Fresh Flavours

Tru Life of the LES
Originally uploaded by hattiec2.

Oh my diddy someone must have taken LL’s plate away cos dude sounds hungry all of a sudden. First there was the Freeway track, now the firestarter from Farmers is rolling with JUELZ SANTANA on, er, It’s LL & Santana. A ferocious track. Whoever produced that shit was obviously starving too – dude cooks up grungy guitars, take-it-to-chuch organ and some kind of sci-fi ending. Huge. Old favourite of mine SCARFACE has been the first to put the T-Shirts into song with Stop Snitchin – on flow alone, Face is one of hip hop’s GOATs. As ever he keeps it real on this dark and grimy number. TRU LIFE and SAIGON team up on the insistent Yep Yep. I was put off by Tru Life after seeing him on a Smack DVD (or maybe it was Beef 2. Whatever) showing off his guns and boasting about slapping members of MOBB DEEP but having interviewed him, he seems like he’s grown up a whole lot and is one of those rhymers ready to really work. There’s a lot of buzz on Tru and he seems alight flow-wise here; lyrically he’s kinda tight too. I’ll reserve definitive judgement for the moment. As for SAI, I can’t WAIT to get the new Gangsta Grillz mixtape. So far I’ve heard Welcome To Saigon, Contraband (more anti-gay shit tho, Sai, dude, come on move into the 00’s) and Reason, Season, Lifetime (feat JOVAN DAIS who has the most beautiful voice). Ah man, just let the kid release a friggin album, please, someone? Anyone?
FAB and YOUNG JEEZY continue their alliance on the Blue Davinche tune Streets On Lock – lyrically Fab’s doing the damn thing. But while JJ talks the talk, you know that it’s the Snowman really walks it – Jeez literally just blew that coke off his clothes. ICE CUBE, or The Godfather of Gangsta as he says on Child Support is the original NWAer, just in case you thought he had gone Hollywood. His street stats are apparently dubious but he’s still one of the rockiest rhymers out there – Johnston Family Vacation or die! Also kinda liked POSTA BOY track about Xmas, KEYSHIA COLE’s odd but good Silent Night and of course you gotta check SKILLZ’ 05 Rap Up to revisit the good, bad and downright ugly events we’ve seen in 2006.