New Site, Same Linx

 

It's late, I'm buzzing on 4 hours of sleep and another short night ahead but something great is here in thanks to it. After roughly a year placed on this Blogspot page we're moving over to Substack! It'll be easier on the eyes on mobile although a little trickier for all 2 of you desktop readers. Other perks of us moving to Substack include direct email updates when new articles are posted, an easier to navigate comment section, and the ability to subscribe with your dollars (or free for you brokies out there, love ya). 

Thank you to those who have followed us from day one and bookmarked us as your home for inconsistent hip-hop coverage old school and contemporary alike. This last year has already been a crash course on what people do and don't care about along with the grind of consistent blogging while balancing health, love, life and a super secret book project that the will hopefully be announced in the next year. With the new site more consistent posts are coming, and if you follow our Instagram we'll be focusing on new acts as much as our beloved legends.

It's called TheLinxDemo.blogspot.com for a reason, thanks for dealing with us while we figure it out. 

Phase 2 here we come

Link up with us HERE from now on. 🔗

-Ant

What They Did To The Cold Crush

A long form examining of what ghostwriting and biting is, where it began, why hip-hop hates it so much, and who has most severely broken the Cardinal Rule.

Grandmaster Caz in the 80's

Written By: Anthony Seaman    

        

   Despite the fall of the towers, in 2001, New York hip-hop was still at the peak of its powers. Right before 50 Cent cracked the mainstream consciousness, DMX was still steaming after an unprecedented late 90’s run, The LOX, Fabolous and Cam’ron were feeding the streets with mixtapes while still finding space on radio, and Roc-A-Fella Records were the creme de la creme of it all. In lead to The Blueprint, the Roc-a-Fella founder himself, Jay-Z, would release the Kanye West produced “Izzo (H.O.V.A)” and give arguably his greatest shoutout to a rap crew that was foundational in the livelihoods of every rapper listed whether they knew it or not. “Label owners hate me / I’m raising the status quo up / I’m overchargin’ n****s for what they did to the Cold Crush”, referring to hip-hop pioneers The Cold Crush Brothers and their lack of success compared to their late-70’s peers. Grandmaster Caz was the de facto lead MC of The Cold Crush, but would go down in history not for his own success, but for the fact that rap's first commercial breakthrough “Rapper’s Delight” featured his stolen lyrics. Sugarhill member Big Bank Hank was the culprit of such theft, using the 2nd verse of the song to display the appropriated bars. Caz’s cries went unheard for years, but decades later in his Drink Champs interview he finally spoke on being cordial with Hank and The Sugarhill Gang, despite still never receiving proper payment from the iconic record that led to rap's acceptance into mainstream music. Biting styles and bars, much less an entire verses worth of material from someone was grounds for violence, even in the 70’s. It went against a core rule in life that seeped into the morals of early hip-hop; come up with your own ideas. Caz is the cautionary tale of the peril of this business, an example of why biting, uncredited songwriters, or even using the ideas of someone else can go bad for a creator. “Rappers Delight” was a Big Bang moment in hip-hop, one that could have fed Grandmaster Caz and his seeds until the Sun burns us out, and instead he’s relegated to an OG whose names have mostly been lost to the conniving underbelly of the music business. 

Ice Cube, DJ Yella, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E & MC Ren of NWA

            Hip-hop isn’t like every other genre when it comes to the idea of songwriters. Legally artists must credit anyone who produced on a record, or had their own record sampled for a song must be credited as a songwriter. Even if you interpolate a melody from someone or to many lines of an old song a credit to the originator is needed. The extra layer that hip-hop brings in is the expectation that if your voice is on the record, you wrote every word. That authenticity matters. You can lie, you can imagine, but they have to be your own authentic ideas. Nas told us all no idea’s original, which may be true, but how you present that idea is the new wrinkle of originality that we have always requested from our rap stars. And why do we ask so much? Because of the genre’s ties to competitive art forms such as dancehall sound clashes, playing Dozens, and talent show style events. Who is more authentic? Who can be funnier? Who can say the most clever lines? Who do you want to see live the most? Who is going to touch your soul the most? This genre has always been a competitive individual sport, and using someone else's words as your own is our version of P.E.D.’s. Ghostwriting, style biting, questionable homage’s, reference tracks, and rumors have put a stench on some of rap's greatest figures the same way A-Rod will always be a mark in the eyes of baseball fans. NWA’s Straight Outta Compton album? Frontline stars Eazy-E and Dr. Dre didn’t write their verses, turning to MC Ren, Ice Cube and The D.O.C. for the heavy lifting. Hallowed legends Biz Markie and MC Lyte? You need to thank Big Daddy Kane and his timeless cool for some of their biggest moments. If you still somehow have any nostalgia towards the Bad Boy era, give it up to Notorious B.I.G. first and foremost. He had his plump fingers over so many Lil Kim, Lil Cease and Diddy tracks it’s impossible to keep it all straight. Icons like Lil Wayne, Nas, and the aforementioned Hova all have rumors of their own they’ve rarely addressed. With more reference tracks being leaked by the day for contemporary mega-stars, where do we as music fans, artists, and rap fundamentalists all sit on the different degrees of what is right and wrong when it comes to using songwriters? Where is the line? 

            Personally, producers and moguls looking to capitalize on their fame by making music means little. The Kanye’s, Diddy’s and Dre’s of the world were never in discussion as the best rappers ever for me because time and again rap was made secondary in their lives. Fashion, business, production, building cities in Wyoming; all above writing something bar for bar amazing. As synonymous as their raps became to the fabric of rap music, any fan knew what the truth was. The complexities come in seeing this as a layered issue when considering actually MC’s; rap has evolved sonically so with it the rules have bent. 16 bar verses didn’t exist on those stages in the Bronx, with the closest thing to a hook being call and response crowd participation. Melodies? A fast track to get you booed off the stage. From the mouths of rap fans, artists themselves, and historians (myself above all else of course) there’s some glaring fragments to consider before you discredit your favorite rappers entire career;

