Alchemy at its best

I just read a GREAT interview on Allhiphop with Producer/DJ/Emcee Alchemist. The interview was conducted by Jaeki Cho, so props to him. Most interviews nowadays with artists are pretty typical, and boring but informative, as if the artist was answering questions from a prewritten list that was never destined to change. Rarer is the interview which is more like a conversation, with alot of humor and shit. Alchemist is also a funny dude, very candid indeed.



As a producer, he has always been one of my favorites. He came into the game makin soulful joints. Then, he began to do the grimey joints, w hich are what he became known for, especially with his first album First Infantry. He became further well known as Eminem's tour DJ. All in all, he's a bridge between mainstream artists like Em and Hov and underground artists like Evidence and Blu. He went to HS in a posh school in Cali where he shared classes with Angelina Jolie, Monica Lewinsky, and other future big names, and his musical influences are wide and varied.

Here are some choice excerpts:

*Green and red stuff is my emphasis

*********

AllHipHop.com: I have another question about the track “Therapy,” which features Blu and Kid Cudi. When you recorded that joint with Cudi, did you think he was going to be big as he is now?

Alchemist: My manager, my brother’s my manager, he and Paul Rosenberg have told me about Cudi years ago. He actually worked at the Bape store. Paul told me about this dude and gave me two songs and “Day ’N’ Nite” was one of them. And I was like, “Yo, this s*** is hot.” He came over and recorded couple things. The way he recorded his vocals I was like, “This dude is sick.”

AllHipHop.com: Was he high?

Alchemist: We were high, yes. He’s kind of like Snoop. Anything I ever did with Snoop the minute the beat came on, in about 20 seconds the hook was already there. Like [Snoop] will hear the beat and go, “Uh-ho! [Mumbling.]” And that’s the hook. That’s the same thing with Cudi. He was ill with the way he controlled his vocals.

AllHipHop.com: What about Blu?

Alchemist: My two favorite rappers that are new are Blu and Jay Electronica. I wouldn’t even say they are new because they’ve both been around. They’re so incredible because I feel like they still have that artistic integrity, which hasn’t been compromised by getting a big deal or catering to the radio, which I can’t say for this new crop of artists. But it still feels like labels are mad at those two. I like the rappers that are making the labels tight! [ Emphasis is mine. That shit is the truth though, exactly how I feel! ]

AllHipHop.com: And Jay Electronica?

Alchemist: He is like the wind. He is not a rapper! He is like a spirit. The first time I met him he was supposed to come over at night. Didn’t show up at all. Next morning he’s knocking on my door. So I’m like, “What’s up?” He’s like, “You want to just go for a walk?” [Laughs.] It was the weirdest s*** ever! I was like, “Uh…Word! Hell yea!” We rolled up some weed, it was a Sunday morning and we walked all the way to the West Side Highway just chopping it up about life and everything. He asks mad questions and acts like a student, but he’s a teacher. [Emphasis is mine again. That shit is so dope...by everything I've heard about Jay Electro, that seems like something he would do too...]

*******

AllHipHop.com: Serch is Jewish.

Alchemist: Yea, but Asher isn’t Jewish. That’s a misconception.

AllHipHop.com: I see. But Drake is half-Jewish.

Alchemist: No, no, no. He said, “Lyor (Lie-Or) Cohen” in an interview. How are you going to say Lyor (Lie-Or) when you know it’s supposed to be pronounced Lyor (Lee-Or)—if you’re Jewish, man. I don’t know.

AllHipHop.com: [Laughs.] He wasn’t raised to be a good Jew. But if his mom is Jewish…

Alchemist: This is like that s*** in Howard Stern “Is He a Jew?”

AllHipHop.com: [Laughs.] But why do you think…I’m not saying cats like Bubba and Lil Wyte aren’t dope.

Alchemist: Because they aren’t Jewish, man! Everybody know it’s because of that! They got to convert, man! [Laughs.]

AllHipHop.com: [Laughs.] Get your Bar Mitzvahs on!

Alchemist: Get your Jewish bars up, man! [LOL] It’s got to be because they are not Jewish. Go get that circumcision, man! [Laughs.] You know this a new theory you’re coming up with right now!

*******

He also talks about Relapse 2, and how he never really worked with Eminem despite DJing for him before he was sober, and how now they have been more open to collabs and have indeed cooked up some new shit in the studio...

Click here for the full joint

haff weigh throo

Dear Summer,

I know you gon miss me, for we been together since nike airs and crisp tees

There's been a gang of good music this summer, this yr in general. We're about halfway through, So I decided what better than to drop some list-posts. As in, top __ songs of the first half of the year, etc. Consider this my 1/2way through the year BET Award Show, minus a red carpet, celebs, performances by pedophile cripples and pedophile gremlins, and general bitchassness.

TOP 25 SONGS

This isn't necesarily the best songs, as I'm sure I'm not up on everything out. In addition, it's just a list of good songs, surprising songs, with explanations attached. No particular order either. Lastly, It's supposed to be summer, but it might have some earlier spring joints. Dont ask.

Joell Ortiz ft Styles P: "We Can Do It"

Joell takes a break from the Slaughterhouse work to put out a positive, Git-up-Git-Out style duet with fellow New York Lyricist Styles P. The result shows Joell and Styles at their best, and reminds that Joell doesn't ONLY rhyme about rapping.

Fashawn: "Life as a Shorty"
The first song off the entirely-produced-by-Exile Album Boy Meets World gives listeners a rather personal introduction to Cali MC, as he reminisces about the ordeals of growing up as a kid over a nostalgia-inducing soundscape. Great song, Great replay value.

Nas: "Film"
I already said all that needs to be said.

Jeezy: "24/23"
My unabated stannery for Jeezy, despite his rather pedestrian rap skills, is well documented. I stand by the snowman and respond he makes hella good songs, consistently. The song 24/23 has him rapping over some sinister synths, alternating between dissing Gucci Mane and OJ da Garbageman and (what else?) selling coke.

Slaughterhouse: "Woodstock," "The One"
Slaughterhouse is a great occurence in Rap History. These two songs find them channeling their lyricism toward specific ideas, rather than general posse battle rap, which is great. Both are somewhat rock and roll themed, mosh-pit hype-up anthemic type songs, and both go HARD!!! The wordplay is still there, the chemistry...I feel like The One coulda used a little more activity in the beat aside from the drums and guitar, but as is it's still pretty damn good.

DJ JS-1, Pharoahe Monch, OS: "Ridiculous"
DJ JS-1 released a fantastic album with 40+ features, and this song finds him flipping a familiar sample and giving it to OS and Phraoahe Monch, two amazing rappers who haven't worked together in nearly a decade. They procede to tear it up, and Pharoahe once again reminds us that he is the most criminally under-rated rap artist in America.

J. Cole: "Grown Simba"
My favorite song off what I think is the Best Mixtape to drop since Fort Minor and Green Lantern's Mixtape from 05-06. This song gives us background on J.Cole's North Kakalaki upbringings, and showcases his raw lyricism and passion for writing. He doesn't sound as if he's trying, it just seems like he's viciously arguing, proving himself. The lyricism isn't forced, as is common in 2009.

B.o.B.: "No Man's Land," "Camera"
The first song isn't a rap song, the second one is only kinda a rap song. I put these songs up here because they are awesome, first of all...both are singsong acoustically focused jams, showing Bobby Ray at his best. To me he is a MUCH better singer than rapper, but if he keeps his rap verses and uses them as the changeup rather than the fastball, they work exceptionally well. No Mans Land is damn near a country song, but it is great music. Camera has Bobby Ray poking fun (in a dark satire sorta way) at the models and pornstars, and once you get beyond the jokey tone, you'll see he's actually saying some serious things.

K'Naan, Chubb Rock: "ABCs"

The Toronto-based/Somalia-Raised emcee fashions an AMAZING upbeat anthem which pays tribute to the worldwide system of oppression through [Lack of] Education, among other things. Him and Chubb Rock go through the beat like it's nothing, with the best chorus of the year rockin between the verses.

