25 Years: Ice Cube's Death Certificate remains the best West Coast solo rap album

The biggest shock for me as a hip hop fan is how people forget early Ice Cube. If you’re my age - 32 - you might remember “Check Yourself” and “It Was a Good Day” but you probably remember Cube from Westside Connection and the late 90s when he had more club records.

“Straight Outta Compton” might have reinvigorated interest in NWA but it only had a brief glimpse into Cube’s solo career after he left. People may know Cube was NWA's chief songwriter besides MC Ren and The D.O.C. but modern fans forget that from 1990-94, he was as great as anybody who ever touched a mic.

I’ve gone as far as to say Ice Cube is better than Tupac. Tupac was brilliant with his emotion and passion but the fact some of you raised an eyebrow showed why Ice Cube is probably more underrated than he should be.

Death Certificate is the crown jewel of that early run. AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted was a powerful debut that showed Ice Cube could hold his own away from NWA. Death Certificate was a step forward in taking that rage and skill and making it more West Coast friendly. The Bomb Squad handled most of the production for AMW but DC was all Cube and Sir Jinx making it funkier.

It’s also one of the most controversial albums ever made. A town in Oregon banned copies of it and several of these songs probably couldn’t be made today (Giving Up The Nappy Dugout!). It still reached No. 2 on the pop charts and it showed why Cube was the most popular and most feared rapper out. I've already written before why I think it's the best West Coast solo album but now that my musical ears have grown, I'm breaking it down even further.

Happy 25th birthday to Nevermind, Blood Sugar Sex Magik and Low End Theory

25 years ago today, three albums dropped that became game-changers. It wasn't planned. Nobody knew what they'd do. It was pure organic history and pure organic shifts in music with Nirvana's Nevermind, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magic and A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory.

All of them built up in their own way. Nirvana was blowing up in Seattle but Alice in Chains and Soundgarden were starting to make impacts on radio as well. The Chilis were Los Angeles legends just taking mainstream success with Mother's Milk but were known for punk-funk and rowdy shows around the country. Tribe? An incredible debut that had New York and others anxious to see what they'd do next adding to the Native Tongues landscape.

There's more than enough words on Nevermind today. The album that made most of us know who Nirvana was. The classic cover, the classic songs still getting play on radio so that when I was in high school (98-02), I knew them like they just came out. As much as Smells like Teen Spirit is overplayed, there's still a rush when you hear those opening chords and that chorus that brought in a new generation.

Now I've learned more about music to know Teen Spirit was heavily influenced by Boston's More Than a Feeling and The Pixies soft-loud dynamic (quiet on the verses, loud on the chorus - something you can really hear on "In Bloom").  "Come As You Are" stole the riff from Killing Joke's "Eighties" but it still sounds so murky and beautiful that you can't help but enjoy. It doesn't rob Nirvana of their power or how that album ushered in grunge in 1992.

Oh and "Breed" is one of my favorites because it hints at Nirvana's punk roots. To me, this song is all about Krist Novoselic's heavy bass and Dave Grohl's heavy drumming. Kurt Cobain has a nasty guitar solo that just fires me up but this was all about the total band just going all out, probably why I've had it on my running playlist a few times.

Contrast that with "On a Plain" which always moves me on the Unplugged version. Something about that record makes me feel the pain in Kurt's voice and it's perfect near the end.

Then we have Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Rick Rubin on board to help mature the Chili Peppers sound. But you know something funny? I waver on this album being my favorite sometimes with Mother's Milk.

Don't get me wrong. BSSM has my favorite Chilis songs. "Suck My Kiss" is just so raw and fun every time I hear it. The Power of Equality is one of the more underrated intros in their catalog. The title track has some heavy funk in there and "Sir Psycho Sexy" is hilarious and wild. And of course, "Under the Bridge" is a great love letter to L.A. and so uplifting to me even though it's a depressing revisit into drug abuse.

