Wild but true: some of Mary J. Blige‘s longtime fans would rather see her sad. Not that they wish for her to go back to her life as a depressed star in an abusive relationship with drug and alcohol problems, but the music that came out of that era is among her most memorable. The happy, dancing MJB of recent years just doesn’t seem to strike that same chord that she did in more troubled times. Much like many artists make their best work when they’re new and hungry, some do their best when real life is kickin’ them in the ass. Such was the case with 1994′s My Life.
Da Dirty 30: Strictly Hip-Hop
11/24/2010Been a lil’ quiet around here lately, eh? Not to worry, I just had to put some work in so that I could bring you this shit right here…
Not sure how much of a secret this is- after all, I’ve only been doin’ this shit for a year and a half- but I’m a big huge gigantic hip-hop head. On here, I usually cover a lot of the more popular artists of the day, but it definitely doesn’t stop there. I’m that kid who stayed up on alllll them new shits, even the ones by the most obscure artists on the most low-profile record labels. My appreciation of rap music started around the mid-’80s, but it hit a fever pitch in the early-’90s and from then on. Once I’d really become immersed in the whole culture, I even went back and got further educated on the older music that was considered to be classic at the time.
It may sound cliche, but Hip-Hop was everything in my life at one point- almost to a fault, in fact. I’ve often cited that my fascination with rhyming, DJing, writing, performing, and listening to the music may have gotten in the way of all the other things life had to offer just a lil’ bit. Would I go back and change that? Prob’ly not. Because of that, I know I lot of great records that I likely wouldn’t have known of had I not been as plugged in as I was.
And so today, on the eve of Thanksgiving and my birthday, I give you another Dirty 30: not my absolute favorites or my official “best of”‘s, but definitely all tracks I ran hard with back when they dropped, and still do. Click, listen, download, enjoy, whatever you want… HERE WE GO!
DANJ! Presents: One Hitta Quittas, Vol. 4
11/18/2010Ah yes… so as I prep for next week’s Strictly Hip-Hop Dirty 30, I been on R&B mode a lil’ bit as of late. In fact, the other day, I was asked if I was in love TWICE because I was rockin’ with some old smooth shit. I may have been kinda checkin’ for someone lately, and it is cuffin’ season, but it’s nothin’ to do with my mellow moods and whatnot… haha!
Anyway, in the process of playing my (MASSIVE) ’90s R&B playlist, I was prompted to drop the fourth installment of “One Hitta Quittas”. Three of these artists came out with a bang and dropped off the planet just as fast, while one took a minute to score a hit before returning to his hitless state. Whatever way it went down, these four tracks all made quite an impression back in the day, even as the artists themselves failed to.
The Vibrant Ideal Reality of ‘Dark Twisted Fantasy’
11/15/2010I might be a lil’ biased here. I’ve been fukkin’ with Kanye West as an artist (or as Kid Cudi would say, “musically”) since the I’m Good mixtape. When he was starting to break out with joints like “Through The Wire” and people were sayin’ he couldn’t rap, I was rockin’ with him. I’ve been readin’ articles on him and his work far back enough to know his seemingly “inflated” ego has actually always been inflated, before there was even a release date on his first album. Of course, none of this makes me special, or has any bearing on what this new album of his sounds like, but it’s safe to say ‘Ye is one of my favorite artists of the last 10 years.
What The ’90s Won’t Do For Love
11/11/2010There was a time… long, long ago… when the color lines were a lot more blurred on urban radio. Artists like Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers, and others- without necessarily catering to the R&B audience- would still get certain records of theirs played on the primarily “Black” stations. It continued through the ’80s with artists like Madonna, Hall & Oates, George Michael and even ya man Rick Astley getting their music played, sometimes with people not even knowing they were White until seeing them. In the case of Bobby Caldwell‘s “What You Won’t Do For Love”, his label intentionally hid his image in a silhouette, and even the video was kind of a “revelation” of what he really looked like.
The Punisher
11/09/2010Today would be the 39th birthday of the big homie Christopher Rios, aka Big Pun. Salute!
I first heard Pun on Funkmaster Flex‘s 60 Minutes of Funk Vol. 1, rhymin’ over the Raekwon “Ice Cream” instrumental with Fat Joe. I didn’t know who that dude was, but the first thing that stood out instantly was his flow. He was barely stoppin’ to take a breath, but the way he put those words together was on point. I’d later hear him on other cuts, like Joe‘s “Firewater” and The Beatnuts‘ “Off The Books”, upping his profile and still with that rapid, accurate rhyme style.
Belly of the Beast
11/05/2010I don’t think Hype Williams likes Belly. Yeah, he wrote it, he directed it, but everyone’s favorite ’90s video director doesn’t seem too happy with the finished product. I watched the DVD with commentary before going in on this entry, and homie has a gripe every two minutes about how much better the movie would have been if not for the amount of compromise he had to make. Honestly, I can’t say I blame him. I’m still deciding myself whether or not Belly‘s hood classic status is because it was good, or because it sucks but stars a few rap niggas we had love for at the time.
Big Willie Style
11/02/2010With Election Day goin’ on across the country today, I gotta give a shoutout to the homie “Ill” Bill Clinton. A lotta people gave this dude flak when he was the pres. If it wasn’t because he puffed a joint or two in his day, it was because he had Monica Lewinsky puffin’ his joint. Still, his eight years in office was a much more productive and better-run time than the previous 12 years’ worth of Reaganomics, or the following eight years of Dubya.

Posted by Danj! 






