Latest / Hip-Hop Now Podcast / Stimmy Style

Transcript

Stimmy Style · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

• 0:01
  Coming up on this week's episode of hip Hop Now podcast, Memphis Bleak wants
• 0:07
  jay Z on his new album, Havoc and Alchemists tease new Mob Deep music,
• 0:15
  and my thoughts on the new album from Freeway and Jake One Stimulus Package.
• 0:22
  Y'all remember them? Mmm mmmmm good times. Let's do it. Welcome
• 0:32
  to hip Hop Now podcast. As if you from the future, you know
• 0:38
  what to do? Show as out about life so disrespectful la hip hop is
• 0:47
  say to today, Let's get right into the business. What up, y'all?
• 0:52
  I am yours Vegas in. This is hip Hop Now podcasting podcast specifically
• 0:57
  designed to keep you caught up on all things hip hop music and culture that
• 1:02
  happened throughout the week. Big shout out to all the listeners from pass and
• 1:07
  present, Patreon dot com slash hip Hop Now and if you would like to
• 1:12
  learn more, visit the link in the description of this episode, the Patreon
• 1:18
  link Patreon. Sometimes you gotta say that, because then some people were like,
• 1:21
  yeah, I clicked on it and just went through a video. Dog
• 1:23
  you clicked on the YouTube video Patreon link. It's okay, We're good.
• 1:30
  Also, there's a couple of episodes special episodes I did recently that I don't
• 1:38
  typically do, so consider it a prize. My top five albums, Greatest
• 1:46
  albums all Time, Top five Greatest beats all Time, and top five mcs.
• 1:53
  How could I forget of all time? So check all of those out
• 1:57
  leave your opinions also. So we reached the halfway point of twenty twenty four.
• 2:04
  It has been a hell of a year thus far. I did a
• 2:07
  Best of twenty twenty four so far, and so much hip hop has dropped,
• 2:13
  some of which I'm gonna talk about a little bit later on this episode.
• 2:16
  That that end of the year list is going to be some conflict because
• 2:22
  there's a number of albums that drop that just make me question what should be
• 2:25
  in my top five and what shouldn't be And more importantly, albums that I
• 2:31
  didn't include in my best of the Year that I probably will at the end
• 2:39
  of the year. So we'll see. You know, December is a long
• 2:42
  ways off. It's hot. I'm not complaining because it could be ice and
• 2:47
  slush outside and I do not want that. So those are the top five
• 2:53
  I'm not top five best of twenty twenty four. Obviously, you can go
• 2:59
  through the channel we're on our road. We're on our way to five hundred
• 3:04
  subscribers right here on the YouTube channel. Big shout out to people who've been
• 3:08
  listening in audio form for years via Apple podcasts, Spotify podcasts, or your
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  favorite podcasting app. Hip Hop Now podcast is available in audio everywhere, but
• 3:22
  we are trying to grow the YouTube channel because Yo Patreon supporters, big people
• 3:27
  who are fans of the show, was like, ooh, you should start
• 3:30
  doing video man, we want to see you fan. Well, I've been
• 3:32
  here and we need about fifty more subscribers to get to five hundred. So
• 3:38
  what I need you to do is if you enjoy it and you new here,
• 3:40
  first of all, welcome, but if you like what you see you
• 3:44
  would like to see more, hit that subscribe, but hit that bell to
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  get notified. When I post a new video. It always won't just be
• 3:51
  the weekly show. There'll be things sprinkled in between, you know what I
• 3:54
  mean. So content is definitely coming to this channel, probably more than ever.
• 4:01
  Keep it locked in, going to do some more catalog breakdowns, all
• 4:04
  that kind of stuff, So subscribe. And one of the good things you
• 4:09
  could do also is if you know other hip hop heads and other spaces of
• 4:13
  the social media platforms where you frequently talk about hip hop, like an episode,
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  or you share an opinion, or you're even against an opinion post it
• 4:24
  find out from your circle who likes what and who thought was the greatest album
• 4:28
  or whatever the case may be. It's all love here. It's all about
• 4:31
  the love of hip hop and talking about it. Big shout out to hip
• 4:35
  HOPDX dot com, All hip hop dot com, the Source magazine, and
• 4:43
  sometimes and a couple of places where I get some of these stories from.
• 4:46
  Let's get right into the business though, Brooklyn whatever. So if you don't
• 4:54
  know, and maybe you didn't care, I myself am a little curious.
• 4:59
  Memphis Bleak is back to making new music. It was always weird to me
• 5:04
  that he wasn't after a while, but I know he focused on business.