But something about it lacks the raw punk sound and wild energy of Mother's Milk. Part of that is Rick Rubin robbing that in folks he produces (and I wondered if my burned CD robbed some of that sound in college) but it's missing from BSSM. So I guess there's different things I love about BSSM than Mother's Milk but what I love is great.

You hear Anthony Kiedis show that he's a solid songwriter. You hear John Frusicante show why he's a musical genius even if the fame drove him away during the tour. His guitar work on "I Could Have Lied" is incredibly soulful and hints at the goodness he'd show on later albums. So the album has some wonderful highs I love all the time and it blew them up from the L.A. alternative scene they shared with Fishbone, Jane's Addiction and more to be rock legends.

I just have a weird relationship with it as a super duper Chilis fan. Oh and if you don't like "Give It Away" you don't have a soul. Period.

Now Low End Theory. I've written words already about this being the first Tribe album I heard but with Phife Dawg having left us, it's key to remember his presence is why this album stands out. We knew about Q-Tip being a great MC from the debut. We knew the first album was well-produced so the second would have it. But Phife's presence makes it have more oomph.

His intro on "Buggin Out" still gets me excited as much as hearing that bass kick in. His solo cut "Butter" showed the personality I'd become a fan of when I dug into Tribe.  And of course, his back and forth on Check the Rhime with Q-Tip became a new standard for group interplay.

I still love this album for what it has overall. The heavy bass sound. The immaculate production and Q-Tip giving us gems on "Verses from the Abstract" (The world is kinda cold and the rhythm is my blanket). It's hip-hop that was smoothed out but no less great. You can hear it now and know that the Native Tongues wasn't just De La Soul's left field greatness but it was also Tribe finding their own lane and giving us timeless music.

"Scenario" will be played forever and ever and ever and we'll get hyped like dungeon dragons with Busta. But today's birthday means we'll also miss Phife Dawg much more. The 5-Foot Assassin who gave us wonderful chemistry with Q-Tip and made Tribe one of my all-time favorites.  A classic album with bass and rhymes for days and helped usher in the alternative rap sound that Ultramagnetic MCs, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers and more started.

Happy birthday to three game-changers. Timeless works of art that will never leave my ears or many of us who grew up in their aftermath.

The Nas vs. Jay Z Mixtape (A Celebration Collaboration)

During the spring, my buddy Matt Lane hit me up when I was doing a fantasy movie draft for Bro Jackson. We both love hip-hop as much as we love sports and we debated the idea of creating a similar draft for a mixtape featuring Nas (one of my faves) and Jay Z (one of his faves).

The format was simple. We create categories of songs to choose from and then create our ideal mixtape based on the categories. 24 songs total. This isn't a formal best-of-either artist but a way to celebrate the different vibes each one of them give off.

So over the next couple of weeks, we're unveiling the playlists 3 songs at a time. You can follow along on Twitter with me and Matt (@TrojanTeach) and we're using the hashtag #NasJayMixtape.  You can also check out our playlists below each list and any song not on Spotify will have a YouTube link.

Paul's Boutique: The Beastie Boys Grow Up and Get Funky (25th Anniversary)

Quick story to celebrate today being the 25th anniversary of one of hip-hop and pop music's greatest records.

Around my college days and shortly after (2004-2007), I stayed visiting RapReviews.com. The strong, well-written reviews inspired me to dig in the crates and get albums like Funkadelic's Maggot Brain, UGK's Ridin Dirty, and The D.O.C.'s No One Can Do It Better.

This particular review was a favorite because while I heard about the Beastie Boys' Paul Boutique being this all-time great album, I had no idea why especially since they had no singles. The best Beastie songs to me were all over the radio so why is this obscure 1989 record so good? Well that review convinced me to finally check it out.

Since I was at a point where my musical education was starting to blossom, it opened my eyes in a big way. It's a masterpiece of sampling and a declaration of independence for hip-hop's party boys saying goodbye to Def Jam, their image and showing me the bridge to the Beastie Boys I saw in high school on.

