The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song from Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed by Serrano Shea

Author:Serrano, Shea
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams Image
Published: 2015-10-12T16:00:00+00:00

DMX Death Threats

Gun Death: 35, Generic Threat: 20, Beat Up to Death: 6, Non-Gun Weapon: 5, Robbery Death: 2, Death by Truth: 1

“Niggas wanna lie/Then niggas wonder why/Niggas wanna die”

There are 69 death threats on DMX’s It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot

REBUTTAL: “HA” JUVENILE

Shea’s going with “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem” as his top song of 1998. I’m going with Juvenile’s “Ha.” The reason is simple: If I’m going to give props to a southern record, it’s actually going to be a southern record. Not a regional hybrid of a song—over a track produced by a New Yorker who lived in Atlanta for a while—but a gritty, unrefined window into where the rap game was going. It was uncompromising—to the point where the unfamiliar couldn’t understand half of the lyrics—at a time when southerners were expected to apologize for not being “real” hip-hop. It was grimy but still relied on one of the catchiest hooks you’ll ever hear. And it came with the best video anyone’s ever made for a rap song.

Yeah, it’s played out to call something “real,” but how else would anyone describe “Ha”? It was simple and street, the good and bad of being a gangster—a series of unfortunate confluences that did a better job of what Alanis Morissette was going for on “Ironic.” None of it sounded like fun, but all of it sounded like life. And with only hints of the bounce music that first made him a name, it sounded like Mannie Fresh, the best producer the Gulf Coast had produced.

So yeah, I see why someone would go with “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem.” But compared to “Ha”? It’s like drinking Crown Royal with Diet Coke.

—BOMANI JONES

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