Rhymes & Life: The death of J Dilla affects hip hop and Black History Month

For my 2nd column ever, I wrote about my history with J Dilla, who passed away 5 years ago.

The story originally published in the BG News:

Jay-Z said it best on the first bar of what was supposed to be his last album, 2003's "The Black Album": "They say they never really miss you 'til you dead or you gone."

This has been a common trend in music, that I've noticed for years, especially hip-hop. Hip-hop has always been extremely active in showing support to their fallen brethren.

There have been so many prominent members of the hip-hop community that have left us in the past few years: Guru (of Gangstarr), Ol Dirty Bastard (of Wu-Tang Clan), Pimp C (of UGK), Proof (of D12) and so on.

But one death in particular has affected me more than others: James "J Dilla" Yancey.

To be completely honest with you, the only time I've seen J Dilla's name before his death was skimming the liner notes of albums from Talib Kweli and Common. But I still remember Feb. 10, 2006 vividly.

I was 16 years old, and was eager to gain as much information about my budding interests in hip-hop as I could, so I would daily visit a message board, Okayplayer, which was started by drummer/producer ?uestlove of my new favorite band, The Roots. 

Then Feb. 10 came. I came home after school like I did any other day to see what my fellow Okayplayers were talking about that day and then I see a post titled "I have lost a good friend" from a poster named Black Thought, who is The Roots' emcee, although he has never posted on Okayplayer.

In his post (which would later appear on The Roots' tribute song to Dilla, "Can't Stop This") he said:

"As I write these words, my tears splashing the keyboard, I reminisce on the times I've shared (with) Dilla, never without that signature smile and head bouncing to the beat, and finally understand the true meaning of passion."

Tears splashing on his keyboard? If you've ever heard a Roots song, you know Black Thought is not the emotional type; he's the type that crushes weak emcees with his ferocious flows and aggressive lyrics.

But here he was admittedly crying on the Internet to thousands of fans over a loss of a producer who I barely recognized in my favorite rappers' shout out lists.

I felt ignorant. How come this man has had such an impact on the hip-hop community without me having hardly any knowledge of who he was?

During the final years of high school, I continued to grow as a music lover and a hip-hop head. Over those years, J Dilla was instrumental (excuse the weak pun) in my exploration of the genre.

Although he never achieved the fame or even the wealth that a musician of his caliber rightfully should have, his impact on hip-hop music was irrefutable.

His legacy lives on through the countless beat makers who have been influenced by his unmatched ability on the MPC including the likes of fellow Detroit beat miners Mr. Porter and Black Milk, Madlib, and even one of the biggest names in music, Kanye West, has in some way emulated Dilla's style.

This Monday would have been his 37th birthday had he not passed away five years ago from complications of Lupus.

Feb. 7 has been dubbed "Dilla Day" by the hip-hop community for the past four years, and it has always been a personal tradition of mine to play every Dilla track I have and force my friends to listen to it too.

So this year for black history month, let us remember some of our fallen heroes in the hip-hop world (or just music in general) that maybe didn't get the respect and love they deserved until after their death.

R.I.P. J Dilla.

BRL 2010 Year in Review

Sorry for the delay, but it took a while to listen to all the last second December releases. I'm also going to split up the albums from the EPs from the mixtapes all in a different post.

Here's my criteria: Replay Value, Rapping Technique (Flows and Deliveries), Production, Lyrics (topic and content), Cohesion, Fillers (count as negative points per song), and Songs in the top 100 (I made a list of the year's top rap songs and for each song that an album had in the top 100, that album got an extra point). All tie breakers will be settled by my preferenc

25. Ghost Face Killah - "Apollo Kids" - 31 points
24. Curren$y - "Pilot Talk II" - 31 points
23. Donwill - "Don Cuasac in High Fidelity" - 31 points
22. Shawn Chrystopher - "You and Only You" - 32 points
21. Eminem - "Recovery" - 32 points
20. Black Milk - "Album of the Year" - 34 points
19. Slum Village - "Villa Manifesto" - 36 points
18. Freeway & Jake-One - "The Stimulus Package" - 36 points
17. Murs & 9th Wonder - "Fornever" - 36 points
16. Little Brother - "Leftback" - 36 points
15. Custom Made - "Hi-Def" - 38 points
14. Dessa - "A Badly Broken Code" - 39 points
13. David Banner & 9th Wonder - "Death of a Pop Star" - 39 points
12. Reflection Eternal - Revolutions Per Minute" - 39 points
11. Curren$y - "Pilot Talk" - 40 points
10. Drake - "Thank Me Later" - 41 points
09. Deacon the Villain & Sheisty Khrist - "N*gg*z Wit Lattitude" - 43 points
08. Pack FM - "I F*ckin' Hate Rappers" - 43 points
07. Kokayi - "Robots & Dinosaurs" - 44 points
06. Big Boi - "Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty: - 45 points
05. Nas & Damian Marley - "Distant Relatives" - 50 points
04. The Roots - "How I Got Over" - 51 points
03. Sage Francis - "Li(f)e" - 51 points
02. Kno - "Death is Silent" - 52 points
01. Kanye West - "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" - 53 points

Wow, what a year. There were several albums that didn't quite make the top 25 that were still quality albums. I will have another post for EPs and Mixtapes, and then I will make another post covering my rock albums of the year.

CunninLynguists - "Oneirology" Tracklist and Cover Art

March 22nd is the release date for CunninLynguists' latest opus.

