Dart Adams presents Livications: Wake Your Daughter Up

Next up in the fourth installment of my Livications series where I pay homage to one of my favorite blogs is Travis Glave's Wake Your Daughter Up. Travis and I first crossed paths on the internet back in 2006 when I was doing this thread on Okayplayer where I'd have people request out of print or extremely hard to find/rare albums and I'd go and scour the internet looking for them. I ended up visiting Wake Your Daughter Up, Crooklyns Classics (R.I.P.), Biff Hop (R.I.P.) and Bust The Facts the majority of the time and I'd begin leaving comments on WYDU or requests for reups. I even told a bunch of heads on Okayplayer that they needed to regularly check out Wake Your Daughter Up.

I didn't think there was a bigger fan of Masta Ace on the internet until I started reading WYDU. I also bonded with him over our mutual fondness for Redhead Kingpin and Kwame albums (although he wasn't feeling the Private Investigators "React Like Ya Knew"). His interviews, willingness to put his readers on to new blogs (including this one) and to discover new artists made Wake Your Daughter Up stand out in a sea of blogs which is why I wasn't surprised when Vibe Magazine picked WYDU as one of the top music blogs years ago.

Since that honor and several others has never gone to his head and he continues to hip us to the Grip Grand's, Baje One's and Canto I's of the Hip Hop world like he's been doing for years I hereby present to you my blog in honor of Wake Your Daughter Up with my own personal spin on Travis' famous "Why?" series entitled "Dart Adams presents Hip Hop: No Genre For Old Heads"


Dart Adams presents Hip Hop: No Genre For Old Heads


Have you wondered why people are going crazy over beats with no samples? Are you curious as to why rappers nowadays wear clothes that it looks like they outgrew? Do you think that T-Pain is a bad influence on...well, everyone? Do you miss emcees? Are you sick of rappers that say they're not rappers? Would you rather listen to a Large Pro instrumental album than one where he's rhyming over his production? Do you still give solo albums by Wu Tang Clansmen the benefit of the doubt? Are you at a loss as to how Rihanna became a superstar and yet Chrisette Michelle didn't? Do you go months at a time without once watching BET? If you answered "yes" to most of these questions above then chances are that you're an old head!


Old heads do things like watch awards shows in disgust because everybody on stage sucks. They also listen to Madlib instrumentals and they love rappity rappin' ass rappers that don't leave space in their lines and get all extra super lyrical like Elzhi. Either that or they rave about some album that no one's buying like it's the album of the year or some shit. Old heads actually bought Nas' album and are excited that Heltah Skeltah are back together. Old heads are sick of hearing Akon and The-Dream on everyone's hooks. Old heads also do things like make lists about how you can tell you're an old head. Look below:

