Latest / Hip-Hop Now Podcast / Do You Believe in Magic
Transcript
- Coming up. On this week's episode of Hip Hop Now podcast, Red Man warned Keith Murray about cannabis. Little Wayne was scared when he first worked with eminem And my thoughts on the new project by Nas and hip Boy Magic two. Do you believe in magic? Let's talk about it. Welcome to jip ho Hop Now Podcast. Get you from the future. You know we do show as out. Don't disrespect the leg hip Hop and Saity Stadium. Let's get right into the business. I am your host, Vegas and this is hip Hop Now Podcast, a podcast designed specifically to keep you caught up all things music, hip hop and culture or maybe hip hop music and culture throughout the week. Shout out to the supporters over at patreon dot com slash ship Hop Now and if you would like to join them and becoming a supporter of this very podcast, I appreciate you. You can do that with the link and description of this episode. Also, I have merch Summertime, It's hocked, tinktops, F T shirts, F stickers, have all all UNI represent hip Hop Now podcast if you enjoy it. That link is also in the description of this episode. And if you like me, you get the hoodie early because you know, hoodie, he's gonna come around. You know, you just throw it on like, oh this old thing. I bought this during the summer. I do that sometimes. Maybe that's some kind of old old head thing or whatever. But big shout out to Hip Hop Hip Hop DX dot com, Double XL magazine dot com, Complex dot com and a couple of places where I get my stories from. Let's get right into the business. Redman says he warned Keep about difficult cannabis before album fiasco. Now I picked this story because I have no idea what they are talking about. The original source is mrec TV. Shout out to him who did an interview with Keith Murray and this story is on Hip Hop DX dot com, so you check it out link, watch it and all that good stuff. But here is what was saying, and I quote and I think this is Eric's sermon talking. Let's see, cannabis just made it so difficult. At the end of the day, he said to the outlet on Wednesday, June nineteen, you know you're from the future. He already saw that joint. Get the hell out of here. But actually I'm from the future because today's a later date than whatever and he was referring to in God's We Trust Crushed Microphones to Dust album, which was released in twenty eleven. Yeah, this is Keith Murray talking. I was just like, oh, we had the opportunity to make it, and I was working on an album. So when you see those tracks that say produced by Eric Sermon, they were originally going to be me, but I gave them up. But then the album suffered. It was My brain Child, my baby, but then Cannabis and I talked bad about him, but he didn't follow through with promoting an album properly, and then he was getting into it with the publicity. It was a classic album, but we didn't do no shows for this, no promotion. I was like, oh my god. And then Redman the end because it's a family podcast. Me what I'm saying, it was like, be careful. I didn't know what he was talking about. Then damn. It's a testament all flawless chemistry between Cannabis and Murray that midway through the planet Asia assisted. Okay, so it's something else. I'm not gonna get into all of it, but apparently it seems like working with Cannabis on a project can be difficultult and probably from what it wasn't difficult to get the bars together, but difficult to promote for the uninitiated. For what, I never heard this album. Now I'm kind of intrigued and twenty a lepis. I had heard recent works and didn't really like what I heard at all, and I was once a huge fan of both, so I couldn't imagine a project that sounded good that finally came out. I thought that was cool. You know, they had killer priests. I think ras Cast also that was The Four Horseman, But Keith Murray I never heard. But for the uninitiated releasing music independently, part of label or whatever, their duties beyond your bars, your verses that you have to you have to adhere to also to sort of guarantee success, right, not guarantee success, just give your best shot at something being successful and successful. It's not just while the music is great, the lyrics are great, the song is great, right, you can have a classic on your hands, But if you don't promote, if you don't do the things that are needed to push this album out to the public. With apparents is an interview us and just going along with the strategic plan to make this everything it should be, then it's all for nothing. From what I'm hearing, Keith Murray was more than willing to do that, but Cannabis had issues. And again it's no disrespect to Cannabis, but we just know people who you know, Maye Cannabis just wasn't happy, right. Maybe he wasn't happy with the rollout, maybe like the album cover. Maybe then the overall concept after the fact. Maybe in life the way the