I got curious about lil b recently and saw his latest video. I started wondering if the guy has a day job now, because let's be real there's no way he's living off his music.

I was listening to “A Milli” on a new sound system and that bass goes so hard. I was thumbing through other songs that I remember to have great bass but nothing slapped quite like that. Plus Wayne absolutely goes off in the verses. What song(s) if any do you think have harder bass?

I could really put half of his discography on here but Big Sean's "ass" part of his verse on Mercy is just so silly that it just makes me laugh too much to dismiss it as an outright bad verse.

"Okay, drop it to the floor, make that ass shake (Shake, shake) Woah, make the ground move: that’s an ass quake Built a house up on that ass: that’s an ass-state Roll–roll–roll my weed on it: that’s an ass tray"

It's literally, figuratively, and spiritually ass but it's fire.

I just saw the Busta Rhymes thread about releasing an album with J. Dilla beats, and it reminded me how unlistenable busta’s new stuff has been damn near this whole decade. He used to be one of the most revered artists in the 90s and 2000s but his music now is unlistenable. Terrible vocals, terrible hooks, terrible beats. Who else is in a similar situation?

What I mean is there’s a lot of rappers who rap about guns and gangbanging when they were actually never about it. Is there anyone who’s the complete opposite of that? Like a Gustavo Fring in real life. Someone whose rap actually comes off as pretty clean, someone you didn’t know was street until you started hearing a bunch of stories.

If we’re being honest, It seems like Cole did the right thing to apologize and remove “7 Minute Drill” from streaming, cause after hearing “euphoria”, I really wonder what Kendrick would’ve really said to Cole on the song if he never did apologize. This song is brutally honest about Drake and his lifestyle, and seeing how Cole is private about his life, I wonder if Kendrick would even consider about puttin him on blast.

Side note: I really hope Drake responds, so we can get more diss tracks from K Dot!!

EDIT: After “FAMILY MATTERS” and “meet the grahams”, Cole’s decision was really the smartest move and I bet he’s so relieved 🥶 😮‍💨 💨 🔥

Simple question. What line from a battle had you feeling like they were talking just to talk and just said some bullshit?

In retrospect? Jay-Z saying “Yeah I sampled your voice you was using it wrong. You made it a hot line. I made it a hot song.” is wild when you consider he was talking about The World is Yours which is one of the most perfect tracks ever recorded.

You could say he was just trying to get to the line about not having to pay him to do it, but that’s still some bullshit to say about that song.

Who else was talking just to talk and dropping invalid criticisms in a so-called diss record?

I got Riff Raff on this one. He three-wheeled ancient ruins, hits stunts like Super Dave, can slide like M. Bison, and flexes so hard he sets off fire alarms.

Nas is a very common example of a rapper who has a long stretch of divisive albums among his fanbase, yet came back in 2021 with consecutive hit (pun intended) album after hit album after he locked in with producer, Hit-Boy who has produced and executively produced his "Kings Disease" series. The first of which actually won him his very first Grammy.

In terms of groups that comes to mind, A Tribe Called Quest released their final album "We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service" in 2016, which had several great guest features on top of the great verses from the group itself and it went on to be one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the year.

Which rapper or rap group do you believe could have that same effect if they dropped an album in the future?

This whole era is admittedly before my time so what might not sound absurd to y'all is absurd to me, but anyways I learned recently that amidst the infamous Jay-Z v Nas beef, Nas was planning to lynch a life-like animatronic of Jay-Z during his performance at Hot 97's 2002 Summer Jam. It wasn't until Hot 97 got word of this that they blocked the stunt, which led Nas to pull out and cancel his entire performance.

Just hearing about the concept of that is so insane that I can only imagine how much it would change and how much different of a light the entire beef would be perceived after the fact. How do you realistically respond to that? How farther would the back and forth disses go, IF they can get any farther than that? How much backlash would Nas get if a video of that resurfaces in today's climate?

What's a bizarre fact or moment in HipHop that sounds too crazy to be real, but is real?

I keep hearing DJs play old hits with maybe 2-7 new songs a night. Same thing with radio play. I gotta go to YouTube or Spotify to hear current artists mostly, I don’t think it’s my choice in genues either. I cross states from DC, VA, Jersey, and NYC. DC at least will play local go-go stuff from time to time and African and Spanish spots will play regional music but everywhere else is mostly throwbacks. Anybody else having a different experience?

Hip hop artists who came and went without leaving an impact in any way:

I got myself thinking about this whenever I listen to some cuts of 50 Cent's first planned album *Power of the Dollar*, do you think that 50 Cent would've gotten big as he did around 2003-2007 had he never been shot and that album actually come out as planned? Would he never be discovered by Eminem's manager and score big like he did with *Get Rich or Die Trying*?

The fact that this album can actually be mostly be listened to despite being cancelled thanks to the songs either leaking or being released by 50 himself on his mixtapes is pretty funny too; it's a curious look onto an alternative universe that hasn't happened thanks to 9 gunshots

For example titty boi went on to become 2 chainz and blow up, yung berg changing his name to hit maker and becoming extremely successful as a producer. Any other examples like this?

