Line for Line: AZ "Whips and Kicks"

Ba-BAH! All rise for another "Line for Line" post, where we examine the lyrical genius of a dope verse. Today we're going with east coast all-pro AZ who really is one of the best MCs out there despite a somewhat offputting catalog. We all respect AZ around here, and you should too, it's just his albums have too much fluff (I guess) so we don't spin them that often but we do fill up our mp3 players with his many dope shits (The Format especially).

So our dope AZ verse for today somehow comes courtesy of Raekwon and the fifty mixtapes and albums he's put out over the last few years. This is a 'back in the day track' called Whips & Kicks, where Raekwon and AZ spit about cars and shoes repsectively. I've made it clear in the past that these are two subjects that I could care less about. Cars? Who cares? Shoes? You're a dumbass for writing anything about shoes. But on this track the subject matter is fine because two capable MCs are spitting on it. No dumbasses here. So let's hear the track and we'll get to the review in a sec, okay?


Straight up, Raekwon is dope on this track. He kicks a decent rap about old school cars (the ones that people actually owned). He sounds like his battery is almost dead but he still comes correct. Good verse.

AZ, on the other hand, shows how hip hop is done. He takes the topic of shoes (which I absolutely hate) and kills a verse about them. Why? His flow is dead on time. DEAD ON TIME. DEADLY. Like holy shit. Young MCs should study this flow. Young MC should study his flow. Learn it. Know it. Be it. Flow on. Clear? AZ's rhymes are also densely stacked, and he owns the topic. I'll be honest, I don't even know what he's talking about half the time, probably because I don't give a rip about shoes. I don't even give half a rip. I don't even know what a rip is. But AZ's flow is deadly. Maybe we should check the lyrics and see if we can decipher any of this

Eighty-four mopeds, Blue and white Pro-Keds
Just started puff'n, Got instructions for an old head
Co-ved, Wally rock'n niggas tryna grow dreads
Back in the bush, Church Ave. on the jux
Shell toes, Black and white, No laces in em
Pat U-edition had his whole face in em
Straight leg denims, Taylor made shit
Kareem Laker colors, Low cut suede tip
Stay dipped, Stan Smith lay sick
Two-toned colors, Put the taps on the rubber
Puma rock'n nigga, Fuck a womber I was bigger
See a bitch in seconds an assumed that I could rip her
None hipper, Copped kicks with the zippers
The Filas arrived, It was Levi's and high
In V Tracks I was simply the mack
Everything I snatched had to match with the hat
Reebok rocker, Whole crew couldn't knock us
Fuck who? Only thing to do was just glock us
Valley Competitions and the Jordan's hit stores
I'm sitting reminiscing, T. La Rock it's yoursNow fast forward time nigga still on the grind
Haters everywhere, Nigga still gotta shine
Gucci's all kinds, Switch em up for the weather
Louis' in lime, Only do it for the pleasure
Come fresher, From the tech on the dresser
Fifth in the waist, Still crys'd and I'm laced

Okay! I still don't get it, but what a great verse. Great beat too. If you understand the lyrics, then good for you, the song is probably even better. Good job AZ (as always)!

WHIPS AND KICKS SCORE 9/10

AZ SCORE 10/10

A 10

Line vs. Line: Murphy Lee "My Shoes" vs. Ali "Boughetto"

Why yes, this is my new hat Derrty!

Lookin' sleepy Derrty!

Well, well, well.  The legendary Missouri crew 'The St. Lunatics' finally make an appearance in the court of the Turtle General.  Murphy Lee and Ali are both members of Nelly's St. Lunatics crew and stand before me to be judged today. These guys are the worst. Well, maybe not the worst but they are definitely in the running. For those of you who don't know, the St. Lunatics are the crew that Nelly came up with from St. Louis, MO. Nelly has sold like twenty million albums (seriously), and has had some combination of these guys on several of his singles, which means you have definitely heard both Ali and Murphy Lee rap at some point in your life even if you didn't want to. They were on Nelly's Air Force Ones, and they threw that song in the mix at Walmart to attract young affluent shoppers with bad judgement. So you know these guys.

For this post I'm going to skip any attacks on Nelly (since I already gave his album Nellyville a full review and it ruined an entire month of my life) and go right to the second tier Lunatics: Murphy Lee and Ali. Confession time: a few months ago I tried to review Murphy Lee's debut album "Murphy's Law" and I couldn't go through with it. It wasn't that it was bad (it was), it was more like I felt bad for the guy for so obviously trying to cash in on the Nelly fame-wave. The whole experience was just depressing. I had sympathy or empathy or something and I had to stop. So I'm not going to put myself through anything like that again, I'm too fragile. This time I'm just going to look at Murphy Lee's latest single, My Shoes (2008) and compare it to fellow Lunatic Ali's latest single Boughetto (2002). Mono e mono or whatever. Battle!

"But why are you doing this?" you ask nervously.

