Indies Vs. Majors

What's going on cats??  Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend so that you all could come back to see my written mind presented and viewed for you.  This week's post deals with a big discussion within, not just the hip-hop industry, but the music industry as a whole.  Yesterday, there was a report that came out that stated that, for the first time in recent memory, if not ever, there was an entire year where there were no platinum releases.  NONE.  ZERO.  That, to me, was a sign of the industry times.  Last year, Beyonce closed out 2013 with her very strategically placed digital self-titled album, and shortly after released the physical copy.  That was the last big album to hit over one million units.  Let's face facts: unless you're Mrs. Knowles-Carter, Mr. Carter, Drake, Taylor Swift, and maybe the other Mr. Carter (Weezy), there's not a great chance of an artist hitting the once heavily desired platinum status.  Nowadays, and how it's been over the past several years, artists are now fortunate to get a Gold plaque.

Major labels were huge cash cows for artists.  In many cases, they still are.  However, the days of wanting and needing to depend on a major are subsequently over.  It was almost considered nearly talentless if an artist didn't have a major label that they signed with, or at least signed to a label with no distribution deal with a major like Def Jam, Interscope, Sony, or Priority.  Most of the time, especially in the ever lucrative nineties, if you were signed to a major or had a distribution deal with a major, you were quicker to go gold or platinum than say someone who was signed to Koch or Landspeed, who were both indie distributors.

Let's go over the differences between the indie route and the major route.  There's absolutely no doubt that being signed to a major will get an artist out to the masses a lot more.  Everything from promotion to marketing and bigger contracts automatically draws people to go this direction.  Radio and music videos (which are almost becoming relegated to channels like Youtube or MTV2) are pretty much promised, and with high end budgets, an artist is able to acquire top notched producers, music video directors, and tours.  The bottom line: tons of exposure.

As far as the indie route, it's just that: independent.  Pretty much everything comes out of your pocket.  From video shoots to producers and guests on your album.  You're responsible for your own promotion, marketing, and exposure.  The question gets asked, "How do indie artists make money?"  The answer comes the same way major artists have to make money: touring and appearances.  It's a lot quicker to recoup the half a million dollar advance the majors give you than say an indie distributor will.  However, with today's marketing, it's not quite as hard anymore with avenues like Youtube, Vimeo, Soundcloud, and other ways to get your craft out for the world to experience.

Most people would generally think that indie artists don't become millionaires or don't see the plush lifestyle those in the majors do.  That's not always the case.  Case in point: Tech N9ne.  The Kansas City native has been an indie artist and head of his own label, Strange Music, for over twenty years and has been on the Forbes List over the last couple of years.  Reportedly other artists such as Cormega and Sean Price have been said to have accumulated over a milli over the years as well.  Let's also face it, there's far less hassle.  Between fees all over the place due to the advance the majors give you, it's not hard to go nearly broke owing everyone such as engineers, guests artists, estates for sample clearances, lawyer fees, and many others.  With that being said, indies obviously have less of a problem with that situation.

There's another taboo about the majors that has caused many people to not even look in the direction of them, and that's artist and repertoire development.  A long noted, underground, behind closed doors secret within the record industry is that a lot of label heads or A&R reps "develop" artists, as in wanting them to sometimes compromise their craft for the purpose of selling units.  Basically, these people prefer artists to be more like actors and actresses more so than being themselves and creating the music that is more dear to their hearts.  With majors, you answer to a lot of different bosses.  Going the indie route, you're the boss, or even if you're signed to a distribution deal to more lesser known companies such as E1 (the former Koch Records), there's not an extensive amount of red tape.  

The many artists that have switched from majors to indies has hit staggering numbers.  Artists such as Joe Budden (even though he's signed to Shady/Aftermath in a group deal with his fellow Slaughterhouse members Royce Da 5'9, Crooked I, and Joell Ortiz), Mobb Deep, Scarface, and most recently The Game have all made enough money in the majors to answer to themselves and become their own bosses and determine their own sound.  That's not to say that all major labels and A&R reps go the way of wanting a certain "feel" with their artists, but it's been widely said that this occurs the majority of the time.  Let's take two examples:  if anyone remembers the video for Dr. Dre's "Dre Day", the very beginning of the video has a fake Jerry Heller (the controversial former manager of N.W.A.) and a fake Eazy-E (played by hilarious comedian A.J. Johnson) has Heller going over how Eazy was going to get marketed and was going to pretty much exploit him so that Eazy could get rich.  There's also the cut "Gun Clapp" by Boot Camp Click's three-headed monster OGC.  This was a perfectly illustrated example of how A&R's want an artist to have a certain "look" and "feel" and, once again, it's for exploitation purposes.  This cut, in my opinion, was a staggering statement made from a group who's click was all a part of indie label Duck Down Records, but had a distribution deal with Priority (let me just say that their album, Da Storm, is among the most hard-hitting and slept-on releases of the entire nineties and still remains as my favorite album to ever come from the BCC camp).