1. How heartbreaking is it?

            If you’re gonna claim to be the best, cheating in this way becomes much more grave. How can you be the best, when there’s so many others at the top who don’t need anything but their own ideas to get there? There’s also a special kind of pain in learning that an old school act is a fake. Our whole lives we’re told about how “rap was so much better back in the day”, or how the standards were much higher. When your favorite 80’s and 90’s rappers get outed as breaking these unwritten laws when the morality of the genre (creatively at least) were much higher, it means a little more. When it comes to beatmakers and businessmen making the leap to the vocal booth, expectations should always be curbed. This right here is why the idea of Birdman and Diddy having so many writers around doesn’t keep me up at night, because frankly, they were never in the discussion as the best MC’s anyway. They’ve always been something else in my mind first and foremost, only making the transition out of ego or the fact they have a personality so electric it becomes a necessity to capitalize on it for the sake of everyone around them. It hurts more when you realize someone like Dr. Dre rarely wrote for himself because the raps were just so damn good. If someone sucks and uses writers, whatever, not like we expected much anyway. Kanye’s legacy becomes much more tricky for this reason plus by every account his dreams of being the best rapper ran side-by-side with his want to be a producer (watch even a sliver of the jeen-yuhs doc and you’ll understand). Quality matters, the want to be respected as a rapper matters, but ultimately if you’re doing double duty, you’re bound to slack off in some realm.

2. What did they get help on?

Getting help on a hook, a melody, or even a song concept is a grey area that brings you down slightly, but i’m not looking at you like you’ve cheated the genre. These are all new attributes injected into the genre mostly in an attempt to gain new fans through radio waves that most rappers don’t need any assistance for, but the ones who do can’t have a grudge held on them forever even if it makes their biggest hits. When it comes to musical artistry, co-writers are a norm. When talking about being the best rapper over the sins of becoming a well rounded artist shouldn’t be considered, because the standards just don’t overlap much. It gets tricky when you learn the commonality of entourage members throwing out spare bars to punch up a verse, and how you weigh something like that’s in your hands. We all make different rules based on the artists we love, but even the dustiest rap fans know the legends surrounding the incestuous nature of Wu-Tang writing sessions. Now when it comes to biting someone’s style, the ante is upped. When you use your star power or industry ties to hide the fact you’ve copied the way someone raps, dresses, or even their lingo why should we respect you? Even if you took it to higher highs than the originator, you always owe a piece of your success to them, and never giving them that praise is a coldblooded way to sell out on someone you once respected.

3. Is there proof?

            This is where the sweaty basement dwellers at the deepest crevices of Reddit come in handy. NDA’s and the loyalty of a lifelong friend are risky for ghostwriters to break, leading fans to only assume foul play by way of interviews, stylistic shifts aligning with new on record friendships and deleted tweets. If you want to get down and dirty to know who is a phony or not it’s a winding path through anonymously marked Soundcloud pages, Trojan Horse laden .zip files, group buys from scorned studio engineers, and the occasional YouTube rabbit hole. It takes a certain level of discernment to look through disgruntled entourage members' stories to find the truth. For every old head with old affiliations to your favorite MC sitting back in an interview chair saying “Hey man I wrote stuff for some of y’alls Top 5” there’s a lot of pent up frustration and posturing to regain relevance to consider. But as evidence builds up, it’s easy to draw conclusions. One rumor can be nothing. Multiple whispers can sound like a full crowd when put together. On rare occasions you’ll even get an admission of guilt from the rappers themselves. In court, DNA evidence will outweigh an eyewitness, everytime. A smoking gun is rare in this line of work, but when you find it an entire career can never be the same.

Ice Cube
Writer: Del The Funky Homosapien
Despite Cube himself having a laundry list of people he’s written for (Dre, Eazy-E, Yo-Yo, Da Lench Mob) his cousin and Hieroglyphics member Del has admitted that Cube let him write some rhymes for him to get his foot in the door. The reason he doesn’t get an asterisk? Because Del himself admitted Cube didn’t need it, but was doing him a solid writing a few hooks and verses. The catalog is too strong for me to let helping family in the door destroy his legacy.

Earlly Mac, SayItAintTone & Big Sean

Big Sean
Writer: Earlly Mac, SayItAintTone, Starrah
I, along with many people with ears, have suspected Big Sean penned a large chunk of Kanye’s Graduation, some of the groaners that lie at the end of punchlines can only come from one other man during that era, and Ludacris was off making “serious” music instead. Ye may have inspired Sean to tap his friends for help, because with a closer look longtime pal Earlly Mac can be seen in writing credits on Detroit 2. With his exact contributions being unknown and with Sean’s pen being unserious enough to break my heart, the idea of someone else in the mix doesn’t move me one bit.

Eve
Writer: Cassidy
The Philly connection runs strong, but the Dr. Dre school of writing camps runs stronger. Eve was known as The Pitbull In A Skirt for her cut throat rhyme style, one that she sharpened writing for Dre before she released her own solo album. Cassidy has admitted to writing “Got It All” by Eve, but little else has ever come out against Eve’s pen.

Nas
Writers: stic.man, Jay Electronica
Nas himself has written for the likes of Fat Joe, and Will Smith (not Fresh Prince) and has a Hall Of Fame solo catalog, but for one of the most adored rappers ever to commit the Cardinal Sin of cheating on verses should be common knowledge by now, right? The reason you don’t know about any of this is because it’s believed to be not true. “Queens Get The Money” is the crux of this whole idea, which is produced by Jay Elec and definitely has some cues from Jay’s own rhyme style. The content of the Untitled album as a whole aligns heavily with stic.man’s work in Dead Prez, but much like the Jay Elec rap style, is just a continuation of the groundwork Nas laid a decade prior. Nas said all this was fake, Jay Elec has said all this was fake, but Nas has pulled enough strange stunts in his career to which even something as heinous as this can’t be ruled out.

Future
Writer: Bobby Raps
The reigning King Of Atlanta had a reference track resurface recently showing fan favorite “Xanax Damage” was a song that was fully finished and recorded by the undergrounds chosen white boy Bobby Raps. The reference track frankly is as amazing as the version we know today, and further digging shows him hiding in plain sight on other Future songs such as “Lullaby” with Lil Uzi Vert, and “Astronauts” with Juice WRLD. Outside of “Xanax Damage” the proof of writing is nowhere to be seen on the other songs. The fact Bobby is a talented producer separate from being a songwriter casts doubt on whether it's his pen or musical composition that earned him credits here.

