Weekend Fire - A Comeback, Hot Releases And A Beef

[Damien J.]

How can you start off the news this week without the God MC's return? Dude managed to pull off a 26 hour, 4,000 mile Hangar Tour across the country. Love him or hate him, you got to respect it. Well, onto "Kingdom Come." Jay-Z has returned to reclaim his rap throne with "Kingdom Come" to middle of the road reviews from the press. Some have called his new album "refreshing and grown up" while others (like myself) have canned the album for it's lackluster beats and song structure. Despite this, there are a whole bunch of Hovito fans and it's evident by Hitsdaily.com's projection of 850,000 copies sold in week 1. Highest opening week of 2006. Not surprising at all. Considering the way rap records have sold this year due to digital leaking, maybe Hov is needed. Other than T.I., no other rap act this year went platinum. It's sad that Hov needed to come out of retirement to make it 2. One thing I will say is, the album is definitely grown up. It seems "to me that Jay is carving out a niche amongst the older crowd, while still keeping his young soldiers which may be a sign that there are many more albums to come from Muhammad Hovi.

 Branching off into someone who can’t keep his mind off Jay-Z, The Game. He told Jay to push his album back and then shouted him out at the BET Hip-Hop awards. Enough name-dropping homey. That's what’s hurt your career so far. Onto other issues with Game. He said if he didn't sell a mil first week he'd retire. So when is the ceremony? But, Game managed to surprise many pulling in 380,000 copies, which is pretty big considering as I mentioned above, the lack of rap CD sales this year. He released a solid LP even though he sounded like Dre 90 percent of the time. Think about this...Dre was all over Jay's album and didn't really deliver the heat and Game didn't have him and managed to put together a album that is arguably better than Hov's.

One person we both know that Dre didn't stiff on beats was Snoop. Did you hear that album? If you haven't, it's definitely something you buy at your local Virgin, Tower Records (well their out of business), FYE, or Mom and Pop's. It sounds like vintage Snoop. I never thought I'd say that since he went commercial at the turn of the century. "Imagine" featuring Dre and D'Angelo is "so muthaf***** gangsta" just like Snoop said at the beginning of the cut.

 Well, I guess Nas finally got on his game or Def Jam so to speak because after months of just hype and no press for Nasir, the label has finally started throwing listening sessions (rave reviews) and leaked his December XXL cover along with the LP cover. Here's the track listing for "Hip-Hop is Dead." Nasir is 2 for 4 so far in my eyes. "The N" and "Hip-Hop is Dead" hit the spot. But, I must say (I'm going to get flack for this) "Black Republican" was sub-par both on the production and lyrical side. "Where Are They Now" is straight doo-doo. Sometimes I feel like Nas acts way older than what he is. That beat was horrible. Real Talk: Nas has been the biggest waste of potential in a long time. After Illmatic and It Was Written, he went downhill. He found himself with Stillmatic and God's Son. But don't you feel like at this point in his career Nas shouldn't even be trying to prove a point, instead just dropping albums because he loves music.

1- "QB True G" (Featuring The Game) (Produced By Dr.Dre)
2- "Won't Go Back"
3- "You Mean The World To Me"
4- "Where Y'all At" (Produced By Salaam Remi)
5- "White Man's Paper" (Featuring Damian Marley)
6- "Play On Playa" (Featuring Snoop Dogg) (Produced By Scott Storch)
7- "Where Are They Now" (Produced By Salaam Remi)
8- "Carry On Tradition" (Produced By Scott Storch)
9- "Black Republican" (Produced By Jay-Z) (Produced By L.E.S.)
10- "Hip-Hop Is Dead" (Produced By Will.I.Am)
11- "Blunt Ashes" (Produced By Chris Webber)
12- "Still Dreamin" (Featuring Kanye West) (Produced By Kanye West)
13- "Let There Be Light" (Featuring Tre Williams) (Produced By Kanye West)
14- "Can't Forget About You" (Featuring Christette Michelle) (Produced By Will.I.Am)

 Onto the charts...Crack, Crack, Crack...Fat Joe's new album "Me, Myself, and I" opened with 61,000 copies sold off the strength of solid reviews and the hit single "Make it Rain" featuring Lil Wayne. Some look at it as a flop, some don't. Just look at it this way. He's independent. He's getting way more paper than your major artist with those sales.

Akon sold 285,000 copies of his "Konvicted" LP that features the smash "I Wanna Love You" featuring Snoop and "Smack That Ass" featuring Eminem.

