The Hip-Hop Herald 04.30.09: Lil Wayne Is More Influential Than Barack Obama

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 04.30.2009

This week, Lil Wayne launches a counter attack as well as a strong showing in a Time magazine list, Rick Ross calls out Eminem, DMX heads off to rehab, Relapse's track list is revealed and Hot 97 do some quick crowd control over Funkmaster Flex! Plus: What skeletons are in my musical closet, the WORST hip-hop fans ever and what exactly makes a Classic album Classic?

Once again, the serious issue of my procrastinating comes up…its 10:30 Wednesday night and I just finished the assignment I've now had since the first week of February. Yeah…

To add to my song woes of last week, I tried doing too many things at once on the PC, as you do, and eventually after I hammered away at the keyboard, it stopped responding properly. Getting pissed off, I yanked the USB plug out and shoved it back in again. Nothing happened. Yanked a bunch of USB plugs out, something happened.

"Could not fully save the contents of drive F:/. Some data has been lost"

The ‘some data' equates to 200 songs if anybody was wondering. Screw the RIAA, I'm my own worst downloading enemy at the moment.

In other news, I have developed a cough, leading people around me to joke that I have swine flu which is the current hot topic in Australia at the moment. So if I turn up dead next week, expect a shorter column.

Reader Feedback
(May be edited for spelling, grammar etc.)

There's an ass-load this week, sweet.

First off:

"Mr. Patrick Robinson just to help you out there is a free program called restoration which you can use to get the files back from your pc once you haven't formatted or defragmented you may recover a few. you could also use pci filerecovery. hope it helps

oh and uh nice article" - T. Wilson

Once again, I'll fight to defend this, but I do have the best readers on this site. T. Wilson, thanks, but after I calmed down and stopped being emo about losing 1500 songs, I tracked down a couple of recovery programs, PCI Filerecovery included. UNFORTUNATELY, there appears to be something wrong with my hard drive, along the lines of it needs to be formatted, but given there's another couple of hundred GB of music floating around there, I'm not particularly eager to format it anytime soon. Thanks though, I definitely appreciate it but I guess this is a lesson in a couple of things.

1) Don't uninstall things without making a copy of the downloaded files first
2) Fix the hard drive
3) Stop downloading

"Can you believe this dude was really on top of the hip-hop world back in 04-05? Between "Lean Back" and "Candy Shop" he really had the club beats on lock.

You forgot to mention "Still Dre" hey Storch has made a lot of great instrumentals and will go down in Top 20 at least when hip-hop dies think about it....

WC "The Streets"
Dr. Dre "Still Dre"
The Game "Let's Ride"
50 Cent "Just A Lil' bit"
Stacee Adamz "Headz Up"

just to name a few" - Ramirez

I was thinking mainly along the lines of 2004 to 2005 to start with, but now that you mention it, Storch HAS done a lot more for hip-hop than we give him credit for. After getting his start with The Roots, his first non-affiliate single to get mainstream attention in a big way was "Still Dre" in 1999. After that though, he gave us "X" from Xzibit's Restless album, and is a track that frequently gets stuck in my head for hours on end. "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" by Eve was also pretty popular, but I think his next major, MAJOR song was "Cry Me A River" which he co-produced with Timbaland for Justin Timberlake, though if you've made it this far in life and haven't heard that track, I'd like to ask you what kind of filters you have on your brain because I'd like to install them against anything High School Musical related.

As we're on the topic of producers, we'll have a look at the lists and other comments people have brought forward.

"I'll give Patrick a simple one
Top 20 producers

20.) Mannie Fresh
19.) Havoc
18.) Scott Storch
17.) Rick Rubin
16.) The Alchemist
15.) EA-Ski
14.) Jazzy Pha
13.) Bosko
12.) Hi-Tek
11.) RZA
10.) DJ BattleCat
9.) DJ Quik
8.) Damizza
7.) J. Dilla
6.) Kanye West
5.) Timbaland
4.) Erick Sermon
3.) Just Blaze
2.) DJ.Premier
1.) Dr.Dre" - Ramirez

First off, very good list you've got, though I'm definitely showing my noobiness when I had to Wiki a couple of the names on it. I didn't realize who Damizza was until I checked and found he's done beats for Kurupt, Ja Rule and a couple of Mariah tracks. I couldn't find anything on Bosko, but the name is familiar, if you could throw us the names of some tracks he's done for next week?

Anyway, Premier and Dre are sort of interchangeable for me. If you look at it, Dre's come into the game and essentially brought a whole new style with him on two different occasions, not to mention his work before The Chronic with N.W.A. in particular was excellent too. However, in recent years, whilst his beats haven't been bad, they haven't had the same sort of impact since "In Da Club" I suppose. Premier on the other hand has introduced the whole ‘scratching' effect used by MANY today (and very few manage to do it well, Exile is one person who I think is an exception), but hasn't been nearly as prolific as Dre. To counter that though, I've never heard a bad Premier beat, and I can't say that about any other producer I can think of. In the end though, I suppose on my list, they're equal first for different reasons

I'd bump RZA up to Number 4, possibly equal 3 with Just Blaze who seems to get left out of discussions when it comes to using soul samples. It's almost like before Kanye, it didn't really exist for some reason. After that though, I'd have Erick Sermon and then Pete Rock followed straight after by DJ Quik. I have mad love for Quik's work and I feel that he's always managed to stay away from current trends in the game, but still maintain his relevancy.

