The 37th Chamber 10.29.08: November And December Rap-Up

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 10.29.2008

After the flurry of releases in September, hip-hop seems to be taking a break this October. With that in mind, what's in store for us over the next few months and the Christmas season? We've got Jay-Z, Kanye West, 50 Cent, Eminem and more!

Before we start, sorry for my absence recently, we had a death in the family that rattled everyone and I was spending a lot of time with my grandfather to help him and haven't been at home much.

I've been trying to be cheerful though, I've listened to a couple of albums for solace and I'm up and ready to go.

So without further ado, let's get down to my second come back in less than a year!

The Rant

It's a toss up at the moment as to who's album I'm most looking forward to over the next few months. Ludacris, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Jadakiss, Eminem and Busta Rhymes are all scheduled to release albums in November or December. There's also 50 Cent, but that's a kind of sick interest in that I want to see just how lazy he's going to be with each release. I wonder how budget he'll be going with the Producer's this time. If you've got THAT MUCH money, you can certainly afford someone else with a better ear to pick your beats for you.

JR Rotem has an awesome quote out about working with 50 for Before I Self Destruct: "He's at a level where he doesn't have to put an album out for money or anything — he's in it for the love of hip-hop". YOU COULD HAVE FOOLED ME given how much he talks about money, making money, his side projects, how much money he's made off previous albums and his failing cash cow a.k.a. Tony Yayo.

Ludacris though, is an entirely different matter. I've enjoyed his music to an extent, and apart from "Money Maker", I've enjoyed the singles from his albums. I haven't ever anticipated the actual album though. Sure I'll download it and give it a listen, because some foolish part of me thinks he'll put some concentrated thought behind that booming voice of his, but before Release Therapy, that usually came up nil. Release Therapy though, was much better than I believed it to be as the ‘changing image' is a played out gimmick to fool people into thinking your album content will change as well.

Theater Of The Mind though looks to be much more entertaining as I think he's more relaxed with himself this time round. An image change and a promise that the music will change can put pressure on an artist to actually MAKE the change, unlike Mr. Cent who promises us a different album each time round, and delivers the same album, but with crappier production. His new album, judging by the track list, looks like it is going to be more carefree once more. I also like the concept of listing ‘featuring' as ‘co-starring' instead to tie in with the theatrical theme.

Jay-Z and I have a love / hate relationship though. Often he'll release an album, and I'll love it, but then he comes out with an irritating one or one with over-the-top glossy production and you feel like you're listening to a CD made by Fosace Versace or another designer label. I DO like "Swagga Like Us" more than most people though and if the new version goes ahead as planned (Young Jeezy, Nas and Andre 3000 – who I will gladly tell to die in a fire if it helps him make a better verse), it could be even better than the original. I know what you're thinking, "Young Jeezy? Nah…" but when he's backed up by better lyricists, he has a tendency to actually step his game up, albeit only slightly. I also like "Jockin' Jay-Z", and the jab at Oasis wasn't really a jab, more like a fart in their general direction so I don't know what everybody is getting riled up about either.

Anyway, I do question calling it a sequel to a sequel (never did find out what that was called…'trequel' I said, but the spell check doesn't like that), as Blueprint 2 was bloated, and once you heard the single disc version, you wanted to slap Jay for making a double disc in the first place. American Gangster was a fresh breath of Hov though, flipping rhyme schemes he hadn't used in nearly a decade so I've got high hopes for Blueprint 3.

Why the hell is Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II taking so long!?

Oh Kanye…well 808s & Heartbreak is coming sooner than expected in just under a month's time so I guess the pain will be eased by Christmas. Quote Wikipedia:

"The entire album is sung by West with the aid of Auto-Tune, aside from one verse by Young Jeezy, a duet with Lil Wayne, and background vocals by Kid Cudi. West has stated that he loves using Auto-Tune and is dismayed that the term has been commonly associated with being "wack". He considers the technology "the funnest [sic] thing to use." "

Dear Mr. West,

It's considered ‘wack' when an artist known for lush production and unorthodox yet endearing rapping style does a 180 and records and ENTIRE ALBUM USING THE DAMN AUTO-TUNE!

