Originally posted on Madetoorderphilly.com Sept. 3, 2010
Where do I begin…to tell a story? The hip-hop community is a loving, supportive, funny, fickle, abrasive culture. All it takes is one song to change your life and all it takes is one bad break to end your career FOREVER! See Chingy, J’Kwon, Tracey Lee, etc.
For 3 of the biggest artist of the last 10 years (commercial sucess, quality and consistency) how is it that they all have managed to hit a creative rut at the same time? Since their last albums released in 3rd quarter 2008 all three of these artists have been on an unexplainable downward trajectory unlike anything I’ve ever seen from ONE, let alone THREE superstar artists!
The question is more of a how than why. With a combined 30 million records sold since 2002, its evident that the star power exist but how did all these guys careers go so far south so quickly? It was just 2008 when The Blood, The Snowman and The King all released platinum selling critically-acclaimed albums. Tip sold 2.8M copies of Paper Trail aand something like 4-5M ringtones & digital downloads. Not to mention his performance on “Swagger Like US”…WHOOOO! Jeezy released his best album to date with the Recession and temporarily changed the direction of Southern hip-hop. The personal moments expressed on “The Recession” made everyone stop and think about how far our country had fallen and the effects that it had on all of us. The Snowman stepped outside of his usual candor and gave us a Southern Classic that rivaled 400 Degreez, The Diary and The Carter II sonically, subject-wise, and in impact! What more could we ask for?
The Blood is what he is…a bi-polar, indecisive juggernaut of a talent. I would say that he is by far the most interesting of the 3 stars. We’ve seen him go through various phases, tattoos, affiliations and rap-styles but all while selling millions of records. He once represented the changing of the guard for West Coast Hip-Hop and he stood up to the task unlike anyone else could. His last album released in August of 08 was his lowest-selling album but still went platinum quickly and had multiple songs chart on Billboard. What the album lacked in sales-power, he more than made up for in creativity and cohesiveness. LAX was yet another win for The Blood.
Since these artists last released an album for commercial consumption several significant things have happened in hip-hop. The King spent some time on federal vacation and The Snowman used these years for guest appearances with RnB artists and developing new artists of his own under the CTE flag. To date, none of them have come close to the stature he’s obtained. During this time, Eminem came back with a vengenance and this Canadian kid name Drake continually dropped the world on these wack rap niggas heads. On the west coast, several new artists have emerged like Nipsey Hussle, Jay Rock and Kendrick Lamar who’ve pushed forward with the California Flag The Blood carried for 5 years.
Shit was all good 24 months ago and then it all.fell.down! I’m just gonna be honest and say the solo careers of our 3 artists are all fucked the fuck up. Like unbelievably bad. Jeezy and Game have had their albums pushed back more times than JD’s Hairline! The King had his album release set in May for August 24th, pushed up to August 17th, pushed back to August 31st, pushed back a month to Sept 28th and now its in total limbo of not even releasing this year! WTF! Somebody get Tip the bodywash of his choice cuz this nigga is washed the fuck up. Not to mention he got arrested yesterday for ecstacy and meth possession. Musically, he just dropped a song called “Pledge Allegiance To The Swag” (Ed Lover face) and guess what its 8 minutes long…(Tune Voice) What the fuck do he be thinkin? And because he’s revered in the South as a legend he convinced Rick Ro$$ to appear on the song with him and even the Bawse can’t save this ice block.
Needless to say The King and Snowman are no longer “the hottest” artist in THE A! That title belongs to Soulja Boy or Gucci Mane. Hell even Roscoe Dash and Waka currently hotter than these dudes but I don’t wanna be blasphemous. The guys I named aren’t the greatest rappers by any means but all know how to craft a hit song with the best of them and currently have a winning formula.
I did the math and calculated that between these three stars they are 1/10 on hit records released since January 1, 2010. King had “I’m Back” (which was cool for a week), “I Got Your Back” with Keri Hilson (aka Whatever u like in jail) and The Takers Song which all flopped like a Serbian in in FIBA basketball. The shit that Ti is doing is so bad that Atlantic Records made him record 6 new songs with Kanye West so that he would have at least 6 songs they could put on his shitty ass album. We all know Kanye don’t miss!
