Ice City to Canada... three new songs to check out

In my last post I meant to give you an update of some of the new bay area music I was listening to, but instead it turned into a history lesson about the connections between the Bay and Texas.  Here, without further ado is some of the music I've been listening to.

Pimpton feat. Andre Nickatina - @ThePimpton @AndreNickatina- "Little Darryl"

Pimpton is a Canadian rap artist (who I met a while promoting Mobb Report Radio at the underground concert series Oakland Live_.  My respect for Canada went up 3 notches when I heard his album.

The old school whip, analog turntable and Wu Tang shirt might lead one to think that Canada was about 15 years behind us, but trust me... the music is only 5 years behind us.  By 5 years behind I mean it's BETTER THAN ALMOST ANYTHING THAT'S MADE BY BAY AREA RAPPERS IN 2013.  Let's hope Pimpton and his homies above the border aren't doing swag rap anthems in 5 years.  I have to hold on to the belief that there's somewhere on this planet where music is still hyphy and pure.... even if that place is Regina, Saskatchewan, CA.




I've known about this song ever since the album dropped, but it grows on me more and more with each listen.  THE BEAT IS SO FUCKIN WEIRD....  different from anything he's ever put out.  The atmosphere of the beat takes you back into an era where HD wouldn't exist.

There are several science fiction scenarios that could explain a song like this being created, but I'll go with one:
Imagine there was a DJ/producer who had some kind of transdimensional portal.  The audio output of this portal was hooked up to a copy of Serato Scratch Live, and he could mix and match different eras of sound.  One day he sets the dial on his portal to "random", and on Deck 1 there's some old guy in Tennessee strumming out a bluesy riff on a guitar... and then on Deck 2 he hears a weird cell phone conversation of some young man from North Oakland talking with a friend about what he had for lunch.  He adjusts the tempos to match between the two decks, and next thing you know, he's created this track.  He then thinks a disparaging thought about DJ Shadow's career "post-entroducing" and then calls it a night.

Anyway, as I predicted after the first listen, this song has grown on me.

Antwon @aaantwon "Laugh Now"

I'm not gonna show this guy too much love, cause he's a rapper who's popular with white hipsters and probably get's more than his fair share of blog love already.  Can't hate on the music though.  He mostly makes songs for the bitches, but they're usually good.  This is one of the few songs I could find from Antwon that isn't about eating pussy.  It's about isolation, fear, revenge and other things that I think about more than I should.

I'm back... sorta... plus Texas and the Bay are at it again!

Ok, I've been MIA for a few weeks.  I took a break from this blog to smoke weed and fuck bitches... and not necessarily in that order.

          


I've still been listening to bay area rap music though.  Luckily I can multitask.  Smoking weed (blue dream is a helluva drug), fucking bitches (that look kinda like Raven Symone) and bumping bay area rap (of the Mobb variety) are all activities that support and ENHANCE eachother.

Here's a few tracks that have come into my life since last we spoke (like RJD2):


"The Game" by Laroo and Hustler E (Texas Money Boyz)
@laroothh @TheRealHustlerE @ttokens
Laroo isn't good at making bad music and this track is no exception.   This is a collaboration between him and Hustler E, a relative unknown from Waco, TX.  Hustler E is dope, the producer T. Tokens is dope.  They did a whole album together, Texas 2 The Bay: Straight Game, Fast Life.

This builds on a seldom discussed but long history of ties between the bay area and texas rap scenes, the evidence of which is presented below:


UGK feat. E-40 and B-Legit "Corruptors Execution"

"Corruptors Execution" is a song who's title is only possible due to it being for a soundtrack.  UGK and E-40 were both on the same record label, Jive records.  Jive handle a lot of the important bay area and southern rap before they struck gold with Backstreet Boys and N'Sync and subsequently lost interest in promoting bay area rap.  Apparently there was an E-40 poster in the background of a UGK album cover, although I can't find it right now.  Just trust me on this.  You can trust me.  Come on, I wouldn't do you like that brah..

Exhibit B

Spice 1 was born in Corsicana, Texas.  It goes without saying that Spice 1 was one of the most influential rappers in the bay area, but his extreme gangsta rap and emotional death ballads were a strong influence the the Houston rap scene as well.

Exhibit C
Bay area rap was a favorite of the legendary DJ Screw, who would slow down classic and lesser known Mobb tracks.  Over a decade before HD was rappin about bricks Bo, the entire city of Houston, Texas was  sippin syrup and listening to bay area rap music.

Here's several of the best examples from Screws extensive discography:

Conscious Daughters - Funky Expedition
From the DJ Screw Tape "Mash For My Dreams



Richie Rich - Do G's Get To Go To Heaven (Freestyle w/ Big Moe, LOS, Grace & Wood)
From the DJ Screw tape "Killuminati"


E-40 - It's All Bad
From the DJ Screw tape "Codeine Fiend"

Check for Droop E's voice at about 1:40

Ya Hemi: The hardest female rapper in the bay since The Conscious Daughters...

Well I missed Women's History Month, but I'm making up for it with this post.  If there are any radical feminists who are mad about that, they are more than welcome to CLICK HERE.

