Benz and a Backpack

Fresh visuals for “Tell Me Something” off of Gotham Green & Quickie Mart’s Haze Diaries Volume 3. The joint features Freddie Gibbs on the second verse and the lovely Jes Hudak on the hook. The video opens abruptly:  asmoke filled room, a domestic dispute, and Gotham Green splits with his bag packed beginning his verse right after he storms out of the house. Freddie Gibbs’ verse really stands out though. The Gary-native marks his territory in the game clearly:

“It’s another day, I just play the cool and relaxed Freddie/showing niggas love, don’t throw now tax on the sacks, Freddie/Old School never write my raps in a blackberry/everything I do is straight dirty unsanitary.”

Also check what he spit for XXL’s Freshman ’10 Freestyles back in March.

Download: Gotham Green & Quickie Mart ft. Freddie Gibbs and Jes Hudak – Just Say Something

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You may be familar with Freddie Gibbs from the XXL’s Freshmen of 2010. He climbed his way up in the rap game with the help of DJ Ill Will, who like Gibbs is also originally from Indiana. This latest video has nice documentary-esque visuals of Gibbs’ Hometown of Gary, Indiana, as well as classic music video clips of him performing some of his songs.

If you have never heard of him before, this is a great introduction to who he is…
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There will surely be more to come on the subject, but Snoop Dogg came through Providence for Brown University’s Spring Weekend and wrecked the stage with an ease that I’ve never seen before. He was wearing his classic black shades and using a ridiculously ostentatious microphone, and it felt like the DPGC big man covered the entire stage his presence was so big. After blazing through a bunch of classic tracks (Next Episode, Gin and Juice) to get the crowd warm, Snoop brought Kurupt and Daz on stage and things really got poppin’. The three emcees rolled around the stage, oozing a happy-go-lucky West Coast confidence that permeated through the audience for a close to an hour and sent them home in a daze of contentment.

Clutch has some great post-show stories to tell, but right before he left the stage Snoop told the three things everyone should do when they wake up:

1. Brush Your Teeth

2. Thank God You’re Alive

3. Smoke Weed

Words of wisdom from one of the best performers (and as it turns out, nicest people) of our time. Hit the skip for brand new tracks from J. Cole, Lupe, Jeezy, Freddie Gibbs, Jay Elect, Blu, M.O.P. and more.

J. Cole – We On

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Gil Scott-Heron ft. Nas – New York Is Killing Me

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Lupe Fiasco ft. Alicia Keys – Love Letter To The Beat

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B.o.B. ft. T.I. – Not Lost

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Oohwee! I don’t even want to spoil this one for you. But here goes: about a week ago Phillip Mlynar wrote an article for Unkut.com (check it here) called ‘Five Zealously Overrated (And Often Dead) Hip Hop Artists’ which sparked– in addition to a 145-comment-long thread beneath it– a ‘rebuttal‘ from the homie Justin over at KevinNottingham.com. In short, Mlynar’s list is comprised of (in order): 5. Freddie Gibbs 4. Bun B and Pimp C [as solo artists] 3. Madlib 2. Jay Electronica 1. J Dilla.
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As a whole, this mixtape is only as good as its collective parts. And though Nipsey Hussle, Big Sean, Freddie Gibbs, Wiz Khalifa and J. Cole throw down on tracks 3-8, DJ Whoo Kid makes sure to remind all of us why the artists are always better than the DJ when he’s on the joint. Yes, whooooo kiiiiiid, we know its you, we know you like cutting in with little kids in the playground and horror noises, but da Juiceman has said “bread in the kitchen” enough… there is no need to “throw that shit back.”

Highlights are a dope beat on track 6, Fashawn going in on track 4, and J Cole showing his NY state of mind on “Who’s World.” All in all, its a good product from 10 esteemed young artists.

Since datpiff doesn’t want to tell you the artist order, and since its an incomplete version of the tape, we’ll post it below the jump for you. Download the full tape at XXLmag.com

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On Monday XXL released the cover for its 10 Freshmen for ’10 issue following a month-long promo campaign that featured videos of each rapper on the list flowing. After doing some digging I found out a few fun facts:

1. Drake and Nicki Minaj turned down the opportunity to be on the list because they felt they were too good for it at this point.
2. Apparently Drake also felt like it was a huge snub that he didn’t make the list in ’09, but it may have been better for his career seeing as half of the people on that list (see: Ace Hood, Cory Gunz, Mickey Factz, Asher Roth, Charles Hamilton) have plateaued like a motherfucker.
3. Either way, XXL missed out on the boy from T Dot and may have made another gaffe this year: XV. Dude made major noise with Everybody’s Nobody and has been steadily releasing material since. XXL better hope he stays below the radar so they don’t go 2-for-2!
4. Check back for more details about the XXL Top 10 Freshmen Party going down in NYC later this month. Seeing all these dudes at one time would be pretty ill.

