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YOU'VE GOT "FAN
MAIL"
(l-r): J-Tyme (X104-Seattle) and DJ
Babu. |
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VA IS IN THA HOUSE
It's our
boy DJ Sayeed makin' noise on WVST! |
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[[ April 30, 2007 ]] |
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What's
upper? I want to say "THANK YOU" to my RAP ATTACK
DJ panel for remembering me on my b'day on April
27th & to the 100's on MySpace as well! It feels
good turning 18 again & again & again & again...
Props
to artist L.I. & Greg Burke aka DJ RIQ
from Shocksound Promotions for blessing our
Rap Attack Conf Call last week. L.I. is making
noise with his latest joint, "Cook"...
Attn
MySpace heads! If you haven't joined our
exclusive RAP ATTACK page on MySpace, log
on NOW & join at:
http://www.myspace.com/rapattacklives...
Be
the first to peep out Skull's new 3-D/animated
video for "Boom Di Boom di" here:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=
vids.individual&videoid=2025458205...
Top 10
Worst of the Best MCs of All Time
by
Brian Gaffey aka DJ BRI-G
BGaffey187@aol.com
www.myspace.com/djbrig
I know
I'm gonna catch some hate for this list. Over the years
there have been several rappers who, either through
great beat selection or crossover popularity have gotten
way too much credit. Below is the list of the Top 10
Worst Famous Rappers of All Time. While there may be
worse rappers than the guys on this list, they aren't
nearly the stars that these MCs are. Think of this as
the worst of the best.
Greg Nice
Hands down, Greg Nice is the worst famous rapper of all
time. While Smooth B isn't exactly Rakim either, he
pretty much held down the lyrical side of Nice & Smooth.
Greg Nice might have some of the worst rhymes in the
history of rap music. "Greg Nice, Greg N-I-C-E, Droppin
dem basso ah oui oui, Rock for a fee not for free, Maybe
I'll do it for charity, Now my employer or my employee,
Is makin Greg N-I-C-E very M-A-D." Nobody's ever
listened to a Greg Nice verse and said to themselves,
"Damn, Greg be spittin some straight heat!!".
Mike Jones
If Greg Nice is the #1, Mike Jones is #1B. I don't know
anybody who's been able to rock a cheesy gimmick for
longer except Gilligan. Mike Jones sounds like a rapping
muppet with the same lyrical ability of my 7 year old
cousin. You should not be allowed to say your name 30
times and call it a record. Who? I don't fucking care.
Guru
Guru is
the classic example of how great production and a great
voice can make up for a lack of lyrical ability. Guru
has spit some of the wackest verses over some of the
most classic beats ever. You understand how truly wack
Guru is when he’s on his own, away from the safety net
that is DJ Premier. For proof, check out any one of the
39 Jazzmatazz albums. Can you honestly imagine if
Premier partnered with a top level rapper to form
Gangstar instead of carrying Guru for 15 years. While
obviously Gangstar material is still classic Hip Hop to
the highest level, could you imagine if he had partnered
with a guy like say Kool G Rap?
Diddy
Do me a
favor and go back and listen to No Way Out and I dare
you to get through one Puff verse without cringing.
Puff’s so bad that even with other people writing his
shit for him, it comes out terrible. His newest album
would be a classic just based on the production and the
melodies. One problem: Puff’s flow is atrocious.
Noreaga
We can’t
bring up the Noreaga from the classic album War Report,
when Tragedy Khadafi and Capone were writing his lyrics.
When we can bring up the days since then, when he became
N.O.R.E., he’s had some of the classic worst lines in
rap history. “I get head and I don’t even iron my
pants.” “I only rock jord-ons, I can’t stand pip-ons.”
“You a frizzeak always see you in the strizzeet, walkin
walkin til you get widdeak”. Nore’s swagger and flow
have definitely allowed him to maintain a steady career
thoughout the years and when you mix that in with some
classic production from the likes of the Neptunes and
Marley Marl, you get a rap superstar.
