My bad Zilla. Steve "Zilla Rocca" Zales, 1/2 of Clean Guns, Co-Founder of Beat Garden Entertainment, Blog Rookie of the Year for "Clap Cowards", and not-so ghost producer extraordinaire dropped a gem on me. He remixed Crush Rock, originally produced by Rhythm J. The track received some moderate love over at Hiphopdx.com getting a little under 30,000 plays before the thirst for new music pushed it to the 4th or 5th pages of obscurity. Either way its a crowd fave at all my shows. I was watching football and browsing through my iTunes looking for a Reef the Lost Cauze track and I noticed this remix. I don't know what was going through my mind when Mr. Rocca sent this to me but I obviously overlooked a dope cut. Upon further review (perfect rhetoric for NFL Sunday) the ruling on the field is overturned. Sorry guys. Sometimes I just save as instead of instantly opening in iTunes. I love J's version but the beauty of this version is that besides the dope sample from "Top Yourself" by the Raconteurs, the lyrics can breathe. Reef, Nico, and M.O.G. went in and its obvious. The rock feel never left but those who slept and/or got lost in Rhythm J's heavy rock rendition of The White Stripes "Icky Thumb" can catch up with us as we trade bars and effectively Crush Rock. Enjoy.

The beauty of a blog is that once it is created, it never goes away (unless it is deleted), so if nobody knows I have one and only 3 people read it everyday or people do the usual and read something without leaving a trace of them having been their only later to tell you word for word the content of your blog or a lyric from your song. Argh! Now that's frustrating. I wish I could hand everyone in the world a copy of Tailgating but I can't. Some folks will catch on later. Shit, it will probably be a cult classic in 2049. With all that being said let me allow myself and Zilla Rocca to reintroduce himself and his CD, "Bring me the Head of Zilla Rocca". It's definitely worth the listen. guarantee there are songs on there everyone will enjoy regardless of hip-hop genre preference. (i.e. crack or back pack or mandex, etc.) He put together a dope little video with a backdrop that resembles a late night television show hosted by Conan O'Brien or some guy. Shouts to Jimmy Giambrone the young Nigel Barker slash James Cameron of Dangerous in Public.

"fuck my record label, I appear courtesy of myself"
- Canibus

Bis summed it up beautifully. He always participated in retarded collab sessions. Thank god for the 4 Horseman, (Rass Kass, Canibus, Killa Priest and Rakim) the Fantastic Four pt.1, (Cam in his prime, Nore, Bis and Big Pun) 4-3-2-1, (LL, Meth, DMX, Redman, Master P) Desparados, (w/ the Firm) and Beast from the East among others.(A+, Redman, and the Lost Boyz)


So I get an email from a High Maintenance ATL about a kid named "Ball Greazy" who he proclaims as next to blow (who isn't nowadays?) and that Miami is the new breeding ground for hot artists. I won't really argue for or against either one of those statements but what bothered me was the next part of his sales pitch.

"But his fiery new single featuring Brisco and Ace Hood is a heater. Notice that both of the featured artists on the song are also excellent rappers that are about to explode onto the national horizon themselves in an instant!"

So..the cosign of artists who themselves aren't established is enough of a reason for me to check this dude out? better yet I'm retarded if I'm not feeling him because he did a song with these cats?

Sho you right.

I remember when Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick put out a record called "The Show"



Now here you had two dudes with a mutual respect for each other who got together to make good music. Neither leaned on the other. No A&R's made phone calls to other labels to agree to record it.

I remember Jay-Z and Biggie's Brooklyn's Finest.



Two cats who grew up 5 blocks from each other (Nostrand and Putnam down the block to Marcy on Myrtle) and really honestly fucked with each other. They record this among other collaborations to big up their hood. Instant classic created by two friends who both rapped.



We could go into collabs and guest appearances all day. James Todd Smith kept his career alive well after it should have died (after Momma Said Knock You Out) by smart collaborations that became hits. Who Do You Love f/. Total, The point is that they have evolved and lost their luster. I've watched A&R friends of mine (who's identities I will protect) fly out of town to negotiate collaborations. I've had friends of mine be paid to do songs with wack ass rappers to boost their credibility. I've watched everyone get a T-Pain, Akon, Mary J. Blige, Chris Brown etc on their songs to make their songs credible and hopefully jumpstart their careers. Nowadays managers are on a mission to have their artist record with as many notables as possible in an attempt to introduce their artist to the collaborators fan base. Log on to hiphopdx or allhiphop and scroll through the lists of songs. The ones with the more familiar names have the most plays point blank even if the song belongs to MC Cantrap Forshit. We are now left with such notable collaborations as T-Pain and Two Pistols or Bubba Sparxx and Ray-J...

Even worse are the people you never heard of and don't want to who pay for collabs just so they can spam your email box and claim to be hot because of a co-dollar sign.

Thank got for Success... I'd been waiting on that my entire life.



Shoutouts to all the cats out there working together to get to the top.. the Justice Leagues, Skyzoo and Torae, Termanology, Donny Goines Big Lou and Sico Syrus, Esso, Clean Guns, Reef the Lost Cauze and all the other cats who make dope collabs with artists on their level or with their heroes.. either way its genuine and as a fan I appreciate the quality. Let's keep the collabs coming.