Vintage Review: The Last Kiss

   Score: 1/5 | Released: April 7th, 2009

Written By: Anthony Seaman     

                Unless you’re Joe Budden, retiring from music doesn’t just happen. You either internally lose the drive, label calls stop rolling in to grease the wheels of a new project, or you keep going but everyone stops listening. In 2004 Jadakiss announced he was done releasing major albums until he could get off of his label, the powerhouse that was Interscope. Jadakiss and The LOX future albums were put in limbo thanks to in part to 50 Cent. A beef with the Queen megastar, born of being a feature on Ja Rule’s “New York” at a time of war between Ja and 50, later grew into a slew of diss records, childhood friends turned industry folk mudding up any attempts of reconciliation, and a failed 1-v-1 showdown at Madison Square Garden where a champion of the beef and $1 million dollars would be on the line. 50 was a major star for the company and had the ear of Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre like few others had. Not to mention the LOX as a whole had been followed by the black cloud of label issues since the beginning of their career. Bad Boy, the label owned and operated by Diddy that gave the Yonkers trio their first shot in the business, had not only held an excessive amount of their backend money from their releases but was constantly forcing them to make creative compromises that they saw as detrimental to their artistry. As the war with 50 Cent and Interscope waged on, Jada took to the internet, focusing on self-releasing mixtapes and doing feature verses for up and coming rappers. Eventually signing to Def Jam, thanks to a personal friendship with Jay-Z while he was still running the label, Jadakiss would release the long clamored for The Last Kiss. 

Like every commercial Jadakiss project before it, to put it plainly, it sucks. It would be one thing if Jada was a bad rapper, a guy who just recycled the same lines time and again, would regularly get washed by his peers, or was uncreative in his cadences and flows. Yet he’s none of that. The Achilles Heel that still burdens one of the greatest feature killers in hip-hop history is his dreadful song crafting. From his time at Bad Boy to the modern day, If the songs had hooks at all, they were halfhearted attempts at crossover refrains or R&B hooks that couldn’t buoy the cringeworthy beat selection. He had earned his stripes across New York in the late 90’s rapping in tandem with Styles P and Sheek Louch, battling in parks and freestyling everywhere from street corners to live on Hot97. Production on every album saw the same faces; Swizz Beats, Icepick, PK, Pharrell. Timbaland, D-Dot and Scott Storch even found their way into the mix doing the same thing everyone was doing; overproducing. The Last Kiss is no different. 

 The late 00’s saw a frenzy of producers ripping off J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, Swizz, Sean C & LV and Just Blaze to create cinematic monstrosities that work best for lighting sparklers while $300 in the hole at a strip club. Those artists themselves even became stale and either swapped out their palette or shifted gear completely. Some rappers toed the line perfectly (essentially anyone not from the North East featured on a DJ Khaled album) and others ended up like Jada, struggling to find a foothold in something so detailed. The music was exclusively for those who got chubby and moved to Miami, but Kiss was still trying to compete. The Champ Is Here mixtape series was electric, and showed no signs of rust as a pure MC. But when it came time for a new album, the same deficiencies reared their head. He rehashed the “questions concept” he patented on “Why?” with Nas for “What If”, for the umpteenth time. He tried to be a ladies man “Rockin’ With The Best” and “By My Side”, biograph the hard life of a young girl turned resilient woman “Smoking Gun”, or turn his own life to a motivational tale “Can’t Stop Me”. Every overthought concept fell flat as potent bars were watered down for commercial rap consumers. “Who’s Real” and “Something Else” sound like unwanted cuts from any number of Jeezy albums. Lonely in the depths of nothingness are actual inspired and sonically pleasing tracks “One More Step” and “Things I’ve Been Through” leaning into his gold standard connectivity to Styles P or his picture perfect storytelling. 90% of the record you can skip through and miss nothing of substance, or you could tape your hands together to make tracks unskippable and be delivered a living blemish in an already hapless career.

If Jadakiss had entered the rap universe 5 years earlier everything would be poised for his success. Being ushered in by pop-rap titans Diddy and Notorious B.I.G. put an expectation of chart topping success on himself and his crew, something they never were meant to become. Not to mention in the early 2000’s the Golden Age sample heavy sound that birthed them faded away for electro-leaning beats that doubled as Transformers cut music. They were rugged, vile lyricists who flourished ripping the hearts out of opponents; but when you’re pushed as a pop star everyone is supposed to see you as a friend. A safe haven. Instead he was meant to be unlocking new chambers with Wu-Tang Clan or playing a counter balance to Guru on Gang Starr albums. The Last Kiss is the worst of Jadakiss’ studio albums (arguably the worst project bearing his name in any capacity) and falls in a lineage of NY greats falling off the mountain top of mainstream relevance with an explosive thud (everyone wave hello to Fat Joe and Busta rhymes). If you find it in the Used section at your local record store, buy it and burn it for the safety of others.

