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The Source Was The Source · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

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Coming up. On this week's episode of hip Hop Now podcast, new dmc
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champ wins after thirty six years of trying. Benzino speaks on his time at
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The Source magazine and the twenty fifth anniversary of the Miseducation of Lauren Hill.
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Let's do It. Welcome to hip Hop Now Podcasts. If you from the
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future, you know to do show asside of our don't disrespect the leg hip
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hop to heavy stay. Let's get right into the business. What up,
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y'all? I am your host Vegas and this it's hip Hop Now Podcasts,
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a podcast specifically designed to keep you caught up on all things hip hop,
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music and culture that happened throughout the week. Big shout out to the Patreon
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supporters over had Patreon dot com slash hip Hop Now and if you would like
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to learn what that's all about, click the link in the description of this
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episode fifty years of hip Hop. We're going to say that for the whole
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year, So back down. One thing I want to say. You know,
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I recently appeared on Apartment five B podcast with the homie Kill and you
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know, he talked about not really liking the fact that, you know,
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people who don't typically support hip hop or even talk hip hop. All of
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a sudden, now I have all these things to say right anyone on the
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rant, and you could check that out when it's available. But there was
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a thought that I had on the birthday of hip hop that just and I
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didn't want to make a whole episode about it or nothing like that, but
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I just want to say it right here, right now. If you subscribe,
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you get the goods, you know what I'm saying. But I hope
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that the old school artists, in particular those from the eighties that aren't as
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successful as a LLL COOJ because they didn't have a long career, but they
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are pillars. And that includes Mellie Mell. I don't care what whack this
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record he made in twenty twenty three, Mellie Mell is a pillar in hip
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hop. He's a legend in hip hop to be respected. But I hope
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they can get work after this is all said and done, because I remember,
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right before all of this celebration, I just was wondering, like,
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what are these dudes even doing? You know, they weren't getting the exposure
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like that, you know, you know you see rock Cam every now and
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again, posts a show video. Rock Cam was getting a lot of work,
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and a couple of others, but there's just some like they just really
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haven't been on the sta age like that, or at least on a stage
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where you can see them frequently right without being somebody who's just following them.
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So I hope the work continues for these legends because to me, it's nice
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to look at it and say, oh, it's fifty years of hip hop
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and use it as a cash grab because hip hop is so popular in twenty
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twenty three. But I just wonder in twenty twenty four, will you know,
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groups like grand Master, Facts, Flash and Fairies five Komodo, like,
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will all these people still get work, not necessarily saying they want to.
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I guess some of them would want to, but it would be dope
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if they could continue to get work, because, again I said it on
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this podcast on more than one occasion, we tend to we tend to overlook
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the legends in hip hop, whereas legends and other genres of music can sell
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out stadiums, you know, and they could be in their seventies and still
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sell out because of the support. And I'm just hoping, I'm just open
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that there are people and more people who will introduced to them and their music
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and they see the connection between you know, what was and what is and
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they just support them going forward. That's all I'm saying. That's my note.
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Big shout out to hip Hop DX dot com, the source magazine dot
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com, a couple of podcasts, and a couple of places where I'm getting
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some of these stories from. Let's get right into the business now. This
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is coming from hip Hop dx dot com. The title reading fifty two year
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old DJ wins DMC Championship after thirty six years of trying. Now that is
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crazy to even imagine. And for those who don't know what is the DMC
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Championship, it's kind of like battling for DJs, you know what I'm saying.
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And it's been around for years. As you can see, this man
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has been trying for thirty six years straight. You might have been trying the
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entire time it's been in its existence. I don't know that for a fact.
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But let's read a little bit more so. Fifty two year old DJ
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has been crowned the champion of UK's most prestigious DJ competition, after having first
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entered the event back in nineteen eighty seven. Good lord, oh he said
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one of thirty six years. Mayor Lloyd, I think or Mayor Lloyd.
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I'm not sure you pronounce his name, forgive me was deemed the victor of
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the DMC UK Championships on August eighteen, thirty six years after he first tried
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to take home the trophy. Lloyd who goes by the DJ Monica? Who?
