Top Ten Tuesday: Luniz/Yukmouth - HipHop

Thanks to everyone who voted on the beats for the HHH Cypher 2021. We will be using two beats this year for the Cypher. The two selected beats are WAP and What's Poppin.

To submit a verse for the HHH Cypher you will need to do the following:

Record a 16 bar verse over either of the two instrumentals linked above
Once you've recorded your verse, bounce the vocals into either WAV or MP3 format (WAV preferred).
Click here to send a direct message to this account, u/HHHRobot, with the subject "2021 Cypher Verse Submission" and the following - A download link to your vocals, which beat you recorded vocals for, and whether or not you want your Reddit username to remain anonymous (a poll will be put up to vote on best verses when the cypher is released). If you want, you can also bounce and send a section of the beat with your vocals over it in order to provide an example of how you want your vocals to come in on the beat.
If you want to talk with other cypher participants, post in the discussion channel in the hiphopheads discord. If you have questions, post in this thread or in the hiphopheads discord.
No racism, homophobia, transphobia, extreme horniness (horniness not enforced but pls spare us from 16 straight scat fetish bars and the like), etc in cypher verses.
Verse submissions will be open for one week, but that will be extended if necessary

Have fun, surely this will go well!

submitted by /u/HHHRobot
[link] [comments]

[FRESH] A$AP ROCKY - $ANDMAN @ WEEDMAPS 4/20

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 05:31 PM PDT

submitted by /u/TheJakInDaBox
[link] [comments]

An Intro to Nigerian Rap

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 08:42 AM PDT

Disclaimer

Before I start, I want to be clear: I am not Nigerian, I'm just an American who likes some Nigerian rap and thinks it deserves more attention worldwide. I may ignore prominent artists and songs if I haven't listened to them enough, and I won't be going too deep into the context behind the music. If anyone who's more in touch with the Nigerian music scene wants to drop additional info or recommendations in the comments, go ahead.

Also, if this is too long and you just want one album to listen to, I'd say Stories that Touch by Falz. Listen to that, and if you like it check out more of his music and the featured artists, and you'll have covered a lot of this post.

Introduction

Nigeria is the biggest country in Africa by population. Its largest city, Lagos, is home to over 14 million people. And it has a music scene to match, which is making an increasing international impact. You've almost certainly heard Wizkid on Drake's One Dance, and maybe some of his other collabs. Burna Boy has gotten rave reviews from Pitchfork and been Grammy-nominated two years running (winning Best Global Music Album in 2020). Davido has worked with Meek Mill, Rae Sremmurd and Young Thug. But outside of the biggest English-speaking pop stars, it's mostly overlooked on here.

A bit of background on Nigeria's languages for those who aren't familiar: It was a British colony until it achieved independence in 1960, and English is still its official language. However, it is extraordinarily diverse, with over 500 indigenous languages. The three biggest indigenous languages are Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo, all with over 40 million speakers. Most Nigerian rap - and everything in this post - is in English, Nigerian Pidgin, and/or one of those three languages.

English-Language Rap

For a while, English was the primary language for Nigerian rap. The group Trybesmen (Freestyle, elDee, and Kaboom) was one of the first to make waves in the late 90s, with songs like Shake Bodi (with a Pidgin chorus and English verses):

1999, the year for the demo

defending my tribe-I'm a hero like Taribo

position is one to ten, I'm sub-zero

when I represent Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo

I'm the big issue now like Clinton and Lewinsky

master of the art like Leonardo Da Vinci

In the 2000s, Modenine became known for his flow and lyrics. He's generally acknowledged to be one of the greats, but I haven't listened to a ton of his music so I can't give many specifics - it's shifted around on Spotify a fair amount which makes it hard to keep track of. Here's a more lighthearted song of his.

In the late 2000s, another challenger for the title of "best lyricist" rose to fame - M.I. Abaga. His first single was Safe which parodies various Nigerian songs, from his 2008 album Talk About It. He followed up Talk About It in 2010 with the album MI2: The Movie, which featured some of his best songs including My Head My Belle which combined lyricism with accessibility, and the masterpiece Wild Wild West on which he talks about ethnic/religious violence in his hometown of Jos:

Driving through the city thinking this is not her

She seems so strange, when did she change?

