Throwback Write-Up #20: NB Ridaz - NB RIdaz.com - HipHop | HipHop Channel

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Throwback Write-Up #20: NB Ridaz - NB RIdaz.com - HipHop

Throwback Write-Up #20: NB Ridaz - NB RIdaz.com - HipHop

Throwback Write-Up #20: NB Ridaz - NB RIdaz.com

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 03:31 AM PDT

Artist: NB Ridaz

Album: NB Ridaz.com

Label: Upstairs Records

Released: April 4th, 2004

Background

NB Ridaz, formally known as Nastyboy Klick, are a Hip Hop/R&B group out of Phoenix Arizona. Started by MC Magic, the group became popular locally by selling their CDs at swap meets and making personalized songs of their hits for people. They dropped two albums under the Nastyboy Klick moniker, one of which had one of their most successful singles with "Lost In Love". Their debut also had the hit "Down For Yours" featuring Roger Troutman, who laid down the chorus with his signature talkbox singing. That sound would become a staple in NB Ridaz's future hits. With the name officially change to NB Ridaz, they dropped Invasion in 2001, with the hit song "Runaway" In 2004 they dropped NB Ridaz.com, their most successful album to date, spawning hits like "Notice Me" "So Fly" and "Pretty Girl". The influence Roger Troutman had instilled on the group's sound is especially prominent here, with the talkbox chorus on "Wishin on a Star" and "Pretty Girl" This album also served to promote their website NBRidaz.com, where they sold merchandise and promoted their personalized songs that fans can put requests for. Although the site is no longer active you are able to see remnants of the site if you use the wayback machine.

Intro

I wanted to preface by saying that the reason I chose this album was because it was huge among Hispanics/Latinos in the US. and in Latin America, but I feel like they are largely unknown to this forum and non-hispanic hip hop listeners. I realized I lived in a bit of a bubble when I overestimated their general popularity on this sub. Living in a large Mexican community, the album and songs like "So Fly" and "Pretty Girl" were inescapable and most girls I went to middle school with including my sister had a crush on MC Magic. I talked about them once in the DD a while back when someone brought up Soulja Boy's influence by using the internet to blow up and being the supposed first one to really use the internet, and I mentioned how NB Ridaz were using their website to promote personalized songs before Soulja Boy was active, which was then downvoted and followed by a "Who?" response. Anyways after that and testing the waters by posting "Pretty Girl" (which was downvoted), I became aware of that bubble and how the album is not known to the general hip hop audience. To be fair, even when the album was in heavy rotation during release, I noticed it was more popular among girls than dudes, and this sub/website isn't exactly known for their demographics in the women department.

Review

One thing about this album is that almost every single song has to do with love or intimacy, whether that be the pursuit and wooing of a new partner, cultivating and strengthening of relationships, or lamenting of past relations, probably why it was more popular with girls than dude.

The album kicks off with a forgettable intro followed by U Got Me Hot, which is just a fun song about meeting women at the club and a good track to kick off the album.

Now she was rockin hot jeans

Low-cut baby tee

Hotter than the Fourth of July in A Z

I mean I'm trippin, I couldn't even think

Booty so thick she can hold two drinks

Next is Pretty Girl. Though it wasn't the leading single on the album, it is probably the most popular song from this album after Notice Me. With a smooth beat reminiscent of 90's G-Funk, and a chorus and verses backed up by the talkbox singing that they picked up from Roger Troutman, this song has everything that makes it both timeless and a callback to the group's roots. My favorite part has to be MC Magic's verse, as he blesses us by alternating his rhymes between English and Spanish seamlessly.

Si tu supieras lo que siento

Cada vez

Que me pongo a pensar en todos los momentos

All the good times we've had, me and you, you and I

Hot summer nights, making love in July

The only girl that didn't give it on the first night

Una mujer incomparable, Imma love her life

After Pretty Girl and, the album transitions to its raunchier side with the lead single So Fly. One small detail I always liked about this song is that each member comes in with a short intro setup before their verse starts, with Zig Zag and MC Magic singing their first lines before rapping, and the DJ Scratching on the beginning of Dos's verse, I thought it was a pretty neat touch. Zig Zag's verse is iconic too and etched in my childhood since my sister had this song on loop on her boombox.