I've called this album part of the Holy Trinity of Sampling along with Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions and De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising. It's not just taking random beats and looping them - these albums created sonic landscapes by stitching together the familiar and unfamiliar to make something new. It reminds me of a term I learned in a communication theory called bricolage, the creation of something new from a diversity of things.

The D.O.C. - No One Can Do It Better (25 Years and Still True)

 

For years, I’ve felt that the greatest hip hop tragedy not involving a death was what happened to the D.O.C. Thanks to a car accident that trashes his vocal cords and suddenly, one of the West Coast’s most promising talents has been altered forever.

The biggest outcome is that future generations of rap listeners like myself would never get to hear him on records that dominated the West’s landscape. Future generations would also forget his talent and perhaps only remember him from Dr. Dre’s shoutout on “Nuthin But a G Thang” or his voice on this Jock Jam/sports arena classic.

To be honest, I didn’t even listen to No One Can Do It Better until 2009. Yet being forgotten or known as a sidekick does a disservice to perhaps the most technically gifted MC on the West Coast who could’ve made an even bigger impact that he has now as a ghostwriter.

This month is the 25th anniversary of the D.O.C.’s debut and it’s one of my favorites. He made rapping sound so easy and with Dr. Dre continued to build on his production style, it was a marriage that added a new layer to the West Coast beginning to make an impact on rap.

The College Dropout: 10 Years Later with Kanye

10 years ago today, the greatest rap (musical?) debut of this century came out. Kanye West’s College Dropout dropped in like a breath of fresh air and my ears and love of hip-hop would not be the same. I wrote in brief for Bro Jackson about it but I need to expand more.

For me, it was the first time a rapper had touched me in a way I could relate. I connected with Eminem for his passion, Nas for his lyricism and Tribe Called Quest for their vibe. I enjoyed Nelly and I tolerated 50 Cent while not becoming the full G-Unit fan most were. I still hadn’t found too many rappers that spoke to where I was.

That’s where Kanye West came in. A middle-class kid from Chicago who grew up like I did. A guy who didn’t fit in to what convention said a rapper should be just like I wasn’t what most of my peers expected of Black kids. He cared about his fashion, wore backpacks and looked like a combination of underground cred with mainstream appeal.

9/29/98: 15 Years Later (The Love Movement)

A Tribe Called Quest is my favorite group of all time. Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders affected me deeply in college and Midnight Marauders is in my personal top 10 – not just hip-hop, but all time.When I saw their documentary last year, I was both happy and sad. Happy to relive my favorite things but sad to see how things fall apart after Midnight Marauders.

That's why it's hard for me to write about The Love Movement because it represents the end*. The end of Tribe. The end of an era. One of the saddest farewells in hip-hop and 15 years later, it still is sad thinking about it being the last album we have with Q-Tip, Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheed Muhammad.

Love Movement isn’t a bad record. It’s not on par with their first three but it’s better than Beats, Rhymes and Life. It’s a farewell where all the old friends gather to pay respects but it’s not a celebration.

9/29/98: 15 Years Later (Vol. 2 Hard Knock Life)

15 years ago this Sunday, several albums were released that became gamechangers or showed pivotal moments in the artist’s career. September 29, 1998 would forever be known as a great day for hip-hop and I wanted to reflect on four of those albums that dropped. First up, Jay-Z’s “Vol 2...Hard Knock Life.”

Jay-Z’s growth to the most popular rapper in America is amazing to me because I remember that moment when it first happened 15 years ago when I was starting high school.

It’s when I heard the twin combo of “Hard Knock Life” and “Can I Get A…” dominate the radio that fall of 1998.  Throw in “Money Ain’t a Thang” and all a sudden, Shawn Carter is no longer just another New York rapper but a multi-platinum artist thanks to his third album.

