The 37th Chamber 09.12.09: Out Of Stock

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 09.12.2009

In a time when CD sales are at their lowest, it's extremely frustrating to actually WANT to buy a CD, only for it to be missing from the shelves. Also this week, some more underrated Producers, Common's love songs and Brother Ali's discography!

Ok unmusical rant to start off but I'm sure most guys can relate. I got a digital SLR for my birthday last year and as such, I've been dubbed the unofficial ‘Photo guy' at everyone's birthdays. Since I've had it though, I've also noticed that a lot of the girls I know are extremely EXTREMELY camera whore-ish in that they will follow you around all night begging you to take photos. Like seriously, I took about 30 photos in the space of 5 minutes.

Then you start getting messages the very next day before you have even woken up saying "put the photos on Facebook" and "where are the photos from last night" or "why haven't you put the photos up yet?". MAYBE BECAUSE I'M STILL SLEEPY?

So I upload the photos, not all of them because hey, some of them are crap, but the majority make it through. Then you start getting MORE messages from the girls saying "ewww take it down I look gross!" or "why did you upload that?" And at this point I feel like saying something along the lines of, "BITCH YOU WERE THE ONE WHO PULLED THE FACE/POSE!" The camera didn't ‘magically' make you look like you have mad mud butt going on, YOU DID!

Then of course, I end up removing half the photos, only for someone to say a few days later, "why aren't there more photos up"

Gun. Bullet. Dead.

Reader Feedback

"Have fun in Japan. Hopefully you comeback with some stories. And yeah try to keep updated. Even if it's just one week out of the month.

Oh BTW what holiday is going in over there in Australia? Or is it just a personal vacation for you?" Dab

I'm in the process of thinking up topics to rant about over the next few weeks so I can get them into the system early. Probably one will involve a look at October releases because I haven't done one of those Upcoming Releases columns for a while.

Anyway, the holiday coincides with the college holiday slightly, but I AM taking an extra week off meaning I miss the last week of classes before the mid-semester break begins. I haven't actually been on a holiday without family before, mainly because I haven't been able to afford it but I've been doing a LOT more work since this time two years ago so I've finally saved up quite enough for a good trip.

I personally think that with the amount of times I have threatened to stab someone in the ear at college and choke someone at work that I do deserve a holiday.



"After listening to the prereleases of both:

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx PT II > Blueprint 3.

Of course Jay will win the sales war, but Cuban 2 is by far the better album. BP3 does have some hot songs on it, and DOA is growing on me each time I listen to it." - spacefight

I'm predicting decent sales for Raekwon's album, say, around 50,000 although that's being a bit hopeful too. It's a sad day when 50k is ‘decent' sales for someone with Rae's legacy though. Actually I'm basing that number off what Meth and Red did with Blackout! 2 but I'm not sure how the singles have fared in the US so I can't really comment more on that.

I hated "D.O.A." the first time I listened to it, but then, as longtime readers can probably guess, I caught the video and suddenly liked the song more, but I now hate the video because Jay-Z with hair is still scary.



"Here are some "Hip-hop" remixes

We be clubbin ft.DMX - Ice Cube
Who shot ya? remix – LL Cool J
One more chance remix - Biggie
Sugar Hill remix - AZ
Give the people remix - EPMD
Rainy Dayz remix - Raekwon
Down with the King (DX remix) – Run-D.M.C.
Bring the noize ft. Anthrax - P.E.
Rap Superstar - Cypress Hill

Do your damn homework if you're going to do an article on something like this." - TheR

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. The column wasn't about remixes but the WORTHINESS of remixes and how people dick them up. If you're talking an AMOUNT of remixes, I could have punched the word ‘remix' into iTunes and typed up all 1593 answers which isn't an exaggeration at all considering my entire library is 30,076. If you're talking about tracks where the remix is more famous than the original, that isn't what I was talking about. What I said was:

"One remix that always sticks out in my head more than the original, although this probably doesn't count, is "Can It Be All So Simple" from originally on 36 Chambers and remixed on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx."