• 5:10
  He has a lot of successful businesses. It almost feels like he's in a
• 5:14
  happy space. And I kind of feel like, well, we should have
• 5:18
  new music from Memphis Bleak. Why why don't we? Why not? And
• 5:25
  he dropped the first single. I can't remember the name, but it was
• 5:27
  it was fine, and he sounds he sound no different than he always has
• 5:31
  well Bleak and he may be putting the cart before the horse or whatever that
• 5:36
  old saying is. You know what I'm talking about. He's basically saying he
• 5:42
  wants jay Z on his album, like jay Z's been on every Bleak album,
• 5:46
  and I agree with him because why not, It's always happened that way.
• 5:50
  This is on Hip hopdx dot Com says that Memphis Bleak is putting the
• 5:58
  pressure on his longtime friend and colle operated jay Z to drop a Verse on
• 6:01
  his new single. And this is Bleak from Twitter might be the one to
• 6:10
  bring hole outside for a verse. I know he heard that second half of
• 6:15
  bands Up that's his a new single, and he put because somebody, well
• 6:20
  this is somebody talking to Bleak. It's a Bleak put I'm on his neck
• 6:26
  for one for one, trust me. So Memphis Bleak is trying to get
• 6:30
  jay Z to drop a verse. I guess I'll ask you and I'll answer
• 6:35
  also myself. But do y'all want a new jay Z? And I'm not
• 6:42
  saying that like we don't, but do you me? Personally, I want
• 6:46
  a new jay Z album. So if he's working on the album, yeah,
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  tease us with the verse. And again, it's only right that jay
• 6:54
  Z in some capacity is on a Memphis Bleak album because it's just in that
• 7:00
  way, and because Bleak took such a long layoff from dropping albums. Like
• 7:05
  put it this way. If Bleep was dropping album since I forget what his
• 7:10
  I think four five six, whatever his last album was, it was a
• 7:14
  number I can't remember. That was so many years agough, if he was
• 7:18
  dropping albums in between that time, I wouldn't feel like, Yo, Bleak
• 7:21
  got ten albums, j D on all of them. No, we don't
• 7:25
  need that. But because he took that break, well why not bring a
• 7:30
  little bit that nostalgia on Bleak and Bleaking Hole on the same track. Why
• 7:34
  not? So I kind of messed with the idea. I hope it happens,
• 7:41
  and I hope it's good because it could all go wrong, y'all.
• 7:45
  Nobody's untouchable. Havoc and Alchemists have teased a new mob Deep album and music
• 7:58
  in general have it said this a while back on his Instagram, and I
• 8:05
  remember that, like I think he might have said it last year. And
• 8:09
  I remember that I reported it or co reported it right, because I didn't
• 8:13
  break the story here on Hip Hop Now podcast, And it was one of
• 8:18
  my most anticipated things on that particular episode. At the beginning of this year,
• 8:26
  you know, one of my most anticipated albums is a mob Deep album,
• 8:30
  because when you think about the posthumous albums that have dropped, you know
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  a lot of them are hited, hit or miss. But I think what
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  DJ Premier did with Gangstar and Gurgu is the blueprint prior to that posthumous albums
• 8:48
  felt just like this artist is no longer with us, We're gonna take these
• 8:54
  incomplete songs and just mashing together with features. Is that fans feel like would
• 9:01
  probably never happen, even if that person expressed like somebody being dope, or
• 9:07
  if that person like, you know, like, I don't think Biggie was
• 9:11
  really here for the Eminem we know, right, Eminem obviously was around,
• 9:16
  but not like that. So having hit Eminem on a Dead Wrong remix was
• 9:24
  dope because it fit Eminem. But would Biggie be cool with it? I
• 9:30
  would like to believe he would, but we wouldn't know. So I feel
• 9:35
  like what Premier did having somebody like j Cole on a Gangstar album, it
• 9:41
  kind of makes sense. It's like a mutual respect. It's kind of like
• 9:46
  a kinship as far as like Guru was a deep deep thinker and j Cole
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  could be a deep thinker. He also could be apologist. But we're not
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  gonna go there. I just had to take one shot, all right,
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  cool. But I feel like with Mob Deep, like it has to sonically
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  capture the essence of mom Deep, like the dark chords that almost almost like
• 10:11
  horror music but dugged out Queen's Bridge, Like it just has to feel like
• 10:16
  what we know Mob Deep to be. And then whatever versus from Prodigy that
• 10:22
  they have, it just has to be crafted in a way that it doesn't
• 10:26
  feel like, oh well, that's almost like half a Verse and Prodigy say
• 10:35
  at the end, and you could tell he was just practice it, like
• 10:39
  no man be creative with the ideas to turn it into a project where it
• 10:43
  sounds just like Prodigy was there and a part of it. Those are just
• 10:50
  the best versions. And I'm hoping that they wouldn't have to do so much
• 10:54
  work, because when you think about it, if they were like actively working
• 11:00
  on new music, then there's probably songs there, There's probably ideas there that
• 11:05
  they worked on together that they just need to see through to the end.
