Saturday, March 29, 2008

I AM I AN HATER?


What is Hate? What does it really mean? In Hip Hop terms, why are you considered an Hater if you don't like something? I don't understand that. I'm speaking for myself right now. Anytime I say i don't like something or somebody, I get called an Hater. It pisses me off. For example, I don't like Bow Wow. Cant stand his punk ass. But let explain my position. The main reason i don't like him is because he is cocky and arrogant. For no fucking reason. Yes he has hit records and platinum album. But so does Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, Young MC and a host of other wack-ass rappers. The nigga don't even write his own shit. It ain't like the nigga's lyrics are complex or introspective like say Lupe or Nas or somebody like that. All his shit is about bitches. I wouldn't even be mad at that, but damn every song. He's worse than LL. Now I have alot females that are close 2 me that love this nigga's funky drawers. And they the ones that are always in my ass about "Hating" on Wow Bow. Another person they like that I cant truly understand is Trey Songs. I mean bitches love this nigga. I understand he can sing and all that, and they think he's cute, but there's got to be more to it than that. My beef is that he hasn't had an bonifide hit record. BE honest, name Trey's huge song. Go ahead I'll wait.................. You cant cause it doesn't exist. All them other "new" R&B dudes have at least one. Chris Brown, check. Ne-Yo, check. Lyfe, check. The Dream, check. J. Holiday, check. Even the "token" white boys Robin and Justin got monster hits. I'm just trying to say if a nigga is that bad, he should have a monster, career defining song two albums into his career. Please don't hate me. But i like Chris Brown. Dat nigga is bad. You might ask how can i like Chris Breezy and dis-like Wow Bow and Trey Songs? Cause Chris shows humility and he his a student of what he does. He's a singer and an dancer and he loves to sing and dance. And it shows with his performances. I'm just being honest.

I am NOT an Hate!!!!!!!!!!!!. I repeat, NOT an Hater!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am a Real nigga that speaks passionately from the heart. That's right, from the heart. I say shit that alot of people might wanna say, but are too afraid to say. I'm not saying that everything i say is right, but at least I'm honest enough to admit it. I don't like to bite my tongue. But i try to say things in a respectful manner. I don't always do, but i try.

So in closing i say this, not liking something does not make you a Hater. It makes you human and real

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Death Row vs. Bad Boy: Who really won?

by dunklinstreet

Death Row Records and Bad Boy Records ruled Hip Hop in the 1990's. Headed by influential executives Marion "Suge" Knight and Sean "Puffy" Combs, these two companies became the bench mark in the new world of commericalized rap that began in the late '80's. Death Row started in 1991. Bad Boy would follow 2 years later. As would be the case with each of their


biggest stars, Pac and Biggie, you almost can't mention one without mentioning the other. But why are these two companies mentioned in the same breath as the other? What is it that makes them alike? Different? There was definitely a rivalry between the labels, even before Suge "call out" Puff at the infamous 1995 Source awards. They say "success breeds envy", and that was the case with this beef. But I think the biggest reason for the beef was MONEY! Yeah that's right money. Keep reading as I try to paint a picture for you.

Death Row was the kings of the West Coast gangsta rap scene that began with Ice T and Death Row co-founder Dr. Dre's former group NWA in the 1980's. It was founded in 1991 when Dr. Dre became disenfranchised with his role and compensation in NWA. He met and befriended body guard-turned manager Suge Knight. Knight would negotiate Dre's release from his Ruthless Records contract. After that they would set up shop with Suge doing all the "behind the scenes" work and Dre controlling the music part. They would sign artists to the label like Tha Dogg Pound, Nate Dogg, Lady of Rage, RBX and future superstar Snoop Doggy Dogg. With all the players in place, Dre went to work on his seminal classic debut The Chronic. That album is probably the most influential album in rap history. Less than a year later The Row released the Doggystyle, Snoop' debut album. It is the first debut album history the enter the Billboard Charts at #1. A month before the album was released, Snoop was arrested in connection with the death of a rival gang member. These charges would haunt not only him, but the label for the next 3 years. With these two releases, The Row established themselves as the elite label in rap. They would release the mega-successful soundtracks to the films Murder Was the Case and Above the Rim. The latter starred the only major West Coast artist not on Death Row, Tupac Shakur. But in a matter months that would chance. And the The Row would never be the same.

