March 15, 2024 • 26 mins
Rapsody announces a new album, Royce says J.Cole is the only competitve rapper, and RIP to Bo$$.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Coming up on this week's episode ofhip Hop Now podcast, def Jam West
S, MC boss passes away,Rhapsody announces a brand new album called Please
Don't Cry, and Royceter five tonine believes that Jay Cole is the only
competitive rapper today. We're gonna talkabout it for sure. Let's do it.
(00:29):
Welcome to Hippop Now Podcasts to youfrom the future. You know what
to do show as out of sodisrespect the leg lack hip hop is here
to today. Let's get right intothe business. What up, y'all?
(00:50):
I am your host Vegas and thisthis hip Hop Now podcasting podcast specifically designed
to keep you caught up on allthings hip hop music and culture that happened
throughout the week. Big shout outto the Patreon supporters over at patreon dot
com slash ship hop Now. Ifyou're watching the YouTube version, I like
(01:11):
to thank past and present patrons forcoming through and if you would like to
learn more about that yes you thatI'm talking to right now, visit the
link in the description of this episodereally quick. So for those who don't
know, I've been doing a numberof videos, some of which are exclusive
(01:38):
to YouTube because we're trying to getto five hundred subscribers. Right now,
we are about four subscribers away fromfour hundred, So you four out there
who aren't subscribe, subscribe now jointhe party. But some of the content
that I've been adding to this channelincludes not only the return of the co
(02:01):
hosted podcast That Time in hip Hop, which is now exclusively a YouTube thing.
Because if you've always used to listenback in the day, that podcast
hosted by myself and Tony from intothe Doome dot com and into the Dome
podcast. It used to be apart of my audio stream for hip Hop
(02:23):
Now. But because we are tryingto push the channel and viewership to the
hip Hop Now podcast YouTube channel,that is an exclusive now. It's not
gonna We're not producing them at therate we did before, but we do
(02:44):
have seventy plus episodes because of workwe put it in the past. So
I would say maybe twice a month, maybe once or twice a month for
this year. You know, we'llgo in and you know, win the
topic makes sense we're doing. Andthe first one we came back with was
(03:04):
Raucous Records, talking about the historyof that record label, the artists that
came out from that record label andwhether or not they would ever be another
label like Raucous Records. Some saythey already exists. I say, not
really, but check it out.But coming up we are doing on the
(03:27):
next episode, we are basically lookingback at the nineteen ninety seven sophomore album
double album from Wu Tang Clan WuTang Forever. And when I tell you
one of the things, like whenwith any content I create, when you're
going back and listening to an albumthat had an impact on the hip hop
(03:51):
game, it's always dope to pressplay again and just you feel like you're
getting transported back to that time becauseI probably listened to thirty six Chambers on
a regular basis. Then I doWu Tang Forever, Wu Tang Forever.
You know, we hear Triumph allthe time, and every now and again
I may hear another song, butit had been a while since I just
(04:14):
listened to Wu Tang Forever, whichis a very dope album, So stay
tuned for that. It'll be righthere on the channel and all that good
stuff. And the other thing beforewe get into it is the cassette tape
series I have going on right twelveepisodes in taking a quick break, then
I'll hit you out with another twelve. But it's basically, if you're watching
(04:36):
on YouTube, there's a bunch ofcassettes behind me. There's some cassettes hear
in my garage, and what Ido is I pull out a tape,
pick up the phone. So yoyo, tell of the tapes. I
tell you the story about when Ipurchased it, what I thought about that
album, and what I think aboutit today. So albums featured were like
(04:57):
X Clans, Exodus, the That'sthe Biz Moncky, Bookie Monster's debut album,
the jay z Ken Knocker Hustle remixedsingle. And I have a lot
of tapes because back then in theearly mid nineties, I didn't have a
CD player, So you know,I would go and just buy a tape.
(05:20):
Like every week if I had money, I was going to the record
store. It didn't matter if nothingwas out. I was doing like research,
reading sauce and all of that goodstuff and just trying to exhorb as
much as I could as far asinformation on album. So when I went
to the record store, I waslike I knew what I was looking for,
or I knew what I wanted toget so this series, there's plenty
(05:44):
of these cassettes are from a specificera in the nineties. I do have
some from the late nineties, becauseyou know, we're still rocking tapes.
But I did have a CD playabout it, So that's on the channel.
