Nas is viewed as one of the greatest rappers of all time. The Queensbridge rapper first hit the scene in 1991. Nas had a guest feature on Live at the Barbeque by Main Source and his verse earned him a record deal. He began recording the Illmatic album in 1992 through 1993. The classic Illmatic from Nas turns 30 years old today. Illmatic earned Nas lofty comparisons to the legendary Rakim. The album debuted at number 12 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 63,000 copies in its first week. Initial sales fell below expectations and its five singles failed to achieve significant chart success. Despite the low album sales,…
Nas I Am Turns 25 Years Old Today
Nas is one of the greatest rappers of all time. He’s my favorite rapper alive and he’s coming off an unbelievable run. In three years, Nas released a total of six albums with the assistance of Hit Boy. Nas hit the scene with the iconic Illmatic back in April of 1994. Illmatic has been called one of the greatest rap albums ever since its release. A little over two years later, he returned with his second album called It Was Written. Many have named It Was Written one of their favorite albums and I’ve put it slightly over Illmatic. In 1997, Nas teamed with AZ, Foxy Brown, and Nature to…
Michael Jackson Man in the Mirror for Throwback Thursday
Michael Jackson has been called one of the greatest entertainers of all time. His concerts and performances have been called legendary. Jackson has been referred to as “The King of Pop”. Unfortunately, Michael Jackson passed away in June of 2009 at the age of 50. Jackson released ten studio albums, five soundtrack albums, thirty-five compilation albums, ten video albums and seven remix albums. Michael Jackson’s platinum album run started with his Off the Wall album back in 1979. In the United States alone, the Off the Wall album sold over 9 million copies. Three years later, Jackson hit us with one of the most influential albums of all time. Thriller…
Usher Confessions Released 20 Years Ago Today
Usher is one of the biggest artists in the world today. Usher released his first album all the way back in August of 1994. Last month, he dropped his ninth album called Coming Home and it was followed by a major tour. Around the same time, Usher performed at halftime of the Super Bowl. To this day, Confessions is the best album by him and one of my all-time favorites of any genre. Usher dropped Confessions 20 years ago today and the marketing of this album was top tier. The biggest controversy from the album came about the mistress-impregnating concept of “Confessions Part II”. Due to the controversy and…
Above the Rim Movie Soundtrack Turns 30 Years Old
In the 90s, whenever there was a new movie we anticipated the soundtrack just as much. The Above the Rim Soundtrack is one of those soundtracks that was amazing. Above the Rim was a sports drama starring 2Pac, Marlon Wayans, Duane Martin, and Leon. The soundtrack for the movie was handled by Death Row Records. Death Row Records was the biggest label during this time. In 1992, they released Dr. Dre’s The Chronic album, and we don’t need to talk about that joint and its impact. The following year, they dropped Snoop’s much anticipated debut Doggystyle. Like the Chronic, we don’t need to discuss the impact and how great Doggystyle…
Sir Mix-A-Lot Posse on Broadway for Throwback Thursday
Let’s take a trip back to the 80s and the year 1988 to be exact. The original Golden Age of Hip Hop was 1988 seeing they produced a lot of classics. This is when I became a fan of hip hop due to the like of Eric B & Rakim. EPMD, Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, KRS-One, Doug E. Fresh and many others made me a fan. Those artists that are mentioned have had a lot of love to this day and deservedly so. There are a lot of rappers that drop music that year and haven’t been shown the same love. One of those rappers is Sir…
C-Murder Bossalinie Released 25 Years Ago Today
C-Murder was one of the more popular rappers from No Limit Records. C-Murder is the younger brother of Master P and together they formed the group TRU with their other brother Silkk the Shocker. Unfortunately, C-Murder is serving a life sentence for shooting and killing a 16-year-old at the New Orleans Platinum Club in 2009. The rapper has been appealing his sentence and even Kim Kardashian has come to his defense. In November of 2023, his conviction was held up and will remain in prison. Before all that, C-Murder was one of the more established rappers on No Limit. In 1998, he released his debut album, Life of Death…
Jaheim Featuring Keyshia Cole I’ve Changed for Throwback Thursday
Jaheim was one of the illest singers to come out in the 2000s. He had an old-school voice that resonated with people who love R&B. From 2001 to 2007, Jaheim released four albums and they all went at least gold. Ghetto Love and Still Ghetto were his first two albums and he earned platinum plaques from them. The third album was released almost 3.5 years later, and it was called Ghetto Classics. The following year Jaheim released his fourth album called The Making of a Man. The Makings of a Man was his last album to chart, and it was a great project. This album was one of the many…
Rick Ross Mastermind Turns 10 Year Old
Rick Ross has had an impressive run ever since he entered the rap game. Ross was on the independent scene for a minute and was even signed to Suave House Records. After that didn’t work out, he inked a deal with Slip-N-Slide Records. For those who aren’t familiar with Slip-N-Slide Records, they are the home to Trick Daddy and Trina. In 2006, Rick Ross released his debut album called Port of Miami. Port of Miami featured his smash hit, Hustlin’ and it was arguably the biggest hit of the summer. Two years later, he followed that up with a gold selling album called Trilla. The following year he dropped his…
