monday mixtape intocable
May 20th, 2013 by david brothers | Tags: killer mike, memphis bleekWhat the blood clot you niggas dealing? You crash dummies! Cash rules, still don’t nothing move but the money!
-Killer Mike – 10 G’s – I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind II
-Fabolous – BITE – The Soul Tape II
-Junior MAFIA – Get Money feat. The Notorious B.I.G. – Conspiracy
-Gucci Mane – Get Money Nigga feat. Meek Mill – Trap God
-Re-Up Gang – 20k Money Making Brothers on the Corner – We Got It For Cheap 3
-Jay-Z – 1-900-Hustler feat. Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek, Freeway – The Dynasty
-Ice Cube – Get Money, Spend Money, No Money – Raw Footage
-Royce da 5’9″ – Get Money Freestyle
Eight songs about one thing. Four of them have basically the same title. I thought about doing eight tracks named “Get Money,” but I figure four is cool. I left off 50’s “I Get Money” because apparently I don’t have that mp3 and just watch it on youtube all the time. Here’s the video for that one:
It’s corny how much I like this song.
Anyway, the love of money in rap is directly related to the love of money in America. The American Dream is to make a bunch of money so that the people who screw with you can’t screw with you any more. It’s reflected in rap to a large degree.
I think it’s easy to look at the commercialism in rap and see poison, but that’s just a surface reading. You can look at how these people rap about wealth and examine the subtext of what they’re saying. Nothing is ever just surface-level deep, you know? Everything means something.
I think my favorite joint in this mix is “1-900-Hustler,” featuring Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek, Freeway, and Beanie Sigel as the secretary. It’s a fun hustle song with plenty of jokes, but the rhymes and scenarios are on point. Freeway steals the song, but Young Memphis’s “Listen shorty, you wanna roll just give me the word/ I ain’t got time for a sentence, all that shit is absurd” is fantastic.
I was thinking the other day about storytelling in rap. I was listening to Killer Mike and El-P’s “Jojo’s Chillin'” and just marveling at how he paints this entire story with a series of phrases that feel like they’re just four or five words long. It’s like an ultra-compressed story. Memphis’s line is like that. Just hearing him say that sparks something in your head. “I ain’t got time for a sentence, all that shit is absurd” is a nice double entendre. I like taking it at face value, though. Memphis is a busy dude, so keep it simple, stupid.
As a great man once said, “They say money ain’t everything — you fuckin’ right, nigga, it’s the only thing; in God we trust, the Holy thing.”
Get money y’all. Pledge allegiance to the grind.
–I read and enjoyed Michael Peterson talking about Papa & Yo. There are some spoilers, but screw it. Go and read.
–I read and enjoyed Liz Barker typing about Kanye and stuff. His new songs are ill, her thoughts are interesting, and I left a too-long comment in her comment section! I’m definitely going to be revisiting Kanye’s stuff on this site once I get my hands on that album. Kanye is cool in part because he’s such an easy person to view through whichever lens you prefer. He’s such a big personality, I guess is the best phrase, that everyone finds something else to latch onto. For me, it’s the work ethic and craft. For you, it’s something else. For Liz, it’s the myth of Kanye… I dig it. Let’s all talk about Kanye to the West.
I read and enjoyed Ghostface talking about his favorite songs. I quoted this one the other day, in that big rap piece.
I read some other stuff between this post and the last one, but I forgot to keep track of them. Rest assured that they were life-changing and life-enriching.
TRUE STORY! Two or three months ago, my PS3 and main hard drive died in the same week. Last week, my new HD died Monday morning before work when I usually put these posts together. So I called it on account of equipment failure.
I got my uzi back, though, and now we’re back at it. So:
–I wrote a story about Monkey. I like the legend of Sun Wukong a lot, more than I really expected, so I wrote an homage piece.
–I wrote a piece about how stressful flying is. I dunno if it’s funny or not, but I hope you dig it.
I saw Star Trek Into Darkness. I thought it was really silly in parts and I got more of the fanservicey jokes than I expected to, but it was pretty fun. The fight scenes needed better direction, but the spectacle was on point. I’ll probably never watch it again, but it was a nice way to spend two hours with a friend. It’s a warm movie with a lot of weird choices, but it’s never boring, which I appreciate more and more in my dotage.
How amazingly good was that Elementary finale, tho? That’s how you do TV. More like that.
I’ve been ultra-stressed and trying to dodge an emotional downswing (well… more of one) lately, but I’m looking at the light at the end of the tunnel. I have a hard time sometimes, when things go south and my mood turns cloudy. I was talking to a friend about it recently, and I told her that it feels like my head is full of angry bees that are all saying the same thing. It’s like thinking through a filter, in a way? I know what’s up, but I have to pass through this fog before I’m okay with it.
