bigted

It's just unfortunate how all these weak rappers get so much publicity from the media and the fans buy into them like sheep, the fans need to step up and not except everything the radio feeds them, they deserve a lot of the blame, they ignore the great rappers, and of course the media don't give much shine to the great rappers anymore... btw speaking of album ratings we all know that "Lost and Found" got 3 mics from The Source but I'm curious to know how many mics did Big Willie Style get? Willenium? Code Red? Homebase? etc?, do you have any idea AJ since you're like the human hip-hop encyclopedia on here so I figure you might know...

This topic has been beaten to death on this forum, you could do a search and probably find a million topics on it, Will never really cared about what Eminem said about him in the "Real Slim Shady" in 2000 'cause he figured that Eminem would fade away in a few years since he was using gimmicks to sell albums... I think he just made "Mr. Nice Guy" to let people know not to take his kindness for granted, he wanted to show people that he didn't want to be involved with a silly beef, and he mentioned Eminem in the song 'cause he's grown some respect for him since he realised that Eminem's still standing today with his career, the way I see it he just mentioned to the interviewers that he had something for Eminem so that people would check for it and understand the message he was trying to get across in that song, he said to them in the interviewers specially that it wasn't about starting beef, Will used that strategy 'cause he sees how the game has turned into the WWE where people only check for the fabricated drama, but you know he wouldn't win over many fans unless he decided to stoop down to Eminem's level and call him a fag in a song, lol... I think the media and the fans overexaggerate things sometimes, Eminem never responded so obviously he got respect for Will, you gotta understand that Eminem really makes fun of himself too in his songs so it's like you can't really take most of what he says to heart, end of discussion...

Well looks like since "Lost and Found" came out we've been seeing JJFP/Big Will getting more credit from the hip-hop media than ever before: "When you talk about rap you better start saying my name", although they gave Lil' Kim's album more mics than "Lost and Found" last year and they mention her instead of Will for 2005 since I guess going to jail now has more influence than putting out great albums but still if this list was made during the "Born To Reign" time I have doubt that they'd mention Will in 1997 at least, maybe not even JJFP in '88, Will needs to keep the ball rolling and release more albums and then we'll see the recognition for him grow even further... btw the worst rappers from the '80s/early '90s are better than most rappers now, looks like on the most part though they just name who's the most popular rappers of that time, it shows you that really less talent sells now than back then, skills'd sell then and if you didn't have much you wouldn't stay on top but now it's about who got the best promotional team and who gets shot and goes to jail the most where a lot of the great talent gets slept on

The way I see it 1988-1993 is the golden era of classic mcs and 2000-2005 is the sucker mc era with careers created by publicity stunts, most of those shouldn't even have record deals

A lot of great rappers get recognized here, Da Brakes got a point 'cause you could see how the best year seemed to be 1988 with all legends being listed and the worst year was 2005 with a lot of subpar rappers like you know who, you know something's wrong with the state of the rap game when you look at the recent most influential artists today...

LL Cool J also mentioned Wendy Williams in his autobiography about how he thinks that she's negatively influencing young girls who listen to the radio to start gossiping...

