Male Emotions.

Men generally aren't in touch with their feelings. This is in part due to growing up in a society that soft vulnerable. Giving credit to or praising another man seldom happens.
genderizes everything...including emotions. Rap is dominated by men, where refrains like "we don't love them h***" and money over b******" are commonplace. Most avoid anything that is has any possibility of coming across as "soft". The Drake-hate, and subsequent "hardcore"Drake bars are further evidence of this.
Kendrick Lamarr and J. Cole both went there on two different songs.

"Competition is none!" -Rakim

Competition has been long been part of Hip-Hop culture. The music of that culture is no different. From Rakim's No Competition, to I'm Still #1 by KRS-One, cats that felt like they were that deal, said so on the mic. Hell, even Nelly attempted to have his say on whose the best. That's why I was happy after hearing the Big Sean song, Control that featured Jay Electronica and Kendrick Lamar.

West Coast Cypher

This made me smile. Where do I start?

DJ Quik beating on the table brings me back to high school. The lunchroom table is where my man Rahkii used to hold us down with the beats. His assortment of silver rings served as a perfect carrier for the high-hats and symbols which complemented perfectly the deep bass resonating from his thenar and hypothenar colliding with the faux wood table. The fact that he eventually migrated to the left coast is merely a coincidence to this post. Either way, good times...

Anyway, IMHO Snoop is a great, not good, but great, freestyle rapper.

Yeah. yeah,  his lyrics might be simple, and his flow not overly complicated but he just always seems to rise to the occasion. Fun. Appropriate. Not overdone or forced

As much as I love the "Free"styles that many of the deep and complex wordsmiths and punchline junkies alike come up with, there are times where it just comes of a too much. Like a dude that shows up on casual Friday in a tux.

A free, or "free", should be fun.

Snoop just gets it.

"...My uncles doin' life inside prison he wasn't wrapped to tight he told me 'rap about life not rap niggas'" - Kendrick Lamar

Simply put, Andre Benjamin is one of the best to ever do it. The upcoming illustrates how easily can can flip vocab, concepts, and content. All on top of an a plus delivery. Not many rappers can rap dialogue between characters quite like Dre.

So I'm watchin' her fine ass
Walk to my bedroom, and thought to myself
That's the shape of things to come

 Double meaning on the come? Perhaps, but regardless Dre is always nuanced with his raps about "relations"

She said, Why you in the club, you don't make it precipitate?
You know, make it rain when you can make it thunderstorm

This is like a softball pitch for him. Why, despite being in a position to do so, does he not celebrate his wealth by showing off...he goes on to explain why...in great depth

I'm like, Why?
The world needs sun
The hood needs funds
There's a war going on and half the battle is guns
How dare I throw it on the floor
When people are poor
So I write like Edgar Allen to restore

In order to further his point he illustrates the need for more uplifting writing than for more negativity.

got a cord-
Umbilical attached to a place that can't afford
No landscaping, Or window draping
This old lady told me,
If I ain't got nothin' good, say nathin
That's why I don't talk much
I swear it don't cost much, to pay attention to me
I tell like it is, and I tell it how it could be
 He freaks the track even further discussing the literal and figurative ties that he has to the hood and sees it as a waste of time to use the microphone in a careless manner. Even evoking the words of elders to support his position (If you don't have anything good to say, then don't say anything at all). He'd rather tell it how it is and tell it how it could be.


The hood be

Requesting my services, Oh don't get nervous it's

Step yo game up time, These ain't them same old rhymes

Designed to have you dancin' in some club

****** write to me

Woman be off up in they tub

 Exfoliating  with they pom poms

Yellin' GO 3000!

I'm in my whatever bumpin' Nwa (N.W.A.)