I don’t even know where to begin with The Blood. He’s been in the studio with Kanye West, Dr. Dre, Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake, Robin Thicke, The King, Cool and Dre, Baby, and Lil Wayne (WHOOOO)! Not.One.Fuckin.Hit! I’m having a Hass Bivins moment right now “R U Kiddin Me?” How is it that a guy who sold 10M records can’t get one hit in a 2 year span? Maybe I should call Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson for an answer cuz apparently LA Reid, Lyor Cohen and Jimmy Iovine don’t have the answer either.
Snowman, Snowman…well the good news is that there was one hit record out of this bunch and it was yours but unfortunately that was waaaaaay back in March which may as well be 3 years ago in the internet age. Lose My Mind” is still my favorite song of 2010 but there was no follow-up to keep his momentum goin. Since then he released “Trap or Die II” the mixtape which was ehhhhhh, “All White Everything” (where he jacked Soulja Boy’s “All Black Everything”) and his latest piece of shit “Jizzle” with of all people Lil Jon on the hook. They even tried to remix “All White Everything” by adding one of Gucci’s homeboys Yo Gotti…(Bricks anyone)! But instead of Gotti bringin Jeezy up, Jeezy brought him down BASEMENT! Sound like they didn’t even bother to mix the damn vocals.
I think I’ve found a common thread amongst these guys…they all have what I call 50 Cent syndrome aka Got Rich And Stopped Tryin. Ti tried to emmulate what 50 does to the point where he got the same exact results 50 got on his last album *crickets*! At the end of the day u can’t fool the public and Ti tried to set-up this album the same way he did his last 3 albums (street song, girl song, club song)…and we all saw it coming 3 songs away. Jeezy on the other hand is just stuck in a fuckin time warp. I’m convinced that on The Recession he had an out of body experience and he is goin the fuck crazy tryna recapture that magic. Over the past year, he can’t figure out if he wants to be Jeezy, Gucc, Soulja, Rawse or an Eastside Boy. The shit he’s doin is so bad that even Ti won’t do a song with him and that’s his patna! These two niggas are cold enough musically to really make it Alaska in Atlanta, s/o to OJ The Jew-man… AYE!
I think I gave Game enough #ether so I’ma let him ride for the rest of this post. All I’m askin for is a little bit of help here. How is it that the music Lil Wayne recorded in Dec/Jan/Feb is better than what these guys release on a bi-weekly basis and he’s in jail! Is he that much better than them or are they that much worst than they were two years ago? Ti said he didn’t write any new music while he was in jail…well maybe he shoulda cuz his freedom music makes me wanna kill myself. If I’m in the club and the DJ plays “I got Your Back” I’m gonna smash his Macbook over his head and walk the fuck out. Nobody wants to hear that bullshit u talmbout! If Jeezy tells me one more fuckin bullshit ass release date that we all know won’t happen I QUIT COVERING RAP MUSIC! This shit gotta stop somewhere and somebody gotta tell these guys to get off the bullshit! Whatever yall was doin in 08 u need to be doin it again. Ti was probably doin alotta coke since he was headed to the pen, maybe u try that again (we now know he had the meth and E poppin so maybe improvement’s on the way). Jeezy prolly had some hood ass bitch wit a bomb #sloppytoppy, call her up! I think Game still had a butterfly tattoo, maybe u get another one. But whatever yall gotta do, do something different than what u doin right now. This shit is depressing and yall look like Croatia against the Dream Team. Wayne, Drake, Ross, Jay, Em and Kanye is kickin yall ass musically and u niggas standing there lookin dumb (I didn’t even mention Spitta, Khalifa and KRIT)! Ball back (pause) or get ya wack ass off the court!
I’ma close by sayin this, yall can’t be as bad as you’re letting on. I think I’m being punk’d everytime I click on nahright or rapradar and hear yall “new shit.” This is me being critical b/c I care and I know yall can do better. If Slick Pulla aint gone tell u, I will “Jeezy u ass right now”. If Big Kuntry won’t tell u, I will “Tip u the 2nd worst rapper in America right now” (Shyne is #1). If Snoop won’t tell u, “Game that shit aint hittin nephew.” Yall got a 2 month window to get yall lives and rap careers on track b4 Tune come home and yall be dropping in Spring/Summer ’11. Ya music life’s on the line and how u respond will determine how much of a career you have left…61 days til they #FreeWeezy so u better make something shake FAST!
THE WIN
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