A Fresh Breakdown - Ice Cube: Raw Footage

"Here comes another rapper with a song about hope/ all you wanna hear is a song about dope / and how a nigga got more money than the pope / but he'll never tell you when he drop the soap, no...  "

Yeeea, that's the man who's been goin' at Uncle Sam since he was able to put his voice on a record.  The same man who was in hood favorite "Boyz In The Hood," and starred in "Friday."  The same man who brought you the testy series "Black And White," and probably the 1st rapper to say "Fuck Oprah," lol.  Anyway, the rap legend came back on the scenes this year with the song "Gangster Rap Made Me Do It."  Of course he wasn't shy about talkin' about White America blamin' hip-hop for everything.  And he also assisted Big Mike on his track "Pressure," that was on the same type of tip.  But can the OG still bring that FONK like he did back in the day?

One thing that most older rappers have to do when puttin' together an album these days is to try not sound like it's still the early 90s.  So, they hafta adjust their style to these new beats, and still hafta make a good album.  And if you're not pushin' albums out on a consistent basis like say: Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, OutKast, or a Busta Rhymes..  It may be alil' difficult to get out that old mind state.  Even the great Ice Cube has alil' problem adjustin' to the 2008 as far as how he throws his bars out, n some of the songs he has.  For instance, his intro song with Young Jeezy, it's not a bad song, but you can tell that that type of beat and style of spittin' is real foreign to him.   A few songs are pretty average, like Jack In The Box, I understand the concept, sayin' what he has gave him the big head, but it's kinda like he's tryin' to hard to do sumthin' new to keep current.  Now one thing that's REALLY new, it's a track on there that's "rumored" to be the new WC Connection.  Now, it's bad enough Mac-10 ain't part of it, but what really bothers me is that he picked The Game to fill in the rest of the trio.  (And if you wanna go through the list of reasons of whats wrong with The Game, holla at me, n I'll post a shit-load of stuff.)  Anyway, it's not a bad track, and The Game does what he usually does, name names, and jock a style.  But I gotta admit, him tryna sound like Ice Cube ain't sound to bad.

"Still The Only Rapper Who Wants To Fist Fight The President!"

Now it's one thing Ice Cube won't do in any album, sell out.  Cube stays true to his roots and takes it to Uncle Sam's ass and does what he can to make "pop-followin' " niggas to wake up by throwin' insults their way, or jus straight up tellin' 'em the real deal.  One song is pretty much a big slap in the face where he says "It takes a nation of niggas to hold us back."  Or sayin' shit like "You muthafuckas worry 'bout flossin' so much, you don't know the fundamentals, you forgot how to brush, These 32 teeth will give you ass grief, bite you like a fat burger if you got beef, so who's it gone be, you favorite MC, you scared of the government, they scared of me!"  Now he does go into bigger reality checks, one song in particular "Hood Mentality," he talks in 1st person like he's a myspace nigga who wanna chase those rap / dope dreams.  And while he's doin' so, he's showin' you how ignorant they sound.  But he did have a pretty smooth few lines on there.  "I got the heart of a Pittsburgh Steeler, black nigga draped in gold wit a nine milla, love money, love jail, love that penitentiary mail, love tha way them niggas smell, keep comin' back, can't you tell?"  He also has a song where he's talkin as a person who got shot and killed for no real reason with Musiq SoulChild on the hook.  Now Ice Cube is a favorite of mine, so I can dissect alot of songs here, so I'll jus say he has quite a few jems on this cd.

Now as far as the whole project, it's definitely a bangin' CD.  For those hard-core Ice Cube fans, a bit of a let-down cuz he's not pissed off the whole CD, but in these days in times it's a breath of fresh air. The CD does compliment the Killer Mike and Nas CDs pretty well, as far as subject matter.  It's definately not a CD for the lightweights.

"Ice Cube Is here to drop you a note / cuz some of our people use to hang from a rope / some of our people use you hang from trees / now the only thing that's hanging mu'fucka is these " 

Album Ratin' - 4.2

Worth buyin' - Yep

Fav Songs -   It Takes a Nation, Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It, hood Mentality, Why Me, Get Money Spend Money No Money, Tomorrow, Stand Tall, Take Me Away

Trials of TQ Pt. 3

Oh boy..this shit is starting to get GOOOODDDD!!!!! He needs to make a book outta this ish. I'll buy EVERY copy.

ANOTHER EXCERPT!

"Too much funny sh*t was going on at Cash Money. This ni**a Stunna would have a fit about me being out by myself. I’d tell him to chill out! Man I ain’t stupid. I don’t run around jeweled up like you. I don’t keep cash on me like you and my thang thang is registered to me, unlike yours. Chill the f**k out! Make no mistake, this ni**a is a boss. He’d send somebody behind me I guess. Sometimes the ni**a would call and blow on me about being where I was at the moment. The ni**a would say, “Get the f**k from ‘round there!” and I’d get the f**k from ‘round there. Quick too…....Too much funny sh*t was going on at Cash Money. I’m sitting at the house in the East one day Wayne comes in and walks over to Baby and kisses him in the mouth. I didn’t just see that so I ain’t gonna say sh*t. When Wayne gets ready to leave, they do it again.

I guess some of them other ni**as recognized the look on my face and ran to the rescue. “T, don’t trip, that’s jailhouse love.” Jailhouse love? What the f**k? Them two ni**as and never been to jail! I’ve sent my fair share of Kites homie and I ain’t never heard of two ni**as kissing as being jailhouse love unless they was… ya dig? That sh*t was disturbing to me pimp. They say it’s a father-son thing. Ni**a I ain’t kissing my daddy in the mouth!