Baby
CEO’s
shouldn’t rap, even if they’re CEO’s in the rap
industry. I don’t think Bill Gates goes down to the
factory and helps package up copies of Office 2007 and
Baby shouldn’t pick up the mic. We know your rich, you
got diamonds in your mouth, and you drive nice cars.
Thanks. I don’t need to hear an entire album where you
repeat those 3 facts over 16 tracks.
Pharrell
Another case of a producer who thinks he can rap. All
too often producers feel that they need to crack the mic,
and the results are often horrendous. While Manny Fresh
might be the worst producer/rapper, he doesn't have
nearly the profile that Pharrell has. I understood who
truly bad Pharrell was as a rapper when I listened to
him ruin some classic beats on his mixtape, This guy
took some of the greatest beats of all time and spit
some of the worst nursery rhyme, cat in the hat, bars in
history. The thing about bad rappers is that they run
out of content quickly and Pharrell falls right into
that realm. You get real sick of hearing about clothes,
sneakers, and skateboards real quick, especially from a
guy who's not lyrical enough to flip it in different
ways.
Erick Sermon
The E-R-I-C-K is a great producer, he's a terrible
rapper. He might have carried EPMD on the beat side of
things, but when it came to picking up the mic, E.
Sermon spit a lot of utter doo doo.
Juelz Santana
Cam'ron is a good rapper who doesn't try and ends up
spittin' some terrible shit. Juelz is a bad rapper who
doesn't try and ends up spittin' some terrible shit.
Juelz is very lucky to be affiliated with Dipset and
have solid business people overlooking his career
otherwise he'd be hanging out with the Jae Mills and
Graft of overhyped New York rappers.
U-God
Wu Tang consists of 9 members and 47 other guys who
happen to randomly show up on their albums. In the Wu
Tang hierarchy of lyrical ability, U-God is somewhere
behind Killa-army. U-God's had one memorable verse in
the dozen years of Wu Tang existence. One verse on
Triumph, that's it.
Davey D: Hip-Hop `cleanup' involves more than
musicians
By
Davey D
Special to the Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/music/ci_5754181
In
the aftermath of the Don Imus controversy,
hip-hop remains at center stage, as everyone from
Oprah to local church groups holds town hall
meetings, round-table discussions and seminars on why
and how hip-hop should be cleaned up.
I
have been part of the discussion on radio shows from
here to Chicago and New York. It is clear that
significant numbers of people are tired of song after
song with misogynistic, violent and materialistic
themes. And, as I noted in my April 12 column, the
majority of hip-hoppers also are tired of these themes.
Many have been protesting and working diligently for
change.
One
discussion topic has been a call for personal
responsibility. I've heard everyone from Al Sharpton
to women at
Atlanta's
Spelman College, where a protest against degrading
hip-hop themes demanded that Snoop Dogg, 50
Cent, Nelly and other artists behave more
responsibly.
And,
yes, ideally these men should regret the hurt and angst
their lyrics cause. But sadly, their ideas of
responsibility are not always the same as ours. Having
met and interviewed many of them, I know they often
equate "being responsible" with "being true to their
artistic vision" and with making money to care for their
families and loved ones. For some artists, delivering a
shock to the senses of the audience is the whole point.
Complicating the issue are the millions of corporate
dollars pumped into marketing some of the offensive
songs and artists. While I agree that artists should be
responsible for what they say, I also believe music
industry executives need to be held accountable for what
they promote and play. There are dozens of Snoop Dogg
wannabes in every community. There's only one Sumner
Redstone, whose Viacom is home to VH1, MTV and BET,
which reach millions of people daily.
When
Nelly was shown in his "Tip Drill" video on BET swiping
a card between the buttocks of a woman, we must remember
that occurred on Redstone's watch. It was his executive
team, which includes BET president Debra Lee and
vice president Stephen Hill, who allowed
those images to go on the airwaves.
