Benz and a Backpack

Ridin’ solo has become passé.  Everyone nowadays is linking up, whether it be it hip-pop stars or backpackers.  Young Money, Slaughterhouse, Diddy Dirty Money; the list goes on and on.

Last week, out of nowhere, Dizzy and I were blessed with the opportunity to interview Chuck D of Public Enemy as we sipped sweet tea at his kitchen table.  Much of the conversation was about the decline of live hip-hop shows and the disappearance of crews, two things Chuck believes have a serious correlation.  He dropped knowledge about the predeccesors of hip-hop shows, all out funk fests from the likes of Earth Wind and Fire.  “You think an emcee would come walking onto the stage like nothing after an entire funk orchestra rocked out?  Nah, they would come out dancing their asses off.”

Inspired by miss a.k.w.’s Throwback Thursday: Posse Cuts Edition (Parts One and Two), here are ten of 2010′s hottest team efforts.  At first, I wasn’t gonna rank these cuts so you guys could be insulated from my opinion.  But, fuck it, leave some comments.

1. Curren$y Feat. Mos Def and Jay Electronica – The Day

The lead single and anthem off of Pilot Talk.

“I’m so sorry/ if I don’t look happy to be here/in your label office/cause they said I cant smoke weed here”

The first question we asked Chuck D in our upcoming interview was what he though of Jay Electronica’s verse on this song.

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2. Rick Ross Feat. T.I., Jadakiss, and Erykah Badu – Maybach Music III

Rick Ross’s 2010 release Teflon Don shows serious growth and maturity.  Ross is one of the few artists this year that has successfully put together a solid, 12 track album that is replayable from front to back, over and over.  Top 3 so far for me.

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3. Young Money – Bed Rock

No one can ever say Birdman is bad for business.  After nurturing a young Lil’ Wayne into a mega-star, he has now constructed a super-group of young and up and coming (if you can still call them that anymore) rappers and singers around him.  Now that Drake and Nicki are household names, I’m thinking Tyga is next to burst, starting with “Dueces“.

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4. The Roots Feat. Blu, Phonte, and Patty Crash – The Day

If you put on How I Got Over, the latest release from The Root’s, as background music, you will barely be able to tell when one song ends and the next one starts.  The whole album blends seamlessly, with The Day sitting right at the middle.  The best part might be the rare appearance by Blu.

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Every now and then, trying circumstances arise that would put a strain on any relationship. When that strain becomes sustained, or when it shows some semblance of permanence, it’s time to put the foundation of that relationship under the microscope and evaluate whether or not it is fundamentally sound. If it is, then you break out your tool belt and work with the other person to rebuild the interior of that relationship, and move forward. If it isn’t fundamentally sound then you tear that house down and look for a different plot of land to build on.

There’s no time to waste on people who don’t reciprocate equal love and respect. Surround yourself with the people who do, because they’ll always hold you down. Keep the others at arm’s length. Dame and Jay parted ways in 2004, most likely because Dame was not a supporter of the direction HOV was headed. Now Dame is doing much cooler shit than Jay, and he’s doing it with a group of people dedicated to a singular artistic cause. Ski Beatz, Curren$y, Big K.R.I.T., and Smoke DZA are DD172 teammates featured in this week’s Mixtape Monday. Other tracks include: brand new Raekwon, Andre 3000, Styles P, Cee-Lo, KanYe, Lupe & Pharrell, as well as cuts from Detroit’s Doss The Artist & Hir-O, and Providence’s own CR The Beast and Chachi. DL link under the cut!

Benz And A Backpack Presents…Mixtape Monday – Vol. 21 by BenzAndABackpack

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In honor of 15 years in the business, Dru Ha, Buckshot and the other members of Duck Down are dropping an anniversary album including tracks from each year since its inception (plus some other goodies). Hit the skip for the tracklist, release date, and videos only Duck Down roster members could pull off.

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YelaWolf guest modeling for KarmaLoop.com

If you have a hip-hop pulse you’ve heard of YelaWolf, the mohawked white-boy from Gadsden, Alabama. If you haven’t got the run down on him, you’re a little behind (see: Benz and a Backpack’s 5 Freshmen Who Might Make XXL Look Stupid and Benz and a Backpack Presents: Listening Sessions Vol. 1), but you’re in for a treat right here.