Not, "the only remix I can think of that sticks out more than the original is "Can It Be All So Simple" from 36 Chambers and remixed on Only Built 4 Cuban Linx".

Or if you're talking about this:

"Another thing is when artists do 2 different versions of essentially the same song. Two examples that come to mind straight away are Mobb Deep's "Shook Ones" and "Shook Ones Pt. 2" and Pun's "I'm Not A Player" and "Still Not A Player" with the latter in both cases being the more well-known version by far."

I didn't say "the only songs I can think of where the latter version of a song is more famous than the original is "Shook Ones Pt. 2" and "Still Not A Player".

So if I need to do homework for a non-existing topic, you should perhaps do some homework involving improving your reading comprehension.

People are wondering how my computer is still working. My reply is that it has Mr. Burns syndrome.

"Come on Robinson, I say Erick Sermon and all you think is Red and Meth? Have you never listened to a damn Busta Rhymes, Keith Murray, and LL Cool J album?" - Kurruption

Again, I wasn't intending on listing every single release that Erick Sermon has worked on, rather the ones that have had more impact on me as a listener.

""We don't exactly remember Hav for much outside his Mobb Deep work."

really? Havoc has produced songs for Method Man, Nas, Foxy Brown, Onyx, The Notorious B.I.G., Jadakiss, Styles P, The Game, LL Cool J, 50 Cent, G-Unit, Lil' Kim, La The Darkman, Big Noyd, Termanology, Jimmy Mserembo, Capone-N-Noreaga and many more so what are u talking about"

The thing is though, when you think Havoc, do you think that long list of names or Mobb Deep work? Most people when you talk Havoc production say "Shook Ones Pt. 2", "Survival Of The Fittest", "Quiet Storm Remix" etc., hence why Havoc is underrated. People SHOULD recognize him for more, but most people just remember him for his Mobb Deep work.

"Laugh Now, Cry Later sucked that CD almost made me stop listening to Ice Cube" - Ramirez

I didn't think it was that bad to be honest. I didn't like the Lil Jon production and Mike Epps should stay far away from hip-hop albums as possible, but considering he'd been 6 years out from his last studio album, and taking into account that the War & Peace albums weren't that well balanced, I thought it was quite good.

"The numerous drug, guns references on albums never really had an impact on me as a youngster. I listened to The LOX since 1997, and have never done any of the actions they speak of.

My younger brother however, took the words differently, and tried to live that lifestyle. He's currently in jail, because those lyrics made an impression on him.

I took the words as entertainment, and as a way of how not to do things in life. He looked at it as a cool thing to do, and that maybe that was his way to make his life better.

Plus, living in an urban area, the peer-pressure to live that drug dealer lifestyle is very present. I've always looked at it as a waste of life, but some people see it glorified so much that they just want to live like their favorite artist. And in Philadelphia, it's very easy to do so." - Ant-LOX

I think it comes down to a matter of how willing you are. My cousin for example, is quite smart, is probably going to score in the top 5% of the state for his end of high school exams, but if you tell him you're going to be playing Mario Kart all night, he'll play all night, even if he has an exam the very next morning. Likewise, I told him once to eat a bug and be quiet, so he ate a bug.

It's a dangerous combination of actually being intelligent on some level, but also susceptible to people's whims. We did an exercise once in class where we were asked to think what played a bigger part in shaping who you were, your DNA or your environment, and what the ratio was of each. Turns out that some studies have determined that your DNA only plays a slightly larger role as the ratio was 2 parts environment, 3 parts DNA. I think - the memory is a little fuzzy.

I'll never believe that drug dealing is fun as a friend of mine told me how he was chased around the neighborhood and eventually stabbed with a spork (yes, a spoon-fork thing) a couple of times. Needless to say, I found it hilarious but naturally for the same reasons I find Lil Wayne hilarious – the wrong ones.

