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Project Windows · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

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  Coming up on this week's episode of hip Hop Now podcast, I have five
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  great artists that missed their window of opportunity. Let's do it. Welcome to
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  jip Hop Now Podcasts. If you from the future, you don't do show
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  ass out of my don't disrespect the leg hip hop and savors day. Let's
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  get right into the business. What up, y'all? I am your host
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  Vegas and this it's hip Hop Now Podcasts, a podcast specifically designed to keep
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  you caught up on all things hip hop music and culture that happened throughout the
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  week. Big shout out to the supporters over at patreon dot com slash hip
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  hop Now and if you would like to become a supporter of this very podcast,
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  help me grow my audience, let me grow my subscribers. I'm lingering
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  in the three hundreds. I want to get to four hundred and eventually five
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  hundred. Visit the link in the description of that episode. But another thing
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  you can do if you ain't got the bread is to share this podcast on
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  your social media platforms on your people's timeline. Because you hang out with the
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  hip hop heads in the digital space and argue about illmatic all day, maybe
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  you don't do that. But I'm just saying, show love, spread love,
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  all right now, this is a bonus episode of Hip Hop Now podcasts,
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  and I typically do these when there basically are no stories. So if
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  you came here to hear about Nicki Minaj husband being too damn grown to be
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  outside like YO were waiting for him, man, go in the house.
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  Okay, now you gotta go in the house. Okay, there's one story
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  for you. If you hear because of fifty cent this Lloyd Banks and Young
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  Buck on stage or dissing their tours, get on out of head man?
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  Who cares about that he's been dissing them? Faver you know, nobody cares
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  and he brought him on a toy at but well maybe not Young Buck but
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  whatever. So you see what I'm saying. It's typically slow when it's about
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  other stuff. You know, I like to provide some hip hop stuff,
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  you know, the music, the culture, some things you can go and
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  do and listen to. And today this topic I want to hear from everybody
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  because I know as fans, there was some artists or group that you were
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  excited about, like when you first heard him on a mixtape or you first
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  heard their debut album in some cases or whatever, it may be something from
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  them them being featured on somebody album. He was like, yo, when
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  that dude drops, I'm getting up next. But the people on this list
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  weren't up next. So let's sit at the project window that's very high in
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  the sky and the twenty fourth floor and there's bars so we don't fall out
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  and just dream about what could have been with a couple of artists. I
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  have a list of five. This ain't gonna be a long episode, but
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  I want to know from you, so feel free to put your top five,
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  not in any order, in a comment section, or you just comment
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  on those that I mentioned. Let's get into the business of this up first.
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  Sauce Money for those who were not there. For those who were not
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  outside. Maybe you came to hip hop a little bit later in life and
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  you enjoy it, but you weren't. Weren't there when it was going.
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  Damn Sauce Money during jay Z's rise was right there with him, crazy free,
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  like you shout out to Bleak, but it wasn't Bleak. It was
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  like Sauce Money. The notorious freestyles on mixtapes features on not only jay Z's
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  album. We're not having that one, you know what I'm talking about,
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  but also on other people's albums, like you know, just Everything, pre
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  Game. I mean a song like pre Game, the way jay Z it
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  Sauce Money spitting on that joint just and just Sauce Money by himself had a
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  couple of crazy freestyles. This man was on a path of greatness. He
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  was dope. He had a dope voice. I mean, record labeled.
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  People might say it wasn't marketable because he was kind of a big dude,
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  but that's stupid because he was dead nice. He was crazy nice with it.
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  And then his album dropped and I could not leave what I was listening
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  to compared to what I had heard from him previously and let me preference or
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  let me frame my statements correctly. My bad. I gotta get my stuff
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  situated. The disappointment is that he's still nice, but you want to talk
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  about a missed opportunity with an album. To me, a lot of it
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  had to do with the nature of the times. At that time. It
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  was acceptable for you to have bars and party record beats, and not everybody
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  was good at meshing the two or combining the two. Jay Z was good
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  at it. Biggie was good at it, you know what I'm saying.
