Category Archives: Uncategorized

“All My Chains On I Don’t Tuck None, Call Me Simba Bitch You Fucking with the King’s Son”

07 Wednesday Feb 2018

Posted by in Bay Area, Uncategorized

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Cookie Money – Pops Died Last Week

An intense and heartfelt song by East Oakland’s Cookie Money about the death of his father. You can really feel both the sense of sadness and loss as well as the feeling of resolute determination to carry on the family legacy and shouldering the burden of making sure that the rest of his family is straight no matter what it takes. You can really feel where he’s coming from with the unique mix of angry defiance and deep sadness that’s hard to describe. Apparently his father was a serious hustler during the crack epidemic of the 1980s and then spent a lot of time in prison but he and Cook remained very close. I usually don’t watch Vlad TV that frequently but the Cookie Money interview on it was pretty good and delved more into Cookie Money’s background/life story etc it’s long but I would definitely recommend it.  It seems like he’s lost a lot of people close to him recently over the last few months from his dad to his grandmother to some of his homies so hopefully he can find some peace and things get better for him soon.

I don’t think Cookie is doing anything crazy lyrically but he’s a real, genuine artist who can really make you feel what he’s saying, which makes it even more impressive. He’s not doing it with crazy wordplay or rhyme schemes he’s just doing this with pure heart.

“All my chains on I don’t tuck none, I’m tryna tell them that they fucking with the wrong one, call me Simba bitch you fucking with the king’s son.”

“My daddy died last week bruh this shit hurt. I never thought he’d be the one who had to leave first. I gotta hold my brother down I gotta take the torch, show these niggas what this East Oakland shit is worth.”

“Ready to kill any pussy nigga that look at me wrong. Broad day, no mask, whole clip to his dome. I would never question God I can’t say that he wrong, you were more than my father bruh it’s hard to move on. How the fuck you tell (???) that her Papa is gone, I hear your voice late night ‘Lil nigga be strong, same name do your thing keep the legacy going’, I lost my best friend bruh y’all didn’t even know him.”

Top 10 Songs January 2018

01 Thursday Feb 2018

Posted by in Monthly Top 10, Uncategorized

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OT Genasis – Too Blessed 

From the original post…

The big cuz O.T. Genasis hitting us with some surprisingly wholesome fire here. This is some inspirational ‘chicken soup for the trap star’s soul’. ‘Too Blessed’ is too inspirational and too catchy to ignore.

O.T. Genasis is Belizean but it looks like his hood pass is good in Haiti. Best music video shot in Haiti since Kodak and French Montana went down there for Lockjaw?

Is that O.T. Genasis considering buying a painting of O.T. Genasis at 1:05??

That ‘Haitian Veteran’ hat is intense. The floral Adidas shirt the other dude with him is wearing has got me jelly too. There are a lot of things to love about this video, from O.T.’s dance moves and how happy the kids are breaking out theirs, and the smiling old lady, and when O.T. points to the sky as he yells ‘My lil nigga coming home soon.’ This is O.T. Genasis’ best song of his career so far in my opinion, and very early on my favorite track of 2018 so far.

Blocboy JB – Rover 

So Grapey. Blocboy JB is hitting so hard right now he’s got Drake down in Memphis taking in Grizzlies games. Rover is an absolute monster and has me abusing the grape emoji on my phone keyboard.

Ray Mula ft. Dave East, Don Q – Wassup with the Wassup Remix

This is what NYC rap should be sounding like nowadays. Done perfectly. The original Wassup was great but the remix takes it to a whole nother level. All 3 guys kill it…

(Original post here)

Ray Mula:

“Shorty sleeping on the hookah so we made her pay for refills. I’m still taking her home, but if she throw me on the Snap than I’m breaking her phone.”

“Used to wake up for the count now I wake up just to count.”

“8 Ball rolling, nigga no pool, trap house jumping more scales than Whole Foods”

No homo but I love Mula’s voice it’s perfect for this type of song.

“I was fucking all these hoes way before I started trapping, looking like a rapper way before I started rapping. Yeah I’m from the 8 talk about it make it happen, we could get it poppin, we could get it crackin… Harlem world AKA money making, hoes started liking, niggas started hating. Tried to keep it funky, niggas started faking, grip on deck but we can still get it shaking.”

Dave East:

“I was on some broke shit, roaches by the mattress, on some Loc shit way before I started flagging.”

“All this double G be on me got me fucking nigga’s wives. Came home without a scar, could give a fuck about your life.”