Best Song: “Things I've Been Through”
Best Beat: “One More Step”
Best Moments: The first verse of "Smoking Gun", both of Jada's verses on "What If", Raekwon shouting out Ugly Betty on "Cartel Gathering" how "Respect My Conglomerate" somehow gets comically worse every year.

Another Link To The Chain: Maxo

Another Link To The Chain; an ongoing series highlighting rising hip-hop artists extending the history of the genre into the future

Representing: Los Angeles, California, USA

For Fans Of: Blu, Mos Def, Common, The Fugees, Atmosphere, Navy Blue, Isaiah Rashad, Quasimoto

        The lineage of underground California hip-hop has for generations been based upon the abstract bends and twists of the English language; Myka-9, Del The Funky Homosapien, Aceyalone, etc. Their lineage was and is carried on by the members of Hellfyre Club and to some degree Andre 3000 (a noted Hieroglyphics superfan), but the mind melding sonics that rose from a talent deprived mid-Aughts period where dozens of producers and MC’s that existed within the now fabled LA Beat Scene are the next generation continuation of the early 90's foundation. Most of the members of the Hellfyre Club came to the Beat Scene later on but the foundational pieces were the beatmakers more than the MC’s. Of course the Madlib, Nujabes, DOOM and Dilla (to which Donuts may truly be the ground zero of everything) class had their sounds and secret identities that helped crack the code of what instrumental hip-hop could be, but lateral to them were experimentalists working within electronic music (Flying Lotus, Teebs, Nosaj Thing), funk and R&B (Sa-Ra Creative Partners, DAM-Funk, J*Davey), and underground hip-hop (Ras G, Samiyam, Dibia$e), all finding a nesting place across California. All of these acts, a now defunct meeting place named Low End Theory, and a musical guru in Daddy Kev tied together and cultivated the LA Beat Scene. At Low End only the strongest could survive hectic freestyle battles fueled by a burn to be an alpha in a room of lyrical savants and live SP-404 performances. 

 NoYork! by Blu was a love letter to this scene, and has since become a hard to find cult classic that (along with dozen of Bandcamp and Youtube only release from the aforementioned Low End players) sparked a generation of poets to use the warmth of cheap mics and analog emulators to transfer the feelings of comfort they longed for most in their darkest moments.  Whether they’ve heard the projects directly or heard those who carry it as a totem (or found an alternate influence from the even more rugged Memphis rap tape ecosystem of the 90’s) ovrkst., Mavi, MIKE, loji, and Pink Siifu created their own hissing and popping audio experiences despite computers being the centerpiece of creation in these albums. Production choices, muddled vocal mixes and similar topic bases (mental health, systemic racism, holistic medicine, self-improvement, grabba leaf by the pounds) ties together this generation of MC’s. “Lo-Fi rap” frustrates those labeled it the way “neo-soul” did the same 20 years ago, but from it has come the most important underground artists in years. One of those artists, Maxo, was the first to sign a major label deal, pushing this sound closer to the mainstream without already being a known commodity the way Earl Sweatshirt was when he released Some Rap Songs, the definitive work of this sub-genre.

            For many underground heads the name Maxo comes to light with “Same Hoodie Since ‘05”, a reverb drenched joint revisiting his lineage and how he grew from boy into young man. The slow thump of the drums matches his muted anger, always sounding a single bar away from a scream. The Smile project from which the single came is produced in full by Lastnamedavid (credits since have piled up with YL, Medhane, Caleb Giles), and is a beta-version of his next projects to come. His Def Jam debut EP LIL BIG MAN is an entry point for those wanting to hearing an abstract realist over beats that feel closer to hip-hop tradition, but with Even God Has A Sense Of Humor Maxo is searching for something more, delivering with grace a new soul into our overly automated world. Debbie's Son, his second record of 2023 is more liberated in his performances. Liberation in his delivery is plain as day, with a tone that shifts some songs from verse to verse. So many perspectives exist within Maxo as he views his story, and for the first time everyone gets a word in. The soundscape of Humor (the Def Jam blessed LP) and Debbie's Son (his first independent post-Def Jam release) are closer to Erykah Badu’s New Amerykah Pt. 1 than his LA counterparts Drakeo The Ruler or even Earl. It's an attempted departure from what the idea of the LA underground is supposed to sound like, but pieces of a past generation still breathe through it. It’s Lo-fi rap meeting dream pop, slam poetry connecting with an almost Southern dirt road hip-hop type of bounce. It’s one birthed from that raw soulfulness melding into the robotics of a modern studio; the kind where the line between home and recording booth could just be a single wire. The fingers of man pressing the triggers of the machine, forming a symbiotic universe where a heartbeat means as much as a WiFi connection. It’s an atmosphere full of delays and reverbs, the sound of a living deprivation tank. Accordion runs, organs, windchimes, live drum breaks, every instrument that can tickle deep in your ear and sound good from 10,000 feet is used to build the world. Bleeding out from his strained speaking voice or raspy whispers is the divinity of Georgia Anne Muldrow and the questioning of a long past philosopher. In his rap style, the traditional “bars” that rap heads value are erased and replaced with anecdotes and affirmations of a man who has felt too much, cries to the sky instead of hollow calls for hands in the air. Worlds away from Hieroglyphics in presence on every record, yet the DNA lives through in a form no one could have predicted. The LA Beat Scene was in many ways galactic jazz, smoked out hip-hop, and pioneering electronica mashing together into a collage of humanistic beauty. Maxo finds his way with similar tricks, but his focus on relatability and bearing his soul over the unobtainable idea of technical perfection leads to worlds unknown.

