Wanna Be a Baller... Shot Caller...

Looks like Pimp C, AKA James Jones... hurt somebody feelings. Lil Troy took offense, and shared his feelings as well.



Keep Hip Hop Alive, One Bar at a Time.

Over and Out, DocBoone

Pimp C Radio Interview

Pimp C went on a tirade. Tell 'em why you mad son! He letting you know how he feel. He telling everbody that we need to straighten out the game. Be Trill in what you say and do...



Keep Hip Hop Alive, One Bar at a Time.

Over and Out, DocBoone.

Lucky 3 Leaf Clover...

First off I'm going to step out of the world of Hip Hop for a second and touch on my other world. The NBA.

It's been a long time coming for one of the best players in the NBA today. Kevin Garnett's departure from Minnesota and arrival to Boston is going to make basketball fun to watch this year... at least in Boston. Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce have all been players well deserving of NBA Championship rings. Each of them know what it's like to have to carry a franchise on their backs, and fall short of excellence. Now each of them will have the opportunity to carry a share of a great franchise on their backs collectively. Give each of them a third, and their veteran leadership should take them pretty far.

Outside the realm of Hip Hop, but dont forget to Keep Hip Hop Alive, One Bar at a Time.

Over and Out, DocBoone.

Year of the Dog

Is, or was Hip Hop ever dead? DMX believes so, and that is why he will consider himself "Resurrecting Hip Hop" later this year. His new album is supposedly a response to Nas' last LP. I've said before that Hip Hop never died... just evolved. When DMX came out almost a decade ago, he was HOT. It was Dark, and Hell was definitely hot. Since then he has been on the decline with every album. I don't know one soul who could not quote at least one track from his first album. Between the robberies and the drug usage, I honestly don't know what to expect from this next album. I hope with all my might that this next album is a 5 mic album (wishful thinking). X stated that he will have guest appearances from The Game, 50 Cent, Nas, Mary J, Swizz Beats, Eve, and Bone Thugs N Harmony. Production will be taken care of by Swizz, Storch, Jonothan Rotem, and the Alchemist. There are some big names affiliated with this album... sure hope its not a bust. If you're trying to resuscitate X, don't mess this one up.

Keep Hip Hop Alive, One Bar at a Time.

Over and Out, DocBoone.

5 mil?

MTV put out the hottest 10 MCs in the game right now, just recently. The list goes like this:

10. Jim Jones
9. Common
8. 50 Cent
7. Jay-Z
6. Young Jeezy
5. Kanye West
4. Andre 3000
3. The Game
2. T.I.
1. Lil Wayne

Set the hating to the side people and think about it. This list has little to do with how well you spit 16 bars, and everything to do with how hot you are. How ridiculous is your swagger, and how have you influenced not only the Hip Hop culture, but the world. Jim Jones has everyone yelling out "Ballin'!" Kanye West has everyone comfortable with sports coats and colorful polo shirts. Lil Wayne is just featured on everybody's tracks. From Fat Joe to Enrique Iglesias. The dude has a conglomerate of mixtapes within the last 6 months. Face it... hate him or not. Kissed his "daddy" on the lips or not... the guy is HOT right now.

His album isn't even scheduled to drop until early 2008. And even then he is anticipating moving 5 million copies. Thats a hard feat to accomplish... for anyone. Give him credit though... he has a plan. He is on everybody's album, increasing his exposure to all audiences. The only question is will he still be highly anticipated in 2008 as much as he is now? With haters and all... I think he would come close, if not reach 5 million if he dropped in '07. Besides, most haters are the first ones in line to cop the album... just so that they could hate.

Quite often I tell myself that I'm tired of Weezy F. Baby. Then I hear something new, or a new bar that he spits. Somehow, I easily become entrapped again and interested in what he has to say. Don't know what it is. No matter how much I choose to hate on the guy, I always want to hear more. So, 5 million? I don't know. It would be cool if he did it. Obviously, waiting until next year to drop it... he has to have a plan. All we can do for now is to continue listening to the mixtapes and guest appearances. We'll check back sometime next year to check the sales.

Until then... Lets Keep Hip Hop Alive, One Bar at a Time.

Over and Out, DocBoone.

Chi Town Stepping

When most people think of Hip Hop, New York automatically comes to mind. That's only natural, and thats cool. But today in the Hip Hop world NY hasn't been producing like another place that I have in mind. Chicago. The Windy City. Go-Town. Whatever you want to call it. The topic of discussion lately has been about Chicago being the capital of Hip Hop right now. Not yesterday, or 15 years ago, but right now. I'm not trying to convince anyone that this is true, but I do want people to think about what's coming out of the Chi. (I'm not from Chicago, and the only ties I really have to Chicago is that I am a die hard Bulls fan). At any rate, in Chicago alone you have Hip Hop giants such as Kanye West the obvisous. Common... the newly resurrected genius. Lupe Fiasco, the young, up and coming star. There are others of course, but with just that 3 headed monster alone, Chicago is definitely placing its stamp on the Hip Hop culture.