The reality though is that I love empowered female rappers, especially of the gangster variety.

...Which leads us to Ya Hemi... AKA Queen LaCheefa a female rapper from Oakland, CA, and the best thing to hit the airwaves since The Concious Daughters.  She's repping the HBR click (of Sleepy D and D-Lo fame).  I haven't yet delved into the HBR click archives, but apparently they exist, and three HBR mixtapes can be found on datpiff.  I hope that they feature Ya Hemi prominently, and I'm about to show you why.

Ya Hemi "Get Tha Business" @queenlacheefa

This is the first Ya Hemi track I heard and I was hooked, via SilverNBlackOAK and Shanedogg's "Make The World Burn Vol. 2".  

This is straight up street shit, and while I'm morally opposed to her advocacy of armed robbery, the song slaps and deserves it's shine.  As Ya Hemi puts it "I ain't tryna be cocky, but name a bitch in the streets that's gone stop me".  My first answer is the same as her subsequent adlib.  NONE

This track features Beeda Weeda, in the best sounding performance I've ever heard of his.  Never been on Beeda's stuff that much, but his voice and flow matches the beat perfectly.  Next up is Young Sunny, who's sounds like he's got a southern twang to his voice.  It's not that annoying southern sound that a lot of bay artists try to emulate.  His voice is genuinely interesting, and I want to hear more.

Last is Ya Hemi, who let's us know what she's about with the line "I'm wit the shit, you niggas can save hip hop".  This is an important line, in that she firmly establishes what lane she's in and that she's not trying to please everybody... a quality sorely lacking in an age where most rappers try unsuccessfully to have universal appeal instead of just doing them and staying true to themselves.

Here at Mobb Reflections we're both WIT THE SHIT and SAVING HIP HOP at the same time.  How bout that!  Try that! [In my best Ja'seen Seven voice]

                                    

Ya Hemi "Fuck You" @queenlacheefa86

This one got 15,000 views.  I'm not feelin the beat as much as the previous ones, but the video is shot well, and the presence of so many people in the background gives creedance to her intro line "If I wanted you dead, nigga, I would paypal your hit, ya hear me?"

I hope to hear a lot more from Ya Hemi AKA Queen Lacheefa in the future.  Check her out.
YA HEMI Twitter
YA HEMI Facebook

And my favorite female rappers of all time:  THE CONSCIOUS DAUGHTERS
RIP Karryl Smith AKA "The Special One"


The Concious Daughters "We Roll Deep" @The_Daughters

Bavgate sighting

Recently someone asked "what ever happened to Bavgate"?  He hasn't been as active in the last few years as he was in the mid-2000's.  Well, here's the answer, Thomas.  In AUTOTUNE...

Bavgate Feat. Laced "I Know"

And "I know" what your all probably thinking.  This is another attempt to get the radio to "play Bavgate".

I was student in the music program at Youth Uprising before, at the ripe old age of 25 I had to leave.  It was feeling a little weird being in music production classes with 13.  I probably shoulda stuck around as staff or something because they did offer me a job, and that was right before Too $hort got hired on as a Career Counselor.  But [in best Tariq Nasheed voice] I digress...

I remember they had a music conference for the youth, including a panel discussion.  Bavgate was one of the artists representing, and I recall him and Rick Lee getting in a heated argument about how KMEL doesn't support local artists that are hot in the streets.  If I recall, Rick Lee's basic argument was that he tried to get people in during his occasional mix, but that other than that his hands were tied.  Gate wasn't satisfied.  I'm not either.  Hence, MOBB REPORT RADIO, the only station on the internet that don't play nothing but that bay shit!  Again, I digress.

Bavgate "Play Bavgate"

Ironically (or perhaps NOT ironically) this is the only song of Bavgates that I think got any play on KMEL.  He didn't get the heavy rotation he asked for on the chorus, but one of Rick Lee's main defenses was that he did play this song a few times.

BUT BACK TO AUTOTUNE...

I don't like the shit.  But if I gotta hear it I guess I would rather hear it from a bay area gangster rapper than a pussy ass R&B singer (or two) who can't even sing to begin with.

So basically, if I'm hearing Bavgate (or HD), I'd rather it isn't Autotune, but if I HAVE to hear Autotune, I'd rather it is Bavgate or HD.  Make sense?

Looking forward to hearing more new Bav in the future too.

Did Fairfield, CA have the best Mobb music song of all time?

E.Z.S.D. "Puttin In Work"

I just came across this track from pioneering Fairfield group E.Z.S.D.... and I'm at a loss for words.  There's nothing about this song that isn't dope as fuck, from the beat, to the lyrics and flow.  This is what old school Mobb Music sounded like at it's best, and the emotion it evokes is similar to the one I felt when listening to E-40's The Mailman E.P. for the first time.

By Mobb Music connoisseur standards I'm sure I'm late as hell on this shit... but I have an excuse.

