I actually let myself read the manga carts review on pitchfork ( Oh, I "acquired" it the moment it came out, without a single android or google device, or the assistance of an app... It's Goddamn great)... I can't believe how much that site has flip flopped over the years. Magma is pretty much just another Jay album, awesome and bloated with self satisfaction, but for some reason this time they hate it, for the same reasons they loved the others?

Glad I didn't read the Yeezus review. Even if it was a 10.0, just reading those inane words would have made the album leads enjoyable for me. Idiocy.

P4k is all about hype. Magna Carta is basically the rap version of 20/20 Experience, which they gave an 8.4 earlier this year.

i think that Magna Carta isn't a MASTERPIECE like The Black Album or American Gangster, but definitely better than The Blueprint 3 (which i enjoyed a lot).

the track "BBC" with Nas is the most fun thing Jay has done in years. oh yes.

just copped Yeezus today. "Blood on the Leaves" got me blown away, song of the year so far.

While agree that 2013 has been an epically boring year for rap music, the late 1990s had some fantastically innovative rap and hip hop so long as you weren't getting crunk and were avoiding No Limit ;)

yes, true, but this is a hip-hop cafe. You got to take your Prodigy with you unless you want to chat up rap muzik ;)

can't seem to be able to stop playing The Chronic, Doggystyle and 2001 this week.

As it should be, about time you forget about that Jay and Kanye shit, and get back to some classic 1990s house party music. Lord I miss OG LA houseparties, back when you could actually go out, drink with friends, here some great DJ or even better, a local band, meet some fantastic ladies, smoke some kind trees, shit even get in a fist fight if you felt like it. Alas, by the early 2000s gangsters had infiltrated just about every party scene, and going to a house party was like going to the County Jail, nothing but drama and bullshit. The last house party I went to somebody got shot, and that was AFTER the police shut it down :fuckyou:

how do you feel about Eminem being all over that album? :p

i just realized that "Lost" by Chance the Rapper samples the intro to Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat.

No. I actually didn't like the Chronic 2001, but here in LA it blew up just about as big as the OG Chronic, so I had to more or less tolerate it. I'm on the Eazy E/Tupac side of the whole Ice Cube/Dr Dre beef. Fuck Ice-Cube (he is a bitch) and fuck Dr Dre (he is bitch made).

Those catz sure ran they mouthz in the 1990s and yet become the biggest busterz with made-for-kids movies, lame TV commercials, and those shitty, overpriced super hyped headphones. Eazy E called it out, and I agree with his criticism, artistically speaking. Gangsta rap is admittedly about authenticity as much as underground punk was in the mid-1980s, so sell-out bands and artists gets not love

great post. ;)

btw, what do you think is the best Pac album? it used to be Me Against the World for me when i was younger, but now i'm leaning towards All Eyez on Me.

of course the Makaveli album is great but i feel like it's almost TOO intense. damn, at least Pac went away with a bang.

heeeeeey it's been one year since the release of Channel Orange! one of the greatest that came out in the last few years.

I'm gonna have to stop you there, because it is exactly like that.

His production hasn't always been the best (Vol. 2 has only occasional moments of greatness, sample-wise, aside from "Hard Knock Life",) but Jay is one of the most skilled rappers in the history of the genre. Some of his songs are awful.. Some of his rhymes are ridiculous... But considering that he's been a predominantly freestyle/one-take artist throughout his career, and taking into account how much music he's released, having one of two sucky songs (even one or two per album, if that were the case) would still put him in the upper pantheon of emcees from the last 25 years.

When referring to rapping alone, there are very few artists who can even share a track with Jay without sounding like children in comparison.

I think he sounds like a punk bitch and I hate everything he has ever released.

"I didn’t fully come out at Jay-Z and Kanye [West’s] Watch The Throne, but is that or is it not some kind of king shit? It’s like it’s some Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Louis XVI type shit. Man, fuck a king – unless it’s Martin Luther.

So it was one of those things like, no, I admire you guys as rappers but I could never, ever, ever salute that base of cake and greed. Nah, I ain’t never gonna do that." - Chuck D

If Makaveli the Don is too intense for you, then I'd say All Eyez On Me is definitely the best you'll find, though in truth, the post-houmous Better Dayz is actually pretty decent too..

But y'all know me, I'm too caught up in that Makaveli the Don shit or that Outlawz Immortal shit (Still I Rise is also very good)


I know you're bout it for Jay-Z but seriously, you are joking right? I head that dude come out on that Justin Timberlake single "Suit and Tie" and I was thinking to myself, "Shit, can Jay-Z even rap anymore, is he even trying to rap anymore or just spit out random words that sort of rhyme with ZERO cadence or delivery.."

Jay Z is a candy-wrapper

You west coast fellas (in truth, geographically speaking at least, I'm one of you, so no insult intended) seem to be way too wrapped up in things like cadence, and also... Cadence. ;)

Seriously, one of the reasons I took to easy coast hip hop like Wu and Jay Z was that it was NOT so clipped and articulated and full of vocal gymnastics. I think the over emphasis on that kind of thing really made the difference between "rap" and "hip hop." The west coast rap scene (and the Cleveland rap scene, I guess) made vocal delivery so important that it left no room for sloppiness, fun, or non-fabricated personality.

I have a hard time listening to anyone who works sounds like they're working on sounding a certain way. I love the Chronic, Doggystyle, and Straight Outta Compton, but for me, it's all about sneaking You're right that Jay Z is not the rap technician that any of LA's major players were. I thought he was retarded when he came up, and I didn't understand how anyone could enjoy his music. I don't think I was entirely convinced until the Black Album, actually. But Jay raps with very little prevention for such a notoriously pretentious guy... He's smarter than he sounds, and when I realized how much of his lyrics were made up on the spot, or with little to no preparation, I started paying attention.

That's not to say that Wu Tang doesn't have cadence down. They do, and always have. They're truly skilled rappers, but they let themselves spazz out, improvise, and have fun. Also, both artists have the ability to rap about things other than guns and physical prowess. East Coasters used samples for more than just beats. They also used vocals for more than melody, and as a whole, have always been more loose lipped and humorous than their coastal counterparts.

Except for Biggie, who just loaded up his lungs with pure fucking hate and screamed it into the mic. Still, that was personality. The voice spoke for itself and didn't need any adjustments. I think this cadence issue is really behind my preference for Big, Jay, and above all Wu Tang, to the Ice Cube and Dre and the rest. I guess the sloppiness, the throwback samples, and the honesty and imperfection of the vocal delivery feels closer to punk to me. Or maybe it's like post punk... Like Wire to the West Coast's Sex Pistols.

At least you noticed my biggest beef without me having to say it again, it was beginning to sound redundant on my part ;)


This is true, except that it actually allows for even MORE expression of personality and individual flavor of the rapper.


But isn't that attention to sound what makes rap actual music in the first place? When rappers like Snoop are essentially singing, its safe to say that its music.


Thank you for that concession, I sincerely appreciate the nod.



Wu is ALL about their cadence and delivery, its what sets apart each individual wu rapper and their various side/solo projects.


We have some ridiculously funny west-coast rap, but I feel you, sometimes we do here in the West take ourselves so damned seriously :cool: