Monday, December 22, 2003
Debating the new hip hop classics
Image courtesy: http://www.the-streets.co.uk
The Streets does a collabo with Coldplay? (NME.com) What's next: Dizzee Rascal with Starsailor, Ms. Dynamite with The Stereophonics? WTF?
Read Sasha Frere-Jones' Best of 2003 here. (S/FJ)
Check out 1115.org's Best of 2003 here. (1115.org). Of course, I'm in full agreement with their endorsement of the Kelis album.
And XLR8R do their Best of 2003 round-up in the current issue on stands now which made me realize that no matter how cool you are in your circle of friends, there's always somebody cooler somewhere else. Sample comments from the XLR8R "Mind Squad" in the "The Worst Style Trend" section re: Nike Dunks:
"The were wack when they first came out and they are even weaker on the feet of every 35 year old wannabe-17 year old old ad exec..."Ouch! That one hit a little too close to home.
And from the "Worst Music Trend" section: "Return to the Golden Age" of hip-hop: "if we want to bring it back the "golden age," shouldn't we do some fresh shit instead of trying to make The Low End Theory over and over again?" I think my man Max Roc agrees with that one.
Image courtesy: Rotentomatoes.com
I'll admit to not being a king-fu movie expert and being more into the Hollywood art-flicks like Kill Bill, Crouching Tiger and The Matrix etc. that have bitten the aesthetic of the Hong Kong originals, but this flick Princess Blade (out on DVD now, how did I miss it's theatrical run?) looks like it might be hot.
Based on what I've read, seen and heard, House of Sand of Fog looks like it might be pretty good as well and, of course, I've still gotta catch Lord of the Rings 3. I've been more on the Netflix tip and haven't gone to see many movies in theaters recently but I still want to catch Mystic River which has been out for a while too.
Images courtesy: All Music Guide
It was interesting talking with some young hip hop journalists and artists at a party I was at a couple nights ago as they discussed their favorite albums and what they felt were the all-time classic albums in hip hop. Besides some obvious picks, here were some highlights from the conversation that I remember:
They liked The Chronic but not Doggystyle. Not sure how that works although I remember many being disappointed with Snoop's solo debut album after expectations went sky-high after his incredible work on Dre's classic. Go back now and acknowledge the brilliance of Doggystyle 'cos he's never equalled his work there on any of his subsequent solo albums.
Genius/GZA Liquid Swords. Can't argue with this one personally. This is one of those albums that gets overlooked when cats go on about how the solo albums by the Wu were never at good as 36 Chambers. But relistening to the first albums by Ghost, Rae, Meth & ODB and you realize, with the benefit of time, how good they actually were especially in relation to where hip hop has gone since that mid-90's era and even in comparison to other albums that came out during that time period. Gravediggaz's 6 Feet Deep also got rated. Don't know what it is about that album, but people still check for it today. I never disliked it but I was never that into it at the time. I think the "Horrocore" tag critics and fans put on it kind of killed it for me.
Dr. Octagon's Dr. Octagonecologyst was a classic to these guys too. That album is definitely one of the first of the mid-late 90's releases heralding the birth of the new hip hop underground which is when I kind of stopped listening to much of what came out of that scene.
Ditto for Company Flow's Funcrusher Plus which also made their classics list.
These guys had never heard Diamond's Stunts, Blunts & Hip Hop. Given the early-mid 90's, underground slant of most of the albums they had mentioned, I had to school 'em on that one.
Finally, no-one mentioned Rakim (WTF?) although EPMD and BDP/KRS-One both got a nod.
Image courtesy: Eastbay
The magazine ads say 12/23 but you can cop the G-Unit G6 Black Edition sneakers in stores right now since they dropped at least a week ago now.
And finally, watch 50 Cent and Jay-Z "Back 2 Back" courtesy Reebok's RBK. This ad is more hip hop than most of the videos you'll see on MTV and BET including the ones done by both of these artists.