Bad Boy was once called the "East Coast Saviors". And they probably were. Some might argue what about Nas or the Wu-Tang Clan? They all contributed to the rebirth, but difference is Bad Boy sold records. It was founded 1993 by Sean "Puffy" Combs after he was fired from Uptown Records. He had signed Biggie to Uptown and brought him over to Bad Boy to be his marquee artist. He released Ready to Die, Biggie's debut album in the fall of 1993. It became a instant hit, with it's mix of east coast/g-funk singles and it's gritty tales of urban life. Puffy and his Hittmen production team also had a knack for producing glossy, extra stylized remixes to already hit songs. Every thing that Puff did, he made sure it was on a bigger scale than anyone had previous done it. The Hype Williams directed videos became the blue print for the so-called ghetto-fabulous lifestyle. Bad Boy also released highly successful records by Faith Evans, Total and 112.

As I said earlier "success breeds envy", and Bad Boy's success had began to eclipse that of Death Row's. Suge Knight would take offense to the fact that he had a competitor on a rival coast. He started taunting Puffy and Bad Boy at every chance he could. He made disparaging remarks towards Puff at the '95 Source Awards in New York. Later in the show, Snoop and Dre performed and got jeered by the crowd, causing Snoop to say "New York ain't got no love for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg!?" Their crews go into it at Jermaine Dupri's Birthday Party in Atlanta. One of Suge's close friends was killed in the incident. Suge would later blame Puffy for having something to do with the killing. Meanwhile Biggie was involved in a beef with former friend 2Pac. They had met in 1993 while Pac was shooting the film Above the Rim in New York City. Biggie was just getting into the game, while Pac was an established star. On November 30, 1994, Pac was shot inside the Quad recording studios in Manhattan. He would later accuse Big, Puff and others for being involved. The day after bein shot, Pac convicted of sexual assault and server 11 months before Suge Knight put up the 1.4 Million got bail out in exchange for a 3 album contact. The alliance between Death Row and Pac benefited both parties. It also meant that the Death Row-Bad Boy rivalry would only escalate. Biggie had released a song called "Who Shot Ya?", which Pac felt was dissing him. When Pac was released from jail, he immediately began recording tracks for his classic album All Eyez on Me. It was the first rap double-album. It contained the first and only time Pac worked with Dr. Dre, who would leave the label soon after Pac's arrival, thus becoming another enemy. Pac would throw insults at Bad Boy though out the early part of 1996. In the the famous diss song "Hit'em Up", Pac alleged that he had sex with Big's wife, Faith Evans. The rival crews confronted each other at the '96 Soul Train Awards. Guns were drawn but nothing happened. A Miami paper refered to this incident as "the hip hop version of the Cuban Missle Crisis."
Want to know what happens next?
Want to know who wins the epic battle?
Well stay tuned to the "Show-Me Files"















The underdogs win!!!!! Rooks beat the Vets; Big Easy, a big disapointment?










Photobucket





Probably most of you guys tuned into the season finale of Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Gauntlet III last night on Mtv; and I had to commend the Rooks for them just sticking it out this season. Because Lord knows these guys had a horrible start, with losing over half of their teammates, and the Vets only lossing five; two due to throwned challenges and one to conflict within the group. But the Rooks may have finally earned the title as Veterns when the next Gaunlet comes around. Or did they?


The final challenge, Army Strong, began with an enduring half mile swim in ocean to shore, so that each team could arrive their very first check point. To many on the team this swim was only just a taste of what the challenge had to offer, but not to Eric aka Big Easy, who was taken back by the swim; he and CT, aka Eric's personal drill sargent, remained the last two in the ocean, while a very angery and anxious group of Vets waited on dry land regretting even letting Eric get this far in the challenge. They knew by just this first challenge that Eric was not going to recover soon, defaintly not soon enough to get caught up to a not so far ahead Rookie squad.



