tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33189732176589538092026-09-10T19:58:37.095-04:00Yet Another Hip-Hop BlogA blog about hip-hop, rap music, its trends, and an overall thought about the music an culture, without indulging in gossip. A real set of opinions and discussions, not based on the popular sentiment, but examining and challenging it.Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.comBlogger726125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-62582066154330473872016-03-19T21:59:00.002-04:002016-03-19T21:59:57.477-04:00Album Review- Sap - Self-Employed
Sometimes a risk can pay off. I was looking for some new releases from mainstream artists and something directed me to check out this release from Sap. Now, I had never ever heard of this guy before but when looking into him I learned he is from Delaware, Mid-Atlantic area and that's different. He also has done some production work for other artists and a few features but doesn't seem to be Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-20610598756367296142016-03-19T12:19:00.000-04:002016-03-19T12:20:37.657-04:00Album Review - Macklemore and Ryan Lewis - This Unruly Mess I've Made
Now I know I go MIA for long stretches but forget all of that because I'm back after taking a listen to the latest project from Macklemore and Ryan lewis, "This Unruly Mess I've Made" which has gotten considerably less press and radio play than his first album which spawned several major hits. I do remember the first single being dropped but it did little to create the same buzz as "Thrift Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-44578567417249798152016-02-17T22:36:00.000-05:002016-02-17T22:36:20.221-05:00Album Review- Kanye West - TLOP
Look I haven't written about hip hop in over two months and frankly the state of the industry and music bores me so much. The music being released is corny to me most of the time and the hype of social media is indeed tiresome. Take for instance the early discussion of the new Kanye West album "The Life of Pablo" or TLOP as it trended on twitter. So much of the comments was simple flame Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-1438183486765971632015-12-18T20:26:00.000-05:002015-12-18T20:26:08.928-05:00Album Review- Pusha T - Darkest Before the Dawn: The Prelude
Pusha T has been on this odd trajectory during his career. While a member of the Clipse he was well respected by his peers and the underground but mainstream success was somewhat elusive. His perseverance paid off and after his brother took leave of the rap game pusha stepped up even more and built upon his following. Linking up with Kanye West only helped and now he is the President of Good Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-26420962398544556282015-12-14T20:08:00.000-05:002015-12-14T20:08:18.373-05:00Complex is the Ultimate Troll
Complex has been seen as one of the standard bearers for hip-hop and urban culture in the new media era. They stepped up and took over in a lot of areas when the Source and XXL kind of failed to move forward and urban men's magazines pretty much faded away due to blogs and internet forums. Enter Complex which was to me, an urban style and fashion magazine that occasionally dived into other Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-28030577357160474252015-12-05T21:53:00.001-05:002015-12-05T21:53:37.645-05:00Album Review - G-Eazy - When It's Dark Out
So I have seen pictures of G-Eazy before and heard of his albums through the internet and his nomination at one of the season's past award shows, but I had never taken the time to listen to his music. Now I have his first album but have never played it, but this one I decided to go ahead and give a spin. So here is my assessment of the new album release by G-Eazy, "When It's Dark Out".
The Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-18309976115086624432015-12-05T11:50:00.000-05:002015-12-05T22:12:17.938-05:00Album Review - Rick Ross - Black Market
Ricky Rozay, or Renzel as he is apparently calling himself now is already with a follow up to the album he dropped late last year, just like clockwork. While the Boss of MMG has been dealing with a lot of issues, whether it be house arrest, lawsuits and potential trials, or his label signees having issues with associates from around the industry and themselves, he still found the time to Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-25673825752714648662015-12-01T20:14:00.000-05:002015-12-01T20:14:54.725-05:00Creative Interpretation of BIG
So in perusing the internet this week I came upon this concept project that combines samples from the music of the star wars movies with seminal Notorious BIG songs and I can't really believe how cool this is in a lot of ways with some of these iconic sounds mixed with these iconic Biggie songs. The true amount of geekdom in this is hard to calculate but I enjoy this and listening to it Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-28199768641870695162015-11-28T22:55:00.001-05:002015-11-28T22:55:26.409-05:00Where's Buffy?
