Latest / Hip-Hop Now Podcast / Take the 500K and Eat

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Take the 500K and Eat · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

0:02
Welcome to Hip Hop Now Podcast. If become the future, you know what
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you do, get show ass out of my past life, so disrespect the
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leg hip hop can say this today's get right into the business. What
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up, y'all? I am your host Vegas and this it's Hip Hop Now
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Podcast. Bonus episode Halloween episode if you will. If you're watching on YouTube,
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you may see some things. Happy Halloween, I guess. But first
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and foremost, thank you for the support the patreons, the supporters over at
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patreon dot com slash hip hop Now. And if you would like to become
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a supporter of this podcast and show your love in different ways, and you
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could also purchase merch or you can become a Patreon member, or you can
1:03
just share this podcast with your network. All donations count. But those first
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two things, the links are in the description of this episode and every episode.
1:15
Show your support now. So if you are new here, welcome.
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But what I would like to say is that this is a hip hop news
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podcast, weekly news, and sometimes a news cycle gets a little slow,
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you know what I mean? And sometimes it's like should I do a bonus
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episode, a new episode? Should I do something else? By bye?
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Because when I say the new cycle is slow. I mean, people are
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talking about things that I don't think I need to come and reiterate to the
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people who watch my show. They've already got enough, right, So no,
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I'm not going to talk about whether you should take Jay Z's five hundred
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K or have dinner with him, because the answer is obvious. Take the
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money, educate yourself financial literacy, learn about investments, and then live the
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rest of your life by utilizing that half a mil correctly. But we are
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going to talk about jay Z, and we're also going to talk about Westside
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Gun, but probably less Westside Gun and more Benny the Butcher. So if
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you've been under a rock somewhere or whatever the case may be, let's get
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right into the business. All right. So two things happen, but trust
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me, they are related to what I'm going to talk about, and it's
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going to be my opinion about it, and I would I want people to
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put their opinions in a comment session. Let's chop it up, let's talk
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about it. But first let's just start with Benny the Butcher. Right.
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So, west Side Gun released his album and then Pray for Me, which
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was sort of like a sequel to Pray for Paris. Right, Pray for
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Paris wasn't a bad album to me. It kind of grew on me and
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I liked it. I didn't dislike it when I first heard it, but
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this new album, if you go back and look at my review in one
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of the episodes, I just kind of felt like, you know what's side
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Gun always hypes up his projects and you just gotta wait and see. What
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was disappointing was the fact that in the past, when he did it,
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he was actually right, you know, it was worth the wait. But
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this time it kind of felt like it was a little overblown and the album
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was bloated. You know, it was just you know, all this curator
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stuff, and I just felt like, well, sometimes when you're curating,
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you gotta like, don't believe in your own legend at the same time,
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and maybe a better curator of works that's not your own, right, because
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then when it's yours, you think everything, yo, it is hot that
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but it just wasn't that great. No big deal. Nobody's saying Westside Guy
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got a whack career or he ain't been, and you know, the music
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the way he should have. He's had a couple of joints like his album
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last year I loved, so he got joints, It's just not this one.
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Benny the Butcher has an album coming out soon, and Benny is probably
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It used to be Conway, then it was Benny, and sometimes it's Conway.
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But I'm looking forward to Benny the Buscher's project because honestly, I don't
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think I disliked an album from him yet. I may have liked more some
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more than others, but as far straight up being like, nah, I'm
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just gonna stick with the joints I like. I don't think that's gonna happen
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this time around for Benny, right, But he too talks about talks up
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his album and I was gonna be album on the Yeend Greatest and all that
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good stuff. And you got people like Lloyd Banks saying, you know,
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they're the best alive. No one's rapping like him. Okay, whatever,
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fan. But the part about all of this that I don't like, because
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I don't mind any of that. Hip hop is a competitive sport, just
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like sports. When people say I feel like I'm the best fighter, I'm
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the best basketball player, I'm the best whatever. Hip hop is competitive.