Check it out. Twelve episodes ispretty now. The other thing and
(06:05):
this is the last thing. Butfor those who followed this podcast for years,
let's just say, and those whodon't know, I wrote a book
back in twenty eighteen basically doing thesame things I do here as far as
content creation about albums and classic albumsin particular in my experience when I first
(06:31):
heard them and when I purchased them. So whereas the tape series is a
quick hit, y'all, I boughtthis, blah blah blah, some of
those tapes or the classic versions,like let's just say, like the chronic
are flushed out because I tell thecomplete story of me going somewhere and buying
it, what I was feeling inthe situation and what the time was and
(06:54):
how I felt. So I havea sub stack and I'll probably link that
here where I'm gonna start to releasethose stories, those chapters piece by piece,
So what I posted recently is aprologue to the book, so you
can check it out kind of seewhat my angle is. And then after
(07:17):
that I'll start releasing chapter after chapter. So the link to read all of
that good stuff is there. Alot of content, man, So when
I say stay locked in or subscribefor more content and sharing it with people,
you know what, enjoy this content. That's what I mean. Man.
You got audio, you got visual, and you got written. Biggest
(07:40):
world I n c check it outall right, big shout out to hip
HOPDX dot com, All hip Hopdot com, Double Lexel Magazine kind of
been stepping up, Source magazine dotcom. I've been stepping up a little
bit. I see y'all, y'allgetting better and a couple of places where
I get some of these stories fromus in right to the business stuff.
(08:05):
So recently this week, Deaf JamWest pioneer recording artists Boss passed away.
Her real name was Michelle Marie Lawsand she was the first female rapper signed
to death Jam. Her album debutedin nineteen ninety three called Born Gangsters and
(08:33):
she's I believe she's from Detroit tobe honest, but well, hold on,
let me just make sure I getthe situation before I get over the
place. This is coming from hiphopdx dot com. While no cause of
death death has yet been released.Boss was known to have struggled in the
past with kidney failure. So it'skind of what I thought. I know
(08:54):
she had some issues, some healthissues over time, and there was some
scares like in recent years, butshe passed away. I believe she was
only something like fifty six, Ithink, so I can't remember, and
I don't have that in front ofme. She was fifty four. If
(09:18):
you were outside, if you wereold enough to know hip hop back in
the days in ninety three, likeI said, I you know, that
was my time for getting tapes born. Gangster Boss was like the first hardcore
West Coast style female EMC. Justfor context, when you look at the
(09:45):
eighties, you had Queen Latifa,you had JJ Fad, you know,
you had you had MC Light ofcourse, Antoinette, you had all these
moony Love all these female MC Saltand Peppa had a particular style that reflected
the times right and one thing thatalways stood out was that, you know,
(10:07):
they kind of always had like acrew that was like a cold sign
in some regards like a crew ofmales basically, whether it was I'm a
part of the Juice Crew like Rocksand Chante or you know, Flavor Unit
with like Queen Latifa and stuff likethat, even though she was kind of
one of the heads of that.But there was always this typical mc right,
(10:33):
you know, not really that feminine, you know what I'm saying,
except for like Nikki D. LikeNikki D y'all, y'all just be sleeping
on. Nik was nice. Iremember seeing her battling dudes, battling dudes,
you know, But what the bossit was different, right, because
(10:54):
this is nineteen ninety three. WestCoast hip hop is everything you remember,
Like all you gotta do is justpop in what is it? Grand Theft
Auto San Andres. That was everythingWest Coast back then. The movies were
that, the music was that,the rappers were that, you know,
it was like gangster music, andyou didn't usually when you saw the ladies
(11:18):
it was different. It was likethe ladies, right, you know,
the way the hair were done,you know, the dancing, if they
had some kind of tomboyish with them, a situation with them, it was
like like empty light like a youknow, like a B girl, but
with Boss, she was like theequivalent of Easy but a lady, you
(11:39):
know what I'm saying, the equivalentof ice Cube but a female. And
I think that's what made her standout amongst the ladies, because I know,
at least initially, I didn't knowwho she was tied to, so
I just saw her video and Iwas like, yo, who is this
And the beat dope and the wayshe was rhyming was dope. It was
(12:05):
different, you know what I meanat that time, And I think she
had a huge impact on hip hopalone, because you know, in other
ways also, like look at somebodylike Little Kim or Foxy where they brought
They really brought the sexuality to theforefront in a blatant way. You know,
(12:28):
Salt and Pepper did too, butthese were more so, you know,
little subdued Little Kim and Foxy wasjust like, no, some of
us ladies feel exactly just as vulgaras the men, okay, Whereas Boss
was that but for the hardcore versionof a female MC of being. Like
(12:50):
if Nikki d was equivalent to aspitter from New York, that was the
same thing for Boss. When itcame to the West Coast as far as
j and the type of music thatwas being made. And I think she
only had one album, I believe, or at least that's the one that
everybody remembers, her debut album.But you know, again, she she
(13:16):
had an impact. You could seeeverybody from eminem you know what I'm saying,
from Snoop Dogg to everybody you know, paying homage to her. Because
when she came out, you know, people talked about it. You know,
people bought it, People dug her. People liked the fact that a
woman was doing this and not flippitygool glibbity gool. Sorry, MONI love.
