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Underground > Radio & Music >

Late 2006 rap album round-up

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00:53 / 18.12.06

To nobody's surprise, I also think King is the album of the year, although I also think it's been a pretty weak year musically and it doesn't have any real competition. (Including Fishscale, which I liked fine, but haven't bothered putting on in months.) If we're including mixtapes, the best is Joe Budden's Murda Muzik Vol 2, unless I can count the best of Too $hort mix that came out a few months back. (Incidentally, there is a track on the forthcoming Vol 3 of MM called 'Walt Whitman Connect', which is maybe the best name for a rap song I ever heard.)

The only thing I haven't heard yet that I'm real excited about is the Project Pat album, which I can't find anywhere. Good Googly Moogly is probably my favourite single all year, and if the whole album is as good as that, it might knock off King in my mental listings.

Haus of Mystery

13:27 / 18.12.06

Woop! It's officially Hip-hop Monday. New Ghostface and Nas albums in the bag.
Fuck man, I've gotta stop buying myself presents...

01:46 / 19.12.06

Is the new Nas good?

Haus of Mystery

08:49 / 19.12.06

I'll let you know when I've given it a proper listen. You know the boy Nasty though. I reckon it'll probably be moments of genius mingled with moments of 'what was he thinking? Production rosta's pretty tight though.

04:38 / 28.12.06

The new Jim Jones album is about what you'd expect except he pulls out We Fly High, one of the best singles of the year. It's got these rumbling electro-fart noises and heavy synths and it just kind of grinds irresistibly. It's like dancing to a dentist's drill but you can't help dance to it. It's so good it puts an otherwise average album ahead of everything else in the thread remit.

The best is the version where Jimmy responds to the diss track Jay-Z dropped over the beat, and he plays Jay's whole verse before he says anything, like total balls-out nonchalance that kills Jay worse than anything Jones could actually spit.

02:44 / 17.01.07

I still haven't heard Hip Hop Is Dead, but I love Black Republicans (the Nas/Jay-Z collabo). It plays to it's event status perfectly - Jay nattering away forever at the start is worth more than most dudes' whole verses. And when Nas finally comes in (it's like I'm a/black militant) it feels as epochal as it should. Weird: these whirlwinds of beef/I'm inhaling em - mixed metaphor of the year? How do you inhale a whilwind of beef? Gross.

Do you reckon it's worth starting a new one of these, like '1st Quarter 07 Rap Round-Up', so we can talk about new stuff that won't sustain its own thread?

06:51 / 17.01.07

Have been checking out a lot of Bay Area / Hyphy stuff recently. The high points for me so far are "Three Freaks", "Tell Me When To Go", "Get On My Hype" and the awesomely weird "Pills & Weed". The rhyming is variable but the production is kinda compelling.

It sounds like it's EQed around bass and treble (little midrange) and uses lots of filter techniques to give tracks a gaseous, x-addled feel that must slay them in clubs.

Plus I like music that is unapologetically stupid.

Haus of Mystery

11:13 / 17.01.07

Hip-Hop is Dead is Nas' strongest effort since I******c, definitely. It' doesn't have that albums coherence, but the boy Nasty sounds hungrier than he's been in a long time. Tight focused rhyming, and a strong selection of big name beatmakers. The Kanye produced tracks are awesome. It really makes me crave a full length collaboration. Really nice soul heavy boom-bap stuff.
The Dre produced 'Hustlers' is probably the best track, with it's typically simple but addictive screeching string sample, and a great East meets West theme. The Game's contribution is great - he mangaes to sound like an awe struck fan, and hold his own against Nas.
Other highlights are the initial rumbler 'Money vs Guns', which is a straight up battle track, and the Nas produced 'Where are they now?', which has a great JB style screech, and a nice level of distortion.
There is an incredibly duff track, but hey that's what skip buttons are for, and I'd rather big-up the good stuff. I really like this. If you're not a Nas fan it won't change your mind, but it's a strong, mostly flab-free effort. And Nas sounds real good again.

Haus of Mystery

20:58 / 17.01.07

I played 'Black Republicans' on the sound system at work at New Year, and it sounded fucking immense. Ass-quakingly good in fact.

Haus of Mystery

17:29 / 24.01.07

Fuck me. Just bought 'The Clipse' album.

All beef. No chicken.

Modern classic - straight up.

Damn.

13:49 / 15.03.07

The Clipse's latest album, Hell Hath No Fury, is one of the best albums (not just rap) released in eons. From the lyrical wordplay to the minimalist Neptune beats, the Clipse have really reached out into the nether regions of Hip-Hop/Street Life and produced an indisputable gem of music, which should be placed into the treasure coves of all hip hop lovers.

I know many people who want to complain that the album sounds "too spaced out", "too strange" or worse, "bad alternative". Can't Hip Hop evolve and be something more than an output to express the nonchalant attitude of most rappers these days with all their lyrics sounding like more of an obligation than a privilege.

I won't drag on and say how great this album is and how you should respond to it, because that's your own opinion, but at least respect the effort put in place to try something new, something not the norm.

R-E-U-P-G-A-N-G!!!!

Regrettable Juvenilia

15:20 / 15.03.07

Definitely. I listen to Hell Hath No Fury all the time, it's not flawless but I never get tired of the first four tracks or 'Dirty Money'. They're totally cold-blooded, and yet somehow it works as good time music as well.

Haus of Mystery

20:52 / 16.03.07

Yep. 'Dirty money' is fucking awesome.

07:20 / 20.03.07

I don't get the appeal of that album. It is nowhere near as good as either of the Got It 4 Cheap mixtapes. The beats strike me as mediocre at best, and where is this great wordplay people talk about? I can't think of a single quotable line from it (whereas I could real off GI4C one-liners for hours).

Sorry to be a downer.

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:38 / 20.03.07

Off the topic of my head, the opening lines:

"Fear 'em, as soon as you hear 'em
Upon my arrival the dope dealers cheer um"

(I think that's what he says anyway, it sounds great regardless.)

'Dirty Money' is full of memorable cold-hearted game:

"Before I'mma bicker with you ma, I'mma switch ya
I fly 'em in quick, I fly 'em out even quicker
By no means I am in love with a stripper
You understand that, then you fit in the glass slipper"

"You can tell me 'bout your day, I'll pretend to listen
And you ain't gotta love me - just be convincin'"

My absolutely fave, if only for the delivery of the last line, is from 'Mr Me Too':

"Been two years like I was paddywagon cruisin'
Streets was yours, you dunce-cappin' and kazzoo-in'
I was just assuming you'd keep the coke movin'
But I got one question: FUCK y'all been doin'?"

C'mon! 'Dunce-capping and kazzoo-ing' is the best diss of silly clowns since Ghostface complained about "these happy-go-lucky n****s, wanna pop a little champagne all the time when you see 'em".

And 'Wamp Wamp' is nothing BUT quotable lines!

To be honest I get pretty annoyed when people say that the stuff that's not available to buy in yr local chain record store is so much better than the one that is...

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