This has been an interesting week to say the least. Hilary Clinton will not come to grips with the fact that she won't become the Democratic nominee and no matter how long she drags this whole affair out Obama will still be the DNC's choice. BET continues to outcoon themselves at a pace that would've even made Stepin Fetchit proud. Nas is forced to change the name of his album or force the possibility of having it never come out. Foxy Brown and Remy Martin stay in the news for all the wrong goddamn reasons.
I lost all of my respect for Papoose and Just Blaze and Saigon get off of Atlantic a la Hip Hop and Sickamore with their masters and are now in control of their own destinies. *Plays Crustified Dibbs' "Every Record Label Sucks Dick" loudly* Then 50 Cent goes after Rocsi from BET for stating her opinion about his last wack ass album. At the same time, G Unit releases yet another lame ass single for their upcoming ghey ass LP "Terminate On Sight".
The Celtics couldn't stop the Pistons last night as the bench did nada. Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton and Rodney Stuckey did the C's dirty on their own homecourt to tie to Eastern Conference Finals series at 1-1. The Celtics need to come up with at least one win in Detroit (two would be better) to keep hope alive of going to the NBA Finals. At least Ray Allen finally had a big game last night, that's encouraging.
Today I'm reviewing The Cool Kids' "The Bake Sale EP", Rock of Heltah Skeltah's "Shell Shock" mixtape, Jackson Conti (Madlib & Azymuth)'s "Sujinho" and finally Usher's "Here I Stand". For those of you new to the party, I don’t rate albums on a scale or assign them a numerical value out of 5 or 10, instead I merely answer the all important question of “Is it worth buying or not?”. Here's how my "Cop It Or Not" ratings system breaks down below:
Oh No! This CD is a drink coaster/table balancer/doorstop/gerbil/hamster room divider/frisbee/discus/makeshift shield/last ditch choice for a visor/alternate shuriken choice. Sell this shit to whoever is dumb enough to buy it from you.
Maeby (Maybe)! Depending on your own set of personal preferences you might like this joint. Give it a listen first to see if it's in your lane or not.
Mos Def! Cop the album when it drops...'Nuff said.
...I'm at the Puerto Rican Day Parade doin' The Wop on a float! © Ras Kass
The very first project that I’m reviewing today is The Cool Kids “The Bake Sale” EP. They had an unofficial release get heavily bootlegged and downloaded online but it only helped to get their name out there even more as they were even featured in a commercial earlier this year. Will this EP live up to the hype they’re generating? Let’s see:
Best Joints: What Up, Man, One Two, Mikey Rocks, 88, What It Is, Black Mags, Gold And A Pager, Bassment Party, Jingling, Get Busy, Son
Hot Garbage: A Little Bit Cooler and Chicago Zoo were just meh to me.
Dart’s Take: I wish these cats were more high energy and there were more up tempo type bangers on this. My favorite tracks were What It Is, 88, Black Mags, Gold And A Pager and Get Busy, Son but the tracks all pretty much followed the same old school drum sounds slow ass bass music formula.
It began to annoy me and this was only a 12 track project (my version had two bonus tracks that are available for download @ 2DopeBoyz). Hopefully on their full length they’ll come with more energy but I can’t do better than a maybe.
The Rockness Monster isn’t about to let anything stop him, not even a court case, from rising to the top. His new mixtape “Shell Shock” has been long awaited and now it’s finally here. Will this mixtape remind fans of how nice the other half of Heltah Skeltah is? Find out below:
Best Joints: Shell shock Intro, AYRRR, 300 B.C., Attempted Murder, Me 2 Nigga, Raize Da Roof, Fuck Dat Rapper, RockZilla, Rock Brothaz Wildin’, CrookOnASong, Graveyard Shifty, Da Beast Is Back, Most Dangerous, Rite Back, Doofis, NY Gritty, Mag Force Zoo, LateNite, Ramadan & Stack Paper
Hot Garbage: Flytime just didn’t do it for me and a lot of the non Great 8 guest spots were just meh in comparison to Rock’s bars downgrading the overall enjoyment of several tracks.