I swiped this from the okayplayer board: 1988 1) Public Enemy 2) Boogie Down Productions 3) DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince 4) Big Daddy Kane 5) Eric B & Rakim 6) Salt-N-Pepa 7) Slick Rick 8) Too Short;Eazy-E (tie) 9) EPMD 10) Run DMC 1989 1) NWA 2) De La Soul 3) LL Cool J 4) 2 Live Crew 5) Tone Loc 6) Big Daddy Kane 7) The DOC 8) EPMD 9) Queen Latifah 10) Biz Markie 1990 1) Public Enemy 2) Ice Cube 3) MC Hammer 4) LL Cool J 5) Brand Nubian 6) Digital Underground 7) Boogie Down Productions 8) A Tribe Called Quest 9) Eric B & Rakim 10) X-Clan 1991 1) Ice Cube 2) NWA 3) A Tribe Called Quest 4) Geto Boys 5) De La Soul 6) Naughty By Nature 7) Cypress Hill 8) Black Sheep 9) DJ Quik 10) Public Enemy 1992 1) Dr Dre & Snoop Doggy Dogg 2) Das EFX 3) Redman 4) Kris Kross 5) Ice Cube 6) Arrested Development 7) Sir Mix-A-Lot 8) Pete Rock & CL Smooth 9) The Pharcyde 10) DJ Quik 1993 1) Snoop Doggy Dogg 2) Wu-tang Clan 3) 2Pac 4) A Tribe Called Quest 5) Naughty By Nature 6) Digable Planets 7) Cypress Hill 8) Ice Cube 9) MC Eiht 10) Onyx 1994 1) Nas 2) Notorious BIG 3) Outkast 4) Warren G 5) Method Man 6) Da Brat 7) Bone Thugs-N-Harmony 8) Scarface 9) Common Sense 10) Jeru The Damaja 1995 1) Bone Thugs-N-Harmony 2) Raekwon, Ol' Dirty Bastard, and GZA 3) Tha Dogg Pound 4) Notorious BIG 5) 2Pac 6) Mobb Deep 7) Goodie Mob 8) Naughty By Nature 9) The Pharcyde 10) DJ Quik 1996 1) 2Pac 2) The Fugees 3) Outkast 4) Westside Connection 5) Jay-Z 6) Lil Kim 7) LL Cool J 8) Nas 9) Busta Rhymes 10) Foxy Brown 1997 1) Notorious BIG 2) Puff Daddy/Mase 3) Wu-Tang Clan 4) Wyclef Jean 5) Will Smith 6) Busta Rhymes 7) Master P 8) Bone Thugs-N-Harmony 9) Missy Elliott 10) Rakim 1998 1) Lauryn Hill 2) Jay-Z 3) Master P/No Limit 4) DMX 5) Outkast 6) Juvenile 7) Big Pun 8) Noreaga 9) Canibus 10) Gang Starr 1999 1) Juvenile/Cash Money Millionaires;DMX/Ruff Ryders (tie) 2) Eminem 3) Jay-Z 4) Method Man & Redman 5) Snoop Dogg 6) Mobb Deep 7) No Limit 8) Nas 9) The Roots 10) Mos Def 2000 1) Eminem 2) Dr Dre 3) Nelly 4) Jay-Z 5) Outkast 6) DMX 7) Ja Rule 8) Mystikal 9) Ludacris 10) Lil Bow Wow 2001 1) Jay-Z 2) Ja Rule 3) Nas 4) P Diddy 5) Ludacris 6) Xzibit 7) Trick Daddy 8) Missy Elliott 9) Petey Pablo 10) Fabolous 2002 1) Eminem 2) Nelly 3) Missy Elliott 4) Nas 5) Cam'ron 6) Jay-Z 7) Nappy Roots 8) Clipse 9) Big Tymers 10) 50 Cent 2003 1) 50 Cent 2) Outkast 3) Jay-Z 4) Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz 5) Ludacris 6) Snoop Dogg 7) Chingy 8) David Banner 9) TI 10) Lil Kim 2004 1) Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz 2) Kanye West 3) Lloyd Banks;Young Buck (tie) 4) Snoop Dogg 5) Twista 6) Ludacris 7) TI 8) Terror Squad 9) Jadakiss 10) Juvenile 2005 1) Kanye West 2) 50 Cent 3) The Game 4) Mike Jones 5) Young Jeezy 6) Ying Yang Twins 7) Paul Wall 8) Bun B 9) Three 6 Mafia 10) Lil Kim

Yeah you gotta be a big fan of "He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper" album to know that, Roots always show JJFP love, Jazzy Jeff also appeared on the "Things Fall Apart" album in 1999...

METHOD MAN SLAMS RADIO HOST AFTER CANCER LEAK Print article Print article Refer this article Refer to a friend Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com) 2006-07-14 14:06:14 - Rapper/actor METHOD MAN has launched a scathing attack on New York radio host WENDY WILLIAMS, after she told listeners about his wife's secret cancer battle. The RELEASE YO DELF hitmaker, real name CLIFFORD SMITH, was horrified when Williams announced on her syndicated show THE WENDY WILLIAMS EXPERIENCE that his wife was suffering from the potentially-fatal illness. Speaking to internet hip-hop show THE BREAK DOWN, the former WU-TANG CLAN rapper fumes, "You can attack me any way that you want to. But you don't attack my family. "My wife had nothing to do with that. "Her family members didn't even know she was sick. Everybody looking at her, staring at her. You know how uncomfortable that makes somebody feel? Especially someone that's going through chemo? "Stupid a*s bitch!"

If Tyrese could rap half as good as he could sing it'd be such an added bonus, he's one of the top and hard working entertainers as it is, I've got most of his albums and movies....

