My tea's gone cold, I'm wonderin' why...

Let me say right off the top: I am not a stan. If I were pressed, I'd probably say Nas is my overall favorite rapper of all time (although I think singling out one artist as your "all time favorite" is a little ridiculous). But that doesn't detract from my appreciation of Jay-Z's music. I'd even readily admit he has the superior catalog and career. And being from the West Coast, I grew up on 'Pac since he first went solo. However, I prefer listening to Biggie's albums from a straight hip hop standpoint. It's all a matter of mood or opinion, right? I've never understood religiously defending or idolizing one artist at the expense of another... especially since 99% of us do not have personal relationships with them. They do not pay our bills, have not mentored us in our upbringing, and do not know us from Adam. So why can't we just let the music be music?

So with that said, I am not a Saigon stan. I am a big fan however. And as I have mentioned multiple times on this blog, I was sorely disappointed by the possibility that his debut album would not see the light of day. Now that it is less than a month away from its release date, I am, without resorting to too much hyperbole, dying with anticipation.

Though I am not a stan (and with every mention, I realize I am starting to sound like exactly that), I will admit I can get carried away with my expectations for certain rappers and projects. I, at one time, believed Royce Da 5'9 could turn out to be the next Jay-Z. I thought he had the lyrical ability, the potential crossover appeal, and song making prowess to do so. Okay so I was wrong on that one. I also thought Lupe Fiasco and/or Jay Electronica could turn out to be the next Nas. Call me delusional but I think the jury is still out on those two counts.

So needless to say, my expectations for Saigon were (and still are) fairly high. I believe Saigon, on some levels, has the potential to be the next 2Pac. Now before you laugh, let me say I don't believe Saigon will actually achieve the cult-level status that 'Pac possesses. As great as 'Pac's music was, it is the way his legend has grown posthumously that makes him damn near a religion for a lot of people. I do think though that Saigon has some of those same qualities strictly from an artistic perspective that made 'Pac great as an ARTIST. And surpasses him in one or two respects. He rhymes with conviction about a large variety of subjects. His lyrics are largely about empowerment and moving beyond the negative portrayals and stereotypes about hip hop that make it the septic tank it is today. He believes in the power of music and what he can contribute to it. And on top of all that he can rhyme his @$$ off... from a technical standpoint, superior to 'Pac. And all of the above mentioned characteristics not only come through in his music but his interviews as well. He is one rapper I actually feel captivated listening to outside of his music. Yes, sometimes he can be self-contradicting... but it's always interesting. Especially compared to these mush-mouthed rappers that are mostly a mess of "knowhatumsayin"s and a lot of blab about what their label is or isn't doing for them. Saigon is often criticized for talking too much and not releasing enough music. But I am content being in the minority that likes to hear what he has to say. (Of course that's much easier to say now that his album is actually being released).

Saigon catches a lot of flack for the run-in with Prodigy, the whole "retirement" fiasco, dissing Joe Budden for being Amalgam then joining the label himself, and so on. I think that's exactly what qualifies all these types of detractors as the actual stans. When you care too much about things other than the music itself. The same reason people read all the US-Weekly-People-Magazine-National-Enquirer types of trashy rags. Why do you care Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt had for breakfast or what helpless Asian kid they're adopting this week? Just give me a good movie that entertains me and who gives a f**k about the rest.

"The Greatest Story Never Told" has nearly already been told in full due to leaks by Just Blaze and Saigon themselves. So though most of the surprise is gone, unless the second half of the album is a total disaster, it looks like the debut will be very good. And hopefully a great launching pad for the rest of his career. Before I shun any more material until the actual release date... let's take a look at what this potential classic is shaping up to be so far...

Who stole the boom bap??!!

At the risk of sounding like a whiny, spoiled child on Christmas morning… this is not what I was promised.

Let me preface this particular rant with a short disclaimer. This is not a knock against Lex Luger's production. Yeah, some of his beats can get repetitive at times. I'm not all that familiar with the Waka Flocka catalog so outside of his more well-known Rick Ross creations ("B.M.F", "M.C Hammer"), I'm probably not the most qualified critic anyways. But I do like his beats. That whole trap style sound, when done right, would make Gandhi want to start mushing random strangers in the face. And you have to admire a young kid that makes beats on his computer and eventually hustles his way to collaborating with the two biggest names in hip hop on their lead single.