• 11:09
  And maybe you already have vocals for p on a number of records, But
• 11:15
  it got to be dope. It can't be put it out to put it
• 11:18
  out. It can't be new Mob Deep just so you can say new Mob
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  Deep. So it for me, it has to be something dope. And
• 11:28
  I know for those who may feel like, yo, well what took so
• 11:30
  long, I'm just only assuming that there was not that there was a problem,
• 11:35
  But maybe they will hurdles in regards to rights because Prodigy is no longer
• 11:41
  here, so who is in charge of his estate? Who can grant access
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  to usage of his voice? Like, don't think just because they're in a
• 11:52
  group that it's just like, oh no, Havoc's using it, so go
• 11:56
  ahead and do it. No, it might be that easy, but it's
• 11:58
  still a process for stuff like that. You know, who benefits if this
• 12:03
  album went diamond? I mean I don't think it would, but who profits
• 12:07
  from that? So I just hope at the end of the day it's dope.
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  I kind of believe it will be. And that's why I'm a little
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  bit more excited for something like this because of it's in good hands. It's
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  the homie Havoc, one half of Mob Deep, and it's almost like the
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  third member being Alchemists, you know what I'm saying. He's done a bunch
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  of production that's right there with Havoc as far as tone, and he's done
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  a ton of projects with Prodigy by himself on the board. So there's just
• 12:45
  no way this could be anything other than dope. But we shall see.
• 12:50
  And lastly, so this episode was always going to be a short episode,
• 12:58
  mainly because I went through the news and I'm sorry, I'm just not going
• 13:03
  to report on Drake and Kendrick. I don't care what Drake is about to
• 13:07
  do. It's it been over. It's over last week. I had to
• 13:13
  because the video dropped, and you know, I mean, there were reactions
• 13:18
  and it's what the culture called for. Unless there's something significant that happens,
• 13:22
  I can't talk about every little thing, every little rumor every little way.
• 13:26
  You know, academics try to say, hey, my friend, remember my
• 13:31
  friend, We remember Drake Man. Most of us don't hate him. Okay,
• 13:35
  he lost, you said he lost, So let it be that.
• 13:39
  Stop throwing things in there. Oh, they might be a subliminal. Why
• 13:43
  why would they be so? Again, It's not just that there are things
• 13:48
  that I like to report on that focus on the music the reason why we
• 13:52
  love hip hop. We love battling, but that's not all we love about
• 13:58
  it. And one thing I love about it is the fact that back in
• 14:01
  twenty ten, Freeway and Jake One released a project called Stimulus Package. I
• 14:07
  honestly had no expectations for that project when it came out. I kind of
• 14:13
  just did my due diligence as a host of a news podcast and say,
• 14:16
  let me press play and I swear back in twenty ten. I played that
• 14:22
  joint every day that year for months. It may have been in my top
• 14:26
  five of the year. I really don't remember, but I would be surprised
• 14:31
  if it wasn't. It's something that I go back to from time to time.
• 14:35
  So when they announced that they were doing a Stimulus Package two, I
• 14:41
  was like, why not because I think they would do a bad job,
• 14:48
  but because sometimes people make a part two and it takes a little bit of
• 14:56
  a life for some part one if it's not good, or it just reminds
• 15:01
  you of how good Part one was and part two is it well for those
• 15:05
  who need a quick review, I'm just here to say part two is worthy.
• 15:11
  Okay, I know how I do this. When it comes to my
• 15:13
  reviews or my impressions, I give it three listens, typically when I'm in
• 15:20
  the gym and sometimes at home, but definitely when I'm in the gym,
• 15:24
  where my first listen is just straight impressions. What do I hear? Does
• 15:28
  it sound dope? You know whatever? Second listen is all about the lyrics
• 15:35
  and the concept and how things come together. And then the third listen is
• 15:39
  just to confirm my thoughts, and my thoughts are is that this is a
• 15:43
  dope project. If you've never heard the first Stimulus Package, will do yourself
• 15:48
  a favor and go listen to that, because it was a very dope project.
