Ode to Derrick McKey

If you have ever played sports then you can relate. We have all played against a dude who from his outside appearance, does not appear to have any one standout skill. Not the most athletic, mediocre jump-shot, average ball handle and not very strong overall. One minute you are convinced he is a bum, the next thing you know, the game is over and homey just hit you up for 15 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and you had no idea how he did it. McKey, the former Indiana Pacer, was good for that.

There are a few MCs that are like that. Their flow is basic. Nothing special about their wordplay, not going bowl you over with super clever smilies. No deeply philosophical lyrics and not considered hot because of their "swagger." You just look at your track list, realize the songs are finished, and somehow, without you knowing, he had your head bobbin the entire time.

This is what I thought about after listing to Diz Gibran's mixtape - Soon You'll Understand. Maybe it is the Lord Finesse-like voice, or maybe the sincerity in his delivery, but one thing is for certain...dude went for 18 and 9 one out of nowhere. Decent little debut indeed...

Happy Fathers Day!

"It's about time we have a father to son

sit down let me tell you 'bout your fatherless sons

How, they grew to be men, father they sons

Father they daughters

Nikka, you left a fatherless daughter

I'll never follow your orders!" - Beanie Siegal

For full disclosure, I am completely biased toward introspective, hardcore "emo" rap lyrics. However, for more reasons than that, I totally connected with this song when I I first heard it on Jay-Z’s Dynasty album. Beanie rhymed first and Hov second, and they both put forth a stellar effort. In addition to the above, Beans verse was littered with quotables such as:

"I remember being kicked out the house

'cause I looked just like you

Said I'd be nothing but a crook

just like you

The niggaz in the hood was shook

Or they just liked you

'Cause all they said was little whitey look

I'm just like you

But dog I can't see it at all (shit)

We never kicked it at all

We never pitched or kicked at a ball

dog, you never taught me shit

how to fight, ride a bike, fix the flat

none of that sorts of shit.."


16 Where Have You Been.mp3

Where Have You Been - Jay-Z feat. Beanie Siegal

While Jay didn't dig as deep as Beans did, he still held it down on his verse. He apparently held his best for the follow-up song a year later on Still Got Love for You on Beanie Seigal's The Reason. "For the record ya'll" Siegal stated calmly in the songs introduction. This song was a response to criticism of the biting nature of the first one.

Beanie set it off with...

"Dynasty album, track 16, listen scrap

I can't take back that sixteen

Shit the truth spoke, I gotta give the world true quotes

Can you feel it? I know the truth hurts"

Followed up with...

They say, "How can he disrespect his pop with harsh curses?"

Simple - harsh life, harsh verses.."

Taking a cue form Beans, Jay comes in and gives us a rare introspective and emotional blackout....

"(I think you misunderstood me the first time..)

Listen - that my hurt in my heart talkin, along with the truth

I would thirst often as a youth cause of you the person

Moms nursin self-esteem issues

Round the house it's hard to find a clean tissue, minus her tears

To rewind this time I promise I minused my years

to the day to take her pain away

Seemed sunny outside, always rained on Jay

Pop you my umbrella, come help your son with the weather

Soon we come together like man and man and build

Play spades, cards face up, I've come to deal

In order to get right we gotta deal with this wrong

And the pain I felt all my life you feel in the song

Your lack of warmth left a chill in the morn'

Your lack of love, left me loveless, and I'm of your breath

I'm your mind body and soul, your heart, your flesh

Your alcohol, your smoking results I'm a mess dad!

Still I love you no less dad

Hope you didn't think success would make me less mad

I'm not mad, just disappointed - we wasted years

I swear to God, may you take me away from here

If you taught me anything

The one thing you taught me is to face my fears, coward

How could you let me grow without you?

Grind in this rap game, take dough without you?

Wear my Pro Keds close to the sole without you?

Family pictures posed without you - WHY?! ..

Why shouldn't I be mad?

Monster's parents separated, Monster had his dad

D's parents had they problems, he still came to the pad

He bought 'em new bikes, imagine what that felt like

Used to have to bump my head to go to sleep at night

Nigga you did me wrong but the love is strong, let's move on"

As usual, this ain't slam poetry so you listening to the MCs ride the beat, in addition to reading the lyrics is a must!

13 Still Got Love For You feat. J.mp3


Still Got Love For You - Beanie Siegal, feat. Jay-Z

"...now that's 21 MCs ate up at the same time" - Rakim

"You see 8 MCs/I see one pizza/Them 8 slices that come with a free 1 liter" - Grafh

"Eat a rapper for lunch, and spit out the chain" - DOOM

Rappers spitting about how nice they are on the microphone is nothing new, and a number of them have pushed it to a whole different level in recent years. However for me, there is no more enduring theme of "i'm-nicer-than-you" type rhymes than the "eating" MCs theme.

The whole idea is just so primitive and primal but for some reason I love it. Think about it. In any form of competition there is nothing more demoralizing than being "eaten up" by an opponent. Yeah you can say you'll "school" someone, shoot someone or out-battle someone, but none of those can hold a candle to the concept of "eating" someone for lunch.

Many MCs have taken this theme and flipped it crazy different ways, DOOM, Sean P, just to name a few. But Grafh took it and freaked it on his song Chew 'em Up featuring Slaughterhouse's own Crooked I.

FTR, Crooked I's verse goes waaay harder overall though.

Grafh - Chew Em Up feat. Crooked I

"Begged him on the regular for kegs of more Vomitspit" - DOOM

This is a segment where I go over an MC's lyrics detailing some mark of brilliance. Whether it is content, flow, wordplay, or just raw spit, these MCs brought their A game to the party.

One of the things that makes hip-hop music so unique as a poetry form is that it must be listened to as well as read in order to fully assess the skill of the MC. You need to hear the song to hear how the author flows on the beat. So listen while reading.

My first post on this is from Mos Def's Black on Both Sides album. Using the Nation of Gods and Earths Supreme Mathematics as a guide, he delivers a hard hitting narrative about city living and its place in a larger context. There is not a lot of slick wordplay or fancy delivery here, just raw spit about issues of the day.

"Yo, it's one universal law but two sides to every story
Three strikes and you biddin for life, mandatory
Four MC's murdered in the last four years
I ain't tryin to be the fifth one, the millennium is here
Yo it's 6 Million Ways to Die, from the seven deadly thrills
Eight-year olds gettin found with 9 mill's
It's 10 P.M., where your seeds at? What's the deal
They on the hill pumpin krill to keep they belly filled
Light in the ass with heavy steel, sights on the pretty shit in life
Young soldiers tryin to earn they next stripe
When the average minimum wage is $5.15
You best believe you gotta find a new grind to get cream
The white unemployment rate, is nearly more than triple for black
so front liners got they gun in your back
Bubblin crack, jewel theft and robbery to combat poverty
and end up in the global jail economy
Stiffer stipulations attached to each sentence
Budget cutbacks but increased police presence
And even if you get out of prison still livin
join the other five million under state supervision
This is business, no faces just lines and statistics
from your phone, your zip code, to S-S-I digits
The system break man child and women into figures
Two columns for who is, and who ain't niggaz
Numbers is hardly real and they never have feelings
but you push too hard, even numbers got limits
Why did one straw break the camel's back? Here's the secret:
the million other straws underneath it - it's all mathematics"

Mos Def- Mathematics