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For The 99s and the 2000s · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

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Coming up on this week's episode of hip Hop Now podcast celebrating twenty four years
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of Beanie Siegull's debut album The Truth. My thoughts on the new project by
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Ransom and Harry Fraud Lavish Misery, and Nellie says that his era of hip
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hop two thousands was the toughest. Let's talk about it, let's fight about
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it. Let's let's let's do it. Welcome to jimp Hop Now, pop
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Fatness, did you from the future? You know what to do? Show
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ass out of that? So disrespect the leg lack. Hip hop is here
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to today. Let's get rating to the business. What up, y'all?
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I am your host Vegas and this is hip Hop Now podcasting podcast specifically designed
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to keep you caught up on all things hip hop, music and culture that
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The Source Magazine dot com and a couple of places where I get some
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of these stories from us. Get right into the business. So if you're
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from the future, you know what to do. Get your ass out of
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here. You already know what I'm about to say. But nevertheless, Beanie
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Seagulls celebrated fifty years on this earth on March eighth, twenty twenty four.
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Right, fifty years old. Happy birthday, Beanie seagull salute you know.
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Definitely one of the dopest MC's in hip hop history. Put Philly on the
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map in a way that it hadn't been if you asked me at the time
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when he signed the Rockefeller, he had his run and his debut album,
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The Truth is twenty four years old in twenty twenty four. Now, apparently
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I heard something about him celebrating twenty five years, but come on, dog,
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that's next year, you know. But since it's the twenty fourth and
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the verse, I was like, you know what. Personally, my favorite
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Beanie albums are the second album, which I think was the reason I can't
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remember because that one I don't go back to as much, But that's probably
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the second album I go back to from time to time. But the one
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I listened to almost annually since it dropped is The Becoming. I feel like
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it's hands down the best album in his catalog, like lyrically, musically,
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everything. It is the best of Beanie Segull period. But I was like,
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oh, twenty four years of you know, Beanie Seagull's debut album,
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The Truth. Let me run that back. And why I say that because
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when it dropped I was a little underwhelmed. And I tell you why.
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The songs that are on there that are hot are hot. The lead single
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Die, the feature with jay Z, not the one with the Meal,
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the other one and all of that, Like those singles are dope. But
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this like a middle of this album a good maybe four songs, and it's
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not that many songs an album, but maybe four on a shorter album.
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That's like half four or five if I'm remembering correctly. But that are skips.
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And why they skips not because Beanie wasn't capable or he wasn't dope.
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Because I think they tried to have him do radio records. To me,
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that just didn't work. Beanie is good at what When you hear songs like
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The Truth and feel it in the air, that's Beanie Siegel. That's who
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he is so making and I know they had to shoot. They shot,
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you know, it was his first album whatever, but making these party records
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with these lame beats and catch hooks, and I remember, you know,
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the pac Man joint. I was just kind of like, this is too
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gimmicky, Like you know what I'm saying, Like if the beat was flipped
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in another way where it was more hard edged, I would have dug it
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what you could have did with those sounds, But it just felt, I
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don't know. It kind of reminded me of what you know, they were
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trying to do with like Nature when Nature finally dropped an album, and he
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had some dope records, but there was so many records there that were targeting
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a vibe that was for the radio and clubs that just didn't fit what he
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was known for and what he was best at. And that's how I felt
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about the Truth when it dropped, it was it was really forgettable. And
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then you know, jay Z had a song on it and anything, and
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that was more so a way to get people to buy that album for that
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song, you know, and introduce you to somebody you may not be checking
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for which you know. It's makes sense right because jay Z was on fire
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when this album came out. But at the end of the day, if
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it had been a better Beanie Siegull album, that just would have been icing
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on the cake. But I just didn't think The Truth was that good.
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But Beanie was able to follow that up with some classic material dope versus features
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everything. So at the end of the day, man like, well,
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you know what party record style that Beanie Siegull was good at that all the
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beats should have had that kind of feel. Was what's the joint? Put
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your hands up now, that's that's Jadakiss, you know what I'm talking about?
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Twelve A and one of them in the cloud that joint. I kind
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of felt like Beanie killed that, but it was it was that type of
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beat. That beat had a dance vibe, but it was a harder edge.
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Also, his party records should have been like that on this album and
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musically, and they just want so how do I feel about the Truth today?
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The same because when I put the album on and The Truth, the
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title track comes on, I'm like, oh yeah, I'm ready. You
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know, maybe I feel different. You know, maybe I was much younger
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when this came out. Maybe this is different now. It was the same,
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It was the same. I was. As soon as them other songs
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started hitting, I was like, skip skip, you know what I'm saying.
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So, I don't know, how do you feel about the truth?
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Do you love it? You know? Did you have any issues with those
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types of songs or did you just dig the whole vibe of it? Because
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I'm curious if you like that, well, then how do you feel about
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the other albums that he had, like The Reason and of the Becoming?
