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  • Chinese Democracy, i’ll belive it when i see it!

    Every once and a while a new story comes long that is only true to certain people. If you are the kind of person that believes a person’s character is what it is and have no time to give second chances, please stop reading right now. However, if you are one of those people that believe in redemption and that people can change keep reading. I offer you this one caution; don’t believe a word that Axl Rose says until there is action to support those words.

    For Guns n’ Roses fans, the term Chinese Democracy has great meaning. Broken Dreams, false hope and frustration are just a few of the meanings that come to mind when someone says Chinese Democracy to me. Chinese Democracy is the name of the next Guns n’ Roses album. However in this case, next is a timeless expression. It has been years since the album has been rumored to be released by the newest version of Guns n’ Roses. There comes a point at which people stop waiting for something and start praying for it. However, rock fans prayers may have finally been answered (before reading the rest of this blog, refer to the first paragraph’s caution statement).

    According to an AP report, on Saturday night, radio host Eddy Trunk’s weekly classic rock talk show was co-hosted by Skid Row frontman Sebastin Bach. The discussion between the two turned to Guns n’ Roses. That’s when Bach jumped into action and placed a call to fellow frontman Axl Rose’s cell phone. Axl picked up and the call went live on the air. For shits and giggles, Bach asked Rose about the long awaited Chinese Democracy album. Axl responded by saying the album will come out “Sometime this fall or late fall…It will be out this year.”

    On the surface, it would be easy to get excited over Rose’s comments. The comments should be reason to believe that the decade long rumors of Chinese Democracy being released were finally coming true. However, this is Axl Rose talking, which means lies, bullshit and more bullshit. We have been down this road again, and each time it has lead to more disappointment and frustration. If the man could only be as honest as well as he could sing and do his famous snake-like moves on stage then I might actually take his comments seriously. However, once a liar, always can be a liar.

    Upon further thought, if you think about the title of the album (Chinese Democracy), maybe this album will never come out. Will there ever be democracy in China, probably not. Is this Axl Rose’s idea of a sick joke? Possibly. What makes this new fuel on the fire worse is their are also rumors circulating that former Gn’R guitarist Slash may rejoin the band.

    I as well as many other rock fans have been jerked around too many times by Axl Rose to believe him. The boy who cried wolf eventually got eaten, and what comes around goes around, so I can’t even be angry. I’m confident that if Axl is jerking us around again, that I won’t be the chain he’s pulling. But how awesome would it be to hear a new Guns n’ Roses album?

  • MIXTAPE MONDAY vol. 4

    This week’s Mixtape up for review, DJ Whoo Kid’s “POW Radio Vol. 1”.

    When I talk to rap fans about mixtapes, a very common complaint is that the annoying shout-outs that seemed to be laced in every song like a batch of bad drugs, take away from the music. Mixtape music for my sake is a way of listening to music I would never have access to outside of a mixtape in a raw form. While I understand the reasoning behind a DJ wanting to insert random sounds or sayings that authenticate a song as being produced by them, you can’t deny the presence of these annoyances in mixtape music and their negative effect. DJ Whoo Kid’s newest mixtape “POW Radio Vol. 1” is guilty of using the shout-out to a point where the music gets compromised. It’s sad to think that the energy, soul and lyrical excellence rappers put into their music gets ruined when all of a sudden a classic rap track gets hit with “WHOOOOOOOO KIDDD….” or a gun shot or any other of a plethora of annoyances that fall under the umbrella of being a shout-out.

    “POW Radio” is a mixtape full of very commercial, pop sounding, radio friendly music. The names on the mixtape are huge whether it be 50 Cent, Jay-Z or T.I. The lead track of the mixtape is T.I.’s “Hands in the Air”. The first part of the song isn’t incredible, but T.I. kills it on the song’s final verse: “I don’t want to make it seem like I’m bragging to you/ ‘Cause I don’t think that’s one of the things a rapper should do/ but if I happen to forget I’ll be back in a few/ I got a Phantom, leather truck, Cadillac and a Coupe”.

    Lloyd Banks has a few appearances on the mixtape including a 70 bar long freestyle. Banks, as he has since he came on the mixtape scene a few years ago, improves any mixtape he raps on including this one. In the freestyle, Banks has a clever rhyme scheme rapping about “having a bitch for every letter in the alphabet”. In a very Pappose-ish “Alphabetical Slaughter” style, Banks rhymes names of woman for every letter in the alphabet (well at least up to the point where he gets stuck on the letter J), while still rhyming. Freeway also has a hot freestyle on the mixtape to the beat of Lil’ Wayne’s “Hustler Muzik”.