What are we up to…Dre, Premier, Just Blaze, RZA, Erick Sermon, Pete Rock, DJ Quik. I'd have Kanye over Timbaland, simply because of personal preference. In more recent times, Timbaland has adopted that horrible habit many producers do and adlibbing on records he has no place adlibbing on. Then there was that whole retarded warbling on "Apologize" with OneRepublic which I'm VERY glad he never continued. Still, you can't deny his body of work. He's done excellent beats for (off the top of my head) Aaliyah, Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, Missy Elliott, Bubba Sparxx, Keri Hilson, actually I'll stop there cause the list won't stop otherwise. Let's just say when it comes to a mainstream sound that both the mainstream and the underground can still bump, Timbaland's up there with the best.

Dilla comes in immediately after. Dilla was definitely a ‘behind the scenes' kind of guy, but his work with Common alone gets him a spot in my personal Top 10 producers.

After that though, it becomes a bit difficult for me, Havoc is probably a bit higher on my list; "Shook Ones Pt. 2" is easily in my Top 10 beats of all time. That thing was DEADLY. Rick Rubin is definitely on the list for his early work with LL Cool J. Other names that would most likely pop up on my list would be (in no particular order, cheating I know): The Bomb Squad, 9th Wonder, Large Professor, a begrudging mention of Diddy back before he started getting lazy with the sampling and was actually doing it well, The Alchemist and like yours, I'd probably have Mannie Fresh in there at Number 20. Actually that's 18 names, I got pretty close hahaha ah well, and maybe one day I'll bang out Officially Official Lists of my Top producers and rappers. Oh Dangermouse and MF Doom! There we go 20 names. One day I'll organize them properly.

"As far as producers go, my top 3 will always be RZA, DJ Premier, and Dr. Dre." - Wayne

My personal favorites by far are these three. The only reason RZA isn't higher on my ‘Of All Time' list, is because he had a bit of a down period around the turn of the century (sounds weird saying that), although the whole Wu hit a bit of a slump around then too.

"I always found it harder to rate producers over rappers but some of my favorites

Dre
DJ Premier
Michael Watts
9th Wonder
J.Dilla
Kanye
The Alchemist
Pete Rock

And I know I'm forgetting a lot that I like. I'll have to come back on that one." - The Rapper's Rapper

Hmm I don't know Michael Watts either; I'm learning a lot this week it appears. Anyway, it's virtually impossible to make a list like this you're entirely happy with. I always tend to forget someone or other that I wouldn't DREAM of forgetting on any other day of the week.

Ok, back onto other things for now.

"On Lil' Wayne: You know how close-minded people say they don't listen to hip-hop because they can't understand what the artist is saying, and when they can, it doesn't make any sense? Usually that's dumb--but when it comes to Weezy, its dead on. I heard him on a song the other day in which he said his car was white on chrome, "like a napkin on a nickel." Huh? That's not clever. That's just stupid. My car is grey on black, like a cloud on a solar panel. Too bad those things aren't at all related, thus making that statement really lame. And so many of his rhymes are like that.

On Phelps: Um...Olympic "heroes" are more of a fad than embarrassing VP candidates. How many kids really want to be Olympic swimmers? Really? No, I'd say a vast majority of people, directly or indirectly, look up to business leaders. We want to be successful, and we want to be rich. And we take notes as to how Fortune 500-types reached the top, warts and all. Way more damaging when they're proven to be less than perfect." - Sam!

Lil Wayne is extremely odd. You either tend to like his weird lines or not, me being a bit strange myself, I do like the utter randomness of some of the lines, like in "Cannon" "I don't spit, I vomit, got it? One egg short of an omelet" or something like that. Then you get other lines that are just so unbelievably basic or ??? that you can't help but wonder if someone WAS ghostwriting for him at some point or another. I mean, "I turn you on like a handle" is the best he could come up with for "Turnin' Me On"? Actually speaking of turn on's, he says "I can turn you on like a phone charger" on "Number 1" on Jamie Foxx's album I think. Weird, weird guy.

It does get tiring when you hear rappers trying to say something intelligent but failing miserably. Juelz Santana's example on "Black Republicans" remix he did with Lil Wayne is one I constantly bring up because it's so astonishingly WTF, "I'm fly like an ostrich" despite the fact that the ostrich is a flightless bird. Self-deprecating humor, or an EPIC FAIL of an attempt to bring nature into his raps?

On Phelps though, you're right that PEOPLE as a whole want to be Fortune 500 equivalents one day, but KIDS, like ages 3-10 or something want to be astronauts, firemen, doctors, cowboys, sports stars etc. Maybe it's because we have an intense swimming environment here, but that's how it was growing up for me. Everybody wanted to be Perkins whereas I wanted to be a computer programmer, G4L – Geek 4 Life.

" I heard him on a song the other day in which he said his car was white on chrome, "like a napkin on a nickel."

Sam! I gave up on Wayne a long time ago but for the mere hilarity of that line, what song are you talking about?" - The Rapper's Rapper

"Apparently it's the "Turn My Swag On" Remix, with Soulja Boy. A Soulja Boy song in which the lyrics don't make any sense? The hell you say!"

I never thought I'd see the day to be honest with you.

"Found a couple other lyrical gems from Weezy WTF Baby in that song:"

Had to stop here, I LOVE that name for Lil Wayne and I have a laugh every time I think about him saying it in a track instead of Weezy F Baby etc.

"I'm so big like I live in a building." (Um...I live in a building. I'm not very big. My grandmother also lives in a building, and she's quite small, really. Hmm....)"

Perhaps he's making some kind of comment about how his name is ‘Lil' that he hasn't really managed to get across properly. Then again, we're probably giving him a bit much credit at this point.

"No chandeliers, I got guns hanging from the ceiling." (?! Why?)"

Extremely unpractical unless you tend to have Scarface situations arising at your house on a daily basis. Guns hanging from the roof would be kind of useful then. /sarcasm

"I'm in the bathroom taking me a rich nigga sh**." (Thanks for that random visual, Mr. Carter. Thanks a lot.)"

