DOOM kills it behind the boards on Take Me to the Leader. i love that album, i just wish he was rapping more on it.

yeah, he never made a bad album. it took a while for JJ DOOM to grow on me, it's such an angry album. it caught the time he was pissed off about living in America.

My favorite has always, ALWAYS been MM.. FOOD. I don't really know why that album has always been so special for me, but there you have it. Followed by Madvillainy, the Viktor Vaughns, and Born like This.

For quite a while he was my favorite hip hop artist. I would LOVE to hear something new from him this year.

:D

right this second, I feel like an idiot for having never checked out Mac Miller before. Wow.

oh yeah, that album is so cool! i don't even like Mac Miller as a rapper but the production.. wow.

"Just as promised, at halftime of the national title game, No ID drops off this new record after announcing Common’s new album Nobody Smiling, which is entirely produced by No ID, earlier today. Listen to ‘War’ below."

http://fashionably-early.com/2014/01...ar-prod-no-id/

apparently the album is going to be inspired by the violence in Chicago.

Gravitas is the best thing Talib's released in years. Shit.

Kind of disappointed by Del's new one after a listen. That will probably change, but I just wasn't feeling it. This makes me sad.

yeah sev, the new Del feels a little meh. A lot of it feels really sloppy and unfinished.

Know what I think? His idea of good production is totally rooted in the early '90s. He produced this himself, yes? Well... The production slaps and thumps with no real purpose. Which is exactl how "... My brother George" would sound if released today.

He was once the emcee I respected most. But I think he only hits home in the proper context, like alongside Kid Koala and Dan.

We'll see though.

i'm worried about Common's new album. the single isn't bad, i mean Common's rapping is excellent but it's kinda hard to pay attention to him when that awful beat is all over. plus he's already tried the whole "full No I.D. production" idea on his last album and that didn't end up so well. the concept is what makes me excited to hear it though.

better than prisoner of conscious? Really? its good, but I'm not sure its that good.. As to Del, yeah, just stick with that Hieroglyphics album from last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7B2VgRShew

so amazing.

can't we just get another album like this?? please?

this thread is so quaint.

You ain't added nothing to it though, and chillax, we've been talking about good hip hop lately, don't be all Dennis Rodman in North Korea and jinx that shit yo!

Rodman just wants to play ball Yo. He should be the Vitiligo spokesman, since MJ is gone....

I'm anti-common and I don't even know why. I've never heard a song of his that made me feel anything other than suspicious.

Also- most appropriately named rapper ever. lol.

uh... did you never hear the album Resurrection.

I mean. If you like hip hop and don't like "I Used To Love H.E.R." well... that shit doesn't add up.

(also his name used to be Common Sense til he got sued by a reggae band w/ same name)

Sorry. I don't mean to be a hater. I just think the guy is kind of an opportunistic "rap star" type. Very few rappers can act in romantic comedies with Queen Latifah and still maintain cred.

Also... I'm totally down with positive tip. Gang Starr, Tribe, Mos Def, Black Moon, Lootpack... All of these artists have albums in my all time favorites list, but BE took the whole "positive tip" approach to a retardedly bushy-tailed new extreme of pussiness. I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking, is this even rap? Like, it belonged in the "Inspirational" section at the record store.

Tight soul beat production though.

To be fair, I've ignored him for quite some time now. Based on your recommendation, NR, I will give that track a listen.

give that track a listen, but give the album RESURRECTION a listen. Gawd, that was such an important record to junior high me. Haha. That's so classic dood trust me. No matter what you thnk of his latter day career. That's up there for me in the era of Bizarre Ride II Tha Pharcyde, Alkaholik's Coast II Coast, Tribe, Roots, De La's Buhloon Mindstate & Stakes Is High, etc.

