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ASAP ROCKY

"I'm going to be real, my following is small. For it to be this small, I get a lot of love. I'm kind of afraid for when it gets big because that's when everybody who used to love you is going to hate you. It is what it is."

The quote above from an interview with Complex Magazine is a clear example of how artists know the risk of getting signed to a label gets them closer to losing old fans and being called a sell-out. This can be somewhat true of how Wiz Khalifa became a sell out with his album Rolling Papers (If people want to argue, compare Black&Yellow to Kush and Orange Juice and POTC tracks) . But why would such a good thing sell out? Being on Drake's upcoming tour hurting his image? Would you consider ASAP Rocky a one hit wonder like Kreayshawn? I'm here to let you think otherwise.

ASAP Rocky is blowing up and you all shouldn't sleep. After his release of the music video "Peso", his following rose and people started to spread the word of that "pretty motherfucker". But what is ASAP Rocky and his whole ASAP Mob about? That trill movement. ASAP, which stands for Always strive and prosper, relates to why Rocky and his crew live that purple life. Trill, a word created by Bun B and the late Pimp C of U.G.K. is a combination of the word true and real. This whole trill movement was popular in the South, mostly in Houston. The 2 most popular things about the trill movement are the following:

1. Purple drank
2. Chopped and Screwed

Asap Rocky's "Purple Swag" is pretty much an ode to U.G.K. and maybe even Slim Thug, Mike Jones (snippet of his voice in the song), and Three Six Mafia. Asap Rocky's music epitomizes Houston's chopped and screwed sound with his many references to mixing that codeine and 'methazine syrup with some Sprite and jolly ranchers on the bottom (don't ask me how I know).

Being from Harlem, his swag is that of Dipset mixed with a little Max B and Bone Thugz N Harmony flow, and of course that Houston Chopped & Screwed vocals. His fashion sense and knowledge is amazing, with his many references to Margiela, Alexander Wang, Bathing Ape, Nudies, Jeremy Scott Adidas, and other brands he is seen wearing. In all his work and appearances, he is seen rocking the brand Blvck Scvle, with owner Mega already dropping a new line in honor of ASAP. While his fashion is on point, his new mixtape is as well.

LiveLoveA$ap

The title of his very anticipated mixtape above (click link to download) is straight fire. I wish someone like Ghost Face Killah reviewed this shit on his blog cause I know he would agree. (Check out GhostFace's trill ass music blog here) Every track on here I could listen to for days. The production is amazing as well. The tracklist follows:

1. Palace (Prod. by Clams Casino) - This is the right way to start off the tape. It has that "Watch the Throne" swag on the beat for real. I mean, just focus on the beat for a bit, and you would be like damn, some King Louis the XIII Versailles Gladiator 'bout to go down shit. Then you understand why ASAP Rocky was probably like, we should name this shit Palace. Then the track just introduces who ASAP is and how this trill shit not from Houston but Harlem will make the world feel it his movement.
2. Peso (Prod. by ASAP Ty Beats)- Do I even have to talk about this track? This is the track that boosted Rocky to new heights. The visuals just killed it as well with so much swag. That Blvck Scvle everything, Supreme, Y3, Jeremy Scott Adidas, wtf. The line "Raf Simmons, Rick Owens usually what I'm dressed in" definitely shows Rocky knows his clothing. Then of course the song is about how he is always about getting those Pesos (money).
3. Bass (Prod. by Clams Casino)- The beginning of the song I recognized was from a video on World Star Hip Hop, pretty funny (link here). This is another amazing beat by Clams Casino. This song goes hard as fuck, maybe the second hardest song next to Brand New Guy. This song is Rocky turning from that "pretty motherfucker" into that Biggie after that Tupac beef music. He kills it.
4. Wassup (Prod. by Clams Casino) - This song is just a good song to vibe too. Its that type of song when you're driving home drunk with your friends from a party and someone plays this shit on the ipod and everyone just bops their head and looks at each other and says, "Wassup!?"
5. Brand New Guy (Feat. Schoolboy Q) - Hardest track on the tape with Q featured, damn! Talking bout new 9mm's, takin' yo bitch, and don't fuck with us cause we the new hip-hop.
6. Purple Swag Chapter 2 (Feat. SpaceGhostPurrp & ASAP Nast) - For all of you who don't know who SpaceGhostPurrp, SGP, is, he is purpler than Rocky can be. SGP's music is all self-produced and represents that Memphis Three Six Mafia type of shit. (Peep that shit here) Asap Rocky's flow begins to sound like that of Bizzy & Krayzie Bone of BTNH.
7. Get Lit (Prod. by SouFein3000) - This song epitomizes Bone Thugs and Harmony flow with some of that Chopped and Screwed feel. Good song to listen to when you're slizzard!
8. Trilla (Prod. by Beautiful Lou) - This the type of shit you feel when you at a function with some Old English 40's and some bad broads. Very trill track with that Houston, Memphis, and Mid-west type shit.
9. Keep it G (Prod. by Spaceghostpurrp) - This very trill track produced and featured Spaceghost is a trippy ass song. Good song to sesh to.
10. Kissin' Pink (Prod. by Beautiful Lou) - What you think the title means? Haha yeah, this song is an ode to get that girl across the room.
11. Houston Old Head (Prod. by DJ Burn One) - Personally my favorite for the underlying meaning behind the lyrics. Rocky talks about meeting with someone he looks up to who gives him advice about life.
12. Acid Drip (Prod. by SouFein3000) - Good visuals can come out of this song, like a commercial or a model doing some fly shit. Trippy song forreal.
13. Leaf/Take 1 (Prod. by Clams Casino ft. Main Attrakionz) - Asap Rocky is sick of all the bullshit in life, so he asks his homies to know that feel and sip some lean with him.
14. Roll One Up (Prod. by DJ Burn One) - Oh yeah, ASAP Rocky likes to smoke too. Roll one up for the big homie.
15. Demons (Prod. by Clams Casino) - A conscious track where Rocky thinks about life and hopes he doesn't fall to the vices of the world and fail in life.
16. Out of This World (Prod. by The Olympicks) - Very feel good, ASAP knows how to work the mic. A lot of name dropping but can still fuck with.

