Second to last show (tear). An era is coming to a close folks; from our humble beginnings as the legendary Trill Train to the super official Hip Hop Hour, we’ve been bringing Kirksville only the finest rap music. Maybe the Rythm Rug can take the reigns, but I can’t help but feel as though KTRM will never be the same again.
Big L & Jay-Z- “95 Freestyle”: How hungry do these two guys sound on this? Can you imagine hearing that live on the radio?
Ghostface Killah- “The Champ”: Since I’m not on the air right now, I can issue as many call to actions as I want. That being said, go get Fishscale. Then throw Supreme Clientele in the cart, and max out your card with Ironman. If you don’t have those three albums you’re doing yourself a disservice.
Nelly- “Ride Wit Me”: Why did Franklin want to hear this? Not sure.
ODB- “Got Your Money”: This was practically a staple on the Trill Train, and this is the first time the Hip Hop Hour has ever played Dirty solo. My former colleague Daniel would instruct you to go watch the video for this song, and I agree.
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony- “War (w/ Henry Rollins, Tomo Morello & Flea)”: This song sucks. Don’t ever listen to it, except ironically. It’s from the Small Soldiers soundtrack.
Kanye West- “School Spirit”: I’m not going to waste your time saying something about this. Actually, I will. OverthinkingIt is having a discussion about Kanye as a lyricist, and they want your input.
E-4o- “Tell Me When to Go (ft. Keako-da-Sneak)”: Confession: I don’t know anything about the hyphy movement besides the phenomenon known as ‘ghostriding the whip.’ And that it’s from the San Francisco Bay area or something. What did this song teach me? Well the first verse was pretty good, but everything else was unimpressive. Is that what hyphy is all about?
Goodie Mob- “Black Ice (ft. Outkast)”: I don’t remember enough about this song to offer any sort of criticism. What I do remember is that whoever was music director when this single came in thought it was worthwhile to write a large note instructing djs to play song 1, even though there were no other options.
Skyzoo- “Stop Fooling Yourself”: Just go see what I’ve written the past few weeks about Skyzoo. What it amounts to is that you shouldn’t sleep on him.
EPMD- “Pioneers”:
Eminem- “My Name Is”: Dogplaypoker already wrote about this, but will someone please tell Eminem that he can stop with the silly joke single at this point in his career? “We Made You” is stylistically (even in the video) just like “My Name Is,” except I’m not young enough to be entertained.
GZA- “Beneath the Surface”: Apparently he has a record by the same name. Who knew?
MOP- “Ante Up (Robbin Hoodz Theory)”: I found this on vinyl, and I knew MC Chris Barnes loves the song, so I played it in tribute to him. Fittingly, it was unedited. Still fucking up the show Chris, whether you’re in the studio or not.
Pacewon & Mr. Green- “She Can Be So Cold”: Sampling the White Stripes is pretty badass, even if the song your write around it isn’t all that.
Jadakiss- “Put Ya Hands Up”: Jadakiss (or Jadakisso as my keyboard would like me to spell it), just put out a new album, called The Last Kiss. This isn’t from it.
Hi-Tek- “How We Do It (ft. Snoop Dogg, Talib Kweli, & Slim Thug)”: What a lineup huh? That’s what I though too, but it turns out that Hi-Tek just isn’t a great enough producer to really make a track like this work.
Petey Pablo- “Raise Up”: Why did I like this when I was much more juvenile? I think it’s because it raised the idea of a woman taking her shirt off, which at the time was incredibly titillating for someone such as me.
Re-Up Gang- “Cry Now”: This is one of my favorite beats of all time, and I probably never would have heard it if not for the Re-Up Gang. It comes from an Obie Trice song (yeah, who’d of guessed?). Malice and Pusha-T go so hard on this track (what I was hoping for out of “Kinda Like a Big Deal”), that I had to hear another one.
Ruff Ryders- “Jigga My Nigga (ft. Jay-Z)”: Apparently both Jay-Z and the Ruff Ryders released this on albums, and the studio just happens to have a single that credits it to the RR.
