The Forgotten XXL Freshmen

XXL Magazine’s annual freshmen list has featured some artists that have gone on to be rap superstars (Kendrick, J.Cole, Kid Cudi, ScHoolboy Q, Wiz Khalifa, Big Sean etc.). Some, on the other hand, fell off the face of the earth. I honestly didn’t even remember some of these dudes ’til I looked them up. Let’s give some attention to the ones that receive no attention.

2008:

Rich Boy 

Remember ‘Throw some D’s on that bitch!’? Shit was hot. Remember anything else Rich Boy ever put out? Me neither.

Gorilla Zoe

He mattered in like 2009. Not anymore though.

Top 5 Best New-School Hip-Hop Artists

I consider the new school to be from about 2009 to now. Alot of young, up and coming rappers made their debuts in this time period. The “Top 5 All Time Rappers” list I made didn’t go in a particular order, but this one does. Here’s the list for the top five best of their generation.

5. Ab-Soul

I didn’t really get into Soulo’s music ’til almost a year ago, but I’m happy I decided to check him out. He got those type of lines that you gotta sometimes rewind the track and then you be like “Damn, that shit was nice”. He’s clever with the words if you haven’t noticed yet. What truly made me a fan of his though, is his very personal ‘The Book of Soul’ track. That song is definitely one of the best hip-hop songs that have dropped in the 2010s decade. If this list was based on lyricism alone, Ab-Soul would be #2.

4. J. Cole

It’s been said that he has the potential to be the next Tupac. I even thought that too when I heard The Warm Up  Friday Night Lights, two mixtapes that shit on his two albums. I haven’t been a really big fan of his later material, but I’m still aware what he’s capable of. Tracks like ‘2Face’, ‘Lost Ones’, and ‘Lights Please’ showcase his talent. Put him in the 90s era and I think he’d fit in fine. He covers social commentary, insecurities, life struggles, and other relatable topics in his tunes.

3. Drake 

The biggest star of his generation, no doubt. Anything this nigga touches turns to commercial gold. You knew who Migos was before Drake hopped on ‘Versace’? Me neither. Greatly influenced by Kanye West, and still managed to make his own sound and not copy him. I can’t name a single rapper before Drake that sounds like him.  He especially has the crossover appeal since he can sing. So Far Gone was a fantastic mixtape, and he’s been here to stay ever since. Some may put him in a box for making emotional, “I’m tryna save these hoes” music, but he can go hard on a record when he wants to (5am In Toronto). From an artistic standpoint, it’s hard to deny that he’s very talented. Overall, he makes great music. Fuck Take Care though…

2. Childish Gambino

This dude is original, has plenty of personality on tracks, and arguably has the best wordplay of the new generation. I’ve been a fan of his since I heard his EP, and I enjoyed what I heard after that, except Royalty, he missed the mark with that one. He can be very personal with his music, talking about his past vices, suicidal thoughts, and self-loathing. I really like those type of joints from him, but I love his more fun, wordplay oriented songs like ‘You See Me’ and ‘Bonfire’.  He ain’t a bad singer either, and he constantly experiments with his sound.

1.) Kendrick Lamar

The best of his generation. He has great flow, delivery, and is lyrically in his own league. He also makes the best projects out of the newer rappers. Section.80 and Good Kid, m.a.a.d. City were both very well-crafted projects, the latter of which even earned a perfect “XXL” rating from XXL Magazine. No other rapper on this list has accomplished that. If K.Dot keeps doing what he’s doing, he may even be Top 5 of All Time one day.

The Tale of Big Lurch

Not a whole lot of people know about this dude, and alot of the people that do know about him don’t know him because of his music. I know about him because he’s serving a life sentence for reported killing a woman, cutting her open, and chewing on her intestines and lung while he was high on PCP.

In this picture, this nigga looks like pure evil yo. Like he lights his blunts with the flames of Hell. It all started in 2000, when he was in a car accident when he got hit by a drunk driver. The accident broke his neck, and he started smoking PCP to help with his pain. Two years later, Lurch was in his apartment with his roommate’s girlfriend, and they were both high on PCP. Reports say that he cut her open with a knife, and partially ate her. When he was found by police, he was naked in the street, covered in blood, and staring at the sky. When he was later sober in an interview, he said that during the night of the murder he claimed that “The world was finna end, and I had to find the Devil, and kill the Devil.”

