2003 was a much better year than the previous two. I had a hard time coming up with a list of 10/20, as you can see by my list of honorable mentions for songs.
BC's Top 10 LP's of 2003
10) Zion I - Deep Water Slang V2.0 - Another inconsistent LP from Zion I, but the good outweighs the bad enough to crack the top 10.
9) Lexicon - Youth is Yours - I dug this LP and thought it was solid all the way through. It was nice to hear their stuff sprinkled throughout Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.
8) Loius Logic - Sin-A-Matic - This one took a while to grow on me, but when it did, I was glad I gave it multiple listens.
7) Brother Ali - Shadows on the Sun - Brother Ali building his catalog of dope songs. A solid LP.
6) Jedi Mind Tricks - Visions of Gandhi - I really had to go back and listen to this to find out how much I liked it. I really dig Stoupe's production, although, their LP's tend to have some average songs mixed in with the amazing ones. Vinnie can rip the mic in half, but also spits some ignorant crap, so it might not be for everyone.
5) J-Zone - $ick of Being Rich - One of my favorite producers and an underrated MC. There are some classics on this LP.
4) J-Live - Always Will Be - Unskipable EP from one of the best.
3) P.O.S. - Ipecac Neat - Another Minneapolis MC. Maybe I'm a little biased, but every one of his LP's has been something that I've listened to over and over and over again. A great debut.
2) Cunninlynguists - Southernunderground - Another great LP from the fellas from KY. This is the one that cemented them as one of my favorites.
1) Outkast (Big Boi) - Speakerboxxx - Just Big Boi y'all. To me, his album was much better than Andre's, even though Andre got all the press, or most of it. I think most hip-hop heads would agree to this being better, but maybe not. It is to me.
BC's Top 20 Songs of 2003
20) Kicking Knowledge in the Face - P.O.S. - A basic drum beat with a little guitar mixed in. The beat changes up a couple times and P.O.S. changes speeds along with the beat. A nice track overall.
19) Strapped - Jaylib w/ Guilty Simpson - I didn’t get into the album as much as some, but this was the stand out track to me with it’s orchestral loops and the addition of Guilty Simpson.
18) Gimme, Gimme, Gimme - J-Zone w/ Masta Ace - MA coming down to Zone’s level and kicking some lyrics about young, immature ladies. It’s a J-Zone beat, so it’s a dope one, of course.
17) Diablos - Louis Logic w/ Celph Titled - Lou and Celph kicking some hardcore over a string-laced beat.
16) Brokenhearted - Lexicon - Nick and Oak reliving some experiences with the opposite sex. The chorus makes this song a stand out, with the repeated “Love you” from some singer.
15) Always Will Be - J-Live - I think the best song from J-Live’s EP. The entire EP is unskipable and J-Live even has a song by that name on the album. J-Live is always dope.
14) Blah Blah Blah - Brother Ali w/ Slug - I don’t know how to explain the beat, but it’s damn good. Slug and Ali drop some bragging battle rhyme verses and play off each other nicely. Great song.
13) Bowtie - Big Boi w/ Sleepy Brown and Jazze Pha - One of those horn heavy funk tracks off of Big Boi’s superior LP (to Andre that is).
12) Southerunderground - Cunninlynguists - A nice start for CL’s 2nd LP. The beat has a nice piano loop, some scratching, some grunting and an Andre 3000 sample.
11) Cheeba Cheeba - Zion I w/ Aceyalone - Another example of Amp Live creating a near perfect beat. Aceyalone and Zumbi have contrasting voices (which is prone to happen w/ Zumbi, I guess) that work well together.
10) Dos Factotum - Louis Logic - Get your drink on w/ Louis Logic. Louis spitting, possibly vomiting, lyrics about drinking over an acoustic guitar-laced beat.
9) Battle Me - C-Rayz Walz w/ Natacha Elossaint - C-Rayz doing what C-Rayz does, bragging on the mic with large amounts of humor. The r&b hook actually works for me. “I'm not Santa’s helper, I’m not rapping for free.”
8) Le, Le, Le - Zion I - If you really love your mama say le, le, le! Not sure what that means, but this is a cool song. Video quality is harsh:
7) Duct Tape - P.O.S. - I love this song. What I assume is a somewhat autobiographical song about P.O.S. and his mother struggling with an abusive husband/father.
6) Animal Rap - Jedi Mind Tricks w/ Kool G Rap - I love Stoupe’s production and how he uses a lot of string instruments and orchestral sounds. This one features some horns as well as G Rap guesting on the 1st verse. Vinnie kills his verse and the first bar or two are just fire.
5) Tame Az It Ever Wuz - Tame One - The LP wasn’t consistent, but I just dig this track with the scratching samples over the chorus get you fired up. Lyrically, Tame talks about drugs (big shock), disses El da Sensai and how he’s going to take out other MC’s.
