West Coast Hip Hop: Part 4: Dr. Dre

Dr. Dre is largely responisble for the influential and successful careers of Eminem, Warren G, Snoop Dogg, and Lady of Rage, etc. The Chronic, Dr. Dre's debut album is highly regarded as the best produced of all time. In 2001, Dre released his follow-up to The Chronic; 2001, the album was certified 6x platinum. Both albums are seen as essential to any hip hop collection. He was a pioneer in West Coast Hip Hop and created G-Funk with his characteristic sampling of Parliament Funkadelic, and George Clinton's music and use of heavy, slow beats. " The Chronic is still the hip-hop equivalent to Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life. It's the benchmark you measure your album against if you're serious."-Kanye West

Some classic Dr. Dre joints include:

West Coast Hip Hop: Part 3: Pac Div

Pac Div (Pac like The Pack not Pac like 2pac) are from Southern California and consist of brothers, Like and Mibbs, along with longtime friend BeYoung. The name Pac Div is short for Pacific Division.

Download their Church League Champions Mixtape


Pac Div


Whiplash + Young Black Male (Real chill song with Blackstar sample)


Women Problems

Check out their offical website here.

Or check them out here.

Open Letter to Ise Lyfe

I feel so inspired. You did that to me. I’m trying to remember a time when I had this feeling, I can’t. A time separate from studying theories and really getting down to the nitty gritty of what people think and feel. Its been a long time since I’ve gotten so passionate. Its been a while since I’ve still felt so passionate after the event was over.

You said, “Knowledge is strength. Wisdom is power.” I’ve always felt that I had power. However, I know now, that this is real power. Power to get my out of my comfort zone and actually tell people how powerful the event was last night.

I love hip hop. I feel like that statement is over-used, that it doesn’t encompass my passion for the institution and the music of hip hop. The political clout and power that hip hop is unique and unmatched by any other institution, at least in my knowledge. I don’t just love to listen to it, I love to research it. I’ll spend hours on end immersed in finding out the foundation of hip hop, why it is profitable, the power that it has, its principle players, and important periods of influence.

For a while now, I’ve been trying to find a way to incorporate my two passions; feminism and hip hop. Last night and right now while writing this, I cried because I have two so conflicting passions, passions that I love with my whole life, my being, and that I trust with my future. My ultimate dream is to start, build, own a series of center that, by using hip hop, helps stop the rape of black womyn. I have been struggling to create an outline for what this would look like and how it would function. Thanks to you I can actually see a plan, I see a role model, I see hope and the fact that I can fuse two of the most conflicting identities available to human kind, feminist and hip hop head. I see there actually can be an innovative take on education, without being in the confines of a classroom. I feel we need that to breakthrough, to those who reject or don’t have access to a classroom. I had never seen anyone use hip hop to directly teach a group of people. You were saying everything that I wish I had the platform and the bravado to say. I was impassioned to be even more critical of the images that I saw across my computer and television screen and the power that those images have.

Even today, I still feel empowered, more beautiful, more confident. Thank you. Thank you for doing what you do, thank you for who you are. Thank you for your gifts to me and to the world. Thank you for caring.

West Coast Hip Hop: Part 2: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony

For my next installment of the West Coast Hip Hop Series, I will be profiling Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Even though Bone Thugs hail from Glenville Ohio, they were discovered by Eazy-E and helped bring G-Funk and West Coast Hip hip to the forefront.

In 1997, the group was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance for their song "Tha Crossroads" from their E 1999 Eternal album. They also collaborated with Eazy-E, 2Pac, Big Pun, and The Notorious B.I.G., and were the only artsit/group to collaborate with all of them while they were still alived. The group consisted of four members: Krayzie Bone, Layzie Bone, Bizzy Bone and Wish Bone. Their most famous single, Tha Crossroads, rose to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 9 weeks, sold over 17 million copies worldwide, and would later win a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.


(Foe Tha Love of Money; the last video Eazy-E appeared in before his death)


(Thuggish Ruggish Bone, their first single)


(Tha Crossroads, dedicated to Eazy-E)


(If I Could Teach The World)

West Coast Hip Hop

I'm from Los Angeles, California baby!! I represent it to the fullest and love it with all my heart! In accordance with this, I will be inducting a series on the subgenre of West Cost hip hop. This first post will be a general one, about West Coast hip hop and furthermore I will start to highlight specific artists that have made an long lasting and positive impact on West Coast and its music. West Coast hip hop is generally characterized was popularized by artists such as Ice Cube and Dr. Dre. Los Angeles and Bay Area, California are main hot spots of the origin and practice of West Coast hip hop. The West Coast was the fisrt area involved in hip hop to add a voice to the ghetto and the happenings there. West Coast hip hop is political too and it was also infused with guitar ridden beats, making it infused with rock musical elements. NWA's Straight Outta Compton soldifies the West Coast place in hip hop music. With such artists belonging to the area, such as Too Short, Cypress Hill, and Ice T, West Coast hip hop is a historical powerhouse. G angsta Funk or G-Funk was also originated in the West Coast. It was a dominant sound that helped put West Coast hip hop on the map. G-funk incorporates multi-layered and melodic synthesizers, slow hypnotic grooves, a deep bass, background female vocals, the extensive sampling of p-funk tunes, and a high portamento sine wave keyboard lead. There was also a slurred “lazy” way of rapping in order to clarify words and stay in rhythmic cadence. Unlike other earlier rap acts that also utilized funk samples, G-funk often utilized fewer, unaltered samples per song. G-funk often sampled Parliament of Funkadelic songs, popularized by artists like George Clinton. G-funk became the most popular subgenre of hip hop.

Series: Womyn N Hip Hop and Rap Music: Part 1: Lauryn Hill

So today my friend and I were discussing womyn and & in hip hop. Nicki Minaj, Lil Kim, Lauryn Hill, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte. Just now, I was thinking about how much some people focus on the disrespect of womyn in hip hop and the lack of womyn in hip hop that we forget about the contributions that womyn have made to hip hop in the way of artistry. We need to respect not only womyn's bodies and their place in hip hop but also their connection and effect on hip hop. Therefore, with this post, I am going to start one of the many series I have coming up: Womyn in hip hop. First up to the mic: Lauryn Hill. She's my favorite female emcee, her talent, voice, beauty, and creativity were unmatched. We need you back Lauryn!!

Lauryn's appearances on the Fugees first under-the-radar album 'Blunted on Reality'(don't you just love that title?!), was stark but decidely quiet, actually only appearing on half of the album's 18 tracks. On the Fugees follow up album, The Score, Hill had a bigger hand in what would be one of the highest selling hip hop albums, 18 million copies sole. Lauryn won two grammys with the Fugees and stood out on a number of tracks with them like 'Ready or Not' with lyrics such as "I be Nina Symone and defacated on your microphone".

However, the Lauryn we all know and loved shined even more on her debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. She received 11 nominations for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, the first hip-hop album to do so. It won 5 of the 11, making Hill the first female artist to win that many. The album was about the education one receives after leaving school; the life learning process. This really resonated with me because growing up I learned a lot of life lessons, that later on I found out weren't lessons at all, just false-truths, that I believed in at that time, until i got older. Being that life is a continous learning process, we have to re-learn lessons that we once believed with such conviction. The album changed the way womyn, especially black womyn and womyn in hop hop were viewed. She was credited with bring hip hop into the mainstream with the album's mix of R&B and reggae, not unlike the Fugees previous albums. It was a heartfelt and honest documentation of love, lost, and desperation. Miseducation did what a lot of male artists in hip hop had not done yet and a lot of them would never do. Lauryn was one of the few females emcees in the 90s that didn't join in on the warfare against black womyn. The music of Miseducation was like a spoken word session between her and some of the most talented artists ever, such as D'Angelo, Carlos Santana, and Mary J. Blige. The album was a creative portrayal of what womyn could be and who we are, what we go through and the respect we deserve. She forced us to pay attention and take note with her soft and meaningful lyrics and unassuming smile.

Doo Wop (That Thing)

(Everything is Everything)

(The Sweetest Thing)

(Ex-Factor)

(I Gotta Find Peace of Mind)

Love you Lauryn!

2pac

Today is the 13th anniversary of the greatest emcee(!) ever, 2pac's death. I hate using the word anniversary to describe something sad, its such a happy word. I love 2pac and his music will live on forever. He was an incredible, insightful talent, who can never be touched lyrically or stylistically. We love you.

My favorite pac song:



My mommy's favorite:



How Do You Want It:

Liner Notes Installment #1: Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is

I really miss this Keyshia. The raw, hard hitting Keyshia.

2. I Changed My Mind-Contains a sample 'Get Out Of My Life, Women' Performed by Solomon Burke

3. Love, I Thought You Had My Back-Contains Elements of "Love Jones"

7. You've Changed-Contains Elements of "Sounds Like A Love Song" Bobby Glenn

8. We Could Be-Contains replay instruments element from big fish audio CD

12. Never featuring Eve-Contains Sampled portions of: "Never too Much" by Luther Vandross

Best Albums

Ok, so I know we're well into 2009, damn near half the way too. But I just have to do this, no matter, how overdue. This year, was a good year for music, believe it or not. Artsits are starting to rebel against the bad music bandwagon. So, I am not going to put these into any type of order, just listing them. 

1. The Renaissance by Q-Tip

Life is Better featuring Norah Jones
2. N by Nas
3. Solange & The Hadley Street Dreams by Solange Knowles
4. Fearless by Jazmine Sullivan
5. New Amerykah by Erykah Badu
6. The Real Thing: Words And Sounds, Vol. 3 by Jill Scott

Hate on Me

New Music

So my friend from high school, the artist formerly known as Jessica aka Puff Puff is a rapper now. She even has a song and video out right now. Check it: