I unapologetically love hip-hop. My unabashed passion for it can be traced back to receiving my first rap album (Ma$e’s Harlem World) on my 10th birthday all the way through my formative years when 2Pac, Jay-Z, Eminem, Lil Wayne and T.I. shaped my world view with a prominent chip on my shoulder and held permanent spots on pre-game playlists. I loved the champion mentality with the underdog work ethic. I loved the bounce of the South, the wave of the West and the slaps of the East that seemingly kept my head on a yo-yo string any time something powerful hit the speakers. I loved the pride and competitiveness seeping throughout the ranks of the best the game had to offer. To put it simply, I love the hustle.
With The Rap Up, I’ll be recapping national and local hip-hop news from the month prior while also shining a light on the songs and artists I love. With that said, let’s get started with a very big February.
National News
I’ve got to say, this has been one of the most unbelievable months of music in recent memory. The way last year ended — and this year began — set the table for a monstrous month. Questlove‘s hilarious cameo on Parks and Recreation, Chance the Rapper’s appearance on Madonna’s album with Mike Tyson, an album from Big Sean, jaw dropping antics from Kevin Gates daily on Instagram and an album rollout from Action Bronson were just the tip. The dominant storylines are the crumbling of the two-decade empire that was Cash Money Records, and Kanye West on a comeback trail with navigator Paul McCartney.
To end 2014, Lil Wayne spoke out against the label he brought to the highest of rap-label echelons, slapping them with a $51 million lawsuit and proclaiming he was taking the kids (Drake and Nicki Minaj) with him in the divorce. Kanye, in the meantime, had been carefully calculating his comeback to mainstream adulation with “Only One,” the tear-jerking ballad from the perspective of his late mother singing to his new daughter, and with Paul McCartney on the keys to boot. Mr. West followed that up with another collaboration with Paul on Rihanna’s single “FourFiveSeconds.”
Kanye dominated the Grammy Awards with performances of each, despite their best efforts to stifle hip-hop as a genre not worth televising (littered with racial undertones in the nominations and winners that aren’t so undertone-y when history continually repeats itself — in the middle of Black History Month, mind you), although I can’t think of another genre that is as influential and relevant right now. Eminem saved the world from Iggy Azalea getting away with highway robbery, but there was still a sour taste in many fans’ mouths due to the lack of proper representation and credit given. (Where was YG?!) Cue Kendrick Lamar to wash that taste out by dropping his unbelievably powerful record “The Blacker the Berry” the day after the ceremony. I could spend 500 words breaking down that song and how important it is, but Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon already annotated the lyrics in such a fantastic way, I wouldn’t dare do anything other than direct your attention to that.
Then something big happened: The biggest male star in music today dropped a mixtape pretty much out of the sky that sold 550,000 copies in three days. Not only did Drake’s mixtape outsell almost every other rapper’s album first week sales for the past five years, but the music was some of his best to date. Drake dropped his tape during NBA All-Star Weekend, coinciding with one the most prolific weekends of Ye’s career that culminated in him opening SNL 40 with a performance of “Wolves,” featuring Vic Mensa and Sia and production from Cashmere Cat (coming to OKC April 4th!) and Sinjin Hawke.
Yes, Drake pulled a “Beyonce” and was every bit as successful as Queen Bey herself. However, it’s everything that surrounded the release and the execution that took it to the next level. The six-year anniversary of his mixtape So Far Gone was approaching, and there had been rumors that music was coming, but nothing was certain. James Prince of Rap-A-Lot had just called out Diddy, Birdman, Lil Wayne, and anyone that looked at Drake cross-eyed. Then, in the midst of Diddy’s performance at New York Fashion Week and shortly after, Kanye released his Adidas line and new Yeezy shoes, and Drake went and broke the internet. (Seriously. He broke the Spotify stream record, which he previously owned.) The slyest part of it all was putting the mixtape up for sale and supposedly fulfilling his four-album obligation to Cash Money Records (remember: crumbling) to join Wayne in free agency. He did this the same day he dropped a short film, Jungle, and proved that he not only has a smooth grasp of the zeitgeist, but plans to surf a wave of it while Ye’ pops his wheelie. Kanye may be this generation’s defining artist, but Drake’s universal appeal cannot be ignored. He is on a run that’s nearly unprecedented, especially in this day and age.
Finishing February with a bang, Kanye West premiered “All Day” at the Brit Music Awards alongside newcomer Allan Kingdom, the same week Big Sean’s album Dark Sky Paradise dropped. The West and Legend-assisted “One Man Can Change the World” adds to Sean’s resumé of incredibly uplifting songs. The last verse is dedicated to his grandmother, who passed away a few months prior, with Legend skating all over the track with his always-pristine vocal for one of my favorite musical moments of the month.
Speaking of Legend, the brightest spot belongs to him and Common taking home an Oscar for their song “Glory” from the movie Selma, a song greeted with a standing ovation when the two performed it that same evening. Awards season has a race problem, but to have that moment and award given to some of the most eloquent ambassadors of that culture was a true victory. The song was dedicated to the marches on Edmund Pettus Bridge and, as Common stated, “the spirit of that bridge connects the kid from the south side of Chicago dreaming of a better life, to those in France standing up for their freedom of expression, to the people in Hong Kong protesting for democracy.” You can see Common speak at the University of Tulsa (for free) on March 6th, at the Donald W. Reynolds Center on campus.
Read on for a recap of local and underground hip-hop
