“Rap is my City Big Tigga Basement/Music is my heartbeat, listen to the cadence.”-S.P.E.C.trum on “Airplane Dreaming”

S.P.E.C.trum feat./ Alex Suazo- Airplane Dreaming <-Download Link

NEW (DOPE)ness. This is the first single off of the HIGHLY ANTICIPATED The Variety EP from the Houston MC, S.P.E.C.trum. This joint goes hard. Follow him on Twitter and check out his new music at S.P.E.C.trum’s myspace page.

.(DOPE).

“This be the plot/History will watch/Me reach the top/so give me the spot/I got a +PLAY BUTTON+  for a heart…it’s not in me to +STOP+.”- J. Aire on “This Will Not Be Pretty (Free Throw #3)”

J. Aire- This Will Not Be Pretty (Free Throw #3) <-Preview + Download Link

…PenMe ISNT available as of now but it will be available on www.justaire.com April 20th, 2010. I say the whole date because it should be marked as a major part in Hip Hop history. Right here is the third Free Throw, this time J. Aire massacres The Cool Kids’ “Champion” beat.

Become a fan of J. Aire on Facebook

PenMe drops April 20th. I PROMISE you greatness.

“When you come from 3 to a bowl riches/you want that I Got Money To Blow riches/The…make you feel whole riches/But without dreams…there’s NO RICHES.”- J. Aire on “Completion”

J. Aire- Completion (Prod. J Dilla)(Free Throw #1) <-Preview + Download Link

“Why is she nagging about a blowjob/It wasnt a bullet, her ass could’ve dodged.”-J. Aire on “NSFW”

J. Aire- NSFW(Free Throw #2) <-Preview + Download Link

J. Aire comes through and blesses us with two Free Throws made in support of PenMe dropping April 20th. (OH YEAH!) Definitely feeling these joints and word is that he’ll be dropping a Free Throw everyday at JustAire.com starting April 13th until the release of PenMe on the 20th.

.(DOPE).

J. Aire – PenMe (Prod 5th Element Beats) <-Preview + Download Link

“My soul keeps killing me/So the hole below my nose is my own rescue team.”- J. Aire on “PenMe”

This is it…the DEBUT SINGLE from J. Aire’s HIGHLY ANTICIPATED debut mixtape, PenMe. This premiered on his website, JustAire.com which all of his new music will be at. When I say highly anticipated, I mean I can name about 30 people off the top of my head who badger me on a daily basis for this mixtape. Lets make this dude the biggest star we can.

Follow the artist on Twitter

and follow the mixtape, PenMe on Twitter.

J. Aire..inhale or DIE!

Lets rewind to a happier time. 2001. When the Grammy’s had a firm comprehension of balance .That ever so illusive yet eagarly saught after balance between artistry and commercial appeal. Lets take a look at the nominees for Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group:”

• “Alive,” Beastie Boys
• “Oooh,” De La Soul Featuring Redman
• “The Next Episode,” Dr. Dre Featuring Snoop Dogg
• “Big Pimpin’,” Jay-Z Featuring UGK
• “Forgot About Dre,” Dr. Dre featuring Eminem

The eventual (and albeit rightful) winner of that award was “Forgot About Dre”, but notice the balance in the nominations. There was the insanely commercial (“Big Pimpin”) mixed with the classic Hip Hop (“The Next Episode”) mixed with the raw underground (“Oooh”). Balance. Also, notice how the award that won embodied all three of those elements. I mean, a song which has the lyrics, “choke you to death with a Charleston Chew” won a Grammy. (DOPE)ness. Now lets flash forward to the “future” (essential that future is in quotations) and look at the 2010 nominations for Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group:

Beastie Boys & Nas – “Too Many Rappers”
Eminem, Dr. Dre & 50 Cent – “Crack A Bottle”
Fabolous & Jay-Z – “Money Goes, Honey Stay”
Kid Cudi, Kanye West & Common – “Make Her Say”
Kanye West & Young Jeezy – “Amazing”

Where’s the balance? Not only that..where’s the consistency? While I do think that Relapse is one of the best rap albums of the year, “Crack A Bottle” is a forced, contrived stunt for publicity that did not fit at all in the scheme of the album or as a song by itself. Where’s the representation of the underground feel (“History” by Mos Def feat./ Talib Kweli, anyone?), where’s the artistic commercialism (“Forever”?). What we have here is a clear indication of the process as to which the people at the Grammy committe use to pick their rap-related nominees:

Take out a sheet of the Top 100 Rap Songs on Billboard. Close eyes. Throw dart. See where it lands. Write name down. Repeat until you have five nominations.