HAHAHA I need to find that song right away, ‘scuse me one moment. Yeah, for some horrible reason, Lil Wayne with constipation pops into my head when I think of that.

"I'm the sh** and you just a (inaudible) on a tissue." (I really can't understand what he's saying. Magnet? Mackin'? Maggot? This may be a great line for all I know, but I think he's had too much syrup, and the words are just blending together halfway through the verse.)" - Sam!

"You reminded me one reason why I gave up on Lil Wayne. His fascination with sh**." - The Rapper's Rapper

I do believe we have stumbled onto something here. Being probably the only Lil Wayne listener here, I can safely tell you that he tends to compare things to shit a lot. Alright folks, here's something to pass time when a Weezy song is on the radio, keep track of any shit, crap, poop or other excremental references he makes and get back to me!

"It's just kinda frustrating that, with his endorsements and the ubiquitous "Let it Rock" song, Wayne is now hip-hop's ambassador to the mainstream, because he's not the best representative. He's got great charisma, and he's proven that he really can come up with some great stuff. But he needs to start writing his lyrics instead of just coming off the top like he does, cuz 7/10 times he doesn't make sense.

Oh, and I agree with you about a "classic" album! Classic = damn near perfect. If I have to skip a track, it's probably not a classic. I've heard VERY few classic albums." - Sam!

Agreed 100% on Lil Wayne, and that's coming from someone who enjoyed Tha Carter III.

Agreed 100% on the Classic albums too. In my opinion, the next album to be considered for Classic status would be Be. I'd be interested in anybody's thoughts on that album, but be kind it's one of my all time favorites! Just kidding, be honest.

"Dear Patrick,
I actually like that Soulja Boy song "Turn my swag on"! Is there something wrong with me?
Is this the first sign of mental illness? WTF?
I actually think it's kind of original. Please advise, I'm scared." - CD

To be honest, you're totally entitled to like what you want to like. I myself have some interesting musical skeletons in my closet along the lines of…well if I say what they are, you have to all promise not to like, make a big deal out of it please hahaha. A lot of these are friggin embarrassing.

Anyway, at one point or another, I've liked songs by (non-hip-hop to start with):

- The Backstreet Boys
- Madonna
- Jesse McCartney
- Three Days Grace
- Three Doors Down

I think those are the worst. NOW IN MY DEFENSE, and please do read this before you click away from my writings forever, these were during periods of mental trauma due to a break up or that brief break I took from hip-hop around 2001 and again in 2003. I really should stop taking those breaks, I end up with some very strange MP3s on my PC.

Anyway, in my time I've also liked some weird hip-hop songs. "Jumpin' Out The Window" by Ron Browz for example. I can't tell you what it's about, I can't tell you anything except that it's DAMN CATCHY and I feel like jumping out the window when it comes on. In a good way because it gets me amped up like Lil Jon music.

And hey, in regards to Soulja Boy, if I'm at a party, I usually have a half dozen requests to teach people the dance for "Crank That" (yes, I learned it from that asinine YouTube instructional video for a laugh one afternoon), so yeah, I can appreciate the dude's inexplicable catchy factor on some of his songs. When it comes to your case, I'd say that you've probably managed to catch something through the Internet from me. Whether it's my crippling insanity which prevents me from actually listening to time-tested GOOD hip-hop such as the new MF Doom album, instead of something like J-Kwon's latest album (WHY DID I LISTEN TO THIS…NOBODY WANTED ME TO REVIEW IT FOR 411 EITHER), or something not so bad, like my inability to get a song out of my head for a few weeks, I fear you may have caught something CD. Either way, embrace your insanity like I do, and you end up discovering that some hip-hop acts that are universally regarded as being kind of crap have the occasional really fun song that nobody hears because we're all too busy passing judgment. Heck, I gave Rich Boy a go a couple of years back because I thought, "he can't possibly be THAT bad can he?", and I kind of liked "Throw Some Ds". Well I discovered that the dude is actually interested in making more socially conscious hip-hop, but just can't convince himself he should take that route when faced with the money he made from "Throw Some Ds", according to "Let's Get This Paper" and some interviews I read anyway.

Bottom line:

There's something wrong with you, it's the same thing wrong with me, but don't worry, you end up enjoying music a heck of a lot more if you embrace that fact instead of try and deny it. Oh and it's not life threatening.

"Patrick,

I want to know what are your standards when determining a classic album? I ask this because I hear/read/see a lot of people call albums classics that just aren't. Hell a comment on Rick Ross review called it a classic (WTF was he smoking?)

For me a classic album I have to enjoy EVERY song. So if there's even one song. For example Business or Superman on Eminem Show are TERRIBLE songs so it's not a classic to me. It has to be timeless, the production, lyrics, flow everything just has to be near perfect (because nothing is perfect). Maybe my standards are too high but I just can't call anything a classic album. That's just me. I want to know what's your take on it." - The Rapper's Rapper

Hmm, well the first and foremost criteria I have is age. A ‘Classic' album in my opinion has to be AT LEAST 10 years old (except in certain cases such as Dre's 2001 which has only just reached that 10 year mark). If an album isn't that old, it hasn't had to withstand the test of time yet. Basically, if you can still play it as religiously as you did, or MORE than when it first came out, it's stood the test of time. If the music still sounds ‘good' and the lyrics aren't dated to the point where you catch yourself thinking ‘man…this album is kind of old', then it's stood the test of time.