Ironically, this is the same Redstone who has censored
words or images of then-popular performers such as
Public Enemy, Brand Nubian and Paris
when they made statements about police brutality or
racism. This is the same Redstone whose company censored
Kanye West for rapping about how white men profit
from black pathologies in "All Falls Down." But Redstone
is just the tip of the iceberg.
Def
Jam Records founder Russell Simmons, who recently
reversed an earlier stand by calling for a ban on words
such as "bitch" and "ho" in rap songs, told viewers of
the Oprah show that artists should be allowed to say
whatever is on their hearts and minds, but that radio
should not play their excesses on the airwaves.
It's
interesting that hardly any of hip-hop's harshest
critics, including Bill O'Reilly, seem eager to
blame radio executives such as Lowry Mays and
Mark P. Mays of Clear Channel; or Jeffrey H.
Smulyan and Rick Cummings of Emmis
Broadcasting; or Dan Mason and Richard Lobel
at CBS Radio; or Robert F. Neil and Marc
W. Morgan of Cox Radio; or Cathy Hughes and
Alfred C. Liggins at Radio One, to name a few.
But
shouldn't we be holding their feet to the fire, and
asking why they play salacious material with
little or no balance? Instead of the O'Reilly types
asking Ludacris about a song where he brags about
having "hos in different area codes," shouldn't they be
asking Cathy Hughes or Jeff Smulyan why their stations
kept playing it?
I
recall an incident that showed just how far removed from
reality some of these executives were. Several years
ago, comedian Steve Harvey started working for
Radio One, the largest black-owned radio network. On a
panel, he spoke about leading a listener mutiny of sorts
against his bosses, who had refused to play artists such
as Jill Scott, Erykah Badu and
India.Irie. Harvey found their music uplifting, and
argued it gave some balance to the playlist. But his
bosses told him black women didn't want to hear that
sort of stuff and refused to play it. Harvey appealed to
listeners, asking them to call in and protest. It was a
bold move that would have resulted in the immediate
dismissal of any other DJ, but Harvey was the talk of
the town then, just too popular to fire.
In a
recent letter to U.S. senators, Lisa Fager,
president and co-founder of the media-watch group
Industry Ears, posed this question: If NBC were to show
a porn movie at 5 p.m., would you call porn star
Jenna Jameson or NBC President and CEO Jeff
Zucker on the carpet?
Misogyny and violence are persistent problems that need
to be addressed wherever they occur, including hip-hop.
But we have to be diligent about cleaning up this mess
at all levels, including the corporate boardroom as well
as the studio.
NC's
Ethemadassassin is back with "Walk My Shoes!"
Some of you may remember him from last years, "ROCK THE
BEAT VOL. 2" banger, "Try So Hard." You can download his
new mixtape here:
http://download.yousendit.com/79B1E794093397D9 .
You can hit up Ethemadassassin too for radio drops,
freestyles, phoners, etc. at:
HASSASSIN1@YAHOO.COM...
Oxygen
spoke to Rap Attack recently with his latest 411:
"My final "Chemical Breakdowns" show was on this
past Saturday night. I had the honor and privelege of
having two of the most inspiring cats in Hip Hop bless
my farewell show: Dj Johnny "Juice" Rosado (Public
Enemy/Bomb Squad) ignited the wheels all
night, and Juice surprised me with none other than
DMC from Run DMC! Darryl Mack dropped
some inspiring jewels on the air, and he even answered
the phones for me which bugged the callers out. We are
experiencing some difficulties with our stations'
archiving computer, but I think it'll be straightened
out soon. People will be able to go back & listen to the
show for a few days once it gets up and running:
- Log onto
www.wusb.fm
- Click "OUR PROGRAMS" on left side of page
- Scroll down the grid to the Saturday (12-3am) box
- Locate 'Chemical Breakdowns'
- Click the little speaker icons in the box from top to
bottom
I'll still remain as Hip Hop Music Director at
the station for a while. Concentrating on the release of
my crew's full-length album (Sputnik Brown) to be
released on Sucio Smash's High Water Records. Our
warm-up project from Howard Lloyd, The "Quickie
EP", continues to do well, and will soon be released on
vinyl with a couple of bonus tracks and instrumentals.