Album To Check: LIL BIG MAN 

Best Songs: “Strongside”, “Face Of Stone”, “Nuri”

Written By: Anthony Seaman (@soflogemstone on IG & Twitter)

Gone 2 Soon: Pop Smoke

July 20th, 1999-February 19th, 2020

Representing: Brooklyn, New York, USA

For Fans Of: Fivio Foreign, Lil Tjay, A Boogie, 50 Cent, Skepta

        Bashar Jackson, most notably known as Pop Smoke, received his first sprinkle of fame when a video of him getting slapped at the age of 13 went viral on WorldStar.com. Little would they know that 7 years later that 13-year-old boy would become the spark of a generation defining sound. The young man draped out in Dior was ultimately next up to carry the torch and was the biggest missing link to push forward a hip-hop renaissance in New York, and establish a hip-hop identity the city hadn’t had in over 15 years. 

        2018, just a year removed from graduating from Richmond Hill High School, he attempted to rap during a break in a studio session that he just tagged along for with his friend and fellow rapper, Jay Gwuapo. In January 2019, he first released a song titled “MPR” which was released on his YouTube channel soon followed up by a second song, "Flexin". April 2019, Pop Smoke would go on to sign with Victor Victor Worldwide and Republic Records after catching the ear of legendary Clipse manager Steven Victor. On April 23, 2019, he released his breakout single “Welcome to the Party”, which evaporated any lasting memories of his informal meeting with the world. Later in the year he continued to capitalize off his hit singles and dropped a remix of “Welcome to the Party” with Nicki Minaj. It was that summer the fabric of the city's concrete blocks shifted, along with NY's incompetent hip-hop hierarchy. It felt like everything was about to change for the better. Something was different; the cookouts and block parties were vibrant, white Air Forces were clean, girls started wearing sundresses again, the price of snow cones went back down to $1, and the 1,2,3 trains all had air conditioning. This feeling felt familiar to the city, reminiscent of the time “Wanksta” was released by the soon-to-be King of New York, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. No, it is not a coincidence that they share the same last name. 

        On July 26th, 2019, Meet The Woo flooded the airwaves and polluted every school hallway and train station platform. Pop’s energy was felt through every brand of speaker from Bose, JBL, Sony, and even the Beats Pill. Tracks like “Dior”, “PTSD”, and “Better Have Ya Gun” would officially make him a household name. He would close out the year with features on songs such as, “War “(Lil TJay) and “GATTI” (Travis Scott). “GATTI” would go on to be his inaugural appearance on the Billboard Top 100. January 16th, 2020, Pop Smoke would release a new single titled “Christopher Walking”, which would be the first time he proclaimed himself to be the newest crown holder of the cities hip-hop scene by rapping “She loves the way that I talk / she knows Papi outside / she knows I’m the King of New York”. After that it was official. To further cement his claim, Meet the Woo 2 was released that following month on February 7th, 2020. The 11-song mixtape (excluding the 2 bonus songs) hit on all cylinders. Tracks titled, “Invincible” and “Shake the Room”  showed that he could translate his transcendent energy, presence, and growl to make outstanding club records, and highlighted his underrated ear for beat selection. Tracks titled, “Armed 'N Dangerous”, “Mannequin”, and the already bubbling “Christopher Walking”, emphasized his ability to make full songs that keep you engaged with tight verses, witty lines, authenticity, and an electrifying quality known as the “it-factor”. 

        12 days later, Pop Smoke was murdered in a home invasion in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles, California. The newfound flame would quickly burn out, allowing the torch and the crown to once again be left vacant for the next person who could make 
the cookouts and block parties vibrant once again. With 13 official months under his belt, Pop Smoke was the most impactful artist that has come out of New York in the past decade and a half. He joined the fraternity of deceased New York hip-hop legends like Biggie, Big L, and Big Pun. To this day you still hear Pop Smoke’s signature adlibs like, “Dior Dior, “Uh huh”, “Wooo”, and the best one, “Grrrrrrrr”, all through the winds of the subway cars, and over the obnoxious honks of yellow taxicabs. 

