The dylannn (west coast hip-hop) listening club

Based on this conversation:

dylann did you listen to the MC Eiht Keep It Hood ep from earlier this year?

― Shock G Mo Collier (Spottie_Ottie_Dope), Friday, July 5, 2013 7:57 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i've never listened to any west coast rap ever. once accidentally bought a seagram cd on rap-a-lot because i thought he was from houston.

― dylannn, Friday, July 5, 2013 8:05 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for real?

― Shock G Mo Collier (Spottie_Ottie_Dope), Friday, July 5, 2013 8:09 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i have a good knowledge of canonical west coast rap and more underground stuff from reading murder dog, screw tapes, which are 85% 80s and 90s west coast content, following rap writing or journalism or whatever for a decade.

i never found a good entry point for it. i was too young to be around during the golden age of the west coast. by the time i came around, it had evaporated and i saw ice cube in barbershop before i ever heard him rap. there didn't seem to be any west coast underground rap that was making noise and seemed appealing. i just didn't like what i heard. at the same time, the south was making noise and i found a lot of what i liked about grimy new york rap in the south-- but sometimes it was more radical or scarier or more intense or easier for me to relate to (port arthur, shitty apartment blocks, the smell of swisher sweets coming out the windows of sunburnt buicks vs. project hallways) and in 2002, or 2003, or 2004, it was the most fun cool badass shit i ever heard.

― dylannn, Friday, July 5, 2013 8:40 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there wouldn't be a west coast album in my top 100 rap lps of all time.

― dylannn, Friday, July 5, 2013 8:41 PM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I hear you. You've missed out on so much tho! Just with what I know about you you would be all over Spice 1, Suga Free, E-40/B-Legit, Mac Mall

― Shock G Mo Collier (Spottie_Ottie_Dope), Friday, July 5, 2013 8:57 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dru Down

― Neanderthal, Friday, July 5, 2013 8:58 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

We should start up a dylannn west-coast hip-hop listening club

― Shock G Mo Collier (Spottie_Ottie_Dope), Friday, July 5, 2013 9:02 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that'd be great.

― dylannn, Friday, July 5, 2013 9:04 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this thread is for suggesting west coast hip-hop that you think dylannn will enjoy and that you would like to read his thoughts on. This thread is mainly for people that know and respect dylannn's rap taste and want to share music w/ him in a friendly environment, so keep the condescension to a minimum and try to think of the audience and context and not just use this as an opportunity to champion your usual hobbyhorses regardless.

The rules: suggest any west-coast hip-hop album dylannn hasn't heard. Feel free to ask him about things he's not familiar with in order to find things to suggest. How he finds and listens to the music is up to him and/or the suggester to figure out. I will keep a running spotify list going as well. dylannn has consented to listen to 1 album per week (or so) as decided by volunteer recommenders -- simply note in this thread if you'd like to participate and I'll put you in the rotation. I'll go first for albums. Also, to open it up beyond just album recs, dylannn has consented to single tracks recommendations/embeds as well. I wont have a signup rotation for stand-alone tracks but would just ask that there is only one rec at a time and wait til he has responded to the last one before suggesting another. This way the thread doesn't just become a giant dumping ground and dylannn can move at his own pace. dylannn reserves the right to stop at any time.

DUMP, BUMP, BLAST

(portions of this post were lifted from the opening post in the J0rdan S listening club thread)

Alright before I roll fill us in a little on which wc artists/albums/movements you are already up on if any. Any stuff you know you just flat out cant get with?

## when i was going to high school, there was no rap radio, nobody was aware of like blueprint coming out, it was 100% west coast gangsta or midwest/south rap that was basically the same thing, lots of cypress hill, pac, mack 10, snoop, master p, bone thugs, tech 9ine. the only east coast rapper that ever got played on two 12s under the seats of lowered chevy s10s was probably dmx. but i was always feeling the dmx the most.

## see, like, i've definitely heard spice 1 and mac mall at some point: "dusted n disgusted." and "jealous got me strapped" is on every second dj screw mix. but e40... i've never owned or sat through an e40 album but the only e40 song i can name off the top of my head is "it's all bad," which was probably never a single or anything and again, just off a screw mix.

## among like serious rap listener down-to-chat-about-joe-budden-mixtape-tracks friends i've had, there haven't been any that took the west coast seriously.

