Recently in Mixtape Matters Category

Artwork by Joseph Devens.


It's hard to imagine nowadays with the Oprah canoodling, lifestyle blogging, and learned taste for indie rock, but Jay-Z wasn't always so antiseptic. Before "Beach Chair" and his current legacy rap period, Hova boasted a bruising batting average: ten ghetto anthems for every "Lobster & Shrimp" banana peel. Beyond the Bloomberg brunches or uptown art gallery openings with delicate bffs lies an increasingly-overlooked corpus banished in a Disney-like vault.

Jay-Z has hardened into a role model, an author, the Bohemian rap city's generous boss, and a sucker for love. He'll probably be an elected official one day. He'll probably be remembered as affectionately for foreign aid trips to the Congo as he is for hungry rapping.

Folks love to draw Jordan parallels in hip-hop, but Jay-Z is more Bill Russell -- the tireless laborer with more rings than anyone. Jordan left the court (at least the first two times) with a flawless record; like Russ, Jay-Z's had awkward, gangly moments of fatigue and error.

But the difference between sports and music, of course, is that in music the entire point is the journey, the work left for consumption. The sports winner immortalizes the present. You generally don't watch highlights of specific jumpers over and over. Jay-Z has made a double album's worth of terrible music (and that's just with R. Kelly), but he's also left behind a treasure chest of top tier, fully realized, expertly narrated albums.

It's why ATG believes that Jay-Z is the best rapper of all-time. There's an argument to be made about raw talent and iconography, a stupider one to be made factoring in wealth and branding, but because the G.O.A.T. conversation stems from music, the prevailing criterion must be the music itself. Biggie made two albums and the second one was spotty, Diddy-heavy. Tupac recorded urgently in order to fulfill an exploitative contract, and quality control suffered. Neither will stop the seekers from copying and pasting verses (over J Dilla beats, probably) long after we're gone. Who will remix "Money Ain't A Thang?"

The Blueprint III was Emmitt Smith on the Cardinals. It was playing catch with your dad during winter break, as he struggled to compose the spirals you used to have to go long for. It sucked. The long-awaited duet album with Kanye West will suck too.

Without touching any singles, ATG's inner circle spent weeks narrowing down hundreds of fantastic, somewhat deeper cuts into a spiraling, essential mix of Jay-Z at his most inventive, honest, dazzling, and charismatic. It's a mix meant to be consumed with the windows down, on the tro, during cookouts. No consideration was given to the scope of an individual track's project or date. These greatest non-hits are intended to survey Jay's entire catalogue from peak to peak. They're intended to make heads nod for more reasons than one. They are, as the man himself once taught us, for the culture.


SIDE A

1. A Million and One Questions / Rhyme No More
2. Can I Live
3. Heart of the City
4. December 4
5. Kingdom Come
6. U Don't Know [Remix]
7. Guess Who's Back
8. Never Let Me Down
9. Girls Girls Girls, Part II
10. Party Life
11. What More Can I Say
12. Takeover
13. Ignorant Shit
14. Renegade

 

SIDE B
 
1. It's Like That
2. Snoopy Track
3. Never Change
4. In My Lifetime [Remix]
5. Come On Baby [Remix]
6. Dear Summer
7. This Can't Be Life
8. So Ghetto
9. P.S.A.
10. Hell Yeah [Remix]
11. Watch Me
12. Watcher II
13. Black Republican
14. Momma Loves Me


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DJ Green Lantern and Jay-Z sanction a round up of rarities and recent appearances and live footage:

Before it was the mighty Neil Armstrong, DJ Green Lantern infamously toured with Jigga Man as his #1 on the 1's and 2's. In fact, around the time of his 2006 album "KINGDOM COME" Green & Jay had intended to drop 'Presidential Invasion' -- a promotional mixtape created while the two were touring Africa and promoting Jay's "The Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life" conquest to aid African countries in the pursuit of clean water. That mixtape never materialized, and the hip-hop world was left waiting for that elusive Hova v. Evil Genius collaboration. Four years later -- with the summer of 2010 as the backdrop, and Jay-Z's Roc Nation label and DJ Green Lantern's Team Invasion as the suppliers -- S. Carter takes it to the next level with a new kind of CREATIVE CONTROL. Green and Jay do the damn thing and drop this official new mixtape masterpiece, complete with trademark GL production, remixes, live appearances and never-before-heard music.

A collection of tip top Andre 3000 and Big Boi memories sanctioned by Big Boi FBO street buzz for his album out July 6.

The tape is a bit late, however. With the same effort it takes to download after the jump, one can snag a leaked version of Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty from Mediafire. I opted for both.

Front court starters Raekwon, T.I. and Rick Ross earned their three-day weekends by unsheathing respective, promised mixtapes Friday morning. Get them after the jump.