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It's outwardly competitive. It's not like you two singers who you know, they
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kind of competing, but they competing by releasing music. Hip hop is like,
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nah, I'm better than him, right, direct, live and direct
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fifty years of hip hop. So I kind of felt like, Okay,
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I'm used to them talking like that. The thing I don't like. And
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it's a problem with Griselda at this point because I used to criticize Conway for
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doing that all the time. Every time he dropped the album. If the
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reception wasn't up to what he felt it should be, then he would publicly
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show his opinion and talk about critics and blah blah blah. The same thing
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with Westside Gun. With this album. Some people with Drake's album, you
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know, they didn't like it that same. I felt the same way about
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Drake's album. I felt about West Side Gun. Too many records, too
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much, just repetition in everything about what you do, switch it up.
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I don't think Benny's going to be that. But he was also kind of
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complaining about critics and the internet make y'all feel this and that. Let me
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just squash this once afore I tweeted about it. No, I didn't X
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about it. I tweeted about it, but it is not if you're in
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the business of making art, right, music is art. I don't care
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if you are rap on care how much money you go. I don't care
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how long you were locked up, how much we you smoke or that space.
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All right, sorry recipes Prodigy, but none of that matters because you're
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in the business of making music. You're also in the entertainment business. That's
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the category from which your music, regardless of it's what's homegirl name? Who
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is in the stands. But I'm a football fan, so I really don't
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care about the Taylor Swift okay, like she's in the entertainment business, so
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are you. I don't care how many weed smoking dudes in your video.
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You entertainers to the listening public. And just like film, books, video
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games, television shows, food whatever I mean, food is not entertainment.
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But people critique, and there are people who are professional critics. Critic doesn't
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mean hater, Critic means professionally. I wi't analyze this guy's out them for
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public consumption. I will share my opinion about it. It's up to the
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people to decide whether that person has a point or they don't. Now,
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sure, can some people influence others, well you hell yeah, but it's
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not. That's not the dominant thing about them. Westside Gun. The way
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we feel about your album is the way we feel about your album, because
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it can't be not you know, oh, I'm not with the critics when
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everybody's praising you, including critics, right, So it can be about that
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when you're getting criticized, especially if it's constructive criticism. And some people don't
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like to word constructive criticism because they know it's true, but constructive criticism for
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those who don't know, it's really criticism to kind of help you, right,
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or just point out things and why and explain. So here on Hip
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Hop Now podcast, I'm making my business to say my opinion, but also
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to say if you're a fan of Westside Gun, it's this. If you're
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not a fan, maybe you're not gonna like it. If you don't know
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anything, check it out. So by all means, the decision is on
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the listener whether they want to listen, whether they like it or not.
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You cannot control that. What you're doing when you make these videos and you
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go out on these campaigns of trying to back down the criticism, if you
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feel like it's too negative, or if one hundred percent of the people don't
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like it, you're showing insecurity. Now, showing insecurity is not a bad
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thing in other instances, but in this instance it kind of is. And
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then let me play Devil's advocate. Right, we're talking about art. We're
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talking about artists. Artists are sensitive, right, because what they create,
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they hold really deeply to what they are, like the fabric of what they
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are. You know, if I feel like I made something really dope,
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or I had a real dope concept and idea and brought this person in and
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had this person saying, yeah, it was really terrible after all that work
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and thought and imagining what it can be crushing. But guess what, when
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you're in the business of entertainment now, no free shows, no free albums,
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no free merch you in the when you in the business of entertainment,
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you are open to public criticism. Please find the country on this planet where
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you will not be and still be able to make that money. Everybody is
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so at the end of the day, should they feel the way they feel.
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Of course, it's their work. They're going to be feel some kind
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of way. Should they try to go on a campaign and making it trying
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to credit critics or influences or whatever. No, because in a lot of
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ways, these are also the same people who help make you popular. Come
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on, man, it takes the code signif even get to where you are
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for somebody like Yo, that joint was hot, like West Side Gun.
