a lost classic ?

call me crazy, but "iphantom", mr' lif's debut LP is a fucking classic.

you might be asking yourself

"what's an iphantom?"

"mr. lif ? the probation officer?"

nah. maybe you've heard of him. but maybe not. and i bet you don't think about this album when you think of classic.i spend alot of time online, and have never heard anyone mention mr. lif ever.

i'm sayin -
beats - el p and the other def juxies provide a prefect cinematic backdrop for lif, but not to the point of it being too "out there" for more traditional boom bap fans.

concept - lif uses the album to just talk about the boring, mundane details of the everyday grind. work, relationships, and dreams of something better for himself, the main character. some skits add to the continuity of the story,and even the liner notes play along.

lyrics - lif doesn't do anything dazzling with his wordplay. your favorite comment section mc could probably could probably rhyme "make sense" and "make cents" or blow you away with some wild shit, but lif sticks to the script here, spinning a 14 track story rhyme, and keeping your interest the whole way through.funny, i did a post with HL about story told in rhyme form, and i totally forgot about this album. this shit definitely deserves mention in that conversation, and just shows how forgotten this joint really is..

i could continue trying to make a case for this album, but you should probably just listen to it.. especially if you never have. so here's this.

or.. if you wanna be the responsible hip -hop head, here's this which will stream the whole album,in order on youtube. it should anyway. there was this weird toolbar on the screen, and it just played the whole album.

i forget what my original idea was for this post now, but it was something like, "i phantom is awesome, i wonder if anyone else knows, something something"
so if you don't know, you need to. i guess ? that's what i was trying to say. i gotta stop smoking at the computer.

2 dope songs (del edition)

no one ever talks about del. he's one of my favorite mc's, and the whole hieroglyphics crew had a nice run where they were dropping lots of heat,word to "93 to infinity" anyway, just putting up a couple gems from tha funkee homosapien for your weekend.. peace and be safe out there..

you lost one

so, before october of last year, i had never been to a funeral in my life. i guess i was lucky. then we got a call that one of our close friends took her own life. it was hard. real hard. then a few months later, same shit. an old homie decided to check out. and that was hard. and today, i get a call that one of my old high school friends died. shit sucks. i guess when we get older, it becomes a bigger part of life. but knowing it's gonna happen to all of us as we get older doesn't make it any easier. anyway, rest in peace, rich. love you, brother.

the remix or the OG ? (jay-z edition)

a question that comes up often,was the remix > the original? -




first, my son's favorite jay song,allure. just blaze or the neptunes? i remember on "fade to black" pharrell said this was the character in carlito's way setting up for on more score. but you gotta go with justin on this right?





this one is too close to call. i always imagined a young kanye doing his best to outdo fellow up and comer(ll)just blaze on the remix. hov liked the new beat enough to drop all new bars too.and sure, the OG has biz,tip,and ricky d on the hook,but rumors of a now deceased king of pop having an uncredited cameo on the yeezy edition give the remix version the edge.



i could go on and on here. what about jay murdering other people's shit? what when he gets on someone else's beat on the radio and airs that shit out? but then i'd be stanning. instead, i'll throw in what is arguably the greatest remix ever. pete rock's re-tooling of public enemy's "shut em down"

so act II is coming for real?

JAY ELECTRONICA | OUT IN LONDON PREPARING 'ACT II' from DJ SEMTEX on Vimeo.

ok so, i know i said i wanted to start doing more here, so let's talk about this. i've discussed how i feel about jay electronica before. when he dropped "exhibit-c" he got peoples attention. the internet was going nuts.there was talk of a jay/just blaze mixtape called "act II" that was dropping, and heads were excited. why wouldn't they be? we finally had a true artist who embodied everything we want in an mc. bars? flow? charisma? all there. around christmas, just blaze tweeted that act II would be delivered by the holiday. welp,that came and went. then justin PROMISED that on new years day, we would have act II. nope. then sometime around spring, jay said he was waiting on nas verses to complete the project. i think the whole hip-hop scene was like "oh. well i can wait another month if we get jay elec and nas together". but guess what? still, no act II. summer is here, and most people would answer the same way if you asked them - "fuck jay electronica". people are pissed. we (hop-hop heads) have put alot of stock in you, jay. and you've gonna and pulled a dr. dre on us? i think we all figured you were above that. some even doubt the existence of the mixtape, like maybe it was all a lie. then jay was on twitter saying that he was doubting himself. he realizes how high peoples expectations are of him, and he is afraid act II will disappoint. GTFOH

then yesterday, seemingly out of nowhere, DJ semtex drops this interview,and now jay is saying that it is done. and he wants to drop it by his birthday, september 19th. semtex says that he has heard it, and it is everything your hoping for, times 10.

so with all that being said, what do you make of all this? has jay pissed you off with all these delays to the point that you won't bother with act II? cut it out. if this tape is anything like we are ALL expecting, jay electronica will have finally arrived.

i've run out of things to say.

i'm not going to force posts. i feel like i've been doing that lately.

"i haven't upped anything in 3 days, i better pick some random track and post it"

that's cool sometimes, but i don't want to do that all the time. i think i need to scale back the internet world and just focus on real life. so this isn't a "retirement" (roff) but more of a commitment that when i post i want it to be better. there comes a time when I just gotta realize that i need to step my game up. thanks to those that have been paying attention thus far. peace

who flipped it better ?

here we have one of the most sampled songs in hip-hop. "nautilus" by Bob James. released in 1974, and chopped up by one dope producer after another. who flipped it best though? there are so many different parts to be cut up here.. i'll pick a few of my favorites...

first, the OG















there are like a million more that sampled the iconic track, these are just a few of my favorites. i think the fact that every part of the song is loopable on it's own is so dope. these joints don't even sound like they sampled the same shit,because there is so much choppable shit here. anyway, who flipped "nautilus" better?