Re-Up Gang- “20k Money Making Brothers on the Corner”: I told you I needed to hear another Re-Up Gang track.
QB’s Finest- “Oochie Wally”: This is the infamous song in which Nas’s body guard’s verse is allegedly better than his own (credit Jay-Z). I had actually never heard this song before the studio, so I do not feel qualified to weigh in on that discussion at the current point in time. What I do know is that the song was pretty weak overall.
Blu & Exile- “My World Is…”: What do you want out of me? It’s my show and I’ll play what I want! “I’ll be sinking with my penmanship,” he says at one point, at that line is dope.
Slick Rick- “Frozen (ft. Raekwon)”: I don’t really know Slick Rick, but I really enjoyed him and Raekwon trading bars on this one.
Kid Cudi- “The Prayer”: He’s not retiring.
Eazy E- “24 Hrs. To Live (ft. MC Ren)”: I don’t know how I feel about Eazy E. Maybe it’s his voice, or the fact that I’m never all that impressed with his lyrics, but he seems to me to be getting the dead-rapper-that-is-not-as-good-as-people-like-to-pretend-they-were treatement.
Mikkey Halsted- “Can’t Tell Us Nothing (ft. Ken Rock & KT)”: Everything about this song is awesome. Why don’t more rappers use the phrase ‘have-nots’ to describe the poor? It’s clever and opens up a lot of potentially rhymes.
Murs- “Better Than the Best”: Nottz does a good turn with this sample, and Murs treats the beat all right. Why wasn’t this on Murs For President?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 4/20, Afroman, Cypress Hill, playlist, weed
Last night’s show turned conceptual in the second half (post-midnight), let’s see if you can figure out the concept!!!
Clipse- “Young Boy”: When the fuck is that new single coming out??? ME WANT.
Dead Prez- “It’s Bigger Than Hip-Hop”: Have you ever listened to a whole album by these guys? They possess both the fervor and rationality of Ron Paul supporters (google him).
Edan- “Promised Land”: Chris is totally gay for this guy, just look at his past three profile pictures. Fortunately for Chris, the guy makes pretty good music so they should have a wonderful life together.
Talib Kweli- “Going Hard”: I’ve never heard The Beautiful Struggle. So far, not impressed.
Ludacris- “Get By”: I watched Tropic Thunder on an 8 hour flight back from the UK, and the only part of that movie I enjoyed was being caught off guard by Tom Cruise dancing to this song for no apparent reason.
Mos Def- “Fear Not of Man”: I didn’t realize the first 2 minutes of this song was just Mos Def talking, followed by 1 short verse and three choruses. It probably won’t get played again.
Jay-Z- “Brooklyn’s Finest (ft. Notorious B.I.G.)”: I would kill to see a live version of this song.
AZ- “Gimme Yours (ft. Nas)”: I heard that AZ puts out a new album every year, but this raises the question: who listens?
Atmosphere- “The Woman With the Tattooed Hands”: I have nothing interesting to say about this pick.
The Roots- “I Don’t Care”: Blu is apparently recording a track with these guys, which makes this man very happy.
Skyzoo- “A Day In the Life”: I really need to give him a close listen, because even after my last post bemoaned how little attention I’ve given him, I still feel like I’m sleeping on him.
Beastie Boys- “Pass the Mic”: Feel better Ira.
Kool G Rap- “Streets of New York”: I go back and forth on Kool G Rap. Hip hop heads love blowing him, but Wanted: Dead or Alive (his supposed classic) just has too many corny/dated flows. The potential is there, but I’m listening to wrong album I think.
Cam’ron- “Hey Ma (ft. Juelz Santana, Freeky Zeeky & Kay Slay)”: I’m going to try to start using the term ‘dome‘ much more frequently than I do.
Afroman- “Because I Got High”: I’d like the record to show that this track was directly preceded by a Narcanon PSA.
