I love Tim O’Neil’s reviews, and his wrap-up of the latest issue of JSA is pretty much spot on.

Remember a few months back when I said that the Gog storyline could be really interesting if it turned out that the all-powerful, benevolent Gog actually was as benevolent and kindly as he wanted everyone to believe he was? That such a twist would actually be far more interesting than the inevitable revelation that Gog was just an evil demigod after world domination after all? Well, this is the issue wherein the omnipotent evil demigod is dispatched with surprising alacrity considering how effectively he was built up as unbeatable. All the thorny ethical and ideological questions of the past six months are wrapped up in a dismissive “oh well, he really was evil after all” shrug.

Click through, check it out. He’s got some other gems in there, as well.

Who knew Ice Cube was still dope?

I thought he had disappeared to Hollywood, coming back only to make joints like We Be Clubbin. That’s not fair, actually. He’s done some shockingly good work with Lil Jon, notably Roll Call, which blends early ’90s Cube and Lil Jon’s high impact production into something that’s like a throwback from the future. (The bit in the video where Cube goes into his house and masks up is one of those things only rap and superhero books can get away with. Of course Cube kept his black gear, baseball bat, and black Impala in his garage, despite his family life. He’s the realest, Disney movies aside. Never mind the fact that this video is Beat It 200X.)

Raw Footage is that album that reminds you where Ice Cube got his start and the days when he was untouchable. If you go just by years, Cube is almost on elder statesmen status, despite not looking any older than he did years ago. He isn’t the best rapper, and doesn’t really bother with the wordplay acrobatics that a lot of other rappers employ. What he is, however, is a rap juggernaut.

His flow is steady and undeniable. Its pacing and subject matter are going to keep hitting you while you listen. He’s relentless. This isn’t an album that I could sit back and just idly listen to until recently. I had to be an active listener and figure out what he’s talking about, digest it, and come back.

Cube’s the archetypal angry negro, but that was 15 years ago. Now he’s something else. I don’t want to say that he’s mellowed with age. I think it’s more that he’s just matured. He deals with religion on Raw Footage, and his personal beliefs, which is something that doesn’t happen often enough. He shows a certain amount of contempt for the people who grew up on his music, but didn’t learn anything from it, on Hood Mentality. He sprinkles bits of wisdom throughout the album, and even stereotypical braggadoccio rap like Do Ya Thang is about building self-esteem and being true to yourself.

Ice Cube’s about to hit 40, man. That blows my mind. Straight outta Compton was twenty years ago.

The standout on the album, and off the album, is easily Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It. It’s that Ice Cube I love to hear- the one who is smart, has been in the business for years, and knows what he’s talking about. He puts everyone who ever used rap as a scapegoat on blast, and does it with a deftness that I feel like only he can bring to the table. He went through his share of rap-related drama in the ’90s, and was the poster boy for gangsta rap for years. If you look at any of the recent outbursts in the past year, the finger always came back around to rap. “If gangster rappers didn’t say nigger, would Michael Richards have done it? What about Don Imus, what if rap wasn’t so offensive?” The remix to the song features Nas and Scarface and is even better than the original.

When you put three of the most respected emcees from each coast on a record, you’re going to hit gold. I kind of hope they actually make that album together. The only problem is that if you get Scarface on a guest appearance, he’s going to wreck you and end up with the best verse on the song. It’s true here, it was true with both Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel songs, and it’s true on his Nas guest spots, too. Uncle Face is a monster.

I Got My Locs On with Young Jeezy is pretty tight, too, and Get Used To It is Westside Connection 2008. Cube’s Why Me with Musiq Soulchild is pretty dang chilling, too. I have to give special mention to when Ice Cube starts kicking fast food chicken metaphors toward the end of Thank God, too. It’s a weird detour, but hilarious, and instantly understandable if you’ve ever hit a Popeye’s chicken. Get Money, Spend Money, No Money is the anti-swag anthem, too, which is sorely needed in rap these days. That’s your money, man, I don’t care how you spend it when I don’t have money of my own.

Raw Footage is the most westside album to come out in a while, and one of the smartest rap albums to hit in 2008 in general. It’s a far cry from the Cube of ten or fifteen years ago, but there’s a definite through-line from then to now. I love how angry he is on this album, as if he looked back at what he’s done and the message his fans took from his work and started kicking over tables and throwing a fit.

