The 37th Chamber 12.19.09: Dear Santa 3

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 12.19.2009

This week, we have the first part of the Year-End features - An open letter to Santa and a wish list for hip-hop in 2010! Plus, a look back at wishes from the last two years, has anything changed?

For some reason that nobody could actually explain to me, our results were made available on the Internet on Thursday at 5 in the afternoon. Most of us had actually given up on them coming out, myself included, until sometime next year so it was a nice surprise. Especially because I passed everything and will therefore be graduating (with Distinction I think) next year as a certified Real Estate Agent!

Now if I can just work on making my resume longer than 39 words (no joke) and actually be bothered to find a job, I'll be on my way. On the other hand, it is far more satisfying to play Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010 which I bought the other day, for hours on end. I had my own personal "HOLY SHIT" moment when I managed to suplex someone off the top of a ladder out of the ring and onto the floor below, mainly because I don't think I've ever actually SEEN that been done before, probably because it's dangerous as hell. I also like the fact that you can essentially pound away on someone as long as you like, case in point, 12 RKOs later, I finally decided to pin Kane.

Anyway, this is the first of the three Year-End columns, the annual letter to Santa.

An Open Letter To Santa Pt. 3

If anyone was around last year when I ran this, I chopped bits out of the previous letter and commented on changes, if any, had occurred in the year gone. We've now got TWO years to go through, so I'll annotate with the year I wrote it.

What I Said Then…

2007 - New albums from Papoose and Saigon

Well, we have had quite a bit of new material from Saigon, and he sort of released an album with the All In A Day's Work and Warning Shots 2 mixtape/albums but no OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL album as such. And Papoose seems to have taken Saigon's place in that he's essentially disappeared off the face of the Earth.

What I Said Then…



2007 - Less Lil Wayne, Akon and T-Pain

Well you could argue we HAVE seen a slight decrease in the number of tracks appearing on charts with the tag "Ft. Lil Wayne/Akon/T-Pain" but instead we now have songs saying "Ft. Gucci Mane" who remains inexplicably popular and will probably only become more so as his album dropped recently.

What I Said Then…

2007 - Better album sales

Hmm, in a way we have seen better album sales as a whole, but we HAVE seen surprises with certain releases. I've mentioned it quite a few times but I honestly did not expect Jadakiss' album to sell more than 100,000 copies in its first week. I also thought that the Meth & Red album and Raekwon's album would sell around 30-40 thousand copies each, so I was happily proven wrong there. But in the end, the sales were still low.

Come on people! Let's make a New Year's Resolution to BUY albums from GOOD artists!

What I Said Then…

2007 - New Albums From…: "De La Soul, Raekwon, Method Man, U-God, Cypress Hill, Jadakiss, Canibus, Common, DangerDoom and Gnarls Barkley"

Ok so we ended up getting new Common and Gnarls Barkley albums in 2008, but we got albums from Raekwon, Method Man, U-God AND Jadakiss this year. SO! If anyone has an artist they particularly want to see a new release from and can wait until 2011 to see it, let me know, because I figure 4/10 isn't too bad of a score in this sense.

What I Said Then…

2008 - The New Blood gets to shine

I included the following names specifically: Charles Hamilton, Asher Roth, Crooked I, Bishop Lamont, B.o.B. and Bobby Creekwater. Asher Roth managed to get his album out and it was quite good I felt. Crooked I as part of Slaughterhouse released an excellent album (his EP wasn't as good, but still quality work). The others have been on the mixtape scene grinding away and I imagine Bishop Lamont will get a big boost from Detox whenever it drops.

2008 - The Auto-Tune goes the way of Cam'Ron

(And disappears)

Well Cam made a comeback earlier in the year, but the auto-tune seems to have relaxed a bit. T-Pain did a freestyle of "Forever" (which is pretty hilarious - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x2ALVGlkR4, for example "Last name PIZZLE, first name TEDDY" and "Said I got the game wrapped up, BURRITO") without the auto-tune and sounded alright, despite the wacky lyrics. Lil Wayne has used it so much I'm actually surprised now when I hear a song from him without it. Kanye has taken a step back from rapping in recent times but killed the use of it a bit too thankfully.

