“Calm Down” is a summer 2014 banger from Busta Rhymes and Eminem going HAM over a chaotic sample of House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” What’s wild to think about is how well Em flows over the beat made famous by a guy he *bodied* over a decade before. You may remember back in 2000 House of Pain’s Everlast and Eminem were going back and forth with diss tracks that were legitimately personal and vitriolic. I mean, Em literally threatened to kill him on a track. This is back in the day when rap beefs were no joke and people often wound up getting shot. So I found it interesting Em not only appeared on, but went off on a past enemy’s original track.
But I digress…
“Busta noted that “It started off from just doing a dope, high energy hip-hop record into us respectfully competing and damn near battling each other” and stated that he and Eminem “bring the best out of” each other and praised Eminem as someone who “genuinely still cares about the music.”
True story: Busta Rhymes’ son was actually a couple years behind me in college and it was kind of this known thing around campus so I was always on the lookout hoping for a Busta sighting. I never ran into him, but I’ll never forget one of my professors, whose a white guy in his 70s, posting a picture from graduation with Busta Rhymes in the middle of the quad and it is one of the funniest pics I’ve ever seen. One of the greatest rappers of all time just chilling in the middle of suburbia Connecticut where I used to walk through hungover as all hell hopelessly sipping a Gatorade on my way to class.
I did not realize this song was somehow 25 years old. “God’s Bathroom Floor” is a track that bounced around for a while before finding an official home on the Overcast! EP, but it never made the cut on the actual album. “Introspective raps over a jazzy hypnotic melody” also may be the best way I’ve ever heard to describe Atmosphere.
Initially written and recorded when Atmosphere and fledgling label Rhymesayers Entertainment were still making a name for themselves in the Minneapolis hip-hop scene, “God’s Bathroom Floor” was an early standout for the group. Turning heads and drawing new fans in with Slug’s introspective raps over a jazzy hypnotic melody produced by Stress, the song was performed live frequently, quickly becoming an audience favorite before ever appearing on an actual release. Even then, it was only a live performance they made available, and only on a limited mixtape they released in 1996. It would be another year before the 4-track studio recording would surface on Atmosphere’s Overcast! EP—a collection of focus tracks promoting their debut full-length album—but “God’s Bathroom Floor” never made it onto the album itself and slowly slipped into obscurity from there. – @Atmosphere
“Dog Days” is a term generally used for summer and I believe (completely assumed with zero context or sources) is a reference to a dog’s preference to just kind of lie there when it gets unbearably hot in the summer; a practice humans enjoy taking on as well. However I feel like that sort of mood applies to the January/February time-frame as well. It’s cold out. You don’t really want to go anywhere. Sometimes there’s a global pandemic you want to avoid. You’re wearing comfy clothes and relaxing on your preferred comfortable chair/couch. It’s just a lazy time of year.
With that said the blog don’t sleep, so Joey B. can’t rest. There’s a number of things worthy of touching on in the sports world and beyond. So let’s do just that, perhaps over a cup of hot cocoa.
Conor McGregor Dominated By Dustin Poirier
There are six COMMON outcomes for an MMA fight. Not total, but common. Each fighter can win by decision, KO/TKO, or submission (3×2=6). Going into last Saturday’s main event I would have said “Poirier-KO/TKO” would have been the fifth most likely outcome, only edging out McGregor by sub. Boy howdy was I wrong. He threw hard calf kicks to McGregor’s lead leg and he threw them often. He was flowing with his boxing and beating McGregor up. The Irishman never looked comfortable and didn’t seem totally sure of himself. This all culminated in a finish in Rd2. A big question before the fight was what Conor McGregor’s next would move be if he lost? Now that we’ve arrived at that scenario the answer is all the more fleeting. Speculators like myself have long said the third Nate Diaz fight would always would be there. I guess it is, but after watching the unsure, rigid version of McGregor we saw last Saturday, it just doesn’t seem as exciting of a prospect. The man himself angled for a third fight with Poirier, and somewhere down the line that has to happen. McGregor dominated the first, Poirier dominated the second. But in the immediate future Poirier gets to call his shot, be it a “money” fight with Nate Diaz or a title fight, for Khabib Nurmagomedov’s presumably vacated belt, against Charles Oliveira. Re-matching a man he just soundly defeated and is 3-3 in his last six MMA fights and 1-1 at 155lbs in the UFC doesn’t make any sense. It is a tricky conundrum indeed at this time to determine a match up could keep McGregor at the top of a PPV card while not finding him the vast underdog.
