"Make no mistake I'm talking to Drake"

Usually I'm not about blogging rapper beef, but as a youtube comment put it so perfectly:

"You know you pissed common off when he cussses....Drake you just f*cked up man"

So its Common vs Drake. Common should need no introduction, Chicago born and bred, he makes 'concious' rap without the pretentiousness. From Go to The Light, I know this has been said before on here but he's an artists artist. Each to their own but in my opinion he's one of the few seriously talented rappers who's stayed true to what he does and had sucess in the mainstream. More than that he has a generally good vibe just radiates positivity in a non evangelical, creepy way. And if you're kinda new to this and haven't listened to Common in depth dont overlook his intro tracks to Be and Finding Forever cos they're some of the best. Anyway for these reasons plus the fact he's kind of an elder in the game now he's one of the last rappers I'd expect to find in beef. Yet that's exactly what has kicked off between him and man of the moment (and the last year and a half of moments) Drake.

It all began after Canada rapper Drake got a little sensitive when Common dropped the single and music video Sweet  No I.D produced (and you know it straight away), waaaay more aggressive than most of his previous stuff. You get the feeling he's got fed up of young rappers coming up throwing their weight around and talking about bitches and hos "I am the A-list for all these great debaters/A lot of ya’ll nah nah, forgot na, who I am/The ’87 nigga used to rah rah in the jam". So the source of the argument came from Common's criticism's of rappers that sing or as he put's it : "Singing all around me man, la la la/You aint muthaf*cking Frank Sinatra/Uh, lil b*tch". Although Common names no rappers directly in the song on an interview on US radio station Shade 45 he stated "he opened his mouth and said some things...all that subliminal you can say that too, but you gun' say it now". He went on to say whilst the verse was about him "you can't help think about [Drake]" in the chorus. Ending the section with "I guess that's how he felt. So yea, at the end of the day, he fit in that category. He already embraced it, so wear it". Listen to the whole interview here.

"my name is synonymous to prominence/ I am to hip hop what Obama is to politics"

Full lyrics HERE

Drake responded on Rick Ross's Stay Schemin (below) which appears on his latest mixtape Forever Rich; firstly the track is duuuuuuuuuull, but Drake does go in not his best by faaaar and kind of irritating he wont just say anything directly he raps "I just ask that when you see me you speak up n*gga that's all" but he's the one pulling the subliminal message.

"It bothers me when the God's get to acting like the Broads/ Guess every team doesnt come complete with n*ggas like ours"

So common respond's with the remix of Stay Schemin' (below). Drake's music is never completely sleazy, but sometimes it's kinda on the edge and the way Common uses his samples pushes it right over "Don't do it/cos every song you make is really ho music", followed by the "Don't do it, please don't do it" and then finishing with the comical sample from Destiny's Child "Say my name" in reference to Drake's indirect digs.

(Common's verse @ 3.30) "Everybody know you sweet what the problem is"

It's open to Drake now, response only aired yesterday so it'll be interesting to see the end of this one.....but at the moment can't see it ending well for Drake. Having said that has anyone thought that fellow Chicago rapper who Common kind of took under his wing Kanye dropped 808s....


So do we think Drake's out of his depth against a hip hop legend or is Common fighting a losing battle against a game changer? Lemme know.

 I will leave you with a comment I saw on Ballerstatus.com from The Real who simply said:

 "Wow this is soft. This beef is so lacking I'd call it vegetarian. 2pac/Biggie.  Nas/Jay"

Dreams Money Can Buy

New Drake - Dreams Money Can Buy from his upcoming album,

All i can say is, I reaaaaally want this instrumental, if anyone has it/has a link please let me know! All the youtube links are up and coming MCs trying to get views.

Welcome to that Garden State of Mind

Got listening to this rapper Moruf after That Good Good Blog put me onto him in her feature People you should know: The Hiphop Edition. He's 22 heralding from NJ originally from Nigeria, he's studying at uni whilst working in Radio Shack. But click the link to read the full interview.

