Art Hip Rocker Hop

Live the phrase “Sky’s The Limit”

Filed in Art Hip Rocker Hop by Tego at 11.36am on 09 March 10

13 years ago today, Christopher Wallace was gunned down in L.A. Aged just 24 hip-hop lost its most charismatic and naturally gifted talent. One yet to be replaced. Jay-Z is Jay-Z, he had to fight against not having a great voice, he had to fight against not wanting to be a star, he had to fight against a general lack of interest in his early years. He fought through those struggles to become the greatest of all time, but on the flip-side of the coin is Biggie Smalls, the only man who could ever be mentioned in the same breath as him. School friends, the two appeared on each other's albums and were even rumoured to have formed a super-group prior to Biggie's death. Wallace had a perfect voice, he was born to be a star and everywhere he went, he gained fans. A true behemoth, one unlikely to be repeated.

Biggie Smalls had the greatest voice of any rapper ever, he was totally uninhibited musically, applying melodies well outside his vocal range to charming and beautiful aplomb, his wheezy flow oozed character and soul. BIG didn't lack in any performance aspect, truly the only rapper of all time to have been blessed in that respect. His feud with Tupac is more legend than fact at this point, but what must be considered is that when the two were at the height of their powers, they were in their early 20s, changing popular culture and music history effortlessly with pure energy. An incredible thought when you take into account the quality and quantity of work they left behind.

There are still some who are yet to discover the genius and beauty of Biggie Smalls' two albums and I implore those people to do so today. Forget the books, the documentaries, the movies, the cheap laminated posters in the market. 'Ready To Die' and 'Life After Death' are masterpieces and the message behind the words of Christopher Wallace have the power to inspire and amuse to this day.

Sewing Tigers in my shirt and Alligators. You wanna see the inside? Huh! I'll see you later.

Live the phrase "Sky's The Limit" Rest In Peace Biggie Smalls.
Lil Wayne as a Vegetarian Pancake Roll

Filed in Art Hip Rocker Hop by Tego at 12.52pm on 09 February 10
In an attempt to rescue the Chinese food place over the road from being deleted from my phone once and for all I decided I’d throw a set of Vegetarian Pancake Rolls into the usual order. If these Pancake rolls impress me I’ll reconsider! I know they won’t, I know I won’t delete the number, only two places deliver down here and one’s a really, really rancid Pizza place that no matter the topping adjustments I make, always tastes fried. Somewhere between order and delivery Dwayne Carter crossed my mind, it may have crossed my mind because I was thinking back on the previous evening’s Super Bowl and the reason I was too tired to cook and therefor ordering food I know I don’t want, New Orleans beat the Indianapolis Colts, which is good because New Orleans is New Orleans and what the hell is Indianapolis? The favourite son of the great city of late has been Dwayne Carter. A hero, a pioneer, a leader and the son of a Birdman, Dwayne has had a rough couple of months and a seriously strange couple of years.

Dwayne aka Lil Wayne saw his last album debut at number 1 with some million records sold in its first week. While his name is Lil and he has the frame to match, ‘Tha Carter III’ was infact Wayne’s sixth solo album and his tenth album overall (three with his original group The Hot Boys and one with his adopted father Baby). The phenom that is Lil Wayne was in fact eleven years in the industry at that point. He was the first person to ever say the immortal words “Bling” and “Bling” on a record. Weirdly, when Wayne’s original group The Hot Boys split, Weezy would have been the last name you’d expect to go on and carve out a successful solo career. Indeed he didn’t, not in comparison to Juvenile, another Hot Boys alum, who sold four million copies of his debut album or B.G who had it not been for a high profile battle with heroin addiction was sure to gain solo stardom.

The Wayne transformation began in 2004 with a heavily Jay-Z influenced album ‘Tha Carter’. Almost entirely produced by Mannie Fresh (Wayne’s producer since his earliest days) the album was very true to the New Orleans sound, Triggaman influences and all. But Wayne impressed outside of his region with vocabulary and wordplay rarely heard outside of New York. His effortless but infinitely focussed assault didn’t have the commercial leanings of his later work but it pricked the ears of many on the East Coast who hadn’t consciously heard anything from the dreadlocked rapper since he recited America’s favourite phrase. Imagine Gary Coleman sneaking up and making Taxi Driver. This is Lil Wayne? The “Bling Bling” guy? Some remained unconvinced and indeed there were people who added fuel to their burning indecision. Former Wayne cohort, Philadelphia's Gillie Da Kid claimed to have written ‘Tha Carter’ and indeed taught Dwayne to flow in a more coherent manner. Makes sense, how did he get so good all of a sudden? It must have been somebody from the East Coast doing all the work. What a con. Bullshit. Those fears slowly dissipated when it became clear that not only could Wayne sustain his momentum without Gillie but the Philly rapper himself had absolutely nothing to offer himself as he began to leak solo material.

