LYRIC: “…Always gotta be the weakest nigga out the crew/I probably make more money off your album than you…Check your own videos, you’ll always be number two/Niggas talkin’ real greasy on them R&B records/But I’m platinum a million times, nigga, check the credits”

TARGET: MASE

SHOTS FIRED? YES. The “greasy” R&B record in question is 112’s “Love Me,” on which Mase openly mocked the Roc’s (then) newfound fascination with platinum: “What we hear is platinum that, platinum this/Platinum whips, nobody got no platinum hits.” Jigga fired back on Vol. 2, and Mase presumably realized he was in over his head and deaded it.

LISTEN: “It’s Hot (Some Like It Hot)” (1999)

LYRIC: “Go against Jigga, yo’ ass is dense/I’m about a dollar, what the fuck is 50 Cents?”

TARGET: 50 CENT

SHOTS FIRED? 50 name-dropped Jay-Z on “How To Rob,” so Jay hit him with half a bar. Thus, a long frenemy-ship was born.

LISTEN: “Is That Yo Bitch?” (2000)

LYRIC: “Why you home alone, why she out with me? Room 112, hotel balcony/How she say, ‘Jay you can call the house for me’?/That’s no respect at all, you better check her, dog…”

TARGET: NAS/CARMEN

SHOTS FIRED? YES. It may not have been clear at the time, but it would be soon: All of Jigga’s verses on this song clearly allude to his affair with Nas’s baby mama. Super ugly!

LISTEN: “Hustlin’ (Remix)” (2006)

LYRIC: “White on white, G4, hater get lost/I’m in the air I don’t hear niggas’ corny raps”

TARGET: CAM’RON

SHOTS FIRED? YES. As post-Black Album Jay receded from the scene, Cam became increasingly brazen with his disdain for Jigga on a number of freestyles. Jay returned with this disingenuous retort. Clearly, he heard.

LISTEN: “The Prelude” (2006)

LYRIC: “The Game’s fucked up/Niggas’ beats is banging, nigga your hooks did it/Your lyrics didn’t and your gangster look did it/So I would write it if y’all could get it, being intricate’ll get you wood, critic”

TARGET: THE GAME

SHOTS FIRED? YES. The first (and best) song off Kingdom Come went a few steps further than “Dear Summer” in its dissection of Jay’s number-one Stan. And in case anyone missed these veiled darts, he went on in the verse to twist the Game’s own line saying, “I used to think rapping at 38 was ‘ewww’ / but last year alone I grossed 38 mil…” Game over.

LISTEN: “Lost One” (2006)

LYRIC: “I heard motherfuckers saying they made Hov/Made Hov say, ‘Okay so, make another Hov’/Niggas wasn’t playing they day role, so we parted ways like Ben and J-Lo/I should have been did it but I been in a daze though/I put friends over business end of the day though/But when friends’ business interests is day-glo/Ain’t nothing left to say though, I guess we forgot what we came fo’”

TARGET: DAME DASH

SHOTS FIRED? YES. This is the first of what would be numerous lyrical shots at his former business partner, who could only desperately lash back in lame interviews.

LISTEN: “Dig A Hole” (2006

LYRIC: “You selling little tools, only time you went plat/My chain was on your neck, that’s an actual fact/So I’m prayin’ that it spills outside of the booth, that’s when y’all niggas outside of your truth/Outside of your league, that’s not what you do/Niggas throwing Roc signs outside of your Coupe/Don’t look at Hov like he done something wrong to ‘em/Cause he’s on to ‘em? He just took what belonged to him”

TARGET: JIM JONES/CAM’RON

SHOTS FIRED? YES. The Diplomats were a constant thorn in Jay’s side ever since they “took over” the Roc in 2002; he mostly ignored the Dips’ constant insolence until this record. Jay’s first (semi-)direct shot at the crew is on this song.

LISTEN: “30 Something” (2006)

LYRIC: “30’s the new 20 nigga, I’m on fire still/These young boys is like fire drills (Uhh)/False alarms (Uhh), the next don (Naw)/He ain’t got it (Uhh), on to the next one (Young)”

TARGET: LIL WAYNE

SHOTS FIRED? PROBABLY. “These young boys is like fire drills,” yeah? Wayne’s most recent single? “Fireman.” Not too hard to connect those dots.