A 100 miles in

Runnin' Runnin' Runnin' Runnin'

Summon

Woman

Come in

Sit down, heard you need some plumbing

Done in

I'm in

A swell mood

A rather swoll mood

Until she told me that she told dude

That she'll be back, she's going to the store

I didn't know she had a boyfriend, so the door

I pointed her to

I said, Call me when ya'll break up

I don't f**k nobody *****

And never on the Jacob, know what time it is

 Even when he is doing classic braggadocio and sexual prowess rap, Dre always seems to take a moral high ground. Here he criticizes a girl for attempting to seduce him despite having a partner at home.

[Andre 3000:]

So I'm watchin' her fine ass
Walk to my bedroom, and thought to myself
That's the shape of things to come
She said, Why you in the club, you don't make it precipitate?
You know, make it rain when you can make it thunderstorm
I'm like, Why?
The world needs sun
The hood needs funds
There's a war going on and half the battle is guns
How dare I throw it on the floor
When people are poor
So I write like Edgar Allen to restore, got a cord-
Umbilical attached to a place that can't afford
No landscaping, Or window draping
This old lady told me,
If I ain't got nothin' good, say nathin
That's why I don't talk much
I swear it don't cost much, to pay attention to me
I tell like it is, and I tell it how it could be
The hood be
Requesting my services, Oh don't get nervous it's
Step yo game up time, These ain't them same old rhymes
Designed to have you dancin' in some club
****** write to me
Woman be off up in they tub
Exfoliating with they pom poms

Yellin' GO 3000!
I'm in my whatever bumpin' Nwa (N.W.A.)
A 100 miles in
Runnin' Runnin' Runnin' Runnin'
Summon
Woman
Come in
Sit down, heard you need some plumbing
Done in
I'm in
A swell mood
A rather swoll mood
Until she told me that she told dude
That she'll be back, she's going to the store
I didn't know she had a boyfriend, so the door
I pointed her to
I said, Call me when ya'll break up
I don't f**k nobody *****
And never on the Jacob, know what time it is
***** just tryin' to live
Like a ***** supposed to live
If I still drank that malt liquor
I pour the beer
On the ground for ****** not around
I started off starvin'
Now they got me out here Brett Farve'n
Trynna see if I still got it... (got it...)
I guess it's like a fight think about it...
(oh oh oh no no)
..bout it...bout it... (oh oh oh no no)
oh oh oh....

"An understatement said that K Lamar was under pressure..

...don't press your luck when I'm pressed for time

Cuz when the press gets this verse they sure to press rewind" Kendrick Lamar

Doing posts on these new cats is fairly difficult in terms of finding lyrics from them to edit. As I mentioned before, either I need to develop a multi-dialect/regional hood version of dragon speak naturally, or I just throw these songs up with one line or two cuz I am far too lazy busy to type all of this up.

Anyway, I have finally gotten around to posting something from Kendrick Lamar. He is dope. He changes up his flow a lot, strong delivery, and varies his subject matter. His mixtape is very well done also..so much so that I think I may have to go head and purchase legally...word...

The first dude, Smoke Dza, holds his own but Kendrick ups the ante at the 1:20 mark...

"Told my little man i'm a ghost i rose, left some jewels in his skull that he could sell if he chose"

Nasir Jones - One love

In the process of giving the kid Kendrick Lamar a good solid listen I came across this collabo on a track by someone named Schoolboy Q and dude CurT@!n$. Now, no doubt I have liked what I have heard from Kendrick thus far however I must say I was very impressed by the dude that spit right after him (I don't even know who it is...I think it's CurT@!n$). Splendid story telling replete with compelling narrative developed characters nuance, catch phrase and flow, all sandwiched in between neat introductory and concluding sentences. VERY well done indeed.

"He need a chain so I gave him fifty cents...

"I loved Mike but it was a hassle tryna buy Jordan's"




Kendrick goes first but dude follows him and rips it...








I mean, I'm a sucker for the dropping jewels/mental jewels/gold jewels metaphor all day, but when you extend it out, i'm guaranteed to be  hooked. Peep an expert...
FF to 3:09


Also, Belly did a so-so interpretation of Nas's famed verse...

(youtube wont let me embed it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7KcImUZjW8