, great art is all about contrast. Contrast like taking a nerdy disco hit and pairing it with Ghostface's free association raps. Contrast like soft singing and U-God's condom-breaking dick. Imbue something sweet with something sinister.
Making a more commercial sounding album isn't necessarily a cop-out, especially if it gets you working with Scott Storch. No one delivers inner-city anxiety like Black Thought, and here his murmurs and threats seem sinister, but the beat calms us back down, reminding us that for the moment its only a song, not the truth.
32: "Ridin'" - Chamillionaire feat. Krayzie Bone
A hit song has always had the ability to become larger than life, but in the 2000's there were so many more venues and outlets. Because of this song Chamillionaire was recognized by the RIAA as the first multi-platinum ringtone artist ever. Sometimes these things just happen; release a catchy hip-hop classic right when ringtones are at their zenith and reap success. Listening to "Ridin'", its pretty clear luck had little to do with it.
33: "Work It" - Missy Elliot
Missy's 2002 album Under Construction set the stage for the rest of the decade in many ways. Timbaland's beats had always sounded great paired with Ms. Elliot's raps, but the new pseudo-dancefloor grooves were prime for the big time. Timbaland's cache would only increase over the next years, his success tied to this song and his longest collaborator.
34: "Lose Yourself" - Eminem
If I had to categorize Marshall Mathers's musical output during the last decade, the word I would use is "disappointing". After exploding into American consciousness with 1999's The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP released a year later, Em retreated more and more from the limelight as his work's quality decreased. By the time he released Encore in 2004 he was panned and ignored, after many music magazine's declared him the next Elvis. His shining moment of the 2000's was certainly this song, a companion to his auto-biographical film but more an ode to his humble beginnings and love of Hip-Hop. There have been some recent indications that perhaps Eminem has more to offer us. This song is a reminder that once he offered us greatness.
35: "Welcome to Jamrock" - Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley
Dancehall was another style that was supposed to take over America last decade, yet apart from some infectious Sean Paul we didn't really get too close. Jamaican elements definitely found their way into our pop, just listen to Rihanna's "Pon De Replay". "Welcome to Jamrock" is not really dancehall, though, and bears little similarity to relentless danceability of Beenie Man. Rather, Damian Marley is doing American Hip-Hop filtered through the Jamaican soundsystem, and the result is intoxicating. It's slow, syrupy, easy-going and evil all at the same time. Art is all about contradictions.
36: "Blinded By The Lights" - The Streets
Personal emotion statements are infrequent in modern Hip-Hop, hidden behind a near-impenetrable wall of machismo. Mike Skinner's 2005 album under The Streets name was full of them. Told as a first person narative from track to track, Skinner loses money, gets a girl, loses said girl, and finds said money. We see the MC through the whole album with no facade or persona, Mike Skinner as Mike Skinner. The highlight, both musically and emotionally, is this song, a horrid night of drugs and revelation set to pounding nightclub synths. Its incredibly haunting and touching, and it's sense of helplessness stays with you.
37: "Kick, Push" - Lupe Fiasco
"The Rapper" has become a trope, a stereotype to conform to. Those that do can achieve a lot, simply by association with the culture. When an MC comes along that makes a point of avoiding the type we listen a little keener. When unknown talent Lupe Fiasco made a song about a skateboard instead of a Maybach, he made it clear his voice would be easily deciferable from the herd. The song refuses to be complacent, reveling in its uniqueness.
38: "Ante Up" - M.O.P.
Hardcore New York Hip-Hop was the 90's forte; artists like Wu-Tang and Busta Rhymes made in-your-face rap music that didn't make any concessions for the dancefloor. We can't say the same for the 2000's, but at least we have "Ante Up". Sneaking out in 2000, this song is so hard it might loosen your bowels. The fervor with which the Mash Out Posse scream out their rhymes is infectious; you literally want to hit the streets and jack some jewelery. Get up off your goddamn diamonds.
