“I got a large house, a dog house in my backyard, and even my dog house got a backyard”
-Cassidy

                This is a not as old as the other videos (not new, but post Jay Z-Nas Battle) track. Note to rappers, don’t ever get on a track with Cassidy about boasting. Not like dude can’t rap about other shit, but come on, that’s like someone back in the day getting on a punchline only track with Big L. What the hell is “Ballin like a dog?” Sorry, I wish I could stop talking shit about Baby, but he somehow made it onto two Posse cuts on this blog. What was up with him and Eve back then? He was in her video, then he was on her in this one, I guess ole girl is just about money. The more I think about it though, I don’t know who came off better, Kiss or Cassidy? I’ll leave that up to ya’ll.

Banned from T.V. (Nature, Big Punisher, Cam’ron, Jadakiss and Styles, Noreaga)

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Hiphopdx vs the world (wide web)

                So I was reading a Meka Soul blog the other day and I seen someone in the comments say that allhiphop.com changed their site up, and Hiphopdx needs to step there game up. I don’t remember who said it, I just know it wasn’t some fan boy/Stan type commenter; it was someone who makes good comments. Truthfully, I wasn’t bothered by the comment. If I said I only checked Hiphopdx every day, I’d be a liar, however, to me, Hiphopdx reigns supreme over the other internet hip hop sites.

                With the death of the hip hop magazines…..wait, you didn’t know them shits were dead? Yea, since the whole Source vs. Interscope beef, the Source has sucked ass. I hoped things would change after the oust of Benzino and Dave Mays, but no luck with that. Now they’re just a 150 page section of adds with an occasional hip hop reference thrown in for flavor. XXL on the other hand, to gain support of Stans everywhere during the whole Source beef thing, hopped on Interscope’s balls. Add in the fact Elliot Wilson is talking shit to bloggers online (lol, faggot) and XXL is done. Where are hip hop fans to turn?  With the decreasing prices of computers and high speed internet, the obvious choice is the net, but what site? Well, to me, there are only 4 sites worth mentioning, Allhiphop.com, Hiphopdx.com, hiphopgame.com, and Sohh.com.  Each site has its pros and cons, let’s go over them.

                Allhiphop.com is probably the first site I really fucked with. While the setup wasn’t beautiful, it worked. I could see the news on the side, all the sections of the site were aligned up top, and info from most of the sections was preview-able under the news and major story section. The media section could be accessed by scrolling to the bottom of the page. Ill seed’s rumor section often brings you info that lands in the news section weeks later. Allhiphop.com get’s news faster overall. All of this is cool. To me, allhiphop.com is like the modern day San Antonio Spurs, they have the basics and fundamentals down, but they do nothing amazing and are not entertaining. I was told by an insider that allhiphop gets their news first because its main office is located in New York. As for the new look? It gives the site an updated look, but everything seems thrown everywhere now. It looks as if the Spurs attempted to go Golden State Warrior on us. The reviews section now rates albums by ten small bars, which is cool because it goes 1-10 (which I always say is better than 1-5, although with hip hop, we’ve always gone 1-5 based off the OG 5 mic rating), but the look of it…I don’t know, I’m just not feeling it personally. Also, the Allhiphop reviews everything and nothing at the same time. Since the site reviews damn near everything (books, concerts, albums, video games, DVDs and film) they often miss rap albums that have been released.

                Now off to Sohh.com.  See, I was gonna go in alphabetical order and bring HipHopdx last, cuz I believe as DJ Khalid would say “We the Best”, but I got love for Sohh.com, cuz that’s how I got here. In all reality though, I only fuck with Sohh.com for one reason, SOHH Left Coast (I’ll go into details on SOHH Left Coast 2morrow). SOHH has bloggers too, but they’re assigned to cover certain things. They have a blogger for the west coast, New York, Atlanta, Latins, R&B, videos, and the south (which I know is odd because they have a blogger for the south and Atlanta, originally the blogger for the south was for Houston, but I guess he ran outta Houston shit to talk about, so he asked to cover the whole south with the exception of Atlanta) Now for the problems. From what I’ve saw, with the exception of SOHH Left Coast, the bloggers all suck. I know they’re just bloggers and not journalist, but when the NYC blogger does like 5 blogs on the Tru Life/Dip Set beef, and none on El-P “I’ll Sleep When Your Dead” (Sohh left coast did a blog on it, cuz he knew SOHH NY wouldn’t and he thought It was such a dope album someone had to speak on it). The video blogger that I seen (they got a new one) was an idiot who just said shit to get attention. Both of the Southern bloggers do nothing but pump stereotypical southern garbage and don’t bring anything new or dope to the table. SOHH has no review section, they’re media section is ass, their news is slow, and they don’t show any love to underground shit. I could say more negative shit, but I won’t, check back 2morrow for the positive of SOHH.com.

