Benz and a Backpack

It gets wilder every year. When Q-Tip dropped the intro to “Dark Fantasy,” Clutch thought KanYe might be on his way out. Lo and behold, he was, and he and Tip set it off. Here’s some lo-fi footage courtesy of the homie A Ruff and his trusty iPhone hi-fi footage courtesy of AsSeenByScene and SpotCoffee.

Q-Tip & Kanye West – Dark Fantasy/Can’t Tell Me Nothin/All Of The Lights

Q-Tip & Kanye West – Award Tour

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“Public Eye” is a remake of the classic Brand Nubian track “All For One.” The video, directed by Jack Cearnal, places Cons literally in front of a giant 35mm camera, and while Cons performs his sizzling verse the lens displays images of what he’s rapping about. The deal-sealer for me was Cons’ ill reference to Rajon Rondo’s tough performance in this year’s NBA playoffs: “For me BS-ing is clearly not option/so I’m a keep ballin like I’m Rondo’s other elbow socket.” No movement on Movies On Demand 3, although “Public Eye” is definitely on it. Whatever the hold up is, this must be a poignant time for Cons given his recent beef with Q-Tip (and in light of the release of Michael Rapaport’s Beats, Rhymes and Life ATCQ documentary), as well as his issues with KanYe.

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A Tribe Called Quest Documentary (Trailer) by PayeTaChatte

Finally hitting theaters this weekend (if your lucky enough to live in NY or LA) is the highly anticipated documentary Beats, Rhymes and Life, honoring the legacy of A Tribe Called Quest. Not to say we arrived here smoothly, the production and subsequent release of this doc experienced its fair share of controversy. Upon viewing the first edit, Tribe’s members were disappointed with director Michael Rapaport, who made the explosive drama between Phife Dawg and Q-Tip a too-big part of the story.

Rapaport screened the movie at Sundance anyway,with the support from Phife (and only Phife). Now the movie is finally prepped for public consumption and will be gradually premiered in cities across the country throughout the summer. Despite the drama, Tip still commends Rapaport and encourages everyone to see the movie.

Head over to Vulture for a minute-long clip from the movie, where Jarobi and Ali retell the story of Q-Tip deciding to break up the band.

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From our good friend and Chicago-native Miss Maule:
In the upcoming primary elections in the City of Chicago, one race sticks out to me like “a bullet and target.” A hometown favorite of mine, Grammy Award-winning rapper Che “Rhymefest” Smith is running for Alderman of the 20th Ward. Representing the Englewood and Woodlawn neighborhood (just bordering my hood of Kenwood/Hyde Park) Rhymefest is making a natural move from his poetic activism to the realm of local political activism. I believe a true leader finds multiple platforms to execute his/her vision and that is exactly the path he is blazing.

I first learned about Rhymefest from a local Chicago magazine when he released his debut album Blue Collar in the summer of 2006. From the title of the album alone it was clear that he was representing himself as an ordinary man, straying from the glitzy and glammor-fied ways of a lot of hip hop, with expressed profound lyricism. After hearing the album I instantly connected to the authentically Chi-Town tracks like “Chicago-Rillas” and “Brand New.” However, it was the songs like “Bullet” with folk singer Citizen Cope and “Sister” (Eddie Kendricks’ “Intimate Friends” is one of mine/hop hop’s favorite samples) that convinced me of his artistic dynamism. He worked with a range of musical talents including Q-Tip, Kanye West, Bump J, Mario, Malik Yusef, No I.D., O.D.B, Citizen Cope, and Mark Ronson.
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I’ve mentioned Native Tongues Posse and I’ve definitely discussed ATCQ’s ability to put me on a natural high, but I have yet to dedicate a Thursday to the man who is arguably one of these groups’ most illustrious members.

