HipHop Talks Podcast
Introducing "Hip-Hop Talks Podcast/Media'' - a captivating experience that immerses hip-hop enthusiasts in the boundless world of the genre and its cultural impact. Join hosts Shawn, Coop, and Adriel as they pay homage to the foundations of hip hop, from its origins to the present day with a diverse take on Hip Hop. Shawn, takes you through the boroughs of New York, while Coop provides a provocative, yet daring take on the South’s stake in the Hip Hop game. Adriel brings the unique perspective of Hip Hop through the lens of those that cling onto the lifeline and purity of Hip Hop. Combining their thoughts and views, is liken to your favorite superhero team assembling to lean into each other’s strengths. Through insightful conversations, passionate debates, and meticulous breakdowns, they explore the intricate fabrics of hip hop, including its powerful lyrics, infectious beats, mesmerizing breakdancing, vibrant graffiti art, skillful DJing, and electrifying MCing. "Hip-Hop Talks" is the ultimate destination for fans seeking to deepen their understanding and appreciation of this influential art form. Tune in and become part of the unified community that celebrates the timeless legacy of hip hop.
HipHop Talks Podcast
BEST FISCAL YEAR EVER? + Nas and Premo, Biggie, Rufus Sims, T.I., Ghost, Common, Wale
Salute.
Speaker 2:What up fellas?
Speaker 1:Welcome to Hip Hop Talks. I'm Coop. That's AG. That's Sean Kid. We know AG, the only nigga that's at home. The fans might not recognize Sean in front of his shoes, but that's Sean. That's not a clone.
Speaker 1:Make sure you click like, share and subscribe to our page. Although we have now officially hit the 2000 mark, we are on the strive and the goal to get to three, so make sure you hit like, share, subscribe. We've been having some wonderful shows lately. The dialogue's been great, ag. You have been coming up with some of the most innovative ideas in the podcast space. I wanted to give you a special shout out. Appreciate it, bro, taking the time to come up to this. I'm not trying to be cocky at all when I say this, but the way that you have taken the time to think of these innovative and original ideas does really remind me of how I started off in this space, and I mean that like the most, like complimentary fashion, the ideas that you've been coming with. It's like oh, I remember when I used to think of shit like this before niggas started getting on my nerves all the time.
Speaker 2:That's what's up man Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:No, no, no no, no, You've been coming up with some wonderful ideas and I want to shout you out for like coming up with some wonderful ideas for the show. I did want to kind of, like you know, get to my segment for a second if we could, Sean, Like I know I didn't kind of script this, but this is kind of going to be something for pretty easy for you guys to follow.
Speaker 2:So it appears that LeBron and Stephen A are getting into it.
Speaker 1:Quite frankly and I mean as somebody that has aired his grievances in public and has seen the positive and the negative from it positive and the negative from it I would tell you that, unless both sides are unwilling to sit behind closed doors, this needs to happen behind closed doors, moving forward, because it got real petty, real, real fast, didn't it guys? Didn't it feel like the last two days were officially the days where it's like, well, we kind of felt like y'all didn't like each other, but now you're letting everybody else know that you don't like each other, and I don't like that because you're the most dominant people in your space and you happen to be black men and in your respective professions. That is very, very hard to do, and so I would rather them handle this behind the scenes. And here's how poignant and important that it is. So big is this deal right now that people forgot that it's opening day in baseball. Today it's opening day and nobody even said anything because Stephen A and LeBron are throwing up gang signs.
Speaker 1:Is this the new Drake vs Kendrick? You want to know what I? Here's what I thought of. I really thought of Howard Cosell and Muhammad Ali, except for that. That was more playful, though, and scripted behind the scenes. And those men were friends behind the scenes, even closer behind the scenes than they were.
Speaker 1:Men were friends, behind the scenes even closer behind the scenes than they were on camera. This don't feel good. Look good, sound good. I found myself over the last couple of days, as a black man, kind of cringy. It even made me question some of the things that I had done. Respectfully, all jokes aside, I was just like, uh, sean, sean, what you think?
Speaker 2:it's nasty man, like even with LeBron going to Pat McAfee, you know. You go on to ESPN. You go on to like the person that Stephen A has publicly had issues with the competition, if you will and he started throwing everything out there. You know talking about Stephen A making jokes about Stephen A. Stephen A went on his. You know talking about Stephen A making jokes about Stephen A. Stephen A went on his campaign last week talking about Bron on every other episode or every other channel that's out there and just talking about it.
Speaker 2:And to your point, coop. It's one of those things where they don't like each other. We know that. They know that they're talking about it and now it was bubbling beneath the surface, but now it is cool. At this point somebody's going to have to chill out. At this point it's going to be hard because Stephen Day he's in the media. This is giving him more looks. The numbers are going through the roof. The numbers are looking great because you've got the biggest star in the world right now in sports going back and forth with you. That's what you want, right?
Speaker 1:This is what I'm saying, sean. He literally Stephen A went on TV today and said I was here before you. And he literally said on TV, on ESPN cameras, based on the deal they just gave me, I'm going to be here after you. I was like, oh, I said those are gang signs. I said gang, gang, gang, gang, gang, gang, gang, gang gang. Yeah, that's a I'll see you in the streets nigga type statement to be saying professionally Like, yeah, when I see you outside, this going to be what it is, even after you gone. Facts Y'all take the serious route, but I'm here for the jokes. So did y'all? Y'all see the video that lebron posted of steven a boxing?
Speaker 2:that was nasty bro.
Speaker 1:Bro tried to. Bro tried to say he had two torn rotator cuffs. I about lost it, you know, but um, that video looked eerily similar. Sean showed me him doing jujitsu one time and that video looked eerily similar to Sean.
Speaker 2:That's the energy of y'all, man. That's the energy of y'all right now.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm just here for the jokes. Sean was in his bag, though you know what I'm saying. Sean is tactically I can't even say that word tactically trained. He's trained. We'll just leave it like that. But nah, stephen A was doing nasty work. Man, I don't have anything serious to say other than I'm tired of this being drug out. I'm dead serious when I say this is for the black community, if you will.
Speaker 1:This is our new Kendrick versus Drake, because you know what I'm saying. That's been over a year. It's played. We need some other drama to tune into for the next so many months, and I think this is it, and I'm tired of it already. Frankly, it's ridiculous. I'll let you know it's ridiculous. Yeah, all right, okay, hey, g, you're kind of going to be spotlighted on this show. We're going to go ahead and get out of this bag and jump into our new kind of an old music bag, because we have still yet to uh, rate rufus sims project. Ill, dirty bastard because you have yet to rate Rufus Simms' project. Ill Dirty Bastard because you have yet to listen.
Speaker 1:So, unless you have some finishing thoughts about this comment, I want to segue into your thoughts so we can get to a cumulative rating and then we can get to talking yeah, absolutely Real quick. Before we do that, we have some other business from the last pod to take care of real quick, because the people probably want to know about the uh winner of the bracket. That we left up to the fans and we posted it on Twitter and we posted on the discord and, oddly enough, both. Both of the percentages came out 90% in favor of Illmatic to 10% on doggy style. So Illmatic is the winner of the five mic album bracket and I agree I picked Illmatic, but I do think it should have been a closer vote.
Speaker 1:So, coop, you look like you disagree. It's not that I disagree, it's that when it's 90% to 10, it's like, what are we doing here? Okay, so here's what people don't understand when you don't rate it objectively and it happens 90 to 10, and on a worst case scenario, guys, if anybody thinks that Doggystyle is not a top 10 rap album all the time. First of all, I don't want to talk to you about rap. I want to talk to you about rap. So the gap between not 9 to 1, guys, not 9 to 1. Even if you told me it was 65 to 35, I would eat the food on it a little bit more, because guess what that does? It makes it more respectable. It makes it more tangible.
Speaker 1:Everybody's going to turn around and say that it's not in the consensus. It'll be like oh, this is a Nas-based podcast. Coop came over here because he was plugged to Taz. She was plugged to Nas. That's how all this happened. Anyway, of course, that followed. It takes some of the credibility out of it when it becomes 90 to 10. It's my, my problem.
Speaker 1:I don't have a problem with the numbers because it hurts the credibility of it. Well, you, I mean the credibility is the credibility. We left it in the people's hands, which was a good idea by you, and then the people voted. So it'd be different if we you know, three unanimously, unanimously said that illmatic was better and stuff. So that's the difference we left it in the people's hand and the people voted. A lot of times I'm not going to say too much, but I'm going to say a lot without saying. When you leave it in the people's hands, sometimes, you know, things happen that's kind of wild. I'll tell you, I'll say that right there, I'll say it for you people. I appreciate you, I don't trust you at all. But yeah, so that's the winner of a bracket. But yes, moving on, moving on to Rufus Sims, yes, tapped into that project and the project was dope. You know, everything y'all said on the last podcast was very on point, very entertaining album, from start to finish. The skits intertwined and helped weave together the cohesiveness of the album. Um, the production ill city laced them with a lot of different looks on that joint, a lot of versatility. Um, it was fire all the way around. I would probably well.
Speaker 1:First off, I went back to the album quite a bit and there's a particular one run on the album. It's a five-track run that I'm going back to more than anything. That's starting at so Dirty, which is a vibe. Love that record, then Choir Acting Crazy Real Life and then Fill in the Blank. That five-song run right there. I've been revisiting that often and I like that. It was that often and, um, I liked that. It was old dirty bastard inspired. But the song that speaks most to the spirit of old dirty to me is cap crazy. That's a song that I could hear dirty doing himself. You know what I'm saying. So that was a highlight for me on the record. Now, that's all the positives.
Speaker 1:On the negative side of things, um, constructive criticism, this isn't even my take, I'm just relaying it, but it makes sense to me. Um, I plugged the album in our discord and told our discord that you know I'm saying listen to it. And um, you know one I forget who it was in particular but uh, one of the people put in there that they was filling the project but they felt that it was too many features on a project. That's, um, if you're a relatively new artist or artist that somebody's not as familiar with your voice, like on a, you know you might have five or six posse cut. You know people on a posse cut and if you don't establish who you are like, like you know, through giving us a lot of just yourself, then it'll be hard to pick out.
Speaker 1:Like well, where's Rufus? Like you know what I'm saying, I don't know which one in particular is Rufus because I'm not familiar with a lot of these guys like that. You know what I'm saying. So I think that's something that maybe could be looked at like on the next project, where I'm going to give them more of myself versus putting on all of the home team and on a lot of the tracks and doing a lot of features. But overall, I think this was a great record. I'll give it a solid four. Sean, what's your overall rate on the project?
Speaker 1:I can give it a four.
Speaker 2:I love the nostalgia feel of it. Definitely a four. Maybe a four point two, five. Okay, I can give it a four. I love the nostalgia feel of it. Definitely a four, maybe a 4.25. Okay, I'm a big Dirty fan.
Speaker 1:Me too. I'm a big Dirty fan, so it's hard not for me to love the ethos of this project and the execution of this project. I have gone back and listened to this project multiple times now because I have enjoyed it so thoroughly. I am with you, ag.
Speaker 1:My biggest critique is actually the fact that this album is one of those albums that reminds me that we didn't really hear all of the Wu-Tang Clan until the fourth album, which is Rayquan's the Purple Tape. We really didn't hear Outkast do an album with a bunch of features to their third album, which is Rayquan's the Purple Tape. We really didn't hear Outkast do an album with a bunch of features to their third album, which is Equimini. Because I think once you've mastered the craft of making a great album in the format that you're in which, whether it be solo, duo or whatever it's easier to expand upon that horizon, to make classic material once you've done that. So I will agree with you to the point. Although I find the guest appearances to be stellar, it can be easy for him to be lost in the shuffle because he is not established as an artist just yet, right, right, but he himself is very unique. But if you're not familiar, with him.
Speaker 2:Hold on one second guys. All right, Go ahead.
Speaker 1:G, yeah. So yeah, he himself is very unique. But if you don't, you know, if you're not familiar With his vocal tone or you know that can kind of get lost in a Track with a bunch of features. But you know, that's just something to give the people more of yourself.
Speaker 1:Personally, on the next project, me and you talk about this all the time, like when we're getting nostalgic talking about 36 Chambers. We talk about like we ain't know who was who when 36 Chambers was out. We like yo, the dude that rapped third on the mystery of chess boxing, yo, that's, that's the guy right there. You know what I'm saying. That's how we was referencing stuff, because we didn't really know the names of the whole plan, like that. So we were just like I don't know who. That is the rap third one protect your neck. But you know that's the one. You know what I'm saying. So you know, I would just say like, maybe give a little bit more of yourself next time. No, I think those are fair criticisms. My overall thought even after all, that was still a 4.25. If the two of you all are saying 4, I will. Sean said 4.25.
Speaker 2:He said 4 or 4.25. Are you solid on that 4?
Speaker 1:Sean, which one are you leaning on?
Speaker 2:I would lean on 4.25. That's me being biased, because I love Dirty. I think this is a great representation of Dirty it is. I wish we would have did something like this. To be quite honest, this is a great old age to dirty.
Speaker 1:You know, and what do you mean when you said Hold on, sean, unpack that briefly for me. When you're saying that you wish that Wu-Tang would have done something like this, do you mean like an actual album, like in tribute to Old Dirty Bastard? In general, yes, or?
Speaker 2:maybe YDB, maybe YDB I was about to say YDB doing something like this, because you got a dirty sprinkle throughout this entire album. Not many albums have this kind of concept. If you think about it, guys, there's a paying homage to another artist of that artist's album. You have a sprinkle of Return of the Dirty Succubus throughout this entire album. You have a sprinkle of Return of the 30th of September throughout this entire album. That's dope.
Speaker 1:That's funny. It's funny Anytime somebody talks about Old Dirty Bastard. I'll never forget what my dear friend and he's still my dear friend to this day Michael Hubbard, told me when we were in 10th grade in high school he's like, when Old Dirty Bastard raps he's the best rapper in Wu-Tang Clan. And when he said that, that hit me hard because it was so rare that he actually rapped rap. But I got exactly what he was saying, because when he did rap he was their most captivating member and the name of it is called MC, because to me, mc means move the crowd and he did that. Mc means move the crowd and he did that at like. However, whenever, however you want to call it, he did that. That's a great point, sean, and he is the most charismatic, even more so than Meth. So I can agree that when he is rapping he's the, like you said, the most captivating, and I've maintained this for years. I don't.
Speaker 1:Deck is my favorite out of the clan, and when people reference triumph, they always say how deck jumped it off with this classic verse, and then I have to correct people like that track don't have the same energy if old dirty bastard is not talking in the beginning. You know what I'm saying amping up the people to get ready for it, and it's the only track that has all 10 members on it. Now you imagine that track without Dirty's intro. Is it the same? I say hell, no, it's not, because then you have the jump off protect your neck 2 off the W. Yeah, that didn't have Dirty on it, though that's what it's not, because then you have the jump off protect your neck too off the W. Yeah, that didn't have dirty on it though you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying that's what you have. That's the type of record you have.
Speaker 2:Right, that's what you have without dirty yeah.
Speaker 1:You got the jump off instead of trying Right. There you go. Yep, it gives the preparatory command that something's about to happen. Have well, people forget this. The main reason that they really weren't able to duplicate their group success is that oh no, you can get into their chamber solo without dirty, because he's such an anomaly, but in a very, very weird way, he's really the person that takes enter the wu-tang over the top yes he gives it its all-time classic status with his mic performances.
Speaker 1:because, well, you got your lyricism, because you got Chisa and Dick. You got your gritty beats from Rizzo. You do got your street and your nostalgic with Ghost and Ray. You do have your star in meth Dirty. Is that sprinkle of something that's in your mama's favorite dish that your mama will never tell you Don't?
Speaker 2:tell nobody.
Speaker 1:She ain't telling nobody till her arthritic hand prevents her from getting that spice or whatever it is herself she's not telling and Old Dirty Bastard. Is that spice to Wu-Tang?
Speaker 2:Clan.
Speaker 1:So their group stuff was never the same after Enter the Wu-Tang because he wasn't there and I know this is an Ill Dirty Sims, I mean a Rufus Sims Ill Dirty Bastard review, but that's how important Old Dirty Bastard is.
Speaker 2:He still lives on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is from an artist from Chicago, so it's like, yeah, I'm going to say 4.25. It's an album of the year. Well, real quick, like to your point, coop it was. He was a little bit present on Wu-Tang Forever, but that presence was definitely missing when he was still alive on the W, because even though he's on Conditioner, you know you could hear the pain in his voice on that track, being that he recorded his bars from jail and that was hard to listen to. Although I like that song, it's hard to listen to. And then after that, you know you don't have his presence on any other album. But I love that album. Shout out to my son and my daughter they got me the W on vinyl for my birthday. I mean, ag, he's not on forever though.
