Rap Radar

I’m from Queens and didn’t even know this. Hometown FAIL. Lucky, Jesse Janson did and paid homage with a quick tribute. We rep our hood doofy, how ’bout you?!

Related: Queens Reigns Supreme

The homie Adam Aziz who once worked for Cliff’s StreetCred.com breaks down what the big homie needs to focus on during his time away.

5. WRITE

Countless rappers have written some of their most vivid, emotional and real lyrics while in prison including the late, great 2Pac Shakur. T.I. should throw himself into songwriting and let his feelings about his current position play out on paper…and then in the studio when he gets out. It’s going to be tough for T.I. to write anything resembling happy music while he’s locked behind the walls with people telling him when he eats and goes outside. Selfishly this should give T.I. fans some powerful lyrics once he’s released. Songs like “No Matter What” and “You Ain’t Missin’ Nothin’” were just a glimpse of how deep TIP could get.

Check full list at Broken Cool

Well, sorta. In an unpublished FADER interview, Pimp C dissed the writer that reviewed his album Pimpalation in XXL. Turns out that scribe was RR affiliate Paul “Gooch” Cantor.

“This new thing I got (Pimpalation) probably be out by the time this thing go to press. It’s a compilation record. I just read a review on it and the dude was talkin about it was too many people on the album—you dumb motherfucker, don’t you know it’s a compilation record? You stupid motherfucker, you don’t get compilation from Pimpalation? C’mon, man. It was XXL, too, I’ll go on and tell you, I don’t have the dude’s name right in front of me but he’s an asshole, you know what I mean. He gave the record a large but the motherfucker was like ‘I’m a guest artist on my own record.’ And motherfucker it’s a comp…you dumb motherfucker, how dumb can you get, man? Where do they find these people? Back in the day the people reviewing the albums was really fans of the music.“

Chuuch!

One of my favorite blogger/vloggers weighs in on Marshall Mathers’ love for polysyllabic words. You know who my partner is, but if you don’t like Relapse you’re lying to yourself. Ha! 

But I’ll let Billy Sunday DP tell it.

“Eminem’s latest album ‘Relapse’ is fantastic for it’s graphic gory content. This album is part of the great history of epic entertaining horror-core productions. This album is rap’s ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’. It is horrific, disgusting, profane, satirical and brilliant all at the same time. Lyrically, I consider this to be on a classic level. If the beats by Dr. Dre were swapped out for some of the dark production of DOOM, or more appropriately RZA, this album would be a certified classic. This drop though is to discuss the lyrical eminence of Eminem. A reader stated that this album was garbage. I don’t believe that reader listened to this album or if he did his ability to judge art is negligible.”

Read all about it.

See ya in the D next Tues. Ha! Confession: I never met Eminem. And I’m gonna try my best to keep it that way.

The princess of the Internets a.k.a. Orlando radio DJ Jessie Maguire gave us the audio of her enlightening interview with Alchemist from her born day show. Her recap will serve as your guide.

Alchemist calls in to The Backstage Pass on WPRK 91.5fm in Orlando to wish Jessie a happy birthday. He talks about:

- The status of the new album

- How he wants to stay behind the boards and just produce because he does not take his rapping too seriously

- What up and coming artists he likes right now (Jay Electronica, Fashawn, Nipsey Hussle, and more…)

- How Prodigy is doing and how he visits him frequently “He is working out… he is healthy… his mind is right… FREE P!…He just wants to work!”

- Who is producing on Em’s album and how after listening to Eminem’s Relapse album he felt like he wanted to throw his own album away because of how incredible it was (he says its his best work to date),

- Who he wants to work with (Alicia Keys, holla at Alchemist!)

Link for you and yours.

Jay-Z just sent this over:

A word from Hov

Last night I performed at the University of Arizona, I had a ball!! Through all the excitement and joking around (as well as the technical difficulties) I missed out on the opportunity to say something important..

On the show as well were Third Eye Blind and Kelly Clarkson.. I thought that to be the oddest pairing EVER but, soon realized, it’s what I’ve always professed..There is NO such thing as BLACK music or WHITE music only GOOD or BAD music..It’s stupid cool to like things that are not like you, and that goes for outside of music.. If you’re an African American you can have a jewish friend. Wait, does Lyor having some Israeli mixed with his jewish count? (Sure they are paranoid but, so are black people after they’ve smoked weed, haaaaa, and plus the JEW fro and the BLUEprint fro are the SAME thing.)

I think concerts like this should happen more often. ( Outside of the one or 2 festivals a year or “Zootopia”) I’m putting that into the universe..next up Taylor Swift and Uncle Murda!!

Sorry I don’t “Tweet” (do I?) so this will have to do..

Love.

RR guest blogger Adam Aziz, goes in what he thinks Marshall’s return is gonna sound like based merely on the song titles. Pretty clever. And also speaks on the public demand for the album.