Deshaun Watson Officially Wants Out
As reported by Adam Schefter today, Deshaun Watson has officially asked for the fuck out of Houston and the Realm of Littlefinger Jack Easterby. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean his time in Houston is definitely over, but I can’t be the only one that feels like there is no turning back for the team or the player. This begs the question of what kind of package Houston wants for Watson. A lot of folks on twitter are saying it’s going to take an absolute haul of picks + talent from the trade partner + possibly some extra bodies for cap/contract reasons. That does indeed make sense. But what I don’t think can be overlooked is what Houston is losing here: their starting QB. What that makes me wonder is whether or not the Texans see some value in, or quite possibly were once enamored with pre-draft, a few of the young QBs that have fallen out of favor with their current team. There will be an unprecedented, to say the least, amount of starting/starting caliber QB movement this off-season. It’s not just Deshaun Watson seeking a new home. So rather than just looking at usual suspects when evaluating who may go after Watson, think of teams that may have both an interest in the Clemson product and a player to offer who could possibly take a shot at replacing him: Chicago (Mitch Trubisky), Denver (Drew Lock), New York-B (Sam Darnold), San Francisco (Jimmy Garoppolo), Philadephia (Carson Wentz). You get the idea.
Bradley Beal Becomes First Player To Lose Ten Straight 40-Point Games
What a brutal fucking stat and reality. I’m not the most gigantic hoops fanatic, but I’ve felt for awhile that Bradley Beal was a phenomenal player playing in the wasteland that is D.C. His talent is completey overshadowed by the ineptness of his franchise. Yesterday simply put an exclamation point on the end of that sentence. Ten straight games of scoring an absurd amount of points only to fucking lose. That just has to hurt. And we know it hurts, because it has become one of the internet’s favorite things to get a laugh out of poor Bradley Beal’s body language. Just head in his hands on the bench, thinking “what the fuck did I do to deserve to be here?” This has of course brought on heaps of trade speculation and knowing the Wizards he’ll probably get moved. Let’s hope the man can find some greener pastures. And some happiness.
Nerds On Reddit Defeated And Possibly Ended A Couple Of Hedge Funds In The Name Of GameStop
I don’t know nor care as much about this as I should but I’d be a dick if I didn’t mention it so here we are. Basically, a couple of large hedge funds (boutique investment firms that take big risks HEDGED (wink wink) by betting other money elsewhere in the investment world….or something like that) bet huge money that GameStop’s stock would tank. That makes sense because GameStop is failing and has lost money for something like 12 consecutive quarters. However betting that this will happen actually causes the stock to drop because, stock market. In comes Reddit and the whole crowdfunding thing and “investors” all over started betting ON GameStop, both to be dicks to the Wall Street dicks and also because if they could get the GameStop stock to go up so that THEY’D make money instead of the hedge funds. And Reddit won. One of the hedge funds might even have to close shop which is hilarious. Overall just a chaotic, wacky thing to have happen. Lots of nerds and woke people saying THIS IS WHY THE STOCK MARKET IS BAD. (Calm Down). It’s kind of like playing poker against someone who has no idea what they’re doing. You should be able to wipe them but with ignorance of the game comes their inability to know what a bluff is etc. and they kill you, much to you and your liver’s chagrin.
Drake Pushes Back Album Release Due To Torn ACL
I have no idea why I am so fascinated by this story. There will be no touring for the foreseeable future so it isn’t like Drizzy was smartly avoiding a loss of income. Was he going to celebrate the release of “Certified Lover Boy” on a trampoline? Has having a home gym + quarantine brain actually made him believe he’s a pro-athlete? I’m not sure. I just know that with the fluidity with which music is created and release these days it doesn’t make sense that Wheelchair Jimmy had to delay his album release for a bum knee.
