Words By Malik V.

As I walked out of Candlestick Park after the Niners’ come from behind victory over the ‘Skins, I took a moment to reflect on the few ups and many downs of the fifth straight losing season I made it through. “Things could be a lot worse”, I said to myself optimistically. And just to help me out, the Detroit Lions made that thought a tangible reality.

0-16. Just saying it makes me laugh, because it’s so damn unfathomable. But that’s what the Lions do. They make the impossible possible. Just not in a good way. A year after the Patriots videotaped their way to the first 16-0 regular season, the Lions became perfectly imperfect by not recording a single W the whole year. Wire to wire losers.

I’ve seen a couple teams go 1-15 before, and a part of me has always rooted against them, just so I could be a witness to a team going 0-16. It never quite went down like that though, because there would always be one game in which the team would catch a break and sneak in a victory. It always seemed like the law of averages or some other chance event would prevent a team from not winning a single game, but not even unbiased chance showed any pity for the Lions.

For whatever reason, I do feel a little bad for the Lions and their fans. The sadist in me wanted to see them go 0-16, but now that it’s happened, it doesn’t feel as cruelly sweet as I thought it would. That’s probably because Calvin Johnson and his teammates actually played hard and didn’t bitch or pass the blame to the league or the refs for their historic predicament. They put the blame on themselves, and tried their best to put a good, or even mediocre product on the field. Maybe they can take some sort of satisfaction in that, but I doubt it.

Since I’m not in the D, I don’t know what kind of response this is getting. I wouldn’t be surprised if Lions fans aren’t as pissed as outsiders might assume them to be. I’d bet that most Lions fans stopped giving a shit around week 5 or 6. I don’t have to be from Detroit to know that the sports scene isn’t really anything to boast about right now though. The Pistons are slipping and the Tigers were disappointing last year. If I was a resident of Detroit, these tough times would almost make me wanna hum that old familiar tune…

Loosies

Yung LA- All Of The Above

K-Os – Astronaut

K-Os – The Avenue

K-Os – Zambony

Keena Feat. The Cool Kids – Loose Wires (Remix)

Stat Quo – The Wind (Prod. By Focus)

Stat Quo – Deliver Me (Produced by Lyr1kz)

Young Buck – Swag On ‘Em

Young Buck Feat. Sosa Da Plug & Tha Outlawz – Fly

Murda Mook Feat. Jadakiss – Best Rapper Alive

Truck North – Norf@Work

Truck North – ‘09 Mentality

Truck North Feat. Wale – Flyer Than the Rest

Termanology Feat. Sheek Louch,Joell Ortiz,Bun-B,Saigon & Freeway – Say It

MC Lyte – Brooklyn

DJ Khaled Feat. Kanye West & Jay-Z – Go Hard (Remix)

J The S Feat. Emilio Rojas & Donny Goines – My Thing

Loosies

2.95

While it may resemble your college GPA before you discovered the joys of shrooms, that was our Cig average from the 95 Hip-Hop albums we reviewed in 2008. In no way, shape, or form are the shining stars of the year (see Rising Down, LAX, The Death Of Adam, etc…) discredited, but for the rest of the pathetic, waste of studio time, sorry excuse for full length LPs. Their presence only created a stench that defiled record stores worldwide and probably left the odor on your clothes.

Some were well documented, some slipped through the cracks, but ’tis the season for giving and now is the time they ALL get their just due.

TC says fuck ‘em…

The Most Disappointing Hip-Hop Albums Of 2008 According To TC Read the rest of this entry »

January

With the Industry on a temporary shutdown, the Crew was pretty much left to our own devices to start of the year. After shaking off the extra holiday pounds, a lot speculation for the upcoming year and recollecting of the past kept the month moving along. That and a healthy dose of stray shots.

We started the year in a quizzical mood as we had time to take look at some burning questions.

Would this be the year digital music surpassed CD’s? Would Lil’ Wayne finally deliver an album to back up his “Best Rapper Alive” claims? Is it time for Prodigy to hang up his mic? Is Google gonna become Big Brother? Has Pro Tools cheapened the feature? It’s easier to ponder these issue when the faucet leaks at a controlled drip versus a steady flow as it does later in the year.

