Quote of the day:

"Daddy used to say, boy, get a job, I don't know about this rap stuff, then he got that first check, and he said, boy, keep rappin'!"

- David Banner, on MTV Cribs (although his episode of How I'm Livin' was better)

KANYE f/ MASE "JESUS WALKS" RMX

Paula Campbell feature from last week's issue of the Baltimore City Paper. I just realized the other day that the CP's music editor posted a comment to my post about Paula's album, so I might've slept on an opportunity to write that article. Damn. Oh well, they did a good job.

Labels: Paula Campbell

Ma$e - "Breathe, Stretch, Shake"

The next single! Diddy ad-libbing in over-the-top "Special Delivery" mode, hyper Red Spyda beat that places Pastor Betha in a post-1999 context more than "Welcome Back" or anything else has up until this point, when it still felt a little like dude had just stepped out of a time machine.

Also, Ma$e to be featured on the "Jesus Walks" remix! And just remember that we predicted this MONTHS ago.

For reasons unknown, a gentleman named Hockey Chicken has been forced to live under a webcam at Cartoon Network's Williams Street office in Atlanta. For reasons even more foreign, various area rappers have come to entertain him.

ALL OF THE GOOD SONGS FROM THE CARTER BY LIL WAYNE:

hoes ft. mannie fresh - this is more wonderful than anything in the world. okay, wayne spits filthy game over this like fucking smoothsmoothed out beat like all oldfashioned and with big drums but also a plain flute thing and mannie on the chorus and smooth singalongers singing along with him. and best mannie verse ever, reproduced here in capital letters:

GOT THIS RAT NAMED SHELLY THAT LOVE MAKAVELI
NUMBER FIVE COMBO MEALS AND SPLASHIN KY JELLY
AN OLDSCHOOL SHORTY, STILL DRINK A FORTY
GRAB THE MIC, START A FIGHT, FUCK UP THE WHOLE PARTY
BABY YOU SHOULD LEAVE, ADJUST YOUR WEAVE
THAT'S VELCRO? HELL NO! GO WITH STEVE
GOT THIS LEADSANGER BITCH FROM A POPULAR GROUP
I WOULD SAY HER NAME BUT SHE BOUGHT ME A COUPE
GOT THIS HOOVER HOE SHAWNNA, SMELL LIKE MARIJUANA
SHE DIG LIL WAYNE BUT SHE LOVE THE BIG TYMER
PRETTY GIRL PATRICE FOUND OUT I'M FUCKIN HER NIECE
SHE TRIED TO STAB HER, SO I GRABBED HER AND WE CALLED THE POLICE
MR OFFICER, THE BITCH DONE LOST IT, BRUH
SHE GOIN TO JAIL? OH WELL, I BE FUCKIN HER
SEE TWO DYKE SPANISH TWINS, NUTS PRESSED ON THEIR CHINS
WILL WE GO, VIDEO, WELL NIGGA THAT DEPENDS (SHOOT THE MOVIE!)

wayne's last verse is fucking awesome too. he sounds like jay-z! best rapper alive since the best rapper retired!

snitch - smile. it's really faggy slow disco with swooshy sounds and it sounds like daft punk (TOP 2 RAP SONGS THAT SOUND LIKE DAFT PUNK: 1. SNITCH. 2. GHETTO CHICK BY THREE SIX MAFIA)!! and he should be rapping about girls and have tq on the hook but it's some gleeful shit about murdering snitches. the hook: don't let your mouth open up! cause you don't wanna see the handgun open up! don't let your mouth open up! cause you don't wanna see the automatic open up! so, yeah. THESE NIGGAS MOUTHS IS RUNNIN LIKE HOT WATER, I SWEAR TO GOD. REAL NIGGAS TAKING FALLS LIKE NIAGARA, TRYNA STAY UP LIKE VIAGRA, BUT IT AIN'T GON HAPPEN. THESE NIGGAS IS BEST BUDDIES WITH THE 5-0 TEAM, THEY KNOW THE DA BY NAME. IT AIN'T NO GAME-- IT USED TO BE ONE!

go dj - sorry nothing else is as good as hoes but this is really good too. yeah, he sounds like jay with a new orleans accent, all that grimey smoothness confidence in his flow and his flow is as good as anyone else alive and he kills tracks like this. it's got those old basic stuttery mannie drums that he hasn't used since 500 degreez and spacey keyboard sounds but not evil and plastic like old mf or gay and hollow like lil jon's, they're just like neutral spacey like the asteroid level in starfox.