Safaree & Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj
Writers: Safaree, Lunch Money Lewis, Ester Dean, Madame Buttons, Max Martin, Starrah, Pop & Oak, SZA
As is commonplace with rappers reaching for Billboard success, pop songwriters eventually came into the fold for hooks, bridges and melodic influence on songs. Pop & Oak are backbones of Kehlani and Alessia Cara’s career, Max Martin is pop’s European cheat code, and Ester Dean can be found in credits across the last 20 years of R&B music. When it comes to ex-boyfriend and noted freestyle legend Safaree and LunchMoneyLewis showing up in albums credits without having features it makes you wonder where they helped. Coming to her defense was producer Hitmaka who spoken out for Minaj after Latto claimed Nicki used writers and reference tracks to build her songs.

Megan Thee Stallion
Writers: Pardison Fontaine, London Jae, Derrick Milano
London, Pardi and Derrick are some of the hardest working writers in mainstream R&B and hip-hop today. Each act has a keen skill for writing verses and hooks, for women rappers in particular all finding credits on Cardi B, BIA and Latto records though it’s not murky where they stepped in to help. With Megan’s career being built off the buzz of pre-industry parking lot freestyles and co-writers appearing mainly on her more pop sentric records it’s safe to assume hooks and at worst spare bars are the extent of content infused by outside sources.

Jay-Z
Writers/Styles: Kanye West, Consequence, The Notorious B.I.G., Young Chris, Ja Rule, The Bay by way of Snoop
Oh yeah, time for some big dogs. Ye, Consequence and Ja Rule have for years been confirmed as writing the hooks for “Lucifer” and “Encore”, respectively with reference tracks and direct quotes acting as proof. Sure, fine. Big time rapper doesn’t write some hooks, nothing crazy. The real sketchy stuff comes when you recognize the style shift post-Biggie murder. Getting Vol. 1 executive produced by Diddy could have just been Jay taking a big swing to enter the mainstream after Reasonable Doubt got him more critical than commercial success. But with Bad Boy’s history of writing camps, maybe Jay taking a pre-written record (or at least some flows and hooks) isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Only the most trained ears and Hov-ologists would know enough to recognize these subtle shifts that kept him fresh over his 30+ year career. Lets not forget his slight style shift that came after the State Property invasion of Roc-A-Fella that can be traced to Young Chris directly. On a more personal note, wether he gave props in private or not, repurposing Snoop Dogg’s -izzle pig latin (which by his own account was originally a Northern California slang) on his songs will never sit right with me. 

Wu-Tang Clan

Wu-Tang Clan
Writers: Each other
Ghost and Rae have both spoken out about sharing bars early in their career. They aren’t the only culprits though, with nearly everyone in Wu-Tang borrowing lines from one another through their decades of freestyling with one another. Rumors from within the Wu have floated around for years about Ol Dirty Bastard not writing a majority of his opus Return To The 36 Chambers, with RZA and GZA as the main architects.

Beastie Boys
Writers: Run-DMC
Check the credits and you’ll see Run-DMC all in attendance on the credits of early Beastie’s hit “Paul Revere”. It gets deeper reading rumors of the crew's involvement in the entire classic debut record, though unproven. 

Lil Wayne
Writers/Styles: The Diplomats, Gillie The Kid, Drake, Gudda Gudda
This is the tipping point. Sitting on the fine line of getting an asterisk by his name in the imaginary Hip-Hop Hall Of Fame due to a sea of allegations and shifts in style (fashion, slang and flow wise) is one of the greatest rappers to ever live. As the Hot Boys fell apart and Wayne’s solo career was beginning to go creatively stale, Tha Carter (for my money the best Wayne project with a UPC code) was billed as the final collaboration with Mannie Fresh. Philly’s Gillie The Kid for years beefed with Cash Money as a whole and broke his silence about ghostwriting for the label thanks to Birdman's shady business practices. Not only was Birdman a main abuser of Gillie’s verses, but allegedly Carter I was stained with his pen. Come Carter II Wayne was running heavy with Juelz Santana and Cam’ron, switching his style to more playful punchlines and colorful lifestyle raps that could fit on any Dipset or DJ Clue mixtape. Drake’s syrupy simp anthems leaked into Wayne’s next few projects with songs like “I’m Single” (confirmed to have been a full on Drake track repurposed by Wayne for his own album) and forever earned side eyes from rap purists. The influx of Drake and Nicki influence into his own style seems minimal when you recognize Wayne literally has thousands of verses floating around in the ether, but in the moment it casted doubt on the man once viewed as the “best rapper alive”. What stops him from fully getting the asterisk is multifaceted; how often would a man who chooses to freestyle nearly every record choose to sit down and spend time reading lyrics from someone else? How much do the handful of Gillie/Juelz/Drake/Nicki-ish songs weigh when placed side-by-side with enough songs for 3 lifetimes? I’ll argue to my death C1 isn’t as tainted as Gillie fans love to make it seem (someone disgruntled with a boss taking shots at a coworker who’s getting all the shine he wants is a hater move more than a whistleblowing) while the real issues come with the Young Money era. All the groaner punchlines from Rebirth until he became reinvigorated for Carter V fit hand in hand with Gudda Gudda and Jae Millz songs of the same time. With Drake, Nicki and Tyga creating their own success, the idea of Wayne calling for the bench players to carry their weight in some way can’t be ruled out.

Jay Rock
Writer: Kendrick Lamar
A reference track on the two-for-one single “King’s Dead” (released to promote The Black Panther Soundtrack and Rock’s solo album Redemption) showed TDE’s founding MC doing karaoke with Kendrick’s words. So what, one really big single was gifted to Rock from his mentee. Real Del-Ice Cube vibes here, nothing too big. But the defining Jay Rock moment comes in the form of “Money Trees”. A verse so potent it stands out as arguably the best single verse on the single best album of its generation, living in history as one of the greatest guest verses of all time. Another reference track leaked years ago and was (nearly) scrubbed from the internet soon after, revealing Kendrick wrote and created the flow pattern for the classic record. 90059 and the rest of Redemption are immaculate records that were seemingly written in full by Rock, but how can two cataclysmic moments that helped shape how the world views you being written by someone else not break your heart as a fan?

