Legends Redux

Regardless of your musical preferences, if you were an early 80′s baby, you got your shimmy on to a few Prodigy tracks, and most likely “Breathe” was your favorite. A few years back I went to a Prodigy show, Glitch Mob opened up and set the table well. I was supposed to interview these guys, but yes, there was a glitch (in that post I called it the best show of my life, I retract that statement vehemently, though it was solid). This remix of a massive Prodigy tune does exactly what fans would want, maintains the integrity of the track while simultaneously polishing it into a contemporary sound. No defects here.

No Room For Halfway Crooks On Twitter

Recently posted on Havoc’s Instagram page – TheRealHavoc

Mobb Deep dropped Black Cocaine last year and promised their fans a follow up early 2012. Scrap that, Havoc has spent the last 24 hours absolutely going in on Prodigy over Twitter.  Havoc keeps referencing a meeting Prodigy was supposed to attend, and is also absolutely convinced that Prodigy has fallen for Rihanna, claiming that the hardened rapper is actually under the impression that he has the inside track on marrying the uber-pop starlet. Either way, for a couple of OG’s who pretty much defined street worthy thuggery for a generation of listeners, the fact that this is taking place on Twitter is tomfoolery. For those of you who think Havoc may have been hacked, he clarified that he wasn’t and also opened up today’s twitter day with ” good morning gay p”. Congratulations guys, you just got nominated for lamest hip hop anecdote of the year. On a side note, these guys love their Instagram, both of them are using that application like it’s going out of style, which it is by the way.

Don’t piss off Havoc, he may just tweet your ass to death.

Infiniti X Cirque De Soleil: 20th Anniversary G Car

Whips are fundamental to street credibility. Luxury whips are fundamental true g’s. Hence the rapper preference for Lexus, Cadillac, and Infiniti. So when rappers spit about pushing whips, it’s cultured significance is not unbeknown to hip hop heads. In other words, fans are very impressionable about what rappers communicate, most assuredly when it comes to choice of automobile. I am by no means immune to the mindless absorption of consumerism in rap, therefore it should come as no surprise that the following verse by Big Noyd encouraged me to buy my Infiniti.

Yo it’s the r – a double p, e – r, n – o – y – d/Niggas can’t fuck with me/comin’ straight outta QB

pushin’ an Infiniti/you ask can I rip it constantly? Mentally?

Definitely, to the death of me/come and test me

Fuck, Noyd pushing that Infiniti, Prodigy trying to get his Lexus up, cars and weed, that’s gangsta rap. My affinity for Infiniti has not tapered, and frankly there’s little reason for it. Celebrating its 20th anniversary in Canada yesterday, the Infiniti G Anniversary Art Project was revealed at some ritzy art gala. It’s a combined effort between Infiniti Canada and Cirque de Soleil design. Ain’t nothing like a “G” ride. Peep the artist, and some screen shots after the jump.

HNICNSFW

A lot of times when one-half of a rapping duo gets put in the cooler, the non-incarcerated half splashes his/her songs with liberal chants of “Free Rapper X.” When Prodigy got locked up, he didn’t crumble into a resentful and overly defensive conspiracy theorist. In fact, he seemed kind of proud of it. He justified his sentence by saying that he’d gotten away with so much shit in his day, that he didn’t mind doing a bid for something he claims he was framed for. That being said, it’s good to see partner in rhyme Havoc not sitting around and waiting for Prodigy to get out. I wonder if they had a phone call where Havoc asked P if he wanted him to drop a “Free P” song to which Prodigy responded “Nah, it’s cool, man. You go out and have a good time.” And the result is this fine video.

Prodigy has always been known as the lyrical half of Mobb Deep but Havoc can certainly hold his own. And, on the autonomous-tip, Havoc is one of the most underrated beat-makers. NSFW.

Random Throwback: Jordan X Mobb Deep

Strange isn’t it? It was weird enough to see Jordan come back and rock that nasty Wizards jersey, but a Bullets throwback, that’s just too much. For starters Jordan use to tear up the Washington Bullets, just like every other prolific scorer did when being guarded by Mitch Richmond. Perhaps that’s why this jersey is being sold for a measly 30 bones (on Ebay, click the pic). It’s hard to justify spending money on a product that aesthetically conveys akward and not right. This uncomfortable consumption is much like the feeling I had when I saw Mobb Deep sign with G-Unit, even with the cohort of M.O.P and Mase. To me Mobb Deep exemplified the unapologetic swagger of  a NYC thug. G-Unit on the other hand is the NYC thug equivalent of Glam Rock, think Girl Talk with an AR-15. Soon after, Prodigy was locked up, and I thought that was the end of that. However, this video (below) appears to foreshadow the inevitable; just another legend trying to make a comeback.

