Staff Picks Week Of 6/18/2012

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J Harmony: It’s been a good week for hip-hop as we’ve seen a lot of releases in the last few days. From Waka Flocka Flame’s “Triple F Life” to SpaceGhostPurrp’s “Mysterious Phonk” we’ve been given tons of new music to listen to. While I haven’t been able to listen to everything yet, two projects have definitely stood out to me. The first being Joey Bada$$’s debut mixture, 1999.  Joey is only 17 and hails from Brooklyn. The tape has the young lyrical genius flowing over smooth instrumentals produced by Chuck Strangers, MF Doom, and Statik Selektah to name a few. Many have been saying that New York hip-hop is making a big return and after listening to “1999,” that may very well be the case.

The second standout project for me was XV’s Popular Culture mixture. From the album artwork to the track titles, Popular Culture is exactly what it says it is: Pop Culture. XV has always been one to reference video games and comics in his raps and with Popular Culture he takes it a step further, referencing and sampling old TV shows and movies like Full House and Star Wars. The project definitely creates a feeling of nostalgia for its listeners. Vizzy also incorporates more modern examples of pop culture, referencing Breaking Bad and Inception to name a few. If you’re a pop culture junkie, this is definitely the tape for you.

As always, the NBA playoffs have proven to be CRAZY. With the Heat having the opportunity to finish the series at home, many are wondering if the Thunder will be able to bring the series back to their home court. To that I say, THUNDER UP.

Joey Bada$$ 1999

XV Popular Culture

 

Euro_Perez: Sh!t I know it hard to pick or talk about anything this week if it’s not that WIP fight but I know my boy Serge gonna go in on that. So, I’m a go with that Dream Team documentary.  It was ill to see how one, if not, the best team ever was assembled. The dope thing about it is seeing how egos were managed and cultivated for the team. Also, you see the changing or taking of the guard,  by Jordan showing all the players on that team and world who the best player was.

My other pick has to be that French Montana single “Pop That” with Drake, Lil’ Wayne, Rick Ross. I’m bias because I’m from the Bronx so I rock with my guy French, but French always makes dope music. This is a good 1st single for his debut album. I mean 2 Live Crew sample + good features = good stripper music! A lot happy custys… Ha.

French Montana “Pop That” ft Drake, Lil Wayne & Rick Ross

 

Serge: I usually keep my picks about music, but this time around I’m going to talk about the Drake/Chris Brown beef that happened over at WIP. Drake was originally with MMG and company earlier that night at Sin City in the Bronx before exiting to head back into the city. From there, it’s anyone’s guess as to what went on when he got to WIP. But the end result was the club being closed down for the weekend, which left a lot of New York’s partygoers not too happy. Especially since to the two people involved in the beef don’t even live in New York to begin with.

 

jGerson: In terms of music, I must say that I f*ck with the latest music video from the Action Bronson/Party Supplies mixtape, Blue Chips.  The visuals for “Steve Wynn” give a comical twist to the recent bath salt epidemic.  The song’s not bad either.  The only other thing that really caught my eyes and ears on the music tip was the epic fall from grace Canibus faced at the King Of The Dot battle against Dizaster.  I want to start off by saying that I do not find humor in Canibus’ embarrassment; far from it.  It’s sad to see after all of these years of claiming to be the ultimate lyrical competitor, that Canibus turned out to be the complete opposite.  I mean the guy once said, “saying you can defeat me is nothing but speculation,” and now a decade later Diz proved that defeating Canibus was not hearsay, it was truth. Amidst the fallout from this epic fail was a hilariously penned hoax apology from Canibus himself.  The language included in this letter that tells the tale of ‘Bis getting abducted by the government so he can explain how he wrote 30 pages of  “Infinite Rhymes” was too good to be true, but fooled even those close to him as an anonymous source closed to ‘Bis told me, “that sounds like him.”

On the non-rap tip, there was a segment from Conan last week, that was easily one of the funniest sketches that I’ve seen on his show in years.  While in Chicago, he sent Jack McBrayer from 30 Rock to the city’s infamous establishment, the Weiner Circle.  For those unfamiliar with Jack McBrayer, he is often typecast as an extremely nice, yet ignorant gentleman that’s constantly taken advantage of and undermined. For those unfamiliar with the Weiner Circle, it’s a hot dog joint filled with abrasive, foul-mouthed servers that straight up insult nearly every customer that walks in the door.  The result of Jack going to the Weiner Circle was as expected, but Conan upped the ante by bringing Triumph The Insult Comic Dog into the mix to verbally abuse the Weiner Circle’s staff…the result is now a priceless viral video…enjoy.