Afroman- “Because I Got High”: You see, I had a whole second half to my show planned out, but then I started getting requests from a nasally male calling himself Chris Burns. Being that I always honor the requests of my loyal listeners, I had, in effect, a great portion of my show hijacked.
Johnson & Jonson- “Half A Knot”: I did manage to get one song off before he could call again, and sensing something was amiss, I made sure to give my boy Blu some more airplay.
Snoop Dogg- “We Just Wanna Party With You”: Though he did request Afroman twice in a row, I thought it may have just been a simple childish prank, but when he again started calling, I realized that Chris was perhaps engaged in some behavior that neither I nor KTRM can endorse, but again, I always honor my requests, no matter how frequent or immature.
Cypress Hill- “Hits From the Bong”: When young Mr. Burns called to request this song, I could hear in the background a distinct bubbling sound, almost as if a child were blowing through a straw into their soda.
Wu-Tang Clan- “As High As Wu-Tang Get”: I believe Chris Burns may have become embarrassed, because this song was requested by a nasally voice donning a (clearly) faux-rasta accent. Look ‘mon’, I’m not stupid.
Canibus- “Get Retarded”: Although by this point I was quite annoyed with the young gentleman, in retrospect I must respect his dedication to such a stupid and pointless game. I mean certainly he could have just played these songs for himself, right?
Blackalicious- “Green Light: Now Begin”: Now this is a bit of a stretch, don’t you think?
The Pharcyde- “Pack the Pipe”: I asked Chris what the point of this whole experiment was, and do you know what he said to me? He said, “it’s Four Twenty, duuuuuuuuuude.”
Pacewon & Mr. Green- “Children Sing”: Again, he was clearly grabbing for whatever he could reach at this point.
Snoop Dogg- “Pass It Pass It”: I think our friend may have had a little too much fun last night, because while this was playing he called asking for two extra large supreme pizzas. However, he quickly recovered from this embarrassing mistake and barely had to think about what song he desired to hear next.
Memphis Bleek- “I Get High”: You know, even from just our short interactions, I really feel as though I got to know this faceless Chris Burns. While his prank was annoying and childish, I feel that overall he is a good person. He has some growing to do, but don’t be surprised to hear this name in the future.
Juvenile- “I Got that Fire”: I don’t think he had ever heard this song before, because from what I could tell it wasn’t what he thought it was going to be.
Parental Advisory- “Dope Stories (ft. Noreaga, Big Gipp & Pimp C)”: He clearly ran out of steam here towards the end, which is why I’m ashamed to say he had to resort to…
Cypress Hill- “Stoned is the Way of the Walk”: Two Cypress Hill songs in one show? This was the last straw. If he called back again I promised to myself that I would refuse to honor his request, and maybe even give him a short lecture while I was at it.
Asher Roth- “I Love College”: With five minutes left to go, the last call I answered was simply the voice on the other end of the line yelling “I LOVE COLLEGE” repeatedly into the receiver. I took this (for obvious reasons) to be a request to hear Asher Roth’s debut single. By the way, the dude’s album is out today, somebody tell me how it is.
Well, it wasn’t my best show, but learn from this listeners, because you too might be able to run the Hip-Hop Hour by proxy. Just please, no more Cypress Hill.
My loyal listeners may be alarmed to see that I’m posting a playlist, and wondering how they could have missed a show. Well I had to fill in for the Deep Cuts show on Tuesday night, and I had a little bit of late notice, so I wasn’t able to post a warning. You missed out, but don’t worry, cuz I’ll be back on tonight! 2 Hip-Hop Hours 1 week. Lovely.
Blu & Exile- “My World Is…”: I finally got around to listening to Below the Heavens, and look what happened. The rest of the album isn’t quite as good as this, but Blu is fucking sick. Seriously, this guy puts the rest of his ‘up and coming’ peers to shame. Also, something about this beat keeps making me thinking of Ghostface, anyone know why?
Kid Cudi- “Is There Any Love? (ft. Wale)”: Kid Cudi and Wale are pretty nice, but playing this after “My World Is…” made me realize how far above these two dudes Blu is. Yeah, I’m in one of those phases right now.
Nas- “What Goes Around”: Nas wants you to name his baby. Make sure you listen to the end of Stillmatic, because if you don’t you’ll miss this track, and I think it’s better than it’s given credit for.
Ghostface Killah- “Daytona 500 (ft. Raekwon & Cappadonna)”: This beat is awesome. I thought this or “Apollo Kids” might be the source of that familiar feeling I got when listening to Blu’s track, but I don’t think it’s either. Oh yeah, this is on Iron Man.
Pacewon & Mr. Green- “Who I Am”: I had never heard of these guys until HipHopDX called their album The Only Color that Matters is Green one of the most slept on from 2008. They were right, it’s good. Not only is this track naturally clean, but it nicely captures an era of hip-hop I never experienced (sigh).
Common- “Drivin’ Me Wild (ft. Lily Allen)”: Harry can probably tell you more about Lily Allen than I can, but she does this hook all right. Finding Forever.
Murs- “Road Is My Religion”: How do I feel about Murs For President after having listened to about 1/3 the album throughout the semester? Meh, which is about the way I feel about his whole career. As far as neo-alternative west coast hip-hop goes, Blu is killing Murs at his own game.
Mikkey Halsted- “Can’t Tell Us Nothing (ft. Ken Rock & K.T.)”: I forgot how good this song is. MC Chris Barnes can tell you how I feel about the original version (arguably the best beat on Graduation, and definitely the best overall song), and these younger Chicago dudes do it justice. I really need to get my iPod up and running again, because that Uncrowned King mixtape really deserves a few more listens.
Lupe Fiasco- “Gotta Eat”: Whoever was Music Director when The Cool came out listed this as the first recommended track. I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s okay.
Hi-Tek- “Where It Started At (NY) (ft. Dion, Jadakiss, Papoose, Talib Kweli, & Raekwon)”: How about that line-up? Jadakiss just put out a new album the other day, and it’s getting mixed reviews.
Slaughterhouse- “Fight Club”: Finally got me a Slaughterhouse track in the studio. It’s not their best, but its also not 8 minutes long like most of the others. Does anyone else wish they’d kick Royce da 5’9” out of the group and replace him with someone interesting?
Jay-Z- “I Just Wanna Love U (Give it 2 Me) (ft. Pharell)”: I can’t believe he wasted this track on Dynasty: Roc La Familia. What do you, my 2 readers, think is Jay-Z’s better party track: I.Z.Z.O. or this? (write in answers are okay).
Nappy Roots- “Awnaw (ft. Jazze Pha)”: I like this song.
eMC- “EMC (What It Stands For)”: I’ve been mentioning these guys every time I play that Masta Ace song in the studio, so I finally got some songs to play for you. This one is off The Show, and does one of those things where they take an acronym and rap three words that could make it up after saying it.
The Pharcyde- “Ya Mama”: Do hipsters over-hype anything more than mid-90s non-gangsta rap? No offense to The Pharcyde or ATCQ, because they’re both good, but seriously…
Outkast- “So Fresh, So Clean”: One might even throw Outkast into the discussion from the previous song. Though it seems to me the real over-hype is coming from the hip-hop website commentators who love to put Andre 3o00 in their top 10. Stankonia.
Killer Mike- “Can You Hear Me?”: Still can’t get over this song.
Lil Wayne- “3 Peat”: Look at all this dirty south shit! And you thought I didn’t know shit about them southern boys (I don’t).
Notorious B.I.G.- “Juicy”: I played a new music liner before this song. Psyche!
Kidz in the Hall- “Snob Hop (ft. Camp Lo)”: I’ve been loving this song since last summer (which is the perfect time for it), mostly because the second verse promises “oral spasms.” Very Nice.
Jake One- “The Truth (ft. Freeway & Brother Ali)”: I could honestly listen to just this beat all day long. My god is that soulful.