With hip-hop still in a weird place post Biggie/Tupac, enter Jay. His first two albums were great and he had radio singles that were dope (Reasonable Doubt’s “Ain’t No…” and “Can’t Knock the Hustle”) and obvious panders (Vol. 1’s “City Is Mine and “Sunshine”*). He had yet to cross over and this is where his hustler mentality took over combined with his great skill.

In 1998-99, Jay’s success benefited from several things. 1) Linking up with DMX and Ruff Ryders**, 2) The Hard Knock Life Tour which was huge for restoring rap in the public eye, 3) His ability to take what Biggie/Puff did – use obvious samples with gritty rhymes - and go to a higher level, 4) Rap was on the verge of becoming more popular than ever.

Best of Biggie: My favorites from Chris Wallace

Three years ago, I honored the Notorious B.I.G. in this space and I said that I couldn't do a Top 10 list of my favorite songs. I'm going to try to do it now and while it should be easy because Biggie only has a small catalog of music, it's hard because I enjoy most of his music and as a writer, I love his wordplay and rhyme schemes.

Without further adieu, here goes my list.

Unbelievable - My favorite Biggie record is perfect in every sense. Juicy is perfect too but this one is a great marriage of Biggie's easy flow and DJ Premier simple yet creative and funky beat. The R. Kelly sample in the middle is a great touch. I just love the feeling I get when I hear it.

The What - I love how Biggie and Method Man trade verses. Love how Biggie mimics a hiccup in the middle of his 2nd verse. Love Easy Mo Bee's beat coming smoother than a river.

Review: Big Boi & Killer Mike at the House of Blues

The last 2 weeks have been a blur for me. Got to witness my sister receive her law degree in Atlanta and my mother get her doctorate in Educational Leadership in the same week. To end it all, I returned to Atlanta somewhat when I went to go see Killer Mike and Big Boi at the House of Blues.
I hadn't been to the HOB on Sunset since 2007 when I interviewed Chuck D and sadly had to leave before Public Enemy took the stage. Yes, I chose a date over seeing PE up close and personal but if it makes you feel better, I had seen them a week prior at Rock the Bells.

Anyways, I got there right before an opening act started. Fishhawk was a pretty cool band but the sound made it hard to appreciate them until their last two songs. Their lead singer definitely was a character on stage with his curly hair and stage antics but I dug their sound. I may give them a listen on Spotify to see more.

Then it was time for Killer Mike. Soon as I heard the opening seconds of "God is In the Building" Mike came out spitting his opening verse from "Big Beast", the lead single from last year's "R.A.P. Music."

Public Enemy "It Takes A Nation of Millions" - 25 Years as the Greatest Rap Album

25 years ago Sunday, the greatest rap album of all time was released. Public Enemy's sophomore album changed hip hop forever and it's still a remarkable album every time I hear it.

The first time I heard it was in college. I had bought a PE greatest hits CD in high school so the next step was to hear this album. I downloaded "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos", "Rebel Without a Pause" and "Party For Your Right to Fight", the last one simply because it flipped the Beastie Boys' biggest hits.

I ended up DLing the whole album and to say that it was powerful is an understatement. It's music for a revolution but it didn't lose its cool or fun in the process. It was hip hop growing up to be a force of change on the heels of Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys making hip-hop popular.

"It Takes A Nation Of Millions" was arguably the album that made mainstream music critics understand Rap was an actual legitimate artform...
— Dart_Adams (@Dart_Adams) April 14, 2013

Here's my case why it's the greatest album in rap history (and one of the best albums period of the last 30 years).

RIP KDAY: The Last of a Dying Breed

By now, most of you have heard that my city's last great hip hop radio station is possibly going to be sold this year and flip to a Mandarin-language format. KDAY, which came back in 2004, might be officially on life support and I couldn't be sadder.

