The West Coast Rap Up: 2005
By : Conan Milne
With
2005 quickly becoming a fleeting memory, there seems no better time than now
to assess the state of the West Coast rap scene throughout the past year and
look at what we can expect from 2006. Ultimately, ‘05 was a year that began
with a bang and closed with some clear disappointments, yet obvious hope for
the future.
It was January of 2005 when word quickly spread of a West Coast mainstream
resurgence. Dr. Dre’s latest young gun, Compton native The Game, was the name
on every hip-hop head’s tongue in 2004, thanks to a surprise alignment with 50
Cent, his G-Unit clique and his impressive “UKNOWWHATITIS” mixtape offering.
With both super-producer Dre and man of the moment 50 backing him, failure
seemed an impossibility. And it was. In January 2005 Game’s album, the hotly
anticipated “The Documentary”, skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard
charts and reached Gold sales in one week alone. For a moment, it almost
appeared that 50 Cent would have to take a back seat as Jayceon Taylor basked
in the glory of “bringing the West back”, as many a critic and fan put it. It
was a statement that was difficult to refute, as not since the glory days of
“Death Row” had quite so much attention been lavished on a West Coast artist.
With a number one album under his belt and a huge club single in the form of
“How We Do”, Game travelled both the States and abroad with self-proclaimed
King of the West, Snoop Dogg. Around that time the typical West Coast rap fan
started asking another question: now that Game had achieved the impossible and
brought a platinum plaque back to Compton, one had to wonder who would be next
to step up and “carry the torch” for the West Coast. After all, Game could
easily be dismissed as a one-off whose success was just as much a result of
his major league affiliation as it was his own talent. It would surely take
another Westside success story to cement the Coast’s commercial relevance.
Ultimately, that success story never came this past year. In the closing
months of 2005 we were treated to a slew of albums by West Coast veteran acts
including Mack 10, Warren G, DJ Quik, and even the newly reunited Dogg Pound.
While some albums were a great success sonically - Quik’s album surely being
one of the best rap releases of 2005 - all were sales disappointments. What
made this all the more disappointing was that the DPG album in particular had
garnished a considerable buzz after a small miracle in the form of Kurupt and
Daz’s reconciliation came to be. Despite that particular reunion being closely
documented by the hip-hop press, it didn’t translate into significant sales.
By the end of 2005, even The Game’s future looked a little unstable. Shortly
after returning from his afore-mentioned tour with Tha Doggfather, Game was
given the heave ho by Fiddy and G-Unit for being “disloyal”. Game’s reaction
wasn’t to step aside gracefully, but to instead partake in the time-honoured
hip-hop tradition of hitting his new enemies with an onslaught of vicious diss
records. It was here that the cynics began to rear their head. As expected,
people began suggesting that Game owed his success to mainstream mammoth 50,
whose sophomore record was proclaimed the second biggest Billboard seller of
2005. However, Game still had plenty of hardcore fans in his corner who, along
with those tiring of G-Unit’s dominance of the airwaves, were more than
willing to adopt his new “G-G-G-G-G-Unot” slogan. Furthermore, Compton’s new
prodigy teamed with former Death Row affiliate Eastwood and one-time Snoop
comrade Techniec to form The M.O.B, an admittedly talented trio that served as
the main act on Game’s Black Wall Street imprint. Should a group project
actually come to fruition this year, it should certainly be one for rap fans
to look out for. As for Game’s solo career, Taylor probably said it best when
he proclaimed that he was “anticipating telling the world I did it without ‘em”.
Fortunately, sales disappointments and G-Unit defections were cancelled out by
several pieces of good news that promised a lot for the West Coast in 2006.
Watts MC G. Malone, once a part of Game’s Black Wall Street, signed to Sony
Records in late in 2005 for a whopping 1.7 million dollars. To put that in
perspective, current king of rap 50 Cent was signed to Eminem and Dr. Dre’s
Shady/Aftermath labels for a deal that was reportedly worth a relatively
humble one million dollars. Speaking of Dre, the good Doctor gave Game some
company this past year by signing another young West Coast rapper to his
Aftermath roster. Bishop Lamont, who like Game had earned a name for himself
on the often crowded mixtape circuit, also signed on the dotted line late in
the year and helped silence some of the critics who suggested that Dre no
longer cared about helping the West Coast’s rap scene. Finally, after booting
out Game, 50 grabbed a Western replacement for his Unit, picking up Spider
Loc.
In another victory for the West, perennial underdog Ras Kass returned from a
stint in the clink to both a growing fan base and plenty of mainstream love.