MPFREE: DJ Enyce – Mobb Deep – Welcome to G-Unit (Mixtape)

Peep some old Mobb and the back of the Jordan jersey after the jump…

Clipse Wanna Be The Goats On This Farm

You know the dance, kids: a rapper makes an outlandish comment and it’s my job to pounce on it and rebuke the shit out of it. So here it is, Clipse’s Malice declares that he and brother Pusha-T are the best hip hop duo of all time when he states that “Third times a charm from the best duo ever”, in regards to their new album. I am a Clipse fan, and I would put them in the top five, but not at the top. However, I can’t criticize Malice; outlandish remarks that are a byproduct of a pudgy ego are the wheat in hip hop’s bread and butter. All in all, I’m glad he said it, because it sparks debate, which is always good. Nevertheless, here are a few duos I feel must rank higher than the Virginia tandem:

NOTE: you know the dance, I make outlandish remarks about other outlandish remarks. Feel free to do the same; if you disagree–if you think Clipse are the dopest duo, speak up!

Mobb Deep

Outkast

UGK

8-Ball & MJG

Mos Def: Fallin’ Off Like Limbs Affected With Leprosy?

Cosby Mysteries: before the Cos' decided he hates Hip-Hop

If you peruse the pages of Zebra is Food, you’ll come across some remarks disparaging the Mighty Mos Def for one reason or another.  To many, he’s come to represent some kind of eccentric, tofu-eating, yoga class-taking nut job— more middle-aged soccer mom than a serious rapper.  But I think we can all agree that Black on Both Sides was on some hotness.  What?  It came out a decade ago?  Shut up.  If that shit came out today, it would be no less of a masterpiece.

I bought The New Danger with my hard-earned cash.  I was disappointed as much as anybody else.  But in my opinion, Hip-Hop heads have been mistaking the experimentation of “Ghetto Rock” and “Boogie Man Music” from his last couple albums as a sign of Black Dante falling off.  Now, to oversimplify things, when a rapper is considered to have “fallen off,” this means 1) his/her rhymes are wack, 2) their subject matter sucks, and 3) perhaps, most importantly, they can’t choose dope beats anymore.  If even one of these conditions is not met, it’s actually arguable whether or not said rapper’s abilities have taken a dip.  Take Prodigy of Mobb Deep, for example.  He’s lost some gas behind his flow, rhymes are anemic, and all he seems to rap about (at least, before he went to jail) is cooking crack: Conditions 1 and 2.  But, by enlisting Alchemist to produce Return of the Mac Vol. 1 and 2, P smashed Condition 3 over the right field wall and raised doubts whether he’d really fallen off.

My point is this: If you were looking closely enough, Mos has shown intermittent flashes of ill lyricism that would suggest he hasn’t lost his touch in the last 10 years.  In fact, I recently got my grubby hands on a copy of The Ecstatic, which is due to be released on June 9th, and, while the jury is still out, after a quick listen, it seems the lyrics are there.  And with some nice contributions from Madlib, Mr. Flash, Oh No, and J Dilla, Mos could definitely be back.  NY stand up.

MPFREE: Mos Def feat. Slick Rick – Auditorium

Glitch in the interview meets best show of my life?

My first experience in a legendary Hollywood venue did not disappoint. The Hollywood Palladium was popping tonight! My interview with the Glitch Mob has been postponed for a phone interview due to the fact that it was “too loud.” Yes, it was too loud, and it was pure elation for all. Glitch Mob served some savage appetizers and a break in the action left the crowd starving for their Prodigy fix. Many fans I spoke with tonight described their decade long ambitions to see the legendary British threesome (what happened to Leeroy?). For the West Coast massive it was a night to be remembered by everyone from the personal assistants to the die hard mosh pit heads (moshing was ridiculously fun FYI). I took as much video and pictures as the crowd allowed, it’s hard to snap a Kodak moment when your getting pushed in the back and dodging crowd surfers.

