Northeastern University Springfest Concert 2007

So my school (Northeastern University) holds a concert every year to bring in the spring season. This year's concert was very hip hop oriented, so I thought it warranted my expert review.
This year's concert featured NaS, Lupe Fiasco, Gym Class Heroes, and RJD2. RJ kicked off the festivities with a set of his signature spinning techniques. While I appreciate a good wicky-wicky was much as the next guy, I thought RJD2's performance fell sort of flat with the audience, most of whom I would assume was not familiar with his work. RJ is a fan of obscure, off-beat drum kick techniques mixed with old-school soul and funk samples. While this type of DJing sounds great on wax, it tends to not go over so great during live performances. Still, people for the most part were vibing with the music and seemed to be content.
Up next was Lupe Fiasco, one of my favorite emcees. Lupe delivered a solid set that featured pretty much his entire body of work. He started off with various mixtape songs, with him more or less freestyling over other rapper's beats. He then went into his Food & Liquor shit and had fun with it. Lupe is definitely a gifted performer; he bounced around the stage so much, jumping from speaker to speaker that it was hard to keep up with him at times. However, Lupe fell into the same trap RJD2 did...the audience for the most part was unfamiliar with his work, so his call/response techniques ended up a bit embarrassing. Lupe also introduced the crowd to his partner in crime at 1st and 15th Records: Gemini. Gemini portrayed both his vocal and lyrical prowess, spitting a lightning quick verse followed by some soulful crooning.
On third was punk/hip hop sensation Gym Class Heroes. The band's set was lively and entertaining, even though their music doesn't happen to be my cup of tea. The ladies in attendance were definitely there for these guys, something the lead singer/emcee freely admitted (at one point he told a story about a run-in with a guy before the show, who said he was just there for NaS. He replied, "I'm here to see NaS too, but your girl's here to see me."). NEU was lucky to secure Gym Class Heroes when they did, as of three days ago they officially have the number one song in the country. I even saw many people leave after their set was over.
The grand finale featured none other than God's Son, the nasty NaS. Before he started his set though, NaS, class act that he is, let an up-and-coming artist get his shine on. That artist is Johnny Ca$h, the 106 & Park Freestyle Friday champion. Ca$h performed what I assume to be snippets of singles he is currently working on, and finished his quick set with an impressive acapella verse recounting his life struggles. NaS took the stage shortly after, complete with a DJ spinning out of a casket and a giant "Hip Hop Is Dead" banner behind him. The crowd was electric with excitement as NaS performed all his classics. Big hits included "NY State of Mind (in which he replaced NY with Boston)," "If I Ruled The World," "Got Yourself A Gun," "Oochie Wally," and "One Mic." In a suprise move, NaS took a shot at The Diplomats during the concert, saying "this is real hardcore, Kid Rock & Dipset soft." NaS rounded out the night with a quick snippet of "Ether."
So yea, there's the concert. It was awesome.

Some quick hip hop news snippets (courtesy of allhiphop.com):
-Mad lady emcees are jumping ship, it seems. Remy Ma has left Terror Squad, and is releasing her next album solo! She said her reason behind leaving was that she didn't think her first album There's Something About Remy was handled the right way. Shawnna was dropped from DTP for reasons unknown. Eve has left Aftermath Records and is now on Swiss Beatz's Full Surface Records. You go girls.
-Michael Jackson has gone on record saying that he has made several songs with 50 Cent and G-Unit! Apparently, there's a mixtape in the works, tentatively titled MJ-Unit. This should be a monster.
-There's a rumor floating around that Yayo might have been dropped from G-Unit, but I'll believe it when I see it.
-A documentary on Proof is set to make it's big debut in his hometown of Detroit. Proof, long time friend of Eminem and member of D-12 was shot outside of a club roughly a year ago. RIP big homie.
-Snoop's in trouble with the law, AGAIN. This time he might even be facing some jail time though.

It's real late, and I'm real tired. Hip Hop Nerd, signing out.

2006: The Return of the Emcee

In retrospect, 2006 was a great year for hip-hop. We witnessed the birth of a few new emcees, as well as the triumphant return of several that were M.I.A. for a while.