If you follow me on twitter one of the podcasts I have been vocal about promoting and talking about is The Where's Buffy podcast. Where's Buffy is a men's lifestyle podcast that goes over Hip-Hop, some of the latest topics, sports and the like. I had the opportunity to go on with them and take part in this week's conversation. It was a cool experience. Dale and Earl, aka Fat Boy Dizz and Ill Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-73447160784904086772015-11-28T22:37:00.000-05:002015-11-28T22:37:19.928-05:00Too Much Material
As the music industry has changed, and distribution been totally turned over on its head, the lines have become blurred between official releases, street albums and mixtapes. Truthfully the difference doesn't matter as much as the fact that artists no longer need labels and large amounts of money to mass produce a bunch of cd's and buy marketing in the hip hop publications before you drop Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-85946669920234637872015-11-23T22:07:00.000-05:002015-11-23T22:09:32.037-05:00Album Review- Jadakiss - Top 5 Dead or Alive
Jadakiss to me is a highly polarizing rapper. I cannot deny that he has some skills and there are some who would put him top 10 or even top 5. That seems to have gone to his head if you look at the title of his latest solo project. For me, Kiss isn't full or consistent enough for me to consider him to be an artist of that caliber. As a member of the Lox he has both been around for a long Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-78305814634517305282015-11-18T08:05:00.000-05:002015-11-18T08:05:17.200-05:00Independent Wednesday - Rap 4 BreakfastToday is just a quick stop but not my normal review because this artist is my boy from way back Japiro. It wouldn't be fair for me to go and review for those reasons because I am admittedly biased. What I will say is that other people are giving some positive reviews. If you want some hip-hop without a bunch of murder bars that is a bit more mature then this is an album you should check out and Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-72029738302667463352015-11-11T07:52:00.000-05:002015-11-11T19:10:24.056-05:00Independent Wednesday
This week the first artist is Khali Fresco.Coming from Phoenix, Arizona, he still has a west coast inspired flow but there is also some of the southern style and maybe a specific taste of the bay area in his sound. This video for "Boobie Miles" is an aggressive straight up rap to show his skills. I also checked out a video he had on worldstar called "Fresco Over Everything" and it's much of Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-22718089227300029662015-11-05T19:56:00.000-05:002015-11-05T19:56:20.280-05:00Album Review- Puff Daddy- MMM
So Puff aka Diddy aka Puffy aka Puff Daddy aka Sean john Combs is out with a new project and a new distribution deal. This isn't all either as this newest album, MMM for "Money Making Mitch" is a preview of sorts for the next album, which is to be called "No Way Out 2". It also has a lot of the feel of the 90's era and the Bad Boy joints that came out to get the label off of the ground.
The Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-45875370298864640192015-11-02T09:25:00.000-05:002015-11-02T09:25:00.065-05:00Stray Shots - A Take on A HipHopDx Editorial
HipHopDx.com is one of the main sites for new hip-hop music these days, and I would assume news and commentary, although I feel like commentary has become second in importance for a lot of fans of hip-hop these days, and especially to a large extent the written word. I mean there are some videos which end up getting seen, if you go to youtube, plenty of people are posting but they aren't Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-41203142810000289062015-10-27T09:25:00.000-04:002015-10-27T09:25:00.415-04:00Artists Love the Industry ...Until They Don'tSo I was listening to the Sway interview and i got perturbed when DJ Khaled started complaining about magazines and hip-hop media not nominating him or he feels like, respecting what he does. This is a refrain that always happens at some point during the cycle of an illustrious career, the media, and the critics get bored or want to see you do some new tricks and his entire monologue about how Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-63505993848184289822015-10-23T22:26:00.001-04:002015-10-23T22:26:52.553-04:00Album Review- DJ Khaled- I Changed A Lot
DJ Khaled has taken over the mantle that DJ Clue used to have as creator of the legit mix tape that is turned into an album. Since the South has taken over, he has been the fixture in hip-hop with his energetic ad-libs and collaborations as well as beat making The past couple of years, he has been doing his thing but hasn't had an album for a minute and he has had some singles in the build Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-46823185277983629802015-10-23T07:09:00.000-04:002015-10-23T18:01:32.791-04:00As is Hip Hop Awards - Lyricist of the Year
Now we get into a more technical award, because you don't have to have the best album to win this, but just putting together a consistent year of bars and verses that are solid with both the skills such as metaphors, similes, alliteration and vocabulary mixed with solid content. This is an attempt to strip away catchy hooks and beats to focus on the words.
