The "B.I.G." Sunday Lite Post

I'm actually getting smart and starting this thing on Saturday night instead of trying to cram this post in three hours on a perfectly good Sunday. Not sure if I'll finish the whole thing, but we'll get it started. Sitting here watching the rain fall, which is kind of nice because I haven't seen actual rain for a long ass time since everything here has been snow since at least December. Still tired from my 10 hour online poker binge from last night that resulted in me going to bed when the sun was coming up.

I felt it was a good time to start on this while watching University of Oregon kick USC's ass in the Pac-10 final in college basketball. Next week is always a great week with the start off March Madness and the college basketball tourney and St. Patty's day. It's the week that makes me feel that spring is officially here. Thank God, it's been a long, cold winter here. I'm ready for something other than cold and snow.


"The Greatest Rapper Alive Died On March 9th".......

Unless you've been sleeping under a rock, or just haven't been on the internet the past couple days, you know that Friday was the 10th anniversary of Christopher Wallace aka Biggie Smalls aka Notorious B.I.G. untimely death.

I know there has been a ton of tribute posts put up in the past couple days, but I figured I'd throw my hat in the ring. Most of these tracks are probably already owned by some of the dedicated Biggie fans, but for those of us that like him, but don't own every freestyle he ever did, there is hopefully a few unheard things for some of you.

While I like Biggie, I'm not going to hail him as the all-time greatest. Don't get me wrong, I loved "Ready To Die" and even though I thought "Life After Death" would have been better as a single disk album (wouldn't every double disk release be better as a single disk?), I loved the majority of it as well. I just think he's untimely death has made his legacy larger than it really was, and thats the case for Pac as well. Big does get heralded as one of the first MC's to appeal to both the raw street crowd AND the pop charts and that is well deserved and I think that alone will be a lasting mark Biggie leaves on the game. I do remember where I was when I heard he had died. I was working at a "Red Robin" as a bartender. It was a Sunday afternoon and I was just trying to pass the time when my roommate, who had been blasting "Hypnotize" daily for weeks by that time, called and told me that he had been shot and killed in LA. With Pac dying less then a year earlier, it was real sombering.

In tribute, I thought I'd throw up a few of his non-commercially released tracks. Rest in Peace, Big Poppa......

Real Ni--az over Death Row Beats
Not sure when this was made, but I'm assuming it was during the height of the Bad Boy/Deathrow beef. I'm assuming that would only fan the flames even more. It would have been pretty sick to have heard BIG over a Dre produced beat from that era though....

Dead Wrong (OG Version)
This is the original version of the track that appeared on "Born Again", which featured a pretty sick (literally) verse from Eminem as well. This version has a different beat along with an added verse. Excuse the Mister Cee scratched promo stuff, it's the only version I've been able to find.

Long Kiss Good Night (OG Version)
Rumored to be a scathing diss to Pac, although he is never mentioned by name, but my opinion is that it was directed toward Pac. It features a slightly different beat with basically the same lyrics. This was one of my favorite songs on "Life After Death", so it's kind of cool to hear.

Me & My Bitch (OG Version)
I actually like this version better than the album version. The beat seems to fit the mood better.

Trav's Top Spins For The Week

One thing I've noticed since I've kicked up my writing time, my listening time has gone down. Sure I almost always have music on, at work, while I'm writing and other times, but it seems like it's kind of became background noise at times. I'm going to have to change that because that's why I started writing. I'm going to have to readjust my priorities and make time to listen all this music I've ran into as of late.

1. Snowgoons - German Luger
I think I've already mentioned that I try to avoid most of the Wu "B Leaguers", but something about this album grabs you. I had downloaded it awhile ago, but really didn't listen to it until Crooklyn posted up with positive comments about it. Well, I trust my mans taste, so I popped it in while at work, figured it'd be some background noise. Well it forced me to listen to it. Good stuff, I like the production on most of the joints.

2. Black Milk - Popular Demand
I'm a fan of the J Dilla sound that Black Milk comes with, so it's only natural that this gets some spins. It's pretty good, still getting my bearings on the release, but has the potential to make the years Top 20 list.

3. Consequence - Don't Quite Your Day Job
I wasn't sure what to think about Cons upcoming release. Was it going to be all Kayne'd out? Was it going to be a "I want to be ATCQ" sounding album that just pisses me off? Or was it going to be a solid release that combines all those questions in a positive way? Well I'm leaning toward the later. So far is been a pleasure to listen to, more feelings to come....

4. Early Eminem stuff
I don't like to get caught up in the BS of some hip hop fans. Some won't listen to anything underground with out considering it nerd rap. Others won't listen to anything main stream because they believe it's corrupting the culture. If it's good, I'll listen to it, bottom line. Oliver Wang and I had a friendly little disagreement about Em sounding like Masta Ace and Masta Ace sounding like Em this week. So I busted out the some of the early Em stuff. I won't lie, I like most of his early stuff, always have. Listening to some of this week made me realize just how good he can be when he puts his mind to it.

5. J Dilla - Donuts
I still bust this out from time to time and play for a week or so. I'm not the biggest instrumentals fan, but this is one of those albums you can put on and just listen to the beats. Great stuff

WHY?????
Why does it feel like 10 in the morning instead of the 11 it actually is? Oh the fucking time change...

Why doesn't my cellphone show the right time? Can't the cellphone companies sit their shit up right?

Why doesn't college basketball, and for that matter, NBA as well, just not excite me much anymore?

Why do I love it during the tourney time?

Why do I think Joakim Noah for Floirda is the best female player to ever play the game? Nothing personal against him/her, he/her just looks like the ugliest chick ever.

Why can't Redman come on an album like he did on that Green Lantern freestyle?

Why can't we just vote Paul Wall out of hip hop after he was exposed like he was after said Redman freestyle.

Why was that funniest moment in Hip Hop in recent years?

Why does places over seas such as Europe and Japan support Hip Hop so much more than us in the states? (I know the answer, just want to see peoples responses)

Why do you remember an ex's birthday even when you haven't dated in 10 years?

Why is El-P getting so many "Best album of the year" comments? (no, I have not listened to it yet, but I do plan on it).

Why can't the Pittsburgh Pirates get some real owners in there so we can have a winning season more than every 15 years?

Why do people tease me with a rumor of a Edo G & Masta Ace album?

Why would I rather see the eMC & Special Teamz projects come out first?

Final Words....
Just wanted to thank everyone for another good week. I wanted to thank Claes at Ju Ju Records for the bounty of promo stuff he sent me this week. Still going through all of it man! It's funny that I hear of blogs having problems with labels and the such, and I've even seen it as well, but I have still yet to receive a negative comment from any kind of artist, group, label, or management. All positive remarks so far. We'll see, I still think we'll see some kind of backlash from the RIAA one of these days. Until then, we'll keep on keeping on.....