Before I continue let me say that I completely understand that the unheard of album from (DOPE) MC no-name will never get a Grammy nomination without SOME sort of commercial push so I am not suggesting that the Grammy’s go through EVERY rap song of 2009 and pick but a little more aristic integrity would be nice. Other inexplicable atrocities of the 2010 Grammy’s include:

• Flo’Rida’s R.O.O.T.S album being nomiated for Rap Album of the Year
• “I’m On A Boat” by The Lonely Island & T-Pain being nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
• Not televising the Best Rap Album yet closing the show with a rap performance.
• Cutting off The Dream’s mic while playing the “get off the stage” music, yet keeping the mic on for everyone else.
• Having only ONE true Hip Hop performance and allowing T-Pain and Jamie Foxx to perform that addictive coonery song.

However the decrept icing on the cake came at the end(both ends). The final performnace of the night had the potential to be one of the greatest hip hop moments ever. You have Drake. The rapper with the BIGGEST buzz in the history of Hip Hop. Lil Wayne. Arguably the most saught after hip hop artist of the last half decade in what could be his last televised performance before serving an 8 Month jail sentence.  Then you have Eminem. Arguably the greatest rapper to ever breathe on a mic and unarguably the highest selling ARTIST (note no genre specific) of the last decade. How could this go wrong?

CBS and the Grammy’s censor nearly half of the performance.

The problem was not that they censored nearly half of the performance but that it was inexplicable. They bleeped out this entire stream of lyrics from Lil Wayne’s verse on “Drop The World”:

What’s worst is that following that they allow him to say the following line “made me strong motherfucker” and he himself censors “motherfucker” so you have to imagine he censored the other words. Then they went on to censor half of the “Forever” chorus when the ONLY curse word is “shit” which when they let it play out Drake does not say “shit”. And therein lies the major problem with this censorship and the Grammy’s as a whole. The Grammy’s do not think that Hip Hop artist are respectable artists. The rappers were censoring themselves throughout the performance yet CBS still found the need to silence half of what could have been the biggest performance of 2010. All the disrespcet of the night culminated in this conspicuous disregrad for the artistry of hip hop.

Here’s a LESS censored and INFINITELY more enjoyable version of the performance:

Why was this not aired to millions of people? This proves exactly what I have been saying. These men were professionals and besides the “nigga” slip by Lil Wayne in the “Drop The World” verse (which could’ve EASILY been censored out) these men censored themselves for the most part.

You can blame it on Kanye West being a loose cannon and frightening the Grammys’ new IT girl(who inexplicably won Album of the Year). You can even blame it on the fact that Hip Hop at its core is an art rooted in a rebellious spirit and an anti-mainstream approach (though these days you’d never know it). Or maybe you could blame it on the fact that you had Eminem and Lil Wayne, two men who have been arrested and have shown to disregard live TV(Read: The infamous double middle finger Eminem gave at the end of his 2001 Grammy performance).

But they are professionals. You’re working on a delay(there is no such thing as LIVE TV after Nipplegate). And on top of that..THEY REHEARSED IT IN FRONT OF YOU. By you I mean the Grammy committe. Therefore the only LOGICAL explanation is a complete disregard for the professionalism and artistry of Hip Hop.

Once the euphoria of seeing three of my favorite rappers of the last year perform together subsided all that was left was a indescribable feeling. I did not know if it was betrayal, disgust or even anger. But as I finish writing this entry I have finally discovered what that engrossing feeling was that pained me the last 8 hours.

Maturity.

I grew up on the mythical “Grammy’s”. The idea that the penniacle of musical artistry and accomplishments is that Gold old school record player. But it is clear to me that the Grammy’s ideas of musicianship and artistry are as antiquated as the technology they model the design of their “prestigious” award after.

Goodnight, Grammy’s. May you never awaken.

Lupe Fiasco- Enemy of the State: A Love Story (Mixtape) <-Download Link

“So stay out of son(sun) way like you drinking blood.”-Lupe Fiasco on “Popular Demand”

“So when I want them to hear me out/I just sit them next to a picture of Rosa splitting with her titties out/and what’s written on her titties is what it’s really bout. And her vagina/is some poor kids from China. Nipples/Nuclear missles. Ass/is a daughter without a dad. Back/is like Afghanistan, Iraq. Healthcare hair/Drive-by thighs/education lips/H-I-V eyes. Environment feet, justice get her so wet/Brains get you brain, you can fuck her if you protest. But before you bust on her face/man just finish listen to the tape/ENEMY OF THE STATE.”-Lupe Fiasco on “The National Anthem”

“Came up from the bottom of the Eye Exam, zoom/Now I’m like the biggest G off in the room”-Lupe Fiasco on “Say Something”

“School of hard knocks, I dean it/I done it, as well as a celebrated alumnist/I donate to the campus and my name’s on the arenas/but you cant bring it to my court, not even with subpoenas/cause you cant play my sport, but you can still cheerlead us/and you cant sit there, that section’s for the seniors/and the sexy senoritas/so just move up to the bleachers/how you gon school me when I grew up with your teachers?”-Lupe Fiasco on “The National Anthem”

