Latest / Hip-Hop Now Podcast / One Time for the Ladies

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One Time for the Ladies · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

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Coming up on this week's episode of hip Hop Now podcast, def Jam West
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S, MC boss passes away, Rhapsody announces a brand new album called Please
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Don't Cry, and Royceter five to nine believes that Jay Cole is the only
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competitive rapper today. We're gonna talk about it for sure. Let's do it.
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Welcome to Hippop Now Podcasts to you from the future. You know what
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to do show as out of so disrespect the leg lack hip hop is here
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to today. Let's get right into the business. What up, y'all?
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I am your host Vegas and this this hip Hop Now podcasting podcast specifically designed
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to keep you caught up on all things hip hop music and culture that happened
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throughout the week. Big shout out to the Patreon supporters over at patreon dot
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com slash ship hop Now. If you're watching the YouTube version, I like
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to thank past and present patrons for coming through and if you would like to
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learn more about that yes you that I'm talking to right now, visit the
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link in the description of this episode really quick. So for those who don't
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know, I've been doing a number of videos, some of which are exclusive
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to YouTube because we're trying to get to five hundred subscribers. Right now,
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we are about four subscribers away from four hundred, So you four out there
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who aren't subscribe, subscribe now join the party. But some of the content
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that I've been adding to this channel includes not only the return of the co
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hosted podcast That Time in hip Hop, which is now exclusively a YouTube thing.
2:07
Because if you've always used to listen back in the day, that podcast
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hosted by myself and Tony from into the Doome dot com and into the Dome
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podcast. It used to be a part of my audio stream for hip Hop
2:23
Now. But because we are trying to push the channel and viewership to the
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hip Hop Now podcast YouTube channel, that is an exclusive now. It's not
2:38
gonna We're not producing them at the rate we did before, but we do
2:44
have seventy plus episodes because of work we put it in the past. So
2:50
I would say maybe twice a month, maybe once or twice a month for
2:55
this year. You know, we'll go in and you know, win the
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topic makes sense we're doing. And the first one we came back with was
3:04
Raucous Records, talking about the history of that record label, the artists that
3:07
came out from that record label and whether or not they would ever be another
3:13
label like Raucous Records. Some say they already exists. I say, not
3:19
really, but check it out. But coming up we are doing on the
3:27
next episode, we are basically looking back at the nineteen ninety seven sophomore album
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double album from Wu Tang Clan Wu Tang Forever. And when I tell you
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one of the things, like when with any content I create, when you're
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going back and listening to an album that had an impact on the hip hop
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game, it's always dope to press play again and just you feel like you're
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getting transported back to that time because I probably listened to thirty six Chambers on
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a regular basis. Then I do Wu Tang Forever, Wu Tang Forever.
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You know, we hear Triumph all the time, and every now and again
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I may hear another song, but it had been a while since I just
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listened to Wu Tang Forever, which is a very dope album, So stay
4:16
tuned for that. It'll be right here on the channel and all that good
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stuff. And the other thing before we get into it is the cassette tape
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series I have going on right twelve episodes in taking a quick break, then
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I'll hit you out with another twelve. But it's basically, if you're watching
4:36
on YouTube, there's a bunch of cassettes behind me. There's some cassettes hear
4:41
in my garage, and what I do is I pull out a tape,
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pick up the phone. So yo yo, tell of the tapes. I
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tell you the story about when I purchased it, what I thought about that
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album, and what I think about it today. So albums featured were like
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X Clans, Exodus, the That's the Biz Moncky, Bookie Monster's debut album,
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the jay z Ken Knocker Hustle remixed single. And I have a lot
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of tapes because back then in the early mid nineties, I didn't have a
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CD player, So you know, I would go and just buy a tape.
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Like every week if I had money, I was going to the record
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store. It didn't matter if nothing was out. I was doing like research,
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reading sauce and all of that good stuff and just trying to exhorb as
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much as I could as far as information on album. So when I went
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to the record store, I was like I knew what I was looking for,
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or I knew what I wanted to get so this series, there's plenty
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of these cassettes are from a specific era in the nineties. I do have
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some from the late nineties, because you know, we're still rocking tapes.
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But I did have a CD play about it, So that's on the channel.