Artists are now starting to get that making lots of money and getting tons of fame and notoriety isn't worth sacrificing who you are, nor your craft.  It's refreshing to see more artists not succumbing to the dumbing down of their talent to obtain more attention, in spite of wanting to gain more audiences.  To all my indie artists, keep grinding.  It's a harder route that will require more work, but it will all be worth it, plus in most cases you'll get back what you put into it, maybe even more.  With the majors, Spearhead stated in the sorely under-appreciated hip-hop documentary "Rhyme Or Reason" that "Majors were like big corporate banks, and these banks give you loans called advances that you must pay back with phat interest."  With all this being said, majors will get you fame, fortune, and notoriety, but will it be worth selling out your craft?

That's all for now kiddies.  As usual, I'll leave you with the hottest cuts of the week, at least thus far.  The first will be from west coast underground fave Choosey.  His debut album, Left Field, was just released this past Tuesday and it's very dope.  On the track "Fly Me To The Moon", he and producer Exile (trust me, this cat will be in your top five faves if you've never heard his work before) construct this EPIC production underneath some mellow and laid-back bars.  The next cut comes from the aforementioned Joe Budden.  He's dropping his forthcoming album, Some Love Lost, in November and I have to be honest with you, this sounds damn good.  For the most part, Joey has sounded a lot more introspective, but also a lot more hungry over the past few years since he left Def Jam.  This track is the first single from the album "Ordinary Love Shit Pt. 4 (Running Away)".  This is a seemingly heartfelt, yet intermittently venomous, stab at whom we can highly imagine being former on and off flame, model and Love & Hip-Hop star Tahiry.  It's always refreshing to hear an emcee wear his heart on his sleeve in this overtly macho, fake ass thugging going on, and I have a feeling Tahiry will have a lot to say about this...or maybe not.  Only time will tell.  Next week will be a monster day of releases, as Ras Kass & Apollo Brown will drop their highly anticipated collar album, Blasphemy.  Run The Jewels (the incredible duo of El-P and Killer Mike) will drop the sequel to their phenomenal self-titled debut, RTJ2, and finally Black Milk will release his fifth album, If There's A Hell Below.  After checking out the stream, this may very well be his best album to date.  This is an incredible album.  Check you guys and gals out next week.

Hip-Hop Awards: We Still Have A Lot Of Work To Do

What's happening folks?!  Welcome back to another entry concerning the world of hip-hop.  Let's get right to it, shall we?  Last night was the BET Hip-Hop Awards of 2014.  Typically, when I hear about an upcoming presentation of the Hip-Hop Awards, I tend to roll my eyes because BET's version of what "hip-hop" is, consists of what's popular with the 106 & Park audience (is that show still on anymore?).  For this generation of listeners, people like Ty Dolla $ign, Rich Homie Quan, Migos, and the cringe-worthy Young Thug are the spokesmen for the new school of rap.  My feelings have been widely known about the subject.  However, I do tune in for one reason most purists tune in for: the cyphers.  Before I get into the cyphers, let's get into the high moments, as well as the low moments.  First the low moments so I can get them out the way.

ANY performance by Young Thug, to me, screams total and blatant ratchetness.  Naturally, when the Rich Gang members get on stage (Thug, Quan, and Birdman), I'm shaking my head ready for the next segment.  The next low moment was Bobby Shmurda.  How in the hell do these NYC cats continue to sound like they're from the South?  How long is this going to keep happening?  The song is wack but the "Shmoney" dance is even worse.  They brought a chunky lil dude on stage that I've been told is named Terrio who tore that dance up, but still the dance is just wrong.  It's cats like him and Troy Ave that aren't really bring NY back to prominence in any way.  Also the T.I. and Young Thug performance of "All About The Money" was very basic and plain, complete with shooting fire in the back.  I've seen better on stage vigor from Tip.

