‘They’ say Hip-Hop’s DEAD — err, deceased, toe-tagged, pine-boxed, you know, in a ‘better, less depressing place’ — and was tucked inside Big & Pac’s tailored burial suits after somehow being ‘murdered’ in cold blood by: A) Greed-stricken record execs with insatiable ring-tone fetishes B) The F#!@$@$%# FOUR = Algernod, DeAndre, Radrick & Otis C) Pay-Per-Play Radio programmers D) Colonel Mustard with a candlestick inside the Billiard Room…(BING!) (wait, or was it Professor Plum..in the…?!) Bleh, who knows…better yet, who even knew that the POP-diseased genre had officially flat-lined?! …I’d say no one who truly loves music, lives it, or does it because TRUE music heads — all 1,723 of us on Earf — know that Hip-Hop/Soul — REAL Hip-Hop/Soul — AIN’T really DEAD.
With that said, I would like to dedicate this Mega-blog to any/everyone who dropped black roses on Hip-Hop’s casket after euthanizing the sickly, bed-ridden genre currently living within the pens, pads and vocal chords of REAL artists/musicians/composers/performers across the globe like the 27 I’ve personally selected to introduce to you. Hopefully, you enjoy reading..err, sifting through the blog/debating with fellow music heads about it.. just as much as I did writing it. OK, BYE. Let’s DO it.
Phonte Coleman: The Biggest Rap Star In Your Apartment Complex.
He’s only the ‘biggest rap star in your apartment complex’ and the ‘best kept secret since the AIDs cure’ …He raps better than your favorite ‘IT-boy’ rapper, croons better than your favorite tat-chestded crooner and zings wittier one-liners than your favorite late nite Comic Viewster — His name is Phonte ‘Phontigallo’ Coleman (…aka the face of critically-acclaimed Hip-Hop trio duo Little Brother & Nu-Soul duo Foreign Exchange) and he’s the #1 reason why Hip-Hop/Soul… Ain’t… DEAD…
…Don’t believe the HYPE?! …then google (Phonte) (+) Kanye, who admittedly scrapped his clunky College Dropout-flow after hearing the N.C. Central grad-turnt-(uber)undie-MC’s legendary verse on (Little Brother’s) “The Yo-Yo” (“…Man, sh*t, I’m bout to kick some Trick Daddy next poetry night like Myyy..Blaaaack..Queeeen..don’t know nann n*gga!”) …or Weezy, who struggled to keep up with the burly beat-rocker on the playful femme-love/hate anthem “Breakin’ My Heart” (Weezy = ‘…I gets all up in your head, just like shampoo…’ < Phonte = ‘…a woman’s life is love, a man’s love is life…’) …
…With four certified classics (Little Brother’s The Listening/Minstrel Show + Foreign Exchange’s Connected/Leave it all Behind) under his belt and thousands of die hard fans studying his every syllable, Phonte aka the best ‘everyman’s rapper’ alive (‘…My girl was throwin’ up this morning/I’m prayin’ it was somethin’ she ate…’) quietly etched his name into most Top-10 MC lists after penning some of the illest punch-lines (‘…might want to let me put my all in you/or else one of these off-brand Wal-Mart n*ggaz might try to Target you…’)/verses (See: “Boondock Saints”)/vocal arrangements (See: “House of Cards”) of our Hip-Pop-infused generation …
(“Boondock Saints” = ‘…Because I ain’t shucking, because I ain’t jivin’/Some of these cr*ckers won’t stand beside me/And cuz I ain’t killin’ and don’t support pimpin’/Some of these n*ggas wanna call me a Cosby/Well, I’ll be that dude, I’ll scratch that itch/I’ll play that role, call me Heathcliff b*tch!’)
…Nonetheless, if you’re a jaded Hip-Hopper struggling to re-discover REAL Hip-Hop in today’s ring-tone-deafened society, I highly recommend you purchase tickets to the next Foreign Exchange show (Ticket = $15) coming soon to an obscure venue in the hidden corners of a major city near you …Believe me, after vibing with Phonte and 173 fellow music lovers for two, maybe three hours, you too, will be a believer …