(13:39):
I know that's kind of you,but it's not, you know what
I mean. Like it was.It was different, it was hard to
edge, it was reality, andpeople liked it and she was dope.
So rest in peace to Boss Stayingin the lane with the ladies. One
of my favorite Rhapsody has a newalbum on the way. It's called Please
(14:05):
Don't Cry. She recently announced.So actually it's been five years. It's
been five years since her last album, which I think is so so slept
on, so slept on, likeRhapsody can kind of be slept on as
an artist in general. But Ifeel like they were giving her a lot
(14:30):
of props for Layla's wisdom, whereasher last album Eve was like an in
an early situation, like early ninetiesor whatever, this would be. It
would be a classic if you askedme. She had different flows, She
showed range, you know, thebeats were there, you know, the
(14:52):
concepts was crazy, was all dedicatedto women. But now she's back.
The album's called Please Don't Cry.It's supposed to drop on May seventeenth,
so we got some time before it'sout. She did drop a new single
that I thought was pretty dope,so that's exciting right to get started.
(15:15):
But this album also has a lotof features on it, big time features
Lil Wayne, Erka Bado, hitBoy on the Beats, Baby Tait,
I don't think I know. Thatis Alex Eisley and it's going to be
about twenty two songs. Wait,let's see Anderson Fox on here. Also
(15:37):
Felicia Rashard from The cosmby Shure YoungIt's on here. So yeah, it's
a thing where in general, youknow, Rhapsody is a very dope artist
who doesn't get the props she deserves, at least to me, not on
the scale. She deserves it forhaving skill and also doing it on the
(15:58):
highest level. I was messing withRhapsody when you know she was working with
ninth and had sort of like theindependent I guess they're independent. I don't
know albums, but mixtapes also whereI thought she was dope, And I
think the best part about her wasthe fact that she could she could talk
(16:19):
about relationships from a female perspective andnot have dudes tune, now you know
what I mean. Like, mostdudes back in the nineties were big fans
of Mary J. Blige, right, and obviously she's talking about dudes.
Dudes was fans of Little Kim.Obviously she's talking her about her sexuality from
(16:41):
a from a female perspective, andfor some dudes. It's for people in
general. You when you like music, it's because you can relate to the
person who to the artists, right, and the lyrics, and sometimes it's
difficult to relate to a woman's sideof a relationship when you're basically always going
(17:03):
to be the male in it.Right. So the album itself is basically
as far as concept goes, it'sbasically going to describe the discovery of her
journey, self discovery, self acceptancethat she is, you know, basically
put into this album a lot oftime to reflect between albums on herself and
(17:26):
to be honest, and Rhapsody fansalready noticed this is when Rhapsody is at
her best because she's never too youknow, bar King or Queen to show
her vulnerability on tracks. She's anexcellent songwriter, you know what I mean,
Like a rapper can write about drugsand being the best MC and all
(17:51):
this other stuff all the time,and after a while, it's just becomes
something you do. But it's verydifficult for some rappers to truly take their
art or take their technique and applyit to their real life or real life
situations and convey it in a waythat connects with people, connects with the
(18:14):
listeners. And that's what I meanabout Rhapsody. She is very good at
doing that. And with these guestappearances or the high level quality of a
production which she showed on her lastalbum, for sure, I think this
could be one of the best ofthe year if done right. And the
(18:37):
first single just let me know that, Okay, I'm liking what I'm hearing.
The production the first single was withher and hit Boy. I'm like,
I'm liking what I'm hearing. Thismight be crazy, so we'll see
what happens. And lastly, soRoyster five nine appeared recently on the Joe
(18:59):
Budden Pie and he said J Colewas the only competitive rapper today. Before
we get into that, let's lookat some quotes. I haven't taken a
real deep look out into the landscape, but from where I'm sitting, it
looks like J Cole the only onebeing competitive. He's the only one who's
(19:22):
rapping with the kind of conviction thatsays I still value the number one spot.