“If you can’t hear it, then get the wax utensils”

Jonathan Davis aka Kamaal Ibn John Fareed aka The Abstract claims he got the name Q-tip during his youth because he was skinny and had bad hair. He made his first on-record appearance on The Jungle Brother’s first LP, ‘Straight Out The Jungle’, in 1988. Super talented as a rapper, producer, singer, actor… (His role in Spike Lee’s “She Hate Me” just made him that much more appealing in real life… Just completely sweet and naive and adorable… Def makes you say “aww”.) Always good-natured, positive, light-hearted, and virtuous, but never self-righteous. I’m totally swooning now, but he’s just fuckin’ dreamy. And for real, who doesn’t love him? This man is a 10. Why can’t more boys be more like Q-Tip?

This Thursday’s throwbacks are a selection of some of my favorite Q-Tip appearances on non-Native Tongues tracks.

The Roots feat. Q-Tip: Ital (The Universal Side) (1996)

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Organized Konfusion feat. Q-Tip & O.C.: Let’s Organize (1994)

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Slum Village feat. Q-Tip: Hold Tight (2000)
“It’s The Ummah shit for real”…

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Pete Rock & InI feat. Q-Tip & Large Professor: To Each His Own (1995)

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Mad Skillz feat. Q-Tip & Large Professor: Extra Abstract Skillz (1996)

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Almost all the boxes on my Friday checklist have Nike swooshes through them, which means that the weekend is just an arms-length away. To celebrate, here’s a compilation of the most recent freestyles, including verses from Black Thought, Q-Tip, and more! Speaking of swooshes, the boy John Wall (who will no doubt be the first overall selection in the draft this year) had some jersey issues in this most recent Kentucky photo shoot (take a close look at his jersey, haha). Way to be, Nike! Shouts to the boy Dellogs.
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I don’t want to get into anymore arguments about sampling. I don’t want to hear about how it violates some arbitrary sense of integrity. And I DEFINITELY don’t want to hear about how it discourages creativity. This, right here, is some genius-type shit. Did anyone have any clue that “On To The Next One” was built on a Justice sample? Hell no you did not. Watch this:

That is nuts, and you know it. The essence of sampling: one great creative work inspiring another. Are you surprised that Pharrell and Q-Tip put Swizzy on to “D.A.N.C.E.”? Great minds inspired by great music inspiring each other. DO NOT argue with me about sampling anymore. DO NOT try to stifle great minds. Hit the jump to see Mr. Keys recap how the whole process went down.
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The problem is that it’s actually really sad. The wonderboy whose temper is hotter than a whistling teakettle may or may not have been straying outside of his marriage, betraying both his wife and their two tiny children. My question is, how would Tiger react if his wife stepped out on him? He’d grab a golf club, curse uncontrollably, and then hit some shit, which sounds exactly like what his wife did this weekend. Hopefully, Tiger and his wife, Elin Nordegren (she’s pictured below, and she’s a dime; why anybody would ever cheat on her I don’t know. Now Kobe has a rival for biggest-most-narcissistic-asshole-of-all-time), can reclaim their lives, and hopefully the media will scale back its coverage of the incident (although I doubt it) so we can focus on what really matters to Americans: Pats-Saints on Monday Night Football. It’s little boys like Tiger and Kobe that give men a bad collective reputation; not all guys are like them, and if you are you need to change up your gameplan. Hit the skip for a whole lotta good new music from the likes of BlakRoc, Meth and the Chef, Cormega, Immortal Technique, AC, Termanology, Bun B, Papoose, Canibus, Rakim, XV, Styles P, Prodigy, and more.

One-2 ft. El Prez – Success To Me [prod. Komplex]

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Cormega ft. Tragedy & Havoc – Define Yourself [prod. DR Period]

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By now, most of you should’ve heard about the Dame Dash-Black Keys project called BlakRoc. The Black Keys, an Ohio-based rock-blues band, teamed up with Dame Dash in an effort to put out a truly collaborative, multi-genre album, and lucky for you it’s available on The Black Keys website now! Guest artists include Mos Def, Raekwon, Pharoahe Monch, Ludacris, Billy Danze, Nicole Wray, Q-Tip, and more.

Hit the skip for more information about BlakRoc, the newest BlakRoc Webisode, and some of the leaked tracks off the album.
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Probably one of my favorite situations ever occurs when, in a tag for a song, there is a list of featured artists that is so long, I gotta put forth a little effort and actually drag out the Name column in iTunes.