Peace. oxygen - Sputnik Brown/Crate Invaders-www.myspace.com/oxygen720
...
Props
to DJ Rob Swift formerly of the X-ecutioners.
I just peeped out his new dvd, "As The Tables Turn" and
this informative documentary is pure fiya for dj's &
turntablists who want to see & hear the real thing from
a kat who took his skills to another level. Featured on
this explosive dvd is Rob Swifts' climb to fame from
learning how to dj as a kid from his brother & using his
dad's 1200's to the formation of X-Men to the X-ecutioners,
to the classic 1996 battle with the Invisibl Skratch
Piklz, dj'ing with Bob James, Herbie
Hancock, the Large Professor and lots of
footage of Rob on the wheels! You will love this dvd.
For more info log onto:
www.DjRobSwift.com...
Garbs
Infinite
from
Clevelands' WRUW surprised me big time when sent
me his new joint "Come Wit It" which he produced & spit
on. I was like, "YO! Garbs got SKILLS!!!" Stay tuned
cause his track caught my attention in a quickness. If
you want to hear it, hit him up online for the MP3 at:
garbs38@gmail.com...
Now
you can see RAP ATTACK's own DJ 3rd
Rail doin' what he does best at: www.YouTube.com
then type in "DJ 3rd Rail." This Chicago
Hip-Hop pioneer can be seen in various YOU TUBE videos
goin' off on the 1s & 2s, to seeing 3rd Rail in action
as a Guardian Angel, to 3rd rail live at Times Square on
New years Eve!...
Public Enemy
has
been added to the all-star line up of artist performing
at this years' "Rock the Bells" Hip-Hop festival
scheduled for August 11th in San Bernardino, CA.. The
festival, at the National Orange Show Events Center will
also feature Cypress Hill, the Roots,
Mos Def, EPMD, the Coup, MF DOOM,
Jedi Mind Trick, Murs and Sage Francis.
The festival will also hit Randall's
Island
in New York City
on July 28th and McCovey's Parking Lot in
San
Francisco on August 18th. The San Francisco show will
have Nas headlining and he will join Wu Tang
on 15 more "Rock the Bells" dates in other cities to
be announced soon. In response to the 20-minute sell-out
of the previously announced Saturday, July 28 Randall’s
Island/New York City date, Guerilla Union in
conjunction with Live Nation have revealed they
will add a second ROCK THE BELLS festival show at the
venue for Sunday, July 29. Confirmed artists for both
NYC-area shows are headliners Rage Against The
Machine, The Wu-Tang Clan, Cypress Hill and many
more. This second Randall’s Island/New York City show
now marks one of five opportunities where fans can
experience the highly anticipated return of Rage Against
The Machine which includes Coachella and other
Rock The Bells shows: Saturday, August 11 at the NOS
Events Center in San Bernardino, CA and Saturday, August
18 at McCovey Cove Parking Lot in San Francisco, CA.
Tickets for ROCK THE BELLS Sunday, July 29 at Randall’s
Island go on sale Friday, May 4 at 10:00 am via
Ticketmaster...
Rap
Attack takes a "WHAT'S UPPER" look this week with:
Edgie Kokoski
(WUNH-NH): "It’s
time for another thrilling installment of “Things that
piss Edgie Off”:
Express Checkout Lanes
– Nice try lady. It’s obvious you have over 12 items
(no, 75 of the same brand and flavor of yogurt do not
count as 1 item). Yeah, go ahead, write a check. Ever
heard of a debit card? What do you mean you don’t know
what today’s date is and who to make it out to? Do you
even have any idea how much you are f*cking up everyone
else’s sh*t? I have places to go. Bring cash next
time…it’s worked for decades.
Alec
Baldwin Crucifixion
– So he told his stuck up rude daughter where to get
off. Big deal. Get off his log about it. If more parents
disciplined their kids we would have less Paris Hiltons
and Cho Schlong Wangs (or whatever his name was).