As a lyricist, see a lotof the younger generation not really hanging
their hat on just the lyrical partof creativity at all. They're finding different
ways to impact and resonate with people, which is fine. That's when the
elder statesmen like myself start learning.I want to make myself understand why is
(19:47):
this touching people like that? Ican't even understand what they're saying. It's
definitely moving away from lyricism being thecaveat which I'm cool with because there's a
lot more things I can do withoutbeing lyrical lyrical. So before you get
(20:07):
up in arms about who's nice youknow, and who he's overlooking or ignoring
or not paying attention to, thinkabout this when you say J Cole,
J Cole is not in the samelane as far as as far as status
(20:27):
as Griselda, you know, westSide, Thanny Conway, Stove God,
other rappers like Mickey Fax and evenLoop a Fiasco right Like, these are
people who I'm naming who could spit, you know, RJ Payin, people
who who could spit. They're notin the same lane as J Cole when
(20:51):
it comes to status in the hiphop game. So when you hear him
say something like that and say hecan't even understand what they're saying, you
know he's not talking about those rappersbecause, whether you like it or not,
J Cole competes with other rappers whoaren't even lyrical at all as far
(21:15):
as status. He competes for thesame fans. He competes for a similar
spotlight. And what's dope is youknow he has been on the song with
like Benny the Butcher, you know. So I think in a lot of
ways I agree with Royce the fiveto nine from that standpoint, because even
(21:37):
Royce, Royce and j Cole arenot on the same status level. They're
not right, we're checking for Royce. This is the difference, right us
heads are checking for all those peopleI name, including j Cole. The
fans that really probably make up JCole are checking for Ja Cole and not
(22:02):
checking for any other people I name. They're checking for the yachtis and the
Gucci's and you know what I'm saying, and the you know, the lills,
all the lives or put them alltogether, all the lills, all
the big babies, little babies,all of them, put them together.
That's what they're checking for. Sothat becomes his competition, and he's the
(22:23):
only one who is like aggressive intrying to prove that he is the best
one spitting on this level. Nowsome would say, well, of course
you're the best one spending on thatlevel one, that's your competition. But
it's the truth. It's really justunfortunately showing what roy said that people don't
(22:52):
really care about lyricism like that,because if they did, there would be
more than just Jake Cole on thatlevel. Once upon a time, kids,
everybody on that level was a spittingBut now it's almost like Jake Cole
is maybe he's not being the mostcompetitive, but maybe he's the only one
trying to keep it alive on thatlevel. That's the point, right Royce.
(23:18):
He knows that there are plenty ofpeople included him, who are just
as competitive, but Jake Cole isthe only one because Kendrick not really concerned
about that. Kendrick is more concernedabout making music that resonates with people,
and every now and again he mightgive you a bar, or he'll give
you a song where you you knowit's the play of skill. But he's
(23:44):
not who he used to be.Drake gotta be in a beef or somebody
get mad at him or say hisalbum for you to even get some sort
of competitiveness out of him. Butj Cole is actively actively trying to keep
the hip hop casuals thinking bars matter. He fighting a good fight, that's
(24:11):
what they're doing. He fighting agood fight. So now let's talk about
it from an other perspective. Okay, let's just say everybody rapping, is
he the only one being competitive?Nope? I think I think Royce,
even though he hasn't dropped the joyin a while, but apparently working on
Prime three with Premier, I thinkwe'll see, like, yep, he's
(24:36):
still spit. I think Benny andConway and Stove God and r J Pain
and cast like that, who youknow, the bars or something else like
that's what they care about and yeah, shout out, I am God man
like casts like that are like technicianswith the wordplay. But the unfortunate part,
(24:57):
and going back to the main point, is when you look at the
mainstream level, on a mainstream level, J Cole is above a lot of
those guys. No, he's aboveall of them on a mainstream level,
and everybody else in that mainstream levelis either on a different path or subpar
(25:22):
lyrically. And he's the only onethat raps like lyrics still matters. And
that's just what it is. Man. So I don't know. You tell
me what do you think about Boysto five nine's comments? Do you remember
Boss from back in ninety three?You know what I'm saying. Leave your
memories and your comments in the commentssection below. You can follow me on
(25:44):
social media, it doesn't matter whereit is. TikTok might be dead,
but I'm on everything else. AtVegas World I n C and also subscribe
to the podcast in audio form.And remember trying to get to five and
just subscribe is on YouTube. Soif you haven't already subscribed to this channel,
what's more important? Share it withpeople you know, but enjoy this
(26:07):
kind of count until next time,y'all. I'm not a critic, I'm
a fan face
Coming up on this week's episode ofhip Hop Now podcast, def Jam West
S, MC boss passes away,Rhapsody announces a brand new album called Please
Don't Cry, and Royceter five tonine believes that Jay Cole is the only
competitive rapper today. We're gonna talkabout it for sure. Let's do it.
