Monday, October 24, 2011

LP Thoughts: Common Sense- Like Water For Chocolate (2000)


In '97 Common dropped a LP i thought was one of the year's best! I was jammin it daily and i was thinkin man, this dude Common is a real artist people need to take notice! Well in 2000 he would get just that.

After his last LP Common was doin guest verses on alot of peoples records garnering alot of attention! With classic rhymes on "1999" & "Respiration" his name was starting to get out there. And people was wondering what he was comin wit next. In 2000 a new wave of music was starting to come forth called neo. People like Erykah Badu, D'Angelo & Bilal started a new wave of R&B called neo-soul. It was a very warm & soul sounding music that is incredible. Common was very into that alot and hooked up with a new production team called Soulquarians (Questlove, J-Dilla & D'Angelo) to try to bring this new style of music into hip-hop that they brought to R&B. Who knew that this new marriage would work so well?

Common's 1st single was "6th Sense" which was produced by my nigga Premier! Man, i remember hearing this record for the 1st time and was just happy as hell that Common did a track with Premier! It was a smart move cause he represented a song for the street and showed them that he didnt forget them. It was a nice set up for his 2nd single which was the now classic "The Light". This track to me put him up there in a another level across the world cause this track resonated with so many people. It was a feel good record! Plus this put the spotlight on a producer named J-Dilla, and people needed to take notice on this talented beat maker. When this joint was spinning it brings back great memories cause at the time i was livin in NJ and Hot 97 was on fire back then! I never thought that a radio station could be that dope but thats another story. Ok, so now Common had the people's ears and people was feenin for that LP to drop and i was one of them. What i didnt expect was that i would be soon conflicted about this album.

I copped this LP the day it dropped and i guess i was going into it that this LP would sound exactly like his last. I was expecting the same type of beats and everything. So when i listened to it for the 1st time i was mad dissapointed. I didnt like it at all. I loved "6th Sense" & "The Light", those were a given but everything else i wasnt feelin. And i was mad, i thought Common had let me down. This LP was sittin in my CD book for 4 years and i never took it out until 2003 when i gave it away. I never listened to it other than those 2 songs and that was it.

But that people was the old me music wise. Back in '07-'08 i had to go back re-do my whole thinking of hip-hop music and read the manuscripts. There was alot of things that i never heard that i had to hear and re-access music i thought was wack. So in '07 i re-bought this LP. And man im glad i did cause i just overlooked this LP. I realized that the music is different cause he was going neo hip-hop. Plus J Dilla played a huge part in LP with the beats. So when i re-listened to it my ears was opened. One of the songs that i now love is "The Questions"! I love this record, its like Common did a Jadakiss "Why" before Jada did it. The beat on this track is lovely man. I can repeat it all day. So i want to admit i made a mistake on this LP 11 years ago, but i made up for it.

Sometimes when u buy a LP u expect too much from it and when it doesnt meet ur expectations u give up on it. Then once time settles in and ur viewpoints changed u realize "hey that LP wasnt that bad at all". Just anaylze a LP the best u can and if u come to the ultimate conclusion whether it dope or wack is up to u, but just take the time out and think it over before u make judgements about it. Learn from me.

Ill give this LP 3 out of 5. This was the LP that put Common in the spotlight and he ran wit it ever since (exclude Electric Circus). Whats ur thoughts on this LP?

Sunday, October 23, 2011

The Source Fat Tape: October 2002

The tracks replaced off of this was:
Shade Shiest- Act Like You Know Me w/ Murder Inc.- The Pledge Remix
E-40- Automatic Remix w/ Loon- How U Want That

Oct. '02

Friday, October 21, 2011

The Source Fat Tape: November 1999


The tracks replaced off this was:
Rascalz- Cant Relate w/ Warren G- I Want It All
Young Bleed- I Could See It w/ Terror Squad- Whatcha Gonna Do
The Roots- Rocky w/ Made Men- Just You & I

Nov. '99

Thursday, October 20, 2011

The Source Fat Tape: June 1999

The tracks replaced off of this was:
Rahsun- I Aint Missing You w/ Redman- Da Goodness

