Big Sean is a future superstar to look out for



Big Sean, (not to be confused with an older version of Little Shawn from the early 90’s) is repping Detroit and signed to G.O.O.D Music. You already know Kanye has a good ear for talent, but that’s if *your* ear is in fact good.

Vocally he kind of reminds me of Median, but he raps about aspirations of women, getting money, and being fresh & successful. He has flow, lyrics, wit, everything you should love in a rapper. Plus his beats are pretty fresh.

Remember where you heard it first © DJ Clue (I’m not really first, but he isn’t getting the coverage I feel he deserves and that’s the purpose this blog serves. Didn’t mean for that to rhyme.)

9 songs from his mixtape Finally Famous

The Weekly Knock - Edition 9



M.O.P featuring Lord Have Mercy - Home Sweet Home off of Warriorz, produced by Nottz

(it's hard to believe this album is going to be 8 years old in October)

This speaks for itself

Black Milk is keeping Hip-Hop beautiful

For those of you who can afford to buy albums, if you trust my ear buy this!



Black is probably running away with the title for 2008 between this album, his forthcoming sophomore solo and the collab album with Guilty Simpson & Sean Price all set for this year.

Jay-Z & Fela Kuti - Nigerian Gangster

Put out by Mike Love, a Chicago radio personality. I dont agree with dude's politics, but heat is heat nonetheless. I didn't know he was a producer, this could be a "Dr. Dre" kind of deal (what's the last song you think he really produced)

Download here

The Weekly Knock - Edition 8



Da Bush Babees - We Run Things (It's Like Dat) off of their debut Ambushed produced by Ali Shaheed Muhammad

To Whom It May Concern - It's Gilyard*



I'm not fashion conscious like that, but I know this label that Pharrell and Lupe have name dropped due to my former brief stint within the music industry.

Spun off from this site (plenty of leaks in the Through The Sieve section if you're into that sort of thing) and when my mans and them asked how to say it a few months ago.

*Unless there's a whole nother streetwear label that sounds the same that I've yet to hear of, but I'm pretty sure this is it.

The Weekly Knock - Edition 7




Pete Rock f/ Raekwon, Prodigy, and Ghostface Killa - Tha Game from Soul Survivor produced by the Soul Brother # 1, Chocolate Boy Wonder

It's a miracle I didn't become a rapper

I've always sat on the sidelines as a fan/commentator but all of the following are true:

- My dad told me a story about hanging with a crew as a teenager. One dude in the crew had a younger brother that used to tag along with them, said younger brother became Rakim.

- My aunts and uncles (on my mother's side) went to school with EPMD as kids, my grandmother calls (Parrish) "Smith" a bum to this day.

- One of my uncles was tight with Craig Mack and proud as hell when he got on.

(if you havent gathered so much yet, my people are based out of Long Island)

- My parents met in college and somehow know Olu Dara (aka Nas' father). Summer 1998 me and my mom ran into him on 125th street. I told him I was about to go to FAMU, he said "You gonna have a lot of fun, but you gotta be in them books too" - I should have listened

- It's been told to me that at age 3 my dad took me to a Hip-Hop/jazz celebration and I knew who Fab 5 Freddy was.

- Me and my mom were in the "911 Is A Joke" video. You can see me for 5 seconds if you look close. I got paid $25 and thought I was rich.

I'm starting up an anti-syrup movement

The other day I was listening to "Purple Rain" off of Beanie Sigel's The B Coming and realized I had to speak up on this issue.

Promethazine and codeine aka sizzurp/syrup/lean/purp/purple lotion or whatever you want to call it is the latest plague affecting Hip-Hop's culture. The syrup phenomenon was an underground thing until Memphis demigods Three 6 Mafia put out an anthem touting its supposed virtues. Rap legend Pimp C had a memorable guest appearance on that record and unfortunately the topic itself may have recently played a part in his untimely passing. One of my personal highlights from the recent Underground Kingz double album was "The Game Belong To Me" with a witty hook naming a hustler's goods by the public icons most associated with them - "I got Bobby by the pound/Whitney by the key/DJ Screw by the gallon..." (I'm waiting on someone to say "I'm selling that Amy Winehouse", it's gonna happen any minute now.)

If you've been living in a cave or all you play is D.I.T.C records, DJ Screw was a pioneer of Houston's scene and one of the first big names to die from this drink. I'm not 100% positive but I think the music on Screw's mixtapes was slowed down (if you're uncertain as to what I'm talking about, think back to the end of Kanye's "Drive Slow") to give listeners the feel of how songs sound when one is high off of the potion.