(00:29):
Welcome to Hippop Now Podcasts to youfrom the future. You know what
to do show as out of sodisrespect the leg lack hip hop is here
to today. Let's get right intothe business. What up, y'all?
(00:50):
I am your host Vegas and thisthis hip Hop Now podcasting podcast specifically designed
to keep you caught up on allthings hip hop music and culture that happened
throughout the week. Big shout outto the Patreon supporters over at patreon dot
com slash ship hop Now. Ifyou're watching the YouTube version, I like
(01:11):
to thank past and present patrons forcoming through and if you would like to
learn more about that yes you thatI'm talking to right now, visit the
link in the description of this episodereally quick. So for those who don't
know, I've been doing a numberof videos, some of which are exclusive
(01:38):
to YouTube because we're trying to getto five hundred subscribers. Right now,
we are about four subscribers away fromfour hundred, So you four out there
who aren't subscribe, subscribe now jointhe party. But some of the content
that I've been adding to this channelincludes not only the return of the co
(02:01):
hosted podcast That Time in hip Hop, which is now exclusively a YouTube thing.
Because if you've always used to listenback in the day, that podcast
hosted by myself and Tony from intothe Doome dot com and into the Dome
podcast. It used to be apart of my audio stream for hip Hop
(02:23):
Now. But because we are tryingto push the channel and viewership to the
hip Hop Now podcast YouTube channel,that is an exclusive now. It's not
gonna We're not producing them at therate we did before, but we do
(02:44):
have seventy plus episodes because of workwe put it in the past. So
I would say maybe twice a month, maybe once or twice a month for
this year. You know, we'llgo in and you know, win the
topic makes sense we're doing. Andthe first one we came back with was
(03:04):
Raucous Records, talking about the historyof that record label, the artists that
came out from that record label andwhether or not they would ever be another
label like Raucous Records. Some saythey already exists. I say, not
really, but check it out.But coming up we are doing on the
(03:27):
next episode, we are basically lookingback at the nineteen ninety seven sophomore album
double album from Wu Tang Clan WuTang Forever. And when I tell you
one of the things, like whenwith any content I create, when you're
going back and listening to an albumthat had an impact on the hip hop
(03:51):
game, it's always dope to pressplay again and just you feel like you're
getting transported back to that time becauseI probably listened to thirty six Chambers on
a regular basis. Then I doWu Tang Forever, Wu Tang Forever.
You know, we hear Triumph allthe time, and every now and again
I may hear another song, butit had been a while since I just
(04:14):
listened to Wu Tang Forever, whichis a very dope album, So stay
tuned for that. It'll be righthere on the channel and all that good
stuff. And the other thing beforewe get into it is the cassette tape
series I have going on right twelveepisodes in taking a quick break, then
I'll hit you out with another twelve. But it's basically, if you're watching
(04:36):
on YouTube, there's a bunch ofcassettes behind me. There's some cassettes hear
in my garage, and what Ido is I pull out a tape,
pick up the phone. So yoyo, tell of the tapes. I
tell you the story about when Ipurchased it, what I thought about that
album, and what I think aboutit today. So albums featured were like
(04:57):
X Clans, Exodus, the That'sthe Biz Moncky, Bookie Monster's debut album,
the jay z Ken Knocker Hustle remixedsingle. And I have a lot
of tapes because back then in theearly mid nineties, I didn't have a
CD player, So you know,I would go and just buy a tape.
(05:20):
Like every week if I had money, I was going to the record
store. It didn't matter if nothingwas out. I was doing like research,
reading sauce and all of that goodstuff and just trying to exhorb as
much as I could as far asinformation on album. So when I went
to the record store, I waslike I knew what I was looking for,
or I knew what I wanted toget so this series, there's plenty
(05:44):
of these cassettes are from a specificera in the nineties. I do have
some from the late nineties, becauseyou know, we're still rocking tapes.
But I did have a CD playabout it, So that's on the channel.