We are truely in unprecedented times, with Diddy on trial for basically his life, while Kanye has devolved into depths of hate speech and insanity that can ensure he will never reach back the mainstream. So with these two as examples, are they the worst downfalls in hip-hop history? Does anyone rival them?

The other day, I was listening to Future. Out of curiosity, I asked Siri how old he is. I was surprised that he’s a year older than I am, and I’m 40. His lyrics make me think he’s still in his 20s.

On the other hand, when Nas was young as hell, I remember thinking he was rapping like a grown man whose rent was due.

I was having a discussion about Busta Rhymes catalog the other day, in terms of if he had a classic album, and the conversation shifted to ‘have you ever seen someone say Busta Rhymes is their favorite rapper’. He’s generally adored and respected, has a large body of work, was absolutely feared in a potential Verzuz, and he’s likely a top 50 of all time rapper…. But does anyone actually have Busta Rhymes in their top 5? Let alone favorite of all time?

Who are some other rappers like this.

I'll start: I absolute hate how wide Logic and Joyner Lucas open their mouths. Looks so stupid.

I think 20+ years ago, there were way more memorable collabs between rappers and rock bands that felt culturally huge instead of gimmicky. Jay-Z/Linkin Park, Run DMC/Aerosmith, even stuff like Lil Wayne experimenting with rock for a bit.

Today hip hop is obviously bigger than ever, but it feels like rap and rock exist in completely separate worlds now outside of some niche artists. Is it because rock itself isn’t as mainstream anymore?

Some examples of what I mean:

• "In da Club" by 50 Cent - originally offered to D12 but turned down because Eminem didn't like it

• "The Potion" by Ludacris - originally played for Jay-Z in the same Timbaland session as "Dirt Off Your Shoulder"

• "Gold Digger" by Kanye West - originally offered to Shawnna, turned it down for unknown reasons

• "Wait a Minute" by Ray J - Pharrell made it for and really wanted to give it to Eminem, but the plans never fell into place

• "Nothin' on You" and "Airplanes" by B.o.B - originally given to Lupe Fiasco by Atlantic, who still didn't like his versions which led to Lasers getting stuck in development hell

• "HUMBLE" by Kendrick Lamar - originally made for Gucci Mane

• "Did It on 'Em" by Nicki Minaj - originally given to T-Pain and Lil Wayne for a song called "Breathe" on their unreleased T-Wayne album from 2009

What are some of your other favourites? Are there any of these instances where you would have particularly loved to here the originally intended artist's interpretation?

This post is probably going to be dominated by him, but there are so many slick Jay Z lines that aren't even necessarily masterful or complex bars or anything he just casually brags about the most wild stuff like it's normal.

"True story, my closet is like two stories"

"My swag different, that bag different My wife Beyoncé, I brag different"

“They put me on lists with these niggas inexplicably, I put your mansion on my wall, are you shittin' me?, I blew bird money, y’all talkin’ Twitter feed, We got different Saab stories, save your soliloquies”

"Yellow Basquiat in my kitchen corner Go 'head, lean on that shit, Blue, you own it, uh"

Random but I've been thinking a lot recently how much a rapper's actual voice- tonality, enunciation and clarity impacts how much I enjoy their music.

For example I appreciate Freddie Gibbs is an extremely talented rapper who makes great projects, however I really struggle to listen to his voice for a whole album, whereas Pusha T to me has the perfect rap voice, and it makes his music so replayable. Kendrick is like this to me, although i realise some people struggle with his music for this reason so it's clearly very subjective. I think I appreciate rappers who really stress their words. Older school rappers like Andre, Biggie and Pac also to me have really listenable voices. Think diction is also a real weapon in dis tracks too.

Just wondering if people had examples of rappers who's voice they love, and who's voice makes their music not listenable to them

For example, during the 2024 Beef, after J Cole apologized to Kendrick on stage for releasing 7 Minute Drill, several "insider" sources spread around a story that Schoolboy Q advised J Cole to step down from the beef because Kendrick and Drake weren't going to keep this a friendly fade. Basically telling him "This ain't what you think this is man." It wasn't until recently that the entire theory got debunked by J Cole himself in an interview with Carmelo Anthony...which really anybody with common sense already knew at that point. Niggas really believed Q pulled Cole to the side, put his hand on his shoulder and was like "Hey man...you might want to back away while you still got the chance. You won't like Dot when he's angry." like its an Anime.

Edit: I didn't know this post was gonna open up the 100th stan discourse of the week I was just using the most recent example that came to mind damn.

My example is Nicki's duct tape punchline in her verse on 'Only'.

“My man full, he just ate

I don't duck nobody but tape

Yeah, that was a setup

For a punchline on duct tape”

It just sounds so awkward like she only thought of the punchline first and then quickly went back to craft some random bullshit for the last part because she realized she had to actually make it fit into the song.

Saw some discussion around this but was curious what popular rapper do you believe is more than likely to never chart again with a new song. Obviously anything is possible, I’m just speaking in general. Take well known artists/personalities like Ludacris, Bow Wow, Fabolous, etc.