This year BET went to a few countries worldwide to record their famous Cypher segment. I haven’t been able to find any footage of  the Ghana cypher online UNTIL NOW! This features 4 major beasts of the Ghanaian hip-hop industry JAYSO, TIFFANY, AYIBGE EDEM & REGGIE ROCKSTONE. All of them went in hard body. My boy Jayso and Ayibge Edem had the hardest verses (and i don’t even understand what Edem was saying lol). I’m really happy, excited and thankful to BET for looking outside the United States for Cypher recordings. I know they have done a few in the UK in the past. This is a very big look for the Ghanaian hip hop industry and ofcourse Haatsville/Skillions ya know!

Here’s my favourite cypher from this years lot. Joe Budden had the best verse over all in my opinion. He breathes truth and emotion when he rhymes.

K

By: Le Fetiche Produções

]]> http://urbancypher.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/urbancypher-womp-its-here/ Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:41:40 +0000 binomariah http://urbancypher.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/urbancypher-womp-its-here/

UrbanCypher is ready to keep the world updated on the latest fashion, hip-hop, and media news, issues, top stories and more! Keep up on your fix of fashion and hip-hop/R&B. We bring you the latest! Womp! Tune in, subscribe, direct your attention people! THESE ISSUES AFFECT YOU! If not affect they may interest you. UrbanCypher, let’s get it!

Segue as fotos da JAM DANCIARTE de novembro onde o blog b.boylife esta na produção, em breve os videos!

Slim Shady is back.

And anyone who saw the BET Hip Hop Awards last weekend can attest to it. Eminem may have claimed to have killed off his twisted and crazy alter ego, but he was clearly back in full force at the last Cypher (and even though Em anchors probably the greatest cypher BET has yet to assemble, Mos takes it).

And about time. As one of my friends commented, “It was good to see slim shady re emerge. This Marshall mathers guy was getting old.” Em’s last few releases pre-Relapse were quite weak. He was still and will always be one of the most gifted technical Emcees ever, but that mean streak was missing. Mean streak doesn’t even describe it really. Psychotic homicidal streak or some shit, is more like it.

Relapse was almost a return to form. Almost. Amidst all of the press around Eminem’s near death experience at the hands of a methadone overdose and his subsequent sobriety, Relapse emerged as Eminem’s most tortured work. It’s personal, introspective, honest, and brutal (particularly my favorite track Deja Vu, which convinced me Eminem should no longer have custody of his children, seriously).

But it wasn’t that good. It was too dark.

Gone is Em’s distinctive sadistic humor, ridiculous pop culture references, and social satire. There are flashes of it, “Surfing every channel, until I find Hannah Monatana, then I reach for the Aloe and Lanolin, bust all over the wall pannelin’,” But for the most part he seemed to attempt to cram all of them into the album’s best known single We Made You. Most of the album Em wallows in his problems instead of approaching them with his usual comically ironic distance. Em used to be fun to listen to despite how fucked up everything was. Relapse is just depressing (And then there’s the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog voice he’s still using).

And I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but Eminem in his recent public appearances, looks miserable. Go back and watch the Cypher. Em’s killing it, but he is not enjoying it. If anyone saw his skits with Tracy Morgan on the VMA’s, Em is funny but he is not having fun. His Tim Westwood freestyle session, dope, but he’s not happy. The Forever video from Drake, murders it, but there’s no joy. Even on Jimmy Kimmel, in his interview or the remote he shoots with Jimmy, He Looks Miserable.

But why? Why isn’t Em as fun as he used to be?

The obvious answer is sobriety, and it’s what all the press focused on. Detailed articles about Em’s overdose and rampant drug use were cover stories in XXL, VIBE, and even Entertainment Weekly. And that was the better story. “Rapper overcomes drug abuse, to get sober and record most personal album yet.” It’s heartwarming, triumphant, and very American. But Em says Relapse is the first time he’s recorded sober in seven years. That would mean that at least one of his first two albums, the Slim Shady LP or the incredible Marshall Mathers LP was recorded (relatively) sober. So although it’s a nice story, I don’t think that’s it.

To find the answer I want to turn to Track 3 on Relapse, a little ditty called Insane. Here’s the song, but don’t listen yet.

Here’s an excerpt from Insane:

I want you to feel like my stepfather felt me (uhmm...)
Fuck a little puppy, kick the puppy while he's yelpin
(Shady, what the fuck you saying?) I don't know - HELP ME!
What the fuck's happening?! I think I'm fucking MELLLTING!
"Marshall, I just love you boy, I care about your well-being"
NO, dad I said NO! I don't need no help-ing

Now I know what you’re saying. This is Eminem, being the Eminem of old. Makin’ up some crazy fucked up shit, about something people shouldn’t joke about, and actually making it kinda funny. It’s not like he was actually molested by his stepfather or fucked a dog.