I’m sure you know the anticipation I feel.  I go into it, and know- before even pressing play- that I like the way it sounds.  Rarely will a perfectly formulated combination of artists fail you.  Let’s be real.  It’s nearly impossible to not be at least a little biased about the brilliance of a song when there is the combined forces of a few of your favorite artists on one track, the line-up in and of itself is pure genius.

Much like having a hot line-up today is one of the best ways to create hype for a track (or group), posse cuts were the best way to introduce new artists to the world, before the internet ruled the world.  And being that this is MY INTRO, my first post for Benz and a Backpack, I thought posse cuts would be a good topic to begin my takeover of Throwback Thursdays.

As for my selection, it’s admittedly heavy with examples of how Native Tongues Posse and affiliates absolutely killed it in terms of knockout collabos in the 90’s.  (Cuz… What is a collection of posse cuts if it doesn’t include “Buddy” and “Scenario”?) The collective put together lineups so hot there was practically no possibility for failure.  Many members, perhaps most notably (and oh-so sexily) Q-tip, ventured outside of their circle to collaborate with artists on the complete opposite of the rap spectrum thematically (Mobb Deep?) and stylistically (Missy Elliot?).  I mean, try and tell me I’m wrong when I make the claim that both “Drink Away the Pain” and “Hot Boyz” are two tracks that not only took risks and succeeded, but will permanently be embedded in the memory of any hip-hop fan who grew up in the 1990’s.  Yeah, didn’t think so.

But it wasn’t all about Native Tongues, though, as you’ll also hear on my selection of tracks.  And it’s not about to end here, either…  Luckily the dope throwback posse cuts and ill collabos are seemingly endless, so… Part two next week, you already know.

Pete Rock & InI: To Each His Own (feat. Q-tip & Large Professor)

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Crooklyn Dodgers feat. Special Ed, Masta Ace & Buckshot: Crooklyn

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Black Sheep feat. featuring Chi Ali, Jim Jones, Chris Lighty, and Dave Gossett: Pass The 40

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You already know how much we love DIlla here (way too much). What’s not too well known is the scope of his influence on music, both popular and underground. Every single piece of music that Dilla put out, whether for himself or someone else, has the highest production value around. It is widely believed that Dilla influenced popular producers (who had a lot more visibility than him)- that they saw the tools he was using to make his music and applied them to the mainstream. A testament to Dilla’s greatness: everyone he’s worked with calls him a genius. Hit the skip for a few great Dilla tracks and to see other artists praise him.
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Some Yankee teams (much to my chagrin) have had too much talent to know what to do with (see: 2001). That’s almost what the roster of artists with albums dropping this fall looks like. Only difference is, we know exactly what to do with their talent.

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Raekwon – Only Build 4 Cuban Linx II
The Chef has endured delays and pushbacks, but in the end he couldn’t be denied. With RZA, Pete Rock, Dilla, and Dr. Dre behind the production, you can bet this album is fire. Raekwon is a master storyteller. Dropped today.

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Jay-Z – Blueprint 3
Drops in three days on 9/11, the 8th anniversary of the release of the original Blueprint and of the attacks on the WTC. HOV has been releasing singles from the album for the past couple months, and late last week the BP3 leaked online. On Friday, the Jigga performance at Madison Square Garden will be broadcast live on TV and the internet. Tune in, because it should be quite a show.
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Ghostface Killah – Wizard of Poetry
It’s been called Ghostdini’s major attempt to attain the commercial success he’s always deserved. Get a more in depth sneak peak here. Drops September 29th.
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Brother Ali – Us
Brother Ali always delights, and the duo of Ali and Ant (who did the production on Ali’s Undisputed Truth LP) is like Muggsy Bogues and Alonzo Mourning; perfect compliments. Ali is at the forefront of conscious, intelligent rap that also penetrates the listener’s heart. Drops September 22nd.
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KiD CuDi – Man On The Moon: The End of the Day
CuDi’s solo debut drops on September 15th, and it’s hyped up for good reason. We got an early listen, and it’s quite the adventure. Peep the Album Artwork x Tracklist and a recent leak.
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