"YOU THINK HONESTY IS WEIRD YOU SON?!?!

SON, WHERE YOU FROM?!?! - Homeboy Sandman

 I was trying to find lyrics to Eclipsed by Homeboy Sandman but I could find any. I flashed back to one of my earlier rants about rappers not leaving written documentation of their works, if for nothing more than historic and archival purposes.


It was then that I remembered that the song in question did indeed have liner notes! My excitement was dampened when I realized that the PDF that Stones Throw put out with Homeboy Sandman's First of a Living Breed was protected, preventing me from copy and pasting. Grr

Come back like Jordan wearin the 4-5 - Vado

"In Orlando I pass Dwight (the white), like Jameer an them...."

Very nice. Well crafted double entendre, sports/drug dealing reference. What really makes this work is the fact that Jameer Nelson is the point guard, therefore the one mainly responsible for passing the ball to Dwight Howard. Naming any other player would simply not have been enough. That is what separates a haphazard sports reference from a solid one.


Vado has a real nice flow on this joint.

FF to the 2:50 mark for the line, but the song is worth listening to.

Berries & Juices

I am not big on song titles however after hearing a few bars from this Blu and Exile joint, I had to look.




Taking inspiration from this scene from the movie Coming to America, Blu utilizes a thoughtful, lazy style flow. Paying particular attention to his word endings, which almost sounds lisp-like.

Dope Hip- Hop music. No chemicals. Just juices and berries.

Enjoy

Voice, Flow, Delivery - Brand Nubian

A group is only as good as the sum of it's parts, and Brand Nubian added up nicely together.

Derek (Sadat) X, Lord Jamar, and Grand Puba blended incredibly well together on tracks-each of their styles blending, coming together like a jazz band, each one supporting the other.

Voice

Sadat's voice was very unique. The way he stressed different syllables and went up and down inflecting his voice and tone was quirky and stylistically dope. There were times when was barely even rhyming words. He could go an entire 16 bars with rhyming just a few words, similar in some ways to Masta Killa.

Flow

Lord Jamar was smooth as all hell. His flow was dripping with confidence and attitude. Whether he was talking about beating punks down, or proselytizing 5% teachings, he did so with an ease that allowed the listener to ride with him along with the beat.

Delivery

What Method Man was to the Wu, Grand Puba was to Brand Nu. Charisma, charm, affable, and overall likeability. He had the style and personality to crossover into a more general and diverse group of listeners however that is not an indictment on his skill. He too was effortless with his delivery. He was versatile with his, he could switch-up his pacing, be a "rock-the-party" type of MC, and also manage be substantive

I feel like these days many groups....wait, are there even anymore groups coming out?! As I type this I am realizing what are considered "groups" these days is just a solo artist and his set of weed carriers friends/rappers. In either case the individual pieces sound to similar to who ever the "lead" MC is. What makes a group dope, in addition to complimenting each other, is the uniqueness of the individuals.

Anyway, with Brand Nubian, it just worked. Dope group. 

Check the song below

Flow - Common

Common used "The Corner", from his album Be, to really flex his boom-bap ability. There is so much to say about this song from the structure, to the delivery, to the flow, and the wordplay. My focus will be on the first verse but I have to speak on the structure of the song a bit. Each verse is done primarily with an end rhyme and stresses particular syllables. 

The first verse uses the "0" sound, the second employs the "ight" ending while the third utilizes an "i" sound. He also plays with his voice, dropping it on the end rhyme for each bar.

"Memories on corners with the Fours and the Moors
Walk to the store for the Rose talking straightforward to hoes"

He also uses "and" a lot to compare and contrast and provide imagery. It also kind of minimalist in some ways. By doing this Com gives the song a cypher kind of sound, a delivery you would hear with a bunch of heads out on a corner just reporting out the things going on around them. Hence the songs title. Adding the Last Poets furthers that feel.

Flow - Waka Flocka Flame

 Niggas say they killed me and kidnapped my daughter, I don't even got no daughter"  - Waka Flocka  Flame

I remember trying to convince my man Reg that Waka Flocka Flame had major league flow. Before you flip out, I was looking at it through the lens of the voice being an instrument, that accompanys the beat. Under those circumstances the words that he is saying are not really that important. When you hear a saxophone, stand-up bass, and a guitar along with the band, you are more concerned with how it fits with the other instruments. In other words, if you simply ignore what dude is saying, and pay close attention to how he is saying it, his flow is fairly tight.

Well Reg wasn't buying and frankly not sure if I was buying it either, but I revisited this idea recently after seeing the video of the rapping two-year old on You Tube.

"So dont be scared to take the Super Lu route" Lupe Fiasco

Here I was minding my own business, giddy as can be about the release of new material from Lupe Fiasco only to find out that there was a smidgen of drama around it. This was not typical Lupe release drama, but the MC reacting to a few comments from a couple of rappers (differentiation between the two terms intended). Apparently, in an interview with XXL magazine rapper Soulja Boy offered up that he planned to step up his lyrical output so as not to be taken as a "joke." Shortly thereafter he qualified his comments by adding, “I don’t want to be super-Lupe-Fiasco-lyrical and nikkas don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about.”

I am unsure if Soulja meant it as a diss, or if Lupe even  interpreted it that way. I certainly can understand Souljah's overall point though. Lupe, at times, can be a bit too cerebral, although I don't necessarily see that as bad thing. What is important here is that Wasalu heard the comments and used it as a teaching moment for young Soulja via "SLR (Super Lupe Rap)" of his mixtape Friend of the People.

"And that’s how you do it
Everything flow, everything fluid
Stupid with the raps, but the raps never stupid"