bm jr. - this is still my favorite wayne style, dark and tense, and crispy, way too tight drums and bells tolling. now he kind of sounds like good, paranoid nastradamus nas but more violent and genuinely scary-- even if he's the still the least scariest hot boy.

there are more than four good songs, only a few songs on it are bad. it's kind of like what i hoped the lloyd banks album would be, boring confident super-rapper over nice smooth beats. and still the old wayne fuck the world tracks and baby and mannie guest verses. HE SOUNDS LIKE JAY-Z DUDE

Mario f/ Cassidy - "Eighteen"

Mario's Baltimore cred is questionable, since he won't tell interviewers where he went to school, and he moved to Jersey to record his first album anyway, but "Just A Friend 2002" and "Come On" were pretty great in spite of their faux-old school trappings, so I'm willing to root for the dude to take it back from Winans and become the super Mario brother of this R&B game again. This isn't doing it for me, though. His voice has deepened a little and lost that velvety texture, but what's worse is his clunky, halting cadence on the hook, and the generic beat and generic Cassidy don't help.

Freeway f/ Mully Man - "Streets"

I don't know how Mully keeps getting these collabos with out-of-towners like Free and the Clipse, but more power to him for spreading the Bmore sound around. I'm sure the sample is something really obvious that I'm just not spotting, but it's cool and dramatic sounding, I just wish the drums were hotter.

Q - "No"

New Rod Lee beat! A silly pizzicato riff over the same kick/clap kit that's on a bunch of his club classics. I have no idea if the mc's name is Q or Cue or Que or what, I've only heard it spoken on the radio, so if anyone knows feel free to set me straight. Clinton Sparks hyped it up pretty big when he debuted it on his show on Saturday.

Labels: Mullyman, Rod Lee

Lil' Mo - "Why" freestyle

Mo rapping (!) over the Jadakiss single (which, actually, Jess, I kinda like, and I think the point of my post on ILM was that I never thought he deserved the throne either but I've still warmed up to him over the years), sticking to the question format, "why do dudes get deals when they get locked up, and why a label drop a chick when she get knocked up?" and mentioning the Cash Money deal for the first time on wax. The night they debuted it on the radio in Baltimore, people were going nuts, they got so many requests they played it 3 times in a row.

Jadakiss - "Happy To Be Here"

Jada's done a lot of R&B records lately in his desperate bid to push past 900k, and I can understand that, but what the fuck is up with this track on The Champ Is Here where he spits over the "Jack And Diane" jack from Jessica Simpson's first album? In a way I kinda respect him for doing his usual monotone thing even over something as goofy as this.

Twista f/ R. Kelly - "So Sexy"

I wasn't feeling this much when Kamikaze first dropped and it was on the sticker like it was the next single, so I was glad when he went for "Overnight Celebrity" instead, but now that this is out, I'm enjoying it. For some reason on the single/video version R.'s ad libs at the beginning have been replace with Twista saying more or less the same thing, plus giving a shoutout to Seagram's gin, presumably because he's drinkin' it and/or they payin' him for it. The best thing about the video is the bus all the girls get on that's being driven by Da Brat, which I didn't realize until after several views is the D bus. Because THIS IS FOR THE GIRLS THAT BE RIDIN' THE D. So subtle it's brilliant.

Go pull up soundscan you idiot..... YOUR first round draft pics album sold 51 thousand units TOTAL of a double cd you dickhead... Me and paul moved over 100, 000 of a single cd and got nominated for a source award...... And we didn't even mention the FACT that the GYMC cd was out of stock for months when SOUTHWEST Wholesale crashed.... Shut yo azz up when real niggaz is talkin...

MY CRIB IS BIGGER THAN YOURS AND ALL YOUR HOMIES COMBINED then since you wanna speak on show money. WE BANK AT THE SAME BANK HOMIE.... Ask the ladies at your bank about me and let them tell you how many times I make a deposit a week. They will tell you I'm official boy.... I own 4 vehicles and I Don't pay a car, bike, or truck note... I OWN... (Check the dvd coming wit my album) .... I Have my own office/ studio wit a pro tools setup that I have not even used yet... And we rarely ever step in the studio ....cuz we all have home studios....... I could rent studio time out to niggaz but I don't need their 50 dollars an hour homie...I'd rather have spiderwebs on my computers then have niggaz botherin us when we recordin.....BEFORE YOU START SPEAKIN BOUT MONEY GET SOME REAL MONEY....

