What’s good everyone? My name is Simon AKA HookedOnHipHop and this is my first and hopefully not my last entry to Thizzler On The Roof. Now I know what your asking, why should I care about this kid and what music he is listening to? Well, without tooting my own horn, I am a student of hip hop. Not just rap, but all aspects of the hip hop culture from dancing to painting and everything in between. I love hip hop and rap, it is basically my life. I know this is a Bay rap page (I am from Martinez) but, at times will be writing about artist from other areas. Please let me know what you think, and tell me what you are listening to, because the best way to learn about new Hip Hop especially underground is to hear the word from other heads.
At the top of my rotation is Cognito with his Strange Music release Automatic. Cognito, repping Fairfield California is the newest member on the growing lineup for Tech N9ne’s Strange Music label. Cognito definitely fits the bill for a Strange Music Artist with an up tempo flow and darker lyrics, he rips through a variant of topics from drug addiction, to the state of hip hop, and becoming “famous”. With guests artist such as B-Legit, Krizz Kaliko, and Brother Lynch Hung. Automatic is stacked with talent to back up a noteworthy artist such as Cognito. Cognito’s flow at first could be written off as a mix between Eminem (pre Encore) and Tech N9ne, but with further listening you can hear the uniqueness in his style. Automatic has a wide variety of sounds on it from the Nine Inch Nails sounding Violated, to Hollywood which sounds like it was crafted for a little flashier rapper such as Kutt Kalhoun (who is also on Strange Music). The things that makes this album noteworthy is that it doesn’t matter what kind of track Cognito is rapping on, he will kill it. Cognito has to be one of the freshest lyricist’s coming out of the bay right now. Don’t sleep on him.
Them Bone boys are back! Krazie, Wish, Bizzy, Layzie and Flesh are back in a big way with their 9th album Uni5: The World’s Enemy. I’m a huge Bone Thugs-N-Harmony fan so I was juiced to get the new album and it did not disappoint. Released on May 4th, of 2010 Uni5 gives us a different, softer side of Bone that rarely comes out from these street novelists. Don’t get me wrong there are some tracks on Uni5 that are reminiscent of Bone in the past such as Rebirth and Facts Don’t Lie. These tracks give us the gun totting, fast paced, thugs that we are used to. Songs like See Me Shine, Gone, and My Life are all tracks that I am really feeling but come a little different than most Bone songs. These tracks deal with subjects like providing for your family, copping with life challenges, and leaving your family and friends to pursue your goals. Some of you might say that Bone Thugs-N-Harmony have always kept it real by rapping about real life problems and situations. It just seems to me that on Uni5: The World’s Enemy, Bone Thugs have matured a great deal. I’m slappin’ this right now because it gives me a positive feeling, like everything is going to be alright. Give it up to these legends and cop that new shit.