Dart’s Take: This is a solid mixtape but it just could’ve been better if it had just been more Rock and less contributions from the Magnum Force/Representativez/Duck Down B Teamers. I’d definitely rock this but I can’t see myself paying album price for it given it’s just a mixtape. I’ll tell you one thing, hearing Rock kill it gets me amped for the D.I.R.T. Heltah Skeltah album. I can only give this joint a maybe cuz it wasn’t anything extra.
Jackson Conti is a collaborative effort between Otis Jackson Jr. AKA Madlib and Mamao of the celebrated band Azymuth. They’ve made magic together on previous Madlib releases and now it’s time for the full length experience. Are you muthafuckas ready for some Brazilian Samba mixed with Latin Jazz? Is it funky? Find out below:
Best Joints: Mamaoism, Berumba, Anna De Amsterdam Interlude, Praca De Republica, Papaya, Brazilian Sugar, Sao Paolo Nights, Xibaba, Upa Neguinho, Casa Forte, Amazon Stroll, Berimbau, Anna De Amsterdam Reprise, Waiting On The Corner, Tijuca Man, Nao Tem Nada Nao, Sunset At Sujinho, Segura Esta Onda
Hot Garbage: N/A (It sucked that the album ended)
Dart’s Take: If you aren’t a fan of Madlib/Yesterday’s New Quintet/Malik Flavors or Brazilian Samba or Latin Jazz then this is not for you. If you’re like me and you grew up listening to all kinds of music and you used go through your parent’s records and play all of their old Brazilian Samba, Afrobeat, or Latin Jazz records like I did then this LP is ridiculoid. I didn’t stop playing this albums for days after I first heard it.
I had “Berumba”, “Praca De Republica”, “Papaya”, “Sao Paolo Nights”, “Upa Neguinho”, “Casa Forte”, “Amazon Stroll” and “Berimbau” all on repeat. I killed “Papaya” and that joint is 10 minutes long! This brought me back to 1984, when I would ask my father to play records that I picked out on his perfectly filed by group and genre mountain. Back when he had that huge top loading VCR and by big brother was learning to program BASIC on our new Commodore 64. Memories. “Sujinho” gets a well deserved mos def.
Usher is unhappy with his label because he feels that they haven’t been pushing his new album enough. They told him that his popularity has slipped because he got married and had a child with a woman that’s too old for him and isn’t all that attractive, thereby hurting his largely female fanbase. Needless to say my boy Usher didn’t take that assessment too well. Usher has reemerged with a new album entitled “Here I Am”. My review of it is just below:
Best Joints: Intro, This Ain’t Sex, Moving Mountains, Trading Places, What’s Your Name, Love You Gently, Best Thing, Before I Met You, Appetite, Lifetime and Revolver
Hot Garbage: I personally didn’t like Love In This Club, His Mistakes, What’s A Man To Do, Love In This Club Part 2, Here I Stand or Will Work For Love
Dart’s Take: This album will forever be known as Usher’s “Kingdom Come”. He isn’t the same Usher as before, now he’s a happily married man, a father, an entrepreneur and part owner of a basketball team so it’s natural he’d start making some “grown folks music”. On this album there’s an eight song stretch from “Something Special” to “Lifetime” that’s all about his wife or relating to his current relationship. This doesn’t make for dance music.
If you’re willing to let Usher grow then you can rock with this album. If you want this dude to stay trying to compete with Chris Brown then maybe you should leave this alone. My favorite joints were “Trading Places”, “What’s Your Name”, “Love You Gently”, “Best Thing” and “Revolver” (I version I’m reviewing is the Japanese retail version with 19 tracks). Overall, I give this a recommended maybe because it’s better than OK and not meh.
Late Passes (For Doz Dat Slept):
Albums I'm Looking Forward To Reviewing Once They Leak...I Mean Drop:
I'm Also Looking Forward To Reviewing The Following Projects:
Rhymefest-El Che
Magnif & J Dilla-Detroit Royalty
Immortal Technique-The 3rd World
Blu-God Is Good
Billy Danze-Behind Gatez
AG & O.C.-Oasis: Together Brothers
Baatin-Titus
Common-Invincible Summer
Omen-Be The Judge
Capone-N-Noreaga-Reporting The War
Phat Kat and Elzhi are Cold Steel
Opio-The Vulture's Wisdom
Heltah Skeltah-D.I.R.T (Da Incredible Rap Team)
Dart's Fat Tape/CD-R (as of May 23rd, 2008):
Murderous Speech-Custom Made
Fuck Dat Rapper-Heltah Skeltah
Name Droppin'-Nino Bless
Gold And A Pager-The Cool Kids
Of On Our Own-Self Scientific (prod. by DJ Khalil)
Black Light Special-Little Brother (prod. by 9th Wonder)
Best Thing-Usher f/Jay-Z (prod. by No I.D.)