Best Project: Meet the Woo 2 

Best Songs: “Armed and Dangerous”, “Dior (Remix)”, “Tell the Vision” 

Written By: Tristan Swnason (@Swanaveli Twitter)

Modern Review: Tana Talk 4

    Score: 2.5/5 | Released: March 11th, 2022

Written By: Anthony Seaman     

            Everyone in Griselda plays a role. What started off as a family business has exploded into an internationally known think tank for gravely neo-boom bap with a team that looks more like the cast of Ocean's 11 than The Town. The roster has expanded from the core trio to bring in Stove God Cook$, Boldy James, Armani Cesar, Rome Streetz, Estee Nack, Jay Worthy (sort of) and a re-welcoming of Mach-Hommy all ranging from classic cocaine cowboys to worldly auteurs to sparky loose cannons. At the labels core is an adoration of the grimy East Coast 90’s; Mobb Deep, Kool G Rap, M.O.P, Wu-Tang Clan. Eventually for this blessed time in rap and for the Griselda crew; the income grew exponentially, bringing with it a glitz and glam that made the dust of street corners seem less appealing. Jay-Z and Notorious B.I.G. most famously toed the lines of the corner and the c-suite inspiring Benny The Butcher to do the same. Tana Talk 3 was the proof that Benny could be a star, building upon the fervor caused by Butcher On Steroids and stellar features across Westside Gunn’s projects. It was hardcore to the label's principles, but showed an itch for something bigger that Gunn and Conway didn’t have. The Tana Talk series has been Benny’s underground hideout from the glossier Burden Of Proof and Plugs I Met 2 adventures, neither of which crossing into mainstream sounds quite as blatantly as say Jay’s Vol. 2, but still clear attempts to spread his wings creatively from the confines of the Griselda-verse. The push for expansion was warranted when you keep tally of what made Benny special compared to his cohorts. More personal than Conway, more potent lyricist than Gunn, better hook writer than Rome, more charismatic than Boldy, better production than Armani. Nobody in the crew then, or today, is as well rounded as Benny. Issues arise when he’s next to higher caliber stars, because what is special about Benny? It's not him being the best working drug dealer turned underground rapper (Gibbs and Pusha T have that on lock) and it's not him being some elite songwriter trapped behind dusty samples (Stove God on the otherhand....). Rooting for the underdog is what has made Benny special; the story of turning his life around after prison to run with his family to create a hip-hop enterprise is why we adore him more than any other Rich Porter obsessed rapper. With Burden Of Proof Benny tasted life outside of the shadows, seeing what the big dogs see. The film built up from nights on street corners was scrapped off, the bristled edges were sanded down, and the odyssey's into smuggling were sanitized into something more digestible with just enough of his core being in tact to separate him from the pack. On Tana Talk 4 he was coming back to the sounds that made him, but it didn't invigorate his skills. Rather he carried his watered down self into his old world, now too soft to stand up in the mean streets again.

        Across Tana Talk 4 it’s easy to slip into a state of boredom hearing the same stories again and again about making it from being a dealer, to a felon, to a rap star. Once upon a time hearing about his prison sentences and making things right with his family were untouched reflections, because they were still raw complicated feelings. The acidity of his frustrations were factory set into his delivery. In the 2 years leading to the album's release his career saw an exponential success (growing his fanbase working with Hit-Boy, Smoke DZA, and Lil Wayne) to which playing with the same fire that fueled his 2016-2018 rebirth becomes a tricky task when the first of the month is less anxiety inducing. The bite was removed from everyones favorite underdog. Despite the flourishing in his career, personal pain was still abundant after losing friend, producer and mentor DJ Shay to COVID in 2020 on top of being hospitalized on multiple occasions with asthma issues and gunshot wounds from an attempted robbery. For all the rigorous trials, the mentions of them are so surface level they’re easily washed into obscurity across the project. “Mr. Chow Hall” is an example of shallow speech, where blank spaces in his verse replace mentions of companies that paid him and his confidants, sacrificing the purity of his music to protect his own wallet. Less exciting than his subject matter is the instrumental backdrops he tells them over. “Back 2x”, “Tyson vs. Ali”, “Super Plug” and “Billy Joe” are a dime a dozen with hooks equally as uninspiring. When a high BPM kick comes on “Thowy’s Revenge” Benny sounds invigorated and fires on all cylinders in a mode he rarely gets a chance to maneuver in. “Weekend In The Perry’s” puts the cavernous dampness on the back burner for a more euphoric and watery vocal chop. “10 More Commandments”, albeit a nod to B.I.G's “Ten Crack Commandments”, is an imaginative update to a classic tune with a rare appearance from Diddy reclaiming his crown as an ad-lib master. Outside of an all-time verse from the streaking J. Cole, every guest vocal are watered down versions of the selected MC. Conway, Stove, Boldy, .38 Spesh and Westside gift Benny verses so limp it begs the question if they were new or just leftovers from their own sessions with the workhorse producers. 

