it's not about a salary, it's all about reality

Artist Song
talib kweli  "get by" 
the notorious B.I.G.  "niggas bleed" 
jay-z  "d'evils" 
wu-tang clan  "bring da ruckus" 
madvillain  "fancy clown" 
the beastie boys  "hey ladies" 
a tribe called quest  "can i kick it?" 
common  "i used to love H.E.R." 
de la soul  "ghetto thang" 
the roots feat. erykah badu & eve  "you got me" 
the jungle brothers  "black is black" 
gang starr  "soliloquy of chaos" 
N.W.A.  "gangsta gangsta" 
public enemy  "louder than a bomb" 
eric b. & rakim  "i ain't no joke" 
run-D.M.C.  "my adidas" 
boogie down productions  "ya slippin'" 
nas  "one love" 
black star feat. common  "respiration" 

Comment:

trying to get back into the swing of things with a bit of a curve ball...

this may not be immediately apparent to any of you, but i am a huge hip-hop fan - i find myself often on the defense around my parts, defending my position as a fan of the classics & the underground, not the new school trash you hear on urban radio. i've met a guy at work - a DJ in his spare time - who is absolutely amazed by my elastic love & knowledge of the history of hip-hop: how a mop-topped white boy can know as much as, if not more than, a 43-year-old black man is beyond his comprehension. we spend most of the day trading off opinions on all types of pop music - he's actually a big fan of music in general, but hip-hop is his bread-&-butter (for example, we've both agreed that the beatles are the greatest thing to ever happen to pop music - just try & find another hip-hop fan who thinks similarly). during one of our long-winded, obsessive conversations, a co-worker/friend of ours happened to overhear us - who i have dubbed "big poppa" due to his uncanny resemblance to biggie smalls - & became intensely interested. he told me that he has always wanted to pay more attention to underground hip-hop, but that he a.) doesn't really know where to look & b.) wouldn't really know where to begin. i offered to make him a entry-point mix to what i consider prime hip-hop (underground or otherwise), & here is the result.

this is, for the most part, a collection of my absolute favorite tracks by my absolute favorite rap performers; however, some exceptions do apply. "big poppa" is not my favorite notorious B.I.G. song, but given my affectionate nickname for the recipient, it was begging to be used; i am not generally an N.W.A. fan (though they have been growing on me lately, & i do really love the song used), i found it preposterous to introduce someone to hip-hop without including one of the most influential artists in the genre's history; i was originally planning on using solo tracks from my three favorite wu-tang members (ghostface, gza & raekwon), but due to time constraints, decided to compromise by using a 36 chambers track including all three of them; the eric b. & rakim track originally slated for use was "eric b. is president" but, once again, due to time constraints, the song was switched to a different (but just as lyrically proficient) track; & the common (sense) song is probably not my favorite song in his oeuvre, however i find it to be one of the top 5 hip-hop songs ever recorded, thus its use was permitted. this has a heavy east coast bent to it, as i am loyal to the east coast for life, & i'm not much of a fan of west coast hip-hop, g-funk or any of its offspring. talib kweli is honored by two tracks because he's my all-time favorite MC, as is common who is also within my top 5. brownie points (& possibly a copy) to the first one who can identify the MC on three of the tracks here. title from the N.W.A. song; special kudos to my girlfriend for suggesting it.

revision, 1/15/2008: i revised this mix only to replace "big poppa" by the notorious B.I.G. with "niggas bleed," my personal favorite biggie smalls track. since the recipient that track was used for already has his copy, i wanted this mix to more closely resemble my favorite hip-hop tracks.

