21Ronin

Fonix #16……The Mixtape.  Is it me or are artists releasing mixtapes more now than ever before?  I’m not complaining.  I like to get my hands on music as much as possible and free mixtapes are a great way to get a feel for an artist that you may not know much about.  It is also a great way for an artist to test out his audience and direct them on how to find their niche.  It’s interesting because about 10 years ago, mc’s and dj’s were getting more music out by doing collaborations on compilation albums, like Soundbombing, DJ Clue albums, Tony Touch albums, etc.  Now, artists are collaborating on albums that are never officially released.  This is one way that the internet has affected the music industry.  Artists like Jay Electronica made a name for himself by doing it.  MC’s like Sean Price have maintained his skills and kept his fan base by releasing mixtapes.  DJ’s like Don Cannon and DJ Green Lantern are making a lot of noise with the mixtapes that they put out too.

Because there are so many mixtapes out, I figured that I would highlight a couple mixtapes that I haven’t already written about, but deserve some attention.   2010 is the rebirth of the mixtape in its digital form.  Think about it for a second.  Artists don’t even have to buy cd’s anymore, get album art printed or harass you to buy a disc on the street by invading your personal privacy with something that looks like they printed it at home from a cheap printer.  I know that artists have to do what they have to do, but presentation is important.  Sometimes, the truth hurts.  The internet removes that overhead and allows the word to spread virally with MySpace and file sharing sites.

The Beautiful Struggle Mixtape, Talib Kweli 2004

You definitely have to pick this album up if you don’t have it already.  There’s an intro by Dave Chappelle doing his “Turn It Up” bit.  I’m not sure if this intro came before or after his skit about it, but either way, Chappelle has done intro’s for Kewli before.  Buck ‘Em Down (featuring Styles P) is another solid track where they remix Black Moon’s classic song.

The Beautiful Mixtape has a respectable list of guest appearances that includes Styles P, Fabulous, Jean Grae, Game, Consequence, Latoia Williams, Paul Cane, Common, Kanye West, Busta Rhymes, Free, Sean Penn, Black Thought and DJ Quick.  In my opinion, the best track on the mixtape is Lonely People. I’m sure he couldn’t officially release this track because of the Beatles sample.  But it is a great song regardless.  I’m frustrated because the plugin that I use won’t allow me to upload a file that is 8MB or larger.  I was going to upload Lonely People, but due to my technical difficultires, I will upload Buck Em Down. I guess the complications with my audio plugin can motivate you to go grab this mixtape because Lonely People is reason enough to pick it up.

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Links

Talib Kweli on MySpace

Blacksmith Website

Smokee Robinson, Curren$y, 2010

Curren$y is new to me.  I caught wind of him when he was added to the roster for the 2010 Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival (BKHF).  For reasons that I would rather not talk about, I wasn’t able to make it to the full day under the Brooklyn Bridge.  Needless to say, I wasn’t happy, but I didn’t get to see Curren$y perform at the BKHF.  On my way from Long Island to Brooklyn, I heard the song that Mos Def produced for Curren$y on Pilot Talk and I had to do some digging to pick up some of his work that came out before I heard of him.  Just to be clear, I live in Brooklyn and I was coming back from Long Island.  On Hot 97, Funk Flex was doing his thing with Curren$y’s  song and it caught my attention.  Anyway, I picked up Pilot Talk a little while ago and I will end up writing about that for its own Fonix entry.

Smokee Robinson was released around the beginning of 2010.  As you can see above, Curren$y is representing the Saints Super Bowl win.  Also, you see right on the album art that Don Cannon did the mixing.  This isn’t the first time that I have written about Don Cannon, so I would stay up on what he’s putting out…….or you can keep checking 21Ronin.com and see some of the new work from Cannon.  There are some tracks that remix classic Dr. Dre/Snoop, Ice Cube and NWA with a southern twist.  Some of the featured mc’s are Chip Tha Ripper, Big Sean, Dom Kennedy, Nipsey Hussle and Wiz Khalifa.