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  Nas was sort of kind of good at it. You know, he did
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  have a joint. That joint with Januine I Don't Sleep. That was a
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  great party record. Maybe the lyrics are simplus state, but I'm just talking
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  about spiders who did party records. And the time in which Source Money's debut
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  drop and the debut was called middle Finger. You you just really thought you
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  were going to get a different album. But at this time the beats had
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  a particular sound in hip hop, the party record beats. And when I
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  tell you, even today, going back, it does that period in times
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  does not age well. And it probably has more to do with cats not
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  using samples because Source Money would it, like you let Premo from that time
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  do a Source Money album or anybody producing like that. And it just was
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  such a missed opportunity because when you hear a song like Pregame on that album,
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  and I think the title track nothing matches that energy, and it to
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  me, Sauce Money was he was dope, but he wasn't like this highly
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  anticipated artist from a popular culture standpoint, mostly from an underground standpoint, and
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  it just was a turnoff to those people who wanted to hear the Sauce Money
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  from the mixtapes and all of that. So it was a complete lead down,
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  and unfortunately we never really got what we deserved as far as a project
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  or music or album from Sauce Money that you know what I'm saying, and
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  it's bad and I would love because I don't know, but I would love
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  to know that. Oh that wasn't the album that was supposed to come out.
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  That was something else, the album that was supposed to come out with
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  Shell because Da Da Da Dada, you should have heard it, but it's
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  being released now, similar to what they did with Rod Digga's album and Foxy
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  Brown's Ill Ninna too. It was like, damn, if those albums would
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  have came out when they were supposed to come out, We'll be having a
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  different conversation about these people. So they you have it, Sauce Money Nature,
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  Nature's debut album for All Seasons. Nature and Sauce Money almost like two
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  in the same just one was with jay Z and the other ones with NHS.
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  Nature came aboard to replace Cormega in the firm. Then we figured out
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  this dude was crazy nice with it, freestyles into deep soundtrack song like like,
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  there was nothing that told me that Nature wasn't gonna be hot and have
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  a great career, you know. And I'm not talking about a career in
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  general, because he does have a couple of albums out, like he even
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  put one out this year hip hop that I'm going to check out, but
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  it's not It does not by any means match the hype ahead of his album
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  at that time when it was released, like Nature was, Nature was seen
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  as a way better. And there's no disrespect to cormega replacement in the firm
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  than core Omega at the time, but as history shows, Cormega got the
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  better catalog hands down, starting with the debut of his career or whatever.
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  So you know what I'm saying. It's sort of like in the sequel,
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  you know, But at that time, obviously it was the it was the
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  Queen's bridgeness. It was the fact that he had bars, that he could
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  stand toe to toe with NHS as he did on several songs. And he
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  put out a album and again just like Sawce, Money for All Seasons had
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  that vibe of that time of that no sample like Cast we blame Swiss beats
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  for the most part, but it had the cheap beats and like party records,
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  and it was like, nah, that those party goers, who include
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  myself, they don't want to hear nature. I don't hear your bars over
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  those records. It doesn't sound like you know how to make party records.
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  Well, we wanted as the hip hop has. We wanted to dude we
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  heard on a firm album like Phone not Phone Tap, five minutes to Flush.
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  We wanted all the freestyle nature we wanted into deep Joint. We wanted
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  all of them versions of nature that was building his credibility up before he even
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  had an album out, and it was just such a missed opportunity man,
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  such a missed opportunity for it, maybe not just him, but maybe his
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  label to misrepresent what people liked about him, because on the cover it was
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  everything we thought was gonna be. He got a hoodie on you know,
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  he on the bench like on a chair part like I said on on my
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  album. But when you pressed play, it was none of what you thought
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  you was gonna get. Maybe if it was early nineties we would have got
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  more of a boom bat grimy field, but the majority of the album just
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  wasn't that at all. And Naas was featured for those who never heard that
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  Nature album on What's the Joint, Ultimate High or whatever, But that song
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  was cool. It just wasn't enough. So Jay Electronica a written testimony rest
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  in peace to everybody who unfortunately passed away as a result of COVID nineteen,
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  the coronavirus. It was lockdown and twenty twenty, I believe, and Jay
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  Electronica has finally putting an album out. Jay Z's featured on it. What
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  we didn't know was that he was featured on Damn their every record, and
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  more importantly, he was the best part of the album, jay Z.