That's my first point, because so many people are quick to jump on albums and call them classic the moment they come out. In recent years, such examples would be of course, the Ross album, but going further back, Jeezy's first album and Get Rich Or Die Tryin'. The Blueprint by Jay-Z is one I frequently get into arguments about too. Now I'm certainly willing to admit that GRODT is a good album, but is it a classic? Give it some time to stew still before we pass judgment ok?

Anyway, my other criteria in judging something as a classic or not fall under four categories:

- Lyrics
- Beats
- Cohesion
- Impact
- Accessibility

The lyrics and beats should be excellent on all accounts. I'm not saying that there HAS to be a club song, or a song for the car or a baby maker track, and that's where cohesion comes into it. The album has to FEEL like a finished product. In other words, the beats and lyrics must match and feel like they have a purpose on the album. Now you CAN have one lesser track in my opinion, but basically it's only lesser when compared to everything else, when it comes to a standalone criticism, the track still needs to be a Top 5 for the year sort of quality.

So now you've got a 10 year old album, with top notch beats and excellent lyrics on a variety of interesting topics that nobody's heard of because it sold 10 copies. Now before we start waving pitchforks on sales issues, this is where impact partially comes into it. The album in order for it to be classic not only needs to be recognized by the fans as such, but by the people within the industry too. If an album is released, and creates a new trend such as Dre's The Chronic or Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, then you've got a classic album. If the album gets released, and your fans think it's the proverbial shit, but your peers in the music industry think you're a clown, chances are it isn't a classic except in the eyes of those that wear rose tinted glasses (look at things the way they want to, regardless of how it ACTUALLY looks).

It doesn't have to be a long impact, but it has to be significant enough that other artists will pay homage to you by either asking to collaborate with you, or perhaps emulating the style, as was the case with Raekwon and the sudden emergence of Mafioso rap.

Lastly, there's Accessibility which I feel is where most ‘Classic' albums fail to deliver. Basically, a Classic album should posses a quality that it can be picked up by say 100 random hip-hop fans, and at least 90 of those will enjoy it and continue to bump it on a semi-regular basis. The remaining 10 will acknowledge to some extent that it's a good album, but just not for them, and fair enough, not everybody will like Reasonable Doubt.

So if you've made an album that has excellent beats, engaging lyrics, sets a new trend, and manages to be accessible to a variety of hip-hop fans, you've got a Classic album.

"By the way, "Hip Hop" elitists are THE WORST Hip Hop fans EVER. I went to a show for this underground rap group HISD, and the people there hated everything mainstream. No matter how good. Hell one dude even hated Illmatic, 36 Chambers, Food & Liquor and his reason, because it was mainstream. That was my first Hip Hop show live and it may be my last because the people were pricks who think hip hop is lyrical masterpiece 100% of the time, oh and they can't work for a big company or their automatically "sellouts" almost forgot that part" - The Rapper's Rapper

Oh man, DON'T let it be your last! Seriously, you'll unfortunately find people that are so ass-backwards in their thinking, that they're not allowed to like anything popular because the unpopular (or unknown rather) things are THEIR thing, whereas everything else is SOMEONE ELSE'S thing.

Let's be honest though, those three albums you mentioned aren't exactly ‘mainstream' friendly today either though are they? Like how many mainstream albums do you hear sounding like Illmatic? Well, the mainstream would probably be in a much better place if we did, let's put it that way. Likewise, these same people seem to think that the moment an artist signs on with a label, regardless of the size, they're selling out! You know, rapping is essentially their JOB and if they don't have any other means of income, how the bloody hell do you expect them to live if they don't sign on with a label of some sort? Do you want to make a donation of a couple hundred thousand to them? Or would you rather just assume they pull money from their ass at night to get by?

To be fair, in certain situations you could be worried. If MF Doom suddenly signed to Aftermath, I guess I'd be hesitant because I could see the label trying to force him to switch his style up. An artist signing on with an independent label, even one the size of E1 (formerly Koch), generally ISN'T at risk of ‘selling out', because the independent labels generally allow the artist to do their own thing. And hey, give the artist some credit too! Sure MF Doom might sign on with Aftermath, but he might maintain his same style that he had before! Hip-hop annoys me in a sense that we're always way to quick to jump all over things. Whether it's a classic album, or the fact that such and such artist was photographed four blocks away from Def Jam's headquarters, which obviously means they're signing to the label and going to sell out, we tend to pass judgment too quickly in my opinion. Whatever happened to the original mantra of hip-hop being a chill-out genre, one where you could have fun and escape the worries of everyday life?

Back on track though, I can't stand elitists of any kind, ESPECIALLY rock elitists. Look, I KNOW rock has a long and glorified history, and I KNOW the artists actually play their own instruments (as if that's a freaking reason to put another genre down), but does that mean you snob every other genre in the world? No! The elitists though I do pity because they generally have their heads so far up their asses listening to ONLY albums that came out back in the beginning of the genre's history that they miss out on a lot of quality contemporary music. There's nothing wrong with just listening to one genre and hey, become an expert in it, study it to the point where you could become a Dr. of Hip-Hop, but for the love of God, DON'T get stuck so far back in history that you can't appreciate today's music. Music is like a live organism, it's constantly changing and adapting to its environment, so of course it's not going to sound the same as it did back in the Golden Era. And yeah, the underground sounds different to the mainstream, but that's not to say that there are different levels of each (I've discussed this before). I mean, do you think Pharoahe Monch is going to go Platinum anytime soon? But is he as underground as that local rapper you saw the other night at your local club?

Shit that was a long rant. I'm bound to have pissed someone off at some point during that.