Speaker 1:There's Dog Shit, there's the intro to Triumph, there's Reunited. That's it, dude, my favorite performance actually is not even a verse from him, it's the hook on as High as Wu-Tang Get. That's what I love the best about that song. I love Jizz's verse on there, but I don't love that beat. That's one of the weaker beats on the album than me, but I hear what you're saying. Yeah, but the Ill Project from project from Dirty Rufus man that's dope. Yeah, yeah, dope project. Shout out to the Chi, shout out to Ill City, rufus, I Am God See y'all soon Pulling up All right On to this new Wale. Single Sean, what you think of Wale, come on Queen.
Speaker 2:What you think, you like it. I like it Very, very mellow. I actually listened to it for the first time today as I was leaving my meeting. I was like, man, I needed this. This is a very mellow track. I needed it. I needed that. I needed that track because it slows down. It slows things down. Everything is chaotic. It slows things down. But it made me think about Wale, in a sense where. How do we rank Wale? What do we do?
Speaker 1:that's exactly my problem with the record, we're all on the same wavelength right now that's my problem.
Speaker 1:I can't stand that. I hate. I can't stand when a rapper makes a record that makes me think about how I should rank them. I can't stand that a rapper makes a record that makes me think about how I should rank them. I can't stand that shit. And here's the thing while they excels in this bag, the melodic bag, when he makes stuff for the ladies and the melodic stuff it's dope. But it was during his heyday, you know, his prime. It was hard for him to do those types of records when you had Drake out there doing those records, like they didn't, you know, permeate through. So, man, listen, like when we talk about the big three and then a potential four and a five with the futures and the big Shons and the Nickys of the world Wale during that era he's down there to 10.
Speaker 2:If we're being honest, Don't let low hear that man.
Speaker 1:Oh, is he a big Wale fan, is he? I didn't know that, but I'm just saying, man, and that's being objective, bro, and Wale is talented. Kendrick Drake, cole, future Sean Nicky Right, then you got.
Speaker 2:I feel like.
Speaker 1:Ross is his predecessor. Ross is his predecessor. He signed him around that area. You got Cudi, you got Wale.
Speaker 2:I'm still taking Wale over Cudi on some rap shit maybe not as an artist, but on some rap shit you got Crit, that's about a tie for me taking Wale over Cudi on some rap shit?
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure, maybe not as an artist, but on some rap shit I'm taking. Yeah, you got Crit. Crit that's about a tie for me. Wale and Crit's about a tie for me. But look how far down the list you got till we even got there. Like you had about eight we're about seven eight. We're in that seven, eight territory. Yeah, that's what I'm saying, but it's a dope record, though that's wild. Okay, but what are we doing with this record? Where are we going Is?
Speaker 2:there a project coming Correct.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm glad we had this. No clue, we in the loosey air, so I don't know. Okay, time to lick shots, all right. Music anniversary, guys. On this day, we have quite a few classic albums that came out. We're going to start with comments like Water for Chocolate. A lot of people still feel like this is Common's best album. I actually listened to this album the day, guys, and it's not. It's the second best album. I bet the people that are fans of Waterford Shock Was waiting for me to have this big epiphany, a revelation. No, no, no. I woke up today to tell you that this album is a classic. I woke up to also tell you that you're wrong. It's still the second best album. Wait you said.
Speaker 1:I thought you said on Sorry to interrupt, but I thought you said on another show that what was it? Did you put One Day? It All Makes Sense. Second, no, third. Okay for some reason I thought you had that as second and then switched up. You can make a case that One Day it All Makes Sense is third. Okay, because I know you held that album really high, so yeah, but this is second for me.
Speaker 1:It's uneven. Finding Forever is better put together. Finding Forever is better put together. I find that One Day It'll All Make Sense is a common sense who we don't find again, and so I find memories like that from a rapper to be special over time, and so I would argue by Finding Forever or One Day It'll All Make Sense.
Speaker 1:Between its three or four status in the catalog, resurrection has taken a hit to me over a course of time, but that's because the production is not holding up and I was kind of afraid that would happen to that album. But people older than us hold that like probably one or two People older than us hold Resurrection Right, that's great. They also, too, are listening to Straight Outta Compton, and it takes a nation of millions on tape in their old school car that they were riding around to when those fucking albums came out. So I don't want to hear that from them. It's not the truth. The production just hadn't held as well.
Speaker 1:One day it all makes sense. Production actually has held up better. In terms of being aesthetically pleasing, it's something that's still more enjoyable to listen to. This is its second best album, but it's a stellar. If this is the second best album in your catalog. You are an all-time great rapper Because this album is stellar. That's really what was my takeaway from it. Oh no, if people feel like he's top 10, top 15, if this is his second best album, which it is, oh no, this is as good as anybody's second best album.
Speaker 1:How about this? Like Water for Chocolate, is just as good as Iron man in my opinion, which is Ghost's second best album. I wouldn't put it that high, but it's up there. I think it's conversational, depending on what your musical taste is. Not everybody's on some Wu-Tang shit. You know what I'm saying True, true, but I'll say this Coop. I think that for somebody who has Universal Mind Control and Electric Circus in their catalog, he still has a top 10 catalog all time for solo. When you say it out loud, it just hurts.
Speaker 1:My head literally hurts, but with albums like this that balances that out. Common it might be towards the bottom of 10, but he has a top 10 catalog. I believe I agree with you. All I have to say left is that this is, I think, his second best album behind B, and it has my favorite Common song in Sixth Sense. That's my favorite Common song of all time.
Speaker 2:I love Sixth Sense.
Speaker 1:Primo did his thing. You know I love that record, but when everybody puts that at the top of Common's catalog I didn't realize that record hit everybody like that. It's not my favorite Common record. I love the video too. Yeah, the video is brilliant.
Speaker 2:Love that joint. I agree with both of you guys. All right, I'll hit it Up next Tia Tia, tia King. It's you, king, definitely 2006.
Speaker 1:Sorry, we didn't get common as proper due Like Water for Chocolate came out in 2000,. Correct, yes, yes, it was March 28, 2000,. Correct, yeah, march 28, 2000.
Speaker 1:So, that's a 25-year milestone. Yeah, march 28, 2006,. Ti released King. Ag gives it the five. Is it TI's best album to you as well? Ag, easily, and TI has a great catalog as well.
Speaker 1:This is the album and that might be biased, but this is the album that really made me buy in, because Urban Legend when he was on that King of the South talk and you know the Jay-Z of the South he had some records on there but I wasn't totally buying in. Then, when King came out, I was like this is the guy. Now, mind you, this is during Wayne's run where he's ramping up, and still I'm listening to TI like no, this is the guy. So many records on here. I mean Top Back, king Back. You know what you know about.
Speaker 1:That is still, I think, ti's best record hands down. I mean you can play that anywhere. I'm talking to you as a favorite. Why you Wanna is a major hit, and the reason why I think I like this album so much and then I'll pass it to one of y'all is because his approach was very Jay-Z-like. You know, because this has Down South records on there, but he has Just Blaze contributions on there. He has the Swizz Beatz contributions on there. He has the Swizz Beatz contributions on there, he has the Pharrell and Neptune's contributions on there, so it was a very palatable album, no matter where you were from. You know what I'm saying. So it was like his universal album, his universal appeal album, if you will. So I think this is his best album hands down. I still play this record on the regular today, fire.
Speaker 2:I'm going to give it five. I give it about a four and a half, but this is the album that made me a TI fan. At that time, urban Legend was too subtle for me, I'll be completely honest, and I wasn't in that bag at that time. But this album, I felt like this album was the one that got me into TI Because, like you said, you got what you know about it. I play that song a lot. I play that song a lot. I played that song recently. That song is crazy. That's when I feel like he got a certain confidence. And Coop, you probably notice more than we do, but to me it's not like King. You got the title album, king. Your confidence is at a high level at this point. So you know what you got in your hand For you to put an album out and you call it King. You know what you got in your hand and you're going to kick it off with what you know about that. Come on, man Crazy.
Speaker 1:It's a coronation ceremony, guys on man Crazy. It's a coronation ceremony, guys. There you go. The album, the song. What you know, in my opinion is a top 50 rap song. I don't care what anybody says. If anybody were to ask me if I were to pick one song to come out of this city of Atlanta I'm in Buckhead right now If I were to pick one song to come out of this city of Atlanta I'm in Buckhead right now If I were to pick one song that would come out of this city, that would be the song that I would choose. Guys, Like, if we needed intro theme music to represent Atlanta, I would say Play what you Know by TI. That would be my theme music. Like, think about the heavyweight champion walking out to their theme music. That would be like Atlanta's heavyweight champion theme music.
Speaker 1:That's the rest, that's what it sounds like no, but that's also the moment, because it's the culmination of everything that the Dungeon family started and everything that Crump built up. And out of all of that, all of that group work and all of that groundwork and that collaboration and footwork, came this great solo MC. And this is the guy and this is the album. This is the coronation ceremony. Objectively, personally, I'm with you. Ag would tell you that it's five. Objectively, I'd tell you that it's a 4.5. Some slight missteps in terms of the arrangement of the album on the back end that I could put with you about, of the arrangement of the album on the back end that I could put with you about.
Speaker 1:But outside of that, oh, the mic performance, the stellar nature of the songs. How about this? This is how much I think of this album. Oh no, this is Volume 2 by J Dunn. Better than Volume 2, AG, the Culture, the Culture, the JZ stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:It's actually Volume 2 done the way volume two was actually supposed to be done. Yeah, and lyrically he stepped it up. But you're right, it does tell off to the end.
Speaker 2:But the highs are so high, man, it's crazy yeah, it was hot, it was hot and I wanted to hate but I couldn't. I was yo. Who's this scrawny guy man talking about? He's the king, he's the southern Jay-Z or whatever. I'm like. Who is this guy? And?
Speaker 1:if you remember, this is like not even quite a full year removed from the Jay-Z wave with 101. And I came with King and was like all right, hold my beer, watch this. So people forget this? No, no, no. Wayne had all right, hold my beer, watch this. So people? So people forget this? No, no way. They just made the carter 2 as well, the carter right, so the carter 2 and 101 are floating around and ti was still the man, and I remember that that happened in real time. Like that happened real time where, like no gz was having his moment, wayne was having his best performance ever and ti was the man. I was like, nah, that's the guy right there. For sure, that that's the guy. That's what I mean. Oh no, Look here, look, sometimes I hate to say this it's like oh no, tupac being locked up took him all the way over the top. Ti getting locked up actually took him down a lot because there were so many other people who were buying when it happened to Pac.
Speaker 2:as far as on the mainstream level.
Speaker 1:It was just big ascending. He just had to worry about it because Nas hadn't even ascended to that level On some rap shit. It was really just Nas and Trench and a couple of dudes to worry about. See, I got locked up. There was a crop in a field of people rick ross, a jeezy, a white in the south. They feel that spot real fast in addition to your leg, in addition to your legacy acts that hadn't made money like they felt like they should have had, that now went solo or came back and signed the different labels and made group projects.
Speaker 1:Scarface still running around making music it's a lot. I'm glad you brought scarface up because this was the album that made me not feel offended. He was talking all that King of the South talk and Scarface is one of my favorite rappers of all time. I'm like, bro, you got to stop that. Scarface is still alive and well and making music. But then when he came out with this, I was like, okay, you got. You know what I'm saying a buy-in. It's still face, but it wasn't crazy when he how about this? Right? Very comparable to when.
Speaker 1:Jay on volume one said who's the best MCs Biggie, jay-z and Nas? It's like, oh well, when he's saying he's the king, it's like, well, it's still face to me, but you're very much like in that conversation with him and with Wayne, like those three guys specifically about that.
Speaker 2:So yes, absolutely, and did he? I think Paper Trail came and with Wayne, those three guys specifically about that. So yes, absolutely. I think Paper Trail came after this right.
Speaker 1:No, that was a slight drop off with TI versus. Tip. Ti versus TIP is actually yeah Now if you don't have that in the middle. That streak is crazy, going from Urban Legend, king and then if you go to Paper Trail after that. But that TI versus TIP was not it Very inconsistent? That was the industry album gone wrong. Yeah but I mean to that point of the inconsistency. That's kind of what he was going for to show the two different sides, but it just didn't come together well as an album. Concepts aren't his thing.
Speaker 2:No, no yeah.
Speaker 1:The concept thing is that he didn't stick to landing. No. On the same day, in the same year, ghostface actually released Fish Scale, which is actually one of my favorite Ghostface projects. Okay, so when I tell people that I feel like Ghost has three classics and three in the possible, it's like this is my third one and Bulletproof is my possible. For most people, bulletproof is the third and Fish Gale is the possible, but this is my third favorite Ghostface album, after Supreme and Iron man. What say you? Go ahead, sean, ghost is your guy.
Speaker 2:Go ahead man, he start off with Shaky Dog. I'm like he got another one.
Speaker 1:look here shaky dog on my ghost top 10 list. Some days I wake up and it's like I need to hear shaky dog, it might be ghost best story. It might be ghost best story it might be ghost best story ghost got a lot of great stories ghost. The top five storytelling. Shaky dog might be the one. You know what shaky dog is. Shaky dog is the setup to me. Yes, I can see that. I love those stories like. Those are the stories where it's like oh no, you're in real time with these guys.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's animated, it's fun. It's ghost showing his humorous side. It's ghost showing every complexity of his character, everything. And again, coop, I love this fun. It's gold showing his humor side. It's gold showing every complexity of his character. And again, coop, I love this album. I love this album. I love this. It might be number, might be number three for me, iron man. No, probably number four. I love Bulletproof Wallace as well.
Speaker 1:I like the beats on here better.
Speaker 2:Ray is on here more Ray is on here more. He definitely is on here more. The fact that he went outside and got more collaborators for beats and still pulled this off and still has stories on here he still has bravado on here Ghost was. This album showed you how consistent Ghost was, because he did not have any misses, even going into this album. No, no album that he had going into fifth scale was a miss. Everything, even the Pretty Tony album was a hit. Pretty Tony was dope. You know what I mean. Even the Big Door Rehab. Ghost was dope. Snap-on.
Speaker 1:And you want to know what, guys? In a lot of ways, for me, nine Millie Brothers is the last classic wu-tang song. Like that's the last classic wu-tang posse cut record in my opinion. I can't think of one after. I can't think of a record after nine milli brothers. It's better than nine milli brothers.
Speaker 2:It's the last classic wu-tang posse cut, in my opinion I forgot about nine milli brothers, yeah, and they went crazy on that. The Burners and the Stamps, I don't know. I haven't looked at the timeline.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they got it like that yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's Ghost, because everyone was fizzing out and Ghost kept putting out albums. He kept putting out albums.
Speaker 1:The Champ with Just Blaze. Oh yeah, the Champ is my favorite on the whole album. Oh, my God, great stuff. I'll be brief because y'all both you know I'm saying smoke that, but I'm, I'm with coop. And then you said but you put bulletproof wallace uh third, didn't you sean? I did it. Yeah, here's my deciding factor. I got fish scale as his third classic and bulletproof as the fourth. Because of what Bulletproof could have been. I know that, knowing the original the watch, the sun, those tracks if they were, you know the original samples and stuff got cleared and you know what we heard on the internet back then and the album you know came to fruition. Because, unfortunately, stuff like that played a lot of albums from reaching their full potential, I have to put Bulletproof uh forth as the possible because I know what bulletproof could have been I'll be mad at that.
Speaker 1:I'll be mad at that at all yeah, I don't disagree with that at all. Okay, um, on march 22nd last year, guys, uh, future metro booming released, uh, what, the black man's theme in atl towards the women, which is we don't trust you. Thoughts on the album, guys, outside of the obvious thing that we're about to talk about, go ahead, aj.
Speaker 2:I'll be short. I don't listen to it much After the run. I'll be honest with you, in real time I enjoyed it, but after maybe a month or two and Coop, we talked about this a lot last year these albums, a lot of the albums, didn't have a lot of legs. And I'm going to be honest with you guys, I listen more to Future Mixtape, the last joint he put out, mixtape Pluto. Yeah, mixtape pluto. I've been listening to plutoski about maybe every other week. I'm listening to plutoski. I don't know why, but that got to me. I love plutoski. I ain't gonna lie, I'm gonna run it again. Yeah, it's crazy, but but I listen to that more than I listen to this. I listen to just like a month straight. I'm like man, this is. I love the beats, love Metro booming, and after that I kind of just let it go. So that's my take on it, honestly not mad at that.
Speaker 1:I think it was one of the best offerings we had last year and Future had a hell of a year last year. But I think the quality of the album itself got drowned out by everything this album started. So that was a risky move on Future's part, but I get it, for as much eyes and ears it got to the album, the more it drowned out the quality of the album. But we're going to speak more on this here in a little while, so I don't want to give away too much now. This was a very solid project and it got mired in the ancillary things that occurred on one record by a guest artist, which I'm sure AG will be alluding to shortly.