Curren$y shows some versatility on this album, but he has a smooth, somewhat monotone, nasal signature voice reminiscent of the Clipse.  Smokee Robinson introduced me to Curren$y’s style that revolves around fashion, smoking weed, jet setting and some other topics that leaves his door open him up to a more commercial market.  Since he talks about smoking weed so openly, I think it will prevent him from taking a more commercial direction.  Some may think that Snoop is an example that contradicts what I just said, but Snoop has calmed down with all that.  On Pilot Talk, he says something about not f-ing with record labels because they won’t let him smoke weed in the meetings.  I could see him blowing up or being a consistent presence in the underground scene.  I’m curious to see where his career takes him, but there are a lot of solid tracks on this album.  Below, I listed 14 of 22 tracks as the top tracks.  The track that I posted below is Mazaltov.  Mazaltov has a dusty vocals, cool/smoth beat and a Notrious B.I.G. sample that “make(s) it hot”.

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Top Tracks

Jordan 3′s, Reset, Racing Stripes, 17.5 Cannons, Yet Another Story, Don’t Fucks With Them, Monte Carlo, Real Mufuggin Jets, 187 On A Beat, Damier Doobies, Mazaltov, Audio Dope, Life Under The Scope and Vision.

Links

Curren$y on MySpace

Curren$y on Twitter

Higher Learning, Fashawn, 2008

Fashawn’s mixtape, Higher Learning starts off really well.  He remixed Fortified Live (by Mos Def and Talib Kweli from the first Soundbombing album).  There is only one other mixtape that really used movies for the backdrop to a mixtape that is worth discussing.  That is Jay Electronica’s Style Wars, but I already wrote about that over a year ago (click on Fonix on the side bar to see earlier entries).  Higher Learning is what is great about hip hop.  He uses a great movie that is classic of my era (Higher Learning) and he throws in remixes, samples and throws in new material of his own.  A good example of his new material is Freedom.  On another track, he remixed Kid Cudi’s Day and Nite and features Cudi.  It’s too bad for Cudi that Fashawn was on the track because Fashawn is more talented as a lyricist.  If you want to see more about Fashawn, I wrote more about him on his Ode To Illmatic album in Fonix #14.  The sample that I’m using to entice you to grab this album (for free somewhere online), is Still Gettin Mine Remix (featuring Rickochet).  This song is a remix of Common and Sadat X’s 1999, from Soundbombing Vol. 2.

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Top Tracks

Fortified Live, Freedom, Day N Nite, Sunday Morning, The Far Left, Politics, Buyers Guide, Cold Shoulder, Still Gettin Mine and Beautiful Day.

Links

Fashawn on MySpace

Fashawn’s Homepage

Fashawn on Twitter

Stray Bullets, Cee Lo, 2010

How can you go wrong with Cee Lo?  He is one of the most creative and unique personalities in music today.  He is always collaborating with eccentric musicians, coming up with fun and funny lyrics and he has a way of keeping this lyrics light hearted while touching on serious topics.  I know that is an obvious contradiction, but if you really listen to his lyrics, you know what I’m talking about.  Cee Lo likes to create these punch lines that contradict the previous lyrics that he just rapped or sang.  You have to respect and appreciate Cee Lo because there aren’t many artists that can create a song called Cho Cha the Cat with the B-52′s, the smash hit single Crazy with Danger Mouse as Gnarls Barkley and Soul Food with Goodie Mob (from back in the day).

Cee Lo is funky, funny and always keeps it fresh.  For example, he has a song called I Like It on this mixtape that takes a classic sample, but Cee Lo manages to make it all his own.  Cee Lo is also very talented at reaching back to previous eras and putting his own twist on it.  His personality is larger than life and you can’t help but like the majority of his music.  The rest of his music will push the envelope and may not be for everyone, but he’s an artist so he should test the boundaries.  He can go from slow to fast, funk to soul, from rapping to legitimately singing with an interesting voice.  Make sure to check out the song below, I Like It.