J. E. The Extraterres… with Tourrettes: Live From Planet X.
After hearing Jay Electronica (‘They call me Jay Electronica…f*ck that. Call me Jay ElecHannukah..Jay ElecYalmulke..etc..’) ‘Jay ElecHannukah’ spit that ‘blow your brain, Kurt Cobain — Nirvana sh*t’ over Just Blaze’s incredible “Exhibit A (Transformations)” backdrop (“…I paved ways like Nat and Harriet, I blast on Judas Iscariots and peel off in the chariot…”), it was clear that the mind-bending beat bully from the ‘city built on top of a grave’ was more than just another quirky, dare-to-be-different MC with a store bought flow like Asher Roth or gimmicky image like Charles Hamilton …
…Nah, son… Jay Elec was the personification of innovation…and err, somewhat of a whimsical weirdo with a subtle edginess + beautifully surreal musical approach that only the most intellectual (of) ‘backpackers’/music connoisseurs could appreciate… To me, Jay Elec embodied everything that fad-tattered ‘hipsters’ like KiD CuDi strived to be and proved, once again, that rappers from the ‘souf’ were more than just criminally coonish cash-fiends/reckless misogynists with painfully dinky-doink flows …
…As a city skipping beatmaker/wordsmith with an endearing affinity for cult-classic movies/allusions (“…my mama said son why such a lonely face/because the pressures on me/plus I feel like Bill Murray trapped in Punxsutawney…”), the Planet-X-born, N.O.-bred MC dropped several buzz-worthy mixtapes, a phenomenal ‘poetry-in-motion’ (spit)session “Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge)” and the critically-acclaimed Dilla mash-up Style Wars EP that elevated him to ‘NEXT-status’ where he’s now poised to finally drop his highly-anticipated debut album sometime in the near/far-reaching future…
…But until then, it’s probably best that you bang “Exhibit A, B & now C”/Style Wars EP until your speakers implode while waiting for the shadow lurking MC to drop (…quite possibly the illest single of the year…) “Dear Moleskine” — the soul-piercing Just Blaze gem that’s been teased online/on-tour for months with no official ‘drop-date’ …Oh, and, uh, if I were you I would avoid the 1 min. 45 sec. mini-teaser like a double McMexican swine sammich with extra pickled pig hoofle sauce… you’ll only be torturing yourself …
Black Milk: The Dirty ‘D’s’ ‘Youngest In Charge’
Curtis ‘Black Milk’ Cross certainly isn’t J. ‘Dilla’ Yancey nor does he pretend to be when crafting his sinister snare kicks + soul-splashed samples that breathe life into desolate souls — like Dilla’s untouchable catalogue of ‘Donuts’ — while standing alone as new-age pages in the Hip-Hop Beat-Bible that the legendary beatmaker/MC died too soon to finish…
At 25 years young, Detroit’s second ‘youngest in charge’ (#1 Mayor Kwame) is a GROWN azzded MAN on the MP with a flair for filthy, Dirty ‘D’-pimp slapped drum baps (See: “Give The Drummer Sum”) and wildly-imaginative, chipmunk-funk’d sample loops (See: “Shut It Down”), that, when meshed together, create audible anti-biotics for the POP-diseased strain of Hip-Hop currently spreading through the industry via trend-thirsty ‘super producers’ who couldn’t touch Black’s weakest reference tracks with their hottest ‘top-shelf tracks’/ring-tones… (‘Did he just…?!’) … Yea, I said it! …
…If anything, Black Milk represents a gritty new-breed of brilliant beatmaker/MCs (Jay Electronica/Hi-Tek/Nottz) who body their own bangers (‘…If Hip-Hop’s dead and out/Black Milk just gave that b*tch mouth-to-mouth/brought it… back to life… out the hospital… ILLL… the industry owe me, got hospital bills…’) and showcased this through his widely-heralded albums Popular Demand/Tronic + the sick (regional) collabs Caltroit (Feat. Bishop Lamont) & The Set Up (Feat. Fat Ray) further establishing the Detroit-anchored midwest as a perennial power-player in the steadily-growing underground Hip-Hop/Soul movement…
…So with that said, I move that we, as new-age Hip-Hopsters, dead these pointless Black Milk/Dilla comparisons/arguments/debates and allow Black Milk to shape his own legacy without facing lifetimes worth of unrealistic expectations to be everything that Dilla was, and more…I mean DAMN, let Black Milk be, well, GREAT… I’m sure Dilla would…
Blu: Eternal Sunshine of the Golden (BLU) Mind.
The 26-year-old reflection in Johnson ‘Blu’ Barnes’ mirror is somewhat complex, flawed and reality-bitten… but, uhh, then again, that’s why any/everyone with their ears to the streets are buzzing about the nonchalantly confident leftcoast ‘rap peasant’ named Blu whose razor sharp ‘real-life’-coated bars force you to look into the mirror while wondering whether you’re living your life like it’s golden or merely just existing on this great ball of stress that we call the Earth (Sadat X) …
…To some, ‘Blu’ is nothing more than a primary color but to true Hip-Hopsters he’s one of the realest, intimately introspective MCs in the game (“…And you chillin’ in your house with a wife, a few children/Feelin’ like you struck a million/Lookin’ at your kids like/‘Sh*t, this my son… This n*gga came from my nuts…”) who poured the contents of his tortured soul in between the paper’s lines (‘…I got dreams I ain’t reached yet – ends that ain’t meet yet/When it comes to being a man, sh*t I’m barely getting my feet wet/Trying to hit reset knee deep in debt/Trying to figure out how to feed a mouth that ain’t got teeth yet…’) for his fearless debut opus Below The Heavens that converted several ‘stuck-in-the-’90s’ ’Pac-stans into full-fledged, true Blu-believers …
…And NO, I’m in no way comparing a freshly-planted rose seed (Blu) maturing beneath the concrete to the fully-bloomed, concrete-grown rose that was Tupac Shakur — a Hip-Hop legend, even if the lyrically profound fresh face (recently) earned the late MC’s crown from Pacific Time Zone’d Hip-Hopsters/backpackers deeply immersed in a new-era ‘Cali-Soul movement’ (U-N-I/Fashawn/Pac Div) destined to revive the West’s severely comatized, Jerk-ravaged Hip-Hop pedigree …
…But I doubt the newly-major label drafted Blu (Sire/Warner Bros. records) cares about these over-blown comparisons (Hip-Hop Hype-Machinists = ‘YoO Blu’s betta than Lupe … illa than Nas … doper than Phonte’) or supposed ‘Westcoast (Hip-Hop) Savior’ status (Mainframe, ½ of Johnson&Johnson: “…A lot of rappers try to fit into a certain mold, but Blu breaks out of it…I think he’s the savior of West Coast Hip-Hop right now…”) and remains focused on inspiring Hip-Hop’s ‘left behind’ through eloquently insightful verses that elevated last year’s undie-gem (Mainframe-collab) Johnson&Johnson into serious ‘Album/Producer of the Year’ conversations/Award considerations …
Believe me when I say Blu’s winning right now and poised to shatter coastal biases in the name of REAL Hip-Hop especially after being contacted by a young deaf girl who revealed that the vibrations from his music were like no other when she placed her hands on her friends’ ‘Blu-blessed’ speakers … Obviously, I’m down with Blu, the question is, are YOU?
