'Fire' ft. Damien Marley - B-Real (single review)

After getting together to make a song about Marijuana, B-Real and Damien Marley must have parted ways, I imagine, with those common words: 'We must do this again sometimes'. And by golly they have.

If you didn't like this song last time round ('Ganja Bus') then you may not like new single 'Fire'. Yes, it's another catchy, radio-friendly (aside from the endless weed references) single. This time the self produced beat reflects both Damien's Jamaican heritage and B's Latin roots making for some booty-shaking riddims.

Lyrically it explores nothing new, but fans of Cypress Hill won't be listening for original topics. As I've mentioned (but not as many times as they do) this track is about smoking (not doing unspeakble things to law enforcers - B's other fav subject) and Mr. Real takes an opportunity to rap in Spanish as well as his usual nasal English.

Do I like this track? Yeah. I've been a fan of Cypress Hill since I got into Hip Hop (even though I've never been into anything they represent) and B-Real still has whatever it was that drew me to him in the old days. Looking forward to the album, 'Smoke 'n' Mirrors', which is out on Audio Hustlaz/Duck Down Recordson February 24th.

'Don't Ya Dare Laugh' - B-Real (video)

B-Real is back! As one of the rappers responsible for me liking Hip Hop, I've got to give him inches on my blog. This is the video for 'Don't Ya Dare Laugh' from his forthcoming album 'Smoke N Mirrors', out on Duckdown Records on February 24th 2009.

It's a departure from the Cypress Hill days of old but over a slick, Suzanne Vega sampling beat B still manages to drop a weed reference before the opening bars die down. Not sure of Young De but anyways, it's pretty cool.

HHC Top 100 rap singles 50-41

# 49, 47 & 42 - Cypress Hill

Now I’d just like to remind you that this list hasn’t been compiled by me. It was made as a result of a poll that the world’s original rap magazine Hip Hop Connection carried out amongst it’s readers. As it happens, a lot of these tracks would be chosen by me if I had the patience to create such a list of my own. I made it my mission to collect all the tunes together and to bring them to the bloggers of the world. Numbers 50 - 41:

50. Nasty Nas - Halftime (zshare) – 1994 – ‘Illmatic’ (buy here)
If only Nas hadn’t departed from this sound, Hip Hop would possibly be alive and kicking.

49. Cypress Hill - How I Could Just Kill a Man (zshare) – 1991 – ‘Cypress Hill’ (buy here)
The first of three tracks in this post means no-one can accuse Cypress Hill of being inconsistent, well, not during the early 90’s anyway, the early 00’s tell a different story.

48. Dilated Peoples - Work the Angles (zshare) – 1998 – ‘The Platform’ (buy here)
Another inclusion of Dilated is welcome here by me, a great track but I’m still not sure how it gets this high in the top 100 of all time.

47. Cypress Hill - Hand on the Pump (zshare) – 1991 – ‘Cypress Hill’ (buy here or up there)
Cypress show off their ability to create unique blunted funky tracks that involve copious amounts of weed and guns.

46. Run DMC - Walk this Way (zshare) – 1986 – ‘Raising Hell’ (buy here)
Pretty much the forerunner of nu-metal (the sort that have ‘rappers’ and guitar riffs). A classic in many circles particularly Dad circles (also affiliated to air guitar circles), rap circles and student night DJ circles.

45. Eric B & Rakim - Microphone Fiend (zshare) – 1988 – ‘Follow the Leader’ (buy here)

44. 2Pac - California Love (zshare) – 1996 – ‘All Eyez on Me’ (buy here)
Big ‘cruising with windows down in the summer’ tune here courtesy of Dre, Pac and Roger Troutman on the vocoder/talk box. You know what to do; go cruise with your windows down.

43. Hardnoise – Untitled (zshare) – 1990
UK, once again, sounding suspiciously late 80’s American.

42. Cypress Hill – Insane in the Brain (zshare) – 1993 – ‘Black Sunday’ (buy here)
Cer-lassic! A point of much reference in pop culture this track has somehow managed to sneak from hyped up stoner track to one of those songs that everybody just knows.

41. The Crooklyn Dodgers – Crooklyn (zshare) - 1994

Buckshot, Special Ed and Masta Ace come together exclusively for this track produced by Q-Tip. If you like ATCQ or Jurassic 5 then this should really tickle your fancy.

40 tracks left. I'm going away next week so wont get to post for that time, I'll try to do one more installment before I leave y'all.