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Top Tracks

Goldschlager, You Don’t Shock Me Anymore, Cho Cha The Cat, I Like It, Little Black Book, ChamPain, Night Train, Sophistic@ted Bi$ch, I’ll Kill Her, Is It? and Super Woman Theme Song.

Links

Cee Lo on MySpace

Ronin

Recovery is an album that you will appreciate if you listened to Eminem from the beginning.  I first heard of Eminem when Soundbombing Vol 2 came out (1999).  If you don’t have that album, you now have a new album to add to your “to buy list”.  Soundbombing Vol 1 is a complilation album where the list of respected lyricists was long and the dj’s (The Beat Junkies) showed what hip hop was like.  Eminem, Mos Def, Reflection Eternal, El-P/Company Flow, Common, Sadat X, Pharoahe Monch, Mad Skillz, RA the Rugged Man, Grand Puba, Bahamadia, Dialated Peoples and Cocoa Brovaz (Smif N Wessun) were the majority of the mc’s contributing on the album.  If you are familiar with the album, then you will already know that I am talking about Any Man.  For me, Any Man showed the potential and abilities that this helium pitched, mentally twisted mc had/has.  This mc was Slim Shady or the name that we all now know as Eminem.

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On Any Man, Eminem throws out so many crazy punch lines, it was hard to keep up, at first.  After about a month of listening to it, I had the song memorized.  By the way, make sure to check out the song above.  Since this first intro, Eminem teamed up with Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, D12 and a couple other acts, but there is not really anyone that can compare.  How do I say this without coming off as a critic?  Well, I don’t know how, so I will just spit it out.  After Eminem’s first inital success, it seemed that his albums followed a formula that would maintain his popularity and his place in the mainstream while trying to keep the underground heads hooked.  He would always have a couple tracks that were more for a video than they were to actually listen to.  These videos are the ones where Em dresses up like Brittany Spears, Michael Jackson, etc and has a good time.  I don’t have any problem with that other than it would make his albums inconsistent when you listen to the album track by track.  I understand why these tracks are there, but I would end up skipping the slapstick tracks because they were more of a joke than they were a display of his abilities.  These parodies also seemed to focus on shocking people and trying to get attention.  To balance these more commercial tracks, Eminem would switch it up with songs like Mockingbird, Superman or White America.  Renegade is a song where Eminem shows up Jay-Z and steals the spotlight on a classic track, but it wasn’t on one of his albums.

In Recovery, Eminem lets you into his world, on his terms, revisits his dormant raw style and works out his demons at the same time.  The album really sounds like it was a personal and emotional investment by Eminem because you can hear the emotion in his voice.  He figuratively channels 2Pac for some venom and fire that you can feel.  Aside from what Recovery could mean to Eminem, this album is exactly what hip hop needed in general.  Eminem re-establishes himself as one of the premiere lyricists out there today, even with all of the emerging talent out there.  He also does it by collaborating with artists that he respects artistically (i.e. Pink and Lil Wayne), telling stories and touching on serious issues.  And on top of it all, he reinvents his flow with a matrix speed that not many can match.  With all of the drama that has surrounded Eminem, there isn’t anyone that is serious about hip hop that could actually say that Eminem wasn’t extremely talented and was one of the best out there.  At times, Eminem seems to apologize and blame hip hop itself for the problems that he has faced.  We each direct our own path.  He chose his path and it has led him to this point in his career.  Hip hop fans have not forgotten him, but we have to do what we have to do.  If we have to listen to old tracks to get the raw skills that we know are inside him, then we will do that without apology.  But, now we don’t have to because he dropped Recovery.

Eminem on MySpace

Follow Eminem on Twitter

Ronin

Ode To Illmatic, Fashawn 2010

I don’t remember if I heard about this album first on Okayplayer or if I searched for Fashawn after I saw that he was performing at the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival this year.  Either way, I heard that Fashawn did an album that was a tribute to Nas.  It automatically caught my attention.  But then, I heard/read that the album was called Ode To Illmatic and I thought there is one MC out there is pretty damn confident, because it takes some courage to make an album with that name because Illmatic is one an album that is easily considered one of the best albums of that time.  Illmatic raised the bar for mc’s and producers to aspire to.    After I listened to Ode To Illmatic, I walked away impressed and happy that I gave the album a chance.

Fashawn decided to follow the Nas album, song for song and then add his twists, turns and bends to it by jumping on and off accuracy to the Nas album.  At the end of the album, he threw in a remix, but only after he had paid full tribute.  Beyond showing how much Fashawn really paid attention to every little detail, it would be a good album even if you have never the original Illmatic album.  I don’t want to minimize DJ Green Lantern though.  He is a DJ that I have been hearing more and more about.  So keep an ear out anything DJ Green Lantern touches.  This is when you are supposed to put your hand to your ear and have a moment of silence.

It is hard for me to think that anyone has actually not listened to Illmatic from front to back, but I will entertain it.  If you haven’t, you really should.  I have to say that it is hard to stay on topic with this album because right now, I am actually listening to Higher Learning (Fashawn) for the first time.  It’s also a good album.  Back on topic, focus!

Style

The production is true to the original Illmatic album by keeping the beats the same and cutting the music in and out when Fashawn tweaks the stories to his experiences in Fresno, California.  He has a smooth style and he uses his lyrics to play hop scotch with the beat by switching from bang it home rhythms to off beat rhythms.  It is that type of play that defines hip hop.  So, he pays tribute to Illmatic/Nas by showing how much time, thought and skill into one of Nas’s entire album.  It is a huge pay of respect that you don’t really see much of, regardless of time.

I don’t know how much I have to say for you to start looking how you can get your hands on this album, but it is like watching a car drive down the street and then watching it split into two complete and separate cars at an intersection.  It is a way that Fashawn uses the original stories to bring you down the path of reminiscing and brings you back to a new interpretation of the stories that you already know.  It is one of the best cover albums that I have heard in the past 10 yers.  And on top all of that, the album features Talib Kweli on Life Is A Bitch.

Top Tracks

There are the original 10 tracks, plus a Represent remix.

Audio

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Links

Click Here to Download Ode To Illmatic

Click Here for Fashawn on MySpace

Ronin

Fonix #13.  I have been keeping myself busy working on a series of drawings on recycled cardboard.  This means that I am listening to music a lot.  Also, on my way to and from work, I am listening to music.  I hate riding a busy A or F train to Brooklyn without it.  If you don’t headphones on the train, you leave yourself open for a bum (or homeless person to be politically correct) to hit you up for money, or left to read other people’s magazines, books, etc.  I threw in a classic album into this Fonix entry to stay true to the commitment to include music from then and now.  For that reason, I included The M-Pire Strikez Back by O.G.C.  OJ Simpson and Revolutions Per Minute are a couple new albums that are worth checking out.

OJ Simpson, Guilty Simpson, 2010

I am not sure why the Random Axe album is being pushed back, but I have been waiting for that album to drop for a couple minutes now.  I was searching for any news on the Random Axe album and I saw that Madlib and Guilty Simpson had already dropped their newest collabo, OJ Simpson.  Both Guilty Simpson and Madlib are respected solo artists, but I thought it could be an interesting combination for an album.  Madlib’s samples and soundtrack-like sounds can be a backdrop for Guilty Simpson’s story telling.  It has taken me a couple times of listening to it, but the album grew on me and is still growing on me.  Between each song where Guilty Simpson adds lyrics, there is a completely lyric-less track where Madlib goes off and tells his own stories through samples of Richard Pryor stand up or black exploitation (Blaxploitation) films, mixed in with beats.  My first reaction was that this album could have been cut in half because there are 24 songs and 11 of those tracks are a prelude, interlude or intermission.  It was frustrating to sit through them at first, but there are some funny and entertaining tracks in there.  So before you remove them from your Ipod or MP3 player, give them a chance at least once.