01. Predormitum (Prologue)
02. Darkness (Dream On)
03. Phantasmata
04. Hard As They Come (Act I)
05. Murder (Act II)
06. My Habit (I Haven’t Changed)
07. Get Ignorant
08. Shattered Dreams
09. Stars Shine Brightest (In The Darkest Of Night)
10. So As Not To Wake You
11. Enemies With Benefits
12. Looking Back
13. Dreams
14. Hypnopomp (Epilogue)
15. Embers'

This has been out there for a while, but I've been pretty busy and lazy as of late. This is one of the most anticipated releases for me this year; the first CL album since 2007.

Rhymes: Machine Gun Kelly - "Lace Up" Album Review (extended version)

Originally Published Version Can Be Read Here

So this week I ran a little long on my album review and my editor had to trim it down some, but I thought it was funny and interesting to be read in its full form:

My first introduction to up-and-coming Cleveland rapper, Machine Gun Kelly happened two Saturdays ago when I had a conversation with a friend at a party:

“Hey are you going to see MGK?” he said.

“What?” I replied, confused.

“MGK – Machine Gun Kelly. He’s from Cleveland; he’s performing at the Cla-Zel tonight.”

“Nah,” I said trying my hardest not to say anything insulting about the rapper’s name, “never heard of him.”

“You should check him out,” he said knowingly of my interests in hip hop, “he’s pretty good.”

“Maybe I will,” I said insincerely and dismissively – if I’ve never seen his prohibition era gangster-pseudonym on any of the countless Twitter posts, message board discussions, or blogs that I spend much of my nerdy free time, then he’s probably not that good, I smugly suggest to myself.

As the next week passed, I kept hearing more of his name, and not from die-hard Clevelanders who think KiD CuDi is the next Rakim (who have also probably never heard of Rakim). He sold out the Cla-Zel, and apparently was really good, I heard from a couple of reliable sources. And he stayed the night at my neighbor’s house, and my roommates met him without making the connection that he was the guy performing at the Cla-Zel until I just asked them about it.

I also heard that he was coming back to Bowling Green, eight days after his Cla-Zel show, to open for Wiz Khalifa at Anderson Arena.

Not a big Wiz fan (he’s got a couple of cool songs, but could never get into any of his many mixtapes), so I didn’t want to call off work to catch the show.

On the night of the Wiz Khalifa show, while I was at work cleaning the bathrooms and classes at East Hall, the fire alarms rang and my co-workers and I were forced to leave the building.

After my boss told us that we weren’t allowed back in the building, he took us over the Anderson Arena to help clean up after the show.

Cleaning up after concertgoers for the last hour of my shit (from 1 a.m. until 2 a.m.) was definitely not my idea of a good time.

“It smells like cigarettes in here,” I said walking into the lobby.

“Try again,” my boss replied.

But before I walked onto the court I saw a stack of CDs, and me being the one to never turn down free music, I immediately pick it up.

On the walk home from work, I check out the CD closer to see what it was, and it turns out it was Machine Gun Kelly’s latest independent album, “Lace Up.”

Right off the bat you can tell he hails from Cleveland, and is heavily influenced by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. His voice sounds like Swizz Beatz’s (he’s much better than Swizzy’s attempts at rapping though), but he has a rapid-fire flow reminiscent of Layzie, Krayzie and the rest of the first and biggest major hip hop act to call Cleveland home.

The opening tracks, “Salute” and “Chip off the Block” are the only two tracks to heavily feature his effortless double-time flow, but he is a lot more interesting when he slows things down and speaks from his heart.

“End of the Road” is one of MGK’s best offerings on the record. The piano-driven beat is easily the best production on the disc, and the song boasts an excellent hook from Mat Musto, whose raspy vocals have a subtle reggae influence.

“End of the Road” is an inspirational track about overcoming struggles, which is a reoccurring motif on “Lace Up.” “Make It,” “All Alone,” “Victory Music” and “Been Through it All” also feature this theme.

“Been Through it All” being the most sincere and personal track on the album including a verse talking about his daughter: “at 19 with the world in my hands, I stepped up and handle that s*** like a man.”

“Lead You On” is the best example of MGK’s abilities as a songwriter. On the track he talks about an abusive relationship, but if you listen closer, you can hear that he is talking about drugs rather than a women. It’s a concept that has been done before (see: 50 Cent’s “A Baltimore Love Thing” and Jay-Z’s “I Know”), but it’s still a very effective song, and one of the highlights of the record.

One of the weaker tracks on the album is “All Alone,” which has heavy influence from Eminem’s 2010 hit, “Not Afraid.” The beat is made up of spaced-out synths and frantic drum programming (replace Boi-1da’s annoying tin-sounding snare with a weird 808-tom tom), much like the popular Eminem single. The track also features a chanting chorus, and cringe-worthy singing on the song’s bridge.

The production on “Lace Up” is probably the album’s low-point. Most of the beats are pretty generic and unoriginal, crafted from lazy synths and heavy 808 drums. But MGK is interesting enough, and good enough at crafting songs and good hooks to make the listener overlook the boring beats.

All-in-all MGK’s raps are pretty good – solid delivery and flow, good rhyme schemes, and can be pretty enlightening. He does however have an occasional failed punch line, but he’s definitely more hit than miss.

BRL Rating: 6.5 beets out of 10

Bonus Material:
here's the music video to his song "Cleveland."