New Music 11/3

Couple new projects from up-and-coming artists worth checking out:

A$AP Rocky - LiveLoveA$AP

Nipsey Hussle - The Marathon Continues

Freddie Gibbs - Cold Day In Hell

*I don't know what's up with all the American Flag imagery being used by rappers lately (remember the "Otis" artwork), but did anyone else catch the "Stankonia" allusion in the new A$AP Rocky mixtape cover? Also pays homage to Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony and UGK on his tape.

Thizz In Peace

Two nights ago, Drake dropped "The Motto" live on Power 106. It's a bonus track off his new album Take Care that is set to drop in two weeks. It features his boss, Lil Wayne and has CLUB BANGER written all over it. I know what your thinking(...*cool story bro...). But, in the songs opening verse Drake proclaims "I'm in the buildin' and I'm feelin' myself/Rest in peace Mac Dre I'ma do it for the Bay". This is of course a reference to the Westcoast Hip-Hop legend himself, Andre Hicks, aka Mac Dre. Random? Well...not really, as the track premiered on the 7th anniversary of Dre's death. Now, being from the Bay this just wan't no ordinary line. Sure, it's commonplace for rappers to pay homage to Hip-Hop legends that have passed, but it isn't everyday you hear a Mac Dre reference on mainstream radio. Especially from someone who isn't from the Bay, or the westcoast, or the south...but from Toronto.

"The Motto" ft. Lil Wayane--Mac Dre reference at 0.46

"Feelin' Myself"-Mac Dre

Now, there are some Mac Dre die hards that might not take to Drake's reference so favorably. Mac Dre die hards may question Drake's actual knowledge of the impact Mac had on not only Bay Area/Westcoast sound, but hip-hop culture as a whole. They might question whether or not he truly fucks with not just Hicks' undeniable impact, but his actual music. Does he actually have "Neva Seen" on his ipod??? And I get it, he's OUR guy. He's the guy who put the Bay on the map. He was hyphy before "Tell Me When to Go". He wore vans before "Vans". But, the thing people have to understand, his impact reached much farther than the confines of the Westcoast. When someone like Drake makes a reference like that, you know how many kids are googling Mac Dre the next day? It's an opportunity for his legend to grow and to gain the mass recognition he was so close to achieving before his death. As a Bay boy, I look forward to the day where the love and admiration for Hick's music and impact mirrors movements like that of Pimp C in the south.

I know a lot of people aren't familiar with his music, so here are some of my favorites. And if you are familiar, go head and vibe to it

"Neva Seva"

"Andre N Andre" ft. Andre Nickatina

How fly was this nigga?!?!