Check it out. Twelve episodes ispretty now. The other thing and
(06:05):
this is the last thing. Butfor those who followed this podcast for years,
let's just say, and those whodon't know, I wrote a book
back in twenty eighteen basically doing thesame things I do here as far as
content creation about albums and classic albumsin particular in my experience when I first
(06:31):
heard them and when I purchased them. So whereas the tape series is a
quick hit, y'all, I boughtthis, blah blah blah, some of
those tapes or the classic versions,like let's just say, like the chronic
are flushed out because I tell thecomplete story of me going somewhere and buying
it, what I was feeling inthe situation and what the time was and
(06:54):
how I felt. So I havea sub stack and I'll probably link that
here where I'm gonna start to releasethose stories, those chapters piece by piece,
So what I posted recently is aprologue to the book, so you
can check it out kind of seewhat my angle is. And then after
(07:17):
that I'll start releasing chapter after chapter. So the link to read all of
that good stuff is there. Alot of content, man, So when
I say stay locked in or subscribefor more content and sharing it with people,
you know what, enjoy this content. That's what I mean. Man.
You got audio, you got visual, and you got written. Biggest
(07:40):
world I n c check it outall right, big shout out to hip
HOPDX dot com, All hip Hopdot com, Double Lexel Magazine kind of
been stepping up, Source magazine dotcom. I've been stepping up a little
bit. I see y'all, y'allgetting better and a couple of places where
I get some of these stories fromus in right to the business stuff.
(08:05):
So recently this week, Deaf JamWest pioneer recording artists Boss passed away.
Her real name was Michelle Marie Lawsand she was the first female rapper signed
to death Jam. Her album debutedin nineteen ninety three called Born Gangsters and
(08:33):
she's I believe she's from Detroit tobe honest, but well, hold on,
let me just make sure I getthe situation before I get over the
place. This is coming from hiphopdx dot com. While no cause of
death death has yet been released.Boss was known to have struggled in the
past with kidney failure. So it'skind of what I thought. I know
(08:54):
she had some issues, some healthissues over time, and there was some
scares like in recent years, butshe passed away. I believe she was
only something like fifty six, Ithink, so I can't remember, and
I don't have that in front ofme. She was fifty four. If
(09:18):
you were outside, if you wereold enough to know hip hop back in
the days in ninety three, likeI said, I you know, that
was my time for getting tapes born. Gangster Boss was like the first hardcore
West Coast style female EMC. Justfor context, when you look at the
(09:45):
eighties, you had Queen Latifa,you had JJ Fad, you know,
you had you had MC Light ofcourse, Antoinette, you had all these
moony Love all these female MC Saltand Peppa had a particular style that reflected
the times right and one thing thatalways stood out was that, you know,
(10:07):
they kind of always had like acrew that was like a cold sign
in some regards like a crew ofmales basically, whether it was I'm a
part of the Juice Crew like Rocksand Chante or you know, Flavor Unit
with like Queen Latifa and stuff likethat, even though she was kind of
one of the heads of that.But there was always this typical mc right,
(10:33):
you know, not really that feminine, you know what I'm saying,
except for like Nikki D. LikeNikki D y'all, y'all just be sleeping
on. Nik was nice. Iremember seeing her battling dudes, battling dudes,
you know, But what the bossit was different, right, because
(10:54):
this is nineteen ninety three. WestCoast hip hop is everything you remember,
Like all you gotta do is justpop in what is it? Grand Theft
Auto San Andres. That was everythingWest Coast back then. The movies were
that, the music was that,the rappers were that, you know,
it was like gangster music, andyou didn't usually when you saw the ladies
(11:18):
it was different. It was likethe ladies, right, you know,
the way the hair were done,you know, the dancing, if they
had some kind of tomboyish with them, a situation with them, it was
like like empty light like a youknow, like a B girl, but
with Boss, she was like theequivalent of Easy but a lady, you
(11:39):
know what I'm saying, the equivalentof ice Cube but a female. And
I think that's what made her standout amongst the ladies, because I know,
at least initially, I didn't knowwho she was tied to, so
I just saw her video and Iwas like, yo, who is this
And the beat dope and the wayshe was rhyming was dope. It was
(12:05):
different, you know what I meanat that time, And I think she
had a huge impact on hip hopalone, because you know, in other
ways also, like look at somebodylike Little Kim or Foxy where they brought
They really brought the sexuality to theforefront in a blatant way. You know,
(12:28):
Salt and Pepper did too, butthese were more so, you know,
little subdued Little Kim and Foxy wasjust like, no, some of
us ladies feel exactly just as vulgaras the men, okay, Whereas Boss
was that but for the hardcore versionof a female MC of being. Like
(12:50):
if Nikki d was equivalent to aspitter from New York, that was the
same thing for Boss. When itcame to the West Coast as far as
j and the type of music thatwas being made. And I think she
only had one album, I believe, or at least that's the one that
everybody remembers, her debut album.But you know, again, she she
(13:16):
had an impact. You could seeeverybody from eminem you know what I'm saying,
from Snoop Dogg to everybody you know, paying homage to her. Because
when she came out, you know, people talked about it. You know,
people bought it, People dug her. People liked the fact that a
woman was doing this and not flippitygool glibbity gool. Sorry, MONI love.