"Does anyone know the AZ hand sign that isn't the stupid retarded pitchfork?"

The only one I can think of is the one he's doing on the cover of The Format which you can see here, but I think that's the one you're talking about. Unless this a reference to Arizona and not AZ the rapper you're talking about.



"Off topic sorry anyway Pat I don't know if you heard Forever by Drake, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Eminem but you have to, the song is straight fire ESPECIALLY Shady's verse." - Fuckwhiners

I friggin' love it. I wasn't expecting to like it, considering when I first saw the track I thought:

• Drake's robot voice
• Lil Wayne's auto-tune
• Kanye's auto-tune
• Eminem's weird-ass accent
• Equals a headache for me

Turns out someone must have kicked Drake in the ass or something because THAT IS EXACTLY what I think he should sound like on his records. He sounds hungry, he's aggressively going after the beat, kicking a ‘more than simple' rhyme scheme and his singing on the hook isn't putting me to sleep. That and Kanye and Wayne left the auto-tune at home along with Eminem's weird accent.

Anyone know who did the beat? I'm feeling a tad lazy at the moment and I don't feel like trolling Wiki.

"Mick Foley Style Cheap Plug Right There (Oh Crap I Might Get In Trouble For Mentioning His Name And He Might Come To My Door With A Barbed Wire 2X4)" - Javier Garcia

I wouldn't mind Mick Foley coming to my door with a barbed wire weapon of choice, so long as when he's beating the crap out of me, someone records it. You see, I can laugh at myself, particularly when I do something incredibly idiotic. Like the time I decided to run on my friend's treadmill at the fastest speed, 20km/h which is about 12 miles/h, on the sharpest incline which I think was about 30 degrees. Backwards. I lasted about 0.0000001 of a second before my feet got stuck. I landed on my wrist, then my elbow, then my shoulder/back area and got cut the hell up because instead of helping me, everyone laughed until the machine actually broke. Now I don't care apart from the fact that NOBODY RECORDED IT.

"UNDERRATED PRODUCERS not named in here:
* Mannie Fresh (almost single-handedly responsible for making Baby, Wayne, Juvenile & all ex-Cash Money-artists multi-millionaires)"

Hahaha not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing though to be honest.

"* Cool & Dre (don't get the credit they deserve!)"

The problem I have with Cool & Dre is that they're not consistent enough. They make a lot of really good beats, their work on Rhymefest's album for instance, but they also do some really average ones, such as their work on Fat Joe's albums, but then again, that might just be Fat Joe's fault for picking horrendous beats. Still, if they were more consistent I'd agree, but at the moment they need to step their game up.

"* Beats By The Pound (where would Master P be if he hadn't found them? KLC, Craig B, Carlos, Mo B Dick & O'Dell brought that FIRE in the 95-99 No Limit Records time period)"

See Mannie Fresh.

"* Large Professor (not only the awesome beats for Nas' classics, but had a good solo album too a few years ago!)" - jp

The problem is that he's not as recognizable a name as other producers. DJ Premier has a signature sound and he's pretty famous within hip-hop, and also outside of it considering he did some beats for Christina Aguilera's album a while back. Pete Rock and CL Smooth released albums together and also had quite a nasty falling out. Large Professor, the third person in the Holy Trinity of East Coast Production (or so I've attested) doesn't have enough controversy or signature sound to his name, hence the underrated-ness.

"Hey Patrick

Nice article but in a way the rant is the same as the one activists had/has against Gangsta Rap (glorifies and raises violence levels), Eminem (Talks about murder). All I can say if you are going to listen to a song and allows it to be a factor in where you take your life then maybe you deserve to be in that situation."

Not sure if you'd deserve it, some people can't escape it unfortunately but those that willingly search for it generally do. Well, I don't wish ill upon anyone, except Will.I.Am, Soulja Boy, Perez Hilton, radio talk-show hosts and Wyclef, but if you go searching for that lifestyle, you'll inevitably end up running into trouble.

