Hot 97 Freestyle of the Year

What's woody wood, grasshoppers?

The holy trinity of radio show freestyle is up for debate...

...and that debate is between Mysonne, Loaded Lux, and Black Thought for the crown of the Hot 97 Freestyle hosted by Funk Flex

Mysonne stepped up to the plate and impressed the hell outta listeners, then Lux came along and challenged the crown

But Black Thought tho?

Yoooooooooooooo

Shout out to these three brothas tho, because whomever you think had the best rhyme in this era of style over substance, those freestyles were MUCH needed

Click the links and peep game


Mysonne





Loaded Lux




Black Thought




Peace and Afro Grease

Nah'Sun the Great @ www.nahsunblaze.com

Tupac and Biggie Killed Hip-Hop

Me choppin it up with Lord Finesse

What’s woody wood, grasshoppers?
 
I’m finna get straight to the point…
 
It pisses me off that society romanticizes the past…I admit, I do it sometimes…shit, 99 percent of the DVD movies I own were either made in the 1990s or older
 
The truth is, with the exception of Argo (instant classic) and Bamboozled, I really don’t fuck with movies in the 2000s too heavy
 
That leads me to the years of 1995-1996, infamously known as the wet dreams of Hip-Hop fans
 
A slew of classic albums dropped in those two years: Only Built 4 Cuban Link, Dah Shining, Reasonable Doubt, Temples of Boom, ATLiens, 7 Day Theory, The Infamous, It Was Written, Liquid Swords, East 1999 Eternal, and too many other joints to name
 
Hell, I’ll even throw in cult classics like Crucial Conflict’s The Final Tic in the mix (one of my personal favorite albums)

What people fail to realize is that Hip-Hop back then was NO DIFFERENT from Hip-Hop of today
 
I’m NOT talking about the quality of albums…you must be on crack or molly to think that rap albums today can remotely compete with joints from back then…That’s not even a debate
 
I’m not talkin’ about that…
 
…I’m talkin’ about the SUCCESS of an album and rap artist
 
You see, in order for a rap artist or group to even sniff platinum, a CROSSOVER record needed to be made, or else you found yourself barely going gold or even dropped from the label
 
Yeah, Fu-Gee-La was cute, but The Score wouldn’t have done shit on the charts without The Fugees droppin’ the remake of Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly…Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Link was classic, but that album wouldn’t have hit platinum without a joint like Ice Cream… Nas dropped the Street Dreams remix with R Kelly just to get more spins and notoriety
 
Bone Thugs’ East 1999 Eternal is a VERY dark album, but that joint crossed over when they re-released the album with Tha Crossroads remix to sell more units
 
Method Man’s All I Need razor sharp remix had won the Grammy…NOT the grimy version you heard on the album, the joint WITHOUT Mary J Blige on the hook
 
To take things a lil bit further back, Wu-Tang’s 36 Chambers didn’t move units until they dropped C.R.E.A.M and the M.E.T.H.O.D Man joint…BOTH songs are catchy as hell on a grimy ass album
 
You see the pattern???

Method Man's All I Need original version...click here to watch on your phone

The major difference between that mid-90s era and today is that the new rap cats nowadays act like they can’t make a memorable album even if their lives depended on it…they also feel the need to dumb their shit down to sell
 
Keeping it simple and dumbing down are totally two different things, but that’s for another blog
 
Good music is STILL out there...it's just that music buyers today are too lazy to dig for it…technology spoiled the American public…I remember spending HOURS in record shops to find good music…Yep, I saw a lot of wack shit in ’95-’96, too...that's why I spent hours at the shop...LOL
 
So people, don’t get shit twisted...as much as headz wanna act like rap was pure in ’95-’96, that era was just as commercialized, superficial, and so-called negative as it is today…besides a few differences here and there, the music climate is STILL the same
 
You NEEDED to be a superstar to go platinum in those days just like how you need to stand-out today like a brotha at a klan rally
 
I don’t even wanna talk about the designer clothes and hoes, champagne, liquor and luxury car name drops of '96 that plagued the rap game…Biggie and Tupac were HIGHLY criticized by rap listeners during the last months of their lives because of their materialistic rhymes 

BIG was accused of rhyming with too many designer clothes name drops as a fake mafia don (The Roots sneak-dissed Biggie and his videos in the What They Do video), and Pac was accused of being a fake thug, a troublemaker, and a puppet for Suge Knight

If you don’t believe me, check the readers’ letters in any Vibe and Source magazines during that time

But hey, people tend to overlook those things when they succumb to what my guy Divine had coined, “Funeral Love” 

The Roots What They Do video (aka the Biggie diss)...they're pretty much using themselves to make fun of how rap videos were made in '96 and how they might appear in the future...click here to watch on your phone
 

1995-1996 was the beginning of the end for rap music that wasn't motivated by money, pretty much what you're seeing today on a commercial level...Hip-Hop went from a culture to a business, even during an era that supposedly gave birth to some of the greatest rap music known to man
 

Remember, family…
 
The more things change, the more they stay the same, as the present is just the remix of the past
 
And I’m out
 
Peace
 
Nah’Sun the Great @ www.nahsunblaze.com

Smiff N Wessun "Dah Shinin'"...certified CLASSIC

Things Fall Apart

What's woody, grasshoppers?

I had to squeeze in this shout out to show love to Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God and other joints he'd written before I hit up a networking event tonight
 
He passed away last week at the age of 82
 
I've read Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God in African Literature back in college...if I wasn't panty raiding in dorms and skirt chasin' around campus, I was gettin' my read on for African Lit class...the Indian lady who professed African Lit was NO JOKE...straight up

She once asked the king out of anger if I wanted to teach the class because I was talking too much...and now that I think about it, my smart ass should've replied, "HELL YEAH!!!" and swagged on them niggas

Ha ha!

Anyway...Achebe is one of the reasons why I put culture into my novels...I always make a point to put some form of culture, whether it's Black or foreign, into my work so people can learn about certain customs

What's wild is that I actually thought about purchasing Things Fall Apart to read it again before he passed...that joint is most definitely on my "books to get" list

And yeah...I STILL read paperbacks, baby pa

Ayo, I'm out...I'm finna throw back a couple drinks in honor of brother Chinua

Peace

Nah'Sun the Great