Great song off one of the best albums to come out of the south by the best group to come out of the south. Always loved how Dre and Big Boi (two seemingly different characters) could team up and create some of the best music of the past 15 years. Even with all their popularity, I am never ashamed to admit they are one of my favorite groups. They are some of the few artists out there who started somewhat underground and really rose up to the top without becoming trash and all the while maintaining a high level of excellence throughout all their albums. Even their most recent album was pretty good….although Dre shouldn’t do anymore “Walk It Out” or “Throw Some D’s” remixes, he doesn’t need that. I believe he is a top 10 MC and Big Boi would easily fall in the top 25, I just prefer Dre’s abstract vision.

Also, this has to be one of my favorite album arts.

“ATLiens”

This is an article from 2006, but it is in no way outdated. Read the whole thing HERE (2 pages). Why do you think mainstream hip-hop avoids politics?

MC Dola, a Tanzanian rapper who is one of the biggest-selling artists in East Africa, said that outside of the US, stars maximise their appeal by talking about social issues and rapping in their own language.

“We have been able to filter out the elements of sex, money and drugs – you don’t get that in Tanzania,” he explained.

“You don’t get airplay if you talk about these things in your music. Over 99% of the rap in Tanzania is in Swahili – and it actually has a political message to it.

Christopher Weingarten wrote a really interesting piece about some of 2008’s better rap releases that didn’t get the much media attention thanks to the hype surrounding Carter III. He’s fairly critical of Wayne, but sings the praises of The Roots, Kidz in the Hall, Guilty SImpson, and Webbie. READ the full article HERE.

OK, let’s get this straight: Fergie says “lady lumps” five times in a hit single and she’s America’s easiest water-cooler joke; Lil Wayne says it seven times and he’s the best rapper alive? It’s hard to swallow that rap’s milli-certified critics’ darling is the same MC who so confidently drops cringe-worthy puns every fifth bar (“I will never one, two, three, forget”); who rhymes words with themselves when he gets stuck (remember when we nailed Jeezy to the wall for this?); who raps in tautologies, inventing phrases that just sound like good punchlines because of his irresistible swagger (“Fly, go hard like geese erection”); who makes two “Macho Man” Randy Savage jokes on one album; who can’t even score one of the top-five best T-Pain songs in a short year (see Rick Ross, Ace Hood, Lil Mama, 2 Pistols, and Ukrainian pop star Ruslana). For all its brilliant moments, Wayne’s Tha Carter III is a schizophrenic mess. Granted, that’s part of its unique appeal, but in the two-and-a-half-year feeding frenzy to anoint Weezy the new king, critics are throwing out the baby with the purple drink, ignoring more conceptually sound—not to mention better—rap albums that dropped in 2008.