Before I start, NahRight liberated the split-single-songs version of this mixtape(regular mixtape format) as the one above is one big 22 minute file(intentionally done by Lupe to give it that cassette feel).  Ok, that’s done? Let me say something that I may retract in this very same post. At this level of his career, given his body of work (classic mixtapes, albums, guest verses, singles, etc), Lupe Fiasco is starting his run to entering the conversation of the Best Rapper Ever. This is his Marshall Mathers LP run, his Life After Death run, his Be run, his Black Album run. This is his classic after the peak. Lupe drops off the best Thanksgiving gift EVER, his new mixtape Enemy of the State: A Love Story and EASILY murders beat. The above rhymes are honestly a SMALL fraction of the (DOPE) punchlines, extended metaphors, multisyllabic flowing rhymes on this mixtape. I want to gush, I want to analytically break down just why Lupe is just as good as 2009 Eminem, but I’ll save that for a later date.

Oh, and he’s dropping ANOTHER mixtape on Christmas.

PS- If THIS is the lyrical dexterity given FREELY on a 22 minute mixtape…then what madness has he in store for the album? OH MAN!

.(DOPE).

Most wins (965), Division titles (8), World Series appearances (4), post season appearances (9), post season record (48-39) AND tied for the most World Series titles (2). Yankees…BASEBALL TEAM OF THE DECADE! CHECK THE STATS!

PS- Oh and you know I had Yankees in 6. And I predicted they were going to go NUTS after they lost Game 5. You’re welcomed

.(DOPE).

“The sidelines is blind with casualties/Who sipping life casually/Then gradually become worse/Dont bite the apple, Eve.”-Jay-Z on “Empire State of Mind”

AHHH!! It feels good to be from NYC. Props to YouHeardThatNew. Hype Williams definitely captured the soul of the song and placed it on a grandoise scale with these stunning visuals. Everyone knows this song and the back story, the meaning, the controversy and all that(since it’s been pounded in our heads for months). This more than lived up to the hype, this transcended it and will go down as one of the Top 5 greatest New York City tribute songs…EVER!

(DOPE)

PS- Isnt it sad that Jay and  Bey have been together for like 6 years, did a bunch of songs together and the FIRST song he does with Alicia Keys is WAYYYY better than ALL the songs he’s done with Beyonce. WIFE SWAP!

“I used to bomb ya like Sadam but now that I’m a little calmer/I’m a fucken cross between Osama, Dama, Obama and Dali Lama/Told Miley I’m a knight in shining armor.”-Eminem on “BET Hip Hop Cypher 2009″

“Drug paraphernalia/beware the werewolf will kill ya/That’s him in the sheep’s clothes, he just shaved his hair off, Cecilia.”-Eminem on “BET Hip Hop Cypher 2009″

“People never get the roses while they can still smell ‘em.” <–THAT’S the reason why I always post EVERYTHING Eminem related and always say what he do is (DOPE). It’s because we need to start praising this man for what he REALLY is, the Greatest MC to EVER touch a microphone. Up top is the video to the BET Hip Hop Awards cypher (Known To Twitter- the only reason to watch BET, period) where this cypher lived up to what it looked like on paper. 3 of arguably the greatest MC’s of the 90′s(definitely of all time) spitting together after they’ve recently released music that got people saying they’re STILL (DOPE). MTV needs to do something like this.

PS- Do you know how Eminem is the DEFINITION of Hip Hop? Think of every rapper that is NEAR his commercial success of his career? Okay, now tell how many of those rappers still go to Tim Westwood and drop 6 minutes of freestyle, bring back rap city and freestyle there AND drop the highest selling rap album of the year. EXXXACTLY! Case Closed.

Joell Ortiz- Crime Wave freestyle <-Preview + Download Link

“When it comes to wins, y’all get NUN(none) like Sister Act/get it, I said NUN like Sister Act/Im just having fun imagine if me and Pun did a track. Wish that could happen/To rapping captains attacking/a track with no lack of passion/Smashing bastards and actually laughing/Fact of the matter is/It’s mathematics/You add up two fat matches/and you get a fire the size of Manhattan.”-Joell Ortiz on “Crime Wave” freestyle

“This the bottom line/Im chasing them dollar signs/If you the new school then Im them niggas in Columbine.”-Joell Ortiz on “Crime Wave” freestyle

GOOD FUCKEN LAWD! I..I..I dont even know what to say at this point. Like, Joell Ortiz is just plain (DOPE). Point blank period. This was probably recorded on the road since Slaughterhouse is touring with Tech 9. I thought Wayne was taking the crown for killing other niggas beats in this last half of the year but after the D.O.A. massacre and THIS..Im 100% convinced that Joell is the underground king. Now if “Call Me” pops off, he might get some mainstream attention.

PS- HOLLA AT ME FOR THE CALL ME REMIX, YAAAOOOOOWA!