Hip-Hop needs a general council

I know most people don't like the idea of someone holding down their freedom of expression and for the most part i agree, but the problem is that there has become such a low standard that someone, or group needs to step up and stand for something. Too many new artists doing stuff that they don't have the cache to be able to pull off, and generally disrespecting the game in some ways. A lot of

So I had to listen to the Racks remix even though it is terribly annoying and YC is one of the new most awfullest rappers ever, and he has the nerve to also have Yo Gotti and Ace Hood on the song. One thing I noticed, is Nelly back or did City Spud come home and start writing him some bars because his verse was best, and while there wasn't much competition, that's always impressive for Nelly.

The search for the elusive female Eminem

So there are quite a few videos out there now that feature white girls rapping and trying to get some type of attention amongst the sea of nonsense and make it big. This is the Eminem effect. Anyone who knows anything understands that generally, an artist who becomes large on the scene in hip-hop has to have a large portion of their fanbase that is non-black, and generally white. The reason

Kool G Rap & Nas "Holla Back" - The Protoype?

I've done a pair of pretty thorough posts on the many, variant tracks left off the commercial release of Kool G Rap's Giancana Story on Koch Records, here and here. But, you know, there's always another little piece of the puzzle to be found. And today's bone fragment that I've linked to the giant, Tyrannosaurus skeleton (really, Giancana Story's a great album if you gather up all the pieces besides what you just get on the 2003 CD) is a neat white label 12" featuring an alternate version of "Holla Back" featuring Nas.

Now, before you cut me off and tell me you already know about the "Holla Back" version with Nas, allow me to point out that this is another version featuring just Nas. Now, I've already talked about the more well-known, unreleased version of "Holla Back" and how it differed from the one on the final Koch album. Here's the break-down of those two versions:

11) "Holla Back" with Nas, Nawz & AZ - Yeah, this was featured on the album. But the leaked version had Nas kicking the first verse instead of Tito of BGF. Nas seriously came off with one of his tightest, illest verses, too ("Throw niggas off yachts, hold niggas with shots, my bitches ran 'cause I'm stupid - I put the shit on digital cam. Light up an ounce, let my bitches watch it on television, hella relentless. Fifty a pop, sell it like Menace. When I sleep, all I see is a white skeleton image. It's telling me something... I opened up Shakespeare's tomb, stole his remains, grinded his bones and got in the game"); so it's a real loss. This version was only featured on the leak. The Koch version also remixed the beat adding a few extra samples and bits. None of it makes up for the loss of Nas.

But there's also this white label 12", which features its own, unique version of "Holla Back." The main difference? No AZ or Nawz, and no Tito either. This is strictly a duet, making it a more fitting follow-up to "Fast Life," going right from Nas's killer verse to G Rap's. Now I'm not mad at the other guest verses (especially AZ's) so it's not a "yay! they're gone" situation; but it does turn a sort of awkward posse cut that takes too long to get to G Rap's part into a concise heater with just the two greatest verses from any version of the song.

But that's not the only difference. Where the original version and the Koch version feature someone (I think Nawz?) doing a spoken intro starting out, "yo, it's 2G" etc, this one has its a different intro. This version starts with Nas explaining how Kool G Rap inspired him. Then G Rap gets on to tell us to check out these tracks, and then we're right into Nas's verse. I actually think maybe this intro was recorded specifically for the 12" (which also furthers my suspicion that this white label was a promo release from Rawkus and not a bootleg), but it is blended into the song.

And this 12" has some nice bonuses as well. It features three freestyles which decidedly don't sound like radio or mixtape rips. The sound is clean and professional and I'm guessing they were recorded for this 12". Two feature Ma Barker (natch) and one features him going over the "It's a Demo" instrumental. All three are pretty nice - G Rap kills it on all of them. My favorite is the one titled simply "Unreleased."

Then, the B-side features the Jagged Edge song "Ride On," which features Kool G Rap. Produced by The Trackmasterz, it features them singing over pretty much the same instrumental The Arsonists used for "Venom," so it's pretty hot. Like the more official 12" Rawkus put out of this song, it features Clean, Dirty and Instrumental versions. But only the other, separate "Ride On" 12" has the acapella.

All in all, this is a pretty sweet 12" with a lot of value, considering it has "Ride On" and the three exclusive freestyles. And for me, this is probably the ideal version of "Holla Back" with just the absolute tightest verses on it. But even if you decide you'd rather have the version with the extra AZ and Nawz verses on it (I can't imagine anyone deciding they'd rather have the Koch version which excises one of Nas's illest appearances), this is still an interesting historical artifact. If you see it, pick it up.

Think Of This as a Master Ace and Asher Roth Album Produced Entirely By DJ Premier

So, if you've read some of my recent write-ups on albums by One Block Radius and Pissed Off Wild, you're probably thinking you can anticipate my thoughts on 13 & God's brand new album, Own Your Ghost.  Werner just hates rappers joining forces with bands!  And honestly, that's not a bad rule of thumb.

After all, let's face it: you're a rap producer, digging for samples or playing around in pro-tools, and it occurs to you, "hey, my little brother plays drums!  That fan I met at my show said he plays guitar!  Why am I sitting here making beats this way when I can have my own, live musical ensemble?"  But here's the thing - is your fan really going to come up with a loop tighter "Nautilus?"  Is your little brother gonna bash out out something tighter than "Funky Drummer?"  Probably not.  Instead, you're probably going to wind up rhyming with a half-assed garage band that wouldn't even be getting gigs at your local bar without your hip-hop co-sign.  There's a bajillion mediocre to terrible rappers out there, so when we find one with some real talent and stand-out quality, it's exciting... and disappointing when they keep passing the microphone back to some inferior collaborator for half their songs.  I'd probably love a dope MC rhyming with The J.B.'s, but most rappers seem to be going for the bands in shortest reach, not auditioning for the best in the world.