Little Dragon (Interlude)
*When PRETENDING to be a MUSIC HEAD goes wrong*
‘Music Head’: ‘Waaait, hold up, OK, so ‘Little Dragon’ is, uhh, Phonte … and, um, MC Pooh ..somethin’ … and 9th … right?! … Dude, I’ve been a 9th Wonder fan since Jay-Z’s Black Album and loved Phonte’s hook on that Playaz Circle jam … Yo, I been wonderin’ why that cat doesn’t sing more… dude has a nice voice …’
Me: Nawl, that’s Little Brother … you know, Phonte and Rapper Big Pooh … but, uh, 9th Wonder hasn’t been with the group for a year or two now and definitely dropped doper tracks than “Threat” (Black Album) … As for Phonte, well, he’s on the road as we speak with his soul duo Foreign Exchange … Yea, but THIS group is Little Dragon.
‘Music Head’: ‘OoO, aight, COOL, For-eign … Ex-change … I’ll definitely check them out, but, OK, back to Little…Dragon, now they’re basically this ‘underground’ electro-POP/Rock, kinda Soulish/R&Bish Euro-band froooom Scotland … NO, Switzerland?! … Yeaaa, they SWISS … all dudes and one chick, right?! … kinda like Lucy Pearl, but white..err, European… YES, I LOVE that band!’
Me: *sigh* …You mean Sweden …
‘Music Head’: ‘OoOps, yea, my bad, Sweeeden, hahaa … same thing … but they were MAJOR in the ’90s, like global … Yo, I rocked wit them HARD when they dropped “Zombie” … Their lead singer, tha chick with the dirty tennis ball cut and swexy Europe-ish accent was HAWT… But wait, they weren’t always called Little Dragon though, right?! … Their name was Lusty Grapes, Tasty Blueberries, ehh, somethin’ like that, like some kinda fruit… *nods* ..mhhhmmm … naw, don’t try to play me son, I know who tha hell Little Dragon is … ’
Little Dragon: Stranger Than Fiction.
Little Dragon is headlining my wedding reception. No, really, they are — all four of those Electrosoul-smitten Swedes… Yep, I’ve already told my mama and, well, now I’m telling, HER, my future wife, as I’m typing this to mentally prepare them for the incredibly eclectic Rock/POP/Soul collective that very well may be the only reason why most legit music heads still find themselves optimistic about the future of progressive R&B/Soul music (…devoid of any poisonous Major Label additives or crippling A&R preservatives…)
Maybe it’s their funky fresh slinky-synths (See: “Turn Left”), retro-Soul-slicked aesthetic (See: “Feather”) or lead singer (Japanese/American/Swedish) Yukimi Nagano’s haunting vocals (See: “Twice”) that forever locked the Gothenburg-based quartet inside my cardio beatbox once their stunning self-titled debut Little Dragon (’07) faded into the warmest corners of my soul… Whatever it was, I F’N LOVED these talented dudes & sultry songbird, yes, LOVED them, and vowed to share them with the ‘musically thirsted’ until, they too, tracked down the band’s masterfully-conceived, indie-released debut album …
At the time, there were simply no artistic entities like Little Dragon (…aka Erik Bodin, Drums + Fredrik Källgren Wallin, Bass + Håkan Wirenstrand, Keys + Yukimi, Vocals) who easily carved their own niche in the Electro/Nu-Soul arena while generating a contagious promo-push for their highly-anticipated sophomore project Machine Dreams — a soulfully abstract, ’80s-POP-glossed throwback (See: “Runabout”) met with critical praise upon its release on Aug. 31… And the fans?! …well, most of us probably haven’t stopped playing the delightfully trippy record splashed with (more of) Yukimi’s (signature) soul-melting pipes (See: “A New”) that are unlike any other in the ‘soulstress’-saturated industry …
As long as Little Dragon is rockin’ stages, YOU, your ‘music head’ associates and these miserable-minded complainers have no reason to moan, groan and bemoan about the lack of REAL music/artists/innovation in today’s over-hyped musical wasteland… I say: delve deeper… expand your comfort zones… open your minds… and, maybe then, you’ll realize that there IS life after Hip-Hop/Soul’s supposed death after all …
Marsha Ambrosius: There’s Somethin’ About Marsha.
British chanteuse Marsha A. has (Jenny ‘Effie’ Hudson’s inner-strenf) + (MJB’s killer instinct) X (‘Lyzell in E Flat’ Jill Scott’s range) + (Adele’s Euro-edge) – (‘Post-Lyzell’ Jill Scott’s incessant emo-babble) ÷ (‘Indie-hyped’ Jaz Sullivan’s growth potential) + (‘Mr. Biggs’ Kelly Price’s (vocal) power) which, according to my 4th Grade ‘PEMDAS’ notes, makes her the illest ‘songstress’ in the biz who, with one heart-chilling vocal ripple, turns ‘Baby, maybe we shouldn’t’ into ‘OoO baby, YES, right there’ in the bedroom while reigning as Hip-Hop’s ‘Heartfelt Hook’ Queen (Hi-Tek “Music For Life”/Fabolous “Stay”/Wale “Diary”)/R&B/Soul’s underrated golden pen (Michael Jackson “Butterflies”/Alicia Keys “Go Ahead”/Jazmine Sullivan “Music (All I Need)” …
Fellas, don’t trip, you know you luh Marsha’s panty-wetting, soul-stirring ways and currently have 11-17 of her songs sprinkled throughout your personal ‘seductive slow-burn mix’ (#1 Floetry “Imagination”/#2 Marsha & Jamie “Freak’N Me”/#3 Floetry “Say Yes”) …It’s cool, we ALL do, just like the ladies, who now expect to hear two or three Marsha jams between every few Jodeci, Kellz, Maxwell, Dream & Trey Songz..etc.. baby makers on our playlists …
…Um, YES, Marsha’s definitely THE TRUTH and one of three, maybe four, high-profile vocalists who truly ‘touch me’ whenever they sing, hum, chant or even speak. *Sigh* Yea, I admit it: Marsha plucked the hell outta my heartstrings the first time I watched Floetry’s Floacism Live like no other major artist I’ve ever seen perform live. *Nods* True story.
