ZIF Video Of The Week: Raekwon Ft. L.E.P. Bogus Boys – This Shit Hard

You already know that I have a compulsion towards bumping L.E.P Bogus Boys music. Nothing like a feature from my favorite Clansmen to solidify the deal. Southside Chicago emcees, Count and Moonie, make up the group, and apparently they know a little thing or too about cocaine. Question is, is there room for more Coke Rap in 2012? This is the year that “art rap” slash “indie rappers” who don’t want to be called “hipster rappers” really made their push into the vanguard. It’s one those terribly ironic situations, there’s no room for halfway crooks, or full time coke rappers. Note to Count and Moonie: selling music is like pushing ‘product’, diversify, keep your custees wondering.

Ghostface Killah Does Not Respect Your Beauty Sleep.

I find it hilarious when an imagination can run wild when inspired by the tweets of ones favorite rapper. Take Ghostface Killah on Twitter this morning, he clearly is not happy with the fact that he is the only one up and about, ready to work. And I’m assuming that he’s referencing Sheek Louch who may have got a little too faded last night at the Abbey Pub, hence the frustration about their worthless snoring asses. That toilet line is priceless. #followghostfacekillah

Rock The Bells, lines, lines and more lines…

We just did a massive Lollapallooza write up and Yvettita has given her take on this past weekend’s Rock The Bells festivities in SoCal. Everyone is entitled to their opinion about how they spend their time, here’s a quick rundown on my thoughts from Rock The Bells 2010.

The Good

1. The stage was centrally located with plenty of space to move pretty close to the acts.
2. A Tribe Called Quest killed it! Q-Tip had a superior performance to his UCLA Jazz Reggae act, and Fife looks like he’d been practicing.
3. Moment of the night for me was when Tribe brought out Busta Rhymes and Spliff Starr as surprise guests and proceeded to do a bunch of Violator tracks circa 1999.
4. Wu-Tang was fully in attendance with ODB’s son holding it down as well. I have never seen the full collective and frankly it was an honor and a special moment for me to watch them perform “Enter The 36″
5. Both Wu-Tang and Snoop strayed from their respective albums, which was all good, because we got to see WU perform “Triumph, Method Man perform “Da Rockwilder”, and Snoop put down some classic shit like “Next Episode” and “Murder Was The Case”.
6. Hosing the crowd with water at key moments on account of unbearable San Bernardino heat.

The Bad

1. The parking was overbooked and the lots were closed by the fire marshal, this forced many (including me) to find random, crazy, street parking.
2. When entering the concert grounds, security confiscated cigarette packs (but no single smokes), lighters and bottles of WATER! (including Nalgene) from ticket holders.
3. The indoor venue acted as a second stage, the airplane hanger-esque building was lacking sun, fun, and people. Bust.
4. There was no grass, the entire outdoor venue is on asphalt, basically a huge parking lot. That prevented most (not all) from being able to lie, sit or give their legs a respite.
5. The food vendors were limited and pricey. The Jamaican Jerk sauce was weak, and the lemonade was sour.
6. We arrived at 4PM and they had already pushed a lot of artists on the stage. In just 4 hours we had missed Rakim, Slick Rick, DJ Premier, and a slew of young cats.

The Ugly

1. There were lines to EVERYTHING.
2. There was a line to enter.
3. There was a line to get ID checked so you could wear a Heineken bracelet.
4. There was line to buy “event cards” which were prepaid amounts to spend for food and drink.
5. There were lines to get food and drink.
6. The COLD WATER tent ran out of water. So did the bar.
7. It was about 102 degrees for the majority of the day.
8. LAURYN HILL. Man she sounded like Whitney, post -2009, just cracked out.

U-God Golden Arms Redemption

The 8th solo effort post-36 Chambers features everyone’s favorite paranoid schizophrenic U-God. It’s 1999, he’s talking about Kobe Bryant and bangles that dangle. These beats though…it’s a headphone enthusiast’s dusty find of the day kind of good.

Got to give it up for anyone who is able to so lasciviously stick to a single aesthetic for the duration of the album for a reason other than lack of production, kind of like the opposite of folk music.

Pick up a free copy floating around the internet here (if you’re a mac user, it might be DOODOO! try this link here.)

Played in Full

While peaking at this year’s Rock the Bells lineup, it’s nearly impossible to ignore the fact that a good 70% of the artists are performing their “opuses” in full. Snoop will be performing Doggystyle, Wu-Tang is going to do Enter the 36 Chambers, Rakim, Paid in Full and so on. I wonder what catalyzed this trend. For some of these artists, sticking to a specific cluster of their careers makes sense (i.e. I don’t really need to hear Snoop’s True Blood tribute but hearing Doggystyle is sure to be classic). However, a group like A Tribe Called Quest and to an extent, Wu-Tang, could easily perform a medley of their careers, no disrespect to …36 Chambers or Midnight Marauders, and it would still be ill. Nevertheless, I saw GZA perform Liquid Swords start-t0-finish and it certainly lived up to his watershed’s hype.

Mind The Leak: Wu-Massacre

We usually do not like to link straight up albums for download. But there are just way too many Zebreezy fans waiting on this. (click the image to download)

Close but no Cuban

Raekwon is my favorite Wu member, let me throw that disclaimer out there, preface for the haters. Hence, even though his new album, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt II, has nearly a decade of hype behind it, I will not post it up on ZIF for free download. Frankly, I had a CBII listening session last night with Sammy G and I had to wake him up by track 11, and he left before the outro, Yikes! I have a feeling this will be a common phenomenon among hip hop fans and Wu faithful alike. Simply put, there was way too much hype behind this album for there to be any other type of reaction, Dre’s Detox is sure to have a similar outcome. The fact that production on this album includes the likes of J Dilla, Dr Dre, Scram Jones, Necro, and RZA surely do not help temper any expectations regarding this album.

For all intensive purposes this album was finished in January of 2006. Rae came out and told some cats including XXL magazine that it was pretty much done, waiting to be “dropped on a major” and it appeared as though that was going to be with Dre and Aftermath Entertainment. After a quick Christmas break, Dr. Dre got obsessed once again with Detox and told heads he was no longer creatively interested in the project. This turned Rae off, and its been flopping around like a fish out of water ever since. So forgive the Chef if the soup is a little cold.

Ah, let’s wrap this pseudo-review up. Rap purists will go out on a proverbial limb and say something to the effect of “Cuban Linx 2 has great production, but lackluster rhymes.” Wu-Tang fans will already be looking to the next Wu affiliated project. However, Raekwon fans will mollify their critique, listen to the album a couple times, and give Raekwon the decency of devoting a couple hours to what this man took 8 years to put out in the universe.

MPFREE: Raekwon – The Babygrande Recordings

“If Your Bitch Don’t Like Me, She Must Like Women”

Most often, blend tapes (existing beats + existing acapellas) serve to frustrate me more than bring me utility.  They’re typically assembled by some kid in their basement with an internet connection, Fruity Loops, no sense of rhythm, and plenty of time.  The NastraDOOMus mixes (Nas + (MF) Doom) from earlier this decade were stellar, but the blend tapes circulating the internet since then have been mediocre at best.  I had pretty much given up on this genre of mixtape until several credible sources on my blog aggregator raved about Memory Man’s Wu-Tang Clan Vs. D.I.T.C. The concept is simple, but the result is better than I had imagined.

The real star here, surprise, is Big L (R.I.P.), who IMO, rounds out the triumvirate of the greatest emcees who, incidentally, left this world before their time.  Wu-Tang Clan Vs. D.I.T.C. is the next best thing to brand new verses from the deceased rapper, and it’s surprising how fresh his punchlines sound over Wu beats.  You can bet that on my trip up to San Francisco next week, 1/6 of that drive will be spent bumping this tape.

MPFREE: Memory Man Presents… Wu-Tang Clan Vs. D.I.T.C.

MPFREE: The Weekend Round-Up

-Wale & 9th Wonder’s Back to the Feature mixtape dropped, and it features Talib Kweli, Freeway, Black Thought, Young Chris, Joell Ortiz, Bun B, Torae, Joe Budden, and Curren$y.  Sounds pretty dope, but I can’t help be feel that Wale is o-ver-rat-ed.  Grab it here.

-Not sure what project this is supposed to be off of, but Nas’ newest Swizz Beatz-produced track is kind of nice.  This is probably the first Swizz Beatz joint that I’ve ever enjoyed.  Still, he’s firmly cemented himself as the 21st Century DJ Clue and needs to shut the fuck up.

-A second track, “Car Service,” has leaked from Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y’s upcoming, collaborative mixtape How Fly.  Looking forward to this one.