For the first time, in my opnion, the Rookies seemed to be on the same page. Chained together, the Rooks jogged down the gravled pathway chanting songs to keep each other's spirits up; but on the other end of the road, the Vets struggled with their extra baggage, Eric. The poor man was too damn weak to even put on his team uniform, Ev didn't hesitate in helping, so badly the team wanted to catch up with the Rooks; a very pissed off Evan jumped down Big Easy's throat for not even tempting to try and speed up the process, but was shut down when Big Bad CT came and told not to fuss but encourage Eric, because all the fussing just made the situation worse. . . Whew! I guess CT spoke to damn soon, because as soon as the running came, Eric's energy level just collapsed; which set CT into an incrediable rage. The only person on the team that seemed to be sympathtic to Eric was Brad, how begged his teammates to slow down so that man could regain his breath and rebuild enough energy to get to the next checkpoint, but what does the team do? Push even harder, and basically drag a spent Eric, who appeared to be like a zombie. CT jerked and snatched on the chain connecting the rest of the team to Eric, as he went ballestic screaming repeatively to Eric "you betta not fuckin quit!" Brad lashed at CT claiming that Eric stated he could not breathe, and that Eric was vomiting, but the team ignored the obvious signs of exhaustion and most likely dehydration, and kept dragging the poor man. But he finally reached his end, when he collapsed, hyperventilating, dead eye, and making no movement. The team fought amongest one another whether to get a medic or to drag his ass the rest of the way! WHEW! Cold-blooded group.

I'm not going to sit here and sum up the entire show, but there was alot things I wanted to hit on. Like for one. . .
Adam killed Danny in the Gaunlet! LMAO! Anyways. . .

But I think this was sweet irony to the Vets to lose the season finale. The entire season the guys plotted on how to they were going to "trim the fat", but I guess the forgot to trim all of it, about 300 pounds of it. Now do get me wrong, I love Big Easy, I was rooting for him; but he talked the talk, but didn't have enough endurance to walk the walk. Being a big person myself, I know when you get tired and your body can't go no more. . . It can't go no more! But still the Vets could have won if they were just a little more sympathtic and would have allowed Eric to catch is breath and regain a little strength, for real The Rooks were not that far ahead of them, and they still beated them at the end, but lost by default. If only they would slowed down to allow Eric to regain his breath and drink some water; everything else would fell into place, and they still could have won, with all of their players. But as Robin said. . . the guys were too afraid of going up against Big Easy in the Gaunlet, thus they got stuck with him at the end. So their loss, was their own fault.
Was Big Easy a disappointmet? I'll let his team answer that.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

What in the Hell is wrong with Hip Hop?

Burning turntable

What's good folks? It's ya boy DunklinStreet. This is my first post. I couldn't decide what 2 write about so i decided 2 write about some thing that seems to be on every body's minds: the state of Hip Hop. I love the game. But it seems like rap is having an identity crisis. U got the generational gap. The "East-Coast Genocide". The Dirty South reign. So right now, I got to get some shit off my chest.

  1. The Generational Gap: Why do u think Jay-Z, Nas, Snoop, Puffy and Dre' still run rap? Because most of these new cats coming out now suck. I mean like eww, they really suck. I'm not hating on them, but c'mon now "Crank Dat Soulja Boy"? That song made me wanna rip my fucking ears off! Im sorry im so graphic, but damn. Ay Bay Bay? WTF is that shit? Is this nigga even speaking English? This is Why I'm Hot? This nigga Mims said he's so hot he can sell a mill saying nothing on the track. That's what's wrong wit these dudes. They know they don't have to have no real skills. There aint no way 95% of these songs would have played on the radio 10-15 years ago. Here are the ingredient's for a hit song today: a catchy hook, 808 drums, low-ass bass and just to be on the safe side a dumb-ass dance. Another problem i have is the blatant disrespect for anything that came out before you. Take the case of Nas. Niggas actually got mad at him for naming his album Hip Hop Is Dead. And most of the dudes that got made were out of the South. He wasn't talking specifically about any artist or region. But young niggas is hard headed these days. When Jigga came out with the Kingdom Come record, most people didn't like the record just because he was a 37 year-old rapper rapping like a 37 year-old rapper. To me he was more Shawn Carter than Jay-Z on that album. So what I'm saying is that older rappers don't want to conform to ways of the game now and younger rappers wanna get shine by any means necessary.
  2. The East-Coast Hate Brigade: This issue really disturbs me. I mean New York is the mecca. The genesis. The origin of the culture. First, they hated on the West Coast when they were rulling in the early to mid 90's. Then they started to hate on the South cause they killin it right now. But even worse than that, they fueding with each other. I don't understand why these niggas just can't get along. It's like the crab-in-the-barrel syndrome. It's crazy. 50 Cent talks shit on everybody. Dipset is falling apart at the seams. Fat Joe supposedly getting his ass wupped by a nigga that weigh 150 lbs soaking wet. Even the mighty Wu-Tang Clan is enduring in-fighting. It upsets me because they can't ever get back on top, if they don't start to unify. That what's makes the South so dominant. The unity. They have a few spats here and now, but all in all they are unified. They better look at what happened to the West Coast after Death Row collapsed. They were fighting for years, careers were destroyed, it was a mess. So attention all New York rappers: if want to get back on top, quit battling with each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  3. The Dirty South Reign: The South has been running rap for the last 6 or 7 years now. Artists like Outkast, Ludacris, TI, Young Jeezy, Lil' John, Rick Ross and of coarse Lil' Wayne have been amongst the most influential and highest selling rappers of this period. But has the ascension of the South led to the decline of relevance of the culture? I kind of think it does. I mean how many time can we talk about making it rain? Or life in the trap? It's like all they talk about is trapping, big rims, weed, purple drank and pussy. Not much of a pedigree is it. It has become so simple now. I love the beats, but the lyrics are so redundant. I'm not bashing the South, but if you don't' want people complaining about the state of Hip Hop and your the ruler, step your game up.