Starting, it seemed, as just another southern white boy from a broken home, Yela’s already come a long way. If you think rappers like Lil Wayne or Eminem have lived interesting lives, you gotta check this dude’s story. Between substantial drug use, life as a drifter, a short-lived skateboarding career in Berkeley California, and a season up in Alaska on a fishing boat, Yela’s led an exceedingly eclectic life. He even had a stint as a graffiti muralist along the way (he fucks with my boy Banksy). Having signed with Interscope in March, Yela’s on the brink of real stardom. (Hit the skip for three must-read interviews that tell Yela’s story in great detail)

My real interest in YelaWolf, beyond his personal story, is the evolution of his sound since his arrival on the scene. His first mixtape Balls of Flame was an honest effort at rapping. Though it really doesn’t hold much in terms of creative or hard hitting tracks, songs like “Doughnuts” and “My Box Chevy” are worth a listen. The real value of YelaWolf’s first go round is the promise that it holds. Throughout the tape, Yela busts out a variety of flows: slow, on beat, double-time, syncopated. Though it doesn’t all come together musically, you can hear the seeds of his talent.

YelaWolf – Donuts

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YelaWolf – My Chevy Box

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It’s fitting that this month’s issue of The Source has two alternate covers: one of the three most commercially successful, veteran Wu Tang members (Meth, Ghost, and Rae) and one of up-and-coming RocNation affiliate (and a BenzAndABackpack favorite) J. Cole. Both the Wu Tang trio and Cole were featured on tracks in this week’s Mixtape Monday, but each reps a different corner of the hip hop market. The Wu-Gambinos have had streetwise wordplay and storytelling on lock for more than 15 years (!), while Cole has just recently started to get the shine he deserves for his intelligent lyricism and new-school swag. It’s nice to see The Source dropping dope cover art, especially given a few of last year’s visuals…

Hit the skip for Cole’s alternate cover, plus a compiled list of all the Meth, Ghost, & Rae tracks that have leaked so far!
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One of the things I like most about hip hop right now is that the young guns and veterans alike are chillen on the grind like a rusty gear*. There’s a whole crop of young emcees bringing fresh perspectives to the game, while the mainstays continue to drop hot shit that bucks the traditional career trend of older rhymers (see: to fall off). And the best part about it? There’s room for everyone- young & old, fat & skinny, male & female, East & West, black, white, & everything in between!

This week’s Mixtape Monday features brand new tracks from Slick Rick, Meth, Rae, & Ghostface, XXL Freshmen Jay Rock, J. Cole & Fashawn, the homie XV, and more! Hit the skip for the DL link and a Wu Tang video that’ll bring you straight back to ’93.

*Shouts to the homie Element, who dropped a dope new joint last week.

Jay Rock ft. Ab-Soul – Can I Roll

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Young Chris ft. J. Cole – Still The Hottest

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Freestyle, Wordsmith, & M-Dot – Struggle

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Meth, Ghost & Rae – Miranda

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We’ve seen a couple collaborations between Snoop and CuDi of late, the most recent of which (“I Do My Thing”) was produced by none other than Dr. Dre. All old school Snoop (and tree) lovers take notice: there’s a new toker in town.

CuDi’s making waves not only in the music world but also in the realm of television. He plays the bottle-popping, easy-going Domingo on HBO’s newest hit series How To Make It In America. CuDi’s character is peripheral (so far), but the show itself taps into hip hop culture in a big way: the two main characters were raised on hip hop in New York City, and now in their late 20′s and with little direction in life they team up to start a denim line called Crisp.

Hit the skip for new CuDi X Snoop, plus a full Mixtape Monday stuffed with goodies from all over the industry (including the very first single off Drake’s upcoming official album AND the first four episodes of How To Make It In America!).

Kid CuDi ft. Snoop Dogg – I Do My Thing [prod. Dr. Dre] [prod. Watts & Ringo]

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Little Brother – Curtain Call

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Drake – Over [prod. Boi-1da]

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As the temperature inches higher and higher and daylight lasts just a few minutes longer everyday, clothing lines drop their LookBooks to give buyers a preview of their Spring/Summer Collections. Somehow, NYC-based clothing line Supreme always catches my eye. No matter where (on a skully, a fitted, inside the collar of tee, on a backpack, on the side of a building) the red Supreme logo makes anything look official. The boy Fantastic alerted me to the intense picture of Raekwon, standing with the one, the only, the original street pharmacist Supreme, holding an Elmo doll while Supreme drapes an uzi over his right shoulder.

Hit the skip for the Spring/Summer 2010 Supreme LookBook, as well brand new drops from Crooks ‘n Castles, Stussy, and some Supras that’ll have you spending loot…
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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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If you didn’t catch it anywhere else, Raekwon, Method Man, and Ghostface (who finally settled on a name: Three the Hard Way) dropped the cover art for their upcoming album Wu-Massacre. With confirmed appearances from Wu Tang members Inspectah Deck and Cappadonna, Wu Massacre also features a joint with Trife Da God and a skit featuring the hilaaaarious Tracy Morgan (see below). Hit the skip for the complete Three the Hard Way tracklist, CD-sales figures from the past week that would surprise any new school hip hop head, and details of the deal Shyne inked with Def Jam.

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