Blood on her street, smoke in her sky

Can't feel her heart beat, no hope in her eye

Orphans, coffins, bastards, caskets

Mass burials, how we gonna move past this?

M.I. has kept up his reputation as one of Nigeria's best lyricists with songs like Everything (from his mixtape Illegal Music 3) and albums like A Study On Self-Worth - Yxng Dxnzl

Another prominent English rapper of the early 2010s is Jesse Jagz, who happens to be M.I.'s brother. They've collaborated (M.I. is second, Jagz is third), but Jagz has a solid career on his own. 3rd World War features an instrumental by Femi Kuti, son of the legendary Fela. Nigerian Gangster has a kinda basic beat especially in comparison, but great rhymes:

He walks into the spot

See his pimping never stops

Cranberry and Ciroc shots chilling on them rocks

He listens for the cops, he can hear the ticking of the clocks

It's a tale of a chicken and a fox

Hands still shaking from the shock

Damn itching never stops, intuition on top

He's also gotten more melodic on songs like Redemption, Bad Girl feat Wizkid, and (happy 4/20) Burning Bush (In Memory of Hadiza Aboki).

The final rapper I'll cover here is Falz (aka the Bahd Guy) - though he features more Pidgin than the artists above, and has occasional bits of Yoruba, he's not rapping primarily in an indigenous language. His 2015 album Stories That Touch is the best place to start with his music. Falz's flow and delivery are smooth, and the beats are all solid - mostly by Sess, with a few by Spax and a couple by others. Falz is a comedian (and lawyer!) in addition to being a rapper, and his humor is evident throughout. The album contains fun jams like Soft Work and Chardonnay Music, a celebration of Nigeria with an Afrobeat-inspired instrumental in My People, love songs like Soldier, and darker bangers like Karishika (named after a Nollywood movie about a demonic woman) featuring the Igbo indigenous rapper Phyno. IMO Karishika's the best beat on the album, and the album also has a fully English-language remix of Karishika with all-new verses featuring M.I. and the duo SDC (Ghost and Tec - check out their album Palmwine Music with Spax).

Rap cat, riding through Lasgidi with my woes

Jezebels on my heels, Lord keep me on my toes

I ain't got no time to chill, you can say I'm being cold

When they see you making mils, they start coming for your soul

More recently, Falz has gotten more serious with his content. He's probably best known outside of Nigeria for his cover of This Is America, and he continued the socially conscious content on his 2019 album Moral Instruction. He was also a prominent celebrity figure in the 2020 protests which led to the abolition of the notoriously brutal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

Indigenous Rappers

Indigenous rappers are defined by rapping primarily in native languages - mostly Yoruba because Lagos is the hub of the music industry, but there are Igbo and Hausa rappers as well (and I'm sure there are even more, but I haven't heard them). It became prominent in the very late 2000s/early 2010s, and for a while was mostly separate from English-language rap. These days, though it's much less separate, and there are plenty of songs with both indigenous and English rappers.

Indigenous rap can be a hard sell to listeners who don't speak the languages, especially those who put a premium on lyrics. However, even if you don't understand the lyrics, there's still delivery, flow, rhymes, and beats to listen to. I hope you'll give it a shot.

First and foremost, I have to mention Dagrin (RIP), who was largely responsible for indigenous rap hitting the mainstream. His song Pon Pon Pon is nearly unmatched for its energy, and its video features a variety of scenes from Nigeria's streets. He sadly died in a vehicle accident in 2010, not long after the release of his album CEO: Chief Executive Omota (Gangster). Just a few days before his death, he recorded the freestyle If I Die which was released as a posthumous single.