2 Chainz Rap or Go to the League Released 5 Years Ago
2 Chainz is one of the more accomplished rappers of this generation. Chainz got his start as Tity Boi, and he was signed with Ludacris as part of the Playaz Circle. In 2011, he decided to change his stage name to 2 Chainz seeing it as more family friendly. In 2012, 2 Chainz released his debut solo album titled Based on a T.R.U. Story. The album went platinum, and he became another big star in the Atlanta rap scene. Fast forward about seven years later and 2 Chainz released my favorite album from him. Rap or Go to the League was the name of the album and you can stream…
Usher U Don’t Have to Call for Throwback Thursday
Usher has been in the news a lot for the past year or so. We all remember the stuff with KeKe Palmer about a year ago. Usher was serenading women, and it made a lot of headlines. Usher released his ninth studio album called Coming Home last Friday. Every album Usher has released went on to go at least gold. The only ones to go gold were his self-titled first album in 1994 and the Hard II Love one from 2016. If that wasn’t enough, Usher performed at the Halftime show of last week’s Super Bowl. If that wasn’t enough, it was rumored that Usher married his girlfriend while in…
Kanye West The College Dropout Dropped 20 Years Ago
Kanye West is one of the most controversial musicians of all time. It feels like not a day goes by we don’t see or hear something crazy about Kanye. This is when people started saying we want the old Kanye back. Before all the madness and craziness with him, Kanye worked his way into the good graces of Roc-A-Fella Records. After producing some of Jay-Z’s classic Blueprint album he focused on his solo debut. The College Dropout was the name of his debut album, and it was released 20 years ago today. The College Dropout went on to win several awards for Album of the Year. The album went on…
Silk Lose Control for Throwback Thursday
We are moving along seeing we’re already in February of 2024. As always, the tracks featured for Throwback Thursday are songs from albums that made my playlist the past week. Last week, we went back to the 80s and Freddie Jackson and his classic You Are My Lady. We are going back to the 90s with another classic R&B track. Do you remember Silk? Silk was the group discovered by the legendary Keith Sweat in the early 90s. Silk released their debut album Lose Control in late 1992. Lose Control went on to sell over two million copies and they helped usher in a new Golden Age of R&B. Freak…
Tear Da Club Up Thugs Released CrazyNDaLazDayz 25 Years Ago
First off, rest in peace to the late, great Gangsta Boo. She passed away a little over a year ago from a drug overdose. Lord Infamous and Koopsta Knicca from the group passed away in 2013 and 2015 respectively. Three 6 Mafia is one of the more underrated and best groups of all-time. Throughout the years they have had subgroups like the Tear Da Club Up Thugs. The Tear Da Club Up Thugs consisted of DJ Paul, Juicy J, and Lord Infamous. They dropped their only studio album CrazyNDaLazDayz 25 years ago today. CrazyNDaLazDayz went gold and it was a solid album. They had several features and some of them…
Freddie Jackson You Are My Lady for Throwback Thursday
Freddie Jackson was one of the biggest R&B singers to hit the scene in the 1980s. Jackson released his debut album, Rock Me Tonight back in April of 1985. Rock Me Tonight sold well over a million records. The first single was the title track and it spent six weeks atop the Billboard Hot Black Singles. You Are My Lady was the next single and it spent a couple of weeks atop the Billboard R&B charts. The Greatest Hits of Freddie Jackson was one of the albums that was in my rotation this week. The greatest hits album featured some of the biggest hits of his career. Freddie Jackson is…
Kamikaze by Twista Released 20 Years Ago Today
Twista dropped his first album back in 1992 under the name of Tung Twista. In 1994, he dropped his 2nd album called Resurrection, but only went by Twista then. Both albums didn’t get a lot of love, so we didn’t hear from him for a couple years. In 1996, Twista reemerged with Do or Die as he was featured on their smash hit Po Pimp. Due to the massive success of the single, Twista was back in the spotlight. The following year, he dropped his third album called Adrenaline Rush. Adrenaline Rush is considered by many, and I’m included to be a classic album. The album went platinum and Twista…
Method Man and Redman How High for Throwback Thursday
One of the albums that was on my playlist this week was the Best of Method Man. The mixtape featured a lot of classic tracks and features from the legendary MC. These days you can find Method Man on your TV screen than a microphone. Meth is most notable on the series Power Book II: Ghost, which is one of 50 Cent many shows. As we all know, Method Man is a part of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan. The debut from the Wu Tang Clan is looked at as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. The following year, Method Man became the first of the Clan…
Silkk the Shocker Made Man Dropped 25 Years Ago
Silkk the Shocker has been the butt of a lot of jokes over the years. Some publications and podcasts and even critics have called him the worst rapper of all-time. It doesn’t matter what you think about him because he sold records. Silkk the Shocker released his solo, debut album back in 1996 and it was called The Shocker. During this time, he was only known as Silkk was also a part of the group TRU. TRU released three albums and that includes the classic double joint True 2 Da Game. Silkk the Shocker was also a part of the 504 Boyz that included Master P, Mystikal, C-Murder and Krazy.…