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  We'd been waiting basically ten years for Jay Electronica to finally release the album the
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  follow up to Star Wars or whatever it was to follow up. I forgot
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  about that at this point and we thought we were getting there and we didn't.
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  And what made it worse was Jay Electronica's performance was really honestly lackluster compared
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  to jay Z's energy. I might have felt different about it if it was
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  just Jay Electronica, but jay Z was so energized on that Joint that it
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  didn't really compliment Jay Electronica. It kind of overshadowed him, which was bad.
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  And then he finally released the sequel to the album, Act two,
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  right I think, I guess the first one was Act one, and that
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  was like within the same year, and I was like, Okay, this
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  one is just Jay Electronica. And that was just like they really should have
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  just released them both, because maybe you could have released a double album and
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  therefore it would have been about the two different vibes. I didn't mind it,
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  but it was so forgettable. It was it was just so forgettable,
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  and it was such a missed opportunity from the energy of Exhibit C that him
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  and just Blazed Garner and at the time hearing just Blaze saying, Yo,
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  the album is done. I don't know what happened. I don't know why
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  they did not, and I mean I kind of know, I know the
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  history, but in general, it just sort of felt like in twenty twenty,
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  when these two were released, they were finally giving us something, but
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  they could have given us something else. I wish, I wish. At
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  that point in time, it started a trend, especially since we were all
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  on lockdown of you know, J Jay Electronica, was working on a brand
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  new album, but we're gonna open the vaults and just give you the joint
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  that wasn't released. And I think in some ways they said that, but
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  because they put out a written testimony first, it could clearly overshadow that other
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  joint, and it just it killed the anticipation when cats have been waiting for
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  ten years to hear it, finally hear it. It is. It's two
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  albums, and everybody just kind of was like, and I like a written
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  testimony a lot, by the way, so that you have it. Saigon
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  Greatest Story Never Told? Now Saigon similar to Source Money and Nature kind of
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  having parallel but different paths that kind of led to the same thing, right,
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  you know, the whole hype the mixtape thing that co signed from major
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  artists, from the major artists, especially for New York and then not fulfilling
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  that. Well, the same kind of hype around Jay Electronica also existed around
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  Saigon, who also I believe was working with Just Blaze and had some dealings
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  with Jay Electronica also, and he had been talking about the Greatest Story Never
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  Told, like forever, like before old or whenever he was supposed to like
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  drop He had been talking about that album forever. He been saying in the
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  mixtapes, you know, the warning shot joints. And again here you had
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  a dude who was dope. He was highly anticipated. He was like fifty
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  cent before get Richard died trying, so he was like raw. He didn't
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  care who he was talking about. And what made him really dope was that
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  he was also conscious, so it wasn't just about the gangster stuff. You
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  know, he was also conscious. Then he wound up having the appearance as
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  himself on the hit HBO show Entourage. It was like the stars were aligning
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  for this brother, and he didn't have to compromise his style and nothing about
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  his music was, oh, I want to put these party beats on here
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  so I can have a hit, because obviously he was dropping at a different
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  time. Same thing like Jay Electronic. It was like a resurgence of people
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  caring about bars and beats, and that's why Jay elect had so much height,
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  and that's why Saigon had so much height. But with Saigon, it
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  was just them missing the window of opportunity, unlike Jay Electronica, who took
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  about ten years to put something else out or source money in nature who just
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  the choice and beats and hooks was just the downfall of their height, was
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  Saigon. It was just people stopped checking for it like that. So when
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  it came out, it was probably just me because that's how I felt.