    There are a couple of interesting appearances by Jay-Z on this mixtape, but not Jay-Z the rapper, Jay-Z the businessman. In an interlude between tracks, there is audio of an interview with Jay-Z by an unnamed interviewer in which Jay talks briefly about how he is focusing on the business side of rap for right now, essentially squashing any rumors of a lyrical comeback. The two-minute interview then turned toward the subject of Cam’Ron. When asked what he was going to do about the beef that Cam has with him, Jay responded simply “I’m really trying to doing the boardroom thing right now”. Later in the mixtape, on a track called “Talent Search” we hear Jay-Z the comedian come out. In an unnamed radio appearance, Jay addresses a caller trying to rap for him by simply telling him his lyrics are “hot” after the caller only spoke one word. The conversation between the two is funny, and Jay-Z has a couple of hilarious lines.

    Kanye West gets on the mixtape with a track a few seconds longer than a minute called “Murder She Wrote”. In addition there are tracks by Jae Millz and a hot track from Peedi Crack. With a fast flow and constant rhymes Peedi’s song “Bury Niggas” serves the mixtape as a hot song from a lesser-known artists. One of the hottest beats on the album is from a Lloyd Banks and Avant collaboration called “Xclusive”. Papoose has a hot verse on the song “Throw Yo Guns in the Air” which also features a rapper named Riz.

    Overall this mixtape has some quality to it. There are some hot freestyles and a couple of tracks you won’t find on the radio. However, the shout-outs are way to frequent and disrupt the flow of the mixtape. Additionally, this is a very mainstream sounding mixtape, which will definitely dissuade some hardcore rap fans from picking this one up.

    OVERALL SCORE: 7 out of 10

  • MIXTAPE MONDAY vol. 3

    This week’s mixtape up for review, DJ Scarface’s “I Got That Product”

    After a week off, the official musichelpweb.com blog is back with the third edition of Mixtape Monday. I hope you all enjoyed your week off, but now it’s back to business as usual. This week’s mixtape comes from DJ Scarface and it’s called “I Got That Product”. The mixtape features a spectrum of rappers from the mixtape standard (Stack Bundles), to the securely mainstream (Mobb Deep), and a lot of what’s in between.

    The first thing that caught my attention on this mixtape was a track called “If it’s on”. The track featured Dipset member J.R. Writer and two females, Lady Luck and Babs. I was shocked when I heard the song’s first verse from Babs. Babs, no if’s and’s or but’s about it, killed it. If you take a short stroll down memory lane you might remember Babs was the top female rapper to come out of the P. Diddy catastrophe known as “The Band”. Babs referenced her stint with the group and an infamous experience she and her “Band”-mates went through on the show “Making the Band 2”; “From the same label as Mase/ Don’t get it twisted, the heat put a bitch in her place/ …but I never wear lace/ plus I walk over bitches in the game like I walk for cheesecake”.

    Dipset artists have been known to rap on some beats with unexpected samples. Whether it be Cam’ron rapping to Billy Joel or Jim Jones riding a beat courtesy of Sting, these guys never cease to shock you every once and a while. This mixtape was no exception, as J.R. Writer continues this time-honored tradition with the song “New Kid in Town”, sampled from an Eagles song of the same name. The vocals aren’t incredible, but combined with the beat the song is very entertaining.

    The mixtape also gave a little love to a couple of old timers, Royal Flush and AZ. Royal Flush has two songs on the Mixtape, the best of which is “In these Streets”. In one stellar verse, Royal Flush spits the following: “You ain’t ready for the street life homey/ Got this gun up on me/ And I’m gonna treat you like Sosa did Tony/ I’m the hottest shit out like PSP for Sony/ And I’m like T.I. ‘cause you really don’t know me.” AZ gets on an Alchemist produced track called “Professional Style”. The song is raw and running a shade under two minutes I was left wanting more from the Brooklyn born rap veteran.

    The rest of the highlights of the mixtape:
    – Method Man brought some of his usual ridiculously engaging lyrics with the song “Who I’m Is” (English teachers all over the world cringe upon hearing the song’s title)
    – Mobb Deep and fellow G-Unit member 50 Cent talk about the girls who try harder to get backstage at their concert “then the politicians on the campaign” on the song “Backstage Pass”.
    – 50 cent also gets on a track with Lloyd Banks on the curiously catchy song “Cake”.
    – Killa Sha does a great job rapping on the “Pearly Gates” beat with a freestyle called “Pull Da Wool”

    Overall, the mixtape will have you skipping just as many tracks as you will listen to. However, there is some interesting stuff here and the mixtape maintains as listenable from start to end.

    OVERALL SCORE: 6.5 out of 10