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Check it out. Twelve episodes is pretty now. The other thing and
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this is the last thing. But for those who followed this podcast for years,
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let's just say, and those who don't know, I wrote a book
6:15
back in twenty eighteen basically doing the same things I do here as far as
6:21
content creation about albums and classic albums in particular in my experience when I first
6:31
heard them and when I purchased them. So whereas the tape series is a
6:35
quick hit, y'all, I bought this, blah blah blah, some of
6:39
those tapes or the classic versions, like let's just say, like the chronic
6:44
are flushed out because I tell the complete story of me going somewhere and buying
6:50
it, what I was feeling in the situation and what the time was and
6:54
how I felt. So I have a sub stack and I'll probably link that
6:59
here where I'm gonna start to release those stories, those chapters piece by piece,
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So what I posted recently is a prologue to the book, so you
7:13
can check it out kind of see what my angle is. And then after
7:17
that I'll start releasing chapter after chapter. So the link to read all of
7:23
that good stuff is there. A lot of content, man, So when
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I say stay locked in or subscribe for more content and sharing it with people,
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you know what, enjoy this content. That's what I mean. Man.
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You got audio, you got visual, and you got written. Biggest
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world I n c check it out all right, big shout out to hip
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HOPDX dot com, All hip Hop dot com, Double Lexel Magazine kind of
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been stepping up, Source magazine dot com. I've been stepping up a little
7:54
bit. I see y'all, y'all getting better and a couple of places where
7:58
I get some of these stories from us in right to the business stuff.
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So recently this week, Deaf Jam West pioneer recording artists Boss passed away.
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Her real name was Michelle Marie Laws and she was the first female rapper signed
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to death Jam. Her album debuted in nineteen ninety three called Born Gangsters and
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she's I believe she's from Detroit to be honest, but well, hold on,
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let me just make sure I get the situation before I get over the
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place. This is coming from hip hopdx dot com. While no cause of
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death death has yet been released. Boss was known to have struggled in the
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past with kidney failure. So it's kind of what I thought. I know
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she had some issues, some health issues over time, and there was some
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scares like in recent years, but she passed away. I believe she was
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only something like fifty six, I think, so I can't remember, and
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I don't have that in front of me. She was fifty four. If
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you were outside, if you were old enough to know hip hop back in
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the days in ninety three, like I said, I you know, that
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was my time for getting tapes born. Gangster Boss was like the first hardcore
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West Coast style female EMC. Just for context, when you look at the
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eighties, you had Queen Latifa, you had JJ Fad, you know,
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you had you had MC Light of course, Antoinette, you had all these
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moony Love all these female MC Salt and Peppa had a particular style that reflected
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the times right and one thing that always stood out was that, you know,
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they kind of always had like a crew that was like a cold sign
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in some regards like a crew of males basically, whether it was I'm a
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part of the Juice Crew like Rocks and Chante or you know, Flavor Unit
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with like Queen Latifa and stuff like that, even though she was kind of
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one of the heads of that. But there was always this typical mc right,
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you know, not really that feminine, you know what I'm saying,
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except for like Nikki D. Like Nikki D y'all, y'all just be sleeping
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on. Nik was nice. I remember seeing her battling dudes, battling dudes,
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you know, But what the boss it was different, right, because
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this is nineteen ninety three. West Coast hip hop is everything you remember,
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Like all you gotta do is just pop in what is it? Grand Theft
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Auto San Andres. That was everything West Coast back then. The movies were
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that, the music was that, the rappers were that, you know,
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it was like gangster music, and you didn't usually when you saw the ladies
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it was different. It was like the ladies, right, you know,
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the way the hair were done, you know, the dancing, if they
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had some kind of tomboyish with them, a situation with them, it was
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like like empty light like a you know, like a B girl, but
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with Boss, she was like the equivalent of Easy but a lady, you
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know what I'm saying, the equivalent of ice Cube but a female. And
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I think that's what made her stand out amongst the ladies, because I know,
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at least initially, I didn't know who she was tied to, so
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I just saw her video and I was like, yo, who is this
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And the beat dope and the way she was rhyming was dope. It was
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different, you know what I mean at that time, And I think she
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had a huge impact on hip hop alone, because you know, in other
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ways also, like look at somebody like Little Kim or Foxy where they brought
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They really brought the sexuality to the forefront in a blatant way. You know,
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Salt and Pepper did too, but these were more so, you know,
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little subdued Little Kim and Foxy was just like, no, some of
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us ladies feel exactly just as vulgar as the men, okay, Whereas Boss
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was that but for the hardcore version of a female MC of being. Like
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if Nikki d was equivalent to a spitter from New York, that was the
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same thing for Boss. When it came to the West Coast as far as
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j and the type of music that was being made. And I think she
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only had one album, I believe, or at least that's the one that
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everybody remembers, her debut album. But you know, again, she she
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had an impact. You could see everybody from eminem you know what I'm saying,
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from Snoop Dogg to everybody you know, paying homage to her. Because
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when she came out, you know, people talked about it. You know,
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people bought it, People dug her. People liked the fact that a
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woman was doing this and not flippity gool glibbity gool. Sorry, MONI love.