"Apparently you never heard of Juggalos,
maybe HISD fans elitists are THE WORST Hip Hop fans EVER" - Ramirez

"I personally blocked them from my mind for a reason. I'm not addressing juggalos ever again..." - The Rapper's Rapper

Juggalos are pretty bad because from all accounts I've read, the really serious ones end up spoiling it for the casual fans and to make matters worse, the ICP rarely do anything to dispel their behavior. You see, the Juggalos are an elitist group that developed an attitude that ‘if you're not as hardcore as us, you're not a REAL fan', which is hardly fair to impress upon someone going to an ICP show for the first time is it? Nobody ever listens to an artist for the very first time and says ‘holy crap, I'm going to model my entire life after them', usually it takes a little time. The main problem I see is that the ICP end up losing a lot of potential fans by not curbing the Juggalo behavior at shows. Plus, the casual fans are the ones you want to buy the albums. Face it, diehard fans will buy your album regardless of how good or bad it may be, but the casual fans are the ones you want to capture, because one day, they might just become a diehard fan.

"speaking of Chicano rappers, Patrick what's your take on them" - Ramirez

Hmm…I've got love for Chingo Bling, that dude has written some genuine laugh out loud stuff. In particular, see if you can track down "Taco Shop", a remix of 50 Cent's "Candy Shop". Better still, watch the video if it's still on YouTube, damn funny stuff. As an overall artist though, he's not one of my favorites, but I still enjoy the occasional appearance from him.

The main Chicano artists we've seen in the mainstream though are B-Real and thereby Cypress Hill. I love Cypress Hill's music, and I was particularly a fan back in the day when…well let's say that 4:20 was quite an important time around the age of 15 for me.

Now Wikipedia defines Chicano rap as rappers who have Mexican blood in them, which essentially classifies is at a subgenre of Latino rap, thereby ruling out Pun in this discussion (my thoughts on Pun are pretty clear for people who have read my work for a while).

But what do I think?

Well, in a selfish way, I tend to enjoy rap that I can sing along to, not like some karaoke style stuff, but you know, belt out a couple of key bars whilst I'm driving or sitting here at the computer. "Shook Ones Pt. 2" I can pretty much quote Prodigy's entire verse, that sort of rap. Anyway, I can't really associate myself with Chicano rap because many of the artists tend to throw in frequent slang, or even whole verses in Spanish or a mix of Spanish and English. They've got their place in the hip-hop game, and they often bring to the table a good deal of humor or light hearted rap, but me personally, if I have the choice, I'll generally listen to someone else.

It's got nothing to do with race apart from the fact that I don't understand Spanish, so I can't really understand if what they're saying is the lyrical equivalent of a straight shot of GZA, Canibus and Pharoahe Monch to the ear, or a lethal dosage of Soulja Boy, Gucci Mane and OJ Da Juiceman concentrated in one nasty, big suppository. I've always appreciated lyricism over style (or swag if we want to go there), so in that sense, I'll always appreciate rap I can understand more.

"I'm sorry but I have took this shit for 10 years now. I let people have their opinion while keeping my mouth shut or not typing it anywhere on the internet, but I can't hold it no more.

Eminem is overrated.
Good rapper, but that's as far as I go and I never understood his popularity."

To be honest, I think you're going to be surprised when you read what I have to say at the end of this.

"God where do I begin:
The good:
He's a personal rapper. He's not afraid to diss his mom or ex-ex-wife on his songs or say he love his daughter (please no more of those songs)

He's a good lyricist. Lose Yourself is the shit. A really good story.

He has emotion in his rhymes. One criticism I see from a lot of good lyrist is their lack of emotion in songs and Em has that down at times."

He's also had a mad, MAD flow at one point, although he tends to let it take a back seat to other facets of his rap game these days. "Lose Yourself" is probably his best song – excellent beat, engaging lyrics and ‘real' factor in the story, excellent flow, technical intricacies and damn catchy hook.

"The Bad:
HE'S NOT FUNNY. How many songs does he have where he curse, raps about rape, murder, his mom, drugs and tries to make it "funny"? And with We Made You and this song 3AM I just heard, he's forcing the already non funny comedy. I HATE all his comedy songs."

I wouldn't say not funny 100% of the time. The Slim Shady LP had some genuine laugh out loud moments for me, but you're right about the more recent tracks, they seem quite forced, particularly with that accent he's using.

Speaking of "3am" immediately after I posted last week's news where I said "kind of a random time to take a tablet" in regards to the album cover, this song comes out. Go figure.

"He complains half the time. People say he's a genius when half the "deep" songs he has he fucking complains like the internet or a child. It's annoying as fuck.

His content. People say he's diverse, but he raps about the same shit. I can find like 10 songs or more that deals with drugs, 10 about his hate for his mom, 4 about his daughter and so on, 37 on murder. He somehow gets a pass for rapping about what rappers rap about."

You're not alone on this one. My best friend and hetero-life mate has the exact same criticism of Eminem that you do here. I think he's diverse in the sense that he raps about things no other rapper really does, much like how you said he's a ‘personal' rapper in The Good bit above.

"The fans (or Stans some people call them) who love EVERYTHING he does. Eminem has released a lot of crap even on his "classic" albums yet people treat him as the holy grail of rap."

To be fair, a lot of artists have Stans, although I always find it hilariously ironic when Eminem gets them. The closest I think Eminem got to a Classic album in my opinion was The Marshall Mathers LP, and even that had some unbalanced songs. The Eminem Show was also close, but songs like "Drips" are just unforgettable in the sense that even if you push the skip button, you can still think of them going through your head.

"And now that I have typed something bad about Eminem. There will be people who say one of two things:

1. He's too sophisticated. No I understand his songs, all of them, he's not as good as people think.

2. Because he's white I don't like him. This has NOTHING to do with race. I kind of like Em with songs like Lose Yourself or The Way I Am. I just don't think he's great. Not only that Asher Roth, Slug from Atmosphere, Aesop Rock, Jedi Mind Tricks (forgot the white dude's name) are pretty dope. It's not about race it's about being overrated.