I know, I been on the road and away from home

But I been fiendin' for you

Dreaming of you

And what I'm gonna do when I have you alone

You heard the message

On your cellphone, me sayin' "Daddy's home"

I'm about to put it down, got you runnin' around

Half-naked around the house

And this isn't just fast sex

We makin' love until we both climax

Next up Tu Eres, a love ballad sung entirely in Spanish. The lines are a bit cheesy, but since it's a love ballad it's expected. If you get serious with a Latina who's in her late 20's/early 30's, you'll get bonus points if you play this for her.

Despertando una manana pensando en ti

Tus brazos y besos los quiero sentir

Yo te quiero y te amo que haria sin ti?

Un angel que Dios me enviado a mi

On Wishin', the song revolves around getting hurt by being broken up with by an ex, but still wanting them back. Though it sounds great rapping and beat-wise, and the chorus is nice as hell, it's my least favorite song on the album on subject matter alone. After that the album gets more upbeat on Playaz. Dope hook, classic beat, and great verses all around where NB Ridaz affiliates 'The Hav Nots' lay down some good verses.

The album then does a 180 with 4-Ever, a song about committing to be with your partner forever. The chorus features singer Angelina combined with the talkbox singing by the NB Ridaz. Though this is one of multiple tracks on the album that feature the talkbox singing chorus, and not even the only one that also features Angelina on the chorus, they still manage to get creative with it. Next up is Notice Me, which was probably the song that got the most radio play in my area and in general. While being the second song that has both Angelina and the talkbox singing chorus, it still manages to sound fresh and change from a theme of commitment to one of simping.

Until I Die is probably my favorite beat on the album, even with dope 90's West Coast style beats of "Pretty Girl" and "Playaz". Hearing this makes me wish NB Ridaz experimented more with guitars on their instrumentals. This song is different from the other love songs on the album in that it focuses on growth in partnership, from struggles to sacrifices couples would do for each other. Featured artist and long-time collaborator Big Gemini has a great verse on this as well

I used to say once you're born you're just waiting to die

And every day in between is just a waste of some time

But in time I was convinced that I was far from the truth

Believe it or not I found truth the night I met you

So just know that if there's life after death I'm a wait for you there

To love you forever for real

Sunshine features the same singer (Mary) who did the chorus on U Got Me Hot, and she easily steals the show on this. This song always reminded of a 90's R&B ballad, and probably the only song on the album where I think Dos had the best verse. .

Not once not twice but your three times a lady

The comfort of your arms got me feeling like your baby

Ill be there for you lets make love in to memories

Your tender touch and your smile always get the best of me

Never let you go or treat you bad ill give you all i have

I belong to you and only you girl i want you bad

Sunshine is followed by the Lil Ridaz skit, just an obnoxious skit of these two little kids breaking into MC Magic's studio and rapping. Kinda wishing they cut this because it's not great. The skit leads us into the next song, Bounce If You Wanna, that uses the same beat as the skit. Something weird I found in making this writeup is that not a single lyric website has this song correctly noted, as every site instead has the lyrics to the Lil Ridaz skit. I wanted to highlight Kid Frost's verse because he was nice and it was iconic to have the first Mexican-American rapper to blow up on an NB Ridaz track. This doesn't exist anywhere else so I might have mucked a few words

Collar stay popped like champagne bottles, it's full throttle

That's the motto, and I spend dough like I won the lotto

Hit trees like there's no tomorrow

Still spittin hot shit for you to bump in your barrio

Kid Frost, Two fifths of Hennessey

2002 West, go to push and a half ounce of kush

Went triple x, now there's plenty of bush

Pornstars and strippers get snatched with one look

It's the Kiddie crook back with them NB Ridaz

O's and G's, flippin pounds of keys

On the regular, there's no competitor

Take it from the editor, back like the predator

Exterminator, Terminator, Violator, Regulator

And I'm way too smooth than them brand new wall of gators

Kid Frost still a boss and I floss on you haters

Fakes and phonies, and all you perpetrators

Southwest Ridaz is up next, and the album is just the group spitting cold hard bars. MC Magic shines as usual and alternate Spanish and English lines like he did on Pretty Girl, except with more hardcore rapping on this track. San Diego's Mr. Shadow makes an appearance, who was also popular among latino hip hop listeners in the mid 2000's, but who catered more to the gangster rap crowd.