What I Said Then…



2008 - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II and Detox

Well, 1 out of 2 is better than 4/10 hahaha. And what an album it was too.

What I Said Then…

2008 - More Comebacks

In 2007, we got albums from Redman, Pharoahe Monch and the Wu-Tang Clan. This year had one major comeback in Eminem and the longer the album has been out; the more people seem to be divided on it. I personally still enjoy it, but unfortunately, the more I listen to the tracks on the Refill reissue, I can't help but wonder why the HELL they weren't included in the first place.

I'd call Raekwon and M.O.P.'s albums successful comebacks too at this point.

What I Said Then…

I'm going to quote this one directly because it's interesting given recent events.



The official end of the 50 Cent era
Some may argue that it's pretty much been over since they kicked Game out, but given the man is still topping charts and moving units, there's still some activity there. The G-Unit album flopped and flopped hard, despite 50 claiming that a shipping error caused the low numbers. Let's see what happens when Before I Self Destruct doesn't sell. Aliens maybe?

If 50's next album comes out and moves less than 200,000 units in its first week, I think we can proclaim that his stranglehold on the mainstream buying ideals is over.

Well, 160,000 is certainly LESS than 200,000 as I mentioned, and regardless of the leak, the album wasn't on track to do big numbers in my opinion to be honest. I think it's safe to say that 50 Cent's stranglehold on the mainstream buying ideals is over.

What I Said Then…

New Albums…

I mentioned Obie Trice, Onyx and Organized Konfusion (simply because I was looking at the ‘O' section of my collection) and whilst we didn't get anything from anyone, it does look like Obie is on the way back with a new mixtape dropping this week called Special Reserve although it seems to be a bootleg more than an official mixtape (but new material is new material either way). Organized Konfusion are hooking up HOPEFULLY for a new album next year and Onyx…well nobody seems too fussed in the group to release an album, so I doubt we'll get one anytime soon.

(If you're wondering why I'm being negative about things I would normally be positive about, I've learned that, by looking at these past columns, the more negative I was about a situation, the greater the chance of it actually happening)

The New List

Once again, it's that time of year again, Santa, in 2010, the beginning of a new decade, I'd like to see the following things happen.

Someone stop Gucci Mane


GUCCI!

GUCCI!

Seriously though, when someone can explain using scientific terminology exactly WHY he is so popular and managing to appear on tracks with people ranging from Game to Keyshia Cole I'll be willing to stop calling him Gucci ‘Inexplicably Popular' Mane. HOLY CRAP HE'S THE NEW LIL WAYNE (what with all the mixtapes, appearances, unwanted remixes etc.)

Detox

It's time. A new decade. We've gone an ENTIRE DECADE without an album from Dr. Dre. I'm going to make a statement in that if we DON'T get it next year, or at least some concrete evidence it's on the way (such as a lead single being released or a track listing), I'm giving up on it, as much as I love Dre.

More music exposure



On a personal level at least. This year I started to get into the Strange Music label with Krizz Kaliko and even gave one of Tech N9ne's albums a listen, not to mention the Suburban Noize albums I listened to and I was pleasantly surprised in all cases. Here's to me discovering more new artists for myself in 2010!

New Albums…

Ok, Little Brother, Common, Game (I fully expect R.E.D. Album to actually drop, but there's no harm in a little extra Christmas Miracle hope), Ice Cube, Slaughterhouse (I know they only just released one, but listening to some previously unreleased stuff on the net, DAMN they have a LOT of potential to tap into), Maino (Weird as it may be, I'm really looking forward to seeing what he can do with his next album) and finally Raekwon (again, just released an album I know, but I'd rather not have to wait so long between excellent albums as opposed to getting ‘average to good' albums).

Rappers Stop Tweeting

Yeah I feel dirty having written that. But seriously, any time an internet service such as Twitter starts developing its own…ugh it's not an adjective or noun but something else. Give me a break, it's been about 15 years since I had to bother with determining what an adjective, noun, verb etc. was! Now my head is filled with various Pharmaceutical information, Real Estate crap and ways of motivating employees that didn't really require a semester long course in University to be taught (yes I'm a bit bitter about that).

