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In And Out Of Pocket · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

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Coming up on this week's episode of hip Hop Now Podcast, Young Guru versus
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Timberland over Ai Ludacris is coming back to the rap game? Do you Care?
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And my thoughts on the latest album by Billy Woods and Kenny Siegel titled
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Maps. Right now someone is saying, who the hell is that? Let's
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do it. Welcome to hip Hop Now Podcast. If you're from the future,
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you know what to do? Show at side of so disrespectful hip hop
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and hits Davie, Let's get right into the business. What up, y'all?
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I am your host Vegas and this hip Hop Now Podcasts a podcast specifically
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designed to keep you caught up on all hip hop music and culture that happened
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throughout the week. Big shout out to the supporters over at patreon dot com
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well click on the link in the description of this episode. Whether you
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share with people you know, enjoy this kind of content. Big shout
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out to hip Hop dx dot com, All hip hop dot com, Hot
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New hip Hop, and a couple of places where I get some of my
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stories from. Before we get right into the business, let me just say
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this, stay tuned, because fifty years of hip hop I have some more
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bonus content on the way to commemorate, celebrate, and demonstrate bars what real
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hip hop analytics is about. From a hip hop fan such as myself,
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let's get right into the business. Young Guru says that Timberland's initiative to bring
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AI to a profitable and I guess successful status in hip hop, it's corny
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and a problem. Let's go to hip Hop dx dot com where we get
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some more info on this and get exactly what he said. Well, let's
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get what Timberland was saying. Now, I mentioned this before in a previous
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episode, especially when I did the whole AI thing, but about Timberland really
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being excited by AI, in particular with mcs that are no longer here,
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which we'll get into the morals and ethics of that. But let me see,
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this is what I believe Timberland saying. It's going to really be a
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new way of creating a new way of generating money with less costs. I'm
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already here. This is what I'm doing. I'm going to lead the way.
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So Timberland's hyped about this new initiative. But Young Guru, and if
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you don't know who I'm talking about, I am not talking about Guru of
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Gangster Rest in Peace. I'm talking about Young Guru, famously known as jay
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Z's go to engineer. You've heard him shout him out numerous times. But
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he said in response to Timberland with this new initiative, I love you,
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my brother, you know I do. But they're sayin't it? This is
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dangerous and it's at and at a basic level, it's corny. I will
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be on the side of the Luddites. I have no idea what that means,
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but I'll look it up. How do I feel about it? Wow?
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I don't like it. I like technology. I like the fact that
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this tech is available, but for what it seems like Timberland's trying to do
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with it, even though he's probably right it will make money. This sort
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of an ethical issue that I have with it, because sure, Tupac,
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Biggie pun Easy, who else, who else we can name? Big al
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Right, we can name all the nipsy, we can name all these rappers
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we lost who states dictate what you can do with their likeness, that being
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their face, their voice, whatever, and even their music in some cases
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whatever. They have control of them. And I kind of feel like I
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would rather know what Big Girl wants, right well, I would rather know
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what pun or or you know or Tupac really wants. What they would feel
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about this. Now, let's not assume just because these brothers are gone that
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we know they would be totally against it. Biggie was talking about retirement,
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after life, after death. He was seriously talking about it. He was
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saying it all the time. He might look at something like this like go
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ahead, send me the bag if they're gonna buy it, and they you
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know, and I could go and perform it maybe once or twice whatever,
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But they're not here. And like I said, I watched that video of
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Timberland saying, you know, they're artists that I never got a chance to
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work with. And that song he had with Biggie, on the surface,
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it was not whacked in me. But the thing the thing is is as
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much as it's his voice, as much as it's his breaths in between the
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bars. We know Big didn't write it. We know that someone else has
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to try to nail down the thing and the AI the things that Biggie would
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say. But if we go into terms of people who are still around,
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who were around in the nineties, like a jay Z or Nas, Big
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wasn't around to have a career that was like this in the same way they
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did right to to try different things to fail, right, Big Ampoc died
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successful. They were successful. They were on top of the rat game at
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the time. They passed. Same thing with Nipsey. He was rising,
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so they could put out something that could sound dope. But you gotta ask
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yourself, as a hip hop fan, what was it that you liked about
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Nipsey his perspective? Right? You don't. You can't really use AI to
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generate that without trying to find someone who who's you know. I guess studying
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Nipsey's interviews in his albums and the things he says and does so much that
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that's the only way to sound like Nipsey wrote it. But the problem with
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that is, like I said about jay Z and Nas throughout time being able
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to do the up and down with their career right whack album, doughbable whatever,
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is the fact that they have grown wiser with experience right there, even
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if you don't want to call the wise, their experience stands out. And
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then music right Nas in this whole King's disease run God forbid, even though
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it didn't happen. But let's just say, you know, if Nas was
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the one that lost his life in his twenties, right, well, then
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we're getting a different Nas today. If we follow this whole AI thing,
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We're not getting the mature Nis that's been around all these years, that's more,
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you know, giving off more wisdom in his rhymes. We get an
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escortball at a time where it's been twenty plus years. And I don't know
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if we want that, or maybe some of y'all do. I don't know,
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but I think it's it's an interesting topic. I agree with Young Guru
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and a lot of ways. I see what Timberland is saying, like maybe
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there's a way to do this that's not just resurrecting mcs that passed away.