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I know that's kind of you, but it's not, you know what
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I mean. Like it was. It was different, it was hard to
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edge, it was reality, and people liked it and she was dope.
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So rest in peace to Boss Staying in the lane with the ladies. One
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of my favorite Rhapsody has a new album on the way. It's called Please
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Don't Cry. She recently announced. So actually it's been five years. It's
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been five years since her last album, which I think is so so slept
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on, so slept on, like Rhapsody can kind of be slept on as
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an artist in general. But I feel like they were giving her a lot
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of props for Layla's wisdom, whereas her last album Eve was like an in
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an early situation, like early nineties or whatever, this would be. It
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would be a classic if you asked me. She had different flows, She
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showed range, you know, the beats were there, you know, the
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concepts was crazy, was all dedicated to women. But now she's back.
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The album's called Please Don't Cry. It's supposed to drop on May seventeenth,
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so we got some time before it's out. She did drop a new single
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that I thought was pretty dope, so that's exciting right to get started.
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But this album also has a lot of features on it, big time features
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Lil Wayne, Erka Bado, hit Boy on the Beats, Baby Tait,
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I don't think I know. That is Alex Eisley and it's going to be
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about twenty two songs. Wait, let's see Anderson Fox on here. Also
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Felicia Rashard from The cosmby Shure Young It's on here. So yeah, it's
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a thing where in general, you know, Rhapsody is a very dope artist
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who doesn't get the props she deserves, at least to me, not on
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the scale. She deserves it for having skill and also doing it on the
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highest level. I was messing with Rhapsody when you know she was working with
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ninth and had sort of like the independent I guess they're independent. I don't
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know albums, but mixtapes also where I thought she was dope, And I
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think the best part about her was the fact that she could she could talk
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about relationships from a female perspective and not have dudes tune, now you know
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what I mean. Like, most dudes back in the nineties were big fans
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of Mary J. Blige, right, and obviously she's talking about dudes.
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Dudes was fans of Little Kim. Obviously she's talking her about her sexuality from
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a from a female perspective, and for some dudes. It's for people in
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general. You when you like music, it's because you can relate to the
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person who to the artists, right, and the lyrics, and sometimes it's
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difficult to relate to a woman's side of a relationship when you're basically always going
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to be the male in it. Right. So the album itself is basically
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as far as concept goes, it's basically going to describe the discovery of her
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journey, self discovery, self acceptance that she is, you know, basically
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put into this album a lot of time to reflect between albums on herself and
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to be honest, and Rhapsody fans already noticed this is when Rhapsody is at
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her best because she's never too you know, bar King or Queen to show
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her vulnerability on tracks. She's an excellent songwriter, you know what I mean,
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Like a rapper can write about drugs and being the best MC and all
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this other stuff all the time, and after a while, it's just becomes
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something you do. But it's very difficult for some rappers to truly take their
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art or take their technique and apply it to their real life or real life
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situations and convey it in a way that connects with people, connects with the
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listeners. And that's what I mean about Rhapsody. She is very good at
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doing that. And with these guest appearances or the high level quality of a
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production which she showed on her last album, for sure, I think this
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could be one of the best of the year if done right. And the
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first single just let me know that, Okay, I'm liking what I'm hearing.
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The production the first single was with her and hit Boy. I'm like,
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I'm liking what I'm hearing. This might be crazy, so we'll see
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what happens. And lastly, so Royster five nine appeared recently on the Joe
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Budden Pie and he said J Cole was the only competitive rapper today. Before
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we get into that, let's look at some quotes. I haven't taken a
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real deep look out into the landscape, but from where I'm sitting, it
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looks like J Cole the only one being competitive. He's the only one who's
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rapping with the kind of conviction that says I still value the number one spot.