"Anyway I have read your article for a couple of months now and I have read a couple of times that you stated Common's The Light as the most beautiful hip hop love song.

I have heard the song and I do like it but my favorite Common love song would be Come Close on Electric Circus (Maybe that is also why it doesn't get that much love)

Anyway what do you think of this song and what other love songs in Hip Hop do you enjoy" - Da Mic

Oh damn, I just remembered I'd been searching for the song that used the same sample as "Come Close", and now that I've found it, I can't remember the original song it was. I think it was on a Mos Def album…

You're right about Electric Circus in that it's so off-putting if you're used to ah, ‘Regular' Common such as on Like Water… or more recently Be and Finding Forever. I think another reason why "The Light" is more popular with fans is that the hook is more sing-able. When I saw Common live, during "The Light" pretty much everyone knew the words and was singing along, it's one of those very simple yet effective hooks that gets stuck in the head easily. Nevertheless, "Come Close" is an excellent song in its own right and it's unfortunate that it doesn't get as much recognition as other songs in Common's discography.

Other hip-hop love songs I enjoy are "Love" from Ghostface Killah's Pretty Toney album "You're All I Need" by Method Man and Mary J Blige is a classic hip-hop love song that I also enjoy. Can't think of anymore right now, but Ghost's one is definitely my favorite after "The Light". One that's not about ‘love' as such is "This Is The Girl" that appeared on Craig David and Kano's albums (Kano is a rapper from England).

"There is NOTHING about Large Professor that screams "underrated" nothing" - Guest#7237

It depends on how you define ‘underrated'. In my opinion, ‘underrated' suggests that the person in question isn't getting the respect/recognition they deserve or is forgotten or overlooked too often. In other words, they literally aren't being rated as high as they should be for whatever reason. In a sense, Large Professor and a lot of the other names mentioned ARE underrated, despite the history and reputation they have, because they don't get that recognition they should. Others from that era, such as Premier and Pete Rock like I mentioned above DO get the respect and recognition they deserve (although if they were to get more, I wouldn't mind for their sake at all) because they've kept their names on our minds for their entire careers.

Large Professor flies under a lot of people's radars for the reasons I mentioned earlier and as such, when it comes to a discussion of who the best producers are in hip-hop, his is a name that isn't always mentioned when I think it SHOULD be, hence he's underrated.

These days if you asked a group of your average hip-hop fans to name who they think the 10 best producers in the game are, you'd probably (and hopefully) get the following names more than once:

• DJ Premier
• Dr. Dre
• Kanye West
• J Dilla
• RZA

With other names such as Havoc, Large Professor, DJ Quik, maybe even Lil Fame appearing less often. Why? Because usually they refuse to plaster themselves all over the tracks in question (like Timbaland, Will.I.Am and Akon for example) and they don't necessarily have an immediately recognizable production style, such as with Dr. Dre, DJ Premier and Kanye West.

It's not their fault, and I applaud them for constantly changing their styles, but it does have the problematic side effect in that most people except for the dedicated heads will tend to forget them, obviously not on purpose, when making lists of the best producers in hip-hop etc.

"I'm taking it underground with Brother Ali an albino rapper from Minnesota. Yeah crazy...

Anyway, I first heard Brother Ali when I saw the perfect score HipHopDX gave TWO of his albums. I had to check it out and to my surprise; the guy is an excellent rapper."

Hahaha I've found out about a couple of rappers that way too! Usually HipHopDX gives between 2.5 and 4 stars with occasional albums reaching 4.5 and some trashy things going lower, but VERY rarely do they give 5s. Whenever I see a 5 pop up, I usually check the album out with very pleasing results.

