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» Name: Zack Einhorn
» Location: NYC
» Member Since: 10/22/07
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audio section • g-eyez • hip hop • j. cardim • j.cardim • lil wayne • producers • raf moses • rap • sha stimuli • stimuli • tuge • white girls

I Listen To Better Music Than You (Zack Einhorn)

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Hip Hop Isnt Dead It lives in the South?/I Respond to Commenters

November 05, 2007 | Tags: none

First of all, let it be known that I'm from New York and I rep this north east shit to the fullest. I want NY to come back. I like Jae Millz, Grafh, Ransom, Stimuli, Joe Budden, Kweli, Skyzoo and a whole bunch of other rappers from NY that can't seem to come out/sell any records right now. That being said, I have not seen anything in NY that has inspired me in the way that my last couple days in Miami have. I came down here with a laptop full of J. Cardim's southern/Miami sounding beats ready to sell some tracks to iced-out rappers wearing aviator sunglasses (at night of course) sitting in their luxury cars driving 5 mph down ocean drive. While there was plenty of that, kicking it with Jay Rob's (producer Streetrunner's manager) new artist and Terror Squad affiliate, OZ showed me a different side of Miami that I truly hope every audio section/blog commenter/backpacker/south hater (or just anyone who thinks southern rapper only care about getting money of hip hop and not the culture) has the opportunity to experience.

When we (Myself, J. Cardim and G-Eyez...myspace.com/respectandpower...free press bitches) enter the studio room (shout 2 DJ Barkely), OZ is finishing up a new banger he just recorded to a beat by The Runners. Over the course of the next half hour, OZ runs through roughly 6 songs including some of the craziest Runners and Streetrunner production I've heard to date as well as guest verses by Rick Ross and Fat Joe. While the Lil Wayne influences are apparent, OZ has his own touch that when nurtured will set him a part. Up to this point, the studio visit was fairly ordinary as far as studio sessions go. It’s when we retired to the patio area for an L of that good that the narrative began to twist. (Hah twist...like the L...get it?...fuck yall) Up to this point, I'm treating OZ like a regular artist that I've met through the industry. This guy has top notch Runners beats, big guest appearances, he's as official (if not more) as any rapper on this site. So we're out here on the little patio, burning, playing beats on this little boom box (which drove me crazy all night since we just came from hearing shit on big ass studio monitors) and OZ out of the blue is like "yall like to freestyle?" I'm thinking like word? These dudes freestyle down here? G-Eyez (my artist, who's a straight east-coast-lyrical type of artist) is like "yea man, I mean I freestyle, not really like that though anymore" OZ is like "yea man you know, I love music more than anything" and proceeds to go in with a good 40 bars of off the top swaggered out (since I know how much yall love when I use that word...say it again, SWAGGER) lyricism. What ensued was 3+ hours of weed (which of course lead to Chinese food...which interestingly enough was also just as good as many of my new york experiences...could've been the weed though haha) liquor and freestyling to over 30 J. Cardim beats. G-Eyez came out of his shell and spit some fire full of his signature word-play and punches, OZ spit marathon verses of southern-fried freestyle. Shit, even ya boy Zack took it back to his rapping days with a few verses. (Speaking of which, ghostwriter and 4 the right price.....) After this seemingly endless cipher (which was more "hip hop' than anything I've seen at sobs, negril, the knitting factory or any other new york night spot in quite some time) we moved into the studio where OZ layed down a verse and a hook to one of J's beats.

That night was truly invigorating. Sometimes this industry can become just that, industry. That night I felt like I was 16 in a cipher after school. I don't know why people are so reluctant to give southern rappers their props. Maybe it’s like Nas said (though it is somewhat of a clichéd expression) "people fear what they don't understand." While people may not be "afraid" to give southern artists credit, it certainly seems like there is something, perhaps an overabundance pride behind what they feel is "real" hip hop, that is keeping them from giving our southern neighbors a real chance. Hip Hop is not about staying as close to the elements as possible (because truthfully, graf is not even a major thing to these dudes down here, they don't live in apartment complexes by the subway like in NY) its about people coming together and bonding through their shared love of that feeling you get when the beat comes on and you hear that boom bap, even if the drum sounds are 808s.

I knew I was opening up a can of worms when I said I was going to start responding to people's comments but fuck it I'm a man of my word. Seeing as the title of this blog is sure to ruffle some backpack/commenter/true school/loser feathers, I'm sure I’ll have way more to respond to in the next one. Off bat I just wanna let yall know that I'm never gonna fight with yall. I didn’t open that channel of communication to argue about stupid shit. I don't care if you like Wayne or Lupe or the south or my blog for that matter. Let’s keep in constructive. This is hip hop, I have Wayne and Lupe in my ipod...and Nas, and Jay and Royce and Jean Grae and Jeezy and I listen to them all for different reasons ya dig?

“Wayne’s raps are good but they aren’t on a level where i'm thinking about them too much. they're easy to remember and ull randomly say one once in awhile, but its not what im looking for in my music. I like listening to Lupe because its challenging to break down his raps and makes you think about the lyrics (shit goes deeper than the basic metaphors people throw around these days and think its some great shit). dudes like lupe, andre300, and nas getting you thinking about their music beyond when you're acutally listening to it. wayne doesnt to me so hes not great in my eyes.”
Posted By: goodyGONG

I also like listening to Lupe. The thing with Lupe for me though is I feel like some of his metaphors are overly complex to the point where it’s a little bit pretentious and kind of unnecessary. “Hurt Me Soul” though is easily one of the best records of the year. Thx!

“tried to like Wayne because everyone with a seemingly respectable opinion I know seems to swear by him, but I've given him every opportunity to win me over and it just isn't happening. I just hate the way he sounds and am not the least bit entertained by his punches, flow or wordplay……But love and insha'allah. And if you still kickin it in Florida and gonna be around Ft. Meyers any time, hollar at my boy SelfMade. My 'nilla since 1st grade. Silly with beats”
Posted By: THE 'son

Hey to each his own homie. I think Wayne is hilarious. I’m not in Florida anymore but I did check your man’s myspace page. Not bad at all, tell him to email me some beats if he wants. Dicemusicmp3@gmail.com …I listen to everything thx!

“Wayne is the best hip hop ARTIST out right now, doing it consistently. Dre 3000 is prolly the best hip hop artist of all time though.”
Posted By: D@Doctor

Wayne is obviously heavily influenced by andre as well, his flow especially. Thx!

“you did all that on a sidekick... damn you were bored =P”
Posted By: weeez

Haha hell yeah, it was raining like crazy and I had no internet!!! Lol Thx!

“Wayne...hmmm...he's good no doubt. But I wouldn't dare call him the best in the game at the moment. Or at any point period prior to this either. I mean damn...did we forget about kanye?.... His content is on one lane. Lyrics are hot yes, but where's the depth? Carter III didn't even have one Katrina song on it?...WTF!!!”
Posted By: RellRoad

I feel you on Kanye. He is also one of my favorites. Graduation is very dope and Kanye is a crazy producer but the one thing that bothered me about that album and I think this is a fairly popular opinion, is that it was entirely about him. It lacked the same depth you are demanding from Weezy. Carter 3 isn’t out yet but if you download the song “Georgia Bush” you can hear Weezy’s opinions on the president’s involvement in Katrina. Thx!

“For anybody who happens to be confused about the what swagger really is, at one time I also thought it was like the person's clothese or something. But what it is, is just plain old cockiness.”
Posted By: TheGodJustice

I’ve always taken someone having “swagger” to mean having personality and being colorful in his songs. Slick Rick and Kane were the kings of swagger. Thx!

“Emotions? Putting emotions on whack lyrical content makes you hot and relevant? So if some joe shmuck starts crying while he's rapping it makes him hot shit??
Posted By: nicklez

Fair enough but I’d much rather that kind of rapper then the brand of mc (I know you like the mc/rapper differentiation hip-hop/rap guy) who spits emotionless backpack raps drenched in convoluted metaphors. But that’s just me. Thx!

“Though the blog was not needed being as every wayne fan i know has said exactly wat you've said I prefer to not get into if he's the hottest or not I'm just lookin for good music and in my opinion he's on & off sometimes he goes hard but sometimes he drops straight bullshit...and lately he's been on the bullshit side.”
Posted By: K.Y.

No doubt my dude, I wasn’t really looking for creative ways to defend wayne (cause no one at cash money has cut me a check…yet) but maybe that’s good that I echoed the sentiment of every wayne fan. He’s definetly been weak lately but the new Empire mixtape he just dropped is hot. Thx!

“Man, do they even screen who blogs here anymore? I was gonna start applying for a spot to start blogging here in DX, but retards like this just makes me not want to jump into the band wagon. I thought that Charmalagne dude was bad, but this balding retard is fucking worse…….So if I was to run around with a louie vuiton bandana around my neck, wear bapes, Ed Hardy hats and chain wallets with mediocre rhyming abilities then I'm a dope artist? I noticed that you said your some kind of manager or A&R of certain artists. And with this outlook on "what makes an artist" atitude of yours, I am curious to how your artists sound……And you just commited the biggest sacrilage in HIP HOP by comparing lil gremlin, take it in the ass, I kiss grown men wayne to NAS!! Man you are just in a roll are'nt you. quit now while you still can.”
Posted By: nicklez (he had a lot to say hah)

Haha, sorry you don’t like the blog…um I guess don’t read them? Yeah I’m not balding either…that’s called a ceaser. Lol…Anyway I don’t know what the part about all of the fashion names is about but my blog was about Lil Wayne. My artists are G-Eyez, Sha Stimuli, Tuge and Certified Gz. You should check them out if you want to. If you read the blog over you’ll notice I did not compare his music to Nas’ music, just the way they are in interviews. If you read Nas interviews (I especially like the one where he told XXL that he doesn’t help ILL Will’s mother) you might find similarities in their personas. Thx!

“Another blog wit Wayne, Weezy, Wagsm or whatever you wanna call him in the title. BORING!!!. You have a long way to go to be in the same sentence as ummmm BOL.
Couldn't finish reading this shit. But HEY I TRIED. Left you a comment too lol”
Posted By: Chad Biggz

Yea man, I really didn’t want to blog about the guy but my boys were asking for it. Yea man, Bol is probably the best blogger on the net. I’m a manager and an A&R who tries to blog. Ummm thanks for the comment? Word…hopefully you like this one better lol thx!

That’s all folks, thanks for the love and special thanks for the hate!! I love it, I absolutely love it!

P.S. Sorry for taking so long with this one, been kinda sick.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

Introduction/ Audio Section Commenters and 12 Year Old White Girls

October 24, 2007 | Tags: Hip Hop, stimuli, rap, producers, J. Cardim, Audio Section, White Girls

Ok so before I get into anything I want to tell yall exactly who I am and why my blog is called I listen to better music than you. (Other than the obvious reason which of course is the fact that in all likelihood, I listen to better music than you…jk….but not really)

Anyway my name is Zack and I run a little company called Dice Music Group. We do management, production and A&R work. My partner in this company and my number one client as a manager is producer J. Cardim. You may have heard J’s beats on tracks by Red Café, AZ, Talib Kweli, Jae Millz, Saigon and of course my man (and another associate of mine) Sha Stimuli. In the near future, you will be hearing his beats on projects from Juelz Santana, Sheek Louch, your favorite rapper and more, but we’ll save the shameless plugs (and there will be plenty of them) for later. Other clients of Dice Music Group are rappers G-Eyez, Sha Stimuli, Certified Gz and Tuge as well as producers Raf Moses (Termanology, Dre Robinson etc) and Simple Simon. I will get into these other clients later. In fact I might have a little section in each blog where I take the time to talk about one of them. Its funny calling these guys my clients because they are really my friends. (Sounds pretty gay right?...well it’s not u homophobe)

Ok so the blog name, I Listen to Better Music than You. First and foremost yall should know that I’m not up here to tell u that everything you hear on the radio is garbage (if you liked the radio, you wouldn’t be reading blogs) and try to put you on to a million different backpack/underground/experimental rappers. (Cause most of that shit is trash too) The reason I gave my blog this title is because it is a sentiment I think everyone can relate to. I mean really, I’d rather listen to my Ipod than yours, that’s why it’s my Ipod. Not to say that I’m not open-minded, I just think most of my opinions also happen to be facts haha. (That was another name I was kicking around “My Opinions are Facts”) If I didn’t think I have good taste in music then I wouldn’t be out here trying to be a manager and an A&R, ya dig? So please save all the hate for the audio section.

…speaking of the audio section, you guys have no shortage of opinions huh? Now I don’t wanna come off like I’m hating on the audio section commenters (losers) but I get the distinct impression that you guys don’t buy records and that’s where I start to get irritated. One of the things I do for my artists and producers is send out email blasts to website audio sections, so naturally I read what you geeks have to say. I noticed that when an artist who has sold millions of records (T.I., Wayne, Jeezy, Jay-Z etc) posts a song it often gets a lousy rating as well as comments that read something like “Fuck this trash, hip hop sucks etc” (that is of course if u get past all the fucking losers that feel the need to post “first” and links to their lame ass myspace pages) while an artist who sells pretty much no records (anyone 9th wonder has done an entire album with) gets a fantastic rating coupled with comments that read something like “FIRE!!!! I love everything MC Internet Buzz does, this is real hip hop!!” That being the case, when asked about internet commenters, most artists and industry insiders will tell you “those nerds don’t count.” And you don’t. Know why? You don’t buy any fucking albums, ringtones, digital downloads, none of that shit and in doing so (or not doing so) you take away any value your lame ass opinion may have had. The problem is, you geeks go write (type) some shit about your “favorite” rappers song, give it a 5 out of 5 talk with your friends about how you wish the major labels would put out more music like that and then go download his album for free off some torrent site. If Little Brother’s new song has an average rating of 5 out 5 with 38 commenters all saying good shit, then why the fuck don’t they sell any records?? If you do not buy music, your opinion does not count to these labels. Why should they care what you think is hot if you’re not a consumer? For shits and giggles though, let’s say instead of being the fuck ups that you guys are, you actually started to go out and buy this music that u praise so much. The labels may start to see potential for a market in losers who spend their day commenting on music on hip hop websites and downloading porn off limewire. You guys act like the labels are purposely trying to put out bad music. Do you really think they give a fuck about what is and isn’t “real hip hop?” Trust me, if Phonte had 900,000 fans who actually buy music, Soulja Boy or whoever would get pushed the fuck back and Phonte would be on TV. If Saigon sells less than 70,000 in his first week I’ll know for sure that you guys really don’t care about the artists you claim to support. Now I know better than to throw blame around and point out a big problem without offering a solution. We need some kind of campaign that will get all of you no-life-having commenters to come together, get behind a project and show some strength, be it Saigon’s album, Joe Budden’s album (since yall seem to love him so much too) or Sha Stimuli’s album. (Cinderella Man, coming soon bitches, plug plug) The thing is, I think there are a ton of you guys and I think your opinion matters. In fact, I think it matters even more than the opinion of the 12 year old white girl, who the labels care wayyy more about than you guys. So next time you guys talk shit in the audio section, before returning to your non-music-buying lives, imagine a 12 year old white girl beating the shit out of you with a CD, a cell phone or an Itunes Store gift certificate. (Your choice)

I’m pretty long-winded so that’s enough for now but I’ll be back bitches and I have more opinions than a hiphopdx audio section commenter so get ready!

-Zack aka your favorite producer’s favorite manager

P.S. Shout out to all of the artists and producers who have been sending me their music in response to the J. Cardim interview! And shout out to Legend for the interview itself and that new Sha Stimuli mixtape that should be killing the streets as we speak!!!

P. P. S. shout to Uncle Murda for having us at his session earlier this week, look out for some big Uncle Murda/J. Cardim colabs coming soon!!