Hip Hop in Detroit from ashley wilson on Vimeo.

Style

Guilty Simpson has a unique voice and approach to hip hop.  Simpson is from Detroit and he reps it hard and often.  He has a battle style, competitive spirit that can switch pace or content with ease.  He raps are versatile and strong, but he’s not too hard to pay respect to Dilla.  A neighbor of mine says that he thinks that Guilty Simpson is better doing collaborations or teaming up with other artists.  That probably has something to do with the strength of the tracks that Simpson has released with Sean Price and the fact that the Random Axe album is highly anticipated.  Ode To The Ghetto is an album that was a great intro for me to Guilty Simpson.  The sound on Ode To The Ghetto could have been a bit more consistent, but it is the album where I first got a glimpse of what Random Axe will be like (on the track titled “Run).  The sound wasn’t as consistent because there were several producers working on the album (Black Milk, Mr. Porter, Madlib, Oh No, Dj Babu and Dilla).  It was a solid album, but there was something missing that I couldn’t put my finger on.

Madlib has an impressive list of tracks.  Right off the top of my head, The Auditorium by Mos Def (on The Estatic) is an example of another classic track that Madlib has produced in the past couple years.  To go a bit further back, Madlib released his Shades of Blue album in 2003.  I never really hear much about that album except for people that are fluent in hip hop.  Shades Of Blue is one of the albums that either puts me in a mood or I have to be in the mood for it.  It’s a combination of remixes where he samples Blue Note jazz albums.  It’s a great album that interprets some dusty jazz records into a mixture of hip hop beats, jazz trumpets, drum solos and keys.  Madlib is one of the best producers out today and it’s because he can do just about anything.  He is always testing the the boundaries and the comfort level of music in hip hop.

Lyrics

The song that chose to write about from this album is called Trendsetters.  It is head bobbin’ track that is full of high-treble effects and a funky combination of drum machines and bass lines.  Guilty starts off with a couple shout-outs and adlibs, but he follows a quick vocal sample and hits the ground running.  The driving sound could easily be the background music for a car chase scene in a movie.  The song is short, but it’s not the reason that I chose it.  Guilty drops a hot verse and then the beat rides for little bit before it fades out.

I’m your girlfriends favorite poster

I slay a joker with my favorite toaster

and play the sofa

I make ‘em over

clean ‘em up when the Nina bust

keep it peace like two fingers up

Deuces

I’m ruthless, dufus

learned about trendsetters

my pen measures

soak sheets like bedwetters

hold weight

fed sweaters

who cares?

your man is chillin’ so hard

consider it a cold case

I’m gettin’ fat off rap

an y’all nauseous

more big faces than a Bad Boy portrait

I’m a hell of a guy

me whack?

before that

you might see an elephant fly

Dumbo

I cut shit up and make gumbo

fuck humble

humble got a nigga funds low

and I can’t have that

find me posted up where the cash at

smokin’ on a kush hash back

YEAH!

Top Tracks

Prelude, Introduction, OJ Simpson, New Heights, Karma of a Kingpin, Coroner’s Music, A Friend’s Help Interlude, Back On The Road Again, Hood Sentence, Cali Hills, Outside, Bow Wow Interlude, Mic Check 313, Trendsetters and 100 Styles.

Links

Guilty Simpson on MySpace

Guilty  Simpson on Stones Throw

www.stonesthrow.com

Revolutions Per Minute, Reflection Eternal, 2010

Do Talib Kweli and Hi Tek really need an introduction?  If you haven’t heard of these two, you need to do some homework.  The Blast is one of those classic albums (and videos) by these vets (see video below).  Revolutions Per Minute is a really good album overall.  The words and sounds vary in each song.  As you would expect from Talib Kweli, he has some tongue twisting spiritual, political and personal stories that work perfectly with the vibe of the music which can vary from understated, eerie, soulful or like a military drum roll.