I'll admit, I don't outright hate on Common, but I've never particularly been feeling him myself yo. More into the Mos Def side of that equation.. as to Gravitas, its a good record, and I also dig that Talib Kweli is going Killah Priest and self-releasing it, post-2000s independent music is fucking an epic movement allowing artists to entirely obstruficate the mainstream process. Its too bad it hasn't helped for MC Tree, dude almost seems kind of burned about that.. He had critical acclaim but makes no $$$


Don't be hatin on Queen Latifah yo, Kadijah will fuck you up! That, and have you noticed how fine she is lately? That at the thick big-boned Latifah of the 1990s yo,

Resurrection was his rapping peak, dude was straight spazzing on every track. Like Wate for Chocolate and Be have his best music though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTGxPiEg7iM

prod by DJ Premier. Common is the opposite of a pussy, don't forget it's the dude who destroyed Ice Cube's career.

Did Severian call him a pussy? that's cold yo! Fuck Ice Cube

hahahahaha, good one.

of course, Kanye production.

They had the nerve to sue Common? Those dudes FUCKING SUCK SO FUCKING BAD! I've had the misfortune and displeasure to see this fuckwads open at some local reggae shows, my Lord, its the definition of plastic, God-awful, absolute shit imitation reggae. Fuck them, if anything, Common probably didn't want to be confused with those lamez

Common could do gangsta rap if he wanted. instead he decided to make inspirational records for the people. that's great to me, not corny.

i know i've alredy posted a ton of Common songs.. but here's my fav track on Be: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foU_vnO1wKY

"I wonder is the spirits of Bob Marley and Haile Selassie
Watch me as the cops be tryna and pop and lock me
They cocky, plus they mentality is Nazi
The way they treat blacks I wanna snap like paparazzi"

that's not corny. that's not some Macklemore shit.

never thought i'd have to defend Common.. i mean some dudes' music just speaks for itself.

You ain't got to defend him to me, dude is soulful, I just ain't quite feeling it particularly. Not hatin though

on "The People" (which i posted earlier) he defines hip hop as "rebel Cadillac music".

so yeah.. the music might really be as "positive and inspirational" as it seems, but the spirit is definitely there. SY would be proud. ;)

that's cool. it would be boring if we all agreed with each other all the time anyway.

I'm not hatin' either. I have enjoyed Common a lot in the past, but I quit him some years ago because I was in a totally different kind of mindset, and I just stopped keeping up with him. This was around the time he did some commercial for some short-lived music discovery service with Afrika B.

Anyway, like I said, I'll check out some of this newer shit you guys are referring to. I have an open mind, and I honestly want to see the guy make great music.

Besides... if I hated all inspirational hip hop then I could toss my copy of Graduation in the trash. Which I am NOT going to do. So no hatin' goin' on here.

I've actually been listening to a lot of 2pac lately; an artist I thought I was done with. Specifically RU Still Down? and All Eyez on Me.

Long story short, turns out I am not done. Fascinating story, I know. :)

I saw that! Are they *the* headliners, or is some british and/or '80s indie band reuniting too?

Oh yeah, the Replacements. Not headlining, but they're gonna be there.

Yes, an Outkast comeback would be very very good indeed.

things that don't need to be said: Outkast reunion would be awesome.

Coachella reunions are often one-only events.. as to Kast getting back together, meh, I think what they did together stands on its own, sometimes art has to move on. Looking forward to this new Kool Keith and twitter gossip about a new MC Tree mix tape..

they just announced they'll perform at the New York City's Governors Ball too.

i can't even imagine how a new Kast album will sound like in 2014. either way i would be crying tears of joy.

new Kast album will sound like Big KRIT haha.

Predicting how a new OutKast album will sound is like predicting what kind of shoes Dennis Rodman will buy on his 55th birthday...

It could just not happen (no shoes) but if it does, the possibilities and variables are endless. Hell, Rodman could walk into an antique store and buy 1920's flapper shoes for a chick with huge ass feet. Similarly, OutKast could make anything. The decision is theirs in the end.

I kinda hope Andre boosts up his solo career and opts out of the horrible idea that is the Hendrix bio-pic.