Well, no. I don’t think he fucked a dog. And I think this would be kinda funny, if it wasn’t the third verse of the song. And if the first verse wasn’t this:

I was born with a dick in my brain, yeah fucked in the head
My stepfather said that I sucked in the bed
'til one night he snucked in and said
"We're goin out back, I want my dick sucked in the shed"
Can we just play with Teddy Ruxpin instead?
"After I fuck you in the butt, get some head,
 bust a nut, get some rest"
The next day, my mother said,
"I don't know what the fuck's UP with this kid!
The bastard won't even eat nothing, he's scared
He just hung himself in the bedroom, he's dead!"
"Debbie, don't let that fucker get you upset
 Go in there, stick a fuckin cigarette to his neck
 I bet you he's fakin it, I bet you
 I bet he probably just wants to see how upset you would get
 I'll go handle this, of course, unless you object"
"Aw, go fuck his brains out if any's left in his head"

Now listen to the song. I’ll wait… yeah. It’s not funny, now is it. ‘Cause now you kinda think he WAS actually molested by his stepfather.

But it is Em, and he does make shit up. Even in that Jimmy Kimmel clip he says he makes stuff up (he also says he draws on terrible things that happened to him as a child). And clearly he’s joking, what’s that line about hanging himself in the bedroom, of course that didn’t happen! No, it didn’t. It’s actually the only line that doesn’t seem to ring true. So it got me thinking. Here’s a line from the first verse of Eminem’s first single, My Name Is. Some of you may have missed it because it was completely replaced from on the edited version.

Well since age twelve, I've felt like I'm someone else
Cause I hung my original self from the top bunk with a belt

It’s the same shit as the line from Insane. Em’s been talking about his stepfather touching him, since his first record under Dre. We just never knew what he was talking about. Honestly, I think this is the event that birthed Slim Shady. That original self, Em speaks of hanging in two songs almost a decade apart, was Marshall Mathers, and at age twelve the persona that survived the childhood trauma of being molested by his stepfather was Slim Shady.

I know, I know, I’m taking this too far. I’m using pop psychology, double consciousnesses, I saw Primal Fear the other day, maybe the whole birth of Slim Shady thing was too much. But here’s the thing. It makes too much sense.

Eminem has always been at the forefront of accusations towards Hip Hop’s homophobic nature. And the attacks have been deserved. The funny thing is, I can’t think of another straight MC who has so many gay references in his work. For example, from If I Get Locked Up Tonight:

I'm sick enough to fuck a man in his face but I won't
 cause you'll probably wanna stand in his place
 So put a sock in it, with your fake-ass Tupac image
 You faggots ain't tough, you just get drunk and become talkative

In the same four bars Em claims that he would perform a gay act, and then calls others gay for wanting it, and then uses the term faggots. It’s confusing as shit, and runs throughout a lot of his music. A traumatic homosexual experience could explain some of that.

And then there’s this miserableness, all of a sudden. Here’s an interview of him in 2002. Compare it to the recent stuff. His demeanor is very different. Maybe, being completely sober for the first time, Em is finally having to deal with this stuff on the day to day. And it’s not going well. If you’ve been covering up some shit like this with substances for 20+ years, I’m sure when you’re off them, you’re not gonna be the happiest person. And it definitely becomes hard to find the humor in it all. I think Relapse and Eminem’s recent public disposition is the result of him finally having to deal with child abuse.

And whether you fully believe what I’m saying or not, it must be clear that there’s SOMETHING to this.

So why hasn’t this been in any of the press? You would think this would be a big deal. And, I mean he put it out there by writing a song about it. But NONE of the above articles even mention the song. At all. I don’t know. Maybe it just wasn’t as nice of a story as the overdose. Maybe his management thought it’d hurt his image. Maybe he wouldn’t speak about it in person. Maybe everyone thought he was joking. Maybe he was joking and I’ve blown this totally out of proportion. It’s probably a little of everything.

Honestly, I’m just happy that Em is back. The game needs him, depressed, happy, intoxicated, sober, he’s still one of the all-time greats. Supposedly before the end of the year, we’ll be getting Relapse 2. Although I hope we get some more of the humor and fun of Em back, I don’t think we will. On the topic of the new record, Em has this to say:

“The last record I made, I think I was concentrating more on spitting. On this album, I feel like there’s some of that, but I went back to songs with [feelings] to them as opposed to just rap records.”

This album’s gonna be depressing as shit. But it’ll still be dope. And if it’s as soul-searching as Shady’s suggesting it is, this whole molestation thing might get the press it deserves. If, of course, I’m right. Which, you know, I am.

‘Til then I’ll be bumping Em’s new cut Taking My Ball off the DJ Hero Soundtrack. ‘Cause goddamn, when he does turn it on…

…he’s still got it.

Every musical blog I seem to visit recently has this clip from BET’s ‘Cypher’, featuring Mos Def, Black Thought and Eminem… So I figured, why buck the trend? Enjoy.

