Debates

Who Flipped It Better?: J Dilla: The Look of Love

by Morgan February 10, 2012 Debates

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Yo KN readers! In honor of February being the late great J Dilla month, today’s installment of Who Flipped It Better will examine one of my favorite Jay Dee produced tracks from his expansive catalogue from Slum Village’s classic Fan-Tas-Tic Vol.1. “The Look Of Love” samples Barney Kessel’s great jazz guitar cut of the same [...]

Who Spit It Better: T.W.D.Y. vs. Twista

by Morgan January 20, 2012 Debates

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Legendary vocalist Bill Wither’s uplifting song, “Lovely Day” plays the foundation for the tracks in today’s feature of Who Spit It Better. We’ll look at the rhymes of T.W.D.Y., a bay area group consisting of Ant Banks, Rappin 4-Tay, and Captain Save-Em, on their Ant Banks produced track, “Players Holiday,” featuring Mac Mall, Too Short, [...]

Who Flipped It Better?: 9th Wonder vs. Slimkat78

by Morgan January 16, 2012 Debates

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Happy New Year to our readers and welcome to this year’s first installment of KN’s, Who Flipped It Better. Beginning with the sample of choice for the entry, “Let Me Ride,” we’re looking at an impeccably soulful song courtesy of 1970’s Chi-Sound Records band, Windy City. This song was flipped to create the two instrumentals [...]

Great Debate: Who Will 2012 Belong To?

by Alex Edelstein January 13, 2012 Debates

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Now that I can definitively look back at 2011 from the objectively removed scope of 2012, the year in Hip Hop still feels as collectively chaotic now as it did during. Trying to single out an individual who ruled 2011, at this stage in the music industry, is nearly impossible. With so much week-to-week variation [...]

Who Spit it Better: AZ/Nas vs. Ice Cube

by Morgan December 9, 2011 Who Spit It Better?

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For this weeks edition of Who Spit It Better we match up AZ and Nas’, “How Ya Livin” vs. Ice Cube and Krayzie Bone’s, “Until We Rich.” Each contains samples from Glenn Jones 1984 hit single “Show Me,” Hip-Hop samples ever. East Coast beast L.E.S. provided his beat for AZ’s Pieces of a Man album [...]

Who Flipped It Better?: Big K.R.I.T. vs. Black Rob

by Morgan November 18, 2011 Who Flipped It Better?

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Ayers’ smooth cut “Sensitize,” courtesy of his 1974 album, Change Up the Groove, created the foundation for this week’s battle of Who Flipped It Better. In this edition, we match up Mississippi rapper/producer Big K.R.I.T.’s, “Made A Lot” from his self-produced mixtape Return of 4eva vs. Black Rob’s “Life Story,” the title track off Rob’s [...]

Who Flipped It Better? Dom Kennedy vs. Black Moon

by Morgan November 11, 2011 Who Flipped It Better?

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For this addition of Who Flipped it Better, we match up Dom Kennedy’s, “Playa’s Punch” vs. Black Moon’s, “How Many MC’s.” East and West Coast, new school vs. old school, whose producer(s) built a better song out of the awesome bass guitar on Grover Washington Jr.’s, “Hydra?” As one of the most recognizable samples ever [...]

Settle The Score: Kendrick Lamar or Danny Brown

by KN Staff November 9, 2011 Editorials

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Danny Brown and Kendrick Lamar are two of the more hyped artists in the game right now. With Danny’s joint project with Black Milk just dropping and Kendrick getting cosigns from everyone from Dr. Dre to Pharrell, each seems destined for stardom. So in this issue of Settle the Score, KN staffers Alex Edelstein and [...]

Who Spit It Better? Chiddy Bang vs. The Throne

by Carsten November 4, 2011 Who Spit It Better?

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Besides explaining how wealthy you can live during a financial meltdown, Kanye and Jay-Z showed us once again how cool it is to sample music from the Ed Banger generation on their collabo effort, Watch The Throne. Alongside “Why I Love You,” which samples and interpolates Cassius‘ club hit “I Love You So,” Kanye and [...]

Who Flipped It Better?: Jay Rock (All I Know Is) vs. Biz Markie (Make The Music With Your Mouth Biz)

by Morgan October 28, 2011 Who Flipped It Better?