Speaker 1:Those are really my thoughts. It's actually an album that got mired because it helped ignite the biggest modern day beef. Because of that, people forgot that it was actually a quality project. I'm not saying it's anything great. I'm not saying it's anything special. It's actually a pretty damn good album In real time. When I'm not saying it's anything great, I'm not saying it's anything special, but it's actually a pretty damn good album.
Speaker 1:It's a really good album and in real time when I was rating the album, which is one of the last things I did.
Speaker 1:At my former podcast. I spoke to the fact that this album was actually only like three or four songs, edit-wise away from being like the album of the year. So there was stuff on there and it really got overshadowed by that moment and people have forgotten about it. But that's also the cycle that we live in and how things work today, and I understand that part of it as well. Let me ask you this both of y'all you know, because this terminology I first used it as far as, like, cannibalizing your own, like fan base or whatever, do you think that it would have been better served if they didn't come out with the? We still don't trust you. Part two, and just let this live on its own.
Speaker 1:No I like what they did with part two, because they switched speeds and did something totally different. So I like the fact that they would have switched speeds. Had they been on the same shit, I would have told them to let it breathe or just do a deluxe edition in the fall or wintertime. Okay, with the move.
Speaker 2:I think the momentum allowed them to do that because they got a lot of momentum from we Don't Like you, we Don't Trust you. You got that kind of momentum, you got some more loosies on your hand you can put together to get more money out of it and put together another solid effort, then go forward. The momentum was carrying them over into that second joint anyhow. So I think it was the right move.
Speaker 1:I don't think they cannibalized each other. I mean. Last but not least, guys, march 25th 1997, as you know, the Notorious BIG released his album. Life After Death came out two weeks after his death on March 9th. So, guys, I know Andrew and I just did a show on Mirror Music commemorating Life After Death as an album and doing some deep dives and some talking about some of the put togethers from the album, some of the smaller pieces in the album Great video.
Speaker 2:Check that out.
Speaker 1:It's one of those albums that, for the time that I've been in the space, I've found that I find new stuff to talk about the album every year, which truly means that it is a classic album and a one-of-a-kind kind of album. Sean, tell me what some of your thoughts are on Life After Death.
Speaker 2:Man. It is a great album, man. This album aged really well and Koop, you and Andrew did a phenomenal job, man, breaking it down. Thank you, Great job you actually did. Aj and I was texting back and forth you was in a different bag, man, and Andrew even was texting me and I'm like, yeah, Koop is in this lecture bag and you had me look at the album a little bit different. Be honest with you, bro, and that's me giving you your flowers because in real time I enjoyed the album, I appreciated the album, but I didn't understand the capacity of the album, if that makes sense, Because I felt like you know, Big had three years to make this album.
Speaker 2:You know you're thinking about the inception of Ready to Die to the inception of Life After Death. And so many things happened in between time where Big had a chance to sit back and really study everything. He studied the landscape. He saw Nas coming up. He saw Nas doing his thing. He saw Nas going through a whole maturation process. You know it was written. You see Ray and Ghost doing their thing on Cuban links. You see Jade coming around the corner. He saw a lot of different things that happened between the release of Ready to Die up until Life After Death. So he had a lot to talk about.
Speaker 2:And this is a time where the risky part was to make a double album and make that double album to be to have something to talk about. And every song on that album Big had something to talk about. It's one of those albums where you can never fault an MC for what he was saying or what he was rhyming about. But the only things I had against it was some of the high-level beats that Puffy was choosing, some of the glitzy beats that he was choosing. But you said it eloquently on the show that that was by design for Puffy, because by that time you're talking about, the success of Ready to Die came from the remixes more than anything else, more than a grittiness of Ready to Die. So if you saw the success from that and that dragged that album to a different tier. You're going to start off this new, this sophomore album, with even a higher grandioso sound, his sophomore album with even a higher grandioso sound.
Speaker 2:And now I thought about it, guys, and again I'm going to pass this to you AG, Think about what Big was doing in that between that time, but also what he was doing on no Way Out. Just imagine how many songs that was on no Way Out, which is something called a classic that probably could have easily been on Life After Death he gave away to no Way Out, to Puffy. You're talking about potentially three albums that being made in a two to two and a half three year span. No Way Out is Big's imprint. It is Big's imprint. I don't think we talk about that enough. But you listen to songs on no Way Out that is Big's DNA imprint. I don't think we talk about that enough. But this is also no way out. That is big's dna all over that album. It is hey sean just real quick.
Speaker 1:I would swap been around the world out for more money, more problems, and it actually fits better in life after death song wise and sequence wise if you're actually talking about because because more money, more problems stands out on life after death, this, this one, it does like it is my problem with the sequencing Cause there's really nowhere comfortable to put that record. Been around the world actually could have allowed you to slide hypnotized, probably to this too. He wouldn't need to put a verse on it Cause he just did the hook. But I feel what you're saying Like a tone wise, like to fit the rest of the album, but more money, more problems. I actually had a conversation with my homie earlier today and you know, granted, big wasn't here, but that song was really marketed like a puffy record, you know and how it was because big wasn't here, though right because the moment, because the moment the moment is big, like because I tell people outside of big.
Speaker 1:Actually, when you listen to that record on Ready to Die, I can make a legitimate argument to you that it's the weakest record. On this one I can make a legitimate argument.
Speaker 2:I agree with you.
Speaker 1:But everybody loves that verse. That verse is universal. No, no, no, the verse is special. All you got to say is B-I-G. Everybody can finish that joint. That's what I mean. But no, no, no, the verse is special, all you got to say is B-I-G, everybody can finish that joint.
Speaker 2:That's what I mean.
Speaker 1:So that's what I mean and that's the thing that I was trying to cover on Mirror Music was the fact that it's like, well, the reason that we remember him so much is because, well, he was actually more special than the album was, as crazy as that sounds. Yes, I'm going to give you your props, your flowers, bro, because watching that mirror music man you made me look at things on this album A little bit different. Not album, but Big himself, right, because where you and I ain't going to give away Too much because y'all need to get over to mirror music and check that episode out for real, it was real insightful. But when you was Breaking down Big's hits and it's not as like A plethora of like, you know those hits that like we really think, and then his genius is really In, his evil genius, like when you broke down Like that. You know, I'm not gonna say too much about that, but y'all get over to Mirror Music and listen to what Koopa's talking about. As far as that's concerned. As far as the album itself, right, objectively, wu-tang Forever is my favorite as far as that's concerned. As far as the album itself, right, objectively, wu-tang Forever is my favorite double album of all time, but I would say that this is the best double album of all time, and the reason why I would say so is because Big left no stone unturned on this album. He displayed versatility that I don't think has been displayed since Like. This album came out in 1997 and I personally can't name an album that has trumped this since 97.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. All the things that he's doing on here is just he's doing it at a high level. He's taking Bone Thugs-N-Harmony style rapping at a high level and my, I don't want to say it's a knock on big, but if I'm nitpicking, all my favorite MCs, a lot of the other MCs at the top and the top five will have big in the content area. But I think on this album he has Missing you. He has Sky's the Limit. He's starting to get into his content bag a little bit more and we won't even talk about the storytelling. The storytelling is you know what I'm saying bar none. You know, I hate to say this, ag, my biggest problem with life after death is actually the content song, because I think it's the weakest part of his bag. Those are the records that I enjoyed. He didn't need to work on that, but I just appreciated that he was trying. You know what I'm saying he did better uh, sky's.
Speaker 1:The limit is is yeah it's like come a long way, like, like, in terms of crap like that. So so it's like yes, but that's what I mean is it's like oh no, you hear how, how special he is, even if the record isn't special. You're like man, this guy's special. He just pulled that right, like I know. That's not even his main bag. That's like it's actually the weak part of his game. The weak part of his game he's still good for he's still good for 19 points and 10 assists.
Speaker 1:That's the only Achilles heel. And the last two points I want to make about this album. One is the history of the album. Right, I don't hold Ready to Die as high as most people do. Right, because I think you can hear some of the unevenness in the album where some tracks were recorded early on you know what I'm saying Before Puff got, you know, bad Boy going or whatever, and then where he was at Uptown, and then you could hear the tracks afterwards.
Speaker 1:And then Big, like on Big Papa Warning, where he wasn't as amped up and his voice wasn't as animated, he kind of slowed it down. One More Chance Remix is the perfect example of that. Flow in Pocket slowed it down. But if you thought that One More Chance remix is the perfect example of that, flow in pocket slowed it down. But if you thought that One More Chance remix was the pinnacle of that, he showed that he could do that style on any track on this album. And the reason being, oddly enough, was when Steve got in a car accident and he broke his leg. So Big recorded pretty much this whole album sitting down in the booth. He had to go to a booth in a walker and sit in a wheelchair and record his rhymes. But when you're doing it from that people, like I said, we've all three rapped at some point, recorded in a booth or whatever you can't get super amped up. If you're sitting down recording a verse, you just can't. But that got him in a silky smooth pocket in and out on all these songs. So it was a gift and a curse in a sense with what he was doing, because I don't think you get that same delivery if he's able to kind of like stand up in the booth.
Speaker 1:I've always felt that from the inception of this album. So that's one thing. And then the second thing is and then we can move on is most double albums and um hip-hop around that time were event albums. Coop, you always you know I'm saying speak so much about um, all eyes on me, how, when pot got out of jail, it's like all right, dog pound, you got that record, that's going on. Pox album, dre, you got this going on. Pox, it's all hands on deck or whatever.
Speaker 1:Wu-tang Forever me and Sean, we talk about this all the time. They moved all the way out to Cali. You know what I'm saying, saying yo, we got to be locked in. We can't even be at home to record this album. We're recording this in Cali, we're locking in for so it's a big event with this bad boy double album for big. All the features are perfectly placed. I don't think it's any feature that's not needed. But the one thing that really made me realize this was an event album was because me and Sean did a station has shown this mob deep and Wu-Tang didn't mess with Bad Boy at all. Like that, outside of Meth doing his feature on the what and then Puffy producing the Mariah remix with ODB, the Wu and Mobb Deep they would mess with Nas. Mobb Deep and Wu had their own little clique. But when RZA gave him Long Kiss Goodnight and when Habit gave him Last Day, I was like, okay, they're saying we cannot miss this, we cannot be a part of this.
Speaker 2:Too big to ignore.
Speaker 1:Exactly, it's an event album and they didn't give them B-folder beats. That's top-tier RZA on Long Kiss Goodnight. In my opinion, that's top-tier Havoc on Last Day. They can fit on a Mob or a Woo album.
Speaker 2:It's top tier, it's the bottom of their top tier, though. It's still in the top tier, though it's top tier.
Speaker 1:It's the bottom of their top tier, though.
Speaker 2:And that let me know that it was real.
Speaker 1:You want to know what it is. It's like they literally gave him a 90 beat. Like what's that?
Speaker 2:It's like they literally gave him a 90 B, like just enough to give him a. It's like no, no, no, you don't want to get a competition Cause they was in the competition.
Speaker 1:I'm giving you a 90. I'm not giving you a 97. I'm giving you a 90.5. Rap on this. 90.5. Rap on this. A minus and he killed him. You know what I'm saying. But that's direct competition. And I was just like 16 year old me realized that when I'm looking at the booklet for production credits, I'm like yo RZA producing on this album. You can never produce outside of the womb. I like that. He sounded pretty stellar over the RZA track.
Speaker 2:I thought I liked him better on Long Kiss, good Night than I did.
Speaker 1:I liked him better on Long Kiss, good Night than Last Days. Here would be my synopsis. I do want people to watch the Mirror Music episode. It is one of my better bags and one of me and Andrew's better episodes in my opinion.
Speaker 1:So I don't want to give away too much, but his legacy, much like Pac's legacy, is shrouded in something where if you really go listen to the music, it's like oh, that player that you talk about, that player only on about like five, six, seven records on his actual albums. You know what I'm saying. He's not a player on his albums. He's a player on these remixes. He's a player on junior mafia's album. He's on a player to the remixes, to the song that he remixes. He's not a player like that on his albums. His albums are more like my downfall kicking the door everyday, struggle, warning ready to die, the what last day, dark stuff. Yeah, and here's the thing that I really want people to realize in ag. I just want to piggyback off your point. Then we can slide, because he sat down in that chair man.
Speaker 1:His flow is so silky. Never has anybody actually said more with less words. He had started doing stuff rhythmically. That's why I picked the last verse of my downfall. The first verse is actually, lyrically, the best verse. But when people talk about his flow, his delivery and cadence, he had started learning to do things so subtly that you missed the fact that he was actually using less words than any great MC that we had ever heard. He had started learning to do things so subtly that you missed the fact that he was actually using less words than any great MC that we had ever heard.
Speaker 1:He had really found such a comfortable space on the beat guys. It was damn near literally like he was just floating over the track. Whenever he felt like it, we used to hold the gold. Now we floss the diamonds. Niggas want my team to stop shining. You see how he's enunciating and letting it fly. Pray, my fame start declining, whining like girlies. We've been around the world twice. The beat's going like this and to even make light of like the wreck when he's in the wheelchair. I used to be as strong as Ripple B to Little C's Cripple Me. Now I play hard like my girl's nipples like come on, bro, this is the second best rap, second best rap, second best version of a rapper I've ever heard in my life. Behind 95, 96 Nas Period.
Speaker 2:Back to you. Kappa Donna was supposed to be on the hook of no Kiss, but they took him off.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that. I remember you told me that, sean. I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:I remember you told me that Sean I didn't know that Kappa was saying time for you to die. That was Kappa.
Speaker 1:First of all, we don't have any proof of that. Until you produce proof, here we go, here we go.
Speaker 2:We got one more anniversary.
Speaker 1:before we slide out of this topic, it was the diplomatic community joint speaking of double albums. I didn't see Diplomatic Community in there. Sean put it on Twitter the other day it was 3-25, march 25, 2003. Okay, I got a question for y'all. A lot of people consider this a classic. I don't. But my question for you all is and this is no disrespect to dip set but has any other group or collective done more with less? And what I mean by that is cam is not, can't. I love cam, but cam is not like top 30, all-time great. He's somewhere.
Speaker 1:After that, juelz was new, but he had New York on fire for a short time. Jimmy didn't even rap, freaky didn't rap. But this is how important marketing is and selling yourself. You know what I mean. I really mean it. And Dipset Anthems are some of the best New York records in the lexicon of New York hip-hop, right? So has any other crew or collective done as much as they have and created a legacy for themselves with less talent like that amount of talent? I don't know if less is the word.
Speaker 2:I was trying not to be disrespectful. I get what you're saying. You know what I'm saying. I think the very part of it, the word AG. I was trying not to be disrespectful. I get what you're saying. You know what I'm saying I think they're part of it, Sorry man, Cool bro.
Speaker 1:I think Dipset AG is part of a cultural transition in music where the culture of the music started mattering more than the music which is very much still what exists to this day. And so what they provided us was actually more great hip hop culture and ethos of uptown Harlem lifestyle than they did actually provide great rap records. They embodied hip hop culture for Harlem and for New York and for the East Coast more than they had embodied it musically and MC wise, and that was a transition, because usually to come from New York and have that torch as a group, you had to be the nicest group, like on the mic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:You had to be a mob beat. You had to be a Wu-Tang, a Run-BMC, an EP. No, you had to fit certain things and no, they didn't fit that. But also the game had shifted. And here's where you've got to give them credit and got to give them credit. And we can look at it in hindsight, and it's probably cam. Oh, cam is a brilliant businessman and cam saw the game shifting and he shifted with the game appropriately, was ahead of the curve, and because cam was ahead of the curve, he got his crew ahead of the curve and that being ahead of the curve granted his crew a moment from which he capitalized on, and he never stopped capitalizing on. No, they were great at the slick talk too, but I'm from Harlem uptown.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a chance and a swagger. What Diff Set got over on everyone is the fact that they were confident and they had a lot of swagger. At the same time, cam and Jew Wells carried the torch when it came to just the bravado of rapping. Jim was just talking on diplomatic immunity. The best thing on the diplomatic immunity to me was the beats. Heatmakers came with some bangs.
Speaker 1:You guys rap.
Speaker 2:How many people rap to? I Really Mean it beat. How many people rap to? I Really Mean it beat.
Speaker 1:Look, not me, but my right-hand man, holla did, and Holla was right there in the studio with me all the time. Yeah, holla rapped to that shit. Yeah, it was one of those Super chats.
Speaker 2:We can move on, double barrel what it do.
Speaker 1:Two dollars the king is in the five. I'm sorry, I'll give it a great four. What the hell is a great four. Two dollars the king is in the five. I'm sorry, I'll give it a great four. What the hell is a great four. Slide over. What are we doing, cj? Shout out Much love. Fellas Just got back from a successful speech. I'm sure it was successful for you, cj, you're doing great. What is today's creative topic that AJ came up with in place of the 4.5 mic tournament?