Ruff Ryders (!!): "Who's Real Remix"
Damn!!!! I don't really have to say much here. Its the RR!!! Even Drag-On, who along with Jada, Eve and Styles spits some serious fire. Jadakiss especially Kills it. Sheek is forgettable (as usual) and DMX ends the song with an angry ass verse. Sure it's not exactly a GOOD verse, but hey, I probably wouldn't rap well if I just got out my 5th prison stint in 3 years either.

Get Busy Committee: "No Time to Speak"
Apathy, Scoop Deville, and Ryu pool their underground rap powers to remind mainstream artists how to make a track that goes hard.

Holly Brook x Apathy aka Perverts in Love: "Banana Leaf"
You know, this isn't a rap song at all. I downloaded it cause I thought Ap rhymed on it, but he did the beat only, which supports the beautiful vocals of Holly Brook of Fort Minor's hit song "Where'd you Go?" The song is AMAZING, and the beat suits the haunting vocals perfectly. It's crazy, and not rap at all, but who cares. Check that shit out.

Killer Mike: "Ima Fool With it"
Killer Mike is another angry rapper who consistently brings heat. He has gone on the record of embracing nearly every style of ATL rap, from soulja boy to crunk to outkast to TI, and this song proves it, as he goes in over what seems like something for non underground rappers, and kills it.

Rakim: "Holy Are You"

Top 5 DOA. Back in the Game. You already know!!!

Camron: "I USED TO GET IT IN OHIO"
The best Camron s ong off his last album. Killa!!! Once again, you already know.

Mos Def: "Auditorium ft. Slick Rick," "History ft. Talib Kweli," "Roses, Ft. Georgia Anne Muldrow"
To me, these are 3 of the many standout songs off The Ecstatic. They show his versatility, as he goes in over 3 distinctly different types of songs. Auditorium is a catchy and ingenious middle eastern story tale told by him and The Ruler (crumbs!!). History is a blackstar party, reflecting on the current state of America, and Roses is the most poetic and beautiful song on the entire album, in the same vein as "Climb" from Black on Both Sides. These arent necesarily the 3 best songs on the cd, just 3 of the many great tracks.

Brother Ali: "Phillistine David"
Brother Ali absolutely decimates the unexpectedly upbeat, synth-focused beat from Ant of Atmosphere. No other track on this list I'm writing says as much as this song says. Then again, Brother Ali tends to speak more substantially in his verses than anyone else in hip-hop. Brother Ali at his most spritual, ferocious, and focused. Amen to that.

Heltah Skeltah: "Midnight Madness (M-phazes Remix)"
The most thugged-out, Grimiest, bad ass song of 2009, and possibly the hottest beat of 09 also. Ruck and Rock bring their incredible wit and grit to this remix, showing why they are the best grimey duo in hip-hop history (Sorry, Thorton brothers.)

50 Cent: "Get The Money," "Funny How Time Flies, " "Dreamin"
Curtis inexplicably came out with a decent mixtape with some great songs, most of which find him rhyming over decidedly funky break beats from the 80s, complete with great choruses sung in the same fashion. Reminds me a little bit of pre-get-rich 50, in terms of style. His lyrics still aren't back to that level, but certainly higher than they've been since Get Rich or Die Tryin dropped. Maybe his next cd won't suck after all....

...it probably will though.

Lupe Fiasco: "Shining Down"
Matthew Santos steals the show, but the song shows Lupe showcasing a concise and simple flow...however, the double and triple entendres as well as subliminals a re still in full force. I would go into more detail, but someone else already did.

The Cool Kids: "Popcorn"
It's times like this I wish I had a brolic SUV with a diesel sound system.

Aesop Rock, Cage, El-P...AKA The Weatherman: "Possible Kidnapping"

The 3 Rhymesayers superstars spaz out over this El-P production. The beat sounds like something from the climax of a space battle scene, and all 3 emcees go for countless bars of madness, showing that even the most underground emcees can have plenty swag on a track, especially Aesop, who starts things off with a good 60 something bars of unadulterated random awesomenss.

