Nah Right

So I caught the Papoose show at S.O.B.S. on Tuesday night. I gotta tell you, I had my own reservations about how good his live performance would be, but man it was actually pretty damn good. That kid has some serious breath control because spitting those intricate verses in a studio is one thing, but on a stage with a dude blowing blunt smoke in your face is a whole ‘nother story. Most of the joints he did were new, from his last couple of mixtapes, and of course he did his staples like Monopoly, Sharades, etc. Personally, I could care less about those kinds of songs because after a week of hearing them I usually don’t even play them any more. I’d much rather see him do more hardcore shit like Bloody War and La Di Da Di, but whatever I guess you have to cater to the masses.

At first I was dissapointed to see what had to be the entire Thug-A-Cation crew take the stage with Pap, but surprisingly they knew their place and refrained from the incessant screaming and shit talking that entourages usually ruin performances with. Man, I thought I was a Papoose stan, but the dude in the picture above with the fitted on and the intense look on his face is by the far the world’s biggest Papoose fan. That dude was so focused and he mouthed every single lyric to even Pap’s most intricate verses like it was nothing.  I guess he’s like Pap’s Spliff Star if you will.

The show was sponsored by Hot 97 and Who’s Next Online, and was basically a showcase for up and coming New York talent. I planned on getting there late to avoid sitting through all those performances, but I still ended up seeing about 4 solo/group perfomances. Most of them turned out to be pretty ok, but the stand out opening act was by far the Soul Mafia. These dudes play their own instruments and they have a dude who flows and another guy who sings. The dude who flows does double duty on the sax, and I gotta say he was pretty damn nasty at both. Just imagine spitting a 16 and then going directly into a sax solo. Good shit.  

So now, after the Pap performance Kay Slay gets up on stage and takes a shot at New Yorkers that he says he’s been seeing in the club lately dancing a certain way (and then he did a little Snap dance much to the amusement of the crowd). A minute or so later, the mic ended up in some guys hand and he started talking some shit that I didn’t really hear or pay attention to. Before I even knew it was that serious, Pap was back on the mic talking shit to dude and a little confrontation and some shoving started in front of the stage. Eventually security emerged from the confusion with homey hemmed up and tossed him out on his ass. Whatever. A scuffle or brawl is pretty much mandatory at a show like that so I don’t think anybody was really surprised.

Pap is performing again tomorrow night at Southpaw in Brooklyn alongside DJ Premier and Sadat X.

More @ SOHH New York

I haven’t done a "Bad Album Covers" post in a minute. This is the cover for the new G-Unit Radio 17 mixtape, Best in The Bizness. I know G-Unit have become a caricature of themselves, but this is getting ridiculous. If 50 is supposed to be such a marketing genius, explain to me how he looks at something like this and says "Yeah that looks good, let’s use it." Seriously, would you just look at how they drew Ballerina P. What’s really sad is that this is actually better than an earlier version I saw last week.

Previously on Bad Album Covers: G-Unit Radio Vol. 14 Vanilla Ice

From AHH Rumors:

COMMON SLAPS FIRE OUT OF HECKLNG SKINHEAD?

So, my man hit me up with a rumor he heard. Last week, Common was rocking at the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I heard Com was rockin’ it b-boy style all the way down to the breakdancing. Shout out to Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Ced Coast 97.3, who I heard were in the house. Anyway, Common was wearing a shirt that stated "I Love Black People," but there was a skinhead-looking fellow in the front row. I won’t say he was definitely a skinhead, but what he did next is a good indication that he was! The dude continuously heckled Com during the show and capped it off with a middle finger to the Chi-Town rapper. He must have thought it was sweet with Com, but I heard Sense wasn’t having it. I heard Com walked over to the skinhead and slapped the fire out of his racist face right in the middle of the damn show. The whole crowd went wild, I heard. Common reportedly said, "I don’t know what you thought but I am from the South Side of Chicago!" Security removed the man and the crowd gave him a beer shower on the way out. Eventually, the crowd calmed down and Common ushered peace back into the House…but, the skinhead left with the Blues! 

If that’s true, I’m loving Com right now.

"What you rappin’ for to get fame or get rich?/I slap a nigga like you, and tell him "Rick James bitch!" - Chi City

I love X and all, but I keep asking myself, does the world really need another DMX album? I mean really?

Here’s a clear copy of his first single in case anybody’s interested: We In Here 

A report from a regional news site claims that a recent gang related shooting involved members of the "G-Unit Crips".

Young — a student at the Tulsa High School for Science and Technology who played on the football team — wasn’t a gang member and was struck in the head by a bullet.