## i think part of the problem maybe is that west coast rap was, coming into listening to rap in the late 90s/early 2000s... like, in the wake of how huge it was, there was a lot of lampooning of the form, mainstream and rap world clowning of the west coast style. like, bad 90s sitcom "bust a cap in yo ass" jokes to grand theft auto grove street families to snoop as a buffoonish late night talkshow guest, cb4 showing up on BET every week... like, the parodies of west coast gangsta rap have always colored my appreciation of the music.

"captain save a hoe" of course.

other than that, i've heard of course chronic/chronic 2001/doggystyle/every single with nate dogg or warren g on it.

there was a week in 2004 when i thought i could get into turf talk and keak da sneak.

Spice 1 recently defended Ice-T in his feud with Soulja Boy Tell 'Em.

you shoulda given it two weeks

Yea a lot of the west coast stuff was very similar sounding to the south stuff in the mid-late 90s. There were always a lot of parallels to check for. I got in on that south stuff through west coast artists and like No Limit

## among like serious rap listener down-to-chat-about-joe-budden-mixtape-tracks friends i've had, there haven't been any that took the west coast seriously.
There's always a lot more convincing that has to be done with east coast "real rap" heads but I just dont really even bother anymore tbf.

i love the first master p albums, when he was based in oakland.

houston rap was closer in sound to the west coast, even to the present, one corner of the "murder dog triangle" of regional rap scenes that goes cali/texas/kansas. a lot of early houston underground rap, almost everything released on rap-a-lot, street military, all the south park coalition releases, ganksta nip... really west coast.

def.

P was my gateway into the world of southern rap and it was an easy transition. Outkast kinda before that but the Dungeon Fam sound is different to this other we're talking about anyway.

Alright first album rec is Suga Free 'Street Gospel'
http://open.spotify.com/user/theshipment/playlist/1zHKe9F4Ip07Se7kbY1hTh
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51wdQnB%2B2-L.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Gospel_(album)

This is a top ten all time album for me.

1997 release. Produced entirely by my favorite producer/musician DJ Quik. Suga Free is a pimp turned rapper.

anyway dont want to cast too much hyperbole at it off the bat but this is one of the best (sonically) sounding hip hop albums ever. Listen loudly.

alright, let me see what this is all about.

I'm off to sleep but lemme know if you dont have spotify and I'll drop you a rip tomorrow. Looks like one of my favorite tracks on there (doe doe and a skunk) is grayed out

i got spotify. i'll just fill in the blanks on youtube.

suga free - street gospel

just saying this and not trying to sound naive on purpose: i don't really get the west coast pimp character. the same thing exists in southern rap but not really "the working side of pimping," pimping as a moneymaking venture, description of a real lifestyle. like 8ball and mjg get the closest on "pimps" + curls and gold teeth and the rules of degrading women. but most of the time, it's more about the pimp as ruthless trickster, a man that uses flash and cash, as well as verbal skills, to control women. by the time it gets to the east coast, it's mostly diluted to fucking a lot of broads and having a mean dick game, or the same kind of crack game as rap game metaphor (the verbal skills of the pimp character = metaphor for lyrical talent).

so, i get the african-american literary or folkloric or oral tradition meaning of the pimp, whatever. also-- and it's not something often addressed in rap writing, where it seems wrong to evaluate the claims of rappers, think seriously on their authenticity, add up the math on yo gotti's brick stats, but it's something i care about-- i appreciate suga free being a pimp and being able to prove it.

but it's another aspect of west coast rap that's fallen victim, for me, to parody and mainstream imitation. i still get a weird feeling about suga free's pimp narratives. i picture snoop in his pimp outfit, hanging out with don magic juan. i struggle to take it seriously.

also, there's something wrong with me that i can simultaneously treat a rapper long out the game imagining himself over the stove as a storytelling element or metaphorical thing and also prize the authenticity of dope game rhymes and slavishly fact check them but i get a queasy feeling about pimp rap. i'm cool with project pat blowing lines up his nose and kicking in doors but i take shit like this too seriously and the idea of making bitches suck dick for money after debasing them as an authentic topic for rap representation... not really feeling it. i feel like that white mainstream queasiness with shit like this is one of the reasons it's only entered pop culture as a joke... maybe.