TOP "SMH" SONGS OF SUMMER

Jay-Z "D.O.A."
Wrong Idea, Wrong Time, Wrong Execution

Clipse ft Kanye West, "Kinda Like a Big Deal"
Clipse verses suck, Kanye's isn't even that great a nd he shits on them. Beat is mediocre too.

Clipse ft Pharrell, Clipse ft. Keri Hilson--I dont even remember the name of them shit songs.
If the rest of their CD is like these 3 songs, they are FUCKED.

Fuck this shit.

*plays Ride around Shining*

3SIDEZ "Fine, I'll give SOME props, i Guess they did Aight" Award

Goes to Drake for managing to sell damn near a million downloads of a song a yr old. Touche. Someones on their grind.

Top 10 Albums I'm Hyped for in the Second Half

(again in no order)

Fashawn, "Boy Meets World"

Big Boi, "Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Dusty Chico"

Slaughterhouse

Lupe Fiasco, "LASERS"

Nas and Damian Marley, "Distant Relatives"

Brother Ali, "The Street Preacher"

Whatever the Hell Pharoahe Monch Calls his CD

#45, "Blueprint 3"

Drake, "Thank Me Later"

Clipse, "Till the Casket Drops"

The Jay Jenkins Jeezy Wack Rapper Who Makes Inexplicably Likeable Songs award

Goes to Rick Ross for making a pretty good album, with mad listenable songs and replay value, despite living with a bad case of Being-a-Shitty-Rapper.

5 Mixtapes I played the shit out of:

Forever King, 50 Cent

J. Cole, The Warmup

B.o.B., B.o.B vs Bobby Ray

The Cool Kids, Gone Fishin

Brother Ali, The Truth is Here

(Technically an EP but whatever. Go cannonball into lava pits if you got a prob)

AND FINALLY....

THE COVETED....

*DRUMROLL*

"Spliff Star / Memph Bleek" Memorial Prize

aka Destined to be a Failure that hangs around for 10 years Prize

To OJ da Juiceman and Gucci Mane.

Where the fuck did they come from? Atlanta apparently.

Will they be as talented and faithful WeedCarriers as Spliff and Bleek? I'm gonna go with a Resounding NO.

Have they done ANYTHING worth room on my hard-drive? HELL no.

Where the fuck are they going? Off the cliff, specifically via the fall-off



Thats all folks. Dope ass post comin up on Bball-Rap analogies. Stay Tuned!

See it like film

Some contest was held recently, and the winner got to produce a song for and work with Nas. A Kid named C-sick won, and they got together to make a song called "Film." The song reminded me of why Nas is one of the greatest of all time... to me he's personally in the discussion for GOAT. Despite having issues with beat selection in many of his CDs, having some albums perceived as selling out and other as lazy, random, and hypocritical, he remains alone in certain aspects of rapping. One of them is descriptive and vivid short story telling.

Download it here at 2dopeboyz.

Slick Rick pioneered the art of story telling (yo i swear I wrote that phrase without thinking about the Album before the irony hit me), many a rapper has tried their hand at it. Any artist in discussion for the GOAT of rap has incredible narrative skills, some display it more than others.

On his first album, 2pac narrated the song Soulja Story, a two-character tale about a gangbanger and his younger brother who, much to his older sibling's avail, wanted to follow in his footsteps. Biggie Smalls had the 5 minute opus Niggas Bleed which was a ridiculous and fantastic crime tale with as much blood and action as any hollywood block-buster. Hov had Meet the parents which was another hood tragedy complete with high tension moments and dramatic twists. Kast has, needless to say, Da Art of Story Tellin pts 1 and 2, Common has about a million songs that are narrative...

You and I could both go on and on with our favorite story telling tracks, or debating who is the nicest at it, etc, etc. To me it's more that different artists have different styles of storytelling, thus making it a matter of preference. Nas tells more stories than most of the rappers mentioned above, maybe with the exception of Common...and when I say tells stories, I don't mean a whole song, although that is included; it could be a single verse in a song that is narrative in style.