Now I'll mention the high moments.  Without question there were two particularly poignant moments.  The first was the exhilarating performance of Common's standout cut from his excellent Nobody's Smiling album "Kingdom".  He had a choir in the back, in which a choir is featured in the production of the song in the first place, but his cohort of the song, Vince Staples, showed that he's among the future of hip-hop that we can actually LIKE.  However, he also brought on stage the enigmatic, yet highly anticipated, Jay Electronica.  He added a verse that only be described as crazy (Jay, enough already, we need Act II: Patents Of Nobility.  Please make that happen in 2015).  The biggest moment of the performance occurred near the very end, when the parents of Michael Brown walked on stage (Mr. Brown was looking too old to be dressed how he was dressed however).  It was a moving moment to see them, as Mrs. Brown was still noticeably and understandably shaken by her sons death over the summer.  They, along with Common, Jay, Vince, the choir, and even the audience had their hands up in the "hands up, don't shoot" stance, while having a moment of silence.  Powerful stuff.

The next big moment happened when Doug E. Fresh was presented with their Lifetime Achievement Award.  Doug E. Fresh was very, very big in my upbringing as a young student of hip-hop so this, to me, was long overdue.  While accepting his speech, he thanked God, his six children, his wife, his father, and the original Get Fresh Crew.  Once he got to thanking his mother, he was overwhelmed with emotion, as he very tearfully stated that his mother had passed five weeks prior to the awards.  With his mother's face on the back screen, it brought everyone in view of the camera to tears.  However, the mood was lightened when awards host Snoop Dogg (who was as high as you can imagine but nevertheless had a great time and was damn funny in the movie skits with the ever gorgeous Nia Long) came out and asked Doug E.'s assistance with Snoop's legendary version of "Ladi Dadi" from the iconic Doggystyle album.  This was truly a wonderful moment.

The DJ Mustard performance with YG and others was basically average.  He came off like a west coast version of DJ Khaled, but he was obviously going off the momentum of his award he had won earlier in the evening for Producer Of The Year.  A better performance came when Brandy performed the remix of her hit from twenty years ago, "I Wanna Be Down" with MC Lyte, Yo-Yo, and Queen Latifah.  Clearly showing that Black don't crack, those ladies looked exceptional twenty years after the hit was made.  They were performing against an all-white backdrop, much like the original version in 1994, which made the visual look nostalgic, yet memorable.

Now, on to the cyphers.  The first one involved Wiz Khalifa and his Taylor Gang.  It was unimpressive to say the least, in spite of the legendary Premo on the wheels.  Hard to say who took the crown on this exchange because frankly it was very mediocre.  You be the judge.




Next was a cypher involving new jacks and vets.  Very impressive cats of former Bad Boy prospect King Los, Chicago's Vic Mensa, and perhaps hip-hop's next femcee in charge, Snow Tha Product held down the younger generation, while Treach showed he still had the skills to shut the party down, it was Mississippi's own David Banner, looking like a dapper elder statesman with his suit, bow tie and his grey beard, who took the title in this fierce cypher that arguably was the cypher of the night overall.  Here's a look.




Next up was a cypher involving Detroit's next-to-blow femcee, Detroit Che, Dee-1, Troy Ave (yawn), Lil' Mama, and Def Jam's newest signee Logic.  This was a little better than the Taylor Gang cypher, but was not as potent as the prior one.  Lil' Mama wasn't spectacular, but wasn't terrible either.  Truth be told, Mama got bars, albeit inconsistently.  Dee-1 was decent and I'm looking for good things from this young southerner.  The clear winner was Logic, who's album Under Pressure is already critically acclaimed before it even drops next week.  Take a look.




The next cypher involved underground commodities Jarren Benton and Corey Channon, as well as hip-hop's Romeo & Juliet, Papoose and the recently paroled Remy Ma.  While Benton and Channon did fairly decent jobs, it clearly belonged to Pap and Remy, as they HANDLED the back-and-forth techniques used in the past by the likes of Stetsasonic and Nice & Smooth.  Peep it out.