Jun. '99

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Source Fat Tape: July 2002

The tracks replaced off off this was:
The Columbians- You Cant Stop Me w/ Jaz-O- Love Is Gone
Red Cafe- BK Sports w/ AZ- Fan Mail

Jun. '02

Monday, October 17, 2011

The Source Fat Tape: December 2001

The tracks replaced off of this was:
Jermaine Dupri- Jazzy Hoes Pt.2 w/ Noreaga- Grimey
Beatnuts- Who R The Beatnuts w/ Shabaam Sahdeeq- Straight Like That

Dec. '01

The Source Fat Tape: December 1998

The tracks replaced off this was:
Too Short- Cocktails '98 w/ Brand Nubian- Dont Let It Go To Your Head

Dec. '98

Sunday, October 9, 2011

LP Thoughts: Clipse- Lord Willin (2002)


During the summer of 2002 i was in the middle of my 6-month deployment in the US Navy. And during this deployment i was gettin the newest mixtapes sent to me by a local VA (Virginia) music store back at my duty station. I made a agreement with them to send me the newest joints so i can stay in the loop of whats goin on in the music world.

So when i started gettin these mixtapes i was noticing a trend in some of them. All the rappers on these tapes seemed to be freestyling over this certain beat 90% of the time. Now when I 1st starting hearing this beat, it went hard! It was just a hard knocking beat that alot of rappers seemed to be goin off on. Now up to this point i didnt even know that this beat came from a song or what, i thought it was just a hard bangin instrumental.

When we got back from our cruise by the end of the summer, alot of songs was bangin at that time, but 3 seemed to stand out. 1 was Nelly's "Hot In Herre". 2 was Styles P " I Get High" (crazy story about this song and ill get in to that on SP's Lp Thoughts). And about the 3rd one, when we got back me and my boys immediately gathered around a Tv and turned it BET to see what was hot and thats when I heard that beat again with actual lyrics to it! This was when i was introduced to the Clipse! And the name of the track was called "Grindin", and remember my duty station was at VA and they are from there so just imagine how much this song was in rotation!! The Clipse at this time owned VA and The Neptunes was as much part of it as well. So when word got out that the LP was comin out by the end of the summer i was more than ready! Plus the Neptunes was on production and this was during the time they was takin over on how hip-hop was sounding at the time. I was very curious to see how they was comin!

It was a no-brainer that i picked up this LP the day it dropped! Right away the LP starts off hot with "Virginia", a very slow sounding track but hard as well and they tell u about where they come from. Then "Cot Damn" gets u groovin a bit with those dope horn samples and some tight verses by Roscoe P Coldchain (anyone know where this name originated from? a rap group invented this name.) Next is "Ma, I Dont Love Her" with Faith Evans' soultry singin on it, i love this track! The beat compliments it well. Then the next track is always etched in my mind because of a hot video "When the Last Time", this is a club banger indeed! The video is always etched in my mind cause back then Rap City used to come on at night and this video always got me hyped on those late nights! "Comedy Central" is a nice selection as well, the beat is kinda different but i like it and Fabolous represents on it. On "Gangsta Lean" the Clipse let Pharrell get his thing off on the track. I used to repeat this song like crazy because the beat is so nice and Skateboard P's vocals go hand & hand with the song. Last but not least is the Grindin Remix with NoRE, Lil Wayne & Baby, now if u exclude Weezy & Baby the track is nice. I love NORE's verse but thats it. So there u have it, this was very nice LP in my opinion with alot of nice tracks on it.

Its just a shame that The Clipse couldnt capitalize from this LP, i know they had label trouble and all of that and thats sad. They didnt release another LP until 2006! 2006!!! Thats 4 years! And this is way too long. I was mad dissapointed that it took them so long to release another LP, this group should of had more success than it did. But as i look back in '02 it was a great time man. Living in VA and seeing how "Grindin" impacted a entire city and how The Clipse made a huge mark in hip-hop in how they rapped was great memories for me. I wish i can go back at times and relive it. This LP to me is about a 4 out of a 5!

So, Whats ur thoughts on this LP?