"If skills sold, truth be told..." - Jay-Z

Sean Carter was dope from the beginning. Further, he is dope regardless of what he is rhyming about. His how, is strong enough to overcome his what, most of the time. I feel like I need to state that so that my subsequent comments are not interpreted as as me insinuating anything to the contrary. But the reality is that Jay-Z spent several years providing listeners with less than his best and most creative effort lyrically. Picture Michael Jordan subbing himself out of an important basketball game to save energy. What would the response be if Derek Jeter didn't run out ground balls to first base? Exactly. I mean, its cool to mail it in if you are simply incapable of penning anything worth a damn, but this is Hov!

Eventually, Jay began to hear and respond to the criticisms with a line or two, here and there on mixtapes and albums:

"...I mean the average fan never heard of a Goodie Mob or a Cee-lo...

but they heard of Gnarls Barkley..." Joe Budden - Who Killed Hip-Hop

It's not everyday you hear Andre 3000 out shined on a track yet that is exactly what happened on Outkast's debut album back in 94'.

Wow, it seems just like yesterday, after picking up my man Dion we would drive around dropping off resumes and applications all over the place. Shortly there after we'd cop a bottle of bumpy face and stop by the Garcia Vega spot and, well...yeah.

After being blessed by the herbs essence, the real magic happened when we'd skip to track number 12, Git up, Get Out, featuring the Goodie Mob.

The first to bless the mic was this charismatic, high pitched, drawl filled, lyrical flame thrower by the name of Cee-Lo Green. While the entire crew did the hook, he stood out above the fray on the matter of fact lyrics.

"Nigga, you need to git up, git out and git somethin
Don't let the days of your life pass by
You need to git up, git out and git somethin
Don't spend all your time tryin to get high

You need git up, git out and git somethin
How will you make it if you never even try?

You need to git up, git out and git somethin
Cuz you and I got to do for you and I"

His vocal pitch, flow and delivery alone were enough to stop us in our tracks.

From a content standpoint, the rhyme spun a realistic tale of a struggling artist dealing with the various obstacles that come along with attempting to get his career jumped off. It also can be interpreted as the familiar tale of a young man cauaught up in the post high school malaise trying to find support and direction.

Make no mistake this is no, woah -is-me-I-can't catch-a-break type of track. Cee-lo is truly reflective and candid about the short coming of the character in the rhyme. Later in the verse he gets into a personal back-and-forth with the aunt he is living with and makes for some lively debate.

This verse, and Cee-Lo, will forever hold a special place in my heart. It was deep, honest and inspiring music. That motivated Dion and I too hand out more applications and make fewer trips to the Garica Vega spot.

"I want a girl when I want a girl...

...and when I don't want a girl I want a girl who understands that" - Phonte of Little Brother

So...It is no secret that I am a sucker for reflective and emotional music in general. I am also in the tank for MCs that show some level of introspection on their tracks. Which is on of several reasons why I am a big fan of Phone from (or formerly of?) North Carolina trio, Little Brother.

"uh, uh, uh, all over the track and, uh pardon me, uh, as I come back" - Busta Rhymes

So....I swore to myself that I would make it a point not to do music reviews on my blog. I and I will hold true to that. However I listen to a shit-ton of music throughout the week, some great, most mediocre, a lot of it trash.

Sometimes, I am scarred by the experience and quickly need to hear or watch something new to rid my memory of the experience.

That being said, I recently gave two, full, quality listens to Busta Rhymes' new album, Back on my BS, and.... yeah (sigh).

"You can find me in the club..." 50 Cent

So, I'm cool with songs about a night out in the club. I am equally okay with songs by men talking about all of the women that they "meet" at the club. Hell, you could write rhymes about buckets of piss for all I care, so long as you do it right. And by "right," of course, I mean with thought, effort and skill.

Lupe Fiasco did just that on his song Sunshine from his Food & Liquor album. The Chicagoan begins by fleshing out the awkward nature of approaching a woman "up in tha club" and how chasing chics is usually not his thing.

During the second verse they step outside, now less nervous, they chop it up a bit and he begins to spit game;