Kanye West isn't a favorite of mine, but you cant deny the fact that as a producer first he is a powerhouse. As a rapper second he even has the wordplay to make solid consistent albums. People all over, white, black, brown, and orange anticipate anything that Ye puts out. Most don't like him, because he is arrogant. They call him a cry baby. They say that he is a homosexual. I don't know anything about that man's sexual preference, and honestly don't care. I'd probably still bump his tunes if he came out the closet. Good music is good music.



Common. He has been around since early 1990, and still can make a quality, solid, and informative piece of work. Lately Common hasn't been into making LPs that have hundreds of tracks with interludes and preludes. His album's now a days are short, sweet, and to the point. Actually, you can argue that with his albums you still get way more than most other albums out there. He can preach on a track and not come off as your old uncle, or someone trying to impose their beliefs onto you. He cares about his craft, and the best way to see that is to look at his album sales. He is not your Platinum artist. He may go gold, and that's it. A true sign that his music is made to satisfy him. Especially looking back at Electric Circus (Bad album). Common can rock on forever.



Lupe Fiasco doesn't have the experience in the game as the other two parts of this Voltron, but he definitely has the ability to place his own stamp on the game. His first album really wasn't what everyone was expecting, and maybe that's due to leakage... who knows? Lyrically, you cant deny him credit. He has the ability to be around for a long time if he wants to. Only time will tell.

I wonder why that CRS group that has been buzzing, isn't these three animals.

With Chicago alone, the Midwest is making a push out here. They may not be pushing as hard as the South has been pushing, but believe you me... they are pushing. St. Louis, Detroit, Cincy... the Midwest is making some noise, but is anyone listening? Come on everyone, open up your ears. Take some time to listen, and if you don't understand what these fellas are talking about grab a pencil and some paper. Write down what you don't understand, and hit me up with your questions. I'll try my best to interpret.

That's all for today's segment.

Taking over Hip Hop one bar at a time.

Over and out, DocBoone.

Electric Boogaloo

Man. A friend sent me a link of a young Alfonso Ribeiro (Yeah, Carlton from The Fresh Prince) advertising for his "how to" breaking video. Quite hilarious:



Looking at that, I found some clips of one of my favorites movies as a child. Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. I used to watch that movie over and over and over again. I think I used to wish that somehow the dance moves would telepathically transmit trough the television and VCR. Well since they never did, I never ended up dancing background for P Diddy either (thank God... LOL).

At any rate, the scence where Turbo was dancing in the bedroom, and he hit the walls and ceiling. Homie was getting it cracking on the ceiling! Just watching this clip brought back so many memories from my childhood. Right now, at this moment, I am going to my Blockbuster account to find Breaking 1 and 2. If you haven't seen those movies... and knowing how there are so many young bucks out here faking to know what Hip Hop is... I'd advise you go and check these flicks out... along with some others:

Krush Groove:

Beat Street:

Wild Style:


Here is that clip from Breakin' 2... Check out my boy Turbo.



Aiight peoples...

Keep Hip Hop Alive, One Bar at a Time.

Over and Out, DocBoone.

TIP... not TI, gets upset at fan.

TIP, or TI... one of the two, got mad at a fan recently. A fan supposedly threw a cup on the stage of a pre-ESPY party show that TI or TIP was doing. I guess it had to be TIP, because he flipped out when the cup landed on the stage. He jumped down and went through the crowd. When he found the suspected cup thrower, he smacked him with the microphone. The bloody fan was then escorted out of the hotel. This damn TIP or TI character is going too far, or is this just typical TI and his bad temper. Can't say that I wouldn't have done the same thing... but come on man. That's what your bodyguards are for... you supposed to stay out of stuff like that.

Just another siting of a TIP character... or TI... one of the two.



(sighing in embarrassment of the hip hop culture)

Keeping Hip Hop Alive, One Bar at a Time.

Over and Out, DocBoone.

Common Sense

Common - The People
Uploaded by yardie4life

Thank you Erykah Badu for loosening your grip on my boy Common. Since these two went their separate ways Common has been spitting more like the Common Sense that we all initially grew to love. Yeah, he took a break with that Electric Circus. I've tried to listen to that... THING numerous times. I've even gone back and pulled it out the CD book to see if there was something that I was missing. NOPE. It still sucks... always has, and always will. Sorry Comm. Other than that mishap the man has been right on target with every album... including this new project that is slated to drop this month. If the first single "The People" is a taste of what's to come from this album, then we are all in for a treat. Nine of the 11 tracks were produced by Mr. Kanye West. I read somewhere that he feels this album will bring the flavor of College Dropout, Illmatic, and Be... all in one. Boy I hope he ain't exagerrating.

