Back Like I Left Something

After a prolonged hiatus, some random thoughts on the latest goings-on in the rap world:



Fat Joe fighting Papoose for being on Hot 97 with 50 Cent has to be the most hypocritical move I've seen in awhile. Joe was annoyed when 50 picked a fight with him for standing next to Ja Rule, so why should Papoose have to suffer for hanging out with 50? Either way, Joe's legacy in rap was forever tarnished even before this dust up. Now it's just getting ridiculous.



Flo Rida only selling 86,000 in his first week even with 2 hugely popular singles on the radio needs to be the final nail in the coffin for labels still attempting to build cookie cutter stars. With the way the industry is moving, rappers need to accept that they will only have a core audience and that a very select few rappers actually sell major records anymore. Shit, when 50 Cent & Jay-Z both fall short of 1.5 million, what else do you need to hear?


Lil' Wayne seems to be on a mission to destroy his career before it reaches its proper apex. We all were hoping that when The Carter 3 was ready to drop that Wayne might have retired the gimmick of singing his rhymes through the T-Pain vocoder box. Lollipop has flown in the face of that logic. If Lollipop flops, what will this mean for Wayne's career? It seems that he is betting the farm on people wanting to listen to him sing. Time will tell.



Shawty Lo.......the man can't rap to save his life, but there just has to be a place for him in the rap world.



Am I the only one with the sneaking suspicion that this supposedly shocking upcoming Nas album isn't nearly as good as the hype would suggest? I remember when Jay-Z supposedly kept him from dropping when American Gangster came out, and we're now heading into April with no release date in sight for N*gger. Why he won't just pick up the phone and call Premo or AZ is beyond me at this point. Even Fat Joe managed to make room for Premo in between the Plies & J. Holiday cameos.



New York City needs to let a new rapper put out a damn album already. How long have Saigon, Papoose, Maino, Jae Millz, etc. all sat on the shelf? You would think maybe someone like Maino would stop shooting for stardom with Lil' Kim & Shawty Lo cameos and put out a good, hard street album on Koch. Instead, Jae Millz signs with Young Money. Ask Currensy how well that turned out for him.



G-Unit has impressed me lately. Between Return Of The Body Snatchers & Elephant In The Sand, there has been noticeable signs of life from 50. The Mechanic even gave a glimmer of hope that the old 50 still lurks beneath all of the new Vitamin Water money.



As much as I've critcized Red Cafe in the past, I have to admit that he has himself a real knocker in "Paper Touchin'". If the remix with 50, Jada and Fabolous gets any sort of push, he might defy every expectation I've ever had and actually release an album. I'm sure that a big single collabo with Akon is upcoming, and the success of that record will determine his outcome.



This topic has been beaten into the ground, but the collapse of Dipset is one of the more depressing things I've watched as a rap fan. Between Cam'ron's career stalling out and him essentially deciding to derail Juelz Santana in the process, I don't know which is worse. For some reason, I actually believed I Can't Feel My Face would drop and that Public Enemy #1 would catapult Cam back into the consciousness of fans.