        After a year living with this album, the want to keep pushing through the tracklist fades fast after the intro. The run time is only 40 minutes, but feels endless with loop upon loop stacked into the tracklist mesmerizing you to a state of malaise.  It’s not a fully lifeless piece, but just dead enough to keep the stethoscope on stand by. What’s missing from Benny is something that plagues many rappers who rely on traditionalist values; lack of invention. Focusing on fundamentals doesn’t inherently mean boring, but when you’re just kinda solid at the fundamentals with no flash around it, the boredom is impossible to run from. Tana Talk 4 is the embodiment of someone being too comfortable, hoping to find new life in old spaces. The flames of something new rarely survive throughout a whole verse, a bad omen for someone with aspirations of being in conversation with real legends.

Best Song: “Bust A Brick Nick”
Best Beat: “Thowy’s Revenge”
Best Moments: J. Cole on “Johnny P’s Caddy” / Diddy’s ad-libs on “10 More Commandments” / Verse 2 of “Thowy’s Revenge”

Modern Review: Generational Curse

Score: 4.5/5 | Released: March 24th, 2023

Written By: Anthony Seaman      

   Chaos is an unquestioned piece of the best West Coast releases ever made. The overlapping storylines within a house party, escaping or causing drive by’s, rule breaking feats of the human language, or 24-hour documentaries through the lives of those seen as America’s most dangerous never are consistent. The consistency is the inconsistency. There’s always time to party, to laugh, cry, scream to the heavens. Bass lines pulse, samples screech, drums go a mile a millisecond or a mile an hour. ICECOLDBISHOP may be the best at harnessing this chaos of any rapper the West Coast has ever seen. He gives classic tales of hard drug use and gun violence, but reframes it not as stories of pure violence, but before and after tales. Generational Curse has been sitting on the shelf for years, with only light tweaks across the pandemic punching it up to be what it is today. Capturing the fears of walking into treacherous territory as the sun goes down, the production is thick with darkness. Who or what will pop from around the corner next is unknown, every bass line and kick regrounds you while BISHOP zooms up and down the musical scale with his voice.Take A Daytrip retreat from the pop-rap crossover world of Lil Nas X back to their roots as hip-hops elite stadium shakers. Kenny Beats, Kal Banx, Mr. Carmack stand out with their one-off placements, but the trio of Jeremy Uribe, BREGMA, and Kyla Moscovich appear as co-producers across the album hemming tight and loose ends that could break you out of this cinematic record. 

        BISHOP is as nimble of a speaker as they come. He pushes his voice from the gruffness of a superior to a squawk fit for a zoo animal. He’s the Kyrie of vocal manipulation; everything you imagine doing by yourself when you’re singing along seems plausible, until you actually try it. Much like Kyrie, BISHOP is doing it at the highest level with seemingly no resistance. It’s hard work, it’s patience, but that final tier of mastery requires a special invitation from God to enter. It ramps up his storytelling, making the same LA tales movies, podcasts and other albums have taken as source material, but with new depth. You can trace the deepening and eventual rising of his delivery best on “OUT THE WINDOW”, where the bends come in waves. From near drunken rumbles to breathless stabs he flexes a linguistic range from point A to point B like no other working rapper can. Tune out for 10 seconds and you’re in a whole new part of South Central, still in go mode like you were previously but with a whole new set of problems. 

Like everyone in the neighborhood, he’s never just a simple bystander, he’s a conscious participant. Pills and liquor are in his system, and it’s because he’s learned it from everyone around him, who learned it from their people and so on. Murder isn’t just a senseless act over a misunderstanding, you take ours and we take yours, regardless of the repercussions. The closing verse of “CANDLELIGHT” breaks down the cold side of being an OG, consciously manipulating fresh faces in the crew to commit crimes you caused from the comfort of your couch. The starkest of them all may be “TIL THE END” where BISHOP speaks on children and teenaged victims being just as bad the grown folks. “Whole lotta niggas you think die for nothing / die for something / you don’t know why cause we don’t tell our side to the public / nobody aint really innocent / that little boy at 16 you see with the book bag / he really out here killing shit”. What do you say when you see passing down traditions is damaging progression? Rage fires out of his mouth on "CURSED", as the pent up frustrations materialize into an open invitation to be a front line solider. BISHOP’s answer is retelling the tales with a kind of clarity that isn’t perspective based, but rather from a rooftop above it all.  Generational Curse is a low stakes version of good kid, m.A.A.d. city with the production values of DAMN., more specifically the twitchier anthems like “ELEMENT” and “m.A.A.d. city”. Is he the main character through this LP? Vividly speaking on his family members' addiction issues and murders make him the star, but based on the environment he’s detailing you could swap out the name but the story stays the same.