However, despite Floetry’s global mega-success, Floacism would be the doomed duo’s first, and last, live DVD before Marsha ditched her ‘singin’ chick from Floetry’-image,’ inked a solo deal with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath imprint and later re-emerged as the #1 contender for the struggling genre’s oft-disputed crown with Yours Truly (produced entirely by TheRealFocus), which — despite its ‘free mixtape’ status — shines as one the Top-5 R&B/Soul albums of the past several years mainly due to it’s edgy, yet masterfully conceived soundscapes (See: “Cloud 9”), stunning vocal arrangements (See: “Start…Finish”) and deeply-rooted emotional core (See: “Some Type Of Way”) …
(Yours Truly —>http://sharebee.com/b72516e7. You’re F’N welcome. 
)
At this point, every one of you irksome Melanie Fiona over-hypesters can GO thaaat a’waaay. Damn. OK. I GET it. Melanie’s dope, she’s amazing, yes, she’s a ‘breaf of fresh air.’ But she’s NO Marsha and her flawed debut album The Bridge is definitely NO Yours Truly. Sorry. Seriously, let it go, and realize that 2010 belongs to Aftermath’s newly-minted H.B.I.C. who’s finally slated to release her solo debut album and officially claim a R&B/Soul crown that some believe belongs to: Jazzy..err, maybe Jill, others: Chrisette, Adele or Alicia and Team:Melanie: well, Melanie.
…Better yet, it doesn’t even matter who your crownee is because we all know who we turn to when we need (Fellas): ‘I’m sorry, I can’t, I have a man and we in luhhh’ to turn into ‘Fuhhh dat N-AAAA, he cheatin’ ent’tee-way, I got condoms in mah purse *Here*’ or (Ladies): ‘Nawl, baby, I aint goin’ down durrr, Nah uh, NOPE’ to turn into ‘Damn, baby, you taste just like candy, like skrawberries, mmmm like some choc’late covered skittles … nam-nam-nam’ …Ha, stop trippin.’ Marsha’s the illest breathin.’ Thank you. Goodnite.
9th Wonder: The Talented Mr. ‘Wondra.’
Patrick Douthit used to ‘make beats’ (…with Fruity Loops FL Studio) inside his very own recording studio..err, N.C. Central dorm room like many of the thirsty ‘I’m-Da-Next-Kanye’-clones in my ’ole H.U. dorm (…a few doors down from the artsy ‘shirt designers’ and a floor above the business-minded ‘party promoters’…) who wasted the ‘best years of their lives’ ‘trying’ to do what HE had already done once fellow classmates Phonte Coleman and Thomas Jones blessed his beautifully Soul-bejazzled Hip-Hop backdrops: Produce a CLASSIC Hip-Hop record.
From there, Patrick + Thomas + Phonte formed the new-schoolish, Tribe Called Quest-esque underground Hip-Hop trio ‘Little Brother’ (…and the Hip-Hop collective The Justus League…) before officially releasing their delightfully organic, semi-dorm produced opus The Listening (ABB Records), which, to me, ranks as one of the Top-20 Hip-Hop records of our musically-ravaged ‘lost generation’ …
(Legendary producer Pete Rock: ‘The Listening kinda brings me back to the days of when the 90’s was poppin.’ It’s more realistic than what I’m hearing today and sounds like these guys put a lot of work into it. I love this album. Classic.’)
Please. Disagree. I dare you… or simply just nod and smile because you, like me, could not stop nodding to the critically-adored Indie triumph that formally introduced Hip-Hop heads to the game’s master Soul samplist/‘Oldie-But-Goodie’ cratesmith/Midas-touched MP maestro (now) known as Patrick Douthit 9th Wonder aka ‘Ninff Wondra’ who flips, chops & loops the record-crackled soundtracks of our parent’s ‘Soul Glo’-doused ‘wonder years’ better than any other mainstream/underground ‘Soul-sampling’ producer/beatmaker/beat-putterer-togetherer in today’s sample-smacked industry …
Sorry. ‘Ninff’ is iller than your favorite ‘producer’ and boasts the sickest ‘Big Louffa’ V. (See: Median “Comfortable”)/Stylistics (See: Little Brother “Shorty on the Lookout”) samples I’ve ever heard alongside a seemingly never-ending catalogue of genius, how-the-hell-did-he…?!-sample loops like: A) Curtis Mayfield’s “Back Against The Wall” (Rapper Big Pooh “Scars”) B) Pleasure’s “Reality” (De La Soul “Church”) and C) Billy Paul’s “Word Gets Around” (MURS “Freak These Tales”) that only he (…and maybe DOOM, but I digress…) could’ve weaved into timeless undie-Hip-Hop bangers …
Me? …yea, I’m a Team: ‘Ninff’-ster whose soul blushes whenever his ‘dusty-fingered’ soulscapes bang through my speakers. But, uh, who isn’t?! …other than the stone-cold ‘Ninnff haters’ who blib-blab about the producer’s familiar drum kicks until they’re Smurf-blue in the face instead of celebrating the N.C.-born & raised dorm rat-turnt-mainstream-dabbling-producer with Destiny’s Child (“Is She The Reason”), Hov (“Threat”) & MJB (“Good Woman Down”) production credits waving at ‘them’ from the top of his resume … *Hi Haters* …
…Ha, I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t hate on a world-renown producer currently instructing a production-related course (“Sampling Soul”) at a prestigious institution (Duke U.) based on the very thing that his ‘beat haters’ HATE on … But, uh, that’s just ME …what the hell do I know?! … *Kanye shrug*
Eric Roberson: R&B/Soul’s Most Known Unknown.
