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REASONABLE DOUBT: a critical round- up of the hip hop headlines
Prison, blah blah blah, numbers shifted, blah blah blah, R&B beat-jacking the golden age, and so on... It's another turbulent week in the rap rumour mines, but RUSSELL MYRIE hasn't stopped diggin', and here's his selection of solid gold nuggets from another seven days of speculation, salivation and sensation
Published: May 29, 2009
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We're not sure how good a look this pose was for T.I., all things considered
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| Photo © Paul Hampartsoumian |
Let's start with a big "hold your head" to T.I. who is now in prison for illegally purchasing all those guns. It's easy to take a closed-minded approach to all his recent legal problems, but for those shades of grey be sure to check the tune we here at HIPHOP.COM have been mentioning every time the subject of Tip's prison stretch has arisen: the chorus of Ready for Whatever says it all - "either die or go to jail, that's a hell of a decision." Congrats to the King of the South on his wedding to Tiny as well.
There was some confusion about the length of T.I.'s sentence as the time for him to turn himself in approached. But make no mistake: C Murder is going down for ten years for attempted murder. It's sad news all around - condolences to the family of the victim and to all concerned with C Murder and No Limit. There aren't any winners. But how long has this case been dragging on for? The incident occurred in August 2001! The Twin Towers were still standing!
Time to play the numbers game. Disclaimer alert! The amount of units a record shifts in its first week, or any week, will never change the actual content of the record. A lot of wack ish sells loads and loads and even more good stuff fails to shift even half decent units. But there is no denying that sales figures can add to or detract from a rapper's swag, even in the age of downloading where nothing really sells very much any more. Unless your name happens to be Eminem. You know Em wasn't gonna land anywhere but Number One. With 608,000 units sold in the US, Relapse becomes the best selling rap album of 2009 so far. The only people capable of topping those numbers are Weezy, 50 or Dre. Red and Meth's Blackout 2 was originally reported to have sold a very respectable 63,000 units. This proves their fanbase and should be good enough for the film people to finally greenlight another project from the Blunt Brothers. But it's not all good news. Busta's Back on My B.S. was initially reported to have only done 59,000 units in its first week. While this is only a few less than the How High rappers it's still a lot less than most heads were expecting, and hoping for, from the Dungeon Dragon's eighth album. Stop the press though, Soundscan have been doing re-counts and swapped these two around (putting Busta at No.5 and Red & Meth at No.7 in this week's Billboard): what a mess! That aside, it's strange that they're held to such different standards, considering Busta and Red/Meth come from pretty much the same era and have similar levels of lyrical skill. They're also obviously mad cool with each other - Busta was very vocal about his dislike of Joe Budden's comments - but as someone who has always remained at the forefront of new trends in hip hop (while staying true to its founding principles), more units are going to be expected from Busta. Also, after the Aftermath deal failed to do what it seemed it was going to, this album was maybe even viewed as a make-or-break for the former Leader of the New School. We're not buying that, though: to quote KRS on Mad Izm, Bussa Bus really will be one of the few "ripping the mic 'til he's 60". So don't believe the hype and cop that. It's also worth considering that it's actually getting more and more difficult to actually purchase CDs these days. The largest amounts of CDs on the street belong to the "two for five" bootlegging crew. I'm not knocking the hustle - I'll leave that up to the artists - but I wonder how many counterfeit copies of all this week's releases were shifted?
Anyone else heard that new Amerie joint? Right now, as you read this, you're probably wondering "what does an r&b singer have to do with HIPHOP.COM?" Check out her new single Why R U?, then you'll know. These days, the name Ultramagnetic MCs probably won't mean much to most, but if you're a true schooler you'll instantly recognise that Amerie has jacked their Ego Trippin' beat (one of the standouts from the all-time classic debut Critical Beatdown) for her newest record. It's the illest beat-jack since Puffy jacked BDP's South Bronx for Total's No One Else. Now, there are many who are probably sick of r&b ladies over bullish tracks, but not every song has to change your life. Sometimes it just sounds good in the dance. If you really know your stuff, then you'll know that these mixes have been giving the ladies respite ever since DJ Johnny Juice of Public Enemy first premiered his "love mixes" way back when on college radio. What you know about Biz Markie's Make the Music with Your Mouth Biz over Anita Baker's Caught Up in the Rapture instrumental?
This Jay-Z stuff is getting a little bit confusing, no? A few days after he reportedly drops a cool five milli on freeing himself from Def Jam, Hova is apparently really, really close to signing his Roc Nation imprint to Sony for distribution matters. Under these terms, it is believed that Epic will release the hotly anticipated Blueprint 3. As we understand it the Live Nation ten-year deal includes percentages of all future album releases as well as tours, merchandise and all of the rest of it, so they'll be pleased that the album's distribution will be handled by another big corporation. They don't just hand out $150 million for nothing - and Jigga is nothing if not a good business, man. On the other hand, there may be trouble ahead with all these clashing industry titans. Our heads are spinnin' more than that kid in The Exorcist. As long as we get Blueprint 3, which is meant to not have any autotune therein, I don't really care whose logo is on the back of the CD. It's all politics and bulls---, like Frankie Cutlass once said. If this album is as good as it's meant to be, Jay has a good chance of beating Em's numbers too. It looks like we'll have to watch and wait with this one.
If you missed last week's news, catch up HERE.
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