Throw Some D’s On This Blog…

This might be the first year in the history of rap that more remixes have been produced than actual songs.  O.K.  That's a stretch, but still, how many songs have we already heard with multiple remixes?  Jim Jones prah'lee has a 'We Fly High' remix spoken in all Croatian.  Trust me, the Dips are HUGE is Serbia.  NaS has about ten remixes for the 'Where Are They Now' song.  Rich Boy has created the hook of the year and he even managed to have the resurrected 3000 spit fire on the remix.  All these remixes mean one thing to me...

Record companies are now populated by cowards to scared to endorse anything new or original.  Why the hell else would we be remixing shit to death?  I allow Puff to do it since he came up with the line that he invented the remix.  I can't verify this historically like Noz could, but I'm fairly certain that the remix came before Puff by a few years.  As a matter of fact, I remember Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five had a 'White Lines' remix called 'Don't Do It'.  Yet I digress...

It's not just the record company people that are shook ones either.  Hollywood is fully occupied with yes men.  Hollywood doesn't call it a remix though.  To them it's a sequel.  Look at the movies that have been greenlit that are remixes.  Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, SAW.  Spielberg is even getting Indiana Jones old azz out from retirement so he can chase Nazis again.  In some cases a remix isn't a totally bad thing but I want us to guard against creative complacency.  this is why maybe we need to regulate the number of remixes that an artist can appear on.  Three per calendar year is enough I think.  If an artist has so much material to do guest drops on a thousand remixes why don't they just make an album, or at least make another song, that isn't a remix.

Again, I'm not hating on remixes.  Tudda killed that joint on his 'Throw Some D's' offering, but every remix is far from that G.O.O.D. (true, shameless ass kissing pun, so sue me).  You can't tell me that Jim Jones reply to Jay-Z's 'Broooooklyn' remix didn't scream for a new beat.  Combine the reusing of generic beats and this new fascination with putting two thousand people on a track and you have two of the silliest rap conventions in 2007.  Some of these songs go on for twenty fucking minutes and no one is spitting anything that makes me want to rewind.  I usually have to rewind to understand what one of these dudes with marbles in his mouth said.  Turns out he said that his chain matched his car wheels which matched the hypodermic needle that he uses to get himself high off smack.  Bore fucking ring.  If a nigga spits a lame sixteen that shit will have to be on the 'B' side.  Somebody needs to choose the three best verses and put all the trash in the can.

The reason why no one chooses the sickest verses is because there are no more A & R's for rap artists.  The record companies use mixtape DJ's for that job when they aren't getting them arrested.  Mixtape DJ's aren't going to tell any rapper that he can't be on the remix because your average rapper is slightly more hardbody than your average deejay and that's not saying much.  I wouldn't include Kay Slay in that assessment totally since he is more hardbody than most rappers, except Uncle Murda, who is just crazy.  My point is that we as fans need to say to our artists that we will buy their shit if they promise not to create an EP's worth of rappers' junk verses.  Lord knows Puff can use them for the next B.I.G. album.