Action "Bam Bam" Bronson

Bam Bam

It's literally the end of 2013 and if you haven't heard of this guy then you've been under a rock for too long. This is Action Bronson. He's from Flushing, Queens, New York. He's had a big ass red beard. He's a chef, comedian and a rapper. I first heard Action earlier this year from his Rare Chandeliers mixtape. He hooked up with Alchemist for the beats. However, I was astonished that this white dude is THAT nice! He has the best hype man who talks so much sh*t. It's hilarious. My boyfriend said that he sounds like Ghostface Killah. I never really listened to GhostFace, so I had to look up one of his songs and compare. Action really does have a similar style because like Ghostface, he's has a quick delivery of bars, with a heavy New York accent jumping from one situation to another all on the same song. ( FYI, he made a PSA on his Ron Simmons track saying "Don't ever say my fucking music sound like Ghost shit!" Sorry Bam Bam :p) It's really enjoyable to listen to him because he's so vivid with the stories he tells. Furthermore, his voice alone just attracts you to listen to the story. His voice makes you listen to the lyrics and the beats just compliments the story he's telling. He can really paint a picture for you over beats. On his mixtape Blue Chips, Thug Story 2012 tells the story of his love for someone who held him down but somehow she went one way and it seems like she turned into a crack-head prostitute. He went another way and pursued his rapping. Its stories like similar to that, that makes you want to wait for the next track. 
In addition to his story telling, he loves to throw a few bars in about food. Put it like this, Pusha T is always referencing drugs; Action is always referencing food. It's his thing. BUT don't get it twisted, despite that he's still a raw a$$ rapper. 
Action Bronson is truly a New York rapper. I say this because he sounds like the NY rapper from the 90's. The accent is heavy and he has the New York attitude. His beats aren't typical Lex Luger or Mike Will Made It type beats. He seems to pick more authentic type beats with real instruments. Nothing too electronic. Yet, the beats are still catchy and your face will twist up when you hear them. 
His mixtape covers are dope as well. He's always depicting some type of action on the covers. It really makes you want to know what they hype is all about. In my opinion, as a consumer, I think it's very important to have an interesting cover because it attracts the eyes of a potential listener and even if you didn't listen to it you still think about what’s on the tape. If you're not into real rap then disregard this post.

Thanks :)
What's His Record:  
Dr.Lecter
Well-Done
Bon Appetit...Bitch
Blue Chips
Rare Chandiliers
Blue Chips 2 The Program Ep (EP)
Saab Stories (EP)

South, Exploitation, and Sport

Ahh, the South! There isn’t ANYTHING like it! I was born and raised in the South. I'm very proud of it too. Why not be? We have great tasting food, real African culture based here, humble hospitality, and oh yeah...the rap music.

Now, I have a love and hate relationship with the South's rap music industry. Why I love it? I love it because we can produce bangers. Every artist from the South can get played in every club and every radio station. We also get more deals than artist from the North.

But I must say I really hate the South's rap music industry as well.

First, majority but not all of the artists' aren't producing any message behind their lyrics therefore since artists' from the south are more nationally known then of course when rap music gets criticized then it’s based on the music that’s nationally heard. Get my drift? I hate that rap music gets a bad review because it's not that bad and there are more positive, more dope artists' out there.

Secondly, artist from the south are so thirsty for a "deal" that they don’t realize that they are being exploited when they get signed. They are being exploited by music executives who just want to make money off of our musical culture and make them look stupid. You really think they understand or care about what Future is attempting to sing about?? Therefore, they throw idiots in music videos and call it Hip Hop. A lot but not all of these idiots just happen to be from the south.

Thirdly, the younger generation catch onto this and sadly this type of Hip Hop is all they know. They know nothing of the fathers of Hip Hop. They barely know who Jay Z is. I feel like he has to fight yearly to keep his name alive and keep up with the ignorance and he has been in the industry for 20 plus years. I mean even though I was born in 91 (YES HATERS I'M A 90's baby so what?!) I'm interested enough in music to seek out where this dope shit started at and who was the first ones to do it.

But if you don’t know your history then you don’t know what the present future is supposed to be. For example, "rappers" nowadays talk nonsense. If you listened to a lot of these songs without a beat would you still think it’s "fire"?

In my opinion, true Hip Hop contains 2 types of messages behind the lyrics. One message may be the metaphors and punch lines that make you think twice and you’re like “wait did he just say that? How he’d come up with that? That’s clever!” The other message may be all those metaphors and punch lines together to come up with a message to the people, the politicians and towards other artists'. Some people view Hip Hop as a battle of who is the best lyricist meaning who can come up with the most clever lines that no one else would think of and some may view Hip Hop as way an empowering tool for the people from listening to the story within the track that relates or make you think.