                Hiphopgame.com……this site is definitely last year’s Golden State Warriors. One night Baron Davis will bang on Ak-47, another night they’ll miss like 25 of 30 wide open 3 pointers.  This site has some real good shit on it sometimes for the real heads, but you have to search through everything to find it. I wish I could go into more positives but….I can’t. Everything is thrown all over the place. The review section….the last thing they reviewed was the Roots “Game Theory”. Truthfully the only reason I even mentioned this site is because they get mentioned by so many people (I don’t really know why) and because they do show love to the underground.

                So why is HipHopdx the best? Balance, plain and simple. For the other sites, I brought the positives first, then the negatives, this time around, I’m gonna flip it and bring what’s looked at as the negatives first. A lot of people diss a lot of the articles on this site.  “They interviewed Lil Mama”, “Why the hell they wasting time interviewing MIMS?” “Don’t nobody give a shit about Noreaga anymore,” Hip Hop is diverse, and Hiphopdx seems to understand that. They bring you everything, from Sage Francis to Lil Mama. They’re at all the hot spots, from Kanye’s Birthday party to The Paid Dues Festival. While I sometimes get upset that I look to the page and see interviews with someone I think is garbage, the reality is, hip hop isn’t just what YOU want it to be. Hip Hop is KRS, Kanye, Wu Tang, WC, Ying Yang twins, Lil Jon, Outkast, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Atmosphere, Saigon, Talib Kweli, and Pastor Troy. Whether you think the artists bullshits or not, brings realness or not, is lyrically dope or not, doesn’t stop him from being Hip Hop.  HipHopdx understands there’s someone fucks with an artist, so they cover them. Another thing DX catches flak for is the reviews. I seen heard the praise the Canibus album was getting in the blog section, so when I seen the review for it, I checked it out. The reviewer gave the album a 2 and a half out of 5. I then saw the same people who praised the album in the blog section leave comments stating they were highly upset, and that the review was bullshit. This wasn’t the first time I seen reviews here catch flak either, so I assume a lot of people aren’t happy with the review section.  This is the thing with reviews though; reviews are done by a reviewer. There’s no almighty board that does reviews. You have to look at the reviewer. I’ve agreed with all the J-23 reviews I’ve seen (not even knowing who they were done by originally, more on that later). When he said a CD was trash, I thought it was trash. When he said a CD was dope, I thought it was dope. Reviewers are normal people, and there’s no perfect way to judge in album. It doesn’t always come down to, is the album good or bad, and is the reviewer smart or an idiot. Sometimes (most times) it comes down to what the reviewer expects from a good album, and what you expect from a good album. With that being said…who has better reviews than Hiphopdx….exactly, nobody. In the end what really makes Hiphopdx is the people.  A lot of them actually give a shit about hip hop. It’s not just a job. You can see comments from the people behind Hiphopdx on the blog sections, in the message boards, everywhere. I met J-23 at Paid Dues Festival, and was telling him how I liked the review section, not knowing the reviews I liked were all his. We talked about all sorts of hip hop related shit (most of which I ended up writing blogs about). A lot of the people here care about music, just like I do, which is why I check this page the most, and why I took the opportunity I was given to write here.

                Before anyone gets the idea to say some shit like “You’re just defending this page because they sign your checks” let me put you up on something. Your only half right, while I am defending Hiphopdx against the complaints they receive, I’m not doing it because they pay me, because in all actuality, they don’t.  I take time out of my busy schedule of chasing the almighty dollar, chilling and talking to my girl, chilling with my family, listening to music, school, working out, fighting worldwide cooning, promoting hybrids and caring for the environment, searching for ways to improve the community I was raised in, educating the yougins in my fam, talking sports in the sports bars of Long Beach,eating chinese food, pirating shit (I’m just kidding…or am I?), rigging electronic devices to do things there not supposed to do, watching sportscenter, smoking and drinking, playing video games, and chilling with all my other peoples to write the shit I write, and I don’t do it for a check. I’m defending Hiphopdx for the same reason I write on new west coast music every Friday, the same reason my first like 5 or 6 blogs have Murs references, because I feel its dope. If anybody else feels another site is better, that’s cool, say what you feel, I won’t get upset, but this is what I think.