• 15:54
  And Stimulus Package two carries the torch further it so well that I feel
• 16:03
  like we should, somewhere in the future get a just trilogy. Just make
• 16:07
  it a trilogy, though, make it a trilogy. Everybody has they think
• 16:11
  that they've done that was ill, like fab Guys his Soul Tape series and
• 16:15
  Summertime Shootouts and go Ahead Freeway you and Jake one be like boom, we
• 16:22
  gotta you know, maybe a year, maybe next year whatever, maybe maybe
• 16:26
  not this year, maybe next year, maybe early next year. After you
• 16:29
  blue like Boom stimulus package three the trilogy ends or not that black name nevers
• 16:33
  gaved, but you know what I mean. So with that being said,
• 16:38
  it's good if you just want to go press play. Now? How good
• 16:44
  is it? Best of the year so far? Absolutely in my top five
• 16:51
  of the year. Like I said earlier, I don't know, man,
• 16:55
  because it's first of all, I need some more time with it anyway.
• 16:57
  And two that petition is already heavy. Like if we stopped today and was
• 17:03
  like, okay, give me your best of the top five of the year
• 17:07
  and stop right here, I would just literally say, yeah, that's easy
• 17:11
  because these five albums I chose a trump type. Go listen to him.
• 17:17
  But let's get into the details of this particular album. It is about fourteen
• 17:26
  songs deep, forty seven minutes. Just how I like it? Right,
• 17:30
  Just keep because like we don't need to hear like this ain't back in the
• 17:33
  days where music was releasing so far in between each other that you had the
• 17:40
  time to listen to twenty track songs I mean albums and live with them.
• 17:45
  Now everything's so fast, just like a stimulus package, you spend that money
• 17:49
  fast. Okay, Well, we need to I want to I want to
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  rewind factor put it that way. Features on the album include Simba, Jadakiss,
• 18:00
  Black Thoughts, Sauce Walkers on Here, Pete Cracks on Here, Conway
• 18:03
  the Machine is on here. Standout tracks for me are Time, which I
• 18:08
  thought was really dope, just the joint with Sauce Walker, my own it's
• 18:14
  pretty dope. Price of Fame, also Crystals and Keys, Bited, Legends,
• 18:22
  Surgery. It like at the end, it gets really strong, so
• 18:26
  let me just get into it real quick. Right, So, even though
• 18:29
  this series is called Stimulus Package, it's not just about the money, right,
• 18:33
  in a lot of ways, the money we all or most of us
• 18:37
  received around that time, it's not just a play on that. It's really
• 18:41
  about almost like delivering you some true hip hop, right, Like, yeah,
• 18:47
  your little bankrupt, you know, you're a little low in your hip
• 18:49
  hop, you're a little low in your boom back. You know, been
• 18:52
  running that common and Pete you just need a quick break. But you want
• 18:56
  it to be good stimulus Pack because here you go, courtesy of Freeway and
• 19:03
  Jake One. Right. So I feel like with this project, what I
• 19:07
  love about it was the first one played a lot with that metaphor, But
• 19:12
  this one is so much deeper, right because you get the Freeway, you
• 19:18
  know, you get the bars, You get him talking the way he's always
• 19:22
  talked, right, You get a lot about him as an MC, a
• 19:26
  lot about him and his history. Things he used to do that he don't
• 19:30
  do anymore. Like, you get a lot of that towards the end of
• 19:36
  the album. You get a lot more behind the man, right. So
• 19:41
  for those who don't know, Freeway unfortunately lost his son and his daughter,
• 19:48
  and he had been going through some health issues also. The man went through
• 19:52
  a lot. And what I love about how he chose to talk about these
• 19:57
  things on this particular project is the fact that it doesn't come across as you
• 20:04
  know, oh well, here's the dedication hip hop song, because for me,
• 20:08
  I could tune out, and I know that doesn't seem right, but
• 20:11
  sometimes you've got to realize this is also entertainment, and some people just more
• 20:18
  invested in the entertainment factor than it just being a real situation. But I
• 20:23
  think Freeway lyrically, emotionally, flow wise, his delivery was that bars.
• 20:33
  It's all of that, especially his delivery when he's talking about losing his children.
• 20:41
  You feel it, but it's not one of those things that, at
• 20:45
  least for me, felt uncomfortable, because everyone deals with death on a certain
• 20:49
  level, and it's really bad when parents have to bury their kids. Right,
• 20:57
  No parent wants to do that. I don't care who you are,
• 21:00
  no parent wants to do that. Yet they are a continuation of you.