publicists was position in the album to the public, If you don't like that, you're not gonna go into an interview where they're gonna ask you questions about something you don't agree with. But business is business, and anytime you are playing on that level business, you just gotta keep your part to it. If not, get away from the record industry on all sides, independent, major or whatever, and just go and release stuff somewhere else on band camp where you don't have to do interviews and you don't have to do Oh but guess why cats won't do that when they've already tasted what it's like to have a push and attention and hip hop. So it's kind of like a sacrifice thing. You may not like the industry. You may not like your position in the industry today or twenty eleven, but if you're gonna play the game, play the game. That's all I'm saying. If you're gonna play the game, play the game right. Little Wayne said he was scared when he first worked with Eminem. Now I really truly feel like this is not the first time I've heard Little Wayne say this, And I think he's like on a flowers tour of just giving flowers to his counterparts and the people who influenced them. It's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes, you know, cats get older and they get real. Everybody get older, and they start to feel real reflective on their career and their life and the more willing to be vulnerable about their thoughts at differentce So I can dig it. But let's see what he said. Little Wayne was talking to The New York Times for this one as a part of a feature for fifty Years of Hip Hop, which is coming up, and Eminem said this as it relates to Eminem, I was scared, actually when I for us that is a monster can't get them head, every meaning, every aspect of them. Things that rhyme. We hear it I already know the gift and the curse that he had, and I love to hear the way he puts it together. Now, fans of Little Wayne, I know what you're thinking. I know every time somebody says eminem as a party, but they don't pay, I'm in the shop. They don't play one thousand percent more successful than everybody play on the block, the bar or what's dope or Who's dope? Right, Uh, it's just never gonna be and now black it's the same. Let's just get that out there. Not everybody block it's the same. Not everybody barbershops saying you walk into barbershop, you might hear Britney Spears album playing because that barber lights it. You ain't gonna hear it in the shop. But I've heard some things in the shop. Not everybody like Boom bapp Elite when it comes to playing music and Harbor Shop. There's some barbershops you're like, man, please please put something on illmatic something. But nevertheless, I think it's dope to see. I think I know it's flowers at the same time, but I think it's dope to see because Little Wayne mcre There are numerous rappers in the hip hop game, who have given Little Wayne pride for not charging them for features, and more importantly, for writing his verse and getting get it back to them quickly. Little Wayne is a prime example of a true hip hop head who has a success level where he wouldn't. He doesn't even acknowledge anybody above or below a certain level, right, And with Eminem, I think a lot of it just goes into their different mcs, a different elk who recognize not what he came but how he put the words together. Sorry to break it to you, but that is a part of hip hop. That is what mcs do, the simplest rappers of course, or she could look at their work and say, well, it's not that difficult. He said, I'm gonna pull up at the store. What's so deep about that? You're not talking about them? They are not necessarily artists, they're ditainers, right, But hip hop artists value word play regardless of what's being said. So if Eminem decides I'm just like a whole bar about being a cannibal, and I'm gonna make it a metaphor simile by the similar at the end to say I'm the cannibal of hip hop, so what. I think a lot of your favorite rappers who acknowledge him are acknowledging the word play. And I don't necessarily agree with Eminem feeling scared. I would feel personally that Eminem's a monster with the word play. I have to either meet or That's how I think about it, because if I'm scared, then I shouldn't even be on the track. And I know a little Wayne just says that, but and it's kind of a way of it's kind of like a flower, right, But I don't think any MC should be afraid to spit next to another. I think it should be a challenge, right, it should you should challenge yourself to say, this dude is crazy. I do not want him to show me up on this record. So I'm gonna go as far as I think he's gonna go, not in subject matter, but in skill level. I think it's also a slippery slow because if you're already dope ours, you shouldn't have to do that. Just be you. Because the prime example is the Renegade song. Now, revisionists would like to say that Eminem did not