Mavi 〽️: Recent Episodes
Mavi 〽️ - Beams.fm
Hip Hop passionate. Here you’ll find historical context, curiosities and interesting discussion about the culture we love. Twitter @NameIsMavi
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Let’s face it, every single rapper on Planet Earth has at least said one wack bar. I don't care if you're Jay Z or Lil Uzi Vert, if you've been making music for years, that just happens. Now, of course there's some rappers we hold to a higher standard because they're lyricists or we care about what they're saying. So whenever they say corny bars, it's always shocking. So today I want to mention some of the worst bars I can think of. Alright, so I have to start with this one from Big Sean. He has spit a few questionable bars over the years, but this one remains undefeated. He said, “I made something out of nothing, Sean Don the magician. She doing tricks with her pussy, I guess she's a vagician”. Like what are you doing Sean, this is the funniest shit to me when rappers try to be smart, but then it comes out terrible and then we have J. Cole back in the day, he used to have this weird obsession with farts and poops, I don't know why. And he said, “I'll let you feel like the shit but boy, you can't out fart me” what's going on? I don't get it. And lastly I have to mention Common’s feature on Get Em High by Kanye, it's one of the worst bars. He said, “real rappers is hard to find, like a remote”. I'm speechless Anyways, let me know what you think. I just don't know what was going on in the minds of these brilliant emcees
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What makes a great rapper? It's a combination of skills, right? Like the rhymes, the subject matter, the lyricism. But people usually forget a very important one. Delivery, you know, it's the way an artist uses his voice to get the message across or to just sound great on the beat. And that shouldn't be discredited, since it can either make or break some songs. So I made a list of some rappers that I think have the best deliveries, and you guys will tell me if you agree or not, starting with Tupac. I mean, he is the obvious choice. He could get his points across so easily in such an effective way, and it could be any topic. I mean, on Changes. He was impacting communities to do better, but on Hit Em Up. He was telling Biggie, he was going to fuck his wife, and just listening to that song feels intimidating, especially because of his delivery. The second rapper I want to shout out is DMX, one of the best rappers to listen to when you're working out, man, his delivery was so aggressive that it gives you insane levels of energy. Then you have Kanye West, which is the definition of a charismatic delivery. That's why he says a lot of dumb shit but still gets away with it. Shout out to Pusha T and Jadakiss. They have such unique deliveries. You know J. Cole, Ghostface Killah Ice Cube. There are so many rappers with amazing deliveries. So yeah, tell me which is your favourite.
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Summer is finally coming and I'm so ready man. It's my favorite time of the year and after two years, two years of Covid, I feel like everyone is ready to just throw the masks in the trash and have the best times of their lives. This means it's time for festivals to make a comeback and I'm so excited for this year because Rolling Loud, the biggest Hip Hop festival in the world is coming to Portugal. So obviously I'm IN the lineup is stacked as fuck. So today I want to talk about some of my favorite artists that I'm looking forward to seeing live starting with the man himself, Jermaine Cole. He's one of my favorites of all time and I've been waiting for a chance to see him for almost a decade. This feels like a great time too, you know, he dropped The Off Season last year, which was an amazing album and I hope he plays some classic shit of Forest Hills Drive, like Love Yourz, No Role Modelz and G O M D is probably insane live as well. Also Future is coming. He's the trap goat. So you know, he will always have songs that make the crowd go crazy. A$AP Rocky is also headlining and I have faith. He will be a great performer, also excited for Skepta, Lil Baby Roddy Ricch, Don Toliver Lil Uzi Vert Rae Sremmurd and Playboi Carti. He has an insane energy live and I really hope it meets the expectations
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you know, it's crazy how much of an impact someone you've never met can have on you. But this is true, especially with artists, their music is always there for you whether you're high or down. You kinda end up making a connection with the person behind the music because you know, their deepest feelings and beliefs, these deaths have impacted me the most. Starting with XXX Tentacion, this one hit me hard from what I saw. He was becoming better as a person. He was learning from his mistakes and he was actually helping people. Also, one of the most honest artists I've ever heard. The way he expressed his emotions through his music was something that everyone related to another terrible situation was with Mac Miller man. I have so much love for him. I remember a concert he did in Portugal for 90,000 people back in 2014 and that's when I became a fan and looking back on it. He has one of the best evolutions as an artist in the last decade. His music kept getting better and better and always appreciate the fact he tried so many different genres. Lastly, I want to mention Juice WRLD passing. It's so scary that he was always talking about it in his music. You know, he was really fighting with his demons. So that one actually made me think a lot none of them deserve to end like this. But at least they keep on living through the music rest in peace. My brother 1Train long live Elijah