And I said all that just to say, I actually don't feel that way about 13 & God.  This is one of those instances where the band and the MC are both talented and interesting enough to deserve our attention, and the music of The Notwist (the part of 13 & God that isn't Themselves) are a really good fit for Dose.  This doesn't feel like Dose compromised or "find the good Dose contributions amid a sea of substandard music."  This is original and compelling work from the whole crew (the fact that Jel is still involves has to be a large part of how it all manages to work, I'm sure).

But, unfortunately, there is one large caveat.  Marcus Archer, the lead singer of Fog and the other vocalist of 13 & God.  I admit, when they've all got the lyrics, the music and the groove working 100% just right, like on the chorus to "Men Of Station," he can sound fine.  But otherwise, I'm not trying to make the guy feel bad or anything, but I just don't think he should be singing.  He works in that one instance where literally anybody - your grandmother, even - would sound good singing that segment, and that's it.  He's not even a good hook man, let alone somebody who should be singing whole verses and taking songs on solo.

As such, and as will always be the case I suppose with 13 & God releases, you're going to find yourself skipping the Marcus parts.  And, unfortunately, the Marcus-to-Dose ratio is pretty heavy on the Marcus this time around.  So if you're not in a situation where you can easily skip around songs and parts of songs while listening to your music, you'll just wind up having to listen to something else.  Which is a shame, because when they're cooking, like on "Sure As Debt" or "Death Major," they kick ass.

The vinyl presentation is pretty kick ass, too.  It's a single LP, but that's alright since it's kind of a short album anyway, and comes in a cool picture cover.  It comes with a fold-out insert with all the lyrics and some additional artwork (printed lyrics are always welcome, but especially on any project that Dose One raps on!), and also a download card for a free mp3 version of this album.  Anticon continues to get that right.  =)

So, think of this as a Master Ace and Asher Roth album produced entirely by DJ Premier.  The one MC is great, and the musical backing is safely on point.  Does the other vocalist keep you away?  Your answer to that question will determine whether or not this album is for you.  If it helps you decide, there are one or two songs which are essentially Dose solo songs.  For my part, I'm quite happy with the purchase.

The Dopplegangaz

I just caught on to The Dopplegangaz, thanks to a well-placed Youtube link... though in retrospect, I realized Robbie included them on his Unkut mixtape; so I should've started following them last year.  Oh well; better late than never.  Coming out of New York, it's a two man team of Matter ov Fact (MC) and EP (MC and producer), and I timed my discovery pretty well, because I was able to pre-order their latest album, Lone Sharks just a few days before it dropped, and here they are already in today's mail.

The Dopplegangaz remind me of The Beatnuts, in the best possible sense.  At first, they might seem a bit silly and gimmicky - they wear hooded robes and the titles to some of their songs sound like straight-up horrorcore tracks.  But just like The Beatnuts, no matter how tempted you might be to just write them off, you can't because, while they're not the best lyricists in the game, their rhymes are pretty smart and their beats are beyond reproach.  The juvenile subject matter and robust sounds of "Like What Like Me," for example, is a seriously bugged combination.  They might not crack the mainstream market, but heads who appreciate the real talent will have to give it up.

Heck, let me just throw up that Youtube vid real quick.  They actually have a bunch of good videos, so go ahead and dig around their channel after this; but this is the one that led me to them earlier in the week:

And while I was scoring Lone Sharks, I also picked up their first album*, Beats for Brothels vol. 1.  Like its title suggests, it's essentially an instrumental album, with the only words being a handful of well-chosen vocal samples over the beats.  It actually takes me back to my old days listening to Dynamix II tapes (Holy cow! Was this my first Dynamix II reference on this blog?  Yee-ha!  And it only took me four years!  hehe).  Some of the tracks are pretty dope, and others are great!  "Chants" is a killer, at times reminding me of Mr. Green's "Children Sing" but without getting too similar that it feels derivative.

And it's not strictly an instrumental endeavor, which is great if you're like me and are quickly bored with hip-hop instrumental releases.  The album rounds out with two fully-fleshed out songs with vocals and all, "Digging" and "Dopplegang Affiliation."  This album's a great collection of instrumental production that aficionados with an ear for hot beats and samples will definitely want to check for.  But honestly, I pretty much just bought it for these two songs... and I was not disappointed.  By the way, the instrumental versions of both of these songs are included here, too.

My only complaint is probably one most of their fans will share, considering who their target audience must surely consist largely of diggers and purists - no vinyl.  Both their albums are CD only, though you have to expect that from up and coming artists who're just breaking and putting out their music themselves.  But, maybe if they're reading this, I could tempt them on the idea of a limited run EP of their best six or so tracks?  Because, as you've probably noticed, I love all kinds of hip-hop... but this is really the kind of gritty, sample-driven stuff you want to have on vinyl.  I love my Madball & Uzi albums; but honestly, the CDs are enough for me.  But this stuff would sound heavy on wax.

In the meantime, though, I urge you all to check them out online and support their new CD release.

*I say "first," but they do have a pair of previous, mp3-only releases that you can download for free from their website, thedopplegangaz.com (that's where you can order their albums from, too), and another mp3-only instrumental compilation called Rhyme Over Beats, which you can still download if you google around a bit.

Lupe is a Fiasco

So I have been trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to approach this little issue. I have problems with people going at Barack Obama, I do, more than most politicians but in general, I don't think people have enough respect for how much the President is actually up against and how much work he has to do. However, people do have a right to express their displeasure, though I can also cast a