The Crush-Vast Aire
Ebony-Camp Lo (prod. by The Apple Juice Kid)
On-Apathy & Celph Titled
9MM-The Clipse f/The Re-Up Gang
Parole-Immortal Technique
Rat Pack Rap-Zilla Rocca f/MAGr & Nico The Beast (prod. by Zilla Rocca)
That's What It Is-DJ Muggs & Planet Asia (prod. by DJ Muggs)
Sing For Me-Ghetto (prod. by Rude Kid)
Get Busy, Son-The Cool Kids
Be Cool-Bishop Lamont f/Xzibit, Glasses Malone, Ras Kass & Mykestro (prod. by Dae One)
Posers-The New Royales f/Jay Electronica
U.M.C (Universal Mind Control)-Common f/Pharell Williams (prod. by Pharell Williams)
Trading Places-Usher
Good Money-Mickey Factz (prod. by 9th Wonder)
Believe It-Saigon f/Red 5ive (prod. by Just Blaze)
N.I.G.G.E.R (The Slave & The Master)-Nas (prod. by DJ Toomp)
Payback-Immortal Technique f/Diabolic & Ras Kass (prod. by Green Lantern)
Papaya-Jackson Conti (Madlib & Mamao of Azymuth)
He got game! © Michael Jordan
Go Celtics! Let's shock the world and get a road win in the D...shit, get a couple!
One.
I lost all of my respect for Papoose and Just Blaze and Saigon get off of Atlantic a la Hip Hop and Sickamore with their masters and are now in control of their own destinies. *Plays Crustified Dibbs' "Every Record Label Sucks Dick" loudly* Then 50 Cent goes after Rocsi from BET for stating her opinion about his last wack ass album. At the same time, G Unit releases yet another lame ass single for their upcoming ghey ass LP "Terminate On Sight".
The Celtics couldn't stop the Pistons last night as the bench did nada. Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton and Rodney Stuckey did the C's dirty on their own homecourt to tie to Eastern Conference Finals series at 1-1. The Celtics need to come up with at least one win in Detroit (two would be better) to keep hope alive of going to the NBA Finals. At least Ray Allen finally had a big game last night, that's encouraging.
Today I'm reviewing The Cool Kids' "The Bake Sale EP", Rock of Heltah Skeltah's "Shell Shock" mixtape, Jackson Conti (Madlib & Azymuth)'s "Sujinho" and finally Usher's "Here I Stand". For those of you new to the party, I don’t rate albums on a scale or assign them a numerical value out of 5 or 10, instead I merely answer the all important question of “Is it worth buying or not?”. Here's how my "Cop It Or Not" ratings system breaks down below:
Oh No! This CD is a drink coaster/table balancer/doorstop/gerbil/hamster room divider/frisbee/discus/makeshift shield/last ditch choice for a visor/alternate shuriken choice. Sell this shit to whoever is dumb enough to buy it from you.
Maeby (Maybe)! Depending on your own set of personal preferences you might like this joint. Give it a listen first to see if it's in your lane or not.
Mos Def! Cop the album when it drops...'Nuff said....I'm at the Puerto Rican Day Parade doin' The Wop on a float! © Ras Kass
The very first project that I’m reviewing today is The Cool Kids “The Bake Sale” EP. They had an unofficial release get heavily bootlegged and downloaded online but it only helped to get their name out there even more as they were even featured in a commercial earlier this year. Will this EP live up to the hype they’re generating? Let’s see:Best Joints: What Up, Man, One Two, Mikey Rocks, 88, What It Is, Black Mags, Gold And A Pager, Bassment Party, Jingling, Get Busy, Son
Hot Garbage: A Little Bit Cooler and Chicago Zoo were just meh to me.
