Shortly after former Clipse manager, Anthony ”Geezy” Gonzalez, was charged with running a $10-million a year drug ring, one-half of “crack rap’s” dynamic duo started blessing us with the greatest video blogging (VLOG) series in the history of hip hop.

Malice, the often overlooked and completely underrated brother of the best duo in rap (yes, they’re the best until Andre 3000 is kidnapped by the Dungeon Family and forced to rap again; or Pimp C rises from the dead) began releasing these brilliant mini-movies that challenge every stereotype ever thrown at hardcore hip hop.

Intelligent and insightful, not to mention ridiculously entertaining and well-shot, these VLOG’s, as well as the Clipse music, are giving the hardcore heads cause to be proud of their genre as well as incentive to never have to listen to whiny, off-beat nerd rap again when searching for intellect in our entertainment.

If you don’t have time to watch them all, be sure to check out Episode 2, it’s insane. Also, be sure to check for Till the Casket Drops late this summer dropping on Columbia Records. Rick Rubin (co-chairman at Columbia) is rumored to have produced a few cuts for the album!

Malice Video Blog 1 from Malice of the Clipse on Vimeo.

Malice Video Blog 2 from Malice of the Clipse on Vimeo.

Malice Video Blog 3 from Malice of the Clipse on Vimeo.

Malice Video Blog 4 from Malice of the Clipse on Vimeo.

Malice Video Blog 5 from Malice of the Clipse on Vimeo.

Remember when that little Napster thing came along and ass-fucked the whole concept of the record business? I know Lars Ulrich does. Along with stuffing my (and essentially every other human beings) musical catalogue, what the peer-to-peer file sharing phenomenon eventually proved was that the people running the record business were as fucking retarded as the majority of the acts they signed and promoted. I mean seriously, how long did it take before the idea of the iTunes store appeared on the brainstorming board in some overpaid whore-mongering record executive’s underused office? Oh wait, it never did. But I digress. Actually I’m not digressing because I haven’t actually established a point yet. I guess the making of a point would be a good place to start. But wait, If I start with a point then I’ll be working backwards Memento style and I have neither the chiseled facial features of Guy Peirce nor the murdered wife to pull that off so I’ll quickly reroute things.

 – Image by Erin Nations –

Free music is fucking awesome! The only thing better than free music is free music that comes without the guilt of stealing from the creator of the music you obtained freely. This radical idea of guilt-free free music mainly stems from the artists themselves who have combined the less than radical mixtape model with the internet’s ability to widely spread music. Whether an artist wants to garner attention for other upcoming releases or simply wants to stay relevant in between studio projects, the mixtape has always been a valuable tool. The mixtape is literally the reason why hydration became so gangster via Formula 50 Vitamin Water. But gone are the days of the Tony Touch and DJ Clue’s of the world who would compile volumes of albums filled with verses from your favorite MC’s as well as unfamiliar cats trying to make their names known. Gone are the tapes full of recycled verses surrounding one or two originals filled with countless DJ tags ruining any continuity that might have been established. Gone are the remixes and odd guest appearances that never made the official albums. And by “gone” I of course mean very much still here. Go to any bodega in any city and right next to the bootleg movies are countless CD-R’s presented by a bunch of assholes who picked some dumb ass porn name, put “DJ” in front of it, and compiled already released songs into a “mixtape”. I can put my dick on a piece of toast, but that doesn’t make it butter. I guess what I’m saying is that the old formula has been rewritten. The mixtape has been redefined.

It can be a mashup album where the basis for the sonic structure is vastly different from the vocals used to accompany it. The most notable example being The Gray Album by Danger Mouse, in which he mashed Jay-Z vocals from The Black Album with beats sampled from the Beatles White Album. Some artists release street albums which are for the most part no different from an official studio release. They sell them in some situations, most often through touring, but for the most part they are presented on the internet through free download. The most recent and probably most successful artists employing this formula are Bishop Lamont and Wale. But the biggest change is the way artists are approaching the old formula itself, in which they rap over production that has already been used successfully by other artists. The change being the quality of sound as well as material. Crooked I, Royce Da 5’9’’ and Clipse are the torch bearers for this style of presentation and have raised the artistic integrity while doing so.

They all essentially aim to do the same thing and that is to create interest in the parties involved. And of course with the extraordinary amount of excellent music being offered comes an extraordinary amount of horrible music as well, and the only way to find out is to download and listen. But fuck, it’s free, so who cares? I would give you a bunch of sites where you can find these albums but why give you a bunch when there’s one really good one. 2dopeboyz is a blog site that uploads mixtapes as well as released singles. All the music is authorized by the artists and if it isn’t, the cats that run the site will take it down when they become notified (regarding the singles).

Top 10 Mixtapes/Street Albums/Mashups/Free Albums from 2008 –

1.) Wale – The Mixtape About Nothing - The talented MC from D.C. dropped another digital mixtape full of creative lyrical content. “The Kramer” is as hard hitting and more poignant than anything off Nas’ controversial album.

2.) Royce Da 5’9’’ – Bar Exam 2 - Lyrics, lyrics, lyrics. Cot damn! I hope Royce never finds happiness because his anger fuels some of the most vicious bars you’ll ever hear.

3.) Bishop Lamont – The Confessional - Supposedly the final mixtape from Dr. Dre’s right hand man before both Dre’s Detox album and Bishop’s Reformation album drop. The perfect combination of west coast gangsterisms and east coast underground lyrical hip-hop.

4.) Jay-Z – Viva La Hova - Mick Boogie gathered a varied group of producers to create an album consisting of beats sampled from Coldplay’s album Viva La Vida and Jay-Z lyrics. The sound is dark and somber, a mood that suits Jigga well.

5.) Clipse – We Got It For Cheap Vol. 3 & Road Till the Casket Drops - The dark post-apocalyptic coke rap that comes from these Virginia brothers simply does not get old to me. Saturated with about as many slick metaphors and pop culture references as there are mentions of the powdery substance, so don’t assume these guys are one dimensional.

6.) Crooked I – Hip-Hop Weekly Vol. 3 - The final installment from his ingenious hip-hop weekly series. Crooked might never put out a classic album (or an album period) but at any given moment he could out rap anybody on your iPod.

7.) Joe Budden – Ill Poetic Presents: MM3rd - Columbus, Ohio producer and MC Ill Poetic mashed the vocals of Joey B’s Mood Music 3 with a dark musical soundscape he created by sampling from Portishead’s album Third.

8.) Murs & 9th Wonder – Sweet Lord - A free digital download of Murs rhyming over more 9th Wonder production.

9.) Illogic – One Bar Left - A free digital EP released by the Columbus, Ohio wordsmith to build buzz for his forthcoming official album.

10.) Rhymefest – Man in the Mirror - El Che spitting incredibly over beats constructed of MJ samples. The vocal samples from interviews are a hilarious bonus to the music.

The ‘Get That Shit the Fuck Out of My Face Award’ – Goes to anything that has the name Asher Roth attached to it. I’d rather get a catheter put in by Shaq than listen to that wack shit.