Memphis Bleek & Jay-Z

Memphis Bleek
Writer: Jay-Z
The plan was to release Reasonable Doubt, sit back, and build a roster under Roc-A-Fella that could keep the cash flowing in for the next few decades while Dame, Jay and Biggs expanded their empire. That never happened, and a small part was because their first hope just couldn’t cut it himself. Bleek and Jay’s relationships ties back to their childhood in Marcy Projects, and to help his little homie out, Jay gifted him features and a deal that would set him for life. Deeper even were the songs Jay fleshed out and handed to Bleek his debut movement, “Coming Of Age” (confirmed by Bleek himself), and spent the rest of his career sounding like a Hova Jr. How much else was gifted to Bleek we’ll never know.

Cardi B
Writers: Pardison Fontaine, London Jae, Nija
Cardi claims it’s only on some hooks, BIA (an acclaimed songwriter herself) claims Cardi’s lyrics are workshopped with others, but where is the truth? The people who have spoken to Cardi’s defense are herself and the name attached to her lyrics most, Pardison Fontaine. With so many women using writers across time, and with Cardi’s quality of music jumping through the roof the second Atalntic got involved (home of many famed contemporary rap ghostwriters and users of said writers), it’s a safe bet that these “rumors” are closer to fact than we all choose to get behind.

Foxy Brown
Writers: Jay-Z, Mad Skillz
Just read the credits to Ill Nana. Sean Carter is credited on nearly half the album, while Mad Skillz has hinted at his involvement with Foxy’s parts for The Firm’s lone album.

Fat Joe
Writers: Big Pun, Cuban Linx, Triple Seis
Cuban Linx has spoken out about frustrations in the lack of credits and royalties for himself and Pun from Joe many times over the years. Cuban also said Joe’s most famous work Don Cartengena, was roughly “written 90% by Pun”. After Pun's death there’s a noticeable dropoff not only in quality, but even the rhyming style of Joe. Losing a close friend is painful enough, and could alone be the reason for such a sea change, but losing a head writer can do the same. 

CyHi & Travi$ in studio

Travi$ Scott
Writers: CyHi The Prynce, Tory Lanez, Starrah, Kanye West
Everyone from here out is confirmed time and again to be thiefs, biters, of heavy users of writers so much it’s impossible to ignore. Travi$ not only has accusations of just being a shitty guy in general, but also stealing beats from young producers claiming them as his own. While his mentor Kanye may have broken the door down for proudly giving credits to 10+ producers on songs, Travi$ at first wanted you to believe he was the mastermind of his productions. WondaGurl, Metro Boomin, Mike Dean and J Gramm were the real backbones of the final version of Owl Pharaoh, Days Before Rodeo and Rodeo. When it comes to songs Tory Lanez and CyHi have both spoken out about their involvement in projects like Days Before and Astroworld while also appearing openly in the credits. A NoBells article from last year also exposed that most of the tracks from Utopia had been leaked across the years with Kanye vocals attached, which as we know could have been written by a dozen different artists. Starrah, an elusive background vocalist and witer with credits on songs from Nicki, The Weeknd, Drake and Big Sean also shows up in the official liner notes for “Pick Up The Phone”, “Way Back” and “Lose” from Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight. 

Game
Writers: 50 Cent, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole
Anyone beefing with 50 is an idiot, and this is a premier example. When Game and G-Unit had a proper relationship 50 was the King Of The Universe. The best hook writer of his era, 50 was gifting songs to everyone on his label, Game included. The Dr. Dre school of making the best song by any means was indebted into Game as a fan and a mentee, leading to him using multiple full finished 50 Cent songs to craft his classic debut The Documentary. That alone is enough to earn ire from the world but his chameleonic style thieving along with rumors of Cole and Kendrick in their early years gifting game verses and hooks put it over the top.

Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Salt-N-Pepa, Roxanne Shante
Writers: Kool G Rap, Apache, Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J
We take for granted today the amount of women that earn opportunities to be stars in today's music landscape, but in the 80’s and 90’s you were lucky to hear a new one every 3 years. The industry was male dominant, the fanbase was male dominant (not counting Kane) and the art form was a machismo drenched dick swinging contest. Latifah, Lyte, Salt-N-Pepa and Roxanne Shante broke down those barriers and added more branches to the tree of what rap could sound like. Behind their own stories though were the best writers of the modern era helping put records together. Some of their most iconic work (Lyte As A Rock, Black Reign, All Hail The Queen, nearly every SNP song) were crafted as group efforts. It doesn’t take away from the trails they blazed, but the idea of them being standalone disruptors to the genre is a false argument. 

Nickelus F & Drake circa '08

Drake
Writers: Nickelus F, Quentin Miller, Kanye West, 21 Savage, Vory, Lil Yachty, Cash Cobain, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Majid Jordan, Kenza Samir, OVO Hush
From Day 1 the well was tainted. Early on his battle rap sensei and collaborator Nickelus F was exposed as the real writer to Drake’s verse on “I’m Goin’ In”, creating questions to those chronically online as to how far his pen has tatted up Drake’s pages considering they’d be affiliated since Comeback Season days. Over the years proof of reference tracks from Lil Yachty, Vory, Cash Cobain, Majid Jordan and Quentin Miller have popped up online and even played on live radio broadcasts. The hard proof is out there, along with a decades-long frustration with Drake’s Kirby-like ability to absorb whatever style he wants and tailor it towards his own goals. He’s rapped like a Jamaican, a grime artist, and a Bay Area native countless times, stealing slang and flows shamelessly. The man even dressed head-to-toe in Smino cosplay to a basketball game. Everything from Take Care to For All The Dogs has credits riddled with unknown writers who he himself has admitted either toss him bars or flows when writers block kicks in.

Modern Review: Goodbye & Good Riddance

Score: 3.5/5 | Released: May 23rd, 2018

Written By: Anthony Seaman    

            In 2016 the mainstream rap world seemed poised for a facelift. Soundcloud 2.0's entry to the zeitgeist can be much debated. Was it "Look At Me!"? Was it "Money Longer"? Maybe it was "No Flockin'". If you want to really trace it back it could be "U Guessed It". Dozens of teen rappers, singers and hybrids of the two worlds alike flooded the marketplace. It was the harshest break between generations rap had ever experienced, a raw jolt that forced fans and artists to reevaluate the genres values as a whole. They were easy to make fun of. They spoke in text messages with the autocorrect turned off. Colored hair, poorly placed tattoos, androgynous fashion choices. So many kids woke up one morning to labels breaking down their doors with millions of dollars to burn and the responsibilities of a grown adult thrust upon them. With all the money in the world they were still teens with teen problems. While the biggest acts like Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Yachty aimed to be called anything but a rapper, Juice WRLD actually became the closest to rock stars of old. It was the typical cocktail; a lightspeed ascent up the charts, songwriting that showed immense vulnerability and a rudimentary understanding of how to handle such emotions, and a promising life ended 50 years earlier than the average human lifespan. Regardless of when the door opened, Juice's death was the moment it slamming shut.

