The New, The Old, and The Dusty

The New, The Old, The Dusty is an ongoing series highlighting hip-hop records from different decades and finding thematic, sonic, or spiritual connections between them.    

Written By: Anthony Seaman 

            The 90’s East Coast-West Coast tensions have somehow found a way to be historically overblown and understated at the same time. Few documentaries will talk about the seedlings planted by Tim Dog’s “Fuck Compton”, Mobb Deep’s “Drop A Gem On ‘Em”, or how LL Cool J was involved at all. Some of these would be minimal to the eventual 2Pac and Biggie related war, but left a sour taste in the mouth of the West that took many murders, jumpings, diss records, and subtle warnings to pass. The crux of the entire beef was a Death Row vs. Bad Boy situation that trickled down to Mobb Deep, Capone-N-Noreaga, Keith Murray, and King Sun (*extremely accurate Deuce voice* WHO?). It poisoned the well of hip-hop luminaries for a generation by taking two impactful multi-talented leaders, and led to minimal meaningful collabs between the coasts for years. Certain acts worked during the strenuous period (Method Man famously working with B.I.G. and 2Pac while they were alive and at odds), but high level East-West collabs didn’t come into fruition as often as one would hope. The ones we have should be cherished for not only the willingness to bury old wars, but to find middle grounds between two sonic and spiritual bases that clash in every way.

Public Enemy feat. Big Daddy Kane & Ice Cube - “Burn Hollywood Burn” (1990)

Ice Cube going solo was a cataclysmic event in the history of rap music. Not only was rap's first defiant gangster rap outfit gutted of it’s best writer, it made a true icon out of Cube. Amerikkka’s Most Wanted went on to define an era, thanks to production from the East Coast mad scientists The Bomb Squad, the heartbeat and brains of Public Enemy, hip-hop’s political torch bearers, guided by their booming vocal leader Chuck D. Also on the record was Big Daddy Kane, idling at the most significant crossroad on his career path. Scorching hot and still held in the highest esteem of contemporary hip-hop royalty thanks to ‘89’s It’s A Big Daddy Thing, but already beginning the recording process of the R&B leaning heartbreaker that was Taste Of Chocolate. “Burn Hollywood Burn” was a once in a generation meeting of the minds that pointed it’s infrared beam to Hollywood execs and writers continuing a history of racist tropes, bigoted Hollywood cops, the struggles of black actors with bigger dreams, as well as a call for black folk to start “making our own movies like Spike Lee”. Greater than the audio is the visual attached to the song, featuring all 3 MC’s (plus skits from Flavor Flav) putting boot to concrete within rioting streets and tight movie seats. The video slices in clips from films across Hollywood's history. Mammy. The Ghost Walks. Imitation of Life. These “cinematic classics” featuring black face, mammy-ism, and lynchings are shown on screen, ending with Ice Cube burning the theatre to the ground. Cube went on famously to write, star and direct in films himself, typically doing it his own way bucking these tropes, making movies filled with rising black stars in comedy and traditional cinema while giving slices of a more realistic black experience. Plus a couple “so bad they’re good” action movies along the way. Flavor Flav’s future in reality TV has its own issues, but “Burn Hollywood Burn” is an evergreen testament that is a few proper noun switches away from fitting the narratives of rich whites profiting off of black culture in any medium, as well as one of the strongest collaborations of its era. 

Del The Funky Homosapien feat. El-P - “Offspring” (2000)