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You ain't getting that all the time, you know what I'm saying, And
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that's just what it is. So you're better off creating what you know is
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dope to you still promoting it the way you do. Right. It's the
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greatest classic blubbist. But if the returns aren't what you want, go back
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to work. Don't go back to work to create what you think they want.
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Go back to dig in a little bit more with your artistry. That's
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all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. Now. What that relates to
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for this particular episode is what jay Z had to say about making another out
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because he did an interview with Gail whose last name Shell. You know Gail
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is you know what I'm saying. Sometimes you know, you know, all
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right, come back time over. But jay Z did an interview with her,
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sat down, and I don't think jay Z's done an interview like that
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in a little while, so a lot of people were harping on his words,
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and they had some really good questions because a lot of it came from,
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you know, things on the internet. One in particular, would take
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the five hundred k or have dinner with jay Z to get some advice.
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He kind of finalized that take the money. But also when he talked about
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why or when he would drop another album, he basically said he would want
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to make music when it's going to have meaning or purpose, right, And
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he gave the example that forty four four four was just that it was a
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lot of personal antidotes from jay Z in a way that he had never done.
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And I pointed that out in my review of it years ago, was
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this is what jay Z probably should have made years ago, but it was
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sort of like perfect timing anyway. So that's how he feels now. There
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were opinions flying around about, you know, like those who are purists who
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know really good music and appreciate artists caring about their art in that way to
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not want to make a throwaway album, to want to make something meaningful.
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I totally agree, and that's where the separation comes from again no disrespect to
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Griselda, but pumping out album after the album after album after album, telling
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us classic, telling us the greatest thing in the world, when we all
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know it's just a collection of songs with similar themes and lyrics to what you've
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done on every album. Now, that was advocate again for Benny for a
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Westside Gun and all of them, with all the mixtapes and albums, they
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got to grow to where jay Z is musically right, because then it becomes
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about the motivation. And with jay Z, he has several albums where he
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was able to do a ton of things he's probably always wanted to do,
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and he has to be motivated to do something that he feels like this will
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have purpose. You know, I did, I'm the best albums I did,
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I'm the greatest drug dealer albums I did. I have the greatest crew,
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or I'm the nicest ever, or you know, or I want to
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perform with this person, I want to do a live album, I want
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to make a record with this sound, or I want to have a group
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album where Kanye like he did all these things. So now what to me
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what he's saying? And I'm just gonna interpret what jay Z's saying. What
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does a jay Z album sound like today? Because we don't really want to
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hear another four four four that was perfect for what it was, or what
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is a jay Z album today? Now? Inevitably people are going to look
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at Nas, well, look what Nas? Don't buy it? But Nas
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had meaning to this run for him, for him probably mentally he was kind
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of checked out on the music side, but then financially he got right,
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got to work with hip boy, saw some success, and he went with
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the feeling. And what was dope about NAS's run is like I said back
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in the day with Life is Good, the subject matter of Life is Good
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is where NAS should be? Who is Nas today? And that's what you
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got right even with the last joint Magic three? You get Nas at fifty.