Don Q:

“I be walking through the fire when the smoke clear. Tell my niggas open fire when the coast clear. Yeah that block was on fire but I post there. Don’t stand by that car tire we got coke there. Fuck a prince nigga I got king status. Stuffed $200,000 in a queen mattress. All my ice bright nigga I done seen darkness, my lawyer got pistol cases looking like weed charges.”

I almost want to include the original version with just Ray Mula as another one of my top 10 songs but I feel like that would kind of be cheating.

Cookie Money

Heartfelt and hard-hitting song from Oakland hustler Cookie Money. You can really feel what he’s saying here. I’m not going to say much here because I’ve been meaning to give this it’s own post which I’ll put up in the next couple of days.

Continue reading →

Airedales, Billys & Tekashis

25 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by in NYC, Uncategorized

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Seqo Billy – Billy Dat 

Crazy new song/video from Brooklyn’s Seqo Billy who starts 2018 with a splash. The beat is sick and Seqo snaps on it. I also highly approve of his use of a friendly and loyal-looking airedale terrier as the dog in this video instead of the usually far more prevalent pitbull which is normally the ubiquitous choice in these types of videos. Even the dog is flamed up with his red bandana. Watch this once or twice and you won’t be able to get the chorus out of your head, at this point it’s probably my most frequently played song of January.

“Red chucks low cut laces on the floor I’m really 9Trey, B-Hop all over a nigga’s face if he ever disrespect the gang. Always red flag when I billy rock, paint the town red make the biddy hot, bang like the niggas from Cedar Grove, trip on my set and get pita rolled”

And just to top things off we also get a brief non-rapping appearance-only cameo from one of his affiliates who just so happens to be one of the most divisive rappers out right now!

Too Blessed to Be Stressed

19 Friday Jan 2018

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O.T. Genasis – Too Blessed 

The big cuz O.T. Genasis hitting us with some surprisingly wholesome fire here. This is some inspirational ‘chicken soup for the trap star’s soul’. There’s so many other dope songs coming out right now that I have stacked up in a backlog of posts I’m meaning to get to, that if you told me a couple of days ago my next post was going to be about the guy that wrote ‘Coco’ and ‘Cut It’ I would have looked at you very suspiciously, but here we are. (On the one hand, I can’t believe Coco came out OVER three years ago, but on the other hand, it almost seems like a relic from a different era. Also – anyone besides me think that Young Dolph almost sounded like some kind of stuffed animal or Care Bear when he’d say ‘Cut iiiiiiit’ in Cut It?). ‘Too Blessed’ is too inspirational and too catchy to ignore.

O.T. Genasis is Belizean but it looks like his hood pass is good in Haiti. Best music video shot in Haiti since Kodak and French Montana went down there for Lockjaw?

Is that O.T. Genasis considering buying a painting of O.T. Genasis at 1:05??

That ‘Haitian Veteran’ hat is intense. The floral Adidas shirt the other dude with him is wearing has got me jelly too. There are a lot of things to love about this video, from O.T.’s dance moves and how happy the kids are breaking out theirs, and the smiling old lady, and when O.T. points to the sky as he yells ‘My lil nigga coming home soon.’ This is just a happy, uplifting song. It’s the perfect time for it to come out too with a certain powerful American calling Haiti a ‘shithole’, O.T. stands up to him and shows that Haiti is a beautiful place with a lot of challenges but also a lot of miracles and a lot of smiling faces. This is O.T. Genasis’ best song of his career so far in my opinion, and very early on my favorite track of 2018 so far.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd26zOtlKOQ/?hl=en&taken-by=otgenasis

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc2niiuFE-i/?hl=en&taken-by=otgenasis

“I Fuck with the BandGang got Mas with Me, I got Popped Could have Died I Had God with Me”

24 Sunday Dec 2017

Posted by in Detroit, Uncategorized

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FMB DZ – All the Smoke 

FMB DZ comes out firing on ‘All the Smoke’ off of his new mixtape ‘The Gift’ just bringing the heat verse after verse. A perfect Yuletide gift indeed from a gun-wielding Santa Clause who never takes his Cartiers off …

“Nigga ain’t my man if he ain’t riding with me, I fuck with the BandGang I got Mas with me. My nigga (?) got a sleeve and a 550, I got popped I could have died I had God with me. A nigga gotta die if a nigga want beef. Free my nigga 80’s I’m good in the East. You know this bitch a classic with Ant on the beat. Niggas know that I’m gonna shoot so they pass it to me.”