"Where'd You Go" is a great song, the album's pretty good too, I'm with you AJ how I ain't a LP fan but I'm feeling it...

Well I only checked the 3 tracks on his myspace page: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...iendid=27933337 You could only buy the album on ITunes right now, it'll be hitting the stores in a couple of months according to this article I found, it explains how Hammer's using the internet as his main source of promotion: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kev...mc-hammer_x.htm '90s star MC Hammer taps Net's social networks to promote new album Posted 7/4/2006 9:15 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this MC Hammer is making a go with online marketing. Can't touch this! There's really not much going on in technology news this week. Which is why it's so good to hear from MC Hammer — he of the parachute pants, infamous bankruptcy and hilarious self-parody in the recent Nationwide Insurance commercial. Hammer just released a new album, Look3X, and he has some interesting ideas about how to market music in the Internet era. Hammer shot me an e-mail a couple of weeks ago: "How are things? It's time to chat." This is not the kind of e-mail I normally get. Maybe a ping comes in from a tech industry CEO once in a while, but my inbox isn't filled with notes from circa-1990 music stars. Nothing from Sinead O'Connor. Not a word from Billy Idol. The whole of Wilson Phillips completely ignores me. The connection with Hammer, 44, isn't totally random. He grew up Stanley Kirk Burrell in Oakland and still lives there. He's made a lot of friends in nearby Silicon Valley — used to prowl Silicon Graphics when it was pioneering computer animation and would visit Apple Computer when it was developing QuickTime video. He's friends with Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff. On YouTube, you can find a video of Hammer visiting YouTube's headquarters. A couple of years ago, John Buckman, an Oakland resident who started online music label Magnatune, introduced me to Hammer via e-mail. Hammer, though, informed me then that he wasn't ready to talk about his big plans. But now he's pushing the new album. Hammer followed up by calling from his car. He was on the way, he said, to meetings with Google and Skype. "I want to build social networks within the concept of an album," he told me. "Nobody's ever done anything like this." Keep in mind that this is a guy whose biggest hit, U Can't Touch This, included lyrics such as: "Every time you see me, that Hammer's just so hype/ I'm dope on the floor and I'm magic on the mike." Humility doesn't seem to be one of Hammer's chief characteristics. Like a lot of artists, Hammer has put up a page on MySpace, and he's on social site Orkut. He's blogging on Blogspot. He's working on a website that should be up in a couple of weeks. On Orkut — owned by Google — Hammer is going a step further than most artists. He's set up a section that he calls Club Look, where he encourages fans to make videos of themselves doing dances such as Krump'n and Going Dumb to songs from the album. He tells the fans to post the videos on sites such as Revver and YouTube, and then post the links in Club Look. This way, Hammer's site will aggregate links to amateur videos of his songs. This is interesting, too, because the major labels recently launched a campaign to quash exactly that kind of thing. Teens have been making videos of themselves lip-synching or dancing to popular songs and uploading the videos to the Internet. The music industry, once again looking like a bully, says it has to protect its copyrights. Hammer is looking at the same practice and calling it marketing. "If some kid is taking my song and dancing to it and uploading the video, he's saying that's part of his life," says Hammer, who is not signed to a record label and owns all the rights to his new songs. "How can that not be good?" On another part of Hammer's Orkut site, he has set up Look University, tied to a handful of his new songs that are about social issues. This is where Skype and its Skypecasts, which can let a user host 100 other Skype users in a giant conference call, come in. Hammer plans to host Skypecasts about issues such as inner-city murder rates, using the songs as an entry point. Hammer says he's trying to build an audience before physical CDs are ever released. The Look3X album was released on iTunes Tuesday. In 60 days, CDs will go into stores — "And then we can go in with real data, without wasting time and resources to know if we've got a record (that will sell)," Hammer says. Hammer, in fact, might be a test case for fallen superstars. He's been about as fallen as you can get. Hammer was so big in the early '90s, there were MC Hammer lunchboxes, action figures and a Saturday morning cartoon called Hammerman. He had a mansion and a 20-member entourage. By the mid-1990s, gangsta rap tossed nice-guy Hammer aside, and his career went down like the Hindenburg. He eventually filed for personal bankruptcy. For the past decade, major record labels wouldn't go near him. Loads of artists have similar boom-to-bust stories — Don McLean, Duran Duran, Sinead O'Connor — and can't get on mainstream radio or land a major record deal. But most still have fans scattered around the world. And many would gladly make and release new music. If Hammer can use the Internet to come back from being a punch line in TV commercials and piece together a viable music career, every supposedly washed-up artist ought to pay attention. They'd actually be better off owning their own music so they could try new models the record companies would never consider. Roger McGuinn, the legendary Byrds guitarist, has done a version of this with his Folk Den online project. Todd Rundgren has played with online models for years. We'll see if Hammer leads a new wave, and if the Internet can be a path to cultural redemption. E-mail kmaney@usatoday.com

