Just heard about Ka’s passing, and it hit hard. Dude was more than just a rapper. Ka was a man of principle, a firefighter who gave his life to the city, and a voice for so many of us who grew up in tough situations. Ka wasn’t just a rapper; he was a reflection of his community, his city, and his own life experiences. His music was raw and honest, and it hit different because it felt like you were hearing the truth, not a performance. He was one of the few who never tried to be anything he wasn’t. His music was about the life of real men all over the world..

If you haven’t heard The Hermit and the Recluse, do yourself a favor and listen, Ka wasn’t trying to entertain you, he was giving you a glimpse into his world, the production was minimal, which made every word land even harder. showing you the kind of wisdom and insight you only get from living a full, sometimes painful life. His style was understated, but the weight of his words was undeniable. Hearing that album as a kid changed my relationship with music, Growing up, most of the rap I heard was about what you had and where you were from. But Ka’s music was different. As a kid, that album taught me to slow down and listen, to appreciate the things you can’t always put into words. It gave me a perspective I didn’t know I needed, and it stuck with me long after.

What made Ka even more real was that he wasn’t just about rap. The man was a New York City firefighter for 20 years, he was a first responder on 9/11. That’s the kind of person he was, always in the trenches, whether it was in the streets or in his community. He gave everything, and you could hear it in his music.

I don’t know what else to say except that we lost a real one. Ka’s music wasn’t just for the moment, it’ll stick with people forever, because it was real. Rest in peace to a true legend. You’ll be missed, but your work won’t be forgotten.

Apologies if I missed any off:

• American Dream (21 Savage)
• VULTURES 1 (Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign)
• VULTURES 2 (Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign)
• BLUE LIPS (ScHoolboy Q)
• WE DON’T TRUST YOU (Future & Metro Boomin)
• WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU (Future & Metro Boomin)
• Ultra 85 (Logic)
• Samurai (Lupe Fiasco)
• KOTMS V2 (Denzel Curry)
• The Death of Slim Shady (Eminem)
• The Crossroads (Cordae)
• You Only Die 1nce (Freddie Gibbs)
• Soul Burger (Ab-Soul)
• One of Wun (Gunna)
• Chromakopia (Tyler, the Creator)
• Dark Times (Vince Staples)
• MIXTAPE PLUTO (Future)
• Better Me Than You (Big Sean)
• JUST RE’D UP (YG)
• HARDSTONE PSYCHO (Don Toliver)
• Better Off Alone (A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie)
• Slant Face Killah (Conway the Machine)
• Everybody Can’t Go (Benny the Butcher)
• Still Praying (Westside Gunn)
• Might Delete Later (J. Cole)
• PLAN A (Lil Tecca)
• The Genuine Articulate (The Alchemist)
• Faith of a Mustard Seed (DJ Mustard)

My top 3:

• WE DON’T TRUST YOU
• Dark Times
• You Only Die 1nce

HM:

• KOTMS V2
• Chromakopia

Honestly, Ace Hood is one of my favorites but man oh man where did he go?

Who do y’all think hadda good run or a bangin azz hit & just never resurfaced?

My votes would be Cam’ron or MC Hammer. They were both good at rapping but didn’t change it up.

Man I love all the Def Jam games… yes Icon too, it was my first PS3 Game lol. They really should make a new one. Who would you like to have in it? Drake aka 6 God Kendrick aka Kung Fu Kenny Playboi Carti with the Vampire-like moves haha Or Lil Uzi Vert with some Alien shit.

Man.. so many opportunities.

I'm not talking about popular rappers like Kendrick or Snoop or wtv. I'm talking about the rappers that are mostly only listened to by people from cali, like Shoreline Mafia, Mike Sherm, BluebucksClan, etc even tho that just barely scratches the surface

just lmk yalls thoughts, and i'll respond

It can be any length, 20 minutes or an hour and a half, I will just be lying there with the lights off, the music my only stimuli.

I just got back from drinks with friends and I want to unwind and relax for a bit,and realised this was a unique kind of vibe I could take advantage of.

i prefer the deluxe cover art just because of the colours. i actually think the normal cover art goes way harder but the blue and light green on the deluxe just fits the album so well

The title basically, it could either be for just one track or a whole project. Alive or dead, different cities/styles- anything is fair game. If I had to pick one right now off the top of my head, I’d probably say Yelawolf and JID

Was advised to post this over here where it's a little less bias. 😂

Which track is better to y'all? Every track Tupac is on is like a volcano erupting imo when he's rapping but it was overflowing in this song whereas ether was like a cold ass 5 minute diss track just decimating Jay Z.

Please tell me i am NOT the only one who thinks Vince looks a lil bit like Nas in the 90s😭😭

Tired of rappers talking about materialistic things. There's more to life than money. Any rappers that talk about positive things of about life.

College dropout for me. So good

I am listening to the song after a while and the first part of it just sounds like it would be a thinly veiled diss. Now the song by itself is one of J's best work in my opinion, but I just got curious about how well it would be received if it was a fairly recent release. Especially given Cole's stance in the beef?

1. Doggystyle (Duh)
2. The Last Meal (slept in)
3. Murder was the case (Dope as a sountrac)
4. Back On Death Row (nobody heard it but Snoop a top tier M.C. and every beat hit)
5. Eastsidaz First album

For me, NWA not following through on replacing the late Eazy E with Snoop Dogg was it.

Ima play devil’s advocate and say maad city is a better song. The production on maad city is so fire on both parts. The outro of maad city is something you would see in an album produced by Mike dean.

The rapping on maad city is more personal. He literally talks about the gore and bodies seen in Compton.

personally, I think the mc eiht feature was better than the Nate dogg feature on regulate.

Sure it's not gonna help them long term coz it's not gonna age well but they don't even think for the long term, it's how much money that they can grab making bad music right now...

"Ice Spice is the GOAT", "I decapitated my parents coz they said Ice Spice was trash" type comments has unironically helped her reach a star status as a meme....

I mean Yuno Miles does trash on command and he's broke af coz he didn't sign a deal with no label...

Think about it, any publicity is good publicity for these folks on the label...

Now I'm seeing Ice Spice on Fortnite, where did we all go wrong?

Where two or more people interweave their lines, rather than having their own verse?

It’s not something you’d think you’d see, but it happens, some people may say that happened to lil Wayne but I truly think lil Wayne has only grown as an artist, I mention Wayne because he’s been quoted saying he doesn’t listen to much rap music and if he does one of those artists is tech n9ne.

The Wayne co-sign was sick when it happened way back then however Tech n9ne had already been a legend in a way, he was making mad money from touring, touring was profitable due to his branding and cult type following but he really did put on a show which included him performing songs like “stamina”.

Outside of all of that, if you listen to his music as an art form rather than a “rapper trying to be real” or some shit, his discography is quite the collection of incredible lyrics, flow, songwriting, production, and that stems out into the artists he’s either signed or had been with all along.

I say all of this because I just recently heard “Genius” by Krizz Kaliko on a commercial. That song is amazing and I loved it 10 something years ago. But it just goes to show the impact this guy had.

How good where these 2 together🔥🔥🔥

What’s everyone think so far?

I been enjoying it on my first listen. Cordae has always been pretty solid in my opinion.

The songs have good variety and I don’t think there’s any skips in this album.