Ok, with the ‘Rappers on YouTube' craze seemingly coming to an end, it appears that Twitter is the new thing for this coming decade. Of course, we have seen some amusing Tweets (GAH KILL ME) from people such as Kanye West and recently, Chris Brown, but then there are equally confusing or pointless ones such as from Soulja Boy or Nick "NOT HILARIOUS" Cannon a.k.a. Nick Carey.

In the end though, more rappers have embarrassed themselves on Twitter in the last 12 months than they managed to on YouTube in the last few years.

More Clusterf*** Tracks

I love me some messy remixes. You know the ones where seemingly every man and his dog jump on for 16 bars, the ones that end up being almost 7 minutes long etc. Time after time, we're actually given fairly dope tracks that shouldn't, in theory, work. But they somehow manage to capture the same synergy found on Wu-Tang cuts like "Triumph" and manage to give everyone a chance to shine.

With DJ Khaled's album coming out next year, it's HOPEFULLY going to get some clusterf*** remixes as a result.

A decent Soulja Boy album



Now by ‘decent' I mean decent by his standards. Face it, we're not going to get anything remotely near Illmatic or even something around the 7/10 mark. But if I'm to make it 3 Peat and review his next album, I at least want to be able to make it through the 60 or so minutes without wanting to stab myself with a pencil. Heck, I'd settle for something in the 5-6.5 range and be perfectly happy, anything better than another 3/10. Is it too much to ask?

JOELL ORTIZ!

Out of everyone in Slaughterhouse, I think I'm most looking forward to a new Joell Ortiz album. I know what Royce is capable of and will eventually listen to Street Hop, Joe Budden has a fair amount of work out already this year past, Crooked I is coming with an album soon, but Joell Ortiz really has the potential to deliver an absolutely mind blowing album. Not to say the others can't, but I just feel that if we're going to get something close to a modern classic from anyone in Slaughterhouse, I think Ortiz has the potential to make it happen.

Goodbye Mr. Cent



I think 50 Cent has his place in hip-hop. As evidenced by Before I Self Destruct, it's not as if he's releasing unimaginably bad material, in fact I don't think there was one totally world-ending awful song on the album, rather there was a healthy sprinkling of mediocrity instead. Rather, I just want 50 Cent to stop giving his two cents to EVERY SINGLE SITUATION in hip-hop. Just keep quiet about it and stop stepping on toes and your next album might not bomb harder than that time my friend and I attempted to make moonshine in his backyard.

New Fort Minor

Actually, I completely forgot about Fort Minor until just then when I happened to look at the album hahaha. Anyway, the album was really enjoyable and I would love some more material in 2010.

Unreleased, un-raped Death Row Tracks

The new owners of Death Row Records seem to actually possess brains and released some material this year which was un-tampered (except for the usual re-mastering to make the sound quality better) and the result was great. We got new old material from Dre and Snoop and although some of it was clearly left off the albums for a reason, it's always a nice look at the rapper's mindset when making an album through their song choices. Here's to more material in the future!

More Afro Samurai



I don't know about anyone else, but I've loved all the Afro Samurai movies so far and the soundtracks from RZA have been great placeholders for a Wu album. If you've seen the second movie, you know there's definite room for a number of sequels so I can't wait and I hope that some news about the third installment and accompanying soundtrack makes it's rounds soon.

No more Wayne Babies


ALTHOUGH! If it means more Lauren London or women of a similar caliber pictures, I may retract this wish

Seriously, Wayne should change his saying from "Weezy F. Baby, Please say the Baby" or whatever the hell it is he says to "Weezy F. Baby, Please have my baby".

The Signoff

That's the first part of the Year-End features here in the 37th Chamber; stay tuned next week for the 3rd Annual Award Show, followed by the New Year's Resolution!

Also, if you have any suggestions for Santa, please feel free to drop them in the comments.

Catch you next week!