Snoop Dogg and The Game Co-sign on Tyrese Rapping By: Mark Lelinwalla July 13, 2006 Snoop Dogg, The Game and Method Man are publicly co-signing on the skills of Tyrese’s rapping alter-ego Black-Ty. While Tyrese continues to prep his double album Alter Ego for a fall release, established and wildly successful MCs are co-signing on the rhyming ability of his alter ego Black-Ty. “He’s really got it cracking to the point where he didn’t seem like he was out of his range. It seemed like something that he was naturally born to do,” said Snoop Dogg in a press release statement about Tyrese’s rhyming ability. “That’s when I welcomed him to the game, being the king of the West, you know what I’m saying? He got my blessing as far as from the rap style of it, the rap side of it. This is one of the best albums I’ve ever heard. Anybody who ain’t behind it, come see me.” Method Man, on the other hand, wasn’t expecting much upon first hearing about Tyrese rapping. However, he admits to being taken aback by the crooner’s rhyming above average rhyme skills. “I was pleasantly surprised I must say. I did not know that Tyrese could rhyme so well but I should have known better,” Meth said via a statement. “I am not just saying that because he’s the homie. His swagger is crazy. Everyone should give him a second look on this rap tip.” Meanwhile, if there’s anyone who really understands what Tyrese is attempting to do with Black-Ty, it’s perhaps The Game. Print Email Comment The Game co-starred with Tyrese in the Rogue Pictures/Focus Features film Waist Deep and got to hear Ty’s mic skills. Game is a featured guest on Tyrese’s upcoming fall album. “Tyrese is a good friend of mine and he has my support in whatever it is he wants to do,” The Game said. “He's been successful on every scale from singing to acting, so what would make anybody think that he couldn't do rap? I heard some Tyrese sh** and it's crazy.” Tyrese has enlisted Chris Lighty to direct Black-Ty’s movement through hip hop. Lighty’s management credits include working with 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliot. Alter Ego, a double album with an R&B disc and hip hop disc, will be released on J Records

Happy Birthday! :Party_fest09:

Yeah well Luda should just make great music then, I'm personally getting tired of everyone saying hip-hop's dead, with him on the most part it's like I like his cameos on other people's songs better than his albums, but if Luda's rapping this hungry on his new album I'm gonna check for it, I can't front that it's a hot track, Oprah might of inspired him...

Well if he really wrote the whole song he would be the only person credited for writing it but we see that Will's also credited for writing it, he also fails to mention that he helped write songs on LL's "Todd Smith" album, btw I thought City High was cool but not the second coming of the Fugees

