Get To Know H.E.R.

So I wake up, check my e-mail today and amidst the usual junk mail, I see an e-mail from Amalgam Digital saying that they finally have a freaking release date for Kurious’ 2nd album. If you don’t remember who this guy is, I won’t blame ya. He’s only released one album, A Constipated Monkey, and that album was completely overshadowed by a release from one of his labelmates. Some of ya’ll might have heard of it, Illmatic by Nas?

Anyways, I actually really enjoyed A Constipated Monkey and I’ve been waiting on this ever since Wikipedia said that Kurious Jorge would finally be releasing a new LP. It’s titled II (how creative), and set to be released March 24th. In the meantime, you guys should give his debut a listen because I honestly believe it’s an underrated gem from the 90s.

Here’s the track list and the video for the first single.

Hits: Puttin Work In (ft Raekwon), What You Talkin (ft Havoc), Roc-Da-Spot, Yo (ft Redman), Bac Stabbers, Listen Up (ft Teddy Riley), Never Defeat ‘Em (ft Method Man), Jane, They Tell Me (ft Keith Murray), Actin Up (Vic D and Tre)

Strikes: Left For Dead (ft Skyzoo)

Balls: Blow, Run It (ft KRS One), Listen Up (ft Teddy Riley)

Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith are together EPMD, an undeniably legendary group in hip hop history. Still, after my initial surprise of the news of a new album, I was immediately met with thoughts of worry. It’s been almost a whole decade since their last release and the game has changed a whole lot in that time. What if they’d decided to compromise who they were to make a hip pop album that appealed to the masses. Fortunately for all of us, EPMD decided to make an album that deviated very little from their original formula. Fortunately for them as well I suppose, because unless they’d invented some sort of new dance craze, no radio station in their right mind would ever play them anyway.

The album is basically what we’ve come to expect from EPMD by now. Lyrically, nothing much has changed subject wise or technique wise, which in this case is not so bad. Seriously, after witnessing what artistic growth can do to an artist from listening to 808s and Heartbreaks and Universal Mind Control, I say sometimes it’s better to just fuck growth and do what you do best. The beats hit hard, literally oozing with the East Coast sound and actually feel pretty nostalgic at times for this day and age. The beat on Never Defeat ‘Em in particular was crazy for me. As far as guest spots go, the usual suspects are found here. Fellow Hitsquad members Redman and Keith Murray both do their thing and their respective tracks are better for it. The inclusion of Wu members Raekwon and Method Man was also nice and the only guest that really disappointed me was KRS, but only in that I expected a whole lot more than what I ultimately got.

We Mean Business picks up right where EPMD had left off and it sounds as if they’d never left. If you’re a fan of the group, you know what to expect and won’t be disappointed. Now the real question is which group had a better comeback album, Heltah Skeltah or EPMD? Hmm..

I’m gonna take a break just for today from album reviews to post up this EP by Junclassic. I’m actually not sure when this was released but I just listened to it today and shit is pretty good. Check it out if you have the time and make sure to read the word docs for some extra info from the man himself. Tracklisting is as follows.

1. I Gotcha (prod. by Cynergy)
2. The Ohh Ahh feat. Cy Yung (prod. by J Slikk)
3. Status feat Monsta X (prod. by Cynergy)
4. The Basics (prod. by J Slikk)
5. Forever (prod. by Cynergy)
6. Cruisin Thru The Southside (prod. by J Slikk)
7. Lil Bit feat Ceez (prod. by Cynergy)
8. Heard Em Say (prod. by J Slikk)
9. Sleeping Awake (prod. by Cynergy)
10. Werld (prod. by J Slikk)
11. Premeditated (prod. by Cynergy)

Here’s the link to the EP and his myspace if you’re interested.

http://sharebee.com/ac329ec9

http://www.myspace.com/junclassic

As for the top 50 albums of 2008 list, I’m sorry it’s taking so damn long. It’s taking a lot longer than I thought to catch up on the enormous pile of albums that built up during the fourth quarter of last year. If it takes to long, I may just listen to them straight through first without writing a review, do the list, and then work my way backwards at my own time to those since 2009’s albums are starting to come out soon enough.