Sometimes Nas just makes verses that are cinematic as hell, because one thing he does that 99 % of the other story tracks, good or bad, don't do, that alot of films and great novels do....he describes the setting. Usually the other stories will give you a bar about it, maybe "on a rainy night" or mention the city and time of day or something along those lines. Nas, on the other hand, will go as far taking almost half t he verse to describe the people, regardless of whether they are important to the story. He'll describe belongings and random objects. He often describes how something smells, looks (and not just colorwise, as most rappers do, but texturally, for example), or sounds. He does this within his bars, without making them out of place or random. This is his first verse from this song Film:

Lots of fog at night, red break Lights

The freeway's beside a restaurant

cold Egg whites, sat on my plate, like, 3 AM

this is a spot frequented, by some made men

I'm high on Hemp

A fly old pimp jus walked in

His suit was sharkskin

he woke me up from some of the thoughts im lost in

what fame does a nigga,

change love to bitterness, friends to fiends,

for the audience screams, ridiculous

jumped up, paid my tab, got in my benz and went

to my old housing tenement, visit my old friends

some show love and some are envious,

some got the heart of gold, some venemous

at times I wanna go back to being penniless,

ignorance is bliss, i love being innocent

but life's got me on the fence again,

and all is real so all is worth mentioning

The actual story is only about half the verse! And in summary, the story isn't even exciting...it's him day dreaming at a rest stop diner at 3 AM and getting woken up by some old guy in funny clothes, then going back to the hood to see some friends. But he makes it a ill story, describes it like a movie director would. It helps that he is backed by an incredible almost descriptively somber matching beat from C-sick, too, of course. He uses the story to talk about what he was daydreaming about, and intersperses bits of philosophy and monologue. He does that whole story, day dream, philosophize combo alot in his narrations, and it always works because of t he descriptive caliber of his stories, and his pendant for relating a thinkers thoughts to normal people and listeners without sounding random or off topic.

He ends by saying "all is real so all is worth mentioning." I thought that was tight and had a little bit of a double meaning, as just a cool sounding line as well as a beleif he holds in his narrative ability. Why mention that he was eating egg whites? Because that is something real, that actually happened, so it's worth mentioning...worth including in the story despite no relation to the main "plot," you could say.

Thats the end of my rant, you should download the song. He has many better ones, of course, but this is still really good, especially if you consider how inconsistent some of his peers are nowadays with their lyrical quality compared to during their "golden age"....

* looks at Hov*

Lol but seriously. Nasir. Candidate for GOAT, he IS the GOAT in terms of pure lyrics (not song making not hits or charisma or any of that other shit) , at least to me, and all around legend.

My bad

So one of my personal "pet-peeves" (that phrase sounds so wack btw) in rap is people who overkill on punchlines who aren't RIDICULOUS at them, or who don't have a history bringing that to the mainstream. For example, I don't mind Fabolous, sometimes can deal with Cassidy, and Lupe uses punchlines galore but I don't mind. I find them used nowadays as a crutch more as a creative device. Rappers will actually plan their verses around several punchlines...as in think of a punchline, and then think of shit to rhyme with that, and that, and build the verse, etc. Alot of them are forced and not creative, also. Rare is the artist who can rap, without using many punchlines, and still give you bars that you know are crazy, even rarer is an artist whose style is not about traditional subject matter who doesn't do that.

When done correctly, punchlines obviously draw the ooh's and aah's from the listeners, however, in terms of types of lines to drop in a verse, I think the best a rapper can do is just those dope-ass creative lines...I don't know how to describe it well because my writing skills are suspect, so i'll give a couple examples off the top:

"This watch here is a one of one, that means none before, and none to come" - Hov

"I'm cancerous, so when I Diss you wouldnt wanna answer this with a battle rap you wrote for canibus" -Eminem

"Guerilla Monsoon Rap, smell the fumes, get in tune with it, when I attack ya city yall gon think doctor doom did it" -Pharoah Monche

"wheres the ladder, cuz either you gon whine or u gon climb, i chose the later tho, i know you niggas is pissed but hold ya bladder tho..." -J Cole

This brings me to the first rapper signed to Roc Nation, Jermaine Cole, aka J Cole. I slept on dude (pause that). I just never heard of him and then he got mad acclaim out of nowhere, which is suspect as hell to me, because given my keeping up with the "current events and artists" in the world of rappin, I figured i would be up on his music if it was nice. So i kinda ignored him...until one of my boys said his mixtape the Warmup was better than Drake's So Far So Gone.