• 21:06
  You don't mind you going and them going off to be somebody, right,
• 21:11
  They're an extension of you. And just the way the words he chose,
• 21:17
  the inflection, the pain, but that well, the pain that you can
• 21:21
  hear in his voice, but with that pain, you also heard the strength
• 21:26
  from these situations. So I thought that was pretty dope, and I think
• 21:30
  it's something that shouldn't go ignored by people who claim to be music fans or
• 21:37
  claim to be heads or like, you know they I listen to bars,
• 21:41
  okay, well listen right. Another record on there speaks about racism. And
• 21:47
  what I love about it is it's not preachy. It's literally his a point
• 21:52
  of view. It's just what I guess, what I guess, what I'm
• 21:57
  trying to say is because somebody people might be like, yo, Freeway,
• 22:00
  you're biggest fan, I mean, your biggest well I hope he's my biggest
• 22:03
  fan. No, I'm saying with what he's doing, how he's choosing his
• 22:11
  words right, because sometimes you can say things and they don't have the same
• 22:15
  impact, or they don't have the impact you intended. And I think free
• 22:21
  Way speaking about racism didn't feel like or here he go preaching, or here
• 22:26
  he go trying to preach. You ain't conscious like that. It comes off
• 22:30
  conscious without being preachy. And I love the fact that he talks for comparencis
• 22:37
  comparison, compare what did I say for comparing sake? Whatever? Okay,
• 22:45
  we ain't in class, shut up. I feel like him using the fact
• 22:52
  that he's black and Jake One is white and their relationship and how they cooking
• 22:56
  up this stimulus package too for you, And it comes out this way as
• 23:00
  a testament to how whack racism really is, how better it is when we
• 23:07
  worked together for a common cause. And I just I did not expect to
• 23:15
  even have that as a part of this review, because I just wanted to
• 23:19
  hit y'all want some boom backs, some dope beats, Freeway doing some things
• 23:23
  cool. If there was one thing that I would criticize about this project,
• 23:30
  is I think I would have chose other singles because even and it has more
• 23:37
  to do with the hooks of the singles, I felt like, I'm not
• 23:41
  really getting the same vibes of Stimulus Package. But once I heard a full
• 23:47
  album, then I got it. But I didn't get it off the singles.
• 23:51
  I felt like there probably could have been a better one to go to.
• 23:56
  But I mean, Jada Cases. You know, he's on it,
• 24:00
  and it's in It's Freeway, and it's nostalgia behind it. So again,
• 24:06
  I say that to say that this is one of the best albums of the
• 24:11
  year for all the reasons I mentioned. Now, if you've never liked Freeway,
• 24:15
  why would you even care about this one? Unless you're trying to like
• 24:19
  it, then check it out. Maybe you'll like it. If you love
• 24:25
  Freeway's music, I'm gonna tell you like this. And I didn't go through
• 24:30
  the whole catalog. I just know most of what I've heard, and it's
• 24:34
  probably only one project I could think up off the top of my head where
• 24:37
  I'm like, I ain't really like that one. Freeway got a very underrated
• 24:42
  catalog, like very underrated, Like he has he has mixtapes that I've reviewed.
• 24:49
  He obviously, his first album was Crazy with a bunch of hits that
• 24:53
  I remember back then it felt like half the album was on the radio.
• 24:57
  Also, I believe he went plat them too. I think his catalog is
• 25:03
  slept On Man, slept On big time. Y'all tell me some of y'all
• 25:08
  might be bigger fans than me and know every project, But I kind of
• 25:12
  get the vibe that since the Rockefeller thing ended, people ain't paying attention.
• 25:21
  But Freeway has been consistent and consistent through some traumatic situations in his life,
• 25:29
  which needs to be applauded. So you tell me did you hear Freeway in
• 25:36
  Jake One's new album Stimulus Package to leave your review in the comments section below.
• 25:42
  On YouTube, we're trying to get the five hundred subscribers, So if
• 25:45
  you watch any of you enjoy it. And I know from the statistics over
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• 25:53
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• 25:57
  see what's there this subscribe. But because trying to get the five hundred subscribers
• 26:03
  so we can move on to bigger, any better things here in the podcast,
• 26:07
  that's going to do it for me. Also know that this podcast is
• 26:11
  available in audio form via Apple Podcasts, Spotify Podcasts, and whatever podcasts an
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  you know enjoy this kind of content. Until next time, y'all. I
• 26:32
  am not a critic, I'm a fan. Hey,