As a native Angeleno, I grew up in the shadow of hearing KDAY as I got older. I listened to 92.3 The Beat and Power 106 but I knew neither of those stations would be possible without KDAY in the 1980's giving Los Angeles great hip hop and exposing folks to NWA, Ice-T, DJ Quik, Rodney O & Joe Cooley and so many other local legends.

I used to drive down Crenshaw Boulevard going to school and I passed by the old 1580 KDAY offices every time. KDAY was the first station in the country to play all hip-hop and even when it went off the air in 1991, its legacy loomed large when I talked to older friends and family members.

That's why in 2004-05, I was so happy when I heard KDAY was coming back. It gave me a chance to appreciate a radio station that showed love to L.A. as well as old school hip hop. I came home from college and during the winters and summers, I'd listen to Julio G showing love to national acts as well as local.

Electric Relaxation: Celebrating 10 Years of "The Listening"

I wanted to write a tribute to the 10th anniversary of Little Brother's classic debut "The Listening" but instead, I felt it was an excuse to make a video so I did. Besides, I wrote a lil something about them over here at my man XLUSIVE's website.

It's one of my favorite albums and it takes me on a soulful high with 9th Wonder's beats while still earthbound thanks to Phonte and Rapper Big Pooh spitting raps that anyone could relate to. Especially a 21-year old kid in 2006 who was getting ready to transition from college to the real world. This and The Minstrel Show helped me big time in that period.

I forgot to add how hilarious "Make Me Hot" (the true debut of Percy Miracles) and Roy Lee's skit are. What I also forgot  is that I'm proud of that memory when I bought it. It was a cool moment with my uncle, who is no longer with us, and it was my first ever trip to a spa since I was having some lower back pain. 

Also, when I saw Little Brother in San Diego in 06, I told Phonte that I found that album and he was admittedly surprised since it's hard to find. Still one of my highlights is that I took pictures with him and Big Pooh.

Enjoy and if you can find this album, go buy it or listen to YouTube. The instrumentals alone are a thing of beauty and I downloaded them a year or two after getting this album. Even though the trio is no longer together, I thank Phonte, Pooh and 9th for creating a masterpiece (2 if you count Minstrel Show) and continuing to make great music away from LB. Not to mention being hilarious and great follows on Twitter.

Extra Tidbits: Lakers Talk and Hip Hop Thoughts.

The Lakers are 11-5 since I made my last recap video and there's reason for me to chop it up on Kobe becoming a facilitator. As great as he's played, I'm happy that Mike Antoni remembered that he's a coach and has to use his players better.

I also chip in with some words on my fellow Lakers fans regarding. Dwight Howard's free agency. Stop caring and stay focusing on this season. It's beneath us to beg for someone to make a decision and I darn sure don't want to guilt anybody to committing here. They gotta want it. But til then, I'm only worried on hoping Dwight can be effective while still not at 100%.

Also, here's a bonus for you. Starting this week, I'm going to a weekly blog post over at my man XLUSIVE's website. We've collaborated before and I wrote a review on his debut album back in 2011. I'll be talking music over there so it'll be a nice change of pace from here.

Here's the first post - Reliving 1993, the year the West Coast took over hip hop led by Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. It set the stage for The Game and now Kendrick Lamar and the Black Hippy Crew breathing life into hip-hop.

Electric Relaxation: Blue Scholars "Loyalty"

I'm surprised I didn't do this sooner because this is one of my favorite songs of all time. But seeing Blue Scholars on Sunday reminded me just how much I love this and why I do. It's one of the best discoveries I stumbled upon and the minute I hear that intro, I get lost for the next 4 minutes.

The story behind me hearing it a good one. Just a reminder of how friends matter and share goodness with each other. Let me take you back to 2008 for a second before I break down the music.

I got a text from a friend who works at a radio station in San Diego. She told me to check out these guys from Seattle that she had just seen and listen to this song "Loyalty". I think I was up late at my newspaper so I went to YouTube and checked it out.

