Lil 4-Tay Keeps Confusing Me

I'm Up ( The Drug Song ) from Aris Jerome on Vimeo.

That's right partner, this blog ain't dead.

Nation friend Mister Wheeler hit me off with the links to these new Roach Gigz videos, directed by Aris Jerome, who seems to be keeping busy these days. Though he was just trying to be a nice guy, he has really thrown a fucking wrench into my understanding that Lil 4-Tay is, in fact, female, despite all evidence to the contrary. I was willing to believe it not really having seen him/her all that much, but the above video for "I'm Up" with Roach Gigz really suggests that Lil 4-Tay is a dude. Barring some sort of stunt double situation (unlikely), I really have to say Lil 4-Tay sounds and looks like a dude. He/She also raps about "pussy and pills" and how there's no "pussies around here". The latter statement, taken literally, would suggest he is in fact a he.

The point is ultimately somewhat irrelevant but I felt, for the first time in about a month, like I should dust off the old blogger account and commit some words to internet. The blog isn't dead; I'm busy. It's a nice exercise to post short things like this and realize what a small time commitment blogging about rap truly is in my life. I'm sure I waste more time on Twitter. How sad. So, expect to see this blog continue to bring you the best and worst of Bay Area rap. So long as I'm not too busy.

Below is the video for "My Bitch Look Better". Props to Aris and Mr. Gigz for hardly leaving Fillmore for either video shoot.

My Girl Look Better from Aris Jerome on Vimeo.

Mixtape: "I've Been Watching You"

The first time I heard the Southside Movement's "I've Been Watching You", I was in the family MPV crossing the Bay Bridge. My older brother had actually tracked down the sample source to "Smoke Dope and Rap" and "Scottie 15" and a growing number of songs where I recognized the ominous bass-loop from. For the longest time, I wondered whether Nickatina had been the first to sample Southside Movement and he was ripped off*. I simply believed Dre Dog to be too good to be virtually irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Years later, as my mp3 collection has grown, and the internet has made searching for things like this easier, I have discovered more and more songs that sample the same song, some before '93, some after.

Backing up, what first struck me about "I've Been Watching You" is what a small part the famous-to-us bassline plays in the song. It's only the first two bars of a completely unrelated intro. The rest of the song is about a guy watching some chick he has a crush on give dudes headers (that's my read, anyway), and it's not hardbody in the slightest.

How could this be? That beat is the realest! No matter what rap record you find it on, the rapper comes with it (Cormega probably being the exception). From Nickatina rapping about smoking drugs and kicking it in SF; Brotha Lynch rapping about drinking 40s by himself with the lights off; Peedi rapping about smoking angel dust in heaven; Yuk and Numb trading bars about dealing dope and hitting licks; Scarface letting you know what you can and can't get away with in 5th Ward Houston; even the tales of trying to pick women up at bars that Rae and Ghost trade can't hide the overpowering sadness of the beat.

The West Coast track, I think, are stronger because they let the sample speak for itself. The East Coast tracks all have a piano or violin loop on top of the bassline, as if that were necessary. This is why Dre Dog will always "own" this beat in my mind. TC (I think he produced most of The New Jim Jones) lets the beat speak for itself, in all its creepy glory.

Without further ado, or blathering about "Smoke Dope and Rap", here is a link to the mixtape, and a tracklisting below:

Southside Movement - I've Been Watching You
Dre Dog - Smoke Dope and Rap
Andre Nickatina - Scottie 15
Andre Nickatina - Scottie 15 (Chopped and Screwed)
Brotha Lynch Hung - 24 Deep
Peedi Crakk - Chitty Bang
Luniz - Doin Dirt
Scarface - PD Roll Em
Ghostface Killah, Raekwon - Camay
Cormega - American Beauty
Children of the Corn - Harlem Nights

Please note that this is incomplete. If you can suggest any other rap songs that sample "I've Been Watching You", I'd love to add to my collection. Enjoy.

*(I also wondered if he got ripped off by a young Puff Daddy; The New Jim Jones came out the same year as Ready to Die, but earlier, and samples both "Between the Sheets" ("Lips" for Dre Dog; "Big Poppa" for Biggie) and "Juicy Fruit" ("The Ave" for Dre Dog; "Juicy" for Biggie))

Will Messy Marv Eventually Have Beef With Himself?

Or does he already?

About a year ago, Messy Marv was still down with San Quinn. As we all know, he is no longer. Now, a year later, he's no longer down with Knockout/Click Clack Gang, his own fucking crew.

