Alright so today I got a boat load of some awesome new rap music, which is something I can’t say much these days, but there is some quality tunes here. I will start you off with two new Eminem tracks that came out this past weekend. We assume they were slated to be on his last CD but due to him having over 100 songs he had to make some cuts, but these are some awesome tracks that deserved to make the album. Then there is a real club banging song from Akon and Ludacris that uses the techno song Sandstorm as a sample for the beat, so yea its pretty good. Next Chris Brown makes his return again with a unbelievable performance from Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne to really make the song. Wiz Khalifa is really killing it right now and he isn’t disappointing with his new song released today called Teach You To Fly. And lastly another track from Weezy F Baby don’t call him the baby, baby, called One Night Only. Enjoy the tunes.

Eminem ft. Jazmine Sullivan – Cocaine
Eminem ft. Jazmine Sullivan – Cocaine by MassAnthems

Eminem – Difficult
Eminem – Difficult by DJRADIO718

Akon Ft Ludacris-Drop Down
Akon Ft Ludacris-Drop Down by raidearth

MORE HOT TRACKS BELOW
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This dropped a few days ago but I couldnt find a good enough quality video to share with ZootNation. This is a pretty solid line up and an even better topic that they all are rhyming on. Its nice to see a group of rappers finally acknowledging the fact no one is into lyrics any more and all kids now a days care about is a hot beat. Its kind of funny that 50 is on this song since thats pretty much how he gets fans and sells records. Finally Jay Z can say he redeemed himself a little bit since he got ‘murdered on his own shit’ by Eminem on Renegade. He actually lays it down pretty nice on this track. Enjoy before its pulled!

Click map to enlarge to really get a better look.

Provided by the awesome research of Stefanie Gray, in this song, Ludacris brags about the area codes where he knows women, whom he refers to as ‘hoes’,” says Ms Gray, who plotted out all the area codes mentioned in this song on a map of the United States. She arrived at some interesting conclusions as to the locations of this rapper’s preferred female companionship:

* “Ludacris heavily favors the East Coast to the West, save for Seattle, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Las Vegas.”
* “Ludacris travels frequently along the Boswash corridor.”
* “There is a ‘ho belt‘ phenomenon nearly synonymous with the ‘Bible Belt’.”
* “Ludacris has hoes in the entire state of Maryland.”
* “Ludacris has a disproportionate ho-zone in rural Nebraska. He might favor white women as much as he does black women, or perhaps, girls who farm.”
* “Ludacris’s ideal ‘ho-highway’ would be I-95.”
* “Ludacris has hoes in the Midway and Wake Islands. Only scientists are allowed to inhabit the Midway Islands, and only military personnel may inhabit the Wake Islands. Draw your own conclusion.”

Like many I am a rap fan, or hip-hop, whatever you want to call it. I think everyone knows by now that rap has become accepted in the music industry and is bigger then rock and roll in some peoples eyes. The thing I have against rap these days is there is a bunch of no talent idiots who tend to just rap about cars, women, and money, hell I could make a list of ridiculous Lil Wayne lyrics that will have you laughing your ass off (I’ll make a post on that topic soon). But below are some very highly respected, and rich rappers in the game today, that still say some awkward and terrible lines from time to time, here are 10 that come to mind.

Jay-Z – $63 Million


Diddy – $30 Million

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Today its hard to find new fresh music that hasn’t been saturated by the influence of marketing giants. All we ever are exposed to is this fake world of rap music that projects an image of money, cars, women, and fame. I’m not sure when this really all happened, but I’m temped to call out Bad Boy or No Limit on this one. At some point hip hop made a drastic 180 from the gritty raw sound of Wu Tang, and even the first NAS album, to the flashy sampled computed generated radio friendly party rap we all hear on the radio today. A good friend has been building an empire in Brake Fast Records and that crew is single handedly breathing life back into the hip hop genre. Their latest project, Crew Cuts Volume 1 is an instant classic. With production work from Tom Delay and a cast full of talented lyricists, this album is perfect from front to back. My personal favorites are track 2 , Meet Me Half Way by Dirt Platoon, and the cult favorite No No No. There have been rumors circulating that Inpsychlopedia Brown will be back in the studio sometime soon, penning new rhymes, so lets hope and pray that the whispers are true. Check out the full Crew Cuts album here and stay up to date with all the upcoming events by Brake Fast Records. If you are a fan of hip hop, you wont need any convincing that this is a label to keep your eye on.

