There were some guys that were considered thorough. He was one of them. I know a guy who became part of his rap crew during the early 90's. You can actually here him on one of his albums. Chiray Jones is his name. Scarface heard him rap while he was in town, liked him, and took him down to Houston with him. I believed he put out a few solo albums at some point. You can here him on one of Scarface's songs introing. Chiray Jones kicking it on the hot spots as I recall.

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...AND he's related to master P so you know if he didnt go and do that he'd be livin that life like kool keith before him =[

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Rakim
https://youtu.be/SMHl0bdC0U0

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

ok well now i've got a theme for today, so let's do a song from my favorite rapper from houston, devin the dude. his LP "just tryin'ta live" is right there in/around my top-10 rap LPs/albums of all time, and that's pretty remarkable considering that he isnt a leftcoaster trying to do a twista impression with 4 syllable words. out of all the songs on there i think this one sums up the ethos of the album the best:

devin the dude - lacville 79

seriously tho, devin's album "just tryin'ta live" is definitely worth your time and/or effort. you can thank me later!

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Beenie Seagal is one of the guys renowned for living that life. His song "what your life like" was a dissection of life in the penitentiary. If you listen to that song you get a vivid description of penentiary life. From what he describes it ain't pretty.

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I believe Ghostface was for real, too (but who knows)

There definitely have been a number of studio gangsters, but some of the guys were authentic. I kind of prefer the authentic guys, but ultimately it's probably irrelevant as long as you can spin a good tale. It doesn't always have to be shoot em up, shoot em up, or drug dealing either.

I think that's where rap music made a wrong turn. There are a number of stories to be told but it allowed itself to become typecast. That's what I love about old school hip hop. It wasn't only about gangster rap and true heads knew that. There were all types of artists, with all types of styles, talking about a myriad of things.

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go figure a guy named "nas" on a messageboard is way more hardcore than me by linking a newschool rakim track! the song is solid i mean yeah there's a reason rakim is known as "the god MC" to many, but still for me he's a late 80s / early 90s guy who had his uber-legendary tracks and then he kind of either fell off or did some other shit that wasnt as good (at least for me, tho likely for countless others as well) but hey that 4x12" rakim's greatest hits was a great vinyl purchase cuz i have all of the standards like follow the leader and don't sweat the technique and of course juice (know the ledge) (which is good enough to even get the proper 12" as well)....... maybe it's a case of rakim's late 80s / early 90s shit being so good the other stuff doesn't compare even tho its quite-good-to-great in its own right? it might be a case of that, but generally by like 93-94 rakim kind of goes away and aceyalone becomes the GOAT rapper in my humble (aka correct) opinion =D

the other thing that amazes me about rakim is that he's largely considered the father of "conscious" or "intelligent" or "good" hip hop, but he was also one of the first guys to sport the big thick gold rope on the cover of EPs/LPs like PAID IN FULL. he and eric b had the vanity jackets and the bling (a now-hilariously-antiquated term, eh?) and were early adopters of the ropes..... yet unlike the contemporary fare who are associated with that type of ostentatious/brazenly-displayed $$$wealth$$$ he's not only NOT ocnsidered to be a shallow shit-talking rapper, but he's the goddamn GOD MC aka the father of conscious rap! who knew?

thanks for the contribution, nas.... tho idk if i can see myself falling in love with newschool rakim cuz in terms of older GOATish rappers whose new stuff you keep up with despite still thinking the back-in-the-day-stuff was the best ever, i've got aceyalone for that! aceyalone has super-electronic production on his latest/2015 LP (tho not reggaeton like his lightning strikes LP from.... shit, 07-08?) and uhhhh yeah i mean it's a different aesthetic and the guy is the best, but its still like something is missing compared to his old shit..... maybe it's me being ~17-25 back then and pushing 35 now?

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Agreed. Well said.

Solid contributions today.

keep it on the low like j-goff! =P

diamond d - best kept secret

this is my fucking jam btw! i love the flow on this one.

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If you ever get a chance you should check this song titled "N" lie a lot" by Talib Kweli. It's an off shoot of "This is why I'm hot" from a few yrs ago. Same instrumental but Kweli goes hard on the fake rappers and their studio antics.

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Diamond D got props like a cop!

I dip and I dab like a Mike Tyson jab!




Sally's got a one track mind it doesn't matter if yours or mine, because if you got dough and you want to get with her, yeah you can't hit her!