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Let's stop with the bullshit. People that say comparisons should end are complete idiots. Thank God hip hop has a competitive nature because whenever rappers are on the same track, they want to absolutely kill one another and show their opponents how much better they are. So in this way, they're not only elevating their own verse but also making the overall song better. So today I want to talk about the kings of this generation. Drake, Kendrick, Lamar and J. Cole. This is the debate that never ends, but today is judgement day. So my question is, Did Kendrick Lamar surpassed him with his new album, Mr Morale and The Big Steppers. I want to start this off by saying There's some of my favourite rappers of all time, and you can make a case for each one of them being the best because they each dominate certain categories. For example, J. Cole is the best one at doing features and mixtapes. Uh, Drake is the best one with hits. Kendrick is the best one at doing conceptual tracks that make you think so. It all depends on the criteria you're using. I do think Mr Morale is better than all of J. Cole and Drake album since 2016. So that is for your eyes only and views. So it was definitely worth the wait. He's ahead right now, but anything can change. J. Cole can drop a classic tomorrow, who knows? But at the end of the day, I'm just grateful we have amazing music from all these artists who's your favorite?
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I don't know if this is a coincidence or not, but over the last five years, the world has absolutely gone crazy. Which matches the last time Kendrick dropped his album DAMN. During this time. Everyone was wondering where he was at, what he was doing. People sort of expected Kendrick to save us all. But like he reminded us on the album, he is not our Savior. So just like all of us, he was healing, taking time for himself, time for his family, facing his traumas and thankfully working on new music, He just dropped Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers and wow, it's one of the most thought provoking albums I've heard in a long time. The content he touched on definitely makes it his most personal project yet. He was ambitious in the way he approached songs and the production is also very different from all his other albums. There's so much to unpack on this album. Honestly, I'll need weeks or maybe even months to fully grasp everything, but I'm loving it right now. One thing I want to say is don't write this album off. I know a lot of people are not liking it right now And it might be his less commercial successful one. But I'm sure it will grow on a lot of people as time goes on For now. I don't want to rate it out of 10, but my favorite songs are N95, Father Time and Mother I Sober. Let me know what you think about the album. I'm just grateful. We got new music from Kendrick and peace out
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Kendrick Lamar is back. The king has finally returned after five long years and dropped the comeback single, The Heart Part 5 and man. This song is absolutely beautiful. I love how the Marvin Gaye sample was used and how he was rapping from the perspective of legends like Kanye West, Kobe, Bryant, Nipsey Hussle and more as we saw in the music video and yeah he sounds so hungry man. We know Kendrick has always been that artist that wants to revolutionize the world and make a positive impact on people. And I feel like this next album dropping friday will be an absolute game changer. So I want to talk about what we already know about it. It's called Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. We know it's probably a double album as we saw a photo of Kendrick holding two discs Also based on The Heart Part 5. He will be rapping from the perspective of different people as he wrote in the ending of the music video. I am all of us. The cover just got released today and it looks amazing. He's wearing a crown like he’s Jesus, he's holding a baby in a room under bad conditions. I don't know what this could mean but I'm hyped as fuck. And the final detail I know about this album is that it's his last with T D E. It's the end of an era and I don't know if that's going to have an impact on the narrative of the album but all I know is it's Kendrick season Let's Go
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Music is what helps us associate time with memories. For example, One Dance by Drake or the entire Views album really makes me think about summer 2016 and just a lot of great memories and moments that happened to me in that year. You know, the music released almost gives us a perception of how people were living during a specific time. So today I want to talk about the best year of the 2010’s, which was an amazing decade overall. All right, so three years clearly stand out to me for different reasons in terms of music overall, like all genres, I have to say 2016 is the best one in terms of underground hip hop and albums that had the best rapping performances. 2018 is my pick overall hip hop. My pick is 2015. Let me explain why so many artists dropped their best work in this year, and there's an extensive list of classic albums. Let me just run through some of these and you guys will understand my pick to pimp a butterfly. If you're reading this, it's too late. DS2 rodeo before the money at long last ASAP. Sremm Life Barter six. Tetsuo & Youth GOOD AM reject 2 King Push. It was an insane year and also 2014 Forest Hills Drive. We all listened to that album during that year because it dropped in December. But, yeah, insane list. Tell me, what's your favourite year of the last decade?
