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Monday, January 7, 2013

Mark's Pick of the Week: 1999 by Joey Bada$$


Back in the time where all my favorite hip-hop came from, the music was the stage where giants would take on the world.  Crews would pass around verses adding hit after hit to legendary songs. Joey Bada$$, the 17 year old rapper out of Brooklyn knows the music I’m talking about better then me.  I know because he manages to make music from 1996 in 2102 even though he was would have been about a year old when everyone else was making it.
I listen to A LOT of tracks with great pieces.  Amazing producers, hella beats, good lyrics, and great hooks all add a polish to songs that can make it shine in the dark of a collage basement.  However, when the lights come back on its just pieces.  It takes an MC who can open his mouth and crush all the pieces and flash fry them into one coherent piece. 
It’s just like dancing.  Anyone can dance.  It might take a while, but enough lessons and you can salsa.  However, there are people who dance, and dancers.  Dancers make it feel so effortless that they are better then the sum of their parts.  They add the nuances that you couldn’t if it wasn’t in your veins, and inspire the mortals to take up dance.  Check out Waves and see how he can walk on air using only the power of his lyrics (he doesn’t even need a chorus to fall back on.)
Another great thing that this is there are some fantastic roundtable collaborations.  Everyone joins in the chorus then each guy gets a time to shine.  This is no more obvious then the last track on the mixtape Suspect.
I’m not saying I expect Mr. Bada$$ to herald back the 90’s.  The 90’s are done.  People died, people retired, people faded out.  However, I feel this kid has the chops that some of these guys have, and God willing he can keep improving, and keep making music, and I can then keep writing about it.  Download the mixtape as well as a bunch of other stuff from Joey Bada$$ and the rest of the Pro Era crew here also his facebook!


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