Style

Reflection Eternal is a talented duo that are individually and collectively strong and respectable.  With Train of Thought, they established a unique sound and approach.  They celebrate the NYC/Cincinnati connection that Tanya Morgan (not to be confused with Tracy)  later titled his album Brooklynatti.  Collectively, Reflection Eternal has all of the bases covered.  They are both dynamic and versatile to change up the sound/feel of a song at will.

Talib Kweli is one of those mc’s that is not afraid to say something political.  In The Proud, he comes at political corruption with respect to the police being exempt from the laws that they enforce.  Also, in another verse, he talks about how 9/11 brought NYC together and rallies pride after that horrible event that changed our world.  And in the remaining verse, he talks about the media and its reaction to the Unabomber bombing in Kansas City.  Initially, people thought it was the work of Islamic radicals and not the solo act that spoiled the truth that everyone was so ready to accept.  In Lonely People, Talib talks over a Beatles sample about the depressing reality of night life in many cities across the world.  With all of his political talk, he balances it with soulful, introspective commentary that builds you up.  At times Kweli will go off the beat to get his point across or to finish a thought.  It is a way to keep your attention on his lyrics, but it emphasizes this thoughts and makes his message clear.  Kweli is the epitome of a conscious mc and he has been inspiring hip hop fans since he broke into the world with Black Star.

Hi-Tek (DJ Hi-Tek) on the other hand is a wizard behind the boards.  He has the skills to switch between classic boom bap beats, soulful claps, dj skills/scratching, synthesized keys or deep, dark and moody sounds.  He also has been steadily productive and inspirational since the Black Star bomb dropped on the hip hop world.  Since ’98, Hi Tek has worked with a long list of mc’s including 50 Cent, Beanie Seagal, Big L, Blackalicious, Cannibus, Bootcamp Clik, Cocoa Brovaz (Smif N Wessun), Common, D-12, Little Brother, Mos Def, Phife Dawg, Planet Asia, Styles P, The Game and Xzibit (among others).  Beyond his signature sound, you can always catch him reppin’ Cincinnati with his signature “C” Reds hat.  He has made that hat an icon the way that Jay-Z made the Yankees hat an icon.

Lyrics

The song that I chose from Revolutions Per Minute is Ballad Of The Black Gold. The reason for it is both the combination of the message and the quality of the music.  It is representative of some of the best that these two pioneers have to offer.  The song comes just before the song that I can’t stop listening to (Just Begun).  While Just Begun, is a great album, it has too many guest appearances and I want to highlight a song that focuses on these two.

The Ballad Of The Black Gold has a melodic sound/sample which fluctuates up and down that starts over at the beginning of each bar.  A raw snare and a deep, electric bass drum make up the beat and then the sample comes in before Kweli starts with the chorus.

(Chorus)

this is the ballad of the black gold

they call it Texas tea

but its bigger than a cowboy with a lasso

it’s deeper than a black hole

create monopolies

except they collect a fee when you pass go

crisis international

the government defacto

we got no control in this fiasco

darker than the bath robes

bubble hotter than tobasco

you got more than what you bargained for

asphalt

(verse)

you never see

hungry, happy people that ain’t rational

they blast you at the gates and they attack you at the capitol

run up in your palace find the heads of state and crack a few

get a taste of power, and then they become fascists too

the fiscal conservatives

don’t know what their purpose is

spend money on the war

then they cut your goods and services

murderers, corporate monsters

breakin’ records and honors

at 40 billion a year

they’re breaking record profits

stop it

how they bankin’

when the auto industry is tankin’

leadership is sankin’

the pollution and the water’s stankin’

loyalty

to petroleum

royalties spoil the economy

we won’t get it poppin’ til we oil free

if you’re oil rich then we invade it

they call it occupation

but we losin’ jobs across the nation

drill baby drill

while they make our soldiers kill baby still

there is desert where the blood and oil spill

(chorus)

