11/05/2010
I 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.
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12 Comments | 
DanjLovesTheHipHop, DanjLovesTheMovies | Tagged: 1998, DMX, HOOD MOVIES, HYPE WILLIAMS, METHOD MAN, NAS, T-BOZ, TARAL HICKS | 
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Posted by Danj!
08/23/2010
“The people ain’t comin’ cause you grandiose muthafukkas don’t play shit that they like.”- Shadow, Mo’ Better Blues
“Crossover ain’t nothin’ but a double-cross. Once we lose our audience, we never gonna get them back!”- JT, The Five Heartbeats
“People gotta understand, we got in this to be stars. We didn’t get in this to walk around with bookbags on our backs, talkin’ bout we hip-hop”- Nas interview on MTV
“It’s a shame, niggas in the rap game, only for the money and the fame”- Xzibit, “Paparazzi”
In the past month or so, there’s been a few things I’ve seen around the internet that prompted me to drop this entry. First, there was the mini-fallout that started from Talib Kweli‘s collaboration with Gucci Mane, which to some defied the rules of all that is right in the world. Then, there were two excellent lists of late-’90s hip-hop- Complex’s 75 Greatest Tunnel Bangers and the Bloggerhouse spin-off, Backpack Bangers. The lists in particular threw me back to that time when the “commercial” and “underground” sides of hip-hop started splitting apart further than ever.
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16 Comments | 90% Dis, DanjLovesTheHipHop | Tagged: 1996, BIGGIE, DE LA SOUL, FOXY BROWN, JAY-Z, JERU, JUNIOR MAFIA, LIL' KIM, NAS, PUFFY, RAS KASS, ROOTS, XZIBIT | Permalink
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06/20/2010
“Where the fuck is the Daddy song? Mama get all the songs… ‘Dear Mama’, ‘I’ll Always Love My Mama’, Mama, Mama, Mama… what’s the Daddy song? ‘Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone’!” – Chris Rock
First off, it’s Father’s Day, so big shoutout to the fathers out there… not the niggas who have kids… the fathers. I normally don’t drop entries on Sunday, but I figured I’d do it for this occasion. Earlier this morning, I remembered that Chris Rock joke, and it got me to thinkin’… not only is there not much in the way of “Daddy songs”, but hip-hop particularly don’t give a fukk about a father. There’s a lot of “Mama songs”, but most of the ones about fathers are about how they ain’t shit. From Treach (“never knew my dad, muthafuck the fag”) to Eminem (“if you see my dad/ Tell him that I slit his throat in this dream I had”), rappers and their fathers just don’t seem to click.
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12 Comments | DanjLovesTheHipHop, Just That Sh*t To Make You Laugh | Tagged: LL COOL J, NAS, ROYAL FLUSH, SHAQ, TUPAC, WC & THE MAAD CIRCLE | Permalink
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05/08/2010
Some of you early, early DLT90s readers might recall the first time I covered this, but I’m a superfan of them smooth ’80s R&B joints. I zone with those when I’m in coolout mode and whatnot. For that same reason, I also rock with a lot of the hip-hop tracks that sampled them during the ’90s. Truth be told, when a newer song samples one I used to like, there’s a 75/25 chance I’m automatically gonna like it. While that’s not always the case, it helps a lot. So this brings us to today’s entry, with four more tracks from the ’90s that I hold in such esteem, which borrowed heavily from four from the ’80s that I like just as much.
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12 Comments | Classic Material, DanjLovesThe80sToo, DanjLovesTheHipHop, DanjLovesTheR&B, Original Flavor, The90sLovedThe80s | Tagged: 80s, 90s, ALYSON WILLIAMS, AZ, BIGGIE, BOYZ II MEN, GLENN JONES, LL COOL J, LOOSE ENDS, MICHAEL JACKSON, NAS, NORE, SHAQ | Permalink
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04/19/2010
16 years ago today… hip-hop gained another classic. I don’t mean “classic” like “millions of people bought it and played it to death, then forgot all about it”, I mean “classic” like… well, just keep readin’.