“You’ve got guns I got guns we can shoot it out. I’m aiming for a nigga’s head I ain’t killing clouds. Lord forgive me always been a wild child, two FNs and two chopsticks cost me five thou. Nigga telling me I’m next bitch I’m up now, I’m in Houston making plays bitch I feel like Yao.”

“Put a nigga on your block so we can find the house, firebomb will chop y’all down while you’re running out”

‘Washington DZ’ was already one of the best mixtapes of the year and now FMB DZ beats the shot clock right before the end of the year and the holidays with another very impressive project under his belt. The Detroit rapper is on a ridiculous run lately, with about a year’s worth of slaps for a normal artist in just the last few weeks, including ‘Back to Back‘ with frequent collaborator Tay B, the Joseph McFashion-compiled ‘Raw 2’ in October to follow up on the success of ‘Raw‘, and ‘On Go’ which is still only a couple of months old. I have to listen to ‘The Gift’ a couple of more times over the next few days but so far it definitley is one of the strongest projects of the year giving FMB DZ two of the top albums/tapes of 2017. I’m looking forward to seeing him keep the pressure up in 2018!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc8hVM4HzX4/?hl=en&taken-by=fmb_dz

 

Top 50 Songs of 2017

21 Thursday Dec 2017

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2017 has been an interesting year. Before the year, I wouldn’t have expected Berner to have any songs on my year-end top 50 songs list, let alone have two in the top 10 and make an unlikely rise towards becoming one of my top artists. Or that a rainbow-grilled, rainbow-haired gang-banging Keebler elf from Brooklyn would capture everyone’s attention by bringing it so hard with a couple of mosh-rap tracks. Or that a different guy from OMB aside from OMB Peezy would have one of my favorite songs of the year. Or that Detroit would take its place as arguably the epicenter of rap right now with more great artists than I can even keep up with.

With a list like this, you have to be careful to avoid recency bias, and not just put your favorite songs lately or the ones that came out at the end of the year ahead of the best songs from earlier in the year, and it’s almost impossible to rank a lot of these against each other, but either way I’m taking a stab at my top 50 songs of the year, in rough order from top to bottom. There’s not a huge difference separating song 1 to 5 (and really any of the first 5 or so could be song of the year) or 23 to 25 etc. so don’t put too much weight into ranking one versus the other. Also I’m sure one or two of these could be from the dying embers of 2016 but I’m including them anyway.

It was a really good and diverse year for music, with everything from deep songs that made you take a step back, take a deep breath and reflect on life like Boosie’s ‘I Remember’ or Shy Glizzy’s ‘Take Me Away’ to songs that just went hard af and made you want to mosh and throw bos in the club from a wide range of artists like PC Tweezie’s ‘Really’, 6IX9INE’s ‘Kooda’ and Nef the Pharaoh and Slimmy B’s ‘Bling Blaow’. Long-time veterans in the game like Cam’ron, Boosie and Snoop Dogg showed they still have plenty to offer while new guys like FMB DZ or the guys from SOB X RBE exploded onto the scene. There was a ton of great music coming out of hotbeds like Detroit, Miami, the Bay Area, Atlanta, and more, but also places like Cleveland, Kansas City, Alabama and central Florida as rap gets more diverse regionally. A welcome surprise was that there were also quite a few group tracks by previously unheralded younger rappers teaming up on songs like ‘With My Team’ and ‘All Stars’.

*Edit: I cheated and have 51 songs but after I went back and counted/realized it I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to take off because I felt like they were all worthy inclusions that I felt like I bumped a lot/made an impression on me this year so I just decided to keep 51 instead of deleting 1.

