The 37th Chamber 11.14.09: Please Explain The Hype! Pt. 2

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 11.14.2009

This week we're discussing Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel, Eminem's discography and an open call for Please Explain The Hype! Pt. 2!

I realized today just how far behind hip-hop I am once again. I blame it on college and the holiday, but there have been about four or five releases that I've missed that I normally would have jumped on the moment I smelled the release date approaching.

Then you see an album being released that you actually forgot was coming. Case in point, RAKIM'S ALBUM is due out next week. I seriously had no idea it was a) getting a release date and b) was actually right around the corner.

Maybe it's because I'm distracting myself with non-hip-hop ventures, but I find myself visiting the various websites I normally do once a day or less sometimes. I suppose you get tired of seeing the same old names in the same old shenanigans (Lil Wayne in legal troubles, DMX being arrested, Soulja Boy being a clown etc.) and subconsciously avoid checking the news as often as you previously would have.

Rambling aside, time for the column.

"First off Def Jam: Icon was fun and I yes I too loved killing Lil Jon"

Oh yes, it was so satisfactory to throw the dude into an exploding gas pump. For those that know my musical tastes, it probably won't be a stretch of the imagination for you to picture me screaming "THIS IS FOR ALMOST SCREWING UP CUBE'S COMEBACK ALBUM YOU JERK" as I delivered a roundhouse kick to the head.



"I used to say that Jay-Z's enemies were haters, but he has so much that I'm starting to think it's been true. I mean it seems like everyone except Kanye he's worked with hate his guts."

When you look at the big picture, it certainly seems so. Perhaps he really is just a difficult person to work with. I mean, you can be dealing with a nice person in all other aspects in life, but when it comes to work you can find out that they're a bit of a dick sometimes. There's a couple of people like that at work – really nice and will always look out for you, but one of them is so unbelievably pedantic about EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING, that you just want to smack them across the head with a packet of pain tablets or something.

I imagine Dr. Dre is a bit like that sometimes. As we've talked about before, the number (and quality) of names that have been on the Interscope and/or Aftermath labels and have since left is ridiculous. 50 and Eminem have frequently said he's a perfectionist to the extreme but I appreciate that in a way because if you're going to attach your name to something, you want to make sure it's up to your own standards. Of course, I'd like to see Detox before 2012 (as the world is supposed to end and all then) so perhaps Dre could just ease back a little and let something get released that isn't named Eminem or 50 Cent.

"I'll bury 50 Cent with on sentence:
Get Rich or Die Tryin. 50 got rich and stopped tryin. I'm done with the fool."

The thing that irritates me the most about 50 is that he's actually quite an intelligent dude. He's got an incredible business brain and knows how the industry works and has some great insight at times as to the effect old school marketing is having versus new school marketing (albums vs. ringtones/singles basically), but then he turns around and puts his foot in his mouth, closely followed by the other foot by stirring up some old beef to market HIS album.

I seriously hate to give him props for this, but when he says that he's a career ender, he kind of is. I mean, where is Ja Rule? Fat Joe's albums have sold considerably less than the previous one and Rick Ross' group possibly sold even less copies of their album than G-Unit did with theirs (and their sales were terrible). Perhaps it's not because 50 ‘wins' as such, but possibly because 50 causes the artist to expose an ugly side of themselves that they might not have known they had.



"I know this has been said plenty of times. But how in the hell does Soulja Boy get so much fuckin love in the industry. Hell 10 years ago his "singles" wouldn't have even cracked top 100."

It's a damn mystery. There's a series of mixtapes I've FINALLY remembered to mention that are released about every 5-10 days on various torrent websites. The people that put them out are called Biggy Jiggy Mixtapes (sounds a bit silly) and they often get exclusive remixes and other tracks before anywhere else has them. For anyone using torrents, if you're interested in staying ahead of the curve, check them out!

Oh yes, as I was going through 9 different volumes I'd downloaded (and I do believe that the mixtapes won't cause any problems in regards to copyright issues as the material is obtained with the artist's or label's consent and knowledge that it won't be sold) and the names that Soulja Boy has recorded with is kind of unnerving. Nowhere near as unnerving as the amount of people Gucci Freaking Mane has recorded with though.

