the 2006 spot in my hip hop discussion
2006, now...
I am at a crossroads that sees me changing jobs twice (February, then December) in one year -- something I had not done twice in the 8 years before it -- and meeting new and purging old people from my life.
In such, I cannot terribly remember or really know what to expect of this year's releases. In such, I am without a real introduction, as I will be newly taking it all in right now.
January
I could use this space to comment on the virtues of the letter 'c' (word to Gil Scott-Heron), because damned if anything came out this month.
I won't, though... I will just mention Tha Alkoholiks' Firewater, then move on to the next month.
February
J. Dilla released Donuts on Feb. 7 and we lost him 3 days later, I was less than fucking pleased with this fact (his passing, not the album).
Aceyalone's Magnificent City led off, followed by Dilated Peoples' (a group name even my mother likes, and she hates rap for no apparent reason) 20/20. Dem Franchise Boyz begin the slow murder of hip hop with On Top of Our Game and Bizzy Bone broke in with his Thug's Revenge and February was over. dead prez did themselves or their fans any favors by linking up with2Pac's weed/urn carriers The Outlawz for Can't Sell Dope Forever.
March
Juvenile's Reality Check serves as a, well... reality check that he might NEED Mannie Fresh and Cash Money. E-40's My Ghetto Report Card and Capone's Menace 2 Society followed a week later, magically the E-40 album went gold, and I am betting that was in the Bay Area alone and I just don't get it. Master P continued to crash the party with the inaccurately-titled America's Most Luved Bad Guy. MC Lars released The Graduate, M1 (of dead prez) had dead prez Presents M1: Confidential and then the month closed on Do or Die's Get That Paper and Ghostface Killah's Fishscale.
Ugly month, Ghostface and (to a lesser extent) M1 made a decent album, but not enough to redeem this shit.
April
Bubba Sparxxx released The Charm, the first of his albums not worth at least LISTENING to, and Gorillaz released Demon Days Live on the same release date. I have never heard the latter, but if it is anything like the studio version, it should be just fine.
A week later LL Cool J released Todd Smith, and then became angry at the industry for not bothering to be bothered with him and his wack ass albums.
Gnarls Barkley made this better with St. Elsewhere.
Rest in peace to Proof.
May
Here, we find the once-respectable Mobb Deep making themselves a laughing stock as they become heavies on 50 Cent's G-Unit, making a terrible album Blood Money in the process. Cam'ron reminds us that he has overstayed HIS welcome as well with Killa Season. Speaking of overstaying welcomes, Yo Gotti crashes the party with his Back 2 Da Basics.
June
Ice Cube, who has somehow managed to remain somewhat relevant in hip hop despite family movies, releases Laugh Now, Cry Later.
Young Joc, whose fame or specific skillset no one can really explain, releases Young Joc City.
Busta Rhymes, whose fame and skills we KNOW the reasons for, tries to remain relevant with The Big Bang. Ras Kass, whose skills we know, but fame has escaped him, releases Revenge of the Spit.
July
Boot Camp Click's resurgence continues with The Last Stand, and Pharrell Williams released In My Mind. The Pharrell album was good, not great. Jurassic 5 dropped the downloadable Feedback, this was a pretty good month for me.
August
DMX dropped Year of the Dog... Again.
[Phlip note - if you need to include "again" in a title, you probably should rethink whether or not you need to be doing what you're doing. I am quite sure Earl Simmons is familiar with these kind of decisions... Just sayin']
A week later, Rick Ross released Port of Miami and the lies began. A week following was Obie Trice's Second Round's On Me. Next was Outkast's Idlewild and J. Dilla's The Shining, then the month closed on Method Man's very forgettable 4:21... The Day After and The Roots' Game Theory.