Juice WRLD in studio 2019

            Before his passing Juice was a giant in the budding streaming world. 4 of the Top 100 most streamed songs of 2018 came from his catalog, tying Drake’s 4 entries to the list and falling right behind XXXTentacion, Ariana Grande and Post Malone’s 5 entries apiece. How did he do it so quickly? “All Girls Are The Same” broke him from obscurity, and that had only been released December of ‘17 and officially released with a label backing in April of ‘18. After one album and a bounty of unknown mixtapes and loosies, he had established a fanbase that rivaled stars 10+ years deep in their career. The fuel to such a speedy takeoff? Outside of being the muse for the most influential music video director of the decade in Cole Bennet, the music synthesized everything the next generation of consumers was looking for. Cast to the corners were the few rappers that put real pen to real paper to craft #bars, and in were vocal showmen following the path of melody before any concentrated storyline. Whatever barrier remained between rapping and singing was disintegrating. Young Thug, Travi$ Scott and Future had become one with their vocal processing software. Next came the rise of a generation raised not only under these new conditions, but with access to every sub genre of music known to man that those previously mentioned stars didn’t have fully at their fingertips until high school. The Soundcloud 2.0 generation had a path to follow and were naturals with the new tools to trek down said road. Some used busted equipment to make blown out punk rap; distorted, desolate, and destructive.

            Goodbye & Good Riddance in retrospect is the first major label excursion into emo rap, hip-hop's 20 years too late answer to pop punk. It’s painfully monotonous in subject matter, never getting more complicated than “boo hoo my girl hurt me, time to use drugs to feel better”, but that’s the whole point. Misery as an emotion bludgeons you to the edge, and when you’re young you don’t know how to cope in any healthy ways. He's not the first in rap by far to "heal" in unhealthy ways. Scarface, DMX and Prodigy masked their pain with machismo and substance abuse of their own desire. Gucci Mane and Chief Keef drowned themselves in lean to mute their own paranoia. Access to therapy or having emotionally intuitive parents isn’t a given for everyone, and Juice’s story was relatable to millions in that way. The word cloud was small, but the effectiveness was unquestionable. The disparity between him and the forced hollowness of other melodic Soundcloud rap-singers like Post Malone and Trippie Redd is still striking all these years later. More than the realities that leaked from his sing-songy raps what separated him was his one-of-one melodic instinct. Looking to be as sonically pristine as the pop stars of the moment, Juice copied what worked best; earworm melodies, inoffensive production, simple emotionally charged lyrics. There were no playlist baiting experiments into traditional hip-hop or dance music. For 15 tracks (maybe 16 or 18 or 20 depending on what version your streaming service of choice holds) you’re dropped onto the shoulder of a kid every parent is nervous that their own child will become. One who recklessly chases highs through sex and drugs, explosive with outbursts of frustration, and rarely reflective on how they may be the root of their problems after all. 

XXXTentacion & Juice Wrld

         "Used To" is a slow build from what sounds like a voice memo recording to a self destructive soliloquy on loneliness. “734” is a bonus song about someone navigating leaving a toxic partner for the first time. There’s an oscillation between wanting what is best and what is comfortable that leads to him calling for the safety of drug induced numbness to cope with the impending choice. “Hurt Me” is a love song to more solitude and drug use, because those can’t hurt him the way his ex can, right? Looming over everything is “Lucid Dreams”, the now definitive song from his short career. It’s a warbled Sting sample over thumping trap drums that today sounds ubiquitous with raps more melancholy superstars. Many moons ago at the dawn of 2018, cavernous pad sounds or twinkling piano based backdrops were the standard. Using guitars? It stuck out of the crowd before Internet Money (who Nick Mira, majority producer of this album is a founding member of) bleached the sound into a million brittle remakes creating crossover hits for every modern act listed in this article plus some (Lil Skies, Lil Tecca, Iann Dior). Run-DMC showed us the power of rock-rap crossovers in the 80’s. Limp Bizkit showed even if you did them poorly, tapping into enough angst could sell it. Now you just needed someone who understood the best parts of both rock and rap and was ernest enough to mesh them into one. Sure Post had already begun hinting at more traditional Americana sonics (“Go Flex”, “Feeling Whitney”) while Gunna was setting the bedrock of his own career off trappy guitar strums, and Lil Peep was busy looking like a rapper while only subtly incorporating it to his Warped Tour ready mixtapes. Juice hit all these artists' value propositions simultaneously. Addictively slick pop punk melodies and guitar strums checked the stereotypical rock box, while trap indebted drums and references to guns or designer clothing checked the stereotypical rap box. Add in universal issues such as heartbreak and drug addiction to appeal to everyone in between and boom, a global superstar is born. Mastering all these competing thoughts was a more nuanced dissection of songwriting than any of his peers could muster, despite him being one of the youngest in this cohort. 

            Producers who saw his process first hand now gush at his ability to do such sonic alchemy, freestyling these full formed records within a moments notice. Peers like Ski Mask The Slump God and G Herbo sing his praises as a king of his craft. Legends of old from Eminem to Lil Wayne acknowledged him as a special talent. Experiencing an overdose on a private jet in his hometown of Chicago was how Juice spent his last moments on Earth, a scenario he’d alluded to over dozens of songs. Millions of fans to this day mourn their death and wonder what could have been for an entire generation of artists. Goodbye lives on as his best fully fledge gift to the Earth, a polished ball of hormones that moody teenagers will cling to for an eternity.

