Lil' Wayne feat. Cory Gunz-6 Foot 7 Foot

Change of plans tonight. Was going to drop a dope electro jam, but that'll wait. Lil' Wayne's new single off Tha Carter IV leaked today.

Wayne has an elephant sized presence in my iTunes and I've been a Lil' Wayne fan since way back in the day when me and my buddy Quon would ride around on our bikes listening to his debut Tha Block Is Hot. Probably the best album ever put out by a 16-17 year old, his debut set the tone for years of hard hitting albums and mixtapes. While his albums seemed to sometimes put constraints on Wayne, his zaniness always found its way onto his countless mixtapes (I still think Tha Drought III is the best mixtape of all time). With his Tha Carter series, Wayne solidified himself as a serious artist, and his Tha Carter III album was one of the most successful  albums of this past decade.

Wayne's combination of punch lines, raw energy, word play, and the undeniable "it" factor have made him one of the most popular rap artists in the world. A recent jail stint though had people wondering what was the next step with Wayne, especially after his last two eh releases (Rebirth and I Am Not A Human Being). This street single seems to answer every question and doubt. Picking up right where "A Milli" left off, Weezy comes out throwing JaMarcus Russell fastballs. Wayne started writing his rhymes for the first time in jail, and although far from the lyrical precision of Rakim in our last jamandahalf, he makes up for it with a swag that seems to be at an all time high. With lines like: "real G's move in silence like lasagna," and "I got through that sentence like a subject and a predicate" Weezy seems like he's fully back, having fun, and out to prove that the jail sentence was nothing but a hiccup in his over 13 year old career. Welcome home.

 Lil' Wayne-6 Foot 7 Foot (feat Cory Gunz) (JamandaHalf.com) by jammininthenameof

Q-Tip feat. Busta Rhymes, Raekwon, & Lil' Wayne-Renaissance Rap (Remix)

Turn this song up and imagine yourself walking down the street, turning the corner, and stumbling on a rap cypher by four of the greatest rappers alive. With a syncopated flow that only gets better with age, Q-Tip starts off the festivities, rapping about coming up in New York, honing his skills, rapping on the A train, and battling other rappers for days. Probably the most technical of the four, Q-Tip ends his verse with a gem:

When in the heat of the cipher, I was not libel
For all the casualties of the dutty MCs'
I split the train car like Moses did the Red Sea
Get it in ya head, we gon' rock the dead
Night of the living MCs', the weak ones fled

Busta Rhymes is next. With his trademark energy and vigor, Busta throws in enough animal noises for a screening of Planet Earth. Like a silver-back gorilla puffing out his chest, Busta's verse is him trying to prove that he's the hardest around. Raekwon follows Busta, doing what he does best: storytelling with a mix of flash and grit. His gruff voice sounds just as at home rapping about looking fly at the Golden Globes as it does rapping about a thousand and one goons. Lil' Wayne, by far the baby of the group, finishes it up. With a goofy flow, Wayne's talent shines even though his verse is probably the least lyrical of the four. But its hard to deny that he seems to be having the most fun. 

With four different flows, four different approaches, and four different subjects, this song  showcases the diversity of rap. With no hooks and no choruses, just four rappers and a hype man, this song takes it back to the simpler times, when being the hardest rapper on the block was enough. 

Lyrics

 Q-Tip-Renaissance Rap remix feat. Busta Rhymes, Raekwon, Lil' Wayne (Jamandahalf.com) by jamand1/2