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Trap music absolutely skyrocketed in the last decade, It was the biggest artistic style used throughout the 2010’s, not only in Hip Hop but across all music genres. So today I want to talk about some of my favorite trap albums released during that period. Before that, let me just take a moment to respect the pioneers, you know that paved the way in the 2000’s, like Jeezy, T I, Gucci Mane and the legendary group Three 6 Mafia. Starting with Future, he has two contenders with DS2 and Monster, he was just so focused during that time, so these albums are definitely up there Without Warning by 21 Savage and Offset is flawless. Every song is so great and Metro Boomin, made sure those beats were insane. Next is Rodeo by Travis Scott, Culture by Migos was just a moment in history, so I have to include it, Bulletproof by Young Dolph is definitely the most underrated trap album of the decade. It deserves to be in this conversation for sure and finally I want to mention the album by the legends 2 Chainz, he had Pretty Girls Like Trap Music and Gucci Mane released, Drop top wop and just noticed all of these albums have at least one beat produced by Metro Boomin, so if you were wondering who is the best trap producer of the decade, you know the answer
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Flow is one of the most important skills to have as a rapper, to have a great flow, basically means your raps will sound good and most people will vibe to it no matter how wack your lyrics might be, you know, sometimes it's actually used as a mask to cover up how bad the writing is, but that's fine. I saw this debate the other day on twitter about which is more important flow or lyrics and I'm still not sure, but I'll leave you guys with that question. Anyways, today, I was thinking about who has the best flow in hip hop history and don't worry, all of these artists have great lyrics as well. So two people immediately come to mind André 3000 and The Notorious B I G their flows just felt like butter, no matter how unorthodox the beat was, they could always find their pace and almost take you to a hypnotized state to follow every single word they were saying, It was mind blowing. So yeah, it's between both of them for me, but there are a lot of artists that deserve to be mentioned as well, like Method Man, Raekwon Nas, J. Cole Kendrick and a lot more, I've noticed most great storytellers have an amazing flow, I don't know if that's a coincidence or not, but let me know what you think, who has the best flows in hip hop?
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Being a jack of all trades is something that makes you stand out. If you show all your talents by creating a project with variety, diversity and range people will notice you're going to have something for everyone. So I was wondering what is the most versatile album in all of hip hop? Two albums immediately come to mind speaker boxxx, The Love Below by OutKast and the Miseducation of Ms. Lauryn Hill. Both of these have a lot in common heavy soul and R & B influences, amazing songwriting and beautiful melodies with creative hooks and obviously some great rapping performances. Fun fact, these are the only hip hop albums to ever win album of the year at the Grammys. Some other great shouts are To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar. He used so many live instruments and touched on so many topics that I think it's truly up there. ? by XXX Tentacion and More Life by Drake are other good picks. They might not be amazing overall, but the amount of genres included on those albums is just insane on ?, you had X doing rock songs, spanish songs, drill songs and in More Life Drake looks like a Pokemon. I mean he did dancehall, UK, R & B, pop everything. So what is your pick for the best versatile album in history?