Speaking of new signings, big moves over at the Roc lately. A couple weeks ago, it became official that Dame has signed Grafh, and this week word got out that N.O.R.E. is also now with the Dynasty. The Nore news is real exciting, although kind of weird, since he was already on Def Jam, but judging from "Niggarican" and CNN's "People Know", him and Just Blaze are a potent combo. With the exception of Cam, for some reason Roc-A-Fella has a habit of dropping the ball whenever they sign an established artist (it's pretty clear at this point that MOP and Dirt McGirt are not a priority). Hopefully that trend won't continue with Noreaga. And in a surprising dummy move, Dame is letting his #1 post-Jay unit shifter Kanye take his Very Good imprint over to Interscope. Granted, I wouldn't want to have to put out a GLC album either, but I'd take it as a trade off to get Consequence and John Legend.

"If the fans want it, I think it's possible," he said after the show. "Take an MTV poll, see what the people want."

Yo dizzawgs! Saturday night was off the chain in a major way. DJ Crunkified my brother from another mother came through with mad Southern crunk jernts and 'nuff indie-dance flava. Brooklyn needs to step its parking game up, we circled the block twelve times-- peep game on gas prices! We filled the CRV with homies and hotties and a six pack of Michelob and arrived just in time to get loose with it ("like Short said, let Bruce Bruce hit it") to DJ Crunkified spinning a kuh-razy Ying Yang Twins/Stereolab jawnblendizzle. A big big-up and mad NJ love to all the kids that came through and to DJ 40 Acres N A Mule and DJ Get Up Kids who spun them rekkids, too.

* Girl, if you're ever in NJ, holla at a brother. Like woah!

* Need a re-up of Negro cool? Cop that new Kay Slay jawnizzle right thurr and soak that shit up! And big-up to all the Brooklyn bootleg cats that I holla'd at on Thursday morning. And no, you can't buy my shoes off of me, they cost more than your power bill, homes. (Word to neighborhoods where my wardrobe costs as much as the collective assets of everyone living there).

* Nelly doing it big in the streets. Get your bobcat on, girl! (Dude's name is Cornell! What's with them always having weird-ass old fashioned white people names?)

* These Gucci shades are so crucial. Sorry, dad, that allowance check is getting "misplaced" again this month!

* I've been hearing a lot of DIP SET DIP SET hate recently. Yeah, yeah... I know they're corny, the pink, the no homo, whatever.... If I want to get my party on like Andrew W.K., I don't want some teary-eyed dude crying about feeling guilty about selling cocaine and seeing his moms getting her ass beat or some Al Sharpton Jr. spouting kill-the-white-man stuff, I want Cam and some Girls Just Wanna Have Fun jawns. DIP SET DIP SET DIP SET DIP SET!

PEACE OUT! Sorry for the short entry. I'm going to catch the Red Faced Greens at the Bowery Ballroom. Holla if you see the kid.

Irv: You goin' to see her?
Lloyd: Yeah.
Irv: Lemme tell you what I'm gonna do, here's the keys to my car.
Lloyd: Yo, Gotti, you don't give nobody the car!
Irv: Yeah, I know, I know. Who knows, she may be one of the great ones. You're only allowed 3 great women in your life, who knows, she might be one of them.
Lloyd: I hope so.
Irv: I hope so too! Have fun.

"Lil' Mo has inked a new recording deal with Cash Money Records and is already in the studio working. Her CMR debut, titled Syndicated, is set for release in October."

Yeah Mo! I wonder if CM will be hands off and let her do her thing like the Teena Marie record, or if there'll be a bunch of Mannie Fresh productions and Lil Wayne features and stuff like that. I don't know if I can visualize those styles gelling, but I kind of hope this means she'll be doing more rapping, check out her Ja Rule dis track, she can really spit!

project pat - don't turn around

pat makes some quick cash, murders a snitch, and goes out firing with a bullet in his throat over a boring beat with a great chorus.

WHERE YOU BEEN DOG?
("MY MAMA GOT SICK MAYNE")
FUCK THAT GOT TO DO WITH YOU?
("HOLD UP I AIN'T YO BITCH MAYNE")
I HEARD YOU BEEN TALKIN, YOUR MOTHERFUCKIN LIPS LOOSE
("NAH IT AIN'T LIKE THAT DOG, I AIN'T NO DAMN FOOL")
LOOKIN IN HIS EYES I COULD SEE THAT HE WAS SO SCARED
I SQUEEZED ON THE TRIGGER WITH THE GUN TO HIS FOREHEAD

don't turn around
give me the fuckin cheese, trick
don't make a sound
show me where the keys at
lay it on the ground
knowin that your pockets fat
fore i buck you down
and i'm quicks to do that