We took a look at XXL’s Most Anticipated albums for ’08. While Estelle and Jay Electronica were pegged as one’s to watch for the upcoming year. Crooked I was rounding 3rd on his freestyle odyssey.

Tragedy Khadafi received words of encouragement as we once again tipped our hat to Aaliyah. Read the rest of this entry »

Words By Jesse H.

Dear Black Community,

I would like to formally apologize on behalf of the White race. You see, apparently stealing Jazz, Rock and Roll and countless styles from the Black community wasn’t enough. Now we’re officially after Hip-Hop.

Professor Ferenc Szasz of the University of New Mexico has proposed a theory suggesting that rap battles originated in Scotland, by way of an art called “flyting.” Flyting is apparently some old method of trading insults used in Scottish pubs by old ass poets who wanted to bring to attention how much of a beef-witted apple john their enemies were.

Now, to be fair, I don’t know for sure what color skin Ferenc Szasz has, but I also don’t know any Black people named Ferenc (furthermore, I don’t know any Black people who want to credit Whites with the creation of Hip-Hop). But, regardless of the similarity between “flyting” and a rap battle Read the rest of this entry »

“In your memory, I keep a Coogi in my closet, Kangol on the rack, fresh pair of Wallys…”

A short radio rip but good enough to give you a dose of the track until a better version leaks. Read the rest of this entry »

On the rare occasion that I actually watched a Youtubey-type clip all the way through, I’ve decided to give you a synopsis of what was said here.

– New album titled, Chicago: The Photo Album.

– No I.D. is @ the helm, producing the album *golf clap* Read the rest of this entry »

Words By S. Cadet

Pics Property Of Gamespot

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I popped in Prince of Persia for the first time. I played some of the previous games on Xbox and even messed around with the OG version back in the day. Over time, the series has seen a lot of changes so I knew I was going to be in for something different.

Now that I completed the game I can say that I had fun with it. I had some gripes with it here and there but the game maintained my interest. There is a questionable design choice that has a few who bought or played the game buzzing. This could make or break the game for you. With that said let me break down the story quickly. Read the rest of this entry »

Apparently this was the demo that got Big signed. Read the rest of this entry »

Every day, I get a gem in the inbox. This morning was no different.

“I thought he’d sign with Young Money. Maybe people see when it comes to the business side of things, Wayne ain’t shit? Read the rest of this entry »

Philly made the playoffs yesterday by thrashing the Cowboys, scoring roughly 30+ touchdowns in the process. The team & its fans were so Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, so 2008 probably won’t go down as one of the best years in Hip-Hop, like say 1988 or 1998. But it’s the only one we’re gonna get, so we had to make the most of it.

Coming into the year, no one was really sure what to expect with so many heavy hitters releasing works the year before. As always, it stated off slow, but picked up a considerable amount of steam as the days stacked up. One thing for sure is 2008 did not lack for excitement, music worthy of acclaim, accolades, a fair share of comedic moments and interesting storylines. From Lil’ Wayne to Obama to Nas to Rick Ross to T-Baby, the fodder was there, & so was TSS to offer our opinions and thoughts on what was going on then…and now, trying to apply 20/20 hindsight on it all. Read the rest of this entry »

Video footage from B.O.B’s “Unplugged” live show at Sugarhill at the Underground in Atlanta. December 21st, 2008. Lola P. caught this footage of the man himself doing a rousing performance of “I’ll Be In The Sky” and, after the break, “Haterz Everywhere.” Read the rest of this entry »

One of my favorite tracks from Untitled, mostly because of that beat.

But as for this video Read the rest of this entry »

Donny Goines makes it a trifecta for Minute After Midnight video coverage. Read the rest of this entry »

LeatherCreations, a Chicago-area furniture store, took out a quarter-page ad in Thursday’s Chicago Tribune taking a swipe @ the state’s embattled Governor Blagojevich.

Seen via Gawker