Raekwon the Chef - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...Pt. II

There are very few norms in hip hop. But one is that the nation of Wu-Tang will live never die. This time around, Raekwon a.k.a. Lou Diamonds takes his turn and puts out Cuban Linx 2. The sequel to the album that was put out way back in 1995. Let's get down to it.

If you are a Wu-Tang fan. You will feel right at home with this album. Why? It's because basically every member is on this CD. Its seems as if no matter how much these dudes fight, they will always come back together for the sake of the friendship that they all have. Money doesn't hurt either. The only ones missing are U-God, Cappadonna, Masta Killa and O.D.B. This is a Raekwon album though, so it most definitely has his flavor. If you ever listened to Chef, you know he's all about hood life, with real emphasis on the drug game. At first, I wasn't feeling it, but then you appreciate what this man has done with this LP. The only way to listen to this is to know what you are getting yourself into beforehand. If you know that, this album will become an instant classic. Would I put this on my iPod? Hell yea i would!!

In terms of favorite tracks, I really can't choose. Every track in my mind is unique enough and well produced that I have to say I love every track equally. I seriously listen to this from start to finish every single time I decide to play it in my car. For those who want specifics on tracks, I'll tell you that he dedicated a track to ODB, and he goes through the entire fish scale process from start to finish, leaving almost nothing out of his descriptions.

The real reason I reviewed this is because of the label this was released under. Ever heard of Ice Water Records? I didn't think so. What I'm getting at is that you do not have to be part of the big three labels to put out something worth listening to. Don't get me wrong. If you happen to get a release through the big three, by all means take full advantage. What I'm saying is that if you want to start your own venture and have everything go through you, by all means take that initiative and go for it. Remember, Enter the Wu was made in a basement in Shaolin. It doesn't matter how much money you have. What matters is the music. If you have that, then people will listen.

Overall, this album is an instant classic and should belong in any hip-hop fan's library. So, what are you waiting for? Go cop it!!

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Note: Blueprint 3 review coming soon.

My Thoughts on Kanye's Actions

Look, I didn't watch the VMAs, nor will I ever watch that show again until MTV decides to play more videos. But, like everybody else, I know exactly what the moment of the night was. If you've been living under a rock for a while, I'll refresh you.

About two weeks ago or so, MTV did it's annual award show celebrating all things music with the MTV Video Music awards at Radio City Music Hall. It was a normal, bland, rather uninspiring show hosted by the same no name comedian that they had last year. I can't tell you his name, but I don't really care to begin with so let's move on. Somewhere in the middle, Taylor Swift is giving her acceptance speech for winning best Female video. Then, out of nowhere, Mr. West gets on stage, grabs the mic out of Swift's hand, and then tells her and basically the entire world that she shouldn't have won!!! Needless to say that Swift, Beyonce, and the rest of the world were like, WTF JUST HAPPENED!! When I heard the news I looked it up and there it was. What people did not tell me was that when Beyonce won Video of the Year, she brought up Taylor to finish the speech that Mr. West so rudely interrupted.

First off, this act did two things. First and most obvious, it secured Kanye West as the winner of D-Bag of the Year. I know this guy is outspoken and always has to say what's on his mind at any given moment, but you do not do anything like that. Most people blame it on the alcohol, but I blame it on something on his human nature. In my eyes, Kanye did that because he needed to. Here's something that I've noticed about him. Every time he does and album and goes through the normal motions videos and touring, he goes on a short break. This is the same for most artists. During that time, most people are not talking about you, and Kanye cannot stand that. He has to be in the spotlight at all times even if he isn't doing anything relevant. With all the fame and fortune and attention he was getting, he started to define himself as a person based on that attention. I know that his industry being seen is half the job, but to West, it's more than a job. It has become his life and possibly his only reason for continuing to do what he does. He did apologize for his actions, but how much does that do? It's like someone spitting on your face and then says sorry right after. The person may be sorry but in the end your the one with spit on your cheek. A deed like that cannot be forgotten with just an apology and that's it. I don't think it can ever be resolved, at least not anytime soon.

Second, Kanye's actions made Beyonce look like a complete angel. It's almost as if she had a halo around her head at the end of the night. I think she felt sorry for what happened to Taylor. Also, she figured that she's won enough awards and given the same speech numerous times. Why not give the young gun a chance to shine? It might be her first and last. BTW, Beyonce looked good as hell!!!

In the end, MTV was grateful for what West did. It got people to watch the reruns just to see what happened. Since they're probably gonna run it over, and over, and over for the next three months everyone on earth is gonna end up seeing it. Kanye, you lost fans. Taylor, you gained millions. Beyonce, you were just damn sexy!!

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Note: I had a video for this but it was deleted and there aren't any good ones left on the net. Sorry!!

The Sophomore Curse

Many an artist have come bursting onto the music scene and taken the world by storm. They each have catchy singles and quickly gain a following big enough to warrant an album by that artist. The album does better than expected and prompts the artist to be the opening act on a marquee national and possibly a world tour. The tour is a huge success and this new artists went from nothing to something in a a little less than a year. All he/she is think is, "I'm on top of the world!!" The feeling of being somebody is so great that you would do anything to keep. So, you end up creating and promoting a brand new album. This is supposed to be the one that puts you over the top. This is what's gonna keep your name being said by the masses for generations to come!! Too bad the exact opposite happens. Your album drops and so do you. Your sales are worse than Gigli and you have nothing to show for yourself except what you just put out. In most industries, you are only as good as your last installment. Too bad your last installment will actually be your last.

There are plenty of explanations as to why the second album almost never reaches the success of the first, but I'm only going to touch on what I can remember at this point and time. Keep in mind that I am completely exhausted when writing this so it might not make much sense. I'll try to keep it as coherent as possible.

The first is the most obvious in my mind. You have to remember that the average person has a very short attention span. This means that getting people to pay attention to your debut is an achievement in itself. The second album is supposed to re-kindle a spark that just went out after they got bored and it didn't even come close to lighting. Bottom line, the public got sick of you. That's why you album didn't sell

The second is also pretty clear. The debut single for the album absolutely sucked! It's pretty obvious that if you do not have a good start, your finish is gonna be just as bad or worse. If you put out a crappy single, people will assume that the rest of your tracks are terrible. The rest of the LP is probably really good, but you don't get a second chance to make a first impression. My advice, get a few more ears to figure out a first track. Don't just trust your best friend or baby-momma's cousin. More than likely they'll just tell you what you want to hear instead of the truth.

Third is a complete lack of promotion for yourself. I know you have people to do that kind of stuff for you, but sometimes those people suck at what they do. The one thing that every person can do is talk about themselves and what they do. How do you think I get people to read this blog? I promote myself the best I can by using other sites, but it's mostly by word of mouth. (BTW, thank you to everyone who visits. It's all appreciated). You have to remember that you are the artist and you have control over what happens to you. If you want things to be successful, take charge and make it happen for yourself.

That's all I can think of right now. If you have any other reasons that I missed, drop an email my way. I promise I'll respond.

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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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Micahel Jackson Vids

Before people start asking me what videos I was talking about in my MJ post, here are the videos that I was taking about. Enjoy!!

Mr. Jackson

OK. Quite a bit has been said by quite a few people about the death of one of the greatest performers in all of music. Whether you liked the music or not, you knew exactly who Michael Jackson was. You would find him well before you would start looking for Waldo. I've been silent on this because of many reasons. The main reason is that I wasn't sure what you people wanted me to say. I mean, how do I talk about someone who has done so much. This guy has been in the music business since single digits. He's got more awards for one album that most artists will ever have in an entire lifetime. an album that came out in 1982 is still in the top three in all time record sales (I'm talking about Thriller for all of you stupid people).

Here's what I remember from my childhood. There were exactly two artists that ruled the world at the time. MC Hammer (Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em!) and Michael Jackson. At the time he was already known as the King of Pop and he made sure you knew it. Now at about this time, he already made that transformation to that Caucasian alien looking thing that we have grown to know and love (it actually scared me a lot). He was so famous that he interrupted regularly scheduled programming during prime time on all major channels to premier his "Remember the Time" and "Black or White" videos. Who does that? You know you rule the world when you can just stop important political conferences just so you can premier a 5 minute video. I don't care what anybody says. That my friends is G status to the fullest extent. Those are some of the good things. Unfortunately there were some bad segments to this story.

When I mean bad I mean a couple of things. The most notable of course is the child molestation cases. There was on that happened in 1993 that he was cleared of. I remember this one because of the statement that he made on all channels. Once again, he is more important than all other news since he was shown on all major channels and most cable networks. There was another time 2006 or something like that where he was accused again. He was cleared again. However, ever since that first accusation he was been pigeon-holed as that guy who loves kids a little too much. Comedians and Neo Conservatives (I'm looking at you Fox News) alike have taken advantage of his plight and very few have created comedy gold. Those are the bad points. Now for my rant...sort of.

I've waited until all the festivities and most of the mourning was over partly because I wanted to observe how the world was going to take this. Most people took it the way I did. As soon as I heard I didn't believe it. I thought it was some elaborate prank created by some hacker that went into Jackson's blog and put this post up saying that the man was dead. Then I saw all of the news networks saying the same thing. I remembered all the good things that he did. The music, the performances, and the humanitarian work that he did all around the world. The bad things did come to mind but when somebody dies, the focus is never on the bad. At least that's what I thought. Some people treated it as if the most evil man on the planet finally passed away. Thus giving peace and harmony a chance to flourish. These people abandoned all the major things that he did for the world and made sure that every single thing that was ever so slightly overlooked was brought to the forefront. And every major and positive aspect of his life was left on the cutting room floor. You bastards!! How could you do that to anybody and think that you can get away with it? Wait...actually you will. People will forget what you said, as well as who you are. Say what you will, but it will not matter in the long run. All your actually doing is wasting your time diving into archives on a music start instead of talking about world affairs. Thanks for keeping the country informed.

In conclusion, we lost a legend and a culture icon. He will sorely be missed and his music will live on forever most likely. Say what you want about the man, but remember that he'll live on so much longer than you ever will. Rant all you want with your Neo Conservative left wing point of view. Remember that you'll be dead before anybody really cares. The only reason I brought it up is because I needed something to write.

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Note: I could be starting a new joint-venture and gaining a little more exposure in the near future. Keep a lookout and I'll let you know what's up.