Next week I explain why Jay-Z is overrated, 2Pac is kind of overrated and Lil Wayne is WAY overrated." - Jesuszilla son of Godzilla

Not here Jesuszilla (mad funny name there too hahaha).

Here I like to promote discussion through SENSIBLE argument and valid evidence given as backups for your sentiments, and you've done just that so kudos.

Anyway, those are the two main anti-criticisms you've mentioned, although if you change the first one to "You don't really get him", you have a common anti-criticism for virtually every artist who has been criticized at some point in their career.

I get quite annoyed at the race thing. Look, if someone sucks, they SUCK regardless of the color of their skin. If someone is dope, then they're DOPE regardless of the color of their skin. I mean, are you looking at them when they rap on your iPod? No, you're listening to them so what does it matter really?

Funnily enough those are the two songs my friend always mentions as ones he enjoys too. Eerie…you sure you're not him? You made some very good points Jesuszilla, and I agree with you on many of them, especially the Classic album bit. I enjoy Eminem, and if you've been reading our Roundtable discussions on him the last few weeks, you'll see that, and yes I do own some of his albums (including Encore) but I'm not convinced that he's the greatest rapper of all time. Commercially successful? Yeah he's in the Top 5 I think, but quality wise, he has had some very iffy songs in his career.

By the way, I look forward to seeing your reasons why those final three are overrated too as I consider them to be such as well.

And now, The News because I'm up to page 11 and haven't started it yet.

The News

Top Story

Rick Ross Challenges Eminem



Rick Ross has challenged Eminem to a rap battle, since he feels that he has defeated 50 Cent. Ross now says he's ready for the Shady Records founder.

"I think he's a bigger and better artist than what Curly is," Ross told MTV News. "So if I was looking to fulfill that excitement or that rush, that's who I have to address."

Someone needs to tell this guy to stop opening his mouth for a little while. If Eminem really wants to unleash…

Rick Ross even left his options open for Eminem, stating if they didn't battle, he'd like to be involved with the Detroit rapper's new album, Relapse.

"I'm trying to be a part of that (Relapse)," Ross said. "It's either way. We gonna see each other one way or another."

Now here's the obviously strange thing. How are you going to call someone out, no rewind. How are you going to call someone's protégé out, get into a (in my opinion) unfinished war of words, go way below the belt with the porno, then call out the protégé's mentor? Obviously Ross isn't going to be on Relapse, as do you remember what happened when Jadakiss and Fat Joe collaborated with Ja Rule? Ooooooh 50 was NOT a happy boy that day. Same applies here I think.

Last week, Ross declared himself the winner in his battled with rapper 50 Cent, who has hurled a multitude of personal insults at him.

"When this feud started, if he was as weak as I thought he was, he would rely mainly on all other resources except [for] his talent and his ability," Ross told AllHiphop.com, "because he knows he can't compete with me in that area. And that's how I finished him."

Well that first part is certainly right, 50 does often rely on his resources rather than the booth these days for a rap battle, but I don't know if Ross should be talking about another man's rapping abilities when you've got lyrical gems like, "I'mma burn rubber! I'mma burn CHEESE!" in your catalog.

Ross' victorious assertion may be premature to some, because 50 Cent has stated publicly that he has another round of personal attacks looming. Ultimately, Ross said he's pleased with his music on Deeper Than Rap, his new album.

"I just like to build and expand on the music. I'm relentless with the hustle," Ross said. "I feel like the music is better than ever."

While the vibe on Deeper Than Rap was certainly more mellow in parts than most mainstream rap these days, I can't honestly give that thing a higher than a 6 people! The guests DO play a big part in the album because they're on 80% of the album! And please, tell me how he's expanded his lyrical content. From my take every song was either about women or his money, or trying to throw jabs at 50 Cent or random acts of violence.

Neither Eminem nor 50 Cent have responded to Ross' recent claims or challenges.

Eminem is probably going to blow him off because he's working on Relapse and 50 needs to try and chart some more singles so expect him to come true with that promise of more attacks.

DMX Joins Celebrity Rehab

DMX is taking a new path to overcoming his vices with a stint on the VH1 reality show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. The hit series, which will enter its third season, follows a group of celebrities as they struggle to move forward from drug and alcohol addictions by entering a treatment program run by renowned addiction medicine specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky.

Past participants include former police brutality victim Rodney King and porn star Mary Carey as well as Chyna, Family Matters star Jaimee Foxworth and actors Daniel Baldwin, Brigitte Nielsen and Jeff Conaway.

Mary Carey? Didn't she get sued for using a name too close to Mariah's and then turn to a life of politics for some reason? Someone Google her for me, safe search is off and my cousin is lurking nearby and I don't want him to see anything he shouldn't be just yet. He's only 12 after all.

Yes that does mean I'm playing him hip-hop music in the family's tradition too if anybody was wondering.

News of DMX' Celebrity Rehab appearance was revealed by the show's resident drug counselor Bob Forrest. Prior to taking part in the new season, DMX became embroiled in a series of drug-related incidents and encounters with the law. Over the past 10 years, X amassed a lengthy rap sheet filled with various charges ranging from marijuana and cocaine possession to multiple driving infractions and identity theft.

On December 31, 2008, the rapper was sentenced to serve 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to charges of theft, drug possession and animal cruelty. In January, DMX' downward spiral continued after he refused to attend scheduled work assignments and missed his medication treatment while serving his sentence. A month later, the rap star was re-booked on suspicion of aggravated following allegations he threw a dinner tray at a corrections officer. The incident has resulted in a possible extension of X' sentence as well as his probation being revoked.

