HATE IT OR LOVE IT, SPANISH GUITARS IS ON TOP

A man of wisdom once said, "There's only two things certain in this trife life: death and Spanish guitars." When civilization finally annihilates itself, bet there's gonna be some cockroaches carrying on the legacy, one in a sombrero wit his legs splayed out and an acoustic guitar restin on his groinals, the other on the M-I-C talkinbout, "Cockroaches is the hardest species outchea, survivin 'n' thrivin while all these soft-serve mammals got punked by the ultimate wedgie puller."

MAX B - 50'S OF SOUR
This ain't Biggavel's only foray into the exotic delights of sultry strums. There were Max B's before Max B, bawdy Orphic bards spittin da raw and real. Some mistook it for transcendence, but it was actually a finer state of mind known as waviness. Charly Wingate was just the ultimate expression, the final evolution in a process that began with the inception of language. Now Buddens free!

FREEWAY - RING THE ALARM (FT. PEEDI CRAKK & OMILLIO SPARKS)
Finally it ain't a gringo blessin las guitarras. Here's Peedi & co. flippin da Tenor Saw classic boricua style. Maybe da rap bloggers of cockroach Earth will finally give Peedi his due when they typin on they lil cockroach computers wit headphones on the antennae. Big up to Freeway for being an early adapter on that hipster crossover money dat Big Boi now chasing on that album I ain't able to manage caring about.

YUKMOUTH - SAD MILLIONAIRE (FT. PHATS BOSSI & BIG LURCH)
If you wanna make your shit paranoid and world weary, holla at a mariachi band to lace your shit with some Spanish guitars. But if you really wanna put some guac on that chip, do like Yuk and tap a cannibal dusthead for tha hook.

HOT BOYS - NEIGHBORHOOD SUPERSTAR
I always thought Spanish guitars was a New York thing on account of the Puerto Rican influence, but it's really the Bay that had this game on lock. Sixth man of the year tho? That's the great Mannie Fresh!

KANYE WEST - ALL FALLS DOWN
Real talk, Kanye couldn't dress for shit when he came out. Ratty-ass baggy blazers, Aeropostale button-ups, Rocawear jeans-as-sweatpants, and some white Reebok Classics? Mu'fucka was about to rock a straw fedora. Crazy how Ye went from tha I'm so normal and middle class! Look at me, I'm rapping about this college girl's problems! dude when Rhymefest was his ghostwriter, to the grrr i'm so weird and i wear leather pants i like triangles and weird symbols shitty art project he became when Travis Scott turned him into the angular haircut of rap.

LOOKIN BACK ON STATE PROP, BIG UPS TO PEEDI

Philadelphia: brotherly love, grit, gun violence, and anger.  Few rappers embody their city like BEANIE SIGEL and the boys of SP.  I been goin through hard times lately, and The B. Coming been my grim companion.  BEANS got on for his realness, and though it's a cliche by now, Chappelle was right bout how that shit can go wrong.  Let's hope for a speedy return to health.

STATE PROPERTY was one of the most exciting things percolatin in the streets a decade and some change ago, but they didn't have much to show for it when the Roc-A-Fella gravy train stopped.  BEANS and FREEWAY had gold records, but outside of  YOUNG GUNZ's "Can't Stop Won't Stop," they never really made a crossover push.  Come to think of it, it makes more sense that they didn't blow up than labels thinkin they were gonna sell em as the next WU-TANG or whatever.

It didn't help that the industry was in a transitional state, sluggishly preparing its ass cavity for the long dick of filesharing and diminishing record sales.  Soon they'd be pushin a different product from a different region and resigning 'emselves to the fact that they couldn't sue every granny who downloaded an ENYA B-side.  SP came on at the end of that window, before a new model came in place.  So now when MEEK MILL's album flops he keeps his buzz going through free mixtapes and palling around with certified hitmakers.  Can't hate on that - he found a lane, cause DRAKE needs help appealing to the testicled population.

Label hell put the brakes on PEEDI CRAKK, who was so nice and ready to pop he dropped the surname and and named himself twice.  One of the more marketable cats in SP, he was a whimsical rake in the mold of SLICK RICK, welcome relief to the world-weary piousness of BEANS and FREEWAY.  Then nothing really happened.  He dropped a bizarre dis against a certain camel-faced Brooklynite, crooning hurt feelings like a brokenhearted drunk at karaoke night's last call, and continued to drop uneven mixtapes with flashes of brilliance. As it stands, he will be remembered as one of most talented rappin-ass rappers of his generation to never blow up or really even get the respect he's due.  He still kicks those spastic, protean brangdangdang verses like a Puerto Rican KOOL KEITH, but I can't help but wonder what could have been.  CF 5 saw him awkwardly tryin to jock the South, but he's a dude who sounds better goin over that ol boom-bap without comin off like a Madame Tussauds piece.  "Born in the wrong era" like the kids of Tumblr say.

What kind of world is this where MEMPHIS BLEEK gets four proper releases while PEEDI sits in limbo?  Them discs is fillin up half of Staten Island by now.  You might be driving around with a copy of M.A.D.E. melted into your dashboard.  Maybe PEEDI can rehabilitate his career with a DAN DEACON collab.  Hope he isn't goin out like that, but he's already clockin time at the Harry Fraud Old Folks Home with LIL CEASE and BLACK ROB.

YOUNG GUNZ SAID THEY WOULDN'T STOP, BUT THEY DID

 

What's poppin hoes?  It's ya boy back in dis bitch.  You know how we do.  HYSTERIA time!  Hide ya girl cause I'm finna say, "Hello darling, shall I compare thee to a tight bombass chocha?" to her.

Way back in the Golden Era of hip-hop there was a little collective named State Property.  It consisted of Beanie Sigel and a bunch of miscreants from the Philadelphia area.  One such contingent was the group YOUNG GUNZ, who were Young Chris and Lil Neefy.

They popped off with this hit back in, I dunno, summer '03 and I was doin the Harlem Shake like crazy to this joint.  You couldn't stop me man!  I had the XXL Fubu tracksuit in baby blue and a pair of fresh Dadas to top it all off.  Sometimes I'd even rock a white du-rag so I'd be thugged out to the fullest.

Anyway these dudes fell off hard and last I heard they were dancing in G-Strings for tips.  Sad, they could've been the next Eric B & Rakeem.  Stay in school, kids!