Tag: Rap

#RushHourRap – Busta Rhymes ft. Eminem – Calm Down

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“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.

#RushHourRap – Atmosphere – God’s Bathroom Floor

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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

#RushHourRap – Mac Miller – 2009

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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.

#RushHourRap – Wu Tang Clan – Biochemical Equation

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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!

#RushHourRap – Saud ft. Shiloh Meets World and King Los – Woman

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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.

#RushHourRap – Eminem – Music To Be Murdered By – Side B

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Emergency edition of #RushHourRap this morning as Eminem dropped SIXTEEN new songs in the middle of the night! Music To Be Murdered By – Side B is another vehicle for Em, now 48-years-old, to show off his unmatched lyrical prowess and the elite ability to play with flow and cadence all while delivering rapid fire rhymes.

It’s packaged as a continuation of Music To Be Murdered By, which Em dropped back in January pre-pandemic. Marshall’s late career blitz continues as this is his 4th album in the last four years and his 7th in the last 11, which kicked off with Relapse way back in 2009. That came after a five year hiatus following Encore and I remember that felt like the end of Eminem, which is crazy to say 16 years and seven albums later. Em’s work over the past decade has been hit or miss with massive, massive success like Recovery, some well received albums like Marshall Mathers LP 2 that featured some A+ tracks like “Rap God.” Then of course came some misses like Revival and Kamikaze, both of which I enjoy as an Eminem stan (“Lucky You” still BANGS), but were not all that well received critically or commercially. We’ll see how MTBMB – Side B is received by fans and critics, but any time Eminem blesses the eardrums with new music I am all in.

#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.

#RushHourRap – Radamiz – Stage Fright

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25 letter alphabets, I’m never catching Z’s

Meet Brooklyn’s own Radhames Rodriguez AKA Radamiz. If you haven’t heard of him yet then stop reading and start listening because this man can rap. He hasn’t really popped mainstream (not to say everyone even wants to go mainstream), but he has opened up for rap legends like Nas and Black Star so he definitely is getting respect from those in the know. Anyways this track “Stage Fright” is off his 2019 album Nothing Changes If Nothing Changes. Give it a spin and let us know what you think and check out the rest of Rad’s work.

#RushHourRap – Logic – Open Mic/Aquarius III

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I can hear the voices in my mind when I rhyme
Give it up, you’re out of time
Never even had a prime
Like the Preemo never linked up with 5’9″
Bitch, I’m back like the muscles surrounding my vertebrae
Okay, fuck what you gotta say
I keep it going, already know when I’m flowing
For the listener, you’re kind of like a therapist
Or rather Cole in 2005, flowing like Canibus
That throwback shit, yeah, that throwback shit
Fuck what you heard, my catalog, it ain’t got no wack shit
‘Cause I’m a gladiator in the Colosseum, everybody wanna be him
‘Til they feel like they can’t be him, then they wanna see him lose
Wrote this poem in navy, that’s what I call singing the blues
Word to Dot D, my family got me, no carbon copy
Life can hit you harder than Drago
But if I roll with the punches when it’s rocky, don’t ever stop me

Logic is a frequent feature of #RushHourRap and for good reason. I feel like a lot of people only hear the few songs of his that really went mainstream like “1-800,” “Sucker for Pain,” “Every Day,” etc. which are all good songs, but don’t show Logic’s real lyrical prowess. This track from his most recent album No Pressure that dropped earlier this year came on my Spotify this morning and as a 5+ minute song it can definitely get lost in the shuffle, but my goodness the wordplay here is elite. I couldn’t even pick just a couple of bars to point out, which is why I listed 17 lines above. The amount of double entendres, deep cut rap references, and slick wordplay is unreal in a 30 second span.

I don’t know why, but the visuals for this song are only for a couple of the verses, which is why the below video is not even two minutes long.

So give this a spin, then go listen to the rest of Bobby’s catalogue, and then pour one out because according to him No Pressure was his final album (for now). Logic’s musical career is to be continued…

#RushHourRap – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

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Released 10 years ago this week, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is one of the best albums of the decade and in my opinion the best work of Kanye West’s career.

MBDTF won the Grammy for Rap Album of the Year along with two other Grammys for “All of the Lights.” The album is Kanye’s magnum opus and has contributions from so many heavy hitters in the industry that it really is mind blowing. Across production, features, and writing credits there were contributions from RZA, No ID, Scott Mescudi AKA Kid Cudi, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Bon Iver, Swizz Beatz, Pusha T, John Legend, Charlie Wilson, and Beyonce to name a few.

While I know everyone has heard the singles like “All of the Lights,” “Runaway,” and “Monster,” I cannot recommend enough that you watch the above 34 minute film. It is a glimpse into Kanye’s brain and his love for grandiosity. It is wild, and weird, and beautiful. I always said this could have been a legit broadway play and if you’ve ever been to a Kanye concert and seen his set pieces then you know the thought’s probably crossed his mind.