Eric Roberson could step into your house TO-DAY and sing the ‘SMOOV’est song you’ve never heard — off the dome — about the stack of ‘ain’t-gon’-be-paid’ bills on your living room table, few days old ‘spasghetti’-stained dishes in your kitchen sink and illegal cable connection ‘hidden’ behind your 46’’ plasma while you nodded to his every word — thoroughly intrigued and deeply ashamed — wondering how you, a ‘Soul head,’ could say: Huh, Eric Who?! whenever fellow Soul heads gushed about the undisputed, severely underrated (…often overlooked and musically unappreciated…) face of the Indie-Soul/progressive Nu-Soul musical movement …
As much as I dig Dwele, ‘Radio’ Raheem D., Ant Hamilton, Ant David & LL Cool Jesse B., there’s no way I’d rock with any of them over the shea-buttery, baby’s-booteez-cheeks-‘smoov’-voiced singer/songwriter/producer who, in my ‘humble’ opinion, is the dopest pure Soul sanga in the game with a platinum pen (Dwele “Hold On”/Vivian Green “Love Rollercoaster”/Musiq “Previous Cats”) + a golden collection of timeless gems spread across his latest (near classic) albums …Left (See: “Been In Love” Feat. Phonte) & Music Fan First (See: “The Newness”), earlier work The Vault 1.5 (See: “Couldn’t Hear Me” & The Appetizer (See: “N2U” Feat. Marsha) and rewind-worthy collabs (See: J. Rawls “Pleasure & Pain”) …
Believe me, there’s no one (…other than *Maxwell…) touching ‘Erro’ (Yea, OK, his mama named him Eric, but his fans — his REAL fans — call him ‘Erro’) — Soul’s most known unknown — who gives one of the dopest live (Soul) shows you’ll ever experience (…especially for $17-$20) …or attempt to experience, if you’re able to beat the legions of fanatical Erro-heads to the venue for his (usually) sold out, ultra-packed, oft-improv’d shows (Erro: ‘What do ya’ll want me to sing about?!’ … Crowd: ‘Sexy shoulder blades, pretty ankle bones and Gummi Bears!’ … Erro: ‘OK, cool, let’s do it …’ *kills it*) …
Having met and vibed with Jersey’s-own Eric Roberson, I can honestly say he’s one of the coolest + humblest ‘Da-Otha H.U.’grads artists I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. He’s also an iller freestylist than 99% of ‘working rappers’ today and a warm-spirited crowd pleaser who adores his deeply-supportive fans. Clearly, at this stage of the game, there’s no excuse for any ‘music lover,’ let alone ‘music head,’ to say: WHO? when asked about ‘Erro’ or his latest album Music Fan First — one of ’09’s best. Seriously, stop moving left and get right… or, just get familiar. ‘Erro’ IS Soul. He ain’t goin’ NOwhere …
Jaspects: Revenge of the Polkadotted Band Geekz.
The Jaspects were obviously the geeky cool cats on campus (Morehouse) who rocked Polo blazers & pastel-colored bowties to their early classes because they were too fresh, talented and popular on the yard to care that it was 98 degrees outside — Yea, I’d say T. Brown (Keys/Music director), J.C. Sowells (Bass), “HC3” (Drums), “Spacey” Dugger (Tenor-Sax), Stagolee (Alto-Sax) and J. E. King (Trumpet) were the coolest cuttas at camp — the quirkily Jazzmatazzed, Dungeon Fam-inspired ‘so fresh & so cleandeds’ — who Hip-Bopped light years ‘outside the box’ where they perfected their incredibly Cosmo-Funk’d-Electro-Soul-infused brand of socially conscious mood music that currently has ATLiens + music-loving Earthlings throwin’ both of their ‘J’s’ up — HIGH— into the skies …
Not much is known about ‘polkadotted stripes’ or their deep space planet of origin but it’s clear they were speckled all over the genre-bending sextet’s fourth (’05 In ‘House’ Sessions/’06 Broadcasting The Definition/’07 Double Conciousness*Must-Have*) word-of-mouf-hyped indie-release aptly entitled The Polkadotted Stripe, which absolutely ROCKS as an intergalactoSoul-synthed voyage into the musical ‘unknown’ that’s just as creatively intoxicating as it is space-Jazz’d, funk-drunk and instrumentally impeccable…
…And NO, I. Can’t. STOP. Banging. This. Album. It’s just that artistically ‘different’ in the dopest possible way and my tentative selection as 2009’s ‘Album of the Year’ (…with the illest breakdown of the year (See: “Polkadotted Stripe”) …
Before The Polkadotted Stripe, I would’ve helped Hov pine-box Auto-Tune FOR FREE until the Jaspects KILLED “Unifunk” & “Polkadotted Stripe” (My favorite two songs of the year) with the cringe-worthy ‘robo-croon’ effect that actually enhanced the most memorable tracks on the album. Naturally, there will be those who won’t care for their ambitious Auto-Tune dabbling, but most open-minded music heads will, while wondering why chronic vocoderists with major label homes like Ron Browz have NO clue how to prop-er-ly use the acclaimed pitch-correction software that the Jaspects utilized so masterfully without appearing desperate for mainstream attention …
But, then again, the Jaspects are TRUE musicians with a deep appreciation for the musical arts that comes across during their enjoyably frenetic live shows where they bust moves, rock mics and play their own instruments for ‘good music’-feenin’ crowds across the nation. Sadly, 8 out of every 10.5 ‘music heads’ have no idea who the Jaspects are, what they are or why they should even care about a few random “Morehouse Men” with talent & a dream which is why I’m now formally introducing them to you, them and anyone who claims there’s no bands like them patiently waiting to be discovered.