That whole situation is beyond fucked up. The victim’s mom said that Lurch got set up, and Lurch says that people should never use PCP, because he knows the terrible effect that it can have on a person’s mind.

The Rise and Fall of Trinidad James

The Rise: ‘All Gold Everything’

The Fall: Anything after ‘All Gold Everything’….

What Has Been Hip-Hop’s Best Year so Far This Decade?

We almost to 2014. We’ve had four years of hip-hop so far this decade, but which one was the best. What I wrote below covers each year with the highlights, and at the bottom is my opinion of what the best year has been.

2010:

Drake became more than just “The new guy”. Cementing his status as a superstar, dropping quite a bit of hit records, and dropping his successful, debut album, Thank Me Later.

Eminem returning to being a good rapper. Relapse was pure ass. He had a mission to redeem himself, and dropped Recovery, another album of his I’m not crazy about, but it was ok.

Nicki Minaj became a superstar that year. She murdered everybody on “Monster”, and dropped the last passable thing I think she will ever create, Pink Friday.

Kanye dropped the classic My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Kanye was the MVP of that year, no doubt.

Kid Cudi put out his last dope project, MOTM2. Very good album.

Smaller stuff happened too. Five projects that I’m still a big fan of came out that year. J. Cole dropped the great Friday Night Lights tape, Childish Gambino dropped Culdesac, Mac Miller dropped K.I.D.S., Kendrick Lamar dropped Overly Dedicated, and Wiz dropped his dope Kush & OJ tape.

2011:

Big Sean, Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, & J. Cole all became stars, and dropped their debut albums. All of which were disappointing. None of these niggas should be proud of those debuts.

Drake was crowned emperor of the lightskinned niggas after he dropped his 2nd album, Take Care, packed with shitty songs like “Marvin’s Room”, and “The Motto”. Fuck this album….

Jay Z & Kanye West dropped the very hyped Watch the Throne album. Nothing classic, but still good.

Eminem & Royce da 5’9, a.k.a. Bad Meets Evil, dropped the Hell: The Sequel, EP. People slept on this project, shit was dope.

Lil Wayne dropped the anticipated Tha Carter IV, and the best song on it was one he wasn’t even on.

Smaller stuff that happened was Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, and Big K.R.I.T. dropping my favorite projects that year, with Section.80, Camp, and Return of 4Eva.

2012:

Nicki Minaj just got whacker….and whacker…..and whacker….. “Stupid Hoe” = Rap Abortion

Kendrick Lamar worked his way to the head of the rap game, dropping the modern day classic, Good Kid, m.a.a.d. City, my second favorite album to drop this decade.,

G.O.O.D. Music dropped some hit records like “Mercy” and “New God Flow”, then they dropped the ball with the Cruel Summer album. Shit was eh…

Meek Mill dropped an album that I give zer0 fucks about. But it sold well, so it’s relevant, ig…

The legendary J.Cole/Diggy beef. Too far?

2013:

Kanye dropped his worst solo album to date, Yeezus.

Jay Z dropped the “eh…” album, Magna Carta, Holy Grail, but that shit had “Tom Ford”, so it ain’t awful. Then again, “Tom Ford” coulda just been an instrumental and Jay saying “Tom Ford” and I still would’ve bumped it.

Mac Miller, Pusha T, Tyler the Creator, and A$AP Rocky all managed to put out dope albums.

“Versace, versace versace versace versace”

Hip-hop decided to accept Miley Cyrus. I didn’t, but whatever…

“Control” came out and everybody lost they damn minds over it. Kendrick made everybody forget it was Big Sean’s song.

Drake dropped hit after hit, then came out with Nothing Was the Same. Had its fair share of duds, but good overall.

Eminem returned with The Marshall Mathers LP 2. Had a few whack singles, but I like the album.

And the Winning Year Issssss:

2010 The best mixtapes and best album of this decade so far dropped that year. I was always provided with some new dope shit to listen to in 2010.

Looking Back, Overrated/Underrated: Drake – Take Care

In 2011, Drizzy dropped his highly anticipated, sophomore album. I liked the stuff Drake put out prior to it, so I was looking forward to it. It’s looked at as one of the best rap albums of the 2010 decade so far. It even ended up winning the Grammy for Best Rap Album in 2013. Overall, the verdict is

OVERRATED

I really don’t like this album. I mean I REALLY don’t like this album. I must admit, I bought into the hype at first, but after giving it a couple of listens, Take Care just became annoying. You know all those stupid “Drake the type of nigga that..” jokes on Twitter? I’m sure that this was the cause of it. He said he doesn’t like when people call him emotional, but wtf do you expect them to do when you make some shit like this? All you did was bitch about girls for the the majority of the album. This nigga rapped about going through girls’ purses? Seriously? Seriously? This is the softest “Rap” album I’ve ever heard, and resulted in Drake being crowned the emperor of the lightskinned niggas.