Rhymefest- “Dynomite (Going Postal)”: Haven’t played any Rhymefest in a while. He just put out a new mixtape (I wasn’t impressed), but this is from Blue Collar.
Skyzoo- “Stop Fooling Yourself”: I always forget that I like Skyzoo a lot because his laid-back flows never really grab you. Don’t overlook him though, he’s got some great lines. The Three Day High.
Grand Buffet- “We’re Into This”: Ira or Clint should tell you the story about these guys, but I don’t have any problems with them. Especially when they make catchy songs like this one. Pittsburgh Hearts EP.
Big L & Jay-Z- “’95 Freestyle”: Go find this track on the internet and download it. 7 minutes of Big L and Jay-Z spitting rhymes you’ve never heard before??? Yeah, it’s that good. I’m pretty sure this happened either just before, or just after they put their debuts out, which means that this is as much a historical document as it is a freestyle.
Mobb Deep- “Front Lines (Hell On Earth)”: This is a single we have in the studio. Not bad.
Sage Francis- “Water Line”: I needed a short song to fill up 2 minutes, and this is a good one. For some reason Chris hates all of Human the Death Dance, even though this is probably the most emotionally affecting and scathing political rant Sage has ever written. Is that too much praise for the song? Maybe a touch.
Johnson & Jonson- “Bonus Track”: Yeah, I’m playing Blu again, get over it. Cool sample of a John Lennon song, and for some reason this track just speaks to me (you will only get that joke if you’ve heard the song (the sample is “hold on John”) (get it?))). This is sort of like that Skyzoo thing I was talking about earlier. It’s lazy to write off songs like this as ‘boring,’ because it probably means that you didn’t listen to it as closely as you should.
Another great show if I say so myself. I’m pretty used to not having to worry about MC Chris Barnes fucking up whatever he touched in the station now, and I must say it’s a relief. It’s also nice to be able to talk on the air without your partner giggling uncontrollably every time you use the word ‘Beerweiner.’ I must admit that I do miss the ego boost that came with working alongside such an incompetent burnout. Anyway, here’s what I played, plus some insightful commentary.
The Posse- “Yo Sistah”: Started off tonight’s set with my own group (not vain since I’m not featured on the song, right?). Great production by my man Buck Beautiful plus solid verses all around. From: Welcome to the Posse, Bitch.
2Pac- “Changes”: I almost cut into this to yell “NOT!” after 2Pac says the “We’re not ready to see a black president” line. Fortunately for the listeners, I wasn’t close enough to the mic to get it off in time. Next time though. Off of Greatest Hits.
Grand Buffet- “We’re Into This”: These guys are a Pittsburgh duo, both with a variety of nick-names (Grape-a-don, Fred Durts, and Plaps to name a few). I only have an incomplete EP by them, and I keep trying to get my hands on some more of their music, but every time I listen to their Myspace I’m not impressed. Still, I like this song and “Cool as Hell,” off the Pittsburgh Hearts EP.
Sage Francis- “Got Up This Morning”: MC Chris Barnes liked this beat, and sometimes I do things he would like so that I can’t tell he’s not around :'(. From Human the Death Dance.
Wu-Tang Clan- “Triumph (ft. Cappadonna)”: Look, I’m no Wu expert, and sometimes it seems like Cappadonna is a part of the clan and sometimes it seems like he isn’t. All I know is that the case for Wu-Tang Forever lists Cappadonna as a feature. This song started my short set that took the listener through as many Clan solo acts as the station could muster (sorry U-God, Inspectah Deck, and Masta Killa!), which was defended as a lesson in telling them apart, but which may have been motivated in great part by laziness. Damn if the station didn’t get grimy there for a while.
Ghostface Killah- “The Champ”: This beat is killer. Seriously, give it up to Just Blaze for this one. This song should be played very loud. It’s from Fishscale.