The final studio cypher involved Busta Rhymes student O.T. Genasis, southern rapper Kevin Gates (who recently had issues with Young Thug seemingly squashed), west coast underground cat G-Eazy, and battle rap giant Loaded Lux.  Genasis showed that he's one to watch in the future, as is G-Eazy.  Gates brought nothing jaw-dropping or rewinding (truthfully I put him into the same category that I put Quan and Thug in as talentless, ignorant wannabes with limited futures in this game), thus leaving Lux to venomously clean up the pieces.  Check it out.




Another slightly mediocre cypher involved another battle rap notable, T-Rex, along with Goodz, Rain 910, and Tsu Surf.  While all are more than capable of bringing heat to the mic, this cypher looked like it fell apart.  This one was a letdown, though not the worst.




The final one was an on-stage cypher involving notables in the battle rap arena.  Arsenal, Couture, Calicoe, and battle rap monster Murda Mook were exercising their lyrical daggers in front of the live crowd.  Couture was unimpressive, while Arsenal and Calicoe were average at best.  However, leave it to Mook to bring the viciousness, including a dab at Drake.  I'm very ready to see another Lux vs. Mook encounter, meanwhile if I was Drake, I would question whether or not to respond to all this shit talking Mook has been doing towards him.  As we've seen in the past, if you're not from the battle culture, don't start becoming one.  Here's a look at this final cypher.




Overall, the BET Hip-Hop Awards was fairly decent, though it showed that hip-hop as a culture has a long way to go before we are seen as a formidable, cultural giant instead of the sideshow coonery that we've become over the last eight years.  It's a shame that cyphers are the only thing that holds substance in this hip-hop awards show, other than the icon award.  Was there ignorance in abundance?  Emphatically yes!  Was there talent at all during the show?  Absolutely.  While emotional moments like the Common performance and the Doug E. Fresh speech were very special, moments like these are the minority and not the majority in terms of impact and being memorable.  Even this year's cyphers were overall down in quality as compared to classic ones like the Shady 2.0 cypher and the G.O.O.D. Music cypher.  Being that VH1 has done away with Hip-Hop Honors, which was some of the best three hours of television, this is what we're left with unfortunately.  Cyphers will not clean up the minstrel show that BET presents as hip-hop.  One day, hopefully, someone else will step up and show these kids what hip-hop is instead of the wack to barely above decent talent they're being exposed to.

That's all for now folks.  I'm going to leave you with two joints of the week.  The first one is hot new Black Milk and his Random Axe cohorts of Sean Price and Guilty Simpson.  This is the latest off his forthcoming album, If There's A Hell Below..., coming at the end of October.  With three distinct beat changes, the RA boys show their lyrical asses and makes the anticipation grow for a 2015 release of the sophomore Random Axe album (if you're not up on their self-titled debut, smack yourself!).  The next cut is the first official single from PRhyme, which consists of DJ Premier and Royce Da 5'9.  Earlier this week, Premo revealed the artwork and track list for the nine track album and quite frankly the game will start being on life support come December 9th.  Here's the track "Courtesy" .  Hold it down until next week guys and gals.

The Disrespect Of Hip-Hop C/O Iggy Azaelia

What's happening folks!!  Thanks for rolling along with me again this week.  Appreciate the views and the feedback I've gotten.  Not just in this particular blog, but in my other two as well.  Much love to all!  This week, my focus will be on the subsequent rise of Iggy Azaelia, and her apparent "right" to use the N-word in hip-hop circles.  Bear with me on this because this might piss some people off to a degree, but as usual, like it or not, I'm going to say it anyway.

First of all, let's go into this chick's history.  This is a young lady from Australia that got appealed to hip-hop in her adolescence.  She snuck off to America where she wanted to pursue hip-hop, and a few years later started a few Youtube freestyles (*rolls eyes*) and she soon made a cut called "Pu$$y".  From there, the buzz was about this caucasian Australian who got the attention of T.I. and put her as a member of his Grand Hustle team.  She finally released her debut, The New Classic, in April of this year with the massive crossover single "Fancy" with British Pop singer Charli XCX.  You started hearing this song everywhere, including commercials.  The album also produced single such as the T.I.-assisted "Change Your Life" and "Work", which were big hits for her.  As it stands right now, her album is near gold status here in the states, but has already achieved that stature in Canada.