LISTEN: “Reminder” (2009)

LYRIC: “Now everybody’s senile on me/Throwbacks, I threw ‘em back, remember those, button-ups? Young Hov, tell them ordinary Joes button up”

TARGET: JOE BUDDEN

LISTEN: “Jockin’ Jay-Z (Dope Boy Fresh)” (2008)

LYRIC: “That bloke from Oasis said I couldn’t play guitar/Somebody should have told him I’m a fuckin’ rock star”

TARGET: OASIS

SHOTS FIRED? YES. Noel Gallagher of Oasis publicly questioned the decision to book Jay-Z as the headliner for the U.K.’s biggest music festival. In addition to mock-crooning “Wonderwall” at the concert, Hov threw a dart at Noel on this track.

SHOTS FIRED? MAYBE. Budden Stans tend to be a little paranoid but it’s hard to overlook the wordplay on this otherwise forgettable song.

viva complexmag

Brand new Emilio Sparks.  Who doesn’t love Kicks, Chicks & Porno Flicks???

Click here to download it.

If Drake is not a household name for everyone just yet, the 23-year-old is on the front porch, ringing the bell. That he’s done it without even putting out an official album shows just how far he’s come in 12 months. What a journey it’s been for the Toronto native in 2009.

I first met Drake last year in Los Angeles around Grammy time. Lil Wayne’s co-manager Cortez Bryant introduced me to Drake as a new “singer” that they were working with. Drizzy was cool but barely spoke: At the time, there was no way I’d envision him as having a shot at making the MTV News’ “Hottest MCs in the Game” list, let alone finishing in the top three. He was a “singer,” right?

Everyone — including Drake — is probably surprised at how much he’s achieved this year. On the basis of its quality and impact, Mixtape Daily can say that So Far Gone isn’t just the top mixtape of 2009, but one of the greatest of all time. As a body of work, the project is better than most albums from the past few years.

First off, as promised, homes is singing, and it isn’t anything corny — in fact, one young lady I know was brought to tears after hearing “Brand New.” And his rapping skills were a stunning surprise: His clarity, tone, articulation, confidence and — always paramount — lyrics are first-class.

The impact of So Far Gone built gradually but rapidly, via blogs and word of mouth. As “Best I Ever Had” and “Successful” began picking up radio airplay, Drake began getting offers from just about every major label. Yet he elected to stay with Lil Wayne’s team and inked with their Young Money label, with distribution by the Universal powerhouse, which quickly released an altered version of the mixtape as an EP — and which has led to Drake receiving two Grammy nominations for “Best I Ever Had,” a song that was originally released on a mixtape! From the Net to the streets to the Grammy red carpet: Hands down, this is our mixtape of the year.

Joints We Checked For

» “Lust for Life.” The title alone makes this track (not included on the re-release) a must-listen. Drake gives his declaration of being hip-hop’s newest That Dude. “The game got these old handprints on it/ But I’mma be the one to pour cement on it/ And start over.” His delivery was subtle but effective, like bullets from a silencer.

»”Houstatlantavegas.” Drake described the song to us thusly: “A lot of people think it’s about strippers but it’s not. It’s actually kind of about women who live life with the mentality of a stripper, I guess you could say. Or it’s these girls that sort of drift from place to place and city to city depending on where the event is or where the next show is, where the next awards are. They have guys fly them out, meet guys there and they kind of … I have come across so many women like that either started out like that or I met them and they became like that. And it was just important for me early on, in that disc, to capture that emotion because it actually led to the demise of a relationship that I was in. So yeah, it was just kind of just a way of speaking to a specific type of girl. When I talk about women I don’t like to talk in generic terms, I like to really speak to women — not to say anything they’re doing is wrong but I like to be very specific when I talk to women, so they feel something.”

