bigted

That's a deep poem! :1-say-yes:

You don't have to sell millions to get nominated for a Grammy, LL Cool J's last album was only gold but it got nominated for best rap album! I think "I Wish I Made That" would be great to release to the radio, I could see DJs playing this during the mix hours, that song would get Will a lot of respect in hip-hop! :jazzy:

Ludacris has only sold 2 million this time so far, his last album sold 4 million I think, so even his sales are not as high as they once were.

Well I do have more respect for Kanye West now that he's showing love to Will although he ain't one of my favorites, I might actually check out his new album after all too, we do gotta support anyone that's rapping anything other than bling-bling, but there's a lot of mcs that Will shouted out on his album that still haven't given Will props, at the same time we should respect Bow Wow and Nick Cannon a lil' bit too 'cause they said that they look up to Will for inspiration.

"Phucked" did come out in the spring of '04 but I figured I'd list it there since the "Keep Right" was released last summer a year ago, damn KRS is slowing down, he hasn't had a new album in whole year after droppin' 5 albums in 4 years, I hope he's gonna drop one this fall.

No comment! :lolsign:

Will does many tracks to get back at the haters already though, he has a few on each of his albums and did Eminem really s*** on FP? :lolsign: That's like sayin' Nelly is better than Rakim! "The Real Slim Shady" is one of the cheesiest songs I heard in my life, I can't call that hip-hop, saying "f*** you" and "you're a b****" is not witty at all, that doesn't take skills, I mean if people call him a punchline master for lines like that they must be on drugs, Will's been droppin' punchlines for 20 years, Eminem has no skills compared to Will 'cause all he does is curse every 5 seconds in his rhymes, Will doesn't have to prove nothin' to him, he won the 1st rap grammy and he got more classic albums than Eminem has good albums and basically this entire L&F album was directed towards anyone who's dissed him, I think Will should just release "Mr. Nice Guy" "I Wish I Made That" or "Lost and Found"! I mean as corny as we might think "Freakin' It" is, he did have a nice quotable in there: "All y'all rappers screaming about who you're gonna put in Hearse/ Do me a favor, write one verse without a curse"

Well it's nice that he gives Will some props, yeah I think Jadakiss isn't that much of a mixtape mc now, he's more commercial, but regardless though anybody that gives Will props knows what's up, at least Kanye respects the art of hip-hop and the legends! :1-say-yes:

Talib Kweli feat. Common and Anthony Hamilton "Ghetto Show"

Well I give them a listen but they just don't appeal to me, I just don't hate them without giving them a listen, I don't think it's fair for 50 Cent to diss everybody either, in all fairness he needs to be open minded too, not everybody's gonna like Will Smith either but they should at least give him a listen before they say they don't like him just 'cause somebody else told them they don't like him, but I think there's a lot of people out there that don't give something a listen and just diss 'em, lol. I mean I turn on the radio and I hear them playing 50 Cent all the time and that's boring to me, there should be balance, the people that're 50 Cent fans could listen to the CD, they don't have to play it all day, it'd get boring for some if they played Will all day too.

Now if there was more opened minded hip-hop fans like you, hip-hop would be much better right now!

Janet Jackson feat. Blackstreet "I Get So Lonely"

If you listen to "Mr. Nice Guy", Will says it's just a warning shot, so that means if anyone tries dissin' 'em again, Will's gonna go all out on them, Eminem ain't gonna say nothin' back, he didn't even say nothin' in the 1st place to even wanna respond back to it's just like that corny s*** that 50 Cent said about Nas on "Piggy Bank", that's what I'd call cheesy, these commercial rappers can't break real mcs.

I agree with that. The whole chorus to "Freakin' It" was cheesy as hell. I feel though "Mr. Nice Guy" was the cheesist off Lost & Found. I was expecting a lot more. I mean, yeah FP brings it but the whole "Hes a nice guy/how ya doin hes a nice guy/good to see ya..etc"..was crap. I was hoping for a real diss track. ← 'Mr. Nice Guy" is cheesy? Will was doing some real spittin' in there, reminded me of a Public Enemy track, he should get Chuck D on the remix!

Hey I'm mad that the ones who worked hard to help bring hip-hop to the masses like Will Smith and Public Enemy can't even get airplay now, it's cool for new cats to get airplay but we can't forget the ol' school mcs that're still out there, 50 Cent and Kanye West can never do what they've done hate 'em or love 'em you gotta recognize that, they're pioneers, people need to start respecting them more!