Dart’s Take: I wish these cats were more high energy and there were more up tempo type bangers on this. My favorite tracks were What It Is, 88, Black Mags, Gold And A Pager and Get Busy, Son but the tracks all pretty much followed the same old school drum sounds slow ass bass music formula.
It began to annoy me and this was only a 12 track project (my version had two bonus tracks that are available for download @ 2DopeBoyz). Hopefully on their full length they’ll come with more energy but I can’t do better than a maybe.
The Rockness Monster isn’t about to let anything stop him, not even a court case, from rising to the top. His new mixtape “Shell Shock” has been long awaited and now it’s finally here. Will this mixtape remind fans of how nice the other half of Heltah Skeltah is? Find out below:Best Joints: Shell shock Intro, AYRRR, 300 B.C., Attempted Murder, Me 2 Nigga, Raize Da Roof, Fuck Dat Rapper, RockZilla, Rock Brothaz Wildin’, CrookOnASong, Graveyard Shifty, Da Beast Is Back, Most Dangerous, Rite Back, Doofis, NY Gritty, Mag Force Zoo, LateNite, Ramadan & Stack Paper
Hot Garbage: Flytime just didn’t do it for me and a lot of the non Great 8 guest spots were just meh in comparison to Rock’s bars downgrading the overall enjoyment of several tracks.
Dart’s Take: This is a solid mixtape but it just could’ve been better if it had just been more Rock and less contributions from the Magnum Force/Representativez/Duck Down B Teamers. I’d definitely rock this but I can’t see myself paying album price for it given it’s just a mixtape. I’ll tell you one thing, hearing Rock kill it gets me amped for the D.I.R.T. Heltah Skeltah album. I can only give this joint a maybe cuz it wasn’t anything extra.
Jackson Conti is a collaborative effort between Otis Jackson Jr. AKA Madlib and Mamao of the celebrated band Azymuth. They’ve made magic together on previous Madlib releases and now it’s time for the full length experience. Are you muthafuckas ready for some Brazilian Samba mixed with Latin Jazz? Is it funky? Find out below:Best Joints: Mamaoism, Berumba, Anna De Amsterdam Interlude, Praca De Republica, Papaya, Brazilian Sugar, Sao Paolo Nights, Xibaba, Upa Neguinho, Casa Forte, Amazon Stroll, Berimbau, Anna De Amsterdam Reprise, Waiting On The Corner, Tijuca Man, Nao Tem Nada Nao, Sunset At Sujinho, Segura Esta Onda
Hot Garbage: N/A (It sucked that the album ended)
Dart’s Take: If you aren’t a fan of Madlib/Yesterday’s New Quintet/Malik Flavors or Brazilian Samba or Latin Jazz then this is not for you. If you’re like me and you grew up listening to all kinds of music and you used go through your parent’s records and play all of their old Brazilian Samba, Afrobeat, or Latin Jazz records like I did then this LP is ridiculoid. I didn’t stop playing this albums for days after I first heard it.
I had “Berumba”, “Praca De Republica”, “Papaya”, “Sao Paolo Nights”, “Upa Neguinho”, “Casa Forte”, “Amazon Stroll” and “Berimbau” all on repeat. I killed “Papaya” and that joint is 10 minutes long! This brought me back to 1984, when I would ask my father to play records that I picked out on his perfectly filed by group and genre mountain. Back when he had that huge top loading VCR and by big brother was learning to program BASIC on our new Commodore 64. Memories. “Sujinho” gets a well deserved mos def.
Usher is unhappy with his label because he feels that they haven’t been pushing his new album enough. They told him that his popularity has slipped because he got married and had a child with a woman that’s too old for him and isn’t all that attractive, thereby hurting his largely female fanbase. Needless to say my boy Usher didn’t take that assessment too well. Usher has reemerged with a new album entitled “Here I Am”. My review of it is just below:Best Joints: Intro, This Ain’t Sex, Moving Mountains, Trading Places, What’s Your Name, Love You Gently, Best Thing, Before I Met You, Appetite, Lifetime and Revolver
Hot Garbage: I personally didn’t like Love In This Club, His Mistakes, What’s A Man To Do, Love In This Club Part 2, Here I Stand or Will Work For Love
Dart’s Take: This album will forever be known as Usher’s “Kingdom Come”. He isn’t the same Usher as before, now he’s a happily married man, a father, an entrepreneur and part owner of a basketball team so it’s natural he’d start making some “grown folks music”. On this album there’s an eight song stretch from “Something Special” to “Lifetime” that’s all about his wife or relating to his current relationship. This doesn’t make for dance music.