Speaker 2:LOL, we'll be getting to that shortly.
Speaker 1:It's like jab at AG. It's like jab at the source. That's more of a jab at the source than it is at AG 4.5 mic tournament. Cj the Kid, also Sean your fit, looks like Malcolm X on the Roots album cover of the Tipping Point. Bless you. For real, cj must have been hanging out with Mad Max behind the scenes. I'm pretty sure CJ must have been hanging out with Mad Max behind the scenes. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, definitely the shade is real.
Speaker 2:Okay, real cool.
Speaker 1:Oh, cj, the Kid Diplomatic immunity is a general consistence, classic fellas. You guys know I wouldn't lie when it comes to this.
Speaker 2:Not general consistence. I'm surprised.
Speaker 1:CJ's saying that man CJ the Kid Coop. I remember on your previous concept you said you'd bar out over Dipset, you'd outbar out every. I think it means to say every Dipset outbar every Dipset member.
Speaker 1:So I don't know if I can trust your judgment. Lol, kid knows. Oh no, I'm going to be honest with you. So, cj, you want to hear some real shit. When I heard the Wally record in real time, I thought to myself it's like oh no, I was better than you when I was active and if I was still active I'd be better than you now. That's exactly what I thought when I heard the Wale record. They don't want none of this. If I get live, all right, that's wild. No-transcript.
Speaker 1:The GOAT debuted the moonwalk on Motown 25. Michael Jackson, first time we ever seen the moonwalk on live television, changed the world. Yes, it did, motown 25. The GOAT, I know you're Prince Guy, but I'm sorry. Coop the goat, look here. This is actually perfect timing because unfortunately, my time here in this house is up, because my battery is about to die and I need to get to my car and get some actual, real, legitimate charging. I'm going to have to set out this next segment. I'm going to let you guys talk about this album that's supposedly getting made hypothetically, possibly, maybe man, this nigga been at the stage table telling us he got three in the possible. For 12 months I've been in like 15 dice games since I last heard the last track. It's been a minute. Life is like a dice game. In case you didn't know, might want to remake that record, hint, hint. But.
Speaker 1:I'm going to let y'all get to that. I'm going to get to the car, get some charge. I'm going to hit y'all back in a minute.
Speaker 2:He did remake the record right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want them to remake the record. I want it remade. I'll be back in a minute.
Speaker 2:All right, no doubt. Yeah, we got one more super chat from CJ. No shit at all, guys. No, we appreciate you, cj, we appreciate you, CJ, we appreciate you, man. All right, so what are we going to do next?
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Nas calendar man, that Nas calendar is making waves, you know I'm saying yeah, so I was posted on his ig story, in case y'all didn't know already his schedule for, um, well, a lot of the schedules already transpired. Uh, this month of march, you know, going into april, and he's, he's dropping some, some hints at what he has coming, you know, in the future and it looks like this Primo album is definitely going to happen, man. And what do you think, sean?
Speaker 2:I'm excited. I'm excited, don't rush it. Don't rush it, we don't have time, take your time. I was more excited to see Havoc being a part of that calendar. You know, the Mobb Deep album, right, and actually curating together, being able to see all of that, and just the fact that he threw it out there giving a hint, right, you know, that was intentional, that wasn't like a mistake or oopsie, that was intentional because it got the people talking, we talking about it.
Speaker 2:You know, we're trying to figure out about putting that bet scene when it's going to drop, when it's going to happen. Look, when it happened, it happens. Let's just let's enjoy the time leading up to it. Let's enjoy it because, no matter what they do, at this point people want to criticize and ridicule. We're already hearing people saying you know, preem is not the same Preem and all of this and that. So it's going to be anticipation and I'm hoping that Prem get a chance to read some of the comments and hear some of the chants out there about where he's at as a producer. That can motivate him as well. So I'm looking forward to see how it's going to turn out. Again, there's no rush on it, man. Take your time, put it together and let's make sure we have a good album.
Speaker 1:Right, uh, preem has actually been responding to people on Twitter, so it's kind of entertaining, um, but one thing I will say Nas is not somebody who really put stuff out of it out there like that. I mean, in this new era. I like it cause he's one of the you know what I'm saying the legends, legacy acts, the older rapper, and during the Hit-Boy run he would do little things to tease projects Remember the Magic series? He had the like Harry Houdini, you know what I'm saying clips and all that stuff. But for him to reveal his whole calendar, that's something that you know I typically wouldn't think he would do. So that lets me know that this thing is for real. They're not BSing the fans, they're not pump faking. He's letting us know what it is and I have the dates right here in front of me. You know what I'm saying, just to read them off real quick to the people. So he had down for February, 24th through 27th that he's going to be recording with Primo in the Bahamas, 24th through 27th that he's going to be recording with Primo in the Bahamas. And you know we've known Nas to have some other classic recorded sessions in the Bahamas. You know what I'm saying, some of the stillmatic sessions was in the Bahamas, so hopefully more classic material comes out of that.
Speaker 1:On March 4th he's tapping in with Primo. Again On March 5th he has a Raekwon listening session. It's news that Raekwon is currently working on his new solo album. So you know, yes, this could be just him tapping in showing love to Ray, or he could be involved in some way. I would hope that Ray would be on Massapil. That would be kind of fire. But, um, I heard in our discord uh, somebody mentioned it's a whole campaign that's coming. That's going to be called like the is it the legends of the fall or something like that? Campaign by Massapil and it incorporates all the rappers from my era. It's going to be probably the Nas and Premier and they have announced this officially. You know what I'm saying. Don't quote me on it, but it was seen on Reddit. But you got Nas and Premier, you got Raekwon, you got Ghostface and you got the new Mobb Deep album produced by Havoc and Alchemist.
Speaker 1:Moving down the calendar, march 6th he's tapping in with Primo, again also on March 11th, and then, what I just spoke to, march 12th. He has something on there that said Legends. You know what I'm saying so maybe that's part of getting this campaign together. March 18th he has Ghostface Killer listening. You know Ghost is working on an album simultaneously too and I hope and pray it's better than the last one. Um, you know I'm saying the guns and roses because you know I think they could have been a lot better. Let's go do that, go ahead, all right, but but yeah, he has the ghostface listening session and then he's tapping in with premier that day as well.
Speaker 1:March 21 21st is DJ Premiere's birthday and that's on. Dj Premiere's birthday was when he revealed this calendar, march 21st through April 5th. This is the biggest span he had blocked off on his calendar, you know. So we got, you know, close to a few weeks there. That's all primo sessions. You know that whole span, march 21st to April 5th. But on March 24th he has Mobb Deep on the calendar, which you know Alchemist already said on I believe it was Hot 97, maybe that Nas was involved in the makings of the Mobb Deep album with the posthumous Prodigy verses and then Havoc and Alchemist was handling all the production.
Speaker 1:So I don't know if Nas is executive producing or what his role is, but he's very much involved in this process. And then the big one that caught my attention at first was April 3rd. He has a video shoot. So anytime you got a video shoot you know something is you know right around the corner. So I'm gonna make a bold prediction here. Could be wrong. If the video shoots on april 3rd by the time you know post-production, editing and stuff comes out, I want to say we could be getting this album at the earliest by late april.
Speaker 1:Um, define my name dropped on the illmatic 30th anniversary last year, which was april 19th, and then I looked on the calendar and I think april 20th might be a friday or something like that. So it won't. The Illmatic anniversary won't fall on the 19th. I mean, it'll be on the 19th but it's not a Friday when albums release. But at any rate, I think we could potentially get the album a year removed from Define my Name and close to around the Illmatic anniversary is my prediction. But I could be wrong. What say you to that, sean?
Speaker 2:That's fair, that's fair. Oh man, what say you to that, sean? That's fair, that's fair. You're talking about shoot, we bought less than a month from then. That's the case. So that means we're ramping up really heavy right now. I don't know, man, I don't think we get it then. I don't think we get it then. I think that we're going to get it. I think, more summer, maybe going to the fall.
Speaker 2:This is that type of type of vibe. You know it's hard to determine, because they're doing it the right way. In my opinion, they're not giving you flat out, you know, cookie crumbs to lead you to the destination, right, and I don't think, as a fan base, we should want that. Right, and I don't think, as a fan base, we should want that. We want them to lock in. We want this thing to be right.
Speaker 2:Because what if we get stuff from Abdi first, with Nas producing and you know, kind of getting things ramped up on there? What if we get some good verses on there to ramp them up? Right, you want to build the right anticipation for it. Because what if we get a Ray album, another Ray album, because it's rumored that Ray is working on an album and he said he has a Ray listening session. What if you get a verse on there where him, ray and Ghost doing something like a I don't know a part two, you know, to the classic joint that they had on Q-Millie? What if we get that Verbal had on Cuban League? What if we get that River Indy course part two? Just, you know, spitballing it.
Speaker 2:So what if we did that? What if we get another you know classic look from him to ramp things up. Now we're building up anticipation. We've been up to anticipation Because, as Cooper always said, we were waiting for this for almost a year now. So you know, not close to a year. Now let's make a deal. Let's get some classic features, some classic guns, and then let's cross the head, that's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what I'm saying. I hope they you know what I'm saying. Hope they you know what I'm saying Do take their time Because it's a lot riding on this album. You know what I'm saying. I'd be lying if I said it, if I didn't say it was. But yeah, so you know, I know we wanted to rush the process and hurry and get the album out last year To keep the streak alive, because you know we was getting Nas releases consecutive Since 2020. But at the end, the streak alive, because you know we was getting Oz releases consecutive since 2020, but at the end of the day, it's better that they take their time with this one.
Speaker 2:What's in your cool?
Speaker 1:I wonder how back into the beat folder they're going. Like I was always, I'm hesitant about this project because I'm mindful of their legacies about this project because I'm mindful of their legacies. And when I mean I'm mindful of their legacies, I'm very, very clear on the fact that if you don't think that these guys are top five at their respective crafts all time, objectively I don't know how much of your hip hop opinion I can necessarily like trust, because they just have done too many important things to the culture and so predecessors that would have them lower or people after that would have them lower. I really can't agree with that. Even though both of you guys do come from our era, so to speak Primo kind of precedes our era a little bit more I'm just really, really worried about their legacy more than anything else, and so I don't want a project that makes people go oh, they could have kept that. And so I think it's important, like the start of this album is going to be one of the more important start to a rap album in recent memory in terms of how it captures people's attention and sets expectations, because you do have to understand that for most people who have heard Nas in the first time that they heard him.
Speaker 1:Oh, they heard him over a primo beat. They heard him on New York State of Mind first. That was special to people because Illmatic was one of those albums that all of us were told to buy without us being familiar with the artist or the records. Like we were just told that it was it. You know, like that, that's kind of how I found out about it. I'd never heard him Like when I, when I remember listening to New York state of mind for the first time and being like, oh my fucking God, like what, what, what?
Speaker 1:What is like, what is this that's going on that album, those two specifically in relationship to that album. That song in particular has such a big effect on hip-hop culture when we look at the craft of emceeing guys and so anything that doesn't like you know, and so you have to be mindful about about that starting off the album. So I'm just funny about the nuances of so many things. I mean seeing the calendar lined up with uh, with the ghost and array and with mob, like that makes me smile. That lets me know that the thinking is along the lines of uh. That lets me know that they're doing this for the fans. You know, somebody tweeted it's an old-ass Disneyland. Yeah Right, I saw that.
Speaker 2:It's like nigga, I want to go to Magic.
Speaker 1:Nas is showing how to navigate, being an older artist in this generation, and he's putting other artists of his era that were his peers on his back and bringing them along for the ride. You know what I'm saying. He's like pioneering this in a lot of ways, cause who else has done this? No, I, I agree with you guys. I mean, he's a trendsetter about so many things, guys, but we often have conversations and we always taper it back to the music and you know, like I'll say this respectfully, dj Premier has had moments in the modern-day era, but this album needs to be a moment and if he's going to be the only beat maker that's supplying the beats, I am a little concerned about him being able to supply that moment because he hasn't supplied us with that moment since.
Speaker 1:Moment of truth, guys, that was 1998. Right, you bring up an interesting point that I want to ask you all about, um, before we leave this topic. Coop, you said you wonder how far back in the folder that they're going. What would y'all's response be to that? If the album comes out and it's great, and Primo says yo, I went back into my folder of old beats that was collecting dust from like 98, 99, and I tinkered with them a little bit and put them on here and then, you know, nas just did his thing on him. Would you think that would be cheating? Because I personally that was his. You know, moment of truth, era 98 was Primo at his finest hour, but I want to see where Primo can cook up in 2025, for not, I really do. How would y'all feel if he would say, okay, yeah, I got this from my folder from 20 plus years ago and you know, I think that would be cheap a little bit. Sean, you want to handle that right quick. What are your thoughts?
Speaker 2:You got it.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I'll tell you what Black Rob's manager used to tell me. The only people that know that your shit's old is you and your camp, and they're the only people who care that it's old too, and over a course of time I found that to be very true. He told me that when I was still actively rapping, because I was re-recording a song in atlanta that I had actually recorded in california three years before. But when he heard me redo the song, I was feeling funny about redoing it and he was like poop, he's like nobody cares. He's like you know how many bad boy niggas done redid songs that you ain't never even known like the song got redid. He's like nobody cares. He's like only your crew know that the song is old. He's like you know I'm saying he's like now drop that shit. You know what I'm saying? Just like yeah, yeah. So that's how. That's how I feel about it. I look at it from the perspective of somebody that you know that used to manage a platinum artist shared with me. He's like no, he's like niggas don't care about that, and proceeded to give me old bad boy beats that other niggas hadn't rapped over yet or had rapped over, and Right, yeah, whatever motivates you People have to understand this Like when you're in the studio on a regular basis, it's whatever motivates you. And that's what I mean about him being the only producer and going back into an old folder is because when I actually did my second album, most of the stuff that I rapped over was actually beats the other cats in my camp didn't want to rap over and I was like I'll rap over those. Like the producers that were in our camp, like they were giving guys beats and they're like I don't want to rap over that and I was like get that shit here. That's how I picked shit, because I had to dig through shit to find shit to rap through the camp. Because I was working full time. Most of my niggas was hustling. They was in the studio all the time. So when I pulled up, a lot of the good beats was gone so I had to go into old folders.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just some rap shit. It's like sometimes you just pick the inspiration for whatever you can get it from. You know what I'm saying. And both of their things that they do extremely well is the nostalgic thing. So I would think those old folders. I would love to hear them actually pull some shit. Wouldn't it be dope on this album if we got an old Gangstar song that Guru and Primo never finished, but Guru was still on it, but Primo and Nas kind of tweaking and redoing. You know what I'm saying? I want to hear me as an old-head. Disneyland ass nigga wants to hear shit like that. I do. That's fair. Go ahead, sean. I have one thought, but go ahead.
Speaker 2:If that, like you said, I Go ahead. Sean, I have one thought but go ahead. If that, like you said, is a cheat, I'm okay with that, because if that's if we're going to get that version of them we've heard that version of them, we love that version of them and that's one of the biggest complaints that a lot of Nas fans have. They want to get that version of Nas. I mean Nas and Cream. That introduced him to the world of Nas and Cream. So if he has that in his tongue and he's going to reproduce that and bring it 2025, I'm okay with that. I don't care if it's a cheat code.
Speaker 1:I'm okay with that. Yeah, I mean, y'all's points are valid. Y'all are changing my opinion a little bit and I thought of one reason why I guess it wouldn't be that bad If they did that. I wouldn't want to know it though, right, I wouldn't want them to reveal that to the public. And two, we would have no way of knowing. I'm just holding primo to the standard, but if I got to keep it all the way real, we would have no way of knowing if Nas went into his ROM book from 98. But I mean, ag, ag, here's the thing about it too. I think, at least in our case, your ear is probably astute enough that, oh no, you're gonna hear if that old you're gonna hear it like you're gonna hear it, like you're gonna be able to know part of what we talk about with the knobs and the hit boy run is how fresh the sound sounds for nods.
Speaker 1:You're gonna be able to tell if it's some old, because, because we've talked about how what Hit-Boy did that was so remarkable is take something old and make it sound fresh and new. Well, what these guys need to do is actually take something old and make it sound fresh and new, and that's why I said I wanted Hit-Boy around the way that Preem was around for some of this Hit-Boy stuff that went down. I would like for Hit to be around for the stuff that Preem's doing, absolutely, because I feel like it's a good balance and I feel like it's a good working relationship. It's good chemistry and I like having the young guy in the room or the younger guy in the room that can be like no, no, no, you niggas is cool, but you're just a little bit too old. It'd be the sound like this. Now you know what I'm saying absolutely, absolutely. Now.
