Weekly Re-Up: Hip-Hop Goes To College With 9th Wonder, Wu-Tang Beef, & More Posted by Lucas G. on 04/18/14 | Filed under Top Stories, Weekly Re-Up, General Awesomeness, Fails

Listen, it's Friday, we get it. Nobody really wants to do anything that involves using your brain. So the new "Weekly Re-Up" will provide you with both the biggest "Fails" and the most awesome "General Awesomeness", as well as some other must see shit from the week, and of course some boobs. We will also be including a "Weekend Soundtrack" selection to give you something to listen to this weekend. It's a whole lot of everything.

Now let's get started...

General Awesomeness:

9th Wonder Of The World:

Aside from Kanye, 9th Wonder is my favorite producer and that's not just because I know him (and by know him I mean I met him twice and now consider us best friends). Not only has he made some of my favorite beats (this one), but he is one of the smartest, best representatives for hip-hop out there. Unless you are a hip-hop head, your experience with hip-hop is probably crappy radio songs and the "gangsta" image, but 9th is showing people there is so much more to hip-hop than cars, clothes, and guns. 9th is blazing  patch for hip-hop in the academic world is showing that hip-hop is really an art that deserves just as much attention as any other form of expression. Tenured Harvard professors and the academic world being exposed to hip-hop through 9th is probably the best way they could. Not only is 9th smart, but he is so passionate. When he talks about hip-hop you can hear how much he really loves it and anyone can appreciate that no matter where their musical tastes lie. After years of hard work, it looks like he is now getting the credit he deserves with a documentary The Hip-Hop Fellow, which documents 9th's quest to make hip-hop an academic area of study through his class at Harvard.

Drake Bounces Back:

In this rap blog world you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. We post something on Drake making fun of him and we are seen as backpacking haters even though we named Nothing Was The Same the most influential album of 2013.  We named Nothing Was The Same the mos influential album of 2013 and we are now the stanniest of stans. Well, contrary to what the interwebz says, I think we are pretty unbiased. Sure we make fun, but we also give credit where credit is due. After getting pelted last week for his bandwagoning, Drake had a great week. I'll give credit where credit is due and Drizzy deserves it for visiting a sick fan.

If we are going to make fun of Drake for hopping on a plane to go visit another one of his teams, we gotta give him props for hopping on a plane, completely unprompted and going to visit a ill fan. he wasn't asked to come down, nor would anybody have expected him to, considering they reached out on twitter and he could have easily ignored it, but Drake really came through and capped off an amazing celebration for that girl. f you would rather cry tears of laughter instead of bittersweet tears check this out.

In Case You Missed It:
Classic Hate: The Internet Hates On Nas’ “Illmatic”
Who’s The Rap Game Kevin Durant?

Best Of The Rest:
JJ Watt Continues To Prove He’s One Of Sports’ Coolest Guys
The NBA Playoffs' Most Memorable Moments, Animated
20 year-old Nas on Making Illmatic and working with DJ Premier (1994, Rap City)
RZA Parks And Recreation Screen Test
The Live Read of Space Jam with Blake Griffin

Fails Of The Week:

Mayday!

Social media is crucial to any business. If you don't have an active, popular link to the public, your business is gonna suffer; no matter what field you are in. From rap blogs to restaurants, everyone does their best to expand their reach and gain more viewers/customers. The best thing you can hope for, aside from a retweet form any famous person, is having one of your tweets go viral. The influx of followers and views is a dream come true (especially for bloggers), but there are definitely things yo uwant to avoid. Just ask US Airways. A tweet they sent this week, was far and away the most popular one in a long, long time, but it probably didn't help business all too well.

Now obviously, the tweet didn't have that big grey area in it. It was the whole shebangabang and I am now blind. Think of the shittiest day you had  at work; the time you fucked up the most. I'm willing to bet that you didn't fuck up nearly as bad the person behind this tweet. What I don't even understand is how it got to this point? There is no way this is an accident right?  Like how did this social media guru manage to find this picture, accidentally copy the link, accidently post in in a tweet, and accidently overlooked the picture in the preview? It must have been on purpose. There is noway you go through all of that without thinking maybe I shouldn't unless you are on a mission to get fired. Mission failed. US Airways said they wouldn't fire the person behind the tweet.  I gues that's pretty cool. All jokes aside I'm sure this person felt dumb as shit, and it's nice they got a break. But still, what a dumbass. I don't even want to know what that persons internet browser history looks like.