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The rise to fame in the rap game can be quick but how many are able to maintain relevancy throughout the years? I think longevity and consistency are some of the most important elements to determine who are the GOATs in Hip Hop. That's why I respect the hell out of rappers that have been doing this for decades, dropping album after album after album and still have a core fan base that is passionate about their work. So what are some rappers had big hits but are irrelevant now?. Some artists immediately come to mind. MC Hammer had the massive hit, U Can’t Touch This and his album, Please Hammer Don’t Hurt Em reached diamond. That means 10 million album sales. So yeah, it's one of the best selling hip hop albums in history Sadly he filed for bankruptcy in 1996 with a debt of $13 million. Even Jay Z had some lines about him on, So Appalled. Moving on, we have Vanilla Ice with Ice, Ice Baby. He's the perfect example for a one hit wonder Soulja Boy had more hits than Vanilla Ice for sure. Like Crank That, Kiss Me Thru The Phone but nobody listens to his music nowadays. Lil Pump also had a huge fall off. He even dropped an album last year that nobody talked about so yeah, it's easy to get it. The hardest part is keeping it motherfucker!
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When I think about mixtapes, I think about rappers on the come up, giving everything, they got to show why they deserve to have a spot in the rap game. I think about DJ Drama with Gangsta Grillz. he has so many classic mixtapes and I think about DatPiff, the music platform where all the mixtapes were uploaded to, it's one of my favorite forms of releasing music, you know, not only because of what I just said, but also because artists have a free creative process, they don't have to worry about samples, they don't have to worry about interpolations and production, they only have to worry about rapping at a high level. So talking about some of my favorite mixtapes, I have to say J. Cole has two of them Friday Night Lights and The Warm Up. He had such an amazing emotional approach to songs even in the beginning of his career in 2009, he was such a complete rapper already. He was a great storyteller and also was great at structuring songs. Also, we can't forget about Lil Wayne's legendary run, he would take your song, he would take your beat and completely make it a better song, a bigger song and everybody would forget about your song. So yeah, don't try to mess with Lil Wayne. We can't forget about Logic, Big Krit Mac Miller., they all have amazing mixtape catalogs and obviously Joey Badass with 1999, amazing album
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They say first impressions is the best moment to shine and I agree intros are made to pull you in, they should set the mood, give you a reason to not give up on the album and most importantly make you curious of what's about to happen. Are you curious to know what my favorite intros are? Starting with New York State of Mind, this is my favorite intro. I mean the song is not only the introduction of Illmatic but also one of the best rappers of all time Nas straight out the gate, he created a song that makes you feel like you're in the mid 90’s running around through the streets of New York and all of this with insane lyricism and with a DJ Premier beat. What else can you ask for? The introduction on Kanye's? My Beautiful Dark, Twisted Fantasy is another one of my favorites. The song starts with the narration from Nicki Minaj, that sounds like it's straight out of a fantasy movie. Then the production is so triumphant and when the beat drops Kanye starts rapping about his toxic relationship with fame and how he perceives it and this ends up being the concept of the entire album. So yeah, this song perfectly sets the stage. There are many other intros I would like to talk about but the last one I want to mention is Thought It Was A Drought by Future. This was the beginning of DS2 and I feel like this song influenced an entire generation of rappers. Everyone started copying Future’s style and till this day, everyone quotes, “I just fucked your bitch with some Gucci flip flops”, so let me know what's your favorite intro?
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I've just realized that I'm the biggest fan of artists that create song series. you know, J. Cole has Simba, Kendrick has the Hearts and Drake has the time and location series which is probably my favorite. I'm talking about songs that artists come back to over the years with similar concepts and it's something that only the real fans appreciate because they actually notice it. I love Drake’s one because it's an opportunity for him to flex his lyrical ability, which doesn't happen very often on his mainstream songs and it's very interesting how they’re named after the literal time and place where he recorded them also, they usually have a target. So I love all the songs 9 am in Dallas. is the start of his career and he's basically predicting his own future, on 5 AM in Toronto. He's bragging about his achievements, you know, he just won the grammy with Take Care, but he's also going at The Weeknd, on 6 PM In New York. It's like a victory lap, he's very satisfied where he's at and 4 PM In Calabasas is, one of the best subliminal songs I've ever heard, where he disses Diddy and Do Not Disturb, which is actually 7 AM in Germany, he is more reflective but still taking shots at Tory Lanez and the latest addition, 7 AM on Bridle Path. He fuels his beef with Kanye and it's just an amazing song. My favorite is 5 AM in Toronto, which is yours?