Raekwon- “Incarcerated Scarfaces”: I didn’t want to play “Verbal Intercourse,” partially because I’ve played it several times before and partially because I wanted to showcase Raekwon on his own. This is an Only Built 4 Cuban Linx track.
Wu-Tang Clan- “Method Man”: I had a couple other options for Method Man’s track, but is there a good reason for not playing the track that shares his name? You could argue that it’s technically a Wu-Tang track since it’s off Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), but that would be stupid. Btw, did you know Method Man is the youngest member of the Clan? Who would’ve guessed?
RZA- “Drama (ft. Monk & Thea)”: I guess this is off of Digi Snacks, from last year. I didn’t want to play any solo songs that had features, but my hands were kind of tied with RZA, and I figured that since the other two aren’t from Wu it didn’t matter. Good beat (surprise surprise), and RZA’s lyrics weren’t all that bad (more of a surprise).
GZA- “Paper Plate”: I felt like I was playing a bunch of early Wu-Tang stuff, so I shied away from playing a track off of Liquid Swords (plus I think I played that song last week). This is from Pro Tools, which came out a few months ago. It’s a diss track against 50 Cent if you didn’t notice, and has tons of good lines (“Only missin’ the sheer blouse. Homie, you see-through.” damn). Says 50, “Listen, I have an old school Chevy Impala your age.”
Ol’ Dirty Bastard- “Got Your Money”: I almost forgot that we had ODB in the studio, and it would have been a tragedy not to respect the late legend. I’d like to see a movie made about ODB, played by the dude who was Bubbles on The Wire (he knows how to play a dope fiend). This is from Nigga Please.
N.A.S.A.- “Gifted (ft. Kanye West, Santogold & Lykke Li)”: I finally got to listen to a track from this album, and I must say I enjoyed it a lot. Good production, good hook, Kanye rapping a lil bit… By the way, I think MC Chris Barnes and I were talking about this drunk at 4 am in the McDonald’s drive-thru, but either The College Dropout=ghostwritten or Kanye since=apathetic. He just doesn’t rap the same way anymore. Sorry for that tangent, the N.A.S.A. album is called Spirit of Apollo.
The Knux- “The True”: I’m trying to work my way through this album one song at a time. The verses didn’t really jump out at me, but I feel like I’d like the album if I would just sit down and listen to it all at once. Find it on Remind Me In 3 Days…
Blackalicious- “Blazing Arrow”: Two weeks, two Blackalicious songs, and no “Paragraph President”? And it’s not even from thinking PP was track 10 instead of 9 which seemed to happen every week last year. Is it cool to watch maturation in action? Duh, it’s from Blazing Arrow.
Black Star- “RE: Definition”: Rumors of a new Black Star album in the works. The first one is called Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star.
Notorious B.I.G.- “Mo Money Mo Problems (ft. Ma$e & Puff Daddy)”: This was my favorite song in about 5th grade. I’ve written too much about this song already, so just check out Life After Death.
Novel- “Damn”: I was pumped for a mixtape this guy put out a little while ago called 808s and Mixtapes because I thought it was just going to be someone rapping over all the beats from 808s and Heartbreak. It wasn’t, and when he did it was disappointing. This one is from the I Am… (Future Black President) EP in the station.
Redman & Gorillaz- “Gorillaz On My Mind”: Found this one on vinyl in the station and decided to give it a spin. The beat is pretty cool, but it might just be a Gorillaz song. You can find it on the Blade 2 soundtrack.
Aesop Rock- “N.Y. Electric”: I never could really get into Aesop Rock until pretty recently. But if you’re going to give Lil’ Wayne’s gibberish a Grammy, then you’ve got to respect a dude who’s been doing a more advanced thing his whole career without being doped up on syrup the whole time. This is off Bazooka Tooth, but Labor Days is pretty good too.
Nas- “Ya’ll My Niggas”: Speaking of Lil’ Wayne, I’ll listen to Untitled over The Carter III any day. Yeah it falls short as a cohesive message, but it’s fairly consistent thematically and has some good songs too. My love for “Hero” is well known, but this one might be my favorite song on the album.