Lyricist of the Year
Drake - sikeRembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-81715546247919688992015-10-22T08:31:00.000-04:002015-10-22T08:31:00.726-04:00As Is Hip Hop Awards - Biggest Disappointment
So I really wanted to make this on the same place as the album of the year but that one got a bit long winded so here it is. Without further adieu the contenders:
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly - While Kendrick may be alright, his album still left some things to be desired. There were moments when it was so esoteric it was hard to get a true handle on it. I have mentioned several Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-8595026958180492932015-10-19T22:39:00.000-04:002015-10-19T22:39:00.298-04:00As is Hip Hop Awards- The Albums
I'm going to keep it short and sweet here, there are two lists I really think of when it comes to albums, The best and the most disappointing. Here is why, now the best albums is what everyone always wants to talk about, the validation of your fandom rests on how your favorite artist ranks among the best of the year. We seem to be so invested in this one aspect, and hell we all like titles. Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-8920100112656388052015-10-18T18:57:00.000-04:002015-10-18T18:57:12.340-04:00Album Review- MGK- General Admission
I don't know what to think of what MGK does these days. I rarely hear any real buzz about him in the normal hip-hop circles but I know he still sells out shows and gets it in on the road. While the last news I heard was he was dating Amber Rose for a period of time. he also is still recording. I didn't really go through his last release, "Black Flag" but I did decode to come back for this newRembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-57428659270145845962015-10-16T07:33:00.000-04:002015-10-16T07:33:00.067-04:00As Is Hip Hop Awards - "Independent" Album of the year
This is now a really tough category to even make. True there are more independent artists out than ever and more albums being actually released through digital means than ever before it is hard to go through a list and pick out what albums to go and listen to to qualify. When you add in all of the EP's, street albums, and mixtapes it gets down right overwhelming. There is no way anyone can Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-15430544488047942012015-10-15T23:02:00.001-04:002015-10-15T23:02:42.520-04:00Album Review- Joe Budden- All Love Lost
Joe Budden might be everything but a rapper to a lot of people. Reality star, podcast host, twitter fingers? But for me he has always been one of my favorite emcees for an ability to use lyricism to actually tell a story and further expound on his emotions. Now some folks grow weary of it at times and it can definitely wear you down unless he is going over more than just relationship stress.Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-14902761326322370302015-10-14T07:09:00.000-04:002015-10-14T07:09:00.073-04:00Independent Wednesday
So this week J. Lately makes our featured list with his single "I miss You" featuring Champluther Vandross ( I do not like that name as an entertainer) and Della. This is a jazzy, r and b single about the male/female relationship dynamic. This is really a nice cool song, easy to listen to, not too turned up or reliant on most modern gimmicks. Just solid music for most ages and occasions. I Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3318973217658953809.post-9717661009553234212015-10-09T07:07:00.000-04:002015-10-09T07:07:00.167-04:00The As is Hip Hop Awards Return!
So the past few years have been really difficult for me when it comes to hip-hop. I haven't been too happy with the overall shift of the culture and where things have gone. much like most of the internet, instead of reaching new areas and growing, rappers have doubled down on their core audiences and topics without the pressure to really reach across sub-genres for radio play and acceptance.Rembrandt18http://www.blogger.com/profile/01384834037855222986noreply@blogger.com0