bigted

The thing we need to do is post on other music websites and see if we could get other peeps to help us too, we should try to get them to tune into TRL on Wednesday to see the video then vote for it, put your ex-gfs names, classmates names when you put a name to vote.

Yeah I'd be surprised if it makes TRL's top 10 since they don't play much hip-hop videos as it is anyway, that'd be awesome if it did but it wouldn't surprise me if it didn't 'cause only the most popular rapper gets on TRL, he has a better chance at 106 & Park but that ain't lookin' too good right now either.

Hip-hop's popularity is really going down, 5 years ago there was quite more platinum albums, Nelly and Em sold 10 million with about 10 others going platinum, this year they're selling half of that, actually Nelly's seling 1/3 of that, and you barely have anybody with a gold album, slowly it's becoming a dying trend, maybe there'll be a challenge for commercial rappers to step their game up when they start selling less, but most likely there'll probably kids who were influenced by 50 Cent, Nelly, and Em coming into the game so nothing might change, hopefully the tables turn and those few young kids like us that were influenced by JJFP that come into the game to bring quality hip-hop back, that'd be hot if kids from Slick Rick, Chuck D, KRS, LL, Rakim, and FP took after their dads, hip-hop royalty! :gettinjiggywitit: I honestly think that wouldn't happen though, they'll probably wanna do other things instead of rapping since they know that they can't top their dads either, I don't think that a lot of the ol' school mcs are gonna stop either 'cause they ain't in it for the money, even when hip-hop's faded away, they'll probably still be doing shows behind the scenes for us die hard fans, hip-hop lives through them.

They didn't bleep out bitch in "You Saw My Blinker" so I don't see why they had to bleep out "f***" in the 1st place, he only said it one time, there's a lot of albums out there that have quite a few "f***" mentioned without getting parental advisory labels, especially Queen Latifah's "Black Reign" album.

He bleeped it out though so young kids wouldn't know what he said still so it's all good, Will's not against cursing in songs, he's against rappers cursing repeatedly with no reason like Eminem and 50 Cent that's all, sometimes cursing in a song builds intensity just like when 2Pac and Public Enemy but when done too much it sounds ignorant.

As I've gotten older I've been able to relate to "The Rain" more, when I was 14-15 years old when this album came out it was one of my least favorite tracks even though I did like it, now at 20 years old I could appreciate the heart of this track much more, this is a timeless song, I enjoy more and more every time I hear it.

Week 2 Games: Sun. Sept 18th Detriot at Chicago 1PM Minnesotta at Cincinnati 1PM Baltimore at Tennesee 1PM Jackonsville at Indianapolis 1PM San Francisco at Philadelphia 1PM Buffalo at Tampa Bay 1PM New England at Carolina 1PM Pittsburgh at Houston 1PM St. Louis at Arizona 4PM Atlanta at Seattle 4PM San Diego at Denver 4PM Cleveland at Green Bay 4PM Miami at NY Jets 4PM Kansas City at Oakland 8:30PM Monday Night Games Sept. 19th NY Giants at New Orleans 7:30PM Washington at Dallas 9PM My Picks: Bears Bengals Ravens Colts Eagles Bucs Panthers Steelers Rams Falcons Broncos Packers Jets Raiders Saints Redskins

Happy B-Day Jada! :wickedwisdom:

It wouldn't shock me if Interscope doesn't release a 3rd single if "Party Starter" doesn't start helping sales soon, it's been out on radio for over one month and the video came out on 106 & Park 2 weeks ago and it still hasn't impacted since sales're still slippin', but there was no excuse for Columbia not to release a 3rd single, it sold 2 million here in the US and over 3 million worldwide, it wasn't a failure since it was one of the highest selling albums but it didn't reach it's full potential of being the highest selling album sorta like now since I think going gold now is like selling 2 million in 2000, there was more platinum albums then, but then again I'll never quite understand how Jive could release so many singles for "Code Red" and yet it didn't do that well, actually it probably did better in the UK than over here 'cause more singles were released there instead of here.