Wayne claimed on ‘Tha Carter’ to be the “Best rapper alive! Since the best rapper retired” a clear reference to Jay-Z’s ‘Dirt Off Your Shoulder’ where the Brooklyn MC repeats “Best rapper alive! Best rapper alive!” Weezy’s bold claim reportedly caught Jay’s attention in 2004 during Hova’s early days as Def Jam president. Jay-Z borrowed from The Hot Boys’ credibility in The South in the early part of the millennium and at the same lent them his credibility in the East Coast market a move that proved invaluable to both parties in the coming years. While rebuilding Rocafella Records after the messy split from Damon Dash it’s reported that Lil Wayne came within days of leaving his childhood home and adopted father Baby to move East and make a full assault on the top of the Billboard charts. A series of well publicised meetings had New York in a frenzy about Wayne joining The Roc. Those who’d not fallen under the spell of ‘Tha Carter’ were about to discover it as the buzz became deafening. For one reason or another, the deal never came to fruition. To hear Wayne tell it Jay passed on the New Orleans rapper. Why? We may never know. But when one Carter turned his back on another, a fire was lit beneath the Southern MC. His hero wouldn’t be passing him the baton.

Before releasing ‘Tha Carter II’ Wayne adopted the New York approach of releasing a constant stream of street tapes, original vocals on borrowed beats, whichever DJ was asking, Wayne had something. His presence was omnipotent and his popularity was soaring. Everybody wanted a piece of the emerging rapper who was a hit away from super-stardom. ‘Tha Carter II’ didn’t deliver the hit he craved, a mesh of Southern and East Coast production, the album was the first in Wayne’s career not to feature the distinct production sounds of veteran Mannie Fresh and while it could be argued the record didn’t suffer for it, it can be argued that the album fell just short of having the consistency of sound and the personality that made ‘Tha Carter’ so popular. Although the sales figures begged to differ.

The gap between ‘Tha Carter II’ and ‘Tha Carter III’ would be three years. In that time Wayne recorded a forgettable collaboration with label boss Baby and continued to make his presence felt on the mixtape circuit. A series of undercover jabs at Jay-Z were responded to in kind and one of the great unconfirmed beefs took shape. Legal troubles were never too far in the future as a series of drug busts took their toll on the rapper’s tour plans. The almost fortnightly Wayne headline did little to help his popularity and as ‘Tha Carter III’ approached it appeared he could do no wrong. Indeed when ‘Lollipop’ (the album’s first single) was leaked to radio many fans of Wayne’s mixtape output were left scratching their heads, autotune singing? Really? That’s how you want to do it? A misstep maybe? Hardly. The single sat at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks and put Wayne in a place his previous two albums had failed to put him. 50 Cent once laughed off the potential of Wayne as the biggest rapper in the world by claiming he had no hits. ‘Lollipop’ was a hit. A pop hit. But a hit. Wayne sustained his pressure on street level with his legendary tirade of metaphors, flow and energy ‘A Milli’, the streets went crazy, the industry went crazy, ‘Tha Carter III’ had gone beyond fever-pitch, it was in a whole new hemisphere, there became a feeling that Wayne was about to do something special with this album. Everybody else in rap trailed, remixes of ‘A Milli’ surfaced hourly, MF Doom, KRS1, Mos Def, LL Cool J, Ne-Yo, Busta Rhymes, Chris Brown, The Game and inevitably Jay-Z took Wayne’s hit for a ride making it one of the all-time hip-hop classics and firmly placing Dwayne Carter on course of a record breaking year.

‘A Milli’ proved right as ‘Tha Carter III’ moved over one-million units in its first week out. In 2008, bootlegging at its absolute peak, one man had the power to push through the worrying trends in sales figures and make his mark. Two hit records and a couple of forgettable radio songs extended the album’s life-span to a year of sales success. The world at his feet, the money in his bank, the industry on his nuts, Wayne set about building his legacy.