"The Shadow of the Sun: This album is long with only two features and this is a fantastic debut album. Brother Ali is lyrical but sincere so it wasn't boring. (Which to be honest does plague some lyrical rappers without personality) 9.5/10"

I really must check this album out. I trust your ratings and since you've been doing this, I think I've only had a fairly different opinion of an album two or three times in total so I'll trust your judgment on this one.

"Champion EP: Not an official album so I don't count it as one but nonetheless this one is awesome as well. Uncle Sam Goddamn is my favorite track (it also makes an appearance on the Undisputed Truth) 8/10 I don't usually rate mix tapes but since he only has 2 albums (wasn't aware of that) I had to make an exception."

I don't always like it when tracks get recycled off EPs. I don't mind if the track gets remixed or redone in some way in regard to the beat, but basically copying / pasting a track from the EP to the album annoys me. Why? Because I feel that an album should be made of NEW and exclusive material that isn't made available (apart from the singles) before the album's release (or leak in total). Picking up tracks along the way from mixtapes like I tend to do with some albums ends up spoiling the album, which is why Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II was so fresh as I'd only really heard "House Of Flying Daggers" before hearing the entire album. Anyway, another release I'll have to check out one day.

"The Undisputed Truth: Holy shit what a follow up. Unfortunately it feels a little repetitive and a tad boring (lyrical rapper who can be boring at times...) this is still a great album where Ali gets real deep. Only negative is as mention it's a tad boring and the production fails on the boring songs. Overall 8.5/10"

I liked it a LOT the first time I listened to it and I was honestly surprised by the level of lyricism and entertainment I got at the same times. Needless to say, if I listen to it again, I might pick at it a bit more than I did previously, but still, definitely a great follow up to a very impressive debut album by the looks of it.

"His next album comes out on the 22. Also Wale's album comes out on Oct. 22 (he has two great mixtapes) and Kid Cudi debuts on Sept. 15. Are you reviewing Kid Cudi, Pat? And Nas/Damian Marley tracklisting has been released (which I know you're talking about this week)

Anyway just some young rappers I'm throwing out there cuz I'm sick of everyone bitching about hip hop. Turn off the radio guys" - Jesuszilla son of Godzilla

I'm reviewing Kid Cudi for 411 as well as M.O.P. and Drake's EP if I see it has new material (which I'm not sure if it does or not, haven't bothered to look yet) unless I go crazy in the meantime in which case it'll just be a Cudi review.

The only reason I skimmed over the Distant Relatives tracklisting this week because I noticed that it was a rumored one at the moment. I've had fairly bad luck when it comes with early tracklisting leaks such as with Blueprint 3 so I avoided it for the time being.

Looking at it as it stands though, I'm VERY glad that Young Jeezy isn't attached to the album as he previously had been, mainly because he kills anything he's on and not in the "oh man, Eminem killed his verse on "Renegade" with Jay" but rather, "oh man, Young Jeezy killed that song by drowning it in a tub of lard". I'm not too familiar with Damian Marley's production style either, and he seems to be producing or have a hand in producing, all but 3 of the tracks HHDX has listed on their website. I'll keep an eye out as to whether or not it becomes ‘official' though.

The Mini Rant

Something that pisses me off about CD shops is the simple fact that they rarely have the CDs I want to buy.

Here we are in a climate where sales are low all around and people are much more content to download music, whether legally or illegally, doesn't matter, but at the end of the day, the sales for the physical CD are MUCH lower than they were say, 5-10 years ago.

This rant isn't about quality or label politics or the usual "Why sales are low" rant, but rather a rant about the shops that sell the CDs.

For example, I go into my favorite chain of stores, JB Hi-Fi (Australian readers should know it) VERY regularly, to the point where the security guard at one shops says hello and tells me when sales are on etc. which is bad for my bank account.

However, when I go in, very rarely do they have the actual CD I want to buy. Now I went in to one of them, a fairly large on on Thursday looking to buy Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II and thinking "Well, if we managed to get Blackout! 2 on time, we should be able to get Rae's album on time too".