(13:39):
I know that's kind of you,but it's not, you know what
I mean. Like it was.It was different, it was hard to
edge, it was reality, andpeople liked it and she was dope.
So rest in peace to Boss Stayingin the lane with the ladies. One
of my favorite Rhapsody has a newalbum on the way. It's called Please
(14:05):
Don't Cry. She recently announced.So actually it's been five years. It's
been five years since her last album, which I think is so so slept
on, so slept on, likeRhapsody can kind of be slept on as
an artist in general. But Ifeel like they were giving her a lot
(14:30):
of props for Layla's wisdom, whereasher last album Eve was like an in
an early situation, like early ninetiesor whatever, this would be. It
would be a classic if you askedme. She had different flows, She
showed range, you know, thebeats were there, you know, the
(14:52):
concepts was crazy, was all dedicatedto women. But now she's back.
The album's called Please Don't Cry.It's supposed to drop on May seventeenth,
so we got some time before it'sout. She did drop a new single
that I thought was pretty dope,so that's exciting right to get started.
(15:15):
But this album also has a lotof features on it, big time features
Lil Wayne, Erka Bado, hitBoy on the Beats, Baby Tait,
I don't think I know. Thatis Alex Eisley and it's going to be
about twenty two songs. Wait,let's see Anderson Fox on here. Also
(15:37):
Felicia Rashard from The cosmby Shure YoungIt's on here. So yeah, it's
a thing where in general, youknow, Rhapsody is a very dope artist
who doesn't get the props she deserves, at least to me, not on
the scale. She deserves it forhaving skill and also doing it on the
(15:58):
highest level. I was messing withRhapsody when you know she was working with
ninth and had sort of like theindependent I guess they're independent. I don't
know albums, but mixtapes also whereI thought she was dope, And I
think the best part about her wasthe fact that she could she could talk
(16:19):
about relationships from a female perspective andnot have dudes tune, now you know
what I mean. Like, mostdudes back in the nineties were big fans
of Mary J. Blige, right, and obviously she's talking about dudes.
Dudes was fans of Little Kim.Obviously she's talking her about her sexuality from
(16:41):
a from a female perspective, andfor some dudes. It's for people in
general. You when you like music, it's because you can relate to the
person who to the artists, right, and the lyrics, and sometimes it's
difficult to relate to a woman's sideof a relationship when you're basically always going
(17:03):
to be the male in it.Right. So the album itself is basically
as far as concept goes, it'sbasically going to describe the discovery of her
journey, self discovery, self acceptancethat she is, you know, basically
put into this album a lot oftime to reflect between albums on herself and
(17:26):
to be honest, and Rhapsody fansalready noticed this is when Rhapsody is at
her best because she's never too youknow, bar King or Queen to show
her vulnerability on tracks. She's anexcellent songwriter, you know what I mean,
Like a rapper can write about drugsand being the best MC and all
(17:51):
this other stuff all the time,and after a while, it's just becomes
something you do. But it's verydifficult for some rappers to truly take their
art or take their technique and applyit to their real life or real life
situations and convey it in a waythat connects with people, connects with the
(18:14):
listeners. And that's what I meanabout Rhapsody. She is very good at
doing that. And with these guestappearances or the high level quality of a
production which she showed on her lastalbum, for sure, I think this
could be one of the best ofthe year if done right. And the
(18:37):
first single just let me know that, Okay, I'm liking what I'm hearing.
The production the first single was withher and hit Boy. I'm like,
I'm liking what I'm hearing. Thismight be crazy, so we'll see
what happens. And lastly, soRoyster five nine appeared recently on the Joe
(18:59):
Budden Pie and he said J Colewas the only competitive rapper today. Before
we get into that, let's lookat some quotes. I haven't taken a
real deep look out into the landscape, but from where I'm sitting, it
looks like J Cole the only onebeing competitive. He's the only one who's
(19:22):
rapping with the kind of conviction thatsays I still value the number one spot.