Ryan Toby: Time To Shine By Nia Beckwith After he emerged as an actor/singer alongside Lauren Hill in the hit 1993 motion picture Sister Act II, Ryan Toby’s career has since soared to heights that have given him incredible status as a multi-platinum, award winning singer and songwriter. A former member of the group City High, Ryan has made some major moves behind the scenes, and is now set to drop his solo debut album, Soul Of A Songwriter. Ryan has written songs over the last decade for a variety of artists, including Will Smith, Mary J. Blige, Usher, Brian McKnight, Chris Brown and even Lionel Richie. He has proven that his pen has the power to make a hit. He recently started his own imprint, Overflow Entertainment, with his wife – and also former City High member - Claudette Ortiz. Ryan took some time out to set the record straight about his past, and tell us about all of the moves he’s making now. Allhiphop.com Alternatives: You’ve been low key for some time now. Has that been by choice? Ryan: Actually, yes. After City High disbanded in 2003, I just started focusing on my writing. I’ve been a writer for a long time. A lot of people didn’t know I wrote “Miami” for Will Smith, all of City High singles, and a host of other songs. I got my first gold record when I was 16-years-old when I wrote “Joyful Joyful” for the Sister Act II Soundtrack. God blessed me with a hot pen, and when [City High] didn’t work, I just fell back on writing. It paid the bills for a long time, and people weren’t even aware of that. AHHA: I’ve seen that you have worked with an array of artists. Which experience has been the most interesting thus far? Ryan: The most interesting artist, and what I consider the highlight of my career, was being able to work with Lionel Richie. Don’t get me wrong - working with Will Smith, Usher, and Mary J. Blige they are phenomenal talents, and I also felt privileged to work with them. But being able to write a song for Lionel Richie, one of the greatest songwriters of all time, who is worth 300 million dollars in song publishing… For me as a young songwriter, meeting him is like a young ball player meeting Michael Jordan. Lionel Richie is one of the best that ever did it and I wrote a song for him. I coached him through the vocals, and told him how it was supposed to go and I sang all the backgrounds. He was just very enthused to work with me. He was very humble. He told me, “Thank You, I appreciate you coming,” and I thought to myself, “Are you kidding me? This is Lionel Richie a living legend…I’m trying to do what you have already done as far as being recognized as a world wide artist and a singing and songwriting sensation.” I can imagine my experience was some what similar to R. Kelly’s when he began to work with Ronald Isley and the Isley Brothers. AHHA: So what’s the name of the song that you worked on with him? Ryan: The name of the song is “Missing Her.” It’s for his new album coming out on Island Def Jam. He’s making his re-entry into the states, his comeback album. And being a part of his comeback album meant the world to me. AHHA: Most people recognize you from the group City High. What happened, why did you all disband? Ryan: We were three solo artists when Wyclef Jean put us together, we were all pursuing solo careers at the time. Wyclef told us if we came together and joined forces as a group we’d have a better chance of blowing up than as solo artists, and could use the group as a launching pad for our solo careers. The plan was to do two or three albums and sell 20 million records like the Fugees before we went and did our solo albums - but it didn’t work out like that. You had three solo artists in a group with each other every day and everybody was itching to do their own thing - so it was only a matter of time before it fell apart at the seams. We’re still cool though. I talk to Robbie all the time and me and Claudette got married, so every thing is all good. We outgrew the situation. AHHA: So how’s Claudette doing? Ryan: Claudette is wonderful, she’s finishing her album. It’s coming out on Interscope, and we hope to have it out no later than September or November. Our whole plan is to drop our solo albums this year. She took time off to be a mother and a wife, now she’s ready to get back in. AHHA: When you all had your first child was that planned or was it something that just happened, because Claudette was at the height of her career at that point? Ryan: It wasn’t planned. She and I have been together for going on seven years now. The whole time we were in City High we were together, it wasn’t necessarily supposed to be known, but we were doing our thing. We were deeply in love and two people doing their thing and deeply in love that’s what happens. AHHA: You have your own label Overflow Entertainment. Were you offered a deal prior to starting your company? Ryan: I had a few deals on the table, but I had just got out of that type of situation. It’s a brand new day, and I’m at a position where I’m not a starving artist anymore, so I had to ask myself if I really needed to go sell my soul to a record label for a $100,000 advance? I don’t think so. So I just took some of my money and put together my own project. A lot of artists are getting wise to that concept and I commend all these artists out here doing their own thing. AHHA: In writing music for other artists, do you worry about when you put out your own material it will sound similar? I listened to some of your album and a few tracks remind me of listening to Usher. But I guess since you wrote for him that can be expected. Ryan: Yeah I’m a little concerned about that. I have played my album for people, and they have told me that I sound like Usher, but then they will turn around and say, “But wait you co-wrote and vocal produced songs on Usher’s album, so maybe he sounds like you?” I think it’s all good though. It is what it is. AHHA: So what can we expect on your new album? Ryan: The album itself is 15 years in the making. This is the solo album that I dreamt of when I was a little boy watching Michael Jackson and said that I wanted to be a singer. It’s really taken all this time to get it done, but as far as really focusing on it and putting forth my efforts towards it, there was about a month long process. I already knew what I wanted to say and how I wanted it to sound. I didn’t go around and hire any big name producers - I just said this is my sound, this is my testament, this is what I want to say and this is my body of work, so I’ll do it myself. I can write, I can produce, I can sing and I know what hot records are supposed to sound like, so I just stepped out on faith and believed in myself. I put the record together with some young up-and-coming producers, and I co-produced about 85% of the album. I produced three songs on my own, and I wrote every song. I have one feature that I did with Beanie Sigel. He’s on my first single “Just My Thing.” It’s a Ryan Toby album. I didn’t want to flood it with guest appearances or big name producers, because sometimes it will drown out the artist. I wanted people to get to know me, so I kept it real simple.