OK, for my first post on ZP i have to add some more commentary to my boy Riz post about how awful hip hop is in recent times. I want to make it clear that the only reason we write these posts is because we are hip hop fans, and we want to get it back to what it used to be, so don’t get it twisted like we’re hating on the game, it’s just that hip hop can use some serious mouth to mouth. I wonder what Flex is thinking when he’s dropping his patented bomb and some dude named Maino comes on? Really Flex, all of you old school cats who dj on Hot97 can not be impressed with this.

First things first, why is rap more about shitty beats and T-Pain auto-tuner singing than actual content and lyrics? You seriously can not tell me that any rapper you hear on the radio can even hold a flame to anyone coming from the late 80′s early 90′s movement, unless they are still from that golden era, still rapping today. Even then, you can’t convince me that Nas right now can even hold a flame to Nas in 2001′s “Stillmatic”, let alone his classic “Illmatic.” 1994 was hip hop’s pinnacle year, and pretty much since 2001 nobody seems to care about content or lyrics anymore…why? I do think the influence of dirty south rap has done terrible things for the game…when i think of shitty rap songs, for some reason Ying Yang twins come to mind, i don’t really know why…i also think a lot of it has to do with the fact that these guys just don’t give two shit’s about rap, they just want money…everyone is out for the money, but most cat’s at least respected the game…simply put, this new breed doesn’t.

Now don’t get me wrong, i do like listening to mindless pop so i can rip it up in the clubs as much as the next person, but let’s keep it at that…mindless pop. me and my boys don’t mind listening to Weezy F. Baby every now and then because the dude is just a ridiculous persona, there’s no denying his charisma and stage presence, which are commendable attributes of a rapper, but i don’t think anyone’s flying off the handle saying his lyrics are classic. he’s just a funny ass, interesting dude.

I was talking with my boy about the current state of hip hop and he came up with a very interesting theory. Follow me… seeing that music is an ever-evolving art form, rap has currently evolved into it’s 80′s glam rock phase, if you compare what rap is doing now I think it’s pretty comparable to what rock was doing in the 80′s, basically just going off the charts with some out-of-this-world trash that is merely a phase, again there can be a few gems in there, but very few and far between. The auto-tuner is a great example of this, i can appreciate artists pushing the envelope and trying out something new, but when something doesn’t work, just put it to rest…let’s not use this in another rap song…ever…again.
I also think it’s pretty telling of our times when one of rap’s ‘rising star’s’ is this douche Asher Roth. I’m sure you have all heard his awesome, original new song “I Love College.” ok, so let’s take a look at verse one of this great song.

i wanna go to college for the rest of my life
sip bankers club and drink miller lite
on thirsty Thursday and Tuesday night ice
and i can get pizza a dollar a slice
so fill up my cup
lets get fucked up
im next on the table
who want what
i am champion at beer pong
Allen iverson Hakeem Olajuwon
don’t even bounce, not in my house
better hope you make it
otherwise you naked

“who want what?” what the fuck are you talking about dude? “i am champion at beer pong, allen iverson hakeem olajuwon.” ummmm, hey, douche, that doesn’t even rhyme!! regardless of that point, i hate to burst your bubble, and no disrespect to AI, but he doesn’t have any rings bro, he’s not champion of anything, so just fucking stop it, please. let’s start off with baby steps…how about rap songs at least make sense to get things moving in a positive direction.
So, for now i’ll stick to my ipod and wait for the return of Em to at least shake things up, or Dre’s much anticipated “Detox” to knock down the doors again. Until those albums get released, if they ever even hit the shelves, I guess I’ll be waiting for rap’s version of Nirvana…