The signing and subsequent super-star status of Candadian Jewish rapper Drake put Wayne in the shade somewhat, but that was always the plan. But an album put together with his group of proteges; Young Money was received somewhat passively, despite heavily featuring Lil Wayne, Drake and female rap’s current hot topic Nicki Minaj. Another misstep? Perhaps. ‘Tha Carter III’ needed to be followed-up and following Kanye West’s ‘808s & Heartbreaks’ Wayne decided he wanted to step out of hip-hop too. He wanted to crank his autotune up to eleven and release a “Rock” album. He would call it ‘Rebirth’. I don’t think anybody really explained what “Rock” is and that what Wayne was making, was infact, absolute shite. Die-hard fans embraced his new direction, citing his creativity and rebellious nature for the decision to extend his musical reach into an audience that probably never existed. Horrible autotune college rock leaks were followed by even worse horrible autotune college rock leaks and most of hip-hop waited while Wayne got his “Phase” out of the way and got back to hip-hop. It seemed inevitable from the day announced ‘Rebirth’ that it would happen and that it would be horrible. A series of delays meant the album hung in the air, taunting fans and prolonged the suffering. Amazon received copies of the album in December and actually mailed it out to pre-order fans despite being given a revised release date just days prior. The internet had ‘Rebirth’. The internet gave it back. Last week saw the album’s official release and time will tell how well it’s done commercially but critically it’s received as badly as could possibly be expected. Yet another misstep? He can write it off as his “experimental phase” and pretend it never happened. He will probably survive.

Today though, Lil Wayne aka Dwayne Carter, 13 albums into his career, will being a year’s prison sentence for gun possession. Rumour has it the rapper recorded a new album before going away as well as a series of new videos that will hold him over until his release next year. One has to ponder though, whether he’s turned the autotune off and whether he’s re-found the spark that made him the biggest rapper in the world for a few months in 2008. A lot of work went into project-Wayne, a lot of legend building leaps, perfectly timed and perfectly executed. Can a horrible album and a year out of the lime-light undo that amount of hard work? I don’t think it has to T.I who found himself in a similar position last year. The tentatively titled ‘Tha Carter IV’ is scheduled to drop later this year and will represent the biggest test of Wayne’s career. Like the Chinese restaurant I don’t want to call any more, when the time comes and the fridge is empty will I regress to Weezy? Every time I do I feel like I’m getting closer to never doing so again.

Those vegetarian pancake rolls were fucking shit by the way.
The 18th Letter

Filed in Art Hip Rocker Hop by Tego at 11.54am on 03 February 10
When I was eleven years old, I’d saved £20 exactly and wanted to buy one of those Nike hats with the Goofy ears, I’d thought about it all day at school. Being eleven years old though that £20 was soon £10 and an Our Price voucher for ‘£5 off when you spend £10’. I wasn’t going to get my Goofy hat this week. I wasn’t coming home empty handed though, I hit Our Price with my money plus coupon offer and proceeded to pretend I knew who any of these albums were by. Wu Tang? I knew them. But I had all the Wu Tang Our Price were selling at that point. Plus I didn’t really want a CD. I wanted a cassette for my walkman. The cassette section of Our Price was basically non-existent at this point, one concave of a small, but not tiny store on Brixton High-Street. I didn’t want a Blur greatest hits tape, I knew that. Pulp? Maybe. Frugality drew my eye toward a double-cassette album I’d been made aware of just a week before.

Nudging the elbow of my infinitely more knowledgeable music fan brother “Look at this fruity shit!” I mumbled, while a bare shouldered, bald headed and neatly groomed goateed man glared back at me with sensual "come hither" eyes “Yeah...” he responded barely lifting an eyelid “Oh shit. Nah. That’s Rakim” he immediately corrected himself “He’s one of the best. I heard the artwork for this album was shit. Wow. That album’s got a greatest hits on it though.” I nodded “Looks fucking fruity though” dismissing the CD to the back of the rack I turned my attention to one of the more visually appealing albums by Cyprus Hill, skulls on a mountain, that’s what album covers should look like.