Nelly f/ Jaheim - "My Place"

The single from SUIT, the grown'n'sexy half of Nelly's two new albums. He explains, "The Sweat side is more up-tempo, I would say real energetic. The Suit side is more of a grown-up and sexy vibe. It's more melodic, if you can think of certain songs like 'Dilemma' and 'Ride Wit Me.' Something like 'Hot in Herre' would be on the Sweat side." But what about the ultra-hedonistic "Tip Drill"-style side? That's what I want more of. He should know better than to do a whole album like this, didn't he get booed while performing "Dilemma" at a couple big events? He's not even really rapping, just doing that mumbly singsong thing. I kinda like how jarring the "I know I said some fucked up things" line is in the context of the smoothness, it kinda comes out of nowhere. The first time I heard this on the radio, the DJ came on afterward and said something like "I don't think that's gonna be a hit". I have an analogy that I haven't quite worked out the particulars of yet, but the crux of it is "Flap Your Wings" : "Hot In Herre" :: "Pass The Dutch" : "Work It".

Juelz Santana f/ J.R. Writer - "Sesame Street Shop"

Dipset are some weird dudes to begin with, but this is just bizarre, voices pitched up all high, maybe to sound like children, which makes it even more creepier, rapping over a sample of the SS them, "haze and yay, we flippin' like 80 waaays".

Kanye West - "Knock Knock" remix

When Kanye does G-Unit style mixtape karaoke tracks, he has the luxury of spitting over beats he already did for other people, and sometimes he's great, like on "Half Price" (where he fantasizes about all the female rappers he's produced over the Lil Kim "Came Back For You" beat), and sometimes it's just goofy shit like this, whining that Monica didn't ask him to be in the video. It's not really even much of a diss, it's just usual eager careerist Kanye shit, but supposedly Young Buck placed a threatening phone call to Kanye because of this track, which is kind of funny.

R. Kelly in Dame Dash's America Magazine: "I have never been to Africa, but I got books and studied up on the music, the culture and, most importantly, the people.

"That's why you see all of the shrubs and plants and trees in here. I just wanted to feel it. I put tents in the studio and slept in the tents for like a few months, eating off the floors, dressed in army fatigues…

"I know people out there might laugh, but we are in the jungle. We're on a serious mission, and just know that Charlie is out there to stop us, and you have to load up your guns. I know this all sounds crazy..."

juve, wacko and skip - don't start -- all the songs on the utp album have the same sort of hazy sci-fi beats that don't sound like they're from anywhere in particular. don't start uses the same whistle that nolia clap has on the hook and the same strumming sound, the same clapping thing and it's almost way better in every way. skip fucking attacks the first verse because his voice is flat and not exciting at all and he's just a good rapper and wacko tries to do some deliberate nyc banger sort of flow that's easy to illustrate with hand movements but breaks down and slurs all over the end and juve is so perfect at doing things he's really well at and sings and croaks the start of his verse before he stops and starts rapping properly.

lil flip - sunshine -- they gave him a step your rap game up for that spoil you like milk line!! that's a great flip line, classic flip! all of oldschool flip's cutest lines are about girls. i wouldn't have been mad if he had just done an album of these songs or at least cut half of the terrible new angry flip shit in favor of them. he actually sounds like lil flip on this! it gives me that fuzzy lil flip feeling and makes me feel optimistic. (the dark girl who hands flip her number before his girl comes to pick him up was number five on my top ten video girls list. and it has the two twins from that slum village/kanye video with the pageant thing.)

bun b and young geezy - over here -- "strictly for the trap! the dope boys, nigga! the gangstas! i know yall been working some long days in the trap, nigga! so at the end of the night, it's time to ball!" and it's just skittery plain atl stuff and young geezy is okay but bun is the greatest rapper of all time and spits some old fashioned old man d boy shit, "i got a stable full of hoes and a trap full of dealers / a house full of guns and a click full of killers / i'm heavy in the street with a rep long as something / i hit a hater with the heat from a cold gat (BLAT) / we posted up on the block like a streetlight / watchin the money move, makin sure i eat right / dollar for dollar and dime for dime / we out here hustle for hustle, grind for grind"

The Shaq/Skillz beef heats up. I can't wait for Chauncey Billups to weigh in on it.

here: flip's response.

