Moment Of Clarity: Nas V. Jay-Z
“Hip Hop has to thank God for Jay-Z.” Amen. That’s the smartest thing Nas has ever said. No I kid. The smartest stuff Nas has ever said can be found on “Ether.” Although Nas’ “Ether” was hot, it was nothing but a cigarette to Jay. He stomped it out with his foot. Oh yeah, I’m bringing the Nas V. Jay-Z debate back, yes. After D’Evils & R.I.P. CD’s it’s time to have some fun. So anyways, Nas might’ve won the battle, but Jay-Z has unarguably won the war. Nas is a great lyricist, but Jay-Z is more versatile, and he can sell records. Men lie, women lie numbers don’t, ah.
R.I.P. CD’s
Wiz Khalifa’s Taylor Allderdice mixtape once again showed us the power of digital music, and how powerless physical music is. Khalifa’s Taylor Allderdice almost immediately crashed DatPiff due to the thousands of fans rushing to download Khalifa’s first solo project since Rolling Papers. Rostrum Records CEO, Benjy Grinberg, tweeted that Khalifa’s DatPiff page was getting over 20,000 refreshes a second! LiveMixtapes soon followed and crashed as well. In total, Khalifa Man took down two websites in a matter of 15 minutes. Although these numbers are impressive, they shouldn’t really surprise anybody anymore. Rick Ross’ Rich Forever crashed LiveMixtapes itself. Led by “Stay Schemin'”, Rozay had every blog in the sphere buzzing. These events combined with the Careless World & WZRD stats, reassure that physical music is no longer necessary to survive in this era. The physical CD is irrelevant, just like any artist who completely relies on it.
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D’EVILS
One morning I wake up, and find out there was a shooting that left 16 people injured outside of a hip-hop club where a rapper was set to perform. The next morning I wake up, and find out 11 shots were fired at one of my favorite rappers. What is going on? But most surprisingly, why am I not surprised? What are we supposed to expect from a genre where simply knowing Noriega, I mean the real, real Noriega is looked at as “cool”? So what, you were 3 cells away from him? I don’t care. Don’t get me wrong though, I like gangsta rap. There’s actually some gangsta rap playing in the other tab. It’s just that you guys shouldn’t take every word as fact. Hip-hop might not be a direct cause of violence, but it certainly doesn’t help. A lot of the language obviously glorifies it, and the culture seems to ignore holding gangsta rappers accountable.
March Madness Playlist
One of my favorite times of the year is upon us! A time of the year where you can see athletes compete 100% every single play. A time where great stories happen, underdogs prevail, and legacies are made. A time where filling out a piece of paper can win you some serious money or at least some serious bragging rights. Yup, I’m talking about March Madness! Where half the fun of this tournament is the outstanding plays, defense, buzzer beaters, and entertaining analysts (cue a Gus Johnson “OHHHHH!”) the other half is filling out that excruciating bracket that you lose sleep over and then blow it all on the first day. That being said, I came up with five songs that remind me of some events that take place in this month of college basketball…
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