» “Successful” (featuring Trey Songz and Lil Wayne). Drake: “I remember hearing the record and the drums coming together, and they were just so rocking and it has this pocket and there was no melody yet, and [when the chords came in] it was so eerie. I was like, ‘Yo that’s it!’ Every note fell into place. So I had this beat sitting here that I love so much and I didn’t know what to do with it. Sometimes as an artist you find a musical piece that you love so much that you want to do it justice. It’s a very overwhelming feeling at times. So I actually turned to Trey Songz and I was like, ‘Yo, I got this joint and I know how it makes me feel. I just don’t know how to say it the right way.’ So I sent him the record and he sent me back this hook and was like, I want to call the song ‘Successful.’ ”

» “November 18.” Drake says of this track, which also is not included on the re-release: “My connection with the South is one of the best connections in the world: My father is from Memphis, Tennessee, so at a young age I got a feel for what the South was really about [because] I got to go down there every summer. It really shaped the person that I am to be able to go from a city like Toronto to Memphis. It’s like two different worlds: Toronto being this big city, more cultured, it’s very different than Memphis. So to go to Memphis I used to love the feeling that I would get hanging out with my cousins and hearing the music from the South and seeing how they support Southern artists. Actually, of the first artists that I really got that feeling from was Yo Gotti. In Memphis at the time Yo Gotti was fresh, he was new, he was just popping. I used to go to his shows and I would sneak in. It was just a thrilling feeling to be a part of it. And then I just started listening to music that the South had to offer and it influenced a lot of my sound.”

» “Ignant Sh–” (featuring Lil Wayne). The song that got the most play in our office, its Just Blaze beat (taken from Jay-Z’s song of the same title) has a classic feel. Drizzy was so arrogant on the record, not too many people could have come after him on the beat, but Wayne was a downright rap hooligan on it. It has so many quotable lyrics in such a short time span, let’s just highlight: “Better cover your eyes, your face falling/ Watch the game from the side, I’m playing calling/ No, I didn’t say that I’m flawless/ But I damn sure don’t tarnish.”

If you need any more convincing, be sure to track down both the mixtape and the re-release. And stay tuned for Drake’s official debut LP, Thank Me Later, due in March. Can 2010 be Drake’s year even more than 2009 was?

via mtv

Happy 40th B-day Hov, seems like he’s been 40 for a while.  Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969) is the G.O.A.T. hands down.  Brooklyn’s Finest!!!!!!

1969 Time Capsule

Ten things that happened the year Gloria Carter gave birth to a 10-pound, eight ounce Jay-Z… who didn’t give her any pain

1) Along with Sean Corey Carter, the world also welcomed Jennifer Lopez, Roy Jones Jr., Bobby Brown, Terrence Howard, Nate Dogg and Devante Swing.

2) Big lights inspired the underdog New York Jets to defeat the Baltimore Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl III. Another home team, the Mets, won their first-ever World Series over the Baltimore Orioles.

3) Richard Nixon became the 37th President of the United States.

4) President Dwight D. Eisenhower died.

5) The average yearly income was $8,550 and the average monthly rent was $135.00. Gas cost $0.35 per gallon.

6) A Vietnam War draft lottery was held, the first since World War II.

7) The Boeing 747 Jet was introduced. See: “Boeing Jets, Global Express, out the country but the blueberry still connect.”

The Beatles released Abbey Road, their last album recorded together.

9) The Brady Brunch and Sesame Street debuted on television.

10) Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (allegedly?) walked on the moon for the first time during the historic Apollo 11 mission

The Style Maturation of Jay-Z

Jay-Z’s disparaging fashion commentary on “Death of Auto-Tune (D.O.A.),” shows you where the hip-hop king’s style sensibilities lie. “You boys’ jeans too tight / your colors too bright / your voice too light
 / I might wear black for a year straight / I might bring back Versace shades…” Jay has always had a street swagger that extended to the oversized Tees and saggy jeans of his Rocawear line, but these days the throwback jerseys have been traded for Tom Ford tuxedos and smoking jackets.

Recently I took a pilgrimage to the birthplace of Hip-Hop, for all you bammas out in cyberland that’s New York City. While hitting up the greatest sneaker and clothing spots,  a local schooled me on a new dope artist hailing from the Garden State.  With his abundant lyrical prowess, musical acumen J.A.M.E.S. WATTS is currently the most played artist in my iTunes libary. Check out his website and download some of his work.   I promise you won’t be disappointed at all.

via hypebeast

Critically acclaimed Hip-Hop duo, Clipse, and Downtown Locker Room (DTLR) announce their first apparel partnership. The “I’m Good” t-shirt, designed by the duo, is now available through DTLR stores nationwide along with a Clipse custom mixtape entitled, “The Best of the Clipse,” mixed by DJ Jay Claxton and DJ QuickSilva. The package highlights Clipse’s hit single, “I’m Good,” from their upcoming release, “Til The Casket Drops,” available December 8th, 2009.