First and foremost, Game has won the "Exhibit C" space race. His version is a myriad of great lines stuffed into 20 minutes and yeah fam, he's absolutely back on my radar as an important voice in the, um, game. But Thursday's beefy onslaught over Jay Electronica's winter classic, "Exhibit C," got me thinking about the gobs of trial versions circulating the mixtape circuits since its messiah-like reception late last year.

Bloggers take veiled, annoyed shots at the product. No doubt because nobodies crowd their inboxes with eager attempts. Many attack the exercise as lacking vision. But really, the great thing about such a commanding, unifying track like "Exhibit C" is using the occasion to flex talent. I've enjoyed almost every one of these bits. All-world hip-hop songs should be recreated by rappers, it's the most unbiased metric to measure skillz.

With that in mind, here's a breakdown of "Exhibit C" highlights from the underground.


Joell Ortiz
Tone: Focused, indignant rant released in aftermath of the devastating Haiti earthquake; basically a history lesson
Sample lyric: "Before the ground shook, we never offered them love/people was eating cakes made of oil, water and mud"

Cypha Da Prynce
Tone: Solid effort from Kanye-endorsed rapper; at 2:21, the shortest of the bunch. Also falls into familiar trap of rhyming "Electronica" with "harmonica"
Sample lyric: "I get blowed like harmonica/met Veronica/got blowed and got it on with her"

B.o.B.
Tone: Clunky, on the spot radio flow. Full of miscues, but is at least an actual freestyle
Sample lyric: "Uno is my numeral/they say hip-hop is dead I guess I missed the funeral"

Stylah
Tone: British rapper brings thick accent, regional slang I don't follow
Sample lyric: I got nothing, but it does sound good.

Twista
Tone: Fast, as usual
Sample lyric: No real lyrical highlights, just a bunch of rapid fire bars. Fun.

Nickelus F
Tone: Guy that may or may not have written for Drake brings melodies and cheeseball, suburban lyrics; also one of the first "C" flows to arrive on the scene during December
Sample lyric: "Nickelus F comes the hardest...that's what she said"

Mike Millz
Tone: Far Rockaway newcomer does New York proud, overcomes nasally, high voice
Sample lyric: Lotta back-to-back stuff. Technically proficient shit. "They respect us just like North Korean troops" is a cool line.

Stix
Tone: Perhaps the most average, nondescript of the bunch
Sample lyric: "I make it rain with Sprint's cell phone connection: about 4Gs"

Cassidy
Tone: Lots of hard, aggressive shit that "Cass do." He comes in right when the beat drops and saves us a little time, which begets kudos
Sample lyric: "I keep Franklins like Aretha do...stay fresh like kids on Easter do...you a sucker you do things that a sucker do...your girl say she never come when she sleep with you"...These go on for a while

Papoose
Tone: Overlooked street guy rambles, takes then timely shots at Tiger Woods
Sample lyric: "You an Uncle Tom nephew, why should I respect you?"

Fabolous
Tone: Mixtape-closing rampage of nonsensical charisma
Sample lyric: "They call me Fab Electronica/Presidential suite so it's Fab and young Monica/Stevie Wonder niggas better grab your harmonica/screaming "go daddy" so it's Fab and young Danica/if it goes down better grab your Titanic, brah"

Murph
What: East Coast street shit. Sorta homoerotic
Sample lyric: "Tell them lame fuck boys they ain't fuckin' with me"

Jimmie Hoffa
Tone: Career introspection with a side of lamenting U.S. foreign policy
Sample lyric: "Me and the law always been on different sides"

Photo by Callie Richmond for ATG.

People I respect rave about this kid. Stash his new release after the jump.

Graphic by Ramon Ramirez.

Woke up this morning with a mission to praise the emergence of funny, learned hip-hop. Then I found a Village Voice feature from last week that made all my points. To recap: the stuff is bump-worthy, smart, "deftly written from inside the culture," and you should pay attention. Check out Sean Fennessey's piece.

The only difference of opinion Fennessey and I harbor is that Don Glover, whom I am a fan of, has yet to show me much as a rapper in his two throwaway, shitty mixtapes. It's just badly timed rhyming over indie rock loops.

And if you haven't already, get the Das Racist mixtape.

Photo by Callie Richmond for ATG. Crappy illustration by Ramon Ramirez.

ATG saw lots of wonderful and exciting hip-hop in Austin over the week and decided a collection of commemorative mp3s was in order. The artists included performed, hustled, stood out during the conference.

Tracklist + download link after the jump.

I've been battling the flu fiercer than the '07 World Rap Championships and arguing with one oddly knowledgeable, ominous commenter.

Steady winning, however, and here are some new, blog-worthy songs I've been enjoying during days at home. Jump man.