i feel slightly embarrassed even breaking down those feelings, though. partly because i've publicly repped for some fucked up rap and privately considered its authenticity as part of its appeal. partly because i've shaken my head about ilm people coming on rap threads to note the disgusting elements of a lot of the music i unashamedly love and mostly just shaken my head at them for not being able to get what it's all about-- even shit like kanye saying he wants to be a dick instead of a swallower, people getting creeped out by that line, while i actually sort of like a suga free line like "suck my dick til you taste some snot."

whatever. i think i just take things too seriously. don't worry about it.

i like the breeziness on the beat, the way he can tell a story, even the buddy hackett sense of humor. but i'm glad quik has been confined to the west coast because i'm really not feeling lightweight 80s r&b beats.

best tracks: "if u stay ready," "doe doe and a skunk" ("slide slide slippity slide / because i heard it was a party jumpin on the west side / ride ride show ya ride / so i'ma drink this hennessy / and get my head real tight / now the rat-tat-tat strapped on my back back / not to jack / but to crack a playa hater talkin smack / now suga free don't dance but i might tonight / and my hoes can't go until my money is right / now i'm about to get ghost / after i g up from the feet up / and roll this weed up / let the car heat up speed up with the beat up / and rolllllll / hold the steerin wheel while i roll this endo / better known as the magic juan, the bomb, the antidote, the twilight smoke of all smoke / as i swerve by the curb with superb dayton spokes").

ooh lemme claim a spot

it's more about the pimp as ruthless trickster

isn't this Suga's Free's whole schtick tho?

right. for some reason i suddenly turned into john d4rnie11e.

i guess i'm a sucker for authenticity and that compulsion ran up against something that i perceived as sort of fucked up. rap albums aren't documentaries. rap albums aren't documentaries. rap albums aren't documentaries. and listening a second time, it's less of an issue.

we've gotten off to a bad start here. i haven't suddenly become disgusted with misogynist rap lyrics on the first day of a west coast rap listening club. okay? i'm good.

oh this is an awesome idea, i totally need a west coast education too

Lemme claim a spot too

me too

me 2

well throw me another one

What's the protocol for suggestions? Do I have to get in line or can I make some informally?

http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Trial-Jacka/dp/B000IFRR26
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61QRD2ES0GL.jpg

What's the protocol for suggestions? Do I have to get in line or can I make some informally?

― viacom dios, Saturday, July 6, 2013 1:21 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Read the bottom half of the OP. I'll add you to the list.

next after the Mob Trial album is:

Reverend
Whiney
Sisilafami
viacom diss

but i'm glad quik has been confined to the west coast because i'm really not feeling lightweight 80s r&b beats.

Damn cut me to the core.

this andre nickatina guy... what's his deal?

the jacka, ap.9 and husalah - mob trial

i know jacka off cormega collaborations, a full track on legal hustle, where he seemed compromised by interest in east coast rap forms, into conflicted dope sales lyrical tropes, and this album opens with jacka sounding a lot like a haunted bay area cormega, riding in a box chevy lamenting the death of mac dre, .50 cal in his lap the only friend he can trust. after jacka riding rainy day new york beats and mob figaz gangsta tracks, the best moments on the first listen...
1. husalah on "sleep with da fishes" every car he drives has the roof in the back pulling bitches in the mall on some noisy distorted drums smeared thick euphoric mess. talking shit on the outro as all the roars and squeals crescendo over top of him.
2. "a gangsta's gangsta," which was created just for today, doooot doot doot doot doot, pineapple cream soda and just smoked the perfect amount of silver euphoria, 88 degrees outside on a saturday, car interior still smells like armor all. jacka nervous with his hand on his gun, that perfect round drum shape, jacka still with his hand on his strap whistling in the driver seat under california sun. feeling this.
3. quik on some '86 powerglide r&b, i can sort of appreciate it but it's not my thing, and i'm not really sure about the noise and speed on mob trial.... i like it on the surreal tracks, laying rubber in a dairy queen parking lot in a caprice... and i can dig it on "hott head," where it's turnt up way too loud, roaring synths and suddenly dramatic strings and hard drums, comfortingly familiar rhymes about sweeping up shells after you do the hit.
4. "murder on my mind." husalah outshines jacka and ap.9 all over this album, just want to sit here transcribing his lines in all caps YOU WANNA GET FLY LIKE A GANGSTA / PUSH PIES LIKE A GANGSTA / BUT YOU SCARED TO DIE LIKE A GANGSTA / AND WHEN IT'S REALLY GOIN DOWN / YOU NIGGAS AIN'T AROUND / MAK-90 LAY EM DOWN / NORINCO 60 ROUNDS. -- someone listen to that and correct it, really hope it's a norinco shoutout.
5. "thrones and crowns," jacka in pensive storytelling mega mode again. amazing.
6. that fucked up chirp and piano beat on "gorgeous."

too many answering machine tracks and andre nickatina.

