@TheHorvat To me he showed what he'll always be over the course of the playoffs. He's best served as a 3rd or 4th option on a good team. 18 hours ago
Salute to ma favorite bartender, even though I don't drink. :-) 18 hours ago
RT @PeeGeeJay: Chandler was huge for the #Mavs 2 years ago... He made Roy Hibbert look like Olajuwon... If Chandler wasn't hurt he needed t… 18 hours ago
It’s not easy being #2. That’s the first impression I got listening to Kelly Rowland’s new single that’s one part therapy session, another part on the trap of domestic violence, and handling irrational jealously to a childhood friend (Beyonce). All groups have tension, but very rarely, if ever, in Hip-Hop and R&B do you hear an artist blatantly air out their own insecurities and faults in the situation via song form.
Rowland does just, and by juxtaposing it with the problems in her love life, you get a very dark image of woman in complete emotional, spiritual and professional freefall. This will definitely get her new project a lot of attention. Now if it’s the type of attention she truly wants remains to be seen.
This song, produced and written by The Dream, will be on Rowland’s forthcoming album Talk A Good Game.
As if Lauryn Hill getting sentenced to three months in prison on tax evasion charges wasn’t bad enough, another legendary New Jersey Hip-Hop act is in the news for all the wrong reasons. Naughty By Nature frontman Treach announced yesterday on Twitter that he was “firing” Vinnie, aka Vin Rock, from the group for undisclosed reasons, and has now released a diss record entitled “Tall Midget.”
This song is painful on several fronts. For one, these guys have been together over 20 years and should be able to handle differences behind closed doors and not like rappers still in their early 20s. Secondly, this song is bad — the chorus, beat and verbal attacks scream pure struggle. And as someone just old enough to remember Treach’s prime years (circa 1991-1995) when he was one of the genre’s best emcees, the massive drop-off in quality leaves you speechless.
Treach probably threw this together in the last 24 hours, but it’s still amazing that no one in his camp pulled him aside to flat-out tell him how wack this track is. There are only a handful of times when a diss is so comically bad that the disser comes out looking worse than the intended target. This is one of them.
Let’s thank the Hip-Hop gods that Vinnie appears to be taking the high road and won’t be penning a lyrical response.
For the younger heads, I’m sprinkling this post with some vintage Treach in case this diss is your Naughty By Nature introduction.
It comes as no surprise that the final press conference between Zab Judah and Danny Garcia had some more drama. Long story short, Judah is claiming that Garcia’s team and Golden Boy requested that the fighters hold separate press conference. During Garcia’s time to speak, De La Hoya referred to Judah as “unprofessional” for not being there.
Judah was in the venue’s basement and after reading De La Hoya’s comments on Twitter, he quickly made his way to the stage to confront the Golden Boy. Bernard Hopkins tried his best to defuse the situation to no avail.
If the circulated story about the separate press conferences is true, Zab has a very legit gripe. The talking ceases Saturday night on Showtime.
With Too $hort and Adrien Broner, there was already way too much buffoonery going on this week. Ray J and Bad Azz of all rappers got into it earlier this morning. Per TMZ (who else?), the pair have a long-standing beef going back to when Death Row goons jumped Bad Azz years ago in Vegas. According to Bad Azz, the Vegas attack happened after Ray J lied and told Knight Bad Azz had been disparaging his name.
This current incident stems from Ray J initially calling Suge Knight’s niece a “fat bitch.” More scuffle than an actual fight, Ray J can be viewed getting the better of it on camera in the brief seconds before it was broken up. Perhaps anticipating that Ray J was going to have another legendary radio interview like he did after throwing hands with Fabolous a few years back, Bad Azz called up Power 105′s Breakfast Club to share his side and give a shameless music plug.
BROOKLYN, NY — Stop me if you’ve heard this story before. Bernard Hopkins goes into the ring at an age when most fighters are long retired and schools a young, talented fighter who’s over 15 years younger than him. Yes, you’ve been witnessing the same scenario for over a decade, and Hopkins added another repeat last night with a unanimous decision over a completely lost Tavoris Cloud.
CLOUD DISAPPOINTS: Like most people, I picked Hopkins by decision, but expected Cloud to make it very difficult in spots for the old master. Instead, Cloud chose a horrible strategy of laying back and attempting to box with Hopkins at mid-range. What he got in return was repeated right hands, and a cut over his eye from a Hopkins counter left hook. When Cloud did throw hard during the inside fighting, he forced Hopkins to hold or move away. Those moments were always isolated though, and Cloud, who told me earlier this week that Hopkins would have trouble keeping him off, had his offense degraded to just following the Executioner around.
Cloud using his jab sparingly didn’t help and Hopkins used the ring well to prevent Cloud from getting set with his power shots.
