Benz and a Backpack

No topics are truly safe from the scheming pens of industry emcees. Now, if you’ve had your radio on in the past two weeks, you’ve heard Drake’s Swizz Beats produced ode to appearance-obsessed women, “Fancy,” featuring T.I. And though the song breaks with that smooth Drake-brand sound, its subject matter fits right in with the kind of shit many of the industry’s new talent (and even some old mainstays) have been putting out this year – songs dedicated to the women that bring drama.

Now, speakin on the subject of the saditty lady is by no means a new trend in hip-hop (especially industry type ish)- women have been at the center of Hip Hop culture from its inception. Yet this year has seen an inordinate number of artists put out songs centered around the topic of bougie females, not just on an ultra-sexual Whisper Song tip or some strange Lil Wayne love song, but on some pretty-well thought-out, lyrical shit. Check it:

Drake – Fancy

“Hit the gym, step on the scale, stare at the numba/ You say you droppin ten pounds, preparing for summa/ And you don’t do it for the man/ Man never notice/ You just do it for your self/ you the fucking coldest”

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If anyone was watching ESPN 2 this afternoon, you may have been lucky enough to witness the hilarity of Wale sitting across from Skip Bayless on First and 10.  Wale, a self proclaimed “sports buff”, holds his own against the pros.  The two disagreed on a few big topics, including Tim Tebow’s future and Lebron’s place at the top.  At the end of the show, ESPN throws a curve ball and has the two debate if Jay-Z is the greatest rapper of all-time:

“For me, I got Lil’ Wayne and Eminem on the top….I got em!….I like the old school.”

Now while Wale definitely has earned the right to talk about sports, I have no idea what Skip Bayless thinks he is doing. His perceived time line of rap history is a little distorted.

The intersection of hip-hop and sports tends to focus around the NBA, but Wale shows his well-roundness with a little focus on the NHL.  He has developed a particular appreciation of the Washington Capitals and Alex Ovechkin.  Like his Jeremy Shockey line in “Chillin’”, Wale’s sports references tend to be a little more obscure than most.

Wale isn’t the only rapper to get the Bayless treatment.  Lil’ Wayne was on First and 10 a little more than a year ago.  Wayne makes his affection for ESPN obvious in his rhymes, but his knowledge and presence as a sports anchor are severely lacking compared to Wale’s.

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2010 is a very interesting time to be working for a rap magazine. We at Benz and a Backpack take partial responsibility for this. How can a static, delayed, once-monthly news source compete with the constantly-evolving and daily-updating force of a blog? It can’t. The old print media business model is going the way of the dinosaur, Tiger Wood’s marriage, and Charles Hamilton’s image–that is, completely fucked up.

So, rather than rehashing stories that your favorite rapper already tweeted about, retweeted about, and talked about while flashing fake guns on WorldStarHipHop, rags like XXL tend to release increasingly speculative material. For the most part, they do it well. However, trying to stay two steps ahead of such a fluid culture does come with its pitfalls, and identifying the top rappers who will blow up in the next year is a dicey process (see picture above). Last year, XXL got some solid hits (Kid Cudi, Wale, B.o.B.), some bad misses (see picture above), and one complete, unforgivable, utter failure of a strikeout. Who is the 2010 Drake that could potentially shut down another rap magazine? Hit the jump for a look at five of the candidates.
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The past year marked a lot of change for me, and my tastes in hip hop responded accordingly. I wouldn’t say they “matured” as much as they branched out. I still like the stuff I’ve grown up on, but I’m getting into artists that have been around for years and are still well-respected in small, loyal circles (AZ, Rakim, Cormega) as well as the newest crop of young talent (Novel, XV, J Cole, Wiz Khalifa). I’ve assembled my list of top 10 tracks of ’09 which I probably could have assembled just as easily if I had an Ipod and put the top 10 highest played in here… but this required a little more thinking. And that’s a good thing. Hit the skip to peep the hottest tracks of the 09 year with artists ranging from Lloyd Banks to Jay Electronica.

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Already, twenny ten started with a bang- or, as I like to say, a bong bong! So far:

• The Reflection Eternal mixtape (featuring Jay Elect and J. Cole!),
• Raekwon’s Coke Up In Da Dollar Bill,
• Emilio Rojas’ The Natural,
• Jay Electronica’s Victory, and
• If you didn’t catch it, Mark McGwire admitted to using steroids earlier today…

What’s To Come

It will only get better; with the promise of the new Rae, Ghost, and Meth group/album, the forthcoming Strong Arm Steady album (produced entirely by Madlib), releases from Luda and Lupe, Statik and Black Milk, Random Axe, Redman, and The Roots. Em’s Relapse 2, Nas and Damian Marley’s Distant Relatives, new Kanye, Cudder, and J. Cole. And sheeit, that’s just touching the surface of hip hop!