My music choices at eleven were pretty much restricted to whatever The Box had on rotation, so the idea that I could own an album my brother hadn’t heard by a rapper my brother liked, that was too great an opportunity to pass-up. I’ve always been really bad at buying things, investing in my soul. I could keep £10 in my pocket for a week right? Why not? I’d lasted a full 6 hours with £20 in my pocket today. I’d better buy this or I’m going to have nothing to show for my saving. I paced from one end of the store to the other while I considered my purchase, I’ve always lived in my own head, I'm constantly at war with my impulses and the idea of spending every penny I own on an album by a fruity looking beardy man’s double album annoyed me no end. Can I not find a reduced to clear Fresh Prince album? I’d buy that. Then I’d still have money. But I don’t want that. I want this. Do I? It looks so fruity. I’d have to explain the cover to everybody who saw it at school. I know what I’m like, I’m just going to piss this money up the wall on slightly more expensive than usual fizzy drinks. Fuck it! Rakim, let’s do this.

I slid the first tape into my walkman before leaving the store, replacing my Wu Tang ‘C.R.E.A.M/ Da Mystery of Chessboxing’ EP that didn’t fill a quarter of tape and had to be rewound every 10 minutes. Even if this album’s shit I won’t have to do that any more. Stepping out into the rain I was fairly sure I’d made the right decision. I don’t think anybody would argue that ‘The 18th Letter’ was anything more than an average LP recorded by an exhausted and uninterested Rakim chasing a commercial sound he helped create but had long since left him behind, but between the DJ Premier produced ‘It’s Been A Long Time’ and ‘New York’ coupled with eleven-year-old mind exploding lines like “Still leave authors and writers with author-writess” and a level of spirituality Wu Tang just weren’t affording me at that time, Rakim’s first solo album was as important an album to me as any I've heard since.

I was first in line for Ra’s next album ‘The Master’, an even more offensive cover couldn’t this time be saved by DJ Premier. At thirteen years, I was a little more savvy and a little more war weary. Last year he released his first album in a decade ‘Seventh Seal’ originally recorded for Dr Dre’s Aftermath label, it was met with absolute indifference. His fans barely raised an eyebrow, the critics barely raised a pen in boredom and I’m ashamed to say I still haven’t heard it.

Was there a point to this blog? Yes. Inspired by the life-changing Rakim-Allah I’ve decided to atone for a few sins over the next couple of months. The first will be to listen to and review ‘Seventh Seal’. Which I will do.

If I’m not listening to Rakim what am I listening to?  

1. Freeway & Jake One/ The Stimulus Package
2. Raekwon/ Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2
3. B.O.B & DJ Drama/ May 25th
4. Wale/ Attention Deficit
5. Blakroc (The Black Keys)/ Blakroc
OJ Da Juiceman Feat. Gucci Mane - Make Da Trap Say Ay

Filed in Art Hip Rocker Hop by Tego at 12.31pm on 12 May 09

OJ Da Juiceman and Gucci Mane's trap anthem 'Make Da Trap Say Ay' is by far the biggest record spinning in America's Southern States at the moment. Featured artist Gucci Mane is fresh out of prison and despite attempted blackballs from many of the South's key players currently finds himself in the luxury position of being the single most in demand guest spot/ interview/ photo op in hip-hop this month. All without having an ounce of charisma. How did he pull that off?
Hooligans

Filed in Art Hip Rocker Hop by Tego at 12.31pm on 12 May 09

This is the new video from Don Diablo & Example, the song is called 'Hooligans' and was previously known as 'We Came We Saw We Killed The Crowd', the name wasn't changed for it's length apparently, but rather out of respect to the victims of the Hillsborough tragedy in this, the awful event's 20th anniversary. I post not for your listening and viewing pleasure [that's a bonus] but rather to draw attention to my awesome cameo. I'm not telling you when you can see me because some of you will already know, the rest will have to guess. The song itself is out on the 29th of June through Data Records [Kid Cudi Vs Crookers 'Day N Nite'] and quite a few in the know are predicting big things. If that's the case then you can look forward to seeing me on TMF and 4Music for the next couple of months, which would kick the shit you have to admit.

Don Diablo is currently the most blogged artist in the world [beating Rick Ross even, he takes his shirt off every 5 minutes] and a fan video of 'Hooligans' racked up 55,000+ views on Youtube in less 2 months. The official video came out last week and currently stands at 14,636 views.