I don't have the first problem with what rappers do with their personal time outside of the booth. Slang cracks, pimp hoes, do all the recreational drugs you want, my issue comes when it starts to seep into the music. No one really believes Malice & Pusha T (or Jeezy for that matter) have any strips locked down, those are just creative roles being acted out. But on some level rappers need to realize that they have more influence than they might think, and some of what they're advocating is sending our people to early graves. Please believe if Jay-Z can make a man (who didnt already have sense enough) put on a dress shirt, that same man is probably also impressionable enough so as to try anything else that a "cool" rapper celebrates, including syrup.

You cant blame Hip-Hop for black on black violence or the disrespect of women, those ills of society are as American as apple pie and the Yankees winning the World Series. But I'd put good money behind the notion that things like this video



have added to the fallacy that (to borrow from Dave Chappelle playing Diddy) syrup is what's hot in the streets. You can argue Dipset was irresponsible to put out a liquor by the name of Sizzurp, but to my knowledge it was just purple in color with the original contents not involved, I'm pretty sure it would be illegal to sell anything close to the actual stuff in stores. Rumor has it this is also the drug of choice for the omnipresent Lil' Wayne, which gives cause to bars like "Damn right I kiss my daddy" and other nonsense he's prone to get over on people spitting nowadays.

By the time summer rolls around I'm gonna need a "Self-Destruction/We're All In The Same Gang" type record to come out in memoriam of Pimp C and everyone's verse (Devin, Scarface, Lil' Flip, Slim Thug, Mike Jones, Paul Wall, Bun B etc.) needs to be about putting down the styrofoam cup.

I was there, and you should have been too



look at all of the Hip-Hop icons that were there. I wish I knew what Apani looked like so I could have thanked her for "Let Me Watch" (off of Viktor Vaughn)

Underground Hip-Hop has become pretty gay

A popular misconception when it comes to Young H is just because he doesn't listen to the radio, that he's a backpacker or super underground.

To clarify:
Young H loves good beats
Young H loves good lyrics
Young H has a pretty good ear for both, no matter if your label's Def last name is Jam or Jux.

Young H also loves women and frequents venues where you cant get in wearing a t-shirt and Timberlands (not that I'm opposed to that dress style, but there's a time and place for everything)

Lately I've been going out trying to support my local Hip-Hop community, and a lot of its inhabitants are lowlifes who want to stand around "keeping it real" and would probably become homosexual if that kind of thing were more widely accepted in this society.

Here's where I don't fit in:

- I don't drink beer (I'll have a little liquor here and there, but most of these spots dont even have a decent bar.)

- I don't like to celebrate Hip-Hop with random dudes I don't know and probably never would kick it with

- I don't smoke cigarettes or weed

- While I don't make it my point to get a number every time I step out to go somewhere, memorable eye candy is always a good thing and these scenes are severely lacking.

If the scene in your city is anything like mine, you'll be sure to find:

- MCs performing only to impress a small crowd, with no buzz outside of that local insulated community

- A 5:1 ratio of men to women, and just about every woman came with a dude who's on stage rapping that night. Not to mention the cutest girl in the room is a 7 at best.

- Songs about weed, how hard life is, and real hip-hop over murky beats.

- Ciphers in the corner where everyone is standing around huddled up and getting open off of rhymes that are off beat.

- The one dude outside at the end of the night politicking about the realities of real life, smoking a cigarette with one foot back against the wall. His man is acting like he's saying some deep shit too.

If Hip-Hop is something you do as a hobby because you love it, cool.

If it's a dream of yours, you should be chasing it harder than your weekly open mic. Artists like The Roots, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Common had sense enough to put on their businessman hats and go for theirs, actually proving good music can gain an audience.

Yes the radio is corny, but at least radio artists are making (corny) songs about women.

These underground cats need to listen to Babyface and learn something about romance, get haircuts and clean up their whole style. I love Hip-Hop with all of my being, but I'm not so engulfed that I've lost sense of what a grown man should be.

The Weekly Knock - Edition 6



Noreaga - Mathematics (Esta Loca) off of N.O.R.E (an album that was great for its time, but hasn't aged well at all) produced by (DJ) Clue & Duro

The Weekly Knock - Edition 5



Xzibit - Handle Your Business off of 40 Dayz & 40 Nightz

Produced by DJ Pen One, co-produced by Thayod Ausar