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As a lyricist, see a lot of the younger generation not really hanging
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their hat on just the lyrical part of creativity at all. They're finding different
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ways to impact and resonate with people, which is fine. That's when the
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elder statesmen like myself start learning. I want to make myself understand why is
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this touching people like that? I can't even understand what they're saying. It's
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definitely moving away from lyricism being the caveat which I'm cool with because there's a
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lot more things I can do without being lyrical lyrical. So before you get
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up in arms about who's nice you know, and who he's overlooking or ignoring
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or not paying attention to, think about this when you say J Cole,
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J Cole is not in the same lane as far as as far as status
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as Griselda, you know, west Side, Thanny Conway, Stove God,
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other rappers like Mickey Fax and even Loop a Fiasco right Like, these are
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people who I'm naming who could spit, you know, RJ Payin, people
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who who could spit. They're not in the same lane as J Cole when
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it comes to status in the hip hop game. So when you hear him
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say something like that and say he can't even understand what they're saying, you
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know he's not talking about those rappers because, whether you like it or not,
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J Cole competes with other rappers who aren't even lyrical at all as far
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as status. He competes for the same fans. He competes for a similar
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spotlight. And what's dope is you know he has been on the song with
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like Benny the Butcher, you know. So I think in a lot of
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ways I agree with Royce the five to nine from that standpoint, because even
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Royce, Royce and j Cole are not on the same status level. They're
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not right, we're checking for Royce. This is the difference, right us
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heads are checking for all those people I name, including j Cole. The
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fans that really probably make up J Cole are checking for Ja Cole and not
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checking for any other people I name. They're checking for the yachtis and the
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Gucci's and you know what I'm saying, and the you know, the lills,
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all the lives or put them all together, all the lills, all
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the big babies, little babies, all of them, put them together.
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That's what they're checking for. So that becomes his competition, and he's the
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only one who is like aggressive in trying to prove that he is the best
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one spitting on this level. Now some would say, well, of course
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you're the best one spending on that level one, that's your competition. But
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it's the truth. It's really just unfortunately showing what roy said that people don't
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really care about lyricism like that, because if they did, there would be
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more than just Jake Cole on that level. Once upon a time, kids,
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everybody on that level was a spitting But now it's almost like Jake Cole
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is maybe he's not being the most competitive, but maybe he's the only one
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trying to keep it alive on that level. That's the point, right Royce.
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He knows that there are plenty of people included him, who are just
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as competitive, but Jake Cole is the only one because Kendrick not really concerned
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about that. Kendrick is more concerned about making music that resonates with people,
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and every now and again he might give you a bar, or he'll give
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you a song where you you know it's the play of skill. But he's
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not who he used to be. Drake gotta be in a beef or somebody
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get mad at him or say his album for you to even get some sort
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of competitiveness out of him. But j Cole is actively actively trying to keep
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the hip hop casuals thinking bars matter. He fighting a good fight, that's
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what they're doing. He fighting a good fight. So now let's talk about
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it from an other perspective. Okay, let's just say everybody rapping, is
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he the only one being competitive? Nope? I think I think Royce,
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even though he hasn't dropped the joy in a while, but apparently working on
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Prime three with Premier, I think we'll see, like, yep, he's
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still spit. I think Benny and Conway and Stove God and r J Pain
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and cast like that, who you know, the bars or something else like
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that's what they care about and yeah, shout out, I am God man
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like casts like that are like technicians with the wordplay. But the unfortunate part,
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and going back to the main point, is when you look at the
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mainstream level, on a mainstream level, J Cole is above a lot of
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those guys. No, he's above all of them on a mainstream level,
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and everybody else in that mainstream level is either on a different path or subpar
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lyrically. And he's the only one that raps like lyrics still matters. And
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that's just what it is. Man. So I don't know. You tell
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me what do you think about Boys to five nine's comments? Do you remember
25:37
Boss from back in ninety three? You know what I'm saying. Leave your
25:40
memories and your comments in the comments section below. You can follow me on
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social media, it doesn't matter where it is. TikTok might be dead,
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but I'm on everything else. At Vegas World I n C and also subscribe
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what's more important? Share it with people you know, but enjoy this
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kind of count until next time, y'all. I'm not a critic, I'm
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a fan face