If you’re up on your rap, you would have been hard pressed to have missed
Rassy’s name in 2005. He was everywhere that mattered, from magazine spreads
in hip-hop’s new bible XXL, to articles on MTV.com, to interviews with damn
near every hip-hop outlet you can think of. Not that that stopped Ras from
picking up the mic. He teased fans in 2005 with the street mixtape
“Institutionalized”, as did fellow West Coast up-and-comers Sly Boogy and
Young Hootie, who also released standout mixtapes this past year. Album-like
in its execution, “Institutionalized” featured stellar verses from Kass-iano
and an impressive line-up of guest spitters. All the while, Ras remained tight
lipped about his current label situation - although admitted that things were
“looking good” for him. My personal prediction? I expect to see him turn up as
part of the monstrous Aftermath/Shady/G-Unit stable this year.
It was also nice to see calls for West Coast unity in 2005, even if not every
rapper was on board. Spurred by Bigg Snoop Dogg’s Western Conference many
beefs were deaded - and even Snoop said he would be willing to lend a hand to
long time adversary Marion ‘Suge’ Knight. While this positive attitude seemed
to affect the new generation of West Coast rappers, several of whom recorded
the follow up to the monumental “We’re All In The Same Gang” record, by the
end of ‘05 beef began to rear its ugly head again - with Spider and Game
sharing jabs and 40 Glocc seen sporting a “Game Over” T-Shirt.
Fortunately, for the underground, or backpack, heads in the audience 2005 was
a great year that saw the West Coast deliver some of the best underground
albums from any region. While these albums could never be expected to achieve
the platinum plaques, due both to poor promotion and the kind of lyricism that
didn’t fit the slogan “radio friendly”, they nonetheless deserve a look in.
Zion I’s “True & Livin” was an extremely soulful album and the song “Bird’s
Eye View” pretty much defines hip-hop and its culture. The album was even
blessed with a great verse from revered BK rhyme slinger Talib Kweli, which
gave the album the East Coast seal of approval. Meanwhile, after dropping the
heavily praised “3:16: The 9th Edition” album in ‘04, Murs returned this year
with two group projects. These were the sophomore Felt record, a true triumph
for the West Coast underground, and the brilliantly bizarre long player from
trio 3MG, which also consists of MC’s Scarub and Eligh. Also in 2005,
legendary Cypress Hill producer DJ Muggs and talented LA twosome Self
Scientific, consisting of esteemed lyricist Chace Infinite and rising producer
DJ Khalil, unveiled Angeles Records with two quality records. Self
Scientific’s sophomore album “Change” was heavily anticipated by fans of the
group’s breathtaking debut, yet managed to leave no listener disappointed.
Furthermore, Muggs was perfectly paired with Wu Tang brethren GZA for the
feature length “Grandmasters” project - another solid effort. This year looks
equally promising for the West Coast underground, with new albums by acclaimed
groups Tha Liks and Dilated Peoples coming early in the year. Also, heavily
over-looked Fresno rapper Planet Asia promises to treat us to three projects,
while Angeles Records will focus on Strong Arm Steady member Mitchy Slick’s
next solo.
To wrap things up, while The Game’s presence in January of ‘05 may have given
some fans premature hope of a fully fledged West Coast comeback the release
line-up for 2006 gives followers plenty of hope for the rest of this year.
Besides the afore-mentioned releases, its impossible to avoid mentioning the
West Coast kingpin Snoop Dogg’s next solo opus, tentatively titled “The Blue
Carpet Treatment”. Said to feature production by both The Neptunes and, if
some reports are to be believed, Dr. Dre, this particular record could be very
interesting. Critics will surely keep a close eye on The Game’s sophomore “The
Doctor’s Advocate”, ready to announce whether or not the rapper could reach
the standards set by his phenomenal first album without the aid of 50 Cent.
With super-producers Cool & Dre, Kanye West, Just Blaze and his mighty mentor
all lending a hand it would be wise for the haters not to hold their breath
for a failure. Finally, without question the biggest album tentatively
scheduled for release sometime in the next twelve months is Dr. Dre’s long
rumoured swan song “Detox”. Reports on this one have been swirling for years
now - will it serve as the first ever “gangsta musical” as once previously
hinted? Will it feature (horror of horrors) outside production work? Will it
even feature Snoop and Tha Pound? We can only hope that the answers to all of
those questions will come sometime in 2006. One thing’s for sure: with both
OG’s and New West acts lining up to attack the charts all signs point to a
very exciting year for the West Coast that, with a bit of luck, will blow the
success stories of 2005 out of the water.
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