-Jamie Foxx has a new track out with The-Dream, Kanye, and Drake.  Is anyone downloading this track to hear Jamie Foxx?  Didn’t think so.

-The Wu continues to make noise, leaking tracks off of their live band-backed Chamber Music.  Peep “Kill Too Hard” with Masta Ace, U-God, and Inspectah Deck.

-In case there was any doubt that Slaughterhouse (Royce Da 5’9, Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, and Crooked I)  is going to be raw as shit already, the first leak off of their album features M.O.P.  Check it.

-After what seems like 2 decades, Chali 2na is getting set to drop his debut solo album.  If anything, “When Will I See You Again” has reminded me how dope Elzhi of Slum Village is.

-You can’t sample The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby.”  Kweli already tried.  But J Dilla could interpolate the melody and throw Guilty Simpson on the track.  Yeah, that could work…

-I’ve been a bit disappointed by Torae and Marco Polo’s collabo, Double Barrel, but I’m really feeling the last track.

-BONUS:  The sample to Jay-Z’s “D.O.A. (Death of Autotune),” produced by No I.D.  Ill, but pretty standard issue.

U-Godda be kiddin me!

Everyone has a a favorite Wu-Tang member. Nobody picks U-God, including RZA who has notoriously shut him out of good production and possibly even royalties. U-God is the proverbial last player to get picked in any Clan game, though his long time relationship with Clan members Raekwon and Method Man are undeniable. Contrary to the massess I have always had an extremely soft spot for U-God, no homo. He has come a long way from being Cappadonna’s beatbox companion, and will be dropping his 3rd solo album next week titled Dopium. The album features plenty of affiliates, including the following banger with ‘Face and Scotty Wotty:

Other guests on this upcoming CD include Method Man, Gza, Killah Priest, Cappadonna, Jim Jones, Large Professor, and Sheek Louch.

I bought U-God’s first album out of Wu patronage. Though my patronage has certainly been compromised over the years, I still appreciate the culture of the ‘Tang and I fully expect U-God to have some listenable tracks on his upcoming album. Kind of like how you would expect the last player to get picked to hit a few open jumpers at the very least. U-God is no franchise player, but he’s still a baller.

MPFREE: U-God ft. Jim Jones & Sheek Louch - Magnum Force

Shaolin Soul

It’d be easy to look at Ghostface’s claim that his newest album will be all R&B and say that he’s buying a ticket on the bandwagon. After all, Lil Wayne and T.I. both sang prolific ballad-esque tunes for their albums and Kanye even made an entire album where rapping took a backseat to soulful crooning.

However, if one is to peak at the history of Ghost, they’ll see that the guy has been a connoisseur of dusty soul since his first album Ironman. His single “Holla” was also rapped entirely over not a Delfonics sample, but the actual Delfonics’ “La La(Means I Love You)” song. Tony Starks has always had, what seems like, a heartfelt enthusiasm for Soul music.

In a recent interview with Unkut, Ghostface stated that as he feels that as rappers approach forty, it looks ridiculous for them to continue to act as if they’re still mover/shakers in the drug-game.

Pass the kush, I got Cubans!

Every pure rap fan is a Wu-Tang fan, and every Wu-head has a favorite member. Mine is Raekwon in a landslide. My problem with Da Chef is not his ingredients or recipes, just the lack of consistency. Raekwon is like Kogi BBQ, hard to track down but worth the legwork. For the last 4 years Raekwon has been hyping the release of his follow up album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II. This album reportedly features guest spots from Ghostface Killah, the Game, Bun B, Method Man, Dr. Dre, RZA and Travis Barker. Not bad for an inconsistently employed fat ass chef!

MPFREE’s:

Raekwon- Cocaine Blunts

CHESS IS FOR KIDS

RZA is an eccentric cat. I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw him in Battery Park with a coffee and a cigarette playing some old Jewish cat in chess. Today you can find plenty of young chess masters along with a bunch of hip hop die hards at the 4th Annual “Bum Rush The Boards” chess tournament sponsored by the Columbia Heights Youth Club and Words, Beats & Life Inc in DC. On the website it discusses some complex analogous relationship between chess and hip hop, but don’t get it twisted, this is about youth outreach. Simple equation, play chess inside = not outside lacking purpose. This year’s tournament will consist of four rounds of chess mastery, coupled with workshops and exhibitions taking place throughout the day on Rocking, Toasting, Visual Arts, Poetry, Graffiti, Chess, and more. Peep details, or sign up to “play” at their site.