39: "Testify" - Common
Common wasn't really poised to make a big impact in the last decade. He was a remnant from the Soulquarians, a neo-soul based collective that included Erykah Badu and Talib Kweli. They were the self-conscious rappers that were supposed to change the game, but they were done by 2001. Luckily for Common, a young fellow Chicagoan by the name of Kanye West was willing to resurrect his career, and 2005's Be did just that. Built entirely from West's beats, the album was just what Common needed, and this song of deceit and betrayal is its best track.
40: "Cherchez LaGhost" - Ghostface Killah feat. U-God
As any douchey college professor will tell you, great art is all about contrast. Contrast like taking a nerdy disco hit and pairing it with Ghostface's free association raps. Contrast like soft singing and U-God's condom-breaking dick. Imbue something sweet with something sinister.
Friday, January 22, 2010
The 100 greatest Hip-Hop songs of the 2000's: 41-50
41: "We Takin' Over" - DJ Khaled feat. Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Birdman, & Lil' Wayne
I don't really know what DJ Khaled does exactly, besides screaming at the beginning of every song. He doesn't produce any of his hits and packs them to the brim with thug rap's finest. As far as a great posse cut goes though, you can't really compete with this one, with Akon belting to the heavens over a Timbaland-meets-Miami beat.
42: "All Caps" - Madvillain
MF DOOM's creative output during the 2000's was copious, varied, and often brilliant, and Madvillainy might be his highpoint. With venerable producer Madlib channeling a superhero and mid-century obsessed RZA, DOOM spits his usual brand of monotonic mutterings with a sneering swagger.
43: "Get Low" - Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz feat. Ying Yang Twins
Perhaps the most ubiquitous Hip-Hop song of the decade, few people would argue that "Get Low" is high culture worthy of much respect, but those people are idiots. The song that made "Crunk" a household name is not just culture but art; perfectly crafted and masterfully honed to instill booty-shaking and junk-grinding in its audience. Is the mark of art not that of conveying a feeling? Does Lil Jon not hold his pimp cup the way Raphael grasped his brush?
44: "Encore" - Danger Mouse feat. Jay-Z & The Beatles
I'm not sure, but I think when Jay-Z decided to release an a capella version of The Black Album, he must have known that it would fuel the fire that was the internet remix and mashup community of the early 2000's. Some mashup releases spawned from the internet had gotten mainstream press, but when Danger Mouse created The Grey Album he became the first mashup superstar. He also deepened the sense of what a mashup album could be, paving the way for more elaborate experimentations with sampled pop music.
45: "Throw Some D's" - Rich Boy feat. Polow da Don
This song exemplifies the reasons for the South's dominance in Hip-Hop during this decade. It blends soul samples, a southern staple, and the electronic-based bubblegum chirps and thoomps that drive the hits of everyone from Nelly to T.I.. The fact that its coming from Drumma Boy and Polow, two of the best contemporary hip-hop producers, and features the energetic barking of Rich Boy lauding another dirty south stable, his cars, makes it classic.
46: "Takeover" - Jay-Z / "Ether" - Nas (Tie)
Bad blood in Hip-Hop is generally good for a couple of good dis songs, but the feud between New York legends Jay-Z and Nas was good for the two most epic battle raps ever. Jay made the first move, with the first track off The Blueprint being a swaggerific attack aimed at Mobb Deep and Nas fired off over a haunting and powerful Doors sample. The irreverence with which the song was delivered begged response, so Jay couldn't have been surprised when "Ether" was released a few months later, beginning with gunshots and the words "Fuck Jay-Z". Where "Takeover" was taunting and even puerile, "Ether" was angry and venomous and pulled no punches. Despite the two titans having reconciled, most fans agree that Nas won this round.
47: "Gold Digger" - Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx
Coming off the hipster/backpack rap that was The College Dropout, Kanye West had all the critics loving him, and could have recreated that album over and over for similar success. Being a critic's darling was never in Kanye's plan though, and "Gold Digger" was the first sign that West was much more interested in pop perfectionism. The song thumps and bumps and stays with you for days, a skill that Kanye has only improved upon.