I hope he gets better, I really do. DMX has a place in the rap game as that guy who you actually believe would beat the crap out of you or pull a gun on you in a fist fight because he's just got that intensity. Meanwhile if 50 Cent said he was going to beat the crap out of me, I'd assume it was someone else doing it and not him. Can't mess up that manicure now can we?

Hot 97 Retracts Flex's Statements

Representatives for Hot 97 have denied DJ Funkmaster Flex's claims that he would no longer be playing records released by Interscope Records, home to rappers Eminem, 50 Cent and Dr. Dre. On his April 21 show, Funkmaster Flex blasted executive Nino Cuccinello at Interscope Records/A&M/Geffen, which also has artists like Soulja Boy, Lady Ga Ga and Akon on the roster.

"New York I am talking to a person who makes decisions who does things up there, moving funny style," Funkmaster Flex fumed."Nino is moving so bad. If you are anywhere in the tri-state area, I'm talking about people New York that control the music business and they control certain artists that they do not want you to see, but they want the pop stations to have. This is where I come in."

That's when Flex apologized to Interscope executive Step Johnson and stated that he would not be playing any Eminem or Dr. Dre records. In Wednesday's New York Daily News (April 28), Hot 97 Program Director E-Bro Darden said Flex's statements were entertaining radio that had simply gone too far.

"We've never held back on a whole label's music," Darden told The New York Daily News. "And we won't."

Darden stated that Hot 97 maintained good relationships with various labels and joked: "we had to muzzle Flex...people know a lot of what he says is showmanship, but that went too far."

Ok first off, it would be commercial suicide not to play records by Eminem, Dre or 50 Cent this year given you KNOW they're going to be taking up the majority of the airwaves for a significant portion on other radio stations. Secondly, it's interesting that Darden said "whole label". Perhaps that means they HAVE held back on certain artists before.

Lil Wayne Launches Counterattack



Lil Wayne is taking the offense with a new lawsuit against a producer who used a sample for a song without permission from the original artist. According to the suit, which was filed last week, Lil Wayne's lawyers claim Coconut Creek, Florida-based Rebel Rock Productions Inc. produced the rapper' song "I Feel Like Dying" and was responsible for obtaining any necessary licensing agreements.

The new lawsuit comes months after a suit was filed against Lil Wayne last year. In that suit, the rapper was accused of copyright infringement as it claimed the entertainer did not garner permission to sample Karma-Ann Swanepoel's folk song, "Once," on "I Feel Like Dying."

I always thought it WAS the producer's job to secure sampling rights. Still, I guess the artist has some responsibility in the matter too. Like, ask at some point "have you secured the rights to this sample?" Then, if the producer says ‘yes' and it turns out they haven't, you've began to cover yourself when it comes to the lawsuits.

Thus far, there has been no response from Rebel Rock regarding Lil Wayne's claims. A telephone number for the company, which does not have a lawyer named in court records, has been disconnected.

Although "I Feel Like Dying" was not featured on Tha Carter III, an attorney for the song's publisher, Urband & Lazar, maintained that the song was used to promote the album.

The rapper is accused of performing the song in concert in addition to having allowed fans to download it for free on his website. Lil Wayne's lawsuit against Rebel Rock is the latest legal situation involving the New Orleans native.

In March, Lil Wayne was ordered by a federal magistrate to turn over financial records for Tha Carter III, to Urband & Lazar Music Publishing.

Last year, Tha Carter III song "Playing With Fire" was at the center of a copyright infringement and unfair competition, lawsuit filed against Lil Wayne by Abko Music Inc. As a result, the tune was taken off the track list of Tha Carter III on all online music stores and was replaced with "P***y Monster," a song produced by David Banner.

Dude can't seem to escape sample related lawsuits at the moment can he?

Info On Blackout 2 And How High Sequel

Redman released his debut album, Whut? Thee Album in 1992, while his partner in rhyme, Method Man, dropped Tical two years later. Well aware of how much things can change over the course of 15 plus years, the duo talked about appealing to a generation of fans who might have been infants when they first debuted.

"We're maturing," Redman recently told the New York Daily News. "We evolved and learned a lot more from when we dropped the first album. And the shit we did in the 90's we can't do now."

Red described Blackout 2, which drops May 19, as a blend of old and new school. After releasing the singles "Ayo" and "Mrs. International", Method Man expressed his hopes for the group's sophomore effort.

"Honestly, I just want this [album] to be heard," Method Man explained. "That's all. If you listen to the song that we're doing for the video right now, it's like, ‘Is this a Redman and Method Man song?' It doesn't seem like we would ever make a song like this."

Despite having his feathers ruffled by an earlier Daily News report that he got high and forgot to pay his taxes, Meth says he and his partner also have plans to move forward with a follow up to the movie How High.

"We're pressing forward with 'How High 2,'" Redman said. "We shot the first one way under budget. We gave them money back and shot extra scenes! And the movie made money! So I don't know why they ain't giving us another shot. I'm about to go get $20 more million and shoot it myself."

Hmm does Redman have $20 million? It's been kind of a long time since he had a Platinum album and all. Plus, anybody that saw him on MTV Cribs should be able to have a laugh too. Yeah I know it wasn't serious but damn, that was THE funniest episode of Cribs I've ever seen.

Storch Talks Addictions



Speaking of Scott Storch earlier, he recently talked about his disappearance from the music scene.

In a new interview with MTV, Storch reveals that he hit rock bottom. The producer is currently recovering from a cocaine addiction.