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Who whack Man? Come on now, come on, just get what
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happened to Bobbit? Like, yeah, DJ Bobbit, what happened? Okay?
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Harmonica? Hugh Whackman is a hip hop music teacher. Oh wow,
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he's a hip hop music teacher. All right, let's see if we get
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a quote from real quick. I've entered the Technique's DMC UK Championships lots of
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times, the first being at Martha's Vineyard and back in nineteen eighty seven.
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This was my sixth attempt. I'd come running up three times already and had
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all but given up. That's dope. I'm not gonna read it anymore,
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so y'all can check that out at hip hop dx dot com, to be
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honest, because it is more to be read there. What I like about
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this story For the most part, it is the fact that this man is
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a hip hop head and a competitor. And when I say he's a hip
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hop head, I mean sure, there's plenty of hip hop heads out there
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who can and can't DJ, But for him to have enough passion to keep
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trying after originally entering in like nineteen eighty seven, it shows that you know
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it was all worth it now originally ain't gonna lie. When I saw thirty
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six years, I thought he tried every year and lost every year until now,
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But that's not the case. He tried six times out of the thirty
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years. I guess it seems weird, But at the end of the day,
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man, I think it's dope that he was able to walk away with
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the chip, you know, even at this stage in his career or in
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his life, I should say, because I could feel him saying, like
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as most people, you know, I gave up. I'm not even trying
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him. I'm just not gonna win. But determination, and probably because in
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the very beginning, I'm guessing he probably wanted it so bad and it was
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probably so disappointing not to get it that when he entered I guess his final
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time he probably was in a space like whatever, I just like, I
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just like entering the contest at this point, So maybe that was the case.
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But I think it's dope that he actually was able to walk away with
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the w this time, So salute to him. Benzino speaks on his time
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with The Source magazine, among other things, and he says, and I
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quote, I was an asshole sometimes during my tenure at the Source. Now,
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Benzino appeared on the episode of My Expert Opinion, which is math Hoffa's
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podcast. You could watch it on you too. It may be available in
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audio form. I tend to listen to that or watch that more than I
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ever done Drink Chance or whatever, just because they tend to have some of
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the same guests. But I like some of the questions coming from this group
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of individuals as opposed to just Nori or the nonsense with Joe Budden. I
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can't do the personality stuff what I like, and I'm gonna just go off
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on a small tangent. What I like about math Hoffer's podcast is it's a
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group of dudes who are curious, right. They had Kid and Play on
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not too long ago, and all their questions come from a place of curiosity.
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I mean, you see it when they ask the question, and me
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as a listener and as a viewer, I'm curious too, And that's the
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job of the person interviewing the guest, right is to be curious. Now,
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not to say that everybody else isn't. But then sometimes there's some people
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who are performing as a host when in certain instances you want the tea right,
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so you want this guy or this girl to ask the question that's on
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your mind. And I think they do a great job of that. But
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when it comes to Benzino, he said, I had to learn and grow
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into this because I didn't not. I did not grow up with this.
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I grew up with other ish So I'm an a hole sometimes and I know
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that I wasn't right, and that's not the way to be. You know,
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you have to try to stay in your lane in certain things. But
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I was transitioning, and to this day people still think, you know,
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I'm an a hole. I'm gonna stop you right there, Benzino. You
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know why we still think you're ahole? Because you are, That's why.
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And I think it's much easier to admit these things when you have fallen from
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great. Now there are some who say, Yo, we got more bread
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than you. I don't care. See, I have to care about statements
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like that in order for them to really affect me. But a spade as
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a spade, you know what I'm saying. If we're playing that kind of
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game, bars, I think. But I say this because when you look
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at Benzino's time at the Source Magazine, he destroyed something that was near and
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dear to hip hop fans in general. Y'all don't understand the Source magazine.
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Some of y'all do. But the Source Magazine was just that it was the
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source of hip hop. It was the place you went to find out what
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was dope, to read about lyrics that were like the rhyme of the month
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before you maybe even before you heard it, you know what I'm saying.
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So it was a it was a great way. The Boondocks started there,
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Like, come on, man, it's just so much history and culture when
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it came to the Source magazine. And over the years they became biased from
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an East Coast standpoint, and then they became even more biased from a Benzino
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standpoint, which he but his personal feelings in the way of the content.