48: "So Fresh, So Clean" - OutKast feat. Sleepy Brown
It seems that as we stand in 2010, smoothness has been delegated to our R&B superstars, while a rapper's most important job is to be "hard". For someone to get this smooth now, they'd have to call in a favor from Trey Songz. OutKast didn't have to try to be smooth, they just were, and this song is the silkiest thing to get on the radio of the whole decade.
49: "Deception" - Blackalicious
If rap could have had a motto for the 2000's, "don't let money change you" might be apt. As Hip-Hop became more mainstream and more commercial it became increasingly difficult to find any of the social commentary or cerebral thinking that made so much of 90's rap so interesting. As mainstream rap became more prevalent, alternatives to that mainstream became scarce. This song got some national attention when it was released in 2000; if it had been 2009 it probably would have been a different story.
50: "Georgia...Bush" - Lil' Wayne
No cause gathered as much attention from the rap community in the last decade as much as helping victims of Hurricane Katrina, not just because of New Orleans's vibrant Hip-Hop scene but also because of the underlying feelings of racism that surrounded the issue. When Kanye West famously declared "George Bush doesn't care about black people", it was fueled by emotion and the weight of the moment. When Lil' Wayne decided to make his comment on Bush, it was collected, coherent, and almost free from emotion. It plainly stated the facts of the failure of Katrina, all while presenting a feeling that New Orleans was already recovering. It's hate and hope all in one song.
I don't really know what DJ Khaled does exactly, besides screaming at the beginning of every song. He doesn't produce any of his hits and packs them to the brim with thug rap's finest. As far as a great posse cut goes though, you can't really compete with this one, with Akon belting to the heavens over a Timbaland-meets-Miami beat.
42: "All Caps" - Madvillain
MF DOOM's creative output during the 2000's was copious, varied, and often brilliant, and Madvillainy might be his highpoint. With venerable producer Madlib channeling a superhero and mid-century obsessed RZA, DOOM spits his usual brand of monotonic mutterings with a sneering swagger.
43: "Get Low" - Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz feat. Ying Yang Twins
Perhaps the most ubiquitous Hip-Hop song of the decade, few people would argue that "Get Low" is high culture worthy of much respect, but those people are idiots. The song that made "Crunk" a household name is not just culture but art; perfectly crafted and masterfully honed to instill booty-shaking and junk-grinding in its audience. Is the mark of art not that of conveying a feeling? Does Lil Jon not hold his pimp cup the way Raphael grasped his brush?
44: "Encore" - Danger Mouse feat. Jay-Z & The Beatles
I'm not sure, but I think when Jay-Z decided to release an a capella version of The Black Album, he must have known that it would fuel the fire that was the internet remix and mashup community of the early 2000's. Some mashup releases spawned from the internet had gotten mainstream press, but when Danger Mouse created The Grey Album he became the first mashup superstar. He also deepened the sense of what a mashup album could be, paving the way for more elaborate experimentations with sampled pop music.
45: "Throw Some D's" - Rich Boy feat. Polow da Don
This song exemplifies the reasons for the South's dominance in Hip-Hop during this decade. It blends soul samples, a southern staple, and the electronic-based bubblegum chirps and thoomps that drive the hits of everyone from Nelly to T.I.. The fact that its coming from Drumma Boy and Polow, two of the best contemporary hip-hop producers, and features the energetic barking of Rich Boy lauding another dirty south stable, his cars, makes it classic.
46: "Takeover" - Jay-Z / "Ether" - Nas (Tie)
Bad blood in Hip-Hop is generally good for a couple of good dis songs, but the feud between New York legends Jay-Z and Nas was good for the two most epic battle raps ever. Jay made the first move, with the first track off The Blueprint being a swaggerific attack aimed at Mobb Deep and Nas fired off over a haunting and powerful Doors sample. The irreverence with which the song was delivered begged response, so Jay couldn't have been surprised when "Ether" was released a few months later, beginning with gunshots and the words "Fuck Jay-Z". Where "Takeover" was taunting and even puerile, "Ether" was angry and venomous and pulled no punches. Despite the two titans having reconciled, most fans agree that Nas won this round.