Top 50 songs of 2017

Berner ft. Young Dolph, Ampichino – Win Big
OMB Shawniebo – 4 Minutes All Me
Rich the Factor – 1000 
FMB DZ – On Go
Baby Soulja ft. Lil Boosie – Dirty 
Lil Chicken – No Grease 
Berner ft. Young Dolph, Gucci Mane – Knuckles
Creek Boyz – With My Team 
MT ft. Lil Chicken, Mari Boyz, YBN Kenny – All Stars
Shy Glizzy – Take me Away  
Cam’ron – Lean 
Lil Boosie – Webbie I Remember
6IX 9INE – Kooda 
Lil B – Bad MF 
Ripp Flamez – Church in the Projects
Nef the Pharoah ft. Slimmy B – Bling Blaow
6IX 9INE – Gummo 
PC Tweezie – Really
Ball Greezy ft. Mike Smiff, Kase1, Major Nine – I Deserve it All
Future & Young Thug – Group Home
Que ft. Sada Baby –  90s Baby
Ballgreezy ft. Lil Dred – Nice & Slow
FMB DZ & Tay B – Back 2 Back
Future – Buy Love
YBN Nahmir – Rubbing off the Paint
Joseph McFashion, FMB DZ, Tay B, Cash Kidd – Raw 2
Young Thug – Do U Love Me
SOB X RBE – Lane Changing
SOB X RBE – Calvin Cambridge
Kodak Black – Patty Cake
Ball Gizzle ft. J Scott, John Wicks – Still Here 
Yung Cat – OG Stack a Dollar
Sada Baby – Free 80s
Hoodrich Pablo Juan ft. Gucci Mane – Sauce on Me 
Smokepurpp – Glock in my Benz
SahBabii ft. Loso Loaded – Pull Up With a Stick
Snoop Dogg – Neva Left 
YFN Lucci – Way Up
Yhung T.O – Been Through
Cam’ron – 10,000 Miles
Rich the Factor ft. The Popper – Aristocrat 
Kodak Black ft. Young Thug – Top off Benz
Lil B – Berkley 
Tee Grizzley – First Day Out
Cam’ron ft. Sen City – Dime after Dime 
Cam’ron – Chop it Up
FMB DZ ft. Slimmy B – Can’t Hang
Ripp Flamez – Sunshine
21 Savage & Offset – Rap Saved Me
Future – Draco
DJ Khaled ft. Quavo, Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper, Lil Wayne – I’m the One

A Shy Glizzy by Any Other Name

16 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by in DMV, Uncategorized

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Shy Glizzy – Take Me Away 

I’m glad to see Shy Glizzy back up in this bitch with a new album and going by Shy Glizzy again instead of his recent ‘Jefe’ moniker. Jefe doesn’t sound bad per se and makes for a good chain in this video, but Shy Glizzy is Shy Glizzy. The Glizzy Gang head honcho has a knack for these heavy but melodic songs like this that focus mainly on death and what people will be saying when he’s gone/what type of legacy you leave behind, i.e. this one and 2015’s ‘Funeral’, which was previously Glizzy’s finest work in my opinion. ‘Take Me Away’ is the standout track from his recent ‘Quiet Storm’ album and may challenge Funeral for his career best so far.

I love the montage setting the mood in the beginning of the video, with the random, dispassionate shots of Glizzy’s hood (the overgrown back alleys behind apartment buildings, clotheslines, staircases, the D.C. skyline off in the distance, a police helicopter circling overhead, guys posted up on the corner) interspersed with him walking in the rain and waiting in his house with police sirens outside the window. The cold, sobering beat goes perfect with it. I’m certainly no expert on this type of thing but the intro is A+ cinematography. It really feels like the calm before the storm. (Side note – is the album name ‘Quiet Storm’ a Mobb Deep reference or less likely a reference to the ‘quiet storm’ radio format of smooth jazz and R&B which actually started in D.C.? Bigga Rankin sheds some light on the title in the album intro, yelling, in the way that Bigga Rankin does, “One thing you learn growing up in these streets is that you can’t run from the storm forever. You have to learn to stand up to it. There is dignity in surviving a storm. You won’t ever walk out of a storm the same person that went in. Glizzy you survived every storm that came your way.”) Even the title ‘Take Me Away’ goes perfectly with this vibe.

From a fashion perspective, I’m not sure if I’m feeling the Supreme umbrella but those Georgetown Hoyas shorts are fire. Bonus points since he’s representing DC AND because I looked for them online and couldn’t even find them so a rare gem indeed. (Another side note – Lightshow also had a song called ‘Burberry Umbrellas’ recently. What’s with these DMV-area rappers and high-end designer umbrellas?).

The chorus is simple but hits hard – ‘If the streets take me away, a real nigga I die.” He’s come to terms with the fact that he can die any day in the environment he’s in and while he’ll survive at all costs at least if he dies he feels like he never caved in or folded and no one can say he wasn’t ‘real.’ It’s a steadfast but sobering message and I would imagine this song was probably influenced by the recent death of 30 Glizzy.

A great song and video by the Jefe and a perfect epitaph for his album. I would love to see him making more music like ‘Take me Away’ and ‘Funeral’ as time goes on.

 

They Gave him 20 Now He Looking for a Penpal; Called Home All he said was this Shit Wild

15 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by in Detroit, Midwest, Uncategorized

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Allstar JR ft. Steven B the Great – Felony Warrant

Monster verse by Allstar JR out of Detroit over a nice raw instrumental; this song comes out firing. I love these types of beats.