Hip Hop is a sport just like basketball; Hip Hop requires strategy and mental intelligence. A few bars may appear to the public as a few words at first but the meaning and metaphors are way much more. It takes skill and hard work. It really does. "No days off" like Wale would say. It's intelligence at its best when played by great rappers. Some rappers do it for the sport and nothing more. Then some may do it for the sport and the money. Whatever they do it for is their business, what they put out is ours.

Ahh, the South. It produced me and I'm thankful for that because if it wasn’t for the South I don’t think I would've been as curious as I am about Hip Hop today.

 

Drizzy .vs. K.Dot

 

I have so much to say about these 2 guys! Like my hands are typing a million miles per min...... OK not really, but you know what I mean. This shit is just too good to NOT talk about.

Everyone knows that Kendrick called out a lot of rappers on Big Sean's Control. Oh you didn't? Well while you were busy bouncing in the club listening to Boosie and Future, the sport of Rap turned up a notch after Kendrick dropped this:

"But this is hip-hop and them niggas should know what time it is
And that goes for Jermaine Cole, Big KRIT, Wale
Pusha T, Meek Millz, A$AP Rocky, Drake
Big Sean, Jay Electron', Tyler, Mac Miller
I got love for you all but I'm tryna murder you niggas
Trying to make sure your core fans never heard of you niggas
They don't wanna hear not one more noun or verb from you niggas
What is competition? I'm trying to raise the bar high
Who tryna jump and get it? You're better off trying to skydive...”

So do you see why this is so controversial? You still don't know? Well, I'm going to tell you why. Rap is sometimes so subliminal so therefore we use our days trying to figure out who this Rapper talking to or about and this n*gga actually said it! How you call out Big Sean in HIS OWN SONG?? Smh lol... And to claim The Best Rapper Alive? Thats a very big claim to make. Titles and positions in rap are very sensitive and when someone says that then you gotta be ready for the heat to follow. Rappers are going to be dropping verses left and right. But I didn’t think it called for a verse-only response, maybe an entire album response? Wait, maybe he's referring to your entire CAREER as a RAPPER. This means that you constantly have to be on your sh*t! Ready to drop some fire at any given time. That’s hard work and I'm hoping Kendrick knew what he started upon dropping that verse. He called out some BIG names as well. Some people may view this verse as a shot taken at those rappers and it comes from a malicious place OR some people like myself may view this as a wakeup call to those Rappers to get their sh*t up. In my opinion, he was just raising the bar for Hip-Hop. Personally, Hip Hop has been thrown off balance since 2001. We need some real sh*t to balance it back out.

Now, my opinion on K.Dot: Kendrick is a very good lyricist with strong messages in every song. He not exactly "up there" yet but he's getting there. We need some more music and time out of him. With him being so new into the national spotlight he is off to a good start. His album good Kid, m.A.A.d. City was a classic. He's definitely been crowned the Golden Kid of Hip hop right now. He was raised on the West Coast under the Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog era. In addition, he's the only one gaining commercial success so far and he knows he has to come hard. His motivation: His City.

Now, Drizzy.... the man I've always had but never actually had *chills in my spine*...

Even though I'd love for Drake to have my babies, it’s time to gossip about his lyricism for a min.

Drake has drastically improved since my 1st time hearing him 2007. I was just listening to his Comeback Season joint this morning and hearing him then and now is just a major upgrade. He's getting more in tuned with himself; more comfortable. He's also becoming more aware that his bars are actual bars. He's in his prime as a writer. I think Drake originally struggled with coming to terms that he IS dope and he just may be one of the best rappers of this generation. The NWTS album was a perfect example of Drake feeling himself and he made sure we knew it as well. I think Drake is an awesome rapper because he's more of a story teller. I find myself wanting to listen to his joints because it’s obviously about something going on in his life right now. In a way, I've compare his style to Hov because Hov can drop some sh*t about his life currently and its dope. Hov's perfect example? Watch The Throne. Drake has reached a phenomenal peak in commercial success that some people just want him to fail. But we'll see.

Now this is why I put the title Drizzy .vs. K.Dot: They both boast about being the best in Rap Game. For this year, Kendrick dropped some hot subliminal sh*t. All Drake has for this year is "The Language"; it's not like "Stay Scheming" or "Lord Knows". They both are screaming that they are the best in it right now and will be forever. But I notice that both of them talk real big sh*t on records so I'm hoping they live up to it.