One thing that helps me is that I made a rule for myself. I wake up early enough that I can dedicate an hour or two in the morning to writing for myself (meaning 4l!, freelance, fiction, whatever). I go to work and do it 9-5. When I get home, usually around six? I do nothing. I’ll sit on my lawn chair on my balcony and read in the sun, or until it gets too windy to be comfortable. I’ll chill on the couch and play video games. I’ll cook. I’ll do anything but work.
Keeping that time sacred hasn’t worked wonders, but it gives me an escape hatch when I need it. I’m a fast enough writer that this works for me. It may not for you. But give it some thought. I know how it feels to grind and grind and grind, but I realized I was just wearing myself out. Carve out some space for you if you haven’t already. That other stuff will happen or it won’t, and it has a better chance of happening if you can re-center yourself when you need to.
Open thread. What’re you reading/watching/hearing/enjoying? what it dew
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I’ll give Elementary credit; I haven’t seen that twist before. I think Sherlock is better, but Elementary is still worth watching. It’s a different enough take on the concept that it isn’t invalidated by coming second.
Speaking of British detectives, I’ve really been enjoying Death in Paradise. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a comedy, but it isn’t afraid to have fun with its characters. The setting isn’t the usual for this type of show, and I also like that it has the traditional suspect round-up at the end of every episode. All-in-all, a pretty fun show.
I don’t think people give Memphis Bleek enough credit – alone he’d be as good a Fabolous or a Lloyd Banks but standing next to one of the greatest (a good argument to be made for THE greatest) rappers of all time he’s completely outshone.
I said thanks on Twitter, but thanks again.
I played Starship Damrey on 3DS, one of the Guild02 joints. It’s pretty mediocre but I liked bits of the opening act. I’m writing about it now, so I won’t bother getting into the whole thing of it.
Work’s been long and tiring, way beyond beyond, so I haven’t had time for much else this week. We preordered SMTIV, which is the weekend I’m working for. People are going to talk MGS stuff and Deadwood stuff on the P:B forum soon, so before this rush started I was rewatching Deadwood.
Oh, I watched Wrath of Khan, which my wife hadn’t seen since she was a kid, and that one holds up like a real-ass movie.
Hey David,
About your writing process:
I’ve been reading your stuff for a couple years now, both here and on comicsalliance and you seem to be pretty consistent in turning out thoughtful pieces.
Has it always been this way? Have you ever experienced writer’s block (assuming you even believe in it) and if so, how did you overcome it. I used to be pretty interested in creative writing up until a few years ago, at which point I decided to quit because my actual will to put words down on the page didn’t match my interest and ambitions, not to mention my obsession with that white whale known as perfection.
I now work a late shift as a copy editor at a newspaper and I find myself with the time in the morning to pursue creative writing but even the idea of it seems daunting. There’s a part of me that believes that you’re always doing what you want to do–or not do, as is the case–but I also think that the will behind any sort of creative pursuit is like a muscle that can be built with the right amount of application. What do you think?
Nah, it hasn’t been this way all the time, but it’s been this way long enough now that it feels normal, you know?
I basically decided to become a better writer, and the only way to do that is to write. All throughout college, most of my free time was spent writing, whether it was fanfic with friends or reviews or stories or whatever. Just doing it, cranking it out, and throwing a critical eye on what I was doing to figure out what works and what sucks. I took 4thletter! daily early in its run and that helped a lot. I had to get better and I had to do it in public.
As far as writer’s block… I don’t believe in it any more. I did at one point, but I realized that if I wasn’t able to progress on the thing I was writing, I was writing the wrong thing. I’d keep the ideas, but I’d switch tacks and find something else to write. I’ll often revisit things later. I’ve got a dropbox with folders for criticism and fiction, and maybe half of the files in there haven’t seen the light of day.
It helped me to realize my head can hold more than one thing at a time. I try to work on several things at once so if one thing isn’t working, I can switch gears and maintain that positive momentum. I would suggest that. If something isn’t working out how you want it to, work on something else. Sleep on it and come back to it.
I definitely think it’s like a muscle. I was really inspired by Kanye talking about “making five beats a day for three summers.” I applied it to my life and did it with words. I used to say “you have to want it” but that feels disrespectful somehow. But you really, really do have to believe in it, I think, and you have to be willing to force yourself past whatever blocks are in your way. It takes time to learn, but I think as you get more used to it, the smoother it will get. I don’t think it’ll ever be easy, but smooth is acceptable. The act of writing is easy, but the act of writing what you really want to write at that moment can be tough.
You should give it another try. Start small, maybe sketching out brief bits, and work your way into being comfortable again. It helps if you think about whatever you’re wanting to write about all the time. Organizing my thoughts, or at least having an idea of what they would look like organized, makes it easier for me. I talk things over with friends, sleep on it, and sit down and do it.
Perfection will never happen, though, but I think you know that already. Aim for “better than last time.” 🙂
@Patchworkearth: I’m honestly really looking forward to SMTIV. I haven’t played a proper, mainline SMT before, so this’ll be nice.