Tag: California

my thoughts on the Canibus and Dizaster rap battle

I had a live video stream of the battle, but I’m not obligated to review it because I didn’t watch the whole thing. I decided to stop watching, and listening, once I realized that Canibus; an MC whose battle raps made him one of the best popular battle rappers in my mind, even though I’d never heard or seen him in an actual battle; was in over his head.

He forgot his lines and choked repeatedly, at least that’s what I gathered from the viewers in the chatroom I was monitoring, before pulling out a notepad to read from. It wasn’t just disappointing; it was embarrassing. It was embarrassing for me and I wasn’t even there. I can only imagine how embarrassing it was for him and everyone else who was.

I can’t feel too bad for him though. He had months to prepare. What made him show-up unprepared is beyond me. He may have needed the money; they say he got paid thousands of dollars; but it isn’t worth his reputation and career; both of which, considering his whole image is built around being a battle rapper, may be ruined beyond repair.

I hope not. I was never really a Canibus fan; I can’t name a lot of his songs I like; but I generally like him as a rapper and still consider many of his battle raps highly impressive, particularly during the 2000 BC era. Besides, a rapper doesn’t have to be able to battle for real in order to compose and perform clever and creative battle-style verses.

I also think he’s generally better than Dizaster, who wasn’t really impressive in this battle neither, judging from the bits I did hear, thanks mainly to his ridiculously-forced delivery. He tries way too hard, but at least he tries. I don’t know what Canibus was doing. Canceling at the last hour would’ve been better. Instead he lost in a profound way.

the Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg concert at The Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival

the Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg concert at The Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival

It’s nothing but a “gangsta” party hosted by Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg with the help of 2Pac, the latter bit of which is a little unsettling. It’s a hologram, but visual technology has gotten so advanced; we’re way pass 2001; that you might mistake it for an impersonator.

2Pac should be limited to his Snoop and Dre collaborations. Letting him perform Hail Mary, a song from an album he called Dre “gay-ass” on, takes away from the show’s overall theme, as does other songs. At one point, the crowd is Jumping Around to House Of Pain.

Still, even with those flaws, the show is dope. Really. Snoop smoked a blunt on stage. Eminem and 50 Cent are also featured as surprise guests, along with other Death Row and Aftermath affiliated artists. All that hip-hop star power on one stage is a sight to see.

my rating : 4 of 5

2012

audio review : Death Threatz ( album ) … MC Eiht

audio review : Death Threatz ( album ) ... MC Eiht

I think it’s safe to say the most anticipated song on this album is MC Eiht’s official response to Dollars And Sense; the song DJ Quik, as far as a lot of rap fans are concerned, verbally destroyed him on. The diss, featured on both Snoop Dogg’s Murder Was The Case compilation and DJ Quik’s Safe And Sound album, was a direct response to Def Wish 3 from MC Eiht’s previous release. While it may be a wise marketing move to start this album with Death Wish 4, so that people can hear it right away, it also comes across as somewhat of an artistic blunder.

Why is he so consumed with DJ Quik? He’s basically dedicating an entire album to him. At least that’s what putting the diss at the beginning and titling the album Death Threatz suggests. To make matters worse, the song doesn’t really deliver. The beat is funky and danceable, but a funky danceable beat doesn’t exactly fit the concept. Besides, it’s too little too late. The MC simply doesn’t have the rap skills to match the DJ, as odd or ironic as that may seem. He seems to know it as he alleges some other “motherfucker” wrote Quik’s verses.

From there it’s business as usual. Quik was right when he said “bitches” don’t (generally) jock MC Eiht’s “shit” and that’s okay. This is thug music for thug “niggas”, but, as much as he raps about guns, it’s the beats that bang the most. That’s probably why they’re allowed to play on sometimes long after the vocals have ended. They don’t quite have the elegant sheen of the Strapped album, but they’re close enough. The Endoness, which provides a dose of conceptual creativity for a change, and the sequel to Late Night Hype are especially remarkable.

my rating : 3 of 5

1996

audio review : The Block Brochure [ Welcome To The Soil ] ( albums ) … E-40

If E-40 keeps this up, he’s on his way to becoming the most prolific rapper ever. He released the Revenue Retrievin set, about eighty songs on four albums, in 2010 and 2011. Now’s he’s up to three albums at once with this new Block Brochure. “Welcome To The Soil,” the cover page reads, but there’s a hint of sarcasm because; while there is plenty of pussy to fuck, Mary Jane to smoke and alcohol to drink; it seems there’s more bad than good happening in the slums of San Francisco’s Bay Area. “Just the other day,” he informs us, “a little baby got hit with a stray.”

E-40 isn’t just another careless thug. He’s a moral-minded rapper with a lot of street wisdom or “game” as he prefers to call it. That often comes out in his lyrics. He’s also sort of funny; at one point, he admits to once wanting to be a professional comedian; so the best parts of these albums are his verses, which manage to outshine most of his guests. A notable exception to that includes the long-awaited return of a Spice 1 collaboration. “You send some niggas at me,” The Eastbay Gangsta warns on The Other Day Ago, “I’ll eat them and scrap the plate up.”

While the verses are the strong point; along with the beats, which have gotten increasingly better since the depopularization of the Bay Area’s musically atrocious Hyphy Movement; the hooks are generally weak. Of course that’s the case with every E-40 album and most rap albums in general. What this three-volume set needs is to be condensed down to one; let’s say twelve of its best songs. That could, and probably would, make it E-40’s best album so far. As is, there are simply too many mill runs to sift thru in order to get to standouts like Pussy Loud.

The songs are only occasionally wack. One of the worst is In This Thang Breh, featuring Turf Talk and Mistah FAB. And that’s not because the hook sounds like they’re saying, “We into stank breath,” which would be at least funny. It’s because the beat, led by an annoying siren loop panned to the left, is a throw-away. The Jealous beat, on the other hand, which could almost pass for a Dr Dre production, is a definite keeper. “I’m in a class by myself,” he boasts. And that might not be too far from the truth. But you wouldn’t know by listening to these three albums.

my rating : 3 of 5

2012