They Got A Right To Be Hostile Part 1

(Great Acts Who Have Legitimate Gripes With Their Record Labels)

Assuming you don’t live in a cave and in fact have the slightest inkling of what 2006’s Hip-Hop scene is like, you see what kind of music is getting the most push. Misogynistic, violent, oversexed materialism has pervaded our airwaves without an alternative. Some of it actually sounds good and can be excused for the sake of a guilty pleasure or a cheap thrill, but most of the music is garbage. You can argue that these topics have been prevalent since the days of 2 Live Crew, Too Short and NWA but positive messages also got more exposure back then. The fact remains that most listeners only bump what they’re programmed to check for, and most of the mainstream programming is low grade whether it’s musically, topically or both. There’s little to no heart left in the game, with 80% of acts ready to sell their soul for a chance to eat (Hello David Banner and Fat Joe). So what happens when the artist sticks to their guns or even worse makes “commercial” music with integrity and still doesn’t get a fair shake? Let’s examine a few who’ve given their blood, sweat and tears, and wouldn’t be in the wrong to drop a Frigidaire from the sky at this point.

(Note: I didn’t factor in Lupe Fiasco because a little while back I broke down his lack of marketability, strong music aside)

Artist: Joe Budden
Label: Def Jam
Releasing Albums Since: 2003
His Case: His self-titled debut was ambitious as they come, Just Blaze did the lead single which was a smash and it seemed like he was set. With a strong street single called “Focus” and a line in your commercial record that went “The game is bad player, aint it bad player?/Don’t worry Joey’ll bring it back player”, the world was his. I remember this VH1 special which Q-Tip narrated, that had a scene where he was on the phone with Kevin Liles. The bossman asked Joe “Are you ready for this Tuesday?” He replied something to the effect of “I’ve been ready for this Tuesday since I was 10 years old”. It was by no fault of his own that he flopped, Def Jam pretty much dropped the ball. The album was too street, too serious without many of the party records that the label was used to putting out. He’s murdered the mixtape scene, got the respect of many for exposing all of his demons on record, made G-Unit look like the buffoons that they became after blowing up, yet he still doesn’t have a release date set for his much anticipated sophomore release “The Growth”. When I met him a little over 3 years ago I said “Fuck what the numbers say, you’re the best new rapper of 2003” (yes I was referring to 50 who eclipsed the whole industry that year), and he said May 2004 his new album would be out. Party and bullshit just isn’t his lane and perhaps that is what’s holding him back. The only good I see in this is if he continues channeling his frustration through song, the fans will have plenty more to be amazed by as he’s officially become the streets’ favorite underdog.

Artist: The Clipse
Label: Jive
Releasing Albums Since: 2002
Their Case: They dare to boldly go where few have (Camron, T.I., Jay-Z and a short list of others) rapping lyric-driven witticisms about drug dealing. It’s hard to continually top yourself with fresh ways to say “I deal cocaine to make my living”, but Pusha T and Malice are hell bent on trying to make this art inexhaustible. Let me stop and tell a true story: A few years back a group of my college buddies who rap for fun were hanging out watching wrestling, Dwayne Johnson was coming down the aisle and his fans were going wild. One of the rapping viewers in the room immediately spouted out “I’m like the WWE, I keep people screaming for the rock” and it was a remarkable moment in time. What The Clipse do is that to the nth degree, using complicated rhyme structures, great flow, strong vocabulary and brilliant metaphors to describe pushing blow. Anyone worth their weight in Hip-Hop was utterly captivated this past year by We Got It For Cheap Volumes 1&2. For example:

Vicious with the verse, Im as genius as Rae/you niggas seein nothing on the Zenith like Rae/black hands, white keys, I seen this I’m Ray/got more white in the hood than the KKK/the grand wizard of that almighty blizzard/(then he said some line about his drugs coming scissored)

Their debut “Lord Willin” was critically and commercially successful, which should have made them an easy shoe-in to have a strong buzz for a follow up. Unfortunately, this is Hip-Hop we’re talking about and with them getting lost in a Jive merger, Neighborhood Push let it be known that them crackers didn’t play fair. Jive has pretty much abandoned Hip-Hop altogether in favor of pushing pop acts like Britney Spears and N’Sync. The label cockteased salivating fans, dangling the carrot known as “Hell Hath No Fury” for the longest, and while it’s finally set to drop this Tuesday most of their buzz has been squashed by one Shawn Carter’s return. The sad irony here is they rap all of the same ignorance that sells, and they do it over great beats yet people are moving units while coming weak with what the Thornton brothers have pretty much perfected.