I used to be a Young Jeezy hater. I think I first heard dude in Fabolous’s Do The Damn Thing, where he gave a funny, if uninspired and really kind of dumb, verse. The problem with that verse is that it was quotable, just off the strength of how dumb and how ad-lib laden it was. If you can come out with more quotables than the punchline heavy Fab, well, there’s something there.

I couldn’t escape Jeezy from 2007 to 2008. I got put on to Juelz Santana after years of hating and went through a few months of playing his CD. Make It Work For You was catchy and has a pretty ridic beat. Grew Up A Screw-up was probably the first song where I genuinely respected Jeezy. It’s not even a special verse– it’s just vaguely autobiographical. There was something about it, though.

Young Jeezy’s The Recession somehow, someway became one of my favorite albums of the year. I couldn’t even figure out why I liked it until a couple weeks after it came out. I just knew that I kept playing it on my iPod and feeling guilty, and then turning up the volume to drown out the guilt.

The overall theme of the record is that there’s a Recession on and it’s time to make money because time’s almost gone. He kind of sticks to the point, but like any good trap star, he’s kicking that drug dealing thing more often than not. So, what’s left is an album that occasionally shows flashes of what would be called conscious rap if anyone but Jeezy was rapping, and throws post-T.I. drug rap at you at the other times. Tracks like Vacation eschew the album’s concept entirely, Put On is hood motivation (and probably has one of the last good Kanye verses ever), and Crazy World is all about a recession.

The Recession, as an album, isn’t quite as smart as it should be. Jeezy has a niche, and that niche requires banging, bass-heavy beats and cocaine talk. He comes off better than he ever has before, though, which makes the entire album surprisingly listenable. His rasp-heavy flow is pretty charming, and his ever-present ad-libs (Yeeeeeeeeeeah!) add even more charisma into the mix. His punchlines are off-kilter, and he’s willing to commit cardinal sins like rhyming Columbia three lines in a row just because it’d sound hot on a song. It makes it a fun album to listen to, despite the subject matter, just because it’s so weird. Why should we call him Jeezy Hamilton? Man, why not?

Listening to Jeezy gives me a weird mix of hometown pride (he used to live in the next town over from my hometown, Macon/Warner Robins representing), a weakness for ignant rap, and genuine enthusiam. The only way to explain it is that it’s a fun record. Jeezy himself sums it up with his first few bars on Crazy World:

What they want?
They want that young shit
That dumb shit, that “where you from?” shit
That ride around your hood all day with your gun shit

I said earlier that I couldn’t figure out why I liked The Recession. It took me listening to My President Is Black, Jeezy’s collabo with Nas, to figure it out. Nas is one of my favorite emcees, so I obviously have a a vested interest in the song. The thing about that song is that Nas, who dropped one of the top five greatest rap albums of all time, was completely bodied by Jeezy. While Nas was talking about how some stripper isn’t a politician, she’s a pole-itician, Jeezy Hamilton spit two verses about real life and a love for passed rap artists that completely outclassed Lil Homey. In my hater days, I’d have said that it’s the equivalent of Justin Timberlake outsinging Al Green on the same song. Nowadays, I just appreciate.

Official videos:
Put On feat. Kanye West
Vacation
Crazy World
Who Dat (“why he keep saying yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah? I’on’t even know”)

Hot guest appearance:
I Got My Locs On, by Ice Cube

eMC is Masta Ace, Wordsworth, Punchline, and Stricklin, and their The Show is one of those long lost fossils of rap– a concept album. It isn’t as thoroughly concept-heavy as, say, Prince Paul’s A Prince Among Thieves (if you hate that album you are less than trash), but it’s about a day on the road of eMC, a touring rap group.

It works. It uses skits to fill in the blanks, and most of them are a minute or less, thankfully. There’s nothing worse than falling into a five minute skit about nothing at the beginning of a song. The songs are tight, the production is spot-on, if not particularly spectacular, and the rhymes are tight.

That’s the thing about this album. eMC is heavy with true spitters. I first heard Punch & Words on the classic Lyricist Lounge tape from years ago. Wordsworth alone had ridiculous punchline, a , and insane jokes. Masta Ace has dropped like eighty thousand albums, it feels like, and is a New York rap mainstay. Sean Price (of Heltah Skeltah) shows up for a classic guest appearance.

Hey, do you guys remember when Busta Rhymes made fun music like this? That was a good time, wasn’t it? Too bad he’s too busy making Arab Money and dealing drugs now.