"I got involved in doing drugs," Storch said. "I had to get myself into recovery. Being in the life that I was living — very fast-moving, option to do anything you want, go anywhere you wanna go — it definitely takes its toll on you, and you lose your concept of reality. I had to get it under control. I had to take it back to the beginning and back to the Hit Factory, where I made a lot of my hits."

As for the financial situation? Storch says he lost $30 million on the road to the bottom.
Currently in a recovery house, Storch adds that the battle against addiction isn't over, and the process of making music helps keep his spirits up.

"I have to constantly battle it," he says of his addiction. "I feel so much better and have more clarity, especially in the studio. It's cool. It's been a really productive period. With the help of my publisher TVT, I've had the chance to woodshed and come up with a whole new vibe. I'm very happy right now."

Ah good for him. I was wondering why he just up and left after 2005 and this would definitely explain his absence. Still, until he comes out with another "Still D.R.E.", I'll hold my breath on the quality of his production.

Relapse Track list Revealed

According to HipHopDX, this is the current and final track list for Relapse

01 Dr. West (Skit) 01:29
02 3am 05:20
03 My Mom 05:20
04 Insane 03:01
05 Bagpipes From Baghdad 04:43
06 Hello 04:08
07 Tonya (Skit) 00:43
08 Same Song & Dance 04:08
09 We Made You 04:30
10 Medicine Ball 03:57
11 Paul (Skit) 00:19
12 Stay Wide Awake 05:20
13 Old Time's Sake f. Dr. Dre 04:35
14 Must Be The Ganja 04:03
15 Mr. Mathers 00:42
16 Deja Vu 04:43
17 Beautiful 06:32
18 Crack A Bottle f. Dr. Dre & 50 Cent 04:58
19 Steve Berman (Skit) 01:29
20 Underground/Ken Kaniff 06:19

Ok, it looks good that there's not too many guest appearances. It seems that it's just going to be 50 and Dre, and even then they only occupy two songs. I hope the opening skit isn't something to do with Kanye's mother, I know Kanye's ego needs to be checked, but he doesn't need his mother being made the centre of ridicule either.

To be honest you can't take a lot out of the track names. Numbers 3, 4, 10 and 14 are somewhat self-explanatory, and putting aside the 3 songs we've already heard, there's still a lot to be seen which is always a good thing.

Still, I'm looking forward to Numbers 13 and 17 definitely. 13 should be some classic Dre/Eminem bars and 17 is most likely going to be a tribute to Proof due to the length of the track. It would have been nice to see a D12 cut, but that might be saved for Relapse 2 later on in the year.

We won't have to wait long for those two tracks though as iTunes is reporting that Em will be releasing two more singles before the album hits shelves on May 19. "Old Time's Sake" featuring Dr. Dre (May 5) and "Beautiful" (May 12).

That would technically make it 5 songs out before the actual album…I hope the same issue doesn't hit Em like it did with 50 and Curtis. Let's hope people still actually buy the album.

Lil Wayne Makes Another List

Lil Wayne, after making Rolling Stone's Top 100 People Who Are Changing America list, Lil Wayne and Kanye West are again making headlines, this time in Time magazine.

Lil Wayne managed to take the number 12 spot on Time magazine's "World's Most Influential Person" list. As Time's 12th most influential person, Lil Wayne beat out both Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey who clenched the 37th and 98th spot on the list.

"His Grammy-winning, multi-platinum album, Tha Carter III, was the perfect showcase for Wayne's raw, hilarious, and often outer-planetary rap style," Time explains of Lil Wayne. "And his Southern-gentleman act is legit, as evidenced by his slightly flirty interview with Katie Couric."

So he has charisma and is weird which makes him more influential than Barack Obama? Oh man what the hell happened at Time magazine…
The finalists for the list were chosen through a poll featured on Time's website. Lil Wayne received close to 940,000 votes and the number one spot on the list was given to Christopher Poole, the founder of 4chan.org, he received almost 17 million votes. Other music artists and innovators to make it onto Time's list include rapper M.I.A., Prince, the Twitter inventors, and Kanye West.

Hahaha 4CHAN FTW. Sorry.

Ok, so it wasn't Time magazine's fault. Still, beating out Barack Obama by three times his place is kind of scary.

Sales Figures

Rick Ross took out the Number 1 spot as predicted, but has fallen far from outselling anything 50 Cent related, coming in with 158,000, an impressive number nevertheless. Asher Roth meanwhile also debuted in the Top 5 with just under 62,000 copies of Asleep In The Bread Aisle sold. Other debuts this week saw Chester French (appeared on Asher Roth's album) debut with 6,300 copies of Love The Future sold, and The Grouch & Eligh with Say G&E! sold 2,800 copies.

Day26 sold close to 37,000 copies of Forever In A Day this week, taking their total to over 150,000 now. Jadakiss cracked the 200,000 mark, with a total of 210,000 having sold 30,400 copies of The Last Kiss this week. Likewise, Keri Hilson's total of 213,700 was achieved through sales of 23,000 this week.

Further down the charts, UGK sold 10,700 (BUY THE ALBUM) copies of UGK 4 Life bringing their total to 128,200. Slim Thug can't seem to reach 100,000 as he's quickly losing momentum with sales of only 6,600 this week putting him at 74,800. Finally, Mims certainly isn't seeing the same kind of success with only 2,800 copies of Guilt sold, bringing his total to 19,400.

Next week, we'll see if Rick Ross can maintain his Top 5 performance as Mike Jones comes into the mix. Then, it's just a few more weeks until Relapse!

Before We Go…

It would help if I knew what my test was on today. Ah well, fluke is my middle name with these things. ON WARDS AND UPWARDS!

Catch you next week yo.

Haaaa never saying that again. I'm sleep deprived by the way.