murder him on his own ish, but I begged to differ. He did right. Why because the jay Z that's featured on Renegade didn't rap blank that on any other song on Blueprint. I don't care what the beat sound like. Jay Z was rapping up to his competition, which was Eminem, so he wanted to be savvy with his word play. But he could have just been to jay Z he was when he used to rap like the foop snickings. He could have been that jay Z and and still pulled it off because that was naturally him trying to do something to fit in where Eminem sound loose on it, and it's his beat, he sound loose on it. That's what made it stand out that jay Z sound not uncomfortable because he was into what he was rapping, but it just down like he was doing a thing because Eminem was there. So to me, it was the wrong approach. I think it's dope to see two MC's or one in this case, talk about another in that way by giving them props. But I also feel like, you know, it's a it's a hot you know, it's it's a hot topic when anytime Eminem is being given respect, especially through another MC's, there's this thing where people kind of want to challenge you right, you know, find something wrong with it, and I think it's stupid because again, the content is one thing, but the technique is another. And that's where your favorite rapper is coming from. He's talking about the technique. Yo, Am I getting dressed to this dude murdering his baby moms? No, right, because when I get dressed, I like to hear a certain record. But guess what else I'm not getting. I'm not listening to the Locks when I do that. Either, I'm listening to Rick Ross because I'm gonna go out and I need to hear about Champagne and pouring out Sirock or whatever. Right when I'm feeling like grimy mold and I'm driving, I just wanted some beats to thump on, some boom bat. I'm going to get Chris Delta or I'm going to get the Locks right when I want to hear em and honestly me, I want to hear the air or the wordplay. I'm not there to be like yo, man, I wanted some murderers, some murder bars about you know, your family. No, at no point, right, let me by how we all hear and listen or whatever. But yet again here's another one of your favorite rappers and giving them and them props? Does that make him the goat of all goats? No, I don't even think Little Wayne is to go. But nevertheless it's good to see, especially in years of hip hop. We understand this ain't gonna be a long show though. So lastly, so if you don't know, you've been under a rock, you know, or you're grown adult doesn't have time to kind of go on Twitter, bruise this hip hop website, looking for information on Instagram. But you listen to hip Hop Now podcast, I appreciate you, and you say yourself, NAS and hit Boy have a new project, which is the fifth in their works together since twenty twenty. It's the fifth project, and everybody says all the others were dope. And now they have a project called Magic two, which is a sequel to Magic obviously, and you say it yourself. I want to check it out, but I'm skeptical, So let me listen to hip Hop Now podcasts. Here are my impressions to save you some time. If we're looking at the five projects that Nas and hip Boy put together and we're ranking them, it's last. Does that make it whack. No, that just makes it not as good as the other ones, and the other ones were great, right, I think it's a good project. I think we didn't have to have it, but I'm glad we do. I think they went to the well too many times. But in some ways, so what? And I say that because it's not whack. But I just feel like it's not as good as one may anticipate coming off of the projects that have been released between the two. Right, so let's get into the details. So it's eleven songs with one bonus, right, Well, ten songs one bonus makes eleven thirty two minutes, so not a lot of your time is required to listen to this. The vibe of the app, well, let me get real quick. Two features only, one being fifty cent and the other being twenty one Savage. If you know me, I am not a twenty one Savage fan. I just think he's just not good of a rapper. I am a fifty cent fan. And if we are being honest, the song that fifty cent is featured on it is called office Hours. We could have done without fifty on it. It was a lackluster performance from fifty It's not whack. That's the thing with some of these guys, it's like they could never really be bad to the point where you feel like it's just a garbage verse. But to me, it was such a forgettable verse from his energy on the verse, from the bars to the length of the record, I mean the length of the verse. It felt like it was over too quick, and you know at the end he ha ha, like that's kind of how he ends his bars, and I just felt like if that wasn't there, I don't think I would miss it. I've heard better performances from fifty with one verse on the Power intro on the BMF intro way better version of fifty, So I don't