2006 saw a great rebirth of some of the biggest names of rap. Method Man dropped "4:21...The Day After" to critical acclaim, proving that he's still hungry as ever. Busta big comeback, the long overdue "The Big Bang," included the club banger "Touch It" and the Big Apple anthem "New York Shit." Clipse finally got their sophomore joint out, "Hell Hath No Fury" which as expected was razor sharp. Kweli put out a FREE indie album with backpacker producer extraordinaire Madlib entitled "Liberation," which can be downloaded of Kweli's Myspace. On top of all that, we saw not one, but TWO albums from Wu-Tang general Ghostface Killah, the appropriately named "Fishscale" and "More Fish." It was good to see Face back up to his potential. NaS released "Hip Hop Is Dead," giving the rap world the wake-up call it's desperately needed. As if all this wasn't enough, we witnessed the triumphant (though inevitable) return of Jay-Z. "Kingdom Come" is a perfect exemplar of, as Hov puts it, "the maturation of Jay Zeezy."

A couple of disappointments last year though: Where was "Built 4 Cuban Linx 2?" That was supposed to be out in like '04! Dre, what's up homie? You still haven't even set a timetable for the release of "Detox." Is it on or not?

A few quick factoids(courtesy of allhiphop.com):
-Kid Rock and Rev Run of Run DMC are planning to do an album together. It's unclear at this point whether it'll be a duet album, if Run'll be doing production for Kid Rock, or what. Let's just hope that Kid hasn't wasted whatever he had left on Pam...a woman like that could wear any man out.
-Underground LA native Murs got a deal with Warner Bros. for his seventh album. It's good to see under appreciated artists finally getting their shine on, but number 7? At that point, is it really worth it?
-Whitney and Bobby are supposedly through with each other. Yea right...we'll see how long that lasts.

Until a later date, Keep your Adidas fresh!

50 renames new album "Curtis."

Mr. Jackson has proven he can turn any publicity into good publicity. His upcoming album, due out in June, has undergone a name change, from the much more badass "Before I Self-Destruct," to the ironic, borderline goofy "Curtis." This name change wouldn't be so strange if it weren't for 50's highly publicized beef with Diplomat frontman Cam'ron, who recorded both a diss track and a video entitled "Curtis." The feud between the two started when 50 called Koch Records, the label through which Dipset has their record deal through, a "graveyard" for rappers. Cam took offense to this, and proceeded to taunt 50 with his own name. Ever since, Dipset supporters and G-Unit haters alike could be heard chanting "Currrrtis" at every chance they get. 50 has since moved on, and apparently capitalized on Cam's new catchphrase. He's said that "Before I Self-Destruct" will be the name of his final album (Which is rumored to be his 4th). While I understand what 50's trying to do, I'm not sure that basing an entire album on a beef as small scale (and not to mention corny) as this one is his best move.

On a related note, 50 has dropped manly crooner Olivia from G-Unit Records, with rumors that Tony Yayo and M.O.P. might not be too far behind. We'll see how that turns out.

On a not-so related note, Young Buck's new album, "Buck The World," is number 3 on the charts. However, in this journalist's humble opinion, the album is pretty wack. There is a track with Chester Bennington of Linkin Park that is so-so, but the vast majority of the tracks are skippable.

(All news is courtesy of allhiphop.com)

First post, and my views on hip-hop culture

What's up ya'll, this is my first post on this blog, so I'll start off with a short introduction. My name's Matt, aka The Hip-Hop Nerd, and I'll be discussing any and all news, happenings, and aspects in general related to the hip-hop culture.

Hip-hop "culture" to me isn't a "culture" in the classical sense. The term "culture" refers to how a group of people live and interact with one another. This includes how they eat, sleep, think, raise their kids, build their houses, the music they listen to, the clothes they wear, the artwork they create, their folktales, religious views, recreation, and customs. While the "hip-hop culture" does follow some of these patterns, it is for the most part out of touch with the rest. There's no real way to eat hip-hop or raise your kid to be hip-hop. I think of hip-hop culture more so as a culture peripheral; it can be added to existing cultures to change it or enrich it.

Next post, we get started.