Month: November 2005

Global rating of the songs: 3.75 stars
Lord Raven is a hip hop artist from Connecticut. Signed to an indie label, Blackbird Entertainment, Lord Raven released his Fire Nation volume I mixtape.
Lord Raven offers his listeners the possibility to listen to four of his tracks on his my space account.
I bet many of you are very curious to know how Lord Raven actually sounds. Quoting his own words: « like something new ». Lord Raven melts soft soul and R’n’B sounds and raw hip hop sounds together, which generates a bittersweet chocolate taste effect into the listener’s ears.
Lord Raven’s first track ,Geni In The Sky, allies a very soft chorus with some harsh words. The song reminds you that life is hard, but you gotta learn how to fly and escape to your situation-at least mentally. While violins and soft vocals gently introduce the song, rapid drum sounds will make you feel the dramatic dimension of the song. Ghetto life is rough. Picture yourself into the shoes of young thugs selling drugs to make a living. No jobs available, corruption is everywhere, but you gotta make it. Not only does the song mention the harshness of ghetto life, but it also pays tribute to hip hop’s fallen soldiers.
To all the hopeless people, Lord Raven draws a piece of blue sky. You can make it if you try. But you must try first and learn how to fly. Don’t give up your dreams. Regardless of the ugliness of your daily life, rare to dream and struggle until you reach your goals. A brighter tomorrow is knocking at your door.
A very moving and deep song that will touch the listeners’ heart.
Dreaming, the second track, also starts softly. Welcome to Lord Raven’s world. All day’s life in the hood is closer to a nightmare than to a beautiful dream. Many people lose their lives on a daily basis. Anybody needs to dream and to believe. Dreaming is a moving prayer for heartbroken people.
Easy Teflon featuring Young Lord is a rhythmic track and also an invitation to chill.
Picture two people dating each other. Love is in the air and glasses are filled with Hennessey. The third song’s light note contrasts with the preceding ones’ dark themes.
How many listeners wish music coming from the heart? Soul Music featuring Young Lord start on very soft piano, drums and keyboard songs.
Soul Music is a wonderful prayer addressed to God where Lord Raven pours his heart out and expresses the hell he is going through.
While the soft notes penetrate into your ears, the words make you feel the depth of the pain. Music is a wonderful way to express the feelings that are bottled deep inside of us. The beautiful and moving Soul Music song probably won’t leave you indifferent.
Explore Lord Raven’s biography and listen to his original music here.

He grew up at 7 Mile Road…expect an article about T Church aka The Chosen One aka The Money Maker very soon. I will introduce you into his tight music with pleasure…stay tuned!

I apologize to all of my readers, but Lord Raven’s profile seems to be unavailable…I will be working on another artist and let you know if I still can access his profile or if it has been deleted…
Lord Raven aka Dwayne Williamson from Connecticut…I’m not sure yet if it will be an artist review or a global review of the four songs featured on his my space account…haven’t made up my mind yet…stay tuned, folks:)