Yeezy: The Real "Rock" Star

RockStar

Recently, I saw an interview with the infamous Ye. It's very recent and up to date. In this interview, he claimed to be the REAL and BIGGEST ROCKSTAR. Now, that is undoubtedly true. He's definitely been off his rocker because "he's trippin off that powder"... Any who... I personally respect and understand Kanye's vision of Hip-Hop. He may present the shit differently than others but I understand what he's trying to do as an ARTIST. He views rap as a form of art and he can express himself how he wants. For example, during the interview he said that he made certain beats to show the artistic form. Who knows, Ye is probably high as a kite making tracks and that's just his way of how he makes his art.

Late Registration and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy are his best albums by far.  Kanye just had so much drive for the game and he had a fan base that rocked with the new wave of hip hop. But ever since Amber Rose, he been on some other shit. The clothes, the masks, and the outbursts.  I mean at first, we, the fans were like "okay, we rockin with his shit". It was like he was giving zero fucks about Politics, Critics, and anybody opposed of him in general. In this day in age, we embrace anything different but once it becomes too much we fall back.

Kanye has surely changed as a person and rap artist. From his G.O.O.D Music endevors to the fashion and to his promotion of other artists. For example, he cosigns Pusha T heavy and I cant say that I don't agree. Pusha's nice. Always talking about his former drug life but still nice with it. Very subliminal. He stay at Weezy's throat. So I can see why. He notices hot shit. Maybe they do lines together... "I think its cool that Ye gotta blow dealer".

So this is for all the real and dedicated Yeezus followers. Don't call him trash, call him different. He still loves rap. He's just trying to evolve it. Listen to his lyrics because after all that's what Rap is about at the end of the day right? 

   

I love this man Drake

 

"NWTS"

I've always said that Drake is great rapper because he can evolve his lyricism, beats, and his style. He reminds me of my favorite rapper, Jay Z. In comparison to Jay, Drake some how always manages to keep up in the game.He has the confident, "I'm winning" type attitude. In no way should we call that "cockiness". But call that hard work and dedicating to the game. Speaking of hard work and dedication, that's why I love Floyd Mayweather. He's the best and I feel like if you're the best at your craft then you have every right to claim it!
But back to Drake... he shares such a personal bond with his fans through his music and only a real fan can attest to that. He makes you feel as if you were in the studio with him while he's making history. However, Drake gets a lot of heat because he's emotional.Yes, Drake gets in his feelings about old hoes, new hoes, and potential hoes but we love it. Rap isn't about gold grilling and mobbin. Its actually about telling a story of pain, triumph, or entertainment I think its amazing that people can channel their emotion into a work of art AND make money off of it? Please. Drake is the man of his generation and he boasts about NOT falling off.
The latest album called Nothing Was The Same, is another work of Drake art. Again, he channels his emotions of fame, feuds, hoes and success into 16 tracks. From Tuscan Leather to The Motion, he executes his plan of making statements about who he is, what he has and what he's gonna continue to do. Not to mention the musical arrangements are very dope. Each song comes in with some soft yet dramatic opening. He has a good team behind him in the studio. Perfect example of Drake's emotional side is the song he has with Jhene Aiko called From Time. It's simply sweet and of course Drake is referring to a mystery girl in each verse from his past. Just a song like that is a perfect example of his emotions and painting a picture of his relationship and emotions. You'll hear more dudes saying that Drake is more emotional because they lowkey relate to him and he'll sing or rap what they can't even admit. However, real fans know that Drake ain't all lovey dovey. He can be cold when he needs to be. On the album there is a sing called Pound Cake/Paris Morton music. This a two part song. Now, everything I say about this song is only about the first part, Pound Cake. Okay, recently I discovered that this song (beat) was supposed to be on Jay Z's MCHG album. But Hov sacked that and Drake scooped it up. Jay is also on this song with Drake being subliminal as always towards all the old Rocafella members lol...But any who, Drake uses Wu tang's C.R.E.A.M song which was flipped by producer Boi-1da. He starts off with what seems like an update of his success since last album. He boasts about his worth now, daring the ones who talk about him to say it again, and simply about how far he made it and how his greatness is becoming more real to him. I'm not even going to get into International Hov. He so cold and subliminal that he needed 2 verses! Cake,Cake,Cake,Cake, Cake..........
We find ourselves more interested with rappers who boast about their skills and aims at other rappers. But with Drake, I feel like he only fires when its necessary and that's very respectable. He's smart and he keeps the public wondering what he has up sleeve.
It's becoming apparent as I said that he is evolving as a rapper and from what he says as a different person too.