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Eighties icon Biz Markie and Watts spitter Jay Rock are polar opposites of the Hip Hop world. In terms of style, content, era, and basically everything else, their music is completely different from each other. However, one thing that they have shared is rhyming over a sample flip of Issac Hayes’ sensually charged “Ike’s Mood/You’ve [...]

Who Spit It Better: J. Cole Vs. CRU

by Morgan October 21, 2011 Who Spit It Better?

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In this battle of Who Spit It Better, we match Mr. Second String himself J. Cole and his track, “Sideline Story” against the now defunct Cru’s (also known as the Rhythm Blunt Cru) jam “Just Another Case” ft. Slick Rick. Both producers that covered these tracks flipped the seventies band, Rhythm’s,” The World is A [...]

Who Spit It Better?: Joe Budden vs. Deezus vs. Sean Price

by Thomas October 14, 2011 Who Spit It Better?

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The latest edition of Who Spit It Better has Mouse Budden’s “Dear Diary” facing off against Canadian rapper Deezus’ “Cover My Tracks” featuring Brooklyn’s own Sean Price. Both tracks sample Lakeside’s ”Alibi” from their 1983 album, Untouchables. Both tracks use the soulful parts of the track (vocals) but what separates them? Let’s find out. Sean [...]

Settle the Score: J. Cole or YelaWolf?

by KN Staff October 12, 2011 Exclusive

With J. Cole’s full-length debut just dropping and Yelawolf set to make his major debut soon, what better way to welcome them then a debate about which rapper is better? We’re leaving this intentionally open-ended so that we may use a variety of opinions on what better really means. Each artist has the shadow of a [...]

Who Flipped It Better?: Otis vs. D.T.D.

by Morgan October 7, 2011 Who Flipped It Better?

From my production perspective, there are not to,o many parts to take out of Otis Redding’s minimalist classic “Try a Little Tenderness.” In this situation, the beats sampling the original can end up sounding awfully similar. For this battle of Who Flipped It Better, producer Allah Mathematics “DTD” with Masta Killa is up against Kanye [...]

Settle The Score: People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm vs. The Low End Theory vs. Midnight Marauders

by Arasia Magnetic October 25, 2010 Settle The Score

It’s been a long time since we brought you an edition of Settle The Score. For those that don’t remember, Settle The Score puts classic Hip Hop debates that heads have been arguing over for years to rest—once and for all. We kicked this series off with Ironman vs. Supreme Clientele and followed up with [...]

Commentary: T3′s Loyalty In Question

by Justin August 5, 2010 Exclusive

It’s not like Slum Village is the first group to break up (they’ve gone through their fair share of changes over the years) but there was something different about this one. As fans, we clamor for our favorite groups to reconcile and work together again. Most of the time, we see the tension build right [...]

DaVinci vs Shyheim vs Hell Razah

by Thomas July 17, 2010 Who Spit It Better?

Another edition of Who Spit it has Filmore District (San Francisco) emcee DaVinci battling Wu-Tang affiliates Shyheim and Hell Razah. The trio rhyme over O.V. Wright’s “Nickel and a Nail” from his 1967 album, Eight Men, Four Women. The tracks supplied by RZA and Big D use the track nicely with RZA focusing more on [...]

Rick Ross vs Joe Budden

by Thomas July 17, 2010 Who Spit It Better?

The Bawse and Joe Budden both have used one of my favorite samples, “Silly Love Song” by Enchantment. The Bawse uses the sample for his lead single (“Super High”) featuring Ne-Yo from this forthcoming album, Teflon Don (July). Joe Budden utilized the track for his 2008 album, Halfway House [buy]. Both are decent songs aiming [...]

Erykah Badu vs Alicia Keys

by Thomas June 24, 2010 Who Spit It Better?

Two beautiful women. Two solid tracks. One song a lead single to a live album. The other a solid album track on one of the best R&B albums released this year. Both sing over Eddie Kendricks often used “Intimate Friends” track. Alicia beautifully sings about the “unbreakable” nature of celebrity power couples (at that time). [...]

Commentary: What Is Hip Hop?

by Kevin June 17, 2010 Exclusive

Photo Credit One of my fellow co-workers recently asked me, “What is Hip Hop?” after discovering that I run a Hip Hop blog. Of course, I stared at him like a deer in headlights. What do you mean…what is Hip Hop? He went on to ask, “What kind of music is it? Is it rap [...]

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