MANIAC

“The guilty one isn’t the one who commits the sin, but the one who causes it”. From the new film “Maniac” starring Kid Cudi and directed by the infamous actor Shia LeBeouf, comes a horror film based off of the song “Maniac” from Cudi’s latest album. When I first saw this film I honestly was confused on what was going on. After watching it countless times, I have come to realize that this film was more beautifully directed than any Stanley Kubrick movie.

This film showcases Cudi and his friend playing as serial killers, and are followed by LeBeouf and his camera crew. If you have ten minutes to spare, go ahead and click on the play button.

Hip-Hop x Dubstep = Grime

After my introduction at the first general meeting, people asked me what was that genre i spoke about briefly, grime is the name, my first recommendation is to turn up the bass & get with the lingo...

MCing has been very present in the UK for a long time, originally brought by jamaican soundsystems, MCs started to become more electronic when the rave phenomenon hit, making them spit hard and fast as hell over old school garage, jungle or drum & bass.
Catch a young Wiley or Asher D (who was featured in 50 Cents 'Get Rich Or Die Trying' film as a Jamaican named Antoine) spittin like crazy in a rave in an abandoned church, back in the day:

90's started to go by and the grime we know nowadays started to shape with names like Kano, Wiley, Dizzee Rascal or Frisco.

And in the recent years, the final bass punch came in when dubstep producers started to offer their tracks to MCs like P-Money, Newham Generals, JME, Foreign Beggars, Skepta, etc. Thats why you will see the producer name all over the track title like they were the artist.
To get an overall introduction to grime & a great playlist to work the fuck out to, get P-Money's 'I Beat The Tune' mixtape for free HERE

P-Money x Marco Del Horno & DJ Swerve

Foreign Beggars x Noisia

P-Money with one of dubsteps biggest acts right now, Magnetic Man (composed by Skream, Benga & Artwork)

And as a grand finale the hypest badman of them all...Tempa T x Chase & Status

If for any crazy reason you are still reading this I will assume you have a lot of free time, so if you want to learn more about the story behind this movement and hip-hops development in the UK, watch the 'Life Of Rhyme' documentary, in 4 parts on youtube. It is sick.

On a final note, Grime goes totally apart and in different lanes from the UK hip-hop acts like Tinchy Stryder, Tinie Tempah, Devlin, Giggs, Chipmunk etc.
Most of them are pussies trying to copy american radio hip-hop. And fail. Miserably.

Das Racist is the New Kool G Rap

You probably have heard of Das Racist if you were one of the 1.5 million who stumbled upon their hit song "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell," released nearly two and a half years ago. In the song, the two rappers of the group, Victor "Kool AD" Vazquez and Himanshu "Heems" Suri, annoyingly do a back-and-forth dialogue involving--you guessed it--a combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. This isn't the first time we've seen artists work on rapping based around comedy, as The Lonely Island, Beastie Boys, and even Lil' B, have done it all before.

But there's something deeply engaging about Das Racist's style that allows me to replay their songs over and over again. Their usage of witty wordplay (Cracker in the chocolate, that's human Pocky on "Rainbow in the Dark"), repetition (Yeah what's really good, what's really food, what's really good on the bizarrely titled "Chicken and Meat") and lazy delivery and flow (You should never argue with a lalalalalalalala you oughta know right now on "You Oughta Know") might throw some people off, but I think it's a breath of fresh air compared to what everyone is going for in today's hip-hop.

What is most intriguing about Das Racist, though, is their ability to meld together dance beats and samples with the history of hip-hop and our culture, seamlessly. By listening to a few verses on "Rainbow in the Dark" we can hear Heems and Victor rapping about, but not limiting themselves to, Joe Pesci, Stephen Hawking's It, cave-aged cheese, Mastercard, White Castle, T-Pain, Kool G, weed rap, and Don King. It's everything that is seemingly unconventional about hip-hop, yet Das Racist make it look like they've been experts in this field for years.

Even though they are labeled as "joke rap," if you look past their "Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" schtick, Das Racist are far from what we perceive them to be. To this day, I'm still not sure if it's all a big joke or not to Das Racist (We're not joking, just joking, we are joking, just joking, we're not joking on the aptly titled "hahahaha jk?"), but I know for sure; they're definitely serious about one thing: making really good hip-hop.

Das Racist has two free mixtapes out that you can still download here and here. Their album "Relax" was released September 13.