Friday, June 27, 2008

What's New In Dart's iPod #36 AKA Enter The 36th Chamber

What up, people? I'm writing this blog from my G5 Mac because my workhorse G3 laptop has died on me again last week to the day. This means that I've been late with all of my posts this week so far. I need to rearrange my schedule so I'll be able to post daily without any type of delays. This has also hindered the longer blogs that I've working on because all of the outlines for my Grime blog and my Rapper/Actor blog are all on my dead laptop. Sucks for me.

In order to compensate I'll have to resort to the rapid fire review blog format today because of time constraints created by my current situation. Hopefully, I can find a way to remedy the situation and I'll be able to post all of the blogs I listed in my last Coming Soon up sometime this Summer. If not, I'll be up to the wee hours of the morning trying to rewrite all of that shit. I'm not looking forward to that at all but I'm willing to do it.

The five projects I'm reviewing today are as follows and will be reviewed in order of listing: Snowgoons "Black Snow", Dwele "Sketches Of A Man" , Gemstones "The Testimony Of Gemstones", Opio "Vulture's Wisdom Volume One" and G-Unit's "Terminate On Sight". 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.

You'll be making one the worst mistakes of all times if you try to pit one of your verses versus mines! © Dart Adams, 1997


Best Joints: The Curse, Black Snow, Casualties Of War, Who?, Hold Up, This Is Where The Fun Stops, Starlight, Knockatomi Plaza, Pay Attention, Server Justice, Still Got The Ammo, Ride On, Incite A Riot, Lost, Still Waters Run Deep, Raining, Sick Life, The Storm, Avalanche Warning, The Hatred and Helpless

Hot Garbage: N/A (sometimes the orchestral build ups to some tracks get repetitive and there are some meh verses but other than that, nothing)

Dart's Take: This is a solid album from top to bottom, you won't be doing a lot of fast forwarding but the absolute bangers are few and far between on this LP. It's a well made and well produced album but it just fell short of the same energy that "German Lugers" had. This album is stacked with joints and well worth buying but it didn't blow me away. I give it a recommended maybe because I did expect some more heat rocks to be on it.



Best Joints: Sketches Of A Man, Free As A Bird, Feels So Good, Blow Your Mind, A Few Reasons (Truth Pt. 2), Open Your Eyes, Workin' On It, Brandi, 5 Dolla Mic, I'm Cheatin', You Won't Be Lonely, Love Ultra, Travelin' Girl, If You Want To, Shady, 70's, Vain, Spiritual, I'm Sorry (Wake The Music Baby), Body Rock

Hot Garbage: N/A

Dart's Take: I liked this album far more than Usher's but I'm a Dwele fan so take that with a grain of salt. The production was ridiculous, the songs were well written and joints like "A Few Reasons (Truth Pt. 2)", "Workin' On It (Dilla dedication)", "Brandi", "I'm Cheatin'" and "Body Rock" all got a few reloads on the iTunes. I have to give this a mos def and while you're at it check out Wayna's new joint that tops my Late Passes list.



Best Joints: Free Chilly, Fly Away, Where's The Love?, Hater's Love, Still Untamed, We On, Skeletons, Superstar, Bury Me A Gem, My First 16, Time, I Love Her, Good Morning

Hot Garbage: Low Key, Never Give Up, Everything's OK, A Song To You and When I Get On were all just meh to me.

Dart's Take: I'm looking forward to Gemstones LP but this mixtape just sounded like a bunch of outtakes from "The Cool" and freestyles over Lupe tracks rather than a Gemstones mixtape sometimes. If there were more joints like "Time", "Skeletons", "My First 16" and "Bury Me A Gem" rather than freestyles over beats that just missed "The Cool" I could've gotten into it more. Joints like "We On" and "Still Untamed" have been floating around the bloggerverse for hella long so I just expected more. I look forward to the album but I give the mixtape a maybe.



Best Joints: Guilty As Charged, On The Outside Lookin' In, Some Superfly Shit, Chaotic Erotic, About Love, Don Julio, Stop The Press, To The People, Vice Versa, Original Lyricist, Cali Girls, I Need A Money Tree, The Prize and With Or Without You

Hot Garbage: N/A (Some of these songs could've been longer. Other than that...nada)

Dart's Take: I was nodding my head so much that my neck hurt. The Architect did his thing on the boards and Opio spit some of his best shit since "Triangulation Station". "Some Superfly Shit", "Chaotic Erotic", "Don Julio", "Stop The Press", "Vice Versa", "Original Lyricist" and "Without Or Without You" all get constant burn on the iTunes. I can't wait to hear what's on Volume Two, this gets a mos def easy.