Hits: Intro, Undisputed, Wish You Would (ft TI), One More Drink (ft T-Pain), Call Up The Homies (ft The Game and Willie Northpole), Contagious (ft Jamie Foxx), Last Of A Dying Breed (ft Lil Wayne), MVP, I Do It For Hip Hop (ft Nas and Jay-Z), Do The Right Thing (ft Common)

Strikes: Southern Gangsta (ft Rick Ross, Playaz Circle, Ving Rhymes), What Them Girls Like (ft Chris Brown and Sean Garrett)

Balls: Everybody Hates Chris (ft Chris Rock), Nasty Girl (ft Plies

Ludacris is and has always been one of the few mainstream southern acts I’ve always had utmost respect for throughout the years. He’s always managed to make songs that attracted an audience without selling out his integrity as a lyricist. Granted, his songs haven’t always been thematically very interesting but you can’t knock the guy on his technical skills. The greatest thing about Luda, however is that he seems to be constantly evolving and improving himself. Most rappers at this point in their careers tend to become lazy with their rhymes (it happens even to the best of rappers…think about Big Daddy Kane after Prince of Darkness). Luda on the other hand sounds better and matures as an artist with each album.

The album in question starts off with a bang, since the intro actually has rapping on it (rapping on a rap intro?! No way!). But all kidding aside, after the great intro, the album continues to drop track after track of dope rhymes over some equally dope beats. Speaking of dope beats, before going any further props are due to the man for reaching out to Primo and 9^th Wonder instead of relying solely on the usual suspects. And further to the man’s credit, he went all out on the two songs in question.

As far as guest artists go, I was pretty wary of the overload of guest artists on this and expected Luda to become lost within this sea of features. Not to worry though, as Luda seems to have stepped up his flow enough to stand out even alongside giants such as Nas and Jay. This, of course indirectly brings us to the one glaring negative on this album. With so many guest artists, there’s not only the risk of the main attraction being downplayed, but on the flipside, the guest in question may suck so much that he or she is able to drag down the whole track by him or herself. I mean, most of the guests on here are on point. Some of these guests were surprising in that I would’ve never expected the collabo (Common) and some guests were surprising in that I expected the track to suck and was instead pleasantly surprised (T-Pain). But there were some collabos that produced some very questionable results. Rick Ross, Playaz Circle and Ving Rhymes provide possibly the worst lyrics on the entire album, all on one track (so sick I wrote my rhymes in the hospital???? Come on…). Not to mention that the track with Chris Brown turned out to be a complete mess (proving once again that all tracks ending with the words Girls and Like are destined to suck hard).

But even with those two travesties on this album, I would have to say that Theater of the Mind is without a doubt, Luda’s best album thus far (although Word of Mouf is arguably more fun of a listen). If he continues on this track for his next effort and cuts out some of the shitty guests and bullshit, who knows, his next album may just end up being a southern classic.

Hits: I’m Coming (ft Black Milk and Nottz), The Truth (ft Freeway and Brother Ali), God Like (ft D Black), Bless The Child (ft Little Brother), Oh Really (ft Posdnuos and Slug), Trap Door (ft MF Doom), Dead Wrong (ft Young Buck), Kissin The Curb (ft Bishop Lamont and Busta Rhymes), How We Ride (ft Freeway), White Van Music (ft Alchemist, Evidence, Prodigy), Get ‘er Done (ft MF Doom), Feelin’ My Shit (ft Casual), Glow (ft Elzhi and Royce Da 5’9”), Home (ft Vitamin D, C Note, Main and Ish)

Strikes: Scared (ft Blueprint), Soil Raps (ft Keak The Sneak),

Balls: Gangsta Boy (M.O.P.), Big Homie Style (ft J. Pinder, GMK and Spaceman),

Note: Turn It Down, Hi and RIP are interludes

I should really kick myself in the ass for taking so long to write about this damn album. Since I first heard this thing straight through, it’s been getting heavy rotation weekly.

Where should I start?

If you don’t know, Jake One is a relatively low key producer who has produced tracks for artists as diverse as De La Soul and 50 Cent. However, each of these tracks has been nothing but straight fire, especially that De La one. Quick story, De La Soul was at Rock The Bells this past summer and as soon as the beat for that song came on, the crowd went fucking nuts. Then they stopped the song and the crowd sat down. Then out of nowhere the beat came back and everyone stood up again at the same time. This went on about 5, 6 times and would’ve looked positively ridiculous if I wasn’t a hip hop fan.