Hit the skip for the 10 videos. Watch them all the way through (the longest is only about a minute), vote for whose verse you thought was the best, and if you have a sec leave a comment explaining why.
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Every now and then things happen that remind us of the fragility, preciousness, and complete and utter randomness of our collective life. Recently, two incidents (both involving pedestrians, vehicles, and alcohol) stung people I love so acutely that they’ve been debilitated. It’s the height of irony that someone can serve several years of required military duty in a constantly war-torn nation, and then die when a drunk American driving too fast glances down to change the song on his iPod and forgets to look up because he’s too fucked up.

There are certain truths we all acknowledge: if you work hard in school, you’ll get good grades; if you show love to the people around you, they will undoubtedly show you love back. But many parts of our lives escape our control no matter how hard we try to grasp them. They are dictated either by the coincidental nature of the world or fate, depending on which theory you espouse, and no personal responsibility should be self-imposed by friends and family of victims of senseless tragedy, although it is often unavoidable.

What we can and should impose upon ourselves is an apologetically cliche question that nearly every hip hop artist has had to confront in his or her time: if I die today, tomorrow, or in three weeks, will I be happy with what I’ve done? BIG knew before he was 25 that his trajectory was short, and when the end came he was ready for it. Hip hop was built on the cold, hard foundation of braggadocio, which doesn’t exactly inspire love in opponents, but rather competitiveness, jealousy, and other violence-inducing sentiments. Couple that with the abnormally high presence of guns in poor, urban, largely black communities at the inception of hip hop (gee, I wonder how that happened), and you’ve got yourself a recipe for disaster. It’s no wonder then that death is more than a minor ingredient in the hip hop kitchen.

Hit the skip for 20 of the most recent tracks that you GOTTA have, including Wu Tang’s ‘Early Grave’ and Jay Rock’s ‘Life is a Cycle.’ Other notables: Freeway, Raekwon, & Styles P, Lupe, B.o.B. & Asher Roth, Preemo-produced Evidence, and:

J. Cole – Knock On Wood Freestyle

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Redlight Boogie ft. Sean Price – Heat [prod. Killingskills]

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The N(Y)C native is at the helm of this new school of rappers with the tiller firmly in his hand, rudder at his command. Easily the coldest spitter of the group, Cole has an advantage on every other rapper in XXL’s Top 10 Freshmen. Hit the skip for a breakdown of the list, plus music from Cole you may have missed over the past couple months.

J. Cole – College Boy

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J. Cole – Shook Ones Freestyle

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2009 was, for both hip-hop and myself, a damn good year. I spent the first half of the year in Barbados, a land of sunshine, fat asses, $1.50 Guinness and something awesome called daggering, which I strongly urge everyone to try. I then came home to my native NY, promptly turned 21, and spent the second half of the year stumbling in and out of bars and clubs. Oh, and also listening to some of the best hip-hop music to come out in a long time.

I shudder sometimes when I think of 08. That was a year that seemed to be dominated by trend-following and pigeonholing. Everyone wanted an auto-tuned hit or that one Weezy feature that could get you a couple spins, and it seemed like every rapper was being forced under the label of “blog-rap,” “club-rap,” “mixtape-rap” or the dreaded “washed-up-pushing-40-completely-unoriginal-why-are-you-still-rapping-rap.” Needless to say, 09 offered up something much more refreshing.

Dudes like Kid Cudi blurred genre lines and got love from Soundscan and Hot97. Love him or hate him, Drake came through with something fresh and offers the potential to usher in a new generation of rap superstars. J. Cole and Jay Electronica emerged as budding messiahs for the more lyrically-inclined. And wouldn’t you know it, 90s superheroes like Raekwon and Red & Meth reemerged to put out dope shit that had old-heads and skinny-jeaned youngsters rockin’ in harmony. Even Eminem got his shit together in 09!

All this has me pretty geeked about 2010 and the new decade, but before I get ahead of myself, I’ll throw my favorite joints of 09 into the ring. Apologies in advance to B.o.B., The Cool Kids, Curren$y, Wiz Khalifa, Emilio Rojas, Fashawn, Freddie Gibbs, Willie the Kid, Young Chris and others who I bumped throughout the year but didn’t quite make the cut. I’m expecting big things from y’all in the new year.

Without further ado, hit the jump for my top 10 songs of 2009.

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