Holy Smokes, Folks!

A production from GasMask and Le Fetiche Produções.

Video Of The Week 11-02-09

B.E.T. Cypher 3 Mos Def, Black Thought, and Eminem. Now, I know I’m late, but this is dope no matter how you look at it. Enjoy

WHAT IS A CYPHER???

(This is from the 2009 BET AWARDS)

*All from WIKIPEDIA

A CYPHER is a hip-hop jam session or freestyle battle

A jam session is a musical act where musicians gather and play (or simply “jam”) without extensive preparation or predefined arrangements; improvisation.

Jam sessions are often used to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one participant, or may be wholly improvisational. Jam sessions can range from very loose gatherings of amateurs to sophisticated improvised recording sessions intended to be edited and released to the public.

Freestyle rap commonly refers to rap lyrics which are improvised through acapella or with instrumental beats, i.e. performed with few or no previously composed lyrics, off the top of the head^{[1][2][3][4][5]}. It is similar to other improvisational music such as rock where there is a lead guitarist acting as the improviser and the backup guitarist providing the beat.

Originally, in Old School Hip-Hop, the term ‘freestyle’ referred to a pre-written rap verse that was not on any particular subject matter and was just written for the purpose of demonstrating skill^[6]. The term is still occasionally used in this way, though the majority of today’s artists use it to mean improvised rapping^[1].

Este é o 3º Cypher dos BET Awards de 2009… Mos Def, Black Thought e Eminem! Até dói, rapaz (ou rapariga, porque acredito que ainda há raparigas a gostar de Hip-Hop)!

Definitivamente o melhor dos 3 cyphers, apesar do KRS-1 ter estado muito bem, sim senhor!

Paz,

Stereo!

I ran across the Quiksilver Cypher PS+ Heated Vest while reading about it in a Surfline article. It seems awesome! Basically, it is what it sounds like, a heated vest. Unfortunately they don’t harvest the power of magma to heat it, but it’s still a great idea. This isn’t the first heated suit idea, Ripcurl’s been doing it with their H Bomb wetsuit, and there’s other companies that are doing it too. The Cypher vest heats to a crazy temperature on high (130 degrees)!

It’s fairly cheap too, only $200. But I found a 6/5/4 for the same price from Billabong. With the suit at least all of your limbs will stay pretty warm, I don’t think you’d survive in a 3/2 with the vest on. I’m really tempted to buy it though. It seems like it’d be Shangri-La in the wetsuit with that vest.

The BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher with Eminem, Mos Def, and Black Thought of The Roots was already completely dope. I have a huge affinity for the combinations of people the Cypher tends to bring together as it is, but, somehow, this back stage video of Mos Def and Black Thought causes even more excitement.

A lot of emcees talk about being a fan of hip-hop first, but I’ve never believed anybody quite as much as I believe Mos Def, who spits the entirety of The Roots’ “75 Bars” here just because he loves it so much. Even Black Thought is impressed, and it’s not the first time that Mos Def has taken a moment to gush alongside someone he really respects. He’s done the same for MF Doom, and in this Embedded outtake from Current TV, Mos also talks about how he was freaking out just because he was able to get Slick Rick to guest on his latest album, The Ecstatic.

When someone loves what they’re a part of and their peers that help make up the same genre that much, then it’s really no wondering how someone like Mos Def has succeeded for over ten years. He’s a fan before everything, and it’s refreshing to see who strives to be the best at what he does but hasn’t forgotten what makes his craft enchanting in the first place.

Wow…

props to nahright for the vid and mp3 link (featuring all 3 vids):
DJ Premier feat. Mos Def, Black Thought, Eminem, Nicki Minaj, Buckshot, Crown Royyal, Joe Budden, Wale, Nipsey Hussle, Gsan & KRS-One – 2009 BET Hip-Hop Awards Cyphers (10min megamix)
though, to me, the awards in general are an utter joke…this cypher feature they’ve got going is becoming legendary. ftr, these are possibly my 3 favorite rappers…mixed in with maybe 3 others. who’s in your top 3??

peace, and cypher love.

Jay-Z & Jeezy perform ‘Real As it Gets’ to open the show

Cypher #1 Freestyle : Nicki Minaj, Joe Budden & sum other guy no1 cares about lol

Cypher #3 Freestyle: Mos Def, Black Thought, Eminem

I didn’t watch this years 2009 BET Hip Hop Awards but I did see the Cypher online and these three murdered it and I thought this was actually worth posting today.

BET Hip Hop Awards Cypher featuring Joe Budden, Nicki Minaj, Crown Royal, and BuckShot. Beat provided by DJ Premier.

2009 BET Hip Hop Awards Cypher…

-Saki-

BET (!) takes us back to the roots of hip hop with one of the dopest cyphers in recent history.