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But I'm gonna tell you right now, tell you, right now, not
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that long ago people are up in arms because the AI rapper got a record
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there right then it went quiet. Now that they're able to take voices of
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people you know and make those rappers. And now you're talking about while who
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wants to sign Ai Biggie to that label? Because we put this single out
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and it went crazy? Who want to sign him? Right? Who's gonna
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stop somebody who's really busy, like a Drake who's had ghostwriters every now and
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again from saying, Okay, there's been a fake Drake album out or mixtape.
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But if I put my next album out, it's guarantee that they're gonna
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think it's me. But what if Drake just uses Ai? Right? What
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if he just has concepts? And it's the last thing I'm gonna say.
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What if he just has concepts? And this for anybody who writes, anybody
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who's a rapper. You don't record everything you write because some things you knew
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with dope and that's why you recorded it. Other things you were a little
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bit on the fence, couldn't really finish it in the way you thought you
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wanted to write. Like you can say what the concept is, but you
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really haven't been able to find the right words to put that entire song together.
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But if you sit down with AI, maybe AI could finish some of
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those raps for you, polish off that content or that concept for you.
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You see what I mean. It's it's gonna be used, and it's gonna
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be used by people who are current musicians and not musicians, but you know
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hip hop artists who will see the shortcuts and say to themselves, while album
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almost done, how about I don't even have to look all right, this
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is the last thing. Yeah, it's the last thing. How About I
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could go on tour and I'm supposed to deliver an album by two months from
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now, But I could pay my homie to just create, just constantly every
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day, generate music. Generate my music using my voice, using my concepts,
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using my thoughts, using songs or do see whatever? Right, And
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by the time I go sit down with him, me like bom okay today,
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I got twenty songs and we just listen to them, and we listen
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for the imperfection in the delivery. And then maybe I punch some of those
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not physically punch people, those who that don't know. I go in and
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I fill in the blanks so I smooth without certain parts. Not only can
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you make more money because you're not This is going to become expensive, by
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the way, if this ever happens, but you're saving time. You're finding
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time to not only deliver without the pressure on a deadline, but you could
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also get another bag while that's happening. I'm not saying anything any of this
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is going to happen, but there's a road of ethics and quality and integrity
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that will get blurry. Specifically with hip hop, it will get blurry because
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unlike singers, right, you still got to be able to sing right,
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but with rappers, just memorize that joint. You can listen to that joint
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and memorize the whole thing to the point where now you perform it and it's
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you, but it's not. So they haven't. Ludacris wants to come back
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to rap to see if he still has it. Now, some of you
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might be saying, I didn't realize he was gone needed I but he did
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lean heavier into the acting side of his career, and sure, yeah,
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it's been a while since we've heard that there was a little Chris album coming
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out, But this is what he said. He wants to prove that he's
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still got it and he's put up a couple of freestyles on Instagram to prove
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that. But I think in a lot of ways with this new fast five
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fat five fast and furious fast and furious tend not X, that's that X
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is a ten room in whatever. But it's convenient, right, Ludacris got
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a movie coming out, so he gonna get a little shine, a little
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buzzy, gonna be in the public guy a little bit more. I start
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promoting some music I want to come out, and I believe he has the
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music already on deck. Let's do what he has to say. I wonder
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if these are bars when I was young. I feel like some of my
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favorite rappers, once they get to a certain point, is almost like you
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wish they were still kind of hungry, and you feel like they don't have
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it necessarily like they used to. I never wanted to be that, So
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it's extremely important for me to prove to people that even though I'm doing all
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this other stuff, make no mistake, I still got it. I'm still
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hungry. Don't I like that? Right? I like that? I mean
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he's still an MC. If you ask me if you can still spit like
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that, you dope, And you still had the passion to do it.