The first thing I thought when I heard heard this young lady, whose real name is Amethyst, was "This chick here thinks she's Nicky."  I clearly knew what was going on here.  Here you have a rather attractive looking, blonde-haired white female rapper who can seemingly rhyme but her style is WAY too much like Nicky's.  Seriously.  WAY too much.  This one, also like Nicky, signed under a major player in the game with T.I.  Let's not even mention the implants.  This woman is a clear-cut replica of Nicky, and the industry knows it.  She's a clone.  Look at the blue print:  white girl with a phat ass (implants) and a southern drawl to her.  Nobody sees anything wrong with that picture?

I already am not a big fan of hers, but now comes the new controversy, instead of classic.  She recently claimed that she should be allowed to say the N-word because we all say it and it's accepted. Sigh.  Okay, it's a universally known fact that the word is not to be used by any other culture except us.  Here's where the proverbial grey area comes in.  Although we do know this fact, shouldn't we lead by example if we don't expect anyone else to say it?  I was called nigger quite early, plus had been the subject of racial jokes so to call me a nigger isn't the most offensive thing because I've been called worse.  That just reflects me though.  I'm more than aware of the history of the name and how cruel and beneath dirt that name was historically to our ancestors.  Ironically, we ended up calling ourselves that word as a means of solidarity or backwards unity.  Yes, I go around saying the same word because it was used in my house and of course dwelled within all of hip-hop.  The argument is, however, can we really get too angry when we hear those outside of our culture use it when we do a good job of it ourselves by using a word that has torn us down for hundreds of years?  I'm very mixed on the issue.  Would it feel and sound weird to hear someone like Iggy say that she's with her 'niggas'?  Hell yeah it would.  However, can I be completely smashed-mouth pissed by hearing her use it?  Not completely.  With a lot of people outside of our culture, especially whites, they go off of example.  Telling them it's not a word they use is not going to work truly unless they see us not doing it to each other.  The funny thing is the NAACP tried to outlaw and ban the use of the word period some years back.  The question I have is, why didn't they use this militant stance about the use of the word among our culture back when it was very popular to use it in the beginning?  I wonder was it was bold then as it was some seven years ago.  The funny thing is, we get all up in arms over the use of the word when other people use the ugliest word in our society traditionally and historically, but not only do we use it, we use it proudly.  Some of us even define ourselves as 'real niggas' and 'real bitches'.  Also these same people up in arms follow Christianity and very proudly profess their Christian faith, oblivious to the fact that it was beaten into our ancestors consciousness to survive so what really is the difference?

Anyways, going back to Iggy, why are people going after her and not T.I. for allowing her to say it?  I'm pretty sure if T.I. were to say, "Stop saying that shit", she would stop, but she freely has used it and no reprimand has been given, at least not publicly.  She's already been given the business by Rah Digga calling her "Pop" and "doesn't define what hip-hop is."  She has gotten similar attacks from others, but the truth is, Rah is right.  Iggy is manufactured.  Furthermore, is she really THAT talented?  Not in my personal opinion.  Everyone knows that hip-hop and myself are connected for life, but that doesn't mean that I need to be doing it because clearly being an emcee is not my calling, though I'm a great writer and poet.  However, she's a part of Pop culture, and let's face it, have we ever really seen a successful white female emcee?  The answer is obvious.

Although I don't think she'll be a one album wonder like most running the game right now (see: Young Thug, Kevin Gates, K-Camp, Rae Sremmurd, etc.) she'll still have to do a lot more convincing that she's not just home manufactured gimmick of the record industry.  Can it be done?  Only time will tell.  That's all for now kiddies.  I'm going to leave you with a track from piggy's New Classic album so can judge for yourself what kind of future she has.  After that is the track of the week.  This cut comes from the Maryland trio Diamond District.  The group that consists of yU, XO, and producer Oddisee made a lot of noise in the underground with their excellent debut In The Ruff.  They're back with their sophomore album March On Washington coming next week and here's the first single with accompanying video "First Step."  This is much appreciated 2014 boom-bap.  Take it easy guys and gals!

