What's New In Dart's iPod #104 AKA The 7th *Sigh*

This week was another good one. It's been two weeks since our collaborative blog Bloggerhouse went underway and we are killing the game very bad to quote Kanye West. We should be looking to add to the blog roll but we're busy as hell coming up with new stuff to write about at the moment. I will be adding new content up there as well as here until I discontinue Poisonous Paragraphs on January 1st, 2010. I'll be bring my "Producers You Need To Hear Right Now" series to Bloggerhouse in 2010. I'll do a January list then fall back until June as I would've done 150 producer profiles in just over 6 months.

My beloved Patriots beat the hated Miami Dolphins 27-17 on Sunday and I posted about them on Armchair Linebacker. I need to post something on on Nerd With Swag soon but I've been swamped with my "25 More Producers..." and "The Next 30" for Bloggerhouse. The Celtics have been beaten at home by the young Atlanta Hawks in a game where they just refused to show up. In better news, the Lakers got merked by the young Denver Nuggets right afterwards so all is right with the world.

Hex Murda came home earlier this week (shout out to Robyn Elaine & the girls plus the entire extended fam in Detroit) but you can still contribute to the Hex Care Fund via PayPal through TheHexCareFund@gmail.com. If for any reason you fell like donating to my blog via PayPal for my 3 plus years of blogging I'd ask that you instead donate it to Hex Murda. Please continue submitting material to bloggerhouse@gmail.com and I'll be using poisonousparagraphs@gmail.com forever. Don't send shit to that old hotmail account.

This week I'll be reviewing six new projects that recently hit the 'net/bloggerverse and/or will be landing on store shelves soon in the following order: Georgia Anne Muldrow "Early", Hawdwerk & Jansport J "High Power Moves", J.J. Brown "Connect The Dots", Melanie Fiona "The Bridge." People Under The Stairs "Carried Away" and Rakim "The Seventh Seal". For those of you new to this blog, 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 recently revised "Cop It Or Not" ratings system breaks down below:

Opinions be damned. This particular project has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and should come with a Surgeon General's warning and/or a biohazard sticker. It should only be handled by hazmat teams or bomb/demolitions squads. To quote Common & Canibus, this album is your worst nightmare squared.

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.

Call me Jay Electronica...Fuck that! Call me Jay Elecyarmulke... © Jay Electronica


Best Joints: Child Of The Sun, Never In Vain, Run Away, Break You Down, Sunset, Keep It Real?, Alone With An Angel, In Love Again, Let It Go and Gears (Sing It Again)

Hot Garbage: N/A

Dart's Take: Georgia Anne Muldrow has made yet another ridiculous album right near the end of 2009. It's her singing 10 tracks of sweet soul over her own excellent production. Cop it and don't even think about it. She's also made "Georgia Anne Muldrow presents Ms. One And The Gang" and "Umsindo" this year so if you don't have those yet cop 'em as well. This was an easy decision. Mos def.







Best Joints: Season Finale, Live From The 626, Rap Hustle, That Spliff, All I Need, She Smiles, Ride, Throw The Bombs, Gremlins, High Power Moves, Believers, Hearin Shit, Fly As Me, Computer and Change Your Mind

Hot Garbage: Wow! (works better as an instrumental)

Dart's Take: Hawdwerk & Jansport J's "High Power Moves" is a well executed project through and through. Look out for these cats in the coming years and you already know that Jansport J is one of the alumni of my infamous "Producers You Need To Hear Right Now" list. Nice rhymes and production make for a solid project so I give it a recommended maybe. Check it out at their Bandcamp page right now





Best Joints: Pure Grind, That's Me, The World's A Stage, Froze Prose, Gender Bender, Crybaby (Punk MF), Upstate Connect, Grand Groove, Fantastic Four, Ode To Jay, You & Me (Bombay), He Is I, It, Brother In Arms and Froze Prose Pt. 2

Hot Garbage: Watch The Star Shine

Dart's Take: J.J. Brown delivers an impressive debut album (I can't believe he's been in the game this long and this is his first album) with nice production (provided by J.J. Brown himself) and a star studded lineup of guest appearances (Reef The Lost Cauze, Block McCloud, Celph Titled, Eternia, Miz Metro, Louis Logic, Poison Pen, Awar, King Magnetic, Travis McCoy, Dezmatic, Craig G and others). You'll get a few bangers mixed in with concept tracks, story rhymes and straight up battle tracks. I give "Connect The Dots" a recommended maybe. It dropped on November 10th so go give it a listen and cop it if you like what you've heard.






Best Joints: Give It To Me Right, Bang Bang, Please Don't Go (Cry Baby), Ay Yo, Walk On By, You Stop My Heart, Johnny, Sad Songs, Priceless, It Kills Me and Teach Him

Hot Garbage: Monday Morning (sounds fake to me...)