If you’re willing to let Usher grow then you can rock with this album. If you want this dude to stay trying to compete with Chris Brown then maybe you should leave this alone. My favorite joints were “Trading Places”, “What’s Your Name”, “Love You Gently”, “Best Thing” and “Revolver” (I version I’m reviewing is the Japanese retail version with 19 tracks). Overall, I give this a recommended maybe because it’s better than OK and not meh.
Late Passes (For Doz Dat Slept):
Albums I'm Looking Forward To Reviewing Once They Leak...I Mean Drop:
I'm Also Looking Forward To Reviewing The Following Projects:
Rhymefest-El Che
Skillz-Million Dollar Backpack
Joe Budden-Padded Room
Jay Electronica-Act II: Patents Of Nobility
Jay Electronica-Abracadabra: Let There Be Light
Big Boi-Sir Luscious LeftfootJoe Budden-Padded Room
Jay Electronica-Act II: Patents Of Nobility
Jay Electronica-Abracadabra: Let There Be Light
Magnif & J Dilla-Detroit Royalty
Immortal Technique-The 3rd World
Blu-God Is Good
Termanology-Politics As Usual
Sean Price, Guilty Simpson & Black Milk-Random Axe
Platinum Pied Pipers-Abundance
Method Man & Redman-Blackout 2
Redman-Muddy Waters 2
Sean Price, Guilty Simpson & Black Milk-Random Axe
Platinum Pied Pipers-Abundance
Method Man & Redman-Blackout 2
Redman-Muddy Waters 2
B.O.B.-The Adventures Of B.O.B.
The Alchemist-Chemical WarfareBilly Danze-Behind Gatez
AG & O.C.-Oasis: Together Brothers
Baatin-Titus
Common-Invincible Summer
Omen-Be The Judge
Capone-N-Noreaga-Reporting The War
Phat Kat and Elzhi are Cold Steel
Opio-The Vulture's Wisdom
Heltah Skeltah-D.I.R.T (Da Incredible Rap Team)
Dart's Fat Tape/CD-R (as of May 23rd, 2008):
Murderous Speech-Custom Made
Fuck Dat Rapper-Heltah Skeltah
Name Droppin'-Nino Bless
Gold And A Pager-The Cool Kids
Of On Our Own-Self Scientific (prod. by DJ Khalil)
Black Light Special-Little Brother (prod. by 9th Wonder)
Best Thing-Usher f/Jay-Z (prod. by No I.D.)
The Crush-Vast Aire
Ebony-Camp Lo (prod. by The Apple Juice Kid)
On-Apathy & Celph Titled
9MM-The Clipse f/The Re-Up Gang
Parole-Immortal Technique
Rat Pack Rap-Zilla Rocca f/MAGr & Nico The Beast (prod. by Zilla Rocca)
That's What It Is-DJ Muggs & Planet Asia (prod. by DJ Muggs)
Sing For Me-Ghetto (prod. by Rude Kid)
Get Busy, Son-The Cool Kids
Be Cool-Bishop Lamont f/Xzibit, Glasses Malone, Ras Kass & Mykestro (prod. by Dae One)
Posers-The New Royales f/Jay Electronica
U.M.C (Universal Mind Control)-Common f/Pharell Williams (prod. by Pharell Williams)
Trading Places-Usher
Good Money-Mickey Factz (prod. by 9th Wonder)
Believe It-Saigon f/Red 5ive (prod. by Just Blaze)
N.I.G.G.E.R (The Slave & The Master)-Nas (prod. by DJ Toomp)
Payback-Immortal Technique f/Diabolic & Ras Kass (prod. by Green Lantern)
Papaya-Jackson Conti (Madlib & Mamao of Azymuth)
He got game! © Michael JordanGo Celtics! Let's shock the world and get a road win in the D...shit, get a couple!
One.
1 comment:
Hey man, I love your blog. I've got a question though...I can't find "Ebony" by Camp Lo anywhere. Any suggestions on where to get it?
Post a Comment