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What does he think? How does he feel? What does he feel
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about this music? You know, just everything? So with jay Z,
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it has to be something meaningful for him. Now I'm gonna tell you what
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I want, jay Z, because I know you may feel like you've done
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this, but you really have it. Jay Z should do a conscious album,
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and he should do it not just from a grassroots standpoint, because he
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not really living a grassroots kind of lifestyle, to be honest, even though
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some of that could be there. But just as a black man who's a
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billionaire trying to maintain and teaching people about the evils, aware of what surrounds
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him. Now, right and let me give you an example, and he
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can call it reasonable doubt too. On reasonable doubt, jay Z, I
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always say this right like, and this is not me picking one of the
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other biggest, my favorite rappers to stop it, but ready to Die if
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you watch the wire, Ready to Die was more avon Barksdell Street corner,
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go get the guns, clap, clap warning, That's what it was street
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seldom crack. That was me letting off the gun boot dad, That's how
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it sounds. But with jay Z's reasonable doubt, he was more like string
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of Bell, right like, I'm less of a crack dealer and I'm more
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of a hustler. I may do that to take that money into this because
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eventually where I'm trying to go is much bigger than this street level stuff and
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much bigger than doing illegal stuff. I'm trying to use the illegal to become
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legit. Feel me use that money to become a legit businessman. That was
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the mindset. That was what some of the songs represented, right, you
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know, while you what is the lyric? While you thumb through the source,
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I read the Rob Report, right, which is more about the stock
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exchange, I believe. So it was one of those things right where he's
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like, I'm on this level and when you listen to it, in hindsight,
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he achieved a lot of what he talked about on that debut album.
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He's there now, but that doesn't mean he's free from the hurdle. The
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hurdles are just different now now. I do understand that there's certain things he
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probably may not say because of messing up business. But I think it would
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be a little bit more courageous if he just came out and said it.
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And he's kind of done that, but he's teased it like on four forty
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four and everything else from like the past couple of years. So I think
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if he took that approach of making a conscious album, right, he said
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if you know, because he was thinking about sales, but he said,
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I would be lyrically, TYLERB qual lee make that album. I don't follow
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what TYLERB does on Twitter and Instagram because it just goes a little overboard,
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but nevertheless, it's something jay Z doesn't have, right, It's nothing in
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his is nothing in any of his albums as as a whole that you could
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point to that was like, this is when jay Z kind of got in
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his conscious bag on a whole album. NA has tried to do that with
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Untitled, but it kind of Some songs do that and some songs don't.
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But I think jay Z's at a point right now where he can fully commit
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to that type of album. And the only reason why I say that is
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because prior to four forty four, I felt like jay Z kind of talked
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about his life in a song here and a verse there. Right, he
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kind of kept his life mostly private as far as details, but there were
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sprinkles here and here throughout the albums. But four forty four was about family
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and his life, and I felt like, this is the type of music
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jay should be making at this point. Make the music that maybe you were
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afraid to make. And I'm to use that term loosely because I know sometimes
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cats be feeling some kind of way like you know, I ain't afraid,
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right, but make the music that you were afraid to make. Because you
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didn't want to compromise like a deal or whatever or record sales. Now you
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don't have to worry about that. That's what NASA is doing. Nazi is
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like, I'm wont to make what I want it just so happens. We
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loved most of it, if not all of it. I think jay Z
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can do the same thing without having to release six albums. He could just
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do one right and have you know, features sprinkled here and there. That
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compliment that right, like, don't don't have features on it? That kind
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of dragged back with the you know, the things that you don't think a
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meaningful you know, make make a concept album that's conscious. You call it
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reasonable reasonable doll two. You can give it another legal term, so it's
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like the spiritual successor to reasonable doll two. There's so many ways you could
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flip it and have a great out late in your career that's meaningful to you
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and your fans. So there you have it. What do you think about
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what Benny the Butcher and Westside Gun have been saying about critics. Drake's been
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saying about critics. Do you think it's fair uh for them to say that
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when you know the fans and people listen to the music have a choice on
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whether or not they should like your joy. Also, what do you think
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about jay Z? Do you want a new jay Z album? Is this
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his way of teasing a new jay Z album? Setting it up right?
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It has to be meaningful and then bonem and drops on his birthday. Let
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me know what you think. Leave your comments in a comments section below.
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Wherever you are getting this podcast. This podcast is available on YouTube, but
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also available in audio form on all podcasts and platforms. So all you have
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to do is search for hip Hop Now podcasts, check out the law,
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say oh that's it, subscribe like, and most importantly, share it with
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people you know enjoy this kind of content. Until next time, y'all.
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I'm not a critic. I'm not a critic. I'm a fan base.