More Inspirations: Mike Jones, Busta Rhymes, D-Block

Posted by Levi Asher
February 2, 2008

Hey, people, the NewCritics.com post about something that inspired you first anniversary blogging party can’t be over yet, because I still have to post about the current hiphop scene.

Yes, the current hiphop scene. I can’t think of any creative artists in any field that are more inspiring right now than the best of our street hiphop (aka gangsta rap) lyricists and performers. Despite the popular misconception that hiphop hasn’t been the same since Biggie and Pac, the artists working the field today are every bit as good as they need to be, and I’m happy to mention a few of them here. These and several other new hiphop talents are putting out works for the ages, and you can hear the best of it on your car radio. You don’t even need satellite radio to pick up this stuff.

Take Mike Jones of Houston, a warm, funny street rider obsessed with wood grain steering wheels, candy paint, tippin’ on four vogues and drinking purple drink. Sometimes he goes off on the ho’s, other times he tells us — in several different songs — about how his grandmother gave him the advice that kicked off his music career. Jones’ thick-tongued delivery and self-deprecating humor (”I’m Mike Jones” — “Who?” — “Mike Jones”) recall the great Erick Sermon of EPMD; indeed, he is a much-needed Biz Markie for the age of Google and Iraq.

Busta Rhymes is hardly unknown in the hiphop world (where he is seen as a God) but he is not as widely known as he should be outside this universe, and I believe many responsible and mature adults would and could enjoy listening to his music if they gave it a chance. On a technical level, he may be the most skillful rapper of all time. His songs are often built around clever concepts, like last year’s “Touch It”, which features one of the strangest and best beats you’ve recently heard with verses by Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliot, Lloyd Banks, Papoose and Busta, each doing first 16 quiet bars, then 16 loud bars. This track is just the latest gem in a long and innovative career.

There are a lot of good hiphop tracks, but a great CD is a rare thing. “D-Block”, a CD/DVD released in 2006 by the indie Koch Records doesn’t have a single bad moment (well, maybe the DVD does, but the CD doesn’t). D-Block is Jadakiss, Styles P and Sheek Louch, plus a whole lot of friends. J-Hood turns in some of the best verses on this CD, but the free lyrical sample I’ll include here comes from a couple of shorties on the block, Don D and T. Y., from “Let it Go”. I love how they demand to win more Grammy awards than Mariah Carey for this song, when everybody knows that really just isn’t going to happen. Here they go, alternating lines …

I’m in my cell writing
(trying to get my cd hot)
they got me locked in
(till I get my TV spot)
my shit burn and sting
(like your weewee hot)
they want to give me fed time
(like Pee Wee got)
like a court case
(I got the Lamborghini drop)
if you a dusthead
(yeah, we got the heemi block)
we want more awards
(than Mimi got)
and if we don’t
(then we gotta let the nee-ne (9) pop)
nigga, talk shit I start licking a snub
(Don D and T. Y., more chrome than E-doub)
Go, go, we up in the club
(let a four-fif hollow your mug)
I got four burners like the back of your oven
(and we coming for y’all niggas like Harriet Tubman)
Fell back for a minute
(now it’s back to bubblin’)
Them niggas got fat
(now it’s back to grubbin’)
Yo, I’m in the hood, I demand a match
(Yo, D and T. Y. like Dwayne and Shaq)
When we drop shit?
(nigga, put a Grammy on it) …