• » Name: Meka Soul
• » Location: Los Angeles, CA
• » Member Since: 04/09/07
• » Bio: Providing clarity in hip-hop since 1981.
• » Contact Me:
• » Syndicate: RSS

• » We Don’t Care About Dead Rappers
• » Hoe Sit Down: T.I. Edition
• » In Defense Of 808s & Heartbreak
• » The Art Of Fruitinization
• » Is T.I. A Snitch?

	May 2007
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31
« Apr					Jun »

• » Gangstarr Girl
• » Dah Shyt
• » 2 Dope Boyz
• » Dallas Penn
• » Plastic Squirtguns

Slap-Boxing With Jesus

William, You Idiot

Being both a fan and an aspiring music critic of this culture I hold so dearly to my heart, I’m usually not apt to responding to or criticizing the next man’s opinions and/or beliefs, as varying views are part of the reason why this thing called hip-hop still exists so prevalently today, regardless of what half-decent albums may proclaim.

Now going into the twentieth anniversary of my love affair with H.E.R., I’ve read, watched, ingested, studied, heard, listened to [1], bought and stolen my fair share of music solely for the love of understanding the beauty, science and mechanics of hip-hop. And like every other cyber-geek and e-thug, I have my own set of opinions and beliefs. While they are vastly different from the next man or woman, they are nothing more than my own personal theories. And being granted with my own section on this particular part of the Internets, I am able to convey those theories on a grander scale, not for the intention of racking up the most comments [2], but for the purpose of providing my insight on your favorite artists, regardless of whether it’s in a positive light or not [3].

As such, I’m apt to listening to the next man or woman’s opinions for their views. I’m not one to reject deposits, but imagine my surprise (and amusement) when I read that my Midwestern blogging brother from another mother William E. Ketchum III begrudgingly admitted that Kanye West is the new DJ Premier a few days ago. Originally I passed this off as delusions of grandeur, but being the resident biased asshole, I refuse to acknowledge that Tooda is even the new Teddy Riley, much less this generation’s Christopher Martin.

Granted, Kanye may be today’s producer du jour, but his “prolific” creations only stand out in today’s lifeless arena due to the fact that most of the shit out now sucks balls. With today’s beats weaker than the unfinished levees of New Orleans, it’s easy to make a song like “Drive Slow” sound as if it wasn’t jacked directly from All Eyez On Me. And after listening to some of the rapidly-improving compositions from Atlanta’s self-proclaimed “King Of The White Girls,” Polow Da Don, Kanye will not be in that so-called class for long.

The main reason DJ Premier is DJ Premier is that through his productions he was able to bring the best out of a shitty rapper, or at least make them sound competent. Memphis Bleek, Heavy D, Fat Joe, Non Phixion, even the sauce-ass Teriyaki Boyz have at the very least come across as bearable. On the other hand, Kanye is known to hoard his best beats for himself, which wouldn’t be a bad thing if he weren’t such a shitbag rapper. While Common may have profited from bartering his fedoras for some of Tooda’s better tracks [4], Consequence, Jadakiss, Rhymefest and Freeway haven’t. Perhaps if they weren’t being raped for their publishing they could, but whatever.

Speaking of shitty tracks, it’s laughable to even assume that Kanye hasn’t produced a throwaway beat. Whereas Willie can’t think of five, I can rattle off the top of my head at the very least six:

* Jay-Z’s “’03 Bonnie & Clyde”
* Freeway’s “Turn Out The Lights (Freewest)”
* White Boy’s “U Know”
* Jadakiss’ “Gettin’ It In”
* Memphis Bleek’s “I Wanna Love You”
* Brandy’s “Talk About Our Love”
* D12’s “ D12 World”

And if I could think of name of that Boo & Gotti bullshit, I’d add that to the list as well.

In a sense, I’ll agree that Kanye’s current set up today is akin to Premier’s own in the 90s, where everyone wanted a track from the respective beat smiths. However, that is where the similarities start and stop. Whereas Primo was almost single-handedly responsible for injecting a wonderfully muddy yet abstractly hardcore sound into hip-hop music with his jazz-inspired productions, I really don’t see anybody going to a guy who has the gall (and financial backing) to yoke the likes of The Fifth Dimension and Bette Midler for that street shit. But in today’s age where “street” records are a one-way ticket to Koch, that probably isn’t a relevant factor anyways. And while most of the humps on this site are just simply passing this off as “hating” (since I’ve already expressed my opinions on Tooda before), apparently I’m not the only one who thinks Common needed a word to rhyme Nemo with.

[1] There is a difference between listening to and hearing the music, much like there’s a difference between the rapper and the emcee.

[2] If I really wanted to do that, I’d talk about how shitty Lil’ Wayne is all day long. Besides, do you really think I give an eighth of a shit about the quasi-homosexual “cancer to hip-hop” rants?

[3] But let’s face it; most of the shit has been negative, because I’m an “ignorant hater” like that.

[4] In Common’s case however, he sounded much more hungrier on his earlier tracks produced by his former right-hand man No I.D., who ironically not only introduced Tooda to hip-hop production but mentored him as well. In that sense then, Kanye West would be nothing more than a weird amalgamation of No I.D. and The Madd Rapper, both who still couldn’t hold a torch to Premier on their best day.

Comments             

50 cent • bet • common • crooked i • dope • ghostface • hip hop • jay z • jay-z • kanye west • lil wayne • little brother • mixtape • music • nas • nino bless • phonte • racism • rap • rock the bells • sha stimuli • stimuli • termanology • ugk • west coast