Gravel Pit Of Despair

Normally, rappers beefing ends up in the fail section because they hurt each other's feelings on Twitter or some really stupid shit, but this is different. It's less sad in a pathetic sense and more sad in a you know, sad sense. I think the last beef between two rappers that was actually worth caring about was Tupac and Biggie right? Well this isn't so much a beef as it is what feels like the  (foreseeable) end of something so important to hip-hop. I know Wu-Tang has always had their ups and downs, but with a comeback album on the way, it was looking up, but now, things seem to have gone bad...and fast. Earlier this week Raekwon got it started when discussing the new (and possibly last) Clan album, A Better Tomorrow. If you like punishing yourself with sadness, feel free to read the whole interview with Rolling Stone here, but I picked out some of the more impactful, disheartening stuff and included it below so it's more convenient for you to have your hopes crushed.

There’s an album called Once Upon A Time In Shaolin that will be a single piece of art in a beautiful encasing. That belongs in a museum or art gallery. That’s where it belongs. And then there’s another album that belongs to the consumers called A Better Tomorrow. And that belongs to the consumers because it’s a celebration of Wu-Tang and their fans. And Raekwon has not been participating with that particular record. I haven’t had a chance to really talk to him about why not. All I see is the press going back and forth. But I would say that maybe creatively we on different paths. I’m creatively different than I was in the ‘90s.”

Okay, so maybe it's not that bad. It sounds like they are on different wavelengths but this can't be the frist time so I'm sure they will get over. That's what I thought too, until Raekwon officially went on strike from Wu-Tang.

It almost sounds like you’re on strike.
It’s the same as being an athlete. I don’t give a fuck if it’s Kobe Bryant or Kevin Durant. They will not touch the floor if their managers or lawyers are saying, "Listen, shit ain’t right." So therefore, I’m in a limbo situation. So yeah, you’re right. I am on strike. It ain’t the fact that I don’t want to be there. Because of course I want to be there. But if we’re there, we gotta do the best everything. We gotta work 10 times harder, because that’s what I’m signing in for. I’m not about listening to somebody that’s not an artist telling me what the fuck they think is hot. 

I know some of you have trouble letting go (Detox) so lemme highlight a few more snippets form Raekwon.

How much of A Better Tomorrow have you heard? 
The bottom line: I’m not happy with that. I’m not happy with the direction of the music and I’m not happy with how dudes is treating dudes’ business. What are we giving the fans? What are we giving the people that help us be here? If it don’t feel right, I can’t be fake. And I’m not the only one who feels like that. Fans want the best and I have to sit here and work that hard to give them the best. Period.

Yeesh. But wait, There's more

As far as the RZA, I respect him, I love him – the love ain’t gonna go anywhere – but you’re not in the music world no more. So to me, you need to take a backseat and respect the n---as that is playing the game. I’m always out in the field and finding out what’s going on with the new. Period.

If that wasn't enough. Enjoy this final knife in the heart.

On a scale of 0-10, what are the odds that you end up on A Better Tomorrow?
We at a two right now. It’s like climbing up a fuckin' mountain if you got on slippers.

Well fuck. I'm now sherpa, but I think climbing a mountain with slippers on is pretty fucking impossible. I was really looking forward to this Wu-Tang album but with out Raekwon, it just doesn't feel like Wu-Tang. Not only that, but to hear how he views the album, and how it's being made, I don't think we will be getting what we want. Pretty fucking shitty huh? Maybe I should start doing fails first. Feels kind of depressing leaving you on that note. Oh well, at least we have this.

Worst Of The Rest:
Cam'ron & Nick Cannon Trade Barbs On Instagram
College student f*cks up already solved puzzle on Wheel of Fortune
Professor Suspended Over "Threatening" Game of Thrones T-Shirt
Papoose Still Thinks He’s Better Than Jay Z Lyrically

Comment Of The Week:
There was so much to SMH at on the Classic Hate Illmatic Piece. I mean one guy said Shaq was a good west coast emcee, ignoring the fact that Shaq is from Jersey among many many many other things that are wrong about this. Point is there was plenty to disagree with but GS' biggest issue made me laugh.

How is "Pinocchio" bad?

it's not so much the comment but the context that got me. Of all the things to be bothered by, the Pinocchio hate got to him. I love RefinedHype NAtion.

Weekend Soundtrack:

I've been a big Roots fan for a while, but I always favored their older stuff (must be the inner hipster in me). A friend recently put on How I Got Over and I was really impressed. I had been sleeping on the album, but now I'm really fucking with it. The Roots can do no wrong.

Booty Of The Week:

Kate Upton just said she hates her boobs. That makes one of us.

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