I say: GET FAMILIAR. And then, when you finally do, crank your Jaspects’ record to ele’ben and throw your ‘J’s’ up — HIGH — into the skies.
*By the way, I’m in LOVE with Chantae Cann’s voice. YES, she’s the up-and-coming soulstress who murders the breakdown on “Polkadotted Stripe” …She’s also featured on the absolutely stunning “Find My Way To Love” … Trust me. She’s official.
Nicolay: The Re-Birth of Nu-Cool
When Netherlander Nicolay ‘connected’ with N.C. upstart Phonte on the innanet (okayplayer.com) nearly a decade ago, he had never met the uber-talented rappa-sanga before sending him a soulfully-infectious collection of head-nodders to write to, croon over and send back to be mastered until they = (Phonte + Nicolay) = ‘Foreign Exchange’ joined together to promote the finished product: 2004’s hidden jewel Connected — one of the dopest full-length infusions of Hip-Hop/Nu-Soul/R&B to ever be released (…and subsequently ignored by the mainstream’s musical gate keepers…)
…Nevertheless, new-age Soul heads pledged allegiance to Nicolay’s ‘smooved’-out synths/delectable melodies that pushed Connected into cult classic status while setting the tone for the Euro-wonder’s successful solo ventures Time:Line & Here (See: “I Love The Way You Love”(Feat. D. Brock), “Tight Eyes” (Feat. The Luv Bugz & Oh No) & “My Story” (Feat. Sy Smith & Kay) and 2008’s unforgettable re-connection with Phonte (Foreign Exchange’s) Leave It All Behind which cemented ‘Nicolay’ as the ‘smoovest’ beatmaker/composer in the game not named Dwele, J. Rawls or Zo! (respectfully) …
…Although Nicolay’s virtually unknown to everyday ‘music heads’ currently indulging in faux-(Nu)-Soul headlined by confused ‘soul artists’ like Jaz ‘The Caw Winduh Busta’ Sullivan, there’s no denying his undying commitment to preserving the actual SOUL in Soul music both inside the studio and on the road with Foreign Exchange — the most successful Soul-collective in today’s soul-starved industry… (Foreign Exchange > Platinum Pied Pipers) …
…Maybe now, after reading this, you’ll weave through the post-Foreign Exchange show mob to take a few pics with the lesser-known Nicolay rather than Phonte, who’s usually surrounded by overly-aggressive male/female groupies — Yep, just look for the tall, lanky white dude in the corner by the keyboards — He’s usually the coolest cat in the room …
Aubrey ‘Drake’ Graham: The Rise & Fall… & Rise? of Drizzy F. Baby.
Never has a MEGA-hyped underground sensation nobody gone from being the dopest unsigned hypester on the globe to the dopiest P.R. FAILure in the galaxy in a mere matter of months… err, that is… until Aubrey ‘Drake’ Graham aka Canada’s great lite-brite hype rocketed into superstardom with his globally-droOled-over ‘mixtalbum’ So Far Gone — that spawned two consecutive ‘Song of the Year’ candidates “Best I Ever Had” & “Successful” — before plummeting into uberwhackdom when he:
A) performed his ultra-explicit misogo-smash ‘Every Girl’ in a wheelchair — for a record-setting BET Awards viewing audience — with a slew of underaged ‘hypegirls’ (…aka Weezy’s daughter & friends) on-stage … (Drake on BET Awards debacle: “It was just timed very poorly and it definitely wasn’t planned like that” … “To anyone who was offended, my personal apologies; it wasn’t intended to offend anybody”) *Cue: Homer: ‘D’oh!’*
B) starred in a skank-juice splattered video for his chart-smashing single “Best I Ever Had” that he later apologized to his female fans for releasing …(Drake on soft-pornish music video debacle: “I guess one thing I didn’t consider is what the song personally means to a lot of women” … “To those women, I apologize. I do apologize. My intention wasn’t to put anyone down. It was to make them laugh. I wanted people to see something visually different.”) *Cue: Homer: ‘D’oh!’*
C) crumpled into a pathetic, tragedy-pinched chumpling on-stage during the America’s Most Wanted Music Festival (Feat. Weezy, Jeezy & Soulja Boy) at the height of his meteoric ascension into the Hip-Pop stratosphere despite being told by Doctors NOT to perform on his shredded ACL … (Drake on stage collapse debacle: “I blacked out and really forgot I was injured. I was just so full of adrenaline, so happy to be there, it kind of set in for me”) *Cue: Ed Lover: ‘C’Mon Son!’*
D) signed his soul over to an insanely impregnatious, sizzurp-sloshing hobgoblin named Dwayne Carter who consistently placed him in the worst possible situations at the worst possible times while slowly siphoning away his mega-hype to fuel his own solar system-sized ego/insatiable craving for mainstream publicity … *Cue: Super Mario Death Ditty*: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHJSZSRSljk
…And somehow, these events occurred only weeks after the lyrically dexteritous uber-MC (…“I’ma rapper-turnt-singer and you can tell that he smoke/I don’t need no vocal cords/All I hit is C-Notes/N.E.R.D. flow, I spaz if I’m provoked/I’m about to change the F@#$# game/Pass the remote…”)/melody hummer (See: “Lust For Life”) emerged from the underground as the *gasp* FUTURE of Hip-Hop’s future + second-coming of (Golden-Era Hova) + (Pre-Bad Boy Biggie) + (Post-9 bullet-50 (Cent) …
…Dammit, ‘Drizzy’ Drake was Neo (the one), Luke Skywalker (the chosen one) & Bruce LeRoy (the one + ‘the glow’) com-bined to many mainstream Hip-Hop consumers who had never heard of the ex-child TV star until Weezy publicly co-signed him as the next, best HIM…
…But REAL-Hip-Hoppers?! …We ‘been known’ Aubrey, and wept the day he broke up with Hip-Hop to pledge allegiance to the house that Weezy baby daddy built… Yea, ‘Drizzy’ was Hip-Hop’s most-recent #1 Draft Pick and brought ‘hope’ to Hip-Hop, but his Kanye-esque, underdog-allure was gone; He was no longer the ‘misunderestimated’ Hip-Hop hybrid that murdered every (dope) track (9th Wonder, Slakah..etc..) he breathed on (‘…My reality is brighter than your dreams are/I got your dream girl ridin’ in your dream car…”) with a who’s who of talented somewhat known/underground MC/vocalists (Phonte, Dwele, Elzhi, Kardinall Offishall..etc..)
