Notorious BIG - One More Chance (remix)
March 31st, 2008
this video changed the game.
Made a BIG a bona fide star
Brought all types of celebs together. East Coast Hip-Hop has never be the same
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Eric B. & Rakim - Follow the Leader
March 30th, 2008
Download Eric B. & Rakim - Follow the Leader
Follow me into a solo, get in the flow,
And you could picture, like a photo,
Music makes mellow, maintains to make,
Melodies for MCs, motivates the breaks.
I’m everlasting; I can go on for days and days,
With rhyme displays that engrave deep as x-rays.
I can take a phrase that’s rarely heard,
Flip it… now it’s a daily word.
I can get illin’ at normal killin’,
Bambino along, Rakim’ll remain calm.
Self esteem make me super superb and supreme.
Before a microphone, still, I fiend.
This was a take, I wasn’t supposed to break,
I was supposed to wait, but let’s motivate.
I wanna see ‘em keep followin’ and swallowin’,
Takin’ the makin’, bitin’ and borrowin’.
Brothers try and others die to get the formula,
But I’m a let ‘cha sweat. You still ain’t warm,
You a step away from frozen, stiff as if you’re posin’,
Dig into my brain as the rhyme gets chosen.
So follow me, and while you’re thinking you were first,
Let’s travel adventitious at speeds around the universe.
What could you say as the earth gets further and further away,
Planets as small as balls of clay?
Astray into the Milky Way, world’s out of sight,
As far as the eye can see, not even a satellite.
Now stop and turn around and look.
As you stare into the darkness, your knowledge: took!
So keep starin’, soon you suddenly see a star.
You better follow it ’cause it’s the “R.”
This is a lesson. If you’re guessin’ and if you’re borrowin’,
Hurry hurry step right up and keep followin’,
The Leader.[Chorus]
Follow the leader.
Rakim’ll say, “Follow the leader!”
Rakim’ll say, “Follow the leader!”
Rakim’ll say, “Follow the leader!”
Keep Followin’.
Rakim’ll say, “Follow the leader!”
Rakim’ll say, “Follow the leader!”
Rakim’ll say, “Follow the leader!”
Rakim’ll say, “Follow the leader!”This is a lifetime mission.
Vision a prison. All right, listen.
In this journey, you’re the journal, I’m the journalist.
Am I eternal or an eternalist?
I’m about to flow long as I can possibly go.
Keep you movin’ ’cause the crowd said so.
Dance! Cuts rip your pants.
Eric B. on the blades, bleedin’ death. Call an ambulance!
Pull out my weapon and start to squeeze,
A magnum as a microphone, murderin’ MCs.
Let’s quote a rhyme from a record I wrote:
“Follow the Leader!” …Yeah, dope!
‘Cause every time I stop, you see, just duck.
As soon as you try to step off you self-destruct.
I came to overcome before I’m gone,
By showin’ and provin’ and lettin’ knowledge be born.
Then after that I’ll live forever. You disagree?
You say, “Never?” Then follow me,
From century to century, you’ll remember me,
In history, not a mystery or a memory.
Called by nature, mind raised in Asia,
Since you was tricked, I had to raise ya,
From the cradle to the grave.
But remember, you’re not a slave.
‘Cause we were put here to be much more than that,
But we couldn’t see because our mind was trapped.
But I’m here to break away the chains, take away the pains,
Remake the brains, rebuild my name.
Again, somebody told you, a little knowledge is dangerous.
It can’t be mixed, diluted, it can’t be changed with a,
Switch. Here’s a lesson if you’re guessin’, if you’re borrowin’,
Hurry hurry step right up and keep followin’,
The Leader.[Chorus]
A fear if I freestyle lyrics-a-fury,
My third eye make me shine like jury.
You’re just a rented rapper, you’re rhymes are minute-maid,
I’ll be here when they fade, I’ll watch you flip like a renegade.
I can’t wait to break and eliminate,
On every trade of my snake so stay awake.
And follow and follow ’cause the tempo’s a trail,
The stage is a cage, the mic is a third rail.
I’m Rakim, the fiend of a microphone.
I’m not him, so leave my mic alone.
Soon as the beat is felt, I’m ready to go,
So fasten your seatbelt ’cause I’m about to flow.
No need to speed, slow down and let the leader lead.
Word to Daddy… Indeed!
The “R’s” a rollin’ stone, so I’m rollin’,
Directs the tone then rhymes are stolen.
Stop buggin’! A brother said, “Dig him?” I never dug him.
He couldn’t follow the leader long enough so I drug him.
It’s a danger zone, he should arrange his own,
Face it, to space it, grace it, change the tone.
There’s one “R” in the alphabet.
It’s a one letter word and it’s about to get,
More complex from one rhyme to the next.
Eric B., be easy on the flex.
I’ve been from state to state. Follow us. Tailgate.
Keep comin’, but you came too late, but I’ll wait.
So back up your group, get a grip, come equipped.
You’re the next contestant. Clap your hands. You won a trip.
The price is right. Don’t make a deal too soon.
How many notes? Could you name this tune?
“Follow the Leader” is a title they task.
Now you know; you don’t have to ask.
Rappers’ rhythm and poetry, cuts create sound effects.
You might get junked if you follow the records he wrecks.
Until then, keep eatin’ and swallowin’.