HOPKINS PROMISED ANOTHER FIVE YEARS AND IT’S POSSIBLE: After the decision, Hopkins claimed that he’d go another five years before hanging it up. It definitely feels like he’ll go until 50, and with the competition at 175 it’s conceivable he can keep schooling these guys. There’s no Joe Calzaghes or even a Dwight Muhammad Qawi that could give B-Hop problems.
With that said, Hopkins made a point afterward to talk with Andre Ward and tell him again they’d never fight. From his tone, I got the impression HBO has been pushing for a “passing of the torch” match between the two. Hopkins isn’t having it, as he knows that’s the one guy at this stage of his career he definitely can’t beat (ie. a prime version of himself).
HOPKINS VS. CLEVERLY: Hopkins’s last 3 fights have been against the top guys at light-heavyweight in Cloud, Dawson and Pascal. The UK’s Nathan Cleverly has a high punch output so I’d like to see how Hopkins handles that at this stage.
THURMAN GETS WORKOUT AGAINST ZAVECK: Keith Thurman notched another lopsided victory last night on the undercard, but had to go 12 rounds with the tough Jan Zaveck. Thurman landed his best Sunday punches, but outside of a few brief pauses Zaveck kept coming and got in a few solid right hands to his credit. Zaveck’s chin was never in question, especially following his brawl with Andre Berto. However, with his heavy scar tissue I was surprised his face held up under the constant barrage of power shots.
The real fun came at the post-fight press conference with Thurman calling out Paulie Malignaggi (who was in the audience). Both had some nice lines for each other, but Paulie finished strong with digs at Thurman’s competition that made Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer jump in. Paulie will be fighting Adrien Broner (more on that in another piece), so this fight won’t be happening anytime soon. If it did, I think even at this stage of his young career Thurman takes it.
This needs to happen more often. Consequence recently did interviews on Hot 97 and VLad TV claiming he was ready to lay hands on Budden. The reason for this fuckery? Simply Budden stating he had no interest in doing a joint with Consequence. From all that talk before you’d think Consequence would have damn near given Joey the Wu-Tang treatment. Raekwon, Consequence is not.
It didn’t take long for this one to get in full swing. In roughly 24 hours, Lil B and Joey Ba$$ have dropped short disses stemming from a flippant bar by the departed Capital Steez on Bada$$’s 1999 mixtape (“Tell the Based God don’t quit his day job…”). Onto the records.
LIL B – “I’m Bada$$”
Well, at least the beat is nice. The last few lines and the title are the only aspects that reveal this to be a Bada$$ diss. Even as a warning shot, this is pretty forgettable. B kept the more outrageous aspects of his character under wraps though, so credit to him for that.
JOEY BADA$$ – “Don’t Quit Your Day Job”
This is the perfect example of when today’s era of instant dissemination of music works against artists. No longer can you take your time to make a very good diss record. Once someone goes at you, most are compelled to get a response out within a day or 48 hours. As a result, the quality suffers. As much as Bada$$ referenced “Ether” on his track, we all know Nas took months before dropping that track in response to Jay-Z’s “Takeover.”
VERDICT: Although Joey struggled at times in flowing to Janet Jackson’s classic single, his direct bars at Lil B gives him a slight edge thus far. Even so, the records so far make me feel it’s better if they both just let it die here.
With just two weeks remaining before Danny Garcia faces Zab Judah February 9 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, the hype train is in full effect. Showtime Sports has dropped this short insider video detailing the origins of the bad blood between the trio and their predictions for the fight.
This whole Cassidy-Meek Mill diss wasn’t exactly captivating, especially from a musical standpoint. At midnight, Cassidy dropped this 10 minute (!) diss track over classic beats entitled “R.A.I.D.” This is no different from some of Game’s longer disses against G-Unit; there are good lines but the track is way too long and you start zoning in and out. Far as songs go, this battle is likely over because I’m hard-pressed to think Mill can construct a better response if his first diss to Cass is any indication.
Y’all know how it goes though — Mill is hot at this point so most, especially those in the industry, will side with him by default.
Well it seems like the holidays and even a “Sunday morning” can’t quell some good old-fashioned subliminal shots. It’s no secret Lil Wayne and Pusha T have issues going all the way back to 2007. Lately, Pusha has done himself no favors with his flip-flopping regarding the rocks he’s thrown at the Young Money camp. One minute he’s claiming to be speaking to no one directly and in the next breath he admits to the barbs. His verse here makes it pretty clear Wayne is the intended target whether the Virginia emcee confirms it or not.
The beat isn’t anything memorable, but it’s welcome considering it sounded like Luda might have been going full on Flo Rida based on the sound of his first single. Thankfully, that appears to be just one stab at the EDM (Electronic Dance Music) market. No word yet on a set release date for Ludaversal.
LUDACRIS X PUSHA T X SWIZZ BEATZ “TELL ME WHAT THEY MAD FOR”