"Wale's album leaked (I'm still gonna buy it) but it reminded me of how much I hate mainstream Hip Hop. Hell I recently met a girl who hates the radio that's saying something (seriously her knowledge of Hip Hop make her sexy)"

The reason I made it through my first year of University was a girl who introduced me into a LOT of hip-hop music I otherwise wouldn't have known about. This was 2005 and I still wasn't sold on Kanye West, but she convinced me to check out Late Registration anyway and needless to say, by the time "Heard Em Say" finished, I was a fan. She was also heavily into old school stuff and a big West Coast fan to boot so it made passing time in boring lectures really easy.

"I'm a fan of Game and all but his latest songs for the RED album are kind of wack."

GUCCI! GAH I haven't actually heard any of the tracks apart from "Krazy" but whatever the next singles turn out to be, I'm hoping that Game hasn't done an album with a hundred guests again like L.A.X., although that really was a very good album in the end in my opinion.

"So does Lil Wayne have to die to not be in legal trouble. I know he's young but that is NO excuse for his lack of responsibility."

Nah because if he dies, there will be dozens of custody cases for the many, many children he has somehow managed to father and as a result, post-death child support payments to be made.

"Are you gonna review Wale and what happened to last week's 37th Chamber?" - Dab

I was thinking of reviewing Wale but Michael Melchor got a good review up.

"Dab brought up a good point about Soulja Boy getting so much love in the music biz and I had the same question about Gucci Mane. Just why?! Do artist put him on their album to dumb it down or make their verses sound better?! And wth is a OJ Da Juiceman?"

OJ Da Juiceman is supposedly Gucci Mane's cousin from another dimension who emerged from the evolutionary ooze a little too soon. The theory of putting Gucci Mane onto a verse to immediately make yourself like Nas circa Illmatic by comparison is certainly an understandable one in a day and age where guests more often than not, out-rap the album's star.

"Pat, if you haven't listened to Fashawn's Boy Meets World I suggest you give it a listen. The whole album is produced by Exile and it's not as dope as his album with Blu but it's pretty close.

Also are you going to do a review of Royce da 5'9's Street Hop?" - J Dot

So far behind on hip-hop…

I'll definitely be checking both albums out, no official review as such, but I plan on getting through more than 4 albums on my New Year's Resolution project which I plan on resurrecting once more for next year.

"Hope you get to feeling better! Many a man has been felled by his sister's burrito. Don't be ashamed."

Haha thanks, I felt like a total idiot once I'd finished though.



"Beans is a pretty awesome, underrated rapper--but he's off-base, as is almost everyone who has blamed Jay for their own lack of success. Jay gives opportunities. Beans would probably be dead or in jail if Jay hadn't scooped him up (dumbass still managed to go to jail when Jay DID sign him). Instead, Jay gave him a shot right out the gate with Volume 3's first single, and they did a LOT of songs together. Besides Nas, he was just about the only other featured artist on American Gangster. How's that for backing?"

If there's one thing I always look forward to on Beanie Sigel albums, it's the production. I think Beans is only second to Ghostface Killah when it comes to picking dope beats for an album. Usually the added bonus of fairly solid lyrics is welcomed as well.

"But Jay can't run your career for you. Jay can't write your lyrics. He can't be great FOR you.

Who ever did that for Jay when HE came up?"

He COULD write verses for people, but then we'd all know it was Jay writing because there would suddenly be another 8 or nine references to Maybachs.

"Reminds me of the story of the lady who sued her university because she couldn't find a job after she graduated."

Some people shouldn't be allowed to procreate because you end up with people like this.

"All these guys need to look in the mirror and say "Man, I got a great chance, but I didn't quite meet the challenge."

Jay should just buy enough CDs to make these guys platinum so they'll STFU.

Wish Young Chris was on the radar more, though. He's no genius, but I love his rhymes. He manages to outshine Jay on "Nigga Please" even!" - Sam!

One part of hip-hop, being the braggadocio rap, unfortunately doesn't allow rappers to think in such a way. It makes sense certainly to be able to stand up and say, "Well that didn't work out too well, but better luck next time" instead, the ego forces them to blame others or the belief that someone else will arrange things for you.

"I'm guessing the rape reference was Mos Def right?" - RED

Hahaha not quite, although it is somewhat musically related. Uh, you probably shouldn't watch this at work or with kids around as there's some pretty bad language involved…hilarious as it is.