Official videos:
Do Ya Thang
Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It
Why Me?

Heltah Skeltah’s Magnum Force was probably the first CD I ever bought. I’d owned tapes, yeah, but buying a CD for the first time? That was a big deal. No more taping songs off the radio for me! It must’ve been probably ten years ago at this point. I knew of the Boot Camp because my uncle was a Black Moon fan, but all I was probably thinking was that I Ain’t Havin’ That was one of the dopest music videos I had ever seen in my entire life. The fact that I got an album with features from Method Man, OutLawz, Kurupt & Daz, Anthony Hamilton (before I was even a fan of dude), and the entire Boot Camp Clik was just icing on the cake.

In a way, the video for I Ain’t Havin’ That is the Cliff’s Notes for Heltah Skeltah’s style. It’s classic Brooklyn smack you in your face rap, ala MOP, but with this air of self-consciousness you don’t see in 99% of rappers. When DMX is talking about beating you up and shooting you and digging you up and eating your corpse arf arf arf what niggaaaaaaa, he’s probably saying it because he thinks it makes him sound hard. Heltah Skeltah knows it’s all rhymes, so they aren’t afraid to let loose with something like

Just in case, I’m renaming both of my hands Laxative and Colonic
They ah, smack shit out any nigga who want it

I don’t even know how to describe it. Self-conscious thug rap? Tongue-in-cheek braggadoccio? Sean Price made a living as the self-described Brokest Rapper You Know after Heltah Skeltah broke up. Rock a.k.a. Al Catraz a.k.a. Da Rockness Monstah a.k.a. look just watch this video.

Da Incredible Rap Team, as an album, a concept, and an album title, is classic Heltah Skeltah. It’s tongue-in-cheek funny, but thugging it at the same time. Magnum Force started off with Sean Price talking about how that record had to be “just like the last album, only better.” It’s true for DIRT, too– it’s just like the last album, only better.

The ten year break between Magnum Force and DIRT didn’t do anything to decrease Sean P and Rock’s charisma and teamwork. Their flows still perfectly complement each other. Rock’s voice is still ridiculously deep. Sean P is still coming with ridic punchlines. The beats are still dirty, dusky, and grimey. There’s even a BCC posse cut and a track that hearkens back to Therapy, off Nocturnal.

DIRT is kind of like innovating while doing the same thing over and over again. It doesn’t reinvent the Heltah Skeltah wheel, but it does add just enough to the formula to keep it interesting. They’ve grown as artists without giving up where they came from or paying slavish tribute to the past. They’re smarter, funnier, and seemingly hungrier than they were ten years ago. The whole album is two guys who are eager for people to listen and have fun to their music. Instead of dropping an overly serious and overwrought LP (hello kanye), they produced the music they, and their fans, enjoy.

How do they feel about other rappers?

Y’all say they nice? We say they polite… y’all like ’em though.
Rappers embarassed to say they rappers… proud to say they sell crack, though!

DIRT, like Magnum Force, is an album I keep coming back to. There’s just something about it that’s attractive, from the beats to the rhymes, and it’s a shame it’s going to end up so underrated. It’s a nice break from generic thug raps.

Also, there’s a ton of references to The Wire on the album.

Official videos:
So Damn Tuff feat. Buckshot & Rustee Juxx
Ruck n Roll
Everything Is Heltah Skeltah

Kyle Baker on Frank Miller’s Will Eisner’s The Spirit:

Miller seems to think comic books are a joke. Well, Mr. Miller, just because something’s called “comic” doesn’t mean it’s humorous! Watchmen is a comic, and it’s sad!

T.I. has had an insane year. At the top of the year, he was facing serious jail time, his 2007 album was on “Successful, but Average” status, and he had Shawty Lo running around Atlanta making youtubes of how he isn’t actually from Bankhead and is a lying snitch.

By the end of the year, he’s looking at a year inside, launching his new clothing line, signed Killer Mike to Grand Hustle, obliterated Shawty LO, put B.o.B. on, has something like a million hit singles, and a platinum album. Quite a turn around, isn’t it?