American Idol “Gives Back”
– I saw an ad for an episode of American Idol that is
airing this week where they are reeling in all the big
stars for some kind of charity performance. If they
really wanted to be charitable, they would pack up their
sh*t and go home. Seeing their deluge of ads every day
and the worship of half ass manufactured pop stars on
the news every night makes an Abu Ghraib holiday weekend
look pleasant by comparison.
Dirty
South Dance Videos
– Enough with these Crip walk/dry heave dance routines.
If I have to see that Crime Mob “Rock Yo Hips” video one
more time, I think I am going to projectile vomit on my
TV like I just took a swig of Ipecac.
Green
Red Sox Jerseys
– The Red Sox thought they would be cute by wearing
green jerseys and hats on St. Patrick’s Day. Then the
other night they wore them again to honor Red Auerbach,
a legendary BASKETBALL figure in Boston. Two problems –
why are they honoring basketball legends at a baseball
game? That would be like me honoring Elton John at a
bachelor party. And secondly, our team is the RED Sox.
There’s no green anywhere in there. It looked like
Christmas in April. I haven’t seen anyone dressed that
poorly since Andre 3000:
Damian Rodriguez
(KGNU-CO):"What’s
good everyone? I’m in a hurry this week, got a new club
night that I’m responsible for, so here’s the goods!
FYI, new Timbo is different, but does have some
heat on it (on the commercial tip). Props on Jazzy
Jeff w/ the new funk 2k7, good to hear the old/new
again.
Ghetto highlight of the week #1:
Friend of mine who’s a native
Colorado girl went to NYC for the first time. Not full
of ghetto experiences, but while riding the subway, saw
a dude literally take a dump in the corner. Friggin
crackheads!
Moral:
Its nice to know dave chapelle isn’t ghetto with his
tryone biggums character by dropping public deuces, cuz
the shit really happens. No pun intended. He keeps it
real cuz that’s how crackheads do!
Ghetto highlight of the week #2:
At a
spot last night and super hot chick, movin, grooving,
got the moves, dancing, etc….except there’s a piece of
TP stuck to the bottom of her shoe. Doin the damn thang
like no one was watching.
Moral:
You’re ghetto fab when you got the piece of toilet paper
stuck to your shoe as your look hotter than 98% of the
girls in the martini lounge. That’s like having a booger
stuck to a hot guy’s nose. Or the gap in the teeth that
pops out when they smile"...
Witnes
(KPFT-Houston):
"Hope all is well. Once again I want to thank you for
all the support for the past 5 years. It's time for me
to move on to other things. I found someone to take over
on the charting with Rapattack Lives for KPFT. He
goes by the name Grinch or Mr. Grinch. He
was my co-host for 4 years on
LateNiteSnax and was there from the beginning. He also
is a part of the Soular Grooves Collective where
we all rotate w/ DJ Sun's show on Saturdays. Here's his
contact info:
KPFT
- Akanni K. Jones aka Mr. Grinch
9701 Meyer Forest Dr., APT 14207
Houston, TX 77096
713-775-0431
Email:
liveguy@gmail.com...
Here
is our address for 2007 to send material for review, etc
(vinyl & cd's)! Same address, just a new Ste. number:
RapAttackLives.com
4750 Kester Avenue, Ste. 11
Sherman
Oaks, CA 91403
Attn: Nasty-Nes
nastynes1@aol.com
SHOUT OUT TIZIME: Shirlene Head
(great to see you still in the mix!), Lanita Becker,
Ed Strickland, Chris Roker and a Happy 2 year
Anniversary to my Mahal4Life & fiancee, Jen Jen
(May 2-143-xoxo)...
PEACE, LOVE & HIP-HOP UNITY (God Bless & Isa Mahal),
Nasty-Nes
http://www.myspace.com/nastynes
http://www.myspace.com/rapattacklives
(Pinoy
Pride4Life
/ John 3:16) |