        The ingredients that are used to make the West Coast gumbo are so distinct that it’s become harder to splash in new ingredients. We adore Blxst for throwing a Don Toliver filter over landscapes Young Slo-Be and Drakeo co-molded, and Kendrick was deified for being the first to synthesize every West Coast movement into 2 albums. California is more insular than any other region, MC Ren was able to get Platinum Certified off an EP that hardly circulated in stores outside of the state. Any outside influence is appreciated, because at this point in time it’s hard to spin the Blood vs. Crip anthology with any new eye popping details. Performances from Busta Rhymes, Busdriver and E-40 feel soaked into the DNA of BISHOP intentionally or not. He’s spoken highly of G-Unit and Kendrick in interviews, and the face breaking force of real life matches that of those acts, and that is enough of a twist to keep the formula fresh. He feels poised to slip right into the West Coast ecosystem, already working with Alchemist, Reason and Ab-Soul while wrapping himself in the ecosystems of Rico Nasty and AG Club to keep new ideas flowing. The greatness of BISHOP isn’t in what he says, but how he says it. The pulses of his vocal chords seep the words into the back of your brain like the omnipresent fear of the sky falling. He’s a performer first, but one that has a sense of purpose to display his life and the lives of those around him unselfishly. It’s not about what they do or have done or are plotting on doing to their fellow man, but how did we get here? Can it ever stop if we set it out so plainly in front of our eyes?

Best Song: "FOCUSED"

Best Beat: "OUT THE WINDOW"

Best Moments: The speedy jazz section of "FOCUSED" / Verse 1 of "I CANT SWIM" / The blown out vocals on "CURSED" / The singing in the car interlude on "CANDLELIGHT" 

Modern Review: Emergency Raps Vol. 4

Score: 4/5 | Released: January 25th, 2019

Written By: Anthony Seaman 

      

 Virgina, North Carolina, DC and Maryland have a history in hip-hop that’s time and again overlooked. They’re not fly over states, but rather drive throughs as people escape New England winters to vacation in Florida, or as Southerns take summer road trips north to experience big cities like NYC, Philly and the cleaned up historical novels of DC. Appreciation for the mountains, thick morning fogs, and scenic national parks remind you of the hidden beauty the stolen land we live upon holds. The R&B, jazz and pop music that has come from this forested corner of America is overpowering; Thelonious Monk, Jodeci, Aaliyah, Ginuwine, Johnny Gill, Frank Zappa, the list goes on. Its hip-hop importance is easily forgotten if not for the biggest stars of the last 2 decades (Missy Elliott, Pharrell, Timbaland) being as much of stars in other genres as they are rap. J. Cole, Logic, Wale and DaBaby have become contemporary rap representatives, but the underground blueprint  for them to get to these Billboard chart heights was forged by early internet adopters Little Brother, Nickelus F, Oddisee and The Clipse. Pete Rock, Wu-Tang Clan, the Soulquarians and Camp Lo hold a place within the area's DNA creating a petri dish of East Coast Golden Era bar focused verses with the soulful thump of Southern beatmakers past. Lute, Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon, Rapsody, and redveil are the modern day inheritors of the land, constantly adding their own spice to the family recipe. Mutant Academy, a Richmond based collective of rappers, has had the most bountiful collection of music of the aforementioned bunch, expanding what it means to be ultra-skilled in this region. The MC’s are distinct from one another, each playing a role in a greater team setting, while the producers have either perfect or experimented with samples and live instruments farther than anyone before them. At the head of the crew is co-founder Fly Anakin, leading by example with the most focused discography and consistent output of his cohorts.

        As a continuation of his Emergency Raps series, Mutant Academy producer Tuamie gets Fly Anakin solo for the first time. Tuamie is a loop master, creating beats that feel like reclining in a planetarium. So spacious it feels like you can look up and see the waves of sound envelop you, detailed with twinkling hi end percussion filling the sky with a sea of constellations. Dilla-esk bass tones and back shattering kicks create a solid ground for a rapper to hold on to, but Anakin has always been above the clouds in his own wizardry. The hypnosis these instrumentals put you under can lull you into your own mind, losing focus on the words spoken, but making the times you focus on them more rewarding. The dexterity of his delivery is up there with the Eminem’s and Snoop Dogg’s of the world, no pocket is too small or too off meter for him to attack. His bersagliere level accuracy in word placement can be heard across “Gold Accord (Veronica)” fitting phrases in the little space Tuamie’s piano chords provide. Tonally he’s screeching into layers of sound, every breath between bars is left in like a purposeful adlib. Songwriting has been what separates him the most from his Mutant brethren, structuring classic rap hooks in between his head spinning verses.