4) Seasons - Cunninlynguists w/ Masta Ace - Kno, Deacon, SOS and Ace rap about hip-hop and use the 4 seasons to weave in metaphors about hip-hop. The beat is, as usual, a nice one.
3) Forest Whitiker - Brother Ali / Whatever You Say - Little Brother - Me being indecisive. BA - Ali’s song about embracing his differences with an organ (?) heavy beat. Dope song. LB - I still need to go back to this LP, I liked it, but didn't get into it as much as a lot of people, but this song stood out to me. A great song.
2) The Way You Move - Big Boi w/ Sleepy Brown - The top 2 songs are Outkast, so you know these for sure. Another funky track from Speakerboxxx.
1) Hey Ya - Andre 3000 - Just a great song. I wasn’t a huge fan of Andre’s The Love Below. Most of the beats were real nice, but Andre’s attempts at singing were interesting to say the least (some was good, some real annoying).
Honorable mentions:
The Fine Print - King Geedorah
Walkman Music - J-Live
Bring Em Out - T.I.
A Storms of Swords - Jedi Mind Tricks w/ Planetary
Eatadiccup - J-Zone w/ Celph Titled
Choir Practice - J-Zone w/ J-Ro and King Tee
Church - Big Boi
Old School - Cunninlynguists
Hellohihey - Lifesavas
Party Party People - Lexicon w/ Dizzy Dustin
Don’t Be Afraid - Lexicon
12/27/2009
BC's Top 10, 20 - 2003
10/27/2009
Hip-Hop Soundtracks Pt. 5 - Mr. Show Edition
This is the last of the soundtracks that I'll be posting. Both are pretty solid and are worth checking out. As I was going through them, I was reminded of two separate Mr. Show sketches for some reason, so I threw a couple clips in here.
New Jersey Drive Vol. 1 - 1995
https://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&send_id=762884923&email=a11f17bd0d712ae9034a28b6cf346e26
I think I was one of 25 people to see this movie, and I actually enjoyed it, but I couldn’t tell you a lot about it right now. I haven’t seen it since 1995, so it’s been a while. I remember laughing when they stole the cop car.
Overall, there are a lot of good songs on here, but I really should have ended with my last post. I think I prefer Juice and Who’s the Man?
1) Don’t Shut Down On a Player - Ill Al Skratch - This is a real nice track.
2) Where Am I? - Redman - Redman comes correct. It’s been a while since I’ve listened to this song, but it’s nice. Produced by the man Reggie Noble, himself.
3) Do What U Want - Blak Panta - Dancehall track. It’s okay, but nothing great.
4) Old Thing - Sabelle - Here’s an r&b track flavored with a hip-hop beat that I like.
5) All About My Fetti - Young Lay feat. Mac Mall and Ray Luv - I never liked this song and I still don’t. The subject matter annoys me as well, I mean, I like money, but I don’t need to hear a whole song about it.
6) Can’t You See - Total feat. Biggie - Okay song overall. In my opinion, you can stop listening to it after Biggie kicks his verse.
7) Burn Rubber - Lords of the Underground - I was a huge LOTUG fan in the 90’s and I liked this song a lot. Contrary to some stuff I read, this was not LOTUG trying to go gansta. This track was from the perspective of the kids in the movie, stealing cars, etc. I made a comment to a friend recently that 1994 BC would have gone crazy to hear that Doitall and Masta Ace were going to be on the same track (w/ Edo G. on the upcoming A&E LP). Actually, 2009 BC is still amped by this.
8) 21 in the Ghetto - Poets of Darkness - The chorus on this track needs to go. If it was gone, this would be a decent song.
9) Love Slave - Undacova - This song reminds me of Three Times One Minus One with the woo’s woo’s.
10) Benz or a Beamer - Outkast - I heard Big Boi mention this song as one of his favorites. He said it was one of the top 5 Outkast tracks. This is another track that follows the story of the movie (carjacking). Great song.
11) Check It Out - Heavy D - Heavy D is one of those artists that I never liked when he was big, but going back and listening to some of his stuff now, I dig it. This is one of those songs.
12) Jersey - Queen Latifah - This is a rare QL song that I think is good.
13) East Left - Keith Murray - I just feel that sometimes Keith Murray was just way off beat. His flow took me a while to get into. I think this is a decent song.
14) Ain’t Nuttin’ But Killin’ - MC Eiht - If you like Eiht, this is probably a great track for you. I was never a fan.
15) Thru the Window - Coolio - Remember Coolio?! This song is from him. He was hit or miss with me really.
16) Before I Let Go - Maze feat. Frankie Beverly - It’s okay.
17) One and Only - Smooth - I loved that song on Menace, but this is not as good, but it’s not bad.
