What Rap should be...

Other than all the world music i have been listening to (from FIFA 07) i have been listening to a lot of old rap albums. Two of the bests are Jay-Z Reasonable Doubt which has an AMAZING cover and Nas Illmatic. Both of these albums are what i consider to be the best in rap. It saddens me that many raps songs these days aren't even close to this. Nas Illmatic is only 37 minutes, but they were good enough to prove that Nas is one of the best lyricist. What is great is that there is an incredible balance between the music and his lyrics, one never overpowers the other. Here is a verse from my favorite song from the album, "The World is Yours"

I sip the Dom P, watchin Gandhi til I'm charged
Then writin in my book of rhymes, all the words pass the margin
To hold the mic I'm throbbin, mechanical movement
Understandable smooth shit that murderers move wit
The thief's theme, play me at night, they won't act right
The fiend of hip-hop has got me stuck like a crack pipe
The mind activation, react like I'm facin time like
'Pappy' Mason with pens I'm embracin
Wipe the sweat off my dome, spit the phlegm on the streets
Suede Timb's on my feets, makes my cypher, complete
Whether crusin in a Sikh's cab, or Montero Jeep
I can't call it, the beats make me fallin asleep
I keep fallin, but never fallin six feet deep
I'm out for presidents to represent me (Say what?)
I'm out for presidents to represent me (Say what?)
I'm out for dead presidents to represent me

In that verse alone he has shown that he is smart, lyrical and gangster. It is heavy with metaphors. It is amazing, unfortunetely he has not come up with an album like this since his first, but he is great. I hope his next album comes to this level.

Jay-Z is someone i liked before this album. I enjoyed the Black Album and The Blue

print (which I would say is his second best album). I heard soo many talk about how amazing this album is and i thought, hmmm i should check it out. After listening to it, i was convinced, this is amazing. I could listen to that album over and over again and i enjoy every part of it. It is taht amazing. The reason Jay-z has so much street cred is because of this album. In order to get this album out he used money that he acquired from selling drugs to make his own company, Rocafella and got Interscope to publish it for him. When it first came out it barely made money. It took 4 years until it went platinum, and now it is considered to be one of the greatest rap albums and greates albums in general (i remember seeing it in Rolling Stone). Some of my favorite songs, "Dead Presidents", "Politics as Usual", "Can I live" and the collaboration with Biggie "Brooklyn's Finest"

[Jay-Z]
Yeah, yeah, yeah
For nine six, the only MC with a flu
Yeah I rhyme sick, I be what you're tryin to do
Made a fortune off Peru, extradite, china white heron
Nigga please, like short sleeves I bear arms
Stay out my way from here on (CLEAR?) Gone!

[Notoriuos B.I.G.]
Me and Gutter had two spots
The two for five dollar hits, the blue tops
Gotta go, Coolio mean it's gettin "Too Hot"
If Fay' had twins, she'd probably have two-Pac's
Get it? .. Tu-pac's

[Jay-Z]
Time to separate the pros from the cons
The platinum from the bronze
That butter soft shit from that leather on the Fonz
A S1 diamond from a eye class don
A Cham' Dom' sipper from a Rosay nigga, huh?!
Brook-Nam, sippin on

[Notorious B.I.G.]
Cristal forever, play the crib when it's mink weather
The M.A.F.I.A. keep canons in they Marc Buchanans
Usually cuatro cinco, the shell sink slow, tossin ya
Mad slugs through your Nautica, I'm warnin ya

"the only MC with a flu, yea i rhyme sick." Come on, that is just amazing word play. Here is a video of Jay Z when he first came out, man he was soo young here.