First thing I noticed was it used the same Sylvers sample that the Foreign Exchange used for "All That You Are". Yet it had a dreamy, uplifting groove like something you hear when you wake up for the first time. The video added to that with the clear skies and sun in the background but that sound just stayed in my ears and went to my soul.

Quentin Tarantino and Nas: If Pulp Fiction is Illmatic, Jackie Brown is It Was Written

Last night I was watching Pulp Fiction. Somehow it always seems to come on at night and it's led to me sharing some cool thoughts before. I got into a brief conversation on Twitter about it and right away, we mentioned how Jackie Brown was criminally underrated.

15 years after its release, it's still a great movie. A great movie about my city and a reminder that Pam Grier is a treasure of beauty/sass. But it's slept on by a lot of folks because the monster came before it. How do you follow up one of the most influential movies of the last 20 years? A movie that was getting high praise the minute it got released.

Electric Relaxation: Bizarre Tribe - A Quest To The Pharcyde

I haven't done a music post in a while but I heard something this week that inspired me to share it. It's a great combination of two of my favorite groups of all time that embodies how creative, fun and unique they were.

"Bizarre Tribe - A Quest To The Pharcyde" is a mixtape that mixes vocals from The Pharcyde over beats from A Tribe Called Quest. Except it's not just a pure mash-up - there's live drums, recreation of the beats, original sample sources, clips from the ATCQ documentary and mixing in different songs.

For example, "Soul Flower (We Got)" has Pharcyde's "Soul Flower" rapping over Tribe's "Jazz (We Got)" and a recreation of "Butter." The song titles give you a hint of what's going to be the main mix but be prepared to hear other Tribe songs mixed in so seamlessly. That excitement is what I love about this project.

Created by Gummy Soul, a trio of DJ/producers Wally Clark and Amerigo Gazaway along with MC Kurtis Stanley, it's great for anybody who's a fan of Tribe or Pharcyde. Gazaway was the main force behind this mix and it's obvious he respects both groups' legacy as much as I do because it doesn't seem rushed or forced together with beats that seem out of place.

Rock the Bells 2012 - WOW!

So who wants to go??

Seriously. I screamed in my car when I saw this lineup. I howled when I kept reading. And yo!!! This looks like the best lineup in RTB history. Let me break it down.

Electric Relaxation: Main Source "Looking at the Front Door"

This is one of those classic hip hop songs that I think everybody loves when you hear it. I used to hear it growing up in the summers on the old school hour. That Donald Byrd sample and drum break was almost perfect bliss and that "ooh oooh ooooh" for the hook was golden.

Main Source is mainly the brainchild of the one of the most underrated hip hop MC's/producers of all time - Large Professor. Breaking Atoms is arguably one of the best produced albums of that era (hip hop heads know that it's got the debut of a 17 yo kid named Nasir Jones). This song is his defining legacy as much as the 3 songs he produced on Illmatic.

It's a happy song musically but lyrically he's describing if he wants to stay with a chick who's bugging him for a variety of reasons. He keeps "looking at the front door" to escape and the 3rd verse warns her to shape up or else he's gone. It's not what you expect from a party jam but the Extra P plays that Native Tongues vibe of self-deprecation perfectly, making you feel his pain but still sounding optimistic.

It's the hip hop jam most wish they could write. A timeless classic that I wish more people knew about so I'm sharing it with you. I don't want to say songs are perfect but this is one pretty close to it from the lyrics to the execution to the production.

Donald Byrd "Think Twice" is the main sample which folks may recognize from a few other classics (Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam "Let the Beat Hit Em" and A Tribe Called Quest "Footprints") But last year, I finally discovered where that "oooh oooh oooooh" sample came from. Courtesy of DJ Funktuall and his youtube series goodness, it comes from the Pazant Brothers "Chick a Boom" if you skip ahead to 1:23. Bring da funk!

(For more proof of Large Professor's skill - peep "A Friendly Game of Baseball", one of the best extended metaphors I've ever heard in HH)