Signed,
Frustrated Hip-Hop Fan

As we continue on…

"West also classified 808s & Heartbreak as pop music and expressed that, "People think pop is bad, but Michael Jackson was pop and who can compare to him?" "

Michael Jackson is a pop artist. Kanye West was a hip-hop artist, that's why it's bad.

Look, bottom line, I thought his verse on the "Lollipop" remix was fine, he was having fun with it, you could tell. It also wasn't overused like Wayne has done, such as on the aforementioned "Swagga Like Us". I thought I'd get into "Love Lockdown" once I saw the video, as I have chronicled previous experiences here before…not the case this time. I do like the production, but the auto-tune distracts you from the lyrics which should never happen, unless the vocals are Mariah Carey powerful or Ludacris loud. If the track listing is correct, 11 tracks at an average of say, 4 minutes each is damn near ¾ of an hour of auto-tune. T-Pain is already releasing an album in November (which I'll probably check out on the basis that "Can't Believe It" is a guilty pleasure), I don't need another album like that.

Of course curiosity will kill my neighbors annoying cat one day, and I will listen to 808s & Heartbreaks eventually.


HA!

Jadakiss is an artist who seems confused as to who he wants to be exactly. On one hand you've got the street hardened rapper who hung out with Biggie and eventually DMX. Then you've got the more pop-friendly ‘Kiss who is trying to gain more mainstream exposure. He's kind of like the Yonkers version of 50 Cent, but can actually rap. I suppose more than any other reason, I'm interested to see how Jada holds up for an entire album after four years away from the game. The track list seems to be reflecting a confused mantle though, you've got a track with Ne-Yo, one called "Take It Down South" with Sheek Louch and Rick Ross. No offense to Rick Ross, but personally, I'd have tried for someone else who embodies the Southern swag a little better.

As I've been writing "Love Lockdown" has been on repeat for about 15 minutes now…and holy crap it's growing on me. Slowly, but yeah, it's becoming tolerated.

There's also Detox supposedly going to be release, but you know…I doubt that.

Eminem's album I think is my most anticipated of the year. If the latest rumor is true, he isn't using much of his own production on this album which I think collective hip-hop heads across the world are happy about indeed. If the track with Royce produced by DJ Premier makes the cut, and the T.I. collaboration is better than "Touchdown", I'm going to have a very happy Christmas (release date is currently set for December 23 according to Amazon.com). I'm trying to avoid listening to anything unless it's an official single for the album as I like to have a virgin ear when it comes to new albums at the moment.

Oh, Busta's album is set for a February 2009 release…

Well, on my less anticipated list, there's T-Pain, Styles P., Trick Trick, D.I.T.C., Ace Hood (don't ask why, as the only reason I can come up with is I like his voice) and Sheek Louch.

T-Pain's Thr33 Ringz album could be fun, I found that The Epiphany wasn't as repulsive as I expected it to be and as I said earlier, "Can't Believe It" is a guilty, guilty pleasure. I think since he's started to curb his use of the auto-tune, the music has been more tolerable as he's moving beyond essentially, a gimmick.

Ok, "Love Lockdown" was getting on my nerves again.

Styles P. and Sheek Louch I'm going to lump together because my thoughts are essentially the same on them. They're both unique artists in their own way, but they suffer from the same mainstream compulsion on occasions that Jadakiss has. Rather than make a straight forward street album, they inevitably litter it with some R&B influenced tracks, or in Sheek Louch's case, he's been known to sing a hook or two.

Trick Trick I'm waiting to see if he can rap about something other than his murder trial and Ace Hood I'm waiting to see if there's actually substance there and I haven't merely been jaded by a loud voice and booming production again.

The D.I.T.C. album has no information available, except for the fact that the release date of November 18 is confirmed on a couple of websites. It will be interesting to see if there's unreleased material from Big L and if Fat Joe has decided to motivate his fat carcass to a halfway decent verse if it's new material. Speaking of the fat one, Wikipedia says that he has at least "one classic album"…which is…?

Before We Go

There we have it folks, my thoughts and feelings on some of the most anticipated releases over the next few months. Again, sorry for the absence, but next week I should be up and running again at 100%.

Catch you tomorrow in the news!