New Music: Obie Trice, Playa [ft. Bun B]

04.26.09

Song: Playa [ft. Bun B]
Artist: Obie Trice
Album: Bottom’s Up
Label: World Wide Hustle
Producer: unknown
Notes: none
Analysis: It’s a real shame that Obie Trice was dropped last year from Shady/Interscope, because while Eminem & 50 Cent are still stuck on five years ago, Obie’s music is forward-moving. On ‘Playa’, Trice has the golden co-sign from UGK’s Bun B.

Album Review: UGK, 4 Life

04.17.09

Everyone knows that half of the legendary Houston rap duo UGK, Pimp C, died in late 2007 in what was probably the most crushing blow to rap since Big Pun’s untimely death in 2000. Riding the wave of their most successful album in fifteen years, it was a huge shock and a tremendous loss for music. But Pimp’s other lyrical half Bun B decided to carry on for one last bow before putting the UGK name to rest, with an album that is more of a continuation of their career rather than a final chapter.

UGK certainly doesn’t stray far from their familiar style or subjects. A good portion of UGK 4 Life consists of breezy Cadillac music about money, weed & women. But obviously it shouldn’t be written off as by-the-numbers rapping, because if that were the case, they wouldn’t have had such longevity in the industry. The duo is cool and witty enough to pull this off from album to album and song to song and still able to throw some curveballs. For instance, in one of my favorite songs of the album ‘Purse Come First’ the chorus is by Pimp C: (Flippin’ and dippin’, sippin’ and grain grippin’ / watching life through my rearview mirror I ain’t trippin’ / I done rolled with the best and acted bad with the worst / dick is a commodity bitch, the purse come first). Nothing too introspective there, but once you dig into the verses you start hearing lines about Pimp questioning the Catholic church, or Bun B’s big brother & war profiteering conspiracy theories. By the time guest rapper Big Gipp shows up on the third verse, he seems lost and out of his league rapping about swisher sweets and candy colored coupes because that seems to be ALL that he knows. UGK are at least able to rhyme about a variety of topics, even if it is just under the surface, and that’s what sets them apart from the by-the-numbers rappers that they can easily get confused with.

Music Video: UGK, Da Game Been Good to Me

03.31.09

Song: Da Game Been Good to Me
Artist: UGK
Album: UGK 4 Life
Label: Vibe Records
Producer: Pimp C
Notes: 1st single from LP
Analysis: Really cool video from UGK, composed mostly of motion graphics and still-images from the group’s past, as obviously Pimp C is no longer with us. Definitely respect Bun B for going this route to promote the final album by giving us an introspective on the group’s career.

Mixtape Review / Download: Termanology, If Heaven Was a Mile Away (A Tribute to J Dilla)

01.01.09

I was skeptical at first of the intentions of this mixtape. I am quite sure that Termanology & late producer J Dilla (who passed in 2006) have never previously collaborated. Neither of them share any song credits to my knowledge, and at first I was afraid that the relatively-new MC was somehow capitalizing on the trend of saluting Dilla, who has become more known in death than he was in life. In 2007, Busta Rhymes also released a free mixtape called Dilla-gence, providing new vocals over unreleased Dilla beats, but they had been frequent collaborators throughout their careers. How can someone give a tribute to another person who they’ve never even known? If heaven was a mile away, would J Dilla even know who Termanology was? Then I remembered how good an album Termanology’s Politics as Usual was this past year. And I remembered how Term is one of the nicest upcoming artists in the hip hop world, and how his raw, energetic style is remeniscent of early New York rap that we’ve been badly missing for years now. So I started looking at this mixtape in a different light. Term is simply just a fan.