Official videos:
Leak It Out
(EMC) What It Stand For

Tucker Stone makes a good point about what DC needs:

What DC Comic Needs to Come Back in 2009 and Why:
There’s really no contest here, unless you’re a big Jamie Reyes fan. Then again, if you’re a big Jamie Reyes fan, you’re probably still trying to figure out why the computer won’t turn on. (It’s because you covered it in peanut butter, because you are an infant.) No, the best DC book, the one that they need to bring back, the one that left a gaping hole in the DC line-up when it departed, despite what was the most promising upcoming line-up in the last twenty years of DC/Marvel history?
Solo. The five dollar comic with the white cover, the 48 page, no ad-having, one-creator anthology comic that allowed people like Brendan McCarthy, Paul Pope and Darwyn Cooke (and more) to do whatever they wanted with whomever they wanted. For the length of its too-short 12 issue run, Solo was the most rewarding bang-for-your-buck comic on the stands. Unless you like lost chances and spilling tears, don’t look at the wikipedia entry for the series and see the possible future creators who were in talks to do an issue.
What DC Comic We’ll Give You in Exchange:
Well, it’s a tough one again, but only because DC has been nice enough to go ahead and cancel Blue Beetle, Birds of Prey, Robin, Nightwing, Simon Dark, Supergirl, Teen Titans, and Titans.
Wait, I just heard that they haven’t cancelled Simon Dark, Supergirl, Teen Titans or Titans. Paint me shocked and awed! Cancel all four, and give Solo the extra pages.

I would give up pretty much any DC comic produced in the years since Solo was cancelled to get Solo back. In fact, I’d just keep the two All-Star books and let all the others rot. I’m totally okay with DC just publishing All-Star Batman, All-Star Superman, and then Solo monthly.

I disagree with him on Wildstorm, though– I want Wildcats 3.0 back.

The problem with dead prez is that they’re kind of stupid. If you actually listen to Hell Yeah and watch its terrible video (in concept and execution), you’re going to realize a couple things. One, their scams won’t work. Two, the video is one of the worst-conceived pieces of trash in years. That’s your revolution? Really guys?

Immortal Technique is probably just as extreme, if not more, but he’s actually got some smarts behind his eyes. The 3rd World is a mix of old tracks and new, and is a delightfully coherent taste of rebel rap. It’s still hipster and college student high on new philosphy-friendly, but there’s actual meat to it, too.

One thing Technique has over other rebel rap-types is that you can see his growth as an artist and a thinker as you follow his career. He’s adjusted his views. There’s less misogyny and homophobia than there was seven years ago. His criticisms are more focused and direct. And yes, his skill has gotten better, too.

Immortal Technique is raw rap. It isn’t a record you put on to chill with your friends and play video games. It definitely isn’t one to play when your girlfriend comes over for the weekend. It’s abrasive. It’s not as harsh as Technique’s Dance with the Devil (don’t click that), which I listened to once and then promised to never, ever listen to again, despite its quality. It was too harsh, too real, and too dark.

3rd World is more palatable, though he isn’t afraid to put the boot in. Lick Shots, with Crooked I and Chino XL, is one of those tracks that’s just three dudes going in, Reverse Pimpology is the second coming of Industry Rule 4080 (record company people are shady), and Payback features Diabolic and a much-missed Ras Kass getting back on his political grind.

I’m not even getting into Technique’s in your face rhymes. He’s very quotable, but you really can’t quote him without either getting arrested or funny looks. He just sounds angry, but in a good way. He’s urging revolution and striking back at the system. It’s something like Tupac said. “Only in Cali will we riot, not rally, so live and die.” Talking is easy. He wants to see action. He even takes aim at rappers who jump onto “conscious” songs once every couple of years on Lick Shots:

Niggas love to say “Fuck revolution!”
Until the jury come in and move for the prosecution
And them brothers act like a born-again Huey Newton
Forgot about the bullshit music they was producin

You want to have a computer nearby while listening to Technique’s 3rd World. Sometimes you have to google something he talks about just so you can know more. Tech is well-read, intelligent, and worth listening to. It’s music to get angry, or perhaps be angry, to while you drive or commute.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out Immortal Technique’s Beef & Broccoli, wherein he dismantles those people who think that veganism or vegetarianism is some kind of revolutionary act. Here’s a spoiler: it isn’t.

I was going to do a Top 10 or whatever for comics that came out in 2008, but realized that I had no interest in explaining to people why Frank Miller and Jim Lee’s run on All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder is better than Grant Morrison’s run on Batman in almost every way or why certain comics just aren’t enjoyable and are in fact Silver Age navel-gazing at best. Instead, I’m stealing a page from Tucker Stone‘s playbook and doing a music countdown instead. I’m doing only eight for 2008, but if you’re curious, numbers nine and ten were NERD’s Seeing Sounds [Explicit] and Ill Bill’s The Hour Of Reprisal [Explicit], respectively. NERD because I’ve loved their sound for years and Everybody Nose/Everybody Nose Remix, Anti-Matter, Sooner or Later, and Spaz are all genuinely excellent songs. Ill Bill has a few great songs, too, most notably White Nigger and the track about his uncle.