I have some grievances and had to air them out. I know writing a blog ain't chance shit, but we need to come together and try to work some of this shit out. We are under fire right now. Take a minute to ponder that shit on yo head. Now that you have digested this 4 a minute, u should realized the severity of the situation.

I AM HIP HOP!!!!!!!!!!!

Stop the presses!!!!!!! Brandi Jackson is not Janet's daugher!

Brandi Jackson


Call me the rumor killer, because I got some things to bring to your attention; like for one, no one loves the entire Jackson Family more than me! I mean from the Jackson Five to Michael and his solo years. . . I been a huge fan since I was in diapers, but we all know the Jacksons have been voted Hollywood's most wackiest family, and can't seem to stay out the tabloids; but for the sack of my famous family I got to shut down this one rumor that just won't seem to die. . . The Brandi Jackson and Janet Jackson rumor. . . You know the one, Janet and James DeBarge's love child that was "given" to her elder brother, Jackie. . . Right. Okay, okay. . . lol! That's funny to me, I'm sorry, but. . . com'on! How stupid do you think everybody is?! Let's be real, Michael was huge in the 80's! Do you think the media would be all over his teenage pregnant sister?! Com'on! The cameras would of have been on Janet the entire nine monthes she was pregnant with Renee. . . Okay, and I thought her name was "Renee" but now all of sudden her 26-year-old niece is her daughter!

Okay, I know I'm going off but the entire lie, yes I said lie, has been change so many damn times that its almost rediculous to repeat, but I got to kill it. This whole thing started in 2005, when Janet's former brother-in-law, Young DeBarge made an apperance on New York City's urban radio show Hot 97, whom at that time made the accusation that Janet and James had at that time, an 18-year-old daughter named Renee; whom was sent to live with Janet's elder sister Rebbie. . . Now. . . Okay, now how did the story switch from Rebbie to Jackie? And according to Young's statment, Renee should be at least 22 years of age, but some how someone looked at Jackie's beige daughter and popped the thought into their mind that she looked too much like Janet to be his kid. . . okay. . . Maybe they would share resemblence since their auntie and niece. . . Well, I look like my aunts. . . Am I not my parents' child? According to many people who continue to believe this rumor, I'm not. LOL!

But n-e-ways, back to the murder of this rumor:

Brandi Jackson, daughter of Jackie Jackson and Enid Spann, was born on Febuary 6, 1982. . . Janet Jackson was born May 16, 1966. . . Let's have a math session, ladies and gentleman. . .
1982
-1966= 16, right so far. . .
but Janet had not had her 16th birthday yet, so she was only 15 when Brandi, her "daughter" was born. Okay, do you really think Joesph "Beat'em down" Jackson would let his new golden voice ticket to fame have a baby?! And that young?! I know she snuck and got married, but at least she was 18 and had more freedom to do stuff, I highly urge you to no believe this ignorant rumor, I know the Jackson's have done some weird and wacky things, but this is pushing. . . And don't you think her 'daughter' would came out of hiding yet? I mean, don't you think that she would want the world to know the truth? But until that happens, and I hear from this girl's mouth that Janet is her mother and James is her father, while holding a paternity and maternity test in her hand. . . I consider this rumor to be dead, and buried six feet under in the Show-me files burial ground.