Well, I'm not a fan of Nelly or the St. Lunatics, they represent the some of the worst commercialization of hip hop ever, they suck, and I love to review bad rap. These singles represent some of the worst out there. Lee's My Shoes came out in 2008, well after the Nelly bandwagon fell apart. So it's a combination of going for a payday, trying to stay relevant, and clinging to a passed fad. As for Ali, his single came out almost a decade ago and it represents a talentless rapper that just got an album because of his association with a multiplatnum artist.  And trust me, this guy has very little talent, hence him not having any albums since 2002.

Well enough typing about that...onward to the rap battle!

Anticipation for the battle.  Wait a minute, where is your mask Slow Down?

"My Shoes"

So we'll start this battle off with Murphy Lee's "My Shoes", there is a version featuring T-Pain, but I don't know if this is that version (or care)...



HOLY CRAP. Those cars look like monster trucks! It IS amazing how real Murphy Lee is and how lame I am. I realize that now. In the song Murphy Lee bets that I "never ever seen wheels shinin like these", he's right: I haven't! I also have "never ever seen kicks change colors like these". What can I say, I'm sheltered and I don't even know what anything in this song means. I DON'T CARE ABOUT RIMS OR SHOES. I wish I had something in my life I loved as much as Murphy Lee loves shoes, but I don't.

Remember Nelly's song Air Force One's? This is the same track basically. IT'S THE SAME EXACT IDEA MURPHY LEE, YOU MEATHEAD. We get it: YOU LOVE SHOES. Shoes! If you ever meet Murphy Lee and have a conversation with him, chances are good that the subject of shoes will come up at some point, even if you are at a funeral, or your kids flute recital, or a gang jump-in. Nike Air. We even get to revisit the idea that I could NEVER find shoes like his, which is a shame I suppose. Er, wait, when he says shoes dies he mean rims? That makes sense in the context of the video KIND OF...or maybe shoes means anything that touches the ground? WHO CARES? AND who would listen to this song anyway? Would you? I know I wouldn't. I hate that singing chorus. I HATE THIS SONG.

CAPITAL LETTERS! 

 "Boughetto"

Now for Ali.  Poor Ali, the second worst in the St. Lunatics crew. Ali is checking in with his single "Boughetto" whatever that means. And don't act like you know because you don't.  Nobody does. What a great idea for a song.


Ali Feat. Murphy Lee - Boughetto by Drunken-Li-Dragon

That was fun wasn't it? Especially when that one guy looks in the microscope and sees the microbes and bacteria shape up like a lady and start dancing all boughetto. Fun. So, I can review this song quickly: boring and forgettable.  Also, is this a McDonald's commercial? What's with that word Boughetto? I see it's defined in the song as "bourgeois and ghetto", so what is bourgeios, professor? That doesn't even look like an American word. What the heck is going on in St. Louis? Then they take it to the next level with "beautif-hetto"! Beautiful and ghetto. Thank goodness they take the time to define the terms otherwise I would be lost like if I went to college or something.

Now, you may have noticed that Boughetto features Ali's enemy for this contest Murphy Lee!  "Foul" you cry, "Is that against the rules? Murphy Lee is kind of in a competition against himself." Well, first of all there are no rules here. Second of all, who cares? SPOILER ALERT: Murphy ruins any song he appears in and so does Ali. I decide how things go here. In a future post I might have Murphy Lee battle only himself, or a tree or something! I am a general after all, I can get things done.  #Slaute (hashtag).

In your defense, Murphy Lee might indeed have figured that some day, some high ranking turtle might have a battle of singles between "Boughetto" and "My Shoes" so he intentionally rapped poorly on this track to improve his chances of winning. I mean he says that he "don't like the hood" whhhaaatttt? I believe it, but I've never heard a rapper say that before. We all know Murphy Lee has expensive taste, after all his rims are the size of a Oregon Trail wagon wheel. He also mentions that some of his friends are at Riker's Island prision.  Hey, that's in New York! Missouri is shipping their inmates all the way to New York? MURPHY LEE, YOU'RE AN IDIOT. You might be right, reader, he is rapping especially poorly, even for a St. Lunatic.

The problem with the idea that Murphy Lee is intentionally rapping bad to ruin the song (and win this contest) is that both rappers do a appalling job behind the mic, meaning that not only did Murphy Lee undermine Ali, Ali undermined himself!  Double jeapordy or something with two bad things.

UH-OH!

FINAL RESULT: Tie for worst?  Nope.  Murphy Lee wins.  Why?  "My Shoes" would lose in a battle against almost every other song ever made (it would even lose against some sounds like crickets or a waterfall), but in the case of "Boughetto" he wins. In the end I don't think Ali really lost though, you and I lost. Hip hop lost. Humanity lost. Mankind lost. Existence lost. Actually, I guess Ali did lose because he had the worst track. And he lost against a song called "My Shoes" so that's really bad. Maybe even the worst kind of loss a human can endure. My sympathy goes out to Ali and his family. You can make it through this. Maybe start rappin about shoes more often...just an idea.



The losers in this contest.


Score: 0/10 for the St. Lunatics, Ali, Murphy Lee, Me, Nelly, and music in general