One of the best singles last year was off of Kay Slay’s major label “mixtape” shit – it was called “Who gives a … where you from” and it was a transformers-sampling 3-6 track that featured scrawny MC Lil Wyte. Well his album Phinally Phamous came out late last year and I didn’t get a chance to talk about it on here but Sean Downes gave an in-depth overview at guvt names. My favorite track though is “Look Like You” which is all druggy come-down paranoia (“this is not some powder the effects are completely different/ you are not a coward if you pop one and get scared of the shit”) and the part where he goes double-time shows how ridiculously talented this cat is. The beats are great of course, dark double-time hypnotized minds production with bouncing marimbas and high-pitched screeching over the top etc.

You can also check out the video for the single “I Sho Will” (which you should have heard by now anyway) by going here.

Buy Phinally Phamous.

Oh yeah and for all you punks who kept emailing us about the Snoop remix, it’s been re-upped.

#8 on the Many Shrimp 2004 MC poll has a new single out, and it sounds like an attempt to do the Lil Jon guitar thing. I like it. It’s about getting mad at bouncers when you go to the club. Here’s the video – sidenote: more white girls in it than in American rap videos. Significance?

Kano – Typical Me

(Edit: Reaction from the grime kids seems pretty negative, which I understand; this isn’t really “grime”-y at all. I still dig it OK. Not as good as Ps and Qs or Girls and Boys, natch.)

Oh yeah, you should also check out the mp3 blog i’m doing w/ some folks from stylus it’s called Club Lonely. And don’t forget to check back here on Monday for our new site+updates.

We’re taking a minute to get our shit together, if you’re wondering why we’ve been posting less frequently. Check back Monday, we’re doing some renovations and shit.

So yeah the folks over at Roomservice do this promotion bullshit for rapstars and stuff. They are trying to take advantage of this blog shit and use it as a tool to make rappers cool and stuff. Well we get this email about some videos they are hosting and asking us to post about so here you go, get your fucking internet on you fucking nerds.

Brooke Valentine f/ Big Boi and Lil Jon – “Girlfight”

If you haven’t figured it out this is a song about girls fighting, oh and there is a lil jon beat. Some of that “crunk & b” bullshit that motherfuckers be talking about with that flat chested woman and her one two steps. Shit is kind of soft but you get some what’s and some big boi so whatever.

Windows low high

RealAudio low high

K-OS – Love Song

some soft shit about love and stuff

Windows high med low

RealAudio high med low

K-OS – B-Boy Stance

TRUE HIPHOP! fucking b-boys and lyrics like elevate/ motivate/ congregate/ activate/ masturbate. Whatever, the beat is cool but its some generic b-boy video type shit. I like b-boys but please make some cooler songs/videos.

Windows high med low

RealAudio high med low

K-OS – Crabbuckit

Crabs, soulclaps, guys carring acoustic guitars and shit sorry but I didn’t really give enough of a fuck to pay too much attention to this video. Actually this video seemed like some boarderline BEP shit and I got scared.

Windows med

Real Audio med

K-OS really isn’t that bad and I do like some of his stuff but I just don’t get that excited over his music. He’s another artist that is good enough to not be totally shitty. Like if it was 1996 I’d probably buy his records but these days his ass gets passed up. You scion ass motherfuckers will probably like this shit though, but I can’t really fuck with it.

Pretty much everyone has heard about how fucking great Boxcar Sessions is but unfortunatly for Saafir’s career he was never able to break out of the underground with that record. Even when he followed that up with more mainstream tuned album he was not able to make the jump to rapstardom. Surprisingly people just didn’t give a fuck about learning Triganometry. Fucking shit even after appearing in Wrists of Fury the masses still were not open to Saafir’s lyrical swordsmanship. So then in early 2000 Saafir got the swift idea that if he just named his album the Hit List then people would just pretend that it was good. Saafir was wrong.

In late 2000 Saafir finally got wise and being the saucee nomad that he is he decided to make the move to Atlanta, his best career decision ever. It was quite a step up from poisoning small children in a group home in San Mateo but he made it. In Atlanta Saafir released I’m Serious which laid a new foundation for his future as a rapstar. Although the album didn’t blow up Saafir did get some attention which was good because he was able to use that momentum to release his next album, Trap Muzik. This is one of Saafir’s best works to date. The album title itself is very symbolic as it represents the trap that the infamous Hiero vs Hobo battle put him in. Hobo Junction was never able to break free from the grips of Wake Up show highlights. This album represents the frustration that comes with forever being sucked into the blackhole that is Casual’s shadow. Trap Muzik was able to fulfill the dreams that Tha Crib just was not able too. Now if only ChinoXL was able to overcome that struggle then maybe Predator Vs Aliens would have been a bit more successful.

So here we are in 2005 and we are now seeing the fruits of Saafir’s battle to stardom. He has finally made it. He is now on MTV, doing songs with Jay-Z’s voice, working with top notch producers, pulling Lil Flip’s card, making guest appearences and appearing on numerous mixtapes all to prove that he has finally surpassed jay’z reasonable doubt status in the minds of indie rap loving nerds. Saafir has proven that he truly is the king of the south. Within the first week following the release of “Urban Legend” the album ranked #7 on the Billboard’s Top 200 and #1 on the Billboard’s Top 20 R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. I can’t even imagine just how proud Saafir’s mother must be. Oh if the whoridas could see him now.