As a lyricist, see a lotof the younger generation not really hanging
their hat on just the lyrical partof creativity at all. They're finding different
ways to impact and resonate with people, which is fine. That's when the
elder statesmen like myself start learning.I want to make myself understand why is
(19:47):
this touching people like that? Ican't even understand what they're saying. It's
definitely moving away from lyricism being thecaveat which I'm cool with because there's a
lot more things I can do withoutbeing lyrical lyrical. So before you get
(20:07):
up in arms about who's nice youknow, and who he's overlooking or ignoring
or not paying attention to, thinkabout this when you say J Cole,
J Cole is not in the samelane as far as as far as status
(20:27):
as Griselda, you know, westSide, Thanny Conway, Stove God,
other rappers like Mickey Fax and evenLoop a Fiasco right Like, these are
people who I'm naming who could spit, you know, RJ Payin, people
who who could spit. They're notin the same lane as J Cole when
(20:51):
it comes to status in the hiphop game. So when you hear him
say something like that and say hecan't even understand what they're saying, you
know he's not talking about those rappersbecause, whether you like it or not,
J Cole competes with other rappers whoaren't even lyrical at all as far
(21:15):
as status. He competes for thesame fans. He competes for a similar
spotlight. And what's dope is youknow he has been on the song with
like Benny the Butcher, you know. So I think in a lot of
ways I agree with Royce the fiveto nine from that standpoint, because even
(21:37):
Royce, Royce and j Cole arenot on the same status level. They're
not right, we're checking for Royce. This is the difference, right us
heads are checking for all those peopleI name, including j Cole. The
fans that really probably make up JCole are checking for Ja Cole and not
(22:02):
checking for any other people I name. They're checking for the yachtis and the
Gucci's and you know what I'm saying, and the you know, the lills,
all the lives or put them alltogether, all the lills, all
the big babies, little babies,all of them, put them together.
That's what they're checking for. Sothat becomes his competition, and he's the
(22:23):
only one who is like aggressive intrying to prove that he is the best
one spitting on this level. Nowsome would say, well, of course
you're the best one spending on thatlevel one, that's your competition. But
it's the truth. It's really justunfortunately showing what roy said that people don't
(22:52):
really care about lyricism like that,because if they did, there would be
more than just Jake Cole on thatlevel. Once upon a time, kids,
everybody on that level was a spittingBut now it's almost like Jake Cole
is maybe he's not being the mostcompetitive, but maybe he's the only one
trying to keep it alive on thatlevel. That's the point, right Royce.
(23:18):
He knows that there are plenty ofpeople included him, who are just
as competitive, but Jake Cole isthe only one because Kendrick not really concerned
about that. Kendrick is more concernedabout making music that resonates with people,
and every now and again he mightgive you a bar, or he'll give
you a song where you you knowit's the play of skill. But he's
(23:44):
not who he used to be.Drake gotta be in a beef or somebody
get mad at him or say hisalbum for you to even get some sort
of competitiveness out of him. Butj Cole is actively actively trying to keep
the hip hop casuals thinking bars matter. He fighting a good fight, that's
(24:11):
what they're doing. He fighting agood fight. So now let's talk about
it from an other perspective. Okay, let's just say everybody rapping, is
he the only one being competitive?Nope? I think I think Royce,
even though he hasn't dropped the joyin a while, but apparently working on
Prime three with Premier, I thinkwe'll see, like, yep, he's
(24:36):
still spit. I think Benny andConway and Stove God and r J Pain
and cast like that, who youknow, the bars or something else like
that's what they care about and yeah, shout out, I am God man
like casts like that are like technicianswith the wordplay. But the unfortunate part,
(24:57):
and going back to the main point, is when you look at the
mainstream level, on a mainstream level, J Cole is above a lot of
those guys. No, he's aboveall of them on a mainstream level,
and everybody else in that mainstream levelis either on a different path or subpar
(25:22):
lyrically. And he's the only onethat raps like lyrics still matters. And
that's just what it is. Man. So I don't know. You tell
me what do you think about Boysto five nine's comments? Do you remember
Boss from back in ninety three?You know what I'm saying. Leave your
memories and your comments in the commentssection below. You can follow me on
(25:44):
social media, it doesn't matter whereit is. TikTok might be dead,
but I'm on everything else. AtVegas World I n C and also subscribe
to the podcast in audio form.And remember trying to get to five and
just subscribe is on YouTube. Soif you haven't already subscribed to this channel,
what's more important? Share it withpeople you know, but enjoy this
(26:07):
kind of count until next time,y'all. I'm not a critic, I'm
a fan face
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