haha so i was all in a hurry to drop my fake flip ti diss before flip dropped the real thing. "damn fo reels boy wrecked on dat verse...i wonder wat ti gone bak wit.." and i fucking ripped ti and came way harder than flip does on the real thing. here's the real verse:

first of all i'm a clover g veteran
and yall already know who i'm better than
yall know ti can't fuck with me
you a featherweight, you don't even weigh a buck 50
nigga you lucky my plane got delayed
cause i woulda knocked your punk ass off the stage
you a seven time felon, what you care about a case?
yeah, you got outta jail early cause you workin with the states
you a bitch, been a bitch, still a bitch
and that leprechaun 2 got me filthy rich
i shoulda known you was a snake
when you was at the source photoshoot smilin in my face
tryna get on a game over remix but i told you no
i only do tracks with niggas that i think dope
you niggas know, in the streets i'm the hardest
so why the fuck would i diss a gold artist
i'm from the dirty dirty and i represent
i get head like the motherfuckin president
southside and we ride on 20 inches
i got a million dollar crib i ain't a pennypincher

it goes on but the rest sucks except for the part about beanie man and his first record flopping that totally rips off my diss exactly!! and he stole my snitch stuff, too! it looks kind of weak texted out and he's not landing any knockout punches or even explaining anything, but his flow on it is hard, he's just shooting slugs.

flip (or anyone else), if you need some bars, just holla. i almost ended ti's career with one verse.

video trendwatch, pt. 2: Suddenly there are tattooed latino gangsta dudes all over the place, in Mobb Deep's "Got It Twisted" and in Lil Scrappy's "No Problem" (it looks maybe even some of the same guys in those 2) and in Blink 182's "Down".

flip and ti! luda and ti! yo gotti and triple six! wayne and tha sqad! and now chamillionaire and mike jones!

supposedly off some thing with mike jones throwing salt in cham's game-- that's what cham says. and mike jones says cham has been talking down on him (when he got asked what he thought about mike jones, cham paused and said "good promoter." oooooohh....)

cham was talking for a minute about how he had beef with someone and how he was going to reveal it all on his new album and everyone just assumed it was his estranged patna paul wall, who kind of shitted on cham by jumping back to swishahouse without telling him. cham kept saying he was cool with paul but shit wasn't the same. but all along it was-- who? mike jones.

why chamillionaire is better and will destroy mike jones:

a while ago ethan was trying to get me into boring punchline rappers and making me listen to shit like copywrite and, like, camu tao and dudes like that. i'd never really heard it before and the first thing i thought of was cham. he's totally the southern version of boring punchline rappers. i tried to explain this and quoted a bunch of lines from the instant replay freestyle on the nba on nbc beat, which is crammed totally full of beautifully awkward punchliney stuff: "not streetballers tryna hoop, throwin up shots in the paint / more like jackers tryna jack, shootin shots in ya paint / street ballers slam dunk and try to take off the rim / while jackers jack cadillacs and try to take off the rims" (that's actually the best part, there's stuff that's really lame and corny but i didn't want to quote that right now). and he told me it was the worst shit he ever heard! but, still, cham has the same devoted fans that love him for the same reason people love boring punchline rappers from new york, i think. he's the savior of the true lyrical thing, ready to defend it from mushmouthed catchphrasers like wack-ass mike jones, who can't stop repeating his name, rank and serial number five times a verse. cham will rip this clown in sixteen and keep hustling.

why mike jones is better and will destroy chamillionaire:

mike jones is the best out of houston since lil flip fell off like a motherfucker. he's got the perfect balance between everything cute, popular houston rappers should have, the goofy flow and he can jump on any beat ever (hear his paid in full flow on his website, just let the front page open), and every verse is dripping candy paint and purple sprite and-- whatever. there's a reason he's fitna blow right now. he is a good promoter ("running da game just offa sayin my name!"), like cham said, but he's the real deal. he doesn't even need to respond, cham will be a nobody in a year and a half.--

nah, just kidding, i'm riding with cham. cop that mixtape messiah, dropping this week!

for the streets and all the real kings in the south, dj screw, face, bun, pimp c, lil jon, 8ball and mjg (who else??), pat, three six (memphis!!) trick, p, c-note, juvie, all my down south niggas! still the freestyle king, still doing it in the south

[gunshots]
not you, nigga? what? (what?)
[gunshots]
like i said, 'get out my face-- you a hoe' (hoe)
talk behind my back-- but i know (know)
(stop) hold up and let me lay my game down flat
i was havin beef before you ever did a song
took a hit like pac and still stayed strong
movin with: s.u.c., face and fat pat
dimes in the trap while i was 'i can do that'
went platinum off one video? i did that!
neptunes and beenie and you still fell flat
i'm serious, you a joke! (haha)
rubberband man, get shot up like the taliban
my hood got more guns than afghanistan
'king of the south' (no!) ain't king of nowhere
face still the king, nigga, you came outta thin air
two years ago ain't nobody wanna fuck with you
holla'd at me in dallas and i stuck with you
introduced you to paul and everybody up from my city
two years later and you tryna do me shitty (why?)
i'm reppin the south until the day that i die
if you look me in the eyes you can tell that i'm high
you can talk that talk but you can't walk that walk
when it's time to ride, nigga, i won't get caught
you spent the night in jail and talked and talked (why!)
you remembered the fame, named the names and walked
i drop hit after hit with three six and banner
and niggas always show respect when i hit atlanta
keep rhymin bout rocks and keep sellin them cars
talk about me again and i ain't fuckin with 16 bars
[gunshot]

my favorite 50 singles of the first half of 2004 (not numbered, but in roughly descending order of preference):

Paula Campbell - "Take You Home"
Britney Spears - "Toxic"
Lloyd Banks - "On Fire"
Young Gunz f/ Rell - "No Better Love"
Alicia Keys - "If I Ain't Got You"
Twista - "Overnight Celebrity"
T.I. - "Rubber Band Man"
Big & Rich - "Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)"
Juvenile f/ Soulja Slim - "Slow Motion"
Yung Wun f/ DMX, David Banner and Lil Flip - "Tear It Up"
J-Kwon - "Hood Hop"
John Mayer - "Clarity"
Jadakiss f/ Green Lantern - "The Champ Is Here"
Ghosftace f/ Missy Elliott - "Tush"
Trillville f/ Lil Jon and Lil Scrappy - "Neva Eva"
Lostprophets - "Last Train Home"
Elephant Man f/ Twista, Youngbloodz and Kiprich - "Jook Gal" (Head Gawn remix)
Terror Squad f/ Fat Joe and Remy - "Lean Back"
Norah Jones - "Sunrise"
D12 - "My Band"
Jagged Edge - "What's It Like"
Busta Rhymes f/ Chingy, Fat Joe and Nick Cannon - "Shorty (Put It On The Floor)"
DJ Kay Slay f/ Three 6 Mafia - "Who Gives A Fuck Where U From"
Comp - "Harder"
Sean Paul f/ Sasha - "I'm Still In Love With You"
Sara Evans - "Suds In The Bucket"
Yellowcard - "Ocean Avenue"
Jay-Z - "99 Problems"
Nelly - "Tip Drill"
Lloyd f/ Ashanti - "Southside"
Method Man f/ Busta Rhymes - "What's Happenin'"
Prince - "Call My Name"
8Ball & MJG - "You Don't Want Drama"
Montgomery Gentry - "If You Ever Stop Loving Me"
G-Unit f/ Joe - "Wanna Get To Know You"
David Banner - "Crank It Up"
Blink 182 - "Down"
Mase - "Welcome Back"
Kanye West - "All Falls Down"
Usher - "Confessions" Part II
Hillary Duff - "Come Clean"
Black Eyed Peas - "Hey Mama"
Sleepy Brown f/ Outkast - "I Can't Wait"
Beenie Man f/ Ms. Thing and Shawnna - "Dude"
R. Kelly - "U Saved Me"
Obie Trice f/ Nate Dogg - "The Setup"
DMX - "Get It On The Floor"
Murphy Lee f/ Jazze Pha - "Luv Me Baby"
Memphis Bleek f/ T.I. and Trick Daddy - "Round Here"
Eamon - "Fuck It (I Don't Want You Back)"

Associated Press report that T.I. was filming a video in a maximum security prison and the distracted guards allowed a prisoner to escape. Then, later in the article, they contradict themselves and report "Ultimately, an internal investigation concluded there was no connection between the escape and the video shoot." Damn media loves to blame a rapper.
Regardless, the prison didn't get proper permission to host a video shoot and 3 guards were suspended and a supervisor was fired.