How tf did this beat Nas’ Life is Good for the Grammy? Was it a more popular album, yes. (I may have just answered my own question.) But was it better? Fuck no. It was kinda bold that he never threw away his Grammy speech, and he didn’t even get to use it, but this shit shouldn’t have given him the reason to use it in the first place. Drake’s a talented guy, don’t get me wrong, but.. “The Motto” was one of my least favorite songs in 2011, and the “movement” it started was terrible. Old people trying to relate to today’s youth by saying YOLO is nerve-racking.

I loved the production on this, especially “Lord Knows”, but other than that, it’s been resting in my recycle bin since I came to the realization that this album does absolutely nothing for me. That sing-rapping shit like he did on “Headlines” is irritating when he overdoes it, and the fact that he tried to talk tough while he was doing it made it worse. What “thug” sings when making threats? Drake’s delivery on most of this tracks was whack, and and most of the rap verses weren’t memorable to me. Even though he had PHENOMENAL lines like, “She said “You’re such a dog”. and I said “You’re such a bone.” and “Just bought a ghost so shit is getting spooky”…. Nigga what? It’s those type of lines that if you say them acapella, they’re meant to make people say “oooh”, but everybody just be standing there like                                                                                                                                                           

This featured some of his worst rapping and his worst singing. And the R&B songs that The Weeknd wrote for this would’ve sounded ALOT better if The Weeknd was the one singing them. A few, (and I really mean “few”) of Drake’s songs were cool, like “HYFR”, “Look What You’ve Done”, “Crew Love” and….I think that’s it. My favorite part of this album, (“Buried Alive”, which ain’t all that great either) don’t even got the nigga on it.

I’m not HATING ON this album, I just HATE this album. He managed to redeem himself with Nothing Was the Same though, so it may be all good from here on out.

Things Rappers Say Pussy Smells Like

I was bored, so I decided to make this post. Plies wants a girl who smells like water down there, which is preferable. Other rappers, on the other hand, be on some weird shit. Such as:

Mac Miller – Sour Cream and Onion Chips                                                                                                                                                                Line: Corruption, stuntin’ at the function. Your girl pussy smell like Sour Cream & Onion.

Danny Brown: Penguins                                                                                                                                                                                                Line: Bitch pussy smell like a penguin. Wouldn’t hit that shit with my worst enemy’s penis!

Riff Raff: Tuna                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Line: Rap game peppermint patty and the lavender bumble bee jackets! Your girlfriend’s vagina Smells like bumble bee tuna! (This shit didn’t rhyme….but…okay….)

Wale: Tulips  (His was the most tame)                                                                                                                                                                       Line: Your two lips they smell like tulips so official. My niggas’ll probably clown me if I told them I kissed you. (Wale is terrible….)

Danny Brown: Cool Ranch Doritos (Danny Brown a weird nigga, so he gets two posts)                                                                                Line: And I’m still fucking with them freak hoes. Stank pussy smelling like Cool Ranch Doritos.

If Kendrick Lamar Died Today, Would He Get the “Biggie Treatment”?

Getting “The Biggie Treatment” is being considered one of the greatest because you were very popular and talented at the time you died, even though you had a small catalog. K.Dot is arguably the hottest rapper out right now, even though he only has one studio album to his name. As much as I love Section.80, a debut internet-only album is about the equivalent to a hot mixtape. People consider Good Kid, M.a.a.d. City a classic, and it hasn’t even been out for a full year. But if he were to die today, would he be considered one of the greatest of all time? Think about it. People consider Biggie to be one of the GOATs even though he doesn’t have an extensive catalog. He only had Ready to Die to his name when he died, even though I can include Life After Death because the album was pretty much completed before he died. I don’t include those thrown together, posthumous albums. It’s one of those examples of quality over quantity.

Both of Big’s albums are considered classics, but him dying played almost as big a part of him becoming a legend than his music did. Dying while you’re on top makes you that much more relevant in the entertainment world. So if Kendrick were to die today, would he receive the same treatment as Biggie did?