That's from an anime I was watching earlier in the year called Detroit Metal City which is meant to be a parody of the death metal genre and the music scene in general. The premise is that the main character is a really timid guy by day, wanting nothing more than to make sweet pop sounding music, but somehow ended up as the lead singer for the Detroit Metal City band. Needless to say, the kind of humor involved isn't for everyone, but if you laugh during the next clip, you may get a kick out of it:



"But Jay can't run your career for you. Jay can't write your lyrics. He can't be great FOR you. Who ever did that for Jay when HE came up?
*beat starts*
BI-BI-BIGGIE

I don't care much for some of these guy's beef with him; I just don't get what people see in him as an artist. There's so many better rappers out there who can at least back up their GOAT claims on the mic without rehashing or borrowing lyrics." - La Ra Da Rugged Darkman

I think Jay's legacy is his entire character as a whole. He made the transition from the street corner to the penthouse with a lot of ease and became a household name extremely quickly. He may not be the greatest on the mic, but I find that a lot of his songs have a way of connecting with you that other artist's cannot manage, although this is just a personal belief anyway.

"Man jay has a song on bp3 called "already home" were he lays it out the 2nd and 3rd verses. He doesn't owe anybody shit. If these rappers were half as dope as Jay then they wouldn't be talking shit. Why is it Jay's fault that Beans has no money?"

I think it's because that during his time as head of Def Jam, everybody expected to be striking rich in the oil fields, winning the lottery, and joining Bill Gates in a multi-million dollar investment. When these things DIDN'T happen, people wanted to blame him because he was simply in a position of power at the time. I see it often in the news, people protesting and asking "Where's so and so at?" when so and so actually has NOTHING to do with the situation, but is in a position of power and as such becomes a target.

There was a protest at my University once where people were claiming that we needed a better public transport system (and my god, we certainly do), but instead of directing their frustrations at our State-level Premier (the equivalent of a Governor of a State in the US…like Arnold) who IS responsible for the public transport system in each state here in Australia, they were wanting the Prime Minister to deal with it. Yeah because he can magically make shit right because it's common knowledge that every Prime Minister Australia has ever had is also a wizard.

All I'm saying is that if you're going to complain about someone, make sure it's actually the relevant person.

"He gave them all a shot. State Prop sucks that's why they never saw cake. Not cuz of jigga. The Dipset thing had nothing to do with Jay. They flopped after a few albums and it was Dame's / Cam'ron's fault. Dame promoted Cam to VP without Jay's input and that was the beginning of the end. Beans needs to stfu and just be happy he got a chance. I know of a lot of dope rappers that never got that shot. Beans has nobody to blame but himself for his life now. Everyone wants to be jigga but they just don't have the skills. BP3 is the album of the year IMO. Dope from front to back." SYC

Precisely. There is NO EXCUSE for not having talent. At least Jay when he was borrowing lines from other rappers was using them in a way that made sense. Rappers who are just plain terrible, such as the current 37th Chamber punching bag, Gucci Mane (Soulja Boy and Rick Ross have graduated to the Hall Of Fame by now surely) can't exactly be blaming someone else for their terrible, terrible album sales when in fact, their album was terrible due to THEM and not the label.



"Big's unspoken endorsement definitely gives Jay a lot of credibility to a lot of people. But he didn't bring Jay into the music business or sign him to Bad Boy or anything. He wasn't in a position to do that." - Sam!

That would have been an interesting scenario, Jay answering to Diddy! Honestly, Jay's been in various positions of power for so long, I can't see him answering to another rapper on a label anymore.

"Sam! has a good point on the Jay-Z/Sigel thing (as well as all of Jay-Z's beefs I guess). I also think Dab raises a good point in a sort of off topic way: why does Jay have so many enemies?"

Perhaps some of us are programmed to hate Jay on a subconscious level, locked away in our DNA, much like the program that all guys have that tells us we've made the wrong assumption that a woman is cranky "because it's that time of the month" (yes I am guilty of failing to realize this).

"I have a feeling in 10 years people are gonna look at Soulja Boy and wonder "why did I like him again?"" - The Rapper's Rapper

Oh man, I found the funniest song just then. It's called "I Can Make These Hoes Dance" and it's by Soulja Boy. Now underneath the suicide-inducing fact that he's using auto-tune, if this song was intended as a parody, Soulja Boy is secretly a genius because the song is hilariously awful and pokes fun at everything his kind of music has thus far represented.