Well respectfully speaking Luda basically has been making a lot of the crap that he's criticising here, that's just like when 50 Cent made "Wanksta" in criticising rappers who talk about being gangsta when they don't pop guns in real life but he's turned into that "Wanksta" himself leading a fake image so really it was like he predicted his downfall, lol, it's hard to take Luda seriously since he's been leading us blind with his trends, I take it like he's dissin' himself...

Yeah both sides had flaws in their arguments but the main point of the article brings the same argument of old school vs. new school, the prosecution was talking about how it was better back then while the defense was calling the prosecution bitter, I could see points from both sides, the defense is right that it wasn't like there wasn't violence in entertainment and society before hip-hop even came along, hip-hop can't be blamed for all the violence out there, and the prosecution is right that record companies shouldn't only be trying to glorify violence... I don't think that the prosecution's necessarily bitter, he's not being an uncle tom or being bougie, he's calling a spade a spade, he's saying what Will said on the track "Lost and Found", some contemporary fans might point to Will as being bitter as well but he's being honest, people can't handle the truth, hip-hop as an artform has fallen off on the mainstream level, there really isn't much balance, basically most platinum rappers disrespect women and have violent elements in 90% of the videos and songs on the airwaves, while positive rappers like Kel Spencer can't even get a major label to sign them 'cause they ain't marketable enough for the audience that's fascinated by the violent and sexual elements, it ain't an even playing field for balance, and like the defense said violent music was always there but there was always an alternative which is the point he won't admit... There's not much alternative now, at least on a mainstream level, the defense knows that too that's why he basically talks about the postive side of hip-hop being from a long time ago, it's hard to know about Talib Kweli if you don't see him on TV that much as 50 Cent like when you saw Tribe Called Quest as much as you saw NWA 15 years ago, sure like the defense said there could be a boycott of record labels but it ain't gonna change as long as the general public ignores the positive side of hip-hop, it's gonna stay generalised as a violent and perverted music genre that's not very artistic... Btw Chuck D's latest terrordome on publicenemy.com from a couple weeks ago seems to go well with this topic about how gangsta rap seems to be the steroids of hip-hop in a sense that once gangsta rap blew up hip-hop became more marketable, record labels saw that millions were fascinated by the violent images so more gangsta rappers started to get signed by major labels while the conscious rappers started be ignored and thrown to the side, as long as these kids who make up the majority of album sales stay fascinated by gangsta rap things won't change, you can't expect these gangsta rappers to clean up their act if they're selling millions from it, the ironic thing is though that gangsta rap was created to bring awareness to clean up violence but record companies turned out to monopolize off of it and it became less artistic and watered down to what we have today where it's about as formatic as any other pop music and there's less awareness since it now is something that glorifies violence and of course the murdering of a lot of these popular rappers like Biggie, 2Pac, and recently Proof really supplies more fuel for people to criticise hip-hop, check the terrodome anyways: GANGSTA: The Steroids Of Hip Hop? June 16, 2006 Living in America makes it always time it pull out the race card. I really smell race stench on the MLB back turning on Barry Bonds this year as he passed the Babe. Not so much in the media itself , but in the atmosphere they fester in their big payback to BBs so called 'career surliness' toward them. The media kind of lets the average sports ( usually white) working class male pull the pin to the grenade they plant, and step back and witness the perfect storm. Fed right into a millennium lynch mob. The Babe will always be a hero, regardless of how much pork was in some of those ingested hot dogs, liquor binges, and chick orgies in his career and especially the year he almost overdosed in all that excess. It's much of the same demographic that has supported the posturing of gangster rap. Who am I to argue? As I named the group Public Enemy off what I knew was a fascination of 1930's Capone era lifestyle. In the depression era , the gangster was blown up by the media to the largely skeptical Americanation. It was like modern day Robin Hood fantasies come to life or at least the big screen when that aura was passed from the Capones' and Schultzes' to the Edward G Robinsons and George Rafts depicting them. Escapism in rough times. Like a sport. As with war and cowboy westerns, television era brought guns to the living room during the baby boom. The first eleven years of my life were Vietnamed with violence. Cartoons were laced with bombing, lasers, and