Kool G Rap- “Streets of New York”: I could really like Kool G Rap, but I can’t get into most of the production on Wanted: Dead or Alive. And those late 80s flows just feel so dated and simplistic to me.
Killer Mike- “Can You Hear Me?”: I don’t think I’m ready to call I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind II like HipHopDX did, but I like it more than I expected to. It sounds like Justin Timberlake is doing the chorus on this song, but I can’t figure out who it is. I really like this song.
Clipse- “Wamp Wamp (What it Do) (ft. Slim Thug)”: I love that phrase, ‘wamp wamp’, which is apparently both a way to holler at the opposite sex and cocaine. Good combo. Hell Hath No Fury is the home to this one.
Johnson&Jonson- “Half A’ Knot”: Johnson&Jonson is the combination of the rapper Blu and the producer Mainframe. It’s also the name of the album. I’ve been listening to this all the time recently. I can’t say I understand why every guest on the album takes a ‘Johnson’ moniker, but it’s got a really cool style to it.
Snoop Dogg- “We Just Wanna Party With You (ft. Jermaine Dupri)”: Remember the Men in Black soundtrack? Turns out there isn’t a video for it, but maybe this one will do.
Murs- “Break Up (The OJ Song)”: Like the Knux album, I’m trying to make my way through Murs For President on my show. So far it’s about what I expected, which isn’t bad, but isn’t great either.
Jay-Z- “What More Can I Say”: It says something that it didn’t occur to me to play a Jay-Z song until 10 minutes were left in the show. I go back and forth on whether or not The Black Album is my favorite of Jay-Z’s. I’m not calling it his best, but hit for hit it can hold up against any of his others.
Atmosphere- “Always Coming Back Home to You”: It’s always nice to end on a story song, especially one as visual as this. Plus, with the hidden track attached the song is 9 min 11 sec long. Seven’s Travels.
Big L- “Put it On”: R.I.P. Big L died on today’s date in 1999. This track is the first off his debut disc Lifestylez Ov Da Poor and Dangerous. Good stuff.
Raekwon- “Verbal Intercourse” (ft. Nas & Ghostface Killah): Classic. Check out Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.
Edan- “Syllable Practice”: From Beauty and the Beat. Some good samples on that album.
Clipse- “Comedy Central” (ft. Fabolous): Best Virginian duo I know of. Off their first album, Lord Willin’. Better without Re-Up Gang counterparts, btw.
Slum Village- “Tainted” (ft. Dwele): I don’t know too much about these guys, but they’re from Detroit and are associated with J Dilla often. A quick wikipedia check shows that he used to be their DJ/Producer, and now his younger brother is in the group. From Trinity (Past, Present and Future).
A Tribe Called Quest- “Check the Rhime”: From the acclaimed Low End Theory. Not the hugest ATCQ fan, but Q-Tip’s newest is pretty good.
Blackalicious- “Chemical Calisthenics”: Blazing Arrow. Got sick of playing “Paragraph President” every week. Great album.
Lupe Fiasco- “Pressure” (ft. Jay-Z): Not the biggest Lupe fan either (and I’m from Chicago too…), but I love me a good Jay-Z guest verse. He’s got to be the best guest rapper of all time, right? From Food & Liquor.
Murs- “Lookin’ Fly” (ft. will.i.am.): Off his new one, Murs For President. Haven’t gotten to listen to this whole album yet, but Murs is usually all right by me.
Talib Kweli- “Get By”: That’s right, I do play requests, so call in! From Quality.
Brother Ali- “Forest Whitiker”: Everyone’s favorite albino rapper (I think). Off Shadows on the Sun.
Kanye West- “School Spirit”: This song is actually edited on the album so that he can use the names of the Greek organizations in the song. Saves me some trouble! A College Dropout track.
The Roots- “Birthday Girl”: Fun little song about a girlfriend turning 18 (you know why 😉 [does girlfriend seem too strong a word?]). Off their most recent Rising Down. Any guesses on how long they stay on the Jimmy Fallon show?
