The Justin Bieber Mixtape Experience

Is Justin Bieber better on old school tracks like "Dwyck:



or new school, like "Otis":




I prefer old school.

Dwyck dropped in 1994, on Gang Starr's "Hard to Earn". Here's 10 more songs from 1994 with dope beats for the Biebmatic('94) Mixtape:

Who Shot Ya (Notorious BIG, Ready To Die - The Remaster)
Come Clean (Jeru, The Sun Rises in the East)
Halftime (Nas, Illmatic)
Resurrection (Common, Resurrection)
Props Over Here (The Beatnuts, The Beatnuts)
Get It Together (Beastie Boys, Ill Communication)
Cosmic Slop (Redman, Dare Iz A Darksize
Distortion to Static (The Roots, Do You Want More?!!!??!)
Let's Organize (Organized Konfusion, Stress: The Extinction Agenda)
Crumblin' Erb (Outkast, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik)
Comin' For Datazz (Gang Starr, Hard To Earn)


The only artwork that could suffice:

Notes on Andover's Rap Video

Over at Grantland:

Last week, the Internet weighed in on "The Andover Song" with chuckles, snark, and furrowed-brow curiosity. The prevailing sentiment seemed to be: Let’s drag every bit of this video around a manicured lawn and play ultimate Frisbee over its carcass. Die, Andover rap video! Die!

But there are lessons to be learned here, ones valuable enough to be taught at a prep school. We can break the issues up into “Not a problem” and “This is a Problem."



1. Not a Problem: Earnest rap

The most immediate cringe-factor with this video is how earnest and cloying it is. But the “genre” of earnest rap (or “educated rap”), in itself, is not a problem. Overstuffed, too-literal rap suffers from a disconnect between teaching and being cool. Sort of like a history teacher putting on skinny jeans, a leather jacket, and aviators to teach you about Freddie Knuckles (that’s Nietzsche, btw). But the teacher is not the problem. It’s the execution.

We should encourage fearlessness when it comes to trying too hard. Earnest failures are the ones that count. If it comes from an authentic place, the execution can be worked on. The dude with the braces and Celtics shirt, well, if you can say “the school molds to everybody like a mattress pad” and not snort on yourself in the process, you’re probably a well-meaning, glass-half-full dude who should be given a chance to lose the braces and develop a sense of style. No less than Jay-Z, Eminem, and Kanye were mediocre emcees when they started. Why? Too earnest. Jay was an overzealous fast-rapper. Em was boring and just overwrought w/rhyme schemes. And Kanye, well, we know the story.

(CONTINUED ON GRANTLAND)

Watch the Diploma: Andover Rap Video [Grantland]

Dear TAN: Can this White Guy Rap?

Send your questions/letters to theassimilatednegro [at] gmail [dot] com.

In this edition: The 3/5 Compromise for White Rappers

Dear TAN,

I think your site is clever...uh, yeah I rap and I'm white. You think you could give me a listen and tell me to keep going or pack it up? Please!? I'm also a visual artist and I'd be willing to make you something for help? I make a living off my visual art so I have more confidence in it. I can't even get people to listen and I don't want to talk shit to get them too....
thanks for your time and sorry to bother you
daniel
www.pinupforpeace.com
www.imeem.com/rockface

~~

Dear Daniel (Face),

I think I'm going to blog your request, more specifically: I'm going to grasp your hand and help you in the White Rapper struggle. So often I see well-intentioned caucasian emcees struggling with their esteem and identity and I think, well shoot, no one knows the plight of the oppressed, the ignored, the written off like a white rapper. You have your Martin & Malcolm, but still so many suffer in silence. Makes me feel like those white peeps you see in old Civil Rights footage, they didn't have to get hosed down and attacked by dogs with the rest of the negroes. But the sight, smell, sounds of injustice were too much to bear. So it is for TAN! You are not 3/5 of a rapper! You are an individual emcee who should be counted!

So heretoforward, since I get these white rapper demos somewhat often for some reason, i will post them occasionally, and maybe you will be praised, maybe you will be mocked, maybe the comments will remain at zero. But let it not be said that TAN didn't reach his hand out during the White Rapper Civil Rights movement of the 2000s.

As for you specifically, Daniel, err "Face"... i think the toughest hurdle for you is the voice. most good rappers have a distinctive, often commanding vocal presence. Guru said it long ago, it remains a truism, it's mostly tha voice. someone like kanye has a lot of clever jokes/lines, but often sounds like, well, like a white rapper. he's had to overcome his voice. in contrast, someone like asher roth, maybe he doesn't sound black, but he sounds well trained in how to sound black-er.

so in general, as i'd advise most rappers, i think you should just stay grinding. if you love it, do it. rap is something you do, hip hop is something you live. or somesuch. rapping doesn't have a lot of room for commercial viability these days, so i don't think you should give up the computer/design work to take on a career of open mics. but you're not the worst black or white rapper i've heard. if that's encouraging at all.

good luck,

-TAN