Big Tone's Got Big Sounds and Mos Def Boogies

With the newly revamped Flawless Hustle in place, it seems that the folks running that spot haven’t missed a beat despite completely overhauling every aspect of the site. It was a pretty impressive outlet in the first place, but now, it’s even more sleek, visually appealing and still packed with mp3s, news and opinion.

As always, though, if I see the name Blu attached to anything, I take a listen. And as of yet, I haven’t been disappointed with the tracks that Blu deems valid enough to take a verse on.

This time, Detroit native Big Tone is able to call Blu a collaborator on the track “A Song Called Triumph.” Cop it HERE.

Blu taking the first verse over a soul laden back drop of a beat, speaks on overcoming obstacles while still getting paid. It’s not poetry in its most grand sense, but his voice works well with pretty much every beat he flows over – that’s skill. When Big Tone takes the mic, his flow picks up the pace a bit, as he revels in his travels through the rap world. It’s a pretty dense verse only letting up as Tone takes the time to speak directly to the promoters that he has to deal with on a daily basis.

And if the day weren’t complete because of some new Blu, Mos Def had a track posted over at 2 Dope Boyz.

“Boogie Man,” finds Mighty Mos rappin’ over a huge horn line with a bit of piano bounce to propel the track forward. He assesses greed here momentarily during this four minute track.

It’s interesting to hear two different emcees drop tracks on approximately the same topic. Of course the frame for the Big Tone track is different – he explains specifics, whereas Mos Def speaks in general terms. Both succeed where they want and that leads to a slew of questions about the rap game.

But it would appear that, at this late date in music, there really isn’t all that much to talk about anymore. No one hates the president – give it time – and theoretically, the US is healing its relations across the globe. And while both of these artists are without question, beyond talented, the political climate has taken an topic of discussion off the table. So in a few years when you revisit that cd with all of the anti-Bush sloganeering on it, won’t it just sound dated and unappealing?

I commented before, specifically on how the politics of America were going to affect Detroit, but perhaps nowhere over the last decade has more criticism come from than the rap world. With Obama in the White House, are rappers going to sing the praises of him for the next four years?

We’ve heard a great deal of that already – “My President is Black” – but hopefully an entire record won’t be based around that. There is certainly a concept album in the works somewhere, although it seems that Mr. Lif has come close to one already.