Best Song: "All Girls Are The Same"
Best Beat: "I'm Still"
Best Moments: Lil Uzi's verse on "Wasted", every single hook, verse 2 on "Candles"

Linx Go Live: The Pop Out

Written By: Anthony Seaman

Weeks after “Not Like Us” nuked any signs of life within the Kendrick v. Drake beef The Pop Out: Ken & Friends was announced. A nightlong takeover of the famous Forum in LA was set to be a victory lap around the grave of Aubrey Graham. With the palpable disgust Kendrick held steady across the month-long barrage of diss records from across the rap multiverse tonight could go a million ways. Would this be the big budget blowout of Jay-Z at Summer Jam ‘01? Would Drake go full 50 Cent and buy out all the seats so Kendrick has to perform for an empty crowd? What if he only does “Meet The Grahams” for an hour straight and bring the alleged daughter up? Fumbling through my notes app for my roommate's Amazon Prime log in, I hop in to the livestream right as Blxst was struggling to hit literally any listenable note. Immediate cold water on all expectations. Obviously Mustard wasn’t going to go on stage and go full Jazzy Jeff on us, so him brining out a rotating cast of hitmakers and icons who’ve had ties to him checks out. After Blxst exits the stage comes the man most famous for his hits with Fifth Harmony and Post Malone hops on; Ty Dolla $ign. I missed the first few songs looking for my “Mr. Morale is the 2nd best Kendrick album” T-shirt, but once it was on snug with some hot tea to boot, it was time to lock in to the festivities. 

Mustard & Friends 

Paranoid: Ty swole as hell. Whatever workouts Ye was doing under Mercedes-Benz Stadium Ty copied, upped the ante, and perfected. What isn’t perfected? This microphone situation. Someone is getting tossed backstage as we speak. 

My Type Of Party: Dom Kennedy popping out is something only LA would lose their minds over. And for the record, Yellow Album may be the single best body of music from the cities lore in the past 20 years that isn’t on streaming. Honorable Mentions: Beach House, BOOM, and Jonson&Johnson. 

When I Come Around: If Datpiff got its shit together earlier, kids across the globe would be waking up playing a Datpiff Official Dom Kennedy playlist with this, “Fat Raps (Remix)”, “She Needs Me (Remix)”, “Don’t Forget The Swishers” and “She In My Car” all in a line. Dom’s legacy runs side by side to Fabolous (classic mixtapes, hits, and a comically bad back half of a career) but gahdamn at his peak that man could elevate a song. 

Static: How many people are learning tonight Steve Lacy is from Compton? As big a surprise as it is, the lyrics of the song are just a bisexual Ty Dolla $ign joint so I guess it fits. 

Bad Habit: Yup, crowd still doesn't know the verses but that doesn’t change that this was, and still is, arguably the best pop record to come from the Odd Future family tree. Also in that argument? “Know” by Syd and Tyler’s “See You Again”. “Pillow Talk Remix” I will never forget you. 

Tyler The Creator on stage

Wusayaname: SPEAKING OF GREAT ODD FUTURE POP RECORDS. As of right now the loudest crowd pop of the night and rightfully so. H-Town sample, Ty Dolla backgrounds, and a museum worthy verse from NBA Youngboy. A thing of beauty. *Chefs kiss*. 

Earthquake: Man I need to run Igor back it's been far too long. Never will I miss a chance to sing the praises of a Tyler The Creator live show. Seeing him rap live while balancing on a fallen tree in Miami, a cigarette boat in Orlando, and now a barren wasteland of a stage in LA I feel vindicated. He probably does too. Having Tyler in a set that features DJ Mustard and Ty Dolla $ign would be a blasphemous statement for anyone who lived through all of their rises to fame.

Ocean Views: Gospel and folk music wrapped in a hip-hop casing. The quintessential Nip song. I'm patiently waiting for an angelic hologram of Nip and Kobe to be zapped in from the ceiling.

Nipsey Hussle Tribute

Last Time That I Checced: Hell yeah. All I got. Hell yeah. 

The first two Roddy Ricch songs: Roddy is a better performer than I expected, but I couldn’t tell you the name of any of these first few records nor the difference between them and any toned down Gunna song. This is also about the time I checked Twitter for the first time to realize I missed Remble earlier in the show. Heartbreaking.

The Box: An anthem of Biblical proportions. I can never hear anything squeaky the same again. Yet more powerful than that clever onomatopoeia is the Compton Canadian tuxedo. He got that shit on, but ripped pants on purpose? With the leather monkey? A lot goin’ on here. 

Ballin’: Song of the summer every summer until beaches aren’t sandy and surfers aren’t cool. 

BPT: Might be my favorite YG song. That first verse is delivered with a pitbulls tenacity and is so damn hard to rap along to. There’s a version of YG that exists where he’s always doing cagey street records like this instead of tailoring songs to post up in the corner at the club to. Sidenote: Russell Westbrook sighting????? 

My N***a: 2014 Mustard was the best and worst era I've ever lived through as a rap fan. This song was one of those few “best” parts. 

Toot It & Boot It: Is it the worst mixed hit record of all time? No, because “Look At Me!” exists, but this is a strong second. I don’t think this record has hit my eardrums since I was 12. Acapella ending was a nice touch. 

Who Do You Love?: Playing the Drake record is wild. I'm surprised Top ain't come slap the leather off YG loafers himself for that. 

BIG BANK: Lazy filler tracks and mediocre crossover records weigh down the back third of YG's catalog much worse than his unrefined party boy beginnings. This song still sucks and even the home crowd knows it. 

Ken & Friends 

Transition/Intro: Showtime baby. The Snoop and Dre album announcement popping up on the jumbotron at this time is as wise a marketing tactic you could do, but there’s better odds of a Clippers title than this coming out on time. Even with music from Kendrick’s biggest influences blaring out (Lil Wayne, Eminem, Outkast) I'm imagining the list of friends that could pull out being a lot smaller. E-40, Future, Black Hippy, maybe Snoop. Having Ross, Ye, Rocky, and The Weeknd all pop up for a diss jamboree would work if he wants to go scorched Earth. Maybe Mustard’s set was there to get the home crowd riled up and ready to hate as one. A video begins playing with a man speaking, but it’s not a part of the show. The pgLang Cash App commercial is for my money the most well thought out ad I can remember. Typically the idea of teaching financial literacy is a tone deaf Band-Aid used to ignore the fact they’re teaching disenfranchised communities how to survive in a world that doesn’t want them and rarely gives them enough money to invest in anything bigger. This isn’t one of those stunts though. It’s a tasteful showing of Kendrick playing translator between someone with a real business mind and real questions from his neighborhood and an elder full of advice but lacking the code to be understood. A few more ads run, then darkness comes. The excited scream rain in. The crowd is freckled with phone lights. An O-V-Hoe chant starts. Drake is too big of a rap nerd to let his pettiness take over and have him miss watching this event. A single tear is rolling down his face to plop down on whatever Chrome Hearts goods he’s lounging in for such an event. E-40’s voice is hard to make out over the screaming crowd as he introduces the show. Still need to hear a Pascal Siakam bar from him at some point in this lifetime. 

