Video: Wale feat. Rick Ross & Lupe Fiasco - Poor Decisions

Lupe verse >>>>>> Ross verse >> Wale verse


"Can't afford 'em but you still gon' get 'em."

Video: Lupe Fiasco - B&tch Bad

Lupe is kinda getting his Nas on here if you think about it. But Lupe always throws some depth into his music and consequently doesn't sell as much as other less-progressive thought-provoking artists. I won't name any names.

Hip-Hop Ish: Best Debut Feature Verse of All The Times???

A week or so ago on Twitter, I mentioned that I thought Freeway's verse on "1-900-Hustler" off of Jay-Z's Dynasty album was the best debut feature verse (in my opinion). And by "debut feature verse" I mean a rapper whose debut verse was on someone else's song and they BBQ'd the verse (picture the verse from "Renegade" being Em's first verse you ever heard him on or Jay's "Free Mason" verse being his first joint you ever heard him on). I guess you could say my argument is confined to mainstream rap so all you hip-hop purists and back-packers and underground hip-hop heads that are gonna pull some random Cory Gunz verse out of your azz need not read any further.

In response to my tweet(s) about this, a friend replied that he mentioned it to his homeboy who said Snoop's verse on "Deep Cover" and AZ's on "Life's a Bitch" or Method Man on "Method Man" may have to be in the discussion as well. I also thought that DMX's verse on "24 Hours to Live" was a sick debut verse as well. And I have to add Lupe's verse on "Touch the Sky" in there to.

To be honest, some of these verses may very well have not even been debut verses, just the first time I'd heard these guys on a track. But nevertheless for the purpose of this blogpost, I'll consider them debut verses. Check out all the songs mentioned after the jump and drop a comment with any songs you think should be added to this list of potential greatest debut feature verses ever.

Jay-Z feat Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek, and Freeway - 1-900-HUSTLER



Dr. Dre feat Snoop Dogg - Deep Cover



Nas feat AZ - Life's a Bitch



Wu Tang Clan - Method Man



Ma$e feat (Diddy's shyt talkin') The Lox, and DMX - 24 Hours to Live



Kanye West feat Lupe Fiasco - Touch the Sky



After listening to all these I gotta say it's definitely not Free's verse even though I like it a lot. I think it comes down to Lupe, Snoop, and AZ.

I'm just bumpin my music

As usual, I'm listening to a rack of different stuff during the day. Just sharing these and giving a few random comments on each.

Hot Stylz - Lookin' Boy Remix (feat. Yung Joc, Kellz)

Kellz crazy azz murked this joint. You might have seen my original post for this track a while ago where I predicted that it would blow. Now that Kellz has jumped on it (no 12-year old girl) I think the probability of that happening just went up even more. We'll see how long it takes...



Lupe Fiasco - Cold World

Unreleased joint that most definitely should have been released. No Johnny Gill. I wonder if this is a Kanye beat. Definitely one of the dopest beats I've heard Lupe over in a minute. I'm feeling the piano and the Wu-Tang "Cream" sample in this one.



Lil Overrated/Overhyped Wayne (feat. Bobby V) - Mrs. Officer

This is my shyt! Period! Weeee-oooooh-weee-ooooh-weee! Like I said, I'm a closet Bobby V. fan.



Lloyd (feat. "Lil See Reference Above") - All Around the World

Seriously, Lloyd sounds like a friggin' girl. With that said, why do I like his daggon songs so much! I guess it's me getting in touch with my feminine side (shut the fock up Dane). The Paid in Full rip on the beat and Lil "Verse Recycler's" verse pays nice homage to the original Eric B. and Rakim track.



Wale - The Crazy

Wale is next up!

"You're crazy!"

"Am I? Or am I so sane, that you just blew your mind?!"



Lil "Syrup Sipper" (feat. the G.O.A.T. Jay-Z) - Mr. Carter

The song on C3 that most people are/were eager to hear. One of the best 3 tracks on the album, EASILY.



Lil "Put the Vocoder Down" - Dr. Carter

This is real hip-hop right here. Wayne should stick to songs that are this creative, and lyrical. Not all that cookie-cutter radio crap.




Alfamega - Uh Huh

"This a Nitti beat!". Alfamega (who I first heard on TI's "Hurt" where he dropped a mean azz verse) comes with a club joint heavily co-signed by TIPPORD. It might be a good look just to get Alfamega on the map. Like Bloodraw, I've been feeling Alfamega since day one and I'm hoping some of my favorite up-and-coming artists start getting some shine like Ortiz, Drizzle, Bloodraw, and Alfamega. There are others but these are the first few I thought of off the top of my head.

Best.Concert.EvAr!!!

Somehow, I managed to experience the best hip-hop performance of my life and not blog about it for 10 whole days! Who would have guessed it. But better late than never, right?

On May 10, my brother, Woo, and I went to the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, VA for the "DC stop" of Kanye's Glow in the Dark Tour. I'd been excited about this concert for about two months and I had this wack joke going for about a month of that time where I'd tell my friends I was going to buy glow in the dark underwear to wear to the concert. Needless to say, I was BOWL-SHYTTING!

We got to the concert late. Well, late according to the time it was slated to start, 6:20pm. But I was only going to see one person that night, Kanye Tuda. From what I understand, Lupe Fiasco was the first to perform, followed by N.E.R.D. and Rihanna. We got there about 3/4 of the way through Rihanna's set.

It's going to be tough for me to convey just how crazy the atmosphere was once Kanye hit the stage but I'd compare what I experienced that night to what people say Woodstock was like. We had lawn seats so we were in the middle of a sea of people. There were glow in the dark shoes, necklaces, glasses, and shirts scattered throughout the crowd.

Once Kanye hit the stage is was like a riot from pretty much that point on. What impressed me the most was that Kanye did his entire set by himself with the exception of "Touch the Sky" (which he brought Lupe out for), so it felt like a very personal experience between him and the crowd. The light-show, smoke, and moving platform he stood on were all nice touches that gave you the feeling that you were a part of something half-astronomical, half-hip-hop. It was definitely far different from the feeling of the Jay-Z/MJB concert. It was FAR better.

Kanye's set probably lasted about an hour or so but we could have stood there dancing and chanting for another day or two. This was hands-down the best hip-hop concert I've ever been to and I would pay $100 for a Kanye show any day. Oddly enough, I paid $35 for my ticket to this concert and left feeling like it was worth $100. Whereas, I went to see Jay-Z and Mary J and paid $100+ for tickets and left feeling like I should have only paid $50.

If you have the opportunity to go check out the Glow in the Dark Tour, make sure you do. Even if you have to sit waaaaaaay in the back or waaaaayyyyy up high. Trust me, it's worth every penny. And in 10 years when Kanye's touring like the Grateful Dead, you'll be able to say you were there when he set a new benchmark for hip-hop tours.

Just ask Diddy...
And if you don't believe me or Diddy, ask EsKay or ask MTV.