^^both of you are beyond hilarious...
I did leave something interesting out though. One of the performances I left out was by none other than Meek Mill.One of the most buzzed about artists since....since...since...well I don't really keep up with that kinda stuff. His mixtape Dreamchasers 2 was basically the soundtrack of the summer ,in the streets ,in the club,lounge,BBQ's ,everywhere I went "amen" in particular could be heard. Can I tell you guys something? I'm not impressed.he's definitely not saying anything,that actually works in his favor because there are a plethora of artists in the "competitive marketplace" that aren't saying anything. But give me something stylistically,sonically,something...all these Lex Luger-esque beats with that frenetic and erratic flow of his...I'll pass. I can't get over the fact that he hasn't gotten in the booth with anyone who hasn't taught him how to control his "breath" when he's rhyming. My boyfriend and I argue about it all the time. There is no integrity in hip-hop amongst a lot of these new dudes. They do not respect the art. In Hip-hop your voice is your instrument and breath control is a part of that. Not everybody is able to "ride the beat" but all I ask is for these artists to respect the craft. TI also performed. While us credibility has gone down,his stage performance is that of a veteran. He wasn't just aimlessly moving,or standing there relying on his percieved "swag',he was performing! That was good to see...
There was also a very muddled tribute to "Chris Lighty" which I believe ended the show. It started with Tribe Called Quest doing "Award Tour" and they let people know after every set that if it wasn't for Chris none of these songs would exist...Fat Joe came out with " Lean Back" Busta and the oldest working hype man aside from Flava Flav Spliff Star came out and did an interesting performance of "Put You Hands..." Missy Elliot came out and did "Get Your Freak On" and good ol' Fif came out and did "I Get Money" the performances were scattered and that could be because the fighting happening just before that segment..Fiifty and Diddy, Rick Ross Affiliate "Gunplay" and Fif's security team...the list goes on...the tensions showed in the performances ...
Miscellaneous ...
Jean Grae was in one of the ciphers...ummm nope still doesn't do anything for me..
Talib Kweli's cipher verse was kinda ill...
Childish Gambino aka Donald Glover (on a show called Community also a writer) was in a cipher ....if we had a rappers who get on your nerves thread on this forum...he would be at the top of my list. He thinks he belongs in some sort of Hierarchy because he is one of those "edumacated sushi-eating hipster Negroes" . Always going on about certain people not being able to relate to him because he's not your typical rapper...he annoys me to no end...and if we're doing hipster rap I'll take Danny Brown All day
Kendrick Lamar is a a good artist who needs to work on his stage presence..
And just for laughs look up the West Coast cipher featuring Snoop,Kendrick Lamar,DJ Quik and a few others...
And lastly,the DJ for all the ciphers is Preemo ,but this year he was just a prop for the product placement ...all you saw was him sweating bullets as they put the spotlight on a bottle of Sprite...That industry is collldddddddddd......
"Smoke sumpin' bitch!"
