JG Choice Cut: 9th Wonder "Brooklyn In My Mind"

Greetings. Welcome. This is the series of blog posts where JG recommends a track and I review it. The guy has pretty good taste in music except that recently he recommended two Frank Ocean songs ("Pink Matter" & "Pyramids") which I won't review becasue this is a hip hop blog and I hate R&B. Honestly, Pandora is always trying to throw Frank Ocean tracks into my Kendrick Lamar mix and I'm always hittin' "DISLIKE" as quickly as I can. Fuck that singing shit. 

Anyway, we all know who 9th Wonder is. Some of you like him, some of you don't. I do like him. He's a good producer. So this song is a compilation track in the vien of the great Crooklyn Dodgers. I guess this is our generation's version of the team, and we get Mos Def, Memphis Bleek, and Jean Grae. Eh. I don't really like any of those guys. Maybe Jean Grae a litte, but not that much....this might not be so good. Let's find out. 




I have a theory that if you sample Biggie, your song is automatically dope. However, the Curtis Mayfield sample used all through this track is (1) tired and (2) boring. So the MC's need to step up and crush some home runs.

First verse is boring, I think it's by 9th.
Jean Grae is technically good, but not all that fun to listen too.
Memphis Bleek is the best of the track, but it's not that good.
Where was Mos Def?

Eh. This track is the pits. Not hittin'. You gotta remember that music representing Brooklyn music is some of the hardest out there. If you're going to represent Brooklyn you gotta come correct. This shit is just weak.

Here's a good Brooklyn Track:



I'm not even a Jay-Z fan, but I know dope when I hear it. Go hard. Come again.  






Skip ahead to 2:20 for one of favorite Brooklyn tracks, the beat is insane. Plus, I shot a man in Brooklyn just to watch him die. Yep.









In Conclusion: You gotta bring it if your talking that Brooklyn shit. Nothing was brought here.

BROOKLYN IN MY MIND SCORE 5/10

Track Checker: Reflection Eternal "Just Begun"

 

 

 

Oh yes indeed. I like this. I like this. We have everyone's favorite team reunited: Mos Def and Talib Kweli, and they're not boring this time! Then we have J. Cole, who is as good as always. And finally we have Jay Electronica, who is the last guy to mention! What a team. But the real winner is you, and you'll realize it after about five seconds of Hi-Tek's incredible beat sweeps you away on a jazzy river. YO! Hi-Tek! #Salute

 

 

Is that a tumpet? Is it a french horn? I don't know! I like it though. Let's check the WHOSAMPLED.COM archives:

 

 

 

DARN IT. What a bunch of nerds singing. That's the wrong sample and it's very boring. Who on earth would listen to that shit? Hey, Singers Unlimited, your name and your song suck it. I guess we'll never know where that trumpet came from. So let's put our minds at ease and just dig into the lyrics.

Everyone does a good job, no doubt, but Jay Electronica does the best job (besides Hi-Tek). Talib hits hard as usual, and I feel like I'm hearing good lyrics, and I'm not bored, but I'm also not jumping off of my chair and punching my little brother from getting hyped. It's a good verse, but I can take it or leave it, so NORMAL TALIB SHIT. Next is Jay Electronica, who brings his laid back game to match this beat, and it's a hit (baseball).

 

Next we have, uh, J. Cole, who I am a fan of, but I wouldn't be mad if I never heard another J. Cole verse. Anyway, he kills his verse. Besides the dope raps, he also ties his verse into J. Electronica's last line, and he says:

 

"Dog I'm on a higher level, I'm on top of nosebleeds

N----s say they sick, but when they rock they don't sneeze

Like the n---a on the block waving his Glock but won't squeeze

Please..."

 

That's just good. But, it's so sad for Mos Def, who get's killed by J. Cole before he even starts. I'm sure his verse is good, but he shouldn't follow someone who is talented and hungry and has a voice that sounds like he is awake. Mos Def raps, but he also loses this one.

 

Done. Good track. Easy review. That was a good beat right? Yep. I wonder if anyone else has jacked it. GAWD I hope not. You gotta be laid back to tackle that beat. It's so smooth, if you come at it stupid it'll kill you.  AHHA, I'm sure it's a mess out there, let's find out.

What Else can I say? Let's see if anyone else tried to deliver on this tough beat:

 

OH NO! FUCK. Are you kidding me? What kind of accent is that? Scottish + mental illness? "Like a round of golf, you won't be able to put one in the hole". Well, that song was a mess. AMATEURS! This is about as far from true hip hop as possible. AND NOBODY ON THIS SHIT IS MAKING IT, EVEN THOUGH YOU THINK YOU ARE, YOUNG JESS. What a joke. Let me clarify:

• You're not "heading up the ladder"
• You don't "got a girl"
• "Janet" could "Handle It"
• You will never "take control"

Now for the other guy...

• You're not "coming" with anything, especially "the hustle"
• No liquor in anything, you're not "up in" anything.
• You're not "killing" anything for seconds, much less "days"
• No heads are "amazed" at the "style" you "kick"
• Who is feeling this on the street? Nobody.
• There is no crowd cheering anywhere for you.
• No other rappers are being put to shame by this. Only hip hop fans are ashamed by this.
• Whatever this sucks...

