Monday Mixtape, Vol. 156 - Jack Harlow's Best Songs

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This where my head is
I feel resentment from every direction
Even some homies be wearing expressions
I be discouraged from sharing my blessings
We used to share a connection
Now it just feels like it's wearing and stretching
I'm getting real sick of taking advice
From people that never could stare at reflections
- Jack Harlow, “WHATS POPPIN”

BARS, man. It’s all about the bars.

For the uninitiated, most rap songs are written in a 4/4 time signature, meaning 4 beats per bar for 4 bars (hence 4/4) equaling 16 beats per verse.

Rappers’ one-liners are referred to as bars and four bars equal a verse. If you truly got bars, you got a unique flow with different cadences to keep the listener guessing, great lyrics, a distinct voice, and you’re an original. Most rappers claim they got bars, just like most rappers claim they’re one of the best. But most rappers are full of shit.

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Monday Mixtape, Vol. 112 - R.I.P. Mac Miller (1992 - 2018)

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I'm pretty torn up about Mac Miller's death. This feels like the first musician that I grew up with that's tragically passed away. His death kept me up the night it was announced, and my mind had difficulty processing a musical soul gone way, way too early.

From 2010, I watched a young, silly, goofy white rapper from Pittsburgh rap dumb songs about Donald Trump while showing his potential with "Kool Aid and Frozen Pizza" and "Nikes on My Feet. " He knew he had something behind that always cheesin’ half smile on his face in videos like he was in on the surprise that he was blowing up too.

Miller moved out to L.A. and started taking music more seriously; consequently, he started taking drugs more seriously, ultimately leading to his overdose. It really is a tragedy because his most recently released album, the phenomenal Swimming, and without a doubt his best album to date, an album that started to show his growth as a lyricist, showed that this guy had range and ingenuity.

He wrote songs with John Mayer, Thundercat, Jon Brion, and Dev Hynes on this album. He was really searching and finding something despite all his clear troubles. Swimming is a really sad album that holds onto a sliver of hope in a heavy ocean, but it was so clear he was finding himself as a musician.

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RIP Scott Weiland - Best of Stone Temple Pilots

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Stone Temple Pilots was one of my favorite bands growing up. They helped to define what the 90s sound was. They had three consecutive albums that were phenomenal, a feat that is rarely accomplished by any band.

STP was led by vocalist Scott Weiland, a man blanketed in an addiction whose wraps never let go. He died last night in his tour van.

STP wasn’t just rock n’ roll, they were talented and it all revolved around Weiland. Even as a young man, the addiction and sorrow covered Weiland’s face. He was in and out of jail his entire life. He was consumed by addiction. But he was an artist that created music that made millions of people’s lives better. The irony is that many of these artists can never solve the ills of their own life but always help others.

There’s too many songs to point to so I made a Best of Stone Temple Pilots playlist. “Interstate Love Song” will always remain one of my favorite songs OF ALL TIME. It’s so nostalgic, yet more importantly, it stands the test of time.

RIP.

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Best of Nas

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1994 was a year like none other in the realm of rap and hip-hop records: Common’s Resurrection, Warren G’s Regulate…G Funk Era, Gang Starr’s Hard to Earn, Digable Planets’ Blowout Comb, The Roots' Do You Want More?!!!??!, Scarface's The Diary, Method Man’s Tical, Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth's The Main Ingredient, Outkast’s Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, Biggie’s Ready to Die, and my favorite rap album ever, the LP that encompasses everything rap represents to me, Nas’ Illmatic.

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