MC Magic expands on how the group started in the skit Magic's Custom CDs, where he recounts how his group were able to establish themselves by making personalized CDs for them and advertises how fans can use the website to request their own custom CDs, and as a bonus he even includes an example of a custom song he made using Lost in Love as a basis. The album's closing track, Guess Who's Back was always my guilty pleasure as a kid. Borrowing my sister's CD of this album every now and then, this is the track I always skipped to since at the time I wasn't feeling like hearing love or heartbreak songs, so this one holds a special place in my heart. With this and Southwest Ridaz, the group made it known they can drop bars when they wanted to and aren't just a group that coasts on love ballads.

I didn't mention the Cho and Lo skits, until now, but they are a series of skits on the album that have a radio duo ragging on each other. I used to like their banter when I was in middle school, but I've grown out of it since then

Conclusion

As I mentioned before, upon doing my research for my writeup, I found that I overestimated the group's popularity and my perception of their popularity was warped because of where I and who I grew up with, being from a city on the west coast where there are more Mexicans than any other race. In spite of their popularity among Latinos with songs that have +10 million views on youtube, they never had an album chart on the Billboard 200, and even their most famous songs only peaked close to the bottom of the Billboard 100 charts. In spite of their lack of reach outside the Latino community, this album was huge for those of us who did grow up listening to it.

Questions

For non-Latinos, did you listen to or come across this album while growing up?

In light of NB RIdaz's use of the internet to push their albums as did other artists, do you feel that their practices are overlooked when discussing the history of artists using the internet to sell?

What is your favorite hip hop album by a Latino-American?

Favorite song on NB Ridaz.com?

submitted by /u/CaptainGordan
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Sto's Album Club Week #2 | Lil Wayne - Tha Carter II

Posted: 18 Sep 2020 12:04 AM PDT

TRACKLIST

Tracklist

Tha Carter II is the fifth studio album by American rapper Lil Wayne. It was released on December 6, 2005, by Cash Money Records and Universal Distribution. Recording sessions took place from 2004 to 2005, with Birdman and his brother Ronald "Slim" Williams serving as the record's executive producers. Additional producers on the album included The Runners and The Heatmakerz, among others. The album serves as a sequel to his fourth album Tha Carter (2004), and is classified as a southern hip hop record. It was supported by three singles ("Fireman", "Hustler Musik" and "Shooter"). Tha Carter II received critical acclaim and ranks highly in retrospectives of Lil Wayne's best work

I love how diverse Wayne and the production sound. The blend of rap, rock, r&b, and soul at a wide range of tempos definitely suggested Wayne was aiming to reach newer audiences, while writing to any beat to do so. I have to credit T-Mix for his compositions that served as the motif of the album, Heatmakerz for their epic pitched-up sample chops and explosive drum, and the Doe Boys for their futuristic and high energy sounds. Serving as a soundtrack to the daily grind, this is Wayne's best album in my opinion.

STANDOUTS

The Mobb (Prod. by Heatmakerz)

  • It made all the sense to set the album tone with the signature Heatmakerz high-pitched weeping sample. No chorus, straight bars. Wayne at his purest.

Fly In/ Carter II/ Fly Out (Prod. T-Mix)

  • These three songs make up the theme of the album. Though its the same beat three times, T-Mix's piano progression serves as the album's motif [a sequence of notes producing a single impression].

Money on My Mind (Prod. by The Runners)

  • You knew what time it was when you heard that "Aahhhh" tag. The arrangements of the synths and drum patterns give the song a futuristic feel.

Best Rapper Alive (Prod. by Big D)

  • One of my favorite beats on the album. The hardcore electric guitars paired with 808 drums makes this a timeless blend of Rock and Rap.

Weezy Baby (Prod. by Deezle)

  • My other favorite beat on this album; the layers of guitar, pizzicato strings, synths, electric bass, and bells brings a southern playa vibe unmatched. This had to be a fun one to make in the studio.

Music Videos

​

Chart Peak Position
U.S Billboard 200 2
U.S Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums (Billboard) 1
U.S Top Rap Albums 1

​

Region Certification Certified Unit/Sales
United States (RIAA) 2x Platinum 2,000,000

​

Questions to maybe discuss

Is this Wayne's best album?

Favorite music video?

Stand out tracks?