Rating:4 stars
Eminem, Obie Trice and P Diddy united their talents to pay tribute to legend Notorious Big.
While calling Biggie out, the song introduces you into a cadenced beats that are underlined by violins, gunshots, hammering piano and keyboard sounds.
Welcome to an depressing and unholy context. Eminem is here to remind why hip hop beefs and rivalries often lead to bloody wars:
” It has been said that there has been known to be bloodshed over bread
Men who have led to death, dead
Strapped to beds, pipebombs, dynamite, lead
Money, power, respect, street cred – yeah, it’s scary, ain’t it?
Picture yourself going out as a hero
Picture mural pictures of us painted all over street corners
Fans meet to mourn us while we meet the coroners, Notorious tried to warn us
We watched so many piggyback off of Biggie’s back and Pac’s
Landmarks, history in rap
statistically in fact it’s so sad to see us reenact these tragic events…”
Flashback to the day Biggie’s life was cut short, March 9th, 1997:
« Which lead us back to where we left off on March 9th… »
The next lines dissect the environment and explain the context of the ghetto jungle, where the longest lasting gangsta is probably the strongest:
« They come from such hard knock lives and make it up out it from hit the spotlights
And once they’re on us this is our lives
Dust out for all eyes to cast upon us to see who can last the longest
And he who lasts the longest must be the strongest
In this concrete jungle where this dog-eat-dog mentality comes from
It’s origin which is usually originated from cats that’s starving
Or it could just be somebody’s aura that just horrifies
And applies to his persona or the sizes in his entourage
That intimidates the people to the point that you know he’s gangsta
He ain’t have to say shit – you just believe him… »
In the second verse, Obie recalls Biggie’s lyrical influence:
« Since Big taught us niggas to think Big
I been about my business since then, so anxious
It ain’t how we live, it’s what he said – he did it for Brooklyn
This I took in, sent chills through my skin
Visions of experience and the same sights as him
Is what excited Obie to write these poems
Rollin, going through the same shit he spoke and
Open up my eyes – it’s no limit in them skies
When “Ready To Die” was a sick part of my life
Palming that forty-five, plotting to pop my man
Then that crooked-eye Jamaican, I so many times rewind
Got me to walk a straight line and get up on my grind
Get up out the system, who could give him better signs?
No pop of mine could top Big Poppa’s rhymes
So possibly I’ll be popular, huh?
That’s the inspiration I got from my nigga B.I. »
P Diddy is probably one of the persons who has been the most affected by Notorious Big’s death. He was sitting in the same car as his friend when somebody decided to put an end to Biggie’s life who got coldly shot. Despite the fact P Diddy was sending his most fervent prayers to God, his friend died a few minutes later.
The third verse recalls both rappers’ close relationship, Biggie’s rise to stardom and his everlasting friendship:
« I took him from coal to diamond
I molded his mind into the most phenomenal artist of any and all times
I made a Frankenstein, my design impressed
Backpackers impressed who said my house was a mess
Critics laugh – said I made a fortune off of his passing
All I did was build a dynasty off of his passion
And I’m addressing the adolescents absent to who he is
The original King of New York – Christopher Wallace
This is a promise on Diddy’s honor, I’ma father T’yanna
And teach her that with all the drama don’t even bother
On repeat all of your albums play back-to-back
And I visit your grave cause our friendship’s intact
An immaculate concept, extravagant progress
Bullet wounds left in my heart, I’m yellin ‘God bless!’
Regardless to critics yellin that ‘East/West’
I seen the game losing, I’m just pressing the reset
And when the resurrection of you shines through an individual
Lyrical enough to wear the same crown of thorns literally
I’ma pay homage, Brooklyn’s finest
Whether it’s Queens or Harlem it’ll be instant stardom, nigga… »
The Most Shady is dark, deep and pays tribute to one of the greatest names in hip hop history. It reminds us how much the rap game is a venturous game. Ambitions, beefs, jealousy, label rivalries can get you killed in no time. Fallen soldiers who have marked hip hop history, your names will live on forever.