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14 Comments | Classic Material, DanjLovesTheAlbums, DanjLovesTheHipHop, My Life, Nuff Respect Due | Tagged: 1994, NAS | Permalink
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03/12/2010
At the dead end of ’98, I moved back into Baltimore City, after spending about seven months out in the ‘burbs at my brother’s place. Within the first two weeks, I’d had a drunk pass out in front of my door and almost got caught in the crossfire of some nigga tryna shoot it out with the cops. Yeah, it was good to be back.
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12 Comments | Classic Material, DanjLovesTheHipHop, DanjLovesTheR&B, My Life, Winter Six, Young Youth | Tagged: 112, 1999, BUSTA, COOL BREEZE, DMX, GOODIE MOB, MASE, NAS, OUTKAST, R. KELLY | Permalink
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02/26/2010
Aight, so… I was in my senior year of high school, and the first few months of my year was some ol’ bullshit. I had a lil’ beef with this kid, and for whatever reason, my teachers acted like I was some kinda bully tormentin’ the nigga. On five different occasions between September and December, I was suspended, even havin’ to stay home for two weeks straight at one point. They’d gotten their hands on a tape I made and interpreted the lyrics to be some type of threat on the dude’s life, when it really wasn’t that serious. If I told y’all the extent to which this shit went, you’d be amazed that some people who work for a school could be so dumb.
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11 Comments | Classic Material, DanjLovesTheHipHop, DanjLovesTheR&B, My Life, Winter Six, Young Youth | Tagged: 1997, CAMP LO, CNN, ERYKAH BADU, KRS-ONE, NAS, NORE, R. KELLY, TRAGEDY | Permalink
Posted by Danj!
02/05/2010
Aight, so it’s Friday on DanjLovesThe90s, which means it’s about time for another Winter Six. This week, I go in on the great 1994. Adjust the Mega Bass on your Walkman and let’s do it…
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10 Comments | DanjLovesTheHipHop, My Life, Winter Six, Young Youth | Tagged: 1994, ATCQ, BOOTCAMP, GANGSTARR, ICE CUBE, NAS, SMIF-N-WESSUN | Permalink
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12/28/2009
Ah, yes… as I noted in my first “The 90s Loved The 80s” entry, there hasn’t been as much lifting of ’90s hits by the artists of this decade. Part of that, obviously, is due to how much those artists themselves were sampling from older music. But, there were a few quality remakes and whatnot that took place in the 2000s. Some of them were hot, like Carl Thomas & Faith Evans singing over The Firm‘s “Phone Tap“. Others were eehhh, like Fabolous & Tamia recycling “So Into You“. But here are five that stood out the most to me over the last ten years…
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11 Comments | Classic Material, DanjLovesTheHipHop, DanjLovesTheR&B, DanjSometimesLovesThe2000s, Original Flavor | Tagged: ASHANTI, ATCQ, JA RULE, LUDACRIS, METHOD MAN, MJB, NAS, RAKIM, ROBIN THICKE, SAMPLING, T.I., TONY! TONI! TONE!, TUPAC | Permalink
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12/04/2009
Yeah, I know. I’ma go ahead and assume that I’m not the first person with a blog to talk about this, but I’m a human being too, dammit.
In the first of a few 2000s-related entries I’ll be dropping this month, I will not be using today’s date to wish a “happy 40th” to my second favorite MC. I’ll have other times to give him his accolade, and besides, I’m sure his Illuminati free mason fam will be throwin’ him a party tonight. *ROFL* But I will be speakin’ on something epic that he took part in. Something that had an enthusiast like myself excited during an otherwise ehhh year in hip-hop. It was 2001, I was a mixtape-coppin’ animal, and the battle of battles was taking place: Jay-Z vs. Nas.
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17 Comments | DanjLovesTheHipHop, DanjSometimesLovesThe2000s, What's Beef | Tagged: 2000s, BEEF, JAY-Z, NAS | Permalink
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