The Corner - Common f. The Last Poets, Kanye West - 2005
The Corner - Clipse and the Re-Up Gang - 2005
It doesn't matter what you say, the bullets and blunts will never leave the hip-hop scene. And while we are given a thousand reasons to hope lately (some of which I believe), something about the promise of hard times ahead draws me to these kinds of songs. I think it's the bass line - something we hear less and less in contemporary rap (all drums and synths). But the bass connects songs like these (at least in my mind) to a previous era of music concerned with the bullshit that comes from living in the city - songs like this make me miss Curtis Mayfield, in a curious way. But maybe we can get Common to change his wardrobe to fit the role...
And Clipse, of course, turns this track of social commentary into a heater about slanging, of course. You may never hear anyone else say this about Clipse, but their devotion to that genre is downright elegant.
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