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I mean, there were times there was like all of these made men ads
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and Benzino ads and whoever he was cool with was gonna get five mics.
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Like it was some questionable five mics. Now, don't get me wrong,
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in the past, there was some questionable five mics that didn't happen, but
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that was based off of you know, whoever was reviewing in their opinion,
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to be honest. But when Benzino took over it, you couldn't trust it,
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you know what I'm saying. You just couldn't trust what you were reading,
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what you were seeing. And you know the open few with like Eminem
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from which he talked about this, but you can watch this on math Hofer's
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podcast. He talked about you know what's the name of the nailing a Coffin
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when him and Eminem were going back and forth on some rhyme and stuff and
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Eminem made nailing the coffin. It was over look up that disc record.
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That's one of probably the most forgotten disc records of all time, mainly because
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it was against Benzino and nobody really respected him lyrically, even though the what
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was it the Almighty rso I kind of rocked with him that I liked some
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of the joints stand but he was just looming over a magazine that used to
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feel like it was for hip hop heads in general. And that's where Double
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XL started to kind you know, it started to rise as a result,
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because it was like, Okay, the sauce ain't the sauce, but Double
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xcel is kind of doing what I used to get from the Source, so
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I'm gonna go over there. So it's it's kind of terrible because he was
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unapologetic, unapologetic about it probably for a while, and you know, he
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did his he did his reality show stuff, and you know that was for
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bread. I think he was well, I don't know that's Peter Guns with
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cheatahs or whatever. But basically that man is not in demand for anything beyond
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jokes right at the end of the day. So in a lot of ways
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we don't really care. But to look back at the Source magazine and to
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hear his perspective, whether you want to believe it or not, today,
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I think it's still interesting and worth he's hearing them out. I mean,
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because I'm not going to say that the man doesn't mean it. I think
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it's just easier to say now that you're in the space where you don't command
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the same attention or business that you once did. Dame Dash is similar,
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and so is earth Gotti. You know, they they tend to do a
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lot of interviews because people ain't checking for him. You know, it doesn't
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the same rolling the way it used to roll again does not mean these men
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are broke. It just means at one point they were here and now they've
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kind of been here and they see it like they drifted out of time.
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So there's that. And lastly, so on August twenty fifth, nineteen ninety
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eight, the debut album from Lauren Hill. As you can see over my
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shoulder right there if you're watching on video, the debut album from Lauren Hill,
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The Miseducation of Lauren Hill dropped. My anticipation was through the roof in
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ninety eight. If you were younger, you weren't outside, you're a child
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listened to grown folk talk. Okay, but I was. I was super
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excited because the score was it. It was a surprisingly dope album from the
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Fuji's because their debut album wasn't that great except for the vocab remix, which
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was done by Salon Remy. It kind of you know, it kind of
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got a little buzz, but then the score really took it home. And
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Lauren Hill's singing killing Me Softly on there, but beyond the bars that she
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did on that album, but killing Me Softly, I was just like,
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Yeah, Lauren is just dope. She's the best member of the group,
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hands down, the best talent. You know, Wycleft obviously is a close
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second a prize, but it wasn't just that, right, It was the
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build up, right, you know, why Clefs releases an album, I
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think his his album was before her album. Why Clefs releases the Carnival very
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dope album kind of slept on today. I don't hear enough about it,
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but it's an extremely dope album and it sounds excellent. But you got other
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things right. You got songs from Lauren on the on the Love Jones soundtrack
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that was dope. Like the anticipation was crazy for a single Lauren Hill album.