Shot By @pres_morris

Euphoria: Perched on the flat stage like a gargoyle in the night, Kendrick finally lifts up from the stage. More amazing than his already fabled breath control is the chest length streams of diamonds that reveal themselves once he stands up. I try to pull from memory the last time so much jewelry was photographed on this man. The jewel encrusted crown of thorns was shocking more so for the diamonds than the design itself. He’s flexing, hard. Rapper hands flying around on 10. Also 3 minutes in this man has not blinked once. There’s a supreme focus, but a lack of rage in the first two sections of the song that finally begins to spill out come the 3rd beat. Maybe it’s the dynamics of the on record performance forcing a more lowkey move set, but regardless it’s a rather stoic start. Contained, hyper vigilant, almost never missing a bar in one of the more complicated records in his catalog. 

DNA: The blood red stage lights mixed with smoke and pyro makes it more clear how he’s dressed like Veeze (#FreeTimberlake). Quick cuts on the “yeahs” is the smartest directorial move yet. Still haven’t seen a blink. The energy is coming up, and his nerves are easing away. 

ELEMENT: Stylistically this song is the Ground Zero for the unhinged killer that was pushed to the peak on “Euphoria”, “Family Ties” and “Not Like Us”. A beat that tense matched with an artist reporting from a place of that much anxiety could do nothing else but force bursts of paranoia and ire. 

Alright: Saying "let me take yall back to day one" and playing a song from your third album is quite the glitch but the song is so big no one could give a damn. It’s become the rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement despite the lead to verse being about staying hopeful and finding purpose while staring in the face of capitalism, death and survivors guilt. It’s the kind of song we as a media illiterate people deserve in place of real rallying cries for revolution. This is lining up to be a Greatest Hits kind of night, but getting "Hood Politics" in the setlist would match this moment so well.

Swimming Pools: This song has always kinda sucked and it’s even more clear side by side with records from later in the catalog. Spacious verses, simple hooks with simple words and a beat that is bland enough to not distract from the message but present enough to be recognizable. The blueprint for a 10’s major label single. All it’s missing is a Young Money artist feature. 

Money Trees: TDE’s first signee appears on stage to share time with his former hyper man who’s finally figured a thing or two out. Now this should have been the single for GKMC. You’d give Jay Rock his moment, and have a much better record circulating. Kendrick writing that verse means nothing to me if I’m being honest. Rapping along trying to master Rocks flow in my childhood bedroom is a memory I’ll always hold dear. Unfrogettable stuff. 

WIN: The only acceptable environment for this song is in a giant venue after stomping on the neck of the biggest rapper in the world. Even hearing it at sporting events is tiresome. The flames going up with every “win” on the hook is a beautiful touch though. Also….LeBron is here?!?!?! That episode of The Shop funnier every year.

King’s Dead: Future not coming out for his verse is a war crime. Who was the booker for this show?

Kendrick w/ Ab-Soul for "6:16 In LA"

6:16 In LA: “WOW Freestyle” not making the Rock / Kendrick segment hurts but the Funk Soul Brother #2 himself appearing from the smoke dashes any disappointment. With Ab-Soul at an arms length Kendrick goes bar for bar over the stomping Al Green sample. Rapping “I live in the circadian rhythms of shooting star” to the only other guy who would unironically say that is hilarious. It seems like eons ago but once upon a time Ab was the lyrical miracle of TDE, living life on the edge rapping like a drugged out GZA if you replaced chess talk with YouTube conspiracy theories. After surviving a suicide attempt just a few years earlier, seeing Soulo share any moment this large tugs at the heartstrings. It tightens up how personal and intimate this diss was. Spreading out the disses is a nice chess move too. 

Collard Greens: AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

THat Part: I’m not even mad Ab didn’t get a record. It should have been “Terrorist Threats” but if more that 20% of the crowd heard an Ab-Soul LP after Control System I’d sell my record collection for a penny. If 50% of the crowd knew Control System at all I'd give it up for free. My up and down love of this song has always been about the raps thesmelves and never about how amazing this beat is. Cardo has a superpower of entering the shapeless ether that makes up the universe and coming out with a melodic field that’s not of this Earth, just to slap on the most menacing combination of drums that only a madman native of this Earth could do.

King Kunta: My chants for “SayWassup” have gone unheard. Q and Kendrick getting a "Man Of The Year" duet off would have been fitting for this re-coronation ceremony. I’ll take the anti-ghostwriting G-funk masterwork that is “King Kunta” instead I guess. These guys are having so much fun on that stage. Rock, Q and Ab dancing along to the soul trapped inside the bassline (please God someone keep Ab's blind ass away from the pyro). 

m.A.A.d city: “Seen a lightskin n***a with his brains blown out” hits way harder now. Not bringing MC Eiht on the stage is some bullshit in my opinion. The 2nd half of this record was the GKMC moment that put a strong knot between the Compton rap of the early 90’s and the Compton rap of today. If not here, where else would be the stage to pull that trick out? 

Shot By Andres Tardio

HUMBLE: There’s something off. Not the music, not the staging, not even the tracklist (well maybe the setlist), but the energy on Kendrick doesn’t track. The mumbles before this song about “holding down the next 20 years” might just be a one off move, but something feels off. It seemed like a set up for another guest to come but instead it’s just “HUMBLE”. What’s coming? Is he nervous? Why does this song not hit as hard in this arena? Mike Will Made-It and Kendrick have had a track record of creative collision that’s never missed, and in the one place that it should hit the most, the record seems small. 