Rating: 4 stars and a half
(produced by Clinton Sparks)
Picture a heartbroken mother whose son has been shot down in the street. Bob Marley’s voice, a sample taken out of Bob Marley‘s « Johnny Was » song, draws an emotional Mater Dolorosa picture on his typical reggae musical background:
« Woman hold her head and cry,
‘Cause her son had been shot down in the street and died… »
Notorious BIG personifies the bad ghetto guy who just died. You can hear the dead guy talking about his life preceding his death.
Now that his soul has left his dead body, the deceased gangsta watches his former life and actions…
Notorious offers us a colorful description of his bad guy life: definitely gangsta, showing no mercy, lying to his mom and stealing out of her purse…
A rather negative assessment of his thug life make the listener feel how much of a sinner he used to be. Notoripus Big’s choice for the evil is quite clear. Direction the burning hell:
« When I die, fuck it I wanna go to *hell*
Cause I’m a piece of shit, it ain’t hard to fuckin’ tell
It don’t make sense, goin’ to heaven wit’ the goodie-goodies
Dressed in white, I like black Tims and black hoodies
God will probably have me on some real strict shit
No sleepin’ all day, no gettin my dick licked
Hangin’ with the goodie-goodies loungin’ in paradise
Fuck that shit, I wanna tote guns and shoot dice
All my life I been considered as the worst
Lyin’ to my mother, even stealin’ out her purse
Crime after crime, from drugs to extortion
I know my mother wished she got a fuckin’ abortion… »
The dramatic dimension is very well expressed by the instrumentals: violins, keyboards and dark beats that resemble heartbeats are intelligently associated with Notorious Big’s dark voice that embodies a corrupted gangster’s personality. There is no way out his destiny. He lived by the gun, his life was made of corruption and he eventually died by the gun. No mercy and no salvation for a man who put himself into a mental jail and who now assumes the consequences of his sinful life.
Sometimes, Notorious’ voice echoes in the background, like a ghost’s voice before the chorus beautifully sung by Bob Marley and the Wailers make the listener travel though the dead man’s mom’s wounded heart.
A mom’s heart is the most beautiful gift God gave to manhood. A mom’s heart is golden and refuses to see a bad criminal in a son. The bleeding heart of his mom will make the listener think twice before he condemns the bad guy who has just been shot.
While living his life twice, the bad criminal is glad to escape from sinful life forever. Death is choice and it has always been that way:
« I swear to God I just want to *slit* my wrists and end this bullshit
Throw the Magnum to my head, threaten to pull shit
And squeeze, until the bed’s, completely red
I’m glad I’m *dead*, a worthless fuckin’ buddah head
The stress is buildin’ up, I can’t,
I can’t believe *suicide’s* on my fuckin’ mind
I want to leave, I swear to God I feel like death is fuckin’ callin’ me
Naw you wouldn’t understand
You see its kinda like the crack did to Pookie, in New Jack
Except when I cross over, there ain’t no comin’ back
Should I die on the train track, like Remo in Beatstreet… »
Notorious’ dead soul watches people at his own funeral. He has this capacity to read into their mind. Everybody seems to miss him, but the reality is quite different: people are glad he is gone.
The song finishes on a dramatic note that looks like an agonizing man’s words:
« I reach my peak, I can’t speak,
call my nigga Chic, tell him that my will is weak
I’m sick of niggaz lyin’, I’m sick of bitches hawkin’
Matter of fact, I’m sick of talkin’ (*echoes*) »
Instrumentally, the song is very well handled. Instrumentals, beats and lyrics will lead you into the very dramatic and poignant dimension of the song. Big applause to Clinton Sparks for his excellent production of the song.

The long awaited posthumous B.I.G album, The Notorious B.I.G. Duets: The Final Chapter, that includes collaborations of Eminem, P Diddy, Snoop dogg and Jay-Z will be released on December the 20th.
Two songs that have been leaked on the net, Hold Ya Head ( an excellent Clinton Sparks production) and The Most Shady, an Eminem, Obie Trice and P Diddy collaboration. Both songs are really worth your interest and I decided to review both of them…

R+B singer CRAIG DAVID has urged EMINEM not to retire – hailing the controversial hitmaker a “true poet”.
The BORN TO DO IT star is horrified by persistent rumours the rapper is planning to end his career, but remains optimistic Eminem won’t be gone for long.
David says, “It’s such a shame. He’s a true poet. STAN is one of the best songs ever made.
“I hope he takes a break and comes back.”

Who are Nu Money? The dynamic duo of underground rappers from Milwaukee/Madison is composed of Steve White and Kray.
Baptized “The 60 Second Assassin” and “Best in the Mil”, Steve White is well known for his battling qualities. The young emcee, who perfectly knows how to use his words, rapidly earned some respect on the local scene and obtained a deal with the Get Right Entertainment label.
His partner Kray could be described as complementary to Steve White’s talent. Down to earth, self confident, offensive, Kray’s realness is quite undeniable. Kray’s major influence in hip hop is Lyl Wayne.
Both young men, who have released the Takeover EP have some good raps to offer to their public. Meet both rappers at the club, rhyming on scratches and keyboard backgrounds on U Drunk, introducing you into their universe. Boys and girls, hit the dance floor and let music and rhythm guide you while performing your steps.
The four tracks exposed on Nu Money’s my space account are not fully representative of what the gifted artists can do.
The listener will certainly be delighted to discover some hot mixtape samples out of Nu Money’s The Drug 3 mixtape on Nu Money’s official website.
I particularly recommend Boom Boom clap, a swinging lyrical track that intelligently combines the power of the words with pounding beats.
You will also be able to watch Nu Money’s freestyle video here.
It is also worth checking out Armony, another hot artist who joined Get Right Entertainment recently.
Don’t hesitate! Have a look at the talented artists. Nu Money are fully worth the expense.

Nu Money from Milwaukee/ Madison…I’m working on it and will keep you updated:)

Those are the kind of slogans you could probably find: