I’ll be taking a break from blogging for the next couple weeks, maybe switch up the site a little bit and such.  I’ll be back soon with more new music, articles, and commentary, see you then…

This mixtape is just what I needed.  Bored with a lot of the shit that’s been coming out recently, Yelawolf’s southern slang’d project breaths life back into my ears.  If you’re looking for something new and are bored with a lot of the rap that’s out, download this mixtape and listen to the whole thing.  This dude could blow up to be a big deal.  Good way to start off 2010.

Trunk Muzik Mixtape Download

This shit is incredible, Cam’s new producer shows his skills in the videos above…

This shit should be pretty epic, I’ll make sure to provide ya’ll with the download link when the tape drops…

This might be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen.  I had hopes that this was a joke, but sadly it seems to be the real deal, R.I.P. Public Enemy.  New Posts will be up soon, been slackin lately, I’ve just been maxin out and enjoying the holidazzeee.

This pic is hilarious….So Eminem’s Refill has just dropped, the extended version of his Relapse CD that was released earlier this year.  The new songs are pretty good, but nothing special.  I like “Hell Breaks Loose” with Dre, but everything else seems like forced horror rap.  I liked Relapse as a result of it being one of the most incredible lyrical demonstrations that has ever graced the genre of hip-hop.  However, I don’t really find myself bumping relapse anymore, not even one song.  Even though his flow is probably one of the best, the song quality isn’t timeless for me like his older shit is.  I know that Relapse was his way to get back in the game, show his skills, and get out all his feelings after being comatose on xanax for a couple years.  But in terms of a quality album that stands the test of time, Relapse doesn’t cut it.  The rumor is that Relapse 2 is going to abandon the horror theme a little bit and be more of a “real album”.  Em’s working with Just blaze, and there’s a rumor that even Wayne’s gonna be on it. Hopefully Marshall can use his skills to make some more epic music that I can go back to and listen to over and over again like the shit on Slim Shady LP, Marshal Mathers LP, or Eminem Show. Now that Em’s got the drugs out of his system it’s time to create some art and flip the genre on its head like he did 10 years ago.  Here’s a old school Em track from the Infinite LP, this is the kind of quality that never gets old.

Eminem ~ “Infinite”

There is a growing problem that I want to touch on concerning out modern day perception of rap music.  Hip-Hop has always been about competition as a result of being influenced by aggression and rebellion.  However, we’ve come to a point where when we analyze a track we focus more on which rapper murked the other one instead of enjoying the collaboration for what it is.  In other musical genres collaborations are viewed in terms of the artistic quality of the music, while if two or more rappers are on one song the track’s analysis seems to mainly be upon who rapped better.  Its part of hip-hop to compare different rappers, but we seem to be focusing less on the music and more on the conflict.  The funny thing is that artists who have love for each other’s music decide to make a song together for us to enjoy, and we just dissect it and try to turn it into a competition between the different artists instead of a piece of music.  This new view that people, especially bloggers, have on hip-hop is changing its dynamics. It is good in a way since it inspires a competition which pushes artists to try and out-rap each other resulting in better quality music.  However, it seems like the way we’re viewing hip-hop nowadays is taking the artistic aesthetic away from the genre.  Lil’ Wayne’s song with Eminem is one of the only good ones off his album, It’s a very well done collaboration where both artists’ styles work really well together on the track.  All people seem to say when analyzing this song are who they thought rapped better, Em or Weezy.  Again, there’s always been competition, but since when has the competition or perceived competition become more important than the music itself.  Lets keep the competition going, but not forget to respect the dopeness of the music.  What if one day Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen made a collaboration track, would we all analyze it by which artist sang better or whether the music was good.  Again, rating and comparing rappers’ performances is an important aspect of hip-hop, but should not be the conversation that defines the genre.

This shit looks like its gonna be pretty ill.  The Soulful dudes from Cookin Soul and Don “CANNON” Cannon put together this mash up of Jay-Z and Game Songs.  Should be a good holiday listen, shit comes out on Christmas Eve.  Check out the project’s trailer below:

Wow….this is incredible.  I have my doubts about Rebirth, but this track is pretty amazing.  Wayne is ill and Em is crazy.  People on all the blogs are viewing this like a competition when it simply is just a dope artistic collaboration.  If you don’t like this song and you’re a fan of either of these guys’z previous music you need to fix your ears.  This makes me more excited for Rebirth, showing us that dopeness can still be a product of Wayne’s rock experiment.  In other news Wayne is rumored to be on Relapse 2. UPDATE: Just heard the whole album from the leak, a couple good tracks, but overall the CD is a disappointment.  I”m lookin forward to Carter 4 Wayne and for this rock phase to be put to the side.

Lil’ Wayne ~ “Drop The World” (Feat. Eminem)

In Hip-Hop, success is short lived, a relentless genre where you can suddenly become “hot” or “not”.  Every once in a while a new sound infiltrates the system and defines a new form of “hot”.  Past trends of new sounds have been from Tribe, to Wu-tang, to Biggie, to Jay, to Em, to Mos Def and Talib, to 50, to The Clipse, To Wayne, to Drake.  An evolving escalator of artists representing trends that not only influences the genre, but popular culture as well.  Yelawolf could be the next dude to step on this escalator.  He’s from that dirty region south of the mason dixon, and spits hot fiyaa.  It sounds corny, but his lyrical style can kinda be described as a southern Eminem.  His flow is a mixture of a new type or approach to swagger and the typical southern mentality.  Dude is ill, and spits fast raps without taking any dopeness out of each line by how quick he goes in at all.  Yelawolf’s distinct style if it caught on could be a new step in Hip-hop.  30 years ago who would’ve thought that in the future white dudes from the south would be nice on the mic like this haha.  If you haven’t heard of this skrilla I suggest checkin out the cut I posted to the right in the “crisp new cuts” section.  Enjoy the music and be ready to hear this dude’s name a lot more in the future…o yeah, he was just featured in a juelz video…makin moves: