WELCOME BACK

    Some time last week I noticed a post from a friend was looking for hip-hop music to listen to on a road trip. I started going through a mental catalog and trying to decide what I would recommend to her.  By the time I ran into her she had already returned from her trip. Having spent all this time trying to figure out what were some of my favorite artist’s songs, what would be good bangers for a road trip, what songs I’ve always believed were amazing but ultimately slept on I thought it would've been a waste if nobody got to see it. So here it is.  With that, I decided to further it by trying to do something like this weekly.  A lot of my friends love hip-hop but don’t have the time or patience to navigate through hours of bullshit mixtapes, singles, remixes to find the one decent track. Hopefully you can come to this on a weekly basis and grab some beats to bump in your sea foam green Ford Focus...

I heard this for the first time last week and can’t believe this slipped by me. I actually quietly got mad at myself for never hearing this track when it came out. It’s a Lil C beat that sounds like he just straight robbed Mannie Fresh’s hard drive. Jeezy details the life of the gangsta. These gangstas seem to really like him because “they’re on his phone and at his shows.” Hopefully not both because that’s some stalker type shit. 

I picked up this CD about six years ago at of all places the Birmingham Public Library. They had about six hip-hop CDs four of which were Slim Shady garbage, a Black-Eyed Peas disaster (seriously who listens to that shit? I wanna know. Everything they write sounds like it should be on a Jock Jams comp that you have to listen to while drinking a skunk pee smoothie in Hell) and Young Dro. 

A T.I. protege that was part of his Pimp Squad Click, Young Dro is mostly know for the hit “Shoulder Lean” in 2006 and has ever since been trying to break back into the mainstream or at least stay relevant through the mixtape circuit. What I don’t understand is why he even disappeared because his “Best Thang Smokin” album is so fucking good. Nearly every track is a banger.  100 Yard Dash starts the album and it never stops.

Ghostface Killa is one of the top five lyricists of the last twenty years.  It’s only because he hasn’t got shot and/or he's part of the greatest hip-hop group of all-time that he gets forgotten about.  If anyone wants to challenge this just listen to Supreme Clientele, then Fishscale, THEN Ironman, and finish it off with Only Built 4 Cuban Links.  He’s a monster. This is off his forgotten Bulletproof Wallets album.  It’s forgotten because it largely sucks.  Go to any hip-hop bargin bin and there’s a good chance you’ll find this album. It’s like he blew his load on Supreme Clientele and just decided to smoke weed and make pancakes(and that’s exactly what he’s doing on the record cover) rather go hard on the follow-up. This song is an all encompassing example of the entire record. The beat is dope, Ghost’s flow is great, and then all of the sudden for no reason whatsoever this awful female singer comes in and sings on a completely different beat and takes a dump on the whole song. M.I.A would later do a better job at using the chorus sample on one of her tracks.  But even a sub-par Ghost track is better than sixty-percent of the shit out there.  Just plug your ears during the chorus. 

Black Milk-

Detroit.

Rep It. 

This track has one of the best descriptions on the state of our city right now. Paints an amazing picture in just three verses.

“It’s Liquor Store, Liquor Store, Church, Church, Liquor Store, Gas Station, Coney Island that’s where all the N*ggas go. Only thing you never see is cleaner streets and bigger homes. On the streets all you see is church, church liquor store. Man it’s pitiful…” 

End it with an instrumental.  I don’t know what the fuck this is but the beat is bangin! Waiting for Danny Brown or somebody to shit on it. Girls are getting dry humped all over the dance floor to this.