January 2009 Archives

The crib's owner? Redman.

"Those motherfuckers wanted me to rent a house," Redman told me, when I brought up the episode. As it progresses, Redman shows off that New Jerz dirty shit--the fridge contains only 40's, the basement contains his uncle, sleeping on the floor. "That really is my Uncle," Redman told me, before introducing me to the man himself, perhaps the greatest background actor of any Cribs episode.

Fresh off a down year that found the game's leading voices pushing back albums; that found the critical masses looking elsewhere; that found its fans turning to politcal history and finding shelther within the post-Pacalyptic age's glorious mid-90s corpus ("The Whackness" anyone?) like never before, we pause enthusiastically to explore uncharted releases still worth pulling Rapidshare links for.

10.
Elzhi - The Preface
Last minute addition I picked up as we rang in '09. Known him as "the nasty dude from Slum Village" and it's nice to match name with nasty flow; can't get enough vertically stacked, Detroit-Proof-Royce pioneered patterns.



9.
Murs & 9th Wonder - Sweet Lord
PC soul & gold bars for a welcome third career batch of concise songs.
Forgettable '08 mixtape and crew LP ventures vindicated by sleek, thumping mixtape/crew LP that bites the moment's best work ("Art of Storytellin' IV," "Dumb it Down," "Big Dreams") and test teases dangerous bangers.
Really, it's about the cocaine one-liners and no one does it better. Pusha T and Malice are at a point where the poetry has evolved way past their faux-gangster posturing.

7.
Mick Boogie & Terry Urban - Viva La Hova
Mash up subjects evident in title, and collection of producers bite the "In My Place" drums too often, but Coldplay's expensive instrumentation formats staple Jay verses to sound more introspective than he did on American Gangster. The big winners are dated-ass Blueprint 2 songs like "Excuse Me Miss" that lose silly Neptunes throwaways and come out classics.

6.

Zo! & Tigallo - Zo! & Tigallo Love the '80s
Phonte and session musicians play in the studio; produce astonishingly smooth, hilariously soulful covers of Toto songs with a straight face.

5.
Dred Skott - Dred Skott 4 Prez
Nearby our secret headquarters in Austin, Texas, the talent moved forward, expanded: Phranchyze put out another nice mixtape, Bavu the Master released a year's worth of free songs (08issogreat.com), but the Dred duo wins for their snarling, charged, lyrical home base raps. When Reggie jabs, "ya'll niggas should riot errytime someone mentions me," I buy it.




4.
Rhymefest - Man in the Mirror
Even an overrated, silver-spooned, self-loving hipster prick like Mark Ronson couldn't ruin Fest's fun as the pair paid tribute to Michael Jackson by sampling him and devilishly interjecting themselves into stock interviews for worthy skits. Free-spirited and lyrical, the nature of the beast is best summed up in wholly corny, dead serious stingers like, "I get so loose, I'll turn your brains into fresh produce: mixed vegetables, cauliflower, tofu!"




3.
Otis Redding - Live in London and Paris
Better than anything else on this list.

2.
Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons, Paint That Shit Gold
It's gotten praise as the marker where Slug stops rapping about his problems and speaks to his lost generation in broader terms, but even then he's a little self-serving. Take the otherwise perfect "You," a sympathetic narrative about a faceless twenty-something bartender paying off loans and wasting away nights with ogling customers...whom Slug ultimately picks up after last call.
I thought the title was retarded until I saw its special edition accompanying booklet: a vivdly illustrated, touching fable he wrote for his toddler. I think it's 08's most poetic release.