Just Bleezy sets the record straight on the "Niggarican"/"Get Crunk Shorty" beat recycling that
I speculated on a few weeks ago. The most exciting thing about that article, though, is that Just now owns Baseline Studios, which I think is really cool. He owns the means of production!

he looks like an angry wizard, i think.

in other grill news:

p. wall's new grill

bg ft. ti - street niggas -- this is hot. plastic lowkeyboard southern beat and the two realest niggas in the south united!! "i'm makin it official like a referee with a whistle. so, i went all the way down to the trap in atl to holla at ti, to see how they do it. cause i know how we do it in the hood in the n.o. it's street. it's real street!" (i always have to say that bg talks more and better than any rapper ever. on his mixtapes where he doesn't have to rap unless he wants to, he can talk through half the track. his collabo with howard zinn and 5th ward weebie is dropping on alternative tentacles/chopper city in september.) and ti is okay, coming with plain i-ain't-an-actor ti stuff.

young buck ft. ti - break em off -- why does 50 let his boys drop such boring first singles? this is one of a bunch of new buck mixtape tracks that kill let me in. buck loves these expensive sounding dark southern beats and no one else who can afford to buy them uses them. and ti has some more barely-subliminals for dtp: "ask your nieces and your nephews who the shit / real niggas see the difference between you and us / me gettin beat down-- that's ludicrous."

chingo bling ft. mike jones and paul wall - american pie -- southern latino comedy rappers are saving music. plus, mike jones, who does a mike jones verse ("how many times can i rhyme grind with shine?? and here's my phone number") and sounds great on on fast beats with real drums. plus, paul wall! the iced-out gringo! he makes the only reference to the title ("i'm on the grind til the day that i die / i'm tryna get a piece of that american pie") and talks about cars.

yungstar (the guy with his shirt off) ft. lil flex - knockin pictures off da wall

new bg video!!

standard n.o. video with bg smiling and cheerful because it's for that amazing dj smurf track that was on southern smoke x. bg sounds better than any cash money dude on those plastic mannie fresh beats but really cool on real drum shit.

life after cash money is going to be perfect if he can get the right balance between tracks like this and the dreary, specific tracks he's been doing on the chopper city mixtapes.

Olivia f/ 50 Cent - "Cloud 9"

Olivia was introducted onstage at Summer Jam by 50 as "the first lady of G-Unit", and I guess he meant the label and not the group, since there hasn't been any talk about her being added to G-Unit like Game was, although it'd be kind of funny if 50 just kept more and more adding random people to the group, a southern MC, a west coast MC, and now an R&B singer. She's in the "Smile" video, too, apparently. Anyway this song is pretty good, I used to roll my eyes whenever G-Unit kicked a soft R&B jam, but now I'm used to it. The whole first minute is all 50, then he turns it over to Olivia for the rest of the song. The bridge kind of comes out of nowhere and is by far the best part.

Lloyd Banks f/ Young Buck and Tity Boi - "Keepin' It Hood"

This isn't on Hunger For More. On mixtapes it's billed as "f/ DTP", which is erroneous because there's no Luda or Shawnna or I-20, it took me a couple listens to realize out that there's only one guy besides Lloyd and Buck, and a couple more to figure out that it's Tity Boi, who does the first verse and the hook. Buck's verse is boring and then Lloyd drops in with this low, nasty sing-song "clear the area, I'm'a let the cannon blow" part that sounds unbelievably cool before settling into a more typical verse.

Game f/ Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and Cash - "Get Your Money Right"

Coming out the gate with two A-list features on one track, this is pretty anticlimactic, Dre and Jay starting it off boring as hell. I can't figure out if Cash's hook is cool in this nervous, overflowing way, or if it's just annoying. This might be pretty old, since Game's verse references Detox and Blueprint 2.