Messy Marv, Baby Bin Laden "24 Bars of Death"

Typically, when people count the bars on their diss records, they come up with an impressive number (100, maybe 200). But The Boy Boy either knows that brevity is the soul of wit, or he is quite lazy (I'm guessing a combination of both), because 24 bars is nothing to write home - or name a song - about.

Either way, I'm impressed with this public unraveling that is going on in Messy Marv's career. I don't think he's ever been more interesting to listen to. It will truly become artistic when he finally writes a diss song about himself and actually means it.

Also, it was nice to hear from Baby Bin Laden again. Sounds like he's grown up a bit since Disobayish. You really have to wonder if Baby Bin Laden knows, deep down, that he will be at the business end of a lazy Messy Marv diss track in the near future.

On a completely unrelated note, I find it interesting when San Francisco rappers brag about staying in project hallways, as Baby Bin Laden does in the intro. Virtually every housing project in the city that might have had a hallway has been torn down and replaced with townhouse style housing projects, and most of those are painted in pastels. Geneva Towers, Army Street, Valencia Gardens, whatever those Fillmore towers were. Even North Beach. There really aren't any project hallways in San Francisco to speak of. I guess that "I stay in them pastel townhouses" just doesn't sound hardbody enough, even if it technically is. All I'm saying is, pay attention to how certain types of housing stock evoke certain connotations in rap music, and how much rappers lie about their surroundings to sound tough.

Video: Cellski "I Said"

Fresh off holding down the grill at Jacka's celebratory barbecue, Cellski is back in music video-land, holding down the 200 block of Randolph as usual. He manages to make the neighborhood about ten times as interesting as it actually is, which is impressive ("cause in the 'View, there really ain't shit to do").

This will be on his new album, which will be called, in all seriousness, Chef Boy Cellski.



I get the reference, but I do appreciate a little bit more wit when it comes to naming your album the same way you might design a tall t-shirt that turns a cereal (or in this case, canned pasta) mascot into a drug dealer. There really is no play on words here, at all, except that "Ardee" and "Cellski" end in the same sound, almost.

This reminds me of a shirt that my friend Clark claims to have seen, that had Count Chocula on it, and simply read "Count Chocula: The Bay". No play on words, nothing. Just "Count Chocula: The Bay".

Despite not being impressed with the album's title, the cover artwork looks HILARIOUS, and I trust Cellski to put out a few bangers. I just hope he doesn't AutoTune the whole thing.

Nah, Right?

Don't get my hopes up, Cellski! We all know what happened to that Lil Flip mixtape...

EDIT: Just recalled that Cellski and Stevie Williams have been linked up in a certain sense in the past. Anyone ever watched 411 Volume 36 might remember this Chocolate commercial:



Cellski and Stevie Williams pair nicely. I would really love to see this come together, but I don't have my hopes that high.

Put the Phone on Your Butt...

...it's a booty call [||].

Click here to download the long-awaited Buckets and Booty Calls mixtape from Mr. Roach Gigz (link courtesy of the man's twitter).

SF Rappers Make Videos at Skatespots, Sometimes

This is Dorrough (as in "cream on the inside, clean on the outside" Dorrough) and some guy named Young Lot, who appears to be from Sunnydale. The beat is a sort of update of MC Breed's "Ain't No Future In Yo Frontin", and the song itself is nowhere near as good. What I find interesting is that he seems to have filmed a big portion of the video at the Potrero Del Sol skatepark in the Mission. It's not like he's particularly hip or anything; he is clearly too large to skateboard. What is slightly stranger is that he shows no love for SF's true first skatepark (if you don't count that bowl in Hunter's Point), Crocker Amazon's Chilly Bowl. Being from Vis Valley, apparently, it would make more sense for him to just go up the street and film at the neighborhood spot, no matter how much it sucks.



Big Rich, at it again, pretending that he is already popular, despite the fact that he really is not a good rapper. Anyway, in some unfinished rap music video "plot" point, Big Rich meets up with all his buddies at Raoul Wallenberg High School, but it goes nowhere. Maybe Big Rich wanted to get a last shot at ollieing the Big Four (PS - There's a wiki page for the Big Four!?!?)?

Then again, he's much too fat, just like this picture of what is supposedly a Mac Mall Mac To The Future commemorative skateboard, which you can buy, for $85 dollars at RapBay.



You know, none of you guys got me a birthday present, and I did just snap my board...