Like That: Is this the first full performance of this song live? After Travi$ egged on Metro at Rolling Loud to preview the song it’s been trapped within DJ sets, headphones, and every car speaker in America, but with live vocals in full? Energy wise this is the first time Kendrick is matching the moment. He’s dancing more. He’s squirming around more. He’s finally warmed up. There’s no Future coming out (sadly) but I’ve already stopped expecting big guests to come out. Maybe it was just his real life day one rap friends, Black Hippy, all along. 

Still D.R.E.: That last sentence? Ignore it. Whoever wrote that doesn’t know shit about shit because Dr. Dre is slowly gliding up from the stage. Those damn Scott Storch key stabs make everything sound harrowing. It's chilling seeing him stand solid on that riser. More fear inducing is my most depressive thoughts. Seeing Dre at this big age makes me sad in advance for the day I'm forced to mourn this legend. At 59 this man is looking more like Quincy Jones every day, and really sounds like it now. He’s not winded, but he’s also not moving much either. The man spent more house bent over mixing boards than anything else in this life and his stiffness shows it. More powerful than the drums or keys on the song are the seeds he planted over 30 years ago growing strong across industries in every corner of the globe. Even now the epicenter of American culture has been radiating from one of his pupils for the 400th time. The Godfather of Compton with the cities current King. What a moment. 

California Love: Pac is in Havana mad as hell he missed his flight to be there tonight. 

Not Like Us: “Psst. I see dead people” coming from Dre’s mouth? This place might collapse on itself. I might break my couch. Cooler than any Anthony Edwards highlight, and more deranged than any Trump headline. The little sicko is out. Kenny pausing and dancing in place while the crowd chants “A minorrrrrrrrrrrrrr”? This long pause in the music? Alone basking in the Sun as The Forum cheers him on? Rephrasing the Snoop moment at the Source Awards? Running the song back? Lord oh Lord. I need to be cooled off. Someone get Blxst back up here to tamper things down.

Not Like Us, 2nd Run: Still basking and letting the crowd do 80% of the work is a pro move. Pausing on the “A minorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” and letting the crowd hit it AGAIN? Aye man, sometimes you gotta pop out and smell the roses. 

Kendrick & Dr. Dre on stage 

Not Like Us, 3rd Run: I don’t like to buy into the idea of “we’ll never see something like this again” in any form; sports, music, love. But damn man. This shit ain’t normal. Compton’s chosen son, mentored by Dr. Dre himself, coming up from battling people in the streets to becoming “the biggest underground artist of all time”? This is what this has all been building towards. All the nights alone writing. All the hours spent in dilapidated studios and hotel rooms. From Arabian Prince to Ice-T to NWA to Pac to Game to now. Even my journey as a fan of his from hearing “Rigamortis” for the first time, to hearing “The Heart Pt. 2”, to buying GKMC week one, to the GRAMMYs and Pulitzers to now. 17k+ singing O-V-hoe at the top of their lungs. One man, one mic, a couple little lights and some pals dancing and doing verses. It’s a relatively simple gameplan. It’s just big Kendrick right now and forever. What is weird though; the harshest bars are cut out. He looks winded yeah, and maybe it's a plow to get the crowd to deliver the venom as a flex of restraint, but this whole night lacks the sting I was expecting. The “A miiiinooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” pauses were the peak of his nastiness. If you told me this was just a regular Kendrick hometown show I'd believe you. Deep down I still have the hope that under his red hoodie lies a shirt with Pusha's "Story Of Adidon" cover on it at least.

Not Like Us, 4th Run: Mustard. Westbrook. DeRozan. Blxst. YG. Black Hippy. Big-Hit carrying his grandson. WS Boogie. Worthy. Bino. Big Boy. Lacy. Roddy. Hed. Tommy The Clown. Calls to the void looking for G Perico. All the nameless homies that someone is gonna write an article tracking (couldn’t be me though, this is enough). Laughing, dapping, dancing. The essence of the night is finally clear. It’s not the celebration of the death of an enemy, it’s a unifying moment for a city that’s been tormented for generations with the struggles of systemic racism in a capitalistic nation. Gang violence. Crack epidemic. OJ. Rodney King. Kershaw playoff performances. Eazy-E dying. Kobe dying. Underfunded schools. Nipsey, Drakeo and 2Pac murders. The unknown names behind bars and under the dirt that could have gone just as far as anyone on this stage but just never got the chance. From Kendrick himself, “You’ve never seen this many sections on stage having peace”. The crowd is secondary now. “Everyone on this stage has fallen soldiers' dog”. Still, weird every rapper on the stage besides Big-Hit is under 40. Doing a super West Coast unity moment with only current artists (with almost everyone on stage being men) is more lazy than spiteful. It's a moment of raw emotion, the sloppiest kind of presentation. The most pure. There was no appearance from a legend to double down on the Aubrey hate. There were no more big reveals of information. Drake isn’t on anyone's mind right now. The beef was clear cut done and over with weeks ago. But with this moment Dot is taking the opportunity to show the beef has become a means to an end. As dismissive as Drake was to Kendrick, Kendrick is having the last laugh by leaving Drake as a footnote.

Not Like Us, 5th Run: With a handheld camera the madness of the stage is harnessed at eye level. The tight angles and quick cuts are out. Instead some poor soul has to remain focused in a moment that deserves (and will probably get) a 10 part Netflix documentary sponsored by pgLand and KIA, executive produced by 50 Cent. In the scrum there’s people with phones out recording the moment. Homies trading handshakes. WS Boogie rapping dead to the camera while Kendrick throws his arm around him. It’s an IG Live of the greatest house party in a city that made house parties feel like the pinnacle of human experience. Laughing despite the wars outside. Comradery that pierces generational divides. A beef based in the battingly ideologies of two different primary colors that has splintered into a ratking of misery, forgotten right now by each side's most famous representatives. After 15 years of feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders and taking every chance to tell us about it, there’s a new look on the Hub City Threats face; peace. With his eyes closed looking to the sky there’s calm. Gone is the unblinking stare into the void. The Eminem level technical diction is in the wind. Every song was an exorcism of emotions so that real peace could finally fill his vessel. A dance circle breaks out and Kendricks smile widens. “Fuck it up! Fuck it up!” yelps blurt from his mouth following every move busted in the circle. Kids, OG’s, podcasters, rappers. All under the spell of written word. Master of ceremony to a tee. 

Shot by Armen Keleshian