As many of you know, I'm somewhat of a Drake skepticist, not in the s ense that I don't think he's talented or has superstar potential because it's obvious he's gonna become a superstar. I just don't think he's lyrically as nice as what people say, or as good a singer as people say...and people just assume that singing and rapping are some kind of additive properties thus makes him some god-artist in the making. That being said, he's a real good songwriter, so it's all good with me. Anyway, despite my ventures in to the world of hating, his latest mixtape So Far So Gone was good, and a mixtape better than that would also be a real good mixtape so....yeah. I downloaded The Warmup by J Cole.

The first thing that struck me upon listening to a couple songs is that this kid Jermaine is legit a good rapper, and also a good songwriter. I would later find out that this mixtape was more songwriting than just him spittin ill lyrics murdering beats, which was his goal on his prior mixtape The Come Up. The next thing I noticed is that he doesn't overkill on punchlines, but is still nice as hell, regardless of subject matter. Then something bugged me...

I couldn't think of someone to compare his style to. Took me a couple days, but I sort of figured it out. In terms of pure lyrical style, he raps sort of like a higher-pitched version of The Game, minus all the name dropping. He also sometimes goes off like Wale minus the drawling voice and drawn out sylables. He also reminds me of Blu, but flow wise he's nowhere near as laid back as Blu, despite covering similar topical territory (the everyday everyman life, the struggle for rap success, pursuits of happiness, etc)...he's aggressive as hell on most tracks.

All, or I should say many of, the "everyman" "average joe lifestyle" rappers we know tend to be laid back...I can only think of one exception off the top of the head, and thats Brother Ali. At the same time, J cole is far less spiritual than Ali (who isn't, really) but more hood-sounding than him, Blu, Drake, and alot of those dudes. He has a confidence that is reminiscent of a young Kanye West before his ego went absolutely nuts, and is nothing like the IN YOUR FACE LOOK AT ME I BLEED SWAG WHEN YOU CUT ME forced shit that we see today so often, in everyone from actually humble artists like Drake to obscenely cocky ones like Wayne.

All in all, It combines to form a very interesting listening experience, at least for me, especially since he's nice as hell lyrically. Great stealth signing by Hov on this one, hope it translates to success for J Cole, he seems like a dude who is on his grind and who deserves it.

Complex did a great interview with him about how he came up, his influences, signing with Jay, etc. Find that here.

You can download his mixtape and peep some songs on his myspace, click here.

He might end up in my "great new things in rap" group with Slaughterhouse, Blu, Shad K, and Lupe if he keeps this up.

Soundwaves

"The fan messages would be the illest ones though, know what I'm sayin...the illest message i ever got though, was from this girl, she was deaf. She said she usually chills with her friends and would like, u know, feel the vibrations of the music, and she was like...she felt compelled to tell me, the vibrations she got from my music and being around her friends when they were listening to it were, you know, iller than... [loses words...]...I'm not gonna break it down but she said she would put on a record and just put her hand on the speaker, ya know, and it was just real deep for me readin that message. . .people tell me every day they wake up to certain songs, this and that...

...I know I have a job now. I don't know how to describe that job [laughs], per se, I can do it better with a pen, but I know what it is..."

Tell me that's not incredible?

That's a roughly paraphrased quote from the end of Johnson Barnes III, b.k.a. Blu, from an interview from last month on Jesse Thorn's interview series The Sound of Young America. It's a great interview. Thorn knows exactly what questions to ask in order to allow Blu to paint a picture of his upbringing, how he got into Rap, how he made his cd Below The Heavens, and more. He knows exactly when to let Blu's monologues take control of the interview, among other things.