         “Karl Kani” has become the perfect entry point into new underground fans, fitting as a minimalistic dive into Fly’s abilities while your head bobs along to the mid-tempo groove. A blacked out bedroom with hypnotic LED projections overlay Fly in the songs video, giving the perfect tutorial on how to enjoy an Anakin classic; good weed, cozy seating, and time alone to let the art flow over you. “Murray’s” is a 2 minute long ode alongside Skyzoo about youthful efforts to get waves in their hair, doubling as a reminder to the importance of consistency in life. “Travolta IV” is a continuation of Mutant Academy cyphers, this time over a cramped choir loop that forces the crew (sans a recently departed for solo work Koncept Jack$on) to speed over one another like the final stretch of a NASCAR race. Henny builds upon his own lore as a vivid scene painter, Anakin’s vocal dexterity is slid up to 10, and Kahuna remains unbothered by the tempo and power waltz’s with updates on his day-to-day life. For Tuamie and Anakin both “Splinters” is a darker adventure the is more Cold Vein than “Cooley High”, bringing in Al.Divino and Ankhlejohn for a sub zero bar fest. As 2019 unfolded you saw Mach-Hommy, Roc Marciano, Westside Gunn and Billy Woods remind the world who earned faces on the Underground Mt. Rushmore for this generation, but Fly alone with this album and the Kahuna collab Holly Water showed he could write, curate and perform alongside any of them. If it weren't for Your Old Droog having the year of his life, Fly would have cemented his own name into the Top 5 Alive conversation that year next to Woods, Gibbs, DaBaby and Young Thug.

        It’s been nearly 5 years since its release, and much has shifted in the crews universe. Everyone in the collective still collaborates, just more in sub-sects than as a family. Other rappers that were once ancillary extended family have risen to their own success (cc: Monday Night, Nitty Blanco, and 3WaySlim) while producers have leaned heavily into beats tapes and outside placements. Fly Anakin has risen in popularity the fastest, gaining co-signs from staples Madlib and Evidence, now focusing on releasing music on Lex Records instead of independently and touring across the world. In a stellar catalog this record lies near the top, though too short to truly top the psychedelic hysteria of Backyard Boogie or the worldly Pink Siffu extravaganza FlySiifu’s (Deluxe Version). To be blunt, it’s a simple suite of Anakin songs that straddles the twitchy acid dripped collages and red eyed smoker grooves that make up Fly’s catalog. An album like this works as an introduction into a more complex system of conversational roots, afterwards begging the answer to same question Phonte asked 2 decades ago on “Not Enough” from the crew's 2nd underground classic The Minstrel Show; “dope beats dope rhymes what more yall want?”

Best Beat: “Katomate”

Best Song: “Karl Kani”

Best Moments: “SDCCAMtro” / Monday Night destroying everything on “Lost Feelings” / the background vocal layering on “Murray’s” / Fly’s verse on “Travolta Pt. IV” / “I see the future cause i’m part of that shit” / “Splinters”, just every element of it is a shock to the system

Vintage Review: Paid In Full

Score: 4.5/5 (Hall Of Fame Album) | Released: July 7th, 1987

Written By: Anthony Seaman      

     For years growing up hearing writers and other fans alike refer to Rakim as “The God MC” made little sense to me. On the surface he was deadpan, the beats sounded very much of an era before laptops, and he wasn’t as fun of a listen as a Lil Wayne or Gucci Mane record by far. He dressed cool, head to toe in a custom Dapper Dan suit and gold chains thicker than a finger, but the rest of the Paid In Full album cover looked like it was made in an ancient version of Photoshop. The album itself only had 7 songs with verses on it, and the 4 instrumental tracks were stuffed with obnoxious scratching. In my mind he was a guy who received credit for being early, being from New York, and not for being truly great. What did everyone older than me see in this record that I didn’t? 

To understand the gravity of Paid In Full is to understand more so the gravity of what Rakim himself brought to the art of being a MC that was not there previously. Music at large in this time was full of automated drum machines, huge snares with gated reverbs, and thin wispy vocals telling you to dance, get over your ex or motivating you to get through the day. Hip-hop as a genre mixed some of these elements together, but the MC and what they rapped about was the biggest separator. As an MC Rakim single handedly hit the fast forward button on the shift of rap music out of a Renaissance period into a Mannerism period. Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz, Run, LL Cool J, Kool Moe Dee, all mastered the basics in terms of technicality. They brought the experience of neighborhood cyphers and park jams into real life, and for flashes even peeked into the future themselves by making conceptual songs that bridged genres. The RIAA had started certifying albums Gold, and music videos from rap acts were becoming more common. Popular music stores, publications and entertainment outlets were accepting hip-hop slowly, but accepting nonetheless. For how to expand rap, Rakim drew inspiration from another artist who took a sound that seemed like it had hit a sweet spot and blew the doors open.

Rakim was inspired by every rap artist of the day, but John Coltrane, the seminal galactic jazz giant, was the North Star he followed. Raised in a musical household Rakim played multiple instruments and understood pockets as an instrumentalist before understanding them as a vocalist. He was already approaching rap at an angle few had before, by becoming one with the music. The basics of delivery were destroyed and reimagined from over the top bravado to a gold chain draped coolness. The term “flow” had to be recontextualized into the phrase we understand it to mean today because of his style. The concept of all rhymes ending and rhyming on the last word, matured into internal rhyme schemes that had been flirted with by Run at times on record, but never fully realized. Even on the production end, Rakim, Eric B. (and an already established Marley Mal, depending who you ask) cut samples in more abrupt and shocking ways comparable only to The Bomb Squad with Public Enemy and Prince Paul with a young De La Soul. Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, EPMD and NWA had not released official debut albums. Chuck D and Melle Mel in recent years have spoken about the emergence of Rakim as a seminal line in history. The playbook had tripled in size overnight, and the expectations of what greatness was had risen to new heights. Less rappers yelled on record, instead creating more elaborate vocal tones. Songs were more loose conceptually and the complexity of how and where rhymes hit in a stanza became less predictable. He was thinking at a clip above everyone else and was subtle in the ways he did it. As an example; Rakim is a proud member of the 5 Percent Nation where numerology is a key piece of their daily practices. 7 represents God or Allah in their numerology. Rakim, who refers to himself and referred to by others as the God MC released his debut album on July 7th, 1987, stylized as 7/7/87. If only he could have gotten access to a microphone in elementary school this trick would be 10 times more impressive.

        As an album it wasn’t an event that could be measured by radio spins or Billboard sales. It took until 1995 for the album to be certified Platinum. What pushed the record to fame was how often fans replayed it, how stunned they were but skills so advanced it seemed like a new genre was being born. Quotables across the album have become hip-hop standards. “When i’m writing im trapped in between the lines / I escape / when I finish a rhyme”, “It’s been a long time / I shouldn’t have left you / without a strong rhyme to step to”, “I start to think and then i sink / into the paper / like i was ink”, “I draw a crowd like an architect”, “i’m the R to the K I am / if i wasn’t / then why would i say I am?”, and the entirety of the title song, “Paid In Full” are just a handful of bars that have been flipped or straight repeated by generations of hip-hop artists. Topically he approached bars like a true author flipping metaphors and similes with the microphone as his main muse. Kool Moe Dee to many is seen as ground zero for the “lyrical miracle” archetype, a style that is perfectly balanced with the “i’m better than you and i’ll punch you if you think otherwise” for the first time with Rakim. He was slowly walking rappers out of the park and into listeners headphones. He was telling you he was better than you, but did it in a much smarter and cool way than anyone before him, and you had to be smart and cool to a certain degree to get it. “My Melody” was a hail storm of raps, clocking in with 5 full verses over one of the LP’s more menacing musical motifs. In the years before the album was officially recorded Rakim spent his days bouncing around Brooklyn and Queens freestyling and performing with DJ’s honing his craft, with most of his verses being used to line the record. Everything was gripping because he had been slowly perfecting the bars in front of the toughest crowds in New York. Unintentionally (and ironically due to “I Ain’t No Joke” existing) he worked like a comedian, honing punchlines in sketchy clubs for audiences that were there just to hear a headliner, only to have fully baked knockouts ready once Netflix or Comedy Central turned the cameras on. 

Today we see most of the modern Detroit scene, MF DOOM, and G Herbo alike all break in and out of pockets letting the actual rhymes of the words side swipe you from every angle. That’s because of Rakim. The monotone delivery stylings of Guru and 21 Savage were birthed from this record. After nearly 35 years every working rapper has fragments of Rakim’s DNA as a rapper within their craft. Imagine being the guy who perfects cooking a steak. You choose all the right seasonings, perfect pan type, get the flames just the right temperature, flip it at the exact second to ensure a perfect medium rare. Everyone is going to copy that person and use the technique forever, but vegans and vegetarians might not indulge in such a dish. Now imagine being the guy who invents the fucking stove. Anyone who takes their craft seriously, regardless of style, needs you to survive and everyone who turns their nose up at your invention is living in the stone age. A lot of talk around the greatness of Paid In Full as a standalone album gets lost in the praise of Rakim himself and what he represents understandably so. No other artist had as much of an impact on album one until Nas came out, but even he didn’t invent the stove. Drake, Future and Young Thug reshaped rap, but they had mixtapes and features that warmed up the world to what was coming on their official releases. To create an album that has multiple songs that define not only an era, but an entire genre is an incredible task. To do it all before turning 20 is just icing on the cake. “Paid In Full”, “I Know You Got Soul” and “Eric B. Is President” are standards to this day. With 10 full records the young duo reset the world of hip-hop and created a body of work that is as fun and impressive as any album that’s come since. 

Best Song: “Paid In Full”

Best Beat: “I Ain’t No Joke”

Best Moments: "fish, which is my favorite dish" / Hearing "Chinese Arithmetic" in the year of our Lord 2023 is actually fine abstract art / Verse 2 of "My Melody"