Feedback:

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natalyesaurus
Date: 9/4/2007
LOVE it. obscure, and not AT ALL expected from you, but fantastic nonetheless. i've been getting into a lot of hip hop as of late so i can dig this. you have a copy uploaded?
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natalyesaurus
Date: 9/4/2007
ps my guess would be krs-one but i am not positive.
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The Misfit
Date: 9/5/2007
Excellent.
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Funky Ratchet
Date: 9/5/2007
Fantastic! Some great, great choices...love the Run-DMC, PE, NWA, Tribe, and Wu-Tang especially.
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sport !
Date: 9/5/2007
Great mix! I'm amazed at how Public Enemy and Eric B. still sound as good today as when it was released.
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Mark Petruccelli
Date: 9/5/2007
Yeah, you hit some favs from my early gangsta days (my first exposure to NWA was a major revelation.) Don't listen to alot of it anymore but good to hear the old school now and then.
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hemizen
Date: 9/5/2007
I would love to hear this because I am not a hip-hop fan in general thought there are songs I love (Straight Outta Compton comes first to mind).
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French Connection
Date: 9/5/2007
I'm blinkered on this one and happy to remain so but each to his own, it could be my loss but hip-hop and jazz are equal no no's in my house.
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p the swede
Date: 9/5/2007
classic stuff
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sammyg123
Date: 9/5/2007
Hmmmm. Well it may not be apparent to anyone here either but I also love Hip-Hop. I've actually been a DJ for nearly 14 years and that genre has been my bread & butter. Actually I think my knowledge of Hip Hop far outweighs my love of it but I digress..
A good point made about the Beatles as well, maybe HH lovers can be divided into 2 categories, those who love it because they love music and those who love the lifestyle and all the stereotypes that go along with it.
Anyway, I can feel a ramble coming on so I'll stop. Fine mix..My favourite rapper? Common, by a country mile. My favourite band? The Beatles, by a country, er, country..
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Mixxer
Date: 9/5/2007
Well done! I know that you been poppin' Cristal at the club, mo-fo.

Based on "The Grey Album," I assumed that the Beatles are pretty well known and respected by HHers. And now that Jay-Z did a remix of Amy Winehouse, it is all coming together!
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Salman1
Date: 9/5/2007
To further Mixxer's point:
Ghostface Killah did a song with Amy Winehouse.
Anyway, love the context (or is it subtext)to which this mix was created. I too have had many discussions with connoisseurs of hip-hop about all sorts of pop nuiances, and they've schooled me on so many aspects of music history. A lot of these producers like Madlib and RZA have a vast knowledge and collection of music which really shouldn't surprise many non-hip hop fans because they sample so much classic music from well beyond the Western or even the pop scope (loads of classical samples and Indian/Chinese stuff).
Anyway, fantasic mix! Not enough hip-hop on this site. And nice inclusion of "Bring Da Ruckus" instead of the three aforementioned artists from the Wu. Nie representation of those three MC's.
Oh, and, to ruffle a few feathers... fuck the Beatles! The Kinks were always better.
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doowad
Date: 9/5/2007
Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Public Enemy, all good choices. But I can't stand anything to do with either of the two 'martyrs' of hip hop, but actually I like most everything here except #2, even the clowns of 13.
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Rob Conroy
Date: 9/5/2007
I like-to-love most of these things with the exception of the two martyrs name-checked by doowad below.
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Barrydali
Date: 9/6/2007
I'm between two stools here. I'm not as vehemently against the genre as our learned friend Cliff but I've always struggled with the bravado aspect. It's probably the same reason that I listen in the main to self-effacing skinny guys in glasses who stare at their shoes while gently strumming. I do own a lot of this however, and unsurprisingly De La Soul and Tribe would be the two that get most play, closely followed by Beasties and P.E. Great knowledge and notes Ant.
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SwankQueen
Date: 9/6/2007
It's just a ghetto thang... Excellent mix!!!
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SwankQueen
Date: 9/6/2007
It's just a ghetto thang... Excellent mix!!!
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musicgnome
Date: 9/13/2007
Hell, yeah!!!! We have similar taste and dislike when it comes to hip-hop. This is kick ass. Love seein' this type o thing on the boards!!!!
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Luke79
Date: 10/1/2007
I have a love/hate relationship to hip-hop - actually, I think the genre went back underground sometime in the early 90s, as its mainstream re-presentation became more and more bling-encrusted.Hip-hop, like jazz, was one of America's indigeous art forms, and was also always pan-cultural - this melting pot quality ensures that it will re-surface (remix itself) in new guises i.e. M.I.A etc.