Dart's Take: This Melanie Fiona album would've had more impact for me if not for the fact that I'd previously heard Joss Stone, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Candie Payne, Mark Ronson, Solange Knowles, Raphael Saadiq and Mayer Hawthorne (also known as DJ Haircut) among others all completely body the throwback Soul/R&B in recent years. This was a very good album and a welcome departure from the overly produced vocal effects laden crap that passes for a great amount of R&B lately. Melanie Fiona's voice is amazing but too many tracks that sound similar to other better executed tracks I've heard outta the UK/Brownswood Bubblers set recently. I give "The Bridge" a recommended maybe because other people aren't as critical as I am when it comes to throwback Soul music.





Best Joints: Step Off, Much Too Much, Hit The Top, Listen, Trippin At The Disco, 80 Blocks From Silverlake, Beer, Come On, Let's Get High, Check The Vibe, Letter From The Old School, DQMOT, Down In LA, My Boy D, Teeth, Creepshow and Carried Away

Hot Garbage: N/A

Dart's Take: Ahh...now that's more like it. I was a little disappointed by People Under The Stairs' "Fun DMC" album because the production was just simple and the hymes were dialed down in hopes of emulating the sound of Hip Hop from 1984-1986 before it got suoer lyrical and production techniques began to get super advanced. I wasn't that happy with it. People Under The Stairs (Double K & Thes One) go back to their signature style and craft a damn good 7th album. After 11 years of making records these cats still got it. I give "Carried Away" yet another recommended maybe. It dropped October 13th but I was so busy with other albums that I didn't have time to review it. Better late than never.






Best Joints: How To Emcee, Walk These Streets, Documentary Of A Gangsta, Man Above, You And I, Won't Be Long, Holy Are You, Satisfaction Guaranteed, Working For You, Message In The Song, Put It All To Music, Psychic Love, Still In Love and Dedicated

Hot Garbage: 6 out of the 14 songs on this album were about "love" or relationships and there were no uptempo tracks or bangers with any real energy to them. I never once felt the need to rewind a track and...why don't I just continue this in "Dart's Take"?

Dart's Take: This album isn't wack by any stretch of the imagination. It also isn't great by any stretch of the imagination. Rakim's bars and delivery were on point. Nick Wiz's production for the most part was on point and well executed. The problem lies with there was damn near no excitement involved with this long awaited project in the least. With Raekwon's album you had the rush of hearing certain tracks, guest appearances, beats or verses. There was none of that on "The Seventh Seal". I listened to this album three straight times but I never one felt the need to rewind anything. Not good.

My head did nod occasionally just to stop abruptly. I never once made the scrunchface. I didn't smile once. It just felt clinical and it was a joyless, disappointment laden exercise. The final track samples No Doubt's "Don't Speak"...why am I hearing Gwen Stefani's voice at the end of a Rakim album? Fuck. Goddamn it. I give "The Seventh Sign" (which I've been waiting on for 3 years and still didn't have high expectations for) a maybe. It's up on http://www.myspace.com/rakim right now. It drops on 11.17.09.





Late Passes (For Doz Slept):


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

Rhymefest-El Che

Jay Electronica-Act II: Patents Of Nobility
Jay Electronica-Abracadabra: Let There Be Light
Big Boi-Sir Luscious Leftfoot, Son Of Chico Dusty
Pac Div-Grown Kid's Syndrome
Blu-God Is Good
Drake- Thank Me Later
Alchemist & Oh No are Gangrene
Eternia & MoSS- At Last
B.O.B.-The Adventures Of B.O.B.
Billy Danze-Behind Gatez
AG & O.C.-Oasis: Together Brothers
Statik Selektah & Termanology Are 1982
Lil' Fame & Termanology-Fizzyology
Baatin-Titus
Phat Kat and Elzhi are Cold Steel
The Beatnuts-The Planet Of The Crates
Ski Beatz-Half Man, Half Amazing
Evidence-Cats & Dogs
Statik Selektah-The Hangover
Buff1 & Rhettmatic -Crown Royale
Apollo Brown & Boog Brown-UPS
DJ Muggs & Ill Bill- Kill Devil Hills
Crown Nation (Quelle & Denmark Vessey)-Slut Bag Edition
Jay Electronica x Mos Def x Curren$y-Center Edge Territory


Bloggerhouse has arrived! Dart Adams (Poisonous Paragraphs), Travis Glave (Wake Your Daughter Up), & Eric Coons (When They Reminisce) are the official lineup of Bloggerhouse. Content is king and we are the undisputed kings of content. One of us equals many of us/If you you disrespect any of us you'll see plenty of us © Guru


XXL decided to not do a freshmen list (because the blogs already do it for them yearly) and instead did a Top 100 Hip Hop Website list. I can't wait to see exactly whose sites AREN'T on it! Bloggerhouse!

One.