Describe your favorite moment experiencing this album.

Feel free to ask me anything!

Also, I'll be live streaming tonight on twitch at 4 EST talking about the album, going over beats, listening to songs, ect.

​

submitted by /u/Christo120
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[FRESH] Saba - Something in the Water ft. Denzel Curry

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 06:02 PM PDT

What We Learned From Reading Over 100 Pages of Kanye West’s Record Contracts

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[FRESH] Baby Keem - hooligan / songs & critics

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 09:00 PM PDT

[FRESH ALBUM] Lil Tecca - Virgo World

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 09:00 PM PDT

SPOTIFY | APPLE MUSIC | TIDAL | GENIUS

TRACKLIST

  1. Our Time
  2. Actin Up
  3. When You Down (feat. Lil Durk & Polo G)
  4. Back It Up
  5. Chemistry
  6. Royal Rumble
  7. Foreign (feat. NAV)
  8. Selection (feat. Skrillex & DJ Scheme)
  9. Take 10
  10. Dolly (feat. Lil Uzi Vert)
  11. Insecurities
  12. Tic Toc
  13. Miss Me
  14. True To The Game (feat. Guwop Reign)
  15. Closest To Heaven
  16. Level Up
  17. No Answers
  18. Last Call
  19. Out Of Love (feat. Internet Money)
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[Discussion] Mac Miller - GO:OD AM (5 Years Later)

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 09:00 PM PDT

It has been five years since Mac Miller released his third studio album GO:OD AM.

This project received generally good reviews and holds a 71/100 score on Metacritic. Commercially the album debuted at #4 on the BB200 with 73k copies sold in its first week, the album has since went on to be certified gold.

Features on the album come from Ab-Soul, Chief Keef, Lil B, Miguel and Little Dragon.

  • What are your favourite songs on this album?

  • How has it aged for you over the last five years?

  • Overall where does it rank in Macs discography?

RIP Mac Miller. 92 till infinity..

submitted by /u/HHAD98
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SAINt JHN announces new project "WTWWB" dropping October 16th

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 05:04 PM PDT

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFKyaU3j0FP/

Roses.... 67x Platinum. I got my roses while I was still living. October 16th, WTWWB! 😘

https://twitter.com/SAINtJHN/status/1305314383015243779

submitted by /u/RafiakaMacakaDirk
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[FRESH] Brent Faiyaz - Dead man walking

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[FRESH ALBUM] Curren$y and Harry Fraud - The Director's Cut

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ASAP Ferg announces "Floor Seats II" out on 9/25.

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 02:38 PM PDT

[FRESH] Justin Bieber ft. Chance the Rapper - Holy

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 09:02 PM PDT

Black Thought - Streams of Thought will be released next Friday (September 25)

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 08:33 PM PDT

According to this interview the album will now be released September 25, he also reveals that Streams of Thought, Vol. 4 is also completed and ready to be released.

submitted by /u/DeLousedInTheHotBox
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[FRESH] Armani Caesar- The Liz

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 09:00 PM PDT

2020 XXL Freshman Class Talk Protesting: (Jack Harlow) "I'm from Louisville, where Breonna Taylor passed. I went home with Bryson Tiller, D'Angelo Russell and we marched. But there are moments when it feels helpless. People on the other side feel as strongly that they're right as we do"

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[FRESH ALBUM] Alicia Keys - ALICIA

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[FRESH] Night Lovell-Alone

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[FRESH] Busta Rhymes, Anderson .Paak - YUUUU

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Dallas Rapper and Producer FXXXXY signed to Future's Freebandz has reportedly passed away at 25

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[FRESH VIDEO] Baby Keem - hooligan

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[FRESH ALBUM]Shy Glizzy - Young Jefe 3

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 09:17 PM PDT

[FRESH VIDEO] Big Sean - ZTFO

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 09:02 AM PDT

A Tribe Called Quest performing on All That (1997) (xpost from r/ObscureMedia)

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 07:44 AM PDT

[FRESH VIDEO] Rico Nasty - Own It

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 10:23 AM PDT

[FRESH ALBUM] Moneybagg yo & Blac Youngsta - Code Red

Posted: 17 Sep 2020 09:08 PM PDT

[FRESH] Curren$y & Harry Fraud ft Snoop Dogg - 180 Days

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