The Impact Of Illmatic

What's happening folks?!  Glad to see you made it back for another go-round.  This week, I'll be focusing on something very positive, for once, within this game of hip-hop.  This one involves the release of Nas' documentary, "Time Is Illmatic."  This documentary details Nas' upbringing and the inspiration behind the brilliant masterpiece known as Illmatic.  The result: a fantastic story of a gifted young prodigy being caught up in the streets and the chaotic environment that surrounded being turned into one of the industry's most prolific and important emcees that crafted the game's greatest album of all-time. Here's the trailer.




 
For me personally, Illmatic meant the world to me.  I first got turned onto hip-hop around the age of six when I heard Run-DMC's "My Adidas".  Then, it was the landmark single by them "Walk This Way' featuring Aerosmith that perked my ears up to hip-hop.  Throw in some Beastie Boys and, of course, the first time I heard "Rappers Delight" and I was just as intrigued with hip-hop as I was with rock, R&B, Gospel, and the Blues (the latter three were played in my Grandparents house daily).  However, when I heard Eric B & Rakim's "Paid In Full", I could remember the billowing 808s and the Asian vocal sample and said to myself, "This is different".  This was funky as hell!  Then I heard, "Thinking of a master plan/cause ain't nothing but sweat inside my hand" from this imposing monotone voiced-emcee.  I, then, managed to listen to the entire album of Paid In Full when I was seven and had found my alternative to artists that I was heavy into such as New Edition, Debarge,  Metallica, Megadeath, KISS, and Michael Jackson.  I LOVED the album.  I was immediately hooked by the crazy baselines and funky production.  I was also turned on, around this time, to a group called Stetsasonic, the original hip-hop band.  I remember how different they were just by hearing "My Rhyme" and "Go Stetsa", but not very long after that, I heard "Talkin' All That Jazz".  That did it.  I was done.  I knew that hip-hop was going to be my favorite genre of music from that point on.  Although I was still buying occasional R&B, Metal, and Pop, buying Paid In Full, In Full Gear, and Doug E. Fresh's The World's Greatest Entertainer (all around the age of eight) made hip-hop my official genre of music.

Let's fast forward to April of 1994.  I was still in eighth grade at O.L.M. Catholic School and I was watching Rap City (hosted by Big Lez and, I think, Joe Clair at this time) when I got home.  I remember seeing this video called "It Ain't Hard To Tell", and it immediately became my favorite cut in the world.  I was already heavy into the New York/East Coast scene with me being a big fan of artists like Black Moon, Smif-N-Wessun, Gangstarr, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and EPMD.  However, this was somewhat different.  This dude could RHYME, and I mean SPIT!  I was enamored by the use of Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" (which is my all-time favorite MJ cut) and the funky drum pattern.  It wasn't long before I was literally free styling this song often like most anyone else would just randomly sing their favorite song.  About a month an a half later roughly, I got exposed to his follow-up single, "The World Is Yours".  Although it didn't hit me with quite the same jolt as his first single did, I was intrigued by it nonetheless.  I ended up loving it to the point where this became my new favorite song, and I was free styling this cut as well.  I was on pins and needles waiting on this album, as Nas became my new favorite emcee, replacing Jeru The Damaja.

In comes April of 1994.  I managed to go to Peaches Records & Tapes to get myself three CDs that i REALLY wanted: M.O.P.'s debut To The Death, Gangstarr's excellent Hard To Earn, and Illmatic.  I was stoked beyond imagination for finally getting this album that I so badly wanted from my new favorite artist.  I had heard a buzz about it being bootlegged and how amazing the album was, but of course I needed to know it for myself.  After all, I was also into the gangsta West Coast scene as well, for I was into Dre, Snoop, MC Ren, Spice 1, MC Eiht, Cube and even some conscious rap like Souls Of Mischief.  I wanted to save the best for last so I put on M.O.P. first (this was the album that spawned their longtime riot-inducing anthem "How About Some Hardcore").  The album was dope, but somewhat underwhelming for me at the time.  I moved on to Gangstarr and boy was that a banger!  To me, Gangstarr was much like EPMD, if not better, in terms of consistency.  Now, however, was the moment I had been waiting on.  I popped Illmatic into my CD Player and one of the first things that struck me was the brief sampling of his verse on Main Source's "Live At The BBQ", which was ironic because I had actually bought Main Source's Breaking Atoms months earlier and LOVED it, especially that cut but I had no idea that this was the Nasty Nas mentioned in the linear credits along with Joe Fatal and Akinyele (Mr. "Put It In Your Mouth" himself).