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I don't see why you should stop, especially for someone like him when he
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has the money. If he wanted to just finance an album or mixtape or
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quick you know, ep, he could. I just wonder if the interest
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is still there, because see, this is the thing with Ludacris. Ludacris
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is nice. He's nice with it. He could spit, but he became
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so I'm not gonna say it for the police guards out there, but he
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became so successful as a rapper on a mainstream level because of antics. His
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videos were wild, his hooks were wild, right, it was more like
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fun, you know, than anything. And then there was a point I
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think it's the joint called like Masterpiece or something like that, where he really
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wanted to focus on just being lyrical. What she did, that's, to
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me is one of his better albums. I think he had jay z n
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Naz on there, like he was really trying to plant his flag lyrically,
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right. And then you know that that was a long time ago. Like
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my son who was probably honestly not even born for the most part, when
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Ludacris was popping like that. I mean, he doesn't know that Ludacris at
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all. He knows the dude he's seen in films, similar to how some
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people are what Ice Cue, They don't know that Ice Cue from the early
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nineties. They know Big three and actor comedic actor at that. So it's
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it's one of those things where it's like, I'm not mad, I'm happy
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Luda Chris wants to come back to the game, but do you care if
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he comes back. I'm curious to see what he has as far as music,
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because if you're gonna say that, you're gonna put that out there,
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oh well, it better be flames, right, the bar is better be
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right, because if not, then you should go back to just strictly acting.
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But I don't think Ludacris is that kind of dude where that's going to
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be the result. So we'll see. And lastly, so there's a rappid
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named Billy Woods who recently put out an album with Kenney Siegel. Right,
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it's called Maps, And I'm familiar with Billy Woods because of features he was
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on and Needle Drop. Right, what's his name, Anthony Fantant or whatever
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his name is, And I remember one of his projects was like really highly
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touted by the hip hop community, Right, at Large and I felt like,
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oh, I need to check him out now. I didn't really like
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it. I can't remember which album was. I didn't really like it,
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so I moved on. So when it came to this release from Billy Woods,
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who on Apple Music is list it as underground rap, put out this
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album called Maps, which has seventeen tracks on it. Danny Brown is featured
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on here, Quell Chris is on here, Kenny Seagull on the Beats.
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I was like, I'm gonna check it out. And when I tell you,
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I couldn't delete this album off my phone fast enough, I actually did
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that because I was like, wow, it's joined, it so off beat
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and it this is not for me. This is this is for the lyrical
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special miracle cats who think that they are rising above humanity because they've figured out
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these off feet bars. But and I hope you didn't change the video yet,
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but I decided, you know what, I judged it a little too
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quick. I watched another review of the album from Damn. I can't remember
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the YouTube channel, um My bad, but I watched their review and I
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watched how they analyzed it right, and I was like, I don't think
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I was listening in that way. You know, I just was going off
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for initial impressions and that was that. So I put it back on my
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phone. I don't own it. I just have Apple Music. So I
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put put it back on my phone, and I said, Okay, one
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day when I'm going to work, when I'm not looking at work emails,
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I'm just on the train, just riding and listening. I'm gonna listen again,
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keeping in mind what these guys said about, you know, his flow,
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about Billy Will, what's flow, his motivations, some of the bars.
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And when I tell you, when I did that, I liked the
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album a little bit more than I did before. Not enough to delete it,
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not enough to call it in my top five, but I'm liking it
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more and more. Now. Let me tell you what changed my mind.
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It wasn't that I watched reviews and these guys like it and I'm like,
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oh, well they like it. Now I'm brainwashed, and now I like
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it. No. First, when I listen to any music, doesn't matter
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what genre of music it is, but particularly but hip hop specifically for me,
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it's more about the beat catching me. And then either your flow also
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catches me, and what you're saying does, and sometimes they don't happen all
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at the same time. Sometimes the beat is what pulls me in, and
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maybe later I hit the bars and I'm like, oh, he's getting kind
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of crazy, right, But it took me back to a book that I've
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probably been reading for too long and I need to do a review for it.
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But it's the book about Jay Diller right that came out I think two
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years ago now or one year, and I remember not only that book,
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but also what I learned Shout Out to Kill an Apartment five B or The
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Writer's Bench right back then. What I learned was that I didn't initially like
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Jay Diller beats because I didn't understand his technique bars right, I just didn't.
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I thought, Yo, why this joint this beat sounds so offpeat Why
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it sounds like his two beats playing at the same time and they don't blend,
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Like what is this? But then when you understand the technique, the
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reason why he laid it the way he did, well, then it does
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start to sound on beat. It's just not the way we're used to hearing
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things that sound on beat. So Billy Wood sounds out of pocket. If
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you're not used to hearing somebody round like that, like if you're not used
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to hearing someone like a like an MF doom, right, they sound out
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of pocket, like all over the track, like damn, do you hear
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the beat? But when I started to focus on his lyrics and what he
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was saying and the beat was more secondary to back him up, I was
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like, oh, now I hear it. It's not a traditional flow.
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It's not what you expect every time you hear mc rhyme. It's different,
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and it's honestly, it's more. And I'm not trying to call him kinga
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rat, don't get me, don't get it twisted. But I'm like,
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oh, so now when I focus on the lyrics, I could hear where
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he is in pocket, being out of pocket. It's in pocket for his
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flow and one and I know it just sounds crazy, um, But once
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you keep that in mind, and dude, like I did, right,
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you focus on the lyrics and make the beat secondary, then it all becomes
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Crystal Claire. Then I could hear his bars more. Before it was just
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like he was just a stream of consciousness, just saying just saying rhyming things
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right, But then I could hear the double and triple entendres and the metaphors
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and in the setup, in the things and the concept. So this album
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is called Maps, and it has like the I guess this is like the
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Life flyer on it, you know, not the Life when you're on the
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plane and all that good stuff. If you're watching on video, you can
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see it when you're on the plane and they're like, you know, pull
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down your mask and put it over your face like this, right, it
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has that. But what I didn't realize was that the whole album was kind
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of thinged around a trip on an airplane. Right, So if landing there's
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there's other references in here, the layover, right, there's a lot and
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even within the bars. Now. Danny Brown said something on the soul that
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he's featured, which is called Year Zero that I thought. I was like,
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this is making me like this album even more. He said something like
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Danny Brown, I'm back like like young white Girl or something like that.
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And I was like, wait, what, I'm back like young or he
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said what he said straight back or something like that. I'm no. He
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said, yeah, he said something like straight back or right back or something
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like that. But he was making a reference to white girls not having butts,
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right, having backs, not butts, but backs, And I was
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like, damn, I didn't even catch that at the first time because I
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was so thrown off by how offbeat everything sound now when it comes to the
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production, and I'm not gonna take too much time on it when it comes
25:45
to the production. I think that's a little bit more hit or miss.
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Some of it is really dope, and some of it you're going too far
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to be different. Right. The first track ken with speakers that beat if
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you have headphones or car or just in your crib, anything with a lot
26:08
of base, some of these beat hitching you're like, yo, de science.
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So I say this to say that I think it is definitely one of
26:22
the better albums of this year. It just says it took me a while
26:26
to understand why and what they were doing. I was very dismissive of it,
26:32
but now I get it. Is it gonna be in heavy rotation maybe
26:36
for a little bit, but I'm more of an in pocket kind of hip
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hop fan. Is it boom back? Yeah, so a kind of not
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really blah blah blah. It's definitely not gangster rap, but it is an
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impressive display of skill in some regards discipline, right, because you gotta be
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disciplined in my instimation to rhyme in a way where you sound out of pocket,
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you just hear the music differently. But for him and Kenny Segu for
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Billy was it Kenny Segu to put together a project that just sounds like it
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works and maybe for me you shave off like maybe three songs. I think
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it's something commendable. And I think this year for me, as I start
27:29
to build my Best of the Year and top five, it's gonna feature more
27:37
different, less than traditional but just as dope, if not doper hip hop
27:44
projects because so far between the Jpeg Mafia and Danny Brown and this, like
27:52
I'm digging what I'm hearing. The creativity and in the conway is growing on
27:59
me. I know what I said about it, but it's it's growing on
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me. It's kind of been a heavy rotation an so I don't know,
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man, I would recommend it if if you can do the things that I
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just said, I would recommend you check it out. If you hear a
28:14
whole bunch of people saying it's dope, is the best of the year,
28:17
and you're used to listening to Griselda or Nas or whoever else you're you might
28:25
not like this because you're gonna be like Dan, this dude's off beat,
28:27
Like what what's going on? Just think about Dyla and especially like them Slum
28:33
Village days. Think about those beats by Dylla that sound like it's not really
28:38
a rhythm, but you still love it. It's kind of one of those
28:44
things. Hope this all makes sense. That's gonna do it for me.
28:47
You can follow me on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram at Vegas World,
28:51
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of content. Until next time. You are not a critic. I'm a fan Pace