BAAAAALLLIN! I had to one last time. Trust me, I'm sick of it. So, Jay hit Jim Jones with the Brooklyn High track and Capo shot back with his "We Fly High (Beef Mix)." I'm a Hov fan, but dude lost once he gave Capo attention. Why would you respond to a guy who doesn't even write his own rhymes after a few weeks back you were asking "Who's Jim Jones." I guess he found out who he was and how he's had the single of the fall so far and threw him a bone. More like a brick. Hov's lucky Jones couldn't beat Chingy lyrically, cause if he was throwing that at a heavyweight, he would've received another L.

Staying on Dipset. What's up with Peedi Crack or Peedi Peedi dissing Juelz? Supposedly, both of them were cool till a recent Puff party where Peedi felt Juelz brushed him off. Rap has officially turned into the WWF. Or should I say the WNBA cause all these dudes act like broads.

 Last, but not least, UGK has dropped the 1st strike in the soon to be South/East war with their track "Quit Hatin on The South" where Pimp C opens the track deriding the East for hating on them. He also says: "We know rap started in the East and then the West took it and made it sound better...Now it's our turn." From Ludacris wearing a shirt saying, "Hip-Hop ain't dead, it lives in Atlanta," to D4L criticizing Nas amongst others, even if its minimal there will be some disses made from both sides.

 Staying on the south did you ever read the Baby/Wayne XXL article. Father and son were talking real greasy about their former Cash Money mates. Fast-forward to the BET awards and how Wayne looked as if he missed B.G. when he was performing "Top, Back" remix with T.I. and the gang. Now, Lil Wayne releases a cut called "All Alone" where he raps: "I love my niggas no homo/I swear I hope they all get cheese like Digiorno/there's something about The Hot Boyz that you don't know/I got a lot of love for them that I don't show/and B.G. been my nigga since the front door/I hope Chopper City Records blow, fa' sho/me and Juvey never really got along/but you still would let your nigga come get on your hottest song." I guess the holiday season has made Wayne a little emotional.

Go cop that new Clipse "Hell Hath No Fury" album. It isn’t a classic like a certain magazine said, but they have solidified themselves as the best group out on this 12 cut banger.

Non Hip-Hop related: The whole Kramer thing shocked me at first. But now every black person that's chilled around him knows how he's truly felt all this time. I wish people were more upfront about these types of things. Forget political correctness. If you hate this race, culture, or religion, let it be known.

- By Claudio E. Cabrera

[Samoan Enforcer]

Damien, we;re never gonna visit yo raps if you keep posting everything from the site on here, we wont need to 

[AlerG]

Enjoyable post, keep them coming, props

chill

[jeromechickenbone]

Damien, we;re never gonna visit yo raps if you keep posting everything from the site on here, we wont need to 

Yeah but when he tried to post links to his site they didn't work half the time.  On the real, I think he has subliminal messages in his posts - peep game...

How can you start off the news this week without the God MC's return? Dude managed to pull off a 26 hour, 4,000 mile Hangar Tour across the country. Love him or hate him, you got to respect it. Well, onto "Kingdom Come." Jay-Z has returned to reclaim his rap throne with "Kingdom Come" to midd le of the road reviews from the press. Some have cal led his new album "refreshing and grown up" while others (like myself) have canned the album forit's     lackluster beats and song structure. Despite this, there are a whole bunch of Hovito fans and it's evident by Hitsdaily.com's projection of 850,000 copies sold in week 1. Highest opening week of 2006. Not surprising at all. Considering the way rap records have sold this year due to digital leaking, maybe Hov is needed. Other than T.I., no other rap act this year went platinum. It's sad that Hov needed to come out of retirement to make it 2. One thing I will say is, the album is definitely grown up. It seems "to me that Jay is carving out a niche amongst the older crowd, while still keeping his young soldiers which may be a sign that there are many more albums to come from Muhammad Hovi.

 

HiIWillKillYouAll

Somebody alert Seer.

[akcranker - The Dangerous Crew Movement]

LOL ^^^ WTF??

[Meho]

Hmm thats a different Nas tracklisting then the one it was supposed to be 100% real.

[QuietTruth]

LOL ^^^ WTF??

 

[Eddie G.]

Yeah for the Nas tracklist, I doubt Dre would let a song featuring the Game be on there.

[Sweet & Tender Hooligan]

Yeah for the Nas tracklist, I doubt Dre would let a song featuring the Game be on there.

I would buy the album just off the strength of that song.