The first cut after the intro was "NY State Of Mind", and it was a menacing cut in terms of production (BTW I saw the linear production notes, and when I saw that Premier, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, and Large Professor all did beats on it, I was like "This will be GOOD".  Understatement of all-time right??) .  Truthfully, in contrast, the lyrics are what drew me into the song.  Lyrics like "I got so many rhymes I don't think I'm too sane/life is parallel to hell but I must maintain" and "Niggaz be running through the blocks shooting/time to start the revolution, catch a body, head to Houston/Once they caught us off guard, the Mac 10 was in the grass and/I ran like a cheetah with thoughts of an assassin" hooked me, and I was hanging onto every word, every bar that was being said.  Then it was "Life's A Bitch", which featured a sample of another all-time favorite of mine, "Yearning For Your Love" by The Gap Band, so this was an immediate fave of mine before any words were spit.  Some cat named AZ was featured on the cut that I could see mentioned on the credits.  This dude MURDERED this cut, and Nas had to follow that but he held his own.  Once I got to track six, "Memory Lane" I was in a very good place already, but Dear God when I heard this particular track, I literally repeated this track over and over so many times that I remembered the whole song by the end of the day.  Besides the production being so hypnotic and engaging, the lyrics were as insightful and personal as you could get at this time.  Bars like: "Word to Christ/a disciple of streets/trifle on beats/I decipher prophecies through a mic and say peace/I hung around the older dudes, while they sling-smack/the dingbat/they spoke of Fat Cat" and "I reminisce on park jams, my man was shot for his sheep coat/childhood lesson made me see him drop in my weed smoke" are enrapturing to me and I couldn't get enough.  I finally moved onto track seven, which was the Q-Tip produced "One Love".  I knew this was an album that was quickly becoming my favorite of all the CDs and tapes I owned, which was quite a bit at this time.  I still had three more tracks to go before I made it to "It Ain't Hard To Tell", in which i would be KILLING this cut because it was finally in my possession and not just recording the song from the radio and onto a blank cassette (the true origins of the mixtape if you ask me).  Track eight was "One Time For Your Mind", a track that truthfully had less impact on me initially then the rest of the tracks on the album, but nonetheless was dope because it sounded like he was free styling the whole time.  With track nine, "Represent", this was just STUPID dope!  I remember putting this on constant repeat as well.  Come the sixth or seventh listen, I had the second verse down pat: "They call me Nas I'm not your legal type of fella/Moet drinking, marijuana smoking street dweller/Always on the corner, rolling up bless/when i dress/it's never nothing less than Guess/Kobe walking down the block with the hat turned back/loved committing sins while my friends sold crack/This nigga raps with a razor, keeps it under the tongue, the school dropout, never liked the shit from day one."  Now, it's here, "It Ain't Hard To Tell".  My SHIT!!!!!  Needless to say, this was a religious exercise that I did practically all summer long.  Don't get me wrong, the year of 1994 was OUTSTANDING, with releases from Outkast (Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik), Da Brat (Funkdafied), Method Man (Tical), Organized Konfusion (Stress: The Extinction Theory), Scarface (The Diary), Redman (Dare Iz A Darkside), and definitely Biggie's debut (Ready To Die).  However, in the midst of all this brilliance, greatness, and damn near perfection, it was Nas that wore the crown for best album of that year.

Ten years, and six Illmatic CDs later (I literally played them until they were warped and couldn't played anymore), it still remains as not only my favorite album of all-time (even mores than Boyz II Men's II, Michael Jackson's Off The Wall, Metallica's self-titled album, and Eric B & Rakim's Paid In Full).  This album made me LIVE for hip-hop.  I was more than just a big fan of it now.  I started writing, rapping (trust me I'm not a threat to anyone), and producing (see the prior statement).  I started looking at lyrics in an entirely new light and with introspection.  I was nicknamed "Hip Hop" because of my almost insatiable knowledge and love of hip-hop culture, but then I started to embrace it.  While Paid In Full, In Full Gear, and Run-DMC's Rasing Hell birthed me, Illmatic made me become one with hip-hop.  Although there was still special places in my heart for the prior genres, especially R&B, it was hip-hop that became my being, and that's what Ilmatic did for me.  This was the epitome of ghetto poetry, kind of like a hood Langston Hughes was Nasir Jones.  This was the most thought-provoking and insightful bit of poetry I had ever heard, it was just over subtle, yet incredible, production.  Whenever I pop in Illmatic, I reflect upon that fourteen year old naive, Catholic school boy that off and on grew up in an environment much like what was projected in Illmatic, only the murder rate was nowhere near as bad, but the drug pushers, wine-os, bums, and muggers were on the money.  This wasn't just a murder-murder-kill-kill album, and this wasn't necessarily a hardcore record either.  It was, however, and real look at a young Black man trying to make it in this world, in spite of the bullet-laced poverty that was around him, and the only way he could maintain was through poetry and music.