NEXT!

 

 Sigh. GET ME OUT OF HERE.

 

JUST BEGUN SCORE 9/10

EVERY OTHER SONG ON THIS PAGE 0/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trackmasters: Black Star "What's Beef"

Trackmasters: Black Star "What's Beef" from the Dave Chapelle Show


Well, I think we've done only one other post on Mos Def and I'm really tired of writing about him. You and us, we all say he's a good MC, right? And we're definitely not mad when he turns up in a song or even a movie or in a show...

Nope. We're not mad about this at all. No big deal, really!

Who cares right? So what about when he turned up in a song AND on a TV show? Of course I'm talking about Black Star's freestyle segment on the Dave Chappelle Show, DUH! So it's definately something that I really like (although I strongly doubt that it is a genuine "off the top" freestyle, but we'll let that slide because it's good). Check it:







Seriously? Is that the best quality video we could find. That's just terrible quality, I can barley hear it. So EXCUSE us on that, honestly you shouldn't expect much from us, we're really bad at this. Handing out paychecks to people who find videos with low quality.

Okay, so not that that's out of the way let's move on. Why don't more comdey shows have dope freestyles as a segment? "Because they're not funny" - CEOs of TV. But it's as good as the other stuff. I mean do you really think that anyone tuned into Dave Chappelle, watched most of the show, then saw Black Star was coming on so they switched it over to "Punk'd" or whatever was on? NO. Everyone saw that Black Star was coming on and was like "YES!" (fist pump). And rightly so. They all watched it and thought, "this freestyle is dope".


Now we don't talk about Talib Kweli much here. Why? He's a great MC and that's about it. We buy his albums, we like his attitude, and his songs are good. He never surprises us so that's why we've never written up any of his stuff. So let us officially say here Talib Kweli is one of the best and a lot of people say that he is underrated, but we say he is rated exactly right, he just doesn't have mass appeal because he keeps it somewhat rugged, but not that rugged. Okay, so how does he do on this song? Excellent. I've heard Talib spit these lines in other places (particularly in Going Hard) but I don't know what song came first and I don't care. Talib spits ill, Sun-Tsu.


The chorus is the good uncut. Then Mos Def takes the second verse and kills it talking about real beef. Not from cows but from whatever he lists here! I can relate to what he is saying! I understand! Beef is bad credit and high blood pressure! Gas prices! Yep. This is real talk. This is a strong verse and an amazing "freestyle" much respect to Black Star and to Dave Chappelle for putting them on his show. Word up!


What's Beef Score 9/10

Trackmasters: Mos Def "Auditorium" Feat. Slick Rick

OKAY!  So when Mos Def and Slick Rick aren't rapping into the wrong side of the mic they are pretty good at rapping.  I'm not saying that they ever did that but ....actually, if they did end up rapping into the wrong side of the mic it would probably be better then everyone else ever. So there. This is a song with both of them and it's DOOOPPPEPEPEPEPEPPE PHAT. (Yep. Phat! 1994 or something.)

"Auditorium"



I think this song really covers how I feel about Mos Def and Slick Rick! To start, I would call myself a Mos Def fan even though I haven't bought any of his music lately. "That's not much of a fan" you say. Well, whatever, I'll give you that one. I'm not much of a fan, I just appreciate his skill and raps sometimes but I get tired of something about him but I'm not sure what. Insightful!!! Much respect to Mos Def!!!

As for Slick Rick, I have bought every one of his albums since forever! When I transitioned from a tape deck in my car to a CD player I replaced some of my Slick Rick tapes with their CD version. So I bought them twice, $$$$$ for Slick Rick (more like $$.$$). I really like Slick Rick! He's very good (even when he shows up on an Outkast album where he is definitely out of place but still does a good job).

So this song! Let's get to it!

Well this is just the kind of beat that Mos flows best on. It's his album after all. Now, is it just me or does Mos Def say "what it is" a lot, I mean not just in this song, but in every song? You tell me. So the beat is decent, kind of laid back but still forms a nice groove. Actually, I'll go ahead and call the beat ill, and the breakdown in the middle is straight dope. I mean it makes me want to put down the mouse and try to produce a dope beat (which I have no idea how to do...how do people do that?).

So after an ill transition Slick Rick comes in with one of his patented story raps and the dude kills it. It's like the beat was built for him and his odd voice and flow. It's dope, Rick has mad skillz. Phat. It's about a soldier in Iraq and it's really the rhyme skill that sells it, plus the mad veteran flow and his mad ingenuous back-and-forth between Rick and Rick using a kids voice. There's something about a kid caring laundry, and everyone hates the soldiers over there, then some mad disrespect, whatever. Then Slick Rick hears some "Middle Eastern instruments" so he busts some raps and becomes the next "Elvis of Baghdad". Cool. Just a cool song and Slick Rick is still the Ruler. Much Respect.

Well Mos Def got sonned, that's what you get when you feature a king on your album.

SCORE 10/10

The Ruler #SALUTE.