Crooked Response to incarcerated Prodigy

Recently Ped commented on the letter that Prodigy wrote from his jail cell outlining some of his frustrations. You can read that letter here. Yesterday Crooked I took to the very non-street certified arena of the blog world and responded to P. And you can read that crud here. The unwritten rule of maintaining respect at all costs is a rather distinct and indispensible phenomenon in hip-hop. “No disrespect” is as analogous to rap as it is to gangster flicks. The old hood wives tale that if you step on a dudes kicks, you get handled, is a sassy but veritable reference to the importance of disrespect on the street. It seems rather untimely that this beef is to emerge whilst many mourn the 12th year of Big Poppa’s passing. Even more discouraging is the substance that is blatantly lacking from this quarrel. Mind this pun, but, where’s the beef?  A couple noteworthy citations from Crooked’s response include his reference to a freestyle he did over Mobb Deep’s “Get Away” which he goes on to claim his “one of my favorite Mobb Deep songs.” I also find his P.S. amusing, a simple but effective, “Do some push ups.” What’s lamest of all is the fact that this “beef” so far has taken place through written word, but not lyrical song. That’s a shame, because P can flow, and Crooked I can write rhymes, but both these fools are incongruous when it comes to emotion manifested via cuneiform. Ah, well what can you do. This is so-called news, and we just report it. 

Download Crooked I Mixtape

Crooked I – The Block Obama II

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Prodigy’s Prognosis

He said it once and I’ll say it again, step to him and you’re going to get “shot, stabbed or knuckled down.” I mentioned it before in ZIF’s inaugural post but Prodigy doesn’t hold back and he proves it once again in the following hand-written letter, where he perpetuates that battle of attrition–who is the greatest rapper of all time. You gotta commend the Queens rapper in that he names names, in this case he takes jabs at Hell Rell, Flo-Rida, Rick Ross and Rich Boy and dudes like Jay-Z have gotten it in the past. However, these disses are not just for posturing, he backs it up with actual logic but I’ll let P do the talking:

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Prodigal Bastard

Affectionately speaking, Prodigy has always been one of Hip Hop’s biggest jerks. Maybe it began with the remarkably anti-social rant on the second track from Mobb Deep’s classic album The Infamous, where the Queens-bred rapper essentially requests that people not speak to him unless they feel inclined to be “shot, stabbed or knuckled down.” However, Prodigy isn’t rude in the sense that he wants to manifest excessive confidence. The guy really doesn’t seem too interested in money, fame or women. Probably not aesthetically palatable to casual rap-listeners, Prodigy has never seemed to be interested in conversing or reaching out to anybody. Plain and simply put, the guy just doesn’t like other people.

At one point or another, everyone feels the unpleasant dynamic of feeling withdrawn or depressed and subsequently being awkwardly juxtaposed next to people having endless amounts of fun. Considering the title of the album, Product of the 80’s, the sex-sweat-dripping hedonism of the decade oozes into the mind. However, considering the quasi-recluse that is Prodigy, the truth is that while the 1980’s was a world of neon excess for some, for many within the inner-city, the clutches of crack, reaganomics and a general polarization of wealthy and poor, made it far from a paradise.
Prodigy’s latest album Product of the 80’s, plays on the duality of Prodigy’s misanthropy versus the outgoing world of the 80′s. The cover art features P as well as album co-horts, Un Pacino and Big Twins posting on the infamous intersection of Queen and Bridge. However, the dank landscapes of Queens are barely visible and are sinking under a sunny armada of palm trees and glimmering skies.
Product of the 80’s drops at a time when Prodigy has been sentenced to several years in prison for a crime in which he claims he didn’t commit. Having been in a habitually bad mood since Mobb Deep’s debut, Juvenile Hell, Prodigy is now, perhaps uncharacteristically choosing not to mope but rather has gone on a restless streak of releasing music and posting his candid thoughts onto his blog. Prodigy’s stance in terms of his sentencing is that he was never punished for many of the malevolent things that he did do, therefore,he can deal with being punished for one crime which he did not.

Perhaps Prodigy’s new habit of unfolding the inner workings of his mind have allowed him to mix his brooding imagery of the projects with shades of humor. On “Catch Body Music” he states I’m so hungry I could eat a horse, I’m so hungry I could drink the horse’s blood” and that’s the new Prodigy: still morose, slightly funny and could care less about the aesthetic pleasure of his lyrics, and hence, he doesn’t even rhyme certain bars. Production-wise Prodigy keeps it minimal, afterall, the guy has a load of ish on his mind and he’s not going to let deep synths overshadow his explications. “Catch Body Music” summons the minimal yet charming sounds reminiscent of classic Nintendo games, but while the bloops may attract memories of joyful X-mas mornings Prodigy spits his gutter rhymes all over innocent recollections. “P Keep Spittin’” is the Queens-rapper’s own odd version of optimism where Prodigy assures us he’ll be fine regardless of what the coming years bring. “Test Tube Babies” hears old buddies sex and violence enjoying some quality time together.
Prodigy has remained distant and disconnected -for better or worse- for the duration of his career. However, Product of the 80′s, similar to the body of his recent work, sees the MC attempt to tie some sense of morality to a reality which up until now, has been relatively dismal.