WE EAT SO MANY SHRIMP

“Happy birthday mom. Happy birthday.”

Serg posted three great tracks, but you HAVE to check this shit “Angel” from the new album – it’s dedicated to his mother and its a classic UGK production style, that slow rolling country-funk with double time hi-hats and Pimp C’s stories about coming up, before-and-after, the best of times and the worst of times: he was hooked on promethazine; he used to get sick a lot, he had pneumonia as a kid, he sold crack, he smoked too much and then his mom saved him from the “devil’s door.” Now he’s rich and on rap-a-lot and has fresh cars and he’s been rapping since 16, and “I’m her baby, and that is my only momma.” Then the chorus – “I found my angel…angel in my eyes.” Don’t stop, get it get it.

uh, my bad I mean Pitch Black. Yeah they were one of those mediocre rap crews that DJ Premier drops his most ridiculous beats on for no good reason; their album dropped last year and I bought it and sold it right back. I know lots of people are sick of Premier, shit I am most of the time these days, I don’t really listen to The Ownerz much at all (although seeing Gang Starr live a couple years ago was pretty nice). But like a lot of other people who still love that banging classic nyc sound I can’t stop listening to him, and I still listen to Jeru and Gang Starr and even fucking Group Home to this day. The reason people copped this stupid album was because that leadoff single “It’s All Real” was one of those classic premo chop-loop deals that you just can’t get out of yr head, full of dramatic strings and hard mid 90s drums. Well there was an even better track on it that was better pretty much because it had Foxy Brown (now signed yet again, thnx to Jay-Z) and not just the mediocre Pitch Black cats. “Me and Preem the unbeatable team/ fox five cocksucka respect me in this BITCH/ when i come thru bitches gotta bow to the queen bitch of rap cocksucka i’m BACK.” Standard NY braggadocious heat.

This cut sounds a lot like my image of New York, and I’ve only been to NYC a couple times but this captures that mood, no joke. I remember I think it was andre 3000 was talking on that VH1 30 years of hip-hop special about how much more sense NYC beats made to him when he visited the city for the first time he went there (insert rattling premo banger sound clip) and i agree. Probably an even better example (and a much better song) is DITC’s “Thick” (one of my favorite hip-hop trax evah) which you should cop ASAP if you dont know it already.

Anywhere here’s what yr looking for.

Pitch Black feat. Foxy Brown – Got It Locked

Next time on Premo, wtf are you on we’ll have the NYGz. “WE GIANTS TA THIS!!!!”

There’s so much southern rap to explore i feel like every time i pick up an album it is just another piece of an impossibly large puzzle, and I’m trying to create some sort of story of southern rap in my head and realized after awhile that it’s near impossible. It’s a massive network of influences and styles and artists and just when you think you have a grasp on it you get a curveball that makes you look at the whole system in a new light.

But whatever enough analysis bullshit, because in the end its just about the music – trying to explain it is nowhere near as fun as just listening to it and it makes trying to get it to fit into one narrative structure seem pointless. Not that Keke is exactly an obscure part of the southern rap lineage or anything, (in fact I copped this album from a bargain bin on name recognition alone. 3 n tha morning part 2 has been my shit for a couple months now, but thats another story) and it’s sort of uneven, jumping from dreams for the future and stories about life and staying on yr grind to these big southern party jams over some low-budget bass-rocking beats. I’m not as big a fan of the party tracks, and maybe i’m just a sucka for newer sounds and the dated production just doesn’t really do it for me. For me this album is much more about Keke as an MC and he comes across a lot better relating the everyday experiences and love for life in general than as a rowdy party guy. Not that those always contradict – but in this case tracks like “Cowgirl” just aren’t as great as, well:

The real gem comes near the very end, it’s called “What I wanna Do” and it comes right before the final party cut “Let’s Get Fucked Up,” and its got a corny-ish R&B chorus but it is striking; keke talks about his 16-year-old-love-life with so much personality and heart-on-his-sleeve emotion in his voice that its impossible not to identify on some level; “it ain’t nothin but love and ain’t a damn thang changed.” The final verse to his son: “you my heart, you my soul, you my pride and joy,” but the beautiful part isn’t the general sentiments like these that lend it such an affecting feel, it’s the specific details, the little things, “you throw your dukes up like you ready to fight,” descriptions that make it all seem so personal and specific. If you think its corny i say go away. Check out the song, and buy the album at half.com, apparently there’s a mint copy for less than five bucks and Amazon might have a used copy pretty cheap too.