thunderous blows in fights, at least the ones I dug. During the depression era of R&B (Reagan and Bush) the imagery of the updated Robin Hood came in rap music. Somehow crack and guns were in post disco black neighborhoods while kept outside of the white privileged Rubelled fueled cocaine laced Studio 54. Its the 80's and as presented by NWA ...surprise niggers, uh I mean niggas..yeah..WTF? At college radio WBAU around 1985, KING TEE painted a picture to us in the east first depicting that life wasn't all 'soul train dancers and palm trees in the left coast. Better Get A Gun was the name of the record. Caught my attention. ICEburg T brought the tales of that life to the wax , depicting the details of the good, bad, and the ugly. The South Bronx escapism from the reality of thuglife 1980 style was peace, love, unity and having much fun rather than witnessing the broken glass everywhere. Nobody there wanted to hear no depressing sht. It was already right thurr. By 1987 Scott LaRock and blastmaster KRS ONE brought that reality to east coast rap wax with Criminal Minded. Well the answers were no where to be found on who was gonna fix the ghetto. Not Reagan, Nor the next prez Bush. PE found a way to flip all this gun fare and criminality in the air and morph it into black nationality on the remembrance edges of militancy. By that time white kids invited to the hip hop party through the portals of FLASH, RUN-DMC and The BEASTIES had to walk gingerly on the black paper rug laid down of afrocentricity. It was a entrance fee of respect beyond the registers of retail. NWA and the POSSE one upped the lyrical pictures of ICE T with a super team of emcees along with a west coast master of records named DR DRE, who produced with the WRECKING CREW and made early mixtapes of largely East coast rap joints sold at the swap meets( I clearly remember a swap meet outside in the parking lot of the San Diego Sports Arena in 1987, where the ever intimidating ERIC B single handedly confiscated every tape he saw with his music on it from sellers he placed fear upon). I think back then it was the good and evil that balanced upon the shoulders of NWA, the righteousness that made DRE say he wouldn't give into the drug-game at the time so easily when he claimed he didn't smoke weed or cess. Crack and mo guns spread to the cities in 1987-1990, the media bias considered everything outside NYC lines the suburbs, and thus called it that way. The cable privileged side of YO MTV Raps swelled up at the bravado of the black gangsta though. Black guns, style and maybe some ass in the living room on the sneak tip. Besides the nationalism was a bit too much of a price to pay , where maybe NATIVE TONGUE style invited those to the peace, love, unity and having fun thing as BAM intended. The other flip was that the spread of urban reality into the first Bushsht years, brought the aspect of gangsterism as escapism. The Source immediately praises the gangsta black life because the numbers of fascination were higher, and they never knew it existed in the first place. Black folks in the east were tired of the reality of gangsta life. But something was sold under the counter. Maybe via Viacom. Possibly dragging along everything in its path as well. The key balance of conscious ICE CUBE defected to the east keeping the balance, while NWA spiraled to being 'Niggas for the rest of their lives to white amerikkkas praise. By this time it was about numbers and the quantity was king over the quality of the issues at hand. There was no looking back as one year the Source claimed that everything that sprouted from the Straight Outta Compton existence had generated into tens of millions of records, white the PE, BDP-XCLANish stuff only resulted in a couple million. The numbers were staggering al the way up to these Get Rich Or Die Trying times. Through the murders of PAC, BIG, BIG L, MAC DRE etc , the style was the dominant identity praised by the media. The films followed path of the modern day rapper classic 'SCARFACE' ( which by the way I think is the most mis-followed movie of all time. The world is never his and people ignore his wackass ending...hello? .. there's a message here..) Seventeen years stemmed from the seed it could've went either way. Taking the reality and making a better situation from it. But the numbers don't lie. It is what it is. 'Die nigger Die' is amerikkkas longest running profitable horror flick. But its a horror flick to my constituency, possibly a chitlin western porno, possibly comedy to the Barry Bonds hating crowd. A sad documentary, in fact, not a friendly game of baseball as MAIN SOURCE said. It might be what it is Amerikkkan like baseball, hot dogs and big apple pie,but let's check the bat and the blood, before it splinters and splatters into the basics of what was originally intended to do. Balance yall.

Yeah! He is! And the track was awzome. I expect to hear you on the radio and see your cds in the local record store in a couple of years. Hopefully that does happen :wiggle:

Jamie Foxx is wack? :ponder: I'm hoping that LL puts working on that album with 50 Cent to the side and focuses on this project with Jamie 'cause this could be something special...