It’s like I never felt alive before Mhmm, I’d rather have me peace of mind than war See me and you, we ain’t that different I struck the fuck out and then I came back swingin’ Take my time to finish, mind my business A life ain’t a life ’til you live it
It’s no secret that I’m a big Mac Miller fan and last week would have been his 29th birthday after passing away in 2018, which is crazy he wouldn’t have even been 30 yet. I think Mac was an artist that I related to because I was in college when he first started popping online and he was rapping about a lot of the same stuff I was doing. He was probably the most successful out of the white kid frat rap genre (Asher Roth, Sammy Adams, Chris Webby etc.) that was like a comet back in the late 2000s, but he was also the only one to really grow up and his music reflected that.
K.I.D.S. and Best Day Ever still immediately takes me back to drinking around campus and Blue Slide Park came out when I was living by myself in New York working my first real life job. (It was also the first time I owned a car with an actual CD player) Watching Movies With the Sound Off though is where Mac really started experimenting and you could see he was trying to break out of the party rapper mold, which eventually led to much more well rounded albums like GO:OD AM. He started branching out into other genres like funk and somehow successfully bending that to fit his own style like he did with The Divine Feminine before releasing arguably his best all around album Swimming, released just over a month before his death in 2018. His family and inner circle posthumously released his Circles album in 2020 as well.
But I think one of the most enduring examples of his work oddly enough was his NPR Tiny Desk Concert. I was feeling nostalgic the other day so I threw that up on YouTube and it just shows the growth Mac Miller had from his early days as he croons with a live band including one of my favorite songs of his, the melancholy ballad “2009.” There are much worse ways to spend 15 minutes of your day so I highly recommend checking it out.
Racks on racks, I don’t rap on tracks Without my A-game, so please don’t ask me about no pressure Bitch, with the grip of my fingertip I can hold this coast together
Ab-Soul goes hard on “ILLuminate,” but Kendrick Lamar is so so good. K-Dot isn’t a voracious social media user though so I feel like he drifts in and out of people’s minds. He came out with what I said was the album of the year in 2017 with “DAMN.” He followed that up in 2018 with the surprisingly excellent movie soundtrack to Black Panther. Movie soundtracks are usually flimsy albums with one hit song like Wild Wild West, but Kendrick took the job serious as all hell and put out a legit full fledged album. He’s been relatively quiet in the two years since so we’re stepping into the way back machine for this 2012 Ab-Soul track “ILLuminate” featuring Kendrick doing the damn thing.
True story: Back in college I used to work at The Gap where I developed my bulletproof method of folding t-shirts and crisply stacked denim. But because I was absolutely broke I would work whatever shift I could get so sometimes that was the mid-afternoon shift working the register and folding reasonably priced sweaters. Other times it was the 4 AM shift unloading the truck and opening up all the new products. And since I was one of the only guys that worked there, this included taking the 100 pounds of cardboard through the back hallways of the mall, down the sketchy service elevator, and into the belly of the South Shore Plaza to crush it all up in the dumpster. Real great job for like $9 an hour. Anyways, I paint this picture so you can understand how any form of entertainment was greatly needed. Now the No. 1 perk of working these absurdly early morning shifts was the fact that the mall was obviously not open yet so we could listen to our own music in the store. Well being like 19-years-old provides a certain level of the chemical “fuck it” in your system so when the middle aged ladies would bring out the radio to play some Matty in the Morning, I would snatch the Aux cord and BLAST obscure rap like Chris Webby at 5 in the morning. Now just picture me, unpacking boxes before the sun was even up, playing rap at a deafening level inside a dimly lit Gap just to get through the morning.
A featured artist in our #RushHourRap series, a truly original rapper, and a personal favorite of mine, it came out over the weekend that indie rap icon MF DOOM passed away at the age of 49. Yet another truly stunning loss for the music industry as a whole. Known for his lyrical prowess, and unapologetically verbose style, Daniel Dumile (pronounced Doom-ee-lay) AKA MF DOOM has been rapping under various names since the 80s. Dumile was a member of the rap group KMD, going by the name of Zev Love X, but the group broke up in 1993 after the death of his brother. After a few years away from music, Dumile came back onto the scene performing while wearing a Doctor Doom mask and adopted the moniker “MF Doom.” Doctor Doom is even on the cover of his 1999 debut solo album Operation: Doomsday.
