The holiday season is known for a couple things. One, its when music reaches its slow period and the only thing that might clog up your favorite website will be year-end best of lists and the occasional music video. Two, it means rappers will try their damndest to make sure their voice is heard one last time – through the art of rapping over somebody else’s song.
Pardon me but that last one happens year round. Not to sound like a Grinch but honestly, I’ve heard "
Black & Yellow" and its official remix and the remix to the remix, I’m pretty much done with "Black & Yellow". Yet, folks insist on driving an instrumental into the ground as if it is their last mission in life.
Many of my escapades on various social networks involve the usual banter about sports, women & whatever might be going around my neck of the woods. It also turns into the one place I absolutely hate getting sent music. I made a single mention of Travis Porters infectious strip club anthem “
Make It Ran” - trust me, that Chris Rock joke is 150% true - and then boom a random person who isn’t following me sent me something along the lines of this: “YO, CHECK OUT MY NEW MAKE IT RAIN FREESTYLE! PRINCE OF IDAHO! MIXTAPE COMING SOON!”
To which I replied: “Please, don’t solicit a freestyle in my direction. Because a single f*ck will not be given.”
Sorry, I like to be the nice blogger. Y’know, the guy who likes to give everyone a chance with their work and hopefully dish out some constructive criticism so that maybe one day their mixtape will be featured over here. Instead, people want to test my patience on the matter by submitting song covers and wack freestyles over a popular instrumental as if THAT is going to get them over. Just because I heard Jay-Z’s original version of “Can I Live” and then I heard a dope song wrapped around the same concept of “Can I Live”, it doesn’t mean I want to listen to your freestyle with aimless metaphors and similes and how dope you are when I actually DON’T EVEN KNOW who the hell you are.
By utilizing a method that’s only worked a handful of times (see Lloyd Banks solidifying a career
over the “Victory” instrumental), rappers are handicapping themselves by playing this same role over and over again.
It’s like the NBA, everybody plays with the same ball on the same style of court with the same goal in mind – to score more than the other guy. Here’s the thing though, most folks think they’re running with the same mentality as the Miami Heat or the Los Angeles Lakers when it fact they’re more like the Clippers, pushing out more highlights than actual wins. With every hot beat of the last five years during the digital age – how many of them do you remember?
I can take a straw poll and you might recall
Cory Gunz over the "A Milli" beat plus the thirty thousand hundred million (word up to Soulja Boy & Lil B) others, the million "Exhibit C" freestyles, or the million and a half "Grindin’" freestyles. What do all of those have in common? Not a single one of them stood out more than the original. Well, maybe Lil Wayne’s assault on some of these instrumentals floating around but at least you’re aware he completely changes the song all together when he decides to hop on it.
Growing up, you were the man if you could get a hold of a J. Armz instrumental CD just so you and your crew could rhyme over the beats with little to no interruptions. Only problem was, you weren’t alone. While I say congrats to Wiz Khalifa and his single that touches all of Pittsburgh and its surrounding areas, he had better be prepared to create something that’s going to match that buzz.