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  I felt like I was the only one who was like, oh, he
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  dropped it, but nobody else cared by it, which was sad because it's
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  not bad at all. See these other albums I mentioned. Source Money album
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  is not good for all seasons. It's not good by nature. Jay Electronica
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  has like hit him miss but just not greatest story never told. It's a
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  good album. And Saigon has released music for a while before you wound up
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  on a reality show or whatever. But he just missed the window of opportunity,
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  and most people cared more about him going to I think that was sobs
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  and snuffing Prodigy than they did about his skills and the album that he put
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  out that was not bad. It just was just came out too late as
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  it It's terrible, but that's it. And the final one I have is
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  probably the post child for this because when I tell you, it was just
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  unbelievable that with all the mixtapes versus the features on other Dudes projects, other
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  projects by other artists who were known. There was no reason for this and
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  not to blow up because every verse was fired and ask Cannabis With canny Bus,
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  I thought something was shaky when I heard because he hadn't it hadn't been
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  announced who he was signed to, so they were people like it we go
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  to deaf Gym. Then he on the Firm album, like yo, he
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  gonna be with them? That might be crazy too, And then it was
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  announced that he signed with Wide Cleft, and at first I was kind of
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  like, I don't know, but the Fuji's were large at the time,
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  so I was thinking like, well, maybe they could work with him where
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  it's not just battle rap boom bat all the time. It's kind of like
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  some bars there, right, But maybe they can find a way to harness
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  his skill and put out records that can maybe do some charting because it's still
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  a business. Well, it was none of the above. That album almost
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  sounds like it's unfinished. That's how it sounds. It sounds like we don't
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  really have anything great, so put it out. Let's take the songs that
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  are good and push those. Hopefully people go and buy it, get hyped
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  and when they press play and they don't like it, too bad, we
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  got your money. That's what it felt like. And when I tell you,
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  I listened to that album a million times over trying to. At first,
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  I started to think like, well, maybe it's just me. Maybe
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  I just want him to rap in this mode, with this type of feat
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  and because the other records don't fit that criteria, I think they're whack.
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  Nah man, it just wasn't good. His follow up was good, but
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  by that time the hype was gone. It was sometimes with hip hop heads
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  it could be so devastating to be that hype to get something so lackluster or
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  disappointing that you never checked for the artists ever. Again, that's a damn
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  shame, because they get it's okay for them to have a week album,
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  but that debuted is important and that follow up is just as important. But
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  it felt like with Cannabis, by the time you got to the second album
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  again, which was good, most people stopped checking for him. Most people
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  just said most people didn't even know, or didn't want to know, or
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  didn't care because of what happened that first time around. They figured, oh,
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  well, he's good for a verse or two. He's good for a
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  freestyle on a mixtape, but a whole song here and there, but the
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  whole album, I'm good. I'm not buying it, so it's terrible.
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  In summary, I just want to say, some of these artists still put
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  out music, and it's not all bad, to be honest, And I
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  think in the age of streaming, if you're not going to take the chance
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  to buy anything, I think you should at least check out some of their
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  more recent music or the music you missed throughout the years, because some of
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  them wound up putting out the albums in the projects that we wanted. Some
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  of them did that, but we just stopped paying attention after a while.
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  And it's it's the eternal struggle, especially when it comes to the nineties of
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  record labels targeting certain things for money because it's the shiny suit era and everybody
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  making money now and signing an artist because they're dope rappers and not knowing what
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  to do with them, Like they just didn't know what to do with him
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  because they didn't want to spend a lot of money. They didn't want to
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  not spend a lot of money, and record labels got burned and fans got
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  burned, and albums got shelved, and some of those albums contained the things
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  we would have paid for, and it's just a mess. So I'm thankful
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  we live in a time now where dudes who can actually spit have the opportunity
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  to be independent, to pick the right beats for themselves that their fans will
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  enjoy, and we don't have to have, you know, this hype behind
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  an artist and when they put something out, it's like, oh, they're
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  trying to dance on every record. Now, this is trash. So what
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  do you think about the five artists I named who had that potential greatness and
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  hip hop and it just kind of ended up in a missed opportunity. What
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  are you're five? Because I'm curious to know, because you know, I
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  try to think of everybody and who and what, But I'm pretty sure there's
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  some people you can name that I'm like a Herd. I remember him.
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  Damn You're right, So leave your comments in a common section below. Wherever
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  you listen to this podcast, you can subscribe to the audio version on your
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  favorite podcasts and platform, or you could visit YouTube and watch the video version
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  of this podcast. Where I have an empty bottle of Hennessey in the back
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  because it's hip hop right to these hippops, but also subscribe to the channel
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  trying to get to four hundreds. So what that means or that means wherever
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  light button please, because that's another way this content gets exposed to hip hop
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  heads like me and you Until next time, y'all. I'm not a critic,
• 24:42
  I'm a fan. Pace