Best Joints: Straight Outta Southside, Piano Man (saved by Young Buck), Rider Pt.2 (Young Buck FTW), Casualties Of War (what happened to Banks?), No Days Off (Young Buck once again), T.O.S., Get Down and I Don't Wanna Talk About It

Hot Garbage: Close To Me (1 minute too long), I Like The Way She Do It, Party Ain't Over, Money Make The World Go Round. I need instrumentals for the following tracks to enjoy them: Kitty Kat, Let It Go and Ready Or Not.

Dart's Take: This album bored me more than a Tyler Perry play would (that's saying a lot). G-Unit has managed to remove Young Buck from the group which wouldn't be such a big issue if Lloyd Banks hadn't turned from the Boy Wonder to Generic Mixtape Emcee over the past couple of years. Even his voice sounds different what the fuck happened to him? He used to be a beast and now he's in the same boat as Sheek Louch as dudes that just somehow lost it a la Cappadonna in 2001.

These beats are crazy but G-Unit does the same ol' same ol' over the tracks and they end up wasting them. Am I really supposed to believe that 50 Cent would kill me when stands to lose several endorsement deals over it? Am I supposed to believe the Banks and Yayo are still selling drugs when the show money they get dwarfs whatever money they'd make doing so?

Do I really care who 50 Cent disses on wax if I'm past the age of 18? The only question I have regarding this album is: Yayo, how does 50's ass taste? I give this LP a maybe but for myself it's a fuckin' Olympic discus *Goes outside and flings CD into oncoming traffic*



Late Passes (For Doz Dat Slept):



Projects I'm Looking Forward To Reviewing Once They Leak...I Mean Drop:


Albums I'm Looking Forward To Reviewing Once They Leak...I Mean Drop:

Joe Budden-Padded Room
Rhymefest-El Che
Jay Electronica-Act II: Patents Of Nobility
Jay Electronica-Abracadabra: Let There Be Light
Big Boi-Sir Luscious Leftfoot
Magnif & J Dilla-Detroit Royalty
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
B.O.B.-The Adventures Of B.O.B.
The Alchemist-Chemical Warfare
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
Heltah Skeltah-D.I.R.T (Da Incredible Rap Team)
Royce Da 5'9"-The Bar Exam 2
Elzhi-The Preface


Dart's Fat Tape/CD-R (as of June 27th, 2008):

Talking To God-Termanology
Start It Over-Skyzoo f/Emilio Rojas & Median (prod. by Black Milk)
The Itis-Black ELement (prod. by 6th Sense)
Time-Gemstones
A Better Day-T.I.
Vice Versa-Opio (prod. by The Architect)
Not Gonna Go-Wayna (prod. by Kev Brown)
Grown Folks-Fakts One f/Little Brother (prod. by Fakts One)
Announcement-Common f/Pharrell Williams (prod. by Pharrell Williams)
Over And Out-Hustle Simmons f/Buff1
I Get Up-Sha Stimuli
No Days Off-G-Unit
Pay Attention-Snowgoons f/Decay, Astonish & Scheme (prod. by Snowgoons)
Mega Graphiti-Vordul Mega
The Secret-AZ f/Charlie Rock & Raekwon
Sick-Skillz (prod. by K-1)
Spacedoll-Hayzee (prod. by Hayzee)
Body Rock-Dwele
Incredible-Mickey Factz
Bury Me A Gem-Gemstones
Who?-Snowgoons f/Outerspace (prod. by Snowgoons)
The Rundown-Hustle Simmons f/Fel Sweetenberg & 84
Billy Club-Wayna f/Muhsinah (prod. by Muhsinah)
Stop The Press-Opio (prod. by The Architect)
Dope Boys-The Game f/Travis Barker (prod. by 1500 Or Nothing)


I stay on that cowboy shit/Get me some whiskey and a fuckin' gun! © Junkyard Juju of The Beatnuts


One.


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