The Witzard

Black Rob - The Black Rob Report CD (CREDIT: Jonathan Mannion) Son Raw is a freelance music writer and producer. A few decades removed from their peak, there are two things we can say for certain about Sean Combs and Bad Boy Records. First, they dropped some of the greatest, commercially-minded Hip-Hop and R&B records of the turn of The Millennium. Rap purists will exalt Biggie's two classics alone, but [Ma$e's] Harlem World is the one Jiggy album you need, Faith [Evans] & 112 birthed a generation of Hip-Hop/Soul (and soundtracked the conception of another) and after their late 90's peak, Diddy doggedly kept searching for his next great emcee, never finding him, but releasing great records in the process. Second, Bad Boy is a deeply cursed label and Sean Combs has a terrible track record of caring for his artists. Biggie was murdered in cold blood during a completely avoidable trip to Los Angeles after an over-hyped label feud. Ma$e was run out [of] the busi...

Meyhem Lauren & Action Bronson , effectively 1/2 of defunct New York -based rap posse The Outdoorsmen (along with AG da Coroner & Jay Steele ) have re-teamed for "100 MPH" from Lauren's commercial "debut," Silk Pyramids . Despite the fact that Laurenovich 's entirely Buckwild -produced album was initially unleashed nearly a year ago, last May, Thrice Great Records has finally gotten around to releasing a proper video treatment for "100 MPH." Lauren's own self-directed clip plays out in a similar fashion to a colorfully tasteful mini-episode of Bronson's widely-applauded F*ck, That's Delicious web series; it's right in line with your typical Hip-Hop video bravado — fancy tricked-out cars, duffel bags full of money, flashy expensive-looking clothes, etc... until America's #1 Rap Singer , Action Bronson enters: seemingly doing push-ups alongside a glistening low-rider. Lest we forget, nothing says "Hip-Hop...