At any rate... when this project finally hits the shelves you have to go out and stock up. One for the ride, one for the bedroom, one for the kitchen, and one for when you are in the bathroom. Common is back for good, and since his daughter found Nemo, and he found the new Primo; we should have some food for thought for a while to come.

Keep Hip Hop Alive, One Bar at a Time.

Over and Out, DocBoone.

Why Do We Love Rap Music?

Since the beginning of time rap music has been getting the attention of large groups throughout the world. Political heads, trailer trash, project kids, rich people, and people who don't speak English. Whether rap music has been hated on or embraced... it has for many years been a topic of interesting debates.

My question is why do we love it?

In my opinion there are a few reasons why we love it - like being able to relate, pure love for music, and a love for poetry. Instead of going into detail about all three, I will only dwell on how well we as a culture (Hip Hop) can relate to rap music. Hip Hop is cultural as we all know, so it doesn't matter what color, or how old you are. Rap music is just a element of the Hip Hop culture which consists of Emceeing, Graffiti, DJing, and Breaking. Being that there are 4 natural elements of Hip Hop many different arts can fall into the Hip Hop culture depending on how it is presented. For example drawing isn't considered an element of Hip Hop, but when you add the spray paint, and tagging buildings and trains with unique characters... then you have graffiti. At any rate, back to why we Love Hip Hop.

Rap music has always been a form of expression for many poets, or people who just have a story to tell. You do not have to be from the projects with no father to be good at creating a rap. The thing that makes rap music so good is when there is a story that the author is trying to tell. I'm not talking about how their rims shine so bright in the sun... or how that "bitch" has a ass out of this world. I'm talking about true struggles and successes. People love to hear stories of someone who has been through, or is going through the same things as them. Just off the top of my head, there are 3 artists who are good at painting pictures for their listeners. 2Pac, Biggie, and Nas all have music that depicts pictures of their lives positively and negatively. What we get from their music is almost a sigh of relief knowing that we are not the only ones who have to sleep at night in the same bed as our mom and 2 brothers. We are not the only ones who know what it feels like to have our fathers as crackheads. We are not the only ones who have to deal with walking down the street in fear. Here are a few bars:

2Pac on Shorty Wanna Be A Thug:
"He was a nice middle class nigga
But nobody knew the evil he'd do When he got a little bigger
Get off the final blaze
While puffing on a Newport
plottin' on a another way to catch a case
Was only sixteen, yet convicted as a felon..."

Way for the Middle Class teenager to be able to relate. So many middle class teens feel the need to be down, or to show how real they are. Never realizing that they only setting themselves up for a life behind bars... and not spitting bars.

Notorious B.I.G. on Everyday Struggle:
"But they don't know about your stress-filled day
Baby on the way mad bills to pay
That's why you drink Tanqueray; so you can reminisce
and wish, you wasn't livin so devilish, ssshit
I remember I was just like you..."

Grilled cheese sandwiches with Government cheese for dinner. Hand me down clothes. Past due bills. St Ides and Colt 45. Life is hard, and when you don't know where that next dollar is coming from you start to stress. You find that almighty dollar by doing whatever it takes.

And last, but not least... Nas on Life's a Bitch:
"Don't go against the grain simple and plain
When I was young at this I used to do my thing hard
Robbin foreigners take they wallets they jewels and rip they green cards
Dipped to the projects flashin my quick cash
and got my first piece of ass smokin blunts with hash
Now it's all about cash in abundance, niggaz I used to run with
is rich or doin years in the hundreds"

When your pops aint around, and your moms might as well not be... you out there doing ya thang. You coming in at night whenever you want. You feeding yourself, and you getting your own money. School is not a priority... and it sure aint bringing no quick cash. School has no appeal factor whatsoever for many people out here struggling to make it. For people who out here confused and don't know which way to go. People are actually going through this stuff and can heavily relate. Then you have a group of people who are just amused by these stories, but have not actually seen the lifestyle. They get a high out of listening to these stories... but have comfort in knowing that their mom is downstairs cooking supper, while dad is on his way home from the office. Whatever the case... they love the music... the art form... the realness.

The bottom line is that people love rap music because they can relate to it, or want to relate to it. If they can't relate to it, they are so amused by the stories, and the fact that they can get away from West Bloomfield without actually leaving.

Even when you decide to talk about Ay Bay Bay, Grills, Rims, and Diamonds... it lets people escape. Escape. We all want to escape something, and thats why we listen to rap music. It allows us to escape and thats why we love it.

Comments accepted.
Keep Hip Hop Alive, One bar at a time.

Over and Out... DocBoone.