New Jersey Drive Vol. 2 - 1995
Grab It Here
This was a weird soundtrack. I think there might have been issues with the secong volume. There were only 8 tracks and it was incredibly annoying to me that they charged you full price for this volume, but of course I bought it. Pound for pound volume 2 is pretty solid.
1) Funky Piano - E. Bros - I always loved this song. It’s a funky mellow track produced by the late, great Roc Raida. Any info I had on these guys, I lost sometime years ago.
2) Headz Ain’t Ready - Black Moon and Smif ‘N’ Wesson - They must not have had room for Heltah Skeltah, who also appear on this song. This is a great track and one of the standout verses comes from Rock. It’s in his nature to keep Robin, like Givens.
3) Connections - Naughty By Nature - I dig this song. I think the Meth sampled hook is my favorite part. At least part of Rottin Razkals are on this track as well.
4) Nobody Beats the Biz - Biz Markie - Great old school track from the Biz sampling The Eagles. You get extra points if you remember Nobody Beats the Wiz. Most likely you’re a Seinfeld fan if your not from NY. Anyway, this song shows you that Biz can flow.
5) Invasion - Jeru the Damaja - Nice Premo produced song from Jeru, who was always a tight emcee.
6) Own Destiny - Mad Lion - I liked a few Mad Lion songs back in the day and I like this one. Produced by KRS-One.
7) You Won’t Go Far - O.C. and Organized Konfusion - This is another song inspired by the movie. It’s a real nice track and an interesting pairing, or trio (one duo and one solo MC).
8) Flip Squad’s In Da House - Flip Squad Allstars - Just a little filler for the end of the short second volume.
Soul in the Hole - 1997
Grab It Here
I never did see this movie. All I really know is that this is another basketball documentary from the 90’s.
1)The Game of Life (Score) - dead prez - This is the first time I heard dead prez and it’s a nice song.
2) Diesel - Wu-Tang Clan - ODB flips styles a couple times on this track, or at least his flow. This is another nice Wu track on a soundtrack.
3) Against the Grain - Sauce Money - Nice DJ Premier produced track.
4) Ride - M.O.P. - Heat from M.O.P., but what else would you expect?
5) You Ain’t a Killer - Big Punisher - I remember Pun was making a name for himself, and this was the first time I officially heard him. It’s a pretty nice song.
6) Los Angeles Times - Xzibit - Love the LP this song ended up on from XZ, but this was one of the weaker tracks, but still good.
7) Main Aim - the Dwellas - I always liked these guys, but I never thought their first LP was that strong. This is a real nice track though and I always liked UG’s technique.
8) Rare Species (Modus Operandi) - Mobb Deep - This is a real nice track from Mobb Deep.
9) High Expectations - Common - This is a pretty good song.
10) A Child is Born - Brand Nubian - A nice piano loop beat and song from those dudes that will beat down any punks that jump up to get beat down.
11) Won On Won - Cocoa Brovaz - AKA Smif ‘N’ Wessun. I always liked this song a lot, and listening to it again reminded me of that. It’s been a while since I dusted off this LP.
12) Soul in the Hole - Wu All-Stars - Not a bad song featuring Timbo King, Dreddy Krueger, Shyheim and Killa Sin.
13) Visions of Blur - Darc Mind - I really like this song. I dig the beat and Kev-Roc’s flow. I remember checking for these guys and never seeing any release. In the last year or so, I got their debut when I bought something. I think it was a free gift with an order. I’ll post it on hear sometime, so you can check it out (it didn’t get a proper release, as it came out in 2006 and it’s in a cardboard sleeve).
14) Late Night Action - Organized Konfusion - Anything w/ Monch is worth a listen, right?
15) Your Life - O.C. - Just like NJD, O.C. and OK end a soundtrack, but this time in their own songs. This is a nice track with a piano loop.
On a side note, it’s always fun to look at the liners on these old albums and see the merch page for Tommy Boy or loud merchandise, etc. I remember Naughty sold their own sheets and I thought it would be so dope to have Naughty By Nature sheets, but they were like 75 bucks.
4/17/2009
5x5 Day Five: WYDU Goes To Church
Now, I'm not going to argue with anyone on their views of organized religion and the such. We'll just say that I'm not into organized religion, in fact I have some strong opinions against it. I'm not saying I'm an atheist. I'm spiritual, but that's as far as I go. I also believe people are free to choose what they want to believe. There is no right or wrong answer in the end as far as I'm concerned.
With that warning statement out of the way, we goin' to church, WYDU style. You won't find any religious themed tracks, just some good music with church and the G.O.D. in the titles. It's the way we are ending these (almost) 25 lists. Head to the church and pray....
1. De La Soul - Church
2. Outkast - Church
3. Boss Hog Barbarians - Rev Get Right
4. A Tribe Called Quest - Oh My God
5. Ill Biskits - God Bless Your Life