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Wu Tang: The Death of a Dynasty

                If this same spot was available like 12 years ago, that symbol alone would be enough for a blog. The “W” which represented the Wu was at their height, the strongest symbol ever in hip hop. Stronger than the Roc-a-Fella logo and the diamond Roc artists throw up, Stronger than the Double R logo, it meant more than any symbol you could think of. Oh how the mighty have fallen. The Wu is nowhere near where they were, or where they should be. It almost hurts that I can say this without feeling that I’m stretching the truth, but compared to how they used to be, Wu Tang Fell off…..

“If you want beef, then bring the ruckus/ Wu Tang Clan ain’t nothing to fuck with”
Rza “Wu Tang Clan Ain’t Nothing to Fuck With”

                So the story has to start somewhere. Mine starts with a man complaining that something has taken over him, then an elder schooling him. Wu Revolution. I would six months later snatch everything with that “W” on it, but I started in 1997 with “Wu-Tang Forever”. The Wu blew me away, they were 10 deep (including Cappadonna), and they all (except ODB to me) brought it lyrically. While I sometimes had to go back again to really pick up on Raekwon and Ghostface, and some things had to be written off as New York inside shit, “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx” and “Iron Man” stayed in heavy rotation, “Liquid Swords” was lyrically superior to damn near everything out, and Rza’s production remained on point. I liked “Wu Tang Forever” more than “Enter the 36 Chambers” because at the time (like 1997) I couldn’t fuck with it, it sounded dated (lyrically, and quality of the sound). Method Man was my favorite member because of all of them, he was the average Joe type but with dope lyrics. He wasn’t too lyrical, he wasn’t too street, to me, Method Man symbolized hip hop. At the age of like 14 or 15, I just knew the Wu would dominate rap forever. Why not? If you looked around out here in Cali, they were everywhere. Huge billboards, Wu wear jackets, the “W” on people’s cars, 2pac guest spots,they were EVERYWHERE. For them to have such an impact here (during the whole supposed East Coast/West Coast thing) I could just imagine how huge they were in NY. I figured they were gods (no pun intended) in NY. To me, at that time, they WERE NY. Leather Jackets, Timbs, Lyrics (back when damn near everyone in NY was real emcees) NY slang (due to the 5 percenter background) I stereotyped all the young people in the hoods of NY to be like Wu-Tang members, which to me, was a hella of a compliment. How could anything fuck up the Wu? Wu could never fall off! Well actually……

                While I’ve criticized people for criticizing artist for not staying the same, and credited Lil Wayne’s improvement to his changeup with the production, and said that I’m not worried Little Brother isn’t gonna have the same production they’ve had before, I’m gonna have to criticize the Wu for not staying the same, and blame their falling off in part to the change up with their production. I know it’s a contradiction…but so what. With the releasing of several solo projects, and several off-shoots of the Clan, Rza couldn’t do beats for everyone, while scoring movies and writing and producing for his own album. The clan started adding in other producers to help in on solo projects, and some of the beats for “W”. I gotta admit, I wasn’t big on it, and neither were a lot of other Wu Tang Fans.  Sales dropped, and reviews dropped. Those Wu-Tang banners started disappearing. As the west started to lose its stranglehold on the rap game, other artists from NY started to blow nationwide. The likes of Jay Z and DMX were now the nationwide “CNN for the streets” of NY, and Wu Tang became less and less significant. Add in the fact that a lot of the Wu solo’s weren’t that tight (“Tical 2000” anyone?), and the Wu emblem continued to lose its luster. When “Supreme Clientele” dropped, Wu fans were overjoyed. Reviewers praised Ghost’s follow up to “Iron Man”. When the group followed that up with “Iron Flag”, quality wise, they were back where they belonged, however, the damage was already done. They say time waits for no man; well the rap game waits for no artists. While the Wu got back to where they used to be quality wise, other artists from their time, like Nas and Jay Z had stepped they’re game up, and stole the spotlight with their beef (the best rap beef ever..Says who? Says me). Those Wu billboards were definitely gone, there was no Wu Wear to be found anywhere, since at this time, there was Phat Farm, and Roc-a-Wear. Things changed, and Wu-Tang got left behind.