It's about half an hour, I'm not gonna recap the whole thing, I'm just here to put it out there for those who would be interested. I will say however, if you have listened to Below The Heavens this is a must-listen. If you haven't listened to BTH....step it up and go find a copy and listen to it.

The whole interview is here.

Hi Life

"Hi Life"
Ridin Dirty, 1996

Verse 2, Bun B

You only got one life to live
That's all they give us to do it
You could bullshit your way through it
Or stay true, it-

can be complicated cause niggas

Be gettin' shot in the cross
People and names get lost
The feeble and lame get tossed
The streets'll eat your ass alive
Take your positions with pistols, bare hands, and knives
And nobody's surprised, if somebody
Don't survive the dusk to see dawn
It's treacherous how we was left to die
On the streets that we be on
Motherfuckers sleepin' on them corners that you pee on
Probably cause society felt they didn't be-long
Now who in the fuck made it this way for us
Got all these little niggas slangin' that yay
Because it ain't like they make high levels gainable
And that quote "piece of American pie" just ain't attainable
So how can I substain a full life before death
Man, I'm left out here to make it by my goddamn self
Now c'mon, who gives a damn when you can't afford the turkey or ham
Livin' off of Ramen Noodles, beef jerky, and Spam
Now that's sad, but that's a fact of life
All I can see in front of me is up for grabs
Come off that slab
Cause poverty will push a nigga over that brink
Over the edge especially if you don't know your ledge
And So instead of being without, I'm hustling
Tryin' to get through these ungodly days
Thinkin' of ways to get the fuck outta this maze
A man will committ a crime 'cause a fuckin' crime pays
I'm going through a phase you don't grow out
Until there's a reason a mother fuckers gots to pour out
His 40 on the curb, disturbed and left with no doubt, in his mind
But still sometimes, he don't know why
He walkin' around just hopin'
He can get one more try to make it
It's bullshit he going through, but yo, he gots to take it
You can't fake it, to get that hi life.....

Dead or Alive

Initially I didn't really want to comment on DOA, the Jay-Z song, because I felt like it wasn't that big of a deal or serious. Even if I did feel like the reasons and logic behind the song were flawed, I wasn't really that mad at Jay from a fan standpoint.

I also didn't want to comment because I was struggling to write or explain exactly what my problems were. Fortunately for me, I just read some shit that explains it PERFECTLY.

From the Hip Hop DX Blogs...(I'm putting the important stuff in red):

The golden rule about being a member of any bandwagon is that you must know precisely when to co-sign the craze and when to jump and move to greener pastures. That being said the latest move by Jay-Z to jump ahead of the curve is the latest strategy for one of the genre’s pioneers to remain relevant and invoke conversation amongst the hip-hop community.

Jay-Z’s new single “Death of Autotune” carried out its purpose swiftly and effectively, something akin to Paul Revere informing troops of the British’s impending arrival, aimed to inform the masses that a shift from the current rap sound is neccessary — ending with a musical eulogy to the musical effect’s prominence. The problem here is beyond the song’s inherently pretentious nature. Declaring the death of autotune is as futile as the ill-begotten attempts of various influential African-American leaders to bury the n-word a few years prior.

The similarities are striking; PR-driven quick fix attempts to win brownie points with those unenamored with the current state of our culture, while offering no pertinent solutions to deep complex problems that truly plague our culture’s growth.

Autotune, the rap Frankenstein, has grown larger than life over the last few years and if you listen to your local urban FM market you’re bound to hear at least one song showcasing effect unless it so happens to be the Quiet Storm hours of night. As the game’s Frankenstein, the reality here is that as the effect helped create stars like T-Pain, every lazy A&R, talent scout, and record label honcho looked to capitalize on that success — thus creating a monster.

People really are missing the point here.

