Fresh Cherries from Yakima

this is my favorite pic to use when i’m writing about hip-hop

the mixtape game has always been somewhat of a creative wellspring for hip-hop artists; being able to run amok over other people’s beats, and release original material that wouldn’t see the light of day commercially, due to sample clearance issues. at the beginning of the decade, rap crews like the diplomats and g-unit used the mixtape as a forum to release far-and-away their best work (with the exception of 50’s get rich or die tryin’, but even most of the good songs on there debuted on mixtapes) and creating a niche for the single-artist mixtape, or “street album.”

recently, i was on a message board, being geeky (as usual) about hip-hop, and doc zeus (i think, forgive me if it was someone else) brought up the idea of 2008 being “the golden-era of the mixtape.” thinking about it for like four seconds, i totally agreed with him. i mean, most of the substantial hip-hop releases this year have all been mixtapes: the nigger tape and the mixtape about nothing are among the blue-chip hip-hop releases this year. in fact, the only official hip-hop album that i’ve actually loved this year is elzhi’s the preface, and even his tour-only CD, europass, was as great as his actual album!

and now, we’ve got four of hip-hop’s best up-and-comers using mixtapes to make a mean fourth-quarter push. naturally, this has turned a superstar-laden season into a battleground for some of rap’s best releases. so, without any further abstraction, let me introduce to you the one-, two-, three-, and four-batters of this year’s mixtape season.

THE LEADOFF BATTER: bring me the head of zilla rocca.

of course, due to “journalistic integrity” issues, i have to repeatedly point out the full disclosure that zilla and i are collaborators in the whole 5 o’clock shadowboxers project. however, i must always follow this point with the fact that the reason why i even started working with zilla in the first place is because zilla is one of the most incredible up-and-coming lyricists in hip-hop, a whirling dervish of movie references (the graduate! waist deep! dark knight(twice!)! even space jam gets a shout!), poetic wordplay, versatile rhyme cadences, and enough cleverness to be a writer for the simpsons.

over the course of bring me the head, god zilla (get it?) makes a very convincing case for being on hip-hop’s “to watch” list. not only can dude beat down beats (”bangladesh,” “the big guns upstairs,” fuck, most of the whole fucking album!), not only can he wax introspective (and sometimes not) about the fairer sex (”i never loved her, pt. 2,” “good girls,” “vaguely jamaican”), but the dude is a beast on the boards, too (the aforementioned “big guns upstairs,” “rat pack rap” [with a pretty LOL intro: “i’m actually pretty low on gas, B.”], “sunbathing bitches” [featuring a FIRE verse from mally from the 612], “bangladesh,” and the two instrumental interludes). when he gives his beat pad a rest, he’s leaning on fire instrumentals from producers alex wood and evolve one, the former of which takes hyper horn breaks and booming drums a perfect breakbeat for zilla to spit some of his most engaging rhymes. evolve’s “sick fuck” is a brief, eerie, organ-led beat where zilla rocks the beat with a dee snyder shoutout(!!) and ends with some sound advice: “sell more crack/there’s no money in rap, folks.”

FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY: “state of grace (freestyle).” as great as zilla’s own beats are (as well as those of his collaborators), zilla, being the longtime wu-tang acolyte that he is, always sounds at his best over RZA beats. over this trumpet-laced banger, he assuredly delivers an all-star performance, hand-carrying “a six pack of fingerprints” to the morgue, big-upping his ukranian fans, and spitting my favorite line of the entire mixtape: “so foolish, you judas, you benedict/since the days of reebok pumps, you been a dick.”

THE TWO: crooked i presents the block obama.

about nine or ten years ago, i copped one of those compilations of freestyles from the legendary wake up show. among all of the superstar talent (biggie, eminem, cali agents), the question on my mind was, “who the FUCK is this crooked i dude?” the los angeles-based spitter attacked every beat with more complex wordplay, witticisms, and general ferocity than one rapper should be allowed in his lifetime.

after a career full of ups (singing to death row records) and downs (not actually putting out an album on the label), crooked i trailblazed the rap game with the ridiculously fruitful hip-hop weekly series, where he tossed off fifty-two of the best verses hip-hop has seen in quite some time. with his new mixtape, the block obama (get it?), crook gets busy over mostly original beats (the best of which being provided by komplex), bullying every single beat with his usual polysyllabic wordplay, spitting thought-provoking shit along with your standard gangsta rap shit. “hood politics” uses the beat for M.I.A.’s “paper planes” to spit a biggie-like story of a lady friend witnessing crooked blast a dude from her front lawn and running to cops about it. i don’t wanna spoil the ending for you. oh, and his horseshoe gang? there’s more talent spread between crooked’s crew than one rap group should be allowed.

FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY: “a millie.” yeah, yeah, yeah: EVERYBODY’S spit over lil’ wayne’s street banger, but not only is this different in the production (there are a ton of flourishes added to the admittedly simplistic beat), but crook runs wild over it, snickering at his foes: “i’m too raw, you aren’t the same/do draw please: i’m lookin’ for some new art to hang.”

THE THREE: grafh and DJ green lantern’s the oracle II.

when i wrote about grafh’s “cold ‘n heartless,” i pointed out that this song didn’t really highlight his insanely complex wordplay, but this green lantern-hosted mixtape has that wordplay i talked about in spades. listen to the banger “give it up,” featuring grafh smelling bacon when he shakes an undercover cop’s hand: “THEY’RE ROOKIES!” i don’t want to over-discuss this one. just download the shit. this dude grafh is nuts.

FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY: “chew ‘em up (featuring crooked i).” over 50 cent’s “gunz come out” beat and continuing in the “rapper eater” tradition of three of the four dudes in this feature, discussing his digestive process: “you see eight MC’s, i see one pizza.”

THE BIG BAT: the bar exam 2, starring royce da 5′9″ (and mixed and hosted by DJ green lantern).

“they say that i ain’t blew up because of sabotage/and that i put too much time into eatin’ rappin’ guys,” royce da 5′9″ spits over the beat to lil’ wayne’s “let the beat build,” perhaps a little introspectively, but it’s the next line that’s the kicker: “i’m still hungry, these niggas ain’t even appetizers,” he stubbornly shrugs, “after i’m finished eatin’ them, i have an after-artist.”

now, it’s no secret to anyone who reads this blog that detroit’s ryan montgomery is one of my favorite MC’s walking the earth. no need for the history lesson, i’ll just say that last year’s bar exam was my favorite hip-hop release of last year. so much, in fact, that i listed my favorite lines from the mixtape. i loved death is certain so much, that it ended up in the top-five(!) of my all-time favorite hip-hop records. was it safe to say that expectations were high for bar exam 2? think about it.

i shouldn’t even have to tell you how royce kills these beats. i should make another list of his top-tier lines. listen to opener “heat to the streets.” “i’m a five-comma, nine apostrophe-ass nigga/spaz-happy, slash colostomy bag giver/slash the ass-kicker/slash the last lyrical-ass nigga, imperial swag!” listen to “kill ‘em part two,” where he and his little brother kid vishis bludgeons a wailing, soul-heavy beat: “you little boys invite me to spaz/i’m right on your ass: i’ll mike jackson it.” on “i’m nice,” royce hits up the autotune (and if you were wondering, i like this song, and its hook, a great deal), and muses about ghostwriting for p. diddy, and still not getting signed. after his debut, rock city sort of tanked commercially, nickel has made an incredible career out of gun-toting belligerence, which he recounts in “gun music,” where his cousin calls him out on it, and royce responds hilariously. on “gun music,” green lantern turns in a thumper, while royce delivers my most-quoted line of 2008: “i’ll tell the flyest bitch in the world, ‘i’m just as stuck up’!”

FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY: the aforementioned “let the beat build,” where nickel states that he “has a lot of back like buffy,” and “make(s) niggas feel like they on the set of amistad.” also, there’s the “royal flush (freestyle),” where canibus stages a decent comeback(!), and royce rekindles his brotherly competition with fellow detroiter elzhi, who effectively gave him the business on this year’s classic hip-hop joint “motown 25.” give you the fist like a germaphobe?!?!? here’s a “best rapper alive” who lives up to his claim.

in baseball, friends, they call that a “grand slam.”

This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 7:11 pm and is filed under the homies, hip-hop, new album. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.