There has been one tragic casualty in this fight for stardom and it’s unfortunate but sometimes things just have to be sacrificed for success. No matter how much we pray we will never see Saafir’s nosering ever again. Who knew that a damn nosering could hold a rapper down so hard. Saafir has learned his lesson and that is that with the demise of a nosering comes the birth of limitless stardom.

The new beat is no dancefloor banger but its got Jay-Z (so much for retirement etc.) and Snoop and Pharell, and the beat is kind of eerie and toned down, like the original on codeine or something that you would play to get a snake to climb out of a basket. Jay does this hot snoopspeak-style shit that sounds like a corny idea on paper but its pretty fucking nice.

Snoop, Pharell and Jay-Z – Drop it Like It’s Hot (Remix)

Now make sure you head over to HoustonSoReal and cop that Diplo remix of “Still Tippin,” it’s pretty grimey.

yeah here’s some more rap music from houston.

CLICK HERE

Hopefully some of you idiots remember the wonderful little hip-hop publication called “On The Go” magazine put together by Philly graf artist legend ESPO and the bol Ray Hayes. This mag was on some DIY, “real hip-hop” shit and was as funny as it was relevant. Legendary Philly DJ Cosmo Baker was a contributing writer for the magazine, penning articles that explored the art of diggin’ at a level that hadn’t previously been documented. Around the same time, another Philly bol Soulman was doing a similar thing at another solid hip-hop publication Rap Pages. Now, for better or worse, the Philly bols Cosmo Baker and Soulman were two of the first writers to really commit digging secrets and knowledge to print. I say “for better or for worse” because previously, the art of digging was strictly a tradition that was either passed on orally through mentoring (to this day, I don’t know any digger that isn’t greatly indebted to a mentor who “taught [him] all [he] knows”) or was an art that was learned through exposure and “paying dues.” Some digging purists might find that this documentation that folks like Cosmo and Soulman were conducting watered-down and even white-washed the art a bit. These purists might read this documentation as the incipient moment of the demise of diggin’ as first and foremost an oral tradition and that Cosmo and Soulman paved the way for sites like The Breaks/The Sample FAQ and Soulstrut– sites that have clearly helped change how the diggin’ game currently functions. And, let’s be honest, we might not want to admit it, but it’d be rather ridiculous to argue that the internet hasn’t drastically changed the diggin’ game (just ask David Axelrod). But, frankly, I don’t subscribe to this purist critical reading of the work that Cosmo and Soulman did. I think the work that they did was very valuable and each of them were forward thinking enough to realize that yes, perhaps writing about something like diggin’ might change the game a bit, but, got damn it, who says the game is meant to be static and stagnant anyway?

Cosmo was kind enough to post scans of most of his and his postdecessor’s (one Ben Velez) work in the “On The Go” column aptly titled “Diggin’ in the Crates” on his website. So click right here (or any picture below) to holler at some of his writings. And, when you’re done with that, go over to Soulman’s World of beats and then read his shit and learn yourself somefin’ you know nothing about.

-e

Allhiphop.com

As a bonus to our readers, AllHipHop decided to compose an unofficial tally of the numerous namedrops on The Documentary.

Dr. Dre 35

50-Cent 17

G-Unit 10

Notorious B.I.G. 8

Eminem 8

Tupac 7

Compton 7

Eazy-E 5

Young Buck 4

Nate Dogg 4

Lloyd Banks 4

Snoop Dogg 4

Mary J. Blige 4

Mase 4

Jay-Z 3

Eve 3

Michael Jackson 3

Jam Master Jay 3

Martin Luther King, Jr 3

Nas 3

Left Eye 3

Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs 3

Aaliyah 3

Whitney Houston 2

Kanye West 2

Mya 2

Tony Yayo 2

Busta Rhymes 2

Just Blaze 2

Rakim 2

Shaq 2

Ms. Shakur 2

Ms. Wallace 1

Kool G Rap 1

Vivica A. Fox 1

Ronald Reagan 1

Huey Newton 1

Public Enemy 1

Flavor Flav 1

Whoo Kid 1

DJ Clue 1

Compton’s Most Wanted 1

Marvin Gaye 1

Vanessa Williams 1

Serena Williams 1

R. Kelly 1

Black Rob 1

N.W.A. 1

Loon 1

Ashanti 1

Tyra Banks 1

Master P 1

Alonzo Mourning 1

Havoc 1

Prodigy 1

Timbaland 1

Bobby Brown 1

Ed Lover 1

Monie Love 1

Shyne 1

Beyonce 1

Ice Cube 1

Xzibit 1

Mariah Carey 1

Suge Knight 1

Chris Rock 1

Souljah Slim 1

Randy Moss 1

Kevin Lowe 1

LeBron James 1

Yao Ming 1

Usher 1

Guerilla Black 1

Jimmy Iovine 1

"I’m rappin’ now. Anybody who ain’t respecting me as an artist right

now, mine as well just bash their heads into the wall just for being

stupid. I say, just kill yourself ‘cuz if not, it’s gonna kill you for

how much you about to hear me." (okayplayer.com, 2003)

"God could send a message in the form of a goat." (XXL, Oct 2004)

"It’s the best hotel I ever stayed in. That shit was crazy. You just lay out on the beach, but what was dope about it was they’d bring you popsicles and stuff." (Rolling Stone, Dec 2004)

Peep these and others at Ban Kanye West from the Grammys, the new Internet home of the Operation: Slap a Dropout Movement. And while you’re there, sign the fucking petition already. That is, if you haven’t already.