HOW STUPID AM I? I can understand if we didn't have the album on Tuesday, because given the time difference; it's not technically the 8th in the United States at that point in time.

But I'm going to contradict myself because we managed to get 50 Cent's Curtis album out 3 days early and I remember Lil Mama's album out more than a week before it came out in the US.

Raekwon isn't as big a name as 50 Cent these days so I can understand not having the album early or on time, but by Thursday, you'd think the album would have made it to the shelves by then. Whether it's the staff being crap and lazy (which I wouldn't put past them, because they regularly employ people in charge of the hip-hop section who have NO KNOWLEDGE of hip-hop beyond the videos they skip on MTV to watch some weird emo-rock shit) or the fact that Australia STILL has no recognizable worldwide acceptance of hip-hop, we should at least have JAY-Z'S album out!

Yep, no Blueprint 3 either. Now here I am, actually wanting to buy an album, and the shop doesn't have it. I'm going to a different shop on Sunday and I'm not going to get my hopes up, although I do know the guy who maintains the hip-hop section actually LIKES hip-hop music, but still I don't think I'll be able to get it.

Now you may think, "Well, Jay-Z isn't as big a name overseas as he is in the US" and that may be true, I'm not ranting to debate that, but what about Kanye West? I'm going out on a limb and saying that Kanye West is probably the best known rapper in the world right now. For anyone skim reading at work or wherever, that says "best KNOWN rapper", not "best rapper", ok?

Graduation was a full 10 days out in the US before we even got a hint of it on the shelves here so if you ask me, it's not a surprise that 50 Cent beat him in the first week sales worldwide (I've never been able to clarify that though) considering we didn't have a copy of the album out during the first week in any of the 15 shops I checked.

Recently, I've wanted to pick up Maino's album, I want to get Jay-Z and Raekwon and will most likely pick up Kid Cudi and M.O.P. (leaving me fairly broke for my trip to Japan hahaha) but I seriously doubt that if we can't get Jay-Z on time, we're not going to get any of those others on time. With the exception of perhaps Kid Cudi's album as he's made quite a name for himself here from "Day N Nite".

So I'm sure that I'm not the only person out there thinking, "Why the hell can't I buy the album I want to buy", but I'm sure that I'm one of the few people who then think "I'll just check back next week". I imagine that a lot of people just say "screw it" and stick with their downloaded copy or if they've held out listening to the album and wanted to buy it raw, they go ahead and download it, not wanting to be out of the loop for too long. Perhaps they discover it's terrible and don't buy it, or can't be bothered looking for it just now, and spend their money on something else.

What's the point of this rant? In this climate where record companies are abusing us for downloading music, the small CD shops are closing down and the number of people who WILL pay for music, whether physical or digital is decreasing, why can't they manage to have CDs that people might want to buy in stock at the appropriate time? You can't make money off what you don't have available to sell and you can't keep customers returning if it becomes a regular practice.

Thankfully for JB Hi-Fi, I have…had time on my hands to check regularly during a week (faaaarrr too busy with classes and work these days) and I also love the fact that they sell games and DVDs for much cheaper than everywhere else so I'll always keep going back, but for someone who really only buys CDs, the inconvenience of checking the store out during a few lunch breaks and coming up with nothing would probably put you off after a while and you'll explore, ‘alternative' methods of acquiring the music.

Bottom line: GIVE ME RAEKWON'S ALBUM ALREADY DAMMIT

The Signoff

I do believe I fell asleep briefly waiting for the PC to load, but I can't remember how long I slept for and considering its 10:30pm Friday night here I think I'm in for a screwed up night of sleep. PERFECT because I have work, as I have had for the past 5 years now, tomorrow morning.

Catch you next week!

And keep an eye out for Kid Cudi (probably Tuesday) and M.O.P. (if I don't go insane, and probably Wednesday).


You know, a fair degree of insanity might make M.O.P. albums even wilder…

Shameless self-plugs are shameless.