Perfection is Perfected

T.I. might not need a mixtape, even though he did one…  I mean, I guess you can call them time-sensitive album throwaways, yet besides Celebration, Ready Set Go, Really Living Like That, and Once Upon a Time, those better not so much as breathe near King Uncaged.   But there are a lot of other hungry, ambitious artists trying to improve artistically and expand their audiences.  In the Bay Area alone, there’s been an abundance of quality mixtape music as of late.

“Grimey,” by T-Mazz (off of Nuttin But Slap: Volume 9).

“Hunnid Round Drums,” by Stevie Joe featuring Guce and J. Stalin (off of Quit Hatin on the Bay: Thuggy Fresh Edition).

“California,” by the Jacka featuring Joe Blow (off of Nuttin But Slap: Volume 9).

“Respect It,” by Roach Gigz (off of Roachy Balboa).

“Magic Gas,” by Roach Gigz (off of Roachy Balboa).

“Inherited,” by Shady Nate featuring Mitchy Slick (off of The Shady Bunch: Volume 3).  

“We Roll,” by Pete Rock featuring Jim Jones and Max B (NY’s Finest, 2008).

“Cocaine,”  by the Jacka and Lee Majors featuring Husalah, Keak Da Sneak, Messy Marv, Fed-X, G-Stack, Dru Down, Rahmean, and Cellski.  Wow!  That’s quite a mouth-full.  If this is what to expect from The Gobots 2: D-Boy Era, fine.  Not an amazing track but a new verse from Husalah, a hook by Keak, and a Dru Down revival are welcome.

“Money and Drugs,” by San Quinn featuring N.O.E. (produced by Knock the Hometown Hero, who has “a style…”). In any event, I think I rather hear N.O.E. than Jay Z nowadays.

Smart man. So far, post-prison T.I. talking > post-prison T.I. rapping.

I’m posting this for several reasons, none of which are because the song is good. 1) “Twansac” is an amazing rap name. 2) I’ve never heard of him but maybe he’s big in the midwest. 3) Twansac is an awful rapper. Some of the lyrics are hilariously bad. 4) The chorus is the word “money” repeated, followed by, among other things, “I’ma get rich or die trying.”—how original. 5) San Quinn provides one of his worst verses ever [I’m not the biggest Quinn fan anyway, but seriously, maybe Twansac deserves his $20,000 back].  6)  Finally, because this is the description that accompanies the video:

InYoFaceFilmworks — May 14, 2010 — Two parallel stories of struggle. In this music video, Twansac plays a small time weed hustler who upgrades to jacking cars and bringing them to the chopshop and turns that into a brand new house.

San Quinn plays a hard working boat salesman who gets fired from his job and has to take things to the next level in pay for the operation on his sick son.

Cameos by Chilee Powdah, Pacman, Stevie Joe, & Lil Quinn

“You Know Me,” by Husalah (produced by JustinKase). Kind of a hectic beat, which I definitely haven’t made sense of yet. Nonetheless, I’m never mad at some new Huselassie.

“Direct Connect,” by San Quinn and Messy Marv. Off of Explosive Mode 2: Back in Business (2006).

Boss of All Bosses 2.5 just dropped and it’s good.

“Favorite Rappa,” by Keak da Sneak (produced by DJ Fresh). I get the feeling this beat was influenced by/intended for the Grouch, who Fresh dj’s/produces for.

off of Mac & Cheese 2.

Recycling Soulja Boy’s “Crank Dat?”  That’s a no-go.

Apparently if i listened to my local radio station i would have known about this song. it’s not good enough to endure listening to “forever young” or drake.

The use of cliche beats vs. the nuanced revisiting of past samples has been well-analyzed as of late, but last week’s mixtape deluge left me also thinking about how this recycling impact lyrics, too.   Just as Cannon was thoughtful and innovative in his selection of past beats (while still using samples and songs we’ve heard many times), I’d argue that Jeezy was thoughtful and creative in his lyricism (while still rapping about coke, cars, and guns, of course).  On the other hand, I’m really not impressed with Drama’s beat selection on The Champ is Here 3 (and the Green Lantern-produced tracks are kinda garbage in my opinion).  Just as the beats are tired, so too are Jadakiss’s lyrics.  Last week, I wanted to write a post about The Champ is Here, but I couldn’t find more than a verse worth posting (and neither Nas, D-Block, Yo Gotti, Uncle Murder, or Nicki Minaj brought much to the table).  Jadakiss has a great voice and a great (yet predictable) delivery, but The Last Kiss was probably the last time I needed to hear him talk about broke people on his coat-tail, scales they use to weigh the whales with, private chefs, and his spot in the top 5 all time (which is becoming shakier than it already was).  So while Trap or Die 2 left me excited for TM103, Drama and Jada have left me skeptical of Top 5, Dead or Alive—the album and the self-proclaimed accolade.

On that note, I’ll leave you with the two aforementioned artists’ face-off:

“Something Else,” by Jadakiss featuring Young Jeezy.

reasons i’m posting this song: 1) everyone else is talking about big k.r.i.t. and i have nothing new to say; 2) it’s produced by dj fresh; 3) i haven’t seen anyone else post it and it’s at least post-worthy; 4) richie rich’s cameo exposes his braces (see 2:10).