Speaker 1:Here is one thing about this that I think people here's one thing that I think people are missing, and I started noticing this trend probably about two years ago. On don't worry, die too, that old, nostalgic 80s style sound has started to come back. I call it the miami vice sound, where it's like everything sound like crockett and tubbs about to come arrest all the niggas in the room, but that that style and that sound has come back a little bit pre is from that era that precedes us. And that's what I mean about taking something old. I mean even taking something old by their standards, by our hip-hop standards. Not like the 92, 93, 94 Gangstar stuff. No, like the 88, 89, 90 stuff. You know what I'm saying. Taking that and freaking it, taking some of those beat folders and going over it again. That's what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about taking the shit that was left on the cutting room floor after Mass Appeal got made Gotcha. I'm not talking about taking, like, the shit that was left on the cutting room floor after mass appeal got made.
Speaker 2:You know, gotcha Right. I'm more looking forward to the content, because one of the things that I loved about the Magic series and the KD series is the content. What Nas was talking about, he was talking in the present. Everything he was talking about in the Magic and KD series he was giving you a reflection, he was giving you a hindsight, he was giving you history, but he was more so talking about everything that's happening in the present.
Speaker 2:He made it sound fly, made it sound dope. He wasn't talking about things that other rappers are talking about, that's around or whatever. He's talking about his life and he made it fly, he made it dope. He's talking about one of my favorite songs off of. He's talking about his life and he made it fly, he made it dope he's talking about. You know, like you know, one of my favorite songs off of Magic 3 was just him talking Autist Mm-hmm. Yep, he's an OG. He's talking about being an OG and how he's got to get back to the art flow. You know what I mean. You're talking about Fever when he's talking about turning, he's about his birthday. No-transcript, we good, we're good.
Speaker 1:It's the content that drives me more than anything else and a lot of people were really messing with that Rock Marcy joint, the Armani section. I thought it was a pretty good track. I wasn't going crazy over it, but a lot of people was like, yo, this is the bag you need to be in for the Nas album, and I was personally thinking that joint is pretty tough, but I don't think it would be tough enough to make the cut on the Nas album. It depends like. Here's something that we need to be mindful of too nas doesn't need a lot, guys. He works the best with minimal instrumentation, not overproducing. That's why nazir is one of his worst albums, right? But that's also why I'm like no, no, no, don't dig up some of that old like boom bap, ass beat break. You know what I mean, because that's that's what that's where he thrives. He doesn't need. He doesn't need a lot. You know what I mean. Like you can like. How about this?
Speaker 1:When I listen to white label, it's like, oh no, if frank can give him white labels, I think we'll be good. That's my favorite record on that album. But you feel me like but, but style wise and beat-wise, that's that pocket. It's like, oh no, he thrives on that sparse instrumentation as well as anybody who ever lived. And so it's like, if it's sparse, but the bass is heavy and the drums are kicking and the snare and the hi-hats are snapping and it sounds dope, it's like we're going to gravitate to it. So it's not like we're going to gravitate to it. So it's not like I'm asking him. It's not like we're asking him to do a stellar job. We are asking him to do the right job, though.
Speaker 2:That's it, that's it.
Speaker 1:You know Like no, no, no.
Speaker 2:So I think I was listening to Nasir a couple weeks ago and I was thinking like I'd be's a good barometer, because I don't want to like, I don't, I don't want to compare what Nas and Cream are doing to what Hit and him did, because that's what people did to Hit about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, correct. So it's not fair to do it in reverse. You can't have it on, you can't. You can't tell me that heads is unfair and then tell me the tails isn't. That heads is unfair, and then tell me that tails isn't, and so it's the other way around too, so I think. Right. So I think something like a white label is something that we can look at pre-Hit Boy, but still in Nas' pocket, but still in Pre's pocket, production-wise.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So, if it's full of white labels, I'm okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's fair and fellas. The fact that he's around some of his peers, around Hacker, around Ray Paul, around Ghost. That gives me encouragement because you got some high-level MCs and guys from that era to course-correct where needed. When you're collaborating like that, that's what made Jay so successful. When you're in the studio with Beans, you're in the studio with Sauce Money in the very beginning. You're in the studio with Kanye being as creative as he is. You're being in the studio with State Property. That's going to bring out that creativity that's going to help you get over that hump and help you get that extra oomph in the back right Pause. And that's what I think you have in someone like a habit. Ray Kwan, you know Gold's face People that he's grown up with in the game, and you got Preen right there who's telling you ready nods and ready Preen. You've got all of this stuff around you. You've got to get the best version.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they don't need to cook it in the studio, reminiscing the old stories. Here is the thing, though guys If they do a full album together, there do have to be at least one or two all-time classic joints on there. That's where the real pressure lies. They got it. I mean everybody. We do all understand that they need to make at least two or three songs that rival stuff that they've made before in order for this to even be a success, so to speak, and so there's still some very intense pressure on, because their level's a little different. Their level's Memory Lane and Nas is Like and Represent and New York State. No, that level's different.
Speaker 1:And do not tell me that you about to listen to an album full of second childhood. So when I'm talking about they classic stuff, I'm talking about the high end classic stuff. I'm not talking about second childhood or come and get me off Nostradamus. Nah, there need to be two or three records on there that's floating, that give you the feeling of a Memory Lane or a Nas is like or New York State of Mind. Yes, they do have to do that. They do Because to whom much is given, much is expected. And if he's the greatest MC of all time, and if he's one of the two or three greatest producers of all time, well then guess what you gotta give us. That's fair. That's fair Because Snoop and Dre have the chronic and doggy style. My nigga, they do.
Speaker 2:They, snoop and Dre, have the chronic and doggy style my nigga they do they do?
Speaker 1:So they get to coach. Nope, nope, that was my whole point. So they get to have a missionary, they get to do that shit. All jokes aside, though, they get to do that for the rest of their career, because they made the chronic and doggy style.
Speaker 2:Who gives a damn?
Speaker 1:That's like the Dave Chappelle joint, where he's talking about Michael Jackson, but he made Thriller.
Speaker 2:But he made Thriller.
Speaker 1:Every time somebody talk about like I don't like Snoop like that, I'll be like he made Doggy Style and the Chronic you don't get to say that out loud in hip-hop circles it's like I don't fuck with Snoop like that. He made the Chronic and Doggy Style yes, you do. I think we missed the most encouraging part of the calendar For me anyways, and we haven't talked about it the fact that all this time is blocked off to you know and they've probably been doing sessions before now, but I know Nas was touring it just makes me feel more comfortable that they're going to be in the studio together. This album wouldn't work with Primo sending Nas tracks. Let's call that what it is. It makes me feel more comfortable that they're going to be in the studio together. That was one of those things that I don't think that they were going to get away with anyway, ag, quite frankly, like we wasn't about them, like doing away with that, it's like, oh, you sending them shit, we don't want it, send it back. Right, that was going to be the response of the fan base and they both knew that already, so that I don't even think that was ever on the table. I do actually think the weight is about us and the fact that they knew that if word were to get out and the word would get out that they were sending tracks and not sitting in the studio that we would have fit, and they were like, let's wait until we can sit down. So I will say as much as I've been like low key, like talking shit about the weight, the weight's actually about us, it is, it's about the base, it's about the base of people. That's about the like, like fall in love with it instantly and they've been waiting to hear it so long.
Speaker 1:If we were to hear recording, like you know, quite frankly, in a traditional format where people are sending stuff while you're on tour and stuff, we would feel disappointed. We would big, big facts and you know the fact that they, you know, because people forget memory lane and, uh, new york state of mind and those joints was created because naz was in the studio helping him pick out the samples, the chop. He was naz was digging in the crates with Pring. I mean to be honest with you, that's what really. I mean, most of your great, most of your all-time great rappers kind of already have a vision, and so the producer that like that they really work with is the person that kind of like lets them participate on the production side of the vision as much. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So you hear a lot of stories about the rapper like I mean because I mean not not to bring it up and you know, to bring sean down a notch, but jay-z did similar things with cream on friend or foe, where preem wouldn't finish with the beat and jay was like the beat's done and preem's like but no, I got more shit. Jay's like nah, I like it. Like that, yeah, like that's how I want to rap to it. It's like no, your great MCs have a vision for themselves, and Nas is one of those people, obviously, and so that's what I mean about going through the old folders and stuff like that. That's the type of thing that'll activate somebody like Nas and make him hone in his vision, because he is legendary MC, legendary thinker, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's how they think yeah, to that point, jay-z came up with the drop for a million and one into Rom, no More. Jay-z came up with that like look Primo.
Speaker 2:I want you to do this.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, I have a record that I never released that actually took a Nas and Rakim sample, but I had the samples intertwined and I had the producer mix it together. But it was my idea you know what I'm saying Because I had a vision for the record. You know what I'm saying. And I had had a vision for the record before I had even started recording regularly. So I was like, can you do this? And he was like that's fucking great. He was like we're going to get sued because those two samples are never going to go. Anyway, it goes on the coop lost tapes.
Speaker 2:Volume five.
Speaker 1:So you're about ready for this last segment gentlemen, yes, sir, sir, let's get it all right. So this last segment, um, you know, the anniversary of uh we don't trust you, like we spoke to earlier was march 22nd, um of uh of last year and it got me to thinking. That is what started the whole Kendrick and Drake beef. And then you know, we're a year removed from that. But Kendrick, as far as his personal run that he's been on, this onslaught started on that date when he dropped like that, when he's featured on like that. So that got me to thinking, because a lot of people are saying kendrick, over this past year, has had the best year we've ever seen for a solo act in hip-hop. So I just started going through, like you know, my mental, mental rolodex in my head and trying to think of a lot of people that had comparable years or better, and what I mean by that is fiscal years. For those of you who don't know what a fiscal year is, it's not necessarily a calendar year January through December I'm talking about from the time that your run starts, 365 days until it ends. And with Kendrick, he started on that March 22nd date and ran all the way through this year. So that was the litmus test to compare other rappers to, and kendrick has a strong case for having one of the best years in hip-hop history. I'm not arguing against that. But what I wanted to do was go through 10 other rappers who've had comparable or maybe better years, because in the social media era, everything is magnified right and back then a rapper might have had a fiscal year that was so major. In present day we don't remember how heavy that was. So that was the whole premise behind this concept to really do a deep dive on some fiscal years that some rappers had. So, as we get into that, I got an honorable mention. That I want to. The way I want to do this is I'm going to just read off the stats in the fiscal years and I want you two gentlemen to react and talk about how heavy that fiscal year was, if that's all right with y'all. Talk about how heavy that fiscal year was, if that's all right with y'all. So, to start out, we got this honorable mention. This was a heavy year and it's not even making our top ten list and, granted, the top ten is not going to be in any particular order, this is just ten that Phil had the heaviest years, but the honorable mention is Notorious.
Speaker 1:Big you know what I'm saying and Hoop alluded to earlier. The work that he put in on Hoop Orshon alluded to his work in 97, the features on the Bad Boy sorry, the Puffy album, no Way Out and everything he contributed during that time. I'm not counting that because I look at that personally as more of a negative than a positive because he never got to enjoy the fruits of his labor because he was taken from us in March of 97. So if anybody wonders why I'm not including that, it's for that reason alone, because the impeccable run that he went on with those features, as well as his own double album, he wasn't even here for that. So I think that's a major negative as far as that's concerned. But I do have another point in time for Big as an honorable mention and I'm going to read through the stats.
Speaker 1:Point in time for Big as an honorable mention and I'm going to read through the stats that fiscal year runs September 13, 1994 through September 13, 1995. On September 13, 94, he dropped a classic album, ready to Die. We all know that. On February 21, 1995, he dropped a controversial and classic single who Shot Ya? On march 27th 1995 he was on total's debut single. Can't you see off the new jersey drive soundtrack, which is one of big's best features.
Speaker 1:On june 6 1995 the one more chance, stay with Me remix came out, which is Big's biggest record. And on August 29th 1995, the Conspiracy album came out by Junior Mafia which Big wrote majority of that album and he was on like Coop alluded to. Coop talked about this on Mirror Music. Big contributed a lot to hits on other people's albums so that album boasted Get Money and Player's Anthem on those records and he wrote the majority of the album anyway. So that's the fiscal year. For a Big. That's an honorable mention. Gentlemen, would you like to react to that? Can't wait to see your top 10 list. If he didn't make it, that would be the only thing I have to tell you. That's a heavy year.
Speaker 2:That's a heavy year. I don't know the top 10 better be good.
Speaker 1:I mean because when you said that it's like now, I'm thinking about all those remixes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's hard, that's a heavy year, that's a heavy year.
Speaker 1:He's in the background.
Speaker 2:So much that year, though. He's like that's a heavy year Major.
Speaker 1:Yeah, major, and when I tried to put together this list, it was a lot of different factors. Commercial success was part of the rubric critical acclaim, accolades, things outside of music because, like I said, kendrick was the measuring stick. You know what I'm saying. So, like this 10 is not in any particular order, but this is the 10. So I'm going to kick it off with Kendrick Lamar's year, that he had fiscal year March 22nd, 24 through March 22nd of this year. So I'm going to read off everything he did. Feature verse of the year of 2024 would like that Beats Drake in the head-to-head battle. He also had the legendary pop-out show June 19th 2004. He dropped the surprise album GNX on November 22, 2004. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, he wins five Grammys for Not Like Us, clean Sweet. He headlined a Super Bowl 59 halftime show on February 9, 2025. During this year he became the most streamed rap artist on Spotify, passing up Drake and this is not falling within his fiscal year, but he announced it. He's slated to do the stadium tour with SZA starting in April. So I've got that as an honorable mention for his, because the tour is not going on, but he announced it and created a lot of excitement.
Speaker 1:So, with that rundown, what do you have to say about Kendrick's year that he had? I can concur with that. Yeah, I mean it's hard to ignore what the stats and what the facts say. I would say that when you talk about 10 Best Artist Fiscal Year, talk about 10 best artists fiscal year. One of the things that really worries me is is that you talked about a lot of things and very little about his album. I do like it when classic albums are attached to your moment, and gmx is not that, and so while I would tell you that this is is valid, the gmx not being a classic album does hurt it still, in my opinion. If we're talking about the 10 best fiscal years because I'm pretty certain that most of your fiscal years have a classic rap album attached to them, very much so. But the reason why he's here is because he was the inspiration before the for the whole thing, so we're seeing how it stacks up to that. That's fair what you got, sean no, I agree with Kool.
Speaker 2:The album is like it's a catalyst. If you're talking about year over year for a fiscal year and if the album is not a certified classic, then I do think that carries a lot of weight to the. You know to take that weight down or take that weight up. If it's a classic, like the accolades are definitely there, singles are definitely there, but, like we said what I did, the honorable mention they didn't have an album during that time. He was contributing to a lot of other albums, a lot of features, but none of those albums or features that he contributed to really the albums he contributed to, weren't certified classics. So that is a factor.
Speaker 1:AG, let me ask you something, and I'm not trying to be funny or slick when I say this at all Are any of your other top 10 fiscal rap years embodied in any sort of beef with an artist who was bigger than them at the time of the beef starting? Yes, okay, yeah, okay. Now I'm really fascinated by the list. All right, all right. So moving on. So the number two person. Like I said, this is not an order, we're just doing the 10. Matter of fact, we're going to post the list on socials and let y'all rank the order one through 10. Who you think got the best fiscal year? You know what I'm saying. So y'all can engage with this topic. I'm saying so y'all can engage with this topic. But next up I got the legendary Tupac Shakur.
Speaker 1:His fiscal year began March 14th 1995 through March 14th 1996. His vital statistics are Me Against the World was released on March 14th 1995 while he was serving a prison sentence. The album went number one on the charts and it reached double platinum certification while he was in jail. Despite him not being able to be in his promotional singles Three singles for that album, dear Mama, so Many Tears and Temptations. He's not even in those videos because he's serving a jail sentence and the album still goes double platinum while he's in jail, close to triple October of 95, he's bailed out of jail by shooting night and signs the Death Row Records and then he releases the classic double album, hip-hop's first double album. That is on February 13, 1996. And it went number one on the charts. The great Tupac Shakur, what y'all got to say about that year?
Speaker 2:Cool.
Speaker 1:Two classic albums Hold on hold on Arguably in this time. Two classic albums Made arguably hip-hop's most classic song in this time. You get what I'm saying about how, when you're talking about like an all-time great rap year, it's like oh, this, this right here is an all-time up there Great one year. Yeah, this might be the one. Like when I was thinking about your list AG, this was actually the one that I was thinking about the most. I'm like this might be the best year, cuz nobody made two albums this good in a one-year stretch in rap's history.
Speaker 1:In my opinion, not this good, not to the level that both of these albums are, but also has the notoriety. The record sales on both albums like me against the world ends up going quadruple platinum. Ag it's triple platinum by the time he's getting out of jail ends up going quadruple. All eyes on me does another six mil, so that's ten mil off the two albums. Both of them are rap classics. Some of the most classic rap songs on single and streetwise that you'll find are on these two records. It might be the best fiscal year that a solo rap artist has ever had. I'm gonna be hard pressed to find one better than you it checks every box it does, and also too and listen, I'm going to be hard pressed to find one better than you.