Why do purists and old heads see the Autotune as the problem, knowing damn well that the greater powers that be have been fucking up the balance in music way before the 12-year-old effect was even born? Furthermore why is Jay-Z, a man who held great power and ABILITY in his time at Def Jam, so off the mark with his current critique of the game? The conglomerization of the media can be pinpointed as the true driving force behind the Autotune craze. [JJ's Note: Hov is not stupid...HE KNOWS THIS!!!]Record labels push songs they want the masses to hear, and the thousands of Clear Channel-owned radio stations pump them out like the various assembly lines in my Detroit hometown pump out the newest brake pad. That redundancy, paired with the sad reality that a dynamic sphere of sound found on the radio in decades past has been relegated to a state of follow the leader — each subsquent copy-cat of that hot sound even more nauseating than the last. Autotune doesn’t set that precedent, people do. People like Jay-Z — and the last I checked there was no movement to reinstate the Native Tongues era during his stay as President of Def Jam. Labels are still fucking up by refusing to go overtime to break fresh new music into the scene, and thats an inherent problem with the industry that will exist after autotune, or any other impending trend, dies.

Thats what makes the song pretentious. A man of great clout who had the opportunity to be a forerunner of a creative U-turn in the game through corporate means chooses now to label himself as a noveau-Moses delivering us to the promised land away from Autotune. Surely, that comes off a little bit ingenuine when looking at mismanagement of various Def Jam non-autotune acts of quality under Jay’s stead. Don’t want gimmicks? Support those who don’t rely on them. Preaching that we go back-to-basics is cool if there’s an effort to follow through, but relying on rhetoric only makes the message come off as self-serving and there’s enough of that in the game already.

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In the end though, I’m not mad at Jay. The game needs these declarations and events to happen so that we can critique the game and look toward the future. I give him props for creating the discussion neccessary for this blog to have purpose, that being said here are some alternative songs/slogans I’d get personally get behind, that are far more damaging to the game (and as a result will go unchecked because of how many top stars it benefits). [Edit from JJ: Jay-Z has gone on record as pretty much saying that Autotune is cool, until it goes to far...like on a Wendys commercial, for example. He's tired of it getting gimmicky. The problem is he's going at the Artists for trying to do what the Labels Want, rather than going at Labels for Wanting them. It's disapointing because I am 100% sure he understands that relationship, as he has been an artist as well as an executive. That being said, no one in the industry really has balls anymore, so you can't be too mad, only disapointed...]

Death of Payola
How about we put an end to the pay-for-play BS that puts untalented people with deep pockets in the drivers seat and open the lane up for true talent to shine through on radio. Then people can build the momentum neccessary to actually balance the game out by giving consumers options as opposed to selling spots to the highest bidder. That goes for all these promoters charging artists to open for whatever out of over the hill out of town they shelled out 5 g’s for to bring to their club. Artists do YOU a service, and no new talent should be paying to perform unless it’s a festival of Rock The Bells/Summer Jam proportions. Paying dues is not a literal statement.

Death of the (Undeserved) Co-Sign [JJ's Edit: This is SO NECCESARY!!!!! ]
A concept that needs serious re-tuning, because while the industry is telling the young broke cats trying to get heard to pay dues, some people are also punching v.i.p. tickets for people with no track record. The game thrives on networking, but its unnerving to see emcees who haven’t shown and proven get a certain amount of clout with having anything official. Nepotism is acid to structural integrity as well, so people should rethink putting on their boys/friends/homies as well if they just aren’t up to snuff. i wont name names of people in the industry i think this applies to, because frankly a diss wont stop the phenomenon. A GOOD co-sign goes a long way, and the proper type of big-upping will elevate a talented superstar to a position he’s not only deserving of, but ready for (i.e. Drake: rapidly-growning fanbase, performance skills, star potential regardless of how you feel about the music)

Death of Death
Hip-hop’s not dead or dying, and things don’t need to die for the game to change. There just needs to be a more balanced representation of the culture. Downplay kill what’s oversaturated in rap; don’t kill it.

So regarding Autotune, in the words of Jay himself on “Success”…

“LET THAT BITCH BREATHE!!”