Nickatina (dre dog) is an old gawd of the bay. Had his shine in the early 90s w out any crossover hits or any notoriety outside of the yay. He's just kept that regional cult following. He hasn't done too much of note since the 90s imo and his presence on anything anymore is like a bay stamp of approval.

also pretty sure that is a Norinco ref
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_0OE4z2ZeDEU/TSaUk8YrdII/AAAAAAAABVw/xCfA2ooVHY0/s640/The+Jacka+Flight+Risk.jpg

^ liked that album

you want in on the rotation?

debating. kinda feel like you got your bases covered with folks like the Rev and D-40 in tow.

(don't take that as a slight, everyone else, whole crew that's signed up is solid)

listening back on some nickitina now and it hasnt aged well at all. i loved him in high school but every did at the time cos it was cool to be down w him. very juvenile and basic, violent for violence sake but not as ott as like Brotha Lynch so its not nearly as much fun.

just do it man, there's plenty of releases to cover.

aight sign me up.

i figured he must be an old legend. he sounds goofy on this beside jacka and husalah and ap9.

and yeah feel free to just go with them once i listen to the last one.

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/7224/husalahmollywoppin.jpg

favorite rapper this week

Husalah is great

heres my favorite cut off his solo album that deej put me on a while back
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC6zNLDRDN0

Husalah's dope. I love his album "Huslin since the 80s" (which I believe I heard of from deej)

lol xpost

ha

I also like Messy Marv but I think i'm alone on that

feelin myself

Tmi

the jack artist

omg

man the album isn't THAT long

mac dre brought a halt to this thread the last time, too. you know i like get stupid but samey flow and its just not my fav thing in the world to listenn to for 43 minutes. we gotta move to the next entry.

*cris*

CRIES

not that i don't like old school good times type flow guys cause that style is in a lot of other stuff i like but the beats are ehhh and my interest wanes over a few tracks. but yeah it's good but whatever, next.

i like this though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGAzytu5ot8

you have to tell me why i'm wrong though and dreganomics is a west coast classic

idk if I would go so far as to call it a "classic". D-40 can probably mount a more spirited defense than I could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpILw-M4NTk

this too

he's a p significant figure in the Bay and that's probably his best/most consistent album. Those were my reasons for the nomination. I don't think it's a classic on the level of Death Certificate or In a Major Way or whatever, just that he's a piece of the puzzle that had a big influence.

yeah i totally get it. just like i get e40 but never need to listen to 40 minutes of e40.

TBH i feel like that's an overrated Mac Dre record ... much prefer Heart of a Gangsta, Mind of a Hustla, Tongue of a Pimp, stupid doo doo dumb, al boo boo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI6CHDgcA8k

hmm that one's kind of morbid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72HNX6bJ2ag

he's kind of a west coast biggie imo

xpost
yeah i like that a lot

I think you'll find other records more to your liking. I always thought he was poorly 'sold' to the wider hip hop world after his death, it was all about the silly dances and the thizz face and the bizarre end of the production spectrum when he sounds a lot better over smooth shit like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ighUqu2HhgI

imho

morals and standards needs a bloodier payoff

yeah i like the toned down tighter darker beats and the smooth let's go ridin stuff + more complex?? flow - narrative on these

Gonna share one last Mac Dre YouTube, only because this one is on a Khayree record rather than a Mac Dre one, so easily missed, but it's one of his best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMDCettvrMU

The reason I brought up Biggie is bc he has such good eye for details & also the way his words fold together w/ these perfect rhymes, very precise

he's funnier than Biggie

ha i love that part of 'off tha rictor' where he's like:

I'm in the party blazin
i see this hottie gazin
but her stretch marks got her look like a raisin
i'm on a different page and
i'm saucy like some cajun
wouldn't care if she was haitian, asian or caucasian

*lookin

never really bought off on a full album of Mac Dre although every album seems to have plenty of outstanding cuts.

i often listen to al boo boo these times

I liked Mac Mall's Illegal Business a little better than any Mac Dre album I heard

next!