Speaker 1:It checks every box. It does Also too and listen to what I'm about to say Went from superstar to icon in this moment in time too. Absolutely, superstar to icon A transition, yes.
Speaker 2:It checks everything Story storylines, controversy, classic album, classic moment Anything you can ask for. It's a changing of the guard, it's a trendsetter, it's a trailblazer All of those things are synonymous with this. So yeah. It's pop. This is where pop became the legend Absolutely.
Speaker 1:That year.
Speaker 2:That year over year, is where Pop became the legend. Absolutely that year.
Speaker 1:That, year over year, is when Pop became the legend. In that year's time he went from rap superstar to legend. In that one year's time. Big facts, Big facts Next up, moving on.
Speaker 1:This is the third entry. We have DMX, His fiscal year ranging from May 19, 1998 to May 19, 1999. On May 19, 1998, he releases his classic debut album it's Dark and Hell is Hot. It went number one on the charts on November 4, 1998. He starred in his debut feature film, Belly, which is a classic Out of the gate. He's a movie star as well as a classic album under his belt. After that he releases his classic sophomore album, Flesh of my Flesh, Blood of my Blood, on December 22nd 1998 and went number one on the charts. Then he co-headlined Hard Knock Life Tour with Jay-Z in March of 99 through May of 99, which was hip-hop's biggest selling tour at the time. And also on April 27th 1999, he was one of the headline artists for the first Rough Riders compilation, Volume 1, which a lot of people hold that compilation very high. So, General, what do you have to say to DMX's fiscal year? It's another strong one.
Speaker 2:To me that's just as strong as Pox, maybe it's up there for different reasons, Because again, it's just as strong as Pox. Maybe it's up there for different reasons Because, again, it's another change in the guard. He took us out the Chinese suit era. He brought the streets back Dropping Su. Arguably, would you guys consider both these Apple Classic I do, or close to.
Speaker 1:I think it's DMX's only no I will put. And then there was X as a classic. I think DMX has three, I think he has three, I think. And then there was X is really great, but it's not a classic. I think Flesh of my Flesh is barely a classic, and when I mean barely. There are some songs over there on that album where it's just like well, he is just so striking and brilliant as a writer and two-talk like.
Speaker 1:It's the beats that didn't age well, it's the beats, it's the production. It's Swiss, but he's pretty damn special on there. I would tell you, ag, it's funny that you were missioning these two fiscal wrap years after the Kendrick year, because when you told me that you were doing this list, these were the two years that I thought of first out my head, and that was Tupac's calendar year and DMX's calendar years. I would probably personally have these years one and two respectively, and here's why I would put Tupac ahead.
Speaker 1:Although Flesh of my Flesh is a classic, I think you can dispute the production. You can dispute the production on Me Against the World as well, and I say this with no disrespect to DMX. That lets you know how special Space Pac was in when he wrote the songs that are on me against the world, because it actually has some of the same production issues that flesh of my flesh has. But song wise is holding up so much better because, quite frankly, pock is a better writer than everybody else. You know what I'm saying. It's just like, at the end of the day, even even for dmx, in dmx's brightest moment, it no, no, like POC's weak production moment is better than your weak production moment as far as classic material and the nature of the classic songs, like DMX is, best song out of that, out of those sets of songs might be like get at me, dog, stop being greedy, damien. Uh, slip in and it's like as much as brilliant as those records are. No, that's not beating Dear Mama and California Love and so many tears, and I ain't mad at you, it's not. There are levels to this Tupac. It's at the highest fucking level, even for DMX, and so that would be my one in two years probably. And I'm glad you said that because that's speaking on what the albums are about.
Speaker 1:But Tupac being locked up, dmx got the caveats of being able. Said that because that's speaking on what the albums are about. But pock being locked up, uh, dmx got the caveats of being able to go on the major or not life tour and co-headliner, and he has belly out there. Pock was a movie star as well, but during this fiscal year, him being locked up, you know, kind of slowed down his movie role stuff. I mean, okay, so I I get what you're saying too, but this is what I mean about becoming an icon. When he got out of jail, mtv news was on the set for california. Love like shooting scenes like that was different for a rapper to get that type of attention. It was like hold on, it's like they don't be having nothing. Fucking video shoots on mtv news. It's like hold on what from mtv.
Speaker 1:That was mtv mtv news is that the cal, the California Love video shoot, giving us previews Like no, that was different.
Speaker 1:And so he might not have been a movie, but he was a bigger movie star than DMX was, even though DMX had a movie. That's my whole point. That's how big he was. It's like, oh no, he didn't have a movie out, but he was getting treated like he had just dropped one. He was, yeah, he was, he was, he was, yeah, he was man. It was like that. And you want to know what else I thought about when you said that too. It is still wild to me that Suge was able to fly all the way from Cali and get this nigga out of Clinton before all them other New York guys he had relationships with Everybody's like. Why?
Speaker 2:are you mad?
Speaker 1:That would be at the core of the issue. It's like oh all y'all know me ain't nobody gonna come post bail, but should yeah yeah it might have you feeling like you got set up yep right so yeah, going on to.
Speaker 1:Next on our list we got Sean's favorite rapper, sean Carter, jay-z, jay-z. At his peak fiscal year, october 31st 2000, october 31st 2001. He drops the. You know what many people consider a compilation album Rock La Familia it goes number one. Consider a compilation album rock live familiar it goes number one. Um then, I've not talked about enough moment in hip-hop, but that's one of the most major moments for me in hip-hop.
Speaker 1:January 12, 2001. Jay takes the rockefeller crew with state property bleak autumn, up to hot 97 for funk flex and does the freestyle sessions over all. Queens beats CNN, bob Deep, nas they're going killing everything. And that's when you know it was really up when they did that classic freestyle session. I remember we burned that on a CD back when you could download off Kaza and we was playing that freestyle session like an album for months. All right, that was January 2001. On June 28, 2001,. He headlines Hot 97 Summer Jam. That's when he put Prodigy on the summer jam screen, demolished Prodigy and then he set off the battle with Nas, asked Nas, he don't want it with Ho. And then, to top everything off, he brings Michael Jackson out on stage. He brings Michael Jackson out on stage September 11th 2001, at the peak of his powers, drops the classic album, the Blueprint, and receives his first ever five mic rating in the Source magazine.
Speaker 1:And people still went and copped the album and did numbers, even though it came out on 9-11, which was a tragic day in US history. Fellas react to that year? Okay, first of all, when tragedy, see and white American needs to understand, it's about Black people. When tragedy happens to Black people, we call it Friday. Okay, the album came out on Friday. So that's how we deal with tragedy. It's like you know such and such had happened, how many people had died. It's like, yeah, tuesday, right, jay did numbers because jay was big.
Speaker 1:I will tell you that until you told me that the blueprint dropped, I was like I'm sitting this album, I'm sitting this rating, all the way in the back next to kendrick on the on this top 10, until you said that the blueprint dropped. And then it made me go uh, but the blueprint, because the Dynasty's not enough for me. Sending Chris and Neif and Sieg up the Hot 9-7's not enough for me. Now the Summer Jam thing is a big deal.
Speaker 1:So the first half of that year, ag, I'm not as big on it as other people might be. I don't think that it's too much to write home about. Oh, but the Summer Jam with Mike and you know out Mike doing the prodigy thing and then dropping the blueprint which had the full takeover disc with the this included, oh no, you can give me all that. And that second half of the year is enough for him to get in that top 10. Because when I tell people nobody's ever been as large in this sphere as he's been this side of Rocky M at the peak, that's that moment that I'm talking about, at the peak of his powers. Yes, yeah, this is it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I'm with you on that.
Speaker 2:Any words on your favorite nah, I mean, yeah, at the end of the day I don't want to say it at the end of the day J was. He was the one, he was the one, he was the one in hip hop at this time. Oh, like Coop said, the first half, which is more of a warmup, but then you get to the blueprint. That's when everything is a go, that's when everything is full throttle. So you're talking about a year over year. That first year you can probably say, yeah, the first half of that year he was just warming up, but that's when he really caught fire with Blueprint, because everything was Blueprint was a combination of everything that took place before it got to Blueprint.
Speaker 2:You're talking about the success of Volume 2, the success of Volume 3, the dynasty. Now you got Jay's legacy starting to kind of ramp up and then you come back and you hit it with. Blueprint was like the bases are loaded. Now I'm hitting everything out the park. Everybody come on home. That's blueprint to me, because he took a shot at Prodigy, got the best of Prodigy God rest his soul and he took a shot at Nas and at that time, in real time again this prior to Ether we thought that Nas was done After. Jay did that because Jay was so powerful and you bring in a Michael Jackson on stage on Summer Jam stage. He was untouchable at that time and then he got touched.
Speaker 1:Then he got touched. Next fiscal year AG. So the fifth entry, like I said, no particular order, we just going through all 10. The fifth entry to fiscal year is Eminem Um. So shout out to our our caution If you watch it and this one's for you. Um, eminem, his fiscal year is May 26, 2002 to May 26, 2003. Um, on the 26, 2000,. May 26, 2002, he drops the number one album, the Eminem show Um. The album is currently diamond certified on November 8th 2002. He stars in his uh breakout hip hop film eight mile and curates the critically acclaimed track uh soundtrack. Lose yourself is one of his biggest records to date. On that soundtrack, the Eminem Show album wins Grammy for Best Rap Album of the Year. That year, february 6, 2003, shady Aftermath signee 50 Cent releases classic album that Eminem has featured on two tracks and he co-executive produced the project with Dr Dre. So not only is he making dope albums, himself starring in feature films, but he's making big time executive moves.
Speaker 1:Fellas react to Eminem's fiscal year School year. I actually I love this year AG. Actually Like when you sat up there and listed it off, like when you started. I was like here AG year AG. Actually Like when you sat up there and listed it off, like when you started, I was like here, ag, go with this bullshit. Nah, man, this is prime M, this is my favorite.
Speaker 2:M era.
Speaker 1:Well, hold on. I was about to say, first of all, 8 Mile's actually a dope movie, okay.
Speaker 2:It really does.
Speaker 1:It's a dope movie. It's a dope movie. It really does. It's a dope movie. It's a dope movie with a really dope soundtrack. Which might have his best mic performance on there in Rabbit.
Speaker 2:Run.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, and not only does. This is just the soundtrack. Not only does the soundtrack have what might be his best mic performance in Rabbit Run, it still might have what is his walkout theme music song, much like TI's. What you Know Will Lose Yourself would be his walkout theme music song. Much like TI's what you Know Will Lose Yourself would be his walkout theme music. And so that would be this time too. The Eminem Show. I have come over to the train of thought and to the thinking that the Eminem Show is his best album. So did he make his best album, his best song, his best bar seminar and a movie in a calendar year? Yay, did he go diamond all the way through through some ridiculous records? Why did it? No, ag, it checks off the boxes. It's a wonderful pick. When you got done talking, my immediate thought was that this might be a top five year. And it's not.
Speaker 1:And signed 50, had the wherewithal to say like, yes, I want him on my roster I'm not giving us that because we didn't know what 50 was going to become yet because and everything else he has is enough.
Speaker 1:to me that's like feather in the cap stuff, because if you're looking at it in hindsight, it's like, oh, he signed 50 that year. Well, that year that you're saying that, so what? But as an executive, eminem has signed a lot of artists over the years and none of them have been able to do what 50 was able to accomplish. Right, that was one of his early moves. If you look, that's after the earliest stuff, the D12, and then the Obie Trice and all that. That was his power move for his label. Shady Aftermath wasn't a player in the game until that move.
Speaker 1:First of all, obie Trice's cheers went platinum and it's a dope project a lot of people don't talk about. That's true, they became major players with that sign. No, they did. But this is what I'm saying when and this is why I'm not giving them credit for it oh, none of us knew when he signed 50 that 50 had turned himself into the greatest hook writer we had ever seen in rap history. Don't tell me that he knew. Don't tell me, no, we didn't know. Nobody seen it coming. I've been listening to that dude since like 97 I did not see that coming right.
Speaker 1:That's what I mean. I'm not giving them credit for it, because what 50 really became on that album was about the hooks and the catchiness of it. It's like, oh no, tell me that, don't tell me that. You've seen 50 going selling 10 million. The two cosigns help.
Speaker 2:That didn't hurt.
Speaker 1:The cosign probably got him to double or triple, but them hooks and in the club got him to die. Man, yeah, he sold about six. How about this? I always looked at it like even though Emond Dre did the cosign 50 still did most of the heavy lifting. I've always given him credit for that. He still did most of the lifting. He took the cosign better than anybody ever did, 100%, 100% what you got, sean.
Speaker 2:This is a powerful year, man. That's a powerful year. This is a hard year to beat because all the success that came along with it you got a classic album, you got the album sales there, the Grammys are there, everything is there. He's done a lot and this is, honestly, this is him leading up again to having a great, another great album. You're talking about what? This is what third or fourth number one album in a row?
Speaker 1:third and fourth, because if you're attaching eight miles to number one albums, this would be four. Yeah, exactly so.
Speaker 2:So I'm talking about you. You got the years prior to that he was killing it, and this year he just pretty much captured everything year over year. So I mean, this is a hard one to beat too.
Speaker 1:Right now. Ag, if I was ranking the years that you've given out, I would go Tupac 1, dmx 2, eminem 3, jay-z 4, kendrick 5 you've given out I would go tupac one, dmx two, m&m three, jay-z four, kendrick five. If I was ranking the year so far yeah, we're halfway through, man, we'll keep on going through the list. Um, next up, who I consider to be the goat, nazir jones, and because of the reason why I consider him to be a goat, he has two entries. Um, but this first one I'm gonna do kind of sort of like an honorable mention Because I think it's the least heavy of the two, but it's still a hell of a year, and shout out to Andrew for helping me edit this one. We got Nas December 2. This is most recent Nas December 2. Sorry. Nas. December 24, 2021 To December 24, 2022. December 24, 2021 Drops the classic album Magic for Christmas Eve Surprise. Then, for the 2022 Grammy Awards on April 3rd, wins his first ever Grammy for the KD1 album.
Speaker 1:He headlined the first leg of the New York State of Mind Tour with Wu-Tang Clan and the United States that ran from August 2022 to October 2022. A very successful tour. I went to that show. King's Disease 3 album is released on November 11, 2022 and is an instant classic In completion of the King's Disease trilogy. On November 11, 2022, nas announced that he would headline Madison Square Garden for a one-night-only show in February of 2023, which doesn't fit into his fiscal year. But he announced that he would be doing the show and then tickets went on sale and that show featured the KD Trilogy in the performance. So that's a Nas honorable mention here. What do y'all got to say about that? Objectively, I don't think it deserves to be in the top 10. Right, that's why it's an honorable mention here, because his for real entry would be a top 10. What you got, sean. It deserves to be there. Well, when we listen to this other one, this other one is heavy.
Speaker 2:The degree of difficulty is what gets me. You're talking about someone who's arguably the GOAT right and you're talking about him in his what? Third or fourth career trimester, if you will. Yes, and he's doing this year over year. No one in his peer group has done this before. No, at this stage in their career. A lot of them tried. We've seen it. We saw Buster who made some attempts at it. These are his peer groups.
Speaker 1:I hear that you just can't sit it next to those other years and say you definitely can't, absolutely not.
Speaker 1:No, I put that, you just can't sit it next to those other years and say you definitely can't, absolutely not. No, I'll put it. I'll put an asterisk beside this one Cause this is an honorable mention when he was the only one with two entries on the list. But this was the honorable mention when this just me being a fan calling them to go, and it's for reasons like this. So his actual entry, we'll get to that. His fiscal year went December 18, 2001 to December 18, 2002.
Speaker 2:I was hoping you would pick that one.
Speaker 1:I was hoping you would pick that year Drops the classic album Stillmatic on December 18, 2001 and receives his second five-mic rating in the Source magazine. He beats Jay-Z in the best hip-hop battle of all time. Yes, that's the best hip-hop battle of all time. Yes, that's the best hip-hop battle of all time. It's not the biggest Because of the Kendrick Drake thing, but this one is the best. It produced two classic albums.
Speaker 1:On September 23rd 2002 Drops the Lost Tapes to critical acclaim. Old Jim's that was already classic in the streets. To keep the momentum going, he said yo, i'ma just give y'all fans this Cause y'all been wanting it. And then, december 13th 2002, releases godson to critical acclaim. And that same week he dropped the classic performance at webster hall. I think it was webster hall, the godson live, where he did the first performance of ether brought uh, jada, kiss and luda on stage, that classic performance.
Speaker 1:So to your point, coop, we talk about classic albums. This one arguably produced three classic albums. So remember I said nobody's done two albums that good in one year. Well, I was right when I said that. About two parts, I'm also right. Well, but I'm also right what I'm about to say, what I'm about to say about Nas, ain't nobody made three albums this good in one year, right Ever. And this is actually further away than being close, than the Tupac thing is, because Tupac does have DMX, his two albums to contend with.
