Seeing as how today is the anniversary of the untimely demise of arguably one of the greatest emcees I think its only right.

During my teenage years I lived only a few blocks from where Notorious BIG lived and hung out. A few blocks from Fulton Street in Bedstuy. The corner and blocks that you see in the Juicy video are literally a few blocks from where I lived. So yeah we were excited when that video came out. I also lived across the street from Buckshot at one point but I’ll save that for another time.

In any case one summer day after Ready To Die really just started to pick up steam in the streets we were hanging out on the block sitting on my steps cracking jokes. So a van pulled up with camera men and BIG rolled up in a truck. There was this illmatic vintage grafitti mural from the 80’s on my corner back then that said “Happy Birthday Best” (no one ever tagged over it) some will know where I am talking about strictly off that because there was also one of the biggest weed spots in Brooklyn around the other corner of this very same block. Even your favorite rappers from New Jersey made appearances to cop some there so yeah it was one of the buddah spots in Brooklyn back then. That is until on my way home from school one day there was a shooting in front of said weed spot and I saw a man murdered. But again that’s a tale for another day.

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Random fact. I know Jeru’s moms. HA. Told you it was random.

A double entendre for sure. These are the types of songs you want to hear from anyone claiming to be the best rapper alive.

Show and prove.

So said Mos Def to Jay-Z when he publicly challenged “the best rapper alive” to a battle.

From the Hip-Hop Is Dead album. When more emcees come with rhymes like this I’ll say hip-hop is NOT dead.

Until then…

This album was pretty good actually. Classic boom bap flow.

BONUS:
A Tribe Called Quest - “Electric Relaxation“

This track was never officially released but was released via mixtape way back when. Overlooked.

Check out where Swizz Beats got the samples for Jay-Z’s “On To The Next One.” Not my favorite Jay-Z track by a long shot but its catchy and that’s all they seems to shoot for these days.

Via: Hip-Hop is Deadly

Its been crazy busy here at the lab and office. Deadlines and more deadlines approaching. I do have something I hope to finish up and post shortly. For now enjoy the sounds of Blu & Exile from the “Below the Heavens” album. Classic material. I hope your familiar.

Here are some more tracks.

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Ok, so I work in the Entertainment Industry. I do get to meet tons of personalities from movies, television and of course music. I also get access to some interesting stats when published.

My information is your information and here are some interesting fact about the floundering music industry from the latest “Nielsen Company 2009 Year-End Music Industry Report.“

1. 2009 Digital Music Accounts for 40% of Total U.S. Music Purchases

This one is crazy but not at all unexpected. People are not buying physical media. Digital is just so much more convenient and portable. Just about all the big music retail chains are gone like dinosaurs or typewriters. Only Walmart and Target are still selling CD’s in decent numbers.

2. Rap music sales are down 20.9% from last year.

This is a HUGE drop. Hip-hop is no longer the pop culture darling it was 5-10 years back. I have been saying hip-hop is dead for the past 4 years and the trends are now catching up with this.

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