..NOPE, Drake was now Drizzy F. Baby — another syrupy Hip-POPpist with a nauseating Auto-Tune fetish, cringe-worthy ‘super-crew’ (Young Money) and steadily declining non-POP following …
…However, in spite of my better judgment, I’ll overlook Aubrey’s post-Weezy-wrecked career path to focus solely on his Hip-Hop intangibles/lyrical prowess/triple threat appeal effortlessly displayed throughout his older mixtapes Comeback Season/Room For Improvement when his collabs with Little Brother “Don’t You Have A Man”/ “Think Good Thoughts” and Dwele “Deceiving” slowly seeped into my cerebral (Hip-Hop) subconciousness …
… Come Feb. 14, 2010, we’ll all (officially) know where Aubrey ‘Drake’ Graham stands as an artist, an MC and a serious triple threat … Where will YOU be when Thank Me Later drops?!? …
Wale: DMV Dreamin’
He’s ‘not the next Biggie… he’s not the next Jay… he’s not the next Nas… he’s the first Wale’ — a beat murking punch-line ripper who’s DESPISED by ‘Hipster Haters’ and beloved by progressive Hip-Hopsters who swear by the scatterbrainded spitsmith’s mambo sauce-dipped bars that easily catapulted him into Hip-Hop’s mainstream/homes of POP-diseased suburbanites who had never banged ‘Go-Go’ until “Pretty Girls” beat its feet through their Bose stereo systems …
…Say what you want about the ultra-cocky (‘…I spit nasty/My tongue need a rubber homes…’), sports fanatical (‘…I’m just payin’ homage/If I ain’t strive to be Sean (Carter)..I’d..End..Up..like KiJana…’) DMV-reppin’ young’n and his psycho-frenetic ‘Waco’ flow… (but) dude’s next-level potential is undeniable like his firm grasp on a D.C. Hip-Hop movement that nearly spiraled into irrelevancy (…like the Redskins/Wizards…) before he dropped the classic Seinfeld-themed Mixtape About Nothing marking the (official) beginning of Wale’s come-up as the first major rap act to rep our nation’s capital (…or greater DM minus V area) on wax…
…And please, don’t spam me, questioning me about Wale’s inclusion in this blog until you’ve thoroughly digested the Mixtape About Nothing/(9th Wonder collab) Back to the Feature/100 Miles & Running and listened closely to his “Hacksaw Jim Duggan”/“2nd Time Around”/“Rediscover Me” verses that served as fitting preludes to his major record deal with Mark Ronson’s Allido records/Interscope and upcoming debut album Attention: Deficit that dropped on Nov. 10 …
…Whether you love Wale Folaren… or hate the DMV-MC…you’ll always remember his name …Hell, he says it every few bars … (My name Wale… dutta da .. dutta da .. dutta da dee … My name Wale… Haaa ) … Attention: Deficit … In MOST stores NOW… COP it!
Chrisette Michele: Little Miss SunSOULshine
Chrisette Michele’s debut album I Am was everything that I never expected a Def Jam release by a Neo-Soulstress to be: nostalgic, organic and soulfully refreshing — It was truly a musical tour de force considering the storied record label’s modern infatuation with syrup-smathered POP music while shining as one of the crowning achievements of the now-defunct, although highly-successful ‘Carter Administration’ responsible for The-Dream, Jeezy, Fabo-Loso, Ne-Yo, RiRi Fierce & Officer Ricky Walrus..etc…
…As the youngest member of the mega-label’s oft-ignored ‘Def Soul’ division, Chrisette killed ’em softly with her vicious vibrato, cutesy elegance and spunky spirit that slowly, but surely nudged I Am onto most ’07 must-cop lists despite a low-key marketing approach by Hov (…and the Carter Cabinet) who eventually ‘dropped the label’ that Ricky & Russy built to focus on his own Roc Nation imprint/solo ventures …
At that point, Chrisette tumbled to the bottom of the label’s star-studded roster where she was later watered down + repackaged as a ‘Contemporary R&B/Soul’ artist by L.A. G’Reid who probably water-boarded the helpless soulstess until she chirped half-hearted, vibrato-free vocals over Ne-Yo’s redundant backdrops that encompassed her overly-formulaic sophomore album Epiphany — an utterly disappointing mish mash of B-sides/throwaway tracks with no heart, substance or purpose for even being recorded…
Naturally, Team: Chrisette swooned over the soul-stripped, commercially-appealing Epiphany — which debuted at #1 on the charts (83K sold) — while I slept through the lifeless montage of songs during my desperate attempts to give it a third, fourth or fifth listen before officially .. A) launching my ‘FREE Chrisette Michele from Def Jam NOW campaign’ .. B) pretending that Epiphany never really dropped, or was somehow shelved indefinitely .. C) adding Chrisette to my ‘confused soul sangas’ list with Jazmine Sullivan, Musiq, Raheem D., Robin Thicke and Ledisi …
…But, then again, the Grammy-winning N.Y.-native is only 26 and steadily developing as a young (newish) artist who’s widely-recognized by many, including me, as one of the hottest new-age soulstresses in the game which is why I’ve blessed her with a golden *DO-OVER* ticket for Epiphany and anything Epiphany-related… *Hands Chrisette golden ticket*
…At the end of the day, she’s a pure Soul singer who would SHINE on a niche label like Hidden Beach Records known for molding young soul artists into globally-adored superstars (Jill Scott) without stripping them of their artistic integrity…*deep sigh* … Hopefully, she’ll realize this sooner, before later, and rips her burgeoning career from L.A. G’Reid’s clutches before he locks her in the studio with Ne-Yo (again) to record another anti-Soul record featuring RiRi yodel-libs, a Brutha duet (YES! Brutha = Def Jam) & a Ricky Walrus/Jeremih collab… Please Chrisette, MOVE (…THE HELL…) on… Def Jam doesn’t luhhh you, and never EV-ER will …
DOOM: The Madness Behind The Mask.