                While the Wu is back to dropping that quality music (every Ghostface Album, that last Method Man album “421, the Day After”, The Rza....or I mean Bobby Digital shit), they don’t receive anywhere near the respect they deserve. While they were honored on "VH1 Hip Hop Honors" (which is, to me, the best thing VH1 has on TV, and they need to hury up and do another) Wu-Tang clan SHOULD be hip hop royalty. If an original Wu artists drops, it should be a major event everywhere hip hop related. One of the things about hip hop is, to a certain extent, it’s a young man’s game. The main audience is the youth, so when you’ve been in the game as long as Wu-Tang has, if you’re not a part of the new popular trend, and you don’t have a big machine behind you pushing your music, you’re not gonna have you music everywhere all over TV, and radio. Sure Method Man’s CD was dope, but all the ad space and all that other shit are for the youngins, and they don’t care about Method Man. Should they??If they claim to be a part of this hop hop shit, I think so, but realistically, they don’t. So Labels (Def Jam) don’t care to push the CD major and have dude with 3 or 4 videos, because they feel Method Man fans, (kats like me) don’t need all that, we’ll know it drops, and we’ll support it. They don’t invest a lot of money in it; because they’re not gonna get that money back. No matter how much they advertised that CD and shot videos, they couldn’t have gotten the kids all over it. 

                Every time I see a W sticker on the back of a car I smile, and remember back when I first started messing with Wu-Tang and those 10 dudes were at the top of the rap game. Even if you anticipate “8 Diagrams” like I do, you gotta admit, Wu-Tang isn’t at the same level of significance they used to be. Add in the loss of OB…Big Baby…Dirt McGirt, who I didn’t think was that tight, yet to me, was definitely a part of what made Wu-Tang, Wu-Tang, and you have to realize things are definitely different for the Wu. Is this a bad thing? I’d say yes, but sometimes that’s just how shit is.

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Native Guns

                So I’m talking to my homeboy that records rappers, I’m telling him how the internet has a million and one ways to market your music for free. MySpace, YouTube, all that, then he goes “Oh, you gotta check MySpace for these cats I seen at a show, look up Native Guns” So I look them up, they’re cool, but I don’t pay that much attention. Fast forward to a month later, I’m thinking to myself, since I have the opportunity, I should do more to promote this west coast shit. Not the same old shit that everybody has already heard, some all new shit. After really listening, I knew I had to come with these cats first….

“Never dumbing this down, I know you’re smarter than that…”
Kiwi “Kombat”

                Native Guns are a testament to what I’ve been saying since day one, the west is diverse. The Native Guns consist of Bambu and Kiwi, two Filipino emcees holding it down for L.A. /San Francisco. Their DJ holding it down for the Chinese Americans, is Dj Phatrick. There CD “Barrel Men” which dropped last year starts off with a gang initiation (into the Native Guns) then goes everywhere. From the anti-war marches to Southeast Asian sweat markets, the Native Guns takes you there. “Barrel Men” has a little of everything, an ode to the groups favorite hip hop acts (“1995”), joints to bang (“Champion”), storytelling (“Treason”), battle raps (“Kombat”), and of course the dedication to the opposite sex (“Right There”), and none of it comes off as forced. This isn’t that “I wish things were different, cuz things should be better” type of rap, this is “I’m out trying to get shit changed” hip hop. “Barrel Men” brings lyrics, beats, and purpose consistently, something that a lot of these “major” label releases don’t do.

“How many Republicans does it take to screw a bulb in?/ One to buy the bulb and the other to direct the Mexican/The El Salvadorian or the… Filipino/Any other brown yellow or black people/How many Democrats does it take to screw a light in?/None, you do the light, they take the credit for the trying”
Bambu “Funny”

                Native Guns have done two mixtapes, “Stray Bullets Vol. 1” and “Stray Bullets Vol.2”. I haven’t heard Vol.1, but Vol.2 is definitely laced with dopeness. They have remakes like “C.R.E.A.M” or “Cash, Roof, Eat A Meal”, “Cake” (where they give the beat what it should have had from get go), and originals like “Ti