Pic courtesy of ErikVoake.com

Guys, I messed up.

A few weeks back, my long-standing request for a Smoking Session with West Coast pioneer Warren G was finally granted. As an artist I literally grew up listening to and who helped enlighten my musical taste-buds at an early age, the rare opportunity to speak to an idol was something I’d been bugging Gotty™ for since day one. So, it was quite stellar to hear that after years of waiting in the wings, our connects came through in the clutch, hooking up a phone interview to help promo his appearance in the VH1 Hip-Hop Honors tribute to his former label Def Jam, along with an upcoming seventh record from the Long Beach vet, The G-Files.

I got the call a few weeks later and, as expected, Warren was cooler than a cucumber and the interview came & went without a hitch. Until, of course…I got home to my Google Voice account and saw I’d pressed 4 an extra time on my piece-of-shit flip-phone to un-record the entire conversation/interview.

Heart. Break. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re a Crooked I stan like I am, today is a good day. Because we’ve been blessed 36 new broken bottle bars from the 213′s illest emcee. Read the rest of this entry »

West coast Hip-Hop has seemed to pick up it’s pace again in the last year or so with the help of newcomers such Blu, Jay Rock, and Crooked I being extremely viral with their artist marketing. But it’s the legends from the Left Coast that seem to keep it’s heart beating through the ups and downs. E-40, Cube, and any rapper affiliated with the Dogg Pound have all been present on the Hip-Hop scene in the last few, but one of the crews that have been noticeably absent is the cannabis loving, Latin Hip-Hop group Cypress Hill, who were just honored last year by VH1 on Hip Hop Honors.

Consequently, the group’s most distinguishable voice, B-Real is poised to drop his first solo effort in his 15+ years in the game, Smoke N Mirrors. The album while a far cry from his Cypress days production-wise, still maintains that hazy feel of a room infiltrated with second-hand blunt ashes. Muggs doesn’t show up with a beat on the entire album but the capable hands of The Alchemist, Soopafly, J-Turner and even B-Real himself take upon themselves to usher in the P-Funk. Read the rest of this entry »

Aside from “gas prices on high” no longer holding water, this track is pretty fresh to me. Beat is laid out like a So Cal beach, same as Bambu’s locale. And dude has flow, so I’m cool with it. Read the rest of this entry »

The double disc: double the record sales but often forgotten due to clutter and an indigestible amount of music.

E-40′s contribution to 1998, The Element Of Surprise, is one of those infamous double discs that could have easily been broken down into a 14 song album and undoubtedly found itself in top of the years best. Coming off the light weight success of 1996′s The Hall Of Game, 40 was obviously looking to pull everyone in with The Element Of Surprise, enlisting a coastal trifecta with guest spots ranging from Busta Rhymes to Master P and an O’Shea-less Westside Connection. Production wise Element Of Surprise was varied, full of stuttering funk, slumping mob music and smooth crooning. Lyrically, 40 did what 40 always does and stitched each song up with his unconventional flow and impeccable lyrical styling’s. Boasting 24 tracks, The Element Of Surprise is an overlooked gem in 40 Wata’s catalog that only setback is in the “doing too much” category. Read the rest of this entry »

Words By Contraâ„¢

“If nothing else, this series stands as what?…Proof!”

From the jump, I was not at all approving of the whole idea of a weekly freestyle from Crooked I. I had two main problems. Firstly, much as I did like Crook as a rapper, I had never heard him do anything consistently enough and was adamant that after week 5 he would begin becoming repetitive and redundant, adding him to my already overcrowded shitlist. Secondly, I was sure he would tire the audience out before week 11 was up.

As expected, I have met a select skeptic population who are intensely fatigued of this man’s weekly drops. But I’ve met so many more that have found a new favorite rapper, and developed a new ritual centered around his Wednesday visits.

I hopped on the HHW train around week 40. After he killed “Takeover,” I was consciously looking out for a re-up of his product. Read the rest of this entry »