Lucky you! I found a video that doesn't involve topless photos of the dude…yes I had previously found one with said content included. Now excuse me whilst I wash my eyes with industrial strength bleach.

"If Game could stop name dropping and suckin every past rapper's ass he'd prolly be the best rapper hands down. But he just can't seem to make a song without mentioning Dre/NWA/Snoop." - JBass24

He started to get better on L.A.X., but I think this is Game's thing and he can't stop it now. Much like Jim Jones and Young Jeezy's adlibs it's possibly something Game doesn't have as much control over as he'd like. I suppose that's the problem when you get into hip-hop the way Game did (whilst recovering from an injury, he basically binged on hip-hop for hours on end and as such, probably got an overdose of everything) as once you start, it's hard to stop.



While I talked about Eminem a lot I don't think I ever reviewed his catalog? If I have let me know Pat."

The powers of Google searches revealed nothing, you're clear for take-off!

"Infinite: I recently heard this for the first time when I got it from a free download and it is sick. This is the "calmest" Em's ever been but it doesn't change the fact it showed his future potential. With the being said this is before he found his voice and sounded like a white Nas. 9/10 I heard this this year and was very impressed with how well it aged."

It's a funny little album although the production was a bit of a problem because it was relatively non-existent on some tracks. Nevertheless, Em was rocking a sick flow and I think had better breath control here than he did on some of his later releases. It's a hard to find album so if you ever come across a physical copy of it, snatch it up!

"SSLP: Em hit the mainstream with a bang. Guilty Conscience was sick, My Name Is was hilarious and the rest of the album brought in a whole new style in mainstream rap. 9.5/10 It's a fantastic album in which Em was able to display his emotions well with this one."

I think "Guilty Conscience" is the best track Eminem and Dre have done together although if you read interviews, Em claims that it's far from the best work they are actually capable of. Here's a suggestion, how about you show us what you're capable of on Detox! Great idea!

Much like Infinite, the problem I have here is again the production which sounds a bit tinny at times. As it was technically his mainstream debut, you can attest that to Eminem "finding himself" and gaining an understanding of what production suits him best.

"MMLP: His Magnum Opus. This is without a doubt a classic. Like Late Registration, this was everything SSLP but better. Lyrics, flow, stories. This is the ideal Eminem album because it was funny, crazy, emotional all wrapped up in one. 10/10 definitely going down in history."

The production was certainly a step-up from his previous album. It sounded polished and FINISHED as opposed to something that had been recorded on a cassette player. Lyrically, I don't think you're going to get much better than "Stan" in terms of creativity, "Remember Me?" in terms of complexity, "The Way I Am" in terms of honesty and "Kim" in terms of intensity. Everything about the album worked really well and it's easily a Modern Classic in my opinion. Speaking of Classic status, it will be the 10 Year Anniversary in May next year and in my opinion, I think it deserves the full Classic status.

"Eminem Show: Some people say this is his best because it's not as violent but I just can't put it ahead of SSLP or MMLP. That Business and Superman songs are CORNY as fuck. This is where the comedy stuff started to get annoying with Without Me to be honest. With that being said, songs like White America, Cleaning Out My Closet and Til I Collapse makes this a great album for Em. 8.5/10 At this point people started to call him the greatest and his catalog was proving this."

I think the lyrics were more refined. He was directing his aggression to various targets and doing it in a more focused style, as opposed to sounding-off on the entire industry but that really doesn't excuse songs like "Superman" which got more and more annoying with subsequent listens for me. Em's beats at this point were at their highest I think as he was utilizing the heavy plodding bass to good effect. In the following years, and on Encore it would end up becoming monotonous, but at this point in time, he had found a good balance.

"Encore: Oh boy...this sucks...this sucks bad. This is where Eminem Stans started to annoy me. I'm pretty positive, but when the comedy is songs sucks and when the songs with message is boring I can't justify the album. It's not all bad, but at least half to most of it was bad. 5/10 Every rapper has that one album this is it."

Interestingly, this was one of the first albums I bought before I actually started buying them on a regular basis like I do now. Mainly because I wanted a GOOD copy (this was during the time when it was quite hard to get a good copy of really popular albums without the risk of downloading a virus or some other kind of hacking program) as we were about to leave on a holiday for 7 weeks and I wanted to load up my iPod.