1. “Dr. West (Skit)” – 1:29

Wake up Mr. West, Mr. West? Could Kanye be leading off Eminem’s “Relapse” with a brief “Gay Fish” rendition? Nah…not likely. This will obviously be a “doctor” talking about Eminem’s need for prescription pills. I guarantee you it won’t be as exciting as “children should not partake in the listening of this album with laces in their shoes.”

2. “3am” – 5:20

We’ve heard this. I promise y’all…I’m REALLY trying to like this song…it isn’t working.

3. “My Mom” – 5:20

I can’t wait to hear this song. Why? Because if it’s actually about Eminem’s mom it might make “KIM” look like a church hymn. My favourite line from Eminem about his mom:

“which is it bitch Mrs. Briggs or Ms. Mathers?/It doesn’t matter, your attorney Fred Gibson’s a faggot.” The “Fred Gibson” portion of the lyric was actually edited out on the album version. You learn somethin’ new everyday.

4. “Insane” – 3:01

“Crazy insane or insane crazy? When I say Hussein you say Shady.” I assume this song will have some sort of frantic beat while Em rips the track to shreds. It’ll probably be a straight spitter…at least that’s my guess.

5. “Bagpipes From Baghdad” – 4:43

I think this song is gonna go one of two ways. It’ll either be a serious look at America’s current involvement in the wars around the globe…or it’s gonna be Eminem rapping in the Triumph The Insult Comic Dog voice over some quirky, cartoon’ish beat. I am REALLY looking forward to hearing this but I just have a bad feeling about the final results based on the title. Eminem’s off drugs, right? How the hell did he come up with that title then? haha.

Peep the rest at one of my favorite sites: Broken Cool. 

“Get down or lay down!”

Today, marks a month since RapRadar’s launch. And in just 30 days, the double R (no Ruff Ryders)  has managed to distinguish itself through fresh commentaries, original content, and building relationships with other bloggers. After the jump, Here are five great things about RapRadar after one month. Don’t player hate, aggregate. Ha!

Flip Game Cam Proper

YN and B.Dot have taken the Flip Cam to a whole new level with provided exclusive and quality footage. One of the best examples of YN’s work was at the G.O.O.D. Music showcase during SXSW. It’s nice to have clips that don’t have more feedback than a survey.

YN Shots
Hate all you want, but you loved YN’s editorial each month in XXL. One of the best parts  was when he would take shots at industry figures or artists. Sometimes, you’d know why and sometimes you wouldn’t. Didn’t matter. It was hilarious and you missed it when he left. It’s dope that YNs getting his groove back on RapRadar. And B.Dot is pretty lethal with too. It’s quite the tag team. Just call them Demolition. What a rush!

Interviews People Noone Else Does
Hip-Hop websites tend to interview the same artists. I mean hearing Charles Dukie Hamilton’s life story once is enough for me. In fact, I don’t need to see the same interview on nine different blogs. RapRadar made it clear that they weren’t gonna roll with repetitive interviews. Just look at the Q&A’s featuring Q-Tip and MC Hammer. Two artists who don’t get enough publicity—one of ‘em shouldn’t be getting any. Ha! They were engaging and gave readers something new. Sidebar: YN had hit up Special Ed on Twitter the other day about an interview.

Top 5 Posts
The one disadvantage of blogs is how quickly the information moves along. Great content can sometimes pass the viewers eyes due to the rapid nature of posting and the influx of shitty mixtapes and weekly freestyles. Thankfully, RapRadar stays away from posting every song any rapper  shits out of his Fruity Loops program. But, “Top 5 Posts” allows YN and B.Dot to highlight what they feel are the most newsworthy or important posts of the day. Many blogs do this with their most popular posts feature, but the difference here is that it isn’t user generated. The RR team takes the responsibility to highlight the engaging content. You gotta give YN and B.Dot props for actually putting in work as opposed to:

- download file
- uploade to sharebee.com
- copy paste artist and song title
- Post to Word Press

They Recognized Up And Coming Blogs From The Get Go

Now I’m from far from a new jack online (I did everything most of y’all did before 2001) But I was surprised to see brokencool.com on the RapRadar blogroll upon launch since I only launched the site in December 2008. I also noticed many other up and coming blogs on the list too. You’ve gotta give props to the RR team for going out and searching for people with unique voices instead of the one’s we’ve already heard before.

— Broken Cool

According to Woooha, the application allows fans to take a photo of themselves, write a message, and submit them to an interactive collage. Who knows, with any luck you might pop a squad alongside Dream or Kaine.

—Broken Cool

 Ray’s J old piece gives her take on Eminem’s new video, “We Made You”

“I just saw Eminem’s new video for “We Made You” and he totally spoofs me!! It was a total surprise to me because I had no idea he was going to talk about me in the song. I think this video is so funny! I am a huge Eminem fan and find it flattering that he would rap about me. He’s a bit harsh about some other celebrities, but you just have to let it go and have a sense of humor. Personally, I’m honored.”

Personally, I’m honored to own this.

Spotted: Thisis50

—broken cool