He seems like a pretty down to earth guy. And the mixtape, is pretty sick. He's got a lot of talent even if he is at the start of his career he has an underground feel but it's an accesible one, reminds me a lot of a less lyrically developed Blu. Not that that's a criticism, if he was on a Blu level after 2/3years rapping it'd be craaaazy, actually if i consider anyone on a Blu level it's craaaaazy. In terms of witty hooks and serious wordplay it's lacking, in the sense that trying to find a bar which stood out for a title or quote isnt easy, but then is it a good thing that hiphop has become about Drake style one liners ("chance is like a picture it'd be nice if you'd just take it....". Moruf is more about the poetry, it's less playing around fanciness and more realness, he is undeniably a poet and his style is nice, a little rough but in a good way.

The mixtape is just mellow the way I like music, you can see the Dilla, traditional hiphop influence and I like that, it's far from commercial in the best way possible. Highpoints for are the beats on Story of My Life: Exile stylee sooo jaaaam. And he uses the Slum Village (untitled) Fantastic beat on the Slumdog track one of the best tracks on the mixtape and That Good Good blog just posted the video. Worth watching. From the surreal vibe of Sometimes (just the kind of thing I was talking about in Changing Realities).

He says in the That Good Good interview that he loves music, then hiphop and it comes across, you can tell from this mixtape his a musician not just a commercial rapper who can write a hook. 

"Welcome to that Garden State of Mind as I let my thoughts blossom in this Garden State of Mine"

Download his mixtape Garden State of Mind: Ready to Live here, and check his tumblr for updates on what he's doing atm, and his blogspot for his general lifestyle blog.

Changing Realities

Currently listening to J Cole The Warm Up but then this came on my ipod. If you read this blog you'll know I got a lot of time for Fashawn. So I was listening to When She Calls best track on the album btw. And it made me think, when did surreal beats and abstract samples, so slow they're almost acapella beats become hiphop.

Kanye West came through with the samples back on College Dropout, and slow jams have always been around. And the abstractness can be found throughout indie hiphop, so I guess that can exclude Blu, Fashawn and Sene.  But who would've thought mellow drawls (outside of the south and the west coast style of the dee-oh-double-gee) would become not only  popular in the underground but mainstream; Drake's Thank Me Later so laidback, mellow, jaaaaam, and the surreal theme runs through the whole album (and is even more concentrated in So Far Gone). Not to say it hasn't been done before Common - The Light etc. but never has it been so mainstream and become so much the thing to do.....

Question is do you miss the days of A Tribe Called Quest or happy that Slum Village/J Dilla style jaaaaamed hiphop is slowly making it more mainstream? Or is Drake just synthy overproduced souless music, lemme know what you think.......

What is it about Drake beats that equals wordplay

I was on Lyriqs Lounge blog, and she was talking about wordplay, so true at the moment everyone seems to be doing it, obviously it's not a new thing but to quote Lyriqs Lounge "it's an epidemic"

DRAKE:
Like a sprained ankle boy I ain’t nothing to play with
Started off local but thanks to all the haters
I know G4 pilots on a first name basis
In your city, faded off the brown, Nino
She instincts she got more class, We know
Swimming in the money, come and find me, Nemo
If I was at the club you know I ball Chemo
So when I saw this on a friend's facebook I couldn't help but think, it's finally spreading to the UK. I think there's a lot of talented UK artists but I've never really been impressed by UK wordplay, it's just basic word association often, but this video made me rethink:

Nuff man make believe i don't rate it

But sign me for a tupac and we'll see some changes

No Drake but maybe we're getting there....

Donnis - Diary of an Atlanta Brave

I was looking at the 2010 XXL freshman list today, which to be honest and XXL say themselves was barely a freshman list (it included Wiz Kalifa 7 mixtapes you can't really class as a freshman, OJ da Juiceman's already been on the cover of XXL and J Cole, if you're under Jay Z's wing you're hardly a freshman but then Drake made 09 so....) anyway I saw Donnis who for some reason I'd missed before and I'd never heard this mixtape. It's interesting a little bit generic in places but he has a nice flow, reminds me of Big Sean in places but without the laziness. Some of the beats are definitely Big Sean-esque but it's got a feel good style, and I was suprised I actually liked it Southern rappers arent usually my thing. Underdog's highpoint of the album for me, it's a shame Country Cool straight after it reminds me why I dont listen to southern rappers. Worth a listen just for Underdog though.

"So Cudi's On the Moon and Drake's So Far Gone, I'm Finally Famous like my boy Big Sean"