September
Buju Banton disappointed me with Too Bad, but I own it for the sake of collection, so I don't regret the purchase. Daz Dillinger disappoints me with his very existence, more specifically in that he keeps making albums and this time it was So So Gangsta, a title that aims at the fact that he is now wasting Jermaine Dupri's time and money on So So Def. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony joined the party with Thug Stories and Chingy did the same with Hoodstar. Jedi Mind Tricks released Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell which I enjoyed my download of, on the same day as Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor, which I do not enjoy NEARLY as much in 2009 as I did in 2006. Black Moon confused me with After the Chemistry, because Chemistry was a Buckshot album, not a Black Moon one. Ludacris and Weird Al Yankovic closed the month with Release Therapy and Straight Outta Lynwood, respectively. No, I am not joking, I did include Weird Al and I did download it.
October
Lady Sovereign dropped Public Warning (WHATUP JOE!!!) which I intend to seek and download this weekend. South Park Mexican released When Devil's Strike and I found it more entertaining to laugh at his rap name than to try listening to it. Unfortunately, the laughter eclipsed my even NOTICING Mellow Man Ace & Sen Dog's Ghetto Therapy. Good taste caused me to avoid Unk's Beatin' Down Yo Block. Lloyd banks joined the shenanigans with Rotten Apple and I didn't care then or now.
Man, the week after that was painful too, with Diddy's Press Play and Lil Romeo's Greatest Hits (what? why?!!?). Xzibit's Full Circle would not save the day, as I have only heard a couple songs off of it and didn't like enough of it to warrant having even downloaded it Only good I can claim from this is Hi Tek's Hi Teknology II: The Chip and even he could have done better. In matching acts of ignorance, Birdman & Lil Wayne released Like Father Like Son on the same day that Flavor Flav releasedThe Flavor of Love Soundtrack Flavor Flav. The month of October was so offended that it promptly ended on that note.
November
Halfway through the month, we get Isane Clown Posse with The Wraith: Remix Albums, The Game with Doctor's Advocate, Fat Joe with Me, Myself and I (a title borrowed from the song of the spouse of one-time foe Jay-Z, chew on that for a minute)and a Kenny G album all on the same day. How lucky were WE?!!? I copied Phillip's retail purchase of The Game and ignored the rest.
The spirit of fail is held high one week later with Jay-Z's Kingdom Come, 2Pac's bajillionth posthumous album Pac's Life and Snoop Dogg's The Blue Carpet Treatment.
Not willing to break tradition, the Ying Yang Twins closed out the shittiest November in hip hop with their "look, this explains it all"-titled album Chemically Imbalanced on the same day that Clipse explains the month's utter shittyness with Hell Hath No Fury.
Damn, this whole QUARTER has fucking sucked.
December
Continuing the abject failure of this quarter in general, we start off with Jim Jones A Dipset X-Mas, followed by Lil Scrappy's Bred 2 Die, Born 2 Live on the same day. A week laterUSAF Chief Master Sergeant Epps Tyrese released Alter Ego, which counts because he rapped instead of singing, hence the title. Young Jeezy released The Inspiration that day as well, but I ignored it too. One week following, Trick Daddy released Back by Thug Demand, Lil Bow Wow released The Price of Fame, Styles P released Time is Money and Nas released the ironically-titled (given what we can now see of this quarter's releases alone) Hip Hop is Dead.
Mos Def closed the month and year with an extra-mediocre True Magic.
You know?
Looking over this list as I made it, I am GLAD I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Otherwise, I might have canceled my blogger account without exporting my 163 (to date) posts, canceled all my Google accounts without making note of email addresses and shit, uninstalled firefox from my work and home computers and called Time Warner to cancel the internets at home.
Okay, I'm trippin'.
This was not a very good year and I haven't even counted and compared yet.
Let's go ahead and do that, shall we?
72 albums by my list, and a "no shit?!" 24 purchased/dowloaded/to-be-downloaded.
I need a shoulder, or some cleavage (preferred) to cry on, because that is 33.33 FUCKING percent.
Let down this year by Buju, Jay-Z, Mos Def, Snoop (though letdowns from him aren't much of a "letdown" anymore), Mobb Deep, Method Man (no stranger to catching a brick), Busta Rhymes and Bubba Sparxxx was painful... Losing Proof was another sting. Introduction of Young Joc and continued success of Young Jeezy are depressing. Continued corpsefucking of 2Pac is becoming quite bothersom.
