While we had been at the fireworks show on Mud Island, a tragedy was unfolding at the Doubletree Hotel on Union at Third downtown, when a man shot his wife’s ex-husband and a police officer after a domestic disturbance. The police were still investigating as the Memphis Redbirds shot off their fireworks after their game, July 3, 2011
It’s about more than basketball. And I really do believe in Memphis…if we can build a team of people who do, there is nothing our city can’t accomplish.
Never give up on your dreams. I know what it feels like for people around you not to believe in your dreams…keep pushin’ anyway…
9th Wonder (via jayfingers)
Fireworks at Mud Island, Memphis, July 3, 2011
Some advance announcements about San Quinn’s album Can’t Take The Ghetto Out A Ni#@a referred to it as a “street album”, but rarely has a street album been as exquisitely polished as this. From beginning to end, the album overflows with first-class beats and skillful lyrics, from songs with a dirty-south tinge like “It’s Bad Bruh” or the single “Big Bank”, to more traditional Bay Area anthems like “Live Wit Dat Decision”, “They Know Da Business” or the title track “Can’t Take The Ghetto Out A Ni#@a.” Some other well-known Bay Area artists appear on the album as well, including Sac Sin, Nino Black, E-40 and Guce, with tracks from such Bay Area producers as Big D, Cosmo, Flashy Beats, J-Sin and Eklips Da Hustla. While Can’t Take The Ghetto Out A Ni#@a could certainly be considered a street album from a lyrical standpoint, as the songs consistently deal with the realities of ghetto life, the prevailing sound is something far more perfect and lavish, perfect for riding around San Francisco with the top down on a summer’s day.
Fireworks at Mud Island, Memphis, July 3, 2011
After a significant hiatus, Project Pat returns with his new solo album Loud Pack on Hypnotized Minds, sure to please fans of hard-core Memphis rap. Revelling in political incorrectness, Pat raps about robbery, drug dealing, gang-banging and marijuana, but he does it so energetically and over beats so banging with the classic Hypnotized Minds sound and feel that the listener can’t help being exhilarated as all the rules are broken. Stacking paper seems to be the dominant theme of the album, expressed in songs such as “Duffle Bag”, “7 Days A Week”, “Money On My Mind” and the final “Dollar Signs”, which features appearances from Three-6 Mafia and Rick Ross. “I Play Dope Boy” , “Flashin” and indirectly “Niggas So Cut Throat” are songs about robberies and treachery. “Gang Signs” rejoices in the nihilism of gang-banging and bragging about it, but over a powerful beat that makes the whole thing seem fun, while “I Got A Question” is delivered over a track full of Asian musical influences. The only really pimped-out track on Loud Pack is “Kelly Green”, a tribute to the mystic weed personified as a woman, over a soulful, laid-back groove. Production, by DJ Paul and Juicy J, is first-rate throughout, making Loud Pack an album not to be missed.
DJ Cotton Here Royalty: The Best Of Playa Fly (2011, Mix)
Well, anytime someone decides to put together 80 minutes of the King of Funkytown’s best records, I’ll be listening.
Fly, as you may know, is a Memphis rap O.G. His career dates back to the early 90s, when he was known as Lil’ Fly, and working with DJ Paul and Juicy J in the Triple Six days. But much like almost every artist that worked with M-Town’s Most Known Unknown, Fly had a bitter falling out after the release of Mystic Stylez, jumping ship for Super Sigg records, where he would release some of his strongest work — Fly Shit; Movin’ On.
In 1999, Fly was arrested for possession of narcotics, and sentenced to 7 years in prison, but still managed to release (and make appearances on) Fly2K in 2002. Four years later, in mid-2006, Fly was released from prison, and would unveil a couple of mixtapes over the next few years, including 2010’s King Of All Kings, a welcome return to form from Fly.
Playa Fly’s music is buck, soulful, funky and earnest. It’s nearly the perfect encapsulation of why Memphis rap remains so viable and influential, more than two decades later.
-SM
(via DGB)
Don Trip Terminator 2 (2011, Mixtape)
Sticking (again) with the Memphis rap theme, one of the most currently buzzed about southern artists in blog rap drops the second installment in his Terminator series.
Trip’s video for the ~year old “Letter To My Son” made the rounds on Father’s Day, while the Dope Boyz-produced “Vent” (different track from K.R.I.T.’s “The Vent”), garnered the Cool and Dre-backed Memphisian further exposure.
If you aren’t up on Don Trip, yet (and really, unless you spend most of your waking moments tied to a computer screen surfing rap blog RSS feeds, you probably aren’t), the guys over at Dirty Glove Bastard compiled an Unofficial Best Of Don Trip mixtape over the weekend, so that’s a good place to start.
Even better, though, Terminator 2 is a NO DJ, featureless effort from Trip, with production from Toomp, Drumma Boy, Lex Luger and his benefactors, Cool and Dre, so there’s no filler to distract from the gritty emotional and physical struggles of his life set to music.
-SM