I remember when The Source (back when it was the most reputable hip-hop magazine there was) gave it the prestigious, yet rare, perfect five mic rating.  I said to myself, "If this didn't solidify this album, nothing will."  I often would call an album a classic if it gave me an experience that would change me and my perspective on hip-hop music and the culture that surrounds it.  There were many albums that I gave that moniker too later in my years, but Illmatic was the first album that did that to me within the first several listens.  While other albums like It Was Written, I Am, Stillmatic, and his most recent Life Is Good album were all very good albums and were almost knocking on Illmatic's greatness in a few instances, there will never be another Nas album, or maybe even another album period like Illmatic.  I've often compared albums like Common's BE, Kendrick's To Pimp A Butterfly, and Madvillain's Madvillainy to the brilliance of Illmatic in terms of impact, game-changing lyricism and production, and the ability to make one have an experience just by listening, but at the end, there's no such thing as a perfect album, except Illmatic.  However, as a liver, breather, and eater of hip-hop culture, I would want to see how many albums capture the essence of that album, whether it be musically, conceptually, or a combo of both.  We need albums like the ones I just mentioned that gets the Illmatic stamp of approval.  it's great and needed for our culture, especially in today's generation.

When I watched "Time Is Illmatic", I went back to that pudgy, fat-faced kid with the high top fade and braces listening and being engaged to this masterpiece.  There were some that knew the words without the text being on the screen, and there were others that only knew the words if they were on the screen (shame on you posers).  The background behind the making of the album and the impact it made on artists such as Erykah Badu, Pharrell, and J. Cole were eloquently explained and one could really tell how much the album to them as artists and as fans of hip-hop.  In fact one of J. Cole's mix tapes was called Villematic, while former Slum Village member Elzhi presented an album called Elmatic, which was al album solely dedicated to illmatic.  He literally redid each cut on Illmatic, only with his own lyrics and with a live band.  It was a prodigious project from one of the game's craziest lyricists.

It's not often we get hip-hop documentaries.  Flicks like "The Show", "Rhyme & Reason", and the recent "The Art Of Rap" were tremendous show casings of hip-hop and its evolution, but with Time Is Illmatic, this is more personal and shows the growth of a man through music and his passion for education beyond what traditional school would teach in today's society.  The point where he introduced a hip-hop fellowship into Harvard university was a particularly proud moment to see.

Hopefully, if you missed it, it'll be available on Blu-Ray, DVD or on Netflix because if you're a true lover of hip-hop, this is totally and completely for you.  Note: this is NOT for those who think Young Thug, Future, K-Camp, and some of these other incredibly wack and talentless so-called performers are the new leaders of hip-hop.  This IS, however, for those who would like to see beyond what's being currently fed to us, and a look at where hip-hop SHOULD go.

Name another album that has impacted more emcees, critics, fans, and educators than Illmatic?  Don't worry, I'll wait (long pause).  I didn't think so.  I didn't see Reasonable Doubt have a movie written and made about it.  I didn't see Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) have a book written about it.  I didn't recall The Chronic have an entire class taught about it.  Nope.  That my people was Illmatic.  Those reasons, and more, are the reason Illmatic was, is, and will always be the greatest hip-hop album of all-time, end of story.

Before I go, I will leave you with a couple of jewels to turn your speakers up to.  The first is off the perfection of an album called Illmatic.  This one is "Represent".  Then the next one is the track of the week, which comes from NC-native, and up-and-coming juggernaut Rapsody.  Seen as the next great femcee, this is a track from her upcoming EP, Beauty & The Beast, which is the follow-up to last year's exceptional She Got Game album.  Enjoy these, and I'll get at you guys and gals next week.