50 Signs That You Might Be An Old Head

1. You can’t for the life of you understand the appeal of Max B (Sorry, Amalgam Digital!).
2. Based on their name alone, Juelz Santana’s Skull Gang sounds like a crew of dudes that go around giving everyone head (No homo).
3. You wonder how come remixes no longer have completely different beats, just a gang of more dudes ProTooled onto the same damn track!
4. The first batch of “A Millie” remakes took you by surprise and you feared for the future when it started getting kinda “Dwali-ish”.
5. You still actually care about Raekwon’s “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2”
6. When you talk about the way artists dress nowadays you sound like your parents did back when you used to rock your Cross Colours outfits outside.
7. You feel bad that it took LL Cool J until Tuesday to figure out what you’ve known since at least 2005.
8. You don’t know how someone can actually take credit for producing Maino’s “Hi Haters”with a straight face. (Dolla Bill, Y’all!)
9. You find yourself on Unkut.com, Thimk and The Meaning Of Dope quite often.
10. You remember what C2, The Drawing Board and Cartel meant to album packaging and liner notes back in the days.
11. You’ve given up on having conversations about Hip Hop with anyone under the age of 25 or you're confused as to why DJ Khaled insists on calling himself "The Beat Novocaine" because that would mean that no one was feeling his production.
12. You were in shock when you saw Q-Tip’s video for “Gettin’ Up” on a Viacom network.
13. You correct people that call 88 Keys a “new artist”. (Bonus points if you show people his Discogs page)
14. When people talk about rappers from Ohio you have to stop yourself from blurting out “MC Brains was from Cleveland!”
15. You remember back when Erick Sermon was mad at MC Breed for repeatedly calling himself “E Double” in “Ain’t No Future In Yo Frontin’”.
16. In your record/tape collections are M/A/R/R/S “Pump Up The Volume”, Todd Terry “Bango (To The Batmobile)” and/or Raze “Break For Love”.
17. You were yelling at the screen during last year’s Hip Hop Honors when they sang “Remember The Time” and inducted New Jack Swing...or was that just me? (What's next? Hip House!)
18. Lil’ Wayne isn’t even in your Top 10 right now and/or you're still playing the "Caltroit" mixtape.
19. You’ve seen more of Rik Cordero’s videos than anyone else’s in the past year.
20. It still bugs you out to see Ice T playing a cop...even though he’s been doing it for about 20 years now.
21. You actually say/think stuff like “Where’s De La Soul at?”, "What? Another Jay-Z album?" and "Don't forget about K-Def!"
22. You miss hearing scratching on tracks and the “DJ song” on people’s projects.
23. You can name every member of the QN5 or Lessondary Crew but you don’t know who Mickey Factz, Charles Hamilton, Currensy or XV are.
24. It bothers you that the movie “Notorious” will be in theaters in ‘09 but no one will help fund a film about Toussiant L’ Overture.
25. You can’t wait for Count Bass D’s “L7” to drop or you've participated in a messageboard argument about Jay Electronica on Okayplayer.
26. You still don’t know what to think about Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown” (Let's hear how the album turns out, first).
27. You find The Cool Kids both endearing and annoying at the same time.
28. You’re hoping that Diddy doesn’t drop the ball with Janelle Monae.
29. If you recognized Jeru Tha Damaja’s voice right away on those new “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” ads.
30. You’re actually thinking about copping/downloading that new G-Dep mixtape.
31. You wish Nas and Pete Rock would bury the fuckin’ hatchet already and get in the studio together.
32. You’re aware that KRS One, Craig G, and Positive K have all put out albums this year.
33. You remember seeing ads for old E-40 and Master P albums in those Source ads for Rainbow Records out in Cali.
34. If you’re still playing EMC’s “Winds Of Change”, Elzhi & Royce Da 5’9”’s “Motown 25” and Kurupt’s “Yessir”.
35. You wonder how come RZA sounded so much better on GZA’s album than on his own record...or you still call people's albums "records".
36. When you hear the line “Engine engine number nine..” you still have the urge to crouch down to the floor.
37. You remember when Kobe Bryant (Trackmasters/Columbia) and Allen Iverson (Universal/MCA) both had record deals (The Sprite Curse strikes again!).
38. At one point in time (or right at this moment) your favorite emcee wore a skirt (Hi, Eternia!).
39. If you were a closing pitcher your entrance music would consist of various Wu Tang instrumentals (“Criminology”, “Black Jesus”, “Mighty Healthy”, etc.)
40. The Outsidahz will forever hold a special place in your heart (R.I.P. Slang Ton).
41. You just don’t feel the need to say “No homo” after sentences like “Excuse me, where do you keep the Fudgesicles?” or "Can I get some Bubblicious?"
42. You feel as though it’s just a matter of time before 50 Cent signs with Koch.
43. You remember when Lil’ Zane was making hits using 2Pac’s flow on every goddamn track.
44. You remember when Young Berg was that dumb ass kid that turned down 150 beats from the best producers in the game back when he was signed to Bloodline Records as a kid (How do I know about that?).
45. You find yourself at a loss for words trying to describe the level of expectations that people had for Canibus’ debut album back in the days.
46. You wonder whatever happened to the folks that participated in those Blaze Battles back in the day (See For? Reese? Carefree? Where ya at?)
47. You’ll believe that MF Doom’s album “Born Into This” is actually coming out when you see an album cover for it.
48. You still imagine what could’ve happened had Eminem signed with Duck Down.
49. You wanna know how Sheek Louch manged to catch the “Cappadonna disease” (you know what I mean!).
50. You’ve bought multiple albums by Madlib, Tanya Morgan, Common Market, Elzhi or Blu so far this year.

Next up in my Livications series: No Trivia

One.