Speaker 1:This three album run for me is actually him at the peak of his powers. As crazy as that seems, because it's post-Illmatic and post-it was written, it's like a trimester, like Sean said. But this is when. How about this? This is when the great MC still existed and he became a great songmaker at the same time. This is when that moment happened. The lyricism and the top-tier lyricism and storytelling hadn't faded yet, but he had become a better song maker the songs that you find on Stillmatic and on God's Son. They sound more fuller and more complete in terms of the thought and execution of song. Even if the song's not better, the MC is still there.
Speaker 1:He did take down the biggest MC at the biggest peak of his powers in the history of rap, big notch on the belt. He did drop a classic album. While doing it, he did follow it up by dropping a classic album of unreleased material, showing that his beat, his cutting floor, shit, literally is better than your favorite rapper's best album, which is another feather in the cap. And then there is God Some, which arguably has his best song that he ever released, which has made you look on there. On top of that being a borderline classic, yes, it's a top 10.
Speaker 1:And here's what else I would tell you. Honorable mention, ag, what I would actually submit to you, and I'm not sure where the actual timeline falls on it, but I actually think you could give him honorable mention from about august of 1995 with that verse on verbal intercourse off the purple tape all the way into august of 96 post it was written coming out and some of the other features and stuff he was getting, because also people forget this while he was dropping that album that year he was also on a big tour with the fugees. Yes, that was his most commercially successful year.
Speaker 1:So many fiscal years you could pull from Right, I would take August 95 to August 96 on the honorable mention over the KD run. Just me personally. Magic KD thing, me personally. Yeah, that's a good pull. But as far as the one, the the one, it has to be this, just because the no, I agree, this is the one. Yeah, this is the one. Has to be.
Speaker 2:Has to be what you got sean no, I agree, this is the one I. I don't know if god's son is a universal classic. It's a personal classic for me. Yeah, I hold that. I hold that album very, very, very high personally, but I can't concede to the fact that it might not be a universal classic, but I still think that Stillmatic is a classic. You got Lost Tapes, which is a classic, and you got Godson. That's three stellar outputs in one calendar year.
Speaker 1:Well, how about this? You could argue prior to this KD magic run, that well, he made three of his five best albums in one year. No, this is his best run, this is his top five, and it was not even up for discussion until Life Is Good got made, and even then was a discussion. So you got to think about it. It's like, oh no, it was another 10 years before he made an album that even cracked the conversation of this room.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, nas fans ain't good during this time, after coming off a tumultuous 1999, going into 2000. Oh, it was great, ag, I've gloated and I've never stopped gloating and reminding all the Jay fans that I've never stopped reminding I'd be like hey, remember when you picked Hov, though, be like hey.
Speaker 2:Remember when you picked Hov, though, be like hey, remember when you picked Hov be quiet, and that's to me, that's what gives this an extra off, because we talked about Jay and his run and Nas is synonymous with that year over year run with Jay, so it's connective tissue between that run that Jay had and this run that Nas had that year over year as well, because he took down the biggest artists in hip hop at that time, which is not an easy feat.
Speaker 2:To your point, coop, we relished in that moment. When Ether came on, my whole crew, they got me in a circle and all I could do is this His song was levitating, I was levitating, it circled me, a crew they got, they got me in a circle and all I could do is this when ethan first came out, that yo I was, I was man. Look, we come from a great era, fellas, I was there live. When ethan came out, I was literally in the club. When it dropped, I was in v, I was in newport News, virginia, bad News Virginia, and all my homeboys were like yo, that's your guy.
Speaker 1:And they just circled me and I just did this, the only thing that I could equate it to, and people have to understand this. This is what people really thought about Nas. People looked at Nas around this time, the way people looked at Ali right before he beat George Foreman. It's like, oh no, we know you was the champ, we know you was the man, but some years have passed and this guy is knocking everybody out in vicious fashion and he might be the best guy we've ever seen. And much like like people in Ali's camp were concerned oh, people in Nas's camp were concerned, you understand. And much like Ali, like like greatest of all time people are supposed to do, oh no, he responded in kind with his best shot, which is what you expect your greats to do in every respective field. And so when we talk about it, I know, like I know the YNs be like yo, y'all really like overhyping, like the J Nas thing. It's like no no, we're not.
Speaker 1:It's very much, it's very. It's very much like rope a dope, Like, in a sense it's like oh no, I don't think you understand much. Like before Ali stepped into the ring.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine if social media was around during that era. How about this? If social media would have been around for the Nas thing, he would be the GOAT and it wouldn't even be a conversation. If social media was around for the Ali thing, Ali would be the greatest figure in the history of sports and it wouldn't even be conversational. That includes with Michael Jordan involved. It's still the greatest victory in the history of sports, in my opinion. People don't understand who the fuck George Foreman is. That motherfucker had 29 knockouts in 31 fights and he knocked down Joe Frazier four times.
Speaker 2:He knocked down Joe.
Speaker 1:Frazier four times Joe Frazier type of nigga you knocked down four times Ali. Muhammad Ali never knocked down Joe Frazier four times you understand. So before we move on to the next one. So, kuba, it sounds like you're saying that this one is slap boxing with Pac or DMX for the number one spot or number two spot. I'm fine, I'm fine, I would tell you objectively, it would be hard for me to put it ahead of Eminem, dmx and Tupac.
Speaker 1:Objectively, I'm looking here's the thing if we want to put him that high, we're talking about the craft of him seeing an album making strictly, and this conversation isn't totally about that first it's commercial success and he went platinum a couple times off this stuff still. Matic is two times platinum. Godson is, uh, either one or two times platinum and um lost tapes it was. You know I'm saying no promotion behind it. I don't know if it went gold or whatever, but still I think, I think I think about the classic nature of the songs.
Speaker 1:The guy made the classic nature of the albums and taking down Jay, I think 4 is a very comfortable place to put him if I were making this.
Speaker 2:I agree.
Speaker 1:Because the Eminem show is a diamond album and it is a classic album. 8 Mile is a super big moment, guys. It was everywhere. We can't just ignore that. Look at you giving him props. I love it, man, when you gave me the rundown, because here's the thing about it. Oh no, I remember Em's moment in real time. That was a real real deal.
Speaker 2:It was.
Speaker 1:That was a real, real big deal. Well, we still got four more to go on this list. It might shake up a little bit more. So next up the sixth entry we got hold on. This is the seventh entry. Sorry, we got Snoop Dogg. Fiscal year December 15th 1992 through December 15th 1993. He's on the 15th December 15th 1992. He's the main featured artist on the classic album the Chronic by Dr Dre, november 23rd 1993, he drops his classic album debut Doggy Style. That went number one on Billboard and sold over 800,000 in his first week. That's ridiculous. That still sounds ridiculous to say that, man, that was 1993. That's 1993. That's literally the equivalent of selling like 3 million records right now, like in a week, like literally.
Speaker 2:You kind of alluded to this earlier equivalent of selling like three million records right now, like in a week, like literally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you kind of. You kind of alluded to this earlier, which, without knowing that he was going to be on this list, that I didn't know I didn't.
Speaker 1:I didn't know. It was in the calendar year. I keep forgetting that the chronic dropped in december because dray day was out. It felt like, like like before that, so long before that. I feel like. I feel like dray day was out three or four months before the chronic even even came out. What's funny, me and Sean talked about this. Even when the Chronic dropped, the video for Deep Cover was still in heavy circulation.
Speaker 2:Deep Cover is one of the best rap songs ever.
Speaker 1:It's one of the best rap songs ever. Of course it's still in rotation. It's one of the best rap songs ever. Yeah, it's in rotation, Matter of fact. When did he make Deep Cover?
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, it's in rotation. Matter of fact, when did he make deep cover? I?
Speaker 1:mean shit, because I mean that was april of, uh, that was april of 92, april of 92, right, what about come december? When was the murder? Was the case? Soundtrack dropped 94 it was 94.
Speaker 2:It was 94 I was that question. I asked that one as well. I mean, was part of it.
Speaker 1:You got the song that inspired that, you know, on Doggystyle, though Objectively you'd have to put Snoop at number one I mean those classics is heavy. I mean, first of all, album-wise Commercial success.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's what I'm saying so here's the thing he's selling just as many records as Tupac before Tupac album. As far as classic albums, it's the only entry that has two of the top ten rap albums on there, because I mean and this is nothing against his Dark and Hell is Hot and All Eyes on Me and Me Against the World, or even Stillmatic or Lost Tapes of the Eminem Show none of those are top 10 rap albums. Doggy Style and the Chronic are top 10 rap albums.
Speaker 1:Some people will try to tell you Blueprint is, but I wouldn't say so. No, it's not. Those are lies. Those are bald-headed lies. Bald-headed lies. Fresh cut Bald-headed lies. Yeah, so Snoop would Chronic Doggy Style. That is where that shit exists. That shit did not exist before Snoop. I don't care what nobody say, I don't care what them old niggas say before that oh, no, we was this. No, you wasn't nigga, you wasn't selling no 800,000 records in a week. Go, sit your ass down somewhere, because nobody was. Yeah, and and. And. So it's actually that rare, rare moment where he had the most record sales at the time and he had the best music at the time and it matched up. That would make him number one. He had the two classic albums and they were actually both like selling the best-selling rap albums for their respective years and they deserve to be right. Yeah, number one, yeah what you got, bro.
Speaker 1:No I, it's hard to not put it there I told you you can't compete with the Chronic and Doggy style. That's what I be telling niggas you can't compete with that shit.
Speaker 2:You got Chronic and Doggy style year over year. Can't compete with that. You actually you carry an entire coast. Yep, not a city, not a state, a coast, the world. Craig, you had the East Coast looking at you as the top dog. No pun intended because of all the success, it's just the carryover is just too much.
Speaker 1:It's so much. It's that he had the moment back-to-back at such a high clip. It's just.
Speaker 2:It's insane, it's literally.
Speaker 1:How about this? How about this? He made more hit records on those two albums than Big did on his two albums, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I mean.
Speaker 1:And that's the whole purpose of this Coop. Like, you know what I'm saying. I know we get to be prisoners of the moment. Like people see Kendrick's here and they like I can't fathom anything being bigger than that. You know what I'm saying. Or you know people who didn't see Mike play in real time and watching LeBron like yo, I can't fathom anybody being better than LeBron. Like, convince me, that's the whole purpose of this. Like a lot of these things, you just had to be there for it. And then, when you running it down and recounting the events of what happened, you're like, damn, like yo, it's people that have big moments in hip-hop and that's what we're here to do. We're here to educate the fan base for real. So I mean not being funny. Like that snoop moment is still the moment to me. And it's like when, when you said that and this is what I mean.
Speaker 2:It's like and you're telling me that kendrick made this list for gmx and for beating drake well, like because he was the barometer, he was right, right, so he had to be on the list right?
Speaker 1:no, no, and I understand that. But now look at where the measuring stick is gone, because now we have the chronic and doggy style. Well, that is a real measuring stick, with the numbers, with the numbers attached to it Four million and five million in a calendar year respectively.
Speaker 2:It changes everything.
Speaker 1:It created a whole new ecosystem of hip-hop the records, the album, the culture, the iconic status, the production, the rhymes, the sing-alongs no people rolling down the street smoke, no, that shit. No, everybody played that shit non-stop, non-stop, non-stop. Yeah, so moving on, this is an example of this guy. This is an example of with this next entry. You just had to be there. It was a time. It's actually one of my favorite times ever in hip-hop. Like I said, it's one of those moments. You just had to be there.
Speaker 1:And that person on the list is Kanye West. Fiscal year running August 20th 2010 to August 20th 2011. What a time to be alive for Good Fridays. That Good Friday run, dropping a track every week on Friday from August 20th through December 17th 2010. That was a fire time right there. Then he dropped that leading up to Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which is his classic album. Many people will say is his magnum opus. He dropped that on November 22, 2010. And then he spun the block on August 8, 2011 to do the collab album with Jay-Z Watch the Throne, fellas. What do you have to say to that?
Speaker 2:again, this is another stellar year over year, because I think this is also this year. When I was putting together the visuals for this year and I was typing everything out, a couple of things came to mind. I said this is the year. This year over year was when Kanye became a megastar. This is when he really ascended into a whole different stratosphere. And I also think this is also year over year that Kanye got crazy. All of that success, all that success and all that creativity that he was doing that year over year.
Speaker 2:Everything else he did before this year was really great, but this was such a strong and pivotal year for year. Everything else he did before this year was really great, but this was such a strong and pivotal year for Kanye. It gave him two different things. It gave him mega stardom, but it also gave him that mega ego, that ego that drove him the way he is now, because this is where he made that hard transition, that hard pivot into everything. And that's when he was out of here. We didn't get old Kanye Lake registration anymore, we didn't get College Dropout anymore and we damn sure didn't get my Beautiful Dark Fantasy anymore. We got a whole different version of Kanye after this year, after this year over year happened. It was like a maturation process for him that went crazy. That's great.
Speaker 1:Coop. What do you got bud? I'm kind of funny about this pick, and not because I'm being funny about Kanye, I'm just not sure how much he deserves to be on this list. I think this is more about his iconic status and the true iconic nature of the music. I feel like this is more of a culture shift. I would put it on the back end, closer to the Kendrick than the Jay. I feel like this is more of a culture shift. I would put it on the back end, closer to the Kendrick than the Jay. You might not hold the Good Fridays as high as I did, but that was my main buy-in for this. Yeah, I enjoy the Good Friday series, AG, and you have talked about it and waxed poetic about it. Actually, you want to know what AG.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go back and listen to the Good Friday series again, because you have spoke about it many times and being a big, big fan of it, maybe I need to give it another run. My beautiful dark Swiss of fantasy is enough and all the controversy surrounding him and it at the time to probably slide him in here in this calendar year because those Good Friday records were good enough. And then Watch the.
Speaker 1:Throne, the Coop Freeze. Oh, there you go. Sorry, I think you were off when I mentioned Watch. The Throne is in that fiscal year too.
Speaker 1:I'm really helping me, but I hear what you're saying. I'm glad you're saying the stance that you're taking on this, because that's what I mean with the good fridays. It's one of those things like if I tell you about it, then you're like okay. And even though you were there for it in real time, if you wasn't tapped in, like kan Kanye had everybody waiting by a computer to download and listen to a track every Friday night, it was chain, chain heavy, chain heavy.
Speaker 2:Christian Dior denim flow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna go back and listen to him again. Some of that shit was pretty tough. I just I guess you want to know what that was. One of those that was around that time, guys, where I had actually stopped rapping. I had fell out of love with rap a little bit. I didn't follow the whole, I followed Ye and followed my beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy more than I followed the culture as a whole. At that time I was a Kanye fan. Still. That was one of those gaps for me. I might have missed some things culturally about yay's importance at that time, that version of kanye at least. Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 1:But a lot of people forget that during that run of good fridays, monster was introduced via good friday. Devil in a new dress was introduced via good friday. So appalled was introduced via Good Friday. Most of the classic material on the album was introduced prior to on the Good Friday releases. So it's one of those things you have to really go back and look at it. To framework it. You know what I'm saying. I would need to listen to the Good Friday series in sequential order, how it was released.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they have it on YouTube like a mixtape where it's like a whole album, like you know it's over an hour so, but it was fire. But you know, even to that point would you say, like where I had Big's year as an honorable mention, do you feel like that Big year should be in the list over this higher year?
Speaker 2:I don't know how biased.
Speaker 1:I'm about to say. I feel like, if I say that, I'm like, get off my lawn with it, and so I don't want to do that. You know, I would prefer to pick a big year. I like it, though, because this is the first controversial one Right.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the big year that you picked wouldn't be the big year that I picked. Yeah, I prefaced that. I don't remember if he was on or not, but I prefaced it by the 97. I count that more as a negative because he wasn't here for that. You know what I'm saying. To like, you know that's a bittersweet shit, you know it's tough, that's a tough one.
Speaker 2:Big years are like we talked about earlier. You're talking about from Ready to Die to Life After Death. He did stuff in between, but the things that he was doing in between was more so ghostwriting, you know features and things of that nature, but it was spread out pause through those three and a half years. So you're not talking about a year over year of big, I guess high-level excellence, if you will.
Speaker 1:Right, I liked a little bit of controversy. We weren't all aligned on that. But yeah, definitely go back and tap into that. Shout out to Jack. I remember in the Discord I was talking about how dope the good friday series was and then jack said he had never heard any of those tracks. So I put him the whole track list in the discord. He went back and tapped in and was like it was dope.