One thing I’ve always liked about T.I., other than the fact that he’s also a skinny smart black dude from Georgia, is that he always looks like he’s having fun. The What’s Up, What’s Happenin’ video is the most exuberant diss video in years. He looks like a dude with jokes, or at least one with a healthy bit of self-consciousness. He seems like a regular guy, despite the movie star clothes and rap braggadoccio. There’s something kind of forthright and honest about him, and I can’t quite put my finger on why.

This carries over into his album. Some of the songs are typical rap joints, but he isn’t afraid to get personal, either. He opens up about the death of his best friend Philant on Dead and Gone, and interspersed throughout the album are mentions of his trials and tribulations.

What’s nice is that it never rings as hollow as DMX’s prayers on his old albums did. T.I. went through a very public arrest. Everyone knows what the deal is. But, even though he doesn’t have to, Tip breaks down his reasons for doing what he did and how he feels about the decision. We end up with an album with mainstream appeal, but personal lyrics. T.I. has been doing that for ages, though– go back and listen to Be Better Than Me.

Of course, it isn’t all personal. His jawn with Ludacris, “On Top of the World,” kicks off with “rich by popular demand,” which is quickly followed up by two of Atlanta’s most successful rappers going in on how they went from nothing to something to everything. They pay respect to where they’ve been even as they look to where they’re going, and point out that it isn’t all just clothes, bankrolls, and hoes. T.I. drops this gem on his last verse:

I sold dope and dropped out of school, seems it’s all they can see
They don’t notice none of my family did that since me (nah)
I broke that cycle, now my family live a life of
Mandatory minimums, but not when the judge sentence us
Cousins in college, where you think they get tuition from?
(Answer that) Just for standin ’round wishin, huh?
Hey while you stand around lookin dumb, I make it happen
Takin action over time, got damn good at it

And it’s true– both of these guys have poured their cash into making life better for people where they came from, diversified their income, and went from mice to men.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out Swagga Like Us. Even though I basically hate the word swagger now, T.I. comes on stage with extraordinary swagger. He’s on a track with three of the hottest rappers out, though only one of them is really all that talented, and sons all three. Kanye and Wayne drop typical verses for those two. It’s aight, not great work from those two. Jay-Z makes a solid showing. T.I. wraps up the song, though, and recaps his life, career, and year while showing that everyone who thinks the south isn’t lyrical is an idiot.

Paper Trail bumps. It’s a thorough record, with club songs (Swing Ya Rag has a remarkably listenable Swizz Beatz) and classic T.I.P. tracks (56 Bars). It’s definitely something to keep in the ride. What’s funny is that he predicts this reaction in 56 Bars:

World hopped off my jock, I got ’em right back on it

Official music videos:
Whatever You Like
No Matter What
What’s Up, What’s Haapnin’
Live Your LIfe (when did this video come out? i totally missed it)

Honorable mention:
Ain’t I, by Young Dro (it’s a hot song, I just wanted to link it)

Something strikes me as a bit out-of-sync about All-Star Batman and Robin.  Now, now.  Settle down.  I’m not trying to start anything.

What jumps out at me is the juxtaposition of the outrageous, film-noir-on-acid dialog by Frank Miller, and the finely drawn art by Jim Lee.  Although Lee’s intricate art serves the story well in large-scale panels, like the fold-out wide shot of the Batcave, it seems like the characters need chunkier lines and more high-contrast colors to have the same impact as the words.

Still, I wonder if my reaction to this is based only on the fact that this is the first time I’ve seen this type of art work paired with Frank Miller’s writing.

Does anyone think that this type of art suits Miller’s style just as well as the art we’ve seen in DKR?  Or better?

Does anyone else have examples of when an artist seems perfectly paired with a writer, or when it’s a match made in hell?

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

Yet another installment of Ultimatum Edit Week comes to a close today. Last time, we saw the infamous Blob sequence. That’s really all that needs to be said.

Let’s get this over with.

And that’s that. I’m wondering if that last page is an homage to the Xorn reveal from Morrison’s New X-Men.

ManiacClown and I will be around for the next round, I’m sure. In the meantime, please check out our Rifftrax of Frosty Returns. Sure, the holidays are over, but the thing is only 75 cents and the quality is a lot better than our previous project.

As for me, it’s time to get back to writing those wacky Venom articles. See you later, folks. Thanks for reading.

Week 3!

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.