The masked wiggity-wacko formerly known as Daniel Dumile probably scarfed down hearty globs of caweepy crawluhs + Elmer’s glue + melted crayon sauce as a pooty-pants’d mini-McDOOMling before morphing into the grimy McSlimy stoOpa-producer/MC known as ‘DOOM’ — the dopest, most gibberish-spittin’-est (‘…Goony goo-goo loony koo-koo like Gary Gnu off New Zoo Review/But who knew the mask had a loose screw?/Hell could hardly tell/Had to tighten it up like the Drells and Archie Bell…’) whack-job dwelling in the grime-smeared nether-regions of underground Hip-Hop…
…Err, and NO, I’ve never ever (truly) seen the slop-crusted cook-ball’s mask-cloaked face (‘…Take it from the dude who wears mask like a tarded helmet…’) even if he’s one of the Top-7 dopest beatmakers/crate diggers in the game with a hilariously nonsensical flow that’s so insanededly ridiculous that you’ll wonder if he ever stopped eating glue + crayon sauce-coated insects (‘…Wylin,’ get me every red penny/Sold a lonely only child a imaginary enemy…’)
*smh* …Yeaaa, uhh, I’d say DOOM (M.F. Doom = Viktor Von Doom = KMD’s Zev Love X) is utterly insane, but there’s no denying his incredible ear for obscure, often unfindable Soul/Rock/Pop samples (Ex: Cortex “Huit Octobre 1971,” See: “One Beer”/Waldir Calmon “Airport Love Theme, See: “Curls”) featured on conceptually clever albums like the cooky, cuisine-crazed Mmm…Food? (See: “Hoe Cakes” = Anita Baker’s “Sweet Love” peppered with JJ Fad “SUPAs” + DOOM vocals… WHAT?!) or the diabolically soul-dusted Madlib-collab (DOOM + Madlib = Madvillain) Madvillainy (See: “Fancy Clown”)…
For now, DOOM thrives as a widely-ignored enigma whose latest indie-released gem Back Like That out-sold Mims’ heavily-promoted album Guilt on the ‘strenf’ of his major cult following that exploded once savvy Hip-Hoppers realized (that) he was scoring the audibly-deranged Adult Swim cartoon series … Yea, OK, I know, DOOM will never be for everyone but HE IS for those serious music lovers desperately seeking an audibly-potent dose of Top-40/sing-along-songy escapism… It’s true: We ALL wear masks (Whatchu know ’bout Paul Lawrence Dunbar?!) like DOOM during our everyday walks of life. Embrace it. After all, DOOM does …
Jazmine Sullivan: The FUTURE of R&B/Soul?! Really?!
I RE-fuse to GO IN on the laziest, most anti-successfo underachiever in R&B Jazmine Sullivan, yet again, and offer my apologies to the Soul-smiting Soul-smitten sanga, her wretched wonderful stylist and bumbaclot brilliant manager for (editorially) smashing well-deserved undeserved holes into their woefully-unsuccessful wonderfully-successful Soul&B movement like the tint-cloaked windshields that she inspired crazed ex-lovers to shatter into a zillion jagged pieces …
…Hopefully, Jazzy & her atrocious amazing team will forgive me for criticizing her nowhere-bound career and realize that she is, and will always be, one of the biggest busts of my generation my musical muse whose beautifully soul-kissed pipes are the ONLY reason why she’s included in this blog. exquisite R&B transcendence solidified her spot in this blog… For those of you who missed my VERY appropriate inappropriate letter to the heartstring plucking generic-song singer vocalist, here it is I’d rather you never read it:
Link: http://www.emqtv.com/emq/news/122/ARTICLE/1389/2009-10-06.html
Once again, I sincerely warn you to fire your mama as your Manager, hire a new stylist who doesn’t squeeze you into smedium outfits and demand that your label remove Missy from your recording sessions before you’re career ends before it ever really started. apologize for my damn good career advice disparaging remarks and wish Jazmine ‘Caw Winduh Busta’ Sullivan much success in her future job search/background singing career. endeavors …
Alejandro. The GREAT
Twitter: http://twitter.com/AlejandroDaGr8
This has been another Alejandro presentation.
“Do you ask a Dolphin how it swims, or an eagle how it flies … That’s right you don’t! Because that’s what they were made to do!” — Willy Wonka
The views and opinions expressed in this article, are not those of EMQ Networks or its management. For more on Hip-Hop culture go to http://emqtv.com/music.