Speaker 1:You know I'm saying so, um, but yeah so I'm educating the help he can get, so we want to thank you for teaching his ass needs all the help he can get. Hip hop literacy. Shout out to Jack. The next Entry. This is number nine. Like I said, no particular order, this is the ninth entry, so one of those Situations you just had to Be there is Little Wayne. We got June 2007 through what's that? Yeah, June 2007 through June 2008.
Speaker 1:In 2007 alone, he was featured on over 100 songs all across different genres. Over 100 songs Like he wasn't turning down anybody and he was giving them fire verses. I don't care if it was rock pop, whatever he was giving you heat. His mixtape catalog was still in heavy rotation during this time. He released what many people consider his magnum opus, the Carter III, on June 10, 2008, which a lot of people forget, that went platinum in the first week it was released. React. Shout out to LT.
Speaker 2:Shout out to LT.
Speaker 1:I was hearing real time for this too. I will tell you this AG I like this pick more than I like the Kanye, jay and Kendrick pick. I do because Wayne I mean Wayne was the first person, quite frankly, to prostitute himself on the mic and make it sound cool. He was all everywhere he was. Yeah, that's right, I live in Atlanta. I know about prostitutes. Live in Atlanta. No, all about prostitution.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's my's, my it's like the cold thing all over again.
Speaker 1:Go ahead, cooper. People have to understand that we had never seen somebody work at this this proficiently before for this brief time, and the culmination of it was the carter three, which was his moment and, for most people, a classic. I like this pick ag. I was worried that. I was worried that you were actually going to kind of miss over this, because I think I think it would be easy for history to forget wayne, because I think it would be easy for history to forget, wayne, if we don't remind people of who he really was at his peak People have you believe?
Speaker 1:it just went from 50 to Kanye. It's like hold up. What about Wayne? What about Wayne? Wayne was right there, wayne was right there. Right, Right Sean what you got.
Speaker 2:Shout out to LT yeah, this was a powerful year for Wayne man. This is when I actually became a Wayne fan. I thought Wayne was garbage at one point. I'm going to be honest with you 500 degrees.
Speaker 2:I'm like yo, this guy's trash man, what? Y'all seeing this guy Wobbity, wobbity, wobbity dropping like it's hot. What is this? You know what I mean? But then he switched it up. He switched it up, he came through and when he did this he went on this crazy run, mixtape run, and then he dropping actually an arguably classic album in that year over year. You've got to give it to him. Wayne was everywhere. Wayne created a new wave of MCs.
Speaker 1:He did. It's one of those things when people are like man, you tripping Wayne's year, that year that you're talking about AJ, that's one of those, no, go look it up. If you're like's one of those, no, go look it up. Be like what do you do?
Speaker 1:go look it up, go do some research, go look at it that's the year they created all the kids that he has in the game now. Well, well, here's how he ended up with all the kids. He spread his seed everywhere. You are not going to find a Wayne record from that time that somebody who is a fan of rap does not like in some sort of shape, form or fashion. That person does not exist. That person is lying to you if they're telling you they do not like some of those rap CDs. He was getting calls from everywhere, everywhere, deservedly so. He was the guy, he was All right, guys, we got one more entry on this list. This is the 10th one.
Speaker 1:Last but not least, I have the Great Ice Cube, october 1990 through October 1991. All right, by October 1990, america's Most Wanted is certified platinum by October 1990. It wasn't released released so that doesn't fall in his fiscal year. But he did get a platinum certification that october. But he did release the classic kill at will lp people. I mean sorry, to kill at will ep people. Don't talk about this ep enough. That was released december 19th, 1990 classic. The lp um eps were more common back then but that's not brought up enough.
Speaker 1:In July 1991, boys in the Hood movie release starred in its first feature film, which is a classic, and its acting debut. And on October 29, 1991, death Certificate was released and it's an all-time classic, one of the greatest albums of all time. We talked about it during our bracket. It's not mentioned enough. And then on the last track on Death Certificate, no Vaseline he took down the NWA crew for Dolo with the scathing no Vaseline disc record. That was React. Sorry, my top three are all West Coast guys. I'm sliding Ice Cube in at number three. Sliding Ice Cube in Snoop Pac. Ice Cube DMX Nas going to have to slide on down.
Speaker 2:I'm not mad at that.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing about it. First of all, eg and I didn't realize it until you said it we need to call Kill it Will what it is. Kill it Will is the best rap EP in rap history Ever. Kill it Will is the best rap EP ever made. Right, right, death Certificate is one of the 20 best rap albums ever made. Correct, america's Most Wanted is the first five-mic album from a West Coast artist. So even though it didn't get released, getting certified platinum is a pretty big deal in the time that it got released. Boys in the hood is one of the best movies in our culture period. It might be the most culturally fabric, intense moment. That relates back to hip-hop. Of all the hip-hop films that we have and so like. Like he, he in some circles he is just as famous for being doughboyboy as he is Ice Cube Right. And then one more thing when we're talking about bests, no, vaseline is arguably the best diss record of all time I was getting there.
Speaker 1:Oh, he took the—we realized the world's most dangerous rap crew was not dangerous without Ice Cube. Yeah, we did. Yeah, we did. It's like good niggas ain't dangerous, no more.
Speaker 1:It's about to catch a body cut off. Everybody caught a body. Ren caught it the worst, but everybody caught one. So yeah, ag, I mean, when I look at it it's like I mean it takes Snoop, making two of the ten best rap albums ever, and Tupac, quite frankly, being at his zenith and out of prison, the top Ice Cube. So I'm going my top five would go Snoop Pac. Actually, when I think about it, if I'm being objective, I might have to put Ice Cube at number two guys, because Boys in the Hood is a real, real big deal. Death Certificate, death Certificate. Although I prefer All Eyes on Me, I tell you Death Certificate is better than All Eyes on Me. We actually there was a round where they went head to head and we picked Death Certificate over All Eyes on Me, I the round in the bracket.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't be surprised about that. How about this? I prefer the song individually, on All Eyes On Me, but as a body of work I prefer Death Certificate. It's boys. No, I'm cool with putting Ice Cube at number two, actually, if we're being objective. So I would go Snoop Cube, pac, eminem, nas, that would be my five. What about X? I'd probably go. Oh, yeah, the X, okay, so no, no, no, so yeah, nas is going to fall out the top five. Actually, I would go Snoop Cube, pac, x, m, nas, wayne, jay, kanye, kendrick oh, you said Jay, yeah, you put Kendrick at the bottom and he was the barometer. No, no, no, he's going to wear a bow. Coop's going to be Coop. We're going to put you where you belong.
Speaker 1:We're going to put you where you belong at Hip Hop Talks, but no, that's dope. So you know what I'm saying. So, for the people, when we get the list posted and ask the fans to engage and do their rankings, coop, make sure you put yours out there no no, no, I will. I will, that'll be, pretty stuff. Yo Sean what you got on Ice Cube man man, he's a legend.
Speaker 2:Don Mega, don Mega. We could have gone different years with Ice Cube, though, and you wouldn't have been wrong.
Speaker 2:You wouldn't have been wrong, honestly, and the sad thing about it is not many in our space or any other space talks about Ice Cube. As much as we talk about Ice Cube and remind the people how great Ice Cube really is, you know what I mean. Get a chance for Nas fans. Go watch that interview Nas had with Ice Cube when he had this show going on Miss Info. Listen to how he paid homage to Ice Cube the Bridge podcast and he had a segment like 30 minutes and hear how he talked about Ice Cube and reminded Ice Cube how radical Ice Cube was to hip hop at that time. This guy was radical. You got an album, kill that Will and you come back to America's Most. You took down NWA, who was considered the world's most dangerous rap group, and you didn't make them look dangerous at all Easy work.
Speaker 2:Easy work Went through the entire team like life through butter, yeah. Wren got it the worst.
Speaker 1:Damn if Wren didn't get it. The worst yeah.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. Wren hasn't been the same since.
Speaker 1:But he had to because that was the other writer for the group. That's the other writer for the group.
Speaker 2:Thank you, RG.
Speaker 1:He did the thing that, competitively, you're supposed to do in battle. He's like, oh no, the producer and the boss gonna get some shots, but I'm gonna hurt their writer, I'm gonna hurt the writer that's left the writer about to take, oh no, you about to take these L's, you writing for them, about to hurt your whole confidence. Big thanks and confidence, big facts. And you know, I'm glad you brought up that podcast, sean, because I remember that and naz and ice cube were exchanging pleasantries or whatever, and ice cube said one of the dopest things I've ever heard, um, because naz was fanning out talking about how dope cube was and his cube was and his writing, and cube told naz he was like yo, he was like we was writing dope stuff, but you came along with Illmatic and put it in cursive that's fly, that's fly, right there.
Speaker 2:That's fly For sure. Everyone in the chat we see you chats and everything. Who do you think should be year over year, fiscal year? Keep in mind this is fiscal year. This is not the actual year. Some people put 50 Cent in there. 50 Cent had a phenomenal year, but we're talking about the fiscal year. We're talking about year over year. As far as MC or rapper having an impact, a big impact, that's what we're talking about for like 2000,. All of 2000 and all of 2001. That's that fiscal year that we're talking about, not just, you know them having a moment or having an MC of the year type moment. So put that in the chat. Engage with us on Twitter, because we're going to post this on Twitter. We're going to post this on social media. We're going to post this on our other social media platforms, on Discord as well as YouTube. We would love to hear from you all Name your top five or top ten MCs that had the fiscal year running.
Speaker 1:Real talk man. That was a lot of fun, we could have gone.
Speaker 2:LL. We could have gone Heavy D. We could have gone all possible. We could have gone. Ll. We could have gone heavy D, we could have gone Ice-T. Shout out to.
Speaker 1:Andrew, he sent me a lot of stats for Nicki. You know what I'm saying. As far as the female goes, nicki had a hell of a year. When you know what I'm saying, pink Friday was released, so I mean there's a lot of people we could have included, but I think this was the creme de la creme, you know what I'm saying. Out of the 10 that could be included, Yep, just putting RZA 94 95.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as a producer, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, we'll save that for another show. Talking about production, maybe we could do a production. Yep, for sure, yo, none of y'all steal that either. This is our intellectual property right here, so don't try to do that before we do it. Real talk. It was flattering, but uh, yeah, real talk. Let's do the um press play real quick and get up out of here, man I don't have one ag, so you just, I have one.
Speaker 1:I didn't get a chance to load none of them up okay, well, I'll just run through mine real quick because I wanted to pay homage to somebody that doesn't get a lot of love and flowers. You know I'm saying in our sphere. And um, you know, for those of you who don't know, large professor and dj premier share a birthday, uh, march 21st. So I wanted to do my press play to honor uh extra p, large pro, because we waxed poetic about preem all the time. But I wanted to give large professor some love and my press play consists of um, there you go, oh, my press. My press play consists of uh tracks that large professor produced for nas or even or either got nas featured on it. So I'll run it through those real quick. Um, number one I got live at the barbecue where it all started, where we first heard Nas at 17 years old, with the feature you know what I'm saying on that record on the classic album by main source Breaking Atoms. So got live at the barbecue to kick off my press play. Then after that I got You're the man right, that sample man. Once I heard the real record. It's by Sixto Rodriguez from 1970. The real song is called Sugar man. The way that large pro chopped up that sample to make it sound like a saying. You're the man when it really said Sugar says sugar man was super, super dope to me and um nas is just spazzing with the bars. You know I'm saying your plan was to take me out the top of the game, but I understand your truth is all lame, old kid is the shoot balls of flame right in your fat mouth. Then I call my name. It's not too real. Now it's true, king, it's. However you feel, go ahead. You swing your arms too short. The boss with god. I don't kill soloists, only kill squads. Shit's crazy. Moving on, number three I gotta rewind right. The story behind this song is crazy because you know I couldn't talk all day about the concept. This is the most creative concept I think ever in rap and people talk about I gave you power, but Rewind is technically more creative. I gave you power is the better song, but Rewind is a more creative concept.
Speaker 1:The way Nas did this record right. He had on the Masterclass series. He had a portion where he was talking about creative writing and he went into how he constructed this track. He said that that day in the studio session he had writers block and they were getting ready to leave. So a punishment for himself, he just wanted to get out something to say all right, I wrote a song today. So he told Lars to cue up the beat that he had looped up earlier. And in 20 minutes or less I forgot what he said.
Speaker 1:He said, like 20 minutes he had wrote and recorded Rewind and he said he was so mad at himself for having writer's block. He tried to do a creative exercise, you know, inspired by a memento movie, and say, okay, I'm going to tell a story from back to front, but if I'm gonna do it, it really gotta make sense with the wordage like go he there outside, right we, that sort of thing. But to think that he did this in 20 minutes as a punishment to himself because he had writer's block, that's goat shit. Like I'm sorry, it's like rewind, rewind was a punishment to himself. That that's insane. I don't believe it was done in 20 minutes, but I hear you.
Speaker 1:That's not a 20-minute shit at all that's out of the horse's mouth. I actually did see a large professor interview where he did corroborate that story that he did it mad fast Next on my list. Okay, so mad fast in real time when you're in the studio. Might be 90 minutes If you count recording time and all that, but he's talking about the writing process of it. He might have wrote it in 20, but Okay, if you tell me he wrote it in 20 minutes.
Speaker 1:yeah, don't tell me, he wrote and recorded it in 20 minutes.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Next up I wrote and record that in 20 minutes, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, uh, next up I got. Uh, I love this record. It's not talked about enough. Stay chiseled, right, this is featured on large professor's album, first class in 2002. Right, and this? This song was actually made in the stillmatic sessions and was supposed to be for stillmatic. So when they, when they recorded Rewind and You're the man, stay Chiseled was made during those sessions, the original version was circulating in late 2001. It actually has three Nas verses, all of them stellar. But by the time it got on Large Pro's album in 2002, you know it took two Nas verses off and it just got the one Nas verse right. So you know, coop and Sean, you know he took two Nas verses off and it just got the one Nas verse right. So you know, coop and Sean, you want to know what's crazy?
Speaker 1:During this time, me and my friends used to argue which was the better record between Stay Chisel and Lyrical Exercise by Jay. That was a big argument. Similar concept and thing. You know what I'm saying. So that was a big argument. I don't know which one came first. I'm not saying either of them was biting, but you know, blueprint came out September 2001,. And the original version of Stay Chisel was circulating on mixtapes and on the internet around that time but came out on 2002 in the album. But that was a big argument for me and my friends, like with that similar theme, which was the better record.
Speaker 1:So, um, number five, another uh large professor joint one plus one featured on uh his album, the lp right. And this is really kind of like a lost tapes track, if you want to be honest, because um, that album was originally recorded in 96. So you're getting prom naz on this record, right. But uh large professor had like some label dispute issues and the album got shelved and he ended up getting the rights back to the album and ended up releasing it as a promo only in 2002. So it was on the internet but it wasn't for retail sale and it finally came out for retail purchase in 2009. So but when you hear it that late you're listening to a 96 Nas over 96 large pro production. So I kind of liked that and the point that y'all had earlier about like old stuff, like nobody knows the stuff's old stuff for you and your camp. But you know you dig for the history of stuff, you'll find out that. You know it came out way back when that's five and I had one bonus track, so I cheated a little bit.
Speaker 1:Everybody on Illmatic always wants to talk about the tip. You know the Q-tip mix for the world is yours, but nobody talks enough about it. Ain't hard to tell the large professor mix think that remix is a 10 out of for the World is Yours, but nobody talks enough about it. Ain't Hard to Tell the Large Professor Mix Think that remix is a 10 out of 10, and the way that the Large Professor chopped that up, he took, you know, biz Marquis from Nobody Beats the Biz saying recognize I'm the king of disco-ing, and he chopped it up to make it sound like it says Nas, nas is the king of disco-ing. Like that was a dope chop. You know what I'm saying. I don't think people talk about that remix enough, but that joint was really dope. You know what I'm saying. So that's my press play. Shout out to Lars, professor, one of the greatest.
Speaker 2:One of the greatest, one of the greatest, the fellas. That's our show.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, and any parting words for the people Like subscribe and share. Man, let's keep growing.
Speaker 2:How about?
Speaker 1:you. These women in the city are terrorists. This bombs over Baghdad right here. If you see me blink twice, please come and save me. You doing slow blinks right now.
Speaker 2:Bombs Over Baghdad today.
Speaker 1:Don't show no fellas.
Speaker 2:Peace to the chat.
Speaker 1:Great fiscal year list AG. I'm going to post my order. Great show, fellas, appreciate you holding me down while I go from Buckhead to the chat. Great fiscal year list AG. I'm going to post my order. Great show, fellas, appreciate y'all putting me down while I go from Buckhead to the suburbs. You know, no doubt, no doubt yo Peace to the chat. Peace to the Discord. Yeah, no doubt Peace to y'all. Y'all. I might jump back into Discord. I ain't seen them in a couple weeks. All right, these guys are crazy.
Speaker 2:Peace y'all, indeed, indeed. You do that Y'all. Oh, did it go out Nah.