Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - Mecca and the Soul Brother

Quite possibly one of the best albums I have ever had the pleasure of purchasing and listening to, Mecca and the Soul Brother is one for the archives. This is the true definition of what rap music was and could possibly be again.

Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth didn't really make that crazy burst onto the scene moves that most artists did. They've been around for quite a while as producers. They decided to come together as a group and create they're own music. Pete Rock laced the track and C.L. wrote the rhymes.

Now this album was the first to include ad libs in the middle of the song. You know what those are. MC says a line and then you hear a voice in the background. If you listen to anything Jim Jones, you know what I'm talking about. And now you know where he got the idea. Diddy is now famous for doing this move but you can thank C.L. Smooth for laying down the foundation. Another thing about this album is that it's one of the first "lay back and relax" albums I've ever listened to. It's not something that you are going to get up and instantly start dancing around by any means. This is more of a sit back with a good drink and vibe album. Another note is that the mentioning of black power and appreciation of the African culture is also mentioned. You have to remember the time period in which the more popular groups at the time were groups the developed around black empowerment. Groups like Public Enemy, X-Clan, and NWA among many others. So do not be surprised when all of this is said or implied from beginning to end.

This album is an overall masterpiece from an incredible yet underrated duo in the rap game. Well, I'm done with my part, but there's one more thing i gotta show you...

This is an interpretation of the album put into visual art by my friend Chris Kaplan. Remember that cross blog promotion I was talking about before, well this is it. I do the writing, Chris does his drawing thing. If you want to see more, check out his site at www.artofchriskaplan.com.

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Drake - Best I Ever Had

Now that you have seen this video and formulated your own personal opinion, I'm going to give you mine.

I you have been living under a rock for the past...I'd say six months, you have never heard of former Degrassi star turn stereotypical rap artist known as Drizzy Drake. This kid from the streets of Toronto, Canada (seriously), has made a huge name for himself on the mix-tape circuit. His single is a monstrous crossover hit that you can never avoid. If you listen to the song, you get the main idea of the entire song. With that self-sustained image in hand, you would expect the video to get somewhat close to what the song is. Either that or make a performance video. But, thanks to the director, that was not the case. In fact, it wasn't even close. He's a decent artist and he's definitely going to be signed by some major label. But as a debut music video to a mainstream audience, he really messed this up.

This starts exactly how most videos start. The directed hired every top-heavy model and porn star he could find, put on some less than functional basketball uniforms and says said run. Did I just say basketball? Yes I did. This video portrays Drake as a basketball coach for a very good looking team. The girls do look good, as they are supposed to according to the formula. The video goes on as normal, the girls stretch and bounce around while Drake spits his verse. Nothing out of the ordinary. I noticed something. The mascot for Drake's team looks like a...actually I'm not sure what it is. I think it's a mythical creature or something. My friends says it's a vulture, but I'm gonna stick to what i think. Somewhere in the middle there's a cut-scene with some really REALLY bad acting. It's supposed to get back to the overall view of the song but it fails as expected. After this crap fest, they end up facing another team that looks like they actually know how to play ball, and that's based on looks alone. This other team is ugly as all hell. They even added the nappy-headed ho for good measure. Then they go into another cut scene full of half-ass attempts at sexual innuendos. The team loses because they only know how to stretch and that's it. That's the end of the video.

This is a complete pile of suck to say the least. I've seen a lot of crappy videos over the years and this in my opinion is in the top 15. That's all I have to say about this pile of crap. Email me your opinions. I want to see what you think.

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