Top Tracks

City Playgrounds, Back Again, Strangers (Paranoid) featuring Bun B, In This World, Got Work, Lifting Off, In The Red, Ballad Of The Black Gold, Just Begun (featuring Jay Electronica, J. Cole and Mos Def), Get Loose (featuring Chester French), So Good, Ends and My Life.

Reflection Eternal “Ballad of the Black Gold” from Sam Ellison on Vimeo.

Links

Reflection Eternal on MySpace

Reflection Eternal’s Home Page

The M-Pire Strikez Back, O.G.C., 1999

Where do I start with this album?  The M-Pire Strikez Back is a classic O.G.C./Duckdown album that dropped in 1999.  After Da Storm introduced the world to the lyrical skills of O.G.C., they followed up with this solid sophomore album.  Each member has their own style.  Starang Wondah (Big Will, Big MF Will, Hurricane Starang, Da Beast From Da East) is a clown and his always cracking jokes, acting crazy, providing ad-libs into songs and showing his skills with the Brooklyn bravado that is a common characteristic in the borough.  Louville Sluggah (Louie, Henny, Hennyville Guzzla) has always sported his “duke, I’m a smack ‘em with a bat, so my hands don’t sting” attitude, with the short guy that can hold his own confidence.  Top Dawg (Big Kahuna, Top D-O) has a knowledge is power, dread-lock image, balanced with the raw battle style that O.G.C. (Originoo Gunn Clapaz) is known for.  Taken from the Duckdown.com website, Louiville describes O.G.C. in his own words:

“O.G.C. represents 9 to 5 workers to street hustlers working hard for family, self, just striving to rise,” explained Louieville Sluggah.

O.G.C. is one of the original groups from Duckdown since the 90′s and they released two projects as O.G.C. and they add vocals to the Bootcamp Clik albums too.  They teamed up with Heltah Skeltah (Rock and Ruck/Sean Price) to make the Fab 5 and I  had always wanted to see that project become a reality.  I am not sure what happened with that, but O.G.C. has been MIA for some time now.  Since 2005, I haven’t heard anything come from O.G.C., but I have heard albums come from the other founding acts/groups from Duckdown (Black Moon, Buckshot (solo), Sean Price, Heltah Skeltah, Smif N Wessun, etc.).  I really had no idea what happened to them until Duckdown posted something on Facebook about Dru Ha visiting Starang Wondah in jail.  Here’s a link to see the story.

Click Here for Dru Ha’s story about Starang Wondah and his trip to see him.

Regardless of the legal problems that Starang had in the recent past, The M-Pire Srikez Back is a great album.  So many artists/groups don’t come as strong as they did in their first album and even fewer step their game up.  O.G.C. stepped it up on this album and it is worth it to mix the album in your rotation.

Style

O.G.C.’s style is tough to isolate to a couple words because each group member brings their strengths to form a cohesive group.  As a group, they fit best into the Duckdown/BootCamp mentality where they keep their family close, build with them and protect them.  On The M-Pire Strikez Back, they stayed away from the natural disaster theme or, or a theme in general to show their raw skills.  They show their lyrical versatility over tracks by several producers.  Similar to Da Storm, where Big Tigger from Rap City introduced a track, they had Joe Clair (formerly from BET’s Rap City) on an interlude talking some ish!  Besides that, the only thing that is similar to Da Storm is that O.G.C. show their skills.