Video: Jacka and Andre Nickatina "Glamorous Lifestyle"

This came out maybe two weeks ago, and I missed it. Basically, Jacka rides around the East Bay wearing some obnoxious streetwear, meets up with Andre Nickatina, who is wearing two-thirds of a three-piece suit, and then goes to a barbecue where Cellski mans the grill, and E-40 is playing dominoes. Husalah makes a cameo, too. It actually looks like a great fucking time, which is odd, because I always sensed something dark in that song.

Hella Money...

...on Craigslist

Remember when these Bay Area remixes used to be good?

1. Da Oowop "Craigslist Money (Arab Money Remix)"

As you might have guessed, it's about practicing the world's second oldest profession on what is damn near the Internet's oldest website. It also sounds like they had to use some knockoff shareware version of AutoTune. I would have appreciated a mention of the Craigslist Killer making business harder, or referring to dollars as "roses" in those ridiculous postings, but this guy is just awful at rap.

Just like this song, Craigslist is a fucking mess. There was a great article on Wired recently explaining all of CL's problems. Da Oowop is only the tip of the iceberg. I took craigslist's shittiness for granted for too long; it is truly absurd that we depend on this poorly designed spammer's paradise for housing, jobs, and - for some - "love".

2. Dorrough "Ice Cream Paint Job"

Unrelated: My current Southern rap guilty pleasure. I'll take a tardy pass on this.

3. From the Inbox

Complex from the 707 writes, in response to the last post:

"Whoever wrote that Murder Dog article is retarted [sic]. Lil' 4-Tay is Rappin' 4-Tay's SON. Also Roach Gigz' mixtape to be released is called "Buckets & Booty Calls" NOT "Buckets Of Booty". Just thought as a Roach/Lil' 4 fan I should straighten that out."

The plot thickens! Still, he is right about that Buckets of Booty nonsense. Though if I were Roach I might wonder whether that might be a better name for a mixtape.

This all has me wishing that I were, somehow, a Gender Studies major at Wellesely, but not really. Think about how much your professors would eat up a paper about a female rapper from San Francisco who blurs gender lines so successfully that no one can even agree on her gender, though no one really cares whether she's a guy or a girl. You could probably get a fucking book deal out of something like this, and Gender Studies majors would have heated debates about it in their discussion groups facilitated by stocky, mustachioed female TAs who go out of their way to use words like "heteronormative" and the gender-neutral pronoun "Ze", and so on and so forth.

Whoever thinks of a good title for my contribution to the ever-growing field of Gender Studies gets the dedication page of my book.

The Real News Here is that Murder Dog is Available For Free Online. Also, New Rap Music

Whoa! I still have a music blog! But do I still have an audience? Time will tell...let's listen to some new Bay Area rap.

The Pack "Kimbo Slice"

Over a classic stripped-down Young L beat, the youngest in charge trade rhymes about pretty much nothing at all. This one will sound great in your car, especially considering it's hook is swacked from Dorrough Music's "Ice Cream Paint Job", a four-verse song about cars by a guy from Dallas (no shit!). Kimbo Slice, for those unfamiliar, is that street fighting dude, who was loosely affiliated with some pr0n websited, and knocked a dude's eye out of his socket once. That's a hard hit.

Young L, OT, Lil B, Boogz Boogetz "Let My Wheels Spin"

Who the fuck are these guys? It's Young Dro's voice on the hook, slowed down. Seeing a pattern? Between Messy Marv and The Pack, I've been hearing a whole lot of Bay Area rappers outsource their hook writing abilities to the South. Now, I know outsourcing labor costs helps your bottom-line, but don't you lose a little bit of authenticity? Also, think about all the great hooks that The Pack has written! Seriously. Their marketing guy tried to get me to post the PREVIEW to the video for this, but I hella ignored him. He can feel free to let me know when the whole thing is out. Looks fresh.

Roach Gigz, Lil 4-Tay "Mainey"

I seriously didn't know that Lil 4-Tay was a girl until last week, while reading the feature in Murder Dog, which I can embed below:

Look Inside >>  July 2009

.

I still can't tell while listening to this (it's very possible that I don't have the artists right). Anyway, can chicks really be mainey?

Clyde Carson, The Jacka "Popular Thugs"

Clyde Carson just released his Base Rock EP. As I suspected, about half of it was inexcusably softhand, other tracks were just old. This one was news to me. If you want to remember why you were convinced a few years ago that Clyde Carson could have been a household name, check this one out. Just remembered that all those signed Jacka albums are still in a box behind my bedroom door. Whoops...

Stacks On Deck Money Gang "Gucci Louis"

Soulja Boy is a household name. Isn't that something? Still, try to not enjoy this one.