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So there, you have to leave your comments in a comments section below or
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somewhere. Will hit me up on social media. At vacers World, I
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NC we could chop it up, but definitely you know, this is where
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the party at on YouTube. So every year, y'all, I know,
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I do a best of the Year which culminates in a like award style ceremony.
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This past year, I wore Christmas hat and all that for y'all.
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There's some bars in it too. But one dude that always finds his way
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either into my top five of the year at the end of the year or
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definitely just one of the best albums of the year. But last year he
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definitely hit my top five and that's Ransom, right. Last year he dropped
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well. The album that made my top five was Rise against the Machines,
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you know, like the Terminator style album. Sorry, yeah, sometimes I
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forget tighter. This is a lot of hip hop dropping all the time,
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you know. The album was crazy, concepts, bars, everything you expect
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from Ransom. And now he's back in twenty twenty four with a new project,
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Harry Fraud on the Beats. It's called Lavish What is it? Lavish
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Misery? And if you know you haven't seen it. The covers like a
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king on his throne, but the king is a skeleton, you know,
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so it's like lavish misery. You get it like it's dead, kind of
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like King's disease. But whatever. But yo, I hate to be that
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guy. No, you know what, I enjoy being that guy, you
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know what, because sometimes you just gotta let people know. You gotta plant
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your flag, you gotta what is it, stand one business right and just
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tell people this dude is one of the best wordsmith to day and damn he
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rivals everybody. When I say that, I mean everybody. I don't care
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if we're talking about high profile like nas or Jay don't really be rapping like
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that no more. But you know nas or you talking about Conway or Benny
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or all his pigs. You know. Like the only person who I would
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kind of like raise eyebrow is probably Royce because Royce is that kind of a
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wordsmith as well. But man, when I say that this man don't miss,
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he don't miss. Even when the beats don't really hit the way you
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would want them to hit, but a great lyricist makes them better. Like,
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for example, I love Reasonable Down. When I first got Reasonable Down,
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I was kind of like halfway on it because I felt like the production
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of the time was so bombastic and in your face that I felt like these
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beats were like on a B level, you know, not whack, but
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on a B level, And I didn't expect that from jay Z. But
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then when I listened to the album over time, and I'm just listening to
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his lyrics and how he's rhyming and what he's rhyming about and all of that,
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and I was like, man, he's making the production better. Now,
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what makes sense? Listening to him because there's some rappers they'll have a
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ton of crazy beats and can't get you to care about anything they're saying that
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is not ransom. Okay, so this is more of an EPs. Eight
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songs clocks in at twenty minutes. I know some people like yo, I
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want more. Nah man, I'm good because you know what I do,
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rewind and y'all know how I do with these reviews or impressions. I listened
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to him three times. The first time is to get my initial impressions,
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the second time is to really lock in and listen to the lyrical content and
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concepts, and the third time is just to confirm my feelings. And when
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I say, I could easily say this is already in my top five of
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twenty twenty four because the bars are that potent. Example. Now their features
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on here, right body, James's on here, thirty eight specials on here,
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But one song early on that had me like, man, this dude,
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you know I'm about to you know I'm about to roll up like this
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dude is exactly why I love hip hop today. Why I don't only or
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exclusively listen to old school music for lyrical content or just good music, right,
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chain of command. Now, I told you this man's a wordsmith,
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and I told you he does concepts. And the theme of this is sort
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of like I would explain it as a King of New York kind of thing,
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right, And who does heave you as those guys Nas and jay Z?
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This man did. I think it's just a verse for the most part,
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and they are references, references throughout the album, you know, to
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those two in some way or another, especially Nas, But in the song
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chain of commands specifically, he uses their album titles as the rhyme. And
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it all makes sense, right. It's not because some cats that do that
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and say I got a King's disease, so it was four four four,
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Like that's lazy. That's not That's not what Ransom's doing. If you did
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not know Nas and jay Z's catalog at all and you loved hip hop,
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you'd be like, oh, I like that song. That song was dope.
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And then when I told you, yo, he used the titles of
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their albums in that whole verse, Like the whole verse is jay Z and
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Nass album titles? Your mom would be blown right now. I know there's
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some hip hop historians you know who don't get a dime to be that,
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right. I know there's some hip hop gurus who ain't been at park jams
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like I've been, right, I've been in park gams. I ain't that
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old, but I'm old enough to have been at a park gam as a
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shorty, right. And I know there is those who you know went to
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school and got a degree. I got de greated straits, I was in
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the Cypher's Boy I was a DJ and a rapper. But I digress.