    Cube was (and for many still is) the face of gangster rap and early 90’s hip-hop as a whole, and was so powerful that he could put on any rapper and make them a star (besides Yo-Yo of course). His cousin, Del The Funky Homosapien, was a counter to Cube. Valuing the craft of making dire rap records and having DNA connections is where their similarities ended. Cube was a stone cold anarchist while Del was a thoughtful stoner who never leaned into the coasts hyper violent Raider cap adorning aesthetic. Solo and as a member in Hieroglyphics he made history and carved an alternative underground sound one multi-sylablistic verse at a time, with tentacles of influence stretching worldwide. His growth as a beatmaker led to him taking on the brunt of his 4th project Both Sides Of The Brain, until he turned to another underground God, El-P, for a one off track. When inspired the individuals could unravel parables with more layers than the Earth's crust, but instead they tossed any true concept to the side to do backflips over consonants and restructure vowels to rattle any sane listener. The illustrious gumbo of references to synthesizers, Columbine, weed, Street Fighter, and Dr. Strangelove for 4 minutes and 20 seconds is overwhelming on its face, much less when you dig into the sea of linguistic feats that define their craftsmanship to this day.

A$AP Rocky feat. ScHoolboy Q - “Brand New Guy” (2011)

            The internet highways and ProTools made collaboration effortless in the ‘10’s, allowing for mixtapes to be full of cross state collabs that live on in history. “Brand New Guy” from 2011 classic LiveLoveA$AP is the penultimate example of a post-regional rap hit. Within the first 30 seconds you get a DJ Screw (Houston, TX) indebted modulated intro, shoutouts to Lil B (Berkeley, CA) and Lil Wayne (New Orleans, LA) all over a beat crafted by Don Cannon (Philadelphia, PA) and Lyle Leduff (Atlanta, GA) that holds the dark alley eeriness of a Hell On Earth (Queens, NY) deep cut and the chippy bravado of a Gucci Mane (Atlanta, GA). Featured is Black Hippy hitmaker ScHoolboy Q (Carson, CA) and A$AP Rocky himself (Harlem, NY) doing a Jadakiss and Styles P (Yonkers, NY) indebted back-and-forth along with their own standout verses. Q spends his airtime highlighting the East Coast MC’s that made him who he is while Rocky works to build his mystique as a street certified fashionista. There was a conscious understanding of the gravity of what they were doing, based on what they still hadn’t done. Both guys were unproven, at the time of the recording damn near unknowns, and still undefined to the public in their own artistry. Q hadn’t left the West Coast as far as rap circles went and both were plotting to establish themselves under the growing shadows of the artists who popped off only a few years before them. The crop of artists from ‘08-’13 that established themselves brought on one of the largest talent booms the genre had ever seen, and the competition forced new angles to be taken. Barring each other out wasn’t enough, they had to shake concert halls and set blogs on fire. The single lives on as the beginning (and for my money, the best) in a long line of collabs over the following decade, where they grew into themselves while still holding on to a musical kinship that lies amongst the greats.

MIKE feat. Larry June - “Golden Hour” (2023)

            MIKE has always rapped like a black cloud is pouring upon him while Larry spits like the spring showers never hit his neck of the woods. The two are bellowing representations of their own smoked out galaxies, light years apart from one another. Instead of finding a middle ground, the two travel into Larry’s World. The Alchemist isn’t putting fingers to drum pads but the Beverly Hills native who studied under Cypress Hill before getting a true solo break with Prodigy and Havoc acts as the wormhole between the two phenoms. MIKE’s dreary visions have brightened over the years, but this is a full turn to the summery sides of life. One where flexing about ‘04 Chanel pieces and splurging “only on the black stripper” can make you “Obama in your city”. You can stare long enough at both of these rappers' career arc to see a pattern that makes them more similar than their dispositions would allude to. Both peaking after years of being prolific critical darlings, dropping cult classics like coins in a wishing well. You recognize their sound everywhere, even if they aren’t lone inventors of it; unlike their predecessors they’ve mastered who they are and created an assembly line-like efficiency in their rollouts. Even breaking into the tiers of mid-major rap stardom can take nearly a decade, but now that they’re solidified in their ranks, creative risks like this can flow more freely for both. Does this open the door for MIKE to be on a Larry album, as a feature or (in a more exciting turn) as a producer? Larry June could fit over any number of past MIKE cuts (“More Gifts”, “Center City”) and to hear MIKE on a remix for “Corte Madera, CA” would make the A/C in any car blow colder through the summer months.