Musically, The M-Pire Strikez Back represents Brooklyn by mixing some Caribbean drums into their hip hop beats.  It represents Brooklyn because there is such a large Caribbean  population there (Haitians, Jamaicans, Puerto Ricans, Trinis, etc).  Top Dog’s style plays off it well and connects those dots.  The whole album doesn’t sound like reggae though.  It is without a doubt a hip hop album that has influences from the Caribbean.

Lyrically, O.G.C. are masters of the tag-team game and Starang Wondah plays tag team with himself and Louville and Top Dog.  I say that because he throws one rhyme out and then he comes back with a response the way an mc would in tag team, but its the lyrical style that Starang has mastered.  Beyond the three mc’s lyrical differences, each mc has a unique quality to their voice.  It makes them easily identifiable, but it offers a change in pace and approach which keeps each song fresh until it ends.

Lyrics

It is hard to decide what song to chose for the lyrics.  It could have easily been a number of the other songs on this album.  My first instinct was to choose If You Feel Like I Feel because it makes you want to get up and do something or move, but there is another song that I always want to hear called Set Sail. It is a great song that is smooth and still shows the skills of each mc.

The song starts out with a couple smacks of the snare drum and then a paced rhythm of the high hat that break and a deep bass line comes in to reset for the main beat and melody within the chorus.  Once that break happens, the bass line comes back and the beat begins.  The order of MC’s goes from Louiville to Top Dog to Starang.

(Louiville Sluggah)

I puff la til I die

mami don’t ask why

I roll up and puff

and put it down like such

I roll the honor dutch

this nigga never get enough

it sounds wicked

like when the Ville still packs a biscuit

a free week from studio and shows

all that means is that I’m checkin’ extra ins-on-do

run up in my home

bang her walls

then I bust off

’cause I can’t take no more

then I flee

with my p-e-o-p-l-e

with love up in the background yellin’ come back inny

a nigga five fity in a all black milleni-

-um

I made a promise so I’ll be back and give her some

smwooah

that’s the way its supposed to fly

either with me or against me

until I die

Vill Slug

killed ya

served many

puffin’ plenty

if I see some love in her

like a treat I tell her

give me some

(chorus)

(Top Dog)

my day starts

my mission moves me closer to the door

it’s sunny outside

yo sun say no more

my chest achiin’

from the smoke that I takin’

in

yo please

don’t pass no green weed again

because it’s nasty

I don’t give a fuck let it pass me

the last one that gave me that shit

must have been Jabs, B

sayin’ y’all just smoke

that’s all that you do

I read it up in The Source and Vibe article

hard to do

to think it come naturally

how could it be?

police is comin’ after me

drivin’ my whip

I had to put out my spliff

crack the rooftop

and let all the smoke go out

OH

(chorus)

(Starang)

A-Yo

niggas tried to play my crew

and got they ass chewed up

we in here about 18 deep

all crewed up

it was hot outside

I had my shirt off, tattooed up

last time I came around

had to fuck some dude up

my mom said

damn boy I think your head screwed up

but now we MFC for life

you know how we do chumps

yo a nigga stay flippin’

cause Starang stay whippin’

somethin’ nice for me and my MFC to sit in

A-Yo

all my gang bangin’ niggas everywhere

bang-on

my west coast niggas

I’ll be there soon

hang on

niggas mad at Dru and Buck

because them niggas put Starang on

see me in the streets

now bitches wanna clang-on my dick

see my face up in the mix

I push a GS4 now

but I’ll be pushin’ a 6

that nigga Starang Wondah

William H, fuck a Hummer

I’m a push this LP

and push another next summer

(chorus)

Top Tracks

Shoot To Kill, M-Pire Strikes Back, Sometimey, Shit Happens, Bounce To The Ounce, If You Feel Like I Feel, Slo Mo, You’re Not Sure To See Tomorrow, Suspect Niggaz (featuring Buckshot and Havoc), Dirtiest Players In The Game (featuring The Fab 5), Set Sail and Boot Camp MFC Eastern Conference.

Links

O.G.C. on Duckdown.com

Duckdown.com

Ronin