Big Daddy Kane- “It’s a Big Daddy Thing”: From the album of the same title. Check out “Show & Prove” from Daddy’s Home, it’s got BDK, Jay-Z, and ODB trading bars with a few others. Oh and it’s from ’94 so it’s early Jay, and you know how much I love that :).
Jurassic 5- “Verbal Gunfight”: Another group I’ll admit that I know almost nothing about. They’ve put out a fair number of albums, I’ve just never listened to any of them. Off an EP we have here in the studio called W.O.E. Is Me.
Big L- “Deadly Combination” (ft. 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G.): The album version of this track is on The Big Picture, but I believe that it is missing the Biggie verse. How many dead rappers can you fit on a song, am I right?
Hu$tle Simmons- “Evacuate” (ft. Al Mighty): We just got this in the studio, and I have no idea what it is. From what the internet tells me, it’s a group made up of MC Dave Ghetto and an up-and-coming DJ Tha S Ence. The album is self-titled.
The Knux- “Bang! Bang!”: I’ve heard of these guys from some music mag’s (website?) buzz column. We just got their debut album Remind Me in 3 Days… in the studio. Based on this track they sound pretty decent.
Scarface- “One”: Used to be in the Geto Boys, this was a random single we’ve got in the hip-hop catalogue. I have no idea where it came from.
UGK- “Real Women” (ft. Talib Kweli & Raheem DeVaughn): Courtesy of MC Chris Barnes (R.I.P.). From the Underground Kingz album.
Nas- “Bridging the Gap” (ft. Olu Dara): This one is from the Cadillac Records soundtrack. Non-traditional rap song, but totally cool.
GZA- “Duel of the Iron Mic”: This is from Liquid Swords, an album I’m allegedly going to see him perform live in the near future. You should come too.
Canibus- “2000 B.C.”: Canibus is someone people love talking about as a great lyricist, but I don’t know enough about him to comment on that discussion. Scratch that, I’ve heard two songs now. One was good, one wasn’t so good. Jury’s still out. I think this is from the album called 2000 B.C.
AZ- “Quiet Money (Blood Money)” (ft. Halfamil & Animal): I’m not sure what the story behind this song is. The group might be called the Union, from a record called Organized Rhymes. It’s a cool song, and I’m a fan of AZ (check out his debut Doe or Die). Btw, he’s the other dude on Illmatic.
Ghostface Killah- “The Champ”: When I first got Fishscale I would listen to this song three or four times in a row. If you haven’t listened to that album yet you should.
Cam’ron- “Hey Ma” (ft. Juelz Santana, Freekey Zeekey & Kay Slay): Cam’ron bringing his crew in tow with a great little romp through a night out on the town. Spoiler alert: these boys know how to pick up women. Off Come Home with Me.
Ludacris- “What’s Your Fantasy”: I assure you I wasn’t having sex in the station during this two song set, but it sure felt like I was! Does anyone not know this song? From Back for the First Time.
Joell Ortiz- “125 Pt. 3 (Connections)” (ft. Ras Kass, Stimuli, Grafh, Gab Gacha): I like Joell Ortiz, and a lot of people don’t know much about him. His debut that this is off of, The Brick: Bodega Chronicles, is a good album. And I love a good posse track.
Big L- “Da Graveyard” (ft. Lord Finesse, Microphone Nut, Jay-Z, Party Arty, & Y.U.): Speaking of posse tracks… One last song for Big L on what is no longer the anniversary of his death. Oh well, he deserves it. Oh yeah, and some more early Jay-Z. You can figure out how I feel about that song. Btw, Party Arty is dead as well. Lots of death on tonight’s show, and that’s saying a lot for a hip-hop show.
I enjoyed myself, and I hope you non-existent listeners did too. Remember, every Sunday from 11pm-1am. 88.7, the Edge.
-john
The Hip-Hop Hour 