Most of MF DOOM’s solo work came in the early-mid 2000s with probably his most well known album, Mm…Food, a clever anagram that included tracks all named after food such as “Rapp Snitch Knishes” to complete the wordplay. His last solo album dropped back in 2009, but he’s done all kinds of collabs over the years like the Madvillainy album where he teamed up with Madlib for what many call his magnum opus.
DOOM collabs often sneak up on you with their completely unique beats and work their way into your brain like the 2018 collab with Czarface, Czarface Meets Metal Face.
Speaking of collabs, I’d be remiss to not include MF DOOM’s 2016 collab with Atmosphere on “When The Lights Go Out.”
You may have never heard DOOM on the radio, but that hasn’t really been a measuring stick of musical quality since *at least* when YouTube was launched, probably earlier if we’re being honest. He was clearly an artist that was held in high regard around the industry. Rap juggernaut Lupe Fiasco even released a freestyle the other day honoring MF DOOM.
Thanx DOOM…I learned so much from you about the art of rapping. Studied and analyzed you for years as recently as a few days ago. I wish I could’ve met you to tell you that. ❤️🙏🏾…here’s some raps…rest easy…Amin… pic.twitter.com/1njyEArfzT
— TAPE TAPE & HOUSE EP NOW PLAYING (@LupeFiasco) January 1, 2021
Check out this interview clip below where DOOM talks about how in his rhymes he always wanted to keep people off guard like he was “keeping a good conversation with the listener.” You can actually watch the whole interview from the “MF DOOM: The Man Behind The Mask” documentary here.
So if you’ve gotten this far, you’re probably wondering, why the Doctor Doom mask?
“It don’t matter what the artist look like, it’s more what the artist sound like. The mask really represents to rebel against trying to sell the product as a human being. It’s more of a sound.”
In a sea of ringtone rap and corporate branding, MF DOOM was truly one of the most unique, genuine, gonna do things his own way type of artists we’ve ever seen. Rest in Peace.
Confronted by the devil himself, and stay strong You think you can take the King, now meet Kong Strong as the base of a mountain, there’s no counting How many MC’s, have sprung from our fountain
From the group that needs no introduction, this 2005 track “Biochemical Equation” comes off one of Wu Tang’s massive collaborative efforts, Wu Tang Meets The Indie Culture. This song in particular features verses from both RZA and indie legend MF Doom so there’s plenty of clever wordplay here. RZA really is a five tool player as a producer, rapper, and an actor with dozens of acting credits to his name, including a season on the wildly underrated Californication. Just a quick quarantine binge recommendation if you’re looking for a new show.
Now add this track to your iPod shuffle or just follow the #RushHourRap playlist on Spotify!
Another day of #RushHourRap bringing you fresh tracks that you may or may not have heard before, but this is one you need to add to your rotation. Produced by Saud, featuring Shiloh Meets World and King Los, “Woman” is a slick, up tempo bass heavy track that just feels like a speeding down the highway kind of jam. So check it out or you can follow The 300s #RushHourRap playlist on Spotify below and we’ll curate it for you.
A side note, I’m rootin’ for you, I use these bars and start recruitin’ for you But treat her right And just remember, on your lonely nights this mic will be your friend You tell it all your secrets that you keepin’ deep within Your fantasies, regrets, your happy moments and your sins And if he doesn’t comprehend, at least he can pretend Let’s begin to be the men we never seen
J. Cole really is a one man murderers’ row of guest spots, including this 2018 feature on Cozz’s “Zendaya” track. Cozz is a member of Cole’s record label, Dreamville, and has been featured throughout Cole’s Revenge of the Dreamers series that’s essentially acted as a spotlight for his up and coming artists. Cole has spoken extensively about how he intentionally got on as many other artist’s tracks as possible to show people what he can really do when he’s in his bag. So much so that he even rapped on “A Lot” how nobody even wants him on their song anymore because he’s that good.
I never was one for the bragging and boasting I guess I was hoping the music would speak for itself, but the people want everything else Okay, no problem, I’ll show up on everyone album You know what the outcome will be I’m batting a thousand It’s got to the point that these rappers don’t even like rappin’ with me
The 300s 