I said this ain't no mecca man, this place is FUCKED

I was going to post something yesterday, but it was Judas Priest friday, so I ended up just eating some fungus and wandering around my house convinced that everyone else there and everything I've ever known was a dream. But that's a story for another day.

There's a cool list at Stylus about the top 10 songs by artists singing about other artists and I was really surprised to see Rancid's "Journey to the End of the East Bay" on there. Does it really count as being a song about another artist when you're singing about your old band? Maybe. At least it counts as much as Chuck Berry singing about himself counts. Even though my musical tastes may have expanded far beyond punk rock and the like, the blurb for the song kinda sums up my love of the genre.

I’m going to be an old man one day, and I’m going to opine endlessly about music I listened to in high school. “We carried JanSports to school,” I’ll say, “our ‘Anarchy’ patches would wiggle out of their safety pins twice before lunch!” I’ll say. “And pop-punk…well it meant something too, and bands would sing of younger and better bands, sillier and more idealistic than themselves!” I’ll put on Rancid’s homage to the strangely enduring Operation Ivy, and I’ll tell the grandkids to go bother their grandmum, I will. “Got a garage or an amp we’ll play aaaanytime…”

21 dead monkeys

I hate on Rancid a lot, but my contempt is really directed towards the latter day Rancid, once they sort of became a caricature of themselves. If we're talking about earlier stuff, there's definitely a soft spot in my heart for that two chord nonsense. I'll never like Rancid as much as Op Ivy though, Jesse Michaels is just a better vocalist than Tim Armstrong. Armstrong should've just stuck with his guitar.

"Journey to the End of the Easy Bay" by Rancid
"Bombshell" by Operation Ivy
"Soundsystem" by Operation Ivy

Joe Budden is a ridiculous human being. Why you ask? Because he chose to freestyle over Mr. Mister's "Broken Wings". He starts talking about A-Rod and Cory Liddle somewhere in the middle too. Absurdity.

"Broken Wings Freestyle" by Joe Budden

I'm on my New York Shit

So it seems that that Busta Rhymes' "New York Shit" has got New York Rappers clamoring to rep their city, lest they be accused of just not keeping it real. One of the results of the trend is the DJ Green Lantern and DJ Kay Slay collabo mixtape, On My New York Shit. There's a huge roster of talent here, with the movement headed by Busta Rhymes, with back up firepower coming from Papoose, Nas, Hi-Tek, Jim Jones, Remy Ma, Lloyd Banks, Timbaland, Styles P., Fat Joe, Wyclef Jean, Snyplife, Swizz Beats, Tru Life, Akon, Prinz and Grafh of Blackhand Ent., Red Café, J.R. Writer, Jae Millz, Cory Gunz, Hell Rell, Uncle Murda, Stack Bundles, Maino, Mike Beck, Tony Sunshine, Scram Jones, Joell Ortiz, Flawless, plus elder statesmen Ghostface, Raekwon, Kool G. Rap, Big Daddy Kane, and Lord Tariq. So first of all, there's a lot of NY talent that's noticeably absent. But you can't get everybody on one tape and there is a lot represented here. I was especially pysched to see that Dj Hi-Tek produced a track for Busta and Nas, and it turned out to be one of my favorites, along with Uncle Murda's "Murdera!" which has a ridiculous reggae beat and a great chorus. "Uptown" from Jae Millz, and Five Deadly Venoms from the old guard of Starks, Rae, and company also turned out to be solid tracks. It's a fun tape to listen to and it's nice to see such fervent New York pride, genuine as it may or may not be, but I do have some mixed feelings about certain parts. Two songs jack beats from the "Liquid Swords" album and on one hand you could look at that like, "Oh hey they're using beats from New York Classics, just like they opened the tape with the New York State of Mind beat." Jim Jones freestyles over Liquid Swords though and even though I do kind of enjoy it, is Jim Jones really cool enough to be spitting over that beat? I'm pretty sure the answers no. Either way, check it out. There's some cool sound effects, some enjoyable Frank Sinatra, and Busta's speeches are awesome.

You can see the tracklisting here,

and you can stream the whole mixtape at hiphopdx.com

In Related News, I heard Joe Budden's answer to the whole New York Shit craze yesterday.

Joe Budden - On My New Jerz Shit.

and, a little something from the man who would be King of New York if it weren't for a lot of ignorance in the world:

Talib Kweli and Jean Grae - New York Shit Freestyle