In junior high school I was too poor to afford the majority of classic Mobb albums at the time.  I would be lucky to get enough yardwork from my grandparents at 3 dollars an hour to buy a tape from the Wherehouse.  I remember tapes being like $7 or $8 at the time.  I got them instead of CD's because they were cheaper, however I switched to CD's as soon as I actually tried one.  I still miss the analog warmth of tapes.  What y'all youngsters know about that?

...a long way of saying that I never owned West Coast Bad Boyz Vol. 1.  This song is on that, and on the Game 2 Be Sold album.  And on YouTube.

The rapper featured on this track is Skip Dog of E.Z.S.D.  I'ma look into more of his work, but in the meantime you can check out the website for his record label HERE if you want to get up to date on the shit.

Speaking of Fairfield, you should definitely check out the Mobb Report Radio Interview we did with Shill Macc, who I personally think is the best recent generation rapper out of fairfield right now.  Here's the video of his that made me a fan:

                                    
                                                   Shill Macc @ShillMacc "My Hunger"

We gonna get more into Shill Macc at a later date.  Be on the lookout for his upcoming album and download Beautiful Scars, his last one for free HERE.

If I only do one blog post before I die

I wanted to make sure that I get this out there in case I catch a bullet in the next 24 hours.  If you remember one name in bay area rap, remember the name Ja'seen Seven.  

Musically and personally this is one of the most impressive artists I've ever come across in my life.  Born and raised in East Oakland, Ja'seen has the lyricism, street credibility mindstate to go down in history as one of the best artists to ever come out of Oakland.

Some of his best shit ain't online yet, but here's a couple previews.

                                     

Ja'seen Seven - @jaseen7 - Crack (Dope)

To the untrained eye this shit might seem like typical gangsta rap, but if you listen to the lyrics you'll notice he's utilizes multiple lyrical techniques,, from multies and metaphors, to visceral imagery. The mood of this track is enhanced by it's setting in a dimly lit room (most likely a basement or garage) with nothing but a weight bench and 40 Cal / Free Zay graffiti in sight.  Ja'seen rocks a hoodie and a mask, waving a pistol and duct tape as a warning to "fuck niggas" and "ho's".  It doesn't get much rawer than this.

                                       

Ja'seen Seven - @jaseen7 - Black Donald Trump

I didn't know that until recently that this was done over Mac Miller's "Donald Trump" beat, because I don't really listen to Mac Miller.  At the time of this posting, Mac's version has 78 million views* and Ja'seens has 119... but I think Ja'seen Seven's version is much better.  Ja'seen drops such gems as "hopefully, I'll be at the top soon, for now I'm passed out, at your house, in yo mom's room, yeah I love a cougar, I'm a shooter, I'm hotter than Yuma, I saw all that booty and we yelled out "HOOVER"!  God damn was that a reference to Ving Rhames in Baby Boy!?


Ja'seen Seven - @jaseen7 - Fuck Yo Feelings

He got an interview coming soon on Mobb Report Radio, but for now you can check out tracks from his current mixtape HERE and look out for his upcoming project "Shoota".

Shout out the homie Clint Collins another east oakland rapper I'm gonna feature very soon, who is also dope and is the one who put me up on Ja'seen Seven.

*78 million views and I didn't even know about it just goes to show how much white people support their own when it comes to rap.  Mac Miller's cool but he ain't THAT good.

Hidden Gems #1

I love finding hidden gems of undiscovered dopeness.  If you're the type of person who only get's into music after it gets a buzz...  well I would talk shit, but honestly I understand the practicality of that approach.  Most people don't have time to scour the internet for new music.  So I'm going to share a few gems I discovered today.  Namely SwayKhan and Coupe Cujo.

Sway Khan "Art Of War" @wakeupswaykhan

Conscious, political and introspective are all words that have attained a cliche place in our lexicon.  This song has all of those elements, with an Oakland street aesthetic.  I think the beat would be something like James Bond would hear if he was tripping on mushrooms.  Jazzy and psychedelic.  This is his first solo track "under the name SwayKhan".  Not sure if he has anything else out, but he has the confidence of someone who's been rapping for awhile.  Fresh but focused.

https://twitter.com/WakeupSwayKhan

https://www.facebook.com/WakeUpSK

"Coupe Cujo" "The Smoking Section" @CoupeCujo

This one just sounds fresh.  Real dope talkbox.  I don't remember any talkbox this dope since... well, old school mobb music.  Probably a sample but who gives a fuck.  The video doesn't tell stories, but has an aliveness that fits the music perfectly.

Coupe Cujo "What Is Wrong Promo" @CoupeCujo

Coupe reminds me of Pepperboy because of the sincerity in his voice, albeit much wittier lyrics.  Coupe Cujo drops a lot of jewels on this track.  The beat sounds like it was sampled from something produced by Bill Laswell.  Obscure reference, but here's an example.

I haven't had a chance to

CLICK HERE to download 5 of Coupe Cujo's mixtapes from Datpiff

                                             https://twitter.com/CoupeCujo

https://www.facebook.com/young.coupe?fref=ts

Got any new, undiscovered, hidden gems?  Send them to me at mobbreportradio@gmail.com.  Don't send your bullshit swag radio singles... just different, undiscovered dope shit.  [In best HD voice]  Thank you!