Next is Olamide (aka Baddo), a Yoruba artist who is maybe the biggest right now. He came up in the early 2010s and has a very diverse style. His 2013 album YBNL (Yahoo Boy No Laptop, meaning that he's like an email scammer but without needing a computer) shows his diversity: Voice of the Street is hard street rap with an outdated beat but a relentless flow, while Stupid Love leans more into the Afrobeats pop genre (not to be confused with Afrobeat like Fela Kuti), and Ilefo Illuminati (Illuminati Swag) is melodic but dark. Over the course of the 2010s, he shifted into mostly just making Afrobeats (Story for the Gods, Motigbana), but with plenty of pure rap along the way like Rayban Abacha (from the album Baddest Guy Ever Liveth) and Eyan Mayweather (from the album of the same title). He also has a song with Falz and Davido called Bahd, Baddo, Baddest.

Another good Yoruba rapper is Reminisce, who came up around the same time as Olamide and has worked with him a lot. He's known for his deep voice and often aggressive delivery. His best song is probably Local Rappers from his 2015 album Baba Hafusa, a celebration of the success of indigenous rap which features both Olamide and Phyno. One of his earlier songs I like is Government ft. Olamide, which has a kind of annoying beat but that's just part of its incredible energy. Solo songs include 3rd World Thug Freestyle (from the album Alaga Ibile (Chairman of the Indigenous) along with Government) and Asalamalekun from El-Hadj.

We got a couple guns, but we prefer machetes

Fun awon kan to n form defender, Demichelis

Here's another one I like.

The most prominent Igbo rapper is Phyno, who began his career with the album No Guts No Glory in 2014, with the singles Man of the Year (my favorite song of his) and Ghost Mode (ft. Olamide). He also did a collab album with Olamide called 2 Kings, whose biggest song was Ladi (feat Lil Kesh). As mentioned above, he's also on Falz's Karishika and Reminisce's Local Rappers.

Misc

Those are all the artists I'm going to give particular profiles for. However, there are plenty of other random songs I like enough to mention, so I'll put them here:

Jahbless - JOOOR (Remix) - features a very wide range of artists, including elDee of Trybesmen, Ice Prince (the most commercial English rapper of the early 2010s), Reminisce, and Ruggedman (another big 2000s rapper).

Vector the Viper - King Kong (Remix) (ft. Phyno, Reminisce, Classiq, Uzi) - you'd have to speak four languages to fully understand this song. Phyno is rapping in Igbo, Reminisce/Vector in Yoruba, Classiq in Hausa, and Uzi/Vector in English.

The Faculty - We Dey Run Things - this was one of the first Nigerian rap songs I heard, so I have no idea how it holds up to anyone else but I like it.

You can say my pen's a serial killer 'cause it's murder she wrote

I'm the combination of pastis and whiskey

Like sex without protection, boy, I'm fucking risky

D'Banj - Emergency - an Afrobeats track

SDC feat MI - Dreamer - kind of in the B.O.B. style of early 2010s pop-rap

A-Q - Men Slept Jesus Wept - more recent English lyrical rap

Conclusion

This has gotten pretty long, but there really is a lot more out there. It's a really exciting and active scene. I hope you find at least one song you enjoy from this post, and maybe get more deeply into some of these artists.

submitted by /u/prettiestmf
[link] [comments]

[FRESH] Jai Paul - Super Salamander

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 06:58 PM PDT

Available on BTSTU.com

https://btstu.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/6+super+salamander.mp3

submitted by /u/Infamous_Syllabub_45
[link] [comments]

New Cordae on the way ft. Young Thug and Q-Tip

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 11:41 AM PDT

https://imgur.com/o2IvEgD

Received through his SMS text list signup

UPDATE from Cordae on insta: https://www.instagram.com/p/CN5ls4wB1mI/?igshid=o2kots4nbklm

EP "Just Until...." Tomorrow at midnight

Says album is almost done

submitted by /u/relativelyhappy
[link] [comments]

ScHoolboy Q - iBETiGOTSUMWEED

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 08:35 AM PDT

submitted by /u/Jcherry5
[link] [comments]

Three Six Mafia - Bin Laden

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 05:05 AM PDT

submitted by /u/ajb0686
[link] [comments]