even think this was necessary to be honest. Standout tracks on this album though, for me, are I like Abracadaver, I like Bokan Woodbine, Irvan, Magic Johnson, I really like what this all really means, and also a record called Slowdown Now. I like a lot about this album. Let's start with the production. I think, what's and please don't take this to the bank. But what's disappointing as a fan is some of the beats I think previously hit Boy would surprise me with his production. King's Disease three raised the bar so high with his level of production and beat flips and stuff that I was anticipating the production just being crazy from beginning to end, and I think it's good, but it's just not as good, which is okay, But I was a little disappointed because I was like, Oh, I feel like with this album it gets stronger later in the project or halfway through, which isn't a bad thing, but the way you start sets my impressions and how long it takes you to get to the thing that makes me go, m it's a big deal. Now, these are my impressions I could. I'm going to continue to listen and start to feel a little bit differently. On the side of the lyrics, I feel like there are times where NA sounds way too basic for this to be NAS. I feel like there's certain lines. Again, I'm not asking you to go jump through hoops to describe a glass of water on your dresser in a real hip hop way now, but now set a certain level of expectation for us as a fan, even now that he has met time and time again, I just feel like this go around, there's a lot of weak bars there's a lot of weak bars over decent flows and decent beats, and that's what kind of makes it feel like luster, Like yeo, what we're talking about, all right, but it's not whack. This is the thing I'm gonna say to those of you who may feel like any criticism that's not positive is one negative. That's not true. All my criticism is constructive. And what I'll say is the reason why I feel the way I feel as far as my impressions go, it's not a review, is because hit Boy and Nas set the bar right. NA set the bar because he's Nas, he is hip hop royalty, he is in the goat conversation, so there's a certain level of expectation. No matter how old he gets. As long as he's releasing music, people are going to feel like Ill Madigan is happening again every trip, which is unrealistic. But that's a whole another story. But him and hit Boy together have set the bar i as well, because at this stage in Naz's career, to previously have four projects that are dope and they kind of got better as they went on, that's a high bar. So when you're coming out with Magic, which I think dropped in twenty twenty one or twenty twenty two, like it was like Christmas time and it was a surprise. It was like Yo dropping tomorrow, and a lot of it felt like old Nis. For this to be the sequel, it doesn't have to be tied to a specific approach because it's very it's a very different approach than the first Magic. But again, you set the bar. You're calling it magic too. Everybody instantly goes back to the first time they heard Magic and what that felt like. That's what music is about, right, It's about emotions, right, That's what the hit boy said, right, it's about emotions. Right. Well, you're signaling by calling it magic too. Oh, it's the sequel to this, And what do people do? They remember this and they go back and listen to this, and they think this is going to be the same as two and two. Could be different, right, it could be a different approach. What this is. I would just say this, there's a lot more in the lane of trap than anything. I feel like NAS is better wrapping over those beats, but I felt like I liked the approach previously where it didn't happen as often, and I think even in some cases. If you take Kings Disease one where I think there's maybe three songs that got that feel to it are not them. Songs are dope, you know what I'm saying. And I just feel like lyrically, when you have some of these trap beats, it's just not meeting that bar that they said when Hit Boys producing a trap beat and NAS is wrapping over it, just did. But man, oh man, when it's boom Bat, he said me and hit hit Boy like the new gang Star, they are in the pot. It's a hit Boy beat that's a boom Bat beat, and NAS roming over it. That's magic. So do I want a boom Bat album from them? No? Not necessarily. I accept whatever they decide to do because they've earned it. But but I could tell you without a doubt, no matter how many times I listen, it's not gonna make my top five of the year because my top five of the year so far are so solid in what they do that it's difficult for me to even find a negative, so to speak. So there you have it. What do you think about NAS and Hit Boys brand new project Magic too? Have you heard it? Did you like it? Did you love it? Is it trash, whatever it may be, comment section below. 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