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What I'm saying is who cares who we are beyond being fans when somebody rapping
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like this, right, like with somebody rapping like that. So I say
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to you, and I'm kind of hyped up, right because I feel like
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what I anticipated. And I'm still listening to Bennie, y'all. Even though
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I felt a little disappointed, I felt like it was a whack album,
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I felt like it was good. I'm still listening to Bennie. But I've
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said before with the Benny review and with my Schoolboy Q review from last week
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his album Blue Lips, go check that out. If you want to know
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what I felt about it, that I had a certain level of anticipation for
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these albums that wasn't unrealistic that when I heard him, I was a little
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let down because I just kind of felt like, not quite what I thought
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I was going to get. And it's a certain vibe and a certain energy.
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Like with Benny, it's Brawn, that's Benny the Butcher. That's what
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I wanted. Does every song have to be that? No, but the
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majority of the song should be that, and that's what I'm expected. Right,
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same thing with Schoolboy Q. Right, he got a song I think
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it's called pop with the with Rico Nasty like the beat switch on that.
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I'm like, this is the Schoolboy Q I want to hear more of.
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Even though I like that one, I feel like it's wag at all.
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I just felt like, damn. So I was looking forward to anything that
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Ransom dropped. And when I tell you, this man is consistently dope when
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it comes to his projects and even his performances when being featured like on Shae
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Nowata's EP, which is also dope. He ain't missing, y'all, He
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not missing, He not missing. So I say to you, if you
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never heard of Ransom, you could start with this. It's fine, you
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know. And if you kind of like it, don't like it, then
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go back and check out other joints he got. As a matter of fact,
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the album I couldn't remember from last year was director's cut for I Believe
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Rise of Machines. Go check that out, Go check out the other director's
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cuts. Him and Nicholas Craven are like you know Google in Premiered. They
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work the best together. Go check that out. If you never heard of
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Ransom, if you're a Ransom fan, go ahead and download it, Go
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ahead and buy it. Whatever you gotta do. Whatever he's selling, whatever
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way he delivering it, go check it out right now. Do I say
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this as it's a classic or it's the best thing he's ever done. I
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don't think it's the best he's ever done. I just think if you've been
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satisfied with what Ransom has given us as hip hop fans, I think you'll
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be satisfied again. So there you have it. Have you heard Ransom and
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Heavy Freud's new album, Lavish Misery, Leave your critique your review in the
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comment section on the YouTube channel. And lastly, so Nelly did an interview
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recently. Let me see if I could look I'm looking at hip hopdx dot
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com, and it says Nelly argues his era of hip hop was the toughest
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ever. Now, okay, so Nelly appeared Okay, I'm just gonna read
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it, y'all, during the appearance on Lebron James's The Shop The Saint Louis
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Legend, reflected on his breakthrough success in the two thousands and the challenges he
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faced and trying to stand out in a crowded marketplace full of bona fide stars.
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Now, let me see if I could find a quote quote from Nelly.
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Country Grammar sould five million, and I didn't even get nominated as Best
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New Artists because my album came out and two thousand, so I wasn't even
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on the ballot. In two thousand and one, the great talented and well
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deserving Miss Alicia Keys one and she would have one. Let's see where he
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gets called. Okay, you gotta understand, my era of music was the
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toughest era in hip hop ever ever. When I put out songs that had
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to go against DMX, Jay, z Eminame, Eminem, Lil Wayne,
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fifty Cent, Ludacris, all of us are fighting for one spot. So
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from ninety nine to two thousand and eight twenty ten, it's the hardest era
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ever to get records. Now, how do I feel about it? I
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agree with him, but I agree with him regarding the context in which he
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means this. That era financially record sales wise, Nelly is spot on.
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That was probably hip hop's peak of record sales because a lot of these artists,
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you know, in some kid like Eminem was a monster. Eminem got
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diamond albums right, like jay Z was on top and doing crazy numbers.
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Also, well, jay Z never did that crazy, but when it came
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to like singles and all, that still had to compete with his popularity album
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wise, I think he always did less than others. But fifty cent had
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a diamond album right, and he was selling records. Ludacris was selling millions.
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Like I totally agree with him when he talks about that era being the
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toughest era. But what happens when that's the headline? Ninety nine to about
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two thousand and eight twenty ten was the toughest era to be a rapper?
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Wow, the hip hop police pull up and I'm with him this time,
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y'all. I got my badge and I'm like, ohh whoa, whoa,
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whoa be specific. Even though he was be specific, say record sales,
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because us the hip hop police say lyrically, it was not I don't care
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how many singles you like. I like him too, I don't care who
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you feel is the goat mentioned now of those people cool? But there was
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Let's just say from the early nineties. Right, Let's not even say the
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early nineties, because we don't even have to do a decade. But since
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he said decade and that's a big portion of decade, let's just say from
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ninety to ninety eight, ninety two, probably ninety two on, especially when
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it came to the East Coast and some cats on the West coast too.
