"Bad Guy" by Horseshoe Gang

"No cape but I'm flying, ape and a giant, racing and climbing/

I'm hot, sizzlin', grillin', I'm baking, I'm frying/

Snatch the belt off the waist of Orion, and strangle you lying/

Rappers, your flow ain't new, your shit is ancient like Mayan/"

One of the best kept secrets in Hip-Hop is Crooked I's group of homies, Horseshoe Gang. We've featured a video of them before in the COB Cypher 2012 video. These guys are lyrical machines, as each of them maintain a consistent series of multisyllable lines and sick wordplay. I don't know much about these guys other than the fact that they kill pretty much everything I've heard them spit on. This track is from the EP they released yesterday entitled, "#TrueStory", which can be found here.

"Quality of Life" by Joe Budden

"So how could we end up trustin' each other/

When our bond started out with us judgin' each other/

Both frontin' like yea, we just fuckin' each other/

But nobody gettin' fooled while we bluffin' each other/"

Now this is the kinda shit from Joe Budden that I've been waitin' on for a while. His shit with Slaughterhouse is cool sometimes, but nothin compares to his solo music. I found this video today, and it's weird because the video ends before the song does. These fuckers don't bowl long enough! But the portion of the song that we do get to hear is pretty sick. Check it!

"Difficult" by Eminem

"This might sound a little strange but I'mma tell it, I found that jacket that you left at my wedding, I picked it up to smell it/

 I wrapped it up in plastic until I put it in glass and hung it up in my hallway so I can always look at it"

 

So when I was a little younger I was a huge fan of Eminem, I had all of his cds and diss tracks, even his stuff from Infinite and I was sure I'd almost heard every Eminem song there ever was. But the other day a friend showed me this song and I was like what the hell is this, I've never heard it. It's a couple years old now but this song is a tribute to Proof and it's pretty heavy. After some searching around there's a little speculation whether Eminem ever actually wanted to release this track because it was leaked. And as you can tell its sort of an uncomplete song with weird sound effects and a kind of raw skeletal feeling. But I've heard the song "You're Never Over" from Recovery which is also a tribute to Proof and the songs are like night and day. "You're Never Over" was a great song but this one had so much more pain and emotion in it and really felt like Em just using the mic for therapy to ease his own soul. The reason I shared this was more for how passionate it was but even on a hip hop level Em still keeps the rhymes tight and the beat has a simple, chilling feeling. Check it out, and R.I.P in Big Proof.

"Justus Where Are You" by The Jokerr

 

So Jokerr just released a new diss to this guy Justus, I don't even know if that's how you spell the other guys name cuz I've never heard of him but whoever he is Jokerr merked him. I don't know anything other than what Jokerr says in the songs but his lyrics are crazy. So many sick punchlines and metaphors and the end of the song gets pretty intense. There was so many lines and mutlti syllable rhymes in this that liked I couldn't pick out any parts to put the lyrics to. I'll just let the track speak for itself. Check it out!

"Bitch Bad" by Lupe Fiasco

"Couple of things that's happening here, 

first he's relating the word bitch with his Momma, comma/

And because she's relating to herself as most important source of help and

mental health, he may skew respect for dishonour/"

The first time I heard this song, I had a hard time listening to it. Not because of the content or anything, simply because of the tone and choice of words Lupe was spittin'. It was until I seen the video that I realized how sick this song really is. The whole song is a deep analysis of the portrayal of women in urban media. The first verse covers how young men could perceive "bad bitches", the second how young women could perceive "bad bitches". The last verse kind of confused me because he said "bad" and "bitch" so much, and I kinda got lost in it the first few times listening to it. But it sums up to both male and female having different ideas of what qualities to look for in a person of the opposite gender. It was more focused on afro-american people, and I think Lupe was trying to point out how there's still forms of blackface stereotypes in modern day media. This is some deep shit, and the video's sick. Check it.

IM KILLIN THESE BITCHES!

"Napalm" by Xzibit

"Homeland security, false insecurity/

Fuck your intentions and big plans for my community/

I ain't afraid to die, fuck you gon' do with that?/

I'm comin' to find you and whack you off the FUCKIN map!/"

This track was released last year on Travis Barker's mixtape, "Let the Drummer Get Wicked". I just heard it today, because I seen a link to the video. The beat produced by Travis Barker includes heavy guitar and very loud drums. I thought it was a great idea to get Xzibit over the beat, cuz he does have a powerful voice. The rhymes aren't that spectacular, but the energy in the song makes up for it. The chorus was kinda cool too. As it states at the beginning of the video, the footage was shot during Xzibit's tour in Iraq. Kinda gave the video a suitable environment to go along with the topic of the song. But I'll shut up. Go crank the volume and break your neck to this raw shit.

"5 Fingers of Death Freestyle" by Brother Ali

"I ain't never lied about what my skin is, it's obvious/

I'm just so obsessed with seeing power for the powerless/

I insist, I will never operate on cowardice/

Rather chop my wrist than be afraid to take this kinda risk/"

God damn. This video is a reminder to anybody who ever thought Brother Ali isn't killin' every beat he touches. It was sick hearing him over these beats as opposed to the kind he usually spits over. I'm a huge fan of his albums but it'd still be sick to hear him rap over some harder beats, like the 2nd one (which he absolutely destroyed). Every verse he dropped was awesome though. If you like consistent rhymes, check this shit.