master p - good side / bad side- everyone wishes they could coach their favorite rappers when they have to make an album. ("flip, fuck this heatmakerz shit!! stop returning cam'ron's calls and lose jim jones' number. and who the fuck said you couldn't talk about ice no more?? at least half of the album needs to be about ice!") this is the p album that does everything you want it to do. p is a great rapper but he's also a one hot album every ten years average dude, so this is really good. | them jeans was disappointing as hell. fake lil jon (myke diesel did them jeans and most of the tracks on here and he's actually really good and very important and does fake lil jon way better than he did on them jeans) with gay slide whistle sounds and p's lame i'm not bill cosby but i like jello pudding thing. crunk p sounded like the worst thing ever. he's supposed to use smooth, cheap beats that make his voice sound even filthier than it is. but then he went on rap city, hit the booth and came with some street shit and his leathery old face (in the cover/inside pictures he's all digitally smoothed and scrubbed, looking like he's 17) and act a fool ("the king of crunk and the don of rowdy music!!!!") came out and had a really throwed video and it was about how he's still a thug and then the album was all about the same thing and he's really actually still a thug and he can still rap and all his songs aren't about how it used to suck to be a thug and shit anymore, they're about selling dope and having soldiers that don't run to the cops. the best songs are: who them boyz - real lil jon with toned down trillville spaciness and p all grimy and his voice sounding ice cream man filthy and c-murder (hold the block down!! we get paper, whodie, even on lockdown) with a prison phone verse and liberty (yo tell liberty some girl out here for her!!) with some dirty girly verse that sounds amazing | it's a drought - gee! i had that "it's a drought but we got dope we got dope we got dope it's a drought but we got dope and it's gon cost you more" nursery rhyme dope slanger hook in my head all day yesterday. p is super grimy and perfect. | 20 on cars 26 on trucks - i was expecting it to be the only real car song on the album but it's totally not about cars at all! curren$y talks about how rich he is but only mentions one car. romeo does a bit better and i didn't realize it was him until he said something about getting busted for being underage but he only mentions two cars and rims once. p says he has two maybachs. liberty (no limit girls ball like the wnba!!) doesn't get specific but she's so good it doesn't matter. and that beat is so good it doesn't matter. and curren$y's hook is so good it doesn't matter. | thug and get paper - it's on some old no limit thing, sad thug p with those snappy drums and lowkey spookiness and a great silkk verse (there aren't any oldschool no limit guys on it except for silkk and afficial and curren$y [he sounds more like ma$e than anyone in the world] and liberty get way more verses, but at least there aren't any shitty 504 boys on it) | but they're all good.

my favorite voices on the radio right now:
1) J-Kwon on "Hood Hop"
2) Lloyd Banks on "On Fire"
3) Soulja Slim on "Slow Motion"
4) DMX on "Tear It Up"
5) Jadakiss on "Time's Up"/"The Champ Is Here"
6) I-20 on "I Like Dat"
7) Fat Joe on "Lean Back"

z-ro - i hate u. the actual prison footage video! before ti did it! and check the spinning z-ro piece!

the life of joseph w. mcvey was the boringest release from the south all year-- not counting the s+c version, i guess. it's a fucking classic. z-ro stepping it up from contemplative southside d-boy anthems to dull, perfect aging gangsta shit with soft, low hooks.

he says in the video that he's getting out in seventy days. it was shot a while ago, i guess, and i heard he's supposed to get out either today or monday.

Highlights from the amazing article in this month's VIBE in which R.A. The Rugged Man asks Mobb Deep to rate the summer blockbusters based on their trailers:

Anchorman
Prodigy: This nigga retarded, son.
Havoc: Will Ferrell - that's my dog right there.
P: Hell, yeah, he's like the new Chevy Chase.
H: Right, exactly, but funnier. I'll definitely go check that.
P: Word. Get doped up and go laugh real quick. Word. Plus, he smacked her on the ass and said, "I like that fatty!"
H: Yeah, he said fatty, son. Thumbs up!

Spider-Man 2
P: Oh, it's on. It's gonna be a smash hit.
H: Spider-Man 2 is a must-see. The first one was off the hook.
P: Now they got that dude, Dr. what's-his-name, Dr. Octagon or some shit?
H: Octopus, I think. Out of all the comic book remakes, Spider-Man was by far the best one. So I'll definitely go check out 2.
P: Spidey's ill. He be flying around with the web, that shit is ill. Nigga crawlin' on walls and shit.

Young Gunz f/ Freeway - "Parade"

I think I prefer the Gunz in cuddly "No Better Love" (though still not too cuddly for a gangbang) mode than when they're trying to establish their State Prop cred with gunz talk, and I haven't really felt much of anything Free's been on since his LP, but good lord this is heat. I'd be confident in singling out Chad Hamilton as a promising new jack on the Roc production squad just based on this beat, all cascading snare triplets and dusty old breaks that actually sound invigorating, with the rappers sounding like they're running out of breath trying to keep up.

Guerilla Black f/ Beenie Man - "Compton"

The similiarity of GB's voice to Biggie's didn't strike me as so close as to be confusing on "Guerilla Nasty", but when I first heard this I was convinced it was something off that new B.I.G. "duets" record right up until the point GB said his name. Funnily enough, right after it they played Shyne. I wonder if it was a deliberate choice on the part of the DJ, as if to say HEY YOU KNOW WHO ELSE SOUNDS LIKE BIGGIE?

Shyne f/ Foxy Brown - "More Or Less"

There was a version of this called "When I Die" on Kanye's I'm Good mixtape last year, but Foxy got on it and changed the hook (not an improvement) and the title. The beat's by Kanye's protege Brian "All Day" Miller, gothic strings over squishy digital drums.