The next five weekdays are going to have two posts from me a piece at noon and midnight. On the next to last day, instead of posting my #1, I’ll post a quick top 5 round-up of some free music and then hit y’all with the #1 pick the next day.
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I had a lot of content ready for this week. I’ve got my two end of year lists to get posted, some stuff about Frank Miller, and probably some stuff about black people, I dunno.

But! I’m on vacation from work, in Los Angeles for Christmas, and getting my Joe Mad on by playing video games and ignoring comics.

Back in a week. Gav and Esther will hold you down, I think!

My friend Larry made a movie. It looks fun, and he inadvertently did something I’ve wanted to se in an action movie for ages- no jump cuts in the fight scenes. He lets them breathe.

Check out the new trailer:

Yeah Sure Okay has already started preorders (ten bucks!) and he’s shipping in January.

I love love songs. No joke– I think that they’re one of the best uses for music. I even like different kinds of love songs. If put to the test, my favorite kinds would be, in order from most to slightly less most, heartbreak songs, cheating songs, and then straight up love songs. I don’t know why that is, but it is what it is.

I’m inclined to like songs about heartbreak. I don’t know why, maybe an inner romantic or mope or something. I tend to like them, though, which is why I was looking forward to Kanye’s 808’s and Heartbreak. While I’m sort of ehhh on the autotune, the concept for the album was solid. It sounded like an album that was at least partially built for me. Love Lockdown came out and I kind of both love the drums and the video. I feel what he’s talking about in the song, too, so there’s that. Scandalous comments about how he doesn’t listen to hip-hop in his place because it’s “too nice” aside, I was looking forward to it.

In the end, I was almost completely disappointed. The beats were tight, but Kanye’s autotuned vocals don’t stand up to the concept or the music. It comes off feeling heartless, which I guess was part of the point, but he seriously needed some heart for this album to be a success for me. I dig Welcome to Heartbreak (with Kid Cudi) immensely (“Chased the good life my whole life long/ Look back on my life and my life gone/ Where did I go wrong?” is incredible), and I think that Amazing with Jeezy is probably my favorite cut off the album, but the other two-thirds of the record left me flat or irritated. I can’t think of a single reason to listen to Robocop, for example, nor the song with Wayne. Heartless is mediocre. Say You Will is Kanye doing his best “That’s the way love goes”-era Sade impression (including the song itself), which is a lot like my well-tested “That’s the way love goes”-era Sade impression– not very good at all and the last thing you want to hear. Paranoid isn’t awful, but it’s a bit too ’80s keytar rock for me. It sounds like it should be on the Scarface soundtrack right next to “Rush Rush Get the Yeyo.”

808s and Heartbreak got me thinking about complete packages. No matter how inclined you are to like something, it still needs to be quality in order for you to actually like it. I’m inclined to like 808s and Heartbreak, but the end product didn’t measure up. I’m inclined to like Jubilee and the New Warriors, but the book that featured them was lacking.

I’m inclined to like Justice League of America #27, because I like Milestone, I love Dwayne McDuffie’s writing, and the JLA is okay I guess. I didn’t like it because Ed Benes’s art kills the book for me.
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I was going over Google Reader and saw an interesting post on When Fangirls Attack. The text just said “2008: The Year of Misogyny,” so, being a fairly bright and curious fellow, I clicked on through to see what was what.

The post opens with a cheesecake motivational poster and then outlines all of the terrible things that have happened to women over the past year. I’ve seen it linked in a few spots, so I figure it’s a Thing. It’s a pretty gruesome list, and a little hard to read. Shabby treatment of female characters, female characters getting brutalized, and so on. The author asks “Aren’t you angry? If you aren’t, then why? And if you are, what are you going to do about it?”

Well, let me tell you something. After reading it, I was pretty angry. I was angry and fuming and thinking and realized that, as a race blogger, I owed it to my people, black and american and both, to examine the plight of black people in comics in 2008.

As you can tell by the title of my post, I am not happy! The list below is non-exhaustive, as I’m sure worse things have happened, but these are the ones I know of or have read. You may wish to listen to this song or this one in order to make it through this terrible list.
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This is incredible. I jacked it from Xclusives Zone, major props to Shaun Boothe for doing it.

There are the only two things I like enough to hang as posters on my wall. One is the original art to this:

The other is this.

The man is a superman.