Well, it’s official: T.I. reported to the judge today to plead guilty to his weapons charges, and got formally sentenced to a year and a day (which could well end up being less when time served on house arrest gets taken into consideration). Clifford gets to voluntarily head to jail sometime after May 19, which gives him a couple of months extra to finish making the world a better place.
Needless to say, we’re making sad-face emoticons over here at Complex; not only is the civilian population losing one of the South’s finest lyricists and a genuinely smart and likable dude, but it’s just one more objectively great emcee who gets chalked into the “Incarcerated” category. There’s more than 20 rappers locked up right now, but since we don’t really fux with shermhead cannibals, we had to narrow it down to our 10 favorite (including Tip). For a look at the other nine, read on…
Sid Roams = Joey Chavez (left) and Tavish “Bravo” Graham.
We got so used to hearing Prodigy over Alchemist beats in recent years that we were a little surprised to see Sid Roams get more work than Al on P’s last album. Sid who? We hadn’t even heard of the name when we wrote our H.N.I.C. Pt. 2 review. But after hearing non-stop Sid Roams heatrocks on P’s new album, Product of the 80’s, we knew we had to get familiar.
Sid Roams is actually two people: veteran L.A. producers Joey Chavez and Tavish “Bravo” Graham. The duo found instant chemistry with Prodigy, which led to their collaborative album with P, Un Pacino and Twin Gambino. “We had seen what Alchemist and P had done with Return of The Mac’s blaxploitation theme and appreciated the way the album was sonically cohesive,” says Chavez. “We pushed for the 80's theme and did our best to execute that aesthetic'heavy-laden with synthesizers and drum machines'throughout the process.” The result is an end-to-end banger, which Sid Roams was eager to dissect with us.
Read on for Sid Roams’ track-by-track analysis of Product of the 80’s…
Each week, Complex’s resident music expert DJ Treats will be bringing you key tracks from a variety of genres. Click on a link below to hear the song and learn about the artist!
Middle-aged white guys buy snazzy sports cars and flaunt them as if they’re chrome, fuel-injected, super-charged effigies of their now flaccid cocks. Rappers, on the other hand, buy gaudy medallions attached to equally gaudy links and rock them as if they’re platinum-and-gold-plated, diamond-encrusted effigies of their now flaccid cocks. So you can imagine how emasculated your favorite rapper feels when another rapper, or local stick-up kid, comes along, takes their shine, and leaks a picture or youtube video. It’s like they’re holding their penises (¡NH!) fully exposed for the world to see! Ay Carumba!
In any case, the latest incident of manhood snatching befell poor widdle Yung Berg while the diddy-bopper cruised the mean streets of Detroit (what he was doing wearing jewelry in the D, we don’t know either). Needless to say, Berg is probably somewhere licking his wounds. But cheer up, lil’ buddy! You just entered a club whose members include hip hop’s elite.
To boost Berg’s gloomy disposition, Complex combed the annals (ayo!) of hip hop history (along with rumors and allegations as well) to compile an authoritative list of the most notorious chain snatchings ever. To be fair to the victims and the vickers, we rated each incident by how emasculating it was to their careers, as well as the probability that the snatching actually happened (since almost none of the incidents can be verified by police reports) . If you don’t read this blog, you’re just robbing yourself.
He might finally be gone, but Prodigy is far from forgotten. With P finally serving out his 3 year sentence, the mood was heavy yesterday as his extended family gathered at a special listening session for his new album H.N.I.C. Pt. 2. Most of the folks there have contributed to one or all of P’s solo projects, including Havoc, Alchemist, Twin Gambino, Cormega, Nyce Da Future and Un Pacino. Complex was in the house, and we asked them to reflect on their favorite Prodigy verses, past and present. Listen to the exclusive audio and see some photos from the event after the jump.
Sometime in the past year, Prodigy officially usurped Jim Jones' title as our favorite ROTI'that is, our favorite Rapper on the Internet. Pee earned the title with hilarious on-camera diatribes, grimy low-budget videos, and, as Pee himself might put it'THE BEST RAPPER BLOG EVER, SO STOP HATIN' THAT PRODIGY AIN'T SCARED AND IS A REAL INDIVIDUAL TO SAY WHAT'S ON HIS MIND, YOU OVERSTAND??????