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Making a classic album means you're forever stamped in music history. So, I have a question for today, which hip hop artist has the most classic albums of all time?. First off, let's set the criteria. What makes an album a classic? Number one is impact and influence this one is hard to measure. But whether that be iconic moments or people copying that style, the album has to have some cultural significance to the genre. Number two, the album has to be unique. This means bringing new creative ideas into the forefront of music. Number three, the public perception and critical acclaim has to be at a high level. But don't look for sources like pitchfork. Look for hip hop heads that actually know what they're talking about and they're passionate. Number four is longevity. The album still has to sound great years after its release and still holds some relevancy. So to answer my question and taking all of this into consideration, I think it all comes down to three artists, Nas jay Z and Kanye West. So who is your pick as the most classic albums for a hip hop artist?
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Kanye West discography almost feels like its own universe. He went through so many evolutions along his career that it looks like each era was created by completely different artists. It's funny how every single fan has their own album ranking. Nobody ever agrees. So today I want to give my opinion on his best album based on five categories. Production, writing creativity, concepts and features, starting with the production. His best work in my opinion is the College Dropout. The way he used soul samples on there was magical. They had so much life and I just love how some of them were lyrically connected to the themes of the songs. In terms of writing I have to pick late registration because the subject matter on there was so meaningful with songs like Hey Mama Rose's and Touch the Sky. I also think some of his best rapping till this day is on that album. In terms of creativity. I have to say 808s and Heartbreak is my pick based on the fact that it's one of the most influential albums of all time and everyone hated it when it came out because it was so different. So yeah, that one takes the cake for the concept category. I have to say The Life of Pablo is my choice. The struggle of choosing between family, God's life and a rebellious toxic life perfectly reflects Kanye as a person in my opinion. Lastly, I think my beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy is his best album based on features, I don't need to justify myself here
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Duo’s have been a part of hip hop since the beginning, it started with a DJ and an MC both doing their best to entertain a crowd. Usually they'll go on and make music together, work on albums and forming an official group, DJ Premier and Guru are an excellent example of this. Since they've created Gang Starr, which is one of the most iconic groups of all time. As Hip Hop continued to evolve. Rappers started working with a lot of different producers and creating their own solo careers. Nowadays artists from different regions and different artistic lanes have collaborated a lot and explored unique chemistries. So today I wanted to talk about unofficial duos In hip hop and just to make it more interesting, we're going to exclude artists that have made a project together. So bye jay Z and Kanye, Drake Alone has made a lot of iconic songs with young money artists, Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj obviously, but we really need to talk about how Drake and rick ross need to make an album together. They only make gems they don't miss. Also we have Nas and AZ Eminem and Dr. Dre obviously and more recently Lil Uzi vert, and Playboi Carti, Travis scott and young thug. So I wanted to ask if you could have one unofficial hip hop duo to make a collab project, who would you pick
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Gunshots have always been a part of hip hop, and so many legendary artists have used it in their songs in so many creative ways that I wanted to talk about a few of them today. So obviously it can be used to tell a story and to make the listener feel like they're in that time they’re in that space and just to create an atmosphere. An incredible example I have for this is a song from The Game. It's called Gang Bang Anyway featuring ScHoolboy Q and Jay Rock, and he explains the origins of the notable gangs, Crips and Bloods. Rappers have also used gun shots on diss records to try and intimidate their opponents and to make them feel scared or to assert some type of dominance. And I think it's a very, very iconic way. To be honest, it has happened in songs like Ether by Nas and Against All Odds by Tupac. The last approach I wanted to talk about is when artists incorporate gunshots within the production and it's probably the most enjoyable and creative and unique way examples I have. For this. is Bang Bang by Dr Dre Paper planes by MIA uh, Heat by 50 Cent, and it just creates such a memorable, memorable song. Thank you for listening, guys
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