1. Hip-hop is a funny business. The pros promote themselves one single at a time, yet everybody always has a gang of songs in the can.
2. I asked Shaunessi the other day how many songs she had ready to release. She said fourteen. I asked her how many songs she was satisfied with. She said forty.
3. Is that the only way to play the game? No. The passionate amateur approach is to fling your tracks at the world and see what sticks.
4. Looks like that’s what NoLuvEntertainment is up to. They are hitting the market, not with one song, but with 33. Welcome to the double-disc 90 Days of Hell.
5. It’s not an insult to call an artist a passionate amateur, by the way. Imagine the opposite: a bored professional.
6. Thirty-three songs with 14 rappers. You lose track of who is on which verse, so the individual identities don’t get developed, but some of these folks can spit.
7. Love these girl rappers. Bam Bam has flow. Lil Jazz has flow.
8. NoLuv will probably hate to have two names singled out of 14. Get used to it. Artists can form collectives, but the public always picks its favorites.
9. “Cry” by Bam Bam, featuring K-9ine with a track by REVY, is the hit to my ears. Hope folks don’t miss it way down at track 15 on disc one.
10. In real estate, it’s location, location, location. On a CD? Sequence, sequence, sequence. Some hot tracks get buried, while track two of disc one rambles on for almost eight minutes.
11. You can put “It’z Tha Weekend” in the next moonshot so space creatures will know exactly what a city girl sounded like on planet earth in the 21st century when she was fixing to roll to the club.
12. And, if you ever leave the Lou, take this record. When you get homesick, listen to “Throw Yo Set Up.”
13. “Throw Yo” has the most beautiful expression of that STL slur, with the heavy rrrr’s, that Cedric The Entertainer immortalized in his skit on Country Grammar.
14. But, dang, can these girls be mean. They hate so hard. Is the concept of “ladylike” skipping a generation?
15. The fellas got some work to do on their verses, yo. Words of advice ….
16. When no one knows your name or your flow, you need a topic other than what a devastating rapper you are.
17. Don’t nobody care about your success with your “ho’s.” Let them tell you how good you are.
18. And, please, all y’all, none of this stuff about “shutting the industry down.” Let us tell you how good you are.
19. But, still, brothers have passion. Blacc Magicc has hooks. Baby 9 has flow. Less posture and more thought n try telling me a story n and you’ve got something.
20. Some recommended study for verses that work: “Failure” by 1 Dime or “You Don’t Know Dem Guys” by The All Stars.
21. Folks here know how to build a track. The keyboard hooks are almost always on point and catchy. Go Looney Low, Blacc Magicc and mean old Bam Bam.
22. And check out K-9ine. Dog. Leave him in that studio, and just bring him whatever he needs to eat. He’ll build a hit track.
23. First paycheck, though, buy a better drum machine. The samples sound chintzy.
24. Second paycheck, buy a better mic and a hot mic pre-amp. The vocals lack presence.
25. Third paycheck, pay for a mastering job. The mixes lack depth.
26. This stuff is part of the “amateur” tag that’s easy to fix, with a little money. Talent and passion are what you can’t buy, and NoLuv has plenty.
27. You got it going. Keep knocking out tracks 33 at a time, and watch the pros (TrackBoyz, Black on Black/Quit Playing) for more clues on that “professional” thing.
28. The name, though. NoLuv? Sounds like that “hating” trip Chingy can’t get off of.
29. NoLuv? You got 14 rappers standing together on this, and how many producers? That’s love.
30. You know you got love. You think you’re the only ones? Get out, look around. This stab on STL is out of date.
31. Try: LottaLuv. I got some for you, too.
32. Just think about what you’re thinking, fellas.
33. And, girls? Go. But do you have to be so dang mean?
90 Days in Hell is available at Vintage Vinyl, Slackers and www.noluvent.com.