[Game Thread] Verzuz: Redman vs. Method Man

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 05:36 PM PDT

Start Time: 30 minutes ago

Watch Live: Triller | Instagram | Fite

submitted by /u/HHHRobot
[link] [comments]

[FRESH] Mick Jenkins & The Alchemist - Weedmaps 4/20 Cypher

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 04:18 PM PDT

submitted by /u/tdotfan
[link] [comments]

Gunna - Car Sick ft. NAV & Metro Boomin

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 06:04 PM PDT

submitted by /u/antiphoenix
[link] [comments]

[FRESH VIDEO] Unfoonk & Young Thug - Real | Young Stoner Life

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 02:01 PM PDT

submitted by /u/thesuntalking
[link] [comments]

Smoke DZA is releasing 10-track album The Hustler's Catalog 2 on June 4th –features Westside Gunn, Benny the Butcher, Curren$y, Ty Dolla $ign, Luh Kel, Dave East + more

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 07:57 AM PDT

https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-hustlers-catalog-2/1563919180

submitted by /u/TheRoyalGodfrey
[link] [comments]

[FRESH] Flying Lotus - Black Gold / Between Memories

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 09:09 AM PDT

submitted by /u/ad287
[link] [comments]

Dave Chappelle Introduces New Podcast With Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli Called ‘The Midnight Miracle’

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 11:33 PM PDT

submitted by /u/yourkindhere
[link] [comments]

Big Sean - All Your Fault ft. Kanye West [Prod. Travis Scott]

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 01:05 PM PDT

submitted by /u/Jordanwolf98
[link] [comments]

Lil Gotit - Burnt n Turnt ft. NAV

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 09:13 PM PDT

submitted by /u/VolleNommer
[link] [comments]

Styles P - Good Times (I Get High)

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 08:39 AM PDT

submitted by /u/WOMBOSI_G
[link] [comments]

Daily Discussion Thread 04/20/2021

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 09:36 AM PDT

Welcome to the /r/hiphopheads daily discussion thread!

This thread is for:

objective questions with right/wrong answers (e.g. "Does anyone know what is happening with MIXTAPE?", "What is the sample in SONG?")
general hip-hop discussion
meta posts...e.g. ideas for the sub

Do not create a separate self post for these types of discussions outside of this thread - if you do, your post will be removed, as stated in the guidelines.

Weekly/Monthly Threads

Other ways to interact

There are a number of other ways to interact with other members of HHH:

HHH JQBX room (Spotify premium required)
HHH Official Instagram Account
HHH Official Twitter Account

New to /r/hiphopheads or hip-hop in general?

Check these out:

submitted by /u/HHHRobot
[link] [comments]

Snoop Dogg ft. Kid Cudi - That Tree

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 07:08 AM PDT

submitted by /u/iRideBronies
[link] [comments]

[DISCUSSION] Smino - She Already Decided (One Year Later)

Posted: 20 Apr 2021 12:10 PM PDT

Soundcloud | Download

TRACKLIST

Fronto Isley
S.A.D. Lil Intro
Gotta List
Popeyes
Already
Cabbage (Freestyle)
Mike Jones
Kotton Kandy w/Sevyn Streeter
Good Ol Julio
Blac Soda (Freestyle)
2MuchFronto
Chips & Juice
Jamie Boxx (Freestyle)
O'High O
Year of The Goat
Klink Remix w/T-Pain

Top Comments in FRESH Thread

This bumps in the apartment

literally anything but mediafire pls

This is so fucking good

I was already off my feet and the klink remix blasted me into another dimension

GROOVY!

BAYBEE

Top Comments in First Impressions thread

Real mixtape shit. Remixing other people's beats and everything. I probably like the KLINK remix more than the original. Nice reminder of how unique Smino's style is

Hate that it's not on streaming. Otherwise it's a great mixtapes thats a nice amount to keep us busy with until the actual album comes out. Def will be in rotation for a while

We need smi+zay

His flows are stupid good, already downloaded so I can listen on Spotify without being assed to go on soundcloud

So good, Smino can flow over anything

Not many tapes/albums released this year made me go right back into it

My favorite project this year so far, looking forward to the album he's 3/3 with projects.