“Look how the feds gettin my dog boxed with them, took them to a bench trial, they gave him 20, now he looking for a pen pal, called home all he said was this shit wild. All my niggas got fed cases, single parents raised them to be some headcases.”

“Remember I was riding in stolies, free Bud he a savage he would shoot at the police.” (And of course its ‘po-lice’ in that midwest accent so it rhymes with stolies).

I like the cartoonishly over the top ‘Skrrt skrrt’ adlibs someone screeches out while the Hellcat is doing donuts in the parking lot.

Also, I’m probably too broke to credibly pull it off but I’m also feeling the satin Richie Rich jacket he’s rocking

 

Down by the River

10 Sunday Dec 2017

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Lil Boosie – Webbie I Remember

9 times out of 10 when you see someone standing at the banks of the the river with a pensive look on their face, throwing twigs into the water or skipping stones, you know that something deep and introspective is about to happen (especially with those piano keys setting in as the beat) and Boosie delivers on that here in ‘Webbie I Remember’.

Boosie has been through a lot of ups and downs in his 34 years on this Earth and here he reflects on his relationship with Webbie and life in general. I love the black and white photos and video clips periodically interspersed throughout the video giving you a look back at long-buried memories of a simpler time. You really get a window into all sides of the coin of Boosie’s life; rocking out shows and cutting up with friends, to kids, to falling out with longtime friends, to cancer, to walking in and out of court and his prison stint.

Great wardrobe selection by Boosie for all 3 combinations in this video, whether it’s the Seahawks stuff, the all-white Nike combo (although I’ve voiced my qualms about these all-white get ups in outdoor music videos before) or even his own Jewel House gear which I’m usually not a huge proponent of but actually isn’t looking bad at all here.

“Went to war had a lot of niggas running. Behind bars, like a boss how I’m coming.”

“We was young and fucked up in the head. Drag you from the river if you fucking with my bread. Had a little money but we living in the red, we ain’t got it like we said.”

“Walking through the mall with a strap, 13 chains on I ain’t going for the jack.”

“When was kids we just wanted our turn, in the hospital me and you don’t learn, steady asking God give us one more turn.”

I can’t wait for BooPac to come out next week (Dec. 15th). Whether you love every song or not, I think everyone can agree that Boosie is undeniably one of the realest artists alive; very few other artists could touch on such a wide range of emotions (like pain, love, regret, nostalgia) in a short video like this and make you feel what they’re saying so much.

Image result for lil boosie webbie

Where the Neighborhood Bad but Y’all Ain’t Got Enough Money to Move

23 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by in Florida, Uncategorized

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Baby Soulja ft. Lil Boosie – Dirty

Repost from the big homie Martorialist…

http://themartorialist.blogspot.com/2017/11/with-one-and-half-pair-of-pants-you.html

This song/video by Baby Soulja out of Jacksonville goes so hard I needed to go outside and take a break after I listened to it a couple of times in a row before I watched it again because it was so intense. ‘Dirty’ had so many hard lines it was honestly hard to pick out a few to highlight but these were a few of my favorites…

“I’m from where you ain’t got a car you catch the bus. I’m from where if they try you retaliation is a must. I’m from where if you cut that heat on your mama fuss.”

“The bill due lights get cut off you lighting candles. Where you can’t trust a soul so your house gotta have cameras.

“I’m a 90s baby, we don’t care about what you did, nigga we crazy. I’m from where if you hustle you go a while without bathing. No food in the house so your breakfast the candy lady.”

“Where you and your brother wear the same shoes; neighborhood bad but y’all ain’t got enough money to move.”

My only one *minor* gripe with this video, and I’m being VERY picky here, is Boosie’s outfit – don’t get me wrong it looks pretty fly but that white Lacoste t-shirt and white shorts combo is just way too clean and pristine for this video/song concept and this hood, it’s going to get filthy quickly. Believe me I’ve tried the all white combo before and sometimes it’s just not worth it. I also liked some of the older Boosie chains (i.e. the nearly life-sized Jesus chain or the really thick-looking Bible) better than this one he’s rocking here with the finger pointing.

Boosie was a nice feature here and I have to say Baby Soulja outdid him in terms of the heaviness and overall weight of his verse, which is quite an accomplishment (especially for a young artist) since Boosie is usually spitting some of the heaviest, realest material in the game.

P.S. Also note the really weak, poorly done shark tattoo that the cop is showing off at 0:47.

P.P.S. – Check out the guy all the way on the far left’s t-shirt at 0:36!

Definitely in the running for top song of 2017