Detectives arrested two other teens early yesterday and they were booked into the Tulsa Jail. An 18-year-old is being sought as a person of interest in the case.

Witnesses have said the suspects are members of or had ties to the Hoover Crips gang and were shooting at a crowd that included members of the G-Unit and Neighborhood Crips gangs.

Those pesky G-Unit Crips, always into something. I bet it was one of them who popped off at at the Busta video. In all seriousness though, this shit is wack. I don’t want to sound all preachy and what not, but this is pretty ridiculous. If your a grown man and you want to run around gang banging that’s on you, but to commercialize this shit to the point were teenagers are claiming your ’set’ and banging out while other innocent kids are caught in the crossfire, it may be time to rethink your marketing plan.

 
(Malcolm X, May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965)

"If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary."

"I don’t favor violence. If we could bring about recognition and respect of our people by peaceful means, well and good. Everybody would like to reach his objectives peacefully. But I’m also a realist. The only people in this country who are asked to be nonviolent are black people."

"It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That’s the only thing that can save this country." - February 19th, 1965, 2 days before his murder.

This is pretty great in a nostalgic, pre-Metrocard kind of way. A couple of dudes have organized a little freestyle session that will take place every other Sunday in the last car of the E Train.

Using the last car of the subway as their peformance space, the band of old school rap afficionados stopped off at various stations to form rhyme cyphers and demonstrate their skills at musical oneupsmanship.

“It’s a jam session,” said Terry “Kid Lucky” Lewis, a 33-year-old Crown Heights beatboxer who organized the event and plans to hold it on the train every other Sunday. It’s his way to confront what he sees as a crisis in hip-hop.

“There’s too much degradation of women; everybody’s thugging and blinging,” Kid Lucky explained. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for people making money, but I’m trying to show there’s more to hip-hop.”

I remember when I was in high school we used to do something similar, except our version included a 50 dollar Panasonic, Magnum 44 markers, and several lit blunts in rotation. Let me tell you, the local paper never would have featured us on the front page.

Hop on the railroad, play the conductor/Everywhere I went, I always tucked a marker in my jacket to bomb up where I went/Cause we were just products, of the environment. - 3rd Bass

Rakim joined Marc Ecko and legendary grafitti artists T-Kid and Cope 2 at the Virgin Megastore in NY to sign copies of Ecko’s new game, Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. (More @ CL)

Saigon is joining the god at B.B. Kings on the 27th.

Papoose will be at S.O.B.’s on Tuesday night. I’ll probably try to go to this rather than the Brooklyn show on the 24th. (Props to Richard)

Read the transcript of Jay-Z’s recent chat session with fans over at Rocafella.com. See the entire MTV interview with Nas on Youtube.

Rocafella and G-Unit artists will team up for the "Keep Hope Alive" concert on March 3rd. 

Video of Ghostface dissing D4L at a recent show. Listening sessions have now been held for Fishscale and you can check out some reviews here and here. Download J-Love’s new Raekwon mixtape: Only Built for The Streets 2.

Sorry Fresh, but I didn’t hear anything you said after naked Beyonce pictures.  

From his interview in the March issue of Playboy:

"I’m nowhere near as good as Jay-Z, Eminem or Nas. So I compensate … with star power, sheer energy, entertainment, videos, really good outfits and overwhelmingly, ridiculously dope tracks. Justin Timberlake isn’t the best singer, but he’s a true star, the entire package. The main thing I use to make up for my lack of rapping skills is my content, my subject matter." 

He ain’t lying. I remember when I couldn’t stand this guy, but damn if he’s not entertaining.  

AHH reports that the Universal Zulu Nation will hold an emergency meeting on February 22nd at the National Black Theater on 125th St. in Harlem. The purpose of the meeting is to address the current state of hip hop and the control corporate radio and TV have over what we see and hear on a daily basis.

According to representatives for the Universal Zulu Nation, Bambaataa hopes steps will be taken to bring consciousness back to Hip-Hop.

"We are not saying to stop playing what you are playing on the air or showing on the TV, but to have balance and play it all, old-school to new-school to be true school," representatives for Bambaataa said in a statement.

The group hopes a plan of action will be devised to curtail "death and destruction playing on radio and TV music video shows." 

Of course this is a beautiful thing, and I think it’s important to note the less confrontational approach they seem to be taking. Rather than coming out and denouncing all mainstream hip hop, they’re asking that radio and TV stations attempt to strike a balance between the everyday ass shaking, shoot ‘em up ignorance and some of the more enlightening stuff that is too often ignored by the media and public alike. 

I have the utmost respect for Bam and the Nation, but I’m guessing that this intiative will fall on deaf ears. Props to them for starting the conversation though.