Knowing now what I know will take place in the years that serve as the balance of the decade to this point is ANGERING.
I'm gonna stick to it, though.
2007 comes next.
I am at a crossroads that sees me changing jobs twice (February, then December) in one year -- something I had not done twice in the 8 years before it -- and meeting new and purging old people from my life.
In such, I cannot terribly remember or really know what to expect of this year's releases. In such, I am without a real introduction, as I will be newly taking it all in right now.
January
I could use this space to comment on the virtues of the letter 'c' (word to Gil Scott-Heron), because damned if anything came out this month.
I won't, though... I will just mention Tha Alkoholiks' Firewater, then move on to the next month.
February
J. Dilla released Donuts on Feb. 7 and we lost him 3 days later, I was less than fucking pleased with this fact (his passing, not the album).
Aceyalone's Magnificent City led off, followed by Dilated Peoples' (a group name even my mother likes, and she hates rap for no apparent reason) 20/20. Dem Franchise Boyz begin the slow murder of hip hop with On Top of Our Game and Bizzy Bone broke in with his Thug's Revenge and February was over. dead prez did themselves or their fans any favors by linking up with
March
Juvenile's Reality Check serves as a, well... reality check that he might NEED Mannie Fresh and Cash Money. E-40's My Ghetto Report Card and Capone's Menace 2 Society followed a week later, magically the E-40 album went gold, and I am betting that was in the Bay Area alone and I just don't get it. Master P continued to crash the party with the inaccurately-titled America's Most Luved Bad Guy. MC Lars released The Graduate, M1 (of dead prez) had dead prez Presents M1: Confidential and then the month closed on Do or Die's Get That Paper and Ghostface Killah's Fishscale.
Ugly month, Ghostface and (to a lesser extent) M1 made a decent album, but not enough to redeem this shit.
April
Bubba Sparxxx released The Charm, the first of his albums not worth at least LISTENING to, and Gorillaz released Demon Days Live on the same release date. I have never heard the latter, but if it is anything like the studio version, it should be just fine.
A week later LL Cool J released Todd Smith, and then became angry at the industry for not bothering to be bothered with him and his wack ass albums.
Gnarls Barkley made this better with St. Elsewhere.
Rest in peace to Proof.
May
Here, we find the once-respectable Mobb Deep making themselves a laughing stock as they become heavies on 50 Cent's G-Unit, making a terrible album Blood Money in the process. Cam'ron reminds us that he has overstayed HIS welcome as well with Killa Season. Speaking of overstaying welcomes, Yo Gotti crashes the party with his Back 2 Da Basics.
June
Ice Cube, who has somehow managed to remain somewhat relevant in hip hop despite family movies, releases Laugh Now, Cry Later.
Young Joc, whose fame or specific skillset no one can really explain, releases Young Joc City.
Busta Rhymes, whose fame and skills we KNOW the reasons for, tries to remain relevant with The Big Bang. Ras Kass, whose skills we know, but fame has escaped him, releases Revenge of the Spit.
July
Boot Camp Click's resurgence continues with The Last Stand, and Pharrell Williams released In My Mind. The Pharrell album was good, not great. Jurassic 5 dropped the downloadable Feedback, this was a pretty good month for me.
August
DMX dropped Year of the Dog... Again.
[Phlip note - if you need to include "again" in a title, you probably should rethink whether or not you need to be doing what you're doing. I am quite sure Earl Simmons is familiar with these kind of decisions... Just sayin']
A week later, Rick Ross released Port of Miami and the lies began. A week following was Obie Trice's Second Round's On Me. Next was Outkast's Idlewild and J. Dilla's The Shining, then the month closed on Method Man's very forgettable 4:21... The Day After and The Roots' Game Theory.
