Sunday, December 24, 2006

Straight from the Ghetto - News on HipHop, pt. 19

“HipHop Is Dead”. At least this what Nas feat. Will.I.Am proclaims with his latest 12” on – guess what? - Def Jam UK which is taken from his forthcoming album of the same name. Musicwise he proves wrong as his tune is to be filed as a solid club banger of the classic kind. Although there’s a bit of Rock’ish attitude to be found with sampled guitars and a sung chorus the beats are straightforward and oldskool, even featuring parts referring to the essential Apache-loop. As long as tracks like this are written and played out on dancefloors we see the physical state of HipHop as: still alive.

Jay-Z’s new single “Kingdom Come” has been put on promo circuit shortly via Def Jam / Roc–A–Fella Records, a nice, chilled and slightly funky tune that’ll work well in tiny venues with an original intimate club vibe. Flipside holds the album version of “Trouble” which is more of a banger featuring thrilling psycho tones and laid back piano sounds – original G-Funk vibes.

Akon’s upcoming album “Konvicted” is to drop soon and now we got the first single “I Wanna Love You” doing first rounds on the decks, which features gangsta legend Snoop Dogg on guest vocals. Expect a cool, laid-back mixture of slick, booming 808-based DigiSoul and typical Snoop-styled raps. On the B-side there’s also two versions of “Shake Down” coming up with a pseudo anthemic attitude and some Crunk / Dirty South elements which are – in the end – nothing but cheap so file “Shake Down” as filler not thriller.

Another double-A-side promotional from the Def Jam-stable showed up in my postbox these days featuring Young Jeezy’s “I Luv It” taken from his forthcoming album “The Inspiration” and Ghostface Killah’s “Good” as well as “Ghost Is Back” from his longplayer “More Fish” which is also piped for 2007. While Young Jeezy delivers nothing more than average MTVIVA-styled BlingHop, Ghostface Killah comes up with more individual and surprising stuff. “Good” is based on some weirdo high speed Disco and / or Funk-samples which ain’t my cup of tea at all but at least different to most of the tunes around these days, but finally it’s “Ghost It Back” that wins by far due to its oldskool attitude referring to the late 80‘s / early 90‘s when HipHop was still dance music and b-boying / breakin‘ not a crime. Best track on this 12”.

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