Street Census

Let’s be honest, there are a lot of wack hip-hop performances that graces our televisions nowadays. A lot of the time it’s an emcee, a hype man and a DJ playing an instrumental and no energy. Unless the song is a hit, the audience barely shows an interest in the artist.

It’s great to have The Roots on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon because you know any time a hip-hop artist is a guest on the show, that performance will be live. But while The Roots are reppin’ hip-hop five nights a week on NBC, what other artists held it down on network TV? I figured I’d take a look at my hip-hop history and share some of my favorite hip-hop performances on network television. Performances from late night shows, talk shows and specialty shows. What do you think?

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The recent deaths of Gil Scott-Heron and Geronimo Pratt have many hip-hop heads considering the culture’s revolutionary roots. While the early days of hip-hop to the mid-80’s hip-hop was all about partyingit was the late 80’s and early 90’s that saw a militant and revolutionary influence in hip-hop. Of course that led to street hop and the jiggy era, pushing more of the revolutionary music underground. So for the kids of the current hip-hop generation thirsting for some militant hip-hop in their lives or the old head wanting to remember what was poppin’ back then, here’s a top 10 list of some of the greatest militant/revolutionary/political hip-hop albums. I didn’t have the guts to rank them, but enjoy. Continue reading →

Gil Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 - May 27, 2011)

The use of “essential” in the title is subjective. This is basically 12 of our favorite Gil Scott-Heron works. We’re celebrating his contributions to our life. Rest in peace, brother. Songs after the jump:

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One of our more popular posts was the Top 10 St. Ides radio commercials. Back in the ‘90s St. Ides was able to get legendary emcees behind the mic to spit classic jingles for their malt liquor. When we did our radio list though, people were getting some of the radio commercials mixed up with the TV commercials. A few years later, a lot of the commercials are now and YouTube so I rounded them up for a new list. I remember seeing these when I watched Pump it Up with Dee Barnes back in the early ‘90s. Enjoy!

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Movie soundtracks aren’t what they used to be. And I’m not saying that as an old head lamenting on the “good ole days.” The ‘90s and early 2000s saw a lot of hip-hop’s major figures contributing new and unreleased songs to movie soundtracks making for a superb compilation with a thematic feel. Imagine if Jay-Z, Nas, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, The Roots, Common, Mos Def, Talib Kweli or any other top notch hip-hop artists recorded new songs for a soundtrack that isn’t on any of their albums. It would be an epic collection, to say the least.

Soundtracks were going platinum as much as a solo artist’s album. Granted, there were always skippable songs on these compilations, I don’t think there’s a soundtrack that didn’t have you at least skipping one or two songs, but the hot tracks on the soundtrack, most of the time, were worth the purchase of the entire compilation. They weren’t featured on the artists’ albums or released as singles, so most of the time buying the entire soundtrack was the only to get that song. Anyway, without further ado, here’s our top 10:

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Chris Brown is currently burning up radio with his song “Look at Me Now” with Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne, which is cool. But people are kind of jocking Chris Brown’s rapping skills like it’s a new thing for an R&B artist to be doing. Umm, sorry Charlie, it’s been going on since New Edition in the ‘80s.

So we decided to put together a list of seven R&B singers who we think are hotter than Chris Brown when it comes to emceeing. Just so you’re a aware, the artists we listed debuted as R&B singers so don’t expect to see folks like Lauryn Hill, Cee-Lo or Missy Elliott (yeah, her first album is a rap album!) on here, they’re singing rappers, a whole other list. Agree? Disagree? Let it be known.

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Back in 1996, Diamond D kicked the lyrics, “C’mon son, my steelo’s tight / Cause by far I’m the best producer on the mic,” on The Fugees track, “The Score.” Believe it or not, that line got producer/MCs a bit more recognition and props as hip-hop fans were considering, who really is the best producer on the mic? Who makes hot beats AND spits fire? Back in the 90’s Diamond for sure was a top contender for that title. But now in 2011, who’s in the running?

Well, we run down our top 10 list, which we’re sure will bring up plenty of debate. I looked over the history of hip-hop and who is skilled at both beats and rhymes as well as made an impact on hip-hop as a whole. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. Here you go:

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Street Census was originally launched back in 2007 by Quibian “Q” Salazar-Moreno and Henry “Rizoh” Adaso on a blogspot site. We’re giving it another shot. The site and its content is most definitely inspired by the excellent book, Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists by some of our favorite hip-hop journalists Sacha Jenkins, Elliott Wilson, Gabe Alvarez, Jeff Mao, among others.

It’s a site full of hip-hop lists. Lists from us, lists from other writers, lists from other outlets and lists from hip-hop artists themselves. Why? Because it’s fun. Debating about hip-hop, who’s the best, who’s the wackest, etc. has always been a revered past time among hip-hop heads. We’re not trying to change the world. We’re just sharing our opinions and hopefully in the process a hip-hop fan will learn or discover something new.

But who are we and what gives us the authority? Salazar-Moreno is a journalist that has covered the hip-hop world for more than decade (check him here) and will be running this new version of the site. Adaso is a veteran hip-hop blogger (check him here). Good enough?

To get at us, hit us up on Twitter @q_salazar or @Rizoh

(Editors note: This list was originally posted on my Examiner page in 2008. Head over there to see all the comments.)

Hip-hop and video games have always had a symbiotic relationship whether it was rappers rapping about beating each other down in NBA Live, participating in Madden and Street Fighter tournaments or actually sampling game music for their tracks. Which brings us to this list.

There isn’t really a methodology to this except I researched and tried to find as many hip-hop songs that I could that sampled a video game (Thanks to HaterPlayer and the Digital Gangsters for their help!). Songs that only had soundbites, like a “Fatality!” or a Mario coin drop, weren’t considered. I wanted songs where the sample played throughout. And of course the song had to be dope. Dope production and use of the sample, plus dope lyrics. Plain and simple. Am I out of line for my choices? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
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(Editor’s note: This list was originally published on my Examiner page back in 2008. Head over there to see all the comments.)

This list was compiled based on video games that used hip-hop as the theme behind the game, whether it’s emceeing (rap), b-boying (breakdancing), graffiti art or DJing. So games like the Grand Theft Auto Series (San Andreas specifically was inspired by gang culture, not hip-hop) or True Crime weren’t considered since the basis of those games wasn’t hip-hop but more of crime stories that hip-hop has influenced.

I’ve compiled the best and worst hip-hop-themed video games, with an explanation, and a link to YouTube video examples. Not much to my methodology except, it’s my opinion based on how it represents hip-hop and how good of a game it is. But feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments. Enjoy!

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