47: "Gold Digger" - Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx
Coming off the hipster/backpack rap that was The College Dropout, Kanye West had all the critics loving him, and could have recreated that album over and over for similar success. Being a critic's darling was never in Kanye's plan though, and "Gold Digger" was the first sign that West was much more interested in pop perfectionism. The song thumps and bumps and stays with you for days, a skill that Kanye has only improved upon.
48: "So Fresh, So Clean" - OutKast feat. Sleepy Brown
It seems that as we stand in 2010, smoothness has been delegated to our R&B superstars, while a rapper's most important job is to be "hard". For someone to get this smooth now, they'd have to call in a favor from Trey Songz. OutKast didn't have to try to be smooth, they just were, and this song is the silkiest thing to get on the radio of the whole decade.
49: "Deception" - Blackalicious
If rap could have had a motto for the 2000's, "don't let money change you" might be apt. As Hip-Hop became more mainstream and more commercial it became increasingly difficult to find any of the social commentary or cerebral thinking that made so much of 90's rap so interesting. As mainstream rap became more prevalent, alternatives to that mainstream became scarce. This song got some national attention when it was released in 2000; if it had been 2009 it probably would have been a different story.
50: "Georgia...Bush" - Lil' Wayne
No cause gathered as much attention from the rap community in the last decade as much as helping victims of Hurricane Katrina, not just because of New Orleans's vibrant Hip-Hop scene but also because of the underlying feelings of racism that surrounded the issue. When Kanye West famously declared "George Bush doesn't care about black people", it was fueled by emotion and the weight of the moment. When Lil' Wayne decided to make his comment on Bush, it was collected, coherent, and almost free from emotion. It plainly stated the facts of the failure of Katrina, all while presenting a feeling that New Orleans was already recovering. It's hate and hope all in one song.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The 100 greatest Hip-Hop songs of the 2000's: 51-60
51: "Rubber Band Man" - T.I.
I have an old issue of The Source from 2003 on my desk that has an article entitled "The New South", sort of a profile in up-and-coming Southern MC's. The three they choose to feature most heavily were Lil Jon, David Banner, and Bone Crusher. You have to turn a few pages to see, buried in with photos of Killer Mike and Field Mob, a lone picture of a young man named T.I. staring apathetically at the camera. There was a lot of talent emerging from Atlanta during the early days of Crunk, and its a testament to T.I.'s talent that he was able to make himself into a Hip-Hop superstar. This song helped, with the aforementioned Mr. Banner producing (his strongest suit) and a fiery T.I. making the drug game sound cheery.
52: "Music" - Erick Sermon feat. Marvin Gaye
Sure, its a tribute, but to whom? Is it for Marvin, an ode to him, a call for remembrance? Doubtful. As producer and founding member of EPMD, Sermon seems to be making tribute to music in general. When we've become so mired in Hip-Hop culture as we did in this past decade, its easy to forget what it is we're doing here: making music. Having Marvin sugarcoat it for us makes it that much sweeter.
53: "Awnaw" - Nappy Roots feat. Jazze Pha
Southern Hip-Hop seems to have spawned from a West-Coast influence, owing much of its success to the gangsterism of N.W.A. or the hyphy sounds of Oakland. That's why it's so nice to hear a song that actually sounds "Southern", although artists that attempt this are often reduced to one hit wonders. Nappy Roots were no exception, but what a hit. They deliver a down-home ode to good living that is incredibly authentic and endearingly earnest.
54: "Empire State of Mind" - Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys
This is Jay-Z's first number one hit. Let me repeat that: this is Jay-Z's FIRST NUMBER ONE HIT. That's pretty amazing for arguably the biggest rap star of the past 15 years, but radio was never very friendly towards the Jigga Man. He's kind of an enigma; critics love him, he's had more number one albums than the Beatles, but few find him really captivating or electrifying like his younger contemporaries. Yet this song is redemptive, for all those times Jay didn't wow us right out the gate or talked about himself just a bit to much in his songs. Here we see Jay as we should; a product of New York and it's music.
55: "Modern Man's Hustle" - Atmosphere
In 1999, if asked to name a trend for the coming decade, I probably would have said white rappers. Eminem's popularity was gargantuan, and his legion of new white rap fans set the stage for the 21st century Hip-Hop domination we see now. Yet the white rappers never came; there hasn't been anyone close to making it in the mainstream like Em, and those in underground rap scenes have made little impact outside of them. Those that have seen success, like Atmosphere and its MC Slug, have had to create their own niches that don't rely on their whiteness. So we get Atmosphere's unique brand of emotional, angst-ridden rap that deals mostly with girls, sex, and relationships. We may never get another Eminem, but I'm not sure anybody's asking for one.
56: "Tell Me When To Go" - E-40 feat. Keak Da Sneak
Mention the word "Hyphy" to anyone from the Bay Area and a grin will form on their face. Ask them to explain it and they'll probably say "You wouldn't understand." Oakland's music has long been inside information to NorCal residents, people who've been appreciating E-40 and Keak for over 10 years. This was the rest of the world's only opportunity to get on board, with a thumping Lil Jon beat that is purposefully non-Crunk and verses from Hyphy veterans looking for a bigger audience, though I think they're quite content with the one they have.
57: "In The Music" - The Roots
I have an old issue of The Source from 2003 on my desk that has an article entitled "The New South", sort of a profile in up-and-coming Southern MC's. The three they choose to feature most heavily were Lil Jon, David Banner, and Bone Crusher. You have to turn a few pages to see, buried in with photos of Killer Mike and Field Mob, a lone picture of a young man named T.I. staring apathetically at the camera. There was a lot of talent emerging from Atlanta during the early days of Crunk, and its a testament to T.I.'s talent that he was able to make himself into a Hip-Hop superstar. This song helped, with the aforementioned Mr. Banner producing (his strongest suit) and a fiery T.I. making the drug game sound cheery.
52: "Music" - Erick Sermon feat. Marvin Gaye
Sure, its a tribute, but to whom? Is it for Marvin, an ode to him, a call for remembrance? Doubtful. As producer and founding member of EPMD, Sermon seems to be making tribute to music in general. When we've become so mired in Hip-Hop culture as we did in this past decade, its easy to forget what it is we're doing here: making music. Having Marvin sugarcoat it for us makes it that much sweeter.
53: "Awnaw" - Nappy Roots feat. Jazze Pha
Southern Hip-Hop seems to have spawned from a West-Coast influence, owing much of its success to the gangsterism of N.W.A. or the hyphy sounds of Oakland. That's why it's so nice to hear a song that actually sounds "Southern", although artists that attempt this are often reduced to one hit wonders. Nappy Roots were no exception, but what a hit. They deliver a down-home ode to good living that is incredibly authentic and endearingly earnest.
54: "Empire State of Mind" - Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys
This is Jay-Z's first number one hit. Let me repeat that: this is Jay-Z's FIRST NUMBER ONE HIT. That's pretty amazing for arguably the biggest rap star of the past 15 years, but radio was never very friendly towards the Jigga Man. He's kind of an enigma; critics love him, he's had more number one albums than the Beatles, but few find him really captivating or electrifying like his younger contemporaries. Yet this song is redemptive, for all those times Jay didn't wow us right out the gate or talked about himself just a bit to much in his songs. Here we see Jay as we should; a product of New York and it's music.
55: "Modern Man's Hustle" - Atmosphere
In 1999, if asked to name a trend for the coming decade, I probably would have said white rappers. Eminem's popularity was gargantuan, and his legion of new white rap fans set the stage for the 21st century Hip-Hop domination we see now. Yet the white rappers never came; there hasn't been anyone close to making it in the mainstream like Em, and those in underground rap scenes have made little impact outside of them. Those that have seen success, like Atmosphere and its MC Slug, have had to create their own niches that don't rely on their whiteness. So we get Atmosphere's unique brand of emotional, angst-ridden rap that deals mostly with girls, sex, and relationships. We may never get another Eminem, but I'm not sure anybody's asking for one.