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But my anticipation, like most was it should be mostly hip hop,
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but I know there'll be some singing on there, which as a hip hop
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head, I didn't mind, you know, I like soul music. And
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when the album dropped, I'm not gonna lie My first listen was a quick
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listening because I was like, where's the bars now? What really caught were
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really heightened that anticipation if I rolled back a little bit before I actually picked
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it up. Was the lead hip hop single, underground single Lost Ones,
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honestly one of the greatest subliminal disc records of all time. I mean,
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you do not want you, nobody want to smoke with Lauren if she rapping
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like that, you know what I'm saying. So again, I was just
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like, her solos gonna be crazy. We may not ever get another Fuji's
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album. We didn't anyway, but you can only imagine. So when I
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got the album, brought it home listening, you know, like deeply listening
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Miseducation Lauren Hill blah blah blah, and I'm like, you know, the
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tracks are cool, but I'm kind of skimming through them because I'm like,
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well, where the boss? Where the bars on this one? Where the
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bars on that one? Honestly, in total, they might be two or
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three full hip hop records, mostly singing. It is mostly an R and
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B or soul album, to be honest with featuring some rapping, which initially
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in ninety eight I thought it was a mistake, bars, but mainly because
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I was like, for as dope as she is as a singer, she's
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just as dope, if not doper as a MC and to not balance those
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scales kind of alienated her fan base, if you ask me, because her
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fan base changed, right Like, it was a lot of hip hop heads
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who were fans of Lauren and then there were people who aren't b that came
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along because they liked the song she did so commercially, it was a smart
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move, but in a lot out of the ways it took away from what
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I expected. But once I got over there, once I got over and
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like this is what she's presented classic material, y'all. Like this album is
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one of the best albums ever, from the production, to the concept,
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to the singing, to the writing. In a lot of regards features like
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her with DeAngelo, you know nothing even matters. I believe that's the name
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of the record. Just a very very dope album. But do not be
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fooled because back then hip hop heads were a little sour on the fact that
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it wasn't a lot of hip hop on it, rightfully, So the album
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went on to win several Grammys and Laurence Hale's popularity skyrocketed beyond what was already
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crazy with the Fujie's, and then we never got anything like it ever again,
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nothing even close. Now, what I will say is on the hip
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hop side, she still got it. On the singing side, it's not
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so much her not being able to or not or losing their ability to sing
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the way she used to, but more so the musical choices that seems she
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seemed so let's let's get into it, let's get rare. She seemed to
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thumb her nose in a lot of ways towards the popularity she gained from this
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album. I think, winning all those Grammys and probably getting all kinds of
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offers along with her toxic ads relationship or marriage, and you know, giving
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birth to kids is not a bad thing, but in a bad relationship,
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you know, it's it's never good. But she she really fell into like
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a dark place musically and probably personally in a lot of ways that she's still
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kind of, I mean really from And it's sad because I wish there were
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people around her or just her herself, were able to at that time in
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ninety eight, sift through what you want, Lauren Hill to represent versus what
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you don't, because once you become that popular, you tend to be able
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to you know, you can dictate, you know, where you want things
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to go. And I think she went so far in the other way to
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kind of say, oh, that's not me, but it is you.
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That's what we like about you, you know, like we liked you before
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any of this. So in a lot of ways, it's like a bit
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of sweet anniversary, right. We'll never forget the moment this album drop.
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Will never forget how high on the how Lauren Hill had the game on the
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headlock for a minute, you know, for a quick second she did.
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But the fact that it didn't culminate in more music like this, it's sort
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of like, you know, it's kind of disappointing, but we always have
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albums like that to go back to, and if you've never heard it,
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I think you should check it out. If now, please understand this is
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a hip hop podcast, and if you're coming here for hip hop, please
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know when you press play on that, whether it's on digital services or whatever,
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look at hip hop as you know. Parsley on The Finished Dish,
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The Dish is soul in R and B, but the hip hop is sprinkled.
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You know, it's a little pepper across the top, so don't expect
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that. But the hip hop that's head is dope, and it's a very
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dope album, So go check it out. That's gonna do it for me.
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You can follow me on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, spill you know
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at Vegas World. I m c also know. This podcast is available wherever
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you live in the podcast and audio form, but also now available for fifty
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years of hip hop on YouTube. All you gotta do on YouTube or podcasts
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and platforms is searched for hip hop now podcasts, Subscribe and stay locked into
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weekly hip hop content. And most importantly, what I need you to do
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if you enjoy it is share it with people you also know would enjoy this
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kind of content. Until next time, y'all. I'm not a critic,
24:49
I'm a fan base. M