To each his own… I ain’t questioning a ni**a's sexuality cuz I just don’t get down like that, and I know for a fact that both of them cats like women. But it f**ks me up when them ni**as do that sh*t in public… Everybody always asks me about that picture. Well did y’all forget about 106 and Park?? Ni**a, my neighborhood rode me for months about that sh*t… I had to speak on it cuz y’all wanted to know.

That’s my spin on the whole “kissing” sh*t. I’m done with it."

READ THE REST HERE!

Doubletake: Shwayze

2 videos from Shwayze. Hollywood and Buzzin.
Cali iz Active.
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Shwayze - 'Hollywood' Music Video

Shwayze - buzzin

Trials of TQ pt. 2 - The Cash Money Millionaires

JUST AN EXCERPT.

"..Now we all know Baby is a showman. Never more than this particular night though. He always looked at his crew as an army. To watch them all in the studio, you’d call them the same, but to watch Lil Wayne do his thang, you knew this was Baby’s ace in the hole. Now I had hung with all the Hot Boys in the city on separate occasions for fun. Me and Juve would tear down the city when I was there. Me and BG would tear down the projects. Me and my ni**a lil Turk would beef 'cause I smoked too much weed, lol…

Wayne was just a kid, and I wasn’t going to hang out at the high school, ya dig? The only time the whole crew was together was when we were working. I guess that should've been a red flag.

It wasn’t. This lil ni**a came in the studio and listened to my record one time down while performing to himself in the mirror. He said to Baby, ”I’m ready." He didn’t write sh*t down. He went in the studio and killed it with one take. My mouth dropped. Wayne came out the booth, listened, waited for Baby’s approval, waited for mine, and asked for a copy.

I was shocked. I watched the lil’ dude leave out and hop in his yellow SLK. He had a chick in the car! The ni**a left it running!! I was done. Baby was cracking his side looking at my expression. That ni**a Wayne had a gift. I knew it and so did Baby…

What I didn’t know was that Slim had been calling Sony trying to buy me out of my deal. “Giant” wanted me as an artist at all cost, but Sony was making money off me, and they weren’t trying to hear it. Meanwhile, my sales down South had doubled, and we had the Birdman to thank for that. It got to the point where I would come out in the middle of their show to do my song just 'cause Baby wanted to hear it!

Word got back to Sony and they started to panic. They informed Slim that he’d be sued for tampering if he kept it up. So we had to come up with another plan. We met and he told me what was up. He told me that if I could get myself out of that deal, he had a much better one on the table… I’m saying to myself, “Is that possible?” I mean, regardless of the situation, I did have a helluva deal with Sony. I wasn’t selling that many records, but I was making a whole lotta cake… How could he beat that?

Anyway, I listened like a dumba** and set about getting myself out of my deal… Plan B was in full effect..."

This is GOLD! Read the rest HERE.

Morning Breath: TQ's "Tales of F*CKERY!"

OMG....TQ has a column over at ALL HIP-HOP. It's an L.A. "Laugh" RIOT(..okay that was a bad joke. SORRY!)!! He's telling the story of his music careeer. Now let me be the first to say that his song "Westside" is one of THE BEST songs period of all time. It dropped right after the slaying of the two most important figures thus far in this thing we call Hip-Hop, so he gets due props. And I'm a Fresh Coaster myself, so I love TQ. Anyway, this is an excerpt from part 1:

"......After “Westside” came and went, the Black Suits didn’t drop another single until six months later. “Bye Bye Baby” bricked in the U.S. cuz I wouldn’t come back to promote it. Before it came out, I remember I was at a convention buying drinks for and smoking out one of the most powerful radio consultants in the business. He told me how much he loved my sh*t but would NEVER play it because the head of radio at my company was banging his wife! He told me this to my face on the balcony! While he was smoking my weed! I wanted to throw his ass over! This is some bullshit!!

In Europe and Asia I was on my third single and second concert tour. F**k it! No need to come home, right?

Wrong. I had something to take care of. Sony Music Publishing was still sticking it to me. “We gotta renegotiate.” We did. “Gimmie my check, I got a long flight to catch.” Until Dr. Dre called up saying that he needed an opening act for a little tour that he was putting together called “Up In Smoke”… NI**A WHAT? Pencil me in big homie!

The rest of the world would have to wait! No airplay in the U.S., janky sales in the US, and my favorite producer of all time, a member my favorite group of all time, wants to put me on stage in front of 20,000 fans for 47 nights? The Black Suits are gonna love this!

They didn’t. They told me not to go on tour. Go back in the studio and record a new album. Take dance lessons and we’re gonna buy you some black suits lol! What? Yall ni**as still on this sh*t? That was the end. I told them to eat a d*ck and bounced up outta 550 Madison Ave like a Mannie Fresh beat.

We had some bread so I did it myself. I went on tour with Dre, Snoop, Cube, Ren, Mack 10, Dub C, Warren G, Eminem, Xzibit, and the Eastsidaz. It was the most memorable time in my career. I’ll never forget that sh*t. It was the greatest concert tour Black music has ever seen, but I no longer had a record deal…Now what?

Well a couple months before the tour, I had befriended two hustlers from way down in the jungle deep. Ronald and Brian a.k.a. the Williams brothaz… Maybe I should join the Army…Better yet the Navy.

But that’s another story…Tune in next time for the story of CMR…This should be interesting…"

I can't wait til the next DROP.

GO HERE for his entire first entry.

GOOD MORNIN!
=ToP ! FLiTE=