New Hip Hop Releases From North Carolina

This week saw the release of several notable albums that are sure to be on the top of a lot of people's 'Best Of' lists at year's end. And, another cool thing is that three of the artists are from North Carolina. That's something when a single state can dominate a week with three highly anticipated releases. Of course, I'm talking about 9th Wonder, Phonte, and J.Cole.

9th Wonder's project The Wonder Years was probably the most impressive to me.  It definitely had 9th's signature production sound. But, it also had range. It had depth. He tried new things, and really built on what he has done in the past to make the most cohesive project I've heard all year. 9th hosted an impressive array of talented MCs and singers, and did a really good job of strategically sprinkling in his Jamla artists throughout. What really put The Wonder Years over the top for me was 9th's work with Terrace Martin, whose jazz sax added the perfect element to 9th's musical backdrops. On the negative side, I still have to say that I don't get Mac Miller's appeal. He shows up here spitting rhymes that I find boring and forgettable.The good news is that even though this track didn't hold up lyrically, the beat and vocal arrangement still make it bearable.

Phonte's Charity Starts at Home is another great album from one of my favorite MCs of the last ten years. His flows are dope, his rhymes relevant and relateable, and the beats are always hittin' whether they come from 9th, Khrysis, Nicolay, or anyone else. Te has an ability to understand how words relate to each other which few can match. My complaint with this one? "New Tiggalo, New Tiggalo, New Tiggalo, New Tiggalo". That little saying was humorous the first time or two, but got extremely old after hearing it on every track. It even wound up coming off as a little pretentious in my mind.

The collaborations between Phonte & 9th Wonder on this and The Wonder Years just make it that much clearer to me that Little Brother needs to continue existing as a unit even though the members also pursue music individually. I felt Pooh was missed on these projects and it would have been nice to have them all on at least one track between the 2 albums.

 
I was also anticipating the debut album from Jay-Z's NC investment,  J. Cole, especially since his verse over Kanye West's "Devil in a New Dress" ("Villematic") last year (or, was it earlier this year?). Cole seemed to get off to a slow start on Cole World to me, new tracks that were just ok and didn't really stick out to me were placed in between more well-known songs from previously released mixtapes.I like Cole because he spits like a young guy, but still has a depth to his content that makes him interesting. I didn't see this throughout like I did, on say Fashawn's debut. The deeper layer seemed to not appear until the later part of the album. "God's Gift" and "Breakdown" were solid, but was it weird for anyone but me that he referenced old Bone songs on two songs back to back like he did on these two? Was it weird for anyone else that he sang Paula Abdul lyrics on the next track "Work Out"? All of these things just made the album less than impressive to me. Not to say there isn't good stuff to be found here. I just hope it gets better the next time around.    

Pharoahe Monch, Styles P, & Phonte - Black Hand Side

First, let me just say that having Phonte on a track with Pharoahe Monch and SP and just singing is...well, like having Pharoahe Monch featured on a Slaughterhouse track and just doing the hook. It's kinda shitty to leave fans hanging like that. You know what we want...bars.

That being said, this track is nice and I hope all of you are planning to support W.A.R. when it comes out on March 22nd.



Pharoahe Monch "Black Hand Side" feat. Styles P & Phonte' by duckdown

New Visuals

These are a couple of videos for songs I like that caught my eye the past couple of days (oh, and make sure you check out Erykah Badu's video for "Window Seat" if you haven't yet). The black & white is a coincidence...I think.

The first is "Project Boy" by Joell Ortiz and Produced by DJ Premier. I guess this is going to be on Ortiz's solo album Free Agent (date??)



Next is the video for Strong Arm Steady's song with Phonte (Little Brother), "Best of Times" off of their entirely Madlib produced In Search Of Stoney Jackson which dropped last year. Make sure you listen to the album if you haven't yet - a favorite of mine from '09.

Foreign Exchange On Their Grammy Nomination

First off, fuck a Grammy. All you hip hop heads know why I say that. But, having said that (side note: anyone see Curb Your Enthusiasm this season to know why this is humorous?) this is a major accomplishment for Phonte and Nicolay, and for hip hop/eclectic music as a whole. I have no idea how this nomination happened, as usually the Grammy Award and even the nomination is given to the most popular artists, not the best artist in any given category - hip hop especially.

"Daykeeper" is a great song, and the vocal layers on it really stood out for me when I listened to the album Leave It All Behind. It's actually probably my favorite track on the album, so I'm happy that it was the one to get the Grammy nod. Let's hope they win. See the description and then the video below for a pre-acceptance speech, of sorts.

“We have prepared a short video (with the help of our frequent collaborator Matt Koza), that describes the FE story and gives an overview of our journey from random obscurity to fully independent Grammy nominated artists. Consider this our pre-Grammy acceptance speech…lol. We encourage all of you to pass this along and spread the word, as we feel our story is a big inspiration to artists everywhere. Every once in a blue moon, the good guys do win.”

The Foreign Exchange's Grammy nomination video from The Foreign Exchange on Vimeo.

A Plea To All MCs Releasing An Album In The Future

This problem first become noticeable to me in the late 90's with releases from Big Pun and Puff Daddy. I couldn't understand it then, and I still don't today. I let it go, but it appears to be happening more and more recently and I've had enough. Let me give a few examples of recent offending songs just off the top of my head:

Royce Da 5'9" Feat. Phonte - "Something 2 Ride 2"
Saigon Feat. Grand Puba - "Who Can Get Busy"
Slaughterhouse Feat. Pharoahe Monch - "Salute"
KRS-One & Buckshot Feat. Pharoahe Monch - "One Shot"
Krs-One & Buckshot Feat. Talib Kweli - "Oh Really"

Now, what is it that all of these songs have in common? Anyone? Give up?

They are all "featuring" some of hip hop's best MCs, yet each one of them stop short of having an actual verse delivered by the guest. What the fuck is going on?!?!?! Why have these artists on an album in the first place if it's just to record a hook? Do these names read like a list of background singers to you? Me either. Me either. And, I'm tired of getting excited about a new track just to be disappointed when the end comes without a verse from someone of, say Pharoahe fucking Monch's caliber. I thought one was bad. But, two features like this from him with no verse in a year's time. Are you fucking kidding me?! There's no reason for this. It makes me want to return the CD on principal alone. It's fucking false advertising is what it is. We the fans have been cheated.

So, to all MCs that I have respect for that are planning on releasing an album in the near future - please, please, please - respect your fans, and respect the artists that you work with for your album - ask them to bless you with a verse. This isn't Nate Dogg you asked to record with you afterall. It's Grand Puba. Act like you fucking know.

Thank you.