56: "Tell Me When To Go" - E-40 feat. Keak Da Sneak
Mention the word "Hyphy" to anyone from the Bay Area and a grin will form on their face. Ask them to explain it and they'll probably say "You wouldn't understand." Oakland's music has long been inside information to NorCal residents, people who've been appreciating E-40 and Keak for over 10 years. This was the rest of the world's only opportunity to get on board, with a thumping Lil Jon beat that is purposefully non-Crunk and verses from Hyphy veterans looking for a bigger audience, though I think they're quite content with the one they have.
57: "In The Music" - The Roots
When The Roots released Phrenology in 2002, critics raved over it, citing its neo-soul psychedelia and new age stylings. For me, especially after loving the dark muted jazz that was Things Fall Apart, the album never lived up to the hype. That's why 2006's Game Theory was such pleasant shock. It abandoned the long jam session feel of their previous two albums and instead painted a bleak landscape of America; mired in the Bush years and fearful of the inner city. The whole album is amazing, and "In The Music" is its most paranoid and anxious track.
58: "Sippin' On Some Syrup" - Three 6 Mafia feat. UGK
How this happened is anybody's guess. Two southern crews that made their debuts in the 90's go on to be some of the biggest taste-makers of the 2000's. When this song dropped in 2000 it got some attention, but was really too ahead of its time for the Nelly-fueled Hip-Hop landscape. Ten years later the elements that sounded foreign then are now commonplace; slow metronomes of electronic beats, mush-mouthed southern odes to cough syrup, and a vicious (and viscous) regional intensity.
59: "The Whole World" - OutKast feat. Killer Mike
Ah, OutKast. In the first few years of the decade it seemed as if they were poised for domination; 2000's Stankonia produced their biggest hits of their career while the music press were ready to anoint them the title of biggest band in the universe. However, somewhere between the sprawling solo albums and the failure that was Idlewild, OutKast became a dinosaur, a relic of Hip-Hop's past. Andre 3000 seems completely disinterested in music, and Big Boi's solo album has been in record label limbo for years. This moment was sweet though, when OutKast made this new track for their greatest hits album and in the process created an eerie horn-driven vaudevillian cheer where Killer Mike's howl is pushed to the forefront. The last blast of raw creativity from a united OutKast.
60: "Why?" - Jadakiss feat. Anthony Hamilton
As years go by we see less and less political and social commentary in Hip-Hop. The feelings that were so important to Golden Era rappers like KRS-One have been replaced by "realness" and gangsterism. That's why Jadakiss's song caught our attention in 2004; it was a Bush-era protest that reminded us of the revolution songs of the 70's,with Anthony Hamilton adding the soul much needed to get the message across.
58: "Sippin' On Some Syrup" - Three 6 Mafia feat. UGK
How this happened is anybody's guess. Two southern crews that made their debuts in the 90's go on to be some of the biggest taste-makers of the 2000's. When this song dropped in 2000 it got some attention, but was really too ahead of its time for the Nelly-fueled Hip-Hop landscape. Ten years later the elements that sounded foreign then are now commonplace; slow metronomes of electronic beats, mush-mouthed southern odes to cough syrup, and a vicious (and viscous) regional intensity.
59: "The Whole World" - OutKast feat. Killer Mike
Ah, OutKast. In the first few years of the decade it seemed as if they were poised for domination; 2000's Stankonia produced their biggest hits of their career while the music press were ready to anoint them the title of biggest band in the universe. However, somewhere between the sprawling solo albums and the failure that was Idlewild, OutKast became a dinosaur, a relic of Hip-Hop's past. Andre 3000 seems completely disinterested in music, and Big Boi's solo album has been in record label limbo for years. This moment was sweet though, when OutKast made this new track for their greatest hits album and in the process created an eerie horn-driven vaudevillian cheer where Killer Mike's howl is pushed to the forefront. The last blast of raw creativity from a united OutKast.
60: "Why?" - Jadakiss feat. Anthony Hamilton
As years go by we see less and less political and social commentary in Hip-Hop. The feelings that were so important to Golden Era rappers like KRS-One have been replaced by "realness" and gangsterism. That's why Jadakiss's song caught our attention in 2004; it was a Bush-era protest that reminded us of the revolution songs of the 70's,with Anthony Hamilton adding the soul much needed to get the message across.
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