Tag: Lupe Fiasco

RIP to Rap Icon MF DOOM

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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.

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.

Living off borrowed time, the clock tick faster

#RushHourRap – Aesop Rock – None Shall Pass

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Aesop Rock is a fellow Rhymesayers label-mate of frequent #RushHourRap featured artist Atmosphere and has been an underground favorite for over 20 years. Aesop’s wordplay borders on the absurd at times, but in a good way. Lupe Fiasco once even dubbed Aesop Rock as the greatest rapper alive. High praise from a legend. There’s a lot of great tracks from Aesop over the years, but his 2007 “None Shall Pass” off the album of the same name is probably the best entry point for new fans. Like me you’ll likely find yourself on Genius reading along to his lyrics just trying to figure out what the hell he’s talking about, which admittedly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But if you’re looking for elite, rapid fire, intelligent writing then Aesop Rock is your guy.

Introducing the Official #RushHourRap Playlist

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Introducing the official #RushHourRap playlist curated by The 300s. Dozens of songs compiled from the past 30 years so you can take my obscure music recommendations with you anywhere. Featuring everyone from household names like Eminem and Kanye to lesser known artists, rappers you need to know, and young guys on the come up.

Just search #RushHourRap on Spotify to add it to your library.

Some of the deeper cuts of #RushHourRap unfortunately did not make the list because Spotify doesn’t exactly have a plethora of obscure mixtapes. So that means you’ll still need to track down hidden gems like Switch by Lupe Fiasco on YouTube.

But if you’re a fan of our morning rap recommendations then make sure you save and share this playlist because it’s a living breathing entity that I’ll be adding to all the time.

#RushHourRap – Lupe Fiasco – Switch

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I was in my daily cocoon of sadness sitting in soul crushing traffic this morning when I opened up YouTube and went down the Lupe Fiasco rabbit hole. It wasn’t long before I came back to the 2006 mixtape heater “Switch.” In addition to the 10,000 pound bass booming throughout, this song is incredibly clever and shows just how slick Lupe was back in the day. Lupe himself even describes the song as “a little science experiment” as he literally switches back and forth from subject matter without missing a beat.

In the song Switch, Lupe runs an “Experiment” during which he lays out for the listeners several different facets or niches that all rappers tend to fall into. Every time the background says “Switch”, Lupe will change the flow, meter, cadence, vocab, and topic to correspond to another niche of rap. – Genius

So turn up your factory ass system or pop in your headphones and let this Lupe classic bang.

#RushHourRap Video Series Coming Soon

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I’ve known Jimmy Lips for over a decade and I can’t think of anyone I randomly talk, text, and tweet to about rap more than this guy. The dude I took a car to a bus to a boat with to go see Lupe Fiasco on a goddamn island in New York City. This is who we’re going to be launching the #RushHourRap video series with and I’m pretty stoked about it. Keep an eye out for more details coming soon…

#RushHourRap – Lupe Fiasco – Kick Push

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I’ve been on a Lupe Fiasco kick this week after yesterday’s CRS post. Today I bring you Lupe’s first mega hit in the rap world with Kick Push, his ode to rebellious youth in the form of skateboarding. Lupe dominated the mid-00’s with his albums Food & Liquor in 2006, The Cool in 2007, and probably his most commercially successful album Lasers in 2011. The Cool is without a doubt my top Lupe album, but it’s hard to beat Kick Push in terms of individual tracks.

Before he knew he had a crew
There wasn’t no punk in they spitfire shirts and SB dunks
They would push till they could skate no more
Office building lobbies wasn’t safe no more
And it wasn’t like they wasn’t getting chased no more
Just the freedom was better than breathing they said

 

#RushHourRap – CRS – Us Placers

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Without a doubt, the most underutilized rap group of my lifetime. CRS aka Child Rebel Soldier was made up of Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, and Lupe Fiasco. Us Placers was released in 2007 and that was just about all we ever heard from CRS. To be fair this came out *right* before Kanye’s Graduation, and Lupe’s The Cool, which are two of the best rap albums of all time, so I can see how this may have gotten put on the back burner.

However, Kanye is known for collaborating with all kinds of artists, but is also infamous for boasting about forming rap super groups that never come to fruition. Some of these groups turn into classic platinum records like Watch the Throne with Jay Z. Another is just beginning as Ye has most recently teamed up with Kid Cudi to form Kids See Ghosts. Others result in an absolute fire single only to never be heard from again like CRS.

Kanye, Pharrell, and Lupe were also credited on the 2008 N.E.R.D. remix for Everyone Nose as CRS, which still bangs to this day, but is definitely more of a N.E.R.D. song than anything else.

Technically CRS had one other song that came out in 2010 called Don’t Stop, but it was a G.O.O.D. Fridays release so I don’t really count it. If you remember, G.O.O.D. Fridays was a free weekly music drop back in 2010, which was a godsend in college, that Kanye launched leading up to My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasy.  Kanye utilized the full roster of his label GOOD Music to release music every Friday for several months, including hits like Power, Don’t Look Down, and a number of tracks that eventually made their way onto MDBTF like Devil in a New Dress.