Anyways, this album offers more of the same sick beats he’s been dropping on us for his whole career. And of course, what goes better with sick beats than sick emcees? That’s exactly what this album has to complement Jake One’s production. With just a glance at the list of emcees that are on this album, I had no doubt it would be chock full of sick rhymes. There were your usual “stick with what works” collabos such as Elzhi and Royce in Glow and Evidence and Prodigy in White Van Music, both tracks that were complete scorchers. But what made this album even better were the unusual collabos that seemed strange on paper, but were excellent in execution. In particular the track with Posdnuous and Slug caught my attention, since I had actually secretly been wishing for this to happen forever.

Before I start rambling, I’ll cut this review short and lay it out simple for you. If you hadn’t by now, do yourself a favor and listen to this shit as soon as you can. Even with a couple of misguided tracks, it’s one of the best producer driven albums of 2008 and a definite contender for at least top 15 overall. Seriously, it’s worth the time.

And it has been a new year for 14 days already, so sincere apologies all around for being so spotty with my posts (I promise to work furiously the next couple of weeks so that I’m back on schedule). Anyways, with every new year comes regrets of the year past along with hopes and expectations of the year to come. So before I begin finishing up what should have been 2008 posts, I present to you a list of 08’s biggest letdowns and what to look out for in 2009. And if you’re wondering, I’ll get to my best of 08 list when I get to it.

Biggest Disappointments of 2008 (in no particular order):

First off, disappointment doesn’t necessarily mean that I thought the album in question sucked. In fact, one or two of these albums may end up in my best of 08 list, who knows? All it means is somewhere along the road, it got hyped beyond what it was capable of delivering.

1.  Jedi Mind Tricks: A History Of Violence - In this case, by disappointment, I also mean that this album sucked. Other than Stoupe’s production, which I thought was incredible, nothing else really worked for this album. Vinnie Paz sounded a bit lazy and Jus Allah was a fucking mess. Worst Jedi Mind Tricks release to date.

2. Termanology: Politics As Usual - Even though I thoroughly enjoyed this album, I feel that it really didn’t live up to what it could have been. This is of course, considering that he had a legendary team of producers backing him up. Not that I’m complaining much, but this should’ve been top 10 easy.

3. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien: The Eleventh Hour - For me personally, this was the biggest disappointment of all of 2008. Being a huge Del fan, I expected brilliance out of this, especially since this was in a sense his comeback album. Needless to say, there were several times on my first listen when I just wanted to rip the disc out and throw it out the window. What the fuck happened Del?

4. AZ: Undeniable - After dropping three great albums (Aziatic, AWOL, and The Format) I guess I expected too much out of this one.  It wasn’t a horrible album by any means, but it’s not in the better half of AZ’s discog either.

5. Common: Universal Mind Control - This one should be self explanatory.

6. Skillz: The Million Dollar Backpack - Skillz is a highly talented emcee and should’ve been backed up by better production than what was heard throughout this album. Skillz + good beats = great tracks, and sadly more often than not the good beats part of the equation was not to be found.

Albums To Look Out For In 2009:

1.  Jay-Z: The Blueprint 3 - I’ll admit, I’m a huge Jay-Z fan and one of the biggest disappointments for me this year was the absence of the usual 4th quarter Jay drop. Naturally, this is my most anticipated at the moment.

2. Slaughterhouse: Untitled Album - Unless you’re not primarily a hip hop fan, you’ve heard of this supergroup. Consisting of emcees Royce Da 5′9”, Joe Budden, Joel Ortiz, and Crooked I, Slaugherhouse is a force to be reckoned with. They’ve released two of the best tracks of 2008 and have announced plans to release an entire album this year. Hopefully, they’ll keep to their word and this won’t turn out to be like the HRSMN all over again.

3. Royce Da 5′9”: Street Hop - 2008 was the year of Detroit due to Elzhi and Royce’s crazy ass rhymes popping up all over the place. And while Elzhi did have an album drop in 08, Royce didn’t even see an official release this past year. I predict Street Hop to be the culmination of the madness that started in 08.

4. Talib Kweli: Prisoner Of Consciousness - Talib promised us 3 albums in 2008 and we saw none of them being released. Hopefully he keeps his word good for this year.

5. Raekwon: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II -  Maybe I’m being too hopeful with this, but I feel it. This shit is finally going to be released this year.

6. Eminem: Relapse - If only to hear the rumored DJ Premier track, I’m greatly anticipating this one.