September
Buju Banton disappointed me with Too Bad, but I own it for the sake of collection, so I don't regret the purchase. Daz Dillinger disappoints me with his very existence, more specifically in that he keeps making albums and this time it was So So Gangsta, a title that aims at the fact that he is now wasting Jermaine Dupri's time and money on So So Def. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony joined the party with Thug Stories and Chingy did the same with Hoodstar. Jedi Mind Tricks released Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell which I enjoyed my download of, on the same day as Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor, which I do not enjoy NEARLY as much in 2009 as I did in 2006. Black Moon confused me with After the Chemistry, because Chemistry was a Buckshot album, not a Black Moon one. Ludacris and Weird Al Yankovic closed the month with Release Therapy and Straight Outta Lynwood, respectively. No, I am not joking, I did include Weird Al and I did download it.
October
Lady Sovereign dropped Public Warning (WHATUP JOE!!!) which I intend to seek and download this weekend. South Park Mexican released When Devil's Strike and I found it more entertaining to laugh at his rap name than to try listening to it. Unfortunately, the laughter eclipsed my even NOTICING Mellow Man Ace & Sen Dog's Ghetto Therapy. Good taste caused me to avoid Unk's Beatin' Down Yo Block. Lloyd banks joined the shenanigans with Rotten Apple and I didn't care then or now.
Man, the week after that was painful too, with Diddy's Press Play and Lil Romeo's Greatest Hits (what? why?!!?). Xzibit's Full Circle would not save the day, as I have only heard a couple songs off of it and didn't like enough of it to warrant having even downloaded it Only good I can claim from this is Hi Tek's Hi Teknology II: The Chip and even he could have done better. In matching acts of ignorance, Birdman & Lil Wayne released Like Father Like Son on the same day that Flavor Flav released
November
Halfway through the month, we get Isane Clown Posse with The Wraith: Remix Albums, The Game with Doctor's Advocate, Fat Joe with Me, Myself and I (a title borrowed from the song of the spouse of one-time foe Jay-Z, chew on that for a minute)
The spirit of fail is held high one week later with Jay-Z's Kingdom Come, 2Pac's bajillionth posthumous album Pac's Life and Snoop Dogg's The Blue Carpet Treatment.
Not willing to break tradition, the Ying Yang Twins closed out the shittiest November in hip hop with their "look, this explains it all"-titled album Chemically Imbalanced on the same day that Clipse explains the month's utter shittyness with Hell Hath No Fury.
Damn, this whole QUARTER has fucking sucked.
December
Continuing the abject failure of this quarter in general, we start off with Jim Jones A Dipset X-Mas, followed by Lil Scrappy's Bred 2 Die, Born 2 Live on the same day. A week later
Mos Def closed the month and year with an extra-mediocre True Magic.
You know?
Looking over this list as I made it, I am GLAD I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Otherwise, I might have canceled my blogger account without exporting my 163 (to date) posts, canceled all my Google accounts without making note of email addresses and shit, uninstalled firefox from my work and home computers and called Time Warner to cancel the internets at home.
Okay, I'm trippin'.
This was not a very good year and I haven't even counted and compared yet.
Let's go ahead and do that, shall we?
72 albums by my list, and a "no shit?!" 24 purchased/dowloaded/to-be-downloaded.
I need a shoulder, or some cleavage (preferred) to cry on, because that is 33.33 FUCKING percent.
Let down this year by Buju, Jay-Z, Mos Def, Snoop (though letdowns from him aren't much of a "letdown" anymore), Mobb Deep, Method Man (no stranger to catching a brick), Busta Rhymes and Bubba Sparxxx was painful... Losing Proof was another sting. Introduction of Young Joc and continued success of Young Jeezy are depressing. Continued corpsefucking of 2Pac is becoming quite bothersom.
Knowing now what I know will take place in the years that serve as the balance of the decade to this point is ANGERING.
I'm gonna stick to it, though.
2007 comes next.
Comments
Laugh now...Same ol' Ice Cube
Doctor's Advocate...better than expected
Kingdome Come....meh
A Dipshit Xmas...couldn't ind 'We Fly High' so I was duped into that wack remix.
HHID....good album to me
Damn, I picked up some albums that year, who'da thunkit?
I used to wonder about my purchases over the years, so thanks for the thumbnails.
You've also shown me how music has made itself more & more scarce in my life, unless it's some older ish. I stay archiving.