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DITC crew very underrated as a whole

especially my guy AG, deserves more props


We on a world tour with Midnight Mauraders and such
I'm at the table like the Godfather smoking a dutch

did someone say DITC crew? sorry to go with the obvious guy, but when you say DITC crew i gotta go for their one harlem exception (cuz IIRC they're a bronx crew) and give you...

big L - can i hit it (aka "yes you can")

i cant help but think i've used this song in a HHSOTD thread b4 so just in case here's a backup off of his proper LP "lifestylez ov da poor and dangerous"

big L - all black

even tho lifestylez was kinda primitive (akin to redman's first album compared to even his 2nd LP dare iz a darkside) i still think L coulda ended up fighting for that crown of best rapper in NYC.... the dude had punchlines for days and of course who can forget that freestyle session he had with jay-z where he totally outshined him? ALL HE'S GOT FOR HOES IS HARD DICK AND BUBBLE GUM! he was so ahead of his time his parents hadn't met yet!

big L / jay-Z freestyle (10min version)
(yeah it's him basically doing permutations of his hot16 cuz he drops punchlins he uses elswhere. im sure he could go off the dome but on the radio he had to go with the hot 16s as much as he could.... can't fault him)

and special thanks to the enterprising people who put harlem's finest: a freestyle history on vinyl.... god bless ya!

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Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt flow is probably his best. Big L was a beast. I'm so far ahead of my time, my parents haven't met.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

for jay-z reasonable doubt is the don (much like southernplayaistic is the best for outkast) but that's not a surprise cuz most times the first LP or 2 by a rapper/group is the best because once they're tainted by success they lose a lot of that OOMPH (cuz i dont wanna say edge) or that drive/determination to make the best rap possible.... once they're accepted and making $$$ they lose some of that drive to be the best damn lyricist/s possible.

with jay-z i love reasonable doubt and the black album (which is an amazing album considering how big jay-z was at the time, he was a huge pop star by then and he cranked out THAT album? nicely done. that's why i used to call jay-z "winner music" =) and then in my lifetime vol 1+2 are worthwhile..... otherwise *shrug* i'm not saying his other stuff is bad, it's just not as good as RD/IML1+2/blackalbum and i tend to cheese out to the best stuff a rapper does.,... like do you think i'm listening to any cam'ron albums other than confessions of fire? #comeonson

here's one off of the black album that doesnt get nearly as much airplay (if any) compared to all the ones we know and love, but this song is great (especially that beat too)

jay-z justify my thug

honorable mention for relatively-obscure/non-single vintage great jay-z songs...

jay-z - it's like that

man that fucking beat on ^^^^this one^^^^. i think i've heard people use the term "slapper" to describe the str8up boom-bap like that =D

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With the recent talk of Gangsta Rap and the Geto Boys, let's take a listen to one of their best during the "Big Mike" years, (Sorry Willie D)

Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta

which was used brilliantly in "Office Space."

I love the simplicity of this beat. I could listen to the instrumental version all day long.

Let's change things up a bit with a mash-up from the ultimate mash-up album, the "Judgement Night" soundtrack. (It's worth a listen if you've never heard it or given it a chance before.)

Here's Sonic Youth & Cypress Hill with I Love You Mary Jane.

Next week = Wu Tang week!

That soundtrack had a few classics. Onyx - Judgement Night itself is worth it.

Great contributions today. Agree with Sini and Nas on Big L.

Its kinda silly but its crazy how much potential there was between deceased "Bigs" Notorious, Punisher and L

I can remember going to a party in the early to mid 90's where they were handing out Big L tapes. I don't think he'd died at that point. I remember thinking that he must not have been much if they are giving his stuff away for free. I was wrong by a mile. He was Highly regarded in the hip hop community. Not familiar with too much of his work but he is a guy that you'd always read about in hip hop magazines years after he'd passed away.

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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qggxTtnKTMo

Immortal Technique - Dance with the Devil.

Wu-Tang Week!




"Skip the introduction, pulsate the lip function...."

Bells of War

No explanation needed.

Just a perfect track.

Golden Arms shines bright.

I was going to say that its one of the songs where U-God is actually a plus (he's usually just a wash, doesnt ruin anything, doesnt make anything better)

I like how Meth ends it sounding like he's just freestyling because it's that easy


Slamdance tarantula style

That's one of my all time favorite lines in music.

We'll show U-God some more love today with.....

Killa Beez

Yo yo
I was born with this magnet, warned by the dragnet
About my dirty habits, I got to have it, the super-glow
Deuce Bigelow - Male Gigolo
Gold hands crush Coke cans and Michelobs

And don't sleep on the lyrical capabilities put on display by Inspectah Deck...

It's the return of the bad boy, the mic Sean Penn
Floss gems across the globe with my nine Swordsmen
At a speed that excedes your convertible Benz
From a distance you glimpse, supernocular lens
Stay hotter than a ex-con dodgin the pens