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You know, soul's a mischief, right. The dudes were, they had
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bars, you know what I'm saying. It was so competitive, especially once
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the East Coast had a surge of the Nazis and the Biggies and the Wu
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Tangs and the Black Moons and you know, the mob Deeps and all of
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that. Right, the bar the bars got it got crazy. Lyrically,
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people weren't trying to top each other in record sales. They were trying to
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be the best with the pen game. And the time, the decade he
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describes became more about Now, don't get me wrong, lyrics were still a
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part of it, but it became more about record sales and radio play.
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All of those people he named were successful on the radio. But when we
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talking about lyricism for that decade, some of it took a back seat.
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It just did, especially with the people he named. The hot people in
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that era was based off record sales. The top people from ninety to ninety
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eight was about the quality of the music. So the quality was much more
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potent, I won't say better, but potent lyrically than it was back then,
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doesn't I mean in the two thousands. Doesn't mean that lyrics didn't matter.
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It did. But what Nelly is describing is basically what it was like
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to try to make hit records and be number one when you had to go
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up against all of them, all of these different people, right. So
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I totally agree because those were the hit makers of that time. Fifty Ludacris,
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all of jay Z, all DMX, all of them. Those were
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the hit makers, Alicia Keys, Nelly. But that's what that was about.
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So when he say toughest, that's what he means. But we know
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in hip hop the minute you say it and you don't give the context in
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what you're saying it. And I know this, certain people feel like nah
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man, I feel like lyrically nah b oh. Because if we start running
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down the albums that dropped and what people were saying, especially if we start
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pulling in the mixtape error because see some of y'all, you know, y'all
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would y'all was like the show Shorties, like go to start, Shorty,
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Nah, don't listen to this album, Shorty, go to go to class,
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go to school in the nineties, right, you were just too young
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to absorb it. So you only know the albums that were released and that
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live on streaming services. You don't know about the mixtape days. You don't
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know how there was versus on mixtapes that were crazy from jay Z, from
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like Nas and people like that. Like you don't know. Now. What
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you do know is like Lil Wayne kind of kept some of that alive right
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in the two thousands and fifty did. But that's not what Nellie's talking about.
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Nellie's talking about what it was like to try to make hits and compete
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against giants and around that time, making hits then always equate to top lyricism.
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It really meant more. It was more about, you know, the
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beats. It was more about the hooks for sure, how catchy those hooks
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were, and simplicity in the lyrics also, you know. And it's not
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a bad thing to me because I kind of like it all. I just
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I just think that there's a separation when people start debating, because I saw
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people debating and not really understanding his context. That in order for these people
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who are artists whose job is to sell records, when they had these major
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deals, which is what those guys was doing, it's less about making your
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lyrics complex because in order to sell records, you have to sell to the
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casuals. Casuals make up the majority, y'all. I'm sorry. We are
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the loud minority. We are the hip hop has we the police. We
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don't matter as much when it comes to sales. Now, when it comes
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to quality and integrity, that's when we get to talk. But when it
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comes to sales, if you don't understand that, yo, this is the
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mission. And sometimes you could do both. I think Biggie and jay Z
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were excellent at doing both, having bars and records that was catchy. Some
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people was some casuals were reciting hooks and they didn't even get the bar.
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They just liked the song. And that's to me, that's the perfect balance.
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But not everybody cares about that. And today lyricism isn't even really a
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factor, even though it still exists, disrespected like with people like j Cole
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and like Kendrick and you know, major artists who will give you bars Drake
28:21
from time to time, but it's not like the only thing. So I
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don't know, what do you think. Do you think the two thousands,
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the early two thousands, ninety nine to twenty ten was the toughest time to
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compete in hip hop? Or maybe you feel like the late nineties was just
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as tough where they were records or where Tupac was still selling records and so
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it was Biggie and bad Boy and here comes Rockefeller and you know, and
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do you feel like that was even tougher because of the competition and those you
28:57
still had to compete with at that time. Leave your comments in the comments
29:02
section below, and please know that you can get this podcast in audio form
29:07
on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify. And one of the Dope things that was
29:12
just announced. If you have an iPhone or I assume my iOS device in
29:18
general, that could be an iPad. Also that now they have transcripts for
29:23
podcasts, and I feel like they automatically generated. So if you're a type
29:30
of person where maybe you have a job where you would like to listen but
29:34
you can't always because you're getting interrupted, or you you know, you definitely
29:38
can't watch the video, but maybe you could read it. Transcripts are dope,
29:45
man, They're really dope, and they also serve for you know,
29:48
they're accessible to people who who need them, you know, but still want
29:55
to join in the conversation. So I don't have an iPhone anymore. Yeah,
29:57
I might go back on manajoy right now saying something is kind of crazy.
30:03
Leave your comments and conversation below. Visit patreon dot com slash hip hop
30:07
now to join the party. And please know I am not a critic.
30:11
I'm a fan. Peace