But I digress back to my original point… this is not what I was promised.

Far be it from me to hold a rapper to what they say in public about an upcoming project. "Subject to Change" is always the implied fine print. I guess we should consider ourselves lucky to see "Watch the Throne" coming into fruition at all. But… nah, f$@# that, didn't 'Ye promise us a boom bap album??! Didn't he mention the likes of Madlib and Q-Tip?! Did "The Joy" and "Chain Heavy" generate such little buzz that Jay and 'Ye felt the need to go scoop up the hot producer of the moment to build some momentum?

And once again, nothing against trap music. In essence, it IS the boom bap of the South (like G-Funk is to the West)… a sound that unmistakably defines an entire region. But in the same way Bun B sounded over Premo's production… sure, any good MC over a good beat will more often than not yield good results… yet wouldn't Nas have sounded even better??

Yeah, of course rappers are allowed to experiment with different sounds and step outside their comfort zones to artistically stretch themselves blah blah blah… but this smells a little too much like commercial desperation. I find it ironic that Jay, who took a for-most-intents-and-purposes nameless Kanye and claimed his signature sound for his own classic album, is now running off with that same producer to the go-to guy for hot beats.

And hey, I could be wrong. Maybe this is just the song to appease the industry heads or the sheep or whoever… and the other seven songs are chock full of grimy snares and dirty kicks and scratchy hi hats that sound like they rolled fresh off an SP-12.

But in this day and age, who's willing to take a chance like that?

P.S. In an attempt to expound on my frustration, Kanye pulled the same sleight-of-hand with "My Blah Blah Blah Fantasy". Another album which I thought was great… but initially envisioned as something entirely different. Namely said boom bap influenced album. This beat is supposedly the DJ Premier submission which ended up on the cutting room floor…

Premier indeed.

I will always associate DJ Premier with the blissful era when I truly became a dedicated hip hop head. Before that, hip hop was still just a mix of sounds and rhythms in a way I abstractly and subconciously appreciated. The only names I associated with those sounds were the ones emblazoned on the album cover (namely, the MC). Premo's name was the first one I actually started to recognize in the album's liner notes, the one who laid the foundations of all those songs I loved. The architect of my addiction. The PRODUCER. Yeah, yeah... I knew other producers like Dr. Dre and all them... but mostly because they had their name on the front covers too. Preem's name was only on the inside cover of those Gangstarr albums. And after I wrapped my feeble mind around the concept of the "producer", I started digging further into what the concept of a hip hop producer entailed... how they actually took older records and chopped them up to create that entirely new sound that I was now a fan of. In a way, Premo largely shaped my appreciation for music outside of the boundaries of hip hop itself.

So XXL has done all of us Premier fans a huge service in presenting us with the definitive Premier interview. This is a must read for any true hip hop head. Preem gives us the back stories on a few events from the past that he had only hinted at before. Like what really happened in the beef between Jeru the Damaja and Bad Boy. And how that affected his work with Big. And how Big even tried to get some beats from Dre for "Life After Death". And how he made up with Chuck D after the "Crack Commandments" drama. And his thoughts on how things ended with Guru. And why he hasn't worked with Jay lately. And if we'll ever get that collab album with him and Nas. And how you might have even heard his work in some Wal-Mart commercials. Do yourself a favor and read this.

DJ Premier: The XXL Icon Interview.

St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

We as hip hop fans have been promised many albums over the years. "Helter Skelter". "Oh My God". "The Nacirema Dream". A Nas/Primo collab. Yet with every announcement, we hold out hope that these dream projects might actually come to fruition. Very rarely do we wait years on end and actually get the album delivered to us.

It seems like next February, two of the albums on my personal wishlist may finally see the light of day. Saigon's "Greatest Story Never Told" has been promised to us multiple times. And it seems I've written about it multiple times also. We've seen photos of an album cover and even the final mastered copy sitting on Just Blaze's mastering board. So this newly redesigned album cover could very well be another tease. Perhaps I'm just making myself the idiot who keep running back to that little bastard who won't stop yelling "Wolf" at the top of his lungs. But I am choosing to believe it's real this time. Saigon never delivered that 8-song appetizer he promised a couple months ago. But he has dropped about half that amount of songs during that time to prove he's back on he's grind. Let's take a moment to imagine how great the album could be if it sounds anything like this on track number one...

Beats, rhymes, and life.

It's amazing how much hip hop has evolved since its inception. Obviously, everything will change, for better or for worse throughout the years... but it's mind blowing when you sit back and really think about it. Growing up as a teenager in the suburbs of the Pacific Northwest, the music I heard was created by such luminaries as Dr. Dre and DJ Premier in the far off distant lands of Los Angeles and New York. D&D Studios might as well have been Never Never Land for all I knew. An MPC could have been a contraption created in Willy Wonka's factory that required three brains and a Mensa certification to operate. All I had to go on was the final product that I knew and loved blasting out of my cheap ass Sony headphones and my imagination. Hip hop, in effect, was bigger than life.

These days, you no longer need thousands of dollars of equipment to build the sonic landscape of your dreams. Just get yourself a laptop from Best Buy, a bootleg copy of Fruity Loops if you don't want to buy the real thing, and you're good to go.

Witness Lex Luger, the 19-year old producer extraordinaire... now with such street classics as Rick Ross' "BMF" and "MC Hammer" to his name. Love his music or hate it, you can't deny that at this moment, his bounce-heavy trap-style production is in full demand. And thanks to World Star Hip Hop, we can all get a glimpse of his creativity at work with the click of a mouse.

Monster of the double entendre...

So after all these years of being promised a tome from the almighty Jay-Z, some sort of glimpse into his mind... we are getting "Decoded" on November 16th. I guess that truly revealing biography written by Toure was axed... so this will have to do. I'd rather read about his own personal insight into his lyrics than tales of hustlin' OT in Virginia or struggling to get a deal on a major anyways.

Here we get the first sneak peek into the book... a breakdown of "American Dreamin'" from "American Gangster"...

http://online.wsj.com/media/JayZDecoded2.pdf

Some of it is obvious to any listener that actually bothers to listen to the lyrics instead of "skim through it". But it is obviously written to appeal to the broadest audience possible. The average rap fan, even the most suburban of them (which I'll admit includes myself), would know what the term "pitching" meant after hearing countless rapper's stories about hustling on the block. However, Jay-Z, by explaining the lyrics, also makes the descriptions semi-autobiographical in turn. An excerpt:

"And it's not like we're professionals movin' the decimals/Know where to cop? Nah! Gtt a connect? No!"

Initially the decision to hustle is freestyled. These kids in the cipher, the ones with their feet up and the dreams of foreign cars, have absolutely no idea how to go into business, even one that surrounds them like the drug game. Do they know where to go to cop the work? No. Do they have a drug connect? No. They're like anyone starting out in business; they need someone to give them the plan.

Greatest Story Finally Told??

Could it be? Could Saigon's long awaited debut finally see the light of day? According to his Facebook, it's finally coming in early 2011 via Suburban Noize Records (???)...

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1586936227300

Hmmm... what kind of label is Suburban Noize exactly? According to their web site, their acts include such industry heavyweights as Hed P.E., Slaine, and um... The Dirtball? At least hip hop heads will recognize La Coka Nostra and Swollen Members... but...

Doesn't it seem like eons ago when Sai was guest starring on "Entourage", the hottest cable show at the time? And such mainstream publications as Time and Rolling Stone were calling him the next one to look out for? And he was being co-signed by everyone from Nas to Jay to Q-Tip??

At this point though, what label puts the album out is the least of my concerns. Maybe Sai can push a few units and regain a little traction in his career so the next album won't be far behind. And the rest of us can finally hear the album. Because a real hip hop head doesn't care about sales anyways, right?

Then again, we've been promised release dates before. Maybe I shouldn't hold my breath on this one.