I think at this point in time, he had known fame for so long that the topics that had originally made him popular and edgy were no longer accessible for him due to his status within the music industry. "Never Enough" was pretty dope and the obligatory D12 cut, "One Shot 2 Shot" was well done too. "My 1st Single" had an excellent premise, but the crapping noises and burping sound effects spoiled the concept before it could take off. My personal rating for the album is a little higher at about 7/10 mainly because I include the Bonus disc that came when I initially bought the album. Frustratingly, all three songs on the Bonus disc SHOULD have been on the main album as opposed to tracks like "Ass Like That", "Big Weenie" and…something else.

"Relapse: When it first came out people overrated the hell out of this album. But now I think more people agree with me. The flow, lyrics were good the production was solid but the content was WAY over the top. I don't mind the Slim Shady gimmicky stuff since it made him famous but this album was a bit too much. With that being said with the experimented flow and songs like Underground and Déjà Vu made it a solid return. 7.5/10 Why weren't there more songs like Déjà Vu where we got inside Em's reason for drug addiction and stuff?"

Dare I say it, but "3am" is probably one of the most forward songs he's made into a single and video apart from "Stan" which actively involved suicide and murder. I've got it a bit higher at 8.5, but I haven't listened to the whole thing since about a month after it first dropped so I'm a little out of touch in that respect I suppose. That bizarre accent he used was too distracting at times I think. There's a track I picked up off the mixtapes called "Taking My Ball" where he uses it a little. I'm somewhat worried that Relapse 2 is going to be much of a muchness to the first one which could be bad considering we're getting them both fairly close together.

"Anyway with Relapse 2 on the way and the fact I did 50 last week I thought I'd take a look at a legend like Eminem. Next week NWA a trip down memory lane Pat." - Jesuszilla son of Godzilla

Ah should be awesome, I look forward to it!

"Pat, do you do like your top 10 favorite albums by the end of the year or early next year or something.

How about a poll from the reader's maybe? I don't just throwing something on the wall" - Jesuszilla son of Godzilla

Hmm, usually I like to run 3 year-end features. The first being my mock-award show where I name awards after various stupid incidents rappers have pulled throughout the year. The column also gives out legitimate awards such as Album of the Year and Producer of the Year. The second feature is my "Dear Santa" letter column where I talk about what I'd like to see happen in the following year, followed finally by my column where I discuss the New Year's Resolution project.

We do a Top 10 for the site, although my Top 10 FAVORITE albums as opposed to what I feel are the Top 10 BEST albums usually differ so I may just run something in the last week of December or the first week of January. Just because in recent times, I've had the list all prepared, only for someone to drop a dope album in the dying minutes of the year, thus making me re-think the list.


I'll see what I can come up with so far, but I'd certainly like to hear everyone's personal Top 10 lists for the year. I'll put out an open call for people's lists in December I think, so if you'd like to contribute, and please feel free to do so even if you haven't commented before, start thinking what your Top 10 hip-hop/R&B albums of 2009 are. I'll include R&B because so many times the line between the two blurs and we end up with pretty dope albums.

From those lists though, I might be able to get a vote arranged depending on how well I manage it.

"What happened to the Brooklynati review?" - Guest#3092

Ah. Japan got in the way. Ok, I'll aim to have it for next week!

An Open Call

This week, I'm going to let you guys run wild on a couple of our ‘favorite' rappers here in The 37th Chamber. We've been talking about how Gucci Mane is inexplicably popular and I thought, why not try the same thing I did with Drake, leave it up to you guys!

Ha I'm not being lazy as I think this has the potential to be hilarious, so PLEASE, leave your comments as to "Please explain the hype behind _____"

It worked well for Drake, I got a good insight into why people find him popular, and I myself enjoy a number of his songs now (so long as he doesn't do the robot voice) so I figure this could prove to be educational, or a great chance for you guys to get on a soapbox and really let a rapper have it. Here we go!

The following names are in consideration for "Please explain the hype":

- Gucci Mane
- OJ Da Juiceman
- Plies
- Soulja Boy

Now I've deliberately picked rappers who are usually deemed to be pretty terrible to let the fun in, but if you think you know an actual reason as to why they are so popular, please feel free to leave that too. For example, we can laugh and curse at Lil Wayne as much as we want, but fact of the matter is, his brainwashing techniques convinced everyone he was the greatest of all time.

The Signoff

Time for bed, catch you next week!