Damn this DJ made my day.

DJ Steve Porter?  I never heard of him either... until today.

Doesn't this video prove how stupid autotune is?  That any untalented idiot could use it?

Not that I'm calling the "Sham Wow" guy untaleneted.

And another one for sports fans that was equally entertaining.

There have already been a thousand posts written complaining about the absence about Saigon's long overdue debut, "The Greatest Story Never Told".  There are thousands more would-be journalists and critics who have made much ado about the ironic title of said debut as they not-so-cleverly comment on the nature of self-fulfilling prophecy.  They say he deserves it for daring to compare his album to "Illmatic" before it even sees the light of day.

I'm guilty too.  And in my two decades of being a hip hop fan, I can't recall any album I have anticipated for going on 5 years.  I just want the damn thing.  And as is my nature to wax nostalgic about things that haven't even happened yet, I find myself piecing together whatever fragments of this album I have at my disposal and compulsively listening to them ad nauseum.  Call me neurotic.  Call me obsessive.  Call me pathological.  Call me any combination of these adjectives and whatever else you can come up with.  But if you can relate in any way, or are merely curious as to what can lead to such a condition, I present to you my half-assed rendition of "The Greatest Story Never Told"...

"T.G.S.N.T (The Rewind Effect Edition)".  (Click to download)

Tracklist:

1) JBTV Snippets.

I'm told Just Blaze has removed JBTV from Youtube.  But at the time, he had put together a video and dropped teaser samples of TGSNT throughout.  From what I can tell , these snippets are of "The Invitation", "Friends", the title track, a track I can't identify, and "The War".

2) "Come On Baby" Remix.

I personally like Saigon's verses on the original version better.  But I can see why this made the tracklist.  I mean come on, it's Jay-Z.

3) "The War".

Or at least I think that's what it is.  Judging by the hook at the end.  I think this is one of the tracks Just Blaze post on his blog but I can't remember.

4) "Preacher".

I had heard an early version of this song had dropped on a mixtape.  But I had a hell of a time tracking it down.  I finally did about a year and a half ago.  Supposedly they have updated this song for the final version.  And who the hell is DJ Neptune?

5) "Believe It".

The song I bitched about before.  The perfect single for Saigon that Atlantic did not get behind.  The song that should've been Saigon's "Live Your Life" or "All of the Above".  Oh well.  At least we got to hear it.

6) "Chilly Boom".

This song no longer seems to be listed on the final track list.  It was originally.  And it's a good song.  So I included it here.

7) "Just Blaze Meets Saigon".

Another song that doesn't seem to be on the final track list.  Unless it has been renamed.  This song dropped on the TGSNT prequel, "Moral of the Story".  It's Saigon on a hot Just Blaze track so it had be included here.

8) "Pain in my Life".

Saigon's ill-fated first single.  I guess that's what he gets for trying to go against the grain and be positive.  It is not my favorite Sai joint... but still a solid, positive song and still listed as a bonus track.

So there you have it.  How much longer do I have to wait?  No word from Sai or Just in awhile.  I guess I'll go back to just bumping this for awhile.  Dammit.

My 10 favorite rhyme spitters ever: Kool G. Rap edition.

In no particular order, I present to you my ten favorite rhyme spitters of all time.  No, they may not necessarily have created the best songs or albums (some have but that is irrelevant to this discussion).  These are just the MC's who, verse-for-verse, I have enjoyed listening to most from a purely lyrical/flow-wise/delivery-wise perspective.  Think the Vince Carters of MC'ing.  And with all that considered, next up is...

Kool G. Rap (circa '92).

Let's take it back to "The Symphony" for a second.  Amongst old hip hop heads, maybe the debate will forever linger: who stole the show, Kane or G. Rap?  Kane with his slick lyrics and delivery, or G. Rap the gritty multisyllabic monster? (I like Masta Ace and Craig G. as much as anyone but if you said either of those, sorry, you're wrong).

It seems that Big Daddy Kane gets slightly more acclaim as the "star" of Marley's Juice Crew.  But I was always a bigger Kool G. Rap fan.  For the younger heads, Jay-Z was to Kane as Nas was to G. Rap.  Kane may have had more of the limelight but G. Rap was just pure hip hop for hip hop's sake.  The King Asiatic kind of lost me when he went the whole "Taste of Chocolate" route.  Kool G. Rap, on the other hand, morphed into a Mafia Don.  And being that I liked my hip hop strictly grimy back then, I was instantly hooked.  Yeah, he might've made occasional Al Capone references here and there prior to that... but on his third and final album with DJ Polo, he fully embraced it.  

From the sinister style of beats to the gritty story telling to his awe-inspiring gymnastics of syllables and wordplay, Kool G. Rap truly was the pioneer of Mafia rap.  For those that don't know Escobar, Lex Diamonds, Tony Starks, and a million other mafioso aliases owe a huge debt to this man.  And as ignorant as the music might have seemed at the time, to me (and many others), it was simply mesmerizing.  Not to mention his distinctive lisp only added to the character he played in this cinematic whirlwind of drugs, guns, and money.

The thing was these future stars of hip hop not only borrowed G. Rap's taste in movies.  They all looked up to him as an MC to be emulated also.  As much as Rakim is credited with developing the modern style of multisyllabic rhyming, Kool G. Rap should be given just as much due.  He proved as much on his previous albums.  With "Live or Let Die", he just put a new stylized twist on things.

Why did I only mention one year?  Truth be told, once Rae, Nas, and the rest decided they wanted to play Goodfellas too, they simply did it better.  They took it to another level.  G. Rap, meanwhile, started to sound dated by the very style he birthed.  Don't get me wrong, he could still spit with the best of them.  But frankly, the production that backed him just didn't pack the same punch as his progeny.  Let's face it... Rae had RZA, Nas had Premo, Trackmasters, etc., G. Rap had (let's double check the credits)... T Ray and Naughty Shorts?  Okay, wait, he did have one bonafide classic... "Fast Life".  But maybe that ended up being a passing of the torch to a in-his-prime Nas featured on the song.

Anyways, "Live and Let Die" will always go down as one of the Mafia hip hop classics to me.  In the same way you would mention "Goodfellas" when talking about "Godfather", I will hold his album in the same class as "Cuban Linx" and "It Was Written".  As a matter of fact, G. Rap's album may actually be the one closest to Coppola's masterpiece as it was the one that really set the precedent for the rest.  So for that, I kneel and kiss the ring.

The Evidence.

"On the Run".  "I got a job with the Mob making G's/Doing some pick ups, deliveries, and transporting ki's..."

"Edge of Sanity".  "See I'm irrelevant to 'Help Wanted' signs/And they wonder why n***as commit crimes..."

"Ill Street Blues".  "Ready to put some work in/We're not a lazy crew/We'll do a job or tow/But yo the man can't even stick me with some Crazy Glue..."

"Two to the Head".  "See where I come from the crime rate only rises/The murderers disguise in all ages shapes and sizes/B****es picked up and d**ked up/N****s they getting stuck up/Give up what you got or get your a** shot the f**k up..."