Has Pusha T made more money selling cocaine or selling records? It’s a question worth asking, particularly when you consider all of the success he’s had as an artist, first as one half of the duo Clipse with his brother No Malice (which must look awesome on a birth certificate), and later as a disciple of Kanye West. My Name is My Name offers an answer, but it’s hard to discern if a line like “I sold more dope than I sold records, you niggas sold records, never sold dope,” is hyperbole or a straight up lie.
Eliminating the use of a time machine to go back and actually watch Push move powder, we’re just going to have to take his word for it. Even if he’s spinning a yarn, it’s a compelling story, and there aren't many emcees in the greater rap topography as indelibly street as Pusha T. People seem to be responding to the sudden hustler injection, with MNIMN selling somewhere in the area of 75,000 first-week units. That’s good enough for second place on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums, placing him just behind Wheelchair Jimmy, a dude with the entire Young Money empire behind him. It’s also two spots ahead of indie rap all-star Danny Brown, another emcee of remarkable ability blowing up as a result of his ability to write songs instead of pop rap radio hits.
Sales are perhaps not the best indicator of success, but there’s clearly an audience for this kind of dealer-as-rapper storytelling. It would be too easy to write Pusha T off as a one-trick pony, no matter how frustrating his coke metaphor laden raps initially seem, because the alternative is sixteen bars of bullshit. Push knows who he is and what he represents, and he raps his ass off all over MNIMN to make sure you know, too. You can’t ask for more from a solo debut, and his singular focus on the drug game has left plenty of room for growth. If he fails to meet those expectations going forward, who knows, he might still be dealing.
Top Dawg Entertainment - "2013 BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher"
King Kendrick, Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Jay Rock and recent TDE signee Isaiah Rashad could probably level a city block based solely on the ability of their rapping alone. This cypher is a goddamn wrecking ball, and high fiving hasn't looked this good since Top Gun. BET should create a new award specifically to honor it. Kendrick Lamar has a couple of the year's best verses already and has two full months to round out the top five.
It's hard to imagine an emcee even attempting to match Kendrick's firepower at this point. We're one more diss track away from Drake releasing a full-length consisting entirely of his desperate sobbing.
Peep the shitty censored youtube embed, then go check it out at BET.com. Their video would appear in this space if it didn't refuse to autoplay in an enraging act of unrivaled stupidity.
Eminem - "Rap God"
It’s fashionable to talk shit about Eminem, because when you grow up you put away childish things. Slim Shady is a reminder that you used to guffaw at a dude who made his money rapping about killing his wife and whoever occupied the top spot on Total Request Live. In spite of a few bright spots in his recent discography, Em hasn't done much to advance this conversation in the direction of credibility. “Berzerk” didn't do the job, and “Survival” sure as shit didn't help things. Is Eminem, as frequently cited, one of the best lyricists of all time or an emcee who got boring around the same time he got sober? “Rap God” does its best to convince us it’s the latter, and he spends over six minutes showing off his world-beating rhyming ability to great effect. If you’re flatly tired of his shit, you aren't going to like this track. But when you look at the hip hop landscape, with Drake at the top of the charts and Jay-Z falling way the hell off, this is maybe as good as it gets for rap’s elder statesmen. Good enough, in this case, ain’t bad.
Quelle Chris - "Loop Dreams"
Isaiah Rashad ft. Jay Rock & Schoolboy Q - "Shot U Down Remix"
As a wholly owned subsidiary of Top Dawg Entertainment, Straight Dope is obligated to post about any new releases until Kendrick Lamar becomes so powerful he undergoes fusion and engulfs the globe in burning hellfire. He’s not even on this track, but that didn’t stop it from being dope to nth power. This remix pulls double duty, showcasing Isaiah Rashad’s preternatural rapping talents, while also showcasing Schoolboy Q’s ability to deeply hurt me by sneaking in an admission that we might not see Oxymoron until next year.
Archie Bang - "Apollo Creed"
Kathy Griffin terrifies me. I don’t know why this happened, but it will ruin your day. I could actually feel my lifeforce circling the drain the longer I watched it. Recommended for any diehard Lisa Lampanelli fans out there, it’s more or less twenty minutes of these two talking about their fictional-yet-no-less-disturbing sexual relationship. Always good to end on a high note.