Yeah I'd love to see him do that to some of these wack pop rappers, btw Questlove has always seem to been supportive of the Fresh Prince, hopefully what he mentioned on his myspace a few months ago about doing production for Will actually happens...

Finally LL Cool J decides to collab with somebody closer to his level, now this something I'll be anticipating... http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1535881/2...tner=rssMozilla Jamie Foxx Says LL Cool J Feud Is Behind Him 'We're Grown Now' 07.10.2006 6:00 AM EDT Former foes plan movie project after collaborating on LL's album, onstage. LL Cool J and Jamie Foxx Photo: Walik Gashorn Jamie and LL Cool J really couldn't have started their relationship off any worse. While filming "Any Given Sunday" in 1999, the two actually fought on the set and the Miami-Dade County Police had to get involved (see "LL Cool J, Jamie Foxx Exchange Blows On Set Of Oliver Stone Football Flick"). Well, time has obviously settled their differences. Foxx popped up on LL's recent Todd Smith LP, and at June's Hot 97 Summer Jam concert, Jamie brought him out as a special guest (see "Where's The Beef? T.I., Busta, Mary J., Diplomats Keep Summer Jam Light On Drama"). The two performed together and Foxx even said he wanted to be LL's hypeman. So what's up with all the love between the onetime adversaries? Foxx said it's just growth. "I was in Miami at one of the [Heat] games," Academy Award winner Foxx said July 2 at the Essence Music Festival in Houston (see "Mary J., LL Cool J Heat Up Essence Fest, But Bobby Brown Steals Show"). "He had done his thing, got himself together, was selling records," Foxx continued. "It was right after the Oscars. We looked at each other like, 'Why we wasting all this time? Let's get together and do some music, do some movies.' 'Cause I also mentioned to him about black superheroes. I said, 'My man, you the only cat that can really pull this off.' There's this black superhero called Panther. So we started talking about that, did a couple of records together. When you're grown, you don't really have time for all that [beefing]. When you're young, it's cool to have your emotions on your chest. But we're grown now." Jamie said to expect a lot of collaborating between the two soon. "Of course," Foxx smiled. "We've got a joint, 'All This Love,' that's coming out, and we trying to get this Panther production set up, because I think he'll smash that." Foxx is still pushing his LP, Unpredictable, and plans to release "Can I Take U Home" as the next single (see "For His Next Album, Jamie Foxx Wants To Get In Your Bedroom"). No plans for the video have been announced yet.

Yeah I enjoy the album for what it is, a feel good party album, I wouldn't call it a classic but it's a pretty dope album, I like most of the production on there too, I don't understand what tracks had watered down production? Timbaland's one of the top producers in hip-hop, there's no way production could drag down the quality of an album if he produces most of it, the thing that brought it down from being a classic is that LL's lyrics weren't as strong as they could've been for his standards, you couldn't deny the way he flowed through those tracks though... I wish that unreleased track that Will did with Timbaland got released 'cause he's a great producer, btw I agree that "One In The Morning" track is amazing, DMX's main producer Dame Grease laced that beat and LL killed it with some of the best lyrics he ever done with a hardcore flow, if all the tracks were like that it'd been a classic album undeniably...

Ben Wallace is only 32, I think he should have a few great years left in him, if he could be the defensive presence that Rodman was in his mid-late 30s on the Bulls a decade ago then I think they'll be getting their money's worth, what he does on defense is as big as a 20 point center could do for a team, he stops big centers from taking over, a team could have somebody who could score 81 points but if they don't have defenders then they won't win the championship, the defending champion Heat has a center in Shaq who'll be 35 years old and his backup Mourning is gonna be 38 if he doesn't retire and most players on that team are around that age, so if you wanna talk about decline it should start with them... Ialso like that the trade the Bulls made with the Hornets in trading Tyson Chandler for PJ Brown, Tyson Chandler never really developed so they get somebody with more experience, now I might be a lil' more worried about PJ Brown being 37 years old but he's been consistant enough to have a couple more good years in him and his experience will help the younger players,having Ben Wallace and PJ Brown in the frontcourt is a major upgrade, Wilcox would add more depth there as well if he's signed, the backcourt's already cemented for years to come with Gordon and Hinrich, with Deng and Duhon, their draft pick Tyrus Thomas is gonna be really good too, Bulls got a lot of depth now and starting to get a better mix of youth and experience which is what most champion teams have...