Bar For Bar Podcast

Joining me this week to talk about his upcoming release, The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly, is Rodeo, California native, AlbySound. In this conversation we talk through how he got interested in rap, production as well as the upcoming project itself.  The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly drops October 7, 2021, so be sure to check it out! Video episode here: https://youtu.be/e3IyEF-deqA

Shady business practices exist in most every industry, but it feels more seen when it comes to music. This past weekend, Joyner Lucas revealed some information regarding his early days and what impact Karen Civil had. Video episode: https://youtu.be/paCGNNzu7Oc

There's been a lot of things happening over the past few days ranging from CLB getting an official release date to Donda being released without Kanye's permission, so let's take some time to talk about it! Video episode: https://youtu.be/F54lQb7wvU8

On August 20, 2021 Kendrick Lamar came out of hiding to let us all know that he's wrapping up production on his final TDE album. There's many questions to be asked at this point, like will this be his last album period, what is oklama, and what's going to happen with pgLang, so let's get to it.  Video episode: https://youtu.be/jEQX8gUINjw

Last week a well known reviewer gave an unsavory review of Isaiah Rashad's latest album, and many chimed in. Maybe as reviewers we need to understand the artist more and as consumers realize that reviews are opinions. It's always more nuanced than that though. I'm neither defending nor attacking anyone with this, I'm just trying to see both sides. Video episode: https://youtu.be/TpXSxLXqCIY

Last week at Rolling Loud, DaBaby had said some questionable things to say the least. There's also a bit of other news to talk about including August 11th being named Hip Hop Celebration day! Video Episode: https://youtu.be/QHR8mPVmegM

For this week's podcast, we touch on a handful of topics instead of just a singular one to change things up. The major topics at hand are the delay of Kanye's next album, Donda as well as the beef that's been brewing between Royce and Lupe Fiasco. Video episode here: https://youtu.be/GqBVqmr6qYQ

Seemingly out of nowhere, Kanye held a listening event for his upcoming album, Donda on July 18, 2021 in Vegas with another one scheduled for July 22, 2021 in Atlanta. Are we getting the album sooner than we had expected? Maybe reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/WestSubEver/comments/on86is Video episode here: https://youtu.be/nlokVClJ5oI

As streaming services have gained significant popularity, artists have shifted the way they announce and roll out their projects. Many release within a month of the announcement while others maintain the slower roll outs, but what's best? Video episode here: https://youtu.be/EBN8luHMQJA

On July 2, 2011 Kendrick Lamar released his debut studio album, Section.80. Ten years later, how well does it hold up? Video episode: https://youtu.be/ybYk2h55MI0

It's about half way through 2021, so it's time to talk about my favorite albums so far. With artists like Ian Kelly, T. Carrier, Mach-Hommy, Khrysis, Rome Streetz, Armand Hammer and more having dropped dope albums, there's a lot to consider. Video episode here: https://youtu.be/7LtUA8hfbHk

Every year, XXL compiles a list of artists that they deem to be on their Freshman Class, and this year is no different. As with every year, people have their own thoughts and opinions on who should be included as well as wondering what exactly the criteria is to be on the list. This week, that's what I try to figure out.  Video episode here: https://youtu.be/9cmZ8xKEpDc

We're just about half way through the year, so it's almost time to talk about the best albums of 2021 so far and what my favorites are. However, before we get into that, let's talk about what projects I'm looking forward to for the rest of the year.  Video episode: https://youtu.be/VOCNr4i3nrQ

Just about a year ago, Killer Mike and El-P returned to bring us the fourth installment of their Run The Jewels tapes with RTJ 4. Seeing as it came out during a very tense time and the messages were very relevant, it's only right to go back and see how well it's held up. I also go into quite a bit of other news as well as listed with the timestamps listed below.  Video episode here: https://youtu.be/UwwyYO4nFfs 0:00 Intro  1:38 RTJ4 1 year later  8:05 Mariah Carey leaves Roc Nation  9:10 Jay Z learns to swim  11:12 Tina Snow is back  13:10 Vince Staples' new music  16:36 Snoop Dogg - Sr. Strategic Advisor at Def Jam  20:09 B.Dot Miller's Top 10 Best Rappers of 2021  27:09 New Music 30:58 Outro

Drizzy, K-Dot, Cole and ??? Who takes the fourth spot on the Mount Rushmore of the 2010s? This was a question posed by Rap Caviar last week, which stirred quite a bit of conversation around who the fourth spot should be. The polls show Nicki Minaj, but who else should be considered and why?  Video episode here: https://youtu.be/Zm6HagacPxY 0:00 Intro  0:36 Why these three?  4:29 Who's number 4?  5:15 Other choices  8:28 The 1Train argument  14:53 NEWS 15:05 The Cave returns!  16:03 Lloyd Banks album announcement  16:34 EarthGang gives Ghetto Gods update  17:52 J. Cole leaves BAL  19:40 Suge Knight's hit on Biggie  21:55 Thoughts on Exodus  26:10 Outro

About three years ago when HipHopDX's The Breakdown series was hosted by MURS and Justin Hunte, I was inspired to go out and add to the conversations they started. Today I'm incredibly happy to say that we've reached episode 100. This week my discussion will primarily be focused on why I started this and a bit of a history of the podcast as well. After that, I go into my typical discussion on what happened last week and some preliminary thoughts on music.   Thank you to everyone that's subscribed and supported Bar for Bar over the past 100 podcast episodes!   Video episode here: https://youtu.be/Dh6JAB4NXXA 0:00 Intro   1:28 The history of Bar for Bar  17:47 Hip Hop 50  20:30 RIP Chi Modu  22:35 The artist of the decade: Drake  26:01 Change Maker Award: Trae Tha Truth  28:56 Sa-Roc - The Sharecropper's Daughter Deluxe  30:31 Mach-Hommy - Pray for Haiti  32:40 Other releases  36:25 Outro

Over the past week or so, there's been a lot of discussion online regarding producers from both T-Pain and Flying Lotus. This week, I give my thoughts on what they've said as well as go a bit into how pxvce might have stolen some beats. Video episode here: https://youtu.be/lKrTgS-Y9F0

Apologies for the audio, we wanted to record outside with a microphone meant for one.    Poetry and hip hop go hand in hand and for a time in the early 2000s we saw a resurgence in interest in poetry, especially slam poetry. Joining me on this week's podcast is my good friend Jose to talk about Russell Simmons' Def Poetry and why we need it to come back.  #BringBackDefPoetry   Video episode: https://youtu.be/eHoy8OItQXc Follow Jose:   https://twitter.com/Official_S1N_X  https://www.facebook.com/officials1nx  https://www.instagram.com/official_s1n_x/

On April 28, Top Dawg tweeted out "THE WAIT IS OVAH!!!! #TDE" accompanied by a video that ended saying 5/7/21. Everyone assumes it's Kendrick, which is fair given how long it's been since he's released, but what if it's someone else? That's the main topic of discussion this week, but we'll also get into the possibility that J. Cole may be dropping The Off Season very soon as well.  Be sure to check out https://www.hiphopisgod.com/ Video episode: https://youtu.be/SH9ERU6EuZ8

Over the years the conversation about longevity has been brought up and talked about briefly, but how does that apply to hip hop and how does that tie in with the allure of inaccessibility? On this week's podcast, this is exactly what I'll touch on. Video episode here: https://youtu.be/lF20Cc8xsCY