Deej, was this your rec?

The Jacka - The Jack Artist

― rap steve gadd (D-40), Tuesday, July 15, 2014 4:43 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i've heard that raelly amateur raw like i like but we can talk about it
i've been listening to genie of the lamp

wait so you mean you've listened to that Jacka album

I don't know it myself

If we're still on mac dre

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc6LfTExnsw

https://bkblack28.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/next.jpg

Cool, here is where we left off:

Spottie - Suga Free 'Street Gospel'
D-40 - Jacka/Husalah 'Mob Trial'
Reverend - B-Legit 'The Hemp Museum'
octobeard - Blackalicious 'Blazing Arrow'
Whiney - Low Profile 'We're In This Together'
Sisilafami - E40 'Grit & Grind'
viacom diss - Nacho Picasso 'Exalted'
Neanderthal - J Stalin 'Prenuptial Agreement'
fadanuf4erybody - Above the Law 'Uncle Sams Curse'
Upper Mississipi - Ice Cube 'Death Certificate'
Shakey - Mac Dre - Dreganomics
D-40 - Jacka - The Jack Artist
k3vin -
Sisilafami -
Spottie -

― Strictly EZ Snappin' Nhex (Spottie), Monday, July 14, 2014 9:38 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Kev you are you up you have one day to report or we skip to sisilafami

Thanks to Sisilafami's rec, I've been heavy on the A-Wax album. He's a deceptively good writer. Also, unrelated but very impressive is the RATKING 'So It Goes' album from a few months back. Surprised to see no ILM traction.

Sorry, thought I was in the Rolling Rap Bro thread. But I'd nominate A-Wax 'Pulling Strings' if dylann's game.

if dk isn't weighing in on the jacka i'm picking another one get kev out the paint

Solid job blocking out by deej who secures the rebound...

Can we revive? I don't want to jump the line but there's so much good west coast rap right now! Mostly, though, I just love to read Dylann.

oh this is an awesome idea, i totally need a west coast education too

― amandabama murderpussy (some dude), Saturday, July 6, 2013 4:47 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If dylannn needs/wants out (which it sounds like he does) then we can transfer the thread to sd, if he wants in.

I just scanned to see what was mentioned. Feel like I know a ton more 90s West Coast stuff now than I did back when this thread was active. A recent great discovery was South Central Cartel's All Day Everyday.

Recently I've been listening to Welcome to the Navy by DB tha General and Heroin Music by Lil Blood, not classics like most of the stuff mentioned in this thread but both really good.

yo it would be great if al^somedude could do the bulk of the listening and commenting work and i could just assist him.

No one weighed in on jack artist so I'm switching mine to sacramento's own Mozzy and I guess his most recent album "bladadah"

d-40 this is dark!

http://imgur.com/mP9npRf.jpg

and so blankfaced violent, dispassionate violent. violence as the core of the whole thing, not part of a dope game organizational capability to defend (opening track quotes ) and convincingly threaten or streets is chaos stay strapped or you might be taken under. just every hook KILL A NIGGA ROCK HIS ASS WITH THE SEMI-type thing ("cold body" ft kunta) mozzy has like this ultra hd first person shooter feel, hunting through the streets with like the album cover ak dripping blood. KILL HIM ON SIGHT / RISK DOING LIFE / MIGHT BE ABLE TO WIGGLE IF THEY DO IT RIGHT ("body 4 body"). especially without the backstory, the story about meaningless local beef oak park mack road vines of guys getting stomped at the mall, it's technically good with the flow and clean dark beats but the impression can be of mozzy as death squad middle manager, leading a morning pep rally to a team of shooters in khaki slacks and polo shirts leading a chant of NIGGA I KILL EVERYBODY ("nike" ft nelco). there's no specific target just corpses and the ones that got away for now. without cracking a smile showing much humanity, even on the tracks he's supposed to just bleak loading up the clip emptying the clip loading up the clip emptying the clip, putting the 40 in true religion jeans and going to sit outside someone's mama's house. rating: it's okay, technically proficient flow without any idiosyncrasy or much emotion. few guests offer shot of personality to bleakness. not really my thing.

thanks dylannn. always love your posts. now i wanna hear mozzy. can i go way obvious and suggest vince staples 'summertime '06'?