I know now it's a disgrace that people who only listen to commercial rap talk like Biggie, Eminem, Kanye West, and Jay-Z are the greatest lyricists on the planet, there's so many more mcs that deserve more due than them, Diamond D's probably the greatest producer to ever spit on the mic, I heard Paris is pretty damn good too since a lot of Public Enemy fans dig his style, they constantly talk about him on the Enemy Board, Masta Ace been out for over 15 years too puttin' out quality effort, Kool G Rap never gets his due either, Jay-Z and Biggie ran with his style with a lil' less skills and they get ranked ahead of him all the time, it goes on and on how many great mcs there are that get slept on that represent the art of hip-hop, but the MTV format has confused a lot of people since they don't focus on more talented mcs, in fact most of what they play I wouldn't even call real hip-hop!

I was hoping R. Kelly would sell a couple million, commercial r&b's even worse than hip-hop believe or not, nobody's buying Vivian Green's album, it's an embarassment for hip-hop seeing skillless rappers sell so much, Bow Wow might be the most talented out of the group which isn't saying much, even Fat Joe deserves to sell more even though I hate that song with Nelly, he should release an aggressive single and show his skills 'cause he could bring the lyrics from time to time unlike most commercial rappers.

My top 10 would have to be: 1-Will Smith "Tell Me Why" 2-KRS-ONE "Phucked" 3-LL Cool J "Hush" 4-Nas feat. Quan "Just A Moment" 5-LL Cool J "Feel The Beat" 6-Twista feat. Faith Evans "Hope" 7-Nas feat. Olu Dara "Bridgin' The Gap" 8-Will Smith "Lost and Found" 9-De La Soul "Church" 10-New Edition "Hot 2Nite" I've also been diggin' Common's "The Corner", R. Kelly "U Saved Me", R.Kelly "Trapped In The Closet", Will Smith "Ms. Holy Roller", Public Enemy feat. Dead Prez, Paris, and Kam "Can't Hold Us Back", Faith Evan's "Again"(even though her album's kinda boring), Nas "U.B.R."(Unauthorized Biography Of Rakim), Brandy's "Who I Am", and Spectec feat. Kofi and Big Daddy Kane "One Day", and mostly everything else before 2000, plus a bunch of other underground stuff nobody's every heard of

I haven't really been checkin' the underground scene much lately, I've been mostly listening to my CDs but I find out about a lot of dope mcs from singing up to the undergroundhiphop.com mailing list, they tell you what new songs and albums are coming out that I wouldn't know from TV or radio and you could download tracks for on that site too y'all should check it out for some real hip-hop, nuff props to Tim for getting me into Hieroglyphics, they really are dope! :jazzy:

Wow everyone seems to be going crazy here, lol, everybody's talking like this is a life or death situation, y'all should just chill, Will is gonna do what's best for him to sell, he knows what he's doing, he's been in the industry for 20 years, his sales go up and down like every other artist, nobody sells at least 5 million with each album unless you're Britney Spears, Eminem, or Michael Jackson, the album is gonna sell at least a lil' more when the singles come out so I ain't worried about it, there's other things in life that're more important than worrying over record sales, they'll take care of themselves, the peeps will support it, end of story.

G Unit giving Will and Jada a shout-out? :hmm: Tony Yayo's voice sounds like Michael Bivans except he has no skills!

I'd mentioned Slick Rick in my 1st post but I thought this was about rappers out now, well since he's making guest appearances on the Missy Elliot and Az albums and doing shows, he's technically still active, btw speaking of Gangstarr did anyone check out that new Guru album? I didn't get to check it out yet but I don't know why him and Premiere are beefin', I heard Pete Rock and CL Smooth are gonna be working on a comeback too, another legendary DJ-MC duo.

Well on the commercial scene there's only Will Smith, LL Cool J, Common, Nas, and Public Enemy(since they're coming back with an album next month that hopefully could make some impact) that I'd say are keepin' true to the art of mcing, everyone else I like is underground like Talib Kweli, Mos Def, KRS-ONE, De La Soul, Aceyalone, Souls Of Mischief, Pep Love, Kel Spencer, Quan, Masta Ace, Shuman, Lord Finesse, Supastition, Guru, and MF Doom, the underground is where the art has remained on the most part.

KRS-ONE "Know Thyself" "It's one thing to be iced out and rocked up But what's the point when you're getting locked up?"

It's been tired for quite a few years now, that's why I don't like listening to the radio that much unless it's like a mix hour or throwback hour, only gimmicks sell and hip-hop's art of mc'ing has been lost, Nas is one of the few true ones out there, he doesn't really get the sales he deserve but he does have a lot of respect among his peers which is more important than selling 5 million and being forgotten next year.