For our indie heads, you’ve got OKGO, Vampire Weekend (…), Animal Collective (yeaboi!), and the Cold War Kids. But 2010 holds more than just the promise of good music. Next month Vancouver will hold the 21st Winter Olympics, then in May the World Expo will be in Shanghai, and on June 11th the FIFA World Cup will kick off in South Africa.

2010 marks Obama’s second year in office, and with health care tucked securely under his belt still hanging in the balance, we can only hope that there will be the opportunity to tackle other equally pressing issues like unemployment, terrorism, and climate change.

To that end, 2010 holds the promise of the US’s first plug-in electric car (courtesy of Chevrolet, called the Volt and scheduled to drop in November). To charge the Volt, one need only plug it into a standard household outlet and it will be powered for 40 miles (which exceeds the distance of the average American’s daily commute). Beyond that point, minimal gas is used to propel the vehicle 300+ miles!

Big things are already poppin’ in twenny ten, and there is much, much more to come. Hit the skip for 15 brand new tracks from the Wu Tang and Wiz, Strange Fruit Project and Statik, Ryan Leslie and Wale, Bun B and Jump-Off Joey, plus an unreleased Drake verse for his smash hit Successful.

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J’s Music Inc. threw up there top 10 underground hip hop albums of 2009.  There is some overlap with our top 15 albums of ’09, but also a few things I definitely slept on and will have to go back too.  He writes:

“Overall I think 2009 was a great year for Hip-Hop, with a genuine feeling that Gangsta Rap is finally getting pushed to one side, giving room to a more conscious Hip-Hop, full of lyricism, flow, beats & originality…”

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2009 saw long-awaited drops, unexpected come-ups, and head-scratching mistakes. Monster commercial hits, tasty underground pleasures, and a mixtape as the biggest album of the year. We saw record labels and media establishments lose power like a blizzard just hit and the lines went down. We saw firsthand how a fresh blanket of snow threatened normal routines, had people shoveling their steps and digging out their cars with whatever they could grab (like, say, a slimy incident at the VMAs). They hadn’t salted, or even prepared for the storm at all. They’d gotten so wrapped up in summertime living that when winter hit, they were caught wearing flip-flops and shorts.

The internet debilitated the industry as we knew it, and it was typified in 2009: free music everywhere. The number of people who don’t pay a nickel for their music is growing bigger, so record labels are confined to a shrinking share of the market. Now labels are doing their best to regain their grip on the game, and part of that process is squeezing artists tighter than Homer does Bart’s neck. You won’t get a deal unless you’re already a marketable commodity, and as a result some of the best albums this year came from alternative groups on independent labels. Nonetheless, you know some major-label bosses scored huge hits in ’09. Hit the skip for the cuts that’ll tide you over ’til spring shows her pretty face.
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2009 was defined by the mixtape. Drake landed atop the charts with singles off his mixtape So Far Gone (‘dropped the mixtape that shit sounded like an album’), but really Drake is the product of deeper changes that have taken place in the music industry over recent years. Now it is becoming more and more viable to release free material and keep tabs on what demographic likes it rather than strive for certain sales benchmarks. That way, you can do what Wale and Wiz Khalifa each attempted this year, and what J. Cole and Mike Posner are on the cusp of doing:
1. Put out mixtapes to garner and sustain buzz about you, as well as allow you to identify your share of the market, and then
2. Drop a studio album that, while it pleases your core fans, at the same time it appeals to a broader listenership, which in turn increases your sales revenue.

It’s delayed gratification at its finest, and it pushes collaborations to a new level. Wale got practically everyone and their second cousins down on his album; Drake’s been doing collabs left and right with various people in different niches of the industry; Cole is getting up with the other young guns (and, more recently, some not so young guns) to secure his footing in the game. Hit the skip for our Top 10 Mixtapes Of 2009, judged on the criteria of creativity, success, and impact. If you haven’t found a way to get your hands on these yet, leave a comment and we’ll see what we can do…

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With Attention Deficit due out in just a few days (November 3rd), we figured we’d give you all the leaked tracks we have to date so you can keep building anticipation. Dizzy and I were talking the other day about who’s new album we’re most excited for this fall – I was all about the new Wiz and he said J. Cole, no doubt, but these few tracks, especially the most recent “Letter” with John Mayer, have me pretty amped. His flow has always been on point, making himself fit right in over the most classic mixtape beats, yet it seems he’s pushing a political agenda as well, always a plus if you’re down with the movement.

“Letter” addresses President Obama and, fittingly, shouts out Tupac who’s “Letter to the President” track in 95 set the bar for rapping to the Commander in Chief. Mayer on the hook reminds me why I used to play him (secretly) in my room after school and go to his concerts (in disguise). The sample is from Mayer’s “3×5″ off of Room For Squares if anyone was wondering. Peep..

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Here’s the rest…
With Pharell – Inhibitions (Let it Loose)

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Off Attention Deficit. The release of the album was bumped by Wale himself who announced that he needed to continue putting the finishing touches on it when he finished touring with Jay-Z and Lupe Fiasco.

Download: Wale ft. Rihanna – Contemplate

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