I don't understand how they couldn't release a 3rd single, remember how long the wait between singles "Big Willie Style" was? I think it only sold around 3 million after the 2nd single, if Will released "The Rain" and "Potnas" as the 3rd and 4th singles, "The Rain" in Spring of 2000 and the other "Potnas" in late summer 2000, Sony gave up on the album too soon, it coulda easily outsold Eminem's overrated album if the right singles were released, LL Cool J's "G.O.A.T." had the same problem on promotion later that year too, I really thought "Homicide" and "Can't Think" would've been powerful releases, oh well, coulda, shoulda, woulda! :davidblaine:

Yeah I was forgetting about production, as much as I don't like his rap skills, his production skills puts the nail on the casket for him to me, he ruined 2Pac's last album, a lot of 2Pac's hardcore fans were angry about that! :damnlorettas: Em is irrelevant in the hip-hop circle these days, he has a bunch of sell-out fans that watch MTV all day, I like a lot of underground stuff now, I really can't stand the commercial rap scene, only a few like Will Smith, Common, and LL Cool J I truely respect, I think Kanye West is ok, everybody else is disposable, if you heard Public Enemy's albums and then listen to Eminem's "Mosh", you'll see that they're quite more powerful in displaying a message than Em is, they got a lot better production too I'd say, "Mosh" could put you to sleep, I know what seperates Eminem from a lot of mcs, he's the most annoying now, he even makes Ja Rule sound enjoyable, I'd rather buy an album from him before I buy an Eminem album.

LL Cool J, Ice T make VH1's hip-hop honor roll 34 minutes ago VH1 pays tribute to the spirit and influence of hip-hop with its second annual "VH1 Hip-Hop Honors" event, hosted by Russell Simmons and his brother, Run-D.M.C. co-founder Rev. Run. Feted this year will be LL Cool J, Big Daddy Kane, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, the Notorious B.I.G., Ice T, Salt-N-Pepa and John Singleton's groundbreaking flick "Boyz N the Hood." A number of the performances will pair the honorees with some of today's most popular acts. Rapper Nelly will join forces with R&B siren Ciara to perform a medley of LL Cool J's classics "Jinglin' Baby" and "Doin' It" before LL performs "Mama Said Knock You Out." Rapper/producer Kanye West will appear with Faith Evans and a mass choir to honor Evans' deceased husband, the Notorious B.I.G., in the evening's finale. The show, which will be taped September 22 at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, is slated to air at 9 p.m. ET September 26 on VH1. Reuters/Billboard Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

I honestly don't remember seein' the "Freakin' It" video more than just like 1 or 2 times, "Potnas" or "The Rain" should've been the 2nd single instead, damn Sony, well double platinum looks great compared to the sales of "Lost and Found" but it should've sold as much as "Big Willie Style", "Party Starter" is like "Freakin' It" at this point, it's stalling.

Eric B. and Rakim "I Ain't No Joke"

"This is the way it's supposed to be It's supposed to be like you more close to me It's supposed to be about our families It's supposed to be about avoiding catastrophe But it's all about salary and flattery Distrust, lust, hate and tragedy It's supposed to be about you and me on the same route Were you there in eighty-six when I first came out? And you know about how they runnin' this game out It's supposed to be about fun and getting' the pain out But it's all about clout and poppin' them chains out Instead of forgiveness, we poppin' they brains out It's supposed to be about seekin' in the seek out You witnessin' injustice, you got to speak out If you claimin' you love this, you got to release doubt Knowledge is what I'm all about"-KRS-ONE "It Ain't The Same"

Eminem gave an effort to criticise Bush, he gets some credit for that, but I think the "Mosh" song comes off ignorant and off point a lil' bit, a lot of rappers like Public Enemy, Common, Nas, and KRS-ONE drop political knowledge better than Eminem could ever dream of but they don't get the recognition he does and they'd be taken more seriously too if they were able to get that kinda airplay Em has 'cause they keep all their songs intelligent so I respect them more for that when they don't make themselves sound stupid in their other songs they do but if Em expressed himself more like that maybe I'd like him, he should be a lil' bit more conscious and stop talkin' about Hailey and Kim and making fun of other celebrities so much since that gets old and boring after a while since he's repeating the same things over and over, Eminem puts out too many trash songs to all of a sudden be taken serious when he dissed Bush, Kanye sounds a lil' ignorant too but he gives more effort than Em does, Will would get his facts right too if he ever criticised the president in a song.

