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!
No comments:
Post a Comment