So it was with breathless anticipation that we cracked open Prodigy's latest, H.N.I.C. Pt. 2, the follow-up to last year's end-to-end burner, Return of the Mac. Prison bars can't stop the flow of this Pee, pissants. We've got an exclusive track-by-track review after the jump.
Healthy: Prodigy maintains he’s not sick despite reports by his lawyer. And although the judge delayed his incarceration for a 2nd time due to so called medical conditions, the rapper claims he’s fine. Ouch, someone’s getting into trouble.
Sound off: Common, KRS-One, and Q-Tip are remixing their classic tracks in a new campaign with Smirnoff with the help of some legendary producers, “Just Blaze is remixing Common's 2000 song “The Light,” DJ Premier will work on KRS-One's 1988 hit “I'm Still #1,” and Cool & Dre are remaking Q-Tip's 1999 party track “Vivrant Thing.” They will all then perform live at a launch party for the vodka maker on February 26, and the tracks will be available for download on Smirnoff’s website.
Innocent: Marvin Bernard aka Tony Yayo has been found innocent of slapping the shit out of Jimmy “Henchman” Rosemond’s 16-year-old son.
Flying colors: Swizzy got down with the Gap and their “Sound of Color” campaign. Basically each artist was assigned a color and they created an original song for it. The mega producer and Kidrobot partner did a song called “Candy Green.”
Arresting: Although Prodigy was supposed to begin his 3 and 1/2 year prison sentence on weapons charges yesterday, he avoided the slam again due to medical complications and was hospitalized. Luckily, G4 TV was able to score this recent interview with the Mobb Deep rapper. He sheds some more light on how the Hip Hop Cops tried to set him up in a intense effort to get dirt on 50-Cent.
No show: Kanye might have walked away with four Grammys, but he didn’t make it to his own after party at Opera/Crimson, opting for Entertainment Weekly’s bash at the STK steakhouse and lounge instead.
Old school: Rolling Stone celebrates 1988 Hip Hop. Laments it as the landmark year for the best album releases. It accounted for such greats as: Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, EPMD’s Strictly Business, N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton and BDP’s By All Means Necessary among others. See who else made the cut.
As rappers get older, their fans get younger. This comes as no surprise'Ol' Dirty Bastard meant it when he proclaimed, “Wu-Tang is for the children.” This ain't grown folks' music. Last night, the babies and backpackers came out in full force for a tribute to '90s hip-hop, coordinated by urban concert producers Livendirect at Times Square's Nokia Theater. Headliners Mobb Deep, Raekwon, and the Boot Camp Clik gave the thirsty crowd a dose of that New York shit: no snapping fingers or anything hyphy, just raw lyricism. Peep the graphics.
Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx was a certified classic. If he’s pondering what we’re pondering, the forthcoming Cuban Linx 2, executive produced by the Rza and Dr. Dre, will have cash ruling everything around him.
The entire Wu-Tang Clan wasn’t present, but appearances by the Gza, Inspecta Deck and Masta Killa were good enough.
Ol’ Dirty Bastard was remembered with cell phones and lighters.
French vanilla couldn’t make it. So the Butter-Pecan Ricans represented.
The shiny-suit era wasn’t a good look for hip-hop. Why would this be any better?
Prodigy aka VIP and Havoc aka Hollywood Hav still do it the grimey way, just with G-Unit riches.
Mobb Deep affiliate, Illa Ghee sips Grey Goose and orange juice. At the end of the show, he gave the half-full bottle to a lucky fan to have his own after party.
Middle-aged white guys buy snazzy sports cars and flaunt them as if they’re chrome, fuel-injected, super-charged effigies of their now flaccid cocks. Rappers, on the other hand, buy gaudy medallions attached to equally gaudy links and rock them as if they’re platinum-and-gold-plated, diamond-encrusted effigies of their now flaccid cocks. So you can imagine how emasculated your favorite rapper feels when another rapper, or local stick-up kid, comes along, takes their shine, and leaks a picture or youtube video. It’s like they’re holding their penises (¡NH!) fully exposed for the world to see! Ay Carumba!
