Rik Cordero is on the list of top five most important people in rap music right now along with Eminem, Rick Rubin, Will Smith, and Queen Latifah. This dude decides what the image of rappers is going to be, and subsequently, he determines how well their albums will sell.

Watch and see if the Roots don't have a commercial success with their new joint that drops later this month. I haven't heard it yet because I didn't get the invite to the listening session, but I have seen Rik's video for the latest single at OnSmash dot com, oops, I mean here, at XXL Mag dot com. Yeah.

Anyhoo, my point is that Rik Cordero has become an imagemaker within an entertainment subgenre that is desperate for a makeover. Rap music is becoming gheyer than a bag of Project Runway DVD's. Someone has to return the edge to the music since no one accepts the lyrics anymore as groundbreaking or trendsetting. I would argue that Cordero creates these fantastic video canvasses because he also works with rap music's most gifted painters.

Joell Ortiz for one. If you don't recognize this dude as one of rap's brightest stars you should prah'lee kill yourself huffing carbon monoxide in the boiler room in your parent's basement. Cordero also helped Consequence show listeners(viewers) that his album wasn't a Tribe Called Quest retread. Consequence had one of the best albums that dropped last year and people are finally hearing(seeing) that. Now Rik turns our ears(eyes) on Black Thought of the Roots. I've said this here before, but Black Thought is the best master of ceremony in the business right now. Almost anyone can rap, but how many rappers can actually control the microphone?

By diverting our eyes from the standard Hype Williams slash Lil' X assfest that has been rap's nom de riguer for a decade we get to see(hear) lyrics and music again that remind us why we love this rap shit. It figures that an Asian dude would be able to reverse engineer what was becoming a downward spiral. This is why white is also moving from the suburbs back to the cities. Chinese kids are making their children feel inferior in suburban schools. I always knew the Chinese had it going on. Their animation was just more hardbody. My first girlfriend evar was a Korean chick in my junior high school. Audrey Wong. I never hit though. But now I fucks with kim chi crazy.

I had this banging lil' Filipina chick who was only 16 years old back in my early twenties. Her parents used to let her crash at my apartment. It turns out that shorty got around so her moms actually didn't mind her staying at my spot since I at least had a phone so she could call home. If you can bag yourself a Filipina chick I highly recommend that maneuver. Those broads are typically hard working and a shitload of them become nurses.

In case you assclowns don't read any mainstream newssites, the economy is extra fucked the fuck up and the only growth in U.S. jobs has been in the healthcare industry. So if you are smashing a Filipina nurse I advise you to lick that twat for good measure. The last thing your broke ass needs is for that cake to dry up. We are in a recession bitches.

All of this brings me back to Rik Cordero and how the Chinese have all of this shit figured out. As soon as we get some sick Chinese emcees maybe rap records will go platinum again. Think about it. There are over a billion Chinese people. That's not even counting the ethnically attached Chinese people from Burma, or Myanmar as motherfuckers call it now. Fuck a Bape hoodie sonn, copp you a Beijing joint. The Olympics are gonna be bananas.

What was I talking about? Recession? Yo XXL Mag Dot Com staff, now that Eskay is no longer my supervisor who do I report to? Send me an e-mail or some shit. Don't hit me up at XXL Block Talk though because I don't remember my password over there.

What was I talking about?

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