"That's what wrong with the rap game right now There's a bunch of clowns and a bunch of clicks I could probably rap circles around", that basically sums up how it is!, Yeah it sucks that Naughty By Nature ain't signed, just like Rakim, that's what's wrong with the rap game right now too, like I said before if Jay-Z wants respect in hip-hop he should sign these great mcs, he has the power to do it, he can't knock all these wack mcs himself he's gonna need help or else he'll end up hyping up the wack rappers' careers more, the great mcs he could try to sign could bring quality back to hip-hop but putting DMX and Redman on hold makes it a long shot that he'd consider doing that.

No there are more! He`s maybe one of the best but he isn`t the only one! Of course there's quite a few more but Will's the most popular one that keeps it true, the other ones just don't get recognition at all is basically what I mean. Yeah well you could mention De La Soul and The Beastie Boys and stuff.. Yeah they're awesome but I don't think they're that known on the commercial scene right now, well maybe Beastie Boys since basically all their albums go platinum, I was more referring the commercial scene where you have a bunch of wack crews with the fame and glory, but when it comes down to it, crews like De La Soul, Beastie Boys, Hieroglyphics, Wu-Tang would destroy these crews in a battle, somebody gotta get them on a popular label so they could take over the game.

No there are more! He`s maybe one of the best but he isn`t the only one! Of course there's quite a few more but Will's the most popular one that keeps it true, the other ones just don't get recognition at all is basically what I mean.

I agree basically what Turntable said there, a lot of serious songs just ain't popular, singles like "Just The Two Of Us" is once in a lifetime thing, serious songs don't do too well on the charts, JJFP released "Twinkle Twinkle"(I'm A Star) as a single which didn't have the success of "Boom!" but it's easily better, rappers that release only conscious songs ain't popular(KRS, Common, Nas) "The Rain"'d been a good 3rd single for credability but it might not have been a hit necessarily, even Kanye's song about the blood diamond conflict didn't get the airplay that "Golddigger" is now but I think that track has more credability than "Golddigger" does, I think 3 of the 5 singles he released for "College Dropout" were club songs if I'm not mistaken too, club songs are more marketable to get albums to sell, I think that the people who bought the album clearly would tell you that "The Rain" is better than "Will 2K" but credit has to be given to "Will 2K" to get a lot of people to buy the album where they'd be able to see how versatile Will is, "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" did that for "Big Willie Style" too, as much as we know it ain't his best song, it opened him up to a larger fanbase to see how versatile that album was, I think the people who say that Will's just a club rapper never took time to listen to the albums, that's stupid as sayin' LL only makes love songs, you can't judge artists off of just singles, but there are a lot of commercial rappers who just make the same club songs or potray a lame gimmick throughout their albums that just ain't that good.

The people who buy the albums take Will seriously, the ones that hate on him are the ones that think "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" was the first song he ever made so I don't take their hate seriously. :stickpoke:

Will released "Just The Two Of Us" as a single which is one of the deepest songs ever released in rap history so I think a lot people do take him as a serious rapper already, I think "The Rain" could've had that same impact if it came out, I think the millions of people that bought the album appreciate it already though!

I wish it was JJFP comin' to New Jersey instead of Jay-Z, I guess Jay-Z does have a legit beef 'cause Def Jam ain't the powerhouse of hip-hop like I stated earlier but G Unit and Shady Records suck too, commercial rap bores me, all these suckers are only in it for the money, Will's the only one keepin' it real, he makes a lot of money but he puts his skills first on his priorities.

I remember the album came out the same day as "Lost and Found", I thought they were on Bad Boy still, I only saw their video like 2 times on BET and that's it, they weren't promoted well at all, and yes Jay-Z is really president of Def Jam, even though it doesn't seem like it since he hasn't done anything big there yet since he was named, Mariah was signed before he was president so Jay-Z had nothing to do with her success, the only platinum artist that he signed so far is Kanye West, everyone else is flopping, Def Jam ain't looking like the powerhouse of hip-hop right now, he's losing to G Unit and Shady Records so he's gonna try to battle them probably.

Well if he's only president of Roc-a-fella, he should stop bragging about being president of Def Jam then, btw ain't 112 Bad Boy? I think that's Diddy's job to promote them. Ja Rule's supposed to be on stage with Jay-Z at that concert too so it's probably a no-brainer that they're gonna diss 50 Cent, 50's taking shots at Jigga too, everybody's fightin' to be the highest selling rapper, this is a joke, commercial rap is turning into wrestling.