You better take a deep breath and keep followin’
The Leader.[Chorus]
Download Eric B. & Rakim - Follow the Leader
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Tons of Hip Hop Videos
March 30th, 2008
I’m going on a little spree, uploading all sorts of underground, boom bap, and old school hip hop videos to YouTube. Pretty soon here I’ll have links to download the songs as well. To start out, we have these 3 hip hop videos.
GZA (of Wu Tang Clan) - I Gotcha Back
Good song by GZA from Liquid Swords (uploaded Duel of the Iron Mics too). Gotta have some Wu Tang.
NWA - Straight Outta Compton
Alright I had to. It’s a classic and some of you might be tired of it but it still’s good in my book.
Luniz - I got 5 on it
Hot song by Luniz from 1995. I still listen to this every once in awhile.
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OK, so you were disappointed by “Birthday Girl”
March 27th, 2008
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crucial conflict - hay
March 27th, 2008
check www.brooklynbodega.com to see why the hell I posted this video
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T.I. to plead guilty
March 27th, 2008
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Damnit…I missed the Eazy-E tribute yesterday
March 27th, 2008
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Featured Artist: Abstract Minds
March 27th, 2008
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Punk Gospel
March 26th, 2008
I was a guest lecturing at York College today and in between classes I took a walk around the Queens neighborhood where York resides. I marveled at all the Kanye/Pharell/Lupe looking Black kids. Skinny jeans, DC shoes and the occasional actual skateboard. Bugged me out a bit. See when I was growing up skateboarding was something all kids did. It was fun exercise. Then I saw it get real uncool in the Black community and it became something only white kids I went to boarding school with did. So to see skateboard fashion come full circle and became not only Black again is interesting. Totally organic but noteworthy nonetheless.
The other side of this revelation is, I was down in North Carolina over Easter weekend for a christening. I am by no means a church guy these days but like many Black people the church was a significant part of our lives growing up so I definitely have an appreciation for it. Particularly how the church provided the glue for a far too often fractured household. What I liked most about my trip to the house of G-O-D was the 1) the words from the pastor and 2) the choir. Soul music, blues, and encouraging inspirational words.
The juxtaposition of skateboard culture in Jamaica, Queens and the significance of the church in Charlotte, NC lead me to this revelation. Hip-Hop is both punk music and gospel music. These two undertones merge and diverge like strands of DNA.
For some Hip-Hop is rebel music. The sound of defiant, arrogant revolution. From the politics of Public Enemy and dead prez to the ignorant swagger of Lil Wayne. Just look at Wayne. Put a white face on that dude holding the lean cup and you have Sid Vicious. Unabashed male sexuality, flaunting of drug use and the overall American nightmare. For the most part the participants are young. Don’t see too many 40 and 50 year old punkers. And by the time Chuck D hit his mid 40’s he had transformed into a liberal pundit complete with a show on Air America.
On the other side of the spectrum you have Hip-Hop as gospel music. The music of positivity and the audacity of hope. Gone is the middle finger of Punk Hop. It is replaced with the gender inclusive, racially inclusive, politically correct talk of A Tribe Called Quest or Common.
On one of my road trips which provide me with the few opportunities I have to zone out to my iPod I became re-mesmerized by Nas’s “New York State Of Mind.”
Thinking of cash flow, buddah and shelter
Whenever frustrated I’m a hijack Delta
In the P.J.’s, my blend tape plays, bullets are strays
Young bitches is grazed
Each block is like a maze
full of black rats trapped, plus the Island is packed
From what I hear in all the stories when my peoples come back, black
I’m living where the nights is jet black
That is gospel music. And the pure blues. A vivid portrait of the life facing Black people in the dungeons of America. And although that song is dark and there are numerous references to drugs and guns I always leave that song feeling inspired. Nas like other blues and gospel griots brings us face to face to the bitter nastiness of it all. By facing and conquering it we come out the other side bereft of fear. That’s gospel music.
These two genres are very similar. Similar in tone, voice and they even share an audience. This leads to cross pollination that creates magnificent hybrids. Jeezy on the Lupe remix (which is super dope, btw). Busta and Jay Z on the Get By Remix. Andre 3000 and Big Boi. Q-Tip and Ice Cube in the Cypress video for ‘How I could Just Kill A Man’ – remember that? And so on.
It also leads to confusion. Sean Price or better yet Fat Joe performing at the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival. Makes sense to the informed, but also poses a severe contradiction that is the elephant in the room. No one better manifests that contradiction than our headliner last year. The great Tony Starks. I can only think of Jay, Nas, and Outkast as able to toe this line between punk and gospel as well as P Tone. That’s why we love him.
Why we love these Chicago MC’s like Kanye, Common, and Lupe despite the embarrassing comments they may make.
But we have to be careful not to let the contradiction bite us. Just because Punk and Gospel can live together doesn’t mean the marriage always works out.
As for me, I cast my vote with the gospel sect with a fierce affinity for those who can toe the line as stated above. I am too old to be a pure punk Hop fan, and even when I was young enough it all seemed silly. To quote Common from “Afrodesiac”:
I rhyme far, away away away
From what you accustomed to hearing everyday,
You know the dope-chopping, gun-popping, homies dying
I’m amongst it,
Save the war stories for Private Ryan
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Shin - Ski Of Martiangang - Re-Shinstruction
March 26th, 2008
Man this is